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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 1:32AM
#11
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Date Joined:
Feb 10, 2011
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I'd also go out on a limb and say elves and dwarves are less "normal" then something like tieflings, whose decendants were humans (in 4e).
I understand that you are probably refering to races that deviate from typical fantasy tropes. I'm even with you; I'd love to see lizardfolk as PCs and the return of the aarakocra from Dark Sun.
I just cringed a bit at your choice of words, that's all. For some it's not the race that's boring, it's the application of the race.
Personal story: I used to hate dwarves. I thought they were boring. "Oh look, another dwarf fighter, brandishing an axe, and getting drunk all the time; you hardly ever see one of those." But then I was introduced to Dragon Age II and Varric. This dwarf had no beard or axe, he was a bard with a crossbow, he was funny, but witty and clever instead of drunk and brash. And then I realized, it wasn't dwarves that were boring, it was the people who I played with that wanted to be dwarves.
I've since made a dwarf druid and DMed a game where a PC was from a tribe of "swamp dwarves" that both worshipped and lived on a diet of frogs.
Just remember that next time you're considering a dwarf or an elf "boring", realize that player may think of your Tiefling Warlock or Dragonborn Paladin the same way.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 2:17AM
#12
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Date Joined:
Apr 19, 2009
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Ditto on the imaginative races thing. Our perception makes dwarfs seem unexciting, when infact they could be anything from Gnome like creatures, master artifiactors that can create entire underground empires based on their technological genus, to mountain dwelling kings of the wind, made short to compensate for harsh survival condictions.
In retrospect, I would love to see more interesting races in the PHB. I hate Dragonborn as a concept (e.g. I don't like dragon people at all.) and such. I remember the extra races in races of stone, wild e.c.t. that could really do with being centralised. In my DM's setting the Kencu and Hobgoblins were also present in exchange for all Orc speices being removed from the univerce.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 6:26AM
#13
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- Forum Guide
- Hero Craftsman Gold Medalist
- Master Dungeon Master
Date Joined:
Jun 23, 2005
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Tieflings are half human, dragonborn are still humanlike. While I agree with your sentiment, the only non humanlike PC race DnD has ever has was really the Warforged, and that is only because they are living constructs, so it is kind of like playing an android.
I think the kalashtar (living dreamstuff), shardminds (living crystal), wilden (living plant spirits), and deva (descended angels) qualify too.
That said, if we include every race from any PHB, we'd have the following:
- dragonborn
- dwarf
- eladrin
- elf
- gnome
- halfelf
- halfling
- halforc
- human
- tiefling
That's a pretty good start, though I'd love to see goliaths added to the list. I imagine we'll see other races in future supplements
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 6:48AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Aug 31, 2007
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They're having every class from every PHB1 in the first book. That suggests that, most likely, they'll have every race from every PHB1 there too, for the same reason.
The designers said they where looking at every class, not that every class was going to make the cut. However, the race list is smaller then the class list, and most of them are pretty iconic elements, so I expect better coverage.
I would guess 6 to 10 races, depending on how long the write up is. Human, dwarf and elf are the sure things. Halfling, tiefling and dragonborn are close behind but not 100% guaranteed for the first PHB. After that it gets a bit more iffy. Eladrin might be a race, an elf option or go away entirely depending on how they handle races and racial powers. Depending on how they do half races, you could get halfelf, halforc and mul, it would be hard for them to cut halfelf entirely. I would expect at least one unexpected race also, just for variety. Probably not a new race, as 5e seems to be about integrating what already exists rather then creating something new.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 6:58AM
#15
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Date Joined:
Mar 24, 2002
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The more interesting question in some cases is: which VERSION of some races? Will Gnomes be connected to dwarves, or elves? Will high elves be able to teleport? Some of the changes 4E introduced to the "trope" races really altered the flavor and "niche" they fill. I would like to see some of those rolled back to their more classic forms. Gnomes especially, though the teleporting elf thing also grinds my gears.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 10:48AM
#16
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Date Joined:
Mar 25, 2001
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I would like to see Tiefling as they are in 4th ed and yes I know all these races existed before 4th ed. I've been playing since red box. Why do people assume I'm some noob kid?
However in the other editions races like Tieflings and Dragonborn were not seen as normal races and only as rare races for some wacy setting.
On another note it seems the mods are once again being way too controlling on posts. Saying I didn't like the multiclassing of 3.5 is an edition war? lol Not really. Just saiyng I didn't like it.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 11:00AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Mar 24, 2002
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On another note it seems the mods are once again being way too controlling on posts. Saying I didn't like the multiclassing of 3.5 is an edition war? lol Not really. Just saiyng I didn't like it.
Considering how quickly a small spark can light the dry kindling that is Edition preference around here, I'm not surprised.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 11:21AM
#18
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Date Joined:
Mar 26, 2004
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I'd prefer to have five prime races that are light vs dark or have ethnicities.
Elves/Drow
Dwarves/Druegar
Gnomes/Deep gnomes
Halflings/Stoutfoot
Humans--(Men the West: Gondor, Rohan, Dol Amroth, etc) vs (Easterlings, etc) Yes WotC cannot use these names, however, for the point of illustration in this discussion...
a template for half human, which would cover half elf, half orc, half ogre, or any other humanoid.
a template for half planar, where any of the five prime races can be given an abysmal, hellish, angelic etc descriptor.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 11:30AM
#19
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Date Joined:
Jul 20, 2010
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Taking the convention of every PHB1 race ever, we have this list:
Dragonborn
Dwarf
Eladrin
Elf
Gnome
Half-elf
Half-orc
Halfling
Human
Tiefling
To me this seems like a diverse but not unmanageable variety of races to serve as the base. Obviously supplements could (and in fact SHOULD) include other races as well.
If they include Eladrin as a seperate race rather than diverging back to the catch-all Elf, then I think it would make sense to include Drow as well as a "elf-like race".
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1 year ago ::
Feb 10, 2012 - 12:06PM
#20
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Date Joined:
Apr 23, 2009
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It is my belief that they will provide a really good way to add races if your the DM. if so then it won't matter that much. Here is my wish list which differs from the OP about as much as it can... dragonborn - NO
dwarf - YES (Hill, Mountain, and Deep)
eladrin - NO
elf - YES (High, Grey, Wood) obviously Eladrin can move here as Grey elves.
gnome - NO put in monster book
halfelf - NO
halfling - YES but make them back into a hobbit like race
halforc - NO I would like a lot of monster races to be detailed in another book. Dragonborn could be there too.
human - YES (I would like regional variations like the dwarves and elves. Imagine Suel in Greyhaw as an example.)
tiefling - NO Anyway. I won't die if I don't get my way. I won't not play 5e either. I will just hand a sheet out to my group like I've done for every edition ever listing all changes.
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