The new Tashas options ruin humans, if you want versatile characteristics and a ton of other abilities like dark vision, etc. just choose a Dwarf, their 2 +2 are like having an additional ASI, plus they have many other abilities. Choosing a human makes no sense.
@@sciencescripture Variant Humans still get a free Feat, which is pretty good stuff. However you are right, this unintentionally made the Mountain Dwarf super powerful right out the gate.
After i explained to my DM that my Goliath Wizard was raised by Elves, he replaced one of my features and gave me elven Weapon Training and the Elven language.
My tiefling fighter is practically a thief so my dm had me roll int with my bonus and apparently I rolled high enough so I obtained thieves cant to replace one of my languages.
I'm currently playing Tim the Time Tortle, A Chronurgy wizard who just wants people to slow down and enjoy life. Toss in the lucky feat and he's a handful for GMs.
@@panwall1327 I made it prior to Tasha's, so before I could give him the strength boost. Haven't played it yet, but the combos are potentially ridiculous. Spiked armor works with the Grung's poisoning ability to add poison damage. Grappling causes skin contact causing your victim to make saves vs poisoned condition plus damage from the spiked armor. If they fail the save, they get disadvantaged to escape the grapple and you get advantage to grapple while raging, so it's almost impossible for them to escape. Grapple Master feat gives advantage to attacks against any creature you're grappling. So much synergy and thematically awesome! I really want to play it.
I was considering a mountain dwarf with most of their extra proficiencies swapped out for more tools; "If you name it, I can build it" can be a fun part of a character of just about any class. Turn it up to 11 by playing an Artificer...
i let one of my players do that, a mountain dwarf rogue had zero use for the armor and weapons training so yeah they got a fistful of tools to fuck around with
I made a future Psi Warrior doing exactly this. He was raised and educated by a rogue mind flayer who rescued him from ceremorphosis, so most of his dwarven training(armor and weapon proficiencies specifcally) has been replaced with a pile of tool proficiencies to help represent his different upbringing. Really looking forward to the campaign I eventually use him in.
@@sixofone8663 As a DM I'm more likely to allow exceptions and optional rules if they mostly add to characterization and out-of-combat utility; tool proficiencies tend to fall into that category, especially once you already have a few. Since proficiencies in particular represent personal history/experience/training, there are all sorts of ways that a character with non-default proficiencies would make sense (e.g. the backstory @y2a1979 came up with here). Now I kinda want to see a mountain dwarf clan historian/loremaster/cultivator of traditional arts, done as at least partially a College of Lore bard with an excessive number of skill and tool proficiencies. Focus spell choices on knowledge and craftsmanship to really have the character make sense...
I was building a mountain dwarf. Decide for a bard and remove the weapons and armor and now she has high char and dex and 15 int so she can get bussy with any kind of kit or tool. We are gonna have fun
I was hesitant at first, but once I really read it and wrapped my head around it I really turned around. Most of the flavor in a character is how you role play it. Just opens up the options and that's not a bad thing. PCs are supposed to be exceptional individuals.
What I like is that you are not limited in what race you have to play to play a particular class. I like how it only changed ability scores and proficiencies, both things that you would not be born in it
@@thetwizard9290 i like the versatility of that, but i also think that the reason behind is a little bit wrong, cos of course you nor i born with "ability scores" defined, but when we talk about species is a little bit different, I mean, for me, is completely natural that a specie like tabaxi, be more agile than a human, so a dex bonus is something natural, so it is for a minotaur to have more strenght that a human (or a feline like the tabaxi). for me is fine, is a game, you can make whatever you want, but i think the hability score bonuses are more biological, and then the words race and species get mixed
@@rubenmunoz2912 NPCs of those races don’t get those bonuses. This is because it is not something that those people are born with, just what adventurers get to push them towards a particular architipe, and they get it because of how they were raised, not from birth. That’s how I view it anyway. Edit: obviously everyone is free to change how they view ability score bonuses from races in their own way. One thing I would like to mention is that most playable races would be races, not species, since many can breed, or a least breed with a race that can breed, with each other
Loving my half orc armorer artificer. That relentless endurance has been a godsend in my ability to tank with only a d8 hit die, especially at early levels.
Yeah Relentless Endurance is the reason why my Warlock is a Half-Orc too... I called him Oscar, after realising the potential. His Patron is a Devil and he has fallen in love with the Devils Daughter. So he is basically some commoner Half-Orc who is in love with this daughter of a powerful Trademaker. As I realised how close it was, I had to call him Oscar. His true Love wrote a book about them, to tell the whole world that she loved him. But he still isn't happy about the title... Tusk Love.
About to start playing a Warforged Order of Scribes wizard. Sentry’s Rest + Find Familiar means I can read books all night long and take solo watches for an entire night. Not to mention I get to build a mini me that I can talk to while lonely
I love the way the new rules encourage you to look at the traits that are not ability score increases or specific proficiencies when coming up with a character concept. One of my new favorite characters is the half-orc armorer or battle smith because of what relentless endurance and savage attacks do when paired with those subclasses.
That's a great point! It really helps expand the possible combinations and center traits or abilities that have more roleplay opportunity than the number.
On the subject of a Tiefling using these rules, I created a Zariel bloodline Tiefling who's parentage comes from a Spine devil. I swapped the Charisma for the Strength, and the Strength for Wisdom and made a Strength Based monk (Path of the Living Weapon from Exploring Eberron) that can using smite spells. He's that giant, muscular, powerful martial artists that utilizes solid foundation and Hung Gar kung fu-style strikes with fists like actual adamantine which gives him a very different play style that is more aggressive, more linear in terms of his movements.
its funny, I built a mountain dwarf as a sorcerer even before tashas cauldron. basically a mountain dwarf who grew up expecting to be a fighter, but wound up with wild magic. an angry small woman who can wear armour and smash things with a hammer, and is tired of having fireballs center on herself
Started my first campaign. My character is a spore druid. He spent years cultivating various plants and fungi on his skin but one tries to overtake his mind. So my goal is to get rid of it without killing the other plants he considers family. My group responded positively to my backstory. It's been a lot of fun, my dm voices the evil mushroom pusing me towards evil.
Dude that's awesome. I'm also playing a spore druid with a fungus trying to take over their mind (or fuse with it), and it's at a point where they kind of think in unison, referring to themself as "we" and "us", and when they disagree with each other they get all wonky. Here's to sentient fungus.
i wonder how the fly speed capstone would interact with your wings. as a DM, my instinct (and what i’m scared of) is to make it become a faster fly speed, but idk
@cak01vej maybe your pixies don’t fly faster, but i would certainly expect a pixie in my world that was also wearing a pair of winged boots to be the fastest thing you’d ever seen
@cak01vej I'm thinking because it's not everyday you get to play a lvl20 campaign, I'm gonna give my players as much as I can without being too broken. Especially because of how fast you have to actually move to fly in real life, it would make sense that you can cover way more ground in one turn by flying.
I've found that in my groups, playing a less optimal race/class combo has not been a big deal. I'm playing a Dwarven diviner in one campaign, and have not had a problem with the effective -1 to my primary stat bonus. However, there are two caveats: 1) The group is fairly large, so my minor drawback's impact is spread out over the team and 2) the campaign, a fantasy-Victorian setting in which we are investigators, makes the advantages of a diviner strong enough to make the lack of bonus to Int score much less relevant. That said, when Tasha's came out, I asked the DM if I could swap his Strength bonus out for Int, per the rules in Tasha's. Not because I wanted that +1 bonus to my rolls, but because the character's backstory worked better with those bonuses. He was an academic who had never been a soldier nor trained to be one. His role with law enforcement is as an Inspector, not a guard or other combat oriented character. It just made more sense. I like the archetypes being there; players new to fantasy RPGs might be too lost among the options if there aren't a few tried-and-true characters to fall back on. At the same time, these new options stress to those same players that archetypes are a guide, not a law. You can have fun ideas that break the mold, and NPC's can be very different than their societies. I was very happy with these rules and implemented them in my campaign right away.
Yeah, I tend to roll my eyes on people who use the TCoE rules for more power, but I love how they let you make the characters mechanically closer to what makes sense for their personality and history.
I like how this allows players to play more offbeat race-class combinations without feeling penalized, but I do worry that it also tends to take some of the flavor away from races. For my next campaign I've decided to allow my players to move one of the stat increases, but not both. (or in the case of a half elf, they can move the all, since 2 are already a choice. For a Triton, I'd say they could move 2 of the 3 +1s, but let's be real - nobody plays Tritons.) Of course, I always thought it was fun to play offbeat combos even before this change. My last character was a Halfling Wizard.
I suppose it depends on whether you see the 'racial' stats modifiers as inherent to that race/species or as because the members of that race train those stats. I mean, it's not unreasonable to say that half-orcs' STR boost is inherent, that typical members of that species are stronger than typical humans because of their physiology. Then again, it's also not unreasonable to say that average members of that species are strong compared to average humans simply because they live in a culture that values physical strength and thus they train vigorously to a greater extent. I suppose what I'm saying is that it comes down to whether you see stats as nature, nurture, or a combination of both. Your option of allowing one stat to shift suggests perhaps in your game world, it's a bit of both.
@@BlueTressym yeah, it's fine to think of it either way, but I like the notion that the different races do have some predispositions, whether genetic or cultural. I think there's room for any of these approaches in any given campaign setting, and I may choose a different approach in a future campaign.
@@Brashnir I think as long as you can create a backstory that justifies the change, it's fine. Why did your mountain dwarf turn to scholarly pursuits instead of following the clan traditions (to switch from STR to INT), and who was their tutor? There can definitely be a nature vs. nurture discussion, but I agree that there should still be some racial and cultural flavorings that reflect the worlds the characters live in. Ability scores are not as worrisome to me as the skill and proficiency changes.
@@BlueTressym Even if you view the bonuses as inherent moving them can still make sense. Because X race has a bonus to Y stat the can coast by on genetics and spend more time focusing on Z stat instead.
I feel like this reduces the concept of an off-beat character concept. If you can move the con bonus from a dwarf elsewhere, the association of dwarves as tough gets weakened. It makes me think of my mom's doberman and my mini dachshund; I love my dachshund, but there's no way an average dachshund will be as tough, strong, or agile as a doberman. It's just not in the genetics or body shape/size.
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar that was a good try from them, clearly in the good direction but still a lackluster race (only on a mecanical point of view for sure).
I'm glad that many players are happy about this. I'm still having trouble accepting the idea of a halfling with a STR 20 in a non-comedy game. And I've played and enjoyed strength-based halflings with the realistic limitations of their stature.
@@matthewparker9276 I'm not sure you can manage that until you hit level 8 (unless I'm wrong, and I may be, no halfling subrace gets a Str bonus). But now you can come out of the gate with it (take that +2 from Dex and put it on Str). I know it's still illogical either way, but I can accept an 8th level chatter having inhuman abilities more easily (for some reason).
5:10 What really interests me are the loxodons. 1) elephant people are really cool, and i can't se a way for it not to be awesome. 2) your constitution based unarmored defence matches super well with your constitution for concentration.
This did benefit my character a bit in that I finally had an "official" means by which my half-Orc, half-Halfling could speak Halfling but not Orcish. Otherwise I'm of mixed opinion: on one hand it gives players a means to reflect that their character is a unique individual for their species, maybe what prompts them to leave home and pursue a life of adventure. On the other hand, it means certain players will try to min-max their species of choice into a role they're commonly not suited to, sacrificing that potential for character growth
I've ALWAYS been fascinated with the idea of an Elf Barbarian, just...imagine how epic the rage of such a LONG-LIVED creature must be, how much of a grudge can they keep? how much they remember of entire lifetimes of being wronged? Also totally Agree that a Mountain Dwarf Rogue would be fun as hell to play, you could literaly make him an exile of his clan that gave up on his own customs and picked up his rogue-ish abilities to survive as a "Clanless" Dwarf all on his own!
Only from a strict optimization viewpoint. You lose the against type RP advantage and party race and class diversity. All races can now be of maximum mechanical synergy with all classes. This favors races that have a total of +4 to stats. The variant human feat advantage is now of less advantage since they get a total of + 2 stat bonus with no racial advantage of versatility that other races also have.
This means one of my Dragonborn family tree is going to grow now a lot more . Also a Dragonborn Monk (+2 dexterity and +1 Wisdom) with a draconic Breath and resist to the type of damage picked with the the draconic breath
As a DM, I see the system as a useful tool to tweak a race (or build new ones) for my campaign worlds. For players, I see this as a great opportunity to min-max. At what point do we just say all races are the same and give more ability points? I have a player playing a half-orc sorcerer. He invested heavily in CHA since he had no racial mod for it and will sink points from ASIs into it, but he's finding playing against type rewarding. He doesn't need to be optimized.
I've always wanted to make like an Izaya Orihara-type character, and I've always seen it as a Yuan-ti mastermind rogue. Well, now it's actually that tad bit easier to work with since you can put that +2 into dexterity, and possibly move that +1 into wisdom or charisma. Izaya is smart, yes, but most of his knowledge and technique come from cleaver decision making and social networking, so insight and deception would probably be more important to this character than investigation or history.
Since you traveled far afield, I'm surprised no mention of Tritons. Putting three +1s anywhere is good for MAD builds; they have innate spell casting; with the new errata, they have cold damage resistance; have darkvision and can breathe underwater; and have limited Aquaman talk-with-sea-creature powers. A good package anywhere, but great in naval or even arctic campaigns like Rime of the Frostmaiden.
My current character is a Hill Dwarf built with Tasha's rules. I made him an arcane trickster rogue multiclassed with artificer (a +1 rapier and bag of holding at level 2 artificer plus two cantrips and three first level spells? Yes please). He's got a +2 to dexterity and +1 to intelligence, but he also gets one extra point of health with every level, along with dark vision and resistance to poison. Plus, I played around with the ability to swap out weapon and tool proficiencies. My new dwarf rogue "dumped" strength, so having proficiency with warhammer and battleaxe didn't make much sense. So I swapped out one of them for the longbow. And since rogues already get proficiency with simple weapons, I swapped out the two simple weapons proficiencies from dwarf (hand axe and hammer) and the remaining martial weapon for toolsets. That's three tools, plus the one toolset as a dwarf (which I also swapped out), one toolset from rogue, two from my background, and one more as an artificer, I suddenly had a level 2 character who was proficient in eight different toolsets... which will grow to nine when/if I take a third level of artificer (currently Rogue3/Artificer2, but I want to build up rogue for a bit). For the record, my character is proficient with calligraphy supplies, cobbler's tools, cooking utensils, disguise kit, forgery kit, leatherworker's tools, thieves tools, and tinkerers tools. And if I take a third level of artificer, he will add smith's tools to the list. I don't know if that's min/maxing or just being silly, but I love that my character has so many skillsets at his disposal.
Star druid is B tier levels 1-9, then at 10 and onwards it’s a straight up S tier. Just my personal take on it, without having played or seen it in play (Disclaimer).
I have just started a campaign with 4 level 3 characters, one of whom is a star druid. The bonus action attack from starry form makes it seriously powerful at that level, and all three other players felt underpowered. (And the guiding bolts, and guidance!) I think the reaction from the star map will be really impactful in terms of action economy, too. I would highly recommend it, from my perspective as DM it feels like A tier at least.
The other thing that I really like about it is it lets you swap the proficiencies too for other things of similar abilities. A lot of race / class combos had overlap there with weapons especially where elves get a bunch of simple and some martial weapons that tons of classes just get for free and now you could say oh I picked up this tool or different weapon you might have wanted. Or swapping a skill you didn't really want for another you did. Tools I think are a generally underutilized part of the game and can be fun to work with when you have them!
Changeling abilities granted through Draconic Ancestry for a sorcerer specializing in Subtle Spell, enchantment spells, and proficient in deception and insight? The all-time slimiest Used Car(t) Salesman in your campaign setting.
I’ve played a mountain dwarf abjurer wizard years ago. He was the second tankiest in the party after the barbarian (because of their rage). Not being as naturally intelligent as a gnome didn’t affect him that much The ability score switching isn’t something at my table. The other background skills and features, yes because those are how you are raised. Learning a language isn’t genetic, but ability scores are. You could always play these options before but you just weren’t as good as a race that genetically has that. A halfling isn’t gonna be as strong as a Goliath. However, I also use a slightly modified standard array or my players roll, plus every ASI grants them a +1 AND a feat. So you can build up your power and overcome your handicaps. This altered rule just leans into min/maxing even more
I think this video captures my concerns about the optional ancestry rules. They are really rules that exist due to the tendency toward optimization and push certain ancestries, that were already better than others, even further beyond. You even noted this point with the Yuan-ti. I worry that mechanics have been put so far in the forefront that players believe anything less than an optimal character is unacceptable and that this, in turn, limits the scope of roleplay a bit. There is nothing wrong with optimization but as an MMO veteran I worry about the the proliferation of discussions that label certain ancestries as bad (because they offer fewer features) and others as good (because they offer more features). Of course playing a wizard with 8 int at lv 1 is not better or more noble than playing a wizard with 18 int at lv 1, but I think too many players get hung up on stats, especially considering how player friendly 5th edition is. Finally, I worry that ancestry will become a cosmetic choice with no real impact beyond physical features and life span. You have noted in another response that these rules are optional, and that is of course true. Still, I think it is fair to discuss the merits and differing views surrounding these system changes. Thanks for the videos and good luck in all future endeavors!
I do have to ask though. Is creating races as only a cosmetic choice a bad thing? I mean I prefer it when the classes have most of the interesting mechanical choices since those might be the reasons you play the classes. Some of the options like yuan ti have always been too good and for the tables that don't like how strong their features are, I see them banned. But if we were to make it a cosmetic choice only then there would be no reason to ban them at all except for story reasons with the DMs world.
@Sean Havern This. This comment is not rated enough, and I would like to like it 2000 times. Two weeks ago I was speaking with a player of mine, and he said that he felt "obliged" to take a +2 every 4th level, instead of taking a feat, because abilities are the most important thing. This kind of thinking made me realize that players are becoming all min/maxers, unfortunately, and Tasha has only worsened this attitude.
@@chrisvelo2595 I personally do not like ancestry being reduced to a cosmetic choice because I think it removes something from the game and ignores the real differences that exist amongst the ancestries. This process of reducing to cosmetic could be finished by removing the features from certain races, but that again is placing mechanics over immersion/role play and in my opinion that is undesirable. Of course I understand some folks do not agree with the above concerns and I think WotC was right to make these ancestry options optional. Good luck in all your gaming.
@@kazebaret And I have no inherent problem with Min/Maxers, I think highly competent characters can be great, but I lament players feeling like they have to optimize because frankly, 5e does not require optimization. It is very player friendly unless you are playing at a table where all encounters are deadly. And even deadly encounters are really not that threatening when you have spells and other tools available. Again, I do not think you are a "good player" if you play a bard with 8 charisma, but I do not think players should feel bad about playing a dwarf wizard or elf barbarian. I chafe at the language that Tasha's "finally allows you to play an Orc Wizard." That statement is just false, it allows you to more easily optimize an Orc Wizard.
@@seanhavern2384 And especially in 5e where the abilities are capped. As far as I've seen, this problem stems out of the 3e (I'm a 1st ed player and it was not at issue at all), and I really have no idea if it can be mitigated, or solved. Don't get me wrong: I love 5e, but it is becoming less "D&D" and more "board game" with the passing of time.
With the custom origin, you can now play an aaracokra that doesn’t have a flying speed, which is great because so many DMs don’t allow the aaracokra normally.
Dragonborn get the Breath Weapon no matter what you know It's a racial thing Might as well play a Lizardfolk then Because it's not really a *Dragonborn* without probably the most iconic Dragon thing to do *Blasting Elemental magic out of your face*
@@LordTonzilla Yes they do The custom lineage only applies to the Ability Score Improvements Not the innate racial abilities of a race Like Elves, Tieflings, or Half Orcs can't just lose their Darkvision Aasimar and Aracockras can't loose their wings And so on and so forth
@@ancientreddragon5617 nope, I think he meant the custom lineage, where you create your own race with a feat and +2, therefore he can make it look like a Dragonborn and have a feat instead of a +1 strength and a breath weapon
my first ever character was a tiefling noble BM fighter. I'm going to play her again soon, so now i don't have to worry about having a low strength score when i take polearm master + sentinel
@@hellishrebuke8169 the changeling is different it has a +2 charisma and the other ability is a +1 to any ability. (this is different from the half elf and human features that have a +1 or 2 +1s to any ability) in other words the changiling feature of +1 to any ability is similar to the free feat that variant humans get or the the tortis AC or the flying of the arrakroca.
@@Greginda11 it used to work like that, but M M is correct, Wizards of the Coast issued an official errata changing it to work like all the other races last year. Some DM's might still let you though, and either way it's still powerful!
I've been wanting to play a lightfoot halfling arcane trickster 9/bladesinger X since Tasha's was released. Magical Ambush + Naturally Stealthy + Cunning Action Hide is just such an insanely OP combo.
I was playing an aarakocra barbarian in a game before tashas came out. I'm so interested in revisiting that with tashas rules now. it was fun cause I had a reach weapon with polearm mastery, so I was flying & had reach. no melee could hit me
I’ve done this before. He was a blue draconic sorcerer that used shocking grasp primarily (Lightning Palm Monk). But with the racial +1, draconic bloodline +1, CON bonus, and Tough feat, I wasn’t that worried about being on the frontline as a sorcerer
@@chrisvelo2595 yes, a Tortle sorcerer would be strong, but also think of a Loxodon sorcerer, whose AC is based on their con. If you played a Loxodon divine soul sorcerer, you could have your character involved with Hollyphaunts!
I love homebrewing subclasses, so I find myself always lining up all subclasses of a certain class together and analyzing their similarities to figure out how to create a balanced homebrew subclass. I think it would make a great series if you can go over each class, and inspect how its subclasses function in order to give a good guide to dungeon masters on how to homebrew a balanced subclasses for each class. Your work always inspires me to express my creativity in this game 😊
Free lv1 feat for Gloom Stalker, Shadow Sorc, Twilight Cleric, or Devil Sight Warlock still very good tho. And there also some group who play human-only campaign.
Nice to learn your thoughts about all of these options, including the cautions about power creep and other issues 16:30 - made me wonder about the possibilities for developing more about those tortles in the sewers of Drakkenheim
Not the only difference. Custom lineage allows a player who takes a half feat to start the game with an 18 in their primary stat when using the standard array
NO! Using point buy, +2 +1 ability from a feat means that you can get an 18 at level 1. Your other abilities might be lower, but the 18 starting stat means they are significantly more powerful if you're trying to min/max. You can GWM with an 18 at level 4. No other race lets you do this.
That's great news about your Drakkenheim book! Nice to see somebody actually excited about Tasha's. Between people saying we've been doing this for years so it doesn't matter or saying it's power creep that is ruining the game (sometimes in the same breath), the online reaction hasn't been as enthusiastic as I've felt it should be. I'm more determined than ever now to try out my Kobold barbarian.
@@Dezbood completely agree. I've ran halfling barbarians. They're not meant to be a strong race. They turn out quite mediocre where you end up dumping your crap stat rolls into your racial bumped stats. Doesn't mean they aren't fun. All races can have any class. Doesn't mean they have to be brilliant at it.
@@rossdiggle yeah, it makes sense that different dnd races are in fact different. If you put an average goliath in a wrestling match against the average halfling, one is gonna have better odds of winning. I feel like this origins rule only enables greater min maxing, not greater story telling.
@@aethon0563 i don't think so, i really like the idea of people that deviate from average. Like the orc that was smarter than normal, but he was weak, and became an outcast. So he tried to enter the academy so he can be stronger on he's own way.
With the whole Customizing Origins, one could look at it as a way of making Custom Subraces, like say making a Tabaxi, normally a dexterous/charismatic race, to be more stronger/hearty, like a Leonin. Or, likewise, make the Leonin more Charismatic - can you say, Lion King? As for Custom Lineage, great way to make a homebrew race that you just can't otherwise get, even by reskinning existing races/subraces.
Or bringing back races that shouldn't have lost playable status in the first place. Yes I'm still upset the Lupines lost their playable status after 3E ended.
@@derrickhaggard Well, for the Lupin, you might get something fairly close simply by reskinning a Tabaxi, although one might want to replace Stealth with Survival, and keep Perception, and move stat adjustment where applicable.
@@derrickhaggard Only thing that might be out of character is a Tabaxi's climb speed on the Lupin, but even that could be worked in as a culture that prizes physical fitness.
@@lockwoan01 Correct especially since the Lupine race was known for producing most of Mysteria's best soldiers, guards, trackers, and hunters/huntresses meaning this human/wolf hybrid race was known for seeing being physically fit as a good thing for both males, and females. So the climbing speed actually fits for the Lupine due to the race being a culture that prized physical fitness.
Hobgoblin rogue with that saving face ability to gain a +5 on an attack roll is nice for more likely sneak attack. Aasimar war cleric, for extra crusading. Half-orc wizard for that relentless endurance. Warforged. Any warforged is now stronger as whatever class you choose.
I love this interpretation of the rules!! I've seen too many people being angry about the race thing seeing it as a statement about race when it just let's you make more incredible characters!!
I had an idea for a tiefling PC that is descended from arcanaloths, not demons or devils. His features would be quite canine, and these new rules really open things up.
I have homebrewed some alterations to the ability swaps. Lets say you get +2 strength and +1 intelligence You can swap within the physical abilities, and swap within the mental abilities, but not between them So you could make the scores +2 dex and +1 charisma, but not +2 charisma and +1 dex This still keeps quite a abit of the flavour for races while allowing you a better ability spread
Some times playing a race that isn't optimal is more fun. I have a goliath sorlock who's so much fun to play the ability to stand on the front line and firing a lightning bolt right into the face of the villains or using his greatclub with greenflame blade to do over 30 damage is so much fun.
i agree, same feeling with my goblin barbarian. i might not have the highest strength possible but thats just part of being a goblin and that makes the character more interesting to play lol
I think it would be fun to play in a party of all Mountain Dwarves with each maximized for their class. A fighter, a wizard, a cleric, a bard, and a warlock. With all of them armed with battleaxes and medium armor, their opponents would be surprised when the magic started flying!
Exactly, a party of all mountain dwarves is the most powerful party. Now that race is meaningless, everyone will gravitate to this race or a few other powerful options, like yuan it, etc certainly humans which previously had two floating stat bonuses because they were so ‘versatile’ which made up for their lack of dark vision and many other abilities, common to the other races, is now at the lowest rung on choice of race.
@@jackdizzy123 Twilight is also pretty cool. Might play that instead depending on the rest of the party. I still would like to focus on spellcasting though, so I would swap out Divine Strike for Blessed Strikes.
@@TheHornedKing that's fair. The Twilight Cleric's channel divinity is also very useful for a drow, because you won't have disadvantage on attacks within it's radius of 30 ft, and you can get free healing without healing the enemy
@@jackdizzy123 Having looked into it a bit more, I'm actually starting lean more towards the twilight domain now. And you make a good point about how the channel divinity helps with the drow's sunlight sensitivity.
This session was great. I'm just getting back into the game after 35 years. Playing a half Drow half East Asian Human bard. This vid helped me think more about the value of a cool character origin.
So hear me out: A Yuan-Ti Totem Barbarian. • Resist to all magic • Resistance to everything else except psychic damage while raging. At level fucking 3.
That's when you up the challenge by using min/maxed enemies, like casters smart enough to use effects that aren't bothered by your resistances as much(Web, nearly any spell causing difficult terrain, using Fly and/or other movement options to stay out of range until the rage ends, and so on), or by hiring their own barbarians to fight you. Or perhaps their new bodyguard is a Psi Warrior fighter. The combo is certainly potent, but anything has one or more potential counters if you look hard enough.
I like the potential of the custom origin for expanding on half-races. Currently there's only half elves and half orcs, but using Tasha's, I was able to create a half-goliath, half-tiefling character, where I still used a base goliath, but was able to customize it to reflect her tiefling heritage as well
@@EdsonR13 Lorewise, I just decided that the tiefling mother was an outlander fighter who made it her duty protect villages to the north. The goliath father was a blacksmith in one of those villages. They had a thing, which resulted in the birth of my character, and then they parted ways amicably. Mechanically, well... that might break the PG-13 barrier, but it's not like the races are *that* different ;)
@@EdsonR13 Oops! I built her as a baseline goliath, so she gets all the goliath traits, but I switched out the ability score and languages, so she would pull from the tiefling languages and ability scores instead of the goliath. Looks-wise, she looks like a beefy giant tiefling, but a rather small goliath
Is there an official d&d pronunciation guide somewhere? From time to time I get caught totally off guard by the ways people pronounce things differently than me. Today it was Genasi.
Genasi are genie people. Jinn-ah-si. A surprising number of people have not made the connection, even though that is the whole point of the race. Grumble grumble.
@@Capt.Thunder The problems of using a language that uses the same letter for multiple sounds. It bothers me when people refuse to pronounce things correctly like Nerdarchy with artificer or most people with mana.
I play a Drow, prior to Tasha’s, that is a Barbarian with less STR (10) than most make Barbarians with. Plus, he has a little spell casting ability from being a drow. He survived an all out assault upon his House and escaped to the wilderness of the underdark and Chaotic Neutral. I focused the Point Buy into his Dex, Con, WIS, and Cha. When I get to play vs DMing, he is a lot of fun to play.
Dex based barbarians are amazing. Wood Elves and Halflings are my go to races under the normal rules for barbarians and I almost always choose the totem of the eagle or the wolf with dex based barbs.
So your player comes up to you and says. I want to play an orc, outcast from their orc society, taken in by an old wizard, and from a young age was isolated from the other orcs and instead studied under a great elven wizard master, who eventually died, now my orc, educated and alone, sets out on their masters final quest. An odd ball amongst the orc people, but arguably the smartest orc around. And you say.... no, sorry, orcs are dumb, you can’t play that. Why?
@@DungeonDudes No,no. You got it wrong. That seems a good concept for a character. You'll still get your STR and CON bonuses, because your race is not thin water. You'll have 15 INT and be dumber than your adoptive elven brother with 17, because elves are smarter than orcs.
@LP Gaming What you just wrote makes no sense. If you come from a race widely known for be hardy and strong, you probably are hardy and strong, not smart. Sure, you CAN be smart. But the one from the race that's known to be smart? Beats you at chess. Because blood is thicker than water.
@LP Gaming Except the fact that without a tapetum lucidum, or the equivalent, there's NO WAY humans can see in the darkness; without a denser bone and muscle structure, an elf will never lift as much as an orc or a goliath, without retractable claws, there's no way a gnome will have a natural attack. Are you telling me IRL there's no tendency? Blacks run fast, asians are smart, inuits resist cold climates, peruvians resist altitude. Look at the statistics. This is nature and it clearly shows the result.
Really want to know where Kelly got his gemed wrist band from! Only major concern I see in these new rules is your table might end up being less diverse across the parties races, should everyone try to min max. But I think most people will still play what they want to.
Exactly, everyone will play mountain dwarves and a party of five dwarves instead of a diverse assortment of races will likely be the end result, since there is no advantage to playing a human whose racial characteristic was being more versatile with 2 floating +1 stat bonuses is now a moot point. A puny feat that one can gain at 3rd or 5th level doesn’t balance out against all the abilities of dwarves, say 2 floating plus 2s, which in itself is like an ASI or feat, in addition to dark vision, etc etc. that dwarves get. They gave the versatility of humans to all other races w/o granting humans with any way to balance the now universal stat versatility or floating stat bonuses, that used to define the race ... so I agree that it may become an issue and the end result can be a less diverse party.
If the only meaning races have is a +2 and/or a +1 then thats not a very meaningful choice. If you can get your +2 from a variety of different sources, why your player picks one over the other gets more meaningful not less.
@@EdsonR13 my point is this. Why be anything other than a mountain dwarf or half elf? They get +4 racial asi that you can put where ever you want now. There is no good reason to pick anything else. The only reason ive ever bothered to read any lore on any race aside from human was because of class-race optimisation. Well now power gamers like me can ignore everything but those 2 races.
@@bradleyvenovich6160 why play anything other than a tabaxi 2 skills and feline agility, why play anything other than a tortle 17 base ac, why play anything other than an aarakocra 50 ft fly speed. I can go on, point being different character concepts will want different racial abilities, these options should make you more creative not less, Everyones seen the half orc barbarian its not original
@@EdsonR13 because ultimately asi's are king. Tabaxi are out done by half elves in the skill department. Feline agility is worthless. Tortle having a base ac of 17 is kinda meh also considering you can achieve the same thing by having any character with a 20 dex, which with tashas is even easier to start the game with. So on and so forth.
@@bradleyvenovich6160 do tell me about your 20 dex wizard with 17+ac, just because you havent been able to use feline agility to its fullest potential doesnt mean its useless. Yes ability scores are very key in min-maxing a character but there are plenty other racial abilities worth looking at
The new rules allow you to finally make a viable cleric of Eilistraee, swapping the rapier proficiency for longsword and freeing up your domain options
I want race to be a purely aesthetic choice, so this is a step to the right direction. A player should have the freedom to choose to play the race they find appealing or cool without having to feel bad for making a suboptimal combo with their class.
I couldn't disagree more with this. A character's race is a cornerstone of roleplaying. It imbues the perception of that character with the NPCs and other party members. Perhaps in the world lore, their race has a deep fued or long history of cooperation. Tieflings and (half)orcs are distrusted as whole usually because of past associations (raiding, graping, and razing settlements, and you know, being descended from concentrated, literal evil), and give the player a chance to avoid, rise against, or meet these expectations
My first ever character was a Red Dragonborn Rogue. The +2 in strength really wasn't that helpful for the skills needed, but I played him anyway because I like the backstory I had of a guy who had been essentially stereotyped because he was a 'chromatic' Dragonborn. Unable to get a steady job or be trusted with anything, he turned to thievery to survive. Living in the underbelly of society, he saw how much people were suffering and eventually became a Robin Hood-type character, only stealing from those richer than himself, and sharing his reclaimed wealth with those in similar positions as him. Now being able to have him with the +2 in Dex, man, he'd have been so much better!
I prefer how Pathfinder 2e handles Half-Elves and Half-Orcs in character creation. You're not limited to just Half-Human. You can have a Half-Elf Half-Gnome or Half-Orc Half-Goblin and it would actually have a mechanical effect on your character by way of what racial feats you have access to.
I feel like a changeling with the new changes is truly a powerhouse with the disguising abilities. Being able to put +2 wherever you want, already putting a +1 wherever you want. Maybe that’s just me!
“Oh no! People are going to be picking the lesser played races more often now because more doors have been opened! Oh the humanity! What is the world coming to!?”
@@jasoncarnelian3325 The races that were considered the best but had an ASI that wasn't now are nearly solidified as the best. All races get better, but it's not an even spread. So I don't see my group playing the lesser played ones more; I see us using the same ones we always have more because we can now just slap it on any class without the drawback of a mismatched ASI.
Would "The Hobbit" have been a better story if Bilbo Baggins had been dexterous and well suited for the role that he found himself in? I enjoy a bit of optimization now and again and this is great for that. But this is also the reason that I'm playing more and more old school systems.
I’m lost to the point you’re trying to make - Bilbo was pegged as a burglar and did better in this role by virtue of being a hobbit. But your comment suggests that he wasn’t good, and that’s to the story’s benefit. By your logic, Bilbo swapped out the normal +2 Dex for halflings and got +2 Int instead.
The custom lineage thing is the greatest tool introduced to flavor and roleplaying possibilities since the PHB. Same for spell flair. It actually came at the most opportune time. We're currently running a campaign that plays about 2 decades after our previous one in which two of our players got hitched and had a daughter. The couple were a tabaxi and a variant human. And thanks to custom lineage I had the idea to bring their daughter to life by playing a half breed between human and tabaxi (yes haw haw I get it neko stuff. Not the reason). The character is a love letter and homage to the two characters who I fell in love with cause their players just roleplayed them so beautifully. The daughter is now a order of scribe wizard, out to do her name justice, being the daughter of 2 sung heroes.
I'm not a fan of interchangeable stats. To me, it feels too much like everyone is just different flavors of human. I prefer my breakdown: You get +1 stat from your Race (from two options). You get two +1 stats from your Class choice. Ex. High Elf: +1 Dex or +1 Int Fighter: +1 Con and +1 Str/Dex Conclusion: High Elf Fighter who chooses +1 Dex from their Race, +1 Dex from their Class, then gets +1 Con from their Class as well. Totalling: High Elf Fighter +2 Dex, +1 Con
The idea of getting stat mods from class does feel like it makes a lot of sense, TBH I man, training for years in what you do feels like it should logically make you better at it, thus improving the stat(s) you have to use to develop the abilities of that class.
For clarification: Elf gets +1 Dex Or High (Elf) gets +1 Int, Wood (Elf) gets +1 Wis, Dark (Elf) gets +1 Cha. So as a Wood Elf, you could choose between +1 Dex or +1 Wis as your racial bonus. As a Dark Elf, you could choose between +1 Dex or +1 Cha.
I like that a lot. I might use that as a self limiter when designing characters for a bit. With them taking the limiters off everything it can be a bit overwhelming to decide what to go with first, so adding in a few limiters, if only just till you run out of ideas that you really like, can be helpful.
To me, variety is the spice of life and I like the fact they are doing much to allow the character creation process to be *so* flexible :D It's great, just like this guide is ;)
Monty: "As far as I am concerned, having more options is never a bad thing." Except when you really think about it and you take into account long-term effects and unintended consequences. All 'games' are a balance between freedoms and constraints. Too many constraints and nothing interesting happens in your 'frozen' game. Too many freedoms and you don't really have a game; the structure 'melts'. For example, regardless of what you think about soccer, just ask yourself if the game would be improved with the use of hands, tackling, lacrosse sticks, or even "more options" like a mobile net. Either the game breaks down, you are playing a categorically different game, or it becomes absurd.
I agree. Always bringing in new options creates interest and spice to the game but it also introduced characters that can become more broken at earlier and earlier levels
@@chrisvelo2595 "I agree." Well, I actually didn't say anything regarding brokenness, I was discussing the diminishing returns more options bring. Though I suppose more broken characters are part of that. It’s interesting you used the term “spice”, because that analogy also works in cooking: at what point does adding more spice spoil the flavor?
@LP Gaming “WoTC didn’t just throw stuff in a book. They take care and consider balancing in everything they do.” That’s funny. The 45+ year history of D&D (and the 25+ year history of Magic the Gathering, another WoTC game) is soaked with unbalanced rules, weak themes, ham fisted adventures, confusing mechanics, tedious accounting, and intrusive politics - “stuff thrown in a book” to generate sales and pay the bills. The accumulation of ill considered rule expansions IS what lead to the collapse of past editions into heaping piles of boring incoherence. Tasha's is a lurch in that direction for 5e.
Finally, a dexterous Ninja Tortle
Just make sure not to make him too old. He needs to be young to do those acrobatics -- maybe a teenager?
Honestly I just wanted to play a tortle just for this idea.
The new Tashas options ruin humans, if you want versatile characteristics and a ton of other abilities like dark vision, etc. just choose a Dwarf, their 2 +2 are like having an additional ASI, plus they have many other abilities. Choosing a human makes no sense.
A Ninja Tortle that hides retracting into his shell
@@sciencescripture Variant Humans still get a free Feat, which is pretty good stuff. However you are right, this unintentionally made the Mountain Dwarf super powerful right out the gate.
After i explained to my DM that my Goliath Wizard was raised by Elves, he replaced one of my features and gave me elven Weapon Training and the Elven language.
I do like this option a lot
Buy your Dm some pizza
I lost natural athlete. I really didn't need that because of my 9 Strength score. I was more in for dexterity (17)
My tiefling fighter is practically a thief so my dm had me roll int with my bonus and apparently I rolled high enough so I obtained thieves cant to replace one of my languages.
I'm currently playing Tim the Time Tortle, A Chronurgy wizard who just wants people to slow down and enjoy life. Toss in the lucky feat and he's a handful for GMs.
I hope u speak... really... slowly... when... roleplaying... him...
Imagine if someone casts Haste on him and he starts talking normally
Was he trained by a guy named Mr. Wizard?
@@Eshiay lol that's hilarious
Now all I can think of is Treebeard from LOTR. "Don't be hasty"
Co-worker: "Hey, what ya watching?"
Me: "Dungeon Dudes!"
Co-worker: backs away cautiously
Me: "It's not what you think!"
in the wise words of matt mercer - "that is why one prepares for interchangeability"
I was gonna like the comment but it's at 69, so I can't
@@thomasbdugan come back
@@Hazel-xl8in Yeah we need to get it up to 669 now.
LOL! Thankfully not the same as Dudes and Dungeons. 🤣
My doods, Grung Battlerager Barbarian with a strength bonus and being a pugilist or grapple master = Battletoads!
I would allow it
@@panwall1327 I made it prior to Tasha's, so before I could give him the strength boost. Haven't played it yet, but the combos are potentially ridiculous. Spiked armor works with the Grung's poisoning ability to add poison damage. Grappling causes skin contact causing your victim to make saves vs poisoned condition plus damage from the spiked armor. If they fail the save, they get disadvantaged to escape the grapple and you get advantage to grapple while raging, so it's almost impossible for them to escape. Grapple Master feat gives advantage to attacks against any creature you're grappling. So much synergy and thematically awesome! I really want to play it.
Your character prety much a Toxicroak.
I’ve rolled up a grung rune knight with the same intent, except they get to become large
@@mojorn8837 lol was just talking with my DM about it last night and he suggest adding some levels of Rune Knight to get that ability.
I was considering a mountain dwarf with most of their extra proficiencies swapped out for more tools; "If you name it, I can build it" can be a fun part of a character of just about any class. Turn it up to 11 by playing an Artificer...
i let one of my players do that, a mountain dwarf rogue had zero use for the armor and weapons training so yeah they got a fistful of tools to fuck around with
I made a future Psi Warrior doing exactly this. He was raised and educated by a rogue mind flayer who rescued him from ceremorphosis, so most of his dwarven training(armor and weapon proficiencies specifcally) has been replaced with a pile of tool proficiencies to help represent his different upbringing. Really looking forward to the campaign I eventually use him in.
@@sixofone8663 As a DM I'm more likely to allow exceptions and optional rules if they mostly add to characterization and out-of-combat utility; tool proficiencies tend to fall into that category, especially once you already have a few. Since proficiencies in particular represent personal history/experience/training, there are all sorts of ways that a character with non-default proficiencies would make sense (e.g. the backstory @y2a1979 came up with here). Now I kinda want to see a mountain dwarf clan historian/loremaster/cultivator of traditional arts, done as at least partially a College of Lore bard with an excessive number of skill and tool proficiencies. Focus spell choices on knowledge and craftsmanship to really have the character make sense...
Yeah, this is one of my favorite ideas too. Mountain Dwarf Artificer is just sooooo insane with the potential tools
I was building a mountain dwarf. Decide for a bard and remove the weapons and armor and now she has high char and dex and 15 int so she can get bussy with any kind of kit or tool. We are gonna have fun
Tortle, draconic ancestry sorcerer is a mood
20 AC ???? better than real dragon's
Dragon Tortle, its time to hit the seas.
BOWSER?¡
@@ggogaming7441 AC calcs don’t stack, my guy. Nice try, though.
@@MM-lv7iy that just sad
well get a shield to be 19AC and a ring of protection+ Defense for an 21AC That more than a Red dragon AC
I can now legally play the SWOLBOLD
Pack tactics? More like PACK ON DA MUSCLES
I was hesitant at first, but once I really read it and wrapped my head around it I really turned around. Most of the flavor in a character is how you role play it. Just opens up the options and that's not a bad thing. PCs are supposed to be exceptional individuals.
What I like is that you are not limited in what race you have to play to play a particular class. I like how it only changed ability scores and proficiencies, both things that you would not be born in it
@@thetwizard9290 i like the versatility of that, but i also think that the reason behind is a little bit wrong, cos of course you nor i born with "ability scores" defined, but when we talk about species is a little bit different, I mean, for me, is completely natural that a specie like tabaxi, be more agile than a human, so a dex bonus is something natural, so it is for a minotaur to have more strenght that a human (or a feline like the tabaxi). for me is fine, is a game, you can make whatever you want, but i think the hability score bonuses are more biological, and then the words race and species get mixed
@@rubenmunoz2912 NPCs of those races don’t get those bonuses. This is because it is not something that those people are born with, just what adventurers get to push them towards a particular architipe, and they get it because of how they were raised, not from birth. That’s how I view it anyway.
Edit: obviously everyone is free to change how they view ability score bonuses from races in their own way. One thing I would like to mention is that most playable races would be races, not species, since many can breed, or a least breed with a race that can breed, with each other
Why is the Satyr is always forgotten? They also get magic resistance and have a base speed of 35ft. That’s pretty amazing!
They are also a "fey" and not a "humanoid", so they are immune against spells that target only humanoids such as Hold Person.
I rule that any race with magic resistance doesnt.
Dude, and with the new Ranger's increased speed, you'll be as fast as an animal.
@@gordonross3270 Do you give them something to compensate?
@@hewhogoesbymanynames no. They are plenty good without it. With elemental resistance or a base 35 speed plus extra proficiency.
Loving my half orc armorer artificer. That relentless endurance has been a godsend in my ability to tank with only a d8 hit die, especially at early levels.
Yeah Relentless Endurance is the reason why my Warlock is a Half-Orc too... I called him Oscar, after realising the potential.
His Patron is a Devil and he has fallen in love with the Devils Daughter.
So he is basically some commoner Half-Orc who is in love with this daughter of a powerful Trademaker. As I realised how close it was, I had to call him Oscar.
His true Love wrote a book about them, to tell the whole world that she loved him.
But he still isn't happy about the title... Tusk Love.
My Half-Orc Sorcerer was okay with the normal rules, +2 STR gave me a dump stat and she used CHA to prove that strength isn't always "ME HIT HARD!"
I had this same experience with my dragonborn warlock.
About to start playing a Warforged Order of Scribes wizard. Sentry’s Rest + Find Familiar means I can read books all night long and take solo watches for an entire night. Not to mention I get to build a mini me that I can talk to while lonely
I love the way the new rules encourage you to look at the traits that are not ability score increases or specific proficiencies when coming up with a character concept. One of my new favorite characters is the half-orc armorer or battle smith because of what relentless endurance and savage attacks do when paired with those subclasses.
That's a great point! It really helps expand the possible combinations and center traits or abilities that have more roleplay opportunity than the number.
On the subject of a Tiefling using these rules, I created a Zariel bloodline Tiefling who's parentage comes from a Spine devil. I swapped the Charisma for the Strength, and the Strength for Wisdom and made a Strength Based monk (Path of the Living Weapon from Exploring Eberron) that can using smite spells. He's that giant, muscular, powerful martial artists that utilizes solid foundation and Hung Gar kung fu-style strikes with fists like actual adamantine which gives him a very different play style that is more aggressive, more linear in terms of his movements.
its funny, I built a mountain dwarf as a sorcerer even before tashas cauldron. basically a mountain dwarf who grew up expecting to be a fighter, but wound up with wild magic. an angry small woman who can wear armour and smash things with a hammer, and is tired of having fireballs center on herself
Started my first campaign. My character is a spore druid. He spent years cultivating various plants and fungi on his skin but one tries to overtake his mind. So my goal is to get rid of it without killing the other plants he considers family.
My group responded positively to my backstory. It's been a lot of fun, my dm voices the evil mushroom pusing me towards evil.
Dude that's awesome. I'm also playing a spore druid with a fungus trying to take over their mind (or fuse with it), and it's at a point where they kind of think in unison, referring to themself as "we" and "us", and when they disagree with each other they get all wonky.
Here's to sentient fungus.
A flying Tempest Cleric does sound very scary
i wonder how the fly speed capstone would interact with your wings. as a DM, my instinct (and what i’m scared of) is to make it become a faster fly speed, but idk
@@Hazel-xl8in I would also say just add it or add half, like how Gloomstalkers gain darkvision at lvl3 with Umbral Sight
@cak01vej maybe your pixies don’t fly faster, but i would certainly expect a pixie in my world that was also wearing a pair of winged boots to be the fastest thing you’d ever seen
@cak01vej I'm thinking because it's not everyday you get to play a lvl20 campaign, I'm gonna give my players as much as I can without being too broken. Especially because of how fast you have to actually move to fly in real life, it would make sense that you can cover way more ground in one turn by flying.
I've found that in my groups, playing a less optimal race/class combo has not been a big deal. I'm playing a Dwarven diviner in one campaign, and have not had a problem with the effective -1 to my primary stat bonus. However, there are two caveats: 1) The group is fairly large, so my minor drawback's impact is spread out over the team and 2) the campaign, a fantasy-Victorian setting in which we are investigators, makes the advantages of a diviner strong enough to make the lack of bonus to Int score much less relevant.
That said, when Tasha's came out, I asked the DM if I could swap his Strength bonus out for Int, per the rules in Tasha's. Not because I wanted that +1 bonus to my rolls, but because the character's backstory worked better with those bonuses. He was an academic who had never been a soldier nor trained to be one. His role with law enforcement is as an Inspector, not a guard or other combat oriented character. It just made more sense. I like the archetypes being there; players new to fantasy RPGs might be too lost among the options if there aren't a few tried-and-true characters to fall back on. At the same time, these new options stress to those same players that archetypes are a guide, not a law. You can have fun ideas that break the mold, and NPC's can be very different than their societies. I was very happy with these rules and implemented them in my campaign right away.
Yeah, I tend to roll my eyes on people who use the TCoE rules for more power, but I love how they let you make the characters mechanically closer to what makes sense for their personality and history.
i agree, the RP advantage outweighs any minor mechanical issues.
I like how this allows players to play more offbeat race-class combinations without feeling penalized, but I do worry that it also tends to take some of the flavor away from races. For my next campaign I've decided to allow my players to move one of the stat increases, but not both. (or in the case of a half elf, they can move the all, since 2 are already a choice. For a Triton, I'd say they could move 2 of the 3 +1s, but let's be real - nobody plays Tritons.)
Of course, I always thought it was fun to play offbeat combos even before this change. My last character was a Halfling Wizard.
I suppose it depends on whether you see the 'racial' stats modifiers as inherent to that race/species or as because the members of that race train those stats. I mean, it's not unreasonable to say that half-orcs' STR boost is inherent, that typical members of that species are stronger than typical humans because of their physiology. Then again, it's also not unreasonable to say that average members of that species are strong compared to average humans simply because they live in a culture that values physical strength and thus they train vigorously to a greater extent. I suppose what I'm saying is that it comes down to whether you see stats as nature, nurture, or a combination of both. Your option of allowing one stat to shift suggests perhaps in your game world, it's a bit of both.
@@BlueTressym yeah, it's fine to think of it either way, but I like the notion that the different races do have some predispositions, whether genetic or cultural.
I think there's room for any of these approaches in any given campaign setting, and I may choose a different approach in a future campaign.
@@Brashnir I think as long as you can create a backstory that justifies the change, it's fine. Why did your mountain dwarf turn to scholarly pursuits instead of following the clan traditions (to switch from STR to INT), and who was their tutor?
There can definitely be a nature vs. nurture discussion, but I agree that there should still be some racial and cultural flavorings that reflect the worlds the characters live in.
Ability scores are not as worrisome to me as the skill and proficiency changes.
@@BlueTressym Even if you view the bonuses as inherent moving them can still make sense. Because X race has a bonus to Y stat the can coast by on genetics and spend more time focusing on Z stat instead.
I feel like this reduces the concept of an off-beat character concept. If you can move the con bonus from a dwarf elsewhere, the association of dwarves as tough gets weakened. It makes me think of my mom's doberman and my mini dachshund; I love my dachshund, but there's no way an average dachshund will be as tough, strong, or agile as a doberman. It's just not in the genetics or body shape/size.
These rules gives a second life to dragonborn.
Rogue Dragonborn can now exist
Wildmount gave a second life to Dragonborn
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar that was a good try from them, clearly in the good direction but still a lackluster race (only on a mecanical point of view for sure).
I'm glad that many players are happy about this. I'm still having trouble accepting the idea of a halfling with a STR 20 in a non-comedy game. And I've played and enjoyed strength-based halflings with the realistic limitations of their stature.
You could still have a 20 str handling before tashas, it would just take 1 more asi to do so.
@@matthewparker9276 I'm not sure you can manage that until you hit level 8 (unless I'm wrong, and I may be, no halfling subrace gets a Str bonus). But now you can come out of the gate with it (take that +2 from Dex and put it on Str). I know it's still illogical either way, but I can accept an 8th level chatter having inhuman abilities more easily (for some reason).
Looks like I can fully realize my beastly socially anxious tiefling druid. Now, I just need a stable gaming group...
The cool thing is that with Tieflings they don’t need to be demons or devils, you could make a rashkasha or Medusa Tiefling.
@@acarnivorouslizardfolk1033 well thats scary now
@@cesargeney5268 a little. I think if you look for it, you can find art for Rashkasa Tieflings.
@@acarnivorouslizardfolk1033 thats gonna be some cool backstory
@@cesargeney5268 indeed! Hope I could help some people.
5:10 What really interests me are the loxodons. 1) elephant people are really cool, and i can't se a way for it not to be awesome. 2) your constitution based unarmored defence matches super well with your constitution for concentration.
This did benefit my character a bit in that I finally had an "official" means by which my half-Orc, half-Halfling could speak Halfling but not Orcish. Otherwise I'm of mixed opinion: on one hand it gives players a means to reflect that their character is a unique individual for their species, maybe what prompts them to leave home and pursue a life of adventure. On the other hand, it means certain players will try to min-max their species of choice into a role they're commonly not suited to, sacrificing that potential for character growth
I've ALWAYS been fascinated with the idea of an Elf Barbarian, just...imagine how epic the rage of such a LONG-LIVED creature must be, how much of a grudge can they keep? how much they remember of entire lifetimes of being wronged?
Also totally Agree that a Mountain Dwarf Rogue would be fun as hell to play, you could literaly make him an exile of his clan that gave up on his own customs and picked up his rogue-ish abilities to survive as a "Clanless" Dwarf all on his own!
The Unexpectables have given Tortles some decent love, but I look froward to seeing them more now!
My very first 5e character was a Tortle fighter at an adventurer's league event! Now they're so much more flexible.
Only from a strict optimization viewpoint. You lose the against type RP advantage and party race and class diversity. All races can now be of maximum mechanical synergy with all classes. This favors races that have a total of +4 to stats. The variant human feat advantage is now of less advantage since they get a total of + 2 stat bonus with no racial advantage of versatility that other races also have.
Thanks to that new feat, I'm currently playing a Halfling Barbarian in one of my tables (Path of the Beast).
This means one of my Dragonborn family tree is going to grow now a lot more . Also a Dragonborn Monk (+2 dexterity and +1 Wisdom) with a draconic Breath and resist to the type of damage picked with the the draconic breath
The way Kelly says Firbolg has me laughing. I currently play a eldritch knight firbolg and its amazing and super fun
It's almost as bad as the way Monty said Genasi.
that would be a fun character. A rune knight would have been fun too
@@Observer31 Thurnden is his name and he is a blast to play.
@@thomasowen3678 Except they pronounced them correctly. There is a pronunciation guide.
As a DM, I see the system as a useful tool to tweak a race (or build new ones) for my campaign worlds.
For players, I see this as a great opportunity to min-max. At what point do we just say all races are the same and give more ability points? I have a player playing a half-orc sorcerer. He invested heavily in CHA since he had no racial mod for it and will sink points from ASIs into it, but he's finding playing against type rewarding. He doesn't need to be optimized.
It's possible that you've just described the core of 6th Edition Dungeons & Dragons.
Late comment, but this is my issue; if any race can fill any role, then what makes any of them unique.
@@SomeDigitalGhost races have traits beyond their stats and proficiencies
@@TheArtistKnownAsNooblet You lose them when you use Tasha's rules.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who has the concept for a mountain dwarf abjurer running around in my mind.
I've always wanted to make like an Izaya Orihara-type character, and I've always seen it as a Yuan-ti mastermind rogue. Well, now it's actually that tad bit easier to work with since you can put that +2 into dexterity, and possibly move that +1 into wisdom or charisma. Izaya is smart, yes, but most of his knowledge and technique come from cleaver decision making and social networking, so insight and deception would probably be more important to this character than investigation or history.
I've been playing a drow paladin and it's absolutely fantastic. I absolutely love the badass warrior elf idea.
Since you traveled far afield, I'm surprised no mention of Tritons. Putting three +1s anywhere is good for MAD builds; they have innate spell casting; with the new errata, they have cold damage resistance; have darkvision and can breathe underwater; and have limited Aquaman talk-with-sea-creature powers. A good package anywhere, but great in naval or even arctic campaigns like Rime of the Frostmaiden.
Finally! Variant human isn't the king of everything when you aren't sure of what Race to play
I think I've made more dragonmark humans than variant humans honestly, simply for the flavor
My current character is a Hill Dwarf built with Tasha's rules. I made him an arcane trickster rogue multiclassed with artificer (a +1 rapier and bag of holding at level 2 artificer plus two cantrips and three first level spells? Yes please). He's got a +2 to dexterity and +1 to intelligence, but he also gets one extra point of health with every level, along with dark vision and resistance to poison. Plus, I played around with the ability to swap out weapon and tool proficiencies. My new dwarf rogue "dumped" strength, so having proficiency with warhammer and battleaxe didn't make much sense. So I swapped out one of them for the longbow. And since rogues already get proficiency with simple weapons, I swapped out the two simple weapons proficiencies from dwarf (hand axe and hammer) and the remaining martial weapon for toolsets. That's three tools, plus the one toolset as a dwarf (which I also swapped out), one toolset from rogue, two from my background, and one more as an artificer, I suddenly had a level 2 character who was proficient in eight different toolsets... which will grow to nine when/if I take a third level of artificer (currently Rogue3/Artificer2, but I want to build up rogue for a bit). For the record, my character is proficient with calligraphy supplies, cobbler's tools, cooking utensils, disguise kit, forgery kit, leatherworker's tools, thieves tools, and tinkerers tools. And if I take a third level of artificer, he will add smith's tools to the list. I don't know if that's min/maxing or just being silly, but I love that my character has so many skillsets at his disposal.
Wow, tinker tailor -soldier- spy, indeed
I’m interested in where Wildfire and Stars would fit on your Druid tier list. Whenever I finally get to play again I’m looking at a Star Druid.
Star druid is B tier levels 1-9, then at 10 and onwards it’s a straight up S tier. Just my personal take on it, without having played or seen it in play (Disclaimer).
@@eran5005 it seemed pretty strong, especially with the added tankiness in star form.
I have just started a campaign with 4 level 3 characters, one of whom is a star druid. The bonus action attack from starry form makes it seriously powerful at that level, and all three other players felt underpowered. (And the guiding bolts, and guidance!) I think the reaction from the star map will be really impactful in terms of action economy, too. I would highly recommend it, from my perspective as DM it feels like A tier at least.
The other thing that I really like about it is it lets you swap the proficiencies too for other things of similar abilities. A lot of race / class combos had overlap there with weapons especially where elves get a bunch of simple and some martial weapons that tons of classes just get for free and now you could say oh I picked up this tool or different weapon you might have wanted. Or swapping a skill you didn't really want for another you did. Tools I think are a generally underutilized part of the game and can be fun to work with when you have them!
Changeling abilities granted through Draconic Ancestry for a sorcerer specializing in Subtle Spell, enchantment spells, and proficient in deception and insight?
The all-time slimiest Used Car(t) Salesman in your campaign setting.
Next npc found
I’ve played a mountain dwarf abjurer wizard years ago. He was the second tankiest in the party after the barbarian (because of their rage). Not being as naturally intelligent as a gnome didn’t affect him that much
The ability score switching isn’t something at my table. The other background skills and features, yes because those are how you are raised. Learning a language isn’t genetic, but ability scores are. You could always play these options before but you just weren’t as good as a race that genetically has that. A halfling isn’t gonna be as strong as a Goliath. However, I also use a slightly modified standard array or my players roll, plus every ASI grants them a +1 AND a feat. So you can build up your power and overcome your handicaps. This altered rule just leans into min/maxing even more
Professor Dungeon Master on dungeon craft with his +1 vest of comment deflection also has a great take on this. Great video gentleman!! 😊
He is less happy about the whole thing though :P
I have to say I agree with most of his points.
Wait, which is the not gentle one? Lol
This opens up the potential for some really interesting character concepts and I’m looking forward to seeing what people bring to the table.
I think this video captures my concerns about the optional ancestry rules. They are really rules that exist due to the tendency toward optimization and push certain ancestries, that were already better than others, even further beyond. You even noted this point with the Yuan-ti. I worry that mechanics have been put so far in the forefront that players believe anything less than an optimal character is unacceptable and that this, in turn, limits the scope of roleplay a bit. There is nothing wrong with optimization but as an MMO veteran I worry about the the proliferation of discussions that label certain ancestries as bad (because they offer fewer features) and others as good (because they offer more features). Of course playing a wizard with 8 int at lv 1 is not better or more noble than playing a wizard with 18 int at lv 1, but I think too many players get hung up on stats, especially considering how player friendly 5th edition is. Finally, I worry that ancestry will become a cosmetic choice with no real impact beyond physical features and life span.
You have noted in another response that these rules are optional, and that is of course true. Still, I think it is fair to discuss the merits and differing views surrounding these system changes. Thanks for the videos and good luck in all future endeavors!
I do have to ask though. Is creating races as only a cosmetic choice a bad thing? I mean I prefer it when the classes have most of the interesting mechanical choices since those might be the reasons you play the classes.
Some of the options like yuan ti have always been too good and for the tables that don't like how strong their features are, I see them banned. But if we were to make it a cosmetic choice only then there would be no reason to ban them at all except for story reasons with the DMs world.
@Sean Havern This. This comment is not rated enough, and I would like to like it 2000 times. Two weeks ago I was speaking with a player of mine, and he said that he felt "obliged" to take a +2 every 4th level, instead of taking a feat, because abilities are the most important thing. This kind of thinking made me realize that players are becoming all min/maxers, unfortunately, and Tasha has only worsened this attitude.
@@chrisvelo2595 I personally do not like ancestry being reduced to a cosmetic choice because I think it removes something from the game and ignores the real differences that exist amongst the ancestries. This process of reducing to cosmetic could be finished by removing the features from certain races, but that again is placing mechanics over immersion/role play and in my opinion that is undesirable.
Of course I understand some folks do not agree with the above concerns and I think WotC was right to make these ancestry options optional. Good luck in all your gaming.
@@kazebaret And I have no inherent problem with Min/Maxers, I think highly competent characters can be great, but I lament players feeling like they have to optimize because frankly, 5e does not require optimization. It is very player friendly unless you are playing at a table where all encounters are deadly. And even deadly encounters are really not that threatening when you have spells and other tools available.
Again, I do not think you are a "good player" if you play a bard with 8 charisma, but I do not think players should feel bad about playing a dwarf wizard or elf barbarian. I chafe at the language that Tasha's "finally allows you to play an Orc Wizard." That statement is just false, it allows you to more easily optimize an Orc Wizard.
@@seanhavern2384 And especially in 5e where the abilities are capped. As far as I've seen, this problem stems out of the 3e (I'm a 1st ed player and it was not at issue at all), and I really have no idea if it can be mitigated, or solved. Don't get me wrong: I love 5e, but it is becoming less "D&D" and more "board game" with the passing of time.
With the custom origin, you can now play an aaracokra that doesn’t have a flying speed, which is great because so many DMs don’t allow the aaracokra normally.
Also: Flightless birds
I like that I can play a Dragonborn without the terrible breath weapon or sometimes useless strength bonus.
Dragonborn get the Breath Weapon no matter what you know
It's a racial thing
Might as well play a Lizardfolk then
Because it's not really a *Dragonborn* without probably the most iconic Dragon thing to do
*Blasting Elemental magic out of your face*
@@ancientreddragon5617 They keep the breath weapon if you use custom lineage?
@@LordTonzilla Yes they do
The custom lineage only applies to the Ability Score Improvements
Not the innate racial abilities of a race
Like Elves, Tieflings, or Half Orcs can't just lose their Darkvision
Aasimar and Aracockras can't loose their wings
And so on and so forth
@@ancientreddragon5617 nope, I think he meant the custom lineage, where you create your own race with a feat and +2, therefore he can make it look like a Dragonborn and have a feat instead of a +1 strength and a breath weapon
I do wonder if the Custom Origins does allow you to take race feats
my first ever character was a tiefling noble BM fighter. I'm going to play her again soon, so now i don't have to worry about having a low strength score when i take polearm master + sentinel
She's going to be amazing!
the changling are now super powerful.
they can now have an 18 in any ability + shapechange at level 1
There was an errata last year where they changed that. Now you have a +2 and a +1 but they have to be on different abilities.
@@hellishrebuke8169 the changeling is different it has a +2 charisma and the other ability is a +1 to any ability. (this is different from the half elf and human features that have a +1 or 2 +1s to any ability) in other words the changiling feature of +1 to any ability is similar to the free feat that variant humans get or the the tortis AC or the flying of the arrakroca.
@@Greginda11 it used to work like that, but M M is correct, Wizards of the Coast issued an official errata changing it to work like all the other races last year. Some DM's might still let you though, and either way it's still powerful!
I've been wanting to play a lightfoot halfling arcane trickster 9/bladesinger X since Tasha's was released. Magical Ambush + Naturally Stealthy + Cunning Action Hide is just such an insanely OP combo.
I was playing an aarakocra barbarian in a game before tashas came out. I'm so interested in revisiting that with tashas rules now. it was fun cause I had a reach weapon with polearm mastery, so I was flying & had reach. no melee could hit me
How does that work, do you hold and use the weapon with your bird feet?
@@GrassPokeKing they have arms
Dustin Fabricante Oh, was I thinking of the Kenku?
Wood Elf Barbarian of the Eagle Totem has always been one of my favorite 5e combinations. And this makes it so much more viable.
I suspect we will see a lot of Hill Dwarf Sorcerers
Or surprisingly tortles since they have a high natural ac
We already had a Mountain Dwarf sorcerer in our Curse of Strahd campaign, and he was mad powerful even without changing his stat bonuses
I’ve done this before. He was a blue draconic sorcerer that used shocking grasp primarily (Lightning Palm Monk). But with the racial +1, draconic bloodline +1, CON bonus, and Tough feat, I wasn’t that worried about being on the frontline as a sorcerer
Imagine a hill dwarf Paladin with +2 str and +1 cha. You can get your spellcasting ability up higher without giving up as much con.
@@chrisvelo2595 yes, a Tortle sorcerer would be strong, but also think of a Loxodon sorcerer, whose AC is based on their con. If you played a Loxodon divine soul sorcerer, you could have your character involved with Hollyphaunts!
This is such cool content. Im glad you two are here to deconstruct this d&d stuff
Made a sailor background aarokocra barbarian, angry seagull
Have been wondering if i could make him a goose
Check out Goonie Birds or Blue Footed Boobies
I saw a parrot aarakocra in a pirate game once. Pretty cool
The goose would obviously be a rogue.
I love homebrewing subclasses, so I find myself always lining up all subclasses of a certain class together and analyzing their similarities to figure out how to create a balanced homebrew subclass. I think it would make a great series if you can go over each class, and inspect how its subclasses function in order to give a good guide to dungeon masters on how to homebrew a balanced subclasses for each class.
Your work always inspires me to express my creativity in this game 😊
Finally, now everything is a better human
Why play human when all races can use the custom lineage and get that tasty feat.
Free lv1 feat for Gloom Stalker, Shadow Sorc, Twilight Cleric, or Devil Sight Warlock still very good tho. And there also some group who play human-only campaign.
Nice to learn your thoughts about all of these options, including the cautions about power creep and other issues
16:30 - made me wonder about the possibilities for developing more about those tortles in the sewers of Drakkenheim
The only difference between Variant Human and Custom Lineage is a skill or darkvision
Not the only difference. Custom lineage allows a player who takes a half feat to start the game with an 18 in their primary stat when using the standard array
NO! Using point buy, +2 +1 ability from a feat means that you can get an 18 at level 1. Your other abilities might be lower, but the 18 starting stat means they are significantly more powerful if you're trying to min/max. You can GWM with an 18 at level 4. No other race lets you do this.
Your excitement on this subject is infectious and now I'm excited lol
Hands down one of my single favorite aspects of Tasha.
It really is, even though a lot of groups have been doing it already, it is amazing to have it in an official book.
@@ryanulrich2147 For sure. It's nice to have Official rules for it.
That's great news about your Drakkenheim book! Nice to see somebody actually excited about Tasha's. Between people saying we've been doing this for years so it doesn't matter or saying it's power creep that is ruining the game (sometimes in the same breath), the online reaction hasn't been as enthusiastic as I've felt it should be. I'm more determined than ever now to try out my Kobold barbarian.
I like playing characters that aren't optimised. It's what makes the role-playing fun. Having to over come your shortcomings.
@@Dezbood completely agree. I've ran halfling barbarians. They're not meant to be a strong race. They turn out quite mediocre where you end up dumping your crap stat rolls into your racial bumped stats. Doesn't mean they aren't fun. All races can have any class. Doesn't mean they have to be brilliant at it.
ua-cam.com/video/8fKKyaaQE3Q/v-deo.html i cant disagree more with you Ross Diggle
@@Maximum7077 I can't disagree more with your disagreement theboredone
@@rossdiggle yeah, it makes sense that different dnd races are in fact different. If you put an average goliath in a wrestling match against the average halfling, one is gonna have better odds of winning. I feel like this origins rule only enables greater min maxing, not greater story telling.
@@aethon0563 i don't think so, i really like the idea of people that deviate from average. Like the orc that was smarter than normal, but he was weak, and became an outcast. So he tried to enter the academy so he can be stronger on he's own way.
Currently playing a Firbolg divine soul Sorcerer Tasha came out as we hit 10th lvl and your vids have been a great resource
With the whole Customizing Origins, one could look at it as a way of making Custom Subraces, like say making a Tabaxi, normally a dexterous/charismatic race, to be more stronger/hearty, like a Leonin. Or, likewise, make the Leonin more Charismatic - can you say, Lion King?
As for Custom Lineage, great way to make a homebrew race that you just can't otherwise get, even by reskinning existing races/subraces.
Or bringing back races that shouldn't have lost playable status in the first place. Yes I'm still upset the Lupines lost their playable status after 3E ended.
@@derrickhaggard Well, for the Lupin, you might get something fairly close simply by reskinning a Tabaxi, although one might want to replace Stealth with Survival, and keep Perception, and move stat adjustment where applicable.
@@lockwoan01 That's true due especially given the Lupines' backstory, and nature.
@@derrickhaggard Only thing that might be out of character is a Tabaxi's climb speed on the Lupin, but even that could be worked in as a culture that prizes physical fitness.
@@lockwoan01 Correct especially since the Lupine race was known for producing most of Mysteria's best soldiers, guards, trackers, and hunters/huntresses meaning this human/wolf hybrid race was known for seeing being physically fit as a good thing for both males, and females. So the climbing speed actually fits for the Lupine due to the race being a culture that prized physical fitness.
Hobgoblin rogue with that saving face ability to gain a +5 on an attack roll is nice for more likely sneak attack.
Aasimar war cleric, for extra crusading.
Half-orc wizard for that relentless endurance.
Warforged. Any warforged is now stronger as whatever class you choose.
I love this interpretation of the rules!! I've seen too many people being angry about the race thing seeing it as a statement about race when it just let's you make more incredible characters!!
Totally agree! Great for the game.
The first thing I thought of when you guys mentioned Aaracokra was an Aaracokra armorer artificer. Literally just a Chozo in flying Power Armor.
The downside is that you can't wear medium or heavy armor as an aarakocra if you want to fly
Only Power Gamers and Min/Maxers needed this. the rest of us like to use the old rules to spice up the story! #BigBrainTime
Quiet Patrick, you're scaring him!
I had an idea for a tiefling PC that is descended from arcanaloths, not demons or devils. His features would be quite canine, and these new rules really open things up.
I have homebrewed some alterations to the ability swaps.
Lets say you get +2 strength and +1 intelligence
You can swap within the physical abilities, and swap within the mental abilities, but not between them
So you could make the scores +2 dex and +1 charisma, but not +2 charisma and +1 dex
This still keeps quite a abit of the flavour for races while allowing you a better ability spread
Oh that is a cool idea.
yea i prefer something like this to the nonsense that completely malleable ability scores brings with it
Some times playing a race that isn't optimal is more fun. I have a goliath sorlock who's so much fun to play the ability to stand on the front line and firing a lightning bolt right into the face of the villains or using his greatclub with greenflame blade to do over 30 damage is so much fun.
i agree, same feeling with my goblin barbarian. i might not have the highest strength possible but thats just part of being a goblin and that makes the character more interesting to play lol
Yes the dwarf battle wizard who uses magic if his weapons are stolen and weapons in an antimagic zone
I think it would be fun to play in a party of all Mountain Dwarves with each maximized for their class. A fighter, a wizard, a cleric, a bard, and a warlock. With all of them armed with battleaxes and medium armor, their opponents would be surprised when the magic started flying!
Exactly, a party of all mountain dwarves is the most powerful party. Now that race is meaningless, everyone will gravitate to this race or a few other powerful options, like yuan it, etc certainly humans which previously had two floating stat bonuses because they were so ‘versatile’ which made up for their lack of dark vision and many other abilities, common to the other races, is now at the lowest rung on choice of race.
I would like to play a drow light cleric of Eilistraee, and this certainly helps.
Edit: Make that a twilight cleric instead.
Twilight/Nature cleric is very good for Eilistraee as well
@@jackdizzy123 Twilight is also pretty cool. Might play that instead depending on the rest of the party. I still would like to focus on spellcasting though, so I would swap out Divine Strike for Blessed Strikes.
@@TheHornedKing that's fair. The Twilight Cleric's channel divinity is also very useful for a drow, because you won't have disadvantage on attacks within it's radius of 30 ft, and you can get free healing without healing the enemy
@@jackdizzy123 Having looked into it a bit more, I'm actually starting lean more towards the twilight domain now. And you make a good point about how the channel divinity helps with the drow's sunlight sensitivity.
@@TheHornedKing no problem, just helping a fellow nerd brainstorm
This session was great. I'm just getting back into the game after 35 years. Playing a half Drow half East Asian Human bard. This vid helped me think more about the value of a cool character origin.
So hear me out:
A Yuan-Ti Totem Barbarian.
• Resist to all magic
• Resistance to everything else except psychic damage while raging.
At level fucking 3.
Oh no look at all them mind flayers over there
@@hellishrebuke8169 Because we all know how regular of an enemy mindflayers are.
@@dist0rt3dhum0r they are now.
@@iododendron3416 Right, because that's definitely how a good DM takes care of that kind of thing.
That's when you up the challenge by using min/maxed enemies, like casters smart enough to use effects that aren't bothered by your resistances as much(Web, nearly any spell causing difficult terrain, using Fly and/or other movement options to stay out of range until the rage ends, and so on), or by hiring their own barbarians to fight you. Or perhaps their new bodyguard is a Psi Warrior fighter. The combo is certainly potent, but anything has one or more potential counters if you look hard enough.
I like the potential of the custom origin for expanding on half-races. Currently there's only half elves and half orcs, but using Tasha's, I was able to create a half-goliath, half-tiefling character, where I still used a base goliath, but was able to customize it to reflect her tiefling heritage as well
Ok you have my attention, tell me more about this half goliath half tiefling. Both lore wise and mechanically
@@EdsonR13 Lorewise, I just decided that the tiefling mother was an outlander fighter who made it her duty protect villages to the north. The goliath father was a blacksmith in one of those villages. They had a thing, which resulted in the birth of my character, and then they parted ways amicably.
Mechanically, well... that might break the PG-13 barrier, but it's not like the races are *that* different ;)
@@autumngerfen5746 lol, by mechanically I meant what abilities did your character inherit from each parent from a game side
@@EdsonR13 Oops! I built her as a baseline goliath, so she gets all the goliath traits, but I switched out the ability score and languages, so she would pull from the tiefling languages and ability scores instead of the goliath. Looks-wise, she looks like a beefy giant tiefling, but a rather small goliath
@@autumngerfen5746 that sounds pretty cool 😁
Is there an official d&d pronunciation guide somewhere? From time to time I get caught totally off guard by the ways people pronounce things differently than me.
Today it was Genasi.
Genasi are genie people. Jinn-ah-si.
A surprising number of people have not made the connection, even though that is the whole point of the race. Grumble grumble.
There were a lot of weird pronunciations in this one.
DND Beyond includes audio pronunciations of most D&D terms. Including Genasi.
@@Capt.Thunder The problems of using a language that uses the same letter for multiple sounds. It bothers me when people refuse to pronounce things correctly like Nerdarchy with artificer or most people with mana.
@@robinthrush9672 I'm pretty sure that you can blame the Normans for most of it, bringing their wicked French ways with them, obviously.
I play a Drow, prior to Tasha’s, that is a Barbarian with less STR (10) than most make Barbarians with. Plus, he has a little spell casting ability from being a drow. He survived an all out assault upon his House and escaped to the wilderness of the underdark and Chaotic Neutral. I focused the Point Buy into his Dex, Con, WIS, and Cha. When I get to play vs DMing, he is a lot of fun to play.
I don't think this really opened many doors for me; I was the person that made a halfling barbarian anyways.
Dex based barbarians are amazing. Wood Elves and Halflings are my go to races under the normal rules for barbarians and I almost always choose the totem of the eagle or the wolf with dex based barbs.
Minotaur Monk is awesome. The horns ability boosts that unarmed attack for the first few levels, and adds some damage when you dash.
I don't want my orc wizard to be "equally capable" of an elven wizard.
That's the whole point of choosing a different race.
@LP Gaming Yes, you get it too!
Races are different, they aren't supposed to play equally!
So your player comes up to you and says. I want to play an orc, outcast from their orc society, taken in by an old wizard, and from a young age was isolated from the other orcs and instead studied under a great elven wizard master, who eventually died, now my orc, educated and alone, sets out on their masters final quest. An odd ball amongst the orc people, but arguably the smartest orc around.
And you say.... no, sorry, orcs are dumb, you can’t play that.
Why?
@@DungeonDudes No,no. You got it wrong.
That seems a good concept for a character.
You'll still get your STR and CON bonuses, because your race is not thin water.
You'll have 15 INT and be dumber than your adoptive elven brother with 17, because elves are smarter than orcs.
@LP Gaming What you just wrote makes no sense.
If you come from a race widely known for be hardy and strong, you probably are hardy and strong, not smart.
Sure, you CAN be smart.
But the one from the race that's known to be smart? Beats you at chess. Because blood is thicker than water.
@LP Gaming Except the fact that without a tapetum lucidum, or the equivalent, there's NO WAY humans can see in the darkness;
without a denser bone and muscle structure, an elf will never lift as much as an orc or a goliath,
without retractable claws, there's no way a gnome will have a natural attack.
Are you telling me IRL there's no tendency? Blacks run fast, asians are smart, inuits resist cold climates, peruvians resist altitude. Look at the statistics. This is nature and it clearly shows the result.
Really want to know where Kelly got his gemed wrist band from! Only major concern I see in these new rules is your table might end up being less diverse across the parties races, should everyone try to min max. But I think most people will still play what they want to.
Exactly, everyone will play mountain dwarves and a party of five dwarves instead of a diverse assortment of races will likely be the end result, since there is no advantage to playing a human whose racial characteristic was being more versatile with 2 floating +1 stat bonuses is now a moot point. A puny feat that one can gain at 3rd or 5th level doesn’t balance out against all the abilities of dwarves, say 2 floating plus 2s, which in itself is like an ASI or feat, in addition to dark vision, etc etc. that dwarves get. They gave the versatility of humans to all other races w/o granting humans with any way to balance the now universal stat versatility or floating stat bonuses, that used to define the race ... so I agree that it may become an issue and the end result can be a less diverse party.
As a power gamer, this is great.
As a dm, i hate that race no longer has any meaningful choice behind it.
If the only meaning races have is a +2 and/or a +1 then thats not a very meaningful choice.
If you can get your +2 from a variety of different sources, why your player picks one over the other gets more meaningful not less.
@@EdsonR13 my point is this.
Why be anything other than a mountain dwarf or half elf? They get +4 racial asi that you can put where ever you want now. There is no good reason to pick anything else. The only reason ive ever bothered to read any lore on any race aside from human was because of class-race optimisation. Well now power gamers like me can ignore everything but those 2 races.
@@bradleyvenovich6160 why play anything other than a tabaxi 2 skills and feline agility, why play anything other than a tortle 17 base ac, why play anything other than an aarakocra 50 ft fly speed. I can go on, point being different character concepts will want different racial abilities, these options should make you more creative not less, Everyones seen the half orc barbarian its not original
@@EdsonR13 because ultimately asi's are king. Tabaxi are out done by half elves in the skill department. Feline agility is worthless. Tortle having a base ac of 17 is kinda meh also considering you can achieve the same thing by having any character with a 20 dex, which with tashas is even easier to start the game with. So on and so forth.
@@bradleyvenovich6160 do tell me about your 20 dex wizard with 17+ac, just because you havent been able to use feline agility to its fullest potential doesnt mean its useless. Yes ability scores are very key in min-maxing a character but there are plenty other racial abilities worth looking at
The new rules allow you to finally make a viable cleric of Eilistraee, swapping the rapier proficiency for longsword and freeing up your domain options
I want race to be a purely aesthetic choice, so this is a step to the right direction. A player should have the freedom to choose to play the race they find appealing or cool without having to feel bad for making a suboptimal combo with their class.
I couldn't disagree more with this. A character's race is a cornerstone of roleplaying. It imbues the perception of that character with the NPCs and other party members.
Perhaps in the world lore, their race has a deep fued or long history of cooperation. Tieflings and (half)orcs are distrusted as whole usually because of past associations (raiding, graping, and razing settlements, and you know, being descended from concentrated, literal evil), and give the player a chance to avoid, rise against, or meet these expectations
My first ever character was a Red Dragonborn Rogue. The +2 in strength really wasn't that helpful for the skills needed, but I played him anyway because I like the backstory I had of a guy who had been essentially stereotyped because he was a 'chromatic' Dragonborn. Unable to get a steady job or be trusted with anything, he turned to thievery to survive. Living in the underbelly of society, he saw how much people were suffering and eventually became a Robin Hood-type character, only stealing from those richer than himself, and sharing his reclaimed wealth with those in similar positions as him.
Now being able to have him with the +2 in Dex, man, he'd have been so much better!
Rolled up a custom lineage that looks like a kenku but is a human cursed by a hag
SIIIICK
I prefer how Pathfinder 2e handles Half-Elves and Half-Orcs in character creation. You're not limited to just Half-Human. You can have a Half-Elf Half-Gnome or Half-Orc Half-Goblin and it would actually have a mechanical effect on your character by way of what racial feats you have access to.
Teenage Mutants Wizard Tortles - heroes with a Fire bolt
Nah Donatello is definitely an Artificer. 😂
I would have them all be Rogue multiclassers. Most certain choices first: Don, Artificer; Mikey; Bard; Raph, Barbarian; Leo, Fighter.
I feel like a changeling with the new changes is truly a powerhouse with the disguising abilities. Being able to put +2 wherever you want, already putting a +1 wherever you want.
Maybe that’s just me!
I think the stats for changelings came from eberron so if you aren't playing that campaign setting the DM could just not allow them in
@@chrisvelo2595 well yea, but I’m talking about campaigns where those restrictions are not in place.
I worry it makes customization a bit *too* easy. The opportunity cost of picking one race over another is reduced.
“Oh no! People are going to be picking the lesser played races more often now because more doors have been opened! Oh the humanity! What is the world coming to!?”
@@jasoncarnelian3325 The races that were considered the best but had an ASI that wasn't now are nearly solidified as the best.
All races get better, but it's not an even spread. So I don't see my group playing the lesser played ones more; I see us using the same ones we always have more because we can now just slap it on any class without the drawback of a mismatched ASI.
Would "The Hobbit" have been a better story if Bilbo Baggins had been dexterous and well suited for the role that he found himself in?
I enjoy a bit of optimization now and again and this is great for that. But this is also the reason that I'm playing more and more old school systems.
I’m lost to the point you’re trying to make - Bilbo was pegged as a burglar and did better in this role by virtue of being a hobbit. But your comment suggests that he wasn’t good, and that’s to the story’s benefit. By your logic, Bilbo swapped out the normal +2 Dex for halflings and got +2 Int instead.
Get ready for my stronk elves and skinny dwarves, my dudes!
We’ve been homebrewing exactly this for years m8
It's a joke lol but alright
William Mena Raabe I, for one, am ready and waiting for both our Buff Elf Overlords, as well as our Lithe Dwarf Underlords 😍
The custom lineage thing is the greatest tool introduced to flavor and roleplaying possibilities since the PHB. Same for spell flair. It actually came at the most opportune time.
We're currently running a campaign that plays about 2 decades after our previous one in which two of our players got hitched and had a daughter. The couple were a tabaxi and a variant human. And thanks to custom lineage I had the idea to bring their daughter to life by playing a half breed between human and tabaxi (yes haw haw I get it neko stuff. Not the reason). The character is a love letter and homage to the two characters who I fell in love with cause their players just roleplayed them so beautifully. The daughter is now a order of scribe wizard, out to do her name justice, being the daughter of 2 sung heroes.
I'm not a fan of interchangeable stats. To me, it feels too much like everyone is just different flavors of human.
I prefer my breakdown:
You get +1 stat from your Race (from two options).
You get two +1 stats from your Class choice.
Ex.
High Elf: +1 Dex or +1 Int
Fighter: +1 Con and +1 Str/Dex
Conclusion:
High Elf Fighter who chooses +1 Dex from their Race, +1 Dex from their Class, then gets +1 Con from their Class as well. Totalling: High Elf Fighter +2 Dex, +1 Con
The idea of getting stat mods from class does feel like it makes a lot of sense, TBH I man, training for years in what you do feels like it should logically make you better at it, thus improving the stat(s) you have to use to develop the abilities of that class.
@@BlueTressym Absolutely. This system covers that nicely, while still respecting your racial origin
For clarification:
Elf gets +1 Dex
Or
High (Elf) gets +1 Int,
Wood (Elf) gets +1 Wis,
Dark (Elf) gets +1 Cha.
So as a Wood Elf, you could choose between +1 Dex or +1 Wis as your racial bonus.
As a Dark Elf, you could choose between +1 Dex or +1 Cha.
I like that a lot. I might use that as a self limiter when designing characters for a bit. With them taking the limiters off everything it can be a bit overwhelming to decide what to go with first, so adding in a few limiters, if only just till you run out of ideas that you really like, can be helpful.
To me, variety is the spice of life and I like the fact they are doing much to allow the character creation process to be *so* flexible :D It's great, just like this guide is ;)
Monty: "As far as I am concerned, having more options is never a bad thing." Except when you really think about it and you take into account long-term effects and unintended consequences. All 'games' are a balance between freedoms and constraints. Too many constraints and nothing interesting happens in your 'frozen' game. Too many freedoms and you don't really have a game; the structure 'melts'. For example, regardless of what you think about soccer, just ask yourself if the game would be improved with the use of hands, tackling, lacrosse sticks, or even "more options" like a mobile net. Either the game breaks down, you are playing a categorically different game, or it becomes absurd.
I agree. Always bringing in new options creates interest and spice to the game but it also introduced characters that can become more broken at earlier and earlier levels
@@chrisvelo2595 "I agree." Well, I actually didn't say anything regarding brokenness, I was discussing the diminishing returns more options bring. Though I suppose more broken characters are part of that. It’s interesting you used the term “spice”, because that analogy also works in cooking: at what point does adding more spice spoil the flavor?
@LP Gaming “WoTC didn’t just throw stuff in a book. They take care and consider balancing in everything they do.” That’s funny. The 45+ year history of D&D (and the 25+ year history of Magic the Gathering, another WoTC game) is soaked with unbalanced rules, weak themes, ham fisted adventures, confusing mechanics, tedious accounting, and intrusive politics - “stuff thrown in a book” to generate sales and pay the bills. The accumulation of ill considered rule expansions IS what lead to the collapse of past editions into heaping piles of boring incoherence. Tasha's is a lurch in that direction for 5e.
@LP Gaming Sure. No problem. We can leave it at that. Great gaming to you.
Also a strong and durable hot headed Fire Genasi Fighter or Barbarian. Can’t wait to play one!