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Lord Sidereal
2007-02-09, 02:13 PM
Okay, so I am making a campaign world without eklves, dwarves or humans. What would peopel suggest for central races in this world, besides the glaringly obvious.

pestilenceawaits
2007-02-09, 02:16 PM
Tieflings and Aasimars (not necessarily human offshoots or maybe the only surviving human offshoots), Goblins, Gnomes, maybe some Fey creatures.

Lord Sidereal
2007-02-09, 02:18 PM
Key point I may have forgotten: Never any humans, Elves killed, Dwarves disappeared.

silentknight
2007-02-09, 02:20 PM
Glarinly obvious meaning halfling, gnomes, or half-orc?

Orcs, goblins, and goblin-kin seems pretty obvious too.
Aaracockra, thrikreen, lycanthropes, genasi, and planetouched have LA but might be good as base races if you start out higher than 1st level.

talsine
2007-02-09, 02:23 PM
Anthropamorphics from Savage Species. Lots of options, and easy for people to picture. has the sigma of being very furry centric though, and not everyoner likes that.

pestilenceawaits
2007-02-09, 02:26 PM
some of the splat books have cool races the darfellan are a cool seafaring race from stormwrack here.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050805a&page=2

Neanderthals from frostburn are cool also.
I also really like lizard folk.

Sulecrist
2007-02-09, 03:36 PM
Orcs, gnolls, merpeople, harpies, satyrs, ogres, goblins, hobgoblins...

OOTS_Rules.
2007-02-09, 03:37 PM
Goblins. No doubt about it.

JaronK
2007-02-09, 03:39 PM
Strongheart Halflings can take the place of humans pretty well. I always have a fondness for Kobolds too. I love Raptorians, but they're less of a central race, though theorizing about how raptorian societies could work would be fun.

JaronK

Arceliar
2007-02-09, 03:59 PM
Kobolds! Kobolds!!

*Edit: If you don't mind Psionics, Maenads or Xephs could possibly make a decent medium-sized human replacement. Or rework them to be non-psionic (essentially just give Maenads a spell-like ability instead of a psionic one).

Darrin
2007-02-09, 04:45 PM
Okay, so I am making a campaign world without eklves, dwarves or humans. What would peopel suggest for central races in this world, besides the glaringly obvious.

Well, ideally you want the race options to fall into five basic archetypes:

1) Brutes/Bruisers/Bricks - your typical musclebound meatbags, high STR/CON
2) Sneaky/Finesse - speed over brawn, high DEX low STR
3) Skillmonkey/Social/Expert - flexibility, adaptability, somewhat jack-of-all-trades
4) Spellcaster/Academic - High mental attributes, low physical
5) Pixie Fairy/Kawai/Catgirl - small and adorable niche, extremely high cuteness, often at the expense of effectiveness

This is because most character ensembles in epic fantasy generally fall into the Five Man rule:

1) Hero/Leader - Boy Scout paladin type, exudes leadership often at the expense of cluelessness (Ace Goodheart, Luke Skywalker, Scott Bernard, Parn, Hannibal)

2) His Best Friend/Rival - Sneaky or scoundrel type, sometimes a reformed bad guy (Dirk Daring, Han Solo, Boromir, Woodchuck, Faceman)

3) Hulking Brute - Smash! (Chewbacca, Lunk, Ludo, B.A. Baracus)

4) Princess - The girl, frequently gets stuck in a support role such as diplomat or healer/cleric (Leia, Pink Ranger, Amy/Rachel/Amanda, etc.)

5) Dwarf/Midget/Mascot - something small and usually too cute for it's own good (Ghim, hobbits, Midge, Tiny, R2-D2, Pikachu)

So long as you've got some races that lean towards those basic roles, then that's where I'd start.

Druid
2007-02-09, 05:14 PM
Are half elves and half orcs still around? Half elves could easily fill the rolls the humans usually do. If they aren't you might waht to let your players play full blooded orcs.

Most of the Races of ____ books have a few good and original races you could check out. Eberron has some fun original races as well.

daggaz
2007-02-09, 05:41 PM
Rock Eaters (earth elemental giants, of a peaceful nature). Ok its a ripoff from Neverending Story, but hey the idea was cool.

Illithid.

Centaurs.

Kobolds or Troglodytes. (said before, but they are cool).

Treants.

Fire Giants.

etc..