As a sunlight sensitive person, I will be sad if they remove sunlight sensitivity

[Psyren]

And I disagree, and think it bad design to remove it mid-edition.

Given, you know, the linear nature of time and everything, during an edition is the only time you can ever make changes to an edition

And if you're disagreeing they should be able to make changes to an edition at all - all I can really say to that is I'm glad you don't work at WotC.

I do not think they'll ride the slippery slope this far - I hope they won't, anyway - but the only thing that will actually achieve the kind of "don't let mechanics get in the way of concept" and "don't let anything have any downsides" that they seem to be going for will be to eliminate all unique racial traits and save a lot of real estate by only having "Custom Lineage" be what people play for every race. You want to play a half-orc? Custom Lineage yourself something you "feel" is fitting. You want to play a half-dragon or a dragonborn? Custom Lineage it! For all the resemblance they seem to think that races need to have, mechanically, to the actual creatures in the MM, Custom Lineage works just fine.

As difficult as it can be, let's put aside the hyperbole for a second and focus on the bolded part; "no downsides" is a frankly ridiculous summation of their philosophy. Every mutually exclusive choice has a downside - the opportunity cost of not being something else. If you pick Kenku, you can't fly like an Aarakocra, or get a free feat like a VHuman, or get a free cantrip like a High Elf etc. Just because none of the features in the Kenku entry actively punish you for picking Kenku anymore doesn't mean there are "no downsides." That's how choosing a race is supposed to work.

[pwykersotz]

Not everything that atrophies is bad. I don't use my appendix anymore, and I'm sure at one point it was way more useful than this Kenku feature or light-sensitivity ever were.

Jeremy Crawford said they made these changes based on seven years of player feedback. I see your point that folks might not have thought of an ability like this had some designer not thought it was a good idea to begin with, but plenty of ideas that seem good on paper don't end up that way until they're actually put into the game. Or rather, they might seem good at some tables but boil down to rank annoyances at the others, prompting welcome updates like these

I legit thought you were referring to a book appendix for my first read through. I was like "Well, I guess if he doesn't need to look stuff up anymore...oh. OH.

I agree that Sunlight Sensitivity is terrible design for anything that's supposed to be a default player race. It's one reason I've never played a Drow. The problem does occur where players want to play every race, so no races can have any downsides. "What? Moth people are charmed by sources of light?! That's unplayable!!!! Remove it immediately!" "Okay, I guess I'll take the interesting quirk of the race and dilute it or remove it..."

Honestly, I think embracing even more asymmetric design is the best way out of this (from my perspective). Release tons of races for players to have, and simultaneously release the "monster" statblocks for them with things like Sunlight Sensitivity or the Kenku curse that are indicative of what the race overall has to deal with. Then it's up to an individual GM what to enforce. And that way the world enforces the harsher side of things so you can feel normal playing your restricted character, or you can feel special having transcended your races usual limitations.

(Should I be saying heritage, lineage, or ancestry instead of race? What's the current convention? I don't care about any politically correct implications, but I always thought the word race was out of place in a fantasy game. Both heritage and lineage sound much cooler. Ancestry...meh.)

Regarding Crawford, I don't have any opinions on that. He is neither a sinner nor a saint, and player feedback isn't inherently virtuous. And I don't view these new changes as a significant good or bad. I'm more curious what further design changes will branch off of these. I see some cool ideas and I see some possibly worrying trends. I guess I'll see.

[Segev]

As difficult as it can be, let's put aside the hyperbole for a second and focus on the bolded part; "no downsides" is a frankly ridiculous summation of their philosophy. Every mutually exclusive choice has a downside - the opportunity cost of not being something else.

Sure. Which is why the goal is unattainable, and the game is worse for pursuing it. But that is what they're doing, especially when the choice involves the character's race.

[GooeyChewie]

Yes, obviously I'm stating my opinion.

Which is fine if you're just saying that you want to have the official option to not play with the feature. What's not fine is using your opinion as an argument for why others shouldn't have the official option to play with the feature if they so desire.

To be clear, the unnecessary space is actually the very least of the issues I have with pre-feedback Kenku. I don't want WotC to support that mechanic because I believe it causes more problems/headaches for a majority of playgroups than it is worth. I've elaborated at length on the issues I have with the ability itself, and while we have no way of truly knowing the devs reasons for axing something, I'd be surprised if any of what I wrote is new to them.

If WotC had made the curse optional rather than completely removing it, then that majority of playgroups for which it causes problems/headaches could officially ignore it while the minority of tables which find value in it could officially still use it. I would have preferred this approach because it gives all players the option to play the way they want (without having to rely on house-ruling anything), regardless of my personal opinion on the feature in question.

[Psyren]

Sure. Which is why the goal is unattainable, and the game is worse for pursuing it. But that is what they're doing, especially when the choice involves the character's race.

"Races have opportunity costs" is attainable, and they have in fact attained it.

Which is fine if you're just saying that you want to have the official option to not play with the feature. What's not fine is using your opinion as an argument for why others shouldn't have the official option to play with the feature if they so desire.

...You do have the "official option." Just use the VGtM Kenku instead of the MotM Kenku. Simple.

This is why I found the "why didn't they errata the old one" argument so baffling. This is the best of both worlds.

[Segev]

"Races have opportunity costs" is attainable, and they have in fact attained it.

No, no, that's a reality. They're trying to eliminate it. They're failnig, but making things worse as they flail about trying to do so.

...You do have the "official option." Just use the VGtM Kenku instead of the MotM Kenku. Simple.

This is why I found the "why didn't they errata the old one" argument so baffling. This is the best of both worlds.

Just like they're not changing anything by introducing the "optional" TCE floating (not-really-)racial ASIs! It totally isn't a change that will be treated as default or anything.

And of course, the Kenku being changed in total doesn't mean that the Kenku will be changed as a whole race, nope nope.

[Psyren]

No, no, that's a reality. They're trying to eliminate it.

So all races have the same traits now? You must have seen a preview I didn't.

Just like they're not changing anything by introducing the "optional" TCE floating (not-really-)racial ASIs! It totally isn't a change that will be treated as default or anything.

Every single race that had fixed ASIs before that rule still does, even at AL tables.

And of course, the Kenku being changed in total doesn't mean that the Kenku will be changed as a whole race, nope nope.

They haven't been, unless you choose to use MotM, in which case you only have yourself to blame.

[Segev]

So all races have the same traits now? You must have seen a preview I didn't.

Oh, no, they're not there yet; they're just making kobolds not at all resemble the MM creature so far, and making Kenku less interesting. Oh, and the "optional" TCE rule that totally wasn't going to become the standard has become the standard for every new race since, and is considered the default by it seems everybody who discusses character builds.

Every single race that had fixed ASIs before that rule still does, even at AL tables.

So the "optional rule" is not permitted anywhere? You can't have it both ways: either the "optional rule" is in play, or it isn't. Now, the middle ground is that some tables permit it, and some don't. I don't know AL; does it not permit the optional rule?

Still noteworthy that they made every new race have it. I will be (pleasantly) surprised if MotM doesn't codify it as being the default for all races printed therein, including any reprints.

They haven't been, unless you choose to use MotM, in which case you only have yourself to blame.

You seem to be under the impression that the people playing PCs dictate what books are used in a game. I know you know better than this, so I point this out as an unexamined assumption you seem to be unwittingly making without being aware of it. Please correct me if you can come to the conclusion in this quoted bit without making that assumption, and explain to me how I should be interpreting it.

[GooeyChewie]

...You do have the "official option." Just use the VGtM Kenku instead of the MotM Kenku. Simple.

So why not include that official option in the "updated" Kenku?

This is why I found the "why didn't they errata the old one" argument so baffling. This is the best of both worlds.

Nobody actually argued that they should errata the old one. You came up with that idea in post #99, in response to Segev pointing out that printing an updated Kenku doesn't retroactively free up any real estate in VGtM. We don't actually know yet whether WotC will consider the updated races in MotM to constitute errata or not.

[Psyren]

Oh, no, they're not there yet; they're just making kobolds not at all resemble the MM creature so far, and making Kenku less interesting.

The playable Kobold is in Volo's actually, not the MM.

Regarding Kenku being less interesting now - as a wise person once told me, "you may want to be more careful to label when you're sharing your opinion, rather than stating facts, because you seem to be stating your opinions as facts and then using that as argument to why contrary opinions are wrong, rather than matters of taste."

So the "optional rule" is not permitted anywhere? You can't have it both ways: either the "optional rule" is in play, or it isn't. Now, the middle ground is that some tables permit it, and some don't. I don't know AL; does it not permit the optional rule?

It's permitted but you're not forced to use it. Think about it logically - if you didn't purchase Tasha's, how would they force you to make a character with its contents? The whole point is to encourage you to buy the book if you like it, but to still allow you into AL if all you own is Core. Hell, you can play AL if all you have is the free Basic Rules PDF.

Still noteworthy that they made every new race have it. I will be (pleasantly) surprised if MotM doesn't codify it as being the default for all races printed therein, including any reprints.

Floating ASIs is the default in MotM, yes. You do not have to use MotM. (I mean, your DM can mandate only the races from that book obviously, but they cannot mandate themselves to be your DM if you don't want them to be. Moreover, there are no core races in that book, so you'll have an option for fixed ASIs until 2024 at least.)

You seem to be under the impression that the people playing PCs dictate what books are used in a game.

If your DM refuses to let you be a Volo Kenku when that is important to your concept, that is hardly WotC's problem.