I love the idea of floating ASI, and have been using it since Tasha's came out. It opens up a multitude of new character creation options like my goblin paladin. What's not to like?
You could always make a Goblin Paladin. The only thing stopping you before always you.
Yes and no, because I would never have even contemplated it. In my games the goblins, orcs, drow, bugbears etc were all 'bad', they made up the majority of enemies fought at low level. I would never have considered them as playable for anything other than a badguy campaign. Tasha's initially was for me a powergamers wet dream until I really sat down and thought about it and my own steriotypical concepts built up from having played since the 1980's.
Ok, but what does that have to do with floating or non-floating ASIs? Seems like what opened up these new character creation options wasn't that, but you realizing you could ditch the stereotypical racial badguy prejudices?
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Anyone wanna give a sparknotes version of the leak? I'm at work and can't watch the video but I'm dying to know what the drama's gonna be about for the next few weeks lol
-All of the 33 species in Monsters of the Multiverse use Tasha's-style floating ASIs. We're gonna get to have that argument again. Yaaaaaay. -The handful of species previewed - duergar, kobolds, Smurfnibblers, and genasi - were heavily rebuilt. Not minor changes. -Things that were previously subspecies in older books - duergar, Smurfnibblers - now have their own independent stat block, though Smurfnibblers have the line "you count as a gnome for effects that require you to be a gnome". I have strong suspicions on why this is, but yeah. -Negative aspects of species appear to've been nixed. Shortstacks have no movement speed penalty (both Smurfnibbler and duergar had 30-foot movement speeds), and Sunlight Sensitivity appears to've been cut from every MMM species that had it (kobolds, duergar). -Genasi can no longer manipulate their elements; all genasi species had their "Control Element" cantrip removed and replaced with an attack cantrip. I disapprove sharply and I blame the playerbase for being idiots about noncombat spells. -Any species with innate spellcasting got the new language from recent books allowing spellcasters to use spell slots to cast the spells, if they have them. That appears to be the standard going forward. All species with innate casting can also choose which of the three mental stats is their casting stat, so DDB is going to actually have to figure out how to do variable casting stats without bullshitting a whole-ass different feat/species for each casting stat. About god damn time, really.
Thank you for taking the time to write this summary!
I am pretty sad about the Genasi change In general, I feel a non-combat spell with a creative player is always better than taking your millionth damage-dealing spell, particularly if it is a non-combat cantrip you can abuse in all sorts of fun creative ways. I will probably homerule in the elemental cantrips if any of my party members play a Genasi.
Moving subraces into their own races is a very useful change. As a DM who always tries to bring at least one or two new players into each campaign I run, anything that makes it easier to identify what options there are for character creation is a big win in my book. Making it so a player does not have to look up each race individually, then read the subtypes to find completely different entities. I would presume Drow will get the same treatment as Duergar--that one will be particularly useful, since I have found a lot of new players like the idea of playing a dark elf.
Everything else is perfectly fine, and constitutes things lots of DMs have been doing since the game was invented. I know lots of folks are inexplicably upset about it, but that always seems a little silly to me. The only tangible argument against is a variation on "I don't want to homebrew this back into the game", which is a silly argument. I did not complain when I had to homebrew a lack of ASI into the game and they all seemed content with the status quo--it seems a bit hypocritical for them to complain now that the shoe is on the other foot, and they have to do what the rest of us had been doing for years.
Ye know what might've made Tasha's-style floating ASI rules for species unnecessary?
If every one of the six stats was intrinsically valuable to every single class.
But noooooooooooooooooooooooo, The Six Sacred Scores must exist in unchanged form throughout all editions of D&D, which means that any given class can tank between two to four scores down to 3 and be mostly unaffected. Better basic game design could've meant that whichever three points you got from your species were valuable and cool, but instead we get a system where "off" species/class combinations are strictly disadvantageous because most spellcasters get NOTHING from Strength, most martials get NOTHING from literally any mental stat, and the mere existence of Constitution acts as a drain/tax on your numbers because Constitution-in-general does nothing for you save determine whether you can hold your liquor or not and whether a goblin takes one stab or one and a half stabs to kill you.
The Six Sacred Scores, as they stand, are bad game design. But Wizards' hands are tied, because the Six Sacred Scores are part and parcel to D&D and people would staunchly reject any attempt to make the system less bad. So we get a situation where any given character has to "waste" points on numbers that do it absolutely zero good, that always feels bad, and if your species wastes even more points it can sour you on a concept you'd otherwise love to play. People can gripe and yarp and snarf about how "a 15 is perfectly fine" all they want, but that misses the point.
Waste. Feels. Bad. And The Six Sacred Scores are inherently, intrinsically, and unconquerably super wasteful. So here we are.
They did try to fix it a little bit in 4th Ed, when pairs of stats tried to share any given load for some things and you could be a bit choosey about which one mattered to you.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
The point of the various stats being of different values to different classes, and the point of the various races having different assigned ASIs was to showcase that the various strengths and weaknesses that we are all born with and have to accept IRL...
At the very least _I_ don't accept them IRL.
...An Orc Wiz with +2 Str and +0 Int was still just as good a Wiz as that High Elf, just a different kindle of Wiz.
Nah, it's pretty definitively not "just as good." The numbers don't lie. Call that an artifact of the game design if you'd like, or even an artifact of how dump stats work (as discussed), but it's real.
[REDACTED]
This character is just as good as any Wis you want to build all day every day: (https://ddb.ac/characters/39537642/84F3C9) And by 12th level will have the exact same Int 20 as the Elf. As you said, the numbers don’t lie.
The point of the various stats being of different values to different classes, and the point of the various races having different assigned ASIs was to showcase that the various strengths and weaknesses that we are all born with and have to accept IRL don’t mean anyone is inferior to anyone else. We can either lean into our strengths or use them to counterbalance our shortcomings in other ways. An Orc Wiz with +2 Str and +0 Int was still just as good a Wiz as that High Elf, just a different kindle of Wiz. And it may take a little longer and a little more work to become just as skilled at casting as the Elf, but with dedication the Orc can get there in the end.
But now, it no longer reflects reality, no longer showcases the values of both perseverance and diversity; and no longer demonstrates the possibility of overcoming challenges. All the substance, the meaning is gone.
I think you are super-imposing values onto the system that aren’t really there. The ASIs were never supposed to be a life lesson about preserving.
They were a relic from earlier editions. To take one example: Among the many, many class/race restrictions in 1e, a dwarf could not be a magic user. Simply was not allowed. Then when 3e came along they removed the complete restrictions, and replaced them with things like racial ability modifiers and favored classes for each race that kind of pushed players in a direction. So then your dwarf could be a wizard, they just would be as good at it as if you stuck with the typical dwarven fighter. Now we’re just getting rid of those pushes as well. This, to me, seems like the next step away from all those 1e mandates.
Now your dwarf can be a wizard, and be just as good at it as anyone else. And if we are trying to draw life lessons, it seems like the idea that anyone can be anything they want without being held back by circumstances of their birth, without being told “people like you aren’t good at that” and having a role forced on them by the world is my preferred spin.
My suspicion is that the concept of “subraces” is also being railed against somewhere as “intrinsically racist” (or they anticipate it will be) and are going to do away with that notion entirely.
Has nothing to do with subraces being "intrinsically racist", which is an argument I've heard no one make ever, and pretty much everything to do with the fact that Wizards can't reprint half a species. They wanted the new species to be Tasha-compliant, which meant they needed stats in their statblocks, which made them noncompatible with being a subspecies, which meant they needed to be their own species.
Is it a clumsy kludge? Yeah, kinda. It's gonna bite them in the hind end when 2024 comes out and they have to reintegrate those subspecies back into the original species, but eh. This is what happens when one tries to update a TTRPG in bits and pieces instead of assembling a clean reissue of an updated edition. But it's also how they're softening the blow and avoiding screeching shouts of Edition Burgling and trying to pass of a 6e as "5e But With Updates". Which is not at all what they're doing to the best of anybody's knowledge at this time, so I guess I sorta get it.
Anyone wanna give a sparknotes version of the leak? I'm at work and can't watch the video but I'm dying to know what the drama's gonna be about for the next few weeks lol
-All of the 33 species in Monsters of the Multiverse use Tasha's-style floating ASIs. We're gonna get to have that argument again. Yaaaaaay. -The handful of species previewed - duergar, kobolds, Smurfnibblers, and genasi - were heavily rebuilt. Not minor changes. -Things that were previously subspecies in older books - duergar, Smurfnibblers - now have their own independent stat block, though Smurfnibblers have the line "you count as a gnome for effects that require you to be a gnome". I have strong suspicions on why this is, but yeah. -Negative aspects of species appear to've been nixed. Shortstacks have no movement speed penalty (both Smurfnibbler and duergar had 30-foot movement speeds), and Sunlight Sensitivity appears to've been cut from every MMM species that had it (kobolds, duergar). -Genasi can no longer manipulate their elements; all genasi species had their "Control Element" cantrip removed and replaced with an attack cantrip. I disapprove sharply and I blame the playerbase for being idiots about noncombat spells. -Any species with innate spellcasting got the new language from recent books allowing spellcasters to use spell slots to cast the spells, if they have them. That appears to be the standard going forward. All species with innate casting can also choose which of the three mental stats is their casting stat, so DDB is going to actually have to figure out how to do variable casting stats without bullshitting a whole-ass different feat/species for each casting stat. About god damn time, really.
Think that's most of the major points. Rei reactions, in order, because it's fun.
1.) Y'all knew this was coming. You knew. In hindsight we should've expected it in MMM, instead of expecting them to hold off until 2024. Frankly I'm very much expecting species-based stat points to go away entirely in 2024 and for the Tasha's floating ASIs to simply be baked into the stat selection phase of chargen. Make Standard Array 17/16/14/12/10/8, add a few extra points to Point Buy, and be done with it. No more species-based stats at all, species is just qualitative or at least partially qualitative traits.
2.) Weird, but also kinna expected I guess. Some of the older species, genasi especially, didn't hold up well and weren't commonly played without homebrew, and if you're going to make a huge component of a major new book "Rebuilding Species", suppose you'd have to rebuild them. People will have individual opinions on specific rebuilds, but this is what happens when the game is gearing up towards what amounts to its first major content pass since it was released in 2024.
3.) They did this specifically and solely because they can't back-hack Tasha's adjustments into PHB species until 2024, and so any sort of rebuild of a post-release subspecies for a PHB species is gonna need to become its own pseudospecies in order to be viable to sell. No arcane weirdness or Secret Corporate Bullshit here - durgs, Smurfnibblers, Elfier Elves, Elfier Dark Elves, and all the rest get their own species statblock because that was the only way they could get reasonably reprinted in M3.
4.) I'm actually not a fan of removing all drawbacks from every species ever, but I also know players have been chafing their asses off at Sunlight Sensitivity since the option to play a sunlight-sensitive species was introduced. The average player cannot stand dealing with it and will go to great lengths to bullshit it. I, personally, find certain species-reliant drawbacks to aid storytelling, but if your whole playerbase keeps searching for ways to squirm out of something it's a sign that something isn't working. The Small footspeed thing is eh; it feels a little weird but I suppose I'll get used to it.
5.) Fuggoff, people. The elemental control cantrips are fine and useful. It's not my fault none of you have any goddamn imagination and can't find ways to make manipulating fire, water, or earth cool. Yes, Gust is bad, but that's because Wizards ****ed up and made Gust shorter range and gave it a verbal component it had no ****ing business having, both for no good god damned reason, not because being able to manipulate air is bad. besides. Acid Splash on water genasi? No. Acid is not water. Stahppit. Gonna have to 'brew that back to rights myself when the book hits.
6.) Pretty sure it's reasonably safe to say at this point that if you have a spell, you can use spell slots to cast it. This language is becoming ubiquitous and I fully expect it to be backhacked into everything else once 2024 happens and we get 5e Redux. Start doing it with everything that gives you spells and get used to it now, folks.
1) We always could. ;) It's sure going to flare up again though, yes. 2) I'm in favor of this, and I don't think it's weird. Whatever gets done will always be controversial though: too much for some, not enough for others, some will approve, some will disappove, can't please everyone. 3) I'm of two minds here: Duergar and Svirfneblin used to be separate races rather than subraces in previous editions, even if Dwarves and Gnomes had subraces back then too. I wouldn't want WotC to move away from subraces altogether, but for some of the more exotic ones that lore-wise seem to have evolved in a significantly different way being a separate race seems fine. 4) Sigh. Seemed like a great opportunity to allow players to trade off their drawback trait in some way, rather than just nixing them. Going to feel weird when interacting with NPCs of those races, who shouldn't all be exceptional. 5) No argument here. Especially since combat cantrips are boring and, on the whole, getting one from race doesn't really add value. Characters that should have one or two combat cantrips will have them from their class. 6) It's fine. Less confusion, makes logical sense (sorcerers can cast leveled spells thanks to their bloodline, but can't use spell slots for the spells they get from their race? Weird).
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Weirdly all the genasi not having elemental manipulation cantrips is what's annoying me most out of all this. They've even removed the ones which did have them.
Time to pester my DM to replace acid splash with shape water if I update my current character to the new genasi. And also delete darkvision as not sure why genasi would have that.
I did not complain when I had to homebrew a lack of ASI into the game and they all seemed content with the status quo--it seems a bit hypocritical for them to complain now that the shoe is on the other foot, and they have to do what the rest of us had been doing for years.
Erm... Assuming you're talking about floating ASIs, it's rather easy to say "they go wherever you want rather than where the book says they go based on race". It's quite a bit harder to homebrew fixed ASIs for races that never got them (especially if the player looking at such a race for their next character is hoping for you to decide on other fixed ASIs than the ones you have in mind). It's not really comparable.
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I'm personally a fan of floating ASI's so that stuff doesn't bother me in the least.
I do however think the flavor was taken out of kobolds. I happen to think light sensitivity is a pretty unique and interesting mechanic it's a shame that it's being taken away.
My biggest gripe however, is with the genasi.. Okay, they pretty much got a powerbump across the board, but they didn't really address what I always thought sucked about the genasi, which is the total lack of mechanical flavor and identity for some of the races with the most obvious themes going on.
They replaced thematic cantrips with far less fitting combat cantrips.. okay, that's prolly more powerful but it feels entirely inappropriate for a water genasi to have acid splash rather than shape water... I'm also generally not a fan of the "add spells as a racial feat" design choice the genasi have and continue to suffer from. Getting spells feels generic and not at all unique since a spellcaster can copy your racial abilities easily, and usually do it more often...
When I saw the the genasi were getting a rework I was really hoping for them to get a list of actually dedicated features for each genasi rather than just a slight expansion to their spell lists. I think the harengon is a prime of example of how a race should be designed. Impactful and flavorful features unique to the race.
I did not complain when I had to homebrew a lack of ASI into the game and they all seemed content with the status quo--it seems a bit hypocritical for them to complain now that the shoe is on the other foot, and they have to do what the rest of us had been doing for years.
Erm... Assuming you're talking about floating ASIs, it's rather easy to say "they go wherever you want rather than where the book says they go based on race". It's quite a bit harder to homebrew fixed ASIs for races that never got them (especially if the player looking at such a race for their next character is hoping for you to decide on other fixed ASIs than the ones you have in mind). It's not really comparable.
I suppose you are right. It would probably take upwards of a full minute to read the description of the race and maybe two whole seconds to come up with a justification for setting the ASI in your homebrew creation. Adding a whole additional minute to the DM's work, which they would only have to do the first time a new race was released, is a totally different situation than the prior system. After all, it really is not fair to compare a singular minute of work on a one-time basis against the current system, where many DMs require their characters write elaborate, time-consuming backstories to justify a deviation from the ASI.
And if we are trying to draw life lessons, it seems like the idea that anyone can be anything they want without being held back by circumstances of their birth, without being told “people like you aren’t good at that” and having a role forced on them by the world is my preferred spin.
Right... Elven Accuracy? Darkvision? Dwarven Combat Training? Skill Versatility? Keen Senses? Magic Resistance? Flight? Sneaky? Pack Tactics? Cat's Talent? Shapechanger? Survival Instinct? Swim or Climb speeds? The races are different and will remain different. A good number of these racial qualities make certain character concepts stronger. That's not going to change either.
Doing away with the stat penalties solved the “people like you aren’t good at that” issue. What we have left is a "people like you are not the absolute best at that, even if you're damn good at it" issue. Tempted to make an ethnicity-based analogy here, but I'll put a sock in it and just call that a first world problem.
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For all the "iT's NoT oPtIoNaL aNyMoRe" folks, I just want to point out that this is a DDB issue, not a WotC issue. WotC is not going to send a team of orcs to your house to take your old PHB. You have the books you need to play the way you want. MotM is optional for you, as you can play without it. You can limit your games however you wish. When you throw a fit, it's essentially you being mad at the idea that other people can also have books to play the way they want.
The hard pill to swallow is that this option is going to be the standard for most other players moving forward. Because most other players want to move forward. WotC is just moving with the market as any modern company has to. Your actual grievance is with your fellow players who simply don't feel the way you do, and no amount of digital ink is going to convince them otherwise.
You're not forced to come along with us if you don't want to - that's up to you. If you never expected this moment to come, I don't know what to say. You expected the game to stay stagnant forever because that's the way you liked it? That's just not how the world works.
If you ever change your mind, you're welcome to join us.
I did not complain when I had to homebrew a lack of ASI into the game and they all seemed content with the status quo--it seems a bit hypocritical for them to complain now that the shoe is on the other foot, and they have to do what the rest of us had been doing for years.
Erm... Assuming you're talking about floating ASIs, it's rather easy to say "they go wherever you want rather than where the book says they go based on race". It's quite a bit harder to homebrew fixed ASIs for races that never got them (especially if the player looking at such a race for their next character is hoping for you to decide on other fixed ASIs than the ones you have in mind). It's not really comparable.
It's absolutely comparable. As Caerwyn said, backhacking fixed ASIs into a TC-compliant species is the work of maybe two minutes tops for most of them.
Fairies? +2CHA, +1DX Harengon? Go the other way - +2DX, +1 CHA Owlen? +2WIS, and either+1DX or +1INT depending on what you as a DM feel like leaning into. Van Richten's Lineages? N/A - those are active mutations of other species, floating numbers makes sense for those. Use them to preserve the fixed modifiers for the species one is being mutated from, and you can even say that - "you retain the ability score increases you gain from the species you were before this change overtook you."
And if people want to say "well that just doesn't make sense! Fairies shouldn't have a Dex boost, owlin should OBVIOUSLY be Intelligence-focused, not Wisdom-focused, and Harengon don't merit Charisma!" Well gee, I wonder if that's a sign that maybe forcing fixed, immutable numbers on every last single member of a given species forever and ever and ever with absolutely no lenience, leeway, or wiggle room isn't necessarily the bestest idea ever. Because maybe - and hear me out here, just maybe - each individual member of a species is A DIFFERENT PERSON, even within the constraints of their species?
Nevertheless. I suppose this is all veering off into the same-ass forum fights we've been having for a couple years now, and that I believe I predicted twice over. because of course.
I have to wonder how much energy has been spent griping on these forums about floating ASIs...they made the system have more options. Therefore, your traditional +2 CON +1 WIS Hill Dwarves? They still freaking exist in canon. So do all the other traditional ASI versions of every race ever published in 5e. If you want to preserve those in your games, open an excel file, three columns (race, First ASI, second ASI) spend 5 minutes copying them down, and hand the printout to your players.
This just seems like the weirdest battle to be fighting...you don't have to change literally anything about how you play, but the thought of someone else being able to play differently is so offensive to you that multiple threads and posts have been made exclaiming the same opinions.
Seems like the other changes are primarily geared towards making some of the more rarely played races more playable. I'm sure some I'll be happy with, others I won't, but the floating ASI thing just seems like a trivial thing, especially when it still allows the old way in canon, just not explicitly.
I did not complain when I had to homebrew a lack of ASI into the game and they all seemed content with the status quo--it seems a bit hypocritical for them to complain now that the shoe is on the other foot, and they have to do what the rest of us had been doing for years.
Erm... Assuming you're talking about floating ASIs, it's rather easy to say "they go wherever you want rather than where the book says they go based on race". It's quite a bit harder to homebrew fixed ASIs for races that never got them (especially if the player looking at such a race for their next character is hoping for you to decide on other fixed ASIs than the ones you have in mind). It's not really comparable.
I suppose you are right. It would probably take upwards of a full minute to read the description of the race and maybe two whole seconds to come up with a justification for setting the ASI in your homebrew creation. Adding a whole additional minute to the DM's work, which they would only have to do the first time a new race was released, is a totally different situation than the prior system. After all, it really is not fair to compare a singular minute of work on a one-time basis against the current system, where many DMs require their characters write elaborate, time-consuming backstories to justify a deviation from the ASI.
Take a look at the Tabaxi writeup for instance. There's literally nothing in there that suggests a Dex bonus other than "they're cat's, yo" and an Int bonus seems as apt as one to Cha. For Halflings the only suggested justification for a Dex bonus is that they can blend into crowds well, but Small and Practical is equally suggestive of Wis and Kind and Curious points towards Int; Ghostwise and Wis is as good as anything I suppose, but there's no real connection there. Cha for Yuan-Ti? Hypnotic snakes, I guess, but that's not what the description says (I see better arguments for Dex in their writeup than the Tabaxi's, and arguably better than the Halflings' as well).
As for DMs requiring time-consuming backstories, how is that an argument? First, I don't know any such DM. Second, that's their choice: it's not like there's something missing from the rulebooks that used to be there for them.
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I did not complain when I had to homebrew a lack of ASI into the game and they all seemed content with the status quo--it seems a bit hypocritical for them to complain now that the shoe is on the other foot, and they have to do what the rest of us had been doing for years.
Erm... Assuming you're talking about floating ASIs, it's rather easy to say "they go wherever you want rather than where the book says they go based on race". It's quite a bit harder to homebrew fixed ASIs for races that never got them (especially if the player looking at such a race for their next character is hoping for you to decide on other fixed ASIs than the ones you have in mind). It's not really comparable.
Because maybe - and hear me out here, just maybe - each individual member of a species is A DIFFERENT PERSON, even within the constraints of their species?
Right. What constraints?
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Ok, but what does that have to do with floating or non-floating ASIs? Seems like what opened up these new character creation options wasn't that, but you realizing you could ditch the stereotypical racial badguy prejudices?
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Well, boo to that.
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Thank you for taking the time to write this summary!
I am pretty sad about the Genasi change In general, I feel a non-combat spell with a creative player is always better than taking your millionth damage-dealing spell, particularly if it is a non-combat cantrip you can abuse in all sorts of fun creative ways. I will probably homerule in the elemental cantrips if any of my party members play a Genasi.
Moving subraces into their own races is a very useful change. As a DM who always tries to bring at least one or two new players into each campaign I run, anything that makes it easier to identify what options there are for character creation is a big win in my book. Making it so a player does not have to look up each race individually, then read the subtypes to find completely different entities. I would presume Drow will get the same treatment as Duergar--that one will be particularly useful, since I have found a lot of new players like the idea of playing a dark elf.
Everything else is perfectly fine, and constitutes things lots of DMs have been doing since the game was invented. I know lots of folks are inexplicably upset about it, but that always seems a little silly to me. The only tangible argument against is a variation on "I don't want to homebrew this back into the game", which is a silly argument. I did not complain when I had to homebrew a lack of ASI into the game and they all seemed content with the status quo--it seems a bit hypocritical for them to complain now that the shoe is on the other foot, and they have to do what the rest of us had been doing for years.
They did try to fix it a little bit in 4th Ed, when pairs of stats tried to share any given load for some things and you could be a bit choosey about which one mattered to you.
[REDACTED]
This character is just as good as any Wis you want to build all day every day: (https://ddb.ac/characters/39537642/84F3C9) And by 12th level will have the exact same Int 20 as the Elf. As you said, the numbers don’t lie.
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I think you are super-imposing values onto the system that aren’t really there. The ASIs were never supposed to be a life lesson about preserving.
They were a relic from earlier editions. To take one example: Among the many, many class/race restrictions in 1e, a dwarf could not be a magic user. Simply was not allowed. Then when 3e came along they removed the complete restrictions, and replaced them with things like racial ability modifiers and favored classes for each race that kind of pushed players in a direction. So then your dwarf could be a wizard, they just would be as good at it as if you stuck with the typical dwarven fighter. Now we’re just getting rid of those pushes as well. This, to me, seems like the next step away from all those 1e mandates.
Now your dwarf can be a wizard, and be just as good at it as anyone else. And if we are trying to draw life lessons, it seems like the idea that anyone can be anything they want without being held back by circumstances of their birth, without being told “people like you aren’t good at that” and having a role forced on them by the world is my preferred spin.
Has nothing to do with subraces being "intrinsically racist", which is an argument I've heard no one make ever, and pretty much everything to do with the fact that Wizards can't reprint half a species. They wanted the new species to be Tasha-compliant, which meant they needed stats in their statblocks, which made them noncompatible with being a subspecies, which meant they needed to be their own species.
Is it a clumsy kludge? Yeah, kinda. It's gonna bite them in the hind end when 2024 comes out and they have to reintegrate those subspecies back into the original species, but eh. This is what happens when one tries to update a TTRPG in bits and pieces instead of assembling a clean reissue of an updated edition. But it's also how they're softening the blow and avoiding screeching shouts of Edition Burgling and trying to pass of a 6e as "5e But With Updates". Which is not at all what they're doing to the best of anybody's knowledge at this time, so I guess I sorta get it.
Even if it is weird.
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1) We always could. ;) It's sure going to flare up again though, yes.
2) I'm in favor of this, and I don't think it's weird. Whatever gets done will always be controversial though: too much for some, not enough for others, some will approve, some will disappove, can't please everyone.
3) I'm of two minds here: Duergar and Svirfneblin used to be separate races rather than subraces in previous editions, even if Dwarves and Gnomes had subraces back then too. I wouldn't want WotC to move away from subraces altogether, but for some of the more exotic ones that lore-wise seem to have evolved in a significantly different way being a separate race seems fine.
4) Sigh. Seemed like a great opportunity to allow players to trade off their drawback trait in some way, rather than just nixing them. Going to feel weird when interacting with NPCs of those races, who shouldn't all be exceptional.
5) No argument here. Especially since combat cantrips are boring and, on the whole, getting one from race doesn't really add value. Characters that should have one or two combat cantrips will have them from their class.
6) It's fine. Less confusion, makes logical sense (sorcerers can cast leveled spells thanks to their bloodline, but can't use spell slots for the spells they get from their race? Weird).
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Weirdly all the genasi not having elemental manipulation cantrips is what's annoying me most out of all this. They've even removed the ones which did have them.
Time to pester my DM to replace acid splash with shape water if I update my current character to the new genasi. And also delete darkvision as not sure why genasi would have that.
Erm... Assuming you're talking about floating ASIs, it's rather easy to say "they go wherever you want rather than where the book says they go based on race". It's quite a bit harder to homebrew fixed ASIs for races that never got them (especially if the player looking at such a race for their next character is hoping for you to decide on other fixed ASIs than the ones you have in mind). It's not really comparable.
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This one is easy. It is dark underwater or underground. The air genasi is a little odd, but what ever.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I'm personally a fan of floating ASI's so that stuff doesn't bother me in the least.
I do however think the flavor was taken out of kobolds. I happen to think light sensitivity is a pretty unique and interesting mechanic it's a shame that it's being taken away.
My biggest gripe however, is with the genasi.. Okay, they pretty much got a powerbump across the board, but they didn't really address what I always thought sucked about the genasi, which is the total lack of mechanical flavor and identity for some of the races with the most obvious themes going on.
They replaced thematic cantrips with far less fitting combat cantrips.. okay, that's prolly more powerful but it feels entirely inappropriate for a water genasi to have acid splash rather than shape water... I'm also generally not a fan of the "add spells as a racial feat" design choice the genasi have and continue to suffer from. Getting spells feels generic and not at all unique since a spellcaster can copy your racial abilities easily, and usually do it more often...
When I saw the the genasi were getting a rework I was really hoping for them to get a list of actually dedicated features for each genasi rather than just a slight expansion to their spell lists. I think the harengon is a prime of example of how a race should be designed. Impactful and flavorful features unique to the race.
I suppose you are right. It would probably take upwards of a full minute to read the description of the race and maybe two whole seconds to come up with a justification for setting the ASI in your homebrew creation. Adding a whole additional minute to the DM's work, which they would only have to do the first time a new race was released, is a totally different situation than the prior system. After all, it really is not fair to compare a singular minute of work on a one-time basis against the current system, where many DMs require their characters write elaborate, time-consuming backstories to justify a deviation from the ASI.
Right... Elven Accuracy? Darkvision? Dwarven Combat Training? Skill Versatility? Keen Senses? Magic Resistance? Flight? Sneaky? Pack Tactics? Cat's Talent? Shapechanger? Survival Instinct? Swim or Climb speeds? The races are different and will remain different. A good number of these racial qualities make certain character concepts stronger. That's not going to change either.
Doing away with the stat penalties solved the “people like you aren’t good at that” issue. What we have left is a "people like you are not the absolute best at that, even if you're damn good at it" issue. Tempted to make an ethnicity-based analogy here, but I'll put a sock in it and just call that a first world problem.
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For all the "iT's NoT oPtIoNaL aNyMoRe" folks, I just want to point out that this is a DDB issue, not a WotC issue. WotC is not going to send a team of orcs to your house to take your old PHB. You have the books you need to play the way you want. MotM is optional for you, as you can play without it. You can limit your games however you wish. When you throw a fit, it's essentially you being mad at the idea that other people can also have books to play the way they want.
The hard pill to swallow is that this option is going to be the standard for most other players moving forward. Because most other players want to move forward. WotC is just moving with the market as any modern company has to. Your actual grievance is with your fellow players who simply don't feel the way you do, and no amount of digital ink is going to convince them otherwise.
You're not forced to come along with us if you don't want to - that's up to you. If you never expected this moment to come, I don't know what to say. You expected the game to stay stagnant forever because that's the way you liked it? That's just not how the world works.
If you ever change your mind, you're welcome to join us.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
It's absolutely comparable. As Caerwyn said, backhacking fixed ASIs into a TC-compliant species is the work of maybe two minutes tops for most of them.
Fairies? +2CHA, +1DX
Harengon? Go the other way - +2DX, +1 CHA
Owlen? +2WIS, and either+1DX or +1INT depending on what you as a DM feel like leaning into.
Van Richten's Lineages? N/A - those are active mutations of other species, floating numbers makes sense for those. Use them to preserve the fixed modifiers for the species one is being mutated from, and you can even say that - "you retain the ability score increases you gain from the species you were before this change overtook you."
And if people want to say "well that just doesn't make sense! Fairies shouldn't have a Dex boost, owlin should OBVIOUSLY be Intelligence-focused, not Wisdom-focused, and Harengon don't merit Charisma!" Well gee, I wonder if that's a sign that maybe forcing fixed, immutable numbers on every last single member of a given species forever and ever and ever with absolutely no lenience, leeway, or wiggle room isn't necessarily the bestest idea ever. Because maybe - and hear me out here, just maybe - each individual member of a species is A DIFFERENT PERSON, even within the constraints of their species?
Nevertheless. I suppose this is all veering off into the same-ass forum fights we've been having for a couple years now, and that I believe I predicted twice over. because of course.
Bleugh.
Please do not contact or message me.
I have to wonder how much energy has been spent griping on these forums about floating ASIs...they made the system have more options. Therefore, your traditional +2 CON +1 WIS Hill Dwarves? They still freaking exist in canon. So do all the other traditional ASI versions of every race ever published in 5e. If you want to preserve those in your games, open an excel file, three columns (race, First ASI, second ASI) spend 5 minutes copying them down, and hand the printout to your players.
This just seems like the weirdest battle to be fighting...you don't have to change literally anything about how you play, but the thought of someone else being able to play differently is so offensive to you that multiple threads and posts have been made exclaiming the same opinions.
Seems like the other changes are primarily geared towards making some of the more rarely played races more playable. I'm sure some I'll be happy with, others I won't, but the floating ASI thing just seems like a trivial thing, especially when it still allows the old way in canon, just not explicitly.
Take a look at the Tabaxi writeup for instance. There's literally nothing in there that suggests a Dex bonus other than "they're cat's, yo" and an Int bonus seems as apt as one to Cha. For Halflings the only suggested justification for a Dex bonus is that they can blend into crowds well, but Small and Practical is equally suggestive of Wis and Kind and Curious points towards Int; Ghostwise and Wis is as good as anything I suppose, but there's no real connection there. Cha for Yuan-Ti? Hypnotic snakes, I guess, but that's not what the description says (I see better arguments for Dex in their writeup than the Tabaxi's, and arguably better than the Halflings' as well).
As for DMs requiring time-consuming backstories, how is that an argument? First, I don't know any such DM. Second, that's their choice: it's not like there's something missing from the rulebooks that used to be there for them.
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Exactly
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Right. What constraints?
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