Underrated fantasy races

What are some races you don't see enough, Veeky Forums
Ideally ones that are sentient / used as PCs or important characters instead of mindless mooks

Good experiences with less-played races? Bad experiences? Characters you've made?

Pic only somewhat related because it's all I had at the moment,

>What are some races you don't see enough, Veeky Forums
Mexicans

I know it's not exactly in the spirit of this thread, but I've never actually been in a game with catgirls/boys in it.

Everyone speaks about cat-eared races as if they were the devil itself and avoids putting them in games, so I've never actually been in a game with one or know someone, in person, that is, that's been in a game with one.

Centaurs.
Maybe I've just been unlucky but it's been so long since I've seen a setting that even included them as an existing race, and even then it's usually one-offs, or a tribal beast race, never really seen any centaur focused towns or civilizations

To be fair, that's in keeping with their original myths. Centaurs are basically the Greek version of orcs.

>What are some races you don't see enough, Veeky Forums
Dreagolaths

...

>Horny race
>Male is the biggest murderfucker on the chart
>Female is shorter than all but the smell race and basically a Oppai Loli
Wut?

Japan.

True, but I really wish I could see more things try their own take on them.
I blame shining force, centaurs being one of the most prominent races in the series was pretty rad, but really set me up for false hopes when I got older and into more fantasy media.

I was thinking of a campaign where I swapped the usual fantasy fair with beastmen- Kenku, Minotaur, Dragonborn and Triton.

It fits the usual niche of small-tricky, big-honor, magic-fighter and haughty outsider but... I don’t know... feels like it has more pizzazz.

Clicky-boys are boss af

If you're going to try something where the focus is to replace the usual race cast with unique races, it seems a bit silly to just set another specific 4 as the new 'default'. I would just politely ask all your players if they could pick an exotic race to play, and help them set their characters up from there if they need.

One of the most satisfying things I've ever had as a DM is having a player come to me with a very niche or odd race, even class. Then getting to see them execute not only all the cool ideas they had that made them want to try the race, but also learn all the other scenarios/stuff that comes as well

Seletons, intelligent, sapient undead in general.
For being one of the biggest generic monster/mook of most settings, its far too rare to see skeletons be cast in any other way than "a baddy, go smash em"
Seeing how a race of undeads not only deal with their condition, but also form their own society is always excellent.


Easily my most memorable character was an asshole who was raised as a skeleton and forced into being an inquisitor in his gods name for being generally shitty / failing his faith when he was alive. It made so many encounters that would otherwise be bland and empty infinitely more interesting

...

>that sexual dimorphism
Japan!

I know right

I stand by these guys are still the best fantasy race in the series and the only thing holding them back is being part of a larger living faction.

The Guild Wars setting has a good Lore with the Centaurs. They are somewhat tribal, but they have a clear chain of command and use magic and some technology (it's primitive, but there).

Why is there such a height disparity between the horned people on the left?

Avians of any kind. Insectoids that aren't just hivemind enemy race patterned after bees or ants.

I played as a bugbear monk named horse for about a year. His name was horse because he was raised as a slave whose only job was to carry things and then a monastery found him near death and took him in.

He sucked. Always got his ass kicked. Every npc hated him. But god damn I loved that stupid bugbear.

They're people with beetles instead of heads. What more needs to be said.

I haven't played any unconventonal races, but I think Thri-Kreen and Wemics are underrated.

Whats your favorite fantasy race Veeky Forums
Im playing 5e for the first time tomorrow and i wanted to make a druid but none of the races i found for 5e atract me that much there are just too many humans with different color palettes and lizards of different sizes, too little variety for my taste when it comes to playable races
Talking about just physical differences ofcourse

I’d like to see more Hobbits and giants to round out the human-elf-dwarf trio.

Gnomes. A lot of people on Veeky Forums seem to dislike them because they've encountered too many lolrandom fuckers who want to be wacky inventors, but I really like gnomes when they're something in between dwarves, elves and hobbits. Homely, jolly and wise, with an appreciation of the earth and nature.

I also feel like most reptilian races that aren't dragons/dragon-born or snake monstergirls are really underutilised.

I love using centaurs as a race who often live alongside humans as members of the aristocracy, because being a mix of man and horse they make the perfect knights.

>Doraphs in the OP
I dunno what it is about their race that gets me going, but I like em'. Probably because all the women are qt3.14 shortstacks, and the men are all bara buff dudes.

Unrelated but Granblue is a goldmine for character art

...

Draconic races are heavily underused

Also ducks

>dragonic races
>dragonic
>you've not played D&D, haven't you?

How often do you see dragons in D&D my man

I think they could make a great antagonistic force to humans in the right setting. In a country/kingdom/whatever that's mostly open hills and fields, I feel like they could pretty easily dominate any human military just by overrunning them since they're basically just cavalry. Of course, there are ways to get around that, like maybe focusing on putting a bunch of guys with pikes in the front so they gore themselves in a straight on charge, but then the centaurs could just focus on artillery/archery since they can use bows and cannons just as well as a person (hell they could probably get the cannons around easier since they are their own beasts of burden). They'd probably be useless in really rocky, uneven terrain where a horse would have trouble getting around, but yeah. The point is I like the idea of them feeling smugly superior to humans because of their horse asses instead of everyone viewing them as inferior for it.

>you will never have a qt gf under 140 cm with tits bigger than her head
Why even live

>Want to do this big shpiel on how Sheepfolk are a great idea and how this board should totally embrace them
>Realize halfway through that it's just furry dwarves and fetish-fulfillment for soft, fluffy sheepstacks and competitive, determined ram men.

Well fuck.

Dorafs/draphs are actually dwarves (cows), soo....yeah

They also tick off every design choice that I despise in Eastern artwork.

I'll stick with my low fantasy sheeple rather than that, and i don't use this term lightly, weebshit.

You ain't my nigga, user. You ain't my nigga at all

Gotta say I'm sorry to hear that.
But...
Just look at that fucking hammer!
God damn! And what is she wearing!? You're gonna mine in that? Fuck no!

Nice Elf though.

So are they like, parasitic head beetles?

Cause that'd be kinda funky.

Mexicans are dwarves, as much as indians are elves.

>I honestly think DND has HEAVY Old West ideas in the implied setting

Love the casual outfit with the beetle noggin'.
Who are these people?

Same here, I've heard the half fat batboy meem like a million times but actual cat races are quite rare.

Probably because Anime has completely sexualized anyone with cat-ears. Its like trying to play as a Nazi in a setting where there are no Nazis. You say its because you just like the uniform, but we all know its masturbatory fuel for you.

Honestly I'm too much of a sucker for traditional but with a spin on it stuff. Otherwise all the races are a spurr of the moment thing.

There's tons of cool, unused races out there just none that come to my mind. So they'd all end up as backstage characters or minor roles.

>You say its because you just like the uniform
It's a very fucking nice uniform

I hate fascism as much as the next red-blooded american, but god damn why do the bad guys get the best outfits?

I've known a guy who unabashedly uses catgirls every time in a game of warhammer 40k. He always has pages of backstory explaining how he got his gear and then doesn't care for it.

you mean commie-blooded american, right?

In like 100+ years the symbolism surrounding dressing up like Nazis will fade, and there can be a glorious comeback. Like if you were to dress up like a Samurai or some shit now, people wouldn't think you're trying to symbolize one of the most oppressive totalitarian dictatorships in history, they just think you're a weeb.

Fuck outta here with that shit.
Democracy or get out.

We should probably stop here, getting off topic.

Well, the Felinids are a cannon group of "acceptable" abhumans for the Imperials.

There is a lesser Egyptian sun god called Khepri. He's a dude with a scarab beetle for a head.

Then there were some novels in the setting of Bas-Lag, where a species based on the egyptian design was used. The males are just giant non-sapient scarab beetles, but the females are intelligent and have red-skinned human bodies attached to them. They communicate through smell, but the females use sign language to communicate with other races.
They can sculpt using their spit.

Then there was an issue of Dragon Magazine where the Bas-Lag setting and its races were adapted into 3.5e D&D.

Eh, less funk. Seems like someone made the race and instead of thinking of what would be cool or interesting they said "it must be exotic, lets make a list of exotic traits!"

Not the dude you're responding too, but I thought it was cool.
Also pretty sure the post was meant to be a list of exotic traits, not necessarily a complex breakdown.

The soviets had the best uniforms, tough.

Eh. It's not like elves weren't born "romantically". Maybe in the Hobbit, but LOTR?

The problem is that catgirls are a) VERY stereotypical and b) next to impossible to be played decently for the average nerd.

Yeah was gonna point that out, single post doesn't do much justice so really don't let my opinion make yours feel less valid.

Not really arguing against that its just as points.

I haven't read it yet, so I can't really tell you either. From what I heard about the first book it takes a Victorian/Steampunk setting with magic and a bunch of weird exotic races and then gives the characters depth and tackles mature themes and complex moral stuff and whatnot despite the weirdness. As I said, haven't read it yet, but the ratings online are all between 8/10 and 9.5/10 averages and I've seen it on several recommended lists on Veeky Forums, so I guess it must do it pretty well.

I've read most of the way through Perditio Street Station, haven't finished it yet though, and Its a very interesting book. Meiville writes some really weird shit, and that book is a showcase of his weird shit. Its also a fantastically diverse and interesting setting. You can say steampunk and other assorted things, and that would be wrong. Sure its like steampunk, but its also like and unlike, a bunch of other things.

I would recommend checking it out, just from a RPG idea farming perspective. There are a mess of monsters, uses of magic, BBEG ideas, that you could cut right out and put just about anywhere and still have it be cool.

Nazis had actual fashion companies design their uniforms. Led to problems where the clothes looked cool but were impractical.

Yeah, I want to, but I only really started reading fantasy last year and immediately started of with a couple of series that have over a dozen books of 500-1000 pages each, so it'll take a while. I'll probably try to read through some standalone books and shorter series as soon as I'm finished with what I'm reading now.

Books were shit from a reading standpoint, but by God I would pay for a Bas-Lag setting guide.

I knew they were professionally designed, never knew about any impracticality issues.

Got any specific examples friend?

The SS uniforms (the black ones with skulls on them, i.e. what people think of when you say "nazi uniform") were apparently rather uncomfortable to wear, didn't breather well, and got very hot.

>you will never be a qt cow girl with tits bigger than your head.

Why even have a universe.

The early uniform used an internal suspension system that could be used under the uniform jacket, with metal hooks that came out of holes near the jacket's waistline to carry ammo belts without messing up the look. System didn't work because the ammo belts would bounce off if you moved too fast, so everybody had to be issued leather Y-straps anyway.

There are good Centaurs though, like Chiron and, uh...

Well, it's just Chiron but if we assume the Centaurs we see are a representative sample then that means like 5-10% of Centaurs aren't brutes.

To look at pictures of shortstacks

Winged humanoids are criminally underused.

That just makes the suffering worst.

Japanese Dorfs best dorfs

There's only one Japanese Dwarf that matters.
And he's cooking up trouble!

>what is she wearing!? You're gonna mine in that? Fuck no!
>helmet
>arms and legs padded to mitigate chances of you hurting yourself
>torso uncovered to keep you cooler
Seems alright.

But only Anila and Karva are draphs

>minotaur chick

FUCKING TRIGGERED

God damnit, you're right.
Hammer is still shit.

If you want a dorf to be oppai loli, you're doing it wrong.

Asanagi, pls.

>No Corgyn
>Just midgets and tall human women with tits and horns

Veeky Forums has fallen far.

This is a dwarf princess

i wonder how a hamburger made with these things will taste

Beastfolk. I don't mean, like, people with animal traits mind you. I mean animals/beasts with some beneficial humanoid traits added, like thumbs, and bipedal locomotion. I'd kill to see more Vanarans in typical fantasy settings.

That, or the weird shit 3.5 was putting out in some of it's splats, like Dromites, or 4e's Shardminds. More of that, I'd say.

Fuck no it's not, it's a little girl with massive tits thrown on.
If that's a Dwarf to you, you're a normie shit.

>books were shit

I haven't read them but I've heard nothing but irritatingly glowing reviews of them.

That's a pretty great dwarven female.
I can see now why dwarves rarely leave home and think travelers and adventurers are fags.

Tolkienian orcs were explicitly a redeemably evil mixed bag.
Gygaxian not!native-americans though...

Why does Japan seem to have so many problems when it comes to depicting female dwarves? I know they have people over there who can do a very simple concept of short woman.

Honestly as far as fantasy goes I don't see enough Clockwork races of automaton. Just something that slightly science fiction put into a fantasy world tickles my fancy.

This guy gets it.
Oppai Loli dwarves is magical realm as fuck.

Played a Centaur on a Banestorm game. He was a retired gladiator champion. It was pretty fun.

9/10 would Quest with.

Nah man, Armenians are dwarves. Think about it, they live in the mountains, are suspiciously similar in attitude to Jews, and despise the Turkish (Elves).

The event that kicks off the plot of Perdido Street Station (the slakemoths breaking free and terrorizing the city) doesn't even start until 45% of the way in. Most of the books are composed of words-words-words that do little but describe the environment, the history, the locales, etc. They're basically "A Traveler's Guide to the World of Bas-Lag" more than actual stories.

Usually, bringing up Bas-Lag on Veeky Forums is like bringing up Brandon Sanderson: stories are of questionable quality but the worldbuilding is usually excellent.

It depends. First time I read through PSS, it was great.
Second time through and reading through Iron Council, I was buried under a wave of smug.
The City and The City is pretty great, and I rather liked The Scar.
He's not for everyone and you'll occasionally have to take a break to digest through, but there's so much weird shit to steal that I think it's worth it.

I've always liked the old-style animism look at it, where random animals were also people, or could talk and reason just as well.

>all those girls with overly large breasts.
I feel sorry for those poor girls backs.

>that human male they use for scale has a luchador mask.
top kek

>That's a pretty great arab female.
>I can see now why muslims rarely leave home and think crusaders and hindus are fags.
ftfy

>I feel sorry for those poor girls backs.
That would be a case for human women of similar build. Draphs are not human, strictly speaking, so they might take it much easier.

Warforged.

That doesn't stop the center-of-gravity issue from being a thing, and none of them look like they're sturdy enough built to actually be able to compensate for the extra frontal weight.

But, it's Japan, so I guess they wouldn't know from experience, right?

Melville does back up his weird shit, though.
>Main khepri character of Perdido Street Station is a sculptural spit artist
>Grew up in a repressive religious environment under a cult that believed the nonsapient khepri males were the pinnacle of life
>Got out, discovered most of the rest of the setting, including most khepri, considers male khepri to be a huge nuisance (If not horrifying, considering they're like, two-foot long scarabs that can't be housetrained and get into everything)
>Very first chapter has bug-headed-woman and somewhat tubby boring research partner wizard sex
>They affectionately call each other perverts, him for being attracted to bug-head-woman, and her for liking what's basically completely recreational sex

Speaking of Guild Wars...
>8-9 ft tall horned tiger/lion/etc. duders
>Highly militaristic, to the point of raising all children in a creche system that graduates into a family/tactical unit
>Klingon Promotion (kill your boss, get his job) is a thing, as well as dedicated bloodsports
>Long history of warring with humans; spent the first guild wars campaign crushing the nation of Ascalon

>Still perfectly fine, if a little grouchy members of society
>Invented guns, overthrew their erstwhile sorcerous masters, built a terrifying doom city (Literally named THE BLACK CITADEL), have main stewardship of the Dragonbrand, a terrifying corruptive stretch of territory full of crystal zombies

I have a massive, massive soft spot for "What do the minions do after the dark lord goes down", but Charr are straight up winning their setting.