D&D 5E Wow! No more subraces. The Players Handbook races reformat to the new race format going forward.

[bedir than]

The preview was for “Metallic Dragonborn” and was formatted like a full race entry.

Which basically has five subraces

 

[Charlaquin]

Which basically has five subraces

Inasmuch as the PHB Dragonborn has ten subraces, sure.

 

[Yaarel]

Regarding the elf traits specifically.

I am super-happy with how the designers clarify Trance. The elf remains fully "conscious" (as opposed to "semiconscious" which is an undefined and confusing term mechanically, and made the trait worthless). But now, Trance is intentionally useful to guard teammates while resting. And it is the rationale for immunity to sleep, since they remain conscious instead of sleeping. Excellent.

Fey Ancestry only relates to charm resistance, which is fine, but which I hope can increase to spell resistance and eventually to all magic resistance at higher levels. Fey dont normally have "charm" resistance specifically, but do normally have magic resistance generally. This magic resistance also meets the old school drow elf tradition. Really, any Fey creature should be able to access magic resistance as a trait.

I feel Darkvision should simplify mechanically.

Brightvision (normal human vision):
• See color in bright light.
• See black-and-white in dim light.
• Blind in darkness.

Darkvision:
• See color in dim light.
• See black-and-white in darkness.
• Blind in bright light. (Rely on spells and mist to obscure light.)

For Age, I feel all elves should have eternal youth and be immortal. But at least the astral are officially. The rest are easy to handwaive − where the other elves now live "over" 750 but no ceiling is given.

I love the new way of thinking about Creature Type. The elves exist on several planes and can be various creature types. So far we have Humanoid and Fey (Eladrin monster statblock). I am unsure if "Shadow" or "Shade" will be a creature type for the Shadowfell, since the Shadar-kai arent Undead. Probably the Shadar-kai will remain Humanoid, but the Shadowfell could have altered their Creature Type.

It seems that the "Humanoid" creature type will specifically mean capable of wide-ranging cultural and ethnic diversity, similar to the human race. This ability to learn new ways to live also implies free will.

I notice that the Autognome race is a "Construct", rather than a Humanoid-Construct. So it seems a creature can only be one Creature Type, whichever one is dominant. But it has a True Life trait to modify this Construct Creature Type. Traits like Ancestry and True Life can modify the one choice of Type.

I am satisfied with the new approach to Creature Type for races.

Trance Proficiency is great. After each trancing, the character can swap proficiency with tool or weapon. This is great for redefining the old school sword-bow trait. For an example, an elf Wizard can still wield a bow. But now it is in a way that is noncultural, they are accessing memories of other lives during the trancing. Moreover, it taps into the Norse elf as an artificer. Also, it is a versatile trait now. This is a trait with great "elf" flavor.

Astral Fire is a choice of cantrip: Light, Dancing Light, and Sacred Flame. It depends on any mental ability. It resembles the High elf choice of cantrip. But now adds other traits in addition that so feels more balanced to me. The Players Handbook High elf always felt underpowered to be compared to Wood elf, Drow, and half elf. The "solar" flavor of these three cantrips is perfect for Norse elf flavor, who live in the sky and personify sunbeams. Heh, elves in space is kinda a Norse thing.

Radiant Soul looks powerful, albeit situational. You heal hit points (mental ability + proficiency bonus) on a successful save. This means, the elf has a good chance of surviving dying. Albeit, one never wants to be in the situation to use it, and an enemy could still coup-de-grace. The flavor taps into the elven immortality.



All in all, I am happy with these elf options.

 

[Campbell]

Big fan of the format changes. Really liking the general direction of the changes overall.

 

[Yaarel]

It's not really that hard to define what a core elf (or other) race is, they already have, they just need to update it for the new paradigm. Not saying they can't also do a full write up for each subrace but I also don't think they will need to if they want to save on page space. A full write up might not take up much space, but after a number writeups, it will add up.

Heh, what I dont want is a million elf subraces.

I would rather have one fluid elf race that is inherently diverse. Let the player choose which traits one wants for their own elf character concept. It is ok if a setting preselects these traits for a "typical" elf in that setting, as long as the player has the final say for their own elf character.

 

[Zardnaar]

Changes probably fine but Le sigh another elf.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

That sounds like it would end up repeating a lot of information for no good reason, honestly.

I was laughing thinking it’s a good scam to pump up page count.

I am just being silly…

 

[Oofta]

Changes probably fine but Le sigh another elf.

I agree. That makes, what a gross of elf subraces now?

 

[Ixal]

Seems rather useless.
Either remove subraces completely and only have a single elf/dwarf/etc race with one fixed set of traits or keep subraces to save space.
This solution seems to be the worst of both worlds.

 

[Campbell]

I also wanted to add that I really appreciate how much more precise their recent designs have become. The text was easy to read and understand. This is the kind of design I always wanted to see from them.