Wow. Just finished it all. These are good. Like, really good. The least mechanically effective of all of them is probably the Reborn, which is still really good.
Let's start with the blurb about how they're changing races into Lineages, and what Lineages do.
I really like this. This should have been in 5e from the get-go. If they aren't going to change all of the current races to lineages through errata, they need to. WotC does this "half-in and half-out" thing with new mechanics. To quote Ron Swanson, "Never half-ass two things. Full-ass one thing."
If they do this for all the existing races, I'll be happy. If not, I'll be less than pleased, but will probably end up doing a DMs Guild product with all of the races as lineages in it.
Now, the Dhampir!
I honestly have never liked the Dhampir. I thought they were overrated and overdone. I still think that to an extent. However, this UA makes me want to play a freaking Dhampir.
You're a Humanoid and Undead, which means that you're basically only going to be regaining HP from your bite, because spells like Cure Wounds will absolutely refuse to work on you. Your speed is 35 (awesome!), and you can be Small or Medium. You also get Darkvision (standard), and you get SPIDER CLIMB at level 3, which is crazy good (not as good as flight, but still really good).
Then. . . your vampiric bite. This is great. Especially good for monks, because these are simple weapons, so the damage dice scales as your Martial Arts dice scales. Having attack and damage rolls being based off of CON is uh. . . may. . . zing and completely unique in 5e. Advantage on attack rolls with it when you're at low HP is great, but makes it kind of suck that this isn't finesse (imagine Sneak Attack biting every round!), but is really potent anyway.
The ability to regain hit points or make yourself more accurate with attacks/skills is also great, and very nice to see in a non-broken way on a Dhampir.
Overall, this racelineage is really good. It got rid of my previous contempt for Dhampir, which I didn't think was possible. Time for me to go make a Dhampir Shadow Monk!
The Hexblood is . . . interesting. I never would have thought that we'd get a Hag-spawn racelineage, but this does it pretty well.
Fey Resilience is worded . . . weirdly. They need to just copy/paste what the Elf/Half-Elf race has.
Hex Magic is good, especially for Fighters and Monks, but really for everyone. I especially love being able to use your own spell slots to cast these spells, which is something that needs to be added to every single previous race that could cast leveled spells.
Magic token seems crazy potent with the right combinations, but doesn't seem like it will be game-breaking (most of the time).
Yay! WotC actually listened to us (for once)! The Revived Rogue was split into two, one being a ghost-y Phantom Rogue subclass, and the other being the Returned Lineage! Nice!
Frankenstein's Monster. This race is halfway between Frankenstein's Monster and a Zombie/Wight. Not complaining, though. The Armorer Artificer is based off of Iron Man, and it was made well.
Darkvision! This is standard, but doesn't really fit the "construct" origin of this lineage. Deathless Nature is amazing, and I'm definitely stealing this for my Vezyi and Fehntüm races. Knowledge From a Past Life is also really, really good. I want to play this race. It would work extremely well as a Spirits Bard (gathering stories from all of its previous lives) or Undead Warlock (serving the undead master that created you!).
Final Thoughts
I like it. This is great. I love that they used Proficiency Bonus for amount of uses each long rest, which I'm sure @IamSposta will also appreciate. This looks like they're going in the right direction. As soon as they announce whatever book this is coming out in, I'm throwing my money at them.
Well, it does indeed look like they are cramming this lineage system down our throats. It might be time to consider if this is the beginning of the end of 5e for me, or if the end already happened and I can stop paying attention to new content.
I wonder what happens if the Dhampir is the one who uses Turn Undead?
(This is mostly in jest. I'm pretty sure nothing would happen to them.)
Per page 1 last paragraph
Having More Than One Type. Some creatures are of more than one creature type. If an effect works on at least one of a creature’s types, that effect can work on that creature. For example, if you are both a Humanoid and an Undead, cure wounds works on you, since the spell works on a Humanoid.
Since they are also Humanoids, I don't think there would be an issue with Cure Wounds and the like, but hopefully there will be some clarification in the finale product.
Well, it does indeed look like they are cramming this lineage system down our throats. It might be time to consider if this is the beginning of the end of 5e for me, or if the end already happened and I can stop paying attention to new content.
I have no doubt that this is going to be the norm going forward.
These seem interesting. Very cool for flavor and mechanics... except for the Dhampir. 35 speed, spider climb, bite with advantage & can be empowered prof/per day? Just make everyone a dhampir.
Also, I understand TcoE's new racial system of ability scores are now going to be a thing now matter how much they claimed 'its optional' but I REALLY, REALLY hope they ALSO include 'default' scores, languages, profs & even alignment. I know I can now change things but I would still like the option of being a 'normal' elf or whatever.
I think if they nerf the bite attack Dhampir would be just fine. Speed of 35 isn't all that powerful and the Spider Climb ability is fairly circumstantial. The bite is really too much though.
These seem interesting. Very cool for flavor and mechanics... except for the Dhampir. 35 speed, spider climb, bite with advantage & can be empowered prof/per day? Just make everyone a dhampir.
And people said the same thing about Yuan-Ti Purebloods. And Variant Humans. And Tortles. And Satyrs. And Half-Elves. And Mountain Dwarves. And Dragonmarked races. And Custom Lineage.
It hasn't happened yet. People are still playing gnomes, half-orcs, elves, halflings, and all the other races. This is a "doomsday alert" that keeps getting repeated, but never ends up coming.
Also, I understand TcoE's new racial system of ability scores are now going to be a thing now matter how much they claimed 'its optional' but I REALLY, REALLY hope they ALSO include 'default' scores, languages, profs & even alignment. I know I can now change things but I would still like the option of being a 'normal' elf or whatever.
You can still be a "normal elf", as they're not going to take your PHB from you. However, they're not going to do a "normal" version of these lineages as races, imo.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
The bite attack on dhampir adds just Constitution, not Strength and Constitution. Playtest woes - they didn't add the "instead of Strength" sentence, but it's assumed in playtest.
Anyways. First-blush Impressions:
This document is splendidly flavorful and makes a phenomenal case for a step forward in character creation. Choosing a lineage instead of a species makes much more sense (for the dense, "species" can also be a lineage, but this new system expands options beyond just species), and these three are an excellent example of why a Lineage system is better. the dhampir feels extremely strong, yes, but I don't think it's any more potent than warforged, tortles, or anything else with fighty species traits. And remember - a dhampir is supposed to be haunted by a compulsive, predatory hunger. There's no mechanical system in place for that, but any DM who allows a dhampir in his game without finding a way to make the dhampir really feel that Horror Hunger is a DM who is not doing their job.
Work is exploding so I'll have to touch on the rest later, but this is definitely a good start. Thank GOD it's not more shitting subclasses.
Seems like an easy mechanical way to force the compulsive hunger aspect on the player is to say they gain a level of exhaustion for each day they don't use their bite.
I have to stop myself from defaulting to tiefling every time new character generation for a campaign comes up. Nobody's ever accused tiffles of being a 'Power' species. Nor did I change any of my tiffles' numbers when Tasha's dropped and the opportunity arose to do so.
The same damn protest comes up every damned time: "this is all just feeding munchkinism!" Which is ridiculous. Munchkins already have what they need. They just pick the species with the best numbers to start with and disregard anything to do with background or culture. They look at which mechanical package suits their want for MOAR HIGHAR DEEPS and use that. Munchkins have never needed the Tasha's Cauldron rules to munch their kin. These customization options are there for people who have cool ideas for nonstandard characters, not for munchkins.
And remember - a dhampir is supposed to be haunted by a compulsive, predatory hunger. There's no mechanical system in place for that, but any DM who allows a dhampir in his game without finding a way to make the dhampir really feel that Horror Hunger is a DM who is not doing their job.
You're not wrong about that, but given the way Vampiric Bite works, I feel like this becomes a race specifically played to use that bite. I could even see people building their character around maximizing the benefit of it. I'd be really careful about making sure the character fit the mood of the game before I gave an "okay" on that.
That said. Most games with vampire-like characters (or with supernatural hungers) usually have some sort of give and take with that; you get pros and cons to denying your hunger as well as slaking it. It kind of depends on whether you go animalistic from denying your hunger or from indulging in it.
The spirit of 5e is to streamline systems, so it would be kind of imprudent to make this too complicated.
The bite attack on dhampir adds just Constitution, not Strength and Constitution. Playtest woes - they didn't add the "instead of Strength" sentence, but it's assumed in playtest.
Anyways. First-blush Impressions:
This document is splendidly flavorful and makes a phenomenal case for a step forward in character creation. Choosing a lineage instead of a species makes much more sense (for the dense, "species" can also be a lineage, but this new system expands options beyond just species), and these three are an excellent example of why a Lineage system is better. the dhampir feels extremely strong, yes, but I don't think it's any more potent than warforged, tortles, or anything else with fighty species traits. And remember - a dhampir is supposed to be haunted by a compulsive, predatory hunger. There's no mechanical system in place for that, but any DM who allows a dhampir in his game without finding a way to make the dhampir really feel that Horror Hunger is a DM who is not doing their job.
Work is exploding so I'll have to touch on the rest later, but this is definitely a good start. Thank GOD it's not more shitting subclasses.
Seems like an easy mechanical way to force the compulsive hunger aspect on the player is to say they gain a level of exhaustion for each day they don't use their bite.
Sure. How do you enforce the feeding aspect of feeding?
Say "you gain exhausting if you don't bite something", and a dhampir who isn't on board in the first place will just say "I bite Steve's arm. Five piercing damage. Then I cast Healing Word. I'm clear."
The act of feeding should inflict a lasting penalty on the creature being fed from, when it does not mean the death of the creature outright. That would be something to discuss with the DM well before playing such a character in one's campaign.
Did Reborn strike anyone else as a FR friendly Warforged? I mean obviously minus the undead stuff that is. I feel like since Ebberon came back in vogue I've been seeing people posting like "how to do warforged in Forgotten Realms????" all over and I like that this lineage kind of includes a reminder like "you know mad scientists/mages exist right?"
Even if you still use the WF race, still borrowing the origin table off the Reborn lineage is really all you need.
I didn't see "Faerun-friendly warforged" in the Reborn, but that's mostly because Faerun can fly and go **** itself so far as I and my table are concerned and in the game(s) we run, warforged proper either exist or they don't.
These lineages seem purpose-built for one-off characters. There's no "Entire Species" of dhampirs, hexblooded, or reborn - these are tools for realizing specific characters, and templates to show people what their own homebrew for a given idea might look like. It's a really cool document and I hope it gets the positive reception it deserves.
I think if they nerf the bite attack Dhampir would be just fine. Speed of 35 isn't all that powerful and the Spider Climb ability is fairly circumstantial. The bite is really too much though.
I don’t see the bite as a problem though. But then again, I thought the old UA versions of the Optional features were fine too.
Is it just me, or does the Dhampir read as very powerful by RAW. 35 foot speed, spider climb, and a bite that makes some martial weapons look bad. (By the RAW, it sounds like the Con to attack and damage is a bonus, not replacing the strength mod). This on top of all the other things. Stacking a smite or something onto the bite and empowering seems like an insane combo.
I think if they nerf the bite attack Dhampir would be just fine. Speed of 35 isn't all that powerful and the Spider Climb ability is fairly circumstantial. The bite is really too much though.
I don’t see the bite as a problem though. But then again, I thought the old UA versions of the Optional features were fine too.
It really isn't a deal breaker for me, I just think it can be a bit much with the right build. Though I must admit that a feral Berserker Barbarian running around biting everything is kind of funny.
Is it just me, or does the Dhampir read as very powerful by RAW. 35 foot speed, spider climb, and a bite that makes some martial weapons look bad. (By the RAW, it sounds like the Con to attack and damage is a bonus, not replacing the strength mod). This on top of all the other things. Stacking a smite or something onto the bite and empowering seems like an insane combo.
No. By RAW, it replaces the typical STR bonus. Minotaurs specify that their natural weapon (horns) adds Strength to the attack and damage modifiers. So do Tortle Claws, Tabaxi Claws, Leonin Claws, Lizardfolk Bites, Aarakocra Talons, and so on.
The lineage lists CON as being added to attack and damage rolls. It doesn't mention Strength or Dexterity, and it doesn't need to. If it doesn't say that it uses Strength, it doesn't use Strength.
Natural weapons do what they're written to do. The bite as a base is CON mod + PB to hit, dealing 1d4 + CON mod piercing damage on a hit. There's no Dexterity modifier and no Strength modifier added to either roll.
Also, Divine Smite on top of a bite as an Oathbreaker/Conquest Paladin seems amazing. It's allowed by RAW. (I would personally change the damage to Necrotic instead of Radiant, though. Not many monsters do holy bite damage.)
Oooooh, their testing races/lineages in UA now? Sweet. This could mean good things for when they need to test Dark Sun lineages.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
Wow. Just finished it all. These are good. Like, really good. The least mechanically effective of all of them is probably the Reborn, which is still really good.
Let's start with the blurb about how they're changing races into Lineages, and what Lineages do.
I really like this. This should have been in 5e from the get-go. If they aren't going to change all of the current races to lineages through errata, they need to. WotC does this "half-in and half-out" thing with new mechanics. To quote Ron Swanson, "Never half-ass two things. Full-ass one thing."
If they do this for all the existing races, I'll be happy. If not, I'll be less than pleased, but will probably end up doing a DMs Guild product with all of the races as lineages in it.
Now, the Dhampir!
I honestly have never liked the Dhampir. I thought they were overrated and overdone. I still think that to an extent. However, this UA makes me want to play a freaking Dhampir.
You're a Humanoid and Undead, which means that you're basically only going to be regaining HP from your bite, because spells like Cure Wounds will absolutely refuse to work on you. Your speed is 35 (awesome!), and you can be Small or Medium. You also get Darkvision (standard), and you get SPIDER CLIMB at level 3, which is crazy good (not as good as flight, but still really good).
Then. . . your vampiric bite. This is great. Especially good for monks, because these are simple weapons, so the damage dice scales as your Martial Arts dice scales. Having attack and damage rolls being based off of CON is uh. . . may. . . zing and completely unique in 5e. Advantage on attack rolls with it when you're at low HP is great, but makes it kind of suck that this isn't finesse (imagine Sneak Attack biting every round!), but is really potent anyway.
The ability to regain hit points or make yourself more accurate with attacks/skills is also great, and very nice to see in a non-broken way on a Dhampir.
Overall, this
racelineage is really good. It got rid of my previous contempt for Dhampir, which I didn't think was possible. Time for me to go make a Dhampir Shadow Monk!The Hexblood is . . . interesting. I never would have thought that we'd get a Hag-spawn
racelineage, but this does it pretty well.Fey Resilience is worded . . . weirdly. They need to just copy/paste what the Elf/Half-Elf race has.
Hex Magic is good, especially for Fighters and Monks, but really for everyone. I especially love being able to use your own spell slots to cast these spells, which is something that needs to be added to every single previous race that could cast leveled spells.
Magic token seems crazy potent with the right combinations, but doesn't seem like it will be game-breaking (most of the time).
Yay! WotC actually listened to us (for once)! The Revived Rogue was split into two, one being a ghost-y Phantom Rogue subclass, and the other being the Returned Lineage! Nice!
Frankenstein's Monster. This race is halfway between Frankenstein's Monster and a Zombie/Wight. Not complaining, though. The Armorer Artificer is based off of Iron Man, and it was made well.
Darkvision! This is standard, but doesn't really fit the "construct" origin of this lineage. Deathless Nature is amazing, and I'm definitely stealing this for my Vezyi and Fehntüm races. Knowledge From a Past Life is also really, really good. I want to play this race. It would work extremely well as a Spirits Bard (gathering stories from all of its previous lives) or Undead Warlock (serving the undead master that created you!).
Final Thoughts
I like it. This is great. I love that they used Proficiency Bonus for amount of uses each long rest, which I'm sure @IamSposta will also appreciate. This looks like they're going in the right direction. As soon as they announce whatever book this is coming out in, I'm throwing my money at them.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I wonder what happens if the Dhampir is the one who uses Turn Undead?
(This is mostly in jest. I'm pretty sure nothing would happen to them.)
Well, it does indeed look like they are cramming this lineage system down our throats. It might be time to consider if this is the beginning of the end of 5e for me, or if the end already happened and I can stop paying attention to new content.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Per page 1 last paragraph
Having More Than One Type. Some creatures are of more than one creature type. If an effect works on at least one of a creature’s types, that effect can work on that creature. For example, if you are both a Humanoid and an Undead, cure wounds works on you, since the spell works on a Humanoid.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Since they are also Humanoids, I don't think there would be an issue with Cure Wounds and the like, but hopefully there will be some clarification in the finale product.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I have no doubt that this is going to be the norm going forward.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
These seem interesting. Very cool for flavor and mechanics... except for the Dhampir. 35 speed, spider climb, bite with advantage & can be empowered prof/per day? Just make everyone a dhampir.
Also, I understand TcoE's new racial system of ability scores are now going to be a thing now matter how much they claimed 'its optional' but I REALLY, REALLY hope they ALSO include 'default' scores, languages, profs & even alignment. I know I can now change things but I would still like the option of being a 'normal' elf or whatever.
I think if they nerf the bite attack Dhampir would be just fine. Speed of 35 isn't all that powerful and the Spider Climb ability is fairly circumstantial. The bite is really too much though.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
And people said the same thing about Yuan-Ti Purebloods. And Variant Humans. And Tortles. And Satyrs. And Half-Elves. And Mountain Dwarves. And Dragonmarked races. And Custom Lineage.
It hasn't happened yet. People are still playing gnomes, half-orcs, elves, halflings, and all the other races. This is a "doomsday alert" that keeps getting repeated, but never ends up coming.
You can still be a "normal elf", as they're not going to take your PHB from you. However, they're not going to do a "normal" version of these lineages as races, imo.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Seems like an easy mechanical way to force the compulsive hunger aspect on the player is to say they gain a level of exhaustion for each day they don't use their bite.
I have to stop myself from defaulting to tiefling every time new character generation for a campaign comes up. Nobody's ever accused tiffles of being a 'Power' species. Nor did I change any of my tiffles' numbers when Tasha's dropped and the opportunity arose to do so.
The same damn protest comes up every damned time: "this is all just feeding munchkinism!" Which is ridiculous. Munchkins already have what they need. They just pick the species with the best numbers to start with and disregard anything to do with background or culture. They look at which mechanical package suits their want for MOAR HIGHAR DEEPS and use that. Munchkins have never needed the Tasha's Cauldron rules to munch their kin. These customization options are there for people who have cool ideas for nonstandard characters, not for munchkins.
Please do not contact or message me.
You're not wrong about that, but given the way Vampiric Bite works, I feel like this becomes a race specifically played to use that bite. I could even see people building their character around maximizing the benefit of it. I'd be really careful about making sure the character fit the mood of the game before I gave an "okay" on that.
That said. Most games with vampire-like characters (or with supernatural hungers) usually have some sort of give and take with that; you get pros and cons to denying your hunger as well as slaking it. It kind of depends on whether you go animalistic from denying your hunger or from indulging in it.
The spirit of 5e is to streamline systems, so it would be kind of imprudent to make this too complicated.
Sure. How do you enforce the feeding aspect of feeding?
Say "you gain exhausting if you don't bite something", and a dhampir who isn't on board in the first place will just say "I bite Steve's arm. Five piercing damage. Then I cast Healing Word. I'm clear."
The act of feeding should inflict a lasting penalty on the creature being fed from, when it does not mean the death of the creature outright. That would be something to discuss with the DM well before playing such a character in one's campaign.
Please do not contact or message me.
Did Reborn strike anyone else as a FR friendly Warforged? I mean obviously minus the undead stuff that is. I feel like since Ebberon came back in vogue I've been seeing people posting like "how to do warforged in Forgotten Realms????" all over and I like that this lineage kind of includes a reminder like "you know mad scientists/mages exist right?"
Even if you still use the WF race, still borrowing the origin table off the Reborn lineage is really all you need.
I didn't see "Faerun-friendly warforged" in the Reborn, but that's mostly because Faerun can fly and go **** itself so far as I and my table are concerned and in the game(s) we run, warforged proper either exist or they don't.
These lineages seem purpose-built for one-off characters. There's no "Entire Species" of dhampirs, hexblooded, or reborn - these are tools for realizing specific characters, and templates to show people what their own homebrew for a given idea might look like. It's a really cool document and I hope it gets the positive reception it deserves.
Please do not contact or message me.
I don’t see the bite as a problem though. But then again, I thought the old UA versions of the Optional features were fine too.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Is it just me, or does the Dhampir read as very powerful by RAW. 35 foot speed, spider climb, and a bite that makes some martial weapons look bad. (By the RAW, it sounds like the Con to attack and damage is a bonus, not replacing the strength mod). This on top of all the other things. Stacking a smite or something onto the bite and empowering seems like an insane combo.
I exist, and I guess so does this
It really isn't a deal breaker for me, I just think it can be a bit much with the right build. Though I must admit that a feral Berserker Barbarian running around biting everything is kind of funny.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
No. By RAW, it replaces the typical STR bonus. Minotaurs specify that their natural weapon (horns) adds Strength to the attack and damage modifiers. So do Tortle Claws, Tabaxi Claws, Leonin Claws, Lizardfolk Bites, Aarakocra Talons, and so on.
The lineage lists CON as being added to attack and damage rolls. It doesn't mention Strength or Dexterity, and it doesn't need to. If it doesn't say that it uses Strength, it doesn't use Strength.
Natural weapons do what they're written to do. The bite as a base is CON mod + PB to hit, dealing 1d4 + CON mod piercing damage on a hit. There's no Dexterity modifier and no Strength modifier added to either roll.
Also, Divine Smite on top of a bite as an Oathbreaker/Conquest Paladin seems amazing. It's allowed by RAW. (I would personally change the damage to Necrotic instead of Radiant, though. Not many monsters do holy bite damage.)
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms