Races

What is your favorite race and why?

What is your least favorite race and why?

If someone can sell me on Halflings, I’d appreciate it. I don’t like them as is right now.

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If you haven't already, try reading Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon) and pay attention to the halfling, Chilchuck. He's the only halfling I've really adored.

In general, I like how they handle all the fantasy races. Good shit.

I don't have a particular favorite race myself. I tend to prefer beautiful races, partly because they're more fun to draw and partly because of the charisma necessary to the types of characters I prefer playing. In a setting where that doesn't really matter, I tend to lean towards races that are more fantastical for the previous reason of being more likely to draw them.

This is pretty much the reason I don't particularly care for dwarves. They tend towards the characteristics I'm not particularly enthusiastic about drawing.

Thri-Kreen > Undead > Warforged > Human > Dwarf > Everything else

I like playing kobolds but that's just me.

Draph
Kender

I'm man of simple joys.

Reported

Does it have to be DnD specific or any races from any fantasy?

...

Halflings are conceptually indefensible. They're Hobbits stolen by a company that has the gall to enforce "product identity" on other creations, like Illithids and Beholders.

Genasi for more snowflakey, high-fantasy, over-the-top, shonen anime campaigns.

Deva for slightly more subdued/character driven, but still high-fantasy.

Dwarves for middle-of-the-road type stuff.

Elves for low fantasy, gritty, "Game of Thrones but X" campaigns.

I feel like you have dwarves and elves backwards.

>favorite race
Draph.
>why
Big honking tits and breeding hips.

Half-orc
Love 5e's mechanics for them and i enjoy roleplaying them out more than other non-human races, partly because they feel easy to go with or against type

>If someone can sell me on Halflings, I’d appreciate it. I don’t like them as is right now.

I'm largely in the same boat as this user and probably many others: Dungeon Meshi initially endeared me towards Halflings if only because the author didn't depict them as weird, ugly, fat, hairy, bulbous head, joke-race. Now, personally, PERSONALLY, I ended up fleshing them out as the 'common surface Dwarf': I like placing them in a kind of transitional period between Dwarf and Human due to having gone from out of the caves and mountains and into the meadows, pastures, etc.. They're just as short, they're not as strong, but they're far more dexterous and still retain a lot of the methodical and thoughtful attitudes that Dwarves have- often getting autistic about woodworking, agriculture, and animal husbandry. You still find them in Dwarf fortresses and communities, but they're always on the outskirts, valleys, or arable land around it occupying a specific ethnic-caste of food-producers.
And while they're not 'adventurous', that doesn't mean they're cowards or lazy, they just have a certain Dwarven practicality about things: looking to solve problems as simply and as quickly as possibly in order to get paid and leave.

Elves in gritty Game of Thrones But X settings usually get to be the cool baby-stealing kind and those are the only good elves

True, true.

And low fantasy, gritty dwarves are just the same old fucking dwarves.

>Faves: Genasi and gnome
Planetouched humans are cool. There's just enough unique bullshit. Also gnomes are the better done little race, more technically minded and distinct then tolkin literal token halflings
>Least fave: Eladrin and Deva
Deva are just less interesting aasimar and does a setting really, REALLY need something like 6 sub-breeds of elf and then an elf +1 race to boot?
>honourable mention: tieflings
4e onward ruined tieflings. They should have stayed a planetouched subset, making them all visually similar and having one single history only hurt the allure of the race

>weird, ugly, fat, hairy, bulbous head(ed), joke-race

Except they've never been any of these things in most editions of D&D. Even the hairy bit is only unique to those halflings that conform to the image of Tolkien's hobbits, as a specific send-up to them, but most halflings aren't hobbits. I especially never understood the notion that they were somehow a "joke": I imagine that comes squarely from people that read too many Margaret Weis novels when they were young.

And when they're not being portrayed as cowardly, hairy jokes, they're being portrayed as obnoxious perma-children who can't keep their hands out of everyone else's shit. (Apparently that's kender now, but before kender were a thing, that was the halfling.)

I can get behind your idea of them being an in-between race. An agricultural dwarf, applying the same dwarfy mindset to surface production as their cousins do to mining and engineering.

>Except they've never been any of these things in most editions of D&D.

I know why you'd think that, but I never specifically name-dropped D&D.
I also stand by what I say, lots of tabletop games represent Halflings VERY poorly and even if they don't they still will typically depict them as weird malformed Gremlins.

>reminder that warcraft does wee races best.
>fat-titted loli trash and furrys don't count

>Deva are just less interesting aasimar
That's some shit taste.

God that art's awful.
Favorite: Tieflings and Drow. I prefer my tieflings less fiendish and.or highly variable in appearance. I oddly enough never actually go for the whole edge lord thing despite liking the two most edge lord races.
Least Favorite: Halflings and civilized beat folk races. I can never find a place in my settings where halflings fit in, they're kind of boring, and any attempt to make them interesting just ends of making them feel gimmicky and one dimensional. As for civilized beast folk, I just prefer the things that look like monsters to act like monsters.

>prefers giant purple reincarnations to compelling flipside human characters
The wizard of trash graces you with his gaze

I dislike Halflings as well. Their basic fluff makes them quite specifically Hobbits from The Shire, which makes them difficult to place in a different setting. Fuck, the Hobbits barely work in LotR if you look at them hard enough. How the fuck does a race of lazy good-for-nothings renowned only for hoarding food and stealing things not get the fuck raided out of them?
What you are then left with is Halflings acting as a weird Dwarven subrace, which is awkward when Gnomes exist, or the weird kid cousin of Humans, which is weird because anything hanging around humans takes on its own brand of weirdness, or an independent and novel race, which is cribbed on by Halflings being "wee folk".
Like, what the fuck are you even supposed to do with them? Everything they touch ends up awkward or silly.
I almost always wind up writing them out of my settings, and almost always retool Goblins or Kobolds to fit the "Sneaky" PC race. Goblins and Kobolds are considerably more versatile, for whatever reason.

I like Dwarves, because they are a great place to start when world-building. Whenever I've started building a world, one of the first things that gets plopped down is Dwarves. I'm also fond of Lizardfolk, since the combination of weak established lore, and an alien reptilian mindset lets me utilize them in unique ways, like casting them as a race of shamanistic desert nomads, or as a semi-aquatic race that has been single-handedly holding back the Sauhagin for centuries.

To an extent, I dislike humans from a worldbuilding perspective because I feel they make me lazy. Who lives in this frozen asscrack of the world? An amazon-like human subspecies with an affinity for bows & arrows. What lives in the jungle? A bunch of human tribesmen and barbarians. Who lives in the magocracy? A bunch of human wizards. Meanwhile Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes have their designated amusement parks. Yet dropping humans alienates the setting

Sure, but don't those portrayals, like the many opinions in these threads, come from people that never understood what halflings were about in the first place? The trope that halflings are shitty little fuckfaces is just that: a trope, and a misinformed one at that, though one that has been and will be perpetually defined by equally shitty GMs that have never once read anything about them.

Halflings have always been more than the sum of their parts, even when most of those parts aren't even a thing.

Overall theme: Halflings, and the reasons people don't like them.

I personally prefer weird races. I know it's taboo on Veeky Forums to make the classic fantasy staples weird in your settings, but I personally like to. Well, more use them as a broad template/archetype that I play around with.


As for halflings, I personally folded them and gnomes into my (surface) dwarves. Gregarious and communal but prone to provincialism and lust for luxury, with a kind of medieval Jew-esque tendency to live among but never quite fully integrate into human society at large. Culturally tend to be good at certain unpopular professions (often of a financial or engineering bent), and leverage those niches to make sure people find them good to keep around.

Even in Tolkien, halflings were a minor people, practically unknown outside the Shires.

Something about early F20 games generated the idea that every party and community of had to be a random mishmash of dwarves, half-elves, dragonborn, furries, what have you. I'm all for multiculturalism, but a well thought out fantasy setting ought to keep non-humans a little more exotic and alien.

I agree with you user, what's the point of another race if it's basically just a human with pointy ears?

Holy shit, all these faggots in this thread.

>My character is half-genasi half-aasimar half-tiefling planetouched sparkledog fairy warlock teehee!

Pour gasoline on yourself and set it on fire, you pathetic wastes of sperm. Not even baiting, i'm genuinely mad.

o. If you are genuine, carry on then.

What do you consider to be acceptable parameters for a character?

Human is best.
Half-anythings a shit.

This is why race-as-class was a good idea. Humans should be the central focus of a Fantasy setting, especially any based off of Sword & Sorcery literature. Non-humans should be marginal at most

Dwarves are my favorite. Don't really care what setting. From Warhammer to Shadowrun to standard D&D Fantasy to whatever else really. I just love those industrious short bearded drunk bastards.

Least Favorite is a lot harder. Maybe human? I am a human, don't want to play one if I have the option not to.

>All these snowflakes

I pity the man who is not comfortable in his own skin. I pity the man who cannot conjure up a riveting tale about the life of a human, and must resort to snowflake races to make up for his lack of creativity and imagination.

>Fits setting
>If it's high fantasy, high fantasy creatures should be unplayable antagonists

Fantasy from the point of view of human is much more interesting and fulfilling than having a race of weeb catgirls.

I agree. Half-elves, Half-orcs and Half-anything else are a special breed of retarded.

My favorites are slimes. I like the variety and how, at least when they're playable races, they're often made out to be these uplifted creatures that aspire to be human but can never quite get it right. Granted, a lot of that is to make them more palatable as a playable race, but it's a nice quirk in fluff. I prefer when they're depicted as blind or very nearly.

I also enjoy various human+animal races as bad as it sounds. Driders, naga, harpies, goats, moths, and frogs are my favorites. A lot of people don't seem to like them so much, but I think it makes for interesting takes on trying to address how their societies would evolve based on their biology. Really easy to do wrong, though. That being said, I'm not really a fan of wolves or werewolves.

My least favorite are tieflings. I once really liked them, but their constant "woe is me, my dad was evil" irks me. You get some of the same issues with half-X's, but they don't tend to be so patently designed for angst through fluff.

What are you defining as a high fantasy creature, though? Anything nonhuman? Anything beyond the staples of elves, dwarves, and the like? And why is it your opinion that human POV fantasy is the superior path?

Changelings (Eberron) > Elves > Humans > Haf-elf > Dwarves > Other stuff

Though I really like the idea behind the Caligni, just didn't get to play as one for very long (campaign died, was a play by post). Like the flavor and such at least. A bit less... edgy than Drow.

>What are you defining as a high fantasy creature, though?
Anything not human.
>And why is it your opinion that human POV fantasy is the superior path?
Because humans are not one-dimensional caricatures

But they can be. The depth of a character isn't in their race, it's in your ability to play them. You can play a human warrior as a flat lifeless puppet and give rich emotion and characterization to a sentient slime mold, as well as vice versa. You're just as at fault for being unable to play anything other than a human as the people who can't play anything other than some bizarre hybrid or niche race, because you both view race as a personality trait.

>But they can be.
Then they just become "humans, BUT...".

Human thought isnt all that unique. You look at the only language using species and declare it utterly unique, ignoring the many and various ways in which the variety of other animals think in lesser versions of our thoughts.

All we can ever really play is ourselves wearing a different hat. Every character you make, be it human, elf or martian moonslug, will be you in some fashion, because you can never get out of your own head. So why restrict the window dressing with which you decorate your hat?

White is right.
Fuck niggers.

Oh, I do.
Frequently.
No cock like black cock.

Because it's that - window dressing. You must have a good reason to play elf or dwarf and to me, no reason is good enough.

You must be real fun at parties. Ever seen that show, Atypical?

That makes no sense, and really just sounds like a personal hang up. That's like saying you need a reason to play a blond guy or a dude who likes pastrami or someone from kentucky. It's largely ephemeral and shouldn't stick in your craw like that.

Yes, but if it's ephemeral, why aren't you playing nature-loving human archer or human combat blacksmith? Bringing fantastical races into this just drags crappy fantasy kitchen sink baggage in.

good for you soyboi

It's okay, you'll figure out what that handle on your closet door is for someday.

Why aren't you playing an elf instead of your nature loving human archer, or a dwarf instead of your human fighting blacksmith? Or a lizardman instead of your human barbarian with psoriasis and a severe thermoregulatory disorder? It's all the same, and in the end doesn't matter. So just let people play pretend how they want to

Because sometimes people do? It's called roleplaying dude, people typically do it to get away from their own life, some people prefer pretending they aren't a crappy, short lived human who can take their time with things in the world rather than rushing around like they do in real life.

Closets don't have handles on the inside.

?

Walk-ins do.

Are you... seriously trying to compare kender to halflings?

>favorite race
DnD wise, Goliath.
>why
Because I love playing the strong, kind of an asshole, dumb as shit, but total bro character. He knows very well he isn't that smart nor does he try to act such, but so far he hasn't found a problem he can't punch.
He has the parties back all the way and will probably bite the dust defending them, but he dosen't really care all that much because he's loyal and a bro.

Tl;dr: I play goliaths as Okuyasu.

No? I'm saying people shouldn't do that exact thing, but they often do.

ITS
OKAY
TO BE
SCALY

Do you really feel the need to shit out your insipid, boorish contrarian opinion everywhere, and to such an extreme and toxic level? Literally every single thread about fantasy races has one of you faeries shitting out this garbage in it, telling everyone else that their version of having fun is "wrong" because you don't agree with it. Everyone who doesn't agree with you is obviously a special snowflake, right? Everyone who tells you to fuck off from threads specifically about weird gonzo diverse fantasy races in high fantasy settings is obviously an "otherkin" who doesn't want to play as a human because they are inferior people who want to escape their own lives instead of just roleplaying as something weird because they can do that in fantasy, right?

"Muh humans only" faggots have literally become the new furries. Congratulations.

>b-but i WANT to be something idealized!

Hence my first post in this thread. If you're feeling you're an elf trapped in human body, don't force it on people who just want to play characters and throw dice.

>Do you really feel the need to shit out your insipid, boorish contrarian opinion everywhere, and to such an extreme and toxic level?

Yes. Because the alternative is Veeky Forums turning into Deviantart.

>What do you consider to be acceptable parameters for a character?

Male human fighter with brown hair.

Uh, no one said anything about "feeling they are an elf trapped in a human body"... I think you're just projecting there dude. Also, no one is forcing anything on anyone. Unless... *gasp* Did someone force something on you in the past? Something you didn't want or didn't understand and now you fear being or doing anything other than what you know and can control?

Uh... people were playing as elves and shit before deviantart was a thing

I like Kobolds. I like intricate dungeons and forts filled with traps and little dragonfolk armed with vicious weapons around every corner. I like their size, and I like playing up how their relation to a specific dragon effects their attitude and culture. I'm fond of dragons and related shenanigans, but playing a dragon would be silly. I much prefer to be the underpowered underdog. Special mention to Lizardmen and pre-homogenization Tieflings.

I don't hate any race. :3

Even without otherkin, there's enough cringy shit to disallow playing them altogether.

Halflings should be islanders. They should be excellent swimmers with good lung capacity and the ability to drink salt water. Their size should be an island adaptation and they should be able to eat very little and still thrive. Lastly they should be good sailors and navigators and use poison darts and arrows.

Keep your shitty head canon to yourself pls.

>and the ability to drink salt water
This one is a huge - I could see naval nations importing some just for crossbreeding new generation of sailors. It makes logistics sail whole lot easier.

>Anything not human.
Dogs are now high fantasy

Pretty much elves. Doesn't mean I like them in every setting equally, but for playing them I will make it work.

Their small size would be a pretty big boon on a ship, too. It's counterbalanced by the fact that they just wouldn't be as physically capable as a larger person, but still...

You're either a very poor troll or a very poor soul. I don't know which is more pitiful.

I personally prefer my halflings with a more fresh water approach — river folk with ferry boats and whatnot, but that's certainly an interesting take.

Smeagol and Deagol, then.

Well spoken. Also observe the Human Male Fighter played as a morally flawless ubermench

Human. Because typically, it's the only race that not's made up of a single culture and humans are from this or that country instead of just being "human".

While I love Humans in fantasy land, I like to have lots of minor humanoid races, tough when I DM I tend to restrict them unless the player has a good idea for the PC. Because I use a very modified BRP the setting its more grounded and HP sponges are very rare, Humans are kinda of the top if only because sheer numbers. Also I like to make other species alien, so they tend to not be of the liking of some.
Autistic World dump below this point, be warned.

After various Titanomakias (following clasical culture and with strong Dominion influences), the Human Titan comes on top after defeating,banishing, sealing, allying or stealing the other major Powers, makes a bunch of minor gods mixing his powers with other Spirits/godlings/Titans in the golden age and makes Humans his chosen species and dotes on them with various boons , before he has to depart the phisical world to do Demiurg duties. Meanwhile in the golden era and the following ones, all kinds of vassal spirits modify or outright change humans, creating a plethora of humanoids from mermaids to the tipical Tolkien ones.
Halfings are the chosen ones of various agricultural and motherly godess, than made them more childlike in apparence and instigating a love for all life in they core.
This of course backfired during and after the god wars, where they were preyed heavily, thus the scatered halfings adopted a miriad ways to survive, from burrowing and be vassals to minor humans polities in echange of tribute, to adopt the ways of demons and other unsavory spirits, than while corrupted them it made them more fearsome. Halfings know they are at disavantage in one to one to nearly everyone so they find ways to correct that, from using sneaky guerrillas to tame powerful beast, depending of the culture.

Favorite Races: Hard to narrow down, because I honestly think D&D has come up with a lot of good ones. I have a particular closeness in my heart for the more "high fantasy" races; dragonborn, planetouched, devas, diaboli, lupins.

Least Favorite Races: Probably a toss-up between Halflings, Half-Orcs, Gnomes and Goliaths. Halflings have never really excited me in traditional D&D lore; they're just expies of Hobbits, what's more to say? Best they can do is serve as a way to sneak in shortstack fetish fuel. Gnomes have much the same problem; they don't really have an identity beyond "small folk with magic/techno skills and comic relief traits" - you could literally replace the traditional D&D gnome with a good-humored dwarven/halfling bard or illusionist. Half-Orcs are just watered down orcs, and Goliaths don't even manage to be watered down ogres.

I will admit that 4e's lore for gnomes & halflings was a huge improvement, though.

Hated Races: Kender, Krynnish Tinker Gnomes

Pretty much, though taken to a more itinerant and industrious conclusion, as opposed to the Smeagol and Deagol's hermitic and autonomous standards. Basically, take the vagrant halflings of D&D and put them on the waterways, practically overrunning each river and lake with transient toll crossings and boat houses, often to the chagrin of neighbouring human populations.

In other words: water gypsies.

You mean, more or less what WoTC did to them in PoLand/Nentir Vale for 4e?

pastebin.com/AwRtBkqw

This approach wasn't by any means new in 4e. There have been halflings of this nature since AD&D. Despite what many people think or claim, including more than a few in this thread and others like it, halflings and their various and varied cultures have long outstripped their solely hobbit-like beginnings.

Half elves. Races shouldn't mix.
There, I said it.

Don't worry, I agree with you.

Do you also post on r/elvenmasculinity?
If not you should check it out, lot of solid people there.

Good thing humans and elves are separate species rather than races, then

>56927695
Pelinal fuck off, your shit got tired and obnoxious.

Such a wildly unpopular opinion. Not at all the Lowest hanging bait for /pol/ replies that can give you the argument high ground. This can't possibly be contrarian for it's own sake

Yeah, i agree. Half-races don't make much sense and it's always the same backstory for them.

Seeing as how I own a copy of the Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings, I call bullshit. I want hard evidence of this claim.

Assburger. People wonder why nu/tg/ is creatively sterile when prigs like you seem to think this is your 'home'.

It was said in jest, and you have autism.
Put some pants on under your trousers, Spede.

There are various reasons why people might dislike half-races, not everything is politicised.

This. Firstly, they smell. Secondly, they are scabs. Thirdly, we don't want no mutt leaving his humie stink on our women.

There are some really shitty baits surrounding this fictional race these days.