Unusual Races

When people don't have trope-crutches to lean on like described here , they tend to make better characters. They focus more on WHO their character is than WHAT their character is.

Unfortunately the DnD dumpster-fire that's been dragging the TTRPG medium down for years is excellent at teaching people the exact WRONG way to be good roleplayers, by baking in a ton of reasons to be as snowflakey as possible for mechanical advantages rather than making a real character.

Why not just make a character first, their personalities and shit, and THEN choose a race?

Aasimar. One of my favorite races, and they don't get used nearly enough.

Personally, *I* do, but the vast majority of people participating in the medium are only concerned with what bonuses or cool powers their race gives them, not how to actually roleplay the race. Even if I filter them from games I'm in, it creates this whole juvenile power-fantasy feel around the medium in general and encourages the wrong kind of mind-set from everyone involved.

If I saw this guy in real-life, I'm not too sure if I'd be able to overcome my initial fright and consider him cute.

I only consider him cute right now because he's just a drawing in a picture.

this, but not meme'ing

To be fair, a lot of what a person's idea of themselves and paradigm gets based off of is cultural, and if you're in a setting with racial centralization (Elves in lothlorian, Dwarfs in Moria, Hobbits in the Shire and humans in Rohan(horsemode) Gondor(towermode) or w/e that region was that the LOTR games were played in, anyway)
-then race plays Into what kind of person they are, as well as what they are on the shallow side of things.

For my part though, I don't see the aquatic folks getting much attention. Sure they're cool and you see them on occasion, but the number of campaigns where they'll be appropriate and viable is relatively small; need either water access to be a major thing, so you're either on a sea-faring game, running around in a coastal city and Even Then you're limited unless it's some Venice dealy with canals running through the whole place, or Maybe in a swampy area in the world in an inexplicably bog/swamp centric campaign.

Closest I think I've gotten is playing a Gilman (PF Atlantis type) or DMing a game that had a major Sahuagin relevance.

Unfortunately, I've had the opposite problem when it comes to my players. I even specifically disallow variant humans in 5e just to curtail their overabundance in many of my campaigns — not that it's helped much. Trust me: I'd love to be in your shoes; I bloody well hate having humans in my adventuring groups.

I take it that the "medium dudes" quota has long since burst at the seams, then? Retards like you that think that having both gnomes and halflings in a setting is too much are, themselves, just too much.

Is this a GW2 cabbage?

Cabbages are cute.

>Ctrl+F warforged
>0 results
>Be sad

Kind of looks more like the Floran from Starbound, though I'm fairly certain it's neither of these.

Because races are not the same. The life of a dragonborn is rarely the same as that of someone who can't breathe fire or acid.

Don't be sad, now theres 1 result!

Warforged are cool, but D&D makes them too... biological.
If you're a robut, commit on robutness.

Fuck that. Anyone that wants to play a robutt in a fantasy setting is someone that either doesn't want to role-play (much) or is just someone that sucks at it, and you know it. In either case. they're much better off actually giving a fuck for a change instead of being worthless shitbags at the table.

>fuck that
fuck YOU.

Honestly, I'd say the 'breathe fire and acid' part is less important than the fact that dragonborn are, culturally, really big on that whole Platinum Dragon's Burden. Dragonic Races need to help those poor, less culturally and mentally advanced mammalian races. Growing up in a society where you are told that you are objectively better than anyone without scales, with only Actual Dragons above you is likely to warp your world view a decent bit.

Basically this, if it was a dragonborn carrying an elf/human/dwarf etc.

Why are you projecting your incompetence onto others, user?

No fuck YOU leatherman

Fuck off. Like I said: you shitbags know it's true. I've played warforged before, only they had actual personalities and weren't just references to HK-47.

Really? The group I have played with always parties with a tank, that tank is almost always a paladin, and that paladin is always an Aasimar.

They do the same with Warlock, though they don't have one as often as a tank, it is always Tiefling. I thought everyone just sorta angled that way, minmaxing it since the two races lend themselves to those classes so well.

>I've done it before
>Anyone that is one is someone who sucks at role-playing
Okay, that checks, thanks.

My biggest problem is that my DM does a lot of battles, and some of my friends tryhard their characters, so whenever I play with something different or interesting, I end up having to change the values of my character halfway and be something useful in battles.

Oh yea? I'll kick your ass!

RIP Billy ;_;

Your reading comprehension needs a little work. Or, at least very least, your ability to grasp subtext.

Nah that's wrong. Unless you're referring to a realistic robot without any hint of feelings etc. That shit is quite boring.

Centaurs.

I typically play either a human, or a race /very/ different from a human.

Think the most fun one I did was a Centaur Cavalier. That was a blast.

>Johnny Englishman has to overcome his own cannibalism ignorance, cruelty, brutality and other vice and actually start working himself instead of relying on slaves before he can attain civilizations

Accidentally damnating caricatures

Exactly that, yes, though they're also often murder hobos of the highest calibre. 'Cause warforged are emotionless killing machines, am I right? That's totally a sound or legitimate way to role-play a character as part of a cooperative adventuring group, right? Herp derp.

Like I said: fuck those people; they're the worst.

I like all kinds of races. I think homebrew/creative races that are like animal people but with a few unique twists are really cool, as well as things similar to elves/dwarves but a bit different are also interesting as well.

Excellent taste

I like races that are "human variants," i.e. they are literally humans and think and act like oddly cultured humans, but they have a phenotype real humans don't have, like the Chiss from Star Wars or all the beastman races from Exalted.

The fact that they're actually more likely to feel like they belong to an alien society than your typical fantasy race doesn't hurt.

The subtext was obvious, you're a moron who has no idea what he's talking about and are so contrarian you even contradict yourself.

One of my more fun characters was a centaur (scout), as well. A large part of that had to do with her simple backstory and her talents as a chef, however. Of course, it didn't hurt that she ended up becoming a cursed 'black knight' of sorts in service to one of the other player characters.

>in service

...did you magical realm, user?

But yeah, dealing with the size restrictions indoors and stuff was a fun challenge of its own too. Sadly muh dewd died buying time for the rest of the party to run away and the group I was playing with came apart not long after that, but maybe I'll resurrect him if my current character bites it.

>...did you magical realm, user?

Nah. He was a petty lord turned vampire lord. Pretty much everyone in he party was turned into some type of undead by the end of the campaign. My own character was basically just straight up 'cursed' with immortality via a cursed sword she got from 1v1-ing a black knight.

But yeah, stumbling around human-sized kitchens and storerooms, all the while knocking stuff over was just plain fun in its own way.

The only setting I've seen with dedicated mothfolk is Veeky Forums's Monstergirl setting, it has a whole coven of religious Mothfolk in the mountains .
I wish there were more mothfolk in... everything, they're an underused beast race.

>Only references to HK-47
Okay but to be fair if they can pull it off right having HK in your group sounds fantastic. Repetition will make it grating, but just the once? Let 'em have it if they can do it right.

>self insert
>easy to project
>human problems are the best problems
>liking to play filthy non-human races

Hahaha, nice

Man, one time I had to play with a DM that was SO PUSHY about playing something other than a human. And you know what? I think my Storm/Snake god worshipping theurge was a bit more interesting than the bland elf sorcerers and dragonborn bards that everyone else made. plus I got shocking grasp, thunderwave, and find familiar from my variant human feat.

I love elemental-kin or genasi or genie-kin, whatever you want to call them. They just fascinate me.

>He's never seen short circuit

Go fuck yourself. Don't insult the role-playing competency of people that you don't know or play with. Robots have plenty of potential. Just because you don't like accommodating your players because of your super special setting that doesn't have warforged.

I'm human, but can neither use magic nor hone mundane skills to a supernatural level. Even if I play as a level 0 human Commoner, I'm still playing in a fantastic world nothing like my own. Also, when you have more things in common between yourself and your character, you have a greater perspective of the significance of the few things where you two are different.

Holy shit that is the least appealing genasi art I've ever seen

You made me lol user

I agree, this cad is too much sir. Too much!

Eh, Wood Elf adventurers are the peace corps kiddies: smart and idealistic, but they can always fuck off back to their forest and the adventure will always be just a small chapter of slumming it in their long life of faffing about in the trees. The Dragonborn take should be more like King Kull, trying to prevent the new civilization from repeating the mistakes of his own.

i like golems or earth dudes in general that are not just mindless magical constructs.

Avians and insectoids are pretty much never utilized in anything but a superficial manner, like the everpresent evil hivemind insects that are always the same in every damn sci-fi setting.

Bladelings

Problem with moth folk is that they are bugs with no society. They metamorphosis to fuck and die because they come out with no mouths on few species. Their appeal is purely visual. Every other bugs offer more interesting stuff socially or mechanically.

Im so sick of the insectoid hivemind trope, its not even how real eosocial insects work.

and birds deserve more love

It sucks that’s the only 5e art of them too

If forgotten realms 5e has evil slaving Buddhist yak people than I’m damn sure Greenwood has at some point drunkenly inserted moths into the setting.

It's especially fucked up because the Muh Glowing Face Lines look wasn't even very good and they still made it like 5x worse.

Personally, I prefer 4e's Genasi to 5e's.

I prefer the ethereal look from 2e Planescape but they're both vastly superior to

Too bad you lack it, posting the bastard child of a cuck culture and all.

You mean the one based on MGE where the mothGIRLS rather than mothFOLK just want to rape everything? Yeah, real quality, that.

>implying sharks aren't cute and friendly as fuck

Centorea is a bad centaur (as are all MonMusu centaurs), but centaur in general are A+

Because I want to be a human in a world that still makes sense.

Seal inspired race.

One thing that often bothers me about people playing exotic races is that they tend to play them as humans with some quirks instead of a completely different species with alien worldviews, ties to society and abilities.
Elfs for example should be somewhat arrogant and aloof for the simple fact that they live for several hundred years and they know damn well that they will live to see any human friends that they make die from old age in what is maybe a decade from their POV.
When living in human society, they would also inevitably rise to the top of society due to their longevity alone.
By the time a human has reached a position of seniority and maximized their expertise/influence, they are usually ready for retirement.
An elf could keep a political office or an employment for hundreds of years, rising through the ranks as they acumulate more and more expertise while their human rivals have to retire eventually.
Long-lived races ARE objectively superior in that area, no matter how you put it and that knowledge should affect their worldview somehow.
Same for races that have different physiology and abilities than humans.
Avians and other races that have the ability of flight will perceive their environment differently from ground dwellers and might be baffled when they realize that feats that they consider normal (e.g. flying to the top of a tower and entering through a window, using flight to escape combat, rapid overland travel, using flight for better positioning in combat) are highly extraordinary for other races.

I feel the exact opposite, as a elf could be like a insectiphile looking at an ant farm.

Hell yeah Merfolk! 5' move speed represent!

Once had one become a charioteer, scything fools with a spear and bow, Briton style.

Top shelf.

(cont)
Even more important, those differences would also shape their cultures and society aswell.
As for Avians, fligh will obviously play a huge role in their society, which means that their cities will be made with the ability of flight in mind and might be utterly unusable for ground dwellers.
Aquatic cities aren't even bound by gravity, since they are underwater and can be constructed from material that has a similar weight to water, thus making buildings effectively weightless.
A creature that grew up in an aquatic city would likely have trouble navigating a human city.
Hell, everyone who ever went diving will know that physics work way differently underwater than they do on the ground.
A lot of things that you would expect to work underwater (e.g. swimming up and down, moving huge objects as long as they are somewhat bouyant) simply won't work in an atmosphere of air and that would cause considerable confusion to someone who grew up underwater and now lives above the water.

...

Actually they very explicitly don't do that for religious reasons because they regard any kind of passion as being anathema.

nonhorse centaurs are the best.

What do you weld to the bottom of a human to make them a nonhorse centaur? Half deer? Half bear?
I'd say half fish but we just call that a mermaid.

A scorpion, for example.

I was thinking of animals like deer, llama, mule(the shortstacks of centaurs), elephants...

I was gonna say "Half spider!" because arachnids but then realised that's a drider.

Scorpion folk need some more love

Not exactly exotic but I feel halflings, giants and angels don’t get enough love.

I personally am a fan of all deer-like animals, mooses, roe, stag… I don't know the correct english, whatever. Then, large cats and dogs (or wolves, obviously) are also quite nice.
Though I also like welding a different standard fantasy race to every different mammal.

You dropped this pic related.

Friendly mushroomfolk/

Best character in Dark Souls. I remember spending over two hours in a single fight against her sister just to see if there was a way to avoid killing her, just to realize that it was my burden to care for my fair lady.

>Friendly
Don't assume their adorable forms are incapable of defending themselves, however.

...

Small driders that are the size of your palm are the best driders.

One at a time? Sure.
Hundreds at once that are like piranhas? FAR more terrifying than one regular sized drider.

Warforged and construct races in general.

Giant melded into a mamoth. That sounds awesome.

Warcraft did it.

Warcraft is such a strange setting to me. So many great and awful ideas in the same place

Warcraft and Star Wars are very similar.

Originals: Simple in plot, bad guys redeem themselves, and universe is cool to look at.
Prequels/MMO: Neat idea, lot of materials to cover, then the writing gets worse, and worse, and worse and reach a point where the entire universe is tainted.
Both companies try to recover from their embarassement, but the world is overly critical and acts as if they hated as the worst thing ever since the beginning.

Why not both?