Yo! i didnt really see anyone talking about the race/species yet so thought i would bring it up (why am i saying race/species? incase someone hasnt heard about the name change and gets confused)
Aasimar: never used them so im not to sure what all changed tho it doesnt look like to much?
Dragonborn:the changes look great! they maybe the changes from Fizbans but those were great changes. i love the breath weapon changes now that they can choose which shape to use when they use it! best change ever and the flight is great too tho they didnt say how much it was best guess is matching walking speed.
Dwarf: them all getting Dwarven Toughness is amazing really gives them that hardy feel and this on the hill dwarf has personally saved me more times then i can count lol. Adding tremor sense while on stone is amazing and makes it super useful compared to what it use to be.
Elf: they got alot of great changes drows not having sunlight sensitivity gets rid of a very much unneeded downside. high elfs getting a free cantrip off the wizard list is great tho i hope its not tied to INT anymore. and yea druidcraft! great RP cantrip cant be mad. plus whatever spells they get but didnt show us.
Gnome: Forest gnomes getting free uses of speak with animals is super useful to make your DM make up names on the spot! i mean gain information from the animals. and rock gnomes getting two of the best RP cantrips is super great!
Goliath: these big boys seem to have gotten the most changes and i wouldnt say they lost their Stone Endurance feature mainly bc they said theres subraces for the different giants. best guess would be they will get a ton of different options there and the stone endurance will be one of those options. Them getting a large form is really dope tho i am a little disappointed with the wording limiting it to large and not one size larger so it will still be fun to combo with enlarge tho you will have to use the spell first. Unless grappling in monsters is going to become alot more common i dont think them getting advantage to break out of a grapple will be very useful at all. so far the changes look like a big buff with more flavor
Halfling: i mean yea its a buff all around but streamlining them all into one gets rid of the subraces which stinks. pretty much all i have to say on them
Human: they did the home team proud! and made the humans super good with a free inspo a free feat so thats dope just all over an improvement.
Orc: stinks we lost half orcs i enjoyed their whole extra crit damage even if it was rare ish to get it. orcs losing the powerful build feature does make them lose a spot in the big boy squad. theAdrenaline Rush being limited to one use (so it seems) that resets on a short/long rest seems to be a step back in design considering how many of the species stepped away from short rest stuff. tho extra dark vision is good. im not to sure how they will feel but they wont feel worse so thats good.
Tiefling: WHERES MY WINGED TIEFS?! i loved them so much it sucks to see they didnt make it to the book. Other then that the changes look nice but Pointy Hat made a great video about them and yall should watch it!
i think alot of the changes were made for the better and made DnD simpler for people. Id love to hear what you guys think about all of the race/species changes!
I loved what I saw in the new goliaths. Definitely the standout species for me. All of the species seem to have gotten upgraded. Tieflings have been my favorite since I started playing and I too noted the missing Variant Tiefling option, though to be honest, I used the Devil's Tongue 3x more often than I ever used the winged. It's not such a big loss though because what we do have is pretty neat and the Variant Tiefling wasn't in the 2014 PHB either. So we may yet see it in a future book.
Side note: Genasi were my second favorite and they almost seem to have been pushed because of the changes to the Goliaths. We will have MotM though.
I loved what I saw in the new goliaths. Definitely the standout species for me. All of the species seem to have gotten upgraded. Tieflings have been my favorite since I started playing and I too noted the missing Variant Tiefling option, though to be honest, I used the Devil's Tongue 3x more often than I ever used the winged. It's not such a big loss though because what we do have is pretty neat and the Variant Tiefling wasn't in the 2014 PHB either. So we may yet see it in a future book.
Side note: Genasi were my second favorite and they almost seem to have been pushed because of the changes to the Goliaths. We will have MotM though.
true on the winged tieflings not being a part of the PHB to begin with but still stinks lol and yea the Goliaths have alot of my favorite changes im stoked to see what all of their subraces offer! im also excited to play a dragonborn now. i know its an off chance but id also love to see species feats like from xanathars.
Thanks for writing this up. One minor typo: it’s the Rpck Gnomw, not the Forest Gmome, that gets the two cantrips (Prestidigitation and Mending). (Hopefully the Forest Gnome continues to get Minor Illusion: they usually mention anything removed, so it should still be there.)
One change for the Human that was in UA1 but not mentioned ( unless I overlooked it) was that they could choose to be Small rather than Medium. The illustration (of a crowd of humans cheering something on) does suggest that the option is still there, which I hope. It’d be good to have the trail blazed by Tyrion Lannister kept open.
I know they upgraded powerful build to also give advantage on ending the grappled condition (as seen in the Goliath) but I don't understand what they gave Orcs to justify taking that away from them.
I know they upgraded powerful build to also give advantage on ending the grappled condition (as seen in the Goliath) but I don't understand what they gave Orcs to justify taking that away from them.
yea them loosing powerful build seems weird to me because they still have stuff like Adrenaline rush and relentless endurance makes them wanna be in the front lines
Thanks for writing this up. One minor typo: it’s the Rpck Gnomw, not the Forest Gmome, that gets the two cantrips (Prestidigitation and Mending). (Hopefully the Forest Gnome continues to get Minor Illusion: they usually mention anything removed, so it should still be there.)
One change for the Human that was in UA1 but not mentioned ( unless I overlooked it) was that they could choose to be Small rather than Medium. The illustration (of a crowd of humans cheering something on) does suggest that the option is still there, which I hope. It’d be good to have the trail blazed by Tyrion Lannister kept open.
i wouldnt be surprised if they were going this way with alot of races makes sense there would be shorter and taller people in them
Thanks for writing this up. One minor typo: it’s the Rpck Gnomw, not the Forest Gmome, that gets the two cantrips (Prestidigitation and Mending). (Hopefully the Forest Gnome continues to get Minor Illusion: they usually mention anything removed, so it should still be there.)
One change for the Human that was in UA1 but not mentioned ( unless I overlooked it) was that they could choose to be Small rather than Medium. The illustration (of a crowd of humans cheering something on) does suggest that the option is still there, which I hope. It’d be good to have the trail blazed by Tyrion Lannister kept open.
i wouldnt be surprised if they were going this way with alot of races makes sense there would be shorter and taller people in them
The Tiefling had a choice between Small and Medium in UA1. I can’t remember if the Aasimar had a choice in MotM, but I think they would be appropriate for the choice too.
Aasimar: never used them so im not to sure what all changed tho it doesnt look like to much?
The big change to Aasimar relative to MPMM is that you can change your Revelation whenever you activate it, instead of being locked into a single choice at level 3. So it was definitely buffed. It's currently unclear if Radiant Consumption Inner Radiance still has the "friendly fire" aspect.
If there were no other changes, this would allow Aasimar to get racial, concentration-free flight at level 3. Personally I'm hoping we get more than one 1-minute use of the Revelation feature per long rest - even something like 1/2 proficiency bonus would be way better, or have it recover on a short rest instead of a long rest.
Aasimar: never used them so im not to sure what all changed tho it doesnt look like to much?
The big change to Aasimar relative to MPMM is that you can change your Revelation whenever you activate it, instead of being locked into a single choice at level 3. So it was definitely buffed. It's currently unclear if Radiant Consumption Inner Radiance still has the "friendly fire" aspect.
If there were no other changes, this would allow Aasimar to get racial, concentration-free flight at level 3. Personally I'm hoping we get more than one 1-minute use of the Revelation feature per long rest - even something like 1/2 proficiency bonus would be way better, or have it recover on a short rest instead of a long rest.
thats fair im not a fan of race stuff being stuck to only once per long rest either alot of the stuff needs scaling for the higher levels
Aasimar: never used them so im not to sure what all changed tho it doesnt look like to much?
Reading about that, I was a bit disappointed actually. Volo's aasimars had different ASIs and names with lore and inspiration.
Then in MotM you could mechanically get the different types but the names/lore was gone.
Now with the 5.5 version you don't even have different types choosing separate celestial revelations. They're just "angel-people with mood swings." Got a fellow player running a Volo's Fallen Aasimar. That name and description with his necrotic shroud was a nice sense of inspiration for him.
Dragonborn:the changes look great! they maybe the changes from Fizbans but those were great changes. i love the breath weapon changes now that they can choose which shape to use when they use it! best change ever and the flight is great too tho they didnt say how much it was best guess is matching walking speed.
With the breath weapon one thing that came to mind is that the size was tied to the dragon-type. So I do wonder if this a preview that dragons overall will be changing their AoE size at will when using the breath.
Flight is nice and using Fizban's "breath is an attack" makes it nicer for martials.
Though I still find this funny.
Draconic Sorcerer: You've got patches of scales. This armors your skin to 13 AC +DEX!
Dragonborn: *looks at the whole body of scales* I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that. 10 AC +DEX.
Dwarf: them all getting Dwarven Toughness is amazing really gives them that hardy feel and this on the hill dwarf has personally saved me more times then i can count lol. Adding tremor sense while on stone is amazing and makes it super useful compared to what it use to be.
120ft darkvision was previous drow/duergar. Two races with sunlight sensitivity currently. So interesting.
Though I feel like tremorsense being limited is weird from a in-game perspective. Like, "Hey, dwarf-dude, can you feel this ground?" And dwarf dude is like, "Yesn't." Wonder what the in-game lore will be for that.
Elf: they got alot of great changes drows not having sunlight sensitivity gets rid of a very much unneeded downside. high elfs getting a free cantrip off the wizard list is great tho i hope its not tied to INT anymore. and yea druidcraft! great RP cantrip cant be mad. plus whatever spells they get but didnt show us.
Seems alright overall and more spells is interesting. Though I do feel like the High Elf vs Wood Elf cantrip was... wack.
High Elf: Choose from an entire list of cantrips that you can also swap out.
Wood Elf: Get an RP cantrip. Loose out on something that let you hide where others can't. I think it would've been better for them to open up options to any druid cantrip rather than locking in on one specific.
As for drow losing sunlight sensitivity, I've heard anecdotal evidence that most groups find a way to get around it. And I know for my drow I play her in a campaign that's a series of dungeon crawls so I can understand that removal.
Gnome: Forest gnomes getting free uses of speak with animals is super useful to make your DM make up names on the spot! i mean gain information from the animals. and rock gnomes getting two of the best RP cantrips is super great!
Seems like they got straight-up buffed. Forest Gnome has somewhat of a trade-off but speak with animals is more versatile. And then rock gnomes just getting two cantrips for free.
Goliath: these big boys seem to have gotten the most changes and i wouldnt say they lost their Stone Endurance feature mainly bc they said theres subraces for the different giants. best guess would be they will get a ton of different options there and the stone endurance will be one of those options. Them getting a large form is really dope tho i am a little disappointed with the wording limiting it to large and not one size larger so it will still be fun to combo with enlarge tho you will have to use the spell first. Unless grappling in monsters is going to become alot more common i dont think them getting advantage to break out of a grapple will be very useful at all. so far the changes look like a big buff with more flavor
Will have to see what those giant-traits are.
Though the changing from calling the feature Little Giant to Powerful Build is interesting IMO as the EE version uses Powerful Build instead of Little Giant. Guessing it was a "standardize the names" thing.
Halfling: i mean yea its a buff all around but streamlining them all into one gets rid of the subraces which stinks. pretty much all i have to say on them
Wonder if there'll still be the stout subrace with poison resistance. But pretty much agree you that they were a bit buffed.
Human: they did the home team proud! and made the humans super good with a free inspo a free feat so thats dope just all over an improvement.
I am allergic to playing humans. I'm a human 24/7 already so I go for other races. ;p
But seems to be just V-Human but toned down to the not be as much of a go-to choice for optimizers. Gets a +1 over its former stats (via background ASIs) but background feats as opposed to going Sharpshooter/etc out of the gate.
Orc: stinks we lost half orcs i enjoyed their whole extra crit damage even if it was rare ish to get it. orcs losing the powerful build feature does make them lose a spot in the big boy squad. theAdrenaline Rush being limited to one use (so it seems) that resets on a short/long rest seems to be a step back in design considering how many of the species stepped away from short rest stuff. tho extra dark vision is good. im not to sure how they will feel but they wont feel worse so thats good.
Extending darkvision is interesting. Dwarves it makes sense IMO since they're underground all the time. But orcs, aside from LotR, didn't strike me as particularly night-based.
Also agree on the curiousness of Adrenaline Rush using short/long rest as opposed to PB.
As for half-orcs, probably would make sense for you to just keep using it with 5.5 for a unique set of traits. (It agree that it is nice.)
Tiefling: WHERES MY WINGED TIEFS?! i loved them so much it sucks to see they didnt make it to the book. Other then that the changes look nice but Pointy Hat made a great video about them and yall should watch it!
Looks like they avoided flying races in this one. So my guess is they might release Winged Tieflings in a later update.
Getting different types of resistances is interesting.
Now with the 5.5 version you don't even have different types choosing separate celestial revelations. They're just "angel-people with mood swings." Got a fellow player running a Volo's Fallen Aasimar. That name and description with his necrotic shroud was a nice sense of inspiration for him.
I for one like the idea that you're not pigeonholed into one narrow archetype in order to access the dark emotion powers. You can still call your Aasimar "Fallen" and only use Necrotic Shroud if you really want to, but it's not forced to have anything to do with alignment - that's a good thing.
Draconic Sorcerer: You've got patches of scales. This armors your skin to 13 AC +DEX!
Dragonborn: *looks at the whole body of scales* I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that. 10 AC +DEX.
Eh? Dragonborn don't get an AC bonus. Are you thinking of the Dragon Hide feat from Xanathar's?
If so, it's actually the other way around - that feat gives 13+Dex, while the new Draconic Sorcerer is 10+Dex+Cha. For most sorcerers, that's going to equal 13+Dex starting out and eventually beat it, so if I was going Draconic Sorcerer on my Dragonborn I wouldn't waste a feat on Dragon Hide.
120ft darkvision was previous drow/duergar. Two races with sunlight sensitivity currently. So interesting.
Though I feel like tremorsense being limited is weird from a in-game perspective. Like, "Hey, dwarf-dude, can you feel this ground?" And dwarf dude is like, "Yesn't." Wonder what the in-game lore will be for that.
Sunlight Sensitivity is being removed from all player races.
Feeling the ground is constant for everybody, but being able to attune yourself to the vibrations so well that you can count the enemies on the other side of a stone wall is a different matter.
Draconic Sorcerer: You've got patches of scales. This armors your skin to 13 AC +DEX!
Dragonborn: *looks at the whole body of scales* I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that. 10 AC +DEX.
Eh? Dragonborn don't get an AC bonus. Are you thinking of the Dragon Hide feat from Xanathar's?
If so, it's actually the other way around - that feat gives 13+Dex, while the new Draconic Sorcerer is 10+Dex+Cha. For most sorcerers, that's going to equal 13+Dex starting out and eventually beat it, so if I was going Draconic Sorcerer on my Dragonborn I wouldn't waste a feat on Dragon Hide.
Additionally, parts of your skin are covered by a thin sheen of dragon-like scales. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier.
It's not a criticism. I just find it funny that dragonborn, whose entire bodies are covered in scales, don't get an AC bonus whereas Draconic Sorcerers, with parts of their bodies covered in thin scales, do.
TLDR: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Dragonborn seem to be "more of the same". "Yay!" Goliath and Gnome. "Meh" Tiefling, Human. "No" Aasimar, Orc (again for no real reason than I don't like them).
I want to premise by saying the things I don't like is simply my subjective opinion. I'm not going to hate on anything I see in the book, and will largely avoid things I don't care for. That does not mean I am going to throw shade at any player for enjoying those things. You have all your fun and don't let this angry man scare you off the lawn! I don't own it, you play on it all you want.
I've never played Aasimar, I will never play Aasimar. No real reason other than they don't stir my soul? While I've played since 1978, my Planescape experience is thin. I don't have any history with them. I'm sure they are a wonderful species for many, they don't inspire me.
Because I'm old-school, I see Orcs as a monster race. They've always been the classic bad guys. I don't mind having bad guys in the campaign! I've played an old-school Assassin (Gygax "Killing people for money is an evil act" - paraphrased) and I played a Lawful Evil Dragonborn Conquest Paladin of Tiamat in our last campaign. I guess you could say I'm just programmed to stab them! Have fun with them but be looking over your shoulder if I am in your party, throwing that bombastic side-eye.
I don't get the love for either Stonecutting(tremorsense) or Heroic Inspiration. Out of the entirety of my games over the years not once can I think of a situation where Tremorsense would have been of value. The fact that it is proficiency-limited/time-limited AND you need to trigger it makes it largely meaningless. I guess I don't play enough campaigns with Drow dropping from the rafters and throwing Darkness spells around. I can see myself forgetting this is even on my character sheet.
Similar with Heroic Inspiration. It is another niche ability you could literally drop off the character sheet and have little to no impact in the game. Also, our DM is not excited to having to track Inspiration.
I did like what Fizban did with Dragonborn. This is one of my favorite species. I'm also delighted to see Goliaths shift into the core book. I've mixed feelings about Tieflings. I feel the new version is a bit more closely tied to direct demonic influence instead of having a cursed lineage. Kind of shoehorns them a bit in my opinion, but I can live with it. I don't play Tieflings all that much either.
I love that gnomes get Speak to Animal! I think this can be a delightful addition to everyday role-play for the gnome character, and I am happy to see some leanings away from accident-prone tinkers and more into the forest dweller aspect. I can see myself playing a gnome in the very near future.
I do want to take a short moment to mention to everyone whose favorite species didn't make the 2024 PHB: Your species is still in the game, and you can still play it.
Additionally, parts of your skin are covered by a thin sheen of dragon-like scales. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier.
It's not a criticism. I just find it funny that dragonborn, whose entire bodies are covered in scales, don't get an AC bonus whereas Draconic Sorcerers, with parts of their bodies covered in thin scales, do.
Gotcha, that's what confused me - 13+Dex is the 2014 version, I was quoting the 2024 version as this is a 2024 thread.
I don't get the love for either Stonecutting(tremorsense) or Heroic Inspiration. Out of the entirety of my games over the years not once can I think of a situation where Tremorsense would have been of value. The fact that it is proficiency-limited/time-limited AND you need to trigger it makes it largely meaningless. I guess I don't play enough campaigns with Drow dropping from the rafters and throwing Darkness spells around. I can see myself forgetting this is even on my character sheet.
I dunno... I find myself "listening at the door" in dungeons a lot. This strikes me as a much more useful version of that. Another use is when I suspect an invisible creature nearby or one turns invisible mid-fight, and I need to target that faerie fire or bag of flour to reveal them for my team.
Similar with Heroic Inspiration. It is another niche ability you could literally drop off the character sheet and have little to no impact in the game. Also, our DM is not excited to having to track Inspiration.
Eh... you "track it" the same way you did in 2014, i.e. either a character has it, or they don't. There's a toggle on the DnDBeyond character sheet for it that should make it very easy.
Personally, I love the change to where it can be used to reroll anything. We've all been excited to land that crit and end up rolling a fistful of 1s, doing less damage than a normal attack - this finally gives us a way to fix that.
I love that gnomes get Speak to Animal! I think this can be a delightful addition to everyday role-play for the gnome character, and I am happy to see some leanings away from accident-prone tinkers and more into the forest dweller aspect. I can see myself playing a gnome in the very near future.
To clarify, both the tinker-style gnomes (Rock Gnomes) and the speak-with-animals gnomes (Forest Gnomes) exist. So there isn't so much a "shift away" from the former, as you get to choose the subrace you want to be.
Regarding Half-Orcs and Half-Elves, if the species in this book are intended to replace their earlier versions and there is no Half-Orc or Half-Elf in this book, my assumption is that you can still use the 2014 versions with a few tweaks. My guess is the only tweak is to just use the Background ASI's instead of the ones in the Species.
Regarding Half-Orcs and Half-Elves, if the species in this book are intended to replace their earlier versions and there is no Half-Orc or Half-Elf in this book, my assumption is that you can still use the 2014 versions with a few tweaks. My guess is the only tweak is to just use the Background ASI's instead of the ones in the Species.
You can use whatever your DM allows you to use. The devs are not printing half-orcs and half-elves the way they were in 2014 anymore.
An overall YEY to 10 humanoid races, with dragonborn looking the most monster-leaning appearance.
There's 12 Classes in the book, I kinda wished they let 12 races inside as well. Genasi could have been a nice addition, but since Goliath is looking the poster eeveelution race, they probably dropped it. And IDK, maybe Giths as 12th option due to BG3.
I've only played Half-Orc before, and have always thought Powerful Build is what makes pure blooded orcs, well, it sets them apart. Now they retconned MotM, a very recent book, I feel that it's in bad taste.
To me 60ft Darkvision makes sense in a way that, you can see well in darkness upto that distance, and for races whose from deeper regions, 120 sounds in line with it. I did not particularly like that sunlight sensitivity is gone. Maybe not on every attack disadvantage, maybe different wording/tweak, but its going to be the same jar, different dirt.
HUMANS! In this game of make-believe and worlds of magic, they wake up everyday INSPIREDbefore going back to depression and all the traumatic reasons why they started adventuring. I just find it hilarious, lol
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Yo! i didnt really see anyone talking about the race/species yet so thought i would bring it up (why am i saying race/species? incase someone hasnt heard about the name change and gets confused)
Aasimar: never used them so im not to sure what all changed tho it doesnt look like to much?
Dragonborn: the changes look great! they maybe the changes from Fizbans but those were great changes. i love the breath weapon changes now that they can choose which shape to use when they use it! best change ever and the flight is great too tho they didnt say how much it was best guess is matching walking speed.
Dwarf: them all getting Dwarven Toughness is amazing really gives them that hardy feel and this on the hill dwarf has personally saved me more times then i can count lol. Adding tremor sense while on stone is amazing and makes it super useful compared to what it use to be.
Elf: they got alot of great changes drows not having sunlight sensitivity gets rid of a very much unneeded downside. high elfs getting a free cantrip off the wizard list is great tho i hope its not tied to INT anymore. and yea druidcraft! great RP cantrip cant be mad. plus whatever spells they get but didnt show us.
Gnome: Forest gnomes getting free uses of speak with animals is super useful to make your DM make up names on the spot! i mean gain information from the animals. and rock gnomes getting two of the best RP cantrips is super great!
Goliath: these big boys seem to have gotten the most changes and i wouldnt say they lost their Stone Endurance feature mainly bc they said theres subraces for the different giants. best guess would be they will get a ton of different options there and the stone endurance will be one of those options. Them getting a large form is really dope tho i am a little disappointed with the wording limiting it to large and not one size larger so it will still be fun to combo with enlarge tho you will have to use the spell first. Unless grappling in monsters is going to become alot more common i dont think them getting advantage to break out of a grapple will be very useful at all. so far the changes look like a big buff with more flavor
Halfling: i mean yea its a buff all around but streamlining them all into one gets rid of the subraces which stinks. pretty much all i have to say on them
Human: they did the home team proud! and made the humans super good with a free inspo a free feat so thats dope just all over an improvement.
Orc: stinks we lost half orcs i enjoyed their whole extra crit damage even if it was rare ish to get it. orcs losing the powerful build feature does make them lose a spot in the big boy squad. the Adrenaline Rush being limited to one use (so it seems) that resets on a short/long rest seems to be a step back in design considering how many of the species stepped away from short rest stuff. tho extra dark vision is good. im not to sure how they will feel but they wont feel worse so thats good.
Tiefling: WHERES MY WINGED TIEFS?! i loved them so much it sucks to see they didnt make it to the book. Other then that the changes look nice but Pointy Hat made a great video about them and yall should watch it!
i think alot of the changes were made for the better and made DnD simpler for people. Id love to hear what you guys think about all of the race/species changes!
I loved what I saw in the new goliaths. Definitely the standout species for me. All of the species seem to have gotten upgraded. Tieflings have been my favorite since I started playing and I too noted the missing Variant Tiefling option, though to be honest, I used the Devil's Tongue 3x more often than I ever used the winged. It's not such a big loss though because what we do have is pretty neat and the Variant Tiefling wasn't in the 2014 PHB either. So we may yet see it in a future book.
Side note: Genasi were my second favorite and they almost seem to have been pushed because of the changes to the Goliaths. We will have MotM though.
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true on the winged tieflings not being a part of the PHB to begin with but still stinks lol and yea the Goliaths have alot of my favorite changes im stoked to see what all of their subraces offer! im also excited to play a dragonborn now. i know its an off chance but id also love to see species feats like from xanathars.
Thanks for writing this up. One minor typo: it’s the Rpck Gnomw, not the Forest Gmome, that gets the two cantrips (Prestidigitation and Mending). (Hopefully the Forest Gnome continues to get Minor Illusion: they usually mention anything removed, so it should still be there.)
One change for the Human that was in UA1 but not mentioned ( unless I overlooked it) was that they could choose to be Small rather than Medium. The illustration (of a crowd of humans cheering something on) does suggest that the option is still there, which I hope. It’d be good to have the trail blazed by Tyrion Lannister kept open.
I love that Dragonborns get wings
I know they upgraded powerful build to also give advantage on ending the grappled condition (as seen in the Goliath) but I don't understand what they gave Orcs to justify taking that away from them.
yea them loosing powerful build seems weird to me because they still have stuff like Adrenaline rush and relentless endurance makes them wanna be in the front lines
Yooooo tell me about it! i just hope we get the otehr colors of the draconic rainbow like the gem ones and stuff at least the damage types
i wouldnt be surprised if they were going this way with alot of races makes sense there would be shorter and taller people in them
The Tiefling had a choice between Small and Medium in UA1. I can’t remember if the Aasimar had a choice in MotM, but I think they would be appropriate for the choice too.
The big change to Aasimar relative to MPMM is that you can change your Revelation whenever you activate it, instead of being locked into a single choice at level 3. So it was definitely buffed. It's currently unclear if
Radiant ConsumptionInner Radiance still has the "friendly fire" aspect.If there were no other changes, this would allow Aasimar to get racial, concentration-free flight at level 3. Personally I'm hoping we get more than one 1-minute use of the Revelation feature per long rest - even something like 1/2 proficiency bonus would be way better, or have it recover on a short rest instead of a long rest.
thats fair im not a fan of race stuff being stuck to only once per long rest either alot of the stuff needs scaling for the higher levels
Reading about that, I was a bit disappointed actually. Volo's aasimars had different ASIs and names with lore and inspiration.
Then in MotM you could mechanically get the different types but the names/lore was gone.
Now with the 5.5 version you don't even have different types choosing separate celestial revelations. They're just "angel-people with mood swings." Got a fellow player running a Volo's Fallen Aasimar. That name and description with his necrotic shroud was a nice sense of inspiration for him.
With the breath weapon one thing that came to mind is that the size was tied to the dragon-type. So I do wonder if this a preview that dragons overall will be changing their AoE size at will when using the breath.
Flight is nice and using Fizban's "breath is an attack" makes it nicer for martials.
Though I still find this funny.
Draconic Sorcerer: You've got patches of scales. This armors your skin to 13 AC +DEX!
Dragonborn: *looks at the whole body of scales* I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that. 10 AC +DEX.
120ft darkvision was previous drow/duergar. Two races with sunlight sensitivity currently. So interesting.
Though I feel like tremorsense being limited is weird from a in-game perspective. Like, "Hey, dwarf-dude, can you feel this ground?" And dwarf dude is like, "Yesn't." Wonder what the in-game lore will be for that.
Seems alright overall and more spells is interesting. Though I do feel like the High Elf vs Wood Elf cantrip was... wack.
High Elf: Choose from an entire list of cantrips that you can also swap out.
Wood Elf: Get an RP cantrip. Loose out on something that let you hide where others can't. I think it would've been better for them to open up options to any druid cantrip rather than locking in on one specific.
As for drow losing sunlight sensitivity, I've heard anecdotal evidence that most groups find a way to get around it. And I know for my drow I play her in a campaign that's a series of dungeon crawls so I can understand that removal.
Seems like they got straight-up buffed. Forest Gnome has somewhat of a trade-off but speak with animals is more versatile. And then rock gnomes just getting two cantrips for free.
Will have to see what those giant-traits are.
Though the changing from calling the feature Little Giant to Powerful Build is interesting IMO as the EE version uses Powerful Build instead of Little Giant. Guessing it was a "standardize the names" thing.
Wonder if there'll still be the stout subrace with poison resistance. But pretty much agree you that they were a bit buffed.
I am allergic to playing humans. I'm a human 24/7 already so I go for other races. ;p
But seems to be just V-Human but toned down to the not be as much of a go-to choice for optimizers. Gets a +1 over its former stats (via background ASIs) but background feats as opposed to going Sharpshooter/etc out of the gate.
Extending darkvision is interesting. Dwarves it makes sense IMO since they're underground all the time. But orcs, aside from LotR, didn't strike me as particularly night-based.
Also agree on the curiousness of Adrenaline Rush using short/long rest as opposed to PB.
As for half-orcs, probably would make sense for you to just keep using it with 5.5 for a unique set of traits. (It agree that it is nice.)
Looks like they avoided flying races in this one. So my guess is they might release Winged Tieflings in a later update.
Getting different types of resistances is interesting.
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I for one like the idea that you're not pigeonholed into one narrow archetype in order to access the dark emotion powers. You can still call your Aasimar "Fallen" and only use Necrotic Shroud if you really want to, but it's not forced to have anything to do with alignment - that's a good thing.
Eh? Dragonborn don't get an AC bonus. Are you thinking of the Dragon Hide feat from Xanathar's?
If so, it's actually the other way around - that feat gives 13+Dex, while the new Draconic Sorcerer is 10+Dex+Cha. For most sorcerers, that's going to equal 13+Dex starting out and eventually beat it, so if I was going Draconic Sorcerer on my Dragonborn I wouldn't waste a feat on Dragon Hide.
Sunlight Sensitivity is being removed from all player races.
Feeling the ground is constant for everybody, but being able to attune yourself to the vibrations so well that you can count the enemies on the other side of a stone wall is a different matter.
Technically we got two flying races (Aasimar and Dragonborn) - it's just not always-on flight, and they don't get to fly at level 1.
No I'm thinking of the subclass for Sorcerer, Draconic Bloodline.
Specifically this part of the lv1 feature.
It's not a criticism. I just find it funny that dragonborn, whose entire bodies are covered in scales, don't get an AC bonus whereas Draconic Sorcerers, with parts of their bodies covered in thin scales, do.
This is a signature. It was a simple signature. But it has been upgraded.
Belolonandalogalo, Sunny | Draíocht, Kholias | Eggo Lass, 100 Dungeons
Talorin Tebedi, Vecna: Eve | Cherry, Stormwreck | Chipper, Strahd
We Are Modron
Get rickrolled here. Awesome music here. Track 48, 5/23/25, Immaculate Mary
TLDR: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Dragonborn seem to be "more of the same". "Yay!" Goliath and Gnome. "Meh" Tiefling, Human. "No" Aasimar, Orc (again for no real reason than I don't like them).
I want to premise by saying the things I don't like is simply my subjective opinion. I'm not going to hate on anything I see in the book, and will largely avoid things I don't care for. That does not mean I am going to throw shade at any player for enjoying those things. You have all your fun and don't let this angry man scare you off the lawn! I don't own it, you play on it all you want.
I've never played Aasimar, I will never play Aasimar. No real reason other than they don't stir my soul? While I've played since 1978, my Planescape experience is thin. I don't have any history with them. I'm sure they are a wonderful species for many, they don't inspire me.
Because I'm old-school, I see Orcs as a monster race. They've always been the classic bad guys. I don't mind having bad guys in the campaign! I've played an old-school Assassin (Gygax "Killing people for money is an evil act" - paraphrased) and I played a Lawful Evil Dragonborn Conquest Paladin of Tiamat in our last campaign. I guess you could say I'm just programmed to stab them! Have fun with them but be looking over your shoulder if I am in your party, throwing that bombastic side-eye.
I don't get the love for either Stonecutting(tremorsense) or Heroic Inspiration. Out of the entirety of my games over the years not once can I think of a situation where Tremorsense would have been of value. The fact that it is proficiency-limited/time-limited AND you need to trigger it makes it largely meaningless. I guess I don't play enough campaigns with Drow dropping from the rafters and throwing Darkness spells around. I can see myself forgetting this is even on my character sheet.
Similar with Heroic Inspiration. It is another niche ability you could literally drop off the character sheet and have little to no impact in the game. Also, our DM is not excited to having to track Inspiration.
I did like what Fizban did with Dragonborn. This is one of my favorite species. I'm also delighted to see Goliaths shift into the core book. I've mixed feelings about Tieflings. I feel the new version is a bit more closely tied to direct demonic influence instead of having a cursed lineage. Kind of shoehorns them a bit in my opinion, but I can live with it. I don't play Tieflings all that much either.
I love that gnomes get Speak to Animal! I think this can be a delightful addition to everyday role-play for the gnome character, and I am happy to see some leanings away from accident-prone tinkers and more into the forest dweller aspect. I can see myself playing a gnome in the very near future.
I do want to take a short moment to mention to everyone whose favorite species didn't make the 2024 PHB: Your species is still in the game, and you can still play it.
Anyways, that's my thoughts, for better or worse.
Gotcha, that's what confused me - 13+Dex is the 2014 version, I was quoting the 2024 version as this is a 2024 thread.
I dunno... I find myself "listening at the door" in dungeons a lot. This strikes me as a much more useful version of that. Another use is when I suspect an invisible creature nearby or one turns invisible mid-fight, and I need to target that faerie fire or bag of flour to reveal them for my team.
Eh... you "track it" the same way you did in 2014, i.e. either a character has it, or they don't. There's a toggle on the DnDBeyond character sheet for it that should make it very easy.
Personally, I love the change to where it can be used to reroll anything. We've all been excited to land that crit and end up rolling a fistful of 1s, doing less damage than a normal attack - this finally gives us a way to fix that.
To clarify, both the tinker-style gnomes (Rock Gnomes) and the speak-with-animals gnomes (Forest Gnomes) exist. So there isn't so much a "shift away" from the former, as you get to choose the subrace you want to be.
Regarding Half-Orcs and Half-Elves, if the species in this book are intended to replace their earlier versions and there is no Half-Orc or Half-Elf in this book, my assumption is that you can still use the 2014 versions with a few tweaks. My guess is the only tweak is to just use the Background ASI's instead of the ones in the Species.
You can use whatever your DM allows you to use. The devs are not printing half-orcs and half-elves the way they were in 2014 anymore.
An overall YEY to 10 humanoid races, with dragonborn looking the most monster-leaning appearance.
There's 12 Classes in the book, I kinda wished they let 12 races inside as well. Genasi could have been a nice addition, but since Goliath is looking the poster eeveelution race, they probably dropped it. And IDK, maybe Giths as 12th option due to BG3.
I've only played Half-Orc before, and have always thought Powerful Build is what makes pure blooded orcs, well, it sets them apart. Now they retconned MotM, a very recent book, I feel that it's in bad taste.
To me 60ft Darkvision makes sense in a way that, you can see well in darkness upto that distance, and for races whose from deeper regions, 120 sounds in line with it. I did not particularly like that sunlight sensitivity is gone. Maybe not on every attack disadvantage, maybe different wording/tweak, but its going to be the same jar, different dirt.
HUMANS! In this game of make-believe and worlds of magic, they wake up everyday INSPIRED
before going back to depression and all the traumatic reasons why they started adventuring. I just find it hilarious, lol