The Latest Unearthed Arcana for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Makes Huge Changes to Race Mechanics with 3 Gothic Lineages

Holy cow! Dungeons & Dragons made a huge announcement in their latest Unearthed Arcana. In addition to 3 new gothic lineages for fans to playtest like the Dhampir, they revealed that from here on out, races are going to undergo some big changes including no more predetermined Ability Score changes, languages, alignments, and more. I know a lot of members of the community have been wanting to see this change and they’re very excited. Here’s what it says:

In 2020, the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything introduced the option to customize several of your character’s racial traits, specifically the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, and traits that give skill, armor, weapon, or tool proficiencies.

Following in that book’s footsteps, the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage.

Finally, going forward, the term “race” in D&D refers only to the suite of game features used by player characters. Said features don’t have any bearing on monsters and NPCs who are members of the same species or lineage, since monsters and NPCs in D&D don’t rely on race or class to function. Moreover, DMs are empowered to customize the features of the creatures in their game as they wish.

Now, what about the three new options presented to players for their next characters? First we’ve got the Dhampir who are related to the undead, but are not undead themselves. They have some advantages from their vampiric heritage including darkvision, increased speed, etc. but also have some drawbacks like a constant hunger for things like blood or even dreams. Meanwhile, the Hexblood comes from hags whether it’s because of a deal made or they just were influenced by a hag and they grow into a Hexblood. Hexbloods have some of the hag-like traits from the magic infused with their blood like long life and darkvision. Finally, the Reborn are individuals who died, but aren’t dead. They have vague recollections of their past life and honestly sound really interesting to play. What has you most excited from the latest Unearthed Arcana?