I feel like there was a serious missed opportunity to add Gnolls as a Playable Race in this Book. Despite featuring prominently in Volo’s Guide they didn’t get get playable stats like the rest of the *humanoid* monsters that got a lore section in that book. Even now while Wizards are changing humanoid monster stats to say “Any Alignment” the Gnolls are still “Typically Chaotic Evil”. It’s not like there’s not a precedent for Non-evil Gnolls in D&D, the most prominent Gnoll faction in Eberron is Lawful Neutral and is the ideal race for anyone who wants to play a character from Droaam.
I almost didn't respond to this but... I know many feel the same way you do, but a majority do not. The gnoll in Eberron are campaign specific. I assume they are just like the orcs in Eberron. However there's no other examples anywhere else. They are if demonic origin, and evil at their creation, with no hope of redemption. "No goodness or compassion reside in the heart of a Gnoll", that is in their description. Which is fine, they are bad guys for pcs to loot. That being said, I love playing gnolls in evil campaigns. Hyena man with nunchucks? Heck yeah, let's go eat some halflings.
Just to Point Out: Yuan-Ti aren't a beastial race, they are a transformed race, any race can get turned into a Yuan-Ti through a ritual, so it's more similar to aasimar and genasi than tabaxi and tortle.
Also yeah part of shadar-kai lore is that while in the shadowfell they typically wear masks because they appear wrinkled and deceased there due to the shadowfell's curse
I think another unexpected upside to the Yuan-Ti, because you’re no longer specified to be “a Pureblood” I think you can argue that the Stat Block can “technically” be used to flavor a Yuan-Ti character as a Malison or a small Abomination whose tail/snake heads are there but don’t mechanically do anything.
This is the most useful guide explained brilliantly! Had watched the stream VOD and gonna watch this and grab the album to explain to my PCs! Thanks so much for such a well made materials and videos!
This is great seems much more streamline and easier to understand for new players I believe. Also balancing basically a large roster while also giving the player more room to customize their character is in my book a plus, allows for a personal touch.
Such a great video, really well done! It was incredibly concise given the amount of changes included. I totally agree on the spellcaster point regarding Goliaths, I actually put out a video yesterday talking about how I thought they were now one of the best choices for Wizards in 5e!
I feel like it's more fair to say *Pack Tactics* and *Grovel, Cower, and Beg* have been replaced with *Draconic Cry* than to say *Pack Tactics* has been removed and *Grovel, Cower, and Beg* replaced with *Draconic Cry* . *Pack Tactics* was used to get advantage on your own attacks, *Grovel, Cower, and Beg* was used to grant allies advantage, and *Draconic Cry* does both.
The new Kobold isn’t bad, it’s just not the reason people play Kobold. If Kobold released in this version, it would be a beloved race like old Kobold is today
Honestly I'll miss a lot of the cultural quirks and racial negatives that were removed from this. I fully respect why they did it and agree for many the neutrality needed to be introduced. However I feel like for some of the negatives they went too far. Like, sure it's FAR easier to play a Kenku now, but the kenku curse defines them! For many of the negatives I feel like it could have been reworked by adding a positive. Sunlight Sensitivity is a great example. "Your eyes are used to dark environments. You have disadvantage on perception checks in sunlight, but in darkness you have advantage on the same rolls."
Thanks winter, had a few friends who missed some changes and just reffered them to you and they are all sorted, Appricate you making this so clean and understandable, Stay frosty friend.
Don't forget you can always homebrew and make house rules if need be. I imagine an unarmed smiting build isn't going to be a complete game breaker unless taken to the complete extreme.
interested to see that so many short rest abilities are being taken out, I feel like there's a high chance 5.5 does away with them entirely. In the mean time Warlocks and Monks that are entirely short rest based feel like they got an even shorter end of the stick since now unless you're playing one of the very few races with a short rest feature there's very little reason to take a short rest at all, I'm interested to see if Monks and Warlocks are restructured in order to fit the rest of the new structure
I suspect they'll get unique traits that let them recover while outside (or perhaps inside :0 ) of combat. Closer to "Per-Encounter" abilities of 4e. Basically as long as you have, say, 10, 15, or 30 minutes outside of combat you regain those features. Having short rests take an hour feels far, far too long for some players mentally while others would perceive them as being rather quick, since many people have different perspectives on how long an hour takes irl (like me ._. ) if short rests themselves were shortened to 20 or 30 minutes while you heal would be an equally useful change for those classes and people would be more likely to take them in an adventuring day. I do feel that having the classes gain abilities back separately from the short rest mechanic would overall be better. It would drastically fix stuff like Monk without even having to change their charges of ki. Though perhaps 4 elements would still need a feature that let it recharge in a fight for a small roll of like a d4+WIS since their spells STILL cost too much especially when upcasting. Frankly 4E monk (lol) should get their spells upcasted automatically at certain levels for free to not be such a ki drain.
i'd hope for short rest be turned to ten minutes, ONLY used for hit point recovery, and other features turned to prof per long, or some other change, treantmonk did a good video on it recently
They, like the kalashtar, are more tied to Eberron than changelings and shifters, I guess. I would assume that's the reason they aren't included is that they are too tied into the lore of Eberron to make them setting agnostic.
Removing the dwarf "you are not slowed by armor" thing is a pure win. That was an absolute non-benefit in the first place. It only applied if you were wearing heavy armor without the prereq strength score, which means you have heavy armor proficiency but strength below 15, which is *incredibly* rare. Like, archery focused fighters (but if you're doing that why are you a dwarf?) or wisdom focused life clerics... that's about it. Having it in the race implies it's an important or at least useful benefit, but it almost never comes up.
I am making a Kobold druid either Wildfire or Shepherd. benefiting with draconic cry for my summons and an extra cantrip (firebolt) for its long range.
I'm going to miss regaining those features on short rests. I think I'm going to homebrew it in my games that if you have no charges of a proficiency bonus per long rest ability, then you can regain one as part of a short rest.
Firbolg Hidden Step has the same wording as ranger's "Vanish" from Tasha's, and now it's PB per LR too. So when my Firbolg Ranger hits level 10, he's going to be able to do this 8 times per long rest. He's already got a tonne of bonus action options though, so I'm not sure if he'll ever use them up.
I’m disappointed about Lizardfolk. I wish that Cunning Artisan was kept and that it was implied that Lizardfolk are naturally inclined to craft things out of remains, just as beavers are inclined to build dams. It wouldn’t fly for more humanoid races, but a bestial race like Lizardfolk would be perfect for such a strange inborn behavior
Then it helps with class based choices and or can help with interest class choices as well. Like think of a Lizardfolk artificer that likes using bone and hide over cloths and metals. For this whole thing about "choice" they moved too much.
Yea, even tho I rarely used the Cunning Artisan, it was nice to have as a "defining" quirk that my character had, and your re description for the ability is great. I really disliked how gruesome and kind of mindless Cunning Artisan made all Lizardfolk look
Changelings did get a massive nerf with their new fey typing: Detect Evil and Good now sees Changelings! I understand lore-wise why you make Changelings fey but frankly they should have gotten an ability that makes them harder to find through such spells. It would be really niche for them to come up normally but it makes sure the race is air-tight on what it's supposed to do. Like it should have been able to make a save or a skill check to avoid being detected form such spells, either your choice of mental score or any mental ability you can use for spellcasting plus proficiency!
@@bleddynwolf8463 it’s more so about how the Changeling’s main gimmick, being a shapeshifter, gets ostensibly no-sold by the spell. Though admittedly it’s an *uncommon* spell in 5e due to the design restrictions counting only exotic creature types as supposed to actual alignment
I'm mostly on board with the mechanical choices here, but I'm personally not a fan of having all the roleplaying flavor stripped out. Hopefully we see it come back in setting books and backgrounds. That said, I don't believe WotC succeeded in addressing the issues that many of these changes were meant to help address. Personally I find the rules in DM's Guild products such as An Elf And An Orc Had A Little Baby (and its sequel) handle the bioessentialism problem in a much more nuanced and enjoyable way. They feel more like an interesting new character creation system than a refurbished sampling of a tired old one.
12:47 I have to disagree with healing hands. It’s better from levels 1-7, slightly worse by 8, better at 9, equal at 10, and worse from 11-20. Now granted most games don’t go past 10 much so it’s a huge deal but for higher level campaigns it’s worse
This video is BRILLIANT! Thank you!!! I LOVE these new changes, making the stat blocks of the races neutral, simpler, clearer to read and understand, and also making most races smoother to play with, without the cultural limitations that the old text put into them (I really disliked some of the races simply because of the flavor text making them out to be terrible and overly evil, or things like that). I really like this direction they are taking, it will make creating characters and playing DnD easier. I just wish they didn't completely remove the races quirks, and how they are portrayed generally, just actually separated these races traits from the much needed mechanical stat block. And I would also like to see the "usual" weight / height and maybe asi, for the races, so they can have their depth and we can have an idea of how these races are generally supposed to be portrayed physically, like the Goliath and Firbolg for example, they are supposed to be really tall, but without this info anywhere they lose part of their depth and uniqueness, sometimes making the design fall apart. Anyway all in all, great changes, love them!!!!
Awesome video and overview of the new changes made! One thing immediately made me go: OH THANK GOD- Sunlight Sensitivity has always been a thorn in my side when playing with DMs who insist on playing exactly by the rules. Let me play a Drow in peace, I beg of you. And choosing what ability score to use for Innate spellcasting was long overdue. Just because I play a certain race doesn't mean I want to invest in a specific ability score. Playing a Winter Eladrin and Fey Step' Fear effect was essentially useless. Looking forward to see how this all plays 👀
I really like the new art for the Duergar in the monster section. I kinda hate the new Drow look, the House Captain looks like a Combat Gimp and the Drow with normal eyes and gray skin are really boring and kinda ugly, the obsidian skin and red eyes on a good character could have had an otherworldly beauty, now they’re just gray elves, but not to be confused with the Shadar Kai who are also Gray elves. Also the Drow Inquisitor looks like it has the Oblivion Dark Elf Hair cut.
Does this mean whenever the shifter shifts they can choose which feature to get? That feels strange because the animal you resemble may not logically fit with all of the features
Maybe the lizardfolk got changed to slashing so it makes more sense if they took the feet slasher? I imagine a bite is more likely to slow you down 10 feet rather than have any reason for a damage reroll.
Absolutely love the new kobold, but more flexible and those pb ba draconic cries have been absolutely amazing for my kobolds. Made a kobold that is a fighter cavalier/rogue multiclass with a whip, being able to ba the draconic cry and use my action to hit enemies and mark them with unwavering mark, forcing them to either have disadvantage against my Allies or hit me
31:00 How is Labyrinthine Recall a more setting-agnostic ability than Imposing Presence? What if I just want to play some cow person and not necessarily associate them with the greek myth of Minotaurus
I feel as a DM to brand new players I can't incorporate changes that are contrary to rules in the Player's Handbook because my players rely on that book as their only base of knowledge in D&D. I go by the addage "keep it simple stupid." I don't want my players overwhelmed ya know?
What VTT/Script(s) does Wintry use? I've been curious about this for a while because it looks really nice and it seems to be able to handle VFX and statuses very well.
@@WintryRPG Ah thanks for the answer! I've been looking at Foundry VTT for a while as a replacement for roll20, good to know it can do stuff like this!
Just today we had a debate about the new rules because they def are better for gameplay variaty but there is so much lore lost here. Like dwarfs are known to be small and bulky and now they just don't represent that as good anymore. I'm still a fan for changes like that because I hated the 25ft for smaller races. It's a poisoned gift we get.
25 movement speed isn't bad or boring, it can make more interesting situations, and it makes atleast me feel like my character has small legs or some hindrance with walking.
It sucks that tieflings weren't in this book and are still stuck with the 1/long rest innate spells. I'm concerned how all of their subraces will be treated once the new PHB comes out.
Didn't the Fairy's Enlarge/Reduce only work on themselves and now it can work on others? Can someone confirm this for me? I really dislike the changes for the Water Genasi, in my game we homebrewed it that they keep Shape Water instead of gaining Acid Splash, their resistance is to cold, not acid, and they get Water Breathing instead of Water Walk
this is where 5e became 5.5 and not using it, all the changes are trash other then new items and spells feats and if someone wants to be a bunny or a Ninja Turtle ok but, this idea that your stats are now à la carte not a chance, good luck finding DM's that are going to allow that
Sucks that elfs weren't subject to the same nerfs the other races were. There's enough people wanting to play an elf, add power gamers and I'm tired of seeing elfs.
I would really prefer if they didn't just drop the static ASI and all the lore, I'd prefer if they kept those features and said "this is the trend but you can replace the ASI or lore if you'd like. This is just inspiration." They take away features and give us nothing in return. Very frustrating. Now every race just feels like a blank slate, picking a race is just like picking a coat of paint now.
I have a feeling they will be adding more things in backgrounds, as they are going to do with Dragonlance, see the Unearthed Arcana for that. Adding feats through backgrounds seems like a great thing to me. So while they have taken for now, I feel like we will get great things back in return.
@@Niekvw Still, there isn't much difference between an elf, human, Dwarf, lizardfolk, etc. you get one unique ability for many of them. Languages? Pick any! Ability scores? Your choice! Culture? You can be from literally anywhere! Inherent skills? You pick! I'm less frustrated about what they took away and more frustrated that many races are nearly identical now.
@@SuperGoose42 nearly identical, I don't think so. There are still many things that make a race unique, it's just a very healthy thing to separate nature from nurture. You'd rather have forced roles upon certain races than the freedom to create anything you want. Nothing stops you from adding flavor yourself tho. And besides, many races still get unique traits, and if you feel like adding things yourself, I don't see why you couldn't do that as well.
I guess I'll be the Umm Actually guy but Aasimar healing is worse once you hit level 10 because and beyond as 4d4 is equal average to 10 but a modifier of 10 is better as you don't take a chance of rolling lower as well by level 20 (or 17) aka 6d4 it only heals on average of 15 way lower then 20 (or 17) consistent healing also the scourge was nerfed as the damage it keeps up rage also scourge AoE is terrible now by level 12 you hit max and the damage at least you can admit as long as the battle last more then 3 turns your just being absolutely nerfed
I hope for dnd 5.5e or whatever it's called they remove the "gaining ASI from race" as now every race gains the same thing. It'd make more sense to just get an ASI automatically whenever you pick any class, or something.
It’s really hard for me to get excited for new racial options. Variant Human is so overwhelming it renders most other races completely irrelevant. It’s a shame, I want to be excited to try new things but with feats being as rare as they are in 5e it’s so bad to pass one up.
