What are some fresh ideas you guys have for non-human races?

going to do some high-fantasy next week, but from my time as a player I already got sick of the "traditional" races.

Go crazy

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Giant bug people that grow all their lives, their shells like regenerating armor. They can grant such armor to friends and other honored, and it will function as a self-repairing carapace plate mail - any armor, whether donated or natural, will rot away along with its wearer after death, which you can stop with magic and alchemy but that's necromancy and a sacrilege.

Gazelle people who run in a great marathon in the day and set up camp at night. They have forerunners who go to towns and advertise the runnings, which is how they scrape up money, considering they don't hunt

"Clones" are known only with this name, or sometimes they're called "The Numb". They were invented by a wizard based on his image. But they have no hair, no sexual organs, no nipples, no navels.
The wizard died long ago but his creations remained and more are generated by a perpetual spell every day.

They wander aimlessly with no need to eat or sleep. They don't feel pain and they have no emotions. They are in perpetual search for a master or a purpose.
They have no sense of touch and are immune to fire, ice, electricity and most magic.

They have smooth grey skin and their limbs are very weak, crumbling down after being hit.
Although they fall to pieces all of their body can grow back from their brain, which is hard as stone but can be destroyed.

They are easily possessed by spirits and demonic entities. People mistreat them often, or sometimes try to enslave them, but those weak willed enough to follow orders are usually prone to obey any command they hear, rendering them untrustworthy and easy to sway and steal.
Others are more conscious or even retain parts of the memories of the great wizard that created them etc. etc. etc.

Cephalopod people that are like Twi'leks from Star Wars crossed with Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. Come in just about every color. Have black sclera.
Unorganized worship for fire or a fire deity is most common, but the organized moon cult exists peacefully alongside it.
Make fine ceramic goods.
Known to have many good cooks but few good singers.
Tend to favor the khopesh for arming their armies.

A race of undead creatures called "ghouls" that grow in numbers by killing other living creatures and raising them. The raised creature will have it's body reconfigured and warped. It's back will bend, it's fingers will turn into long sharp claws and it's jaw will become more massive and pronounced.

Short races such as gnomes, lizardmen and dwarfs grow taller taller during the transformation. Centaur's lower half twists, breaks and deforms until it becomes more like the standard ghoul.

Constructs in the shape of common household items.

A race of sentient amalgams of objects and items, created by spirits who made bodies for themselves out of junk and were then spellbound to them. They now have internal biological systems, although they look like junk golems.

Cordryceps style fungus that takes over dead bodies of many sentient species. It eventually will become sentient and depending on the freshness of the host may revive portions of its previous consciousness. It's able to choose when it creates spores so as not to overpopulate and either cause nearby species to wipe it out or overpopulate. The race is very much disliked by most sentient species but they are usually content to live isolated from others and create large fungal complexes to live in.

Giant sentient penises

Humans except they walk with their hands and handle things with their legs

The shape is completely accidental and unrelated to their method of reproduction.

(also, their culture is extremely puritan and outright sex jokes would quickly get you flogged and ran out of town)

Let me re-read the secret pages of monster musume and see what I can dig up...
Mini-cyclopses
Baromentz= plant satyr (might work good as mossdog owners)
Leech people and mosquito people...

And a gift from galavant
Tall dwarfs and short giants.

They're an all-female species that needs to mate with other sentient races (primarily humans) in order to conceive children.
>And a gift from galavant
>Tall dwarfs and short giants.

I hate these retarded takes on already existing fantasy races/tropes.

>wut abut if we made none magical wizards!!!!

It's just so fucking dumb.

>They have no sense of touch
Have you really thought through all the implications of this?

Take a physical disability, smash it with a mental illness, magic it up so it doesn't die by itself and you got a deal.

Bat angels. Regular arms, but a second set of muscular arms sprouts from their back and acts as pseudowings, letting them glide or grip things with extreme prejudice. They can suck blood and fire it as a sticky projectile from holes in the pseudowings.

Well, first up, how "non-traditional" are we talking? Just looking at some of the more ancient D&D races, we have things like:

N'djatwa: Hybrids of Elf and Ogre, with the beauty, grace, intelligence and magical prowess of elves, and the size, strength and savage appetites of ogres.

Hsiao: Fae philosopher-priests who just happen to be talking owls the size of halflings.

Nagpas: Cursed hedonistic wizards remade into undying, decrepit, flightless vulture-people, incapable of enjoying their old pleasures.

Aranea: Giant spider-weres with genius level intelligence and a natural affinity for magic who mostly just want to be left alone.

Kubbits: 18 inch tall amazon warriors.

Wallara: Mystical, all-male reptilian humanoids who reproduce by placing their shed skins in places of power.

Enduk: Minotaurs with wings.

And these are just a few examples.

There are no humans
Therefore the term "non-human race" doesn't exist

Stop making this thread.

I like to have "Beastmen" as races. Not furries, neither humans with weird noses/ears, actual beastmen. Final Fantasy has a few of those: banga, au ra, nu mou, etc.

A race of giant floating eyeballs that use magic to compensate for their lack of limbs. They seem to sprout form the ground spontaneously and they won't stop making eye puns.

Victorian England, but instead of people, they are Gorillas.

>Cephalopod people
Beat me to it.

The easiest way to describe them would be a cross between gatormen and dragonborn, in that they have the elongated snouts of an alligator (though not as long as a true gatorman), but more of the upright stance and higher brain functions of the dragonborn.

While they can understand and use technology as well as the rest of their peers, they tend to weave in ancestor worship into their lifestyles as well. So while they would seem like a primal, backwater race at a glance, they are as technologically capable as any other race.

To put it into modern D&D terms, they lean more towards the primal classes (Shaman, Druid, Barbarian), but don't take penalties for going out of that particular wheelhouse.

Boogiemen as sentient phobias.

Boogiemen inhabit the minds of a host, and need to be constantly thought about or they regress back into non-sentient concepts. To this end, they manipulate their hosts both subtly by manifesting as voices in their heads and more directly by delivering terrible nightmares to them each night as they sleep. Boogiemen can interact with one another in a separate "Dream Plane": a great hub of interconnected minds surrounding by a mercurial void of collective unconsciousness. Boogiemen can use the connections between minds to make "jumps" between different hosts, but in doing so, they expend enormous energy uprooting themselves from their previous homes, moreso if they have lived there for an especially long time, and must start from scratch building influence in their host's head. The weakest are simply inhabitants of their particular hostmind, often sharing this space with numerous other boogies, while the strongest are veritable gods within their domains and consume all other boogies who venture into their sphere of influence. Due to the fickle nature of human thought and the brief nature of human lifespans, the Dream-Plane is constantly shifting and impossible to navigate for most beings other than boogiemen. Certain minds, however, especially of the most composed and disciplined of creatures, remain bastions of stability within this shifting realm.

In addition to their effects on the mind, the oldest and strongest of boogiemen can additionally manifest within the real world. Taking physical form requires a great deal of energy for boogiemen, and most capable of doing so can only perform such a feat while their hosts are unconcious, even then only able to venture a limited range beyond their host's body. Boogiemen's physical forms are often influenced by the phobias they most represent: a boogieman representing arachnophobia may appear as a great spidery monster with thousands upon thousands of thorned skittering legs.

How can any idea possibly be fresh in this day and age?

As for me, I basically just pick a fantasy race then pick a culture, then mash them together. I've ended up with Russian Drow, Mongolian Orcs, and Greek Dwarves, among others. I'm more or less satisfied with what I've come up with so far. Hmm, just had an idea for Quaker Tieflings. I'll have to see how that goes.

>Nefilims are hungry, alien-like demons/alien creatures which parasite beings with souls to reproduce. One of them, Lilith, created lilims when the Nefilim invaded the world. Adopted by a goddess, the lilim helped the mortal races as how to understand and fight nefilims, but are loathed for their demonic heritage even centuries later.

>+2 Int
>+1 in an atribute of your choice
>medium size
>walking speed 30 feet
>demoncunning: whenever you make an Intelligence (arcana) check related to nefilim, you are considered proficient in the arcana skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
>Mental intrusion: once per short rest, the lilim may attempt to invade someone's mind up to a 30 feet distance. He makes an insight check against the target's wisdom. If the lilim suceeds, he learns a secret kept by the target, determined by the DM. Any target immune to psychic damage is also immnune to this trait.
>Omniphagia: once per long rest, the nephilim may attempt to absorb the essence of an object or creature. To do so, he needs to touch it. This causes force damage equal to his level at a creature (half if said target passes a Cons saving throw equal to 10 + the lilim proficiency), healing the corresponding number of hit points. When used in objects, it always causes half damage. Creatures and objects affected by this ability present flaky and grey surfaces or skin.

In addition to manifesting bodies of their own, boogiemen inhabiting the minds of Sorcerers, Wizards, and Warlocks have access to the knowledge of magicks these arcane masters have collected and can make use of this to cast spells to influence the real world from inside the heads of their hosts. The eldest boogiemen are often sought out by Warlocks wishing to offer themselves as willing hosts in exchange for the great powers and knowledge and of ancient rituals and spells they can imbue.

Boogiemen with access to young hosts can mould for themselves a mindless puppet body with which they can exist in the real world as long as their borrowed flesh remains intact. Several small enclaves of Boogiemen inhabiting human form have cropped up, mostly in rural areas nearby to human settlements, and have terrorised locals for centuries, enforcing a traditional sacrifice of young boys and girls as fresh young bodies as replacements when their own becomes too decrepit.

Jesus those children look fucking terrified, and the mother is almost smiling. I wonder if she's just messing with them, saying she's going to sell them to the boogeyman for being so bad, and it turns out it's just her husband wearing a costume.

Possibly.

Or maybe she's just happy to be rid of the useless mouths to feed in shitty peasant economy

Sauce: It's a pic of El Coco, the Spanish boogieman. The Coconut was actually named after El Coco because the Spanish conquistadors were reminded of Coco's supposedly hairy coarse body by the coconut's exterior.

Large, sentient birds. Not humanoid at all, just big ol' birbos. They use tools with their beaks or feet, and cooperation is highly valued in their society, since delicate tasks are difficult for them when alone.

>cooperation is highly valued in their society, since delicate tasks are difficult for them when alone.
I remember this from Golden Compass. Except those were even weirder. They had trunks and four legs arranged in a diamond pattern. They stuck their front and rear legs into hard fruits, with shells smooth enough that they almost acted like wheels.

I like Wallara...s?

So, coonasses?

Litteraly cyclops, giants, hermaphrodites and many others.

>Leech people and mosquito people...
So basically Vampires that are more mosquito like instead of bat?

Ashlings
Birthed by magical fires that have been left burning to long and accumulated enough residual mana to spark a basic intelligance (the theory being that most of the mana inherent in an item that is burned by magical flame keeps a connection to the remaining ash giving the fire a solid state to inhabit, but this has yet to be proven)

Be they an apprentices cooking fire left for a month, or a fireball that ended up burning acres of forest overnight, any magically made flame left to accumulate too much ash has the potential to birth an Ashling.

The intelligence of a new Ashling is often dim like that of a curious toddler or inquisitive animal, but like a fire it will quickly grow to match it's surroundings. Personality wise they can vary as much as any human, but often form a personality matching; the intent of the spell that created them, any living creature the fire consumed before birthing it, or that of the mage that cast the spell (generally in that order of occurrence)

Their form is often humanoid, again taking after the caster, what form they associate with fire, or the most intelligent creature consumed before birth. However other forms have been noted, both from casters with wilder imaginations, or from natural mana sources sparking forrest fires that only killed beasts.

Speech is quite difficult for them, if not impossible, as they simply burn any air they inhale. However language comes easily, and they will quickly learn to communicate via gestures, writing with their ash, or making fire dance words above them.

They will eat anything that burns, and will grow or shrink in size as they accumulate and lose ash, shrinking happens from scarce food or dieting as complete starvation will still cause them to die. However should they be forcibly extinguished by excess cold, water, or lack of air they can be reignited by any fire source (and as they look like normal charcoal when extinguished, more than one blacksmith has had a surprise while forging)

Feral sentient primates inspired by gelada monkeys.
Huge canine teeth, straight long tail, slender body covered in red, brown or black colored short fur. Large volumes of long, golden or white colored fur around the head.
Call themselves the Ugur.
Aggressive. Tribalistic. Territorial. Low technology, no metalworking, preferred weapons are polearms, spears and short stabbing weapons. Very primitive language, no writing. Mostly herbivorous. Arrogant. Xenophobic. Strong warrior-like culture. Live mostly on mountainous regions and jungles. May attack you on sight if you wander too deep into their territory.

A race of sapient ectoplasmic ooze creatures called euphemistically "Ghosts" or "The Wandering Dead".

I once wrote up a whole thing here: giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?361700-Ghasts-The-Ghostest-with-the-Mostest-(PEACH)

Basically planar gypseys who are bright and colorful, like to help folks on a "biological" level, but are somewhat limited by their vulnerabilities to things. They make great generic NPCs, since you can plug them in anywhere to give the players a hand while never being able to step quite on their toes.

I'm somewhat annoyed because I really want to have a race of sheep men in my setting, but I also really like the idea of having wolf men. Personally I don't really want two "furry" races, especially not mammals, it just feels a little to on the nose to have both.

I'll post the less normal ones from my campaign setting

Fruitmen - Think something like a cross between the ribena berry men and an eggplant. Small but experts in plant related magic, are also disgustingly cute and likeable. They grow from a mother tree and when they die if their heartseed is planted or falls into decent soil they become a new mother tree.

Corpse Grub - Think the comic Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse but with less feasting on dead gods for half an eternity levels of power. Take on the traits of whatever corpse they are living in and halt decay while in it. Lots of them have developed minor mind magics to allow for basic telepathy when in something withou proper vocal cords.

Bat jackals - something like a man sized flying fox but with a full on jackal head and better wing claws. Masters of weather wizadry and electrical sciences. Live in large tower cities with lightning rods and tesla coils all over and normally a constant storm over head.

>mosquito people.
The ones from the Bas-Lag books were pretty bad ass Even though you never learn a huuge amount about them. Had the Malarial Queendom before they got slaughtered and quarantined to stop the horror

I like this. Would be an interesting trade-off for a player. Being made out of fire has obvious advantages, but some major disadvantages.
All your gear has to be made from metal, ceramic, stome, etc. And probably emchanted to protect it from heat.
You won't be welcome in most cities, much less allowed into homes or shops.
You would burn ships, so I have no idea how you would cross water without stone bridges. Extinguish yourself amd hope a party member revives you later?

How fantastical does a race have to be for it to be a fantasy race?
Is a monolithic culture with some fiddling to the lifespan enough? Do they need funny ears?

The problem with this stuff is that people always devolve into weirdness for its own sake, and once you ask some pointed questions about how these people function in the world, or as a society, you draw a blank.

The most retarded thing I've ever seen was this theory-crafting nitwit going on and on about how good and unique his shitstain races were. And it turns out one of them is important because they shit bullets. As in, hard, round balls that you can fire from a gun.

Nigger has never heard of lead or of drop towers. That's how retarded some of these concepts will be.

Technically that's enough, yeah. You may have difficulty getting people to care at this point with that tactic, though.

I have some different species of fairies.

Dream-fairies, as their name implies, are beings made out of dream dust who live in the gardens of the god of sleep. In their world, the fairies are hedonistic god-kings, who rule over all that which is not true. However, to them, reality is a powerful, powerful drug – as much as opium or cannabis would be to a man. Many of these fairies, once they come to the real world, find themselves in love with its sensations, experiences and pleasures. They'll often latch to a single item or action – apples, the wind, carnage – and try to experience it as much as possible, trying to sate their obsession. The more they do it, the more reality seeps into their being, and the more grounded their impossible physiology must become. And as the dream-fairies are not from this world, they become real, and die.

Many fairies (as in, individuals) find mortals as interesting and wondrous as mortals find fairies. Thus, to satisfy their curiosity, fairies will look for an unborn child, hollow out their soul, and burrow inside until it is time to be born. These half-fae/half-mortal creatures rarely remember their previous life, and will often display magical prowess and unnatural skill. They'll also often have features uncommon to other members of the race they were born into, as their faerie soul forgets they are not a fae anymore.

bump

well, looking at the abyss' end result village, there are a ton of freaky things to work with.

Things that mutate based on their prominent desire can be quite interresting

Tooth fairies, they hold bone higher value than any other material and are a lot more geim and grizzly than their fae cousins, though no less flamboyant. So imagine if KISS were a woodland race and they ate people.

Toi même!

Slimefolk.

Descended from ordinary slugs exposed to high levels of magic over multiple generations, these hive-minded conglomerations of large (2 feet long) slugs are slow and contemplative, but friendly to most other species. They generally tend to develop some magical abilities as well, growing in power as they age and increase their numbers.

However, with more slugs comes increasing load on the hivemind; somewhere around the three hundred pound mark, most slimefolk will fission, splitting into two colonies with shared memories up to the point of fission.

Different slimefolk will also swap members of themselves as a sign of friendship, preventing themselves from becoming inbred.

Due to their obvious physical limitations, slimefolk require magical aid to speak.

If a slimefolk loses a few bodies, they can restore the loss quickly enough - but severe depletion of slugs risks killing the hivemind, as memories and skills are lost.

High levels of magic are pleasurably intoxicating to slimefolk, and they have been known to hoard magical equipment just for the "buzz" of their proximity.

>Sir...or sirs...or whatever...would you please get yourselves off of the wand display? Don't make me get the salt...

You can't just deny Remmy the best ship by not having wolf girls.

everyone hating the furry race

Get back to work George RR Martin.

what if they are small and cute?

One idea that was interesting if a bit magical realm that I once saw on Veeky Forums was essentially humans=males elves=females, half elves=genderless. While it doesn't have to be those exact races or even humanoid the core idea is
>Males are bigger, stronger, and more resilient and tend to be used as workers and soldiers
>Females are smaller, more agile, and more magically gifted and tend to be mages and craftswomen
>Genderless are extremely rare and are good at picking up social cues making them diplomats and civic leaders

So a village might have men working the fields and defending it, women are mages in the event of war and also known for their embroidery, metalworking, and general art, the genderless individuals who are sterile deal with leadership, internal disputes, and external diplomacy.

>I already got sick of the "traditional" races.
Fuck off, contrarian.

Zelda gets it right

>Fish people
>Bird people
>Rock people
>Sand people

>why should we make new things if we already have things that others made?

Long-lived albino penguins whom are adept at lovecraftian space magic. Each penguin in a colony is psychically linked so that the eldest colonies catalog the lore of the oceans and the stars going back to time antediluvian. Some colonies are nomadic while others are reclusive, residing in eldritch locations awaiting the call of an otherworldly prophecy.

How do you describe werider races that aren't just animal people to your players? How do you make them up?

Some of the races in Dota 2 are really inspiring to me for some reason, but I can't even imagine how I would describe them or get my players interested in playing as them.

Good tastes

a tribe of humans stuck on a island with only empty treasure chests for shelter so they wedge themselves into them to keep warm. as children can't fit in the same chest as their parent them are giving their own as soon as possible and grow into them. over generations they develop ways to work around the fact that being stuck in boxes limits their mobility. styling their hair to blend into the back ground and the use of ranged weapons that they fire from hiding.
a whole tribe of gaimon's basically. i have no idea what I'm doing.