The problem with D&D races (and why did the Ardling fail) 

Wizards of the Coast isn't really interested in including race lore, just mechanics. Owlin, looking at you 😂 Good video.

This is why i love playing minotaur. A cursed race, trible, cut off from civilization. My go to is a minotaur looking to bring civilization back to his kin, forge a future for his people outside savage wilderness survival. Its a story i love to see.

When I'm playing an unfamiliar race in Dungeons and Dragons, I rely on information pulled from various sources in previous editions. The lore of most playable races in 5e is significantly lacking without doing so, and retcons introduced in 5e only seem to make the problem worse. Many of them simply feel generic, shoved in so that players can play "something that looks and acts like this!" rather than something with a pre-existing culture in a setting.

Definitely not letting WotC off the hook, but most Players only ever play themselves (or rather, how they view themselves). Few and far between are the Players that look at race and background as more than an aesthetic.

One thing I didn't like that Wizards did is removing specific racial ability bonuses, now they're like "just put the +2 and +1 anywhere you want". Having specific ability bonuses shows you a good idea of the average member of that races abilities. Half-orcs have a +2 Strength and +1 Constitution showing that the average member of that race is physically stronger and hardier than the average Human, which they are. Meanwhile Owlins get +to to any of players choice and +1 to any of players choice, this tells me nothing about how the average Owlin compares to the average Human. I think Owlins should have gotten a +2 Wisdom and +1 Dexterity, the same abilities that Aarakocra get bonuses in but just reversed showing they aren't as dexterous but are more observant and their other bird counterpart.

I mainly just read dnd lore, but maybe Ardlings should have been humans transformed into hybrids due to a cult or mad scientist, or maybe you did it to yourself & you gotta wrestle with this new form. But I agree they should use unique races more, I rather be a strange spider creature with multiple legs or a centaur who has to navigate human cities because it’s different.

One of my campaigns I had adjusted elves, as well orcs and goblinoids simply to accomodate my players acting like humans wearing another skin. halflings, gnomes and dwarves were still more esoteric though.

Into the trash it goes. And nothing of value was lost.

I understand why it was scrapped, but I’m still a bit sad about it too. In my head can see an ardling acting very different to a human, in that their divine heritage and bestial nature makes them less emphatetic towards humanoid kind. Common trope, but I could get lots of fun visual design ideas and roleplay ideas out of it!

WotC's run of D&D is to create content, not worlds. They create mechanics and tool kits, not lore nor stories. They create species, but not cultures. Especially since 5e, the company's output has been allergic towards fleshing out campaign settings beyond a book each, with very little concrete information. They can't risk mechanical conflict-everything needs to be compatible with one another, so they have to wash out all the deeper lore and sand down all the edges, so somebody's homebrew campaign can possibly incorporate every book's player options. It takes active home-brewing and DMs to say "no" to certain options, and it also takes them to make executive decisions about the setting, lore, and importantly in this context… *cultures*. Cultures need lore, lore needs a world. Why does this species exist in the world? How do they interact with others? How do they relate to one another? What is their history, where are they headed? How can a player conform with their culture, how can they go against the grain? What are odd things or quirks that make this culture stand out? *What different cultures exist within the same species?* WotC has been putting the onus on individual DMs and groups. And plenty of their customers push back against such criticism with the adage, "Oh, but I prefer homebrewing myself!" Which is good for them, but it's starting to show the weakness in this decision of creative direction (or rather, a lack of creative direction). Like mentioned in the video, 40 species to pick from is a staggering number. But with no cultures or settings to back them up, they're basically meaningless. They might as well all be humans wearing costumes. The Ardling was a symptom of an underlying issue that has been festering for well over a decade. And as long as WotC shows no bold creative direction in building any worlds, there will be no sense of history nor culture to any new species introduced.

I liked the ardling concept. It also was pretty lore heavy when you consider the book of exhausted deeds. But the stat blocks sucked. But they were very redundant....like most things 5e

Have you come up with any home brew fixes? Maybe you can start a common trend where certain races are allowed some new options. Maybe you could come up with said options?

I'm gonna be that guy: We can't have diverse species with unique inherent and cultural characteristics because of the modern moral panic over everything called "race". That's also why WoTC is trying to move away from the word, imo. P.s. Race, species, and ancestry are not interchangeable words. Totally different concepts.

Wait, are you implying then that elves are then also more than just humans with pointy ears? I mean that seriously, since that is how most people play them. And like you mention, WotC never had really ben that creative to create something new, but always borrowed stuff, and a huge part has been just the look of things--which is part of the reason why I decided against having illustration for my system/world I am working on. And talking about design, that is why I also don't do ancestries, but directly the heritage features, so that people can play humans with the weird stuff if that is what they want and do not have to jump through hoops of some lore they do not what to play of specific beings. Thus divorcing the game mechanism there completely from the narrative and let give the players more liberties of the narrative they actually want to create.

The Ardlings should have been from the Beastlands!

*Heard the word ancestry instead of race, leaves video*