Recently a new book was released for Dungeon's and Dragons (5th Edition) - Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the newest rules book, it's in the vein of Xanithar's Guide to Everything a book combining both player character creation options and DM rule and world building resources.
The book itself with the alternate art cover. BTW this photo I took and the other
images I've seen online do not do the cover justice, there's a depth and beauty
that the embossed foiling adds to the picture that does not show up properly.
Side Note: the consensus of myself almost everyone i've heard talk on this issue is that the name for the book is mediocre at best. I usually don't complain about this sort of thing and I know they were aiming for the mental link with XGtE but it is a bit too on the nose (did they really think that players wouldn't be able to link this to XGtE without the word Everything? or that they needed to use the word Cauldron to instantly identify Tasha as a powerful "witch"?. Plus a Cauldron is a stupid name for a book especially when options like Tome or Grimoire were readily available that also fit perfectly well with Tasha's story. Tasha's Grimoire of Knowledge would have been equally valid without any of the negatives. But oh well, i'm guess we're stuck with it and i'm sure like anything we'll eventually get used to it.
Back to the main point, overall TCoE is a great book it has lots of new subclasses for players to explore (mostly from Unearthed Arcana - Wizard's unofficial releases for playtest purposes, which may impact your level of enjoyment if unlike most of my group's your D&D group does regularly utilize UA material in their games) as well as some great sidekick, group patron, puzzle and magical item options for DMs to incorporate into their games. But of all the options one in particular stands out to me - Custom Lineage - and it's that issue that I want to discuss.
Custom Lineage (from TCoE)
Ignoring the whole "This is Social Justice Warrior pandering and ruining my game!" discourse that has appeared in certain circles of the community, personally I really like this option. It's well designed in such a way as to not be overpowered and adding more character creation options to the game is always a good thing. HOWEVER this comes with one significant caveat - the custom lineage a player uses should serve an important part in the story they want to tell with their character. I understand well the lure of the Min-Max (over optimization) and the enjoyment of the meme character (when used in the right campaign or better yet in a one shot) BUT as annoying as standardized concepts of races can be they are also very useful mental shortcuts for gameplay purposes. Having (for example) an Elf who looks and acts like an Orc creates a lot of strange situations with other party members and with the NPCs in the DM's campaign so unless those interactions are part and parcel of a greater story that you are trying to tell it ends up being just plain annoying to everyone involved (especially if it was done out of a desire to Min-Max and the role play implications are remembered sporadically if at all).
On the other side of things here are a few ideas for what I would consider a good reason for using a custom lineage -
A character who was adopted and raised by a different Race - This gives a player the option to go into the whole Nature vs. Nurture thing taking different race options based on what they would be born with and what they would have learned growing up. A great fictional character for this example is Carrot (from Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels) who is a human who was adopted and raise by Dwarves.
A character who is biracial - D&D has 2 half races (Half-Elf and Half-Orc) but what about a campaign setting with a bit more of a diversity of parental options, a Dwarf - Halfling for example (i'm sure there's already fan fiction out there about how it happened on the darker side of the web where i'm too scared to roam).
A character who is Atypical to their race - Not everyone is born the same way and that should logically occur even in fantasy races in a medieval fantasy world, so why not tell their story in D&D? And if you doubt an Atypical character could be a viable hero look no further than the X-Men for a pop culture example of how wrong you are, differences make characters interesting and weaknesses are balanced out by strengths in other areas.
Those 3 are probably the main options but obviously that doesn't even come close to covering all the possible ways to use custom lineages well. To show off a more unusual way to use custom lineages i'll give a brief rundown of 1 that I created for fun (and as a probable future character).
Custom Lineage: The Changed
Creature Type: Unknown
Size: Small
Speed: 30ft.
Ability Score Increase: WIS +2
Feat: Fey Touched (one of the new feats in TCoE)
Variable Trait: Darkvision 60ft.
Language: Common, Sylvan.
The goal with this custom lineage is to have a character where their race is a mystery even to the character theirselves, which can become a driver behind everything they do. The inspiration for the concept comes from the European tales of changelings and spiriting away. Basically a child was spirited away to the Feywilds and spent unknown ages playing amongst the fey until somehow making their way back on the material plane. Still a child but without memories of their origins and with features altered from their time in the Feywilds they are not quite fey and not an obvious member of any of the races of the material plane. For their appearance maybe something like this - physique similar to a Gnome or Halfling but taller and more willowy than average, pale blueish silver skin, slightly pointed ears, silvered eyes and silver-gray hair.
What is your opinion on the custom lineage option as a whole or on my concept of "The Changed"? Do you have any other good ideas or examples of how to use this newly added option that is adding a lot of extra depth to character creation?
WotC is the copyright holder for Dungeons & Dragons and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the information and images used here are for review purposes only.