So, I had an idea and I didn't find a good spot in the playtest survey for it, so I thought I'd put it up here and get some feedback.
Level-0 Feats, a.k.a. Background Feats. Feats you can only use in your background. Things that could only come from an upbringing rather than (as with the other feats) at any other point in your journey as well. These don't replace the idea of using other feats as part of a Background, it just add more options available only in the Background.
What inspired this idea was the D&D blended family. A child of two species, a child adopted by a different species, etc. Since most children of any universe take after one parent more than the other, a mixed-species character would take the Species of the parent they resemble more, and a "Raised By" Background Feat for traits coming from the other parent, and then just choose aesthetic details that blend the two species. The former "half-elf" could be a Human Raised By Elves, or an Elf Raised By Humans. Similar for Half-Orc.
As Terry Pratchett observed, "Some genetics are passed on via the soul." This idea, which I wholeheartedly support, allows adopted children in D&D worlds to take on even some of the magical traits of their parents. I knocked up a few examples, based on the current playtesting versions of the PHB species. The idea is to give enough traits that it's interesting and compelling compared to the other Feats someone could choose for their Background, but at the same time reserve the best stuff for the Species proper otherwise there's no motivation to be the Species proper. I tried to estimate what would be about par with the other Feats, but obviously this would be playtested before being implemented. What I'm writing here is more just proof-of-concept.
Raised By Ardlings
Prerequisite: Not an Ardling, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Ardling heritage, you gain the following traits:
You know the Thaumaturgy. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can replace that Spell with a different 0-level Spell from the Divine Spell List. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your Spellcasting ability for any Spell you cast with this trait (choose the ability when you select this Feat).
You have Proficiency in the Perception skill.
Raised By Dragonborn
Prerequisite: Not a Dragonborn, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Dwarf heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 ft.
You have Resistance to one damage type of your choice: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Poison.
Breath Weapon. When you take the Attack Action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with an exhalation of magical energy in either a 15-foot cone or a 30-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity Saving Throw against a DC equal to 8 + your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus. On a failed save, a creature takes 1d10 damage of the same type you gained Resistance to with this Feat. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage. This damage increases by 1d10 when you reach the following character levels: 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10). Once you use this Breath Weapon, you cannot use it again until you finish a Long Rest.
Raised By Dwarves
Prerequisite: Not a Dwarf, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Dwarf heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 ft.
You have Resistance to Poison damage.
Your Hit Point Maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level.
Raised By Elves
Prerequisite: Not an Elf, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Elf heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 ft.
You have Advantage on saving throws made to avoid or end the Charmed condition.
You have Proficiency in the Perception skill.
Magic cannot put you to sleep.
Raised By Gnomes
Prerequisite: Not a Gnome, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Gnome heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 ft.
You have Advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws.
Raised By Goliaths
Prerequisite: Not a Goliath, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Goliath heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Advantage on any Saving Throw you make to end the Grappled condition on yourself. You also count as one Size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
You gain one of the benefits of Giant Ancestry of the Goliath species. When you have used it once, you must take a Long Rest before you can use that benefit again.
Raised By Halflings
Prerequisite: Not a Halfling, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Halfling heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Frightened Condition on yourself.
You have Proficiency in the Stealth skill.
Raised By Orcs
Prerequisite: Not an Orc, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Orc heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 ft.
You can take the Dash Action as a Bonus Action. When you do so, you gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
Raised By Tieflings
Prerequisite: Not a Tiefling, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Tiefling heritage, you gain the following traits:
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 ft.
Choose a Fiendish Legacy of the Tiefling species: Abyssal, Chthonic, or Infernal. You gain the Resistance and cantrip of that Legacy:
Abyssal: Poison resistance, Poison Spray
Chthonic: Necrotic resistance, Chill Touch
Infernal: Fire Resistance, Fire Bolt
Humans are omitted because I have very serious problems with the current 1D&D Human. As in, it's pre-emptively banned from my table, and I won't sit down as a player at a table with one. If there's interest in the whys of that, I'll write another post about it.
But for this post, I guess I'm asking: What do we think about the general idea of Background Feats, stuff that directly speaks to our characters' upbringings?
And also: What about the Raised By feats, specifically? (Not necessarily the ones above, but the idea of them, and how they could simplify matters of mixed heritage and adoption in a D&D rules context.)
I do not think the "genetic traits can be passed on by being raised by another" is valid. A human raised by wolves does not have the nose of a wolf.
The idea you propose was sort of touched on in the playtest and I think most people did not like it.
But it it works in your game...go for it.
Good Luck
You seem to have not noticed the word "Some" in Sir Terry's quotation. The idea that there are some genetics that cannot be passed that way (such as noses) has already been acknowledged, so why you're bringing it up again as if it wasn't, I have no idea. We're not talking about those. We're talking about traits of a cultural, behavioral, or mystical nature, none of which are true genetics. Pratchett was not referring to physical heredity.
[In case you haven't read it, the context the quotation comes from is that Death adopted a girl and took on a boy apprentice, who didn't get along at first and so of course fell in love and got married. Their daughter, Susan, inherited some of the abilities of Death himself, even filling in for him from time to time. She also bears marks on her cheek, echoes of the marks her father received when he was once slapped by her grandfather, who I may remind you is Death. She would go on to have an "It's Complicated" with the son of Time, but that's another story.]
This. Is. FANTASY. We're allowed to have this sort of thing happen. Chillax.
As for your second attempted point: Yeah, there was that textbox in the Character Origins playtest packet talking about Children of Different Humanoid Kinds. And if it was true that "most people did not like it", as you claim, I think maybe Jeremy Crawford might have mentioned so in one of the latest videos, where he specifically talks about what didn't work in the first round of playtesting. Besides, I am specifically responding to that very idea, and saying that being a half-this-half-that doesn't have to be a mere cosmetic change, that there's a way to incorporate the traits of more than one species (via the Feat in the Background), so that playing a Half-Elf-Half-Dwarf feels like playing a Half-Elf-Half-Dwarf, instead of a short hairy elf or a tall, lanky dwarf. So even if "most people" actually didn't like it, the question (which I note you have not in the slightest addressed) is whether "Raised By" Feats (or something akin to them) would be a viable alternative.
As for the rest of your post: "But it it works in your game...go for it." Yeah. I know. Everyone on this site knows that. My post talks about barring humans for crying out loud, and you think I need to be told to do what works for my game? Seriously?
If you have a take that does not entirely miss the point, I invite you to share that one instead.
Good Luck
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So, I had an idea and I didn't find a good spot in the playtest survey for it, so I thought I'd put it up here and get some feedback.
Level-0 Feats, a.k.a. Background Feats. Feats you can only use in your background. Things that could only come from an upbringing rather than (as with the other feats) at any other point in your journey as well. These don't replace the idea of using other feats as part of a Background, it just add more options available only in the Background.
What inspired this idea was the D&D blended family. A child of two species, a child adopted by a different species, etc. Since most children of any universe take after one parent more than the other, a mixed-species character would take the Species of the parent they resemble more, and a "Raised By" Background Feat for traits coming from the other parent, and then just choose aesthetic details that blend the two species. The former "half-elf" could be a Human Raised By Elves, or an Elf Raised By Humans. Similar for Half-Orc.
As Terry Pratchett observed, "Some genetics are passed on via the soul." This idea, which I wholeheartedly support, allows adopted children in D&D worlds to take on even some of the magical traits of their parents. I knocked up a few examples, based on the current playtesting versions of the PHB species. The idea is to give enough traits that it's interesting and compelling compared to the other Feats someone could choose for their Background, but at the same time reserve the best stuff for the Species proper otherwise there's no motivation to be the Species proper. I tried to estimate what would be about par with the other Feats, but obviously this would be playtested before being implemented. What I'm writing here is more just proof-of-concept.
Raised By Ardlings
Prerequisite: Not an Ardling, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Ardling heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Dragonborn
Prerequisite: Not a Dragonborn, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Dwarf heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Dwarves
Prerequisite: Not a Dwarf, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Dwarf heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Elves
Prerequisite: Not an Elf, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Elf heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Gnomes
Prerequisite: Not a Gnome, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Gnome heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Goliaths
Prerequisite: Not a Goliath, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Goliath heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Halflings
Prerequisite: Not a Halfling, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Halfling heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Orcs
Prerequisite: Not an Orc, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Orc heritage, you gain the following traits:
Raised By Tieflings
Prerequisite: Not a Tiefling, Background Only
Having grown up with strong but not complete influence of Tiefling heritage, you gain the following traits:
Humans are omitted because I have very serious problems with the current 1D&D Human. As in, it's pre-emptively banned from my table, and I won't sit down as a player at a table with one. If there's interest in the whys of that, I'll write another post about it.
But for this post, I guess I'm asking: What do we think about the general idea of Background Feats, stuff that directly speaks to our characters' upbringings?
And also: What about the Raised By feats, specifically? (Not necessarily the ones above, but the idea of them, and how they could simplify matters of mixed heritage and adoption in a D&D rules context.)
I do not think the "genetic traits can be passed on by being raised by another" is valid. A human raised by wolves does not have the nose of a wolf.
The idea you propose was sort of touched on in the playtest and I think most people did not like it.
But it it works in your game...go for it.
Good Luck
You seem to have not noticed the word "Some" in Sir Terry's quotation. The idea that there are some genetics that cannot be passed that way (such as noses) has already been acknowledged, so why you're bringing it up again as if it wasn't, I have no idea. We're not talking about those. We're talking about traits of a cultural, behavioral, or mystical nature, none of which are true genetics. Pratchett was not referring to physical heredity.
[In case you haven't read it, the context the quotation comes from is that Death adopted a girl and took on a boy apprentice, who didn't get along at first and so of course fell in love and got married. Their daughter, Susan, inherited some of the abilities of Death himself, even filling in for him from time to time. She also bears marks on her cheek, echoes of the marks her father received when he was once slapped by her grandfather, who I may remind you is Death. She would go on to have an "It's Complicated" with the son of Time, but that's another story.]
This. Is. FANTASY. We're allowed to have this sort of thing happen. Chillax.
As for your second attempted point: Yeah, there was that textbox in the Character Origins playtest packet talking about Children of Different Humanoid Kinds. And if it was true that "most people did not like it", as you claim, I think maybe Jeremy Crawford might have mentioned so in one of the latest videos, where he specifically talks about what didn't work in the first round of playtesting. Besides, I am specifically responding to that very idea, and saying that being a half-this-half-that doesn't have to be a mere cosmetic change, that there's a way to incorporate the traits of more than one species (via the Feat in the Background), so that playing a Half-Elf-Half-Dwarf feels like playing a Half-Elf-Half-Dwarf, instead of a short hairy elf or a tall, lanky dwarf. So even if "most people" actually didn't like it, the question (which I note you have not in the slightest addressed) is whether "Raised By" Feats (or something akin to them) would be a viable alternative.
As for the rest of your post: "But it it works in your game...go for it." Yeah. I know. Everyone on this site knows that. My post talks about barring humans for crying out loud, and you think I need to be told to do what works for my game? Seriously?
If you have a take that does not entirely miss the point, I invite you to share that one instead.
Good Luck