Whilst D&D is best known for the "Tolkienian" races - Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Half-Elf and Half-Orc - these re far from the only races that've been playable throughout D&D's history. I'm curious to know if any anons out there actually enjoy any of the races that fall outside of the traditional group.
For memory jogging: 1d4chan.org
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>tfw you recognise an artist from their twinky Transformers fanart
Dragonborn and Tieflings, but only the 4e versions, lore and all
Goliaths, Thri-Kreen, Jermlaine, Hadozee.
Warforged are fun.
Having a robot in the party can be fun RP. I also like how they don't have a god, so they're building one out in the wasteland.
Lizardfolk, Thri-Kreen, Illithids (tho not as PCs)
Warforged are also cool
...
Link?
Gnolls, lizardfolk and reptile kobolds
My own answer to this is... oh, boy, long.
Gnolls: 4e's Playing Gnolls article in Dragon Magazine #367 took a race that'd actually been a PC option since Basic and finally gave it some fluff that amounted to more than "hairy orc slavers".
Dragonborn, 4e: I found dragonborn filled a long-missing niche in being a corebook dragonman race. I mean, seriously, the only dragonman race we had before 4e that wasn't the half-dragon was Dark Sun's Dray, and who remembers them? Add to it that I loved the fluff about Arkhosia, and they were a shoe-in. It's a crime what 5e's done to them.
Tiefling: Pre or post 4e, either works for me.
Lupins: I didn't know these guys existed until I found out about them in Dragon #325, but the picture it gave me of swashbuckling wolf-people is too fun to let go of.
Aranea: Why these guys haven't been made a proper PC option since Red Steel, I don't know. Sapient giant spiders who can shapeshift into partially or wholely humanoid form, naturally adept in magic, but who completely avert the stereotype by not being a bunch of evil man-eating monsters.
Kobolds: Just so much fun when you play with kobolds. Goblins too, but kobolds are generally more fun to play with.
Sphinx: I know it hasn't been a valid race since Basic, but even so, it's perfect for those more out-there fantasy settings. Hell, there was a series of Greyhawk novels where a sphinx was part of the adventuring party.
Kitsune/Tanuki: Really seem like they'd be fun for an Oriental Fantasy Adventures campaign... shame that the Hengeyokai race in D&D has always been such a one-trick pony.
Phanaton: It's a freaking raccoon-monkey-flying squirrel mix 'n' match critter. Perfect for gonzo/weird fantasy worlds.
Deva: Angels who gave up the heavens because mortal life is so much richer. You seriously telling me that's weaker than "my granddaddy was an angel"?
Shadar-Kai: Because they're a unique, awesome humanoid salvaged from what was a pretty generic asshole emo-fairy monster.
Merfolk, I love the idea of them but I've yet to make an interesting campaign with them. My favorite is to have them as !not pacific islander navigators on human ships being used in lieu of navigational instruments.
Giants. Not half giants, Goliaths or whatever, but flat out giants.
Be they Nordic flavored, just big dwarves, or just huge folks, giants are always the most interesting race in your setting that you cannot play for a very good reason.
Sarah Stone/Fayren, just google it.
Genasi, especially the Earth subrace.
Kenku
Gnoll, despite their absence (so far) in "standard" 5e; DMs will sometimes allow me to use Lizardfolk stats for them.
Wait, that's her?
I loved her work on Windblade!
I think southland heroes by kobold press have gnoll rules, quite good in my opinion, lead to me making campaign where gnolls are the main race
Yeah she did some D&D 4e art. But still it makes me uncomfortable.
Too bad they came out in MM 5.
Like I said, not in "standard" 5e. I've found it hard to get DMs to accept third-party material.
That and I can't seem to get my hands on the book in question. Whenever I see someone else with it, I try and get it DM approved, but to no avail.
Generally I just have a hard time imagining a world accommodating as many different civilizations as there would have to be for every intelligent race to really be relevant. I do like there being at least one "lesser giant" race for players such as goliath, firbolgs, or half-giants though.
Oh, that is sad. I wish I could dm for you, I love adding all kind of 3-rd party stuff to the game, this is why my campaign as drider a race option
Southland Heroes is on DriveThruRPG, to the best of my knowledge; it only exists in PDF format.
drivethrurpg.com
As for DMs... yeah, that's the biggest issue with 5e's lack of race options so far; DMs rarely want to trust homebrewed or third-party content, because of how often that turned out badly under OGL for 3rd edition.
Shame, too; non-Tolkienian races can be such useful tools for designing homebrew settings.
Ratfolk mostly.
Aasimar probably. I don't know why but I just like the glowing angel people. Especially when they rebel against their destiny - I ran an Aasimar Oracle in Pathfinder who was essentially Brian from the Life of Brian. They spent most of their life trying to run away from their holy responsibilities (everyone wanted them to be the messiah, they just wantedd to be a healer). The other more recent character is a 5e Scourge Aasimar who actively rebelled against her old life as a crusading paladin because she got sick of all the dumb rules and expectations she had to deal with (especially regarding her virginity).
Nagas/Lamais: I don't care what other anons say, I've always had a weird fondness for the idea of snake-taur serpentfolk as a PC race. I've tried for ages to homebrew decent stats for such in 5e, which is why Plane Shift Amonkhet's Naga was such a surprise and a delight - I was kind of dumbfounded by there being no explicit crunch to account for the weird bodystructure, though, but I guess maybe that's because I'm too used to AD&D and 3e's need to compulsively simulate rules for just about everything.
Did anyone like any of the weird new races introduced in 4e? Shardminds, Wilden, Bladelings, Vrylokas, Dhampyrs, etc?
>Vrylokas and Dhampyrs
I thought they were the same thing. But I guess not considering that they most common meme criticism on 4e was the "quadruple vampire build".
I wonder if that's why there's no official playable vampire .
I like to Eladrans. If only because having both "high elfs" and "wood elfs" seemed redundant. But they went back on that pretty fast.
Wilden and Shardmind grew on me, the former because it was really the only way to play a plant-person and the latter because their fluff is actually kinda cool. Vryloka won me over just because they're one of the only two STR/CHA races and Dhampyr had that excellent brawler fighter pp. Bladelings though...I just couldn't get into them.
I once played an outcast Druedain in a LotR campaign.
I had great fun with it
Essentialy, the difference was that Dhampyrs were the closest thing we ever saw in 4e to a racial template, representing any "half-vampire". So, you could be a dhampyr halfling, dwarf, elf, whatever, melding vampiric powers with any race you wanted.
Vrylokas were "living vampires"; humans turned into lesser emulations of vampires and made a true-breeding race in their own right. You could technically be a Dhampyr Vryloka, but the two do embody separate ideas of the "playable vampire race".
Of course, the existence of the Vampire Class just made things seem even sillier because, yes, you could be a Vryloka (living vampire) who was also a Dhampyr (half vampire) who then embraced their tainted blood and became a full-fledged Vampire.
It probably would have helped if they'd had somewhat more "mainstream" attention than their statblock in 4e's Manual of the Planes and a Playing Bladelings article in Dragon to flesh them out as a race.
I kind of dug that they went from "yet another breed of fiend, or maybe a mutated strain of tiefling" into a race of super soldiers made by the god of war, though.
Dhampyr are just the classic half-vamps and vryloka are just humans that cheat the system to gain blood-drinking powers without the having to die part.
Eladrins was a great flavor for high elves what with the expansion of feywild fluff. Made them feel appropriately colorful and otherworldly. Less tolkien and more aes sidhe.
I usually modify the Tolkein races a bit to fit whatever world, but I always have one other race depending on the campaign world, and I often exclude half-elves, almost always exclude dragonborn and drow.
Playable custom races have been tailored to each world, from weeaboo shit for weeaboo games, to kenku for halfass weeaboo games, to kobolds and catfolk for my current island hopping game.
>kobolds and catfolk for my current island hopping game
>A race of underground lizards and a race modeled after an animal known for it's fear of water
>island hopping game
>>Of course, the existence of the Vampire Class just made things seem even sillier because, yes, you could be a Vryloka (living vampire) who was also a Dhampyr (half vampire) who then embraced their tainted blood and became a full-fledged Vampire.
I don't know I kinda just accepted vampire was a general descriptive term rather than a singular concept. Even in universe. It runs the mill from lords like Strahd to basically zombies.
They probably shouldn't of called the class vampire though. Call it nightwalker or Dark Embrancer or something.
I don't know, everything I come up with sounds like slang for a prostitute.
The "gothick vampyre" archetype is pretty much an embodiment of Sex Is Evil, so it's actually kind of appropriate if that's the case.
I get centaurs, but I have trouble accepting Nagas. At least centaurs are a combination of 2 mammals, Nagas are just weird (somehow it ok with mermaids not sure why)
I have more issue with centaurs, simply because their anatomy is bonkers. With nagas you could just roughly treat them as humans with fused legs, but centaurs are quadrupedal and bend at a weird angle. They can't sit in chairs, cant use beds, have trouble navigating and fitting in the same spaces as humans, and god help them if they need to swim for any reason. Nagas can at least sort of do all those things, depending on tail length.
Generally of those the only race I kind of like is wilden for the potential of plant people, but those aren't really even a 4e race so much as they just changed the name from killoren. The details of the race itself never really seemed all that interesting to me though
>it's okay for mermaids. Don't know why.
The part of mythology so they've been grandfathered in.
That's why darwing sexy cat girls gets a free pass in Japan. They're based off the nekomata.
You might think they're a bit of a weirdo. but you wouldn't think they want to have sex with a cats, anymore then someone admitting to finding Aerial sexy must secretly want to fuck fish.
Considering that we've had centaurs, sphinxes, hsiao (halfling-sized talking owls), kopru (as in those lamprey-illithid things from Savage Tide), merfolk, pixies and kubbits (18" tall dinosaur hunting amazons) in some editions of D&D, I don't consider centaurs to be "that weird".
There are several species of cat that enjoy water. In fact, many housecats are also able to enjoy water if exposed to it as kittens. Besides this, its not that unusual, most humans in fact fear open water, especially if they don't know how to swim, with island cultures generally not having that deep seated fear due to long exposure via activities and culture to the open ocean. Them being related to felines means diddly squat when it comes to them being sailors.
It's not strange at all in concert. But when you take the concept of a quadruped movement and everything that implies then trying to translate it into a game built opon underground exploration and tactical combat it can be strange in practical.
Cats can swim, and I don't see why Konold can't either.
Then again you do get that one player who comes as an Azer.
I like using pixies/fairies as PCs.
They're small and are capable of pulling some shit, even though I asked my regular GM to cut all the extra stuff to keep it simple and leave it at a plain -2str, +2dex, small and capable of natural flight
On my favorite attempts were a finesse spear fighter and a STR greataxe fairy that dropped boulders and gave the party a lift to the balconies
Eberron in general is fucking awesome, but I mostly like it because warforged are awesome.
Only trouble is, I couldn't for the life of me find warforged in any SRD or books other than Eberron only stuff.
Rolled 12, 20, 6, 7, 11, 8 = 64 (6d20)
Thri-keen are my favorite. Bug people are neato
Firbolg are great for scratching that half giant viking itch.
I've got some bad news user...
>not homebrewing 5e lore to hell and back
5e is good in some regards but lorewise its utter horse shit.
cats don't dislike water
they dislike being cold and soggy
I could never decide betwen bilgerats and galapagos iguanas for my island hopping age of sail kobolds.
So they're cool with dry water, but the wet kind is off limits
>you can't be near water without being coated in it
Bullywug detected
Currently playing a Shardmind because why the fuck not.
Is there even any decent art for Shardminds? Everything is either from the PHB or drawing by twelve year olds.
Best taste right here.
Warforged were made for and are specific to Eberron. No other non-homebrew setting has lore for them.
Well, there was an article in one 4e Dragon - #371 - about possible origins for Warforged in Toril, and there may have been other "Incorporating Races" focused on non-Eberron Warforged, because I know there was a more Nentir Vale origin for Muls in one such issue...
Not really D&D, but my friend based his system off 2e heavily (for good and ill), but goddamn did he make Lizardmen fun to play.
I ended up making three in total (It was a adventure guild thing) each of them with a dozen different options to choose from.
Tor-Ka the Swamp Creature may have had little intelligence, but he was super fun to play.
you can even be partially in water on a hot day and then get dry quickly.
Got a source on the novels? I'd love to read em
They were Paul Kidd's three novels from the 2000s "Greyhawk Module Novelization" series: White Plume Mountain, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. All featured a bizarre cast consisting of:
* The main protagonist, the Justicar, a grim and humorless human ranger.
* Cinders, a cheerful hellhound converted to good, whom the Justicar wears as a (firebreathing) cloak due to his being a hellhound "soul" bound to his treated hide.
* Escalla, an arrogant and shameless pixie sorceress with a perverse sexual lust for the Justicar.
* Private Henry: A human former militia man turned adventurer and the Justicar's apprentice.
* Enid: The Gynospinx from White Plume Mountain, freed from slavery and tagging along with the party out of gratitude.
* Polk: A loudmouthed, fast-talking merchant obsessed with inaccurate, chivalric ideas of what a hero "should" be like, and who remains that way even after getting killed and reincarnated as a talking badger.
Aside from the novels, they also had three appearances in Dragon; short stories in issues #271 (By The Job) and #278 (Keoland Blues), and a 3.0 writeup for each character in issue #290.
This is amazing.
Just to be clear, "By The Job" is a prequel to the novels telling how the Justicar met Cinders, whilst Keoland Blues is, to my knowledge, either a sequel or an interquel to the novels; it definitely comes after White Plume Mountain.
Gnolls and Lizardmen.
I love the concept of intelligent hyaenids forming savage/noble tribes in some wild savannah-strewn continent.
As for lizardmen, always loved reptiles. A bit of influence from WFB's lizardmen (but also Ultima: Savage Empire's Sakkhra) - I like the concept of Mayan/Aztec lizardmen building temples but essentially being remnants of a once-great empire before the mammalian races took over the world.
Spider people
Bat people
Genasi
Lizard Kobolds, Satyrs and Aquatic Elves/Undine
Little Lizard people are just cute and fun to play
Satyrs always give and a nice classical Greek touch to the campaign, plus debauchery
Bipedal Aquatic Humanoids are usually alien enough without putting too much effort
Hate "dragon-something" and "something-dragon" races. I also hate the Dragon bloat you see in all editions of D&D.
People can come up with their own dragons if they really need to. You don't need pages and pages of special themed dragons, it just waters down the entire concept.
Dragon people just increases that dilution of what is special about something being draconic.
Now don't get me wrong, lizard-people are fine. Reptilian men are pretty awesome. They just shouldn't have anything to do with dragons, or some stupid expanded dragon "theme".
It's kind of strange to think just how common dragons would have to be if there's 10+ different color/metal types, song, sword, shadow, rust, prismatic, and god knows what else all flying around. I kind of figure they only grow as big as their territory more than age having anything to do with it, because otherwise there's really no reason they wouldn't overrun most DnD settings that actually use them