Considering the connection to Lore, this makes the ancestry system Campaign Setting agnostic and flexible. Someone with a different world and different lore could get rid of some of the ancestry traits and replace them with similar ones for their world. This is amazing
I invested in the Alpha... Looks fantastic so far. Have already made a custom Feline race - I wish the "core" classes were fleshed out a bit - specifically, was looking for Bard. But I cannot wait for more updates.
I made a half elfe-orc :) ranger with Cursed Mind, Provocation, Nimble, Peerless Sight, Orc Rush, Orcish Resolve, Plant Knowledge. he or she will be using spear, net & bolas ... I love what you did with the weapons as well, most of them have a different feel. It is great.
Might Decrease, Agility Decrease, Frail, Unholy Weakness, Divine Dampening, Giant's Resolve, Orcish Resolve, Nimble, Elusive, Draconic Ward, Human Resolve, Iron Stomach, and Unbreakable. These are the ancestry features of "Annie Percent", a 1HP Monk.
This sounds like a very cool system that oozes a lot of personality for individuals, rather than a race! My only problem is that the most "optimal" way to play seems to be to always pick a half-something because it gives you more options at no cost. Maybe have a soft restriction, like only being able to pick features that cost 1 Point as to limit the more powerful 2 or 3 cost one to single ancestries? Or have it a small cost, like a 1 Point investment to be a half-race at all.
Is it the end of the world if most players play as mixed race? You could say you’re 1/16th human if u really don’t want it to affect your character’s appearance/background. Maybe Coaches world is just less segregated than the Sword Coast?
@@selthafour6948 It is not that it is "the end of the world", but that it is not balanced. OC is right, mixed breeds are clearly stronger than pure breeds with those rules. The solution that they can only choose 1 point traits seems reasonable to me.
This sounds really really awesome. I am a bit worried about the negative traits, especially the optional ones, giving you more points though. I am worried that people will find negatives traits that seem bad but in actual play don't have much of an impact, and use them to stack on more positive traits that do impact actual play.
Players being players will always try to optimize, but the GM should look over and approve any build. Example; the Dwelf has (elf) agile explorer(+2), (dwarf) short legs(-2), (elf) frail(-1) dwarf steady(+2), (elf) elven will(+1), (dwarf) tremor sense(+1), elf agility(+2). I tried to balance a positive of one ancestry with a negative of the other, but still fun
@@VanillaGorilla42 Yeah, you're totally right. But really any problematic design can be handwaved by the DM or a player respecting the spirit of the game. It'd be preferable if the problem didn't exist in the first place.
A GM ought to target both their player’s strengths and weaknesses, make your player’s choices relevant. Letting them know you intend to do so ahead of time may make curb their point collection, or it may be fun for them to anticipate the challenges to come.
A great system, I love it. One issue I have is there is no cost for combining ancestries, so it's strictly a more optimal mechanical choice. Why have to choose from one list of features when you can choose from two? Creating your own ancestry does costs 1 ancestry point after all
I could see two solutions to this. The more complicated one would be to lock certain abilities behind a "full" ancestry. Another potentially more simple to understand and implement would be to have a zero point cost negative to choosing a half ancestry. Or maybe just a choice between you can pick 5 points, but you have to put a -1 into an ability score, or you don't take that penalty but get only 4 points.
@@elhombredequeso Both solution could work great, the second one is pretty smooth and would work better in a rule book, but as a GM I would always consider the first solution
with this system wy have "default" races at all ? that beings said, making it very customizable, but that restricting only the small trait seems Wierd, to me that seems like only small races have an actual racial identity that might just be me. but this way if you dont use the word elf, how would i know the difference between an elf or half elf/dwarf, there dont seem to be any physical characteristic tied to race. which to me is definitely part of the fantasy that seems lost in this flexible system this at first seems like a trade off between different style of play, but it doesnt have to be just make sure to mention to the GM that they can restrict ancectry option however they like
I'd say this is up to the DM to decide. The whole customization is presented as an optional rule, so if the DM wants to stick on the defaults, then they absolutely can.
The point system is great. You are showing how the sausage is made. These kind of race "points" exist in 5e they just aren't broken down and explained like this.
This gave me a contented sigh. So elegant and well-thought out, able to appeal to many different audiences! Min-maxing with the negative traits sounds rather fun, both mechanically and narratively. Hopefully it ends out balanced too, haha!
I think when we get the lore we pure RPG nuts will have more to go on. My brother is more critical of DC20 and he has some valid critiques (one that we share is a dislike of how stamina works) but overall I think it will prove superior to dnd. That said it isn't exactly what we were hoping for so still working on our own system. Maine feature is no classes. Gana just be perk trees but there will be pre-designed paths to take to get the idea of a class, I think. Heavily inspired by skyrim and DC20 and of course 5e and pathfinder.
I am not quite fan of mixed ancestry as it is now. Feels like there should be some limit or demerit to ballance more options (I think it should be same as custom ancestry). Right now vanilla races seems to get short end of stick here. That said I really love everything else.
The entire system is designed to be balanced with this in mind. I can fully see somebody making a dwarf with a mixed ancestry to pick up some thing that sounds good for the character. Kind of like example of the dwarf and a half thing I gave. I think it does nothing but increase the customization of how people express their ancestries, whether they are mixed or not. .💜
Ha ha ha Coach going "Focus" was very relatebol Love how costumizebol this is and how evry character can truly be difrent even if evryone has the same encesterie
Interesting. I see you went with the 4 points for custom builds to disincentivize min-maxing traits and ignoring lore. Will @ D&D Shorts will still find any loopholes you left though :)
Is there any way to play a character that doesnt have a humanoid "body plan" without breaking everything in your system? I've always hated that every race in every ttrpg seems to be "two legs, two arms, bipedal humanoid" for the most part. Is it so much to ask to just be able to play as something that isn't just "human with extra steps?" All these worlds are full of sapient creatures that bear zero resemblence to a humanoid shape, but they're never playable. What if instead of an elf ranger, I want to be an awakened wolf paladin? What about sizes above medium for player races? I've always hated the lack of a large player option. What about a drider? Or other similar hybrids.
Does gnome get an additional point to spend since it's stuck with a negative off the bat? Cause if not then why play a gnome if you can just take the traits on a different race
Really impressed by the concept of negative traits and how this helps resolve the small-medium creature divide. Overall the point based system seems very granular to me even as an optional system and may cause difficulties with balancing/overlapping character features, but in the context of how DC20 focuses on customization i think it works really well.
@@TheDungeonCoach For sure default traits alleviate the complexity problems so it's still very approachable for new players! (FYI below is a comparison of the Ancestry system I'm working on vs DC20 and Tales of the Valiant, engage/ignore with as you like since you've got your own design vision!) My personal approach has been to implement ancestry features as a two tier approach, with a primary set of features representing ~3-4 points in your system and secondary features representing ~1-2 points in your system. Depending on the ancestry they may have multiple primary features to choose from or multiple secondary features to choose from (choices representing the "sub-race" elements of an ancestry). Animal folk have multiple primary and secondary features to choose from to cover the variety present there, and mixed ancestries are achieved by picking one primary and one secondary feature. It's a mechanic I reuse for creating custom Animal Companions, Familiars and to an extent Wild Shape forms (i.e. a focus on features, rather than templates). Part of this approach was a reaction to the approach taken in Tales of the Valiant, which tries to evenly balance the power level of their "heritage" and "cultural" features, but in practice players would just choose the most powerful instances and combinations of heritage and culture in combination with their classes. I mitigate this by reducing the relative power of one of the decisions, so that the potential overall variance between the power of different combinations is much less. The Tales of the Valiant effect could in theory happen in DC20 (e.g. some 2 pointer features might in theory be a lot stronger than others), but the granularity of features being scored on a point system should mitigate it. None of this is to say one approach is "right", but it's interesting how the three systems for mixed ancestries compare! As for the small/medium character divide my personal approach has been to implement many class features which can help small ancestries circumvent their inherent weaknesses (e.g. barbarians have a feature that let's them ignore heavy weapon penalties) and I may implement feats that require you be a small character (e.g. AC buffs relating to smaller size) so there're additional design options granted by being small.
as soon as i heard about this custom ancestry system i had to back the kickstarter this is just way too cool and makes racial features and lore soooo much more interesting than how dnd does it.
This is very cool. I am looking forward to your system. I am also loving Kobold Press's TOV and how they are doing Heritage and Lineage. These improved "racial" systems provide so much more versatility to your characters.
OK a) I am looking forward to my copy of the game when it comes out, sounds groundbreaking and b) I am getting BIG Vince Offer vibes from your energy my friend, because like him you have a lot of energetic charisma!
any 'rules' for natural weapons, horns, fangs, claws etc that might come from ancestries , I have a soft spot for minotaurs and other classical greek chimera.
chur. I hate in 5e the str based natural weapons and the confusion between melee, weapon and natural weapon attacks and all the riders off it.@@unfortunate_error
I like this ancestry system, the Peerless sight trait is exactly how I'd like to represent my elves superior vision. I'd love to hear about the lore and whether your planning to create adventures for this system.
I think the 0 cost traits are okay, but they’re basically always auto picks and thus not really tied into the system. Maybe you can only have 1 0-cost trait?
Can one get more than 5 ancestry traits points at character creation by giving up on skill points or ability score points? How about getting more ancestry traits at later levels, maybe as a feat I can get 1 or 2 ancestry points?
Yes, by taking a trait like “Might Attribute Decrease” (-1 to Might) from Elf Ancestry. It’s a negative trait (-1). So by giving up 1 Might you gain 1 Ancestry Trait Point
Not sure about Skill Points, none I’ve seen yet, but as there are a (2) + Skill trait and a (1) + Trade trait, making a - trait for these should be possible. Have seen (-1) - PD trait, so prob will be a (-1) - MD trait in future. (Edit: Orc has a (-1) - MD trait, so already there.) And (-1) weakness traits are a thing too (but my GM would deffo make sure those came back to bite me in the posterior - and so she should!)
I love this system and it's like a fully realized version of my own thoughts on how to make races. This way you can have half of anything and there's no confusion. You could even put together a family tree of various half breeds and then make a fun amalgamation of various traits across several races. Bonus pints if the family tree are former PCs.
I'm gonna be honest I don't like this at all. It seems way too gamey. The one thing I always hated about choosing your character's 'race' is that you'd always want to pick a race that would reinforce your class. Therefore your warlocks are always gonna be either half-elves or tieflings and so on. This has always reminded me of those stereotypes like all chineese know kung-fu. I can't remember when was the last time I picked a race just for flavor. And that what the racial choice should be IMO. Now in DC20 you can cherry-pick those traits to support your build even further than in DnD. Some of the options are mild and niche while others look like they can be build-defining. I can imagine most people would start playing these weird uncanny double-ancestry monstrosities all over the place. How would you role-play a halfling/elf? a halfling/orc? Now imagine every game is full of those. I'm worried that most people would just hand-wave those ancestries and play them as if they were just plain simple humans but with cool extra abilities cos that's what they actually are mechanically. I'm not against the general idea of mixed ancestries but those cases should be super niche and not the optimizer's wet dream. I wish the traits were more flavorful like orcs being able to chew through rope using their strong jaws and sharp teeth but also needing double rations to feel properly fed or something like that. TL;dr: Make ancestry choice more of a flavorful one rather than build-defining.
Sounds great. One little concern I have as with the many options from action economy and resource pools (fury, mana etc.) … I hope it does not offer too many options to play fluently. Less is good sometimes. 2-4 would still give much room for optimancers but might reduce complexity a bit. It surely needs to be checked on a birds eye viewpoint with all other options at hand.
Fair point but I wouldn't want it to end up like PF2 where there are dozens of options but there's only one or two good ones so there isn't really a choice. Half the feats in that game could be cut and no one would notice.
@@jf649 Yea I see something similar happening with prime attributes in DC20 and Im afraid of that. My brother and I are still working on our own "6e" and I am trying to make it more proficiency focused, so that abilities have an effect and are certainly important, but trained skill (represented by proficiency) has a greater impact. For that reason we are taking a more video gamey/PF2 approach and making proficiency bonus vary from one skill to another. Its one thing I really liked when I tried PF2.
I think this is a really cool idea. This feels a lot of an idea I had of a variant Custom Lineage that's a modified version of the Detect Balance race table.
A fair point, being small can let you fit small openings, hide in otherwise unaccessable places, pass through unstable terrain or be carried or thrown over it, all of which could be beneficial
“Smaller creatures have difficulty Grappling, pushing, moving, and knocking larger creatures Prone…” (size+1=DisAdv, size+2 or more = immume) and you are easier to grapple/shove by larger creatures. Of course, that may never come up, so may never be a problem (until it is 😱)
I think the Might decrease happens after Hit Point calculation, so not as impactful. Needs some clarification, but that’s the way I’m running with it for now.
Just re-read the doc and Ancestry Traits are chosen well before calculating HP. The mechanical impact of a -1 to an Attribute (including -1 to all that Attribute’s Skills) is way more negatively impactful than just a -1 HP. Maybe the Attribute decreases should be a (-2), like Short Legged.
This is 100% intended, this is technically a benefit for elves. They could take the frail negative trait to gain a point to spend, while not having to do the -1 might, which is more punishing.
@@guamae if they wanted to take both of them, or create a character that is truly that week, they would have even more points to build a more agile or mental focused build 👌🏼
I really dig this point system for ancestries. And because I'm usually the DM, I can see this being used for character backgrounds. Put points into the observant trait because you were a guard or investigator. Put points into agile explorer from your background as an on-foot herder. Even game worlds without fantasy races can benefit from this.
No, but the Alpha has soooo much good stuff it is well worth the investment. If you watch Coach’s DC20 vids/live streams, expecting the full game late next year (2024), but no definite timeline yet (still in Alpha after all).
I'd really like to see a "Giant" ancestry feature for giantborn, simply to make a Large player character. It's always been something that D&D has shied away from, but I love playing characters like the Ogryn from Darktide, just a great big lug. Dunno if it works with this system, but if anyone could figure it out i bet it's DC20
I’ve always like the idea of a WoW troll being an elf/troll. I also like the idea of a medium sized goblin race. So… when is the ancestry expansion coming?
I love how you designed a conbat aystem with no damage dice then wear a damage dice T-shirt in half the videos 😂😝 But seriously I am trying to get my group to let me run a DC20 one-shot soon!
ngl, I just stumbled across this for the first time (thanks to the TH-cam algorithm), and this ancestry system already has my attention. I really like the flexibility and variety showcased here. Hell, even with just the info in this video, I find myself coming up with a fair number of ideas for potential characters in regards to ancestries alone. It's already proving to be a refreshing change from the more static race choices from other TTRPGs, that's for sure!
First I will take a Goblin and Devilborn to create an Imp! Second I know you wilö bring Beastborn later to the party but I want to make a whole compendium to create beastborns. So I will just make it anf share it when it is done. ❤
Is there a limit to how many negative traits one can take? On one hand, I think it'd be really cool to play a vampire bat with human-like intelligence that is small, sunlight sensitive and has wing arms, but those three negative traits would accumulate to a total of -4, giving me 4 more points to reach my total. Maybe it doesn't matter because having so many negatives balances it out, or maybe there could be a cap of extra points you can get from negative traits. Perhaps 3 or 4 max. At that point you could keep taking negative traits if you really want said handicaps for your character for whatever flavor or story reason, but can't take more positive traits in exchange. Also, how are creature types looking in this game? Are players still bound to being humanoid? Or could I reject bipedality and play a very smart cat?
So what if my mom's mom is a dwarf, my mom's dad is a gnome, my dad's mom is an elf, and my dad's dad is a human? Do I have to just be born with a -1 point penalty?
Only complaint i have is that min-maxers will always make mixed race characters, because there are only upsides. Id suggest: full race 6 points, mixed 5, custom 4.
I've always wanted to play an infernal/fae type character. I found a homebrew race for 4e called the Daemonfey and I fell in love with it. And! With the custom lineage rule I can finally make ratfolk that aren't lycanthropes and also piglins I am in love with this
Cool but, very crunchy. What if the perspective player, needs more concrete guidelines? I have players who end up in “analysis paralysis” all the time.
PLSSS YES DO LORE! People are gonna make their own worlds thats a given but thats after awhile of getting upto speed plus dnd is so rich in history and lore that entire channels are dedicated to it! Yes Def do your own lore be as deep and intricate as u want it helps give ideas for people to spring board off like gith vs mind flayera
This is cool. I have difficulty with customizing characters beyond class. That is probably due to lack of experience. I also avoid multiclassing. The complex racial system in the video is fantastic for veteran players. They can really customize thier characters. Having a points helps a lot with balance. Personally I am mixed race. I am a mix of white, black and Native American. I think the option to mix two races is great. It gives positive representation of people like me. Saying things like half-elf and half-orc is not offensive at all. People say they are half of some race all the time. It is fine. WOTC is being too sensitive about this. I am glad this video supports the use of half races. In any issue of political correctness it is important to consult the people that belong to the minority demographic. There are other half race people that like playing with half-ekves and half-orcs. I do find it wierd that dragonborn can't have darkvision. Don't dragons live in dark caves and so could use this ability? If this ability is more restricted, it would make sense for dwarves and drow to have it. They are the humanoids that actually live underground in the dark.
... Roll your ancestry... Decide how many generations back you want to go, determine races and couplings... Assign numbers to base race points... Roll a d6, take the corresponding trait. Alternate within the pairing till you have a completed offspring... Do this with all couples and continue down the generations until you reach your character... Get fancy with the starting generation for a more varried result... Too complicated? Maybe... Would it be interesting? I think so
Fix for half-races being over powered. I might rule in my game that they are REQUIRED to take a negative trait. They could even play up the story that conjures up.
Recently I’ve started watching longer TH-cam videos with a faster playback speed. I have ADD so it just helps me. With your videos sometimes I have to check to make sure I turned it off lol. That’s not a judgement on you. Im an actor I appreciate that ability. It’s just wild that you are able to articulate this fast lol.
I mean that's great system but I'd also give a penalty point or two to mixed races since you can basically create best combination of racial features, omit the required -1 features and not be short of a single point compared to the "pure" ones. There is no merit in picking anything but mixed race since you are JUST better.
Love the idea of default and expanded traits! But, it sounds like the correct choice 9/10 times will be mixed ancestry. With no additional downsides or restrictions having more options is just better. There probably shouldn't be a downside to mixed ancestry (as that sends the wrong message). So maybe some more restrictions. My first idea would be a primary and secondary ancestry system. You pick a primary ancestry as normal but then you can pick one secondary ancestry and you only get access to their expanded traits. This allows you to give each ancestry defining default traits. And tidies up what happens with the 0 point trait. The only way to access Natural Armor is via a tortle and the only way to access flight is via and Aarakocra. A flying castle is off the table. But honestly this doesn't even solve my issue, mixed ancestry still has more options. So, I guess the next logical step is to just make expanded ancestral traits available to everyone. This will let the player build whatever they want. Let any character have any combination of expanded ancestries, but it locks off certain potentially busted or defining traits. But you could still be a tortle with fiendish ancestry if you pick up Hellish Resistance. You can still be a half elf if you start with elf and pick up some jack of all trades human traits.
There must be traits for elven/dark elven/highborne debauchery and decadence. Perhaps even some drukhari sadism. We need some dark side traits. And there should definitely be a beastfolk ancestry. It's perfect in this system. Wings, claws, hide, pack tactics, amphibian - it should solve the problem of having 9001 animal races and still leaving someone out because their specific fursona is unsupported. And also the undead ancestry with varying degrees of undeadness, from an almost alive dhampir to Frankenstein construct or an actual revenant that is averse to positive energy. Would be cool. I love these pools of features and the freedom they give.
Tldr: Custom ancestries should have some downside compared to single ancestry. Is is what I've been trying to do in 5e. I had an idea for Dwarf/halfling and Dwarf/dragonborn characters but couldn't get them to work mechanically. This gives the flexibility that I love as a character creation junkie. As said by another commenter, creating/blending ancestries is pretty strong, so it might be a case where you must take a negative expanded trait or where the trait total cannot exceed 4, just to help the original ancestries stand out to veteran players or optimizers. If there isn't a downside, it starts to feel like variant human in 5e, which is taken for the feat for many optimized builds.
looks pretty good to me would stuff like Dark Elves be made with ancestry points or would they be a different ancestry entirely? it might be good to have "sub-ancestry" packages that may let you swap out the "core" traits you cant normally swap out, but wether they do that or not they come with their own default traits and expanded trait lists
As i am a 8-6 worker working paycheck to paycheck and cant afford the high level patron tier that would allow for 1-1 or bits of your time. I would say that I wouldnt mind working with you on further improving the systems you have in place so far. seeing many of the parallels from you and your teams thought processes and my own,.
With as cool as this is, basically making it lore cannon that all races are cross-fertile? I would be so very tempted to make make a character that's got the human ancestry template, but lore-wise he's half-halfling, half giant. Just for the roleplay fun.
I think having a heritage (where you are from) selection would be interesting even if you don't have talents, just the lore. For example your character is a noble from a country of magic users but you didn't have any interest/talent, so you left your family and became a fighter. Then the question becomes were you cast out, part of a political marriage to nation that put physical strength over magic, or did you run away? Then if you add in a mechanical element to it, would they be able to cast some spells, gain knowledge in magical stuff (bonus to arcana), or simply be able to fight magic users better (something similar to the Mage Slayer feat from dnd5e). On a separate note will there be an online character sheet like dndbeyond or will you put abilities on cards?
I feel like there should be some downside to being a mixed ancestry, like what you have with the custom ancestry. Otherwise it's just objectively better to be a mixed ancestry.
So i did a thing. I suggested to OSQ about the idea of doing a hotline all about DC20 with the thought of you being in chat and a discord call to help answer questions. Idk if it will happen but its a idea. mix teifling + orc = Hell Boy
I tried something similar, all my players ended up playing half and half. So I tried to find a way to make single races interesting aswell... in your system, you could make half and half 4 points with both 0 traits, or limit the access to expanded traits.
There are no problems with races. It's good to have actual, clear baselines instead of everyone being a blurry unicorn. The customistion thing SOUNDS nice if you don't think about it too hard, but unless you have hard rules dictating the default for each race in different areas, in practice you just have players picking what they want for their build and there being no actual cohesion between characters' races even if they supposedly come from the same area!
My thought is to make a proper half race it is hard to do with five points. Six points would be better for an even split. You could put things into that one point that all people if the ancestry who grew up in that location would be trained in and know like ancestry lore, local area lore, languages and any skills that an ancestry might be trained in as part of growing up. Then you could say your Halfling was born and raised in the Dwarven city of Stonefield and knows more about being a Dwarf than being a Halfling and could just swap the training point from Halfling with the one from Dwarf.
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Should probably make it more clear the certain default traits that are not optional, and can't be swapped out, like the gnomes size.
My Gnome has giantism. 😜
Considering the connection to Lore, this makes the ancestry system Campaign Setting agnostic and flexible. Someone with a different world and different lore could get rid of some of the ancestry traits and replace them with similar ones for their world. This is amazing
Exactly! Easily mix and matchable to lore too!
I love how this is so intuitive even the players could homebrew their own ancestries!! (if the GM is cool with it of course)
I love this ancestry system, it solves a lot of problems and is very elegant.
Angelborn + Fireborn... PHOENIXBORN!!!
I invested in the Alpha... Looks fantastic so far. Have already made a custom Feline race - I wish the "core" classes were fleshed out a bit - specifically, was looking for Bard. But I cannot wait for more updates.
Oh my gosh! 0.6 might be perfect for you then! It will have the Beast-born ancestries along with the bard!
Can't wait then :)
I made a half elfe-orc :) ranger with Cursed Mind, Provocation, Nimble, Peerless Sight, Orc Rush, Orcish Resolve, Plant Knowledge. he or she will be using spear, net & bolas ... I love what you did with the weapons as well, most of them have a different feel. It is great.
Wow! I love to hear all the different characters people are making! So cool!!!
My players love this system! Can’t wait for more ancestries.
Might Decrease, Agility Decrease, Frail, Unholy Weakness, Divine Dampening, Giant's Resolve, Orcish Resolve, Nimble, Elusive, Draconic Ward, Human Resolve, Iron Stomach, and Unbreakable. These are the ancestry features of "Annie Percent", a 1HP Monk.
Only a few minutes in and this gives me big Project Zomboid vibes with the negative traits and I looove it 😍😱
This sounds like a very cool system that oozes a lot of personality for individuals, rather than a race!
My only problem is that the most "optimal" way to play seems to be to always pick a half-something because it gives you more options at no cost. Maybe have a soft restriction, like only being able to pick features that cost 1 Point as to limit the more powerful 2 or 3 cost one to single ancestries? Or have it a small cost, like a 1 Point investment to be a half-race at all.
Is it the end of the world if most players play as mixed race? You could say you’re 1/16th human if u really don’t want it to affect your character’s appearance/background. Maybe Coaches world is just less segregated than the Sword Coast?
@@selthafour6948 It is not that it is "the end of the world", but that it is not balanced. OC is right, mixed breeds are clearly stronger than pure breeds with those rules.
The solution that they can only choose 1 point traits seems reasonable to me.
@@selthafour6948 The fantasy world might slightly resemble real life more if most everyone is mixed race
This sounds really really awesome. I am a bit worried about the negative traits, especially the optional ones, giving you more points though. I am worried that people will find negatives traits that seem bad but in actual play don't have much of an impact, and use them to stack on more positive traits that do impact actual play.
Yes! That is something that is being heavily monitored as well!
Players being players will always try to optimize, but the GM should look over and approve any build. Example; the Dwelf has (elf) agile explorer(+2), (dwarf) short legs(-2), (elf) frail(-1) dwarf steady(+2), (elf) elven will(+1), (dwarf) tremor sense(+1), elf agility(+2). I tried to balance a positive of one ancestry with a negative of the other, but still fun
@@VanillaGorilla42 Yeah, you're totally right. But really any problematic design can be handwaved by the DM or a player respecting the spirit of the game. It'd be preferable if the problem didn't exist in the first place.
A GM ought to target both their player’s strengths and weaknesses, make your player’s choices relevant. Letting them know you intend to do so ahead of time may make curb their point collection, or it may be fun for them to anticipate the challenges to come.
A great system, I love it. One issue I have is there is no cost for combining ancestries, so it's strictly a more optimal mechanical choice. Why have to choose from one list of features when you can choose from two? Creating your own ancestry does costs 1 ancestry point after all
I could see two solutions to this. The more complicated one would be to lock certain abilities behind a "full" ancestry. Another potentially more simple to understand and implement would be to have a zero point cost negative to choosing a half ancestry. Or maybe just a choice between you can pick 5 points, but you have to put a -1 into an ability score, or you don't take that penalty but get only 4 points.
@@elhombredequeso Both solution could work great, the second one is pretty smooth and would work better in a rule book, but as a GM I would always consider the first solution
Whether this is a problem is a question of lore.
Because, like, if you have an American style melting pot, then mixed race is kind of the norm.
@@thegreatandterrible4508 Not really, it's a problem from a mechanical point of view regardless of lore
@@melchiorkaczmarzyk5165 How is it a mechanical issue, when it's available to everyone? It's just a different form of character customization.
with this system wy have "default" races at all ?
that beings said, making it very customizable, but that restricting only the small trait seems Wierd, to me that seems like only small races have an actual racial identity
that might just be me.
but this way if you dont use the word elf, how would i know the difference between an elf or half elf/dwarf, there dont seem to be any physical characteristic tied to race.
which to me is definitely part of the fantasy that seems lost in this flexible system
this at first seems like a trade off between different style of play, but it doesnt have to be just make sure to mention to the GM that they can restrict ancectry option however they like
I'd say this is up to the DM to decide. The whole customization is presented as an optional rule, so if the DM wants to stick on the defaults, then they absolutely can.
LORE!!!
I wanna play a half ogre wizard.
The point system is great. You are showing how the sausage is made. These kind of race "points" exist in 5e they just aren't broken down and explained like this.
When you mentioned the gnome angelborn mixed ancestry, i just imagined playing a Cherub hahah
This gave me a contented sigh. So elegant and well-thought out, able to appeal to many different audiences!
Min-maxing with the negative traits sounds rather fun, both mechanically and narratively. Hopefully it ends out balanced too, haha!
Add two points for a heroic game.
I’d go Angel-born / Tiefling! I haven’t had a chance to see all the traits yet but I’d love to see the character that has their foot in both worlds
DC 20 is looking amazing
Also FIRST
what is the negative of being small? is there a penalty somewhere for that?
This sounds exactly like the "elf and an orc had a little baby" book method for 5e, but for your system, and i absolutely love that
DC20, so far, looks to be THE best TTRPG ever created. I love how your rule system works for both mechanical-minded gamers and pure RPG gamers.
Omg… I just shook my head and fist pumped out of sheer joy for you saying this! Thank you so much for that!!
I think when we get the lore we pure RPG nuts will have more to go on. My brother is more critical of DC20 and he has some valid critiques (one that we share is a dislike of how stamina works) but overall I think it will prove superior to dnd. That said it isn't exactly what we were hoping for so still working on our own system.
Maine feature is no classes. Gana just be perk trees but there will be pre-designed paths to take to get the idea of a class, I think.
Heavily inspired by skyrim and DC20 and of course 5e and pathfinder.
Seems cool. Im looking forward to creating a Mul (half dwarf, half human) and a Karsite (magic resistant human)
I am not quite fan of mixed ancestry as it is now. Feels like there should be some limit or demerit to ballance more options (I think it should be same as custom ancestry). Right now vanilla races seems to get short end of stick here.
That said I really love everything else.
The entire system is designed to be balanced with this in mind. I can fully see somebody making a dwarf with a mixed ancestry to pick up some thing that sounds good for the character. Kind of like example of the dwarf and a half thing I gave. I think it does nothing but increase the customization of how people express their ancestries, whether they are mixed or not. .💜
Ha ha ha Coach going "Focus" was very relatebol
Love how costumizebol this is and how evry character can truly be difrent even if evryone has the same encesterie
Maybe there should be a "generic" race that you can only pick as a secondary race with a broad range of abilities.
Interesting. I see you went with the 4 points for custom builds to disincentivize min-maxing traits and ignoring lore.
Will @ D&D Shorts will still find any loopholes you left though :)
Is there any way to play a character that doesnt have a humanoid "body plan" without breaking everything in your system? I've always hated that every race in every ttrpg seems to be "two legs, two arms, bipedal humanoid" for the most part. Is it so much to ask to just be able to play as something that isn't just "human with extra steps?" All these worlds are full of sapient creatures that bear zero resemblence to a humanoid shape, but they're never playable.
What if instead of an elf ranger, I want to be an awakened wolf paladin? What about sizes above medium for player races? I've always hated the lack of a large player option. What about a drider? Or other similar hybrids.
Does gnome get an additional point to spend since it's stuck with a negative off the bat? Cause if not then why play a gnome if you can just take the traits on a different race
Really impressed by the concept of negative traits and how this helps resolve the small-medium creature divide. Overall the point based system seems very granular to me even as an optional system and may cause difficulties with balancing/overlapping character features, but in the context of how DC20 focuses on customization i think it works really well.
I think the implementation of default traits and balancing the points of all traits across the board will help with this :) thanks man!
@@TheDungeonCoach For sure default traits alleviate the complexity problems so it's still very approachable for new players!
(FYI below is a comparison of the Ancestry system I'm working on vs DC20 and Tales of the Valiant, engage/ignore with as you like since you've got your own design vision!)
My personal approach has been to implement ancestry features as a two tier approach, with a primary set of features representing ~3-4 points in your system and secondary features representing ~1-2 points in your system.
Depending on the ancestry they may have multiple primary features to choose from or multiple secondary features to choose from (choices representing the "sub-race" elements of an ancestry). Animal folk have multiple primary and secondary features to choose from to cover the variety present there, and mixed ancestries are achieved by picking one primary and one secondary feature. It's a mechanic I reuse for creating custom Animal Companions, Familiars and to an extent Wild Shape forms (i.e. a focus on features, rather than templates).
Part of this approach was a reaction to the approach taken in Tales of the Valiant, which tries to evenly balance the power level of their "heritage" and "cultural" features, but in practice players would just choose the most powerful instances and combinations of heritage and culture in combination with their classes. I mitigate this by reducing the relative power of one of the decisions, so that the potential overall variance between the power of different combinations is much less.
The Tales of the Valiant effect could in theory happen in DC20 (e.g. some 2 pointer features might in theory be a lot stronger than others), but the granularity of features being scored on a point system should mitigate it.
None of this is to say one approach is "right", but it's interesting how the three systems for mixed ancestries compare!
As for the small/medium character divide my personal approach has been to implement many class features which can help small ancestries circumvent their inherent weaknesses (e.g. barbarians have a feature that let's them ignore heavy weapon penalties) and I may implement feats that require you be a small character (e.g. AC buffs relating to smaller size) so there're additional design options granted by being small.
as soon as i heard about this custom ancestry system i had to back the kickstarter this is just way too cool and makes racial features and lore soooo much more interesting than how dnd does it.
What about half dwarf and half giant who ends up human sized? or a giant sized Dwarf? or a tiny Giant? XD
This is very cool. I am looking forward to your system. I am also loving Kobold Press's TOV and how they are doing Heritage and Lineage. These improved "racial" systems provide so much more versatility to your characters.
OK a) I am looking forward to my copy of the game when it comes out, sounds groundbreaking and b) I am getting BIG Vince Offer vibes from your energy my friend, because like him you have a lot of energetic charisma!
any 'rules' for natural weapons, horns, fangs, claws etc that might come from ancestries , I have a soft spot for minotaurs and other classical greek chimera.
I expect they’ll be coming with a later release that includes the Beastborn ancestry
chur. I hate in 5e the str based natural weapons and the confusion between melee, weapon and natural weapon attacks and all the riders off it.@@unfortunate_error
Reminds me a lot of Savage Worlds, which is great because I love that character creation system.
I like this ancestry system, the Peerless sight trait is exactly how I'd like to represent my elves superior vision. I'd love to hear about the lore and whether your planning to create adventures for this system.
I think the 0 cost traits are okay, but they’re basically always auto picks and thus not really tied into the system. Maybe you can only have 1 0-cost trait?
I think that's already the case.
Can one get more than 5 ancestry traits points at character creation by giving up on skill points or ability score points?
How about getting more ancestry traits at later levels, maybe as a feat I can get 1 or 2 ancestry points?
Yes, by taking a trait like “Might Attribute Decrease” (-1 to Might) from Elf Ancestry. It’s a negative trait (-1). So by giving up 1 Might you gain 1 Ancestry Trait Point
Not sure about Skill Points, none I’ve seen yet, but as there are a (2) + Skill trait and a (1) + Trade trait, making a - trait for these should be possible.
Have seen (-1) - PD trait, so prob will be a (-1) - MD trait in future.
(Edit: Orc has a (-1) - MD trait, so already there.)
And (-1) weakness traits are a thing too (but my GM would deffo make sure those came back to bite me in the posterior - and so she should!)
I love this system and it's like a fully realized version of my own thoughts on how to make races. This way you can have half of anything and there's no confusion. You could even put together a family tree of various half breeds and then make a fun amalgamation of various traits across several races. Bonus pints if the family tree are former PCs.
It's a good feature to steal from Pathfinder 2nd Edition
This looks so much better than 5e in every way. Reminds me of the Skills and Powers rules from AD&D 2e.
I'm gonna be honest I don't like this at all. It seems way too gamey. The one thing I always hated about choosing your character's 'race' is that you'd always want to pick a race that would reinforce your class. Therefore your warlocks are always gonna be either half-elves or tieflings and so on. This has always reminded me of those stereotypes like all chineese know kung-fu. I can't remember when was the last time I picked a race just for flavor. And that what the racial choice should be IMO.
Now in DC20 you can cherry-pick those traits to support your build even further than in DnD. Some of the options are mild and niche while others look like they can be build-defining. I can imagine most people would start playing these weird uncanny double-ancestry monstrosities all over the place. How would you role-play a halfling/elf? a halfling/orc? Now imagine every game is full of those. I'm worried that most people would just hand-wave those ancestries and play them as if they were just plain simple humans but with cool extra abilities cos that's what they actually are mechanically. I'm not against the general idea of mixed ancestries but those cases should be super niche and not the optimizer's wet dream.
I wish the traits were more flavorful like orcs being able to chew through rope using their strong jaws and sharp teeth but also needing double rations to feel properly fed or something like that.
TL;dr: Make ancestry choice more of a flavorful one rather than build-defining.
I love getting well spoken, kind hearted feedback, so thank you for that!
Sounds great. One little concern I have as with the many options from action economy and resource pools (fury, mana etc.) … I hope it does not offer too many options to play fluently. Less is good sometimes. 2-4 would still give much room for optimancers but might reduce complexity a bit. It surely needs to be checked on a birds eye viewpoint with all other options at hand.
Fair point but I wouldn't want it to end up like PF2 where there are dozens of options but there's only one or two good ones so there isn't really a choice. Half the feats in that game could be cut and no one would notice.
@@JimyRoze definitely not. You are totally right. I see the same in 5E also. It ends in people always having the same feats for instance.
@@jf649 Yea I see something similar happening with prime attributes in DC20 and Im afraid of that. My brother and I are still working on our own "6e" and I am trying to make it more proficiency focused, so that abilities have an effect and are certainly important, but trained skill (represented by proficiency) has a greater impact. For that reason we are taking a more video gamey/PF2 approach and making proficiency bonus vary from one skill to another. Its one thing I really liked when I tried PF2.
Un like dnd. The most difficult part of DC20 will be finding a GM because everyone is going to want to be a player
Hahahahaha!!! I have felt that with the class design!! So much fun I want to PLAY it more than ever lol
I think this is a really cool idea. This feels a lot of an idea I had of a variant Custom Lineage that's a modified version of the Detect Balance race table.
Is small size really a downside? In 5e it is, but I’d like to see small ancestries have advantages over other sizes
I guess the advantage would be having extra points to spend but that doesn’t feel like the size itself is giving you bonuses to, say, cover.
A fair point, being small can let you fit small openings, hide in otherwise unaccessable places, pass through unstable terrain or be carried or thrown over it, all of which could be beneficial
“Smaller creatures have difficulty Grappling, pushing, moving, and knocking larger creatures Prone…”
(size+1=DisAdv, size+2 or more = immume) and you are easier to grapple/shove by larger creatures.
Of course, that may never come up, so may never be a problem (until it is 😱)
LORE VID give us lore
Being Frail decreases your max hp by 1... But having -1 Might also decreases your hp by one... But they cost the same..?
I think the Might decrease happens after Hit Point calculation, so not as impactful. Needs some clarification, but that’s the way I’m running with it for now.
Just re-read the doc and Ancestry Traits are chosen well before calculating HP. The mechanical impact of a -1 to an Attribute (including -1 to all that Attribute’s Skills) is way more negatively impactful than just a -1 HP.
Maybe the Attribute decreases should be a (-2), like Short Legged.
This is 100% intended, this is technically a benefit for elves. They could take the frail negative trait to gain a point to spend, while not having to do the -1 might, which is more punishing.
@@TheDungeonCoach then why would anyone want the -1 Might?
@@guamae if they wanted to take both of them, or create a character that is truly that week, they would have even more points to build a more agile or mental focused build 👌🏼
So, mixed ancestries are better - more options and no penalty.
Correct! The goal is for this to be a standard option.
You can still role-play a full-blooded ancestry and choose a second one for flavor
I really dig this point system for ancestries. And because I'm usually the DM, I can see this being used for character backgrounds. Put points into the observant trait because you were a guard or investigator. Put points into agile explorer from your background as an on-foot herder. Even game worlds without fantasy races can benefit from this.
Elfblood,Dragonborn 1/2 elf 1/2 Dragonborn...
Is that the Elgon, or Dralf?
This is awesome.
if we buy the Alpha version PDF do we have the full version want it's ready?
No, but the Alpha has soooo much good stuff it is well worth the investment.
If you watch Coach’s DC20 vids/live streams, expecting the full game late next year (2024), but no definite timeline yet (still in Alpha after all).
@@unfortunate_error thank you for answering this question so well! I appreciate it 💜
tiefling and Aasimar mix is what I'll be going for!
Weird question: why are adventurers so mechanically different from ordinary dudes? :P it’s something that makes me think.
I'd really like to see a "Giant" ancestry feature for giantborn, simply to make a Large player character. It's always been something that D&D has shied away from, but I love playing characters like the Ogryn from Darktide, just a great big lug. Dunno if it works with this system, but if anyone could figure it out i bet it's DC20
I’ve always like the idea of a WoW troll being an elf/troll. I also like the idea of a medium sized goblin race.
So… when is the ancestry expansion coming?
I love how you designed a conbat aystem with no damage dice then wear a damage dice T-shirt in half the videos 😂😝
But seriously I am trying to get my group to let me run a DC20 one-shot soon!
ngl, I just stumbled across this for the first time (thanks to the TH-cam algorithm), and this ancestry system already has my attention. I really like the flexibility and variety showcased here. Hell, even with just the info in this video, I find myself coming up with a fair number of ideas for potential characters in regards to ancestries alone. It's already proving to be a refreshing change from the more static race choices from other TTRPGs, that's for sure!
First I will take a Goblin and Devilborn to create an Imp!
Second I know you wilö bring Beastborn later to the party but I want to make a whole compendium to create beastborns. So I will just make it anf share it when it is done. ❤
I don't know advantage vs. visual illusion is more than flavor. Situational but potentially pretty strong.
Is there a limit to how many negative traits one can take? On one hand, I think it'd be really cool to play a vampire bat with human-like intelligence that is small, sunlight sensitive and has wing arms, but those three negative traits would accumulate to a total of -4, giving me 4 more points to reach my total. Maybe it doesn't matter because having so many negatives balances it out, or maybe there could be a cap of extra points you can get from negative traits. Perhaps 3 or 4 max. At that point you could keep taking negative traits if you really want said handicaps for your character for whatever flavor or story reason, but can't take more positive traits in exchange. Also, how are creature types looking in this game? Are players still bound to being humanoid? Or could I reject bipedality and play a very smart cat?
So what if my mom's mom is a dwarf, my mom's dad is a gnome, my dad's mom is an elf, and my dad's dad is a human? Do I have to just be born with a -1 point penalty?
Only complaint i have is that min-maxers will always make mixed race characters, because there are only upsides.
Id suggest: full race 6 points, mixed 5, custom 4.
I've always wanted to play an infernal/fae type character. I found a homebrew race for 4e called the Daemonfey and I fell in love with it. And! With the custom lineage rule I can finally make ratfolk that aren't lycanthropes and also piglins I am in love with this
This video randomly came on my feed and I am elated to say , I’ve found GOLD. You are awesome bud!🎉
Cool but, very crunchy. What if the perspective player, needs more concrete guidelines? I have players who end up in “analysis paralysis” all the time.
PLSSS YES DO LORE! People are gonna make their own worlds thats a given but thats after awhile of getting upto speed plus dnd is so rich in history and lore that entire channels are dedicated to it! Yes Def do your own lore be as deep and intricate as u want it helps give ideas for people to spring board off like gith vs mind flayera
This is cool. I have difficulty with customizing characters beyond class. That is probably due to lack of experience. I also avoid multiclassing. The complex racial system in the video is fantastic for veteran players. They can really customize thier characters. Having a points helps a lot with balance. Personally I am mixed race. I am a mix of white, black and Native American. I think the option to mix two races is great. It gives positive representation of people like me. Saying things like half-elf and half-orc is not offensive at all. People say they are half of some race all the time. It is fine. WOTC is being too sensitive about this. I am glad this video supports the use of half races. In any issue of political correctness it is important to consult the people that belong to the minority demographic. There are other half race people that like playing with half-ekves and half-orcs. I do find it wierd that dragonborn can't have darkvision. Don't dragons live in dark caves and so could use this ability? If this ability is more restricted, it would make sense for dwarves and drow to have it. They are the humanoids that actually live underground in the dark.
Its so fun trying to figure out builds using the ancestry system
... Roll your ancestry... Decide how many generations back you want to go, determine races and couplings... Assign numbers to base race points... Roll a d6, take the corresponding trait. Alternate within the pairing till you have a completed offspring... Do this with all couples and continue down the generations until you reach your character... Get fancy with the starting generation for a more varried result... Too complicated? Maybe... Would it be interesting? I think so
"The problem woth Races in D&D is that they're all the same" Could you elaborate on that, cause um, they're certainly not?
Fix for half-races being over powered.
I might rule in my game that they are REQUIRED to take a negative trait. They could even play up the story that conjures up.
Recently I’ve started watching longer TH-cam videos with a faster playback speed. I have ADD so it just helps me. With your videos sometimes I have to check to make sure I turned it off lol. That’s not a judgement on you. Im an actor I appreciate that ability. It’s just wild that you are able to articulate this fast lol.
I hope you include a plant race. Shocking we don’t have one in dnd yet but we’ve got plasmoids & robot gnomes.
I mean that's great system but I'd also give a penalty point or two to mixed races since you can basically create best combination of racial features, omit the required -1 features and not be short of a single point compared to the "pure" ones. There is no merit in picking anything but mixed race since you are JUST better.
Im wondering if it's going to be compatible with sci-fi, cyberpunk, or even the steampunk world campaigns
Love the idea of default and expanded traits!
But, it sounds like the correct choice 9/10 times will be mixed ancestry. With no additional downsides or restrictions having more options is just better.
There probably shouldn't be a downside to mixed ancestry (as that sends the wrong message). So maybe some more restrictions.
My first idea would be a primary and secondary ancestry system. You pick a primary ancestry as normal but then you can pick one secondary ancestry and you only get access to their expanded traits. This allows you to give each ancestry defining default traits. And tidies up what happens with the 0 point trait. The only way to access Natural Armor is via a tortle and the only way to access flight is via and Aarakocra. A flying castle is off the table.
But honestly this doesn't even solve my issue, mixed ancestry still has more options. So, I guess the next logical step is to just make expanded ancestral traits available to everyone. This will let the player build whatever they want. Let any character have any combination of expanded ancestries, but it locks off certain potentially busted or defining traits. But you could still be a tortle with fiendish ancestry if you pick up Hellish Resistance. You can still be a half elf if you start with elf and pick up some jack of all trades human traits.
There must be traits for elven/dark elven/highborne debauchery and decadence. Perhaps even some drukhari sadism. We need some dark side traits.
And there should definitely be a beastfolk ancestry. It's perfect in this system. Wings, claws, hide, pack tactics, amphibian - it should solve the problem of having 9001 animal races and still leaving someone out because their specific fursona is unsupported.
And also the undead ancestry with varying degrees of undeadness, from an almost alive dhampir to Frankenstein construct or an actual revenant that is averse to positive energy. Would be cool. I love these pools of features and the freedom they give.
I dont have the Beta yet, is there an elementalborne Ancestory? I feel like it would be similar to beastborne
okay I've been kind of under-whelmed by most of these, but this is actually cool.
Tldr: Custom ancestries should have some downside compared to single ancestry.
Is is what I've been trying to do in 5e. I had an idea for Dwarf/halfling and Dwarf/dragonborn characters but couldn't get them to work mechanically. This gives the flexibility that I love as a character creation junkie. As said by another commenter, creating/blending ancestries is pretty strong, so it might be a case where you must take a negative expanded trait or where the trait total cannot exceed 4, just to help the original ancestries stand out to veteran players or optimizers. If there isn't a downside, it starts to feel like variant human in 5e, which is taken for the feat for many optimized builds.
Angel-borne = Celestial-born?
Demon-born = Abyssal-born or Fiend-born?
looks pretty good to me
would stuff like Dark Elves be made with ancestry points or would they be a different ancestry entirely?
it might be good to have "sub-ancestry" packages that may let you swap out the "core" traits you cant normally swap out, but wether they do that or not they come with their own default traits and expanded trait lists
As i am a 8-6 worker working paycheck to paycheck and cant afford the high level patron tier that would allow for 1-1 or bits of your time. I would say that I wouldnt mind working with you on further improving the systems you have in place so far. seeing many of the parallels from you and your teams thought processes and my own,.
I would combine dryad and halfling. Please make that happen.
With as cool as this is, basically making it lore cannon that all races are cross-fertile? I would be so very tempted to make make a character that's got the human ancestry template, but lore-wise he's half-halfling, half giant. Just for the roleplay fun.
I think having a heritage (where you are from) selection would be interesting even if you don't have talents, just the lore.
For example your character is a noble from a country of magic users but you didn't have any interest/talent, so you left your family and became a fighter. Then the question becomes were you cast out, part of a political marriage to nation that put physical strength over magic, or did you run away?
Then if you add in a mechanical element to it, would they be able to cast some spells, gain knowledge in magical stuff (bonus to arcana), or simply be able to fight magic users better (something similar to the Mage Slayer feat from dnd5e).
On a separate note will there be an online character sheet like dndbeyond or will you put abilities on cards?
I feel like there should be some downside to being a mixed ancestry, like what you have with the custom ancestry. Otherwise it's just objectively better to be a mixed ancestry.
Can we have a confirmation of how many ancestry points you gain at level 4 and 7 ? it just says points in the rules of the quickstarter.
Treant-Warforged because why not. A uncivilized race might use these kind as their work force.
Negative traits make me very happy.
So i did a thing. I suggested to OSQ about the idea of doing a hotline all about DC20 with the thought of you being in chat and a discord call to help answer questions. Idk if it will happen but its a idea. mix teifling + orc = Hell Boy
I tried something similar, all my players ended up playing half and half. So I tried to find a way to make single races interesting aswell... in your system, you could make half and half 4 points with both 0 traits, or limit the access to expanded traits.
Kinda reminds me of Aurora's Age of Desolation character builder
There are no problems with races. It's good to have actual, clear baselines instead of everyone being a blurry unicorn. The customistion thing SOUNDS nice if you don't think about it too hard, but unless you have hard rules dictating the default for each race in different areas, in practice you just have players picking what they want for their build and there being no actual cohesion between characters' races even if they supposedly come from the same area!
My thought is to make a proper half race it is hard to do with five points. Six points would be better for an even split.
You could put things into that one point that all people if the ancestry who grew up in that location would be trained in and know like ancestry lore, local area lore, languages and any skills that an ancestry might be trained in as part of growing up.
Then you could say your Halfling was born and raised in the Dwarven city of Stonefield and knows more about being a Dwarf than being a Halfling and could just swap the training point from Halfling with the one from Dwarf.