Greywander
2022-12-22, 02:53 AM
TL;DR, a setup for mixed race characters has emerged naturally from this major D&D 5e overhaul I've been working on. It's literally just combines both races together, giving you the full traits of both, at the cost of some class levels. It should be balanced mechanically, it's just that half-races are typically portrayed as having weaker versions of the racial traits of both parents, and this is especially true when it pertains to racial weaknesses (which will be a thing). Should I write up special rules for weakening races into half-races, or write a special half-race version of each race? I'm just not sure it's worth the effort, but maybe it is. Would you want rules like that, or would you be fine using two full races for a mixed character?
Original post under spoiler if you need more detailed info:
I've been working on a big overhaul of D&D 5e and stumbled across a really easy way to implement characters that are of mixed race. But it does feel a bit weird, and there are aspects of it that I'm not entirely sure how to handle it.
Here's the relevant context: Progression in this overhaul is split into tiers (each tier is equivalent to 4 levels in 5e), with each tier giving you a bump in your proficiency bonus and some other benefits. Classes are cut down to just 4 "ranks" so that they fit exactly inside a tier. When you finish a class, you have the option of advancing to the next tier and choosing a new class to "stack" on top of your existing ones, or to repeat the same tier, which essentially allows you to pick up an additional class at a lower XP cost, but without the benefits of the higher tier.
Okay, so why am I talking about classes when this thread is about races? Because races are now classes, too! When you create a new character, you actually start in tier 2 (where proficiency bonus is +2), so your race counts as your tier 1 class, and you start with it already completed. This, in turn, leads to some really interesting interactions. If you want to play a mixed race character, simply pick up a second race as a new class. It also allows more powerful races (e.g. dragons) to be split up into multiple classes, so that their power is spread out.
As mentioned, this thread is about mixed race characters. Being able to just take two races seems like an elegant way of handling it, and you're still paying for it by not taking another class. You can now easily make any character a half dragon by just taking the first dragon class on that character, for example. Heck, if you really felt like it, you could take a dozen racial classes if your ancestry is very, uh, "questionable".
Now, there are a couple of consequences of this. The most obvious is that you end up getting all of the racial traits of both races. It's simply the easiest way of handling it, rather than trying to do some split, or giving weaker versions of the traits of both races. And it's also balanced by the fact that you're getting that second race instead of another class. But it just seems a bit strange that, say, a half-elf would have just as strong elf magic as a full elf. But it's not just abilities. I am attempting to give each race some kind of weakness (except for humans*), and thus a mixed race character will also have to deal with the multiple weaknesses. But it's a common trope for such weaknesses to be reduced or even eliminated in half-whatevers. For example, dhampirs are half-vampires, but they specifically lack a lot of the weaknesses of vampires. It's making me wonder if perhaps I may need some additional mechanics for mixing two races together.
*While not a traditional weakness, I do expect humans to be hated because of one of their traits. I drew some inspiration from HFY stories, so I gave them a trait to represent humanity's brutal and efficient mastery of war. It shouldn't be too strong in the hands of the players, but will likely be a nightmare when it's used against them. I hope and expect players to try and avoid fights against humans, or to target them preferentially before other races. And if the players do so, then so should the NPCs. That, then, is the weakness of humans.
The other thing is I'm not sure what to do about basic character traits. Things like size, speed, lifespan, creature type, and so on. It simply isn't possible to "get everything", since these are things you can only have one of. It doesn't make sense to have two lifespans, for example. Again, I would expect this to be some kind of "in between" thing, where a character who is half human and half elf to have a lifespan longer than a human but shorter than an elf. But it also wouldn't just be the average of the two, either. The easiest thing would be to just use the base traits of whichever race you picked at character creation to be your tier 1 class, but that's not really satisfying.
TL;DR, I have a system that (mostly) allows a player (or NPC) to just take multiple races to represent a mixed character, and mechanically it (mostly) works fine. Where the mechanical issues do exist is with base traits like size, speed, lifespan, and creature type, and I'm not sure how to combine them. But while it isn't a mechanical issue, it's still a bit weird that a mixed race character can manifest the racial traits of both parents (including racial weaknesses) at full strength, when what you'd expect is for those traits to be weakened and balanced between the two. Should I "fix" that? And if so, what are some ways I could go about it?
Original post under spoiler if you need more detailed info:
I've been working on a big overhaul of D&D 5e and stumbled across a really easy way to implement characters that are of mixed race. But it does feel a bit weird, and there are aspects of it that I'm not entirely sure how to handle it.
Here's the relevant context: Progression in this overhaul is split into tiers (each tier is equivalent to 4 levels in 5e), with each tier giving you a bump in your proficiency bonus and some other benefits. Classes are cut down to just 4 "ranks" so that they fit exactly inside a tier. When you finish a class, you have the option of advancing to the next tier and choosing a new class to "stack" on top of your existing ones, or to repeat the same tier, which essentially allows you to pick up an additional class at a lower XP cost, but without the benefits of the higher tier.
Okay, so why am I talking about classes when this thread is about races? Because races are now classes, too! When you create a new character, you actually start in tier 2 (where proficiency bonus is +2), so your race counts as your tier 1 class, and you start with it already completed. This, in turn, leads to some really interesting interactions. If you want to play a mixed race character, simply pick up a second race as a new class. It also allows more powerful races (e.g. dragons) to be split up into multiple classes, so that their power is spread out.
As mentioned, this thread is about mixed race characters. Being able to just take two races seems like an elegant way of handling it, and you're still paying for it by not taking another class. You can now easily make any character a half dragon by just taking the first dragon class on that character, for example. Heck, if you really felt like it, you could take a dozen racial classes if your ancestry is very, uh, "questionable".
Now, there are a couple of consequences of this. The most obvious is that you end up getting all of the racial traits of both races. It's simply the easiest way of handling it, rather than trying to do some split, or giving weaker versions of the traits of both races. And it's also balanced by the fact that you're getting that second race instead of another class. But it just seems a bit strange that, say, a half-elf would have just as strong elf magic as a full elf. But it's not just abilities. I am attempting to give each race some kind of weakness (except for humans*), and thus a mixed race character will also have to deal with the multiple weaknesses. But it's a common trope for such weaknesses to be reduced or even eliminated in half-whatevers. For example, dhampirs are half-vampires, but they specifically lack a lot of the weaknesses of vampires. It's making me wonder if perhaps I may need some additional mechanics for mixing two races together.
*While not a traditional weakness, I do expect humans to be hated because of one of their traits. I drew some inspiration from HFY stories, so I gave them a trait to represent humanity's brutal and efficient mastery of war. It shouldn't be too strong in the hands of the players, but will likely be a nightmare when it's used against them. I hope and expect players to try and avoid fights against humans, or to target them preferentially before other races. And if the players do so, then so should the NPCs. That, then, is the weakness of humans.
The other thing is I'm not sure what to do about basic character traits. Things like size, speed, lifespan, creature type, and so on. It simply isn't possible to "get everything", since these are things you can only have one of. It doesn't make sense to have two lifespans, for example. Again, I would expect this to be some kind of "in between" thing, where a character who is half human and half elf to have a lifespan longer than a human but shorter than an elf. But it also wouldn't just be the average of the two, either. The easiest thing would be to just use the base traits of whichever race you picked at character creation to be your tier 1 class, but that's not really satisfying.
TL;DR, I have a system that (mostly) allows a player (or NPC) to just take multiple races to represent a mixed character, and mechanically it (mostly) works fine. Where the mechanical issues do exist is with base traits like size, speed, lifespan, and creature type, and I'm not sure how to combine them. But while it isn't a mechanical issue, it's still a bit weird that a mixed race character can manifest the racial traits of both parents (including racial weaknesses) at full strength, when what you'd expect is for those traits to be weakened and balanced between the two. Should I "fix" that? And if so, what are some ways I could go about it?