If you’re walking in on the middle of this series, there’s an index here.

There is nothing in second edition’s conception or implementation of race that isn’t grounded in systemic racism and heavily loaded. But, race in second edition more broadly and especially as they developed in subsequent editions is fertile ground for self-expression. This is a challenging subject that I feel ill-equipped to address.

My family look somewhat alike, but mainly we all speak too loudly, know how to cook pastizzi, can sew and can wayfind; a combination of where we live, where we come from, and how we spend our time. We don’t have genetic predilections for pastizzi and tailoring, but it is still part of who we are. In a fantasy world, is it crazy to imagine we might instead sense direction, intuitively control simple flames, or be insensate or hyperalgesic to cold? Let’s call this potentially magical culture and family together heritage.

The second edition PHB lists these heritable traits: Sense Slope, Direction, Depth, Tunnel Safety, Sense Secret Doors, Infravision, Resistance to Sleep and Charm, Bonus to Surprise, Weapon Training, Favoured Enemy, Physical Fortitude (Poison Save), Magical Defence (Wands Save), Generally Lucky (Spell Save), Cause Magical Items to Malfunction, Free Language, and Speak to Animals.

I’ve just realised that Save vs Spells is actually a luck save – a generic save for the things that don’t have their own save, whose only bonus goes to halflings. I missed that on the initial read-through, and will need to remember when I get to saving throws later.

Looking further afield at heritable traits in second edition (I looked at the Planeswalker’s Guide, Drow of the Underdark, Dragonlance Adventures, and Complete Book of Humanoids): Magic resistance, daily spells (like blur, charm, chill touch, detect lie, light, darkness, detect evil, levitate, pass without trace, affect fires, create water – mostly level 1 or 2 spells), elemental resistance or damage reduction, alien reaction, natural armour, thematic spell immunity (to all charm, or all fear, for example). Interestingly, a lot of these sources don’t have any special heritable traits at all, just cultural ones, particularly Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms sources. We have more flavourful, thematic, and culturally specific options developing in the broader second edition line.

The Complete Book of Humanoids is comparatively off the wall, though. Flight, double javelin charge, summon air elementals, giant fists, hide in forests, chameleon, hop attack, must stay wet, swat away weapons, harmed by bright light, polymorph self, unlikely to be attacked, hold breath, track by scent, mimic sounds, invisibility, head butt, claw attack, whip tail, bite attacks, prone to gas and scent, powerful leap, immunity to weapons (in certain forms). This gives us a lot more interesting options for downsides or foibles, as well as clearly being the source for later editions more flavourful traits.

More interestingly, the Complete Book of Humanoids talks in detail about culture and superstition, and whilst the tone in which it speaks is undeniably colonial, there’s some precedent for incorporating less tone-deaf rituals, beliefs, folkways and mores as heritable traits.

So, pulling it together, and adopting a structure that mirrors classes, perhaps this?

• Pick two heritable traits and a heritable foible
• Pick an ethos and a ritual, more or folkway
• Name your heritage

Which together allow a simple but expressive heritage, covering all bases the original does in terms of character, utility and combat potential, ties into experience, and is likely to conflict with other ethos from classes or alignments. I think this is neat!

I’m not sure I want to nut out the heritage details until I’m sure this sketch makes sense in the entire framework, and I think it will take more digging and work to develop out rituals, folkways and mores. So, I think next I’l look at alignment and ethos, which I’ve edged into in both this and the previous post.

This has been a part of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeon Series! Let me know your thoughts on this approach, whether I’ve overlooked anything glaring, or anything of the sort!

Idle Cartulary

10th April 2022