Yeah, that post title fits the pattern I established but also sounds like something that should engage with the writings of James Baldwin.
And, honestly, there are discussions to be had about D&D's treatment of race, and what the best way it is for WotC to evolve the way they handle it. I'll personally advocate, as a first step, changing the term "race" out for something like Lineage or Ancestry. Lineage was already introduced in 5E to describe the options in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and while in that case it distinguished these as things that players could become, rather than being born that way, the word "Lineage" does kind of imply that it involves the people who came before you (even if said people are vampires or hags).
The Character Origins (I've been saying Character Creation all this time, but it's Origins) UA presents the nine races (and yeah, we'll use that term for now because it's what WotC is using) that will appear in the new Player's Handbook.
First off, the selection should be very familiar to those who have been playing 5E. The only new addition is the Ardling, which is kind of the mirror of the Tiefling (though distinct from the established Aasimar).
The baseline here is otherwise the same, except that "Half-" races are no longer there.
Why is that? Philosophically, the idea is that characters can have broadly mixed backgrounds. Half-Elves and Half-Orcs are not being removed from the canon, but are instead being treated differently than they have been in the past. The idea now is that, on a mechanical level, you can pick one of your ancestries and use that as your race, while still understanding that on a story and visual level, your character's mixed heritage can show in various ways.
The benefit here is that human/elf and human/orc ancestries are no longer the only recognized one. Your Halfling can have a Dwarf parent, or your Tiefling can have have a Gnome grandparent.
In the 2014 PHB, the only way you could have orcish ancestry was playing a half-orc, and it wouldn't be until later publications that the Orc was presented as an option (that was also weirdly distinct from the Half-Orc on a mechanical level). Here, however, the revised version of the Orc as seen in Monsters of the Multiverse is graduated to the Player's Handbook as one of the standard options in the Player's Handbook. Given how classic Orcs are as a fantasy race, this feels fitting.
Like the Monsters of the Multiverse revisions, there are a couple broad things. The first is that racial abilities don't tie into cultural things. Elves and Dwarves, for example, don't get proficiency in particular weapons anymore, because that's really a cultural thing - if your Elf grew up in some Halfling community, you wouldn't just know how to use a Longbow thanks to your genetics.
Another rather huge change is that sub-races are being handled differently. In some cases, they're simply eliminated. Halflings and Dwarves now come in one-size-fits-all (the Duergar, seen in Monsters of the Multiverse, still exist, but are treated as a separate race, though they still count as dwarves for things like the Belt of Dwarvenkind). However, those races that retain sub-races now treat the sub-race as a single racial trait, where you choose one of a number of options, usually with the term "legacy" or "lineage" attached to it.
This actually expands the Tiefling, which now has three Fiendish Legacies. In the 2014 PHB, Tieflings were basically narrowed down to those who traced their origins back to the Nine Hells and devils. Here, however, you can choose whether your fiendish traits come from lawful evil planes (infernal), chaotic evil planes (abyssal), or neutral evil planes (chthonic).
What's great about this is that it would seem to make the Tiefling more in line with how it was initially presented when they first introduced it with Planescape. 5E natives have a picture of tieflings as basically always having horns and a tail, usually with red skin (though Jester from critical role was blue, explained by the fact that her father was a water genasi - and see! We've already been using this method to allow mixed heritage!) But in 2nd Edition Planescape, they basically just looked weird - there's a tiefling NPC who has snakes for eyes, and some that have porcupine-like quills for hair. The examples presented for the Chthonic and Abyssal tieflings are fairly varied. I like the idea of a Chthonic tiefling with Merrenoloth ancestors and thus has a skeletal-looking face with gray flesh. No one is stopping you from playing the "tiefling classic," which looks and works fairly similarly to how it already did, but you have other possibilities.
All right, well, I said we were going deep, so let's go deep.
Oh, one broad thing first: like we saw in Monsters of the Multiverse, every race has a minimum walking speed of 30 feet, so Halflings, Gnomes, and Dwarves don't have to struggle to keep up anymore.
Humans:
Humans' biggest benefit in the original PHB was their versatility. The standard human got a +1 to all ability scores, which, while less focused, wound up a net of twice as many bonuses than any other race. However, most players I've encountered instead picked the variant option, which gives you two +1s, less than what other races get, but allows you to put them in whatever ability scores you want. And then you get a feat, which is the biggest appeal.
With the Tasha's changes that allowed any race to move around their ability score bonuses, the flexibility of the variant human became a lot less exciting. I'd argue that the base human still got a pretty cool benefit, though lacking the feat from the variant human made it feel a little too generalized.
The new Human traits are, I think, something of an update to the Variant Human.
The first major change is that Humans can now choose between Medium and Small size. The whole point of Humans as a playable race is that they should reflect every kind of human in the real world. And there are plenty of people in the real world who fall within the size range of "Small," so this makes total sense.
The brand-new trait for humans is Resourceful, which causes them to gain Inspiration when they finish a Long Rest. Inspiration, originally at the sole discretion of the DM to reward good roleplay (or good/particularly bad jokes at the table) is now granted automatically when you roll a natural 20, so this just gives humans a little boost at the start of the day.
As with the variant human, humans now get an extra Skill Proficiency of their choice. And, like the variant human, you get a free Feat. The feature, Versatile, suggests Skilled as the feat to choose, but any of the level 1 feat options are available. This is in addition to your Background feat, meaning that while humans are no longer totally special in getting a feat at level 1, they get to pick two.
Again, because only select feats are now available at first level, you might be a little disappointed not to get something like Great Weapon Master here, and still have to spend an ability score increase on picking it up. But this does mean you can now have a little more customization at character creation.
Ardlings:
The Ardlings are the new playable race in the PHB. Effectively the Upper Planes equivalent of the Tiefling, Ardlings actually look very different. In Planescape, many celestials (or what we'd now classify as celestials) are actually animal-headed, from things like Hound Archons in Mount Celestia to the Guardinals in Elysium. This also draws on real-world myths, such as Anubis or Thoth in Egyptian mythology.
Just as Tieflings are not bound to the alignments of their evil planar origins, Ardlings are not inherently good people, and are just as free-willed. Also, like the tieflings, Ardlings come in different varieties that determine certain traits - specifically their inherent spells. Like the Tiefling, the Ardling chooses between the Chaotic, Lawful, and Neutral planes of their side of the good/evil divide, with Exalted, Heavenly, and Idyllic representing those alignments respectively.
Ardlings can choose between being Small or Large, much like several other races including Humans.
All Ardlings get Angelic Flight. This lets them gain a fly speed as a bonus action equal to their walking speed, but only until the end of their turn, after which they will fall if not standing on a solid surface. They get to use this PB times per day.
Next is Celestial Legacy. This grants a fairly standard racial spellcasting feature - gaining new spells at different levels, and being able to cast the leveled spells once per day for free, but also with your spell slots if you have them, and being able to choose your spellcasting ability for them from your mental stats. Each gets a cantrip at level 1, and then leveled spells at levels 3 and 5.
Exalted Ardlings get Thaumaturgy, Divine Favor, and Lesser Restoration. Heavenly Ardlings get Light, Cure Wounds, and Zone of Truth. Idyllic Ardlings get Guidance, Healing Word, and Animal Messenger.
The fact that two of these get healing spell is pretty interesting - giving your Wizard, Sorcerer, or Warlock some decent healing capabilities. I'll also note that Light is going to probably be a lot more useful for a Heavenly Ardling than it is for an Aasimar, given that Ardlings do not get Darkvision by default.
Finally, all Ardlings get resistance to Radiant damage. This is one of those damage types that is really more common among player characters than dangerous monsters, but I also think when they do deal radiant damage, it tends to be for a lot.
The presence of the Ardlings really re-emphasizes the effects of the Outer Planes on the worlds of D&D, and with 5E Planescape coming next year (I'm already so eager to get my hands on it) it looks like planar stuff will be more commonplace. I will say that throwing in a brand new playable race means that homebrewers will need to think a bit about how these folks fit into our settings. I very much built my Sarkon setting in an effort to accommodate all the PHB races, but I've also happily added and expanded things to make room for other playable races that have been added (even the MTG-setting-only ones).
Dragonborn:
Now, here's a race that very recently got new versions, but oddly, the UA doesn't really embrace the three Dragonborn options from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Here, instead, they're consolidated back into a single race.
Dragonborn in the 2014 PHB basically only have their damage resistance and breath weapon as race features.
Here, they get slightly more: First off, all Dragonborn know Draconic instinctively (so I guess my Eldritch Knight would have four languages even with the new background rules).
Dragonborn also now get Darkvision - which is a nice bone to throw to them.
As before, you pick a Draconic Ancestry, which determines the elemental damage type of your resistance and your breath weapon. One thing of note, though, is that while the 2014 PHB actually suggests that Dragonborn have, over time, intermixed to the point that most have the same vaguely brownish color, here they say that dragonborn vibrantly reflect their draconic ancestry in their appearance.
I find this interesting because I think this is a case of WotC just noticing the way that people have been playing and changing the rules - or in this case, the flavor text - to reflect that. Absolutely no one I've ever seen play D&D has played Dragonborn as looking like they do as described in the 2014 PHB.
The big thing here is that the way that the Breath Weapon works has changed. First off, like the change in Fizban's, you now get to use it PB times per long rest, rather than once per short rest, which, in the long run, is a buff.
Beyond that, though, all breath weapons, regardless of ancestry, affect a 15-foot cone, with a Dex save to take half damage. The DC is still based on your Constitution modifier. The damage, however, has changed. It now deals 1d10 plus your level in damage.
Ok, so let's math this out:
The Fizban's versions deal 1d10 per tier - so at level 5 it becomes 2d10, at level 11 3d10, and at level 17 it's 4d10. Fizban's also allows it to take the place of an attack if you have Multiattack, which is a big deal (for martial classes).
However, we'll instead compare this with the PHB version. Here, you get 2d6 at level 1, then 3d6 at level 6, 4d6 at level 11, and 5d6 at level 16. That means the average damage goes from 7 to 10.5, then 14, then 17.5.
At those levels, the new version deals an average of 6.5 at level 1, 11.5 at level 6, 16.5 at level 11, and 21.5 at level 16. The damage is a little higher, but it's also much more consistent - at level 16, you're doing 17-26 damage, as opposed to 5-30, and thus have a far narrower range (it still stings to remember when I rolled double 1s on a breath weapon and both monsters dodged it, taking a measly 1 lightning damage each).
As such, the new breath weapon should feel more satisfying to use, as you're never going to get absolutely terrible damage from it. I still like the Fizban's version more (though mainly because my Dragonborn is a Fighter - this version would be better for a Wizard or Druid or the like).
Dwarf:
The biggest change here is that Dwarves are now just one race... except for the Duergar, who are also Dwarves, but are the only ones that are physiologically distinct enough to count as their own thing - what with the whole psionic experiments by the Mind Flayers.
As before, they get Darkvision. They also have Dwarven Resilience, which continues to give Poison resistance and advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the poisoned condition.
One thing I think is interesting is that I think many people treat this as advantage against any poison damage, such as a green dragon's breath weapon, but I think technically that's not the case. But if an effect does poison damage and also poisons you, this does work? That's not a change, though.
Dwarven Toughness is basically the old Hill Dwarf trait that gives increases your max HP by your level (worded in a weirdly inefficient way).
Forge Wise is interesting in that it sort of seems to go against the cultural/physiological distinction that D&D has been working with. However, the justification here is that this is the gift of the divine creators of the Dwarves, meaning that this is actually a physiological thing. (I guess it's akin to the Giff propensity for firearms or the Dragonborn's instinctive grasp of Draconic). You get Tool Proficiency with two of the following of your choice: Jeweler's Tools, Mason's Tools, Smith's Tools, or Tinker's Tools. How are Brewer's Supplies not in this? The options are expanded from those found in the 2014 PHB, but it really feels like Brewing is a classic Dwarf trade (I've always thought their Poison resistance was what allowed them to drink so prodigiously).
I'm not sure how I feel about handwaving racial traits that feel more cultural by just invoking the gods. Maybe it's fine? Or maybe this just recreates the problem in a new way?
Stonecunning is now a totally different feature, but one that is likely to get used a lot more. As a bonus action (and usable PB times per day,) dwarves can touch a stone surface (or stand on one) and get Tremorsense out to 60 feet for ten minutes. Tremorsense has historically only appeared on monster stat blocks, and only gets defined in the Monster Manual, so it's interesting to see it here as a racial trait. But I also think this makes a ton of sense as a kind of instinctive ability to sense danger while in caves or mines for a people who are built for such environments. This is both a really useful feature and one that has a lot of flavor to it, so I give it a big thumbs up.
Elf:
Elves, the race with the most variations in D&D and indeed most fantasy games (WoW has four playable elf races, and Elder Scrolls does too given that Orcs are a type of elf in that world,) are here represented as a single race. However, unlike Dwarves, they retain a sub-race like feature that is now simply a choosable trait similar to Draconic Ancestry. (Of course, Astral Elves, Eladrin, Sea Elves, and Shadar-Kai stand as their own playable races in Astral Adventurer's Guide and Monsters of the Multiverse, but count as elves, for example, to avoid being paralyzed by a ghoul - bet you forgot that was a thing!)
For the most part, elves will be fairly similar to how they are in the 2014 PHB, including that they come in High Elf, Wood Elf, and Drow varieties.
Elves get Darkvision, as well as Fey Ancestry, Keen Senses (proficiency in Perception), and Trance. Interestingly, unlike the MotM and AAG elves, you don't gain any new proficiencies during your Trance, making it work much as it did in the 2014 PHB.
Your Elven Lineage, then, gives you a choice between Drow, High Elf, or Wood Elf. Each choice gives you a cantrip at level 1, and then other spells at level 3 and 5, which, like most racial spells, you can cast once for free per long rest, and but also cast with spell slots if you want to use them more. Also as with other racial spells, you choose a mental stat for your spellcasting ability.
In addition, your lineage will give you some other passive bonus (which will look familiar).
Drow get Dancing Lights, and the range of their Darkvision extends to 120 feet. They no longer have Sunlight Sensitivity, which is fantastic. At 3rd level, you get Faerie Fire, and at 5th level, Darkness. In other words, they're nearly unchanged.
High Elves get Prestidigitation, however, they can swap out that cantrip for any other Arcane (one of the new spell categories) cantrip after a Long Rest. At 3rd level, they get Detect Magic, and at 5th level, they get Misty Step. That last one is pretty great, as that's a really good spell.
Wood Elves get Druidcraft, and their speed is increased to 35 feet. At 3rd level they get Longstrider, and at 5th level they get Pass Without Trace.
So, all in all, the main thing elves lose is their racial weapon proficiencies, which were only useful in certain edge cases (such as my Wood Elf Monk being proficient in Longswords, thus allowing him to designate them as his Dedicated Weapon, which meant he could use his Sun Blade as a Monk Weapon).
Wood Elves and High Elves get a bit more magic, but for the most part, the race looks much as it did in 2014.
Gnomes:
Like Elves, Gnomes retain their "sub-races" but now as a single racial trait. Deep Gnomes/Svirfneblin remain an alternative option (though I cannot for the life of me think of anything in the game that mechanically singles out Gnomes). Gnomes get Darkvision and retain Gnomish Cunning. The Gnomish Lineage trait lets you choose between Forest Gnome and Rock Gnome.
Forest Gnomes look fairly similar, but they work slightly differently. They still learn Minor Illusion, but they now get to cast Speak with Animals for free PB times per day (and can still cast it more using spell slots). This means it will expend a resource now to speak with beasts, but there is no longer any size limit, and you get the full effects of the spell, rather than only being able to communicate simple ideas.
Rock Gnomes learn Prestidigitation and Mending. Then, things get complicated: using the Prestidigitation spell, you can spend 10 minutes creating a tiny clockwork device with AC 5 and 1 HP, requiring 10g worth of raw materials, which you provide while casting. The device can replicate any single effect from the Prestidigitation spell when activated as a bonus action (usable by you or another creature). The effect has to be a specific one - for example, a fire starter can only ignite, but not extinguish, flames. You can have up to three such devices active at a time, and each one dismantles itself 8 hours after its creation, or you can dismantle it as an Action. The material used to make it can then be reclaimed and reused.
So, that's a lot. This is similar to the old Tinker trait, but it uses this magic instead of tinker's tools, and the item takes less time to make but also lasts a shorter time. The options for what the device does are broader, though you can't make an ambulatory toy, I think.
Honestly, I think that this has always been more of a flavor feat than something that will come into play all that often, but granting both Mending and Prestidigitation is nice, as these are two of my favorite cantrips.
Again, Gnomes haven't undergone some crazy full reinvention, just a few tweaks, and I think they're fine.
Halflings:
Unlike the Elves and Gnomes, Halflings have followed the example of the Dwarves, consolidating the subraces into a single Halfling race option. The distinction between Stout and Lightfoot Halflings has always felt pretty nebulous to me on the story side of things, so this makes a lot of sense.
Halflings retain Brave, their advantage on saves against or to end the frightened condition. Halfling Nimbleness allows you to move through a creature that is of a larger size, but you can't stop there. That latter part is not actually in the 2014 description of the trait, though may have been implied.
Naturally Stealthy, which had been a Lightfoot trait, now simply gives you proficiency in Stealth.
And finally, Lucky is now called Luck, but works the same (albeit using the new term "d20 test.")
Only very subtle changes here. The old Naturally Stealthy had a fun flavor to it, but I think that just getting Stealth for free is probably a more broadly appealing feature. (And as a DM I'd probably allow such shenanigans for any Small character.)
Orcs:
With "half-" races now being more of a story and aesthetic choice rather than a mechanical one, Orcs come into take the place of Half-Orcs in the PHB. The design here is, I believe, unchanged from its revision in Monsters of the Multiverse, which took in the old Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance and combines that with Darkvision, Powerful Build, and the unique Adrenaline Rush trait, which allows you to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and when you do so, you get temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus. Unlike the old Orc version of this trait, you don't need to move toward an enemy to do this, meaning that Orcs can be quite mobile in many scenarios (I actually have an Orc Cleric as a backup character in one campaign who would likely use Adrenaline Rush to get to allies who need healing - a Cleric who can get back up after being knocked down seems like it would be very powerful).
Tiefling:
The tiefling's biggest change is that you can now pick different Fiendish Legacies. While 2014 Tieflings were linked to devils and the lawful evil plane of the Nine Hells, this restores a bit of the diversity to the tiefling they had when introduced in Planescape. Again, sub-races are treated simply as a trait that gives you a few options.
On a visual level, tieflings can be a lot more varied now. Infernal Tieflings, which are the ones 5E veterans are familiar with, have the usual horns, tails, golden eyes, etc. But they can also be connected to Acheron or Gehenna, and less explicitly devil-like. (Spikes are another suggested feature, as well as the odor of sulfur or smoke). Abyssal Tieflings are connected to the Chaotic Evil planes: Pandemonium, The Abyss, and Carceri. Suggested traits include Horns, but also fur, tusks, dark blood, and peculiar odors. Finally, Chthonic Tieflings are linked to the Neutral Evil planes, Gehenna, Hades, and Carceri. Suggested appearances are to look cadaverous and skeletal, or perhaps possess the unearthly beauty of an incubus or succubus, or to borrow features of a yugoloth or night hag. (Personally, my concept would be a sort of skeletal Merrenloloth-derived look.)
Like Ardlings and Humans, you can be Medium or Small.
All Tieflings get Darkvision as well as Thaumaturgy (the ability for which is the same you choose for your Fiendish Legacy trait).
Fiendish Legacy is where you choose which planes you're connected to. Each grants a damage resistance, a cantrip, and spells at 3rd and 5th level. You pick a spellcasting ability for these between the three mental stats.
Abyssal Tieflings get resistance to Poison damage and learn Poison Spray. At 3, you get Ray of Sickness, and at 5 you get Hold Person.
Chthonic Tieflings get resistance to Necrotic damage and learn Chill Touch. At 3, you get False Life, and at 5, you get Ray of Enfeeblement.
Inernal Tieflings get resistance to Fire damage and learn Fire Bolt. At 3, you get Hellish Rebuke, and at 5 you get Darkness.
So, in practice, old school Tieflings basically just add Fire Bolt and their free Hellish Rebuke is only 1st level (though as with all these racial spellcasting traits, you can cast them again with a spell slot).
My worry for Abyssal Tieflings is that, at least in the 2014 Monster Manual, so, so many creatures are immune or resistant to poison damage and being poisoned, which makes two of their spells underwhelming. Granted, maybe they'll pull back on that a little (I'll also admit that I'm someone who likes to run supernatural monsters, meaning fiends, undead, and constructs might show up in my games more than other peoples', so maybe there's plenty of opportunity for poison to come up).
I really find myself most excited about the Chthonic Tiefling, and partially that's because I think the word Chthonic is very cool - and it's a nice word to throw in there with Abyssal and Infernal. Chill Touch is a really, really powerful cantrip (even if it has the most misleading name of any spell in the game - seriously, shouldn't this be called "Death Blast" or something?)
And with that, we've pretty exhaustively gone through all the revised PHB races.
In most cases, we've seen tweaks rather than significant reworks. I will say, much as I did when Monsters of the Multiverse came out, I think we've seen a little bit of homogenization. This is sometimes the price we pay for balance. I liked, for example, that Dwarves in the 2014 PHB could ignore the Strength requirement on heavy armor - so your Life Cleric didn't have to worry about buffing their Strength. Still, I think that there are a decent number of unique traits, like Trance, Stonecunning, or Angelic Flight, that the selection here could inspire players to get excited about their choice.
I think the intent behind the changes to mixed-heritage characters is good, but we'll see where it lands ultimately on execution. I've said my piece on this matter in previous posts, so I won't reiterate it here.
Tonight (possibly) I'm going to be doing character creation for a short adventure/campaign (we might do Light of Xaryxis, or otherwise some homebrew thing,) and I intend to playtest these changes through them with my players. The survey for these will open in about two weeks, and will remain open for another two weeks. After that, we can likely expect to see other designs. I'm very, very eager to see the class revisions (big things to watch out for: Artificers in the PHB, Fighters all getting Maneuvers, and Warlocks getting Eldritch Blast as a class feature).
It's an exciting time for D&D, and I hope most people will look at this playtest (starting two years before publication) as a real opportunity to help shape the game. D&D Next, which was 5E's codename much as One D&D is for this new iteration, helped turn the edition into the massive success that it was. All the little (or big) issues that have bugged players for the last 8 years have a real opportunity to get addressed in this, so I'm going to try to participate as much as I can.
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