I think you all are missing @Hussar , please correct me if I am wrong, main concern with this Dragonborn tangent. Hussar already has said its perfectly easy to come up with a reason and work with the DM to place his Dragonborn in the setting. The concern lies in that, despite being a typical PHB species, the the books generally offer no reason for the DM to include Dragonborn in most locations. This means the player playing the Dragonborn will never be able to tie their backstory as deeply as another species to the setting/story locale. Always being an outsider or at best a single household that maybe first or second generation. Rather than picking from an assortment of preexisting groups in the setting like the Flaming Fists or the humans/elfs of the Dead Mire.
D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
I think you all are missing @Hussar , please correct me if I am wrong, main concern with this Dragonborn tangent. Hussar already has said its perfectly easy to come up with a reason and work with the DM to place his Dragonborn in the setting. The concern lies in that, despite being a typical PHB species, the the books generally offer no reason for the DM to include Dragonborn in most locations. This means the player playing the Dragonborn will never be able to tie their backstory as deeply as another species to the setting/story locale. Always being an outsider or at best a single household that maybe first or second generation. Rather than picking from an assortment of preexisting groups in the setting like the Flaming Fists or the humans/elfs of the Dead Mire.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Pretty sure they accept recruits of any species.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
I think you missed my point. All of my examples were based on reasons from the 5e books. There are book reasons for Dragonborn to be in any location in the Forgotten Realms.
The Flaming Fists is a great example. According to the 5e books, Dragonborn have a reputation as fine mercenaries and have spread across Faerun. The Flaming Fists are a very large mercenary company, so they would have many Dragonborn among them.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Flaming Fist are fantasy Pinkertons.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Like if The Pinkertons and the Teutonkc Knights had a baby.
Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
A setting for all of the Players Handbook options should have native cultures for Dragonborn and Goliath, but shouldnt have cultures for Awsimar and Tiefling.
It is easy to have an isolated Dragonborn, even unique. A Dragon did it. But the description mentions a mixed Dragonborn community, from which any Dragon species traits are possible. Especially because the Dragons themselves are in conflict, the Dragonborn culture seems to be sizable enough to function independently from the Dragons.
The Goliath is in the same situation as Dragonborn. They needing a separate independent culture to function without the hierarchy and conflicts of Giants. Moreover, there wont be a unique Goliath, since they "descended" gradually.
D&D has a tendency to stereotype "indigenous" "tribes" as if "primitive" and remote. But tribal peoples can be technologically advanced.
Dragonborn and Goliath can each have many diverse native cultures, but each needs at least one.
Celestial-soul Awsimar and Fiend-soul Tiefling look like their Humanoid parents and grow up in their cultures. The setting has a sufficient explanation for HOW these rare Astral-touched individuals are being born sporadically in any Humanoid family, but needs an explanation for WHY this phenomena is happening.
Tiefling could have a native cultures, such as the Nentir Vale setting supplies, but the description of the Players Handbook doesnt necessitate this.
The setting needs native cultures for Dragonborn and Goliath, but not for Awsimar and Tiefling.
At the same time there needs to be a comment about why Celestial and Fiend are producing the Astral-touched. Perhaps it is in response to Humanoid behavior? The more Good that Humanoid individuals do, the more Awsimar are born, and oppositely, the more Evil they do the more Tiefling are born. The Awsimar and Tiefling themselves are innocent, and responsible for their own actions.
It is easy to have an isolated Dragonborn, even unique. A Dragon did it. But the description mentions a mixed Dragonborn community, from which any Dragon species traits are possible. Especially because the Dragons themselves are in conflict, the Dragonborn culture seems to be sizable enough to function independently from the Dragons.
The Goliath is in the same situation as Dragonborn. They needing a separate independent culture to function without the hierarchy and conflicts of Giants. Moreover, there wont be a unique Goliath, since they "descended" gradually.
D&D has a tendency to stereotype "indigenous" "tribes" as if "primitive" and remote. But tribal peoples can be technologically advanced.
Dragonborn and Goliath can each have many diverse native cultures, but each needs at least one.
Celestial-soul Awsimar and Fiend-soul Tiefling look like their Humanoid parents and grow up in their cultures. The setting has a sufficient explanation for HOW these rare Astral-touched individuals are being born sporadically in any Humanoid family, but needs an explanation for WHY this phenomena is happening.
Tiefling could have a native cultures, such as the Nentir Vale setting supplies, but the description of the Players Handbook doesnt necessitate this.
The setting needs native cultures for Dragonborn and Goliath, but not for Awsimar and Tiefling.
At the same time there needs to be a comment about why Celestial and Fiend are producing the Astral-touched. Perhaps it is in response to Humanoid behavior? The more Good that Humanoid individuals do, the more Awsimar are born, and oppositely, the more Evil they do the more Tiefling are born. The Awsimar and Tiefling themselves are innocent, and responsible for their own actions.
CreamCloud0
Hero
given those species and similar kinds tend not to specify they're actually limited to human parentage, how many people would rather tieflings and such were actually implemented as more of an applicable template or 'substitute subspecies' than an independent species statblock? so you could end up with things like a tiefling goliath, an assimar dwarf or an genasi halfling?
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
I mean, they already are that in Monsters of the Multiverse and the new PHB: Genasi, Aasamir and Tiwflongs can be wither Small or Medium and are specifically described as coming from any other Species and depicted in the art diversely (there is an Aasamir in the PHB who is clearly from a Dwarven background, there is a Genasi Orc in Call from the Netherdeep, etc.).
