Halfbreeds

>drow-mindflayer halfbreed
that's not supposed to work that way.

Note how the alicorn is common enough to have subraces.
That must be embarrassing.

>halfling and a fucking blink dog

I like to tweak my characters in detail, not to minmax but because I like to make the concept I had in mind exactly how I imagined it. So I guess I would use halfbreed templates a lot if I played fantasy.

>half-man x half-woman/bird
she's half human, quarter bird and quarter...something.

People complain about the "snowflake" thing, but how much of a problem is it really? My current group is two humans, a goblin, and a tiefling. Civilized goblins are as common as humans in the city they're playing in, but tieflings are rare enough that her ancestry kind of has to be a plot point. And that's working out great! Last session, I finally got to pull the old "the arch-villain is your dad" card, and that's a classic I've been wanting to do for years! I mean, in this case it's a lie, but I still get to see her squirm and be all conflicted.

I like normal-type characters, because I can fit them into the world easily. They add an important element to the game, common folk caught up in great events. And I like weird characters, because I can tie them into the plot easily. They add spice and strangeness. Either kind can be done badly; either kind can be done well.

Maybe when I was first starting a dozen years ago it was annoying that every 15-year-old wanted to play a half-demon exiled prince. But are "snowflakes" really a problem these days?

>letting you play someone tron between differing cultures
Easiest way to snowflake, also overdone. I rather play an Aasimar that has his own identity than a guy that goes constantly "woe is me, I'm so cool and special."

They definitely can be a quick substitute for interest, and expanded freedom/creativity is never a bad thing.

Also some of the most interesting character's I've seen are half-breeds.

That is the issue with an Aasimar though. Their inherent strangeness leaves them with no place in the world. They are special just by existing. A half-orc can be one of many, can be an unloved bastard, a product of mingling cultures, can be a child of strange love, can just simply be adopted or just be bob from down the street. It's like being a mulatto; only as big a deal as the social environment entails. An extraplanar thing is always special by literally being out of this world, and has actual elemental forces guiding their personality. A tiefling has concentrated evil as part of their dna. It's just everything stereotypical about a normal halfbreed ramped up to 11.

As always, it's all in the execution, not the idea.
Most of the time, a player making a snoflake character is a possible red flag for multiple reasons:
>doesn't want to adapt his character to fit the story
>minmaxes
>want to grab all the attention
>will easily derail the story (the count is being an asshole? good thing I'm the emperor's favourite son)
>can't make a decent concept that isn't a big-shot, so roleplaying is probably not great

I mean, when my best friend, that played with me for a dozen years, brought a child genius full of alien implants, I was VERY watchful, despite knowing that he is a good player and rolist.

>dark alicorns
My little pony just got kinky.

An Aasimar can be a normal human being with divine blood, still living a normal life. Sometimes they are borne from two human parents. Yes, an Aasimar is special, but he is not torn between worlds, they are common and feel welcomed in human societies and fight for the betterment of human societies, most of the time. They will have an easier time fitting in.

Yeah, I've heard the arguments about why, in theory, snowflakes are bad characters. But in practice, I haven't had any trouble with them in any of my last dozen games. The tiefling was fun, the half-drow was hilarious, the princess led to some political plotlines but didn't take over the game.

Is this actually a problem, or is it just something that people are always worried might become a problem?

An aasimar is stuck between worlds, it's just angels are good aligned and people like good things so there is no real drama to be had if he plays into that half. It's like being a half-elf. The tiefling however is more akin to the half-orc's dilemma, but has SUPER evil heritage instead of mundane evil. Conceptually extraplanar halfbreeds are no less prone to the issues of their mundane equivalents, but are more prone to them if anything because it's literally the point of their existence, like on a cosmic scale. At that point I'd want to know why you want to play something aligned to good on such a intrinsic and grand scale and not just a good human/half-elf/etc

Half-breeds are cool in my book. In my games/settings all races can interbreed. It's probably all the b-list JRPGs I played that influenced me but I think half-breeds are a staple of fantasy.

Aasimar and something like an half-elf are stuck between worlds in different ways. An aasimar can be part of human society because the celestial world is out of reach. He is also very welcomed there, with the exception of the rare evil kingdom. A half-elf has both options to choose from and if he's accepted depends on the writing. An Aasimar will fit more organically, since there is no option, for the character and for the player, who can't play the celestial.
>At that point I'd want to know why you want to play something aligned to good on such a intrinsic and grand scale and not just a good human/half-elf/etc
I don't, I actually never played an Aasimar, but did play a half-elf. Still not a fan of half-breeds in general.

What if I want to do the opposite, make an uncommon character to play on hardmode?

>Aasimar are better because the writing can only use them one way, while it can use half-elves in the same role as aasimar or any other way it pleases
>flexibility makes a thing worse than it's more rigid counterpart
...I can't understand your logic

I don't think you will see a tumor-ridden svirfneblin street-urchin hunted by the thief guild because his former owner tattooed a treasure map on his back be called a special snowflake. t's usually reserved for "sparkly" characters

Those are my favorite kind of characters

Aasimar are not forced to have one alignment and you can't use half-elves in the same role as aasimar, only when the "drawn between two worlds" is the only thing you care about these half-races. My point is that while I don't like half-breeds overall I rather take something like an aasimar that has justifies itself with its own niche than a half-elf that's only there because Tolkien did it and that had to be changed throughout several editions because even the writers didn't know what to do with them. On my behalf you can get rid of them both, but whereas you can still play a human and an elf instead of sprinkling the "half" over any of them for extra specialness, there is no option to play a "holy race" that fills the niche of the aasimar. If flexibility is all you care about I hope you give me also the option to play half-dwarves, half-halflings, half-gnomes, halfhalflinghalfgnomes etc.

The real question is
>What is a Ling and who would have sex with it?

that's just a fucking centaur

>half-halflings

quarterling

>>>
but seriously half-orcs have dominant orc genes so are half-orcs irrespective of the other half. if a player wants a bearded half orc because of flavor, having a dwarf contributor I'll allow it.

same with half-elves. elf and anything is half-elf.

everything else is seen as one or the other contributing parent's race. Dwarf and halfling make something that for all intense and porpoises is a Dwarf or a halfling. Half-elf and human is either seen as half-elf or human by anyone who isn't informed of the 7 page backstory.

Elves and orcs either can't mate or it makes an elf or an orc since they are genetically so similar in the first place.

But what happens when a centaur and a furry m8?

what the hell

>So, what's your opinion about halfbreeds in your games?

Only possible for certain races (closely related species), and always resulting in sterile hybrids that are still usefull in some way and thus tolerated (like mules for example).

My current setting follows Elder Scrolls rules, races can interbreed but the offspring is always the race of the mother.

google taur
>your welcome

...

It's a risk, that's all. It depends on the setti-... players.

>Dark alicorns

>So, what's your opinion about halfbreeds in your games?
Depends on what I'm going for.

Like, the "actual evolution-style" breeding issue isn't even on my fucking mind if I'm playing a non-homebrew D&D game. Elves are magical beings from another dimension, yet they can fuck humans and have fertile offspring because... something? If players don't mind the half-shit then maybe I'll put an NPC that's like half dwarf half elf, but I'd only trust players doing that if I know them and they happily let me help create it (and by that I mean POLICE it's creation)

All that aside, if whatever GM I had said "Yeah I don't do half-races because that's stupid" before the first session I'd just smile and nod.

Depends, on the setting obviously.

But in my group's homebrew setting, halfbreeds do exist, notably half-orcs as the most numerous... but even then, the orc "gene" is almost always dominant due to magic shenanigans.

Half-orcs end up being fairly rare, since in 9/10 cases the offspring is born as a full-blooded orc (though non-orc mothers doesn't always survive), and in 9/10 of those cases where the offspring IS a half-orc, they usually end up dying fairly early on. Either the non-orc abandons them as a baby, they get killed by people who hate orcs (and just about everybody hates the orcs), or in orc societies they end up getting killed because they're too weak to qualify as "proper" orcs, and unlike in D&D having a human-like level of brains is not considered a good enough reason to let them live.

So, out of a hundred cases of interbreeding with orcs, only ten will result in a half-orc, and on average only one of those half-orcs will survive into adulthood.

Half-elves have an easier time, in that they're just considered "freaks" at worst and rarely have anywhere to belong, as opposed to being actively hunted down and killed most of the time.

Other half-breeds also exist... Half-ogres are possible for example, but they only really see any success if they flee from their ogre parent/tribe and end up taking over an orc tribe instead.

Half-ogres make particularly effective warleaders for the orcs, and often end up with veritable harems of mates. Unlike with half-orcs, orcs consider half-ogres to be of "good breeding" (due to large size, strength, and looking more like orcs/ogres than humans) and are considered an excellent choice for anyone looking to have strong kids. The orc gene still remains dominant though; 9/10 times of any union, the result is just another orc, though orcs that have a half-ogre parent will often have great things expected of them regardless.

>due to magic shenanigans

it's not magic, they're niggers.

Shoo, back to /pol/ with you.

it's exactly how they work tho (not that orcs work)

I don't know what is worse, right-wing racism or left-wing racism

That picture is fake, and a right-wing racist is derailing the thread with his shitposts. I have never encountered a "left-wing racist" except in things posted by right-wingers online. So, I have an opinion about which is worse.

>I have never encountered a "left-wing racist"

then you haven't been paying attention.

I've seen left-wing racists and sexists alike. Don't let /pol/ obscure your view.

Why the fuck wouldn't they exist? Helen Keller was a huge Christian and also a Marxist socialist.

shilling my thread

Overall, I really like the idea of incorproating half-breed races into the setting; especially non-traditional ones.

I admit part of it is low-level magical realmism; I like interspecies couples.

But, mostly, it falls under what this guy said.

I mean, half-gnomes, half-dwarves, and half-goblins really make sense because these races are commonly interacting with humans, and, hells, in a world where other sapient races exist, the number of xenophiles must be through the roof.

Heck, I can just as easily see half-gnolls and/or half-minotaurs taking the role of the half-orc as the "rare and scary halfbreed", simply because either these races are hostile or, when they're not hostile, it's only the hardcore xenophiles who're willing to go to bed with them. Mind you, if furries are a thing in our world, you can expect them to also exist in a world with as many different kinds of beastfolk as D&D.

my current setting project features a fairly large nation where basically everyone is somewhere on the human-orc spectrum after a few generations of interbreeding. Half-eleves are somewhat less common, mostly because the overlap between human and elf settled areas is pretty small, there is a fairly small population of half-minotaurs holding out in the hills where the long gone minotaur empire used to be, and half-dwarves and three-quarterlings are also pretty common in certain regions, but not in others.
so yeah, I like to use them basically as regional flavour, and since a lot of those borderlands regions produce lots of adventuring types, they are really overrepresented among PCs

I love this one and want to use them in a future dwarf & friends campaign.

>halfling and blinkdog hybrid

I am disgusted. This also raises so many questions.

>why are halflings able to interbreed with a wildly dissimilar species but not hybridize with other small humanoids such as gnomes, goblins, dwarves
>are they like mules and only able to reproduce with specific pairings?
>why did they have to specifically make a species created by midgets fucking magic space dogs when they could have just had them be an entirely separate subrace in the fictional world they created?

At least the right-wingers are honest about it.

>half-ogres

I don't want to remember

>be blinkdog
>see thicc hobbit chick bent over in hobbit garden
>get all red rocket watching
>blinkblonk
>7 months later a blinkling telepops out

>those racial traits

what system is this for anyway?

>at-will Detect Evil
wat
>at-will Detect Magic
WAT

>telebirth
Well that's fucking convenient, if nothing else.

I enjoy using half-breeds or even templates that I can tack onto something but try to keep usage of such things sparing. With a few exceptions (half-orcs and half-elves) most half-breeds are rare due to not being numerous enough to have a sustainable breeding population and on a crunchier note I often can not be bothered to keep track of every creature's extremely unique statblock.

>I have never encountered a "left-wing racist"

You just haven't registered it. You might have even partaken in it.

At least we know they ain't working for the CIA.

Wait, what the fuck is this alicorn made of?
Elf and what else?

>a creature that isn't even humanoid
I think the elf in question fucked a unicorn.

alicorn is a pegasus and a unicorn mushed together into a god-head pony

jesus christ it's like you guys don't even MLP

I'm trying to unravel the mechanics and metaphysics of that sort of union.

And there's enough of the fuckers to have sub-races?

This one is fucking cool, and pretty metal to boot.

>Don't judge me, I'm being one with nature, that's all.
>What the fuck, Dlamenliel.

That old open d20 license.

This is another of my favorites from B&B. Also pretty metal.

How would a half-centaur, half-minotaur look like?

Does anyone else remember a really old thread that had some insane furry-taur worldbuilding? I think it was someone's personal setting and it got out of hand on Veeky Forums.

...

I own this book, never used it though.

>gets all the recessive human genes and just looks like a guy, albeit a bit hairy

In my setting, different races are species that can't interbreed, except humans and dwarves which produce sterile retards that can't do much but drool and masturbate.

However, orcs are an artificial race created as slave-soldiers in some ancient wizard war. They can breed with any humanoid. The offspring is always an orc..with the defining characteristic being only blood red sclera and that same free ability to breed. They do not inherit any racial abilities from non-orc parents, aside from mixed cosmetic appearance.

An orc whose recent family lineage was mostly human would be near-indistinguish from a human, but with weird eyes. There's no "default" orcish phenotype, there's black, grey, green, blue, purple, spotted, furred, tan, white, scaley, fins, horns, tusks, all kinds of weird orcs.
The original "pure" orcs were basically grey humans with pointed ears. Those don't exist any more.
Orcs are forced into nomadic hunter/gatherer/raider lifestyles by active extermination efforts anywhere they go due to self-perpetuating stereotyping anf the very real fear that they can simply replace entire species by outbreeding and/or absorbing them.
A legendary tragedy exists in the form of the elven Wise King Merris, on the day of his birth he was mutilated by his own mother who then committed suicide. He survived but was left badly scarred and blind.
This did not prevent him from ascending the throne, and he was a very good king in a prosperous tine, but his first queen gave birth to an orc and was executed for treason. And his second. And his third. It wasn't until his favorite concubine birthed an orc as well that it became clear what the problem was.
He poisoned himself and the kingdom descended into civil war over succession, with every faction accusing every other of being secretly orcs or allied with them, even when it was clearly untrue.

Yea but wat about his dik

>I think we have this thread every thread.
Threadception

I have never run any actual DnD settings, so most of it does not apply, but...

For me, when I decide what races I am going to have for the players I work out which ones can interbreed, and I base it on genetic background. If they are variations of the same species, or are species from a common stem that are extremely similar, I'll let them interbreed, sometimes with defects, like mules. I suppose I would also allow some sort of magical thing that could breed with other stuff because it was magic, but I've never done that.

But I have actually never had players ask to be half breeds of any races. I think it's one of those leading question things. People look in a DnD book and see half elf, half orc, and immediately, they think, "well, can I also be a half dwarf?" And then they start to wonder what other half breeds are possible, because the idea has been put in their heads. But for my group, who have played very little DnD, it isn't an automatic thing for them, and when I give them a list of races and it doesn't include half breeds, I think it just doesn't occur to them to ask about it. It's like, a sandwich shop might sell salads, but if they don't advertise it, most people wouldn't go in there and just spontaneously think to ask for one, because they assume the options are just sandwich related.

I love half breeds. I think some half breeds are even better then the normal full race template fluff or crunch wise

You don't know whether it's worse to actually hate someone or to accidentally offend them because you're stupid?

post the grendlekin or whatever the half troll is called

anyone know where i can get a copy of this? can't find it in the archives

Widespread ignorance can be very detrimental to a society regardless of how well intentioned it is

here you go.

...

what's the half giant called again?

anyone have a pdf? I wanna see this shit

Jovians.

>result of magic experiments
Thanks god. Imagine a gnome looking at a cloaker and going "I'm gonna fuck that thing".
I would totally play a lurker. Interesting stats and powers, and the concept is fucking rad.

I really enjoy a lot of the races in this book, but I think that some might require a bit of fiddling to make them fit. I could even see removing the half-breed aspect of some of them and just present them as their own, unique race.
I remember there was a thread where a guy would convert the B&B races into fifth edition, I really wish I had saved those statblocks.

If anyone has any requests for specific races from B&B I'll stitch them up into single images.
There are also templates as well.
file too big.

I think I have two of the stat blocks, the watcher and maybe grendle? lemme check

Actually, here you go
mediafire.com/file/o8recufd4weuc6r/Bastards_And_Bloodlines.pdf

"Half-elves" are a pretty time-honored tradition if you count any fey changeling, as are a lot of half-monsters when the parents are both vaguely humanoid. You see this stuff in mythology all the time.

Of course, a lot of the time the offspring of a monster or a god/magical being and a human have a 50% chance of being born as a weird demigod, and a 50% chance of being born as a horrifying monster with traits neither parent possesses. It'd be like if there was a chance any half-elf would be born as an orc, or in some cases, a basilisk.

This is why you use protection, Bards of the world.

This one would've been better as a bugbear and winterwolf

That's a pretty good idea, there isn't anything inherently dwarflike about it anyway.
I would also take out the wolf-fucking aspect of it and make it more like a lost frozen soul being transformed by some sort of savage ice god (depending on the setting).

If they were called something like "5e Race Conversion Thread", then you're speaking to that user. I do have some of those B&B statblocks saved if you still want them.

Thanks, but I found the original thread.
archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/53844079/