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YOU are in charge of the next PHB! What do you change?
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<blockquote data-quote="Malmuria" data-source="post: 8333442" data-attributes="member: 7030755"><p>What I'm unsure about is in play, what is going to make your character feel like a particular kind of elf. Tools have limited usefulness and skills can come from anywhere and in 5e are abstracted, so I don't thing those do the trick. Movement speed, armor and weapon proficiency will similarly not really yield distinctiveness, since every other race will also have subraces/cultures and there might be rules for culture. Darkvision is everywhere. Cantrips maybe, but if you are playing a high elf bard does it really matter if your mage hand is coming from your race or your class, especially if the dwarf sorcerer also has mage hand? Part of the problem is the "typing" of wotc's dnd games, with each character being composed of a subset of universal pools of abilities (spells, skills, tools, etc). So the easiest design is to say, "ok, you are x kind of character, you get this cantrip or this tool," but everyone gets those thigns, and from multiple sources (race, class(es), background, feats) and it all kind of washes out in play. From a game perspective I can see the appeal if you like mixing and matching abilities in character creation. </p><p></p><p>Oddly, I think "flaws" or limitations are more likely to add distinctiveness, like sunlight sensitivity, because that's the sort of thing that will come up constantly during play.</p><p></p><p>I'm not very familiar with pathfinder 2e, but I took a quick look at their wiki for elves and I'm not sure it does the trick. A lot of feats were stuff that many players and dms will just forget about during play. Also that game looks exhausting.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Malmuria, post: 8333442, member: 7030755"] What I'm unsure about is in play, what is going to make your character feel like a particular kind of elf. Tools have limited usefulness and skills can come from anywhere and in 5e are abstracted, so I don't thing those do the trick. Movement speed, armor and weapon proficiency will similarly not really yield distinctiveness, since every other race will also have subraces/cultures and there might be rules for culture. Darkvision is everywhere. Cantrips maybe, but if you are playing a high elf bard does it really matter if your mage hand is coming from your race or your class, especially if the dwarf sorcerer also has mage hand? Part of the problem is the "typing" of wotc's dnd games, with each character being composed of a subset of universal pools of abilities (spells, skills, tools, etc). So the easiest design is to say, "ok, you are x kind of character, you get this cantrip or this tool," but everyone gets those thigns, and from multiple sources (race, class(es), background, feats) and it all kind of washes out in play. From a game perspective I can see the appeal if you like mixing and matching abilities in character creation. Oddly, I think "flaws" or limitations are more likely to add distinctiveness, like sunlight sensitivity, because that's the sort of thing that will come up constantly during play. I'm not very familiar with pathfinder 2e, but I took a quick look at their wiki for elves and I'm not sure it does the trick. A lot of feats were stuff that many players and dms will just forget about during play. Also that game looks exhausting. [/QUOTE]
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YOU are in charge of the next PHB! What do you change?
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