I briefly mentioned this idea in another general thread, but I am looking for feedback to improve this suggested UA feature.
So I love that they’ve brought in Ocs and a celestial race for the base races, and then made it so that you can make a half-race combining any of the two base races. However, making it so that players have to pick from one parent’s abilities or the other is both underwhelming and unnecessary. With only a few extra sentences, you can create a fairly simple, balanced, and flexible system that allows to have a contribution from both lineages.
[OP EDITED FROM HERE TO REFLECT CHANGES MADE FROM DISCUSSION]
There are a few prerequisites to make this work:
“Special Traits” would need to be divided into two types, called something like “Major Special Traits” and “Minor Special Traits.” Each class would have one more influential special trait (the Major Special Trait) and between 2-4 lesser special traits (Minor Special Traits). With the base races in the UA, the “Major Special Traits” would be (1) “Versatile” for Humans, (2) “Celestial Legacy” for Ardling, (3) “Draconic Ancestry” [incorporating “Breath Weapon” as mentioned below] for Dragonborn, (4) “Dwarven Resilience” [incorporating dwarven toughness as mentioned below] for Dwarves, (5) “Elven Lineage” for Elves, (6) “Gnomish Lineage” for Gnomes, (7) “Luck” for Halflings, (8) “Adrenaline Rush” for Orcs, and (9) and “Fiendish Legacy” for Tieflings. The remaining special traits for each current base races would be “minor special traits.”
The Dragonborn Special Traits “Dragon Ancestry” and “Breath Weapon” need to be merged to make a single trait that would be significant enough to consider a “Major Special Trait.”
The Dwarven Special Traits “Dwarven Resilience” and “Dwarven Toughness” need to be merged to make a single trait that would be significant enough to consider a “Major Special Trait.”
Any future races would also get one “Major Special Trait” and between 2-4 “Minor Special Traits.”
Then, with these changes in mind, here is the current language with my suggested language for "Children of Different Humanoid Kinds."
"CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT HUMANOID KINDS
Thanks to the magical workings of the multiverse, Humanoids of different kinds sometimes have children together. For example, folk who have a human parent and an orc or an elf parent are particularly common. Many other combinations are possible.
If you’d like to play the child of such a wondrous pairing, choose two Race options that are Humanoid to represent your parents. Next, determine which of those Race options provides your size and speed. Then pick two special traits from each of the two races that influence your lineage. You cannot take more than one major special trait. Furthermore, you cannot take more than one special trait that grants damage resistance, nor more than one special trait that grants a skill proficiency. You can then mix and match visual characteristics—color, ear shape, and the like—of the two options. For example, if your character has a halfling and a gnome parent, you might choose Halfling's "Luck" for your major specialtraitand then one minor special trait from the Halfling special traits list and two minor special traits from the Gnome list. Then you coulddecide that your character has the pointed ears that are characteristic of a gnome but the other physical characteristics of a Halfling.
Finally, determine the average of the two options’ Life Span traits to figure out how long your character might live. For example, a child of a halfling and a gnome has an average life span of 288 years."
This would allow for lots of customization for players who want to be characters with different humanoid parents. I think it would also be pretty well balanced. It isn’t overly complicated. It would allow for future races to be added on to the same mechanic.
What do you think? It's a work in progress, so any feedback or other suggestions are welcome. I may edit this OP to reflect changes that improve the language.
The problem is that it's not remotely future proof, or even past proof. What happens when someone wants to make a half-aarakocra, half-triton (however that happens)? Neither of those have instructions on your list.
A better idea would be to simply clone the text from Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, which has much this same sidebar save with loose guidelines for homebrewing a blender species. This will always be a weird homebrew endeavor for as long as Wizards is unwilling to pull species apart and apply point values. There's no sense trying to provide a formal, official formula for gene blending, just provide some sanity check notes on the process and let players do what they're gonna do.
As I've said elsewhere, I think all of the half-species (elf, orc, tiefling, genasi, etc.) should be represented by a feat, particularly now that everyone gets first level feats.
As I've said elsewhere, I think all of the half-species (elf, orc, tiefling, genasi, etc.) should be represented by a feat, particularly now that everyone gets first level feats.
The thing is, this would require a stupid amount of feats to do for every combination.
Star Wars 5E has a half human system that works pretty well...but only because it locks one of the parents into being human.
You would n't just need a feat for human/elf and human/orc, but wood elf/fire genasi, tiefling/halfling, dwarf/sea elf, etc.
Plus the level 1 feats are supposed to tie into background, not race, defeating the purpose of that, and locking these character into a specific feat. Keeping the half/half races tied to racial features and not tying them into background features is IMO better.
As I've said elsewhere, I think all of the half-species (elf, orc, tiefling, genasi, etc.) should be represented by a feat, particularly now that everyone gets first level feats.
The thing is, this would require a stupid amount of feats to do for every combination.
Star Wars 5E has a half human system that works pretty well...but only because it locks one of the parents into being human.
You would n't just need a feat for human/elf and human/orc, but wood elf/fire genasi, tiefling/halfling, dwarf/sea elf, etc.
Probably not. If the mixed-race mechanics were "pick one base race's abilities, and adjust your flavor", like they are in the current playtest, and then they added "if you feel that you want more of the other half, take the feat for it", it ought to work fine, they don't have to worry about complex ability swaps, and balance considerations can be handled by balancing the feats as feats.
Plus the level 1 feats are supposed to tie into background, not race, defeating the purpose of that, and locking these character into a specific feat. Keeping the half/half races tied to racial features and not tying them into background features is IMO better.
They're only locked into the specific feat if they want the extras it provides. (Also, humans get an extra feat, so all the old-school half-elves and orcs have it easy.)
I think the One D&D gang ought to look back at Tasha's and the Gothic lineages and pick up where they left off on lineages. So the title "an elf and orc had a little baby" is cute and all, but there's lots of ways a lineage could have a mixture of traits represented by a range of D&D "races" and beings. "Planetouched" being one for the Tieflings and mix of A-words, and through Genasi in there. I think something feat like, but call them features maybe to keep them distinct.
In other words, a character need not be the product of a "wondrous pairing" with all the selective breeding optimization going on there. A character should be able to express a variety of traits from Mundane to Planar with maybe some features in between (beastial? fey?) to reflect their born with traits, with some options to specify "where" the trait came from beyond "mom and dad."
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I like this idea well enough. It does somewhat highlight a particular divide: magical vs more…… grounded.
I’d almost propose a rule: Elves, Tieflings, Ardlings and Dragonborn can only mix with more grounded species: Orc, Human, Dwarf, halfling, and Gnome. That does however eliminate Fey’ri and Draegloth….. those however may be special enough to merit being included in later materials. There’s probably going to be a splat book of interracial pairings.
The problem is that it's not remotely future proof, or even past proof. What happens when someone wants to make a half-aarakocra, half-triton (however that happens)? Neither of those have instructions on your list.
A better idea would be to simply clone the text from Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, which has much this same sidebar save with loose guidelines for homebrewing a blender species. This will always be a weird homebrew endeavor for as long as Wizards is unwilling to pull species apart and apply point values. There's no sense trying to provide a formal, official formula for gene blending, just provide some sanity check notes on the process and let players do what they're gonna do.
The way I think you would have to future-proof it is give each race one "major trait" and label all the others special traits as "minor traits" or something like that. Then mixing and matching races doesn't require a list. You just say:
"Next, determine which of those Race options provides your size and speed. Then pick two special traits from each of the two races that influence your lineage. Only one of the special traits you take can be a major trait. Furthermore, you cannot take more than one special trait that grants damage resistance, nor more than one special trait that grants a skill proficiency."
As I've said elsewhere, I think all of the half-species (elf, orc, tiefling, genasi, etc.) should be represented by a feat, particularly now that everyone gets first level feats.
The thing is, this would require a stupid amount of feats to do for every combination.
Star Wars 5E has a half human system that works pretty well...but only because it locks one of the parents into being human.
You would n't just need a feat for human/elf and human/orc, but wood elf/fire genasi, tiefling/halfling, dwarf/sea elf, etc.
Plus the level 1 feats are supposed to tie into background, not race, defeating the purpose of that, and locking these character into a specific feat. Keeping the half/half races tied to racial features and not tying them into background features is IMO better.
You wouldn't. You would just need "elven ancestry," "orcish ancestry," "fiendish ancestry" and "elemental ancestry (for each element)." Then you would take a base race and add the ancestry.
As I've said elsewhere, I think all of the half-species (elf, orc, tiefling, genasi, etc.) should be represented by a feat, particularly now that everyone gets first level feats.
The thing is, this would require a stupid amount of feats to do for every combination.
Star Wars 5E has a half human system that works pretty well...but only because it locks one of the parents into being human.
You would n't just need a feat for human/elf and human/orc, but wood elf/fire genasi, tiefling/halfling, dwarf/sea elf, etc.
Plus the level 1 feats are supposed to tie into background, not race, defeating the purpose of that, and locking these character into a specific feat. Keeping the half/half races tied to racial features and not tying them into background features is IMO better.
You wouldn't. You would just need "elven ancestry," "orcish ancestry," "fiendish ancestry" and "elemental ancestry (for each element)." Then you would take a base race and add the ancestry.
This only works if you assume human for the other parent. The point of the system they're implementing is to let you make a half elf/half genasi or a half dwarf/half halfling etc.
As I've said elsewhere, I think all of the half-species (elf, orc, tiefling, genasi, etc.) should be represented by a feat, particularly now that everyone gets first level feats.
The thing is, this would require a stupid amount of feats to do for every combination.
Star Wars 5E has a half human system that works pretty well...but only because it locks one of the parents into being human.
You would n't just need a feat for human/elf and human/orc, but wood elf/fire genasi, tiefling/halfling, dwarf/sea elf, etc.
Plus the level 1 feats are supposed to tie into background, not race, defeating the purpose of that, and locking these character into a specific feat. Keeping the half/half races tied to racial features and not tying them into background features is IMO better.
You wouldn't. You would just need "elven ancestry," "orcish ancestry," "fiendish ancestry" and "elemental ancestry (for each element)." Then you would take a base race and add the ancestry.
This only works if you assume human for the other parent. The point of the system they're implementing is to let you make a half elf/half genasi or a half dwarf/half halfling etc.
No, it works fine. Want an elf/genie cross? Pick elf as your race and take the elemental ancestry feat. Want a dwarf/devil? Take dwarf as your race and the infernal ancestry feat.
As I said, it is only meant to cover the "traditional" half-races. If you want to make a halfling/dwarf or whatever, you're on your own (although the stout halfling is already essentially this).
I briefly mentioned this idea in another general thread, but I am looking for feedback to improve this suggested UA feature.
So I love that they’ve brought in Ocs and a celestial race for the base races, and then made it so that you can make a half-race combining any of the two base races. However, making it so that players have to pick from one parent’s abilities or the other is both underwhelming and unnecessary. With only a few extra sentences, you can create a fairly simple, balanced, and flexible system that allows to have a contribution from both lineages.
[OP EDITED FROM HERE TO REFLECT CHANGES MADE FROM DISCUSSION]
There are a few prerequisites to make this work:
Then, with these changes in mind, here is the current language with my suggested language for "Children of Different Humanoid Kinds."
"CHILDREN OF DIFFERENT HUMANOID KINDS
Thanks to the magical workings of the multiverse, Humanoids of different kinds sometimes have children together. For example, folk who have a human parent and an orc or an elf parent are particularly common. Many other combinations are possible.
If you’d like to play the child of such a wondrous pairing, choose two Race options that are Humanoid to represent your parents. Next, determine which of those Race options provides your size and speed. Then pick two special traits from each of the two races that influence your lineage. You cannot take more than one major special trait. Furthermore, you cannot take more than one special trait that grants damage resistance, nor more than one special trait that grants a skill proficiency. You can then mix and match visual characteristics—color, ear shape, and the like—of the two options. For example, if your character has a halfling and a gnome parent, you might choose Halfling's "Luck" for your major special trait and then one minor special trait from the Halfling special traits list and two minor special traits from the Gnome list. Then you could decide that your character has the pointed ears that are characteristic of a gnome but the other physical characteristics of a Halfling.
Finally, determine the average of the two options’ Life Span traits to figure out how long your character might live. For example, a child of a halfling and a gnome has an average life span of 288 years."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
This would allow for lots of customization for players who want to be characters with different humanoid parents. I think it would also be pretty well balanced. It isn’t overly complicated. It would allow for future races to be added on to the same mechanic.
What do you think? It's a work in progress, so any feedback or other suggestions are welcome. I may edit this OP to reflect changes that improve the language.
The problem is that it's not remotely future proof, or even past proof. What happens when someone wants to make a half-aarakocra, half-triton (however that happens)? Neither of those have instructions on your list.
A better idea would be to simply clone the text from Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, which has much this same sidebar save with loose guidelines for homebrewing a blender species. This will always be a weird homebrew endeavor for as long as Wizards is unwilling to pull species apart and apply point values. There's no sense trying to provide a formal, official formula for gene blending, just provide some sanity check notes on the process and let players do what they're gonna do.
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As I've said elsewhere, I think all of the half-species (elf, orc, tiefling, genasi, etc.) should be represented by a feat, particularly now that everyone gets first level feats.
The thing is, this would require a stupid amount of feats to do for every combination.
Star Wars 5E has a half human system that works pretty well...but only because it locks one of the parents into being human.
You would n't just need a feat for human/elf and human/orc, but wood elf/fire genasi, tiefling/halfling, dwarf/sea elf, etc.
Plus the level 1 feats are supposed to tie into background, not race, defeating the purpose of that, and locking these character into a specific feat. Keeping the half/half races tied to racial features and not tying them into background features is IMO better.
Everyone's gonna mate with aarakocra. Everyone. Until the ultimate munchkin master-race emerges from this unholy orgy.
Probably not. If the mixed-race mechanics were "pick one base race's abilities, and adjust your flavor", like they are in the current playtest, and then they added "if you feel that you want more of the other half, take the feat for it", it ought to work fine, they don't have to worry about complex ability swaps, and balance considerations can be handled by balancing the feats as feats.
They're only locked into the specific feat if they want the extras it provides. (Also, humans get an extra feat, so all the old-school half-elves and orcs have it easy.)
I think the One D&D gang ought to look back at Tasha's and the Gothic lineages and pick up where they left off on lineages. So the title "an elf and orc had a little baby" is cute and all, but there's lots of ways a lineage could have a mixture of traits represented by a range of D&D "races" and beings. "Planetouched" being one for the Tieflings and mix of A-words, and through Genasi in there. I think something feat like, but call them features maybe to keep them distinct.
In other words, a character need not be the product of a "wondrous pairing" with all the selective breeding optimization going on there. A character should be able to express a variety of traits from Mundane to Planar with maybe some features in between (beastial? fey?) to reflect their born with traits, with some options to specify "where" the trait came from beyond "mom and dad."
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I like this idea well enough. It does somewhat highlight a particular divide: magical vs more…… grounded.
I’d almost propose a rule: Elves, Tieflings, Ardlings and Dragonborn can only mix with more grounded species: Orc, Human, Dwarf, halfling, and Gnome. That does however eliminate Fey’ri and Draegloth….. those however may be special enough to merit being included in later materials. There’s probably going to be a splat book of interracial pairings.
The way I think you would have to future-proof it is give each race one "major trait" and label all the others special traits as "minor traits" or something like that. Then mixing and matching races doesn't require a list. You just say:
"Next, determine which of those Race options provides your size and speed. Then pick two special traits from each of the two races that influence your lineage. Only one of the special traits you take can be a major trait. Furthermore, you cannot take more than one special trait that grants damage resistance, nor more than one special trait that grants a skill proficiency."
You wouldn't. You would just need "elven ancestry," "orcish ancestry," "fiendish ancestry" and "elemental ancestry (for each element)." Then you would take a base race and add the ancestry.
This only works if you assume human for the other parent. The point of the system they're implementing is to let you make a half elf/half genasi or a half dwarf/half halfling etc.
No, it works fine. Want an elf/genie cross? Pick elf as your race and take the elemental ancestry feat. Want a dwarf/devil? Take dwarf as your race and the infernal ancestry feat.
As I said, it is only meant to cover the "traditional" half-races. If you want to make a halfling/dwarf or whatever, you're on your own (although the stout halfling is already essentially this).
Edited OP in first attempt to improve suggested language based on feedback.