D&D (2024) 5e Aasimar are in the Players Handbook − what should the flavor be?

[Yaarel]

I suspect Aacrokra's popularity was a mix of being free and flight, favourite of minmaxers, more then the races lore, so I don't really count it.

The Aarakocra has been available free for years. The Fairy has flight, but still has difficulty approaching the top dozen. The advantage goes to the incumbants. (I suspect the Fairy would be more popular if it could alternate its sizes at-will: Medium, Small, or Tiny whenever the player wants. I doubt this would matter for balance, since the stats would remain the same.)


Surprisingly, the character optimizers are important for establishing balance, but have less impact on overall popularity. For example, the Default 2014 Human remains more popular than the Variant, even tho the Variant is better.

Generally for popularity ranks, the financial cost is the most important factor, then the amount of reallife popculture support for the concept.

We don't know if we have the full list anymore of PHB species, since the addition of Aasimar have changed what we have been told, so Genasi could be in it too, just not mentioned yet.

I expect the 2024 Players Handbook will soon shift the order of the popular species, but overall actually not by much. I listed the species in the clusters that rank near each other. Any shifts are likely to remain within the cluster.

The list in the above post is as of 2023, from an unofficial scrape of the DnDBeyond raw stats. So the rankings are moreorless the reality now.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The Aarakocra has been available free for years. The Fairy has flight, but still has difficulty approaching the top dozen. (I suspect the Fairy would be more popular if it could alternate its sizes at-will: Medium, Small, or Tiny whenever the player wants. I doubt this would matter for balance, since the stats would remain the same.)

The advantage goes to the incumbants.

Surprisingly, the character optimizers are important for establishing balance, but have less impact on overall popularity. For example, the Default 2014 Human remains more popular than the Variant, even tho the Variant is better.

Generally for popularity ranks, the financial cost is the most important factor, then the amount of reallife popculture support for the concept.



I expect the 2024 Players Handbook will soon shift the order of the popular species, but overall actually not by much. I listed the species in the clusters that rank near each other. Any shifts are likely to remain within the cluster.

The list in the above post is as of 2023, from an unofficial scrape of the DnDBeyond raw stats. So the rankings are moreorless the reality now.

I suspect Aasimar will go up to the third or even second cluster, helped out by being in the SRD and maybe a more varied and less broken version of itself with better lore ties.

 

[TwoSix]

Surprisingly, the character optimizers are important for establishing balance, but have less impact on overall popularity. For example, the Default 2014 Human remains more popular than the Variant, even tho the Variant is better.

And even those of us who know and embrace optimization (raises hand) certainly don't chose the most optimal concepts all of the time, or even most of the time. There's more fun to be had in optimizing A-tier concepts into S-tier, or B-tier into A-tier, than in just choosing the S-tier options right off the bat.

 

[Yaarel]

How do you clearly and consistently depict it in the art?

Around the body, an aura of light forming luminous text within it is clearly visually distinct. The words can come and go depending on mood, typically a sacred text somehow relating to the current moment forming unconsciously, but a player can choose to manifest a certain text or suppress the luminous aura entirely. A ring of words circling above or around the head can suggest a halo disk or crown.

How does it function in-game with respect to lighting and stealth and disguise effects?

For the Norsesque Sky Elves, I have a cantrip for a bodily aura of light. It suggests the solar corona that is clearly seen during an eclipse. For the at-will cantrip, its light is minimally dim 5 feet around the caster, maximally 30 feet bright light plus 30 feet dim beyond that. (I view any dim light as granting as-if bright light to any darkvision for anything in line of sight at almost any distance.)

Any mobile lightsource within the darkness negates stealth, including torches. The player can suppress the luminous aura around the Aasimar.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Around the body, an aura of light forming luminous text within it is clearly visually distinct. The words can come and go depending on mood, typically a sacred text somehow relating to the current moment forming unconsciously, but a player can choose to manifest a certain text or suppress the luminous aura entirely. A ring of words circling above or around the head can suggest a halo disk or crown.


For the Norsesque Sky Elves, I have a cantrip for a bodily aura of light. It suggests the solar corona that is clearly seen during an eclipse. For the at-will cantrip, its light is minimally dim 5 feet around the caster, maximally 30 feet bright light plus 30 feet dim beyond that. (I view any dim light as granting as-if bright light to any darkvision for anything in line of sight at almost any distance.)

Any mobile lightsource within the darkness negates stealth, including torches. The player can suppress the luminous aura around the Aasimar.

That sounds like Illumians more then Aasimar, although suppose you could merge Illumians into Aasimar as a subtype.

 

[Yaarel]

That sounds like Illumians more then Aasimar, although suppose you could merge Illumians into Aasimar as a subtype.

Good call. I am less familar with Illumians and needed to Google and Image them. Yeah, visually that is the general idea.

In the case of the Aasimar, the bodily aura itself would be more visibly apparent. The text within be more like a sentence. The locations of the text can be anywhere in any arrangement. Typically they are around the head, but can arrange variously according to taste. Players can even manifest the text as a luminous tattoo, but official Aasimar images, should probably keep the text free floating around the body for trademark recognizability.

The official description of the 3e Illuminian has a 5e Divine Soul Sorcerer vibe, so there is a strong link with the Aasimar angelic text within the aura.

The angelic text within the aura helps recognizability, to know that whether a human head or an animal head, these are Aasimar.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Illuminians (Races of Destiny) could have a potentially interesting race, but for 5e standards the racial traits were a lot of text, like spellcales (Races of Dragon). I wonder about the combo illuminians with alternate magic systems: psionic, truename, vestige pact, incarnum...