So it's not just the ASIs! For example, high elves can ditch Elf Weapon Training and pick up any 4 skills instead.
Huh? They don’t get 4 skills. Skill for skill, simple for simple or tool, martial for martial or tool, or tool for tool or simple proficiency. You can’t trade the stuff in elf weapon for 4 skills.
Well, this is everything I hoped would not happen.
Mountain Dwarf Wizards get +2/+2 to whatever they want, can ditch their weapons and stonemason profs. for Alchemist and Herbalist kit, get darkvision, get Armor prof. .....
Meanwhile those Half-Orc Wizards still get their extra crit damage in melee. Hows that "balancing" and "equalization" treating you?
I'm curious to see what they will say about this edition when 6E comes around.
I’m honestly not a fan of the rulings, so I’m glad they are optional.
I appreciate the sentiments behind it, but it takes a significant amount of individuality of playable races and takes away much of the joy in optimization / character building.
Not to mention that certain classes lend themselves to ASIs that only certain races get, tailoring the classes to those specific races, which sometimes have weaker racial traits & require those niches to shine in regular games. Now you’ll have everyone running around with Mountain Dwarf, Yuan-Ti and Half Elves purely because they are better for literally every build due to their racial traits, taking away much of the enjoyment in playing certain races. Races with weaker traits but niche ability scores - an example being Gnomes’ Intelligence increase tailoring them to be better for Wizard builds despite having slightly less prolific other racial traits - will get completely overshadowed by more optimal races.
A benefit from this, however, is opening up more archetypes for various Races that aren’t normally done - I fully intend to play a Kenku Bard for flavor reasons. But otherwise? Instead of increasing potential optimal builds and interesting backstories, in my honest opinion, it contrarily funnelholes optimal builds for each class into the same select few Races, taking lots of the individuality behind character making.
Edit: forgot to mention my thoughts on Tool proficiencies - I greatly enjoy them for the reason that tools & mechanics aren’t inherently related in Racial options. Much like the way backgrounds can receive tools and training, proficiencies shouldn’t be inherent in Races. I do like those changes.
Mountain dwarves are long overdue for a much-need errata cutting them back to the Galactic Standard 3 points, rather than 4. As are half-elves, if this rule continues going forward.
This is honestly right in line with what folks were expecting to see in Tasha's, which is awesome because the AL document explicitly says "these are the variant rules from Tasha's; using them doesn't count towards PHB+1". So now we know exactly what the 'Lineage' system is, at least in mechanical essence. You can swap abilities score for score, gaining any combination of your choice that mirrors your original numbers. +2/+1 X/Y for most species, +1/+1/+1 for tritons and a couple other weirdoes, and some edge cases for other species. One can trade language for language, skill for skill, and specific weapons for other weapons and/or tools. That last bit is nice, allowing for some real flexibility with tool proficiency. After all, a weapon is simply a tool used for fighting rather than for working, cool to see equivalence there. Mostly just options for trading out what one's culture, rather than one's biology, would grant a character.
This is perfectly acceptable. Half-orcs still get Savage Attacks, yes. What of it? Most species still have a large number of traits purely or primarily biological they retain because of course they would. The things you're taught can change out properly now; the things you are tend to stick. This is how it should've been from the start.
The things you're taught can change out properly now; the things you are tend to stick.
Nice to see that WotC sticks with their description of Orcs knowing instinctivly how to hit things extra hard - even those wimpy wizardly types. I'm glad it was like that from the start.
So it's not just the ASIs! For example, high elves can ditch Elf Weapon Training and pick up any 4 skills instead.
Huh? They don’t get 4 skills. Skill for skill, simple for simple or tool, martial for martial or tool, or tool for tool or simple proficiency. You can’t trade the stuff in elf weapon for 4 skills.
Thank you for the correction! Still, ditching 4 weapons (which you may never use) for 4 tools could be very handy!
Nice to see that WotC sticks with their description of Orcs knowing instinctivly how to hit things extra hard - even those wimpy wizardly types. I'm glad it was like that from the start.
Heh. Man. It's almost like certain species-specific traits like Savage Attacks or Powerful Build can showcase genetic predispositions towards certain affinities/abilities without having to hamstring the player into accepting scores that don't fit their concept. It's almost like that sort of soft, rather than hard, bonus system is a better way to inform the lore of a species and let players enjoy the characters they want to play without Sabotaging The Entire World Forever(!!!) or any of that shit.
The things you're taught can change out properly now; the things you are tend to stick.
Nice to see that WotC sticks with their description of Orcs knowing instinctivly how to hit things extra hard - even those wimpy wizardly types. I'm glad it was like that from the start.
I am also glad to see that under personality it says that you can either lean into the personality of the race including alignment or you can role play it however you want(Drizzt in other words). It doesn’t altogether take out the alignment but allows the player to decide.
Honestly? Other than the whole dwarf/half-elf getting a total of +4 instead of +3, the biggest Munchkin Problem I can see right off is that Elven/Dwarven Weapon Training both grant four specific weapon proficiencies, at least two of them martial. An artificer character could turn that into four bonus tool proficiencies, which is an enormous boost to an artificer that uses their tools to craft items and a complete nothingburger for artificers that don't.
If that's the worst case outlier, then this is a pretty slick change. Outside of the 'Personalities' thing allowing yuan-ti back in, gods **** the world forever...
Mountain Dwarf Cleric with +2 Strength and +2 Wisdom as well as Weapon proficiency of choice regardless of Domain is a bit much in my opinion, but isn't THAT big of a deal really.
Honestly? That just feels like a proper dwarven cleric. That particular dorf gave up a bunch of extra HP in exchange for better spellcraft, and nothing they can get with their weapon swapouts is actually any better than warhammer+shield, ne? 1d8+STR with a shield is the limit of one-handed weapons, and they get that by default. Hm.
However it is still an issue were one race as a clear advantage over all other races when designing a character. I'm not a min/max kind of player, but I am sure there are plenty of people out there that see potential ways to game the system in new and exciting ways.
I’m honestly not a fan of the rulings, so I’m glad they are optional.
Don't count on them remaining optional. As convoluted and as restrictive as Adventure League is, they are now the RULE in adventure league, at least for Season 10.
I was a bit skeptical at first about the new lineage system only because I wasn't certain how this would be implemented. Seeing the snippet from the Adventure's league document answered my questions though and honestly I'm liking what I see.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
So what are your thoughts? Is this an example of what we will find in T:CoE?
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
That’s pretty much exactly what I expect Tasha’s will say.
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See the "D&D Adventurers League Player's Guide" PDF from the following page for more information about customizing origin:
https://dnd.wizards.com/ddal_players
So it's not just the ASIs! For example, high elves can ditch Elf Weapon Training and pick up any 4
skillstools instead.Huh? They don’t get 4 skills. Skill for skill, simple for simple or tool, martial for martial or tool, or tool for tool or simple proficiency. You can’t trade the stuff in elf weapon for 4 skills.
Well, this is everything I hoped would not happen.
Mountain Dwarf Wizards get +2/+2 to whatever they want, can ditch their weapons and stonemason profs. for Alchemist and Herbalist kit, get darkvision, get Armor prof. .....
Meanwhile those Half-Orc Wizards still get their extra crit damage in melee. Hows that "balancing" and "equalization" treating you?
I'm curious to see what they will say about this edition when 6E comes around.
#OpenDnD
I’m honestly not a fan of the rulings, so I’m glad they are optional.
I appreciate the sentiments behind it, but it takes a significant amount of individuality of playable races and takes away much of the joy in optimization / character building.
Not to mention that certain classes lend themselves to ASIs that only certain races get, tailoring the classes to those specific races, which sometimes have weaker racial traits & require those niches to shine in regular games. Now you’ll have everyone running around with Mountain Dwarf, Yuan-Ti and Half Elves purely because they are better for literally every build due to their racial traits, taking away much of the enjoyment in playing certain races. Races with weaker traits but niche ability scores - an example being Gnomes’ Intelligence increase tailoring them to be better for Wizard builds despite having slightly less prolific other racial traits - will get completely overshadowed by more optimal races.
A benefit from this, however, is opening up more archetypes for various Races that aren’t normally done - I fully intend to play a Kenku Bard for flavor reasons. But otherwise? Instead of increasing potential optimal builds and interesting backstories, in my honest opinion, it contrarily funnelholes optimal builds for each class into the same select few Races, taking lots of the individuality behind character making.
Edit: forgot to mention my thoughts on Tool proficiencies - I greatly enjoy them for the reason that tools & mechanics aren’t inherently related in Racial options. Much like the way backgrounds can receive tools and training, proficiencies shouldn’t be inherent in Races. I do like those changes.
Mountain dwarves are long overdue for a much-need errata cutting them back to the Galactic Standard 3 points, rather than 4. As are half-elves, if this rule continues going forward.
This is honestly right in line with what folks were expecting to see in Tasha's, which is awesome because the AL document explicitly says "these are the variant rules from Tasha's; using them doesn't count towards PHB+1". So now we know exactly what the 'Lineage' system is, at least in mechanical essence. You can swap abilities score for score, gaining any combination of your choice that mirrors your original numbers. +2/+1 X/Y for most species, +1/+1/+1 for tritons and a couple other weirdoes, and some edge cases for other species. One can trade language for language, skill for skill, and specific weapons for other weapons and/or tools. That last bit is nice, allowing for some real flexibility with tool proficiency. After all, a weapon is simply a tool used for fighting rather than for working, cool to see equivalence there. Mostly just options for trading out what one's culture, rather than one's biology, would grant a character.
This is perfectly acceptable. Half-orcs still get Savage Attacks, yes. What of it? Most species still have a large number of traits purely or primarily biological they retain because of course they would. The things you're taught can change out properly now; the things you are tend to stick. This is how it should've been from the start.
Please do not contact or message me.
Nice to see that WotC sticks with their description of Orcs knowing instinctivly how to hit things extra hard - even those wimpy wizardly types. I'm glad it was like that from the start.
#OpenDnD
Thank you for the correction! Still, ditching 4 weapons (which you may never use) for 4 tools could be very handy!
Heh. Man. It's almost like certain species-specific traits like Savage Attacks or Powerful Build can showcase genetic predispositions towards certain affinities/abilities without having to hamstring the player into accepting scores that don't fit their concept. It's almost like that sort of soft, rather than hard, bonus system is a better way to inform the lore of a species and let players enjoy the characters they want to play without Sabotaging The Entire World Forever(!!!) or any of that shit.
Please do not contact or message me.
I am also glad to see that under personality it says that you can either lean into the personality of the race including alignment or you can role play it however you want(Drizzt in other words). It doesn’t altogether take out the alignment but allows the player to decide.
I think over all it is a good change. There are a few munchkin outliers, but those were always an issue in one form or another.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Honestly? Other than the whole dwarf/half-elf getting a total of +4 instead of +3, the biggest Munchkin Problem I can see right off is that Elven/Dwarven Weapon Training both grant four specific weapon proficiencies, at least two of them martial. An artificer character could turn that into four bonus tool proficiencies, which is an enormous boost to an artificer that uses their tools to craft items and a complete nothingburger for artificers that don't.
If that's the worst case outlier, then this is a pretty slick change. Outside of the 'Personalities' thing allowing yuan-ti back in, gods **** the world forever...
Please do not contact or message me.
Mountain Dwarf Cleric with +2 Strength and +2 Wisdom as well as Weapon proficiency of choice regardless of Domain is a bit much in my opinion, but isn't THAT big of a deal really.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Honestly? That just feels like a proper dwarven cleric. That particular dorf gave up a bunch of extra HP in exchange for better spellcraft, and nothing they can get with their weapon swapouts is actually any better than warhammer+shield, ne? 1d8+STR with a shield is the limit of one-handed weapons, and they get that by default. Hm.
Please do not contact or message me.
I did say that it was not that big of a deal.
However it is still an issue were one race as a clear advantage over all other races when designing a character. I'm not a min/max kind of player, but I am sure there are plenty of people out there that see potential ways to game the system in new and exciting ways.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Don't count on them remaining optional. As convoluted and as restrictive as Adventure League is, they are now the RULE in adventure league, at least for Season 10.
I was a bit skeptical at first about the new lineage system only because I wasn't certain how this would be implemented. Seeing the snippet from the Adventure's league document answered my questions though and honestly I'm liking what I see.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
I just want to know when/if this will be integrated in the character builder.
I like this. I allows for thematic pairings, like a Shadar-Kai Hexblade.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System