Races Without Ability Scores PEACH

[Dienekes]

So over in the world of 5e, leaks from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything have come out indicating a fundamental change in how races are presented. In a new variant rule, you'll be able to adjust where the your ability scores go, instead of having them be set based on your choice of race.

On the whole I like the idea of opening up the race/class combos a good deal. As of now, the races that are not supposed to play specific classes will be stuck with 1 fewer ASI just to get them where the math of the system says they're supposed to be. And in a game where most classes only get 5 ASIs, and most games won't even get all of them, that's a big ask.

But on the other side of things, I kind of agree with the criticism that the result is that a lot of the races lose a good chunk of flavor with this variant. And a good portion of them have become a jumbled mass of half-fitting racial abilities that don't even imply where the race's fluff is supposed to push them.

As such I thought it would be interesting to write up a few potential other methods of making races divorced from ability scores. Done, hopefully, in a way that keeps the thematic design of the race, without punishing anyone for wanting to go a more original route.

Homebrewery Link: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/CVlFwFSwm

PDF: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/CVlFwFSwm?dialog=true


So far I have worked on 3 races, and wanted to know thoughts and opinions before I go further.

It should be noted that since everyone's now divorced from ability scores, they're all a little buffed. Hopefully able to stand against a Variant Human's +1 feat and skill, while also now getting +2/+1 to any ability score of their choice.


DWARVES

Speed Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.

Dwarven Toughness Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.

Darkvision Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Dwarven Resilience You have Advantage on Constitution saving throws. In addition, you have Resistance to Poison damage.

Stable When forced to make a saving throw or be knocked prone or moved, you have Advantage on that saving throw.

SUBRACES

HILL DWARF

Saving Face If you miss with an attack roll or fail an ability check or saving throw, you can gain a bonus to the roll equal to the number of allies you can see within 30 feet of you (maximum bonus of +5). Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a Short or Long Rest.

Clan’s Cohesion As a Reaction, you can grant the benefit of Saving Face to one ally within 30 feet of you that can see and hear you. This is considered your use of the trait until you finish a Rest.

MOUNTAIN DWARF

Stonecunning Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of the normal proficiency bonus.

Dwarven Armor Training When wearing Armor you are Proficient in, increase your AC by +1. This does not stack with the Defense Fighting Style.

All Must Work You gain Proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, mason’s tools, or tinker’s tools. If you would gain proficiency in these tools in another way, you may instead add double your Proficiency bonus when using these tools.

ROAD DWARF

Sure-Footed You can move over Rough Terrain without Speed penalty.

Warry You gain one of the following skills: Insight, Perception, Persuasion, or Medicine.

Skilled Appraisal You are considered Proficient in all Intelligence checks to Appraise the value of an item. In addition, you can spend ten minutes studying an item to determine if it is magical or not, and if it is you can learn its properties and how to use them, whether it requires attunement to use, an dhow many charges it has, if any.

ELVES

Speed Your base speed is 30 feet.

Graceful Step When you would be dealt damage, you can choose to spend a Reaction to move 5 feet in any direction. If this movement would take you out of the range of the attack or area of an effect that would damage you, you can halve the damage dealt to you. This movement does not provoke Opportunity Attacks.
You may use this ability once per Short or Long Rest.
Increase the total movement by 5 feet at 5th, 11th, and 17th level.

Fey Ancestry You have Advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Trance Elves do not sleep. Instead they meditate deeply, remaining semi-conscious, for 4 hours a day. The Common word for this meditation is “trance”. While meditating, you dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive after years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit a human would from 8 hours of sleep.

Knowledge of the Ages During your Trance you can think back to the knowledge picked up and forgotten over your long centuries. You gain Proficiency in one language, weapon, or Intelligence skill of your choice. You can only gain one extra Proficiency in this way. It lasts until you focus on remembering a different skill, weapon, or language.

SUBRACES

HIGH ELVES

Cantrip You know one cantrip of your choice from the Wizard spell list. You can choose your spellcasting ability for this cantrip from Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.

Fey Charms As a Bonus Action, you can grant yourself Advantage on your next Persuasion or Deception check, or make an opponent within 30 feet with an Intelligence of 5 or higher Disadvantage on their next Wisdom saving throw. You may only use this ability once per Short or Long Rest.

WOOD ELVES

Fleet of Foot Your base Speed increases to 35 feet, when wearing Light or Medium Armor, and carrying no more than your Carrying Capacity.

Life on the Hunt You gain Proficiency in one of the following skills: Perception, Survival, Athletics, or Acrobatics.

Forestwalker You gain a Climb Speed equal to your Speed.


ORC/HALF-ORC

Orcish Fury The first damage you deal to a creature each turn deals an additional +1d4 damage. If you deal damage to multiple creatures pick one to take this additional damage.
The damage increases to +1d6 at 5th level, +1d8 at 11th level, and +1d10 at 17th level.

Fearsome Reputation An orc gains Advantage on all Intimidation checks against non-orc and non-half orc characters.

Darkvision You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Powerful Build You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Relentless Endurance When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you candor to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

SUBRACES

WASTES ORCS

Frontier Dweller You gain Proficiency in one of the following skills: Athletics, Survival, Handle Animal, or Nature

Keen Smell You have Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell. In addition, you know the location of all creatures within 10 feet of you, provided they would have a scent.

SETTLED ORCS

Scorned Existence You gain Proficiency in one of the following skills: Deception, Insight, Stealth, or Athletics.

Spite When gaining the benefits of Orcish Fury, if your target dealt damage to you or targeted you with a spell or ability since the end of your last turn, increase the size of the die by 1.



So what do you guys think? A bit more flavor pushing races toward certain decisions or ways to play while still making every class available. So like a Dwarf wizard will still have a bit of an armor buff, but not as big as in current 5e. And the Con saves will make them want to focus more on Concentration spells. While the Orc would focus more on blasting to get that Orcish Fury bonus. And the High Elf has a reason to focus on glamours and enchantments.

[OldTrees1]

I think this is a good design however qualitative features are harder to surpass / overcome than quantitative ones. I suggest having more qualitative features per race but have the PC select a subset. I suggest double the features.


PS formatting typo: "[B]Knowledge of the Ages[B]" is missing the [/]

[Herbert_W]

I like where this is going.

Giving races bonuses or penalties to ability scores is a cheap way to add flavor. It takes very little creativity on the part of the designer and creates races that don't feel very well-differentiated. A half-orc in the old system doesn't feel that much different from a human who dumped cha and pumped str. Sure, there are subtle differences in what build resources are available, but outside of character creation you could easily forget that you are playing a half-orc. Worse yet, this system naturally pushes certain races into certain classes and makes players who play against that feel that they are being punished for doing so.

Removing this cheap and nasty "flavor" makes room for flavor that's actually good.

This is a good start, but it's not perfect. You're leaning towards overloading these races with the number of features that you've given them. The racial variants for the Dwarf may push it over that line and the other races are close to it.

As a general note for design, the higher the ratio of flavor to cognitive load on the player, the better. You can get more features and therefore more flavor into a race if you reduce the cognitive load of each feature. Options that are usable a fixed number to times per encounter (or day) have a relatively high cognitive load, as players both need to decide when to use that ability and keep track of whether it is expended. If it's something that's used in combat, the problem is exacerbated as the tactics and high stakes create a large baseline cognitive load. Features that the player can use at-will have a lower load, and features that trigger passively are lower still. A constant stat boost or build resources (such as extra HP, skills, etc.) has a very low associated cognitive load because players only need to think about it while out of combat. (Players do think about e.g. HP while in combat, of course - what I mean is that they don't need to think about where each HP came from, just how many they currently have.)

The Knowledge of Ages feature is particularly good. It's potentially quite useful in the hands of a clever player who does think about it, but players don't need to think about it in order for it to be useful. It has applications for combat, but players only need to think about it while out of combat. It makes elves a very versatile and skillful race while not making them outshine versatile and skillful classes.

The Saving Face feature is kinda bad. It's something that players tactically choose when to use, but it seems to be trying to represent the importance of community to hill dwarfs. The player's experience of using it won't mesh with what it's supposed to represent to the character. It also increases cognitive load.

I'd restructure how subraces are presented. I'd present each race with a default undifferentiated form and present subraces as optional variants. It's entirely possible that a player might come to a game wanting to play as e.g. an elf, and not wanting to choose a subrace. They just want to play as an elf, and either want to minimize fiddly bits in character creation or want to play as a "typical" elf but don't know which subrace to pick to represent that. Having a default "just plain elf" option for them would make the game much more satisfying.

Overall, I like the what you are trying to do and you have some good ideas about how to do it. Not all of the ideas here are good, but that's to be expected for a first draft.

[Dienekes]

I think this is a good design however qualitative features are harder to surpass / overcome than quantitative ones. I suggest having more qualitative features per race but have the PC select a subset. I suggest double the features.

Now I'm a bit confused on the wording for this one. If I'm reading this right, you think it would be improved with twice as many features that the player then gets to select. And these features go for vastly different benefits rather than just static bonuses.

More like the dwarves Sure-Footed and less like their Toughness.

If that's the case, I don't disagree. But I still want to maintain the feeling that the dwarves are naturally hardier than everyone else. Orcs hit harder. Elves are more graceful. How would you suggest accomplish this while using less quantitative traits?



PS formatting typo: "[B]Knowledge of the Ages[B]" is missing the [/]

Thank you and corrected.



This is a good start, but it's not perfect. You're leaning towards overloading these races with the number of features that you've given them. The racial variants for the Dwarf may push it over that line and the other races are close to it.

As a general note for design, the higher the ratio of flavor to cognitive load on the player, the better. You can get more features and therefore more flavor into a race if you reduce the cognitive load of each feature. Options that are usable a fixed number to times per encounter (or day) have a relatively high cognitive load, as players both need to decide when to use that ability and keep track of whether it is expended. If it's something that's used in combat, the problem is exacerbated as the tactics and high stakes create a large baseline cognitive load. Features that the player can use at-will have a lower load, and features that trigger passively are lower still. A constant stat boost or build resources (such as extra HP, skills, etc.) has a very low associated cognitive load because players only need to think about it while out of combat. (Players do think about e.g. HP while in combat, of course - what I mean is that they don't need to think about where each HP came from, just how many they currently have.)


This is interesting, since I'm using 5e as a base. And 5e gives Dwarves about the same number of features. Admittedly, their features were often a bit more passive. You either have a tool and weapon proficiency or you don't.

Now if we go with looking at the cognitive load. To take Dwarves as an example,

My version of Dwarven Resilience is supposed to be easier to remember than the basic version which specifically only works on Poison as opposed to just all Constitution saving throws.

Stability might be a bit much, since it's another Advantage to a usually different saving throw.

Most of the rest of what they get are fairly passive. With perhaps one real exception per subrace.

But one of my original design goals was to give more ways for the player to actively be their race. A specific play difference that they can point to and demonstrate is why dwarves, and elves, and orcs are different than humans at a fundamental level. Throwing that extra die of damage, sashaying aside from a potential attack, or just being an unmovable object didn't seem too distracting while still being generally useful for almost any build.


The Knowledge of Ages feature is particularly good. It's potentially quite useful in the hands of a clever player who does think about it, but players don't need to think about it in order for it to be useful. It has applications for combat, but players only need to think about it while out of combat. It makes elves a very versatile and skillful race while not making them outshine versatile and skillful classes.

Glad you like it, I was a fan of that one.


The Saving Face feature is kinda bad. It's something that players tactically choose when to use, but it seems to be trying to represent the importance of community to hill dwarfs. The player's experience of using it won't mesh with what it's supposed to represent to the character. It also increases cognitive load.

This was something of attempting to piggy-back off of mechanics. Saving Face was supposed to be a representation of a form of personal honor. First used by the Hobgoblins. I actually think it worked well enough for that kind of mentality. You can't mess up in front of others, or it will dishonor you. The more that can see your shame, the more you will fight against that dishonor.

But I also figured that the dwarves view of that personal honor would extend to the others in their group as well. It is a communal drive. But a strict one. A community that aids each other, but is unforgiving of shameful acts like failure.

The dwarven subraces in base 5e are some of the least defined of all the subraces, to me. Mountain goes into the tough stoic dwarven routine by getting strength and armor proficiencies. Hill goes into the tough dwarven routine by getting more HP.

I decided to divert them a bit, with Mountain being the everyone works together digger kind of dwarf, and the Hills being the more aristocratic but still communal flavored dwarf.


I'd restructure how subraces are presented. I'd present each race with a default undifferentiated form and present subraces as optional variants. It's entirely possible that a player might come to a game wanting to play as e.g. an elf, and not wanting to choose a subrace. They just want to play as an elf, and either want to minimize fiddly bits in character creation or want to play as a "typical" elf but don't know which subrace to pick to represent that. Having a default "just plain elf" option for them would make the game much more satisfying.

This is how 5e structures the race/subclass divide and honestly I prefer it as opposed to Base Race with optional add-ons. Admittedly with added fluff that I am more or less ignoring for ease here as I'm more focused on the pure mechanical level. But Magic Focused Elf and Wilderness Focused Elf are both broad and common tropes of the race that I think are fairly easy for a newcomer to understand.


Overall, I like the what you are trying to do and you have some good ideas about how to do it. Not all of the ideas here are good, but that's to be expected for a first draft.

Thank you. Out of curiosity, other than Saving Face, which would you think is the worst idea of the bunch.

[Amechra]

I like this! My only quibble is that I think it would be simpler to strip subraces out entirely, or make them into "cultural" components that anyone can pick. Subraces lose a lot of their relevance once you remove stat boosts from them, after all, and I'd imagine that any new races would be easier to balance if they aren't, you know, actually 2-3 races.

[Dienekes]

I like this! My only quibble is that I think it would be simpler to strip subraces out entirely, or make them into "cultural" components that anyone can pick. Subraces lose a lot of their relevance once you remove stat boosts from them, after all, and I'd imagine that any new races would be easier to balance if they aren't, you know, actually 2-3 races.

Cool. And yeah, I can see the benefit of making one over-race followed by cultural bonuses that may be tied to a race but not necessarily ingrained in them. But that would limit myself to one focus per race, and all these culture benefits would have to be balanced against each other and probably not give much in the way of additional abilities.

Means Hill Dwarf as I have them are definitely out, and both the elves. And wrecks havoc on my half-formed goblin plans.

Hmm. Hmm.

Well back to work.

[Herbert_W]

This is interesting, since I'm using 5e as a base. And 5e gives Dwarves about the same number of features. Admittedly, their features were often a bit more passive.

That would mean that 5e is close to the line where IMO racial complexity becomes a problem, but doesn't cross it - so it's easy to accidentally cross that line when building on 5e.


But one of my original design goals was to give [...] A specific play difference that they can point to and demonstrate is why dwarves, and elves, and orcs are different than humans at a fundamental level.

That's an interesting design goal.

Personally, I see races as being a little bit like classes and making every character be a little bit like a multiclass character, which has a number of advantages. It splits the biggest and (usually) most important choice that players make in character creation into two smaller and more manageable choices. There are 8 races in the 3.5e PHB and 11 classes. That's a total of 88 race/class combinations - and choosing among a list of 88 options would be overwhelming for many players! Choosing from 8 options and then again from 11 options is much easier. It also feels better, as players feel as if they are coming up with a combination that is their own rather than just selecting a prepared package.

My approach to races might be subtly different from yours. I prefer races to be meaningfully distinct from each other (as do you) and prefer to have all or most potential race/class combos be viable (as do you), but I wouldn't regard it as a problem if a race grants features that are also covered thematically or mechanically by a class (while it seems that you would, given your design goal).

Your design goal may limit your options, since every race needs to provide something (or some meaningful combination of things) that not only no other race does, but also that no other class (or race/class combo) does.


This is how 5e structures the race/subclass divide and honestly I prefer it as opposed to Base Race with optional add-ons. Admittedly with added fluff that I am more or less ignoring for ease here as I'm more focused on the pure mechanical level.

OK. Why do you prefer it? What advantage do you think it brings? Maybe we can come up with a structure that has the advantages of both systems.


Thank you. Out of curiosity, other than Saving Face, which would you think is the worst idea of the bunch.

There's a number of features that are bad in different ways that make them hard to compare, so in my view they are tied for worst.

That might have sounded pretty harsh. If so, I don't mean it that way - there's nothing here that's terrible, but a lot of things that could be improved. That's natural for a first draft.


Spite (settled orc): The feature itself isn't bad, but the placement is. This gives settled orcs a strict upgrade in combat which wastes orcs do not get. Players will either never play wastes orcs in a combat-focused campaign or feel punished for doing so.
Orcish Fury (base orc): Mechanically, this needlessly increases the number of dice rolled. That's easy to fix by switching it for a fixed bonus. Thematically, it feels a bit odd for every attack that an orc makes to potentially deal more damage just because an orc is making it, regardless of whether it's from a spell or a punch. In terms of player use, there are edge cases - if I push someone off a cliff, does the fall damage count as damage dealt by me? How about damage from my summoned or undead minions? How about if I drop a chandelier on someone's head? In terms of player choice, this will cause some players who focus on debuffing or healing or anything that does not damage an enemy every round to feel punished. All of these are easily forgivable individually - they'd make it merely good instead of great - but in combination they are enough to call for a rework.
Graceful Step (base elf): Leaping 20 ft in response to an attack feels silly. In general, being subject to an attack does not give a character a mobility advantage. Breaking that general rule is OK as it makes elves feel special, but breaking it with a 20ft leap is wacky. It's also not clear whether a high-level elf has the option to choose to take a smaller graceful step, which has some silly implications.
Dwarven Armor Training (mountain dwarf): Not stacking with a defensive fighting style punishes players for selecting an option that should, thematically, be a very popular one.


Here are some suggestions:


Spite (settled orc): You could remove this as a subrace feature and incorporate it into base orc.
Orcish Fury (base orc): This can combine with Spite. Instead of having a bonus that increases when an orc is damaged, have the bonus only apply when the orc is damaged. Also, have a generous time limit - such as having the opportunity to gain the bonus last until the end of the encounter. That means that an orc will be able to take non-damaging options without worrying about wasting their spite bonus, both because they will sometimes have no bonus to waste and at other times because, hey, that baddie will still be there next round. For bookkeeping reasons, maybe only allow an orc to be spiteful against one enemy at a time.
Graceful Step (base elf): Instead of increasing the distance traveled, remove the requirement that the elf move out of range of the damaging effect in order to take half damage, since reducing the distance traveled at higher levels means that they may no longer be able to do that. If you do want to have this ability upgrade with level then you could instead allow more uses per rest. Beware that this could make elves defensively very strong - not just because they'd have many opportunities to take only half damage, but because they'd be good at moving themselves out of the way of further harm. I'd suggest adding a requirement that the source of damage be something that allows a dex save. That comes up often enough to be useful but not overpowered. (If you do add a restrictive requirement such as needing to be in response to something that allows a dex save then it becomes safe to make this usable at-will, which reduces bookkeeping.) Now consider how this interacts with evasion. You don't want either ability to render to other redundant, or the combination to be overpowered. Maybe a special rule for how they interact would be required.
Dwarven Armor Training (mountain dwarf): Why not just let the bonus stack? Stacking bonuses to AC are pretty powerful abilities but it's only +1 with no room to abusively increase the bonus. I would suggest removing some of the disadvantages to wearing armor instead of providing a bonus, except that 5e has already eliminated most of those by default.



And yeah, I can see the benefit of making one over-race followed by cultural bonuses that may be tied to a race but not necessarily ingrained in them. But that would limit myself to one focus per race, and all these culture benefits would have to be balanced against each other and probably not give much in the way of additional abilities.

I assume that the implication of this would be that characters raised in a culture of another race would get that race's cultural traits but their own innate ones, right? That way, the first step of character creation would be split into three independent but correlated choices (race/culture/class) instead of two.

Worth noting: Backgrounds are already a thing that exist in 5e, but they are distinct from culture in a way that could allow both to co-exist. Culture describes a person's abilities that derive from the society that they grew up in, while background describes the abilities that they gained from their place in that society. If you include backgrounds you get four independent but correlated choices. That's a lot but IMO not too many.

Talking about the big-picture again for a moment, you've given yourself a fairly ambitious design goal (make each race distinct from not just any other race, but any other character), and you're working within a framework that doesn't give you much room to fiddle around since 5e has simplified or removed some of the mechanics that could be used in order to make races distinct. Maybe it'd be beneficial to look for ways that races could distinguish themselves that go beyond lasting innate traits - perhaps each race could grant players modifiers to their starting equipment, such as extra GP that can only be spent on consumable magic items for high elves.

Or - maybe don't do this for 5e at all, and rework 3.5e races instead. You'd have a lot more tools to work with there.

[Amechra]

I would like to mention something that Herbert_W stirred in the back of my head, vis-a-vis why Orcish Fury's current form might be better than a feature that adds static bonuses to damage. And that's the added tactility of rolling dice.

It doesn't come up in online games, but adding another damage die instead of a flat bonus has a ton of benefits:


It's easier to check to make sure that all of the relevant modifiers are being added. Someone mistakenly adding an extra d4 to all of their attacks is much more noticeable than someone accidentally adding +2 damage, and someone forgetting to add in a die before rolling is easier to see when you're sitting around a table.
If you're handing out a variable bonus, having a die sitting in front of you with that number gives you a convenient reminder of what that bonus is.
It feels more impactful. That extra die makes the dice-rolling noises louder, and scooping up a bunch of dice just feels good.
Related to the earlier point, it's easier to see that you're getting that extra damage because you're an orc. They can see that shiny d4/d6/d8/d10 sitting right there, smiling up at you with that 3 it just rolled.


Seriously, it feeds into the same basic reason that crits exist - because crits are hype, and make people feel like they just won something. That's actually why I like Savage Attacks so much, even though it barely does anything - when you crit, the table just kinda pauses so that you can scoop up all those d12s.

---

Personally, I'd stick with features that add dice, give you rerolls, or give you legitimately new things to do. And I'd steer away from stuff like Saving Face, or at least simplify it - it's going to be a variable bonus, and you don't have something as obvious as a die sitting in front of you to make sure you remember what that variable is.

[Dienekes]

So I wanted to put in a more detailed discussion point for point. But my computer died and I'm just working off my phone. And it's too much to do a whole break off of quotes.

I'll say in brief, you've both convinced me of making a central race with a few cultures that are in theory attached to the race, but can be technically taken by anyone to have that feeling of a human who grew up living among the elves or the humans or whatnot.

I'm going to try and make each race balanced around each other with only one major active component to worry about. While cultures are going to have a more minor active ability and then skills and some ribbons.

Here's a brief look at what I'm thinking about for the first three again.

Dwarves:
+1 Hp per level.
25 Move Speed. Not slowed by armor.
Advantage on Constitution saving throws.
Darkvision

Dropping Stable and Resistance to Poison Damage. I feel the straight Advantage on Constitution more or less covers what that is supposed to be doing.

Cultures
Hill Dwarf
Clan Cohesion: When using the Help Action to aid an Ally on an Ability Check, roll a 1d4 and add the results to that allies Ability Check in addition to the usual benefits of the Help Action.
Stonecunning: Counting this as a ribbon
Above the Mines: Choose one from: Animal Handling, History, Insight, or Athletics


Mountain Dwarf
All Must Work: You can choose from History, or Medicine, or any two of smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, mason’s tools, or tinker’s tools.
Dwarven Armor Training: +1 to AC in armor you are proficient in.
Stonecunning: Ribbon


Road Dwarf
+1 Language
Wary Traveler: Choose one of: Insight, Perception, Persuasion, Medicine
Skilled Appraisal: Wondering on this one, it's essentially Identify which is a 1st level spell. Which is in theory better than Hill Dwarf's Guidance knock off. But it seems less ubiquitously useful. But I'm up for ideas on what to do for a heavily merchant focused culture.

The other older ability to move over difficult terrain seems too strong for the new pattern of race/culture.


Orc
Orcish Fury: Unchanged, honestly I barely consider this something to focus on. First time you deal damage throw an additional die. It should be so commonly used it becomes second nature.
Powerful Build: Needed to make them strong
Darkvision
Keen Smell You have Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell. In addition, you know the location of all creatures within 10 feet of you, provided they would have a scent.


Cultures

Wastes Orc
Frontier Dweller: Athletics, Survival, Handle Animal, or Nature

Toughened by the Elements: Gain Advantage on all saving throws caused by weather or wilderness hazards.

I'm uncertain about this one. Having Keen Smell tied to a culture did not make sense, but left me with what to replace it with. Toughened by the Elements has the issue that could in theory be incredibly useful, but I don't think I've seen a GM use environmental hazards ever, except Rain but that hardly counts.

Settled Orc
Scorned Existence: Intimidation, Insight, Stealth, or Athletics.

Relentless Endurance

Moved Relentless Endurance down here, which is mostly fluff related to what I see Settled Orcs are. They are a thing in my personal setting. Essentially they take up a similar role as the foederati in the Late Roman Empire, barbarians that are allowed entrance into Roman territory that act half like a roaming settlement, and half like a very large mercenary army. Figured it would make sense for anyone living in that condition to get a bit of a "get back up after being knocked down" mentality about them.


And so we get to the Elves. And here-in lies an issue.

Unlike Orcs or Dwarves which basically have a central idea around them that can be played around with. Dwarves are tough, Orcs are strong. Elves have several. Elves are beautiful, graceful, wise, mighty hunters. By this note they should have some benefits about manipulating others, should have something about natural affinity to spells, and something about movement.

Which right off the bat is 3 very distinct major active components to worry about.

I got around this in the first write up by making the central one graceful movement. And then breaking up the rest to subraces. That's not really going to cut it here.

So I'm somewhat at a loss.

I want to definitely keep Graceful Step, but maybe call it Graceful Retreat or Graceful Movement. Something to not get the idea that it's a single leap and more of the elf flowing around the battlefield. The reason why I definitely want it to stay is because it keeps the agile natural of the race on full display, while it is also the perfect ability for archers and backline casters who want to get out of the line of fire as quick as possible. While repositioning tools are still pretty darn good for any melee elf, and can really make them glide around the fight.

But that's a really big chunk of the race. I want to keep Knowledge of the Ages because the flavor is great. I'm pretty much stuck with the whole Elves don't sleep thing.

This leaves me very little room for the beauty and magic focus of the elven race. Which needs to be a part of the species and not something that can just be picked up by living with them for a few years.

I'm still mulling them over.

The other option is just adding Fey Charms to the race, and then go back and add an additional ability to Orcs and Dwarves. The other option would be splitting the elves into different races, perhaps Elves and Fey.

Any thoughts?

[Dienekes]

Still mulling over how to handle Elves, so went on to something quite a bit easier: Dragonborn.

Dragonborn are considered one of the weakest of the races in 5e, and for good reason. But despite that weakness there's a lot in the Dragonborn or that just makes sense for a Dragonborn that makes it pretty easy to adapt to do what I want it to. It's a humanoid dragon. Get a breath weapon, be kinda big and strong, teeth and scales and you're pretty much done.


I will of course clean this up when I get my computer fixed.


Dragonborn

Powerful Build: Probably going to become standard to demonstrate a race is particularly strong.

Draconic Ancestry: Unchanged.

Breath Weapon: You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your Draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation.
When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your Draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus. A creature takes 2d6 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. This damage increases by +1d6 at 3rd level, and every two levels thereafter.

Damage Resistance: Unchanged

Dragonscales: At first level, you must choose one of the three Dragonscale options, each representing how distant your ancestry is from the original dragons.

Lung Dragon: While not wearing armor, you gain AC 12 + your Dexterity modifier. This increases by +1 at 11th level.

Dreki Dragon: While not wearing armor you have an AC of 15 + your Dexterity modifier (maximum +2). This increases by +1 at 5th and 17th level.

Wawel Dragon: While not wearing armor you have an AC of 17. Your Speed is reduced to 25 if your Strength is 15 or higher. If it is lower your Speed is instead reduced to 15. You suffer Disadvantage on Stealth checks. This increases by +1 at 5th, 11th, and 17th level.



Cultures

Clutchspawn
Dragonborn still under the command of powerful dragons, usually used as slaves or guards for the dragon's hoard.

Mountainous Home: You gain a Climb Speed equal to your Speed.

Guard of the Hoard: Pick one of: Intimidate, Perception, Athletics, or Investigation


Freeborn
Dragonborn that won their freedom from the dragons in violent wars generations past.

Pride of Dragons: You gain Advantage on saving throws made against Frightened

Rugged Individualism: Pick one of: Intimidate, Insight, Athletics, or Survival

[Dienekes]

Keeping it going with my working on the phone to Halflings.

So the great thing about Halflings is that they have a Luck focus. Influencing Luck is pretty simple to play into, very easy to expand, and by its nature is good for just about every build. So I made their Primary scaling ability based around that luck manipulation.


Size: Small. A small creature has Disadvantage when wielding a Heavy weapon, and your carrying capacity is Halved. However you can hide behind medium creatures
Speed: 25

Halfling Luck: When making an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw you can choose to grant yourself Advantage on the roll. In addition, if an opponent makes an attack roll against you that you can see coming, you can choose to give that opponent Disadvantage on that attack roll. You can use this ability twice. You regain all expended uses of this ability on a Long Rest.

In addition, you gain an additional use of this ability at 5th, 11th, and 17th level.

Naturally Endearing: If you spend 10 minutes making friendly conversation to a non-hostile creature of Intelligence 5 or higher, you can consider that creature Friendly for the next 24 hours unless you take a hostile act against them or steal from them.

Halfling Nimbleness: You can move through the space of a creature one size category larger than you.


Cultures

Lightfoot Halflings

+1 Language

Flee: When using the Disengage Action, increase your Speed by +10.

Playful Tricksters: Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics, or Investigation


Stout Halflings

Trained in Cooking Utensils

Foodcunning: Whenever you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check in relation to food you are considered Proficient in the check and furthermore may add double your Proficiency Bonus to the check.

Stout Resilience: Advantage on saves against Poison.

Sedentary and Loving It: Performance, Persuasion, Nature, or Medicine

[Dienekes]

Well just updating. Over the last week I did this

Homebrewery Link: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/CVlFwFSwm

PDF: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/print/CVlFwFSwm?dialog=true

Which is every race in the PHB with at least one culture for each (though I kinda cheated with Half-Elf).