D&D 5E WotC On Tasha, Race, Alignment: A Several-Year Plan

WotC spoke to the site Dicebreaker about D&D race and alignment, and their plans for the future.

• On of the motivations of the changes [character customization] in Tasha's Cauldron was to decouple race from class.
• The 'tightrope' between honouring legacy and freedom of character choice has not been effectively walked.
• Alignment is turning into a roleplaying tool, and will not be used to describe entire cultures.
• This work will take several years to fully implement.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the art for Orcs and Drow in Tasha's that depicts all of them as a light grey skin color.

Spoiler: Art of Drow and Orcs with Light Grey Skin

(Before people scream at me, I am aware that in previous editions Orcs and Drow had different shades of skin colors. However, this is all of the art in Tasha's that identifies them as these races, and all other art of these races in 5e have them have much darker skin colors, normally ebon black for drow and dark gray for orcs.)

I think they're trying to move away from "these black races are all evil" in two ways, one making them be grey and not black, and then having them not be always evil.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Sure, but then why have goblins and orcs as separate monsters. I'd like to use something that's specifically race X with its own mechanical twist instead of just generic guard.

There shouldn't be. IMO, any "race specific monsters" are setting dependent, and should not be in a Monster Manual.

 

[pukunui]

Saying "Your character can be whatever you want" is a player focused change. I support that.

Saying "This worldbuilding element, outside of just PC choice, is universally changed" has far broader playstyle, worldbuilding and DM impact. I'm not sure it's a good idea from any perspective except optics.

I'm not sure that they are making a universal change to the worldbuilding element of orc. As @AcererakTriple6 mentions, orcish culture differs depending on the setting. Removing the default "chaotic evil" alignment on all generic orc statblocks is conducive to that approach.

I don't think WotC is intending to make FR orcs behave like Eberron or Wildemount orcs.

And yes, those of us who've been playing for a long time know that we can do whatever we want. I think these changes are mainly directed at new players. Being able to show them a statblock that says "any alignment" rather than "chaotic evil" lets them know right away that they can have a good orc in their game, and it backs up their choice. Whereas if they choose to ignore the evil alignment, they might get an annoying rules lawyerish player who pushes back and says "But orcs are meant to be evil!"

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Ah see I disagree. WOTC has put out plenty of material specifically for that playstyle in 5e. We're playing through Tales from the Yawning Portal right now and have been for a year now, and are about to start Dungeon of the Mad Mage in a couple of weeks. Both adventures have as their focus "killing things and taking their stuff" as a sort of generalized description.

Quibble - Yawning Portal is reprints of old adventures, so would lean more towards murder hobo-ism.

 

[Charlaquin]

Right. And elves have dark vision and are dexterous because they have some similar genetics. They have less in common across elves than clones do...but same principle.

I don’t think anyone has a problem with those things. The issue is the outsized influence having a bonus to the game statistic known as Dexterity has on the race’s viability for different classes, as well as the associated racial alignment.

 

[pukunui]

Before people scream at me, I am aware that in previous editions Orcs and Drow had different shades of skin colors. However, this is all of the art in Tasha's that identifies them as these races, and all other art of these races in 5e have them have much darker skin colors, normally ebon black.

I'm pretty sure all orcs in 5e have been portrayed with gray skin, while the vast majority of drow have also been portrayed with some shade of gray. There are a few black-skinned drow in Out of the Abyss but most of them are gray-skinned as well. In fact, one drow NPC gets two pieces of art, one that gives her black skin and one that gives her gray skin.

But yes, the drow in Tasha's do seem to have a much lighter shade of gray skin than previously depicted, whereas the orcs look the same to me.

 

[Minigiant]

Sure, but then why have goblins and orcs as separate monsters. I'd like to use something that's specifically race X with its own mechanical twist instead of just generic guard.

I think the point is to have every humaniod treated the same. Then have individual DMs and setting choose what percentage of each races are antagonistic threats.

So elves, dwarves, orcs,and goblins should all have a MM page that displays how they are when good, when bad,and what they look like and how the play like when they fight you.

EDIT: So the elf enemies should be duelist, archers and mages whereas the orc ones would be brutes, hurlers, and berserkers.
But the PCs could be anything. Aplayer should be able to play a orc wizard and not lament the "wasted" bonuses.

 

[Charlaquin]

Is there some reason you simply rephrased what I wrote as a response to what I wrote?

You implied that all stormtroopers were clones. I was setting the record straight.

 

[DemoMonkey]

"I think these changes are mainly directed at new players. Being able to show them a statblock that says "any alignment" rather than "chaotic evil" lets them know right away that they can have a good orc in their game, and it backs up their choice."

That may potentially be good for new players in one sense, when they are making characters. It's bad in the other sense of actual play, where they are confronted with things in the course of adventuring and have to be ethically conflicted about whether it's ok to fight anything. Every. Single. Time.

Am I the only one who has seen players get frustrated and fed up with moral ambiguity when they just want to eat some chips, roll some dice, and kill the bad guys?

 

[Charlaquin]

I feel confident by saying "movies 1 to 3" you understood, I understood, and everyone understood the distinction I was making. I get this is traditional internet message board debate fodder to talk about what is or is not a stormtropper and the irony is not lost on me, but come on man. You knew very well what I was referring to.

The fact that two people misunderstood you in the same way would seem to indicate that your point was less clearly articulated than you thought it was.