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

[Chaosmancer]

So all of that is a big bunch of poodoo.

I have provided hard evidence. Incontrovertible facts.

Fact 1: There is no such thing as planetouched in 5e.
Fact 2: Tieflings, Aasimar and Genasi are all separate races in 5e.

Unless you can(and you can't) prove those facts to be wrong, you are wrong.

Since Planetouched were Tieflings, Aasimar and Genasi, which all exist in 5e, your first point is basically declaring that these races are no longer touched by the planes because nobody made a special category for them.

So, where do Aasimar and Tielflings come from if they aren't touched by the Upper and Lower planes respectively?

Additionally, you've never been able to define what a race is, or why they aren't related races. So, I can't prove or disprove anything because any attempt to do so is simply met with you declaring me wrong because you haven't defined this term.

Those races exist. Planetouched as a category does not. You can make it for your game, but it does not exist in 5e.

What is the category of planetouched if not the collection of these races? there were no special rules that applied to all planetouched, were there? No club memberships. It was, quite literally, just a category that collected these beings into a single umbrella. Such as "martial classes" That category doesn't exist, no where in the books is it mentioned to my knowledge, yet if you were to tell people Martial Classes don't exist they'd likely be utterly confused.

Additionally, you haven't addressed how your rebuttal would deal with a human family whose children are these different planetouched beings. You keep glossing over it, likey because you haven't defined race in a coherent manner and realize that by your previous statements, these beings would all be subraces.

If you make it so, it is so. I mean bloodtouched just means creatures that are touched by blood, so there are only two races, right, Warforged and everything else, right? Just because you can point to something in common, does not make them the same race.

Even if I accepted that "bloodtouched" just means "has blood" then you'd still be wrong. Warforged; various Oozes, Demons, Devils, Celestials, and Elementals; Vegepygmies.

There are many races that don't have blood.

Same as they were in 3e, too. Separate races.

Hmm, nope. 3.5 had them grouped together in the MM's. That's where I literally first saw them, so I know this for a fact. Aasimar and Tielfings where together in either the MM or MM2 (I think it was the MM, but it was near the rainbow ooze, which might have been an MM2 monster)

 

[Maxperson]

Since Planetouched were Tieflings, Aasimar and Genasi, which all exist in 5e, your first point is basically declaring that these races are no longer touched by the planes because nobody made a special category for them.

5e changes things, which YOU argued when YOU said demigods can only be children of gods and mortals. You don't get to argue out of both sides of your mouth. Find me a quote that says planetouched exists if you can.

So, where do Aasimar and Tielflings come from if they aren't touched by the Upper and Lower planes respectively?

No plane touches any of them, or ever has. They have the blood of fiends, celestials, etc. in their blood. "Planetouched" was just a poetic way to group the various races with bloodlines from planar creatures.

So, I can't prove or disprove anything because any attempt to do so is simply met with you declaring me wrong because you haven't defined this term.

You don't need to disprove. You need to prove. You need to prove your claim that races with no connection in 5e(they are all listed as separate races) are suddenly all one race.

there were no special rules that applied to all planetouched, were there? No club memberships. It was, quite literally, just a category that collected these beings into a single umbrella. Such as "martial classes" That category doesn't exist, no where in the books is it mentioned to my knowledge, yet if you were to tell people Martial Classes don't exist they'd likely be utterly confused.

Talk to a new player and mention martial, and yes they will be confused.

Additionally, you haven't addressed how your rebuttal would deal with a human family whose children are these different planetouched beings. You keep glossing over it, likey because you haven't defined race in a coherent manner and realize that by your previous statements, these beings would all be subraces.

Because it's a ridiculous supposition. There aren't any like that. It's not as if any of them have celestials, fiends or whatever as parents.

Even if I accepted that "bloodtouched" just means "has blood" then you'd still be wrong. Warforged; various Oozes, Demons, Devils, Celestials, and Elementals; Vegepygmies.

So first, we're talking PC races here. Second, devils, celestials an demons all have blood. Third, so what. This response is just a Red Herring of my point. It doesn't matter how many races don't have blood. All the ones that do would still be "bloodtouched" if we go with your logic.

Hmm, nope. 3.5 had them grouped together in the MM's. That's where I literally first saw them, so I know this for a fact. Aasimar and Tielfings where together in either the MM or MM2 (I think it was the MM, but it was near the rainbow ooze, which might have been an MM2 monster)

Show me such a grouping in 5e, which is the edition under discussion here. 5e changes things, so you need to prove it under 5e rules.

 

[jayoungr]

5e stressed particular race-class combos that would have 16 or more in their class primary score.

As I suspected, you're pulling a mental sleight-of-hand on yourself here and probably not even realizing you're doing it. Because none of those pages say that the number you must have in your primary stat is 16, which is what you claimed WotC was hammering home.

You're actually going through several steps there: "A) It suggests that you should put your highest scores in those stats, and B) the racial bonuses give you a starting score of 16 when you match them with that, so therefore C) WotC is telling players that characters must have a starting score of 16 and no lower number is acceptable." But C does not actually follow from A and B.

It may seem as clear as day to you that this is the only possible reading, but it isn't. Just trust me on this one. There are players, and they're not all that rare, who will see it differently.

However there had to be many of those players for them to make the Tasha change. And there was enough to make further changes

We don't actually know the reason for the Tasha change, whether it was for mechanical or social reasons. (Not to get too obnoxious, but this particular logical fallacy is one of my pet peeves. It's called affirming the consequent.)

This isn't saying "you must put your highest score in your most important stat," but it is showing that it's the most obvious and useful way to assign stats.

It is possible to have your highest score in your most important stat without that highest score being a 16. Having a 15 in your highest stat doesn't severely cripple a character; I've done it.

 

[Faolyn]

Does it even matter if planetouched are one race or many?

 

[Scribe]

Does it even matter if planetouched are one race or many?

I can see an appeal from an organizational pov, or if one likes race templates, but the ravenloft lineages didn't even go that far, so...I don't see planetouched changing.

 

[Faolyn]

It is possible to have your highest score in your most important stat without that highest score being a 16. Having a 15 in your highest stat doesn't severely cripple a character; I've done it.

Of course it's possible. But since the example goes on to show the player putting the +2 Strength ASI on top of the 15 already in the stat, the game was clearly illustrating that it's normal for you to start out with the primary stat maxxed out.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Does it even matter if planetouched are one race or many?

Not really. Especially since the idea of "race" is so poorly defined.

 

[jayoungr]

Of course it's possible. But since the example goes on to show the player putting the +2 Strength ASI on top of the 15 already in the stat, the game was clearly illustrating that it's normal for you to start out with the primary stat maxxed out.

This is where I disagree. WotC has not ever told players they must pair a character's racial bonuses with the character's highest stat.

They have incentivized it by making it possible to get a higher starting score in the primary stat when a player does so.

That is not the same thing.

It is players themselves who have decided that it is the only acceptable way to build a character.

If anything, WotC did their best to discourage this approach by suggesting that players choose a race as the first step of character building. (Which I'm betting a lot of players don't actually do; I know I usually pick the class first.)

If you randomly roll your stats, it becomes even more likely that you may want to put your racial bonus somewhere else, to shore up a seriously low score.

 

[Minigiant]

As I suspected, you're pulling a mental sleight-of-hand on yourself here and probably not even realizing you're doing it. Because none of those pages say that the number you must have in your primary stat is 16, which is what you claimed WotC was hammering home.

You're actually going through several steps there: "A) It suggests that you should put your highest scores in those stats, and B) the racial bonuses give you a starting score of 16 when you match them with that, so therefore C) WotC is telling players that characters must have a starting score of 16 and no lower number is acceptable." But C does not actually follow from A and B.

It may seem as clear as day to you that this is the only possible reading, but it isn't. Just trust me on this one. There are players, and they're not all that rare, who will see it differently.

Your A & B are not the steps I stated over and over again.

1. WOTC pushed Race-Class Stereotypes exclusively at the start of 5e
2. Race-Class Stereotypes all have primarily scores of 16 or more if you follow WOTC suggestions of how to create PC
3. Many, particularly newer gen, Players wanted to play uncommon stereotypes and no stereotypes with the same power.
4. Because the stereotypical PC had 16, these players saw that as the baseline.
5. Tasha Changes

I don't know how many time I must say The game do not say you MUST have a 16. I said The game heavily suggests PC adventurers who have 16 is typical and now many fans assume a 16+ is normal for a level 1 PC.

We don't actually know the reason for the Tasha change, whether it was for mechanical or social reasons. (Not to get too obnoxious, but this particular logical fallacy is one of my pet peeves. It's called affirming the consequent.)

The designers stated clearly that it was done to let player "create the characters they wanted".

 

[Maxperson]

Does it even matter if planetouched are one race or many?

I forget now even why it matters to him that a bunch of races be made into one race when they aren't.