D&D 5E Witchlight publishes the new official format for player character races.

[Mind of tempest]

Yep. If it was humans in hats before...

remind me I have debated making a thread on how to make races both interesting and diverse at the same time so I might be able to fix it.

 

[Charlaquin]

That's fair. I'm about more differences, not less.

This whole custom lineage approach is....180 from anything I'd touch.

And yet Tiny/Large isn't good to go?

Yuck.

I’m here for more differences, I just don’t see ability score modifiers as a meaningful difference. They only serve to funnel characters of certain races toward certain classes, without doing anything to make them actually play differently. If making those modifiers into floating bonuses opens up design space for other racial features to be more varied, it’s a good change in my opinion. If not, then… well, personally I still think it’s a positive change, but a smaller one than I think it ought to be.

 

[Weiley31]

I like the flexibility, but if size is going to be one of the few things that differentiate races, I wish they would start allowing some Tiny and Large races.

Honestly I'd be for both. Heck, Large is already an option for Centaur pcs (even though its the Centaur PC racial option in Kobold Press's Midgard setting) and that doesn't seem to cause any kind of issues really.

 

[Charlaquin]

Honestly I'd be for both. Heck, Large is already an option for Centaur pcs (even though its the Centaur PC racial option in Kobold Press's Midgard setting) and that doesn't seem to cause any kind of issues really.

Yeah, centaurs should definitely be Large in my opinion, but limited to weapons made for Medium creatures thanks to their human -sized arms.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I’m here for more differences, I just don’t see ability score modifiers as a meaningful difference. They only serve to funnel characters of certain races toward certain classes, without doing anything to make them actually play differently. If making those modifiers into floating bonuses opens up design space for other racial features to be more varied, it’s a good change in my opinion. If not, then… well, personally I still think it’s a positive change, but a smaller one than I think it ought to be.

I have always wanted to make the last word in big bruiser races so people will ideally have to go make something else that is not them or a type of elf and large is ideal for that.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm all for the new "Typically" verbage that is now being added. It is a good compromise between the players who aren't fans of Alignment in generally, and for those, like me, who prefer there to be at least some kind of Alignment being mentioned or present. I also wouldn't mind how the Candlekeep book did it by having key NPCs getting an Alignment while everything else was free. But the new "Typically" will do for me.

I'm still hoping that Lineages aren't done at this point and they are still happening. Perhaps it's just me but I still would like more options so that way if I wanted to, I can just apply them as a layer mesh over any of the currently available 5E race options OR the Tasha's Custom Races. (Since I still/always felt that Custom Races as a whole was a bit skeletal/barebones. Especially since the new Floating Modifiers, which I'm also for as well despite my old school mind set/no probs with racial modifiers of old, was a better option and more superior as you still got the +2/+1 or +1/+1/+1 compared to Custom's single +1 bonus.)

And I'm really hoping WoTC will now actually be a bit braver and start giving us Typing like Undead and Aberrations. I'm willing to deal with the complications they would bring up during play. So far, they have already giving us Monsterous races and Fey, which can be a bit stronger so their explanation of "balance" is somewhat "not good enough" if they are kosher with how Fey is and what it can basically rooster block and having complications from spells such as Protection from Good and Evil.

Although at this rate, I'm fully willing to just jack/kitbash the Reborn's version of Deathless Nature and using that for Undead typed PCs.

 

[Weiley31]

Yeah, centaurs should definitely be Large in my opinion, but limited to weapons made for Medium creatures thanks to their human -sized arms.

I low-key like the idea that Large type creatures/pcs can automatically use the Versatile trait's increased damage die when one handing those weapons. But that's just me.

 

[Blue]

Edit: Reading over it again, I'll not purchase this, because of this.

Can you elaborate on why leaving a few things up to players for two races, a small percentage of the total content in what is an adventure, not a content book, be the determinator about why you would not want to buy it?

If it had no races like several of the hardbound adventures would you then buy it?

 

[Scribe]

Can you elaborate on why leaving a few things up to players for two races, a small percentage of the total content in what is an adventure, not a content book, be the determinator about why you would not want to buy it?

If it had no races like several of the hardbound adventures would you then buy it?

It's the push for this custom lineage stuff.

Unless the OP was making assumptions and I misunderstood (very possible as I don't have the book) I was under the impression this is Character Creation of all PC options.

If it's that, I refuse to support it financially.

If it's only in application to the two new race options, I'm still not a fan, but it's less of an issue, because at least they properly include Alignment on Monsters.

Essentially, any book taking away ASI, distinctions between PC options, and Alignment, I've not purchased.

I was going to pick this up, until I read the OPs post.

 

[Blue]

It's the push for this custom lineage stuff.

Unless the OP was making assumptions and I misunderstood (very possible as I don't have the book) I was under the impression this is Character Creation of all PC options.

If it's that, I refuse to support it financially.

If it's only in application to the two new race options, I'm still not a fan, but it's less of an issue, because at least they properly include Alignment on Monsters.

Essentially, any book taking away ASI, distinctions between PC options, and Alignment, I've not purchased.

I was going to pick this up, until I read the OPs post.

So does that mean you are opting out of all future WotC books, because I doubt they will retract the change? Or just this one because it happened to be first published with races after the change?

Are you starting a personal boycott on all official products because races are being moved to a customizable format?