I’m cool with them removing the “half” from the name etc., but what bothers me is erasing distinctions between races.
One DnD is actually increasing the distinctions between races. The ASIs are tied to background now, but to compensate for this all the PHB races are being given new racial features or having subrace features combined to make each race more distinct from each other.
Dwarves now all get Dwarven Toughness and Dwarven Resilience, which makes them the heartiest race in the game. But they're also now getting an innate affinity for stone and metalwork that gives them proficiency with certain tools of the player's choice and limited uses of Tremorsense to represent their uncanny connection to the earth and stone around them.
Because Half-Orcs now just choose a parent race to take the racials of they can get the full orcish list, which gives Powerful Build, Relentless Endurance, and Adrenalin Rush, which means Half-Orcs are tied for physically strongest PHB race alongside Goliath, who is getting moved to the PHB too.
Goliath itself is also getting a bunch of new variants for the different types of giants you can be descended from, similar to how Dragonborn work.
And Tiefling is being given a big boost in variety with options for Tieflings descended from devils, demons, or beings from the Underworld.
Also, Larian's way of handling racials so far is NOTHING LIKE OneDnD. 1DnD's human has nothing to do with polearms. It's basically Variant Human but tweaked to fit the new Feat system and given a unique racial that gives Inspiration on every Long Rest.
