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Dec 12, 2011 -- 11:13PM, Dapifer wrote:

May I ask what races do you like then? I think only Eladrin, Changeling, Minotaur, Shifter and Warforged escaped your wrath.

And Gnolls.

Eladrin just barely make the list, but teleporting is cool enough to make up for the rest of it.

I've never liked warforged. At all. Drow are little better. They are still an evil race in any game I run--no exceptions. Sorry, Drizzt is unique and needs to stay that way.

Like Dapifer, I've also liked Lizardmen--though I've never played one as a PC--but for some reason I still haven't taken well to Dragonborn. I think it's due to the changes in 4e's Forgotten Realms. I'm not even sure that's it, honestly. Mostly, it's because Dragonborn just ooze with cheese factor. It's the sort of race that attracts 12-year olds and is somehow wholly unauthentic at the same time, if you catch my drift.

Finally, Wilden; goofy and unattractive, there isn't much I can find to like about them. (Shardmind are fairly goofy too!) Their backstory reads like the creator was trying just a little too hard to come up with something unique. Mostly, the picture of the wildens on page 14 of the PHB3, where they are introduced, is laughable to me. Those big, wonky ear-heads and that "I'm so serious" look on both of their faces. Cracks me up. Stupid looking things that they are!

Oh wait, I forgot the most important one--halflings! While most people find their skin crawling at the mention of gnomes, halflings fit that bill for me.

I couldn't stand them as Dragonlance's kender, either. I really tried to like Tasselhoff Burrfoot--I really did--but it just never worked out. They, like the Dragonborn now, lacked a sense of authenticity. Even now the D&D derivation of various halfling rogues, warlocks, and so forth makes me twitch just thinking about them. It's not even that I'm some sort of Rings fanatic either. *shrugs*

Races I don't like:

Dwarves - the flavor of little short men who live underground and have beards has always been stupifyingly dull.  They are, thematically, probably the dumbest race ever.  Magic the Gathering had a little article on 'why MtG doesn't have dwarves' where they reverse engineered the dwarven race.  This is what they came up with:

They live underground, so they're probably pale skinned and hairless (hair just catches on things, insulation is needless underground where temperature never changes)
They probably have a longer, leaner build, with powerful fore limbs for digging
... etc.

As they pointed out, the final result looked like a variant on goblins, and thus MtG doesn't have dwarves because they don't make any sense.  

Sadly D&D has not mastered this and thus there's still a race of short guys with beards.  

Gnomes - Screw.  Gnomes.  They have ALWAYS had terrible flavor, in every edition, and it always changes.  I can't even blame WotC.  They traded out Gnomes for Dragonborn in PHB1 and people complained.  Like, sorry, what?  You could be a little creepy thing or a GODDAMN LIVING DRAGON BREATHING FIRE and you're complaining that you're missing your creepy little guy?  Are they ever anything besides a joke race?  You can tell from the amazing feat support, the fact that WotC always uses halflings instead, the fact that they're now one of the 'random things in the feywild,' (and yet barely got a mention in their feywild book) that WotC does not like Gnomes, and yet they're stuck with them.  Every damn review of 4e when it was new mentioned the 'lack of gnomes,' people complained about the 'lack of gnomes,' messageboards were stuck with complaints on how people couldn't play their 'iconic gnome that they remember one of their friends played for a few sessions once in 2nd edition and totally did something I think.'   It's like some sort of evil curse.

Revenant - I hate it.  Totally.  The concept is far too limited to be a PC.  There is no 'race of revenants' and they don't thematically fit into a party in any way.  They should be NPCs.

Drow - it's sad, because I've read tons of drow fluff I really like.  For one, drow are about what I'd expect elven culture to look like if they had a high breeding rate of humans, limited space to live, and were near immortal (lots and lots of ways to kill off young drow).  Yet I don't think they should be a PC race because WE ALWAYS END UP WITH DRIZZLE THE TORTURED DARK ELF ON THE PATH OF REDEMPTION.

Minotaur - You're an anthropomorphic cow.

Good job.   


Vryloka - I hate you so much.

Warforged and Eladrin.  I don't hate elves, but I dislike them enough that having two types of elves and half elves all in the PHB1 just seems like overkill on the whole elf thing.  Any other race could have made the PHB1 a better book than having 3 elf races.  Maybe thats why people complained so much about the lack of gnomes.

Gnomes
Hate hate hate PC Gnomes.  Between Reactive Stealth and Fade Away, they bring the game to a screeching halt wanting to ask about stealth and invisibility on their turn.

Half-Orcs
The Reb Browns of D&D.  Every Half-Orc PC plays their character as a mindless charging berserker.  It's the same one note character either a rogue/ranger/fighter who probably charges more than an American in crippling debt.

Humans
But only if you're picking them just for the third at-will power.  Screw that Optimizing crap.  I give that out for free in my games anyways.