Being disappointed by lizard folk not having cunning artisan, but pointing out that biting isnt his kink, implies that fashioning weapons from bones is his kink.
In all fairness Cunning Artisan was basically useless really more of a flavour feature. But flavour is still important so I still agree that what they did wad bad.
definitely. I thought i heard something about playtest stuff for more space type races. I think slimefolk were one of them. I was looking forward to having more options of characters to write backstories for or make. This was a little disappointing. I'm hoping they do have a later options for D&D Beyond for more races to add on.
@@Shade400 I play Pathfinder 1 on the regular. IMO it fixes a lot of the problems I have with 3.5. But both are incredibly bloated still, which leads to a lot of "player does like 6 actions due to weird action economy exploits from multiple different source books and takes 10 minutes to explain everything" I also play some Lancer and Pathfinder 2.
Pretty much agree about Hobgoblins. Is the new one good? Yeah. It’s actually a kinda great way to represent weird old fairy stories where the fae in question had rigorous and weird etiquette that must be followed. It just has nothing to do with what D&D Hobgoblins have always been about.
@@elf-lordsfriarofthemeadowl2039 I think Crawford and co. just go really excited about the idea of making Goblinoids from the Feywild. And in fairness, that actually works pretty well for Goblins and Bugbears, but Hobgoblins are kinda the least Feywild monsters in the Monster Manual. So we got this.
They really should be subraces. Goblins already come in tons of different (debatably fruity?) flavors that would make GREAT subrace options! Blue goblins, the Kara-Tur ones (forgot the name), red caps! just make the fey goblin a different subrace that socially splits into redcaps on the chaotic-evil spectrum and something else on the neutral-good spectrum!
@@viktord2025 there’s still full mechanical support for if you want to speak only in Mimicry, but if Kenkus in your setting don’t have the curse then they don’t have to be restricted purely by mimicry.
The majority of the time I've seen people pick Kenku it was FOR the mimicry thing because it was fun to play. Won't really affect my tables any because anyone who chooses Kenku will probably roleplay that way regardless.
Check out how many Monster charm abilities can target fey creatures. Hint: it's not very many. Having the fey typing is better Charm resistance than Fey Ancestry ever could be. Although, I guess it's possible this book changes that.
@@CanisMythson to you and the others who replied, thanks for helping me understand those rules a bit better. I wasn't thinking about the creature type when I absolutely should have!
The cunning artisan thing bugs me. I get that this separates them from being tribal. But I love the idea of just any lizardfolk being able to just make bones into stuff regardless of upbringing, that it is just instinct.
I feel like the ability could still work if it was reworked to being easier to craft trinkets/weapons out of deferent resources, then again it might be a bit much so some food for thought
@@tasoskazil4869 Basically give them a free artisans tool or two because not that many backgrounds, races and even subclasses use them. Even if "Woodcarving" tools and Leatherworking make the most sense.
For real. I had a lizardfolk cleric character that was raised by humans into their faith, never had interactions with his own kind, and was super formal, refined, almost highbrow even. Well, after the first major monster encounter in the adventure he starts just ripping apart the corpse and constructing a shield. The whole party was just: WTF. It was a great RP/story moment where he got to explain it just felt wrong not to make use of this resource. It is just primal, instinctual, to lizardfolk. Regardless of upbringing.
I don’t like that they’re swapping all the short rest abilities with per proficiency bonus abilities. Having things recharge on short rests was good! It means that everyone in the party gets something on a short rest, not just the warlock and monk (and wizard ig)
@@canaryinacoalmine1759 they can work if you use specific rules but the problem is in most situations were you can short rest you could instead just long rest.
"Minotaurs always know where north is" On one hand, good for dungeons if your DM is into certain sorts of puzzles On the other hand, the minotaur Corsair captain character i keep in the back of my head now became a better sea-minos
Yeah... honestly, gotta love the dnd wikis that exist for those of us who want to play the game but don't have the money to just drop $30 or so because they want to use a single feature
Personally when I buy this set, it will basically will be a check list to remind they exist and I would go from there depending on the kind of backstory I think of.
I felt like they took a lot of the spice out of the races. A lot of the races had pro’s and con’s to them(short race speed, sunlight sensitivity, or hard to use abilities like the Aasimar ones) but I’ve felt like they’ve gotten rid of the cons to instead just have watered down and less interesting pros
Yeah... that was the goal i think... To create a sort of baseplate that is settings agnostic. Not specifically flavored for any place. That is.. well... teh DM´s job now if they like.
Yeah, in the future a race will probably be select a skill and a 1st level spell. Your welcome. Why even select race if they all play the same a bit over the top formulated.
Really enjoyed the overview, I would like to point out, Kenku are no longer limited to their mimicry to talk. They can talk like any other race, they can just use mimicry as a feature.
I've talked with my friends, and we're basically all of the opinion that some of this stuff is okay, but Wizards seems to be changing lore just to change lore (looking at you fey ancestry Goblinoids) and is now over correcting with the proficiency bonus scaling. Kobold is now possibly the weakest race in the game (glad to see that the strength of Dragons is still holding true ever since Dragonborn got changed /s). I like some of the changes, namely Genasi and Gith. But a lot of them are me asking "Why????" I think I'm planning to have players choose either the old, or the new versions, or even mix parts together.
Well, the fey ancestry goblins, is maybe changing lore (though I don't know much about pre 5E lore), but it's pretty reasonable as goblins are creatures of folklore from Europe and usually connected to fey spirits, so it doesn't bother me really. And I don't think proficiency bonus uses doesn't seem that bad to me, and with class abilities, it often worked. But I am with you on Kobolds, just like why?
@@Breadcutter Oh I get the folklore stuff, but Goblinoids and especially Changelings in DnD were never really folkloric, not truly. As far as the proficiency bonus scaling, it just feels like they're going too ham with it. Look at Aasimar.
@@flooferderp2918 yeah I guess that's kinda personal taste with the prof bonus. And concerning the folklore as a german, I am kinda stoked that they are getting more folkloric so yeah I think it's just like a personal thing
Yuan-Ti pureblood being really good is pretty setting specific, one of my friends played as one for tomb of annihilation where like everything does a little bit of poison damage and they realized a few sessions in "hey this was accidentally a really good decision"
except they're not as good as ppl make them out to be. Poison immunity is pretty much only good trait they have. Magic resistances on PC's is overrated their spellcasting might as well not be there.
Im geniuenly sad that the Hobgoblin change wasn't just a sub race. My war bois... And my Triton lost wall of water. What the hell. That was such a nice spell to have. So many people were drowned..
I am genuinely confused as to why they would change Hobgoblins so radically. I've been agnostic for a long time on the subject of WoTC allegedly having a 'political' axe to grind on these things, but seeing them take the one species that had an overtly fascist / militarist culture and turn them into frolicking flute hippies has convinced me that there's got to be something going on there.
@@josephpotter5766 i know goblins have fae backgrounds in our world, so I can see it as a subrace to call back to the source on our end, but changing it from; as you said, a fascist, war like society is culture shock and so backward it kills me. I love the war feel, as it was a well made culture, gave story hooks, and truth be told it made them feel like a Dark Lord's army (lookin' at you Sauron, you big, beautiful war lord)
While I don’t like the flavor of the new abilities, the mechanics of the new abilities are very hobgoblin-y it fits the highly regimented and tactical style of the Hobgoblins. Think of it less as “Yes I’m a Fey Friend here to help my new friends” and more “We’ve got enemies on are flank, keep up your guard. The enemy is trying to retreat, run them down. Right flank you better hold the line. **Shanks Enemy**”
Really don't like the changes to the aasimar. Would probably been okay with it if they could use their transformations an equal amount to their proficiency
This exactly This race did not need a nerf at all, and reducing the damage from your level to PB is a giant nerf. You only get the damage once per round and only during one fight per long rest, so this is just pityful
@@elenexxenele8443 Why would anyone use this option this. I say transformation as a bonus action and an amount of times equal to your prof would make the most sense.
The transformation is a pretty strong buff though, adding damage and a unique effect based on the version. Not only that but it is a bonus action in this version. That only makes it better than it's ever been, though the damage scaling with Prof is a nerf. It's probably an attempt to lower nova damage at mid and higher levels, or so I would imagine.
I don't like them converting subraces like Svirfneblin into full races, or the Aasimar subraces into just a different option. Fey Goblins, Bugbears, etc seems weird as the main option, should be more like a subrace. Just feels off.
The stuff with the Aasimar really is just a change in label. What did the Subclass give before? +1 to a stat and the one ability So with tasha's stats the subclass would just give the one ability. Subclass or Ability with 3 choices? Kinda the same thing.
@@elenexxenele8443 no, they are saying that's the new official, which you might think is no big deal, but it is solely for players thinking the DM should allow it because it's official...
@@fireguardianx Currently BOTH are official the old version AND the new version...because WotC have stated in the past that they will not to make older books obsolete. If you're using DnD Beyond they've already confirmed that you'll be able to pick from the original or new variant since you need to buy MoM in order to access the new version, much like how the Dragonborn have a PHB option and a Fizbans option.
I actually hate that sunlight sensitivity was removed from kobolds. Creating huge disadvantages that need to be worked around, or just dealt with in bad situations makes interesting things happen. Without sunlight sensitivity, my Kobold Rogue would never ended up with his sunglasses! Playable race should be focused on giving characters more weaknesses as well as strengths, simply giving buffs is why everyone says humans were boring.
@@lord6617 I would argue the changed races are meant to make them more universally viable from a gameplay POV. It's worth waiting to see how much actually changes though, a lot of the races were pretty boring before MoTM, so they need to be played before being totally condemned. And I'm sure people would be mad if their favorite race suddenly got weaknesses they're not used to, but man there are way too many classes / races that you could make an entire party from and still overcome every situation
@@cameronjohnson918 Uh, it requires lead time to send books to the printers for shipping. These changes will be the changes, thinking otherwise is just believing in fairytales. I mean, we could just make an entire party of humans, and honestly from a lot of people I've seen that the Tasha's Lineage/Variant Human route IS what people are choosing. So why even bother with this races update, just shunt everyone into Tasha's lineage and be done with it. Add a spellcasting option to replace the feat option, and you've covered 90% of these re-releases.
Humans ARE boring. That's not WOTC's fault, it's just a fact. I never play a human in any RPG that has other options. I'm already a human in real life; to me playing a human in any game that has an option not to defeats the point of roleplaying in a roleplaying game. I know some disagree; fair enough, people are entitled to their wrong opinions. Kind of agree with you on kobolds though and I just play the Volo's kobold other than reflavoring "cower, grovel, and beg" as that just doesn't thematically fit a paladin. Sunlight sensitivity was just rarely an issue as there's so many ways to avoid direct sunlight: fighting indoors, fighting at night, fighting in partial shade; unless it was noon on a cloudless day it was easy to argue I wasn't in direct sunlight. They can pry pact tactics from my cold dead fingers; not giving that up.
@@troodon1096 You can say that, but your human doesn't have to have the same personality as you, and in other games like Call of Cthulhu and Cyberpunk, you can only play humans. Characters are only boring if you make them like that. Human's initially only got a flat +2 stat increase, with no inherent cultural ties etc (like Orcs) which is why I called them boring. They're the definition of a blank slate, and I've always found it hard to make a compelling character without some form of restriction. Variant humans from Tasha's(?) are cool though, getting a free feat is basically free characterization. Go check out CoC and CP btw. They're cool games, and they have tons of systems in them that really push characters to have actually detrimental personality flaws. DnD has never really shrugged off it's wargame origins so noncombat skills are rarely incentivized in builds, but those other games utilize all sorts of stuff.
Ok call me crazy but if you want to simplify spellcasting as a DM, why not just use the spell points system from the DMG (p288)? You don't need to focus on spell slots, you can half the number of spells known and track the points like HP. It might not be the best for PCs but it feels pretty good on monsters.
Probabaly because WotC forgot about the optional mechanics they introduced, and even if spell points could be better, it is easier for them to just say X times per day cause it is easier for the less experienced DMs to learn and keeps things easily uniform, making npc magic the same as some other monster abilities.
You can even one step further by treating enemy spellcasters like they're using a magical staff, with a limited number of spells that consume charges rather than slots. It's even better than spell points because most staves have about 10 charges so you can easily track a monster's remaining magic with a spare d10 or d20.
@@orionar2461 I mean yeah...but YOU are the DM. I sure hope that after the third max level fireball you ask yourself if you should cut your players a little slack, you know.
Honestly, I hate most of the changes they made. A few things I consider positive changes, but the majority of it is imho a systematic nerfing as well as erasing flavor and the give-and-take of choosing certain races. Can't let anyone shine in any particular area, everything's gotta be equally mediocre and bland. Some of it I'll take, most of it gets the boot though.
yeah. It's pretty dumb. I wasn't a big fan of Tasha's Custom Origin, as it takes away one of the most core aspects of one's race, the ability score bonuses. So seeing it here just makes me sad that they're going through with it.
Theyve taken out all the spice. There used to be pro’s and con’s, but now there is just watered down pro’s and no con’s.(sincerely a scourge Aasimar fan who loved lighting himself on fire)
@@samadams8533 I mean almost no races had cons beforehand and those that did (other than scourge aasimar) didn't really make up for it with their pros except sorta Kobolds but they were, depending on the situation, either op or up and never really in the middle. I like that every race is open to be played competently as any class/subclass and still almost all have unique benefits to them.
@@silverthedruid4754 I didn't HATE the custom origin thing, but always held a limit to it. I always made it so you have to leave at least one point in a pre-existing bonus, the assumption being that at least some of that bonus is biological, and you have to explain it with your character. Some are easier than others to explain, and that in itself leads to interesting story and decicions, while also allowing more diverse characters in the process. Splatting stats wherever you want by default just removes that storytelling opportunity, while pigeonholing just as hard on the level of what the other features synergize with.
@@citrineconjurer pack tactics is one of the strongest features any race gets (slightly below free feat and flight, and above... magic resistance[that's heavily overhyped on player characters])
I'm going to tell people to choose a source book for their race. You can chose either one but no mixing of the two. I'm pretty sure Goliaths, Bugbears, Orcs, and Hobgoblins will be from MoTM but most others will probably still be from Volo's and such.
I'll be honest as a new player/DM to DnD these changes to the races just make them feel boring and samey to each other. Especially with so many being Fey ancestry now, I mean I know that you can just ignore these changes, but its still sad to see the uniqueness and personalities of these races just fizzle out.
No good or bad choices and no give or take just a choice, that you probably won’t feel impacted by mechanically at all. It bums me to watch these changes appear
Well it's an official book but so are the rest of them you can choose to use it or you can choose not to choice is yours and both are fine for most people.
I find the changes to Goblinoids as Fey to be odd, monsters of the Multiverse is supposed to be a more setting agnostic take on all these races, but the Goblinoids diverge from pretty much every established setting they’re already in. Also why don’t we have official Playable Gnoll stat blocks yet? The Forgotten Realm Gnolls might be bloodthirsty demonic monsters but in Eberron they’re just another race.
I don't know why, but judging from your review, it sounds like this book is less like a new DnD book and a new 40k codex. Except that a new codex generally adds new interesting tools for an army while this book provides minor buffs or reworks to races.
It's such a weird move to make it only available as part of a bundle. Make the bundle by all means, but people would definitely buy it on its own. I just can't fathom the business decision there
It's a very understandable business decision. WotC know how desperately some people need to be up to date so they're banking on those folks rebuying books they already got just to get the reworked races. And the one's who won't be duped by that strategy then get to hand their money to WotC in May when MotM gets its standalone release.
@@Olimar92 yeah, but it's still scummy to make the bundle available months in advance. It takes advantage of people's fomo to manipulate them into paying twice the price.
@@tylerdurham6091 It's a big company that doesn't care about the end user. They want money. They're not like Paizo that needs money and workers or else they go under. People are praising Paizo for allowing their workers to unionize, but they had no choice. Their work force was going to leave if they didn't, which would have killed Paizo. D&D is just one of the things Wizards deals with, and loss of workers isn't that big a deal to them as they can keep going while they fill spots.
Fighters/monks/warlocks: "Whew, those last two fights were crazy! Shall we short rest before we continue?" Everybody else: *Anakin face* Fighters/monks/warlocks: *Padme face* "W-we get to short rest, right?"
As a DM, some of these are things I can see implementing, and some I don't see doing so at all. Essentially, many options exist now, and I 'd rather keep them all than take one thing as official or the other. I personally can't see these things being a true problem for me unless I enter a public Adventurer's League game at some point in time or DM one. Heck, I'm still using the old rules for Healing Spirit back when it was "busted" before they made an errata to nerf it, because I have my own way of dealing with it that I've talked with my players about that I think works better at my table. My opinion though is that by saying that some of these rules are the new "official" rules, WotC is knee-capping variety in their public games, which are the only places where "official" rules will matter in a TTRPG. This may or may not affect the popularity of those kinds of games in the long run, but I can only speculate. I'm more than willing to talk to my players about using different races and subclasses I'm not very familiar with so long as they can provide me a copy of the rules for them and are open to discussing it, as I think most people are. At the end of the day, a lot of these decisions to me feel a little strange and make me wonder why they didn't say just say that these things exist as options anywhere, thus allowing themselves to keep the old rules viable for officially run games.
Considering that for a long time there were only like 5 small races, I'm glad there's more options to be a small version of a lot of other things now. That's cool
Yea, a lot of races it made sense lore wise that any of the plane touched could be a small race.... they just never officially gave stats for it lol. Cause the default is boring "human"
The only problem I see mechanically is maybe an increase in the use of Squat Nimbleness, and that's not much of a problem. Or maybe people forgetting grapple rules or something obscure, but over all I think its an okay change.
I kinda like what they did with the Goliath since the more consistent ability to reduce damage gives the Goliath it's own niche instead of being the big strong race for hipsters that don't want to play half-orcs or people who just want to make Grog from Critical Role.
I pre-ordered this on Amazon months ago, and can't wait for the release, but Davvy hit-the-nail-on-the-head with the last few minutes describing the emotional state and concern of players with these multitudes of books. I'm 37 and only in the last year have I finally committed to purchasing and reading the many, many 5E books (I have 23 so far). I don't regret it, and I've deliberately made choices I knew I either needed or thought would be of the most use in branching off from in my own to be determined campaigns. The only real upsetting thing is, I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND A GROUP TO PLAY WITH. And the thing is, I started building my collection from the college bookstore back in January of 2020, when I was going since everything else was shut down. It seems to this day, I've been the only person in the whole school buying these books! Where the Hell are my fellow nerds hiding! It's college, I know you're out there! You can't hide forever, I will find you, and when I do, I'll DM the Hell out of you!!
Same here. I recently re-worked my Dragonborn Swashbuckler and changed him to a Yuan-Ti specifically for the poison immunity and Acid splash and hearing the changed just hurts my soul
Immunity is just much more flavourful than resistance. Resistance still means you don't want anything to do with the element as it causes damage. It hurts less, but it still hurts. Immunity on the other hand means that the thing in question doesn't even register as a threat. Yuan ti Purebloods could casually drink that, which would have caused others to drop on the spot. Immunity provides roleplay, resistance is just a stat boost.
I used to have a party with a dwarf cleric and Yuan-ti bard who would get into chest-puffing arguments over their ability to resist poison. The dwarf was tougher in every aspect save for that, and the yuan-ti would snort arsenic in front of him to tease him about it. I feel like turning their immunity into resistance just waters dowm yuan-ti into worse dwarves :c
@@LunaSkye64 I often am called “the rules” in my groups, I wish to point out that Yuan-ti get poison spray (not acid splash). Thank you for reading, hope the changes get better but I suggest ignoring a lot of these ones
Thank you, as one who refuses bad business practices I'm so glad that people know of better albeit dubious methods. I dont need 2 more of the same books thank you. X3
I don't usually comment, but I just wanna say that this video was really good and very funny. I know this is your usual style, but I just felt a little extra flair or confidence in there. Can't pinpoint it, just, good job
2:23 Aarakocra's walking speed used to be 25 feet, and was changed to 30 feet, not the other way around. 4:27 Fairies were reprinted here, along with Harengon, because they were originally released in an adventure module rather than a general source book. 8:05 Kenku no longer "keep forgetting words", as they're no longer restricted to only talking via mimicry; it was a weird dumb thing that was added in 5e and had no basis in their lore from older editions, and I'm very glad it's gone.
I personally really liked the short rest ability and a little sadden that the path forward seems to be "Do what you want." I also don't care for the lineage system that has come out.
Huge same, I can't stand the "make It up lmao" shit they've been doing sine Tasha's. Like, "I really spent sixty dollars for yo to tell me you didn't make anything?"
This is why I'm a P2e fan, literally all of the rules and character options are available on Archives of Nethis for free. The information is all accessable, with no paywall.
@@Th3D3vilishBoy they are almost not even the same game anymore. Biiiiig overhaul that took parts from pf1e, dnd 5e, and a helping of dnd 4e to create a system that was mechanically the most balanced they could. If you like the customization of pf1e but hate how overcomplicated and bloated it is, or if you like 5e but wish it had more crunch and consistency, or if you liked 4e but wish it didn't have so much dragging it down, pf2e is a good system for you.
I'm a bit annoyed about how they changed kobolds, in addition to just being worse mechanically now it pretty much removes the flavor they got from the lore around them. Like if I remember correctly Kobolds were "Put the tribe before myself" types, so they had pack tactics as a mechanical representation of how well they worked as a unit with others. Without pack tactics they lose that feeling of unity they had and they're just another race now, but worse they're a race that just kind of feels like "Why would you play this?" when almost every other race at this point feels better either mechanically or from a lore perspective.
@@georgewashington7083 Yup, I remember from jocat that hobgoblins were kind of zealous in whatever they chose to believe, guess thats not the case anymore.
This is ultimately all up to the DM, I don't get all the fuss. If your table liked the older rules better... just keep using them? It's not like they disappeared Honestly it's hard for me to relate at all since I never use the ancestries from the books anyway, I always change and adapt them to my settings. Seems to me like largely a non-issue, price gouging aside.
@@georgewashington7083 You know what makes these changes even worse? The fact that it could've been completely avoidable! Like there is information out there that dose mention how not only hobgoblins but also bugbears and goblins had there own penthions with both neutral, evil and good deitys before Big M came and butcherd all those who didn't swear loyalty to him. And since to my knowledge that history has never been expanded beyond that they could've just said this is what hobogobos used to be before Mag showed up. But since living in the wield is hard the writers and editors had to bend the knee to the higher up's weather they cared or not.
I'm like... 99.9999% sure that it was said somewhere that MotM is going to be released individually in May or something right? Or am I being delusional.
@@InquisitorThomas They absolutely are, there's no other reason for it. (They cite "printing issues" iirc lack of paper or ink... Maybe if you didn't reprint 2 other books there would be enough copies.)
If the Satyr's Magic Resistance still applies to both spells and magical effects they just became one of the strongest options in the game. +2 to one stat, +1 to another, Medium, Fey creature type, 35 foot movement speed, advantage to saving throws against spells and magical effects, proficiency with two skills, one tool, and one extra language, a 1d6 natural attack that DOESN'T require a free hand to use, and +1d8 feet of horizontal and vertical jumping distance. The only thing they don't get is Darkvision, which can be overcome with a Minor Uncommon magic item that doesn't require attunement and thus costs about 250 gp, easily affordable by 3rd level.
Crazy part is even with all of that few people play them its the same with aarakocra even though there very strong on paper the only people who actually play the race are either those with a specific power build in mind or one of the few people who actually like the race
Magic resistance is not as strong as ppl make it out to be. Vuman and Custom lineage (+flying races) are still the best races in the game (ofc if your dm gives everyone free feat, then there's some merit). There's so few magic effects in the game it's insane. Even the most iconic one, dragon's breath is not magical.
@@thegiantcrow7416 devilsight does nothing for you in dimlight, which will be majority of play where "darkness" is a thing. Darkness is straight up no light, pich black. Out in the town at night? dimlight. Out in the field outnight on a starry night? dimlight.
Just a thought. Instead of buying an “essential” new expansion book every goddamned month, why don’t we all just chip in and buy Wizards of the Coast from Hasbro?
I miss 3.5. it had way better books and aside from the 5$ papper back ones they were all of at least acceptable quality. They also focused on a theme really well so you could just buy what you were going to use
Yeh, wizards really is shitty when it comes to stuff like this. And tbh, I am feeling pushed more to pf2e duo to this. Rightnow pyzo is butchering wizards when it comes to how player friendly ther business practice is
This video is impossible to search up without specifying your name Davvy. Guess your takes were "too spicy". Fantastic work anyway, I watched this when you first released it! I hope others can see this too, I'll do my part to share it 🤘 Love and Peace!
A good quality overview and now I know that I will most likely journey out to sea for this book because I don’t like two thirds of it. And a wholehearted thank you for taking the hit so many of us didn’t have to endure the absolutely atrocious marketing of WoTC.
I dislike racial ASI's from a mechanical standpoint, but it did provide a lot of flavour. WotC should have just printed suggestions for ASI's + the option to change it if you want.
@@symmetry8049 my preferred option wpuld,have been to bolt the asi's onto backgrounds. It's make them more impactful, while still forcing players to make meaningful choices during character development.
I just ignore the language thing anyway. Racial ASIs were just annoyingly limiting and I won't mourn those. My race choice shouldn't be limited by my class choice or vice versa, and being able to put ASIs wherever you want means any race/class combo can be viable so you're not mechanically punished for the way you want to customize your character.
I can't really speak to Aasimar but kobolds seem as good if not stronger! Sure, they lost pack tactics, but now they are just consistently good. Not just good on cloudy days and indoors *if* someone is next to your specific target. Draconic cry gives your party basically a turn of free advantage on attack rolls and gives you, the kobold, two turns of advantage for a bonus action.
the book is coming out in may, so more accurately it is to buy it for an early release, but I get how you feel. I ended up gifting the old books over to a friend that was a new dm and added these to my collection
So I'm not going to make my players change anything about their current races, and I'm certainly not going to force them to use the updated version. Personally, I dislike a lot of these changes, so I'm going to make it a choice for my players. The last "errata" book made all the changes optional. WHY DIDNT THEY DO THE SAME HERE? I'm not going to force my Yuan Ti player to give up poison immunity, it's her favourite race. It makes no sense for me to tell my Triton player to change his wall of water for water walk, WHY WOULD A FISH PERSON NEED TO WALK ON WATER.
Currently, I should be getting MotM in a week, or so. Personally, I plan to treat the altered races/subraces (as well as future altered races/subraces) as variants, so that both old and new versions can be picked from by the players at the table. The - "Buy book as part of 3-book set 3+ months before we sell it by itself" thing - annoying! Pre-ordered the book in February - just before my credit card expired - just got an email from the place saying "Um, we need to talk to you so that we can send you it, or else the order will be canceled".... at least they let me know of the issue. Seems that the place wouldn't get their money otherwise.
From what I understand, WotC clarified that this material doesn't replace anything it's additional. So both old and new can be used as a legal character.
God I'm thankful they came out and said new stuff doesn't invalidate the old books. Kobolds are so bad compared to where they were. Yeah, grovel, cower, and beg (GCB) wasn't really good, or used too often, but the comparison to make isn't draconic roar vs GCB, but draconic roar vs pack tactics, which is 1000% worse, and GCB is only slightly worse than draconic legacies, because they offer so little. A single skill, a single cantrip from the SORCERER list (booming blade anyone?), OR (not AND, OR) resistance to fear effects. Yes, we lose sunlight sensitivity, but that was interesting to play around, and in many cases it wasn't even a factor, because dungeons, caves, buildings, the night, and OVERCAST WEATHER or RAIN/SNOWFALL all exist. Draconic roar is compared to pack tactics instead of GCB because it's clear WotC wanted draconic roar to fill the spot that pack tactics was leaving behind (that's why they changed it so that it also gives YOU advantage). The reasons it doesn't fill that role are: Draconic roar has a range of 10 ft, pack tactics is effectively infinite so long as you have an ally within 5 ft of your target. Unless you're a martial melee character, being in melee just to get draconic roar off in the FIRST place is bad. Draconic roar is limited to one round per use, needs a bonus action, needs the target to be HIT with the roar, and can only be used an amount of times equal by your proficiency bonus per long rest, which means most people will get, at max throughout a day, 2-3 uses out of it before they can't use it anymore. Pack tactics is unlimited in uses, for unlimited rounds, requires no action economy to activate, and only needs you to have an ally within 5 ft of your target. Draconic roar DOES give your allies, as well as yourself (now), advantage on attacks against the targets you hit with it, but that's worse than even theoretically giving yourself advantage all the time because of a few reasons. The main one being that you can't guarantee your whole team will be using that advantage on attack during the SINGLE round you're giving it to them (they could have better/more important things to do in their mind during their turn, and casters get a lot of damaging spells that use saving throws instead of attack rolls, so it would be useless for them a little too often). The other reason it's worse is that in order for this to even compete with the damage pack tactics would give over time, your entire team would need to agree to focus fire with attack actions that require attack rolls WHILE draconic roar is active. Decent against a single target, terrible in multi-target skirmishes, and if the cleric or wizard has a better option in the form of something that doesn't use an attack roll, you're losing value. Pack tactics doesn't need to worry about any of this because the only person who needs to be on the same page as you is you. Your martials don't even need to worry about their positioning for you, because they're probably already standing where you want them to, because that's naturally where they WANT to stand, which is in melee range. If for some reason you don't have any melee martials, chances are someone might have a summon spell or a pet. Maybe that's you, and I think all summoned creatures/pets count as allies, and will fill the requirements you need for pack tactics. If you're playing a kobold and want to be as optimal as possible, use Volo's kobolds, they just get a flat out better racial ability than Draconic Roar and Kobold Legacies combined. You need to take more interest in your environment, finding shade for yourself, and attacking things that are in shade themselves during combat. Ask the DM if there's clouds in the sky blocking the sun, take advantage of your time indoors, or within dungeons and caves. If you have fog cloud, cast it above you. Upcast it to make it bigger. Spellcasters actually get a few things they can use to break direct sunlight. Work with your DM to play around the sunlight sensitivity, and you'll see the value old kobold brings over the MotM one.
I mean, the better way to think about it is just plop some kobolds in their natural environment, manning a hellish fort of crude fortifications and dastardly traps. Which works better, Kobolds running around, scurrying in the dark, taking potshots and running cover for eachother, or kobolds roaring to bolster a single heroic charge?
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 It doesn't work with the old themes of Kobolds, but WotC is taking the approach of trying to remove traits of races that could potentially paint them in a negative light, and if the abilities/gameplay/game feel suffer for it, then they have no problem with that.
This book is trash. Most of the changes made in these races were either ones we the players didn't have a problem with or were complained about by the worse part of the community (Sunlight Sensitivity). The only thing I was happy to see was Relentless Endurance being added to the full orcs but then they ruined it by making them blue. This book was the final straw for me, once I finish my game of D&D 5e I am switching over to something that won't slap me in the face with this many changes every three months. Maybe Pathfinder, or one of the older editions of D&D. Thank you Davvy for making this video, it has given me the info I needed to know.
If you haven't given it a shot PF2e is an exceptional system. If you want to go really old school though, Old School Essentials is a revamped B/X version with really really really good layout and an optional ascending AC option for those who get confused by THAC0 (which honestly is a lot less confusing than people make it out to be). A very different system to look at for oldschool play but modern mechanics is Forbidden Lands. Also honourable mention to Symbaroum if you don't have hardcore power gamers, but if you have munchkins like me it will break with real optimisers. But yeah PF2e is exceptional, very easy to teach, moderately harder to run, runs EXCEPTIONALLY well at high levels, martial/caster balance is actually balanced and combats tend towards fun as long as the GM actually knows the rules and isn't trying to kill PCs... you know, being a competent GM.
I hear 3.5 is good, but I'm also playing a game called Last Arc: Tactics Analogue. It's a JRPG inspired TTRPG system that allows for a lot of customisation. It's still a demo, but it got a lot more balanced since I started playing.
MotM powered up and improved quite a few races - goblins, Eladrin and Genasi to name three. I own the book, not every change is to my taste but I like it overall. Change from 5e sure but good luck finding new players - 5e is where it's at.
If we can't have racial ability score bonuses, can we have racial ability score maximum modifiers? Hear me out, examples follow. Goliaths would get a 22 max Strength and 22 max Con, but an 18 max Dexterity. Big boy gonna fumble them teacups. Gnomes would have a 22 max Int and another 22 max based on subrace, but an 18 max Strength. Small boi is small, after all. Simply having plusses in two categories results in 30 unique combinations (6*5 = 30) but having one of the remaining scores with a new lowered max increases the combinations to 120 (6*5*4 = 30*4 = 120). That math also works for the old ability score bonus system, too. Some of those combinations would be head scratchers for sure, but hey: you've got some room for unique outcomes before you even factor in racial abilities.
They have said each book will be sold separately in a few months. This bundle was supposed to be released last year for the holidays but got pushed back. This is a book I'll skip. Reminds me of the old 3.5 days of the "Races of ..." splat books. Only one of those I bought was Races of Stone for Goliaths and Gnomes.
Am I the only one who is surprised that Leonin were not in here? I get they are a Theros race but I can easily see them simply being presented as Tabaxi's beefcake cousins.
A reminder that these races are supposed to represent the setting-agnostic version, that can appear in any Crystal Sphere throughout the Material Plane, the old stats (mostly) still apply to Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk/Dragonlance, which are the settings they were made for
Then why the heck are kobolds even remotely draconic? If it were setting agnostic, they should have no reference to dragons whatsoever as that is a specific trait of some D&D worlds (and only D&D) and have no root in the mythical/folkclore version at all. Heck, most representation of kobolds outside D&D is not even reptilian.
@@Ditidos Well no kobolds have been going back and forth from not being related to dragons to being related based on the edition. Maybe they are finally going to stick to one of them.
Volo's Tabaxi are my favorite for rogues because they get a bunch of free proficiencies. Do some races still get free skills or is all just homogenous and boring now?
The only changes are you can now be small or medium, claw attack is D6 and climbing speed is equal to walking and no longer caped at 20 feet. Everything else is the same. Even feline agility was not changed. Would have bet money it becomes proficiency times a day, but they did not. Not that its so strong to warrant that, but nerfing rarely makes sense with wotc. So mm is in every regard better then volos tabaxi, but the increases are also pretty minor. A natrual weapon nobody will ever use got better and depending how your dm implements the cat claws to climb you just climb a bit faster then usual. I mostly play tabaxi and this stuff almost never comes up. Also i never play strength characters so neither my strength score nor my athletics for climbing are usually any good anyway.
I know Changelings get choose from a bunch of proficiencies like stealth, deception, performance, etc. Ya know, things that make Changelings changeling.
My Water Gensai character in the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign I'm a part of is literally a combo of the classic playable Water Genasi from PotA, and the Elemental Evils Player's Companion, and the updated version of Mordenkien's Monsters of the Multiverse meaning she has via Call of the Wave both the Shape Water Cantrip, and Acid Splash Cantrip and both the Create and Destroy Water spell, and Water Walk spell, along with having the 30 foot Swim Speed, the ability to breath both air and water via Amphibious, Acid Resistance, and Darkvision.
A little bummed that the warforged and dhamphir didn't get in. But aside from that, seems pretty cool. Also, can we all just agree to update the monk so that the martial arts table starts at d6 and goes up from there? With the new punchy fighting style being a d6/8 and every natural weapon being buffed to a d6 too, it breaks my heart that monks have been left behind in the dust so hard.
For the hobgoblin change. Hobgoblins could be friendly bards now, but they can also be arguably more terrifying now. In the fey wild, which they are now from, no gift is free. If a fey creature helps you they will expect to get something in return, and if you don't offer what they want they will likely just take it from you. A hobgoblin is now really good at helping you which means they are now giving you a lot of 'you owe me' cards which they will definitely be cashing in.
Some of these are neat, most just leave me screaming why. If you're going to throw out most of the previous lore, why not just make a new setting? I'm not sure why they decided to make some of these new races, but whatever. I'm kinda torn on my thoughts of not including Tieflings but including Aasamar and hope it's not a sign of wotc about to pull a stupid move. But, yeah. Some neat changes and more than a few questionable ones. So, neat.
The book will be released separately four months from now, in mid-May. That does not excuse the scummy business practices.
Yeah... oof that just sounds like a Hasbro exec's idea.
The soulless one strikes again...
"Dude, just buy the same books twice." - WotC's marketing team
It’s only 4 months! For me that’s 4 game sessions! (I’m old so time goes much faster for me)😏
Yeah that certainly came across as a dick move. You can't even purchase on DND Beyond yet.
Being disappointed by lizard folk not having cunning artisan, but pointing out that biting isnt his kink, implies that fashioning weapons from bones is his kink.
I'm just grateful that Lizardfolk still have the trait I love the most about them.
Technically being easier to get along with than humans.
Him hearting this comment only raises further concerns.
Doesn't making a club from a femur give you a BONEr too?
In all fairness Cunning Artisan was basically useless really more of a flavour feature. But flavour is still important so I still agree that what they did wad bad.
Solution: homebrew what ever the hell you want. It is basically what WotC has said to do anyways.
I can't believe "Monsters of the Multiverse" is not a spelljammer setting book
Still the biggest disappointment. It would make it so much more worth it for players grabbing the bundle if they just put even 6 original races
definitely. I thought i heard something about playtest stuff for more space type races. I think slimefolk were one of them. I was looking forward to having more options of characters to write backstories for or make. This was a little disappointing.
I'm hoping they do have a later options for D&D Beyond for more races to add on.
@@jebthepleb492 Same. I was very disappointed we didn't get even one new race. Major letdown.
We still don't even have a real manual of the planes this edition yet either
it was never advertised as one...
I feel you on the end note. WotC's monetization practices are kinda hurting my desire to keep up with 5e, personally.
I feel him about Tinder.
May I recommend 3.5 it's far more expansive than 5e and you can easily pirate every single book they've released flr it
exactly
@@Shade400 and pathfinder 1e is 90% compatible with 3.5 and 99% open source
@@Shade400 I play Pathfinder 1 on the regular. IMO it fixes a lot of the problems I have with 3.5.
But both are incredibly bloated still, which leads to a lot of "player does like 6 actions due to weird action economy exploits from multiple different source books and takes 10 minutes to explain everything"
I also play some Lancer and Pathfinder 2.
Pretty much agree about Hobgoblins.
Is the new one good? Yeah. It’s actually a kinda great way to represent weird old fairy stories where the fae in question had rigorous and weird etiquette that must be followed.
It just has nothing to do with what D&D Hobgoblins have always been about.
could've been a cousin race or subrace, easily
@@elf-lordsfriarofthemeadowl2039 I think Crawford and co. just go really excited about the idea of making Goblinoids from the Feywild. And in fairness, that actually works pretty well for Goblins and Bugbears, but Hobgoblins are kinda the least Feywild monsters in the Monster Manual.
So we got this.
I can't stand it they went from wartime Germans/Japanese to tree lover
They really should be subraces.
Goblins already come in tons of different (debatably fruity?) flavors that would make GREAT subrace options! Blue goblins, the Kara-Tur ones (forgot the name), red caps! just make the fey goblin a different subrace that socially splits into redcaps on the chaotic-evil spectrum and something else on the neutral-good spectrum!
Same as the kobold's
Another change to Kenku is that it is no longer limited to speak only in mimicry. They can just talk now.
Which is stupid, I think we can all agree there
@@viktord2025 Having seen enough people be horrible at trying to stay "in character" for Kenku. I'm alright with it.
That was how they were before 5e.
@@viktord2025 there’s still full mechanical support for if you want to speak only in Mimicry, but if Kenkus in your setting don’t have the curse then they don’t have to be restricted purely by mimicry.
The majority of the time I've seen people pick Kenku it was FOR the mimicry thing because it was fun to play. Won't really affect my tables any because anyone who chooses Kenku will probably roleplay that way regardless.
Just want to point out that bugbears and hobgoblins resist charm due to “fey ancestry”… but the ACTUAL FAIRIES DON’T.
Check out how many Monster charm abilities can target fey creatures. Hint: it's not very many.
Having the fey typing is better Charm resistance than Fey Ancestry ever could be.
Although, I guess it's possible this book changes that.
Yeah, Fairies, Owlin and Haregon whom are FEY aren't fey yet all gobbos are now for some reason.
Most spells and abilities that charm, specifically charm humanoids.
@@CanisMythson to you and the others who replied, thanks for helping me understand those rules a bit better. I wasn't thinking about the creature type when I absolutely should have!
Goblins are fey beings in real life mythology but it feels weird seeing it in D&D
The cunning artisan thing bugs me. I get that this separates them from being tribal. But I love the idea of just any lizardfolk being able to just make bones into stuff regardless of upbringing, that it is just instinct.
On the plus side the old version it still totally available for use. This is just for people who that bothered.
I feel like the ability could still work if it was reworked to being easier to craft trinkets/weapons out of deferent resources, then again it might be a bit much so some food for thought
@@tasoskazil4869 Basically give them a free artisans tool or two because not that many backgrounds, races and even subclasses use them. Even if "Woodcarving" tools and Leatherworking make the most sense.
I just... Let anyone do it
They don't have the feature because it implies only they can do it. By removing the feature, anyone can!
For real. I had a lizardfolk cleric character that was raised by humans into their faith, never had interactions with his own kind, and was super formal, refined, almost highbrow even. Well, after the first major monster encounter in the adventure he starts just ripping apart the corpse and constructing a shield. The whole party was just: WTF. It was a great RP/story moment where he got to explain it just felt wrong not to make use of this resource.
It is just primal, instinctual, to lizardfolk. Regardless of upbringing.
I don’t like that they’re swapping all the short rest abilities with per proficiency bonus abilities. Having things recharge on short rests was good! It means that everyone in the party gets something on a short rest, not just the warlock and monk (and wizard ig)
I am confident short rests won't even be a thing in the next edition.
Short rest vs long rest was already an issue, they're trying to solve it
sad fighter noises*
Then don't use the optional races.
@@canaryinacoalmine1759 they can work if you use specific rules but the problem is in most situations were you can short rest you could instead just long rest.
"Minotaurs always know where north is"
On one hand, good for dungeons if your DM is into certain sorts of puzzles
On the other hand, the minotaur Corsair captain character i keep in the back of my head now became a better sea-minos
And this is why the Minotaurs of Dragonlance are sailors
Yeah... honestly, gotta love the dnd wikis that exist for those of us who want to play the game but don't have the money to just drop $30 or so because they want to use a single feature
I'll just treat most of the new race stuff like option rules. So, you can use this new stuff or you can use the old stuff as well.
Personally when I buy this set, it will basically will be a check list to remind they exist and I would go from there depending on the kind of backstory I think of.
I felt like they took a lot of the spice out of the races. A lot of the races had pro’s and con’s to them(short race speed, sunlight sensitivity, or hard to use abilities like the Aasimar ones) but I’ve felt like they’ve gotten rid of the cons to instead just have watered down and less interesting pros
Yeah... that was the goal i think... To create a sort of baseplate that is settings agnostic. Not specifically flavored for any place. That is.. well... teh DM´s job now if they like.
i know right everyone is now too samy
They are just getting rid of flavor and making the game a Min/Maxer's paradise!
@@shallendor Im a min/maxer and I'm not thrilled either.
Yeah, in the future a race will probably be select a skill and a 1st level spell. Your welcome. Why even select race if they all play the same a bit over the top formulated.
Really enjoyed the overview, I would like to point out, Kenku are no longer limited to their mimicry to talk. They can talk like any other race, they can just use mimicry as a feature.
I've talked with my friends, and we're basically all of the opinion that some of this stuff is okay, but Wizards seems to be changing lore just to change lore (looking at you fey ancestry Goblinoids) and is now over correcting with the proficiency bonus scaling. Kobold is now possibly the weakest race in the game (glad to see that the strength of Dragons is still holding true ever since Dragonborn got changed /s). I like some of the changes, namely Genasi and Gith. But a lot of them are me asking "Why????"
I think I'm planning to have players choose either the old, or the new versions, or even mix parts together.
Well, the fey ancestry goblins, is maybe changing lore (though I don't know much about pre 5E lore), but it's pretty reasonable as goblins are creatures of folklore from Europe and usually connected to fey spirits, so it doesn't bother me really. And I don't think proficiency bonus uses doesn't seem that bad to me, and with class abilities, it often worked. But I am with you on Kobolds, just like why?
here here - racial variants to the max
@@Breadcutter Oh I get the folklore stuff, but Goblinoids and especially Changelings in DnD were never really folkloric, not truly. As far as the proficiency bonus scaling, it just feels like they're going too ham with it. Look at Aasimar.
@@flooferderp2918 yeah I guess that's kinda personal taste with the prof bonus.
And concerning the folklore as a german, I am kinda stoked that they are getting more folkloric so yeah I think it's just like a personal thing
I just wouldn't use the new book at all
Yuan-Ti pureblood being really good is pretty setting specific, one of my friends played as one for tomb of annihilation where like everything does a little bit of poison damage and they realized a few sessions in "hey this was accidentally a really good decision"
except they're not as good as ppl make them out to be.
Poison immunity is pretty much only good trait they have.
Magic resistances on PC's is overrated
their spellcasting might as well not be there.
Im geniuenly sad that the Hobgoblin change wasn't just a sub race. My war bois...
And my Triton lost wall of water. What the hell. That was such a nice spell to have. So many people were drowned..
I am genuinely confused as to why they would change Hobgoblins so radically. I've been agnostic for a long time on the subject of WoTC allegedly having a 'political' axe to grind on these things, but seeing them take the one species that had an overtly fascist / militarist culture and turn them into frolicking flute hippies has convinced me that there's got to be something going on there.
@@josephpotter5766 i know goblins have fae backgrounds in our world, so I can see it as a subrace to call back to the source on our end, but changing it from; as you said, a fascist, war like society is culture shock and so backward it kills me. I love the war feel, as it was a well made culture, gave story hooks, and truth be told it made them feel like a Dark Lord's army (lookin' at you Sauron, you big, beautiful war lord)
While I don’t like the flavor of the new abilities, the mechanics of the new abilities are very hobgoblin-y it fits the highly regimented and tactical style of the Hobgoblins. Think of it less as “Yes I’m a Fey Friend here to help my new friends” and more “We’ve got enemies on are flank, keep up your guard. The enemy is trying to retreat, run them down. Right flank you better hold the line. **Shanks Enemy**”
As a kobold lover i feel you they really shouldn't have changes their lore
I love the vulnerability to Tar Tar damage. Might be a deep cut.....but I see it and appreciate it.
They’re deathly allergic
Custard Damage is now official so I don't see why not
Really don't like the changes to the aasimar. Would probably been okay with it if they could use their transformations an equal amount to their proficiency
This exactly
This race did not need a nerf at all, and reducing the damage from your level to PB is a giant nerf.
You only get the damage once per round and only during one fight per long rest, so this is just pityful
They're options. Not a rule change.
@@elenexxenele8443 Why would anyone use this option this. I say transformation as a bonus action and an amount of times equal to your prof would make the most sense.
The transformation is a pretty strong buff though, adding damage and a unique effect based on the version. Not only that but it is a bonus action in this version. That only makes it better than it's ever been, though the damage scaling with Prof is a nerf. It's probably an attempt to lower nova damage at mid and higher levels, or so I would imagine.
@@Ramschat You don't need an action to activate it anymore, just a bonus action, which makes the ability stronger than before imo.
I sometimes feel like I’m the only person who was glad the shifter got a rework. One per long rest just ain’t enough werewolfing.
Same
I looked though, it was once per short rest.
@@bumblebot2458 still not enough, now I can shift in basically every battle
Wolfy bois ftw
I don't like them converting subraces like Svirfneblin into full races, or the Aasimar subraces into just a different option. Fey Goblins, Bugbears, etc seems weird as the main option, should be more like a subrace. Just feels off.
These are just options. You don't have to use them.
Well be happy to know that these are variants of the race and not replacements for the race.
The stuff with the Aasimar really is just a change in label.
What did the Subclass give before? +1 to a stat and the one ability
So with tasha's stats the subclass would just give the one ability.
Subclass or Ability with 3 choices? Kinda the same thing.
@@elenexxenele8443 no, they are saying that's the new official, which you might think is no big deal, but it is solely for players thinking the DM should allow it because it's official...
@@fireguardianx Currently BOTH are official the old version AND the new version...because WotC have stated in the past that they will not to make older books obsolete. If you're using DnD Beyond they've already confirmed that you'll be able to pick from the original or new variant since you need to buy MoM in order to access the new version, much like how the Dragonborn have a PHB option and a Fizbans option.
I actually hate that sunlight sensitivity was removed from kobolds. Creating huge disadvantages that need to be worked around, or just dealt with in bad situations makes interesting things happen. Without sunlight sensitivity, my Kobold Rogue would never ended up with his sunglasses!
Playable race should be focused on giving characters more weaknesses as well as strengths, simply giving buffs is why everyone says humans were boring.
Welcome to corporate design. Gotta water everything down so nobody's feelings get hurt.
@@lord6617 I would argue the changed races are meant to make them more universally viable from a gameplay POV.
It's worth waiting to see how much actually changes though, a lot of the races were pretty boring before MoTM, so they need to be played before being totally condemned. And I'm sure people would be mad if their favorite race suddenly got weaknesses they're not used to, but man there are way too many classes / races that you could make an entire party from and still overcome every situation
@@cameronjohnson918 Uh, it requires lead time to send books to the printers for shipping. These changes will be the changes, thinking otherwise is just believing in fairytales.
I mean, we could just make an entire party of humans, and honestly from a lot of people I've seen that the Tasha's Lineage/Variant Human route IS what people are choosing. So why even bother with this races update, just shunt everyone into Tasha's lineage and be done with it. Add a spellcasting option to replace the feat option, and you've covered 90% of these re-releases.
Humans ARE boring. That's not WOTC's fault, it's just a fact. I never play a human in any RPG that has other options. I'm already a human in real life; to me playing a human in any game that has an option not to defeats the point of roleplaying in a roleplaying game. I know some disagree; fair enough, people are entitled to their wrong opinions.
Kind of agree with you on kobolds though and I just play the Volo's kobold other than reflavoring "cower, grovel, and beg" as that just doesn't thematically fit a paladin. Sunlight sensitivity was just rarely an issue as there's so many ways to avoid direct sunlight: fighting indoors, fighting at night, fighting in partial shade; unless it was noon on a cloudless day it was easy to argue I wasn't in direct sunlight. They can pry pact tactics from my cold dead fingers; not giving that up.
@@troodon1096 You can say that, but your human doesn't have to have the same personality as you, and in other games like Call of Cthulhu and Cyberpunk, you can only play humans. Characters are only boring if you make them like that.
Human's initially only got a flat +2 stat increase, with no inherent cultural ties etc (like Orcs) which is why I called them boring. They're the definition of a blank slate, and I've always found it hard to make a compelling character without some form of restriction. Variant humans from Tasha's(?) are cool though, getting a free feat is basically free characterization.
Go check out CoC and CP btw. They're cool games, and they have tons of systems in them that really push characters to have actually detrimental personality flaws. DnD has never really shrugged off it's wargame origins so noncombat skills are rarely incentivized in builds, but those other games utilize all sorts of stuff.
Ok call me crazy but if you want to simplify spellcasting as a DM, why not just use the spell points system from the DMG (p288)? You don't need to focus on spell slots, you can half the number of spells known and track the points like HP. It might not be the best for PCs but it feels pretty good on monsters.
Because spellcasting is powerful enough mid level onwards?
Probabaly because WotC forgot about the optional mechanics they introduced, and even if spell points could be better, it is easier for them to just say X times per day cause it is easier for the less experienced DMs to learn and keeps things easily uniform, making npc magic the same as some other monster abilities.
You can even one step further by treating enemy spellcasters like they're using a magical staff, with a limited number of spells that consume charges rather than slots. It's even better than spell points because most staves have about 10 charges so you can easily track a monster's remaining magic with a spare d10 or d20.
Because they can burst high level spells even more without the slot limitation
@@orionar2461 I mean yeah...but YOU are the DM. I sure hope that after the third max level fireball you ask yourself if you should cut your players a little slack, you know.
Honestly, I hate most of the changes they made. A few things I consider positive changes, but the majority of it is imho a systematic nerfing as well as erasing flavor and the give-and-take of choosing certain races. Can't let anyone shine in any particular area, everything's gotta be equally mediocre and bland. Some of it I'll take, most of it gets the boot though.
yeah. It's pretty dumb. I wasn't a big fan of Tasha's Custom Origin, as it takes away one of the most core aspects of one's race, the ability score bonuses. So seeing it here just makes me sad that they're going through with it.
Theyve taken out all the spice. There used to be pro’s and con’s, but now there is just watered down pro’s and no con’s.(sincerely a scourge Aasimar fan who loved lighting himself on fire)
@@samadams8533 I mean almost no races had cons beforehand and those that did (other than scourge aasimar) didn't really make up for it with their pros except sorta Kobolds but they were, depending on the situation, either op or up and never really in the middle.
I like that every race is open to be played competently as any class/subclass and still almost all have unique benefits to them.
@@silverthedruid4754
I didn't HATE the custom origin thing, but always held a limit to it. I always made it so you have to leave at least one point in a pre-existing bonus, the assumption being that at least some of that bonus is biological, and you have to explain it with your character. Some are easier than others to explain, and that in itself leads to interesting story and decicions, while also allowing more diverse characters in the process.
Splatting stats wherever you want by default just removes that storytelling opportunity, while pigeonholing just as hard on the level of what the other features synergize with.
@@citrineconjurer pack tactics is one of the strongest features any race gets (slightly below free feat and flight, and above... magic resistance[that's heavily overhyped on player characters])
I'm going to tell people to choose a source book for their race. You can chose either one but no mixing of the two.
I'm pretty sure Goliaths, Bugbears, Orcs, and Hobgoblins will be from MoTM but most others will probably still be from Volo's and such.
As a current bugbear player, I'm very happy the sneak attack rule was reworked. I have never used it before.
I honestly like getting my stone’s endurance back on a short rest, makes me feel like I’m gaining something when I’m regaining hp with hit dice
Eh, why not the others? I like the genasi changes.
@@tanyanikolaevagizdova6571 ehh, I don't love the spells they have now. It looks like they only wanted PHB spells, but it's an odd choice.
I'll be honest as a new player/DM to DnD these changes to the races just make them feel boring and samey to each other. Especially with so many being Fey ancestry now, I mean I know that you can just ignore these changes, but its still sad to see the uniqueness and personalities of these races just fizzle out.
Just know you are not alone. Both new and old players and DMs are having issues with this book and it's changes
Corporate America baby ruining fun since 1776
No good or bad choices and no give or take just a choice, that you probably won’t feel impacted by mechanically at all. It bums me to watch these changes appear
Well it's an official book but so are the rest of them you can choose to use it or you can choose not to choice is yours and both are fine for most people.
@@DaBlueIghuana How so? All these races have a decent impact on how you play
I find the changes to Goblinoids as Fey to be odd, monsters of the Multiverse is supposed to be a more setting agnostic take on all these races, but the Goblinoids diverge from pretty much every established setting they’re already in. Also why don’t we have official Playable Gnoll stat blocks yet? The Forgotten Realm Gnolls might be bloodthirsty demonic monsters but in Eberron they’re just another race.
I don't know why, but judging from your review, it sounds like this book is less like a new DnD book and a new 40k codex. Except that a new codex generally adds new interesting tools for an army while this book provides minor buffs or reworks to races.
Yeah, it could've been a big .pdf of Errata, but in the least as a Book it saves face by being options instead of official rule changes.
It's such a weird move to make it only available as part of a bundle. Make the bundle by all means, but people would definitely buy it on its own. I just can't fathom the business decision there
It will be separate, in May.
It's a very understandable business decision. WotC know how desperately some people need to be up to date so they're banking on those folks rebuying books they already got just to get the reworked races. And the one's who won't be duped by that strategy then get to hand their money to WotC in May when MotM gets its standalone release.
@@Olimar92 yeah, but it's still scummy to make the bundle available months in advance. It takes advantage of people's fomo to manipulate them into paying twice the price.
@@tylerdurham6091 It's a big company that doesn't care about the end user. They want money. They're not like Paizo that needs money and workers or else they go under. People are praising Paizo for allowing their workers to unionize, but they had no choice. Their work force was going to leave if they didn't, which would have killed Paizo.
D&D is just one of the things Wizards deals with, and loss of workers isn't that big a deal to them as they can keep going while they fill spots.
@@Olimar92 That's interesting but I don't see how it relates to the conversation or what I said.
Fighters/monks/warlocks: "Whew, those last two fights were crazy! Shall we short rest before we continue?"
Everybody else: *Anakin face*
Fighters/monks/warlocks: *Padme face* "W-we get to short rest, right?"
Hey, don't forget about Clerics and Paladins who want to get their Channel Divinity back
As a DM, some of these are things I can see implementing, and some I don't see doing so at all. Essentially, many options exist now, and I 'd rather keep them all than take one thing as official or the other. I personally can't see these things being a true problem for me unless I enter a public Adventurer's League game at some point in time or DM one. Heck, I'm still using the old rules for Healing Spirit back when it was "busted" before they made an errata to nerf it, because I have my own way of dealing with it that I've talked with my players about that I think works better at my table. My opinion though is that by saying that some of these rules are the new "official" rules, WotC is knee-capping variety in their public games, which are the only places where "official" rules will matter in a TTRPG. This may or may not affect the popularity of those kinds of games in the long run, but I can only speculate. I'm more than willing to talk to my players about using different races and subclasses I'm not very familiar with so long as they can provide me a copy of the rules for them and are open to discussing it, as I think most people are. At the end of the day, a lot of these decisions to me feel a little strange and make me wonder why they didn't say just say that these things exist as options anywhere, thus allowing themselves to keep the old rules viable for officially run games.
Eh, I don't really do Adventurer's League anyway so that part doesn't bother me lol.
Considering that for a long time there were only like 5 small races, I'm glad there's more options to be a small version of a lot of other things now. That's cool
Yea, a lot of races it made sense lore wise that any of the plane touched could be a small race.... they just never officially gave stats for it lol. Cause the default is boring "human"
I don't have anything against small races (halfling is one of my top 3), but why does it seem like everyone is obsessed with being small?
The only problem I see mechanically is maybe an increase in the use of Squat Nimbleness, and that's not much of a problem. Or maybe people forgetting grapple rules or something obscure, but over all I think its an okay change.
Smol boi campaign.
except being small is meaningless and no different than being medium, other than that large creatures can bully/grapple you easier.
The only changes that I really like here are the Changeling and the Tabaxi. The others just felt rather pointless.
Some are pointless, and then theirs the kobald, what is in that book is not a kobald, it's a small half dragon
I kinda like what they did with the Goliath since the more consistent ability to reduce damage gives the Goliath it's own niche instead of being the big strong race for hipsters that don't want to play half-orcs or people who just want to make Grog from Critical Role.
I pre-ordered this on Amazon months ago, and can't wait for the release, but Davvy hit-the-nail-on-the-head with the last few minutes describing the emotional state and concern of players with these multitudes of books. I'm 37 and only in the last year have I finally committed to purchasing and reading the many, many 5E books (I have 23 so far). I don't regret it, and I've deliberately made choices I knew I either needed or thought would be of the most use in branching off from in my own to be determined campaigns. The only real upsetting thing is, I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND A GROUP TO PLAY WITH. And the thing is, I started building my collection from the college bookstore back in January of 2020, when I was going since everything else was shut down. It seems to this day, I've been the only person in the whole school buying these books! Where the Hell are my fellow nerds hiding! It's college, I know you're out there! You can't hide forever, I will find you, and when I do, I'll DM the Hell out of you!!
Very to the point and informative. Thank you Davvy.
PS: I hate the Yuan-ti nerfs.
Same here. I recently re-worked my Dragonborn Swashbuckler and changed him to a Yuan-Ti specifically for the poison immunity and Acid splash and hearing the changed just hurts my soul
Immunity is just much more flavourful than resistance.
Resistance still means you don't want anything to do with the element as it causes damage. It hurts less, but it still hurts.
Immunity on the other hand means that the thing in question doesn't even register as a threat.
Yuan ti Purebloods could casually drink that, which would have caused others to drop on the spot.
Immunity provides roleplay, resistance is just a stat boost.
I used to have a party with a dwarf cleric and Yuan-ti bard who would get into chest-puffing arguments over their ability to resist poison. The dwarf was tougher in every aspect save for that, and the yuan-ti would snort arsenic in front of him to tease him about it. I feel like turning their immunity into resistance just waters dowm yuan-ti into worse dwarves :c
@@LunaSkye64 I often am called “the rules” in my groups, I wish to point out that Yuan-ti get poison spray (not acid splash). Thank you for reading, hope the changes get better but I suggest ignoring a lot of these ones
Lmao, the tinder joke at the end got me. Good one, last thing I was expecting
Thank you, as one who refuses bad business practices I'm so glad that people know of better albeit dubious methods. I dont need 2 more of the same books thank you. X3
I don't usually comment, but I just wanna say that this video was really good and very funny. I know this is your usual style, but I just felt a little extra flair or confidence in there. Can't pinpoint it, just, good job
2:23 Aarakocra's walking speed used to be 25 feet, and was changed to 30 feet, not the other way around.
4:27 Fairies were reprinted here, along with Harengon, because they were originally released in an adventure module rather than a general source book.
8:05 Kenku no longer "keep forgetting words", as they're no longer restricted to only talking via mimicry; it was a weird dumb thing that was added in 5e and had no basis in their lore from older editions, and I'm very glad it's gone.
Thank you.
Pretty sure MotM is going up for individual pre order /purchase later, its already up for pre order on DDB.
I personally really liked the short rest ability and a little sadden that the path forward seems to be "Do what you want." I also don't care for the lineage system that has come out.
Huge same, I can't stand the "make It up lmao" shit they've been doing sine Tasha's. Like, "I really spent sixty dollars for yo to tell me you didn't make anything?"
SOOOO glad my LGS got extra copies of the bundle and decided the best use was to just sell the books and DM screens individually.
This is why I'm a P2e fan, literally all of the rules and character options are available on Archives of Nethis for free. The information is all accessable, with no paywall.
Yeah but then you're playing P2 lol
I'm just glad all the P1 stuff is still there.
@@PsyrenXY As someone who played a decent bit of P1e way back in like 2013-16, what's the main difference between 1 v 2?
@@Th3D3vilishBoy they are almost not even the same game anymore. Biiiiig overhaul that took parts from pf1e, dnd 5e, and a helping of dnd 4e to create a system that was mechanically the most balanced they could. If you like the customization of pf1e but hate how overcomplicated and bloated it is, or if you like 5e but wish it had more crunch and consistency, or if you liked 4e but wish it didn't have so much dragging it down, pf2e is a good system for you.
"Who asked for changes to the Shifter?" Me. I did. And I can't be happier about it.
I'm a bit annoyed about how they changed kobolds, in addition to just being worse mechanically now it pretty much removes the flavor they got from the lore around them.
Like if I remember correctly Kobolds were "Put the tribe before myself" types, so they had pack tactics as a mechanical representation of how well they worked as a unit with others.
Without pack tactics they lose that feeling of unity they had and they're just another race now, but worse they're a race that just kind of feels like "Why would you play this?" when almost every other race at this point feels better either mechanically or from a lore perspective.
Hobgoblins were turned from militaristic to collective anarchist. Seems like the new direction for races is "just another race, nothing special"
@@georgewashington7083 Yup, I remember from jocat that hobgoblins were kind of zealous in whatever they chose to believe, guess thats not the case anymore.
This is ultimately all up to the DM, I don't get all the fuss. If your table liked the older rules better... just keep using them? It's not like they disappeared
Honestly it's hard for me to relate at all since I never use the ancestries from the books anyway, I always change and adapt them to my settings.
Seems to me like largely a non-issue, price gouging aside.
@@georgewashington7083 You know what makes these changes even worse? The fact that it could've been completely avoidable!
Like there is information out there that dose mention how not only hobgoblins but also bugbears and goblins had there own penthions with both neutral, evil and good deitys before Big M came and butcherd all those who didn't swear loyalty to him. And since to my knowledge that history has never been expanded beyond that they could've just said this is what hobogobos used to be before Mag showed up.
But since living in the wield is hard the writers and editors had to bend the knee to the higher up's weather they cared or not.
Also they now fill the same space as dragonborn...
I'm like... 99.9999% sure that it was said somewhere that MotM is going to be released individually in May or something right? Or am I being delusional.
Yes.
Yes, but that’s waiting 4 months, it feels like Wizards is exploiting people to impulse buy.
@@InquisitorThomas Maybe less wizards' fault, more ordered to bundle by the dark one (Hazbro)
@@InquisitorThomas They absolutely are, there's no other reason for it. (They cite "printing issues" iirc lack of paper or ink... Maybe if you didn't reprint 2 other books there would be enough copies.)
If the Satyr's Magic Resistance still applies to both spells and magical effects they just became one of the strongest options in the game. +2 to one stat, +1 to another, Medium, Fey creature type, 35 foot movement speed, advantage to saving throws against spells and magical effects, proficiency with two skills, one tool, and one extra language, a 1d6 natural attack that DOESN'T require a free hand to use, and +1d8 feet of horizontal and vertical jumping distance. The only thing they don't get is Darkvision, which can be overcome with a Minor Uncommon magic item that doesn't require attunement and thus costs about 250 gp, easily affordable by 3rd level.
Nope, the magic resistance was changed to be the same as the of the Yuan-Ti
And if ya go Warlock or pickup the Eltrich Adapt feat. You can get Devil Sight and bam. All grounds covered
Crazy part is even with all of that few people play them its the same with aarakocra even though there very strong on paper the only people who actually play the race are either those with a specific power build in mind or one of the few people who actually like the race
Magic resistance is not as strong as ppl make it out to be. Vuman and Custom lineage (+flying races) are still the best races in the game (ofc if your dm gives everyone free feat, then there's some merit). There's so few magic effects in the game it's insane. Even the most iconic one, dragon's breath is not magical.
@@thegiantcrow7416 devilsight does nothing for you in dimlight, which will be majority of play where "darkness" is a thing.
Darkness is straight up no light, pich black. Out in the town at night? dimlight. Out in the field outnight on a starry night? dimlight.
Just a thought. Instead of buying an “essential” new expansion book every goddamned month, why don’t we all just chip in and buy Wizards of the Coast from Hasbro?
I miss 3.5. it had way better books and aside from the 5$ papper back ones they were all of at least acceptable quality. They also focused on a theme really well so you could just buy what you were going to use
@@Shade400 still, 3.5 had its issues with adding way too much bloat to the system.
@@shadowmetroid18 bloat is a far easier problem to fix than missing critical features and generally lacking design
@@Shade400 I mean 3.5 had design... Sometimes. In a not small number of books. Otherwise it's design ranged from "meh" to less than non-existent
@@Shade400 5e has been mostly great up until Tasha’s. After that, things have been going down hill.
I’m sure this book is not going to be controversial in any way lol
Meanwhile I’m treating literally every revised race in the book as a new sub race and none of the old ones are barred from my table.
$160 dollar erratta...
We really need an Archive of Nethys Equivalent for 5e
Yeh, wizards really is shitty when it comes to stuff like this. And tbh, I am feeling pushed more to pf2e duo to this. Rightnow pyzo is butchering wizards when it comes to how player friendly ther business practice is
@@strawman5300 to be fair that’s pretty much always been the case, even if WotC’s getting even worse recently
@@firelegendmushroom *paizo
@@NA-AN are you talking to Strawman? I didn't say Paizo
@@firelegendmushroom Pretty sure it's writtin as "paizo".
If it isn't, I have a vision problem.
This video is impossible to search up without specifying your name Davvy.
Guess your takes were "too spicy".
Fantastic work anyway, I watched this when you first released it! I hope others can see this too, I'll do my part to share it 🤘
Love and Peace!
At least you can write the purchase off as a Business Expense on your taxes so its not a complete waste.
You know it
The best part is, you can mix and match parts of MotM and Legacy content for maximum chaos and fuckery
24 races not 33.
The hoove attack of the Centaur went from 1d4 to 1d6.
You can purchase it standalone in May or was it March?
May... Which is fucking stupid since we know the book is Available already. Even worse they won't add the changes to beyond until May either.
@@tintillor Fairy and Harengone is lready there.
Centaur they just change to Charge to 1d6 and we have
That last bit before your outro made me laugh out loud. Well played Sir, Well Played!
Yeah, unless they release this as a second book or my local hobby store starts selling it individually I'm going the way of the Straw Hat Pirates.
To be a pirate is to be free.
You weren't already? There's no reason to give WotC any money
Or do what my group is doing and ignoring the book as if it never existed lol
It's being released individually in May
Kobold Swashbuckler: I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that
Hope the that these changes are optional. I really don't like what they did to the Lizardfolk, Kenku, and Duergar.
I mean, nothing forces you to use the stats in the new book, so they are as optional as you want them to be
As long as it is official most DMs won't have problems but there will be some that insist on only using the most recent version.
I'm happy they didn't change the Warforged. It's my favorite race.
LORD MEGATRON WILL BE PLEASED!
@@cnkclark Soundwave Superior, Humanity Inferior.
A good quality overview and now I know that I will most likely journey out to sea for this book because I don’t like two thirds of it. And a wholehearted thank you for taking the hit so many of us didn’t have to endure the absolutely atrocious marketing of WoTC.
"Monsters of the Multiverse" turning all your mosnters to fairies
When everyone's fey, no one will be.
-Synestro, probably.
They are putting out the Guide to Monsters of the Multiverse as a stand alone book on May 7th dont let them lift you coin pouch or stong arm you
My precious poison immunity... How dare you... How will I drink poisoned wine with my victims now?
The Changeling, Orc and Genasi changes sound great, otherwise I'm not a fan, and I've never been a fan of abandoning the racial ASIs and Languages
I dislike racial ASI's from a mechanical standpoint, but it did provide a lot of flavour.
WotC should have just printed suggestions for ASI's + the option to change it if you want.
@@symmetry8049 my preferred option wpuld,have been to bolt the asi's onto backgrounds. It's make them more impactful, while still forcing players to make meaningful choices during character development.
I just ignore the language thing anyway. Racial ASIs were just annoyingly limiting and I won't mourn those. My race choice shouldn't be limited by my class choice or vice versa, and being able to put ASIs wherever you want means any race/class combo can be viable so you're not mechanically punished for the way you want to customize your character.
Thank you so much for making this
You saved my +$150 and any further lost sleep on this specific problem in my life
I wonder how many 'spells' are going to be rewritten as 'abilities' so they can't be Dispelled.
This kinda screwed a few races. Aasimar, kobold, minor nerfs across a bunch of them. I think on the whole I disagree with this book,
I can't really speak to Aasimar but kobolds seem as good if not stronger! Sure, they lost pack tactics, but now they are just consistently good. Not just good on cloudy days and indoors *if* someone is next to your specific target. Draconic cry gives your party basically a turn of free advantage on attack rolls and gives you, the kobold, two turns of advantage for a bonus action.
"They have vulnerability to tar-tar damage"
truly, a man of culture
the book is coming out in may, so more accurately it is to buy it for an early release, but I get how you feel. I ended up gifting the old books over to a friend that was a new dm and added these to my collection
The thing is now so many of these creatures dont feel like members of their own speices... their like little imposters
I’m still going to give my lizardfolk Cunning Artisian. There’s no reason it should’ve been completely removed as opposed to being re-worked.
So I'm not going to make my players change anything about their current races, and I'm certainly not going to force them to use the updated version. Personally, I dislike a lot of these changes, so I'm going to make it a choice for my players. The last "errata" book made all the changes optional. WHY DIDNT THEY DO THE SAME HERE? I'm not going to force my Yuan Ti player to give up poison immunity, it's her favourite race. It makes no sense for me to tell my Triton player to change his wall of water for water walk, WHY WOULD A FISH PERSON NEED TO WALK ON WATER.
Luckily, I have heard it was optional.
Because they have the ability to control water
Currently, I should be getting MotM in a week, or so. Personally, I plan to treat the altered races/subraces (as well as future altered races/subraces) as variants, so that both old and new versions can be picked from by the players at the table.
The - "Buy book as part of 3-book set 3+ months before we sell it by itself" thing - annoying! Pre-ordered the book in February - just before my credit card expired - just got an email from the place saying "Um, we need to talk to you so that we can send you it, or else the order will be canceled".... at least they let me know of the issue. Seems that the place wouldn't get their money otherwise.
From what I understand, WotC clarified that this material doesn't replace anything it's additional. So both old and new can be used as a legal character.
THANK THE GODS.
For now...
Add Grung you cowards! Thanks for the summary Davvy! Super helpful.
God I'm thankful they came out and said new stuff doesn't invalidate the old books. Kobolds are so bad compared to where they were. Yeah, grovel, cower, and beg (GCB) wasn't really good, or used too often, but the comparison to make isn't draconic roar vs GCB, but draconic roar vs pack tactics, which is 1000% worse, and GCB is only slightly worse than draconic legacies, because they offer so little. A single skill, a single cantrip from the SORCERER list (booming blade anyone?), OR (not AND, OR) resistance to fear effects.
Yes, we lose sunlight sensitivity, but that was interesting to play around, and in many cases it wasn't even a factor, because dungeons, caves, buildings, the night, and OVERCAST WEATHER or RAIN/SNOWFALL all exist.
Draconic roar is compared to pack tactics instead of GCB because it's clear WotC wanted draconic roar to fill the spot that pack tactics was leaving behind (that's why they changed it so that it also gives YOU advantage). The reasons it doesn't fill that role are:
Draconic roar has a range of 10 ft, pack tactics is effectively infinite so long as you have an ally within 5 ft of your target. Unless you're a martial melee character, being in melee just to get draconic roar off in the FIRST place is bad.
Draconic roar is limited to one round per use, needs a bonus action, needs the target to be HIT with the roar, and can only be used an amount of times equal by your proficiency bonus per long rest, which means most people will get, at max throughout a day, 2-3 uses out of it before they can't use it anymore. Pack tactics is unlimited in uses, for unlimited rounds, requires no action economy to activate, and only needs you to have an ally within 5 ft of your target.
Draconic roar DOES give your allies, as well as yourself (now), advantage on attacks against the targets you hit with it, but that's worse than even theoretically giving yourself advantage all the time because of a few reasons.
The main one being that you can't guarantee your whole team will be using that advantage on attack during the SINGLE round you're giving it to them (they could have better/more important things to do in their mind during their turn, and casters get a lot of damaging spells that use saving throws instead of attack rolls, so it would be useless for them a little too often).
The other reason it's worse is that in order for this to even compete with the damage pack tactics would give over time, your entire team would need to agree to focus fire with attack actions that require attack rolls WHILE draconic roar is active. Decent against a single target, terrible in multi-target skirmishes, and if the cleric or wizard has a better option in the form of something that doesn't use an attack roll, you're losing value.
Pack tactics doesn't need to worry about any of this because the only person who needs to be on the same page as you is you. Your martials don't even need to worry about their positioning for you, because they're probably already standing where you want them to, because that's naturally where they WANT to stand, which is in melee range. If for some reason you don't have any melee martials, chances are someone might have a summon spell or a pet. Maybe that's you, and I think all summoned creatures/pets count as allies, and will fill the requirements you need for pack tactics.
If you're playing a kobold and want to be as optimal as possible, use Volo's kobolds, they just get a flat out better racial ability than Draconic Roar and Kobold Legacies combined. You need to take more interest in your environment, finding shade for yourself, and attacking things that are in shade themselves during combat. Ask the DM if there's clouds in the sky blocking the sun, take advantage of your time indoors, or within dungeons and caves. If you have fog cloud, cast it above you. Upcast it to make it bigger. Spellcasters actually get a few things they can use to break direct sunlight. Work with your DM to play around the sunlight sensitivity, and you'll see the value old kobold brings over the MotM one.
I mean, the better way to think about it is just plop some kobolds in their natural environment, manning a hellish fort of crude fortifications and dastardly traps.
Which works better, Kobolds running around, scurrying in the dark, taking potshots and running cover for eachother, or kobolds roaring to bolster a single heroic charge?
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 It doesn't work with the old themes of Kobolds, but WotC is taking the approach of trying to remove traits of races that could potentially paint them in a negative light, and if the abilities/gameplay/game feel suffer for it, then they have no problem with that.
I was unaware that you NEEDED to buy it in the set. I preorder at the brick&mortar and they did not mention that I'll have to check up on it
This book is trash. Most of the changes made in these races were either ones we the players didn't have a problem with or were complained about by the worse part of the community (Sunlight Sensitivity). The only thing I was happy to see was Relentless Endurance being added to the full orcs but then they ruined it by making them blue. This book was the final straw for me, once I finish my game of D&D 5e I am switching over to something that won't slap me in the face with this many changes every three months. Maybe Pathfinder, or one of the older editions of D&D. Thank you Davvy for making this video, it has given me the info I needed to know.
If you haven't given it a shot PF2e is an exceptional system.
If you want to go really old school though, Old School Essentials is a revamped B/X version with really really really good layout and an optional ascending AC option for those who get confused by THAC0 (which honestly is a lot less confusing than people make it out to be).
A very different system to look at for oldschool play but modern mechanics is Forbidden Lands. Also honourable mention to Symbaroum if you don't have hardcore power gamers, but if you have munchkins like me it will break with real optimisers.
But yeah PF2e is exceptional, very easy to teach, moderately harder to run, runs EXCEPTIONALLY well at high levels, martial/caster balance is actually balanced and combats tend towards fun as long as the GM actually knows the rules and isn't trying to kill PCs... you know, being a competent GM.
I hear 3.5 is good, but I'm also playing a game called Last Arc: Tactics Analogue. It's a JRPG inspired TTRPG system that allows for a lot of customisation. It's still a demo, but it got a lot more balanced since I started playing.
MotM powered up and improved quite a few races - goblins, Eladrin and Genasi to name three.
I own the book, not every change is to my taste but I like it overall.
Change from 5e sure but good luck finding new players - 5e is where it's at.
At this point they should have called it 5.5e cos that's what it friggen sounds like. They're changing practically everything.
Yeah, I just raise the jolly Rodger whenever WotC puts out a book. Ain’t like they’re gonna go under anytime soon
There are only a few books I feel are worth buying and this aint one.
If Tasha's didn't signify the beginning of 5.5e then this book does.
If we can't have racial ability score bonuses, can we have racial ability score maximum modifiers?
Hear me out, examples follow.
Goliaths would get a 22 max Strength and 22 max Con, but an 18 max Dexterity. Big boy gonna fumble them teacups.
Gnomes would have a 22 max Int and another 22 max based on subrace, but an 18 max Strength. Small boi is small, after all.
Simply having plusses in two categories results in 30 unique combinations (6*5 = 30) but having one of the remaining scores with a new lowered max increases the combinations to 120 (6*5*4 = 30*4 = 120). That math also works for the old ability score bonus system, too.
Some of those combinations would be head scratchers for sure, but hey: you've got some room for unique outcomes before you even factor in racial abilities.
They have said each book will be sold separately in a few months. This bundle was supposed to be released last year for the holidays but got pushed back.
This is a book I'll skip. Reminds me of the old 3.5 days of the "Races of ..." splat books. Only one of those I bought was Races of Stone for Goliaths and Gnomes.
Soooooo, are we officially in 5.5E? I feel like this book, Tasha’s, and the dragons one changed the game enough to be considered 5.5E.
It's a fundamental change in how characters are created, but I don't know if it's enough to say 5.5.
*cradles Kobold race* What have they done to you? Guess my Sorcerer Neeka will be the last one of these old guard.
Just use the Wikidot for race stat blocks
Am I the only one who is surprised that Leonin were not in here? I get they are a Theros race but I can easily see them simply being presented as Tabaxi's beefcake cousins.
I just have them as to subspecies of "catfolk" in my world, helps keep things simple while letting people have their flavor of cat
@@beauvillamor621 And that makes sense
A reminder that these races are supposed to represent the setting-agnostic version, that can appear in any Crystal Sphere throughout the Material Plane, the old stats (mostly) still apply to Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk/Dragonlance, which are the settings they were made for
Then why the heck are kobolds even remotely draconic? If it were setting agnostic, they should have no reference to dragons whatsoever as that is a specific trait of some D&D worlds (and only D&D) and have no root in the mythical/folkclore version at all. Heck, most representation of kobolds outside D&D is not even reptilian.
@@Ditidos Real Kobolds are scaly dog creatures, and i am unanimous in that!
@@Ditidos it's setting agnostic for standard d&d settings and the Crystal Spheres containing Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and the like...
@@Ditidos Well no kobolds have been going back and forth from not being related to dragons to being related based on the edition. Maybe they are finally going to stick to one of them.
@@حَسن-م3ه9ظ Then it wouldn't be setting agnostic. Would it?
"Wait, is that all of them? Great!"
*Rusts in Warforged*
Poor wood-robots, got left out of the Smash Ultimate book.
Volo's Tabaxi are my favorite for rogues because they get a bunch of free proficiencies.
Do some races still get free skills or is all just homogenous and boring now?
The only changes are you can now be small or medium, claw attack is D6 and climbing speed is equal to walking and no longer caped at 20 feet. Everything else is the same. Even feline agility was not changed. Would have bet money it becomes proficiency times a day, but they did not. Not that its so strong to warrant that, but nerfing rarely makes sense with wotc.
So mm is in every regard better then volos tabaxi, but the increases are also pretty minor. A natrual weapon nobody will ever use got better and depending how your dm implements the cat claws to climb you just climb a bit faster then usual. I mostly play tabaxi and this stuff almost never comes up. Also i never play strength characters so neither my strength score nor my athletics for climbing are usually any good anyway.
I know Changelings get choose from a bunch of proficiencies like stealth, deception, performance, etc.
Ya know, things that make Changelings changeling.
My Water Gensai character in the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign I'm a part of is literally a combo of the classic playable Water Genasi from PotA, and the Elemental Evils Player's Companion, and the updated version of Mordenkien's Monsters of the Multiverse meaning she has via Call of the Wave both the Shape Water Cantrip, and Acid Splash Cantrip and both the Create and Destroy Water spell, and Water Walk spell, along with having the 30 foot Swim Speed, the ability to breath both air and water via Amphibious, Acid Resistance, and Darkvision.
A little bummed that the warforged and dhamphir didn't get in. But aside from that, seems pretty cool. Also, can we all just agree to update the monk so that the martial arts table starts at d6 and goes up from there? With the new punchy fighting style being a d6/8 and every natural weapon being buffed to a d6 too, it breaks my heart that monks have been left behind in the dust so hard.
The artisan feature for the Lizard Folk was so cool!
God. They improved my Genasi, but ruined my Githyanki and Aasimar.
I hate that short rest recharge has been cut in favor of # of times = to PB
For the hobgoblin change. Hobgoblins could be friendly bards now, but they can also be arguably more terrifying now. In the fey wild, which they are now from, no gift is free. If a fey creature helps you they will expect to get something in return, and if you don't offer what they want they will likely just take it from you. A hobgoblin is now really good at helping you which means they are now giving you a lot of 'you owe me' cards which they will definitely be cashing in.
Some of these are neat, most just leave me screaming why. If you're going to throw out most of the previous lore, why not just make a new setting? I'm not sure why they decided to make some of these new races, but whatever. I'm kinda torn on my thoughts of not including Tieflings but including Aasamar and hope it's not a sign of wotc about to pull a stupid move.
But, yeah. Some neat changes and more than a few questionable ones. So, neat.
I'm ignoring the book. The things they fix that I like, I already fixed with house rules. Saving my $$$
So it’s out stand alone in May, but I’m thinking I’ll just ignore this book. I like all these races as they were. Also RIP pack tactics.
I could be wrong, but isn’t monsters of the multiverse coming out as it’s own book in like May?