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LibraryOgre
2019-03-23, 05:30 PM
If you were putting together the race list for Player Characters, and were told you needed to have 5, in addition to humans, but could only use 1 of the standard races (dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-elf, half-orc), which would you include? What races would you have to replace the others?

Belac93
2019-03-23, 05:42 PM
Humans, because humans are great.

Drow, because elves should be terrifying anyway.

Lizardfolk, because LIZARDS and inhuman monsters are cool.

Goblins as a small race and because I like them a little more than kobolds.

Aasimar because why not.

Hand_of_Vecna
2019-03-23, 07:46 PM
Humans, because humans are great.

Drow, because elves should be terrifying anyway.

Lizardfolk, because LIZARDS and inhuman monsters are cool.

Goblins as a small race and because I like them a little more than kobolds.

Aasimar because why not.

That's a really good list, especially with all of the material for goblins in Pathfinder.

I also like Lizard folk as a core sanctioned alien race.

The one thing I might like to see different is something more civilized than humans that doesn't come with the baggage of Drow such as Illumians or 4e's Eladrin.

Belac93
2019-03-23, 07:55 PM
The one thing I might like to see different is something more civilized than humans that doesn't come with the baggage of Drow such as Illumians or 4e's Eladrin.

I've come around on drow recently after playing Spire, but I get that. Kalashtar would be my personal second choice.

Mendicant
2019-03-23, 10:58 PM
Humans, because humans are great.

Drow, because elves should be terrifying anyway.

Lizardfolk, because LIZARDS and inhuman monsters are cool.

Goblins as a small race and because I like them a little more than kobolds.

Aasimar because why not.

The parameters actually give room for one more; humans are assumed.

Mine:
Half-giants or Goliaths or something mechanically equivalent. Let your bigs be really big. Bonus points if they've got some other angle as well like Half-giants' psionics. Maybe do a homebrew orc here.

Vanara. Cool, lots of myths and legends to draw on for inspiration, and a lot less D&D baggage than, say, elves.

Aasimar and Tieflings. Players want these all the time and if I'm starting from scratch I'd rather have a thought-out place to put them. I'm just gonna say this only takes up a single slot.

Halflings. Classic, lots of clever lore variations out there that don't require subraces, gives a less-alien option to go with humans.

Lizardfolk. Get weird

I'd swap in Eberron's Warforged and Changelings if I was doing a setting like that. Not sure what I'd cut, but probably the lizardfolk and either the planetouched or vanara.

2D8HP
2019-03-23, 11:24 PM
If you were putting together the race list for Player Characters, and were told you needed to have 5, in addition to humans[...]


Five seems like way too many!


I'd try to follow the scheme I detailed in a previous thread:


[...]
Dwarf - Not really. Either a subset of human, or combine with other small folk.

Elf - Oh yes, but I'm not sure as a player "race"

Halfling - Combined with other "small folk"

Human - Yes, and to entice players, all humans get both "standard" and "variant" features, and if (like me) a player can't decide on a Feat, they may get an ASI instead.

Dragonborn - Nope

Gnome - Now we're getting to the good stuff! Forest and Rock Gnomes are combined (all the goodies, plus those of Goblins and maybe other "small folk".

Half-Elf and Half-Orc - Yeah sure. If a player wants a "special" PC from a "special family" then they can have this, as long as they don't ask me to read a back-story!

Tiefling - Maaaybe after the initial adventure

Goblin - Oh yes indeed.

Kobold - Sure, it's spelled "Goblin" and their traits are combined.

Orc - I don't even remember how this is different from Half-Orc's


Here's the basic division:


"The Gentry" - All traits of Drow, High Elves, and Wood Elves are combined, along with extra vulnerability to iron weapons. They are the main beginning foes of the PC"s.

"The small folk" - Goblins and others combined for players who want to "stretch".

"People" You may know some. Half-Elves n half-orcs, and Humans



So from that and the O.P.'s requirements there's:

Humans,

Goblins,

Half Elves,

Orcs,

Tieflings (with rare players),

Eladrin.

Though truthfully just humans and goblins could work.

bc56
2019-03-23, 11:45 PM
Hmm

In addition to human

I would keep Dwarf (I like dwarves)
As a martial and technological focused race, they provide a nice counterpoint to whichever magical race I include.

But other races, hmm

I think a full blooded Orc could replace half-orc. Most half-orcs are just a lot like orcs already, and it would go a good way towards making greenskins people too.

I love Kobolds, so they're in too. Little trapmaking lizards who scurry around make great rogues, and I could pinch some racial abilities from the non-existent Halflings to make them a bit more interesting.

For an exceptionally magical race, I would go with Genasi. Natural elemental magic would be great for opposing my tech-focused dwarves for a nice conflict between races. They'd probably replace elves, honestly.

This is the point where I'd probably make homebrew races to fit the other two main archetypes, cleric and ranger, but for the sake of not having to work at it, I'll use existing races.

I'd say Lizardfolk for our naturey survivalist folks.
Plus I love their whole thing about being emotionless and logical.

And
Hmm
I really don't want to include Aasimar without Tiefling, so I'm at a loss for the last one. I think this is the point where either I would make major modifications to a race's stats and culture to fit them in, or I would craft a new race entirely from scratch.

Either way, what goes in the last spot would have a theocratic culture centered on the worship of a pantheon of around 10 gods.

Kitten Champion
2019-03-24, 12:19 AM
That's actually very close to the current setting we've been using for a little while now. Though the races have been re-fluffed around the concept of mundane-ish humans in a mundane-ish world being physiologically altered via the sudden introduction of magical energies. There are still vanilla Humans who make the numerical and political majority. There are also Elves in the setting, who are the extra-dimensional race that brought magic into the world in order to do their own version of terraforming -- but Elves are not playable for a variety of reasons, although Half-Elves are available.

So, Humans and Half-Elves -- then the sub-races include Tieflings, Yuan-Ti Purebloods, Genasi, and Shifters.

Technically there are Aasimar too in-setting, but they're just Humans who've channelled divine power long enough and with sufficient skill for it to rub off on them and aren't treated as distinct from humanity since they don't spawn lil' Aasimar or differ too meaningfully from the hegemonic norm.

Luccan
2019-03-24, 01:17 AM
I'll do a theme, since it might vary by edition: 3.5 Psionics

First up, I'm keeping dwarves, mostly because Psionic Duergar. I also just wanna keep something more recognisable around.

Im torn between Dromites and goblins. If blues count as a subrace (removing the "weird" monster LA tax) of goblins, then goblins

Now, Elans. Take the myths of elves kidnapping people for 100 years and now make it because that's how long it takes to turn you into an Elan. Plus,every game with psychic powers needs that tension of not being sure who someone really is.

Synads, for a similar reason as stated above. I also just like the multiple distinct minds thing they have going.

Finally, Half-giants. I imagine a large number of tribes, uniting with each other against Duergar slavers, alongside the dromites or goblins, then fighting the rest of the time


What happened to the rest?
The maenads are actually distant ancestors of many psionic humans (and are no longer around). Our insectoid friends the thri-kreen couldn't compete with the expansion of psionic empires and half-giant migration, dying out over a century ago. The gith just don't take much interest in the material plane. Presumably the xeph died out because all their warriors were soulknives and they lived in surface canyons untouched by sunlight, which isn't great for food.

Anonymouswizard
2019-03-24, 04:00 AM
Five seems like way too many!

I'm agreeing! My list is simple:

Human, rules-wise they with for any build, lore-wise they work for any build. Silly gates are available for those who don't want to play a standard human.

Maybe a robot or golem race if I want to explore AI themes in this game.

And that's your lot, you get the choice of either one or two races. Maybe another archetype will be added if they're tied into the game's theming, but generally they won't be.

Yora
2019-03-24, 04:17 AM
I made a setting that is basically:

Humans
Elves
Goliaths
Tritons
Tabaxi

Thinker
2019-03-24, 06:42 AM
I normally like to play with only human races and leave the others as fantastical beings. So, my list would look something like:

Half-elf
Half-giant
Shifters
Aasamir
Tiefling


That should cover main archetypes pretty well, too.

Kaptin Keen
2019-03-24, 06:44 AM
Hm.

Are halfbreeds ok?

In my games you cannot play elves or dwarves, because elder races aren't allowable for PC's - also, they do things differently than PC, entirely different rule set. Long story.

But if a player insists, they can play some bastard offspring of half-human with diluted blood of an elder race. You still cannot have any elder race parents, but it let's you use the stats from an elf or dwarf if you want to. You're essentially 'human' but with the standard modifiers of the race in question. Needless to say, actual elves or dwarves have something quite unlike the standard modifiers.

Whether that's allowed or not, my playable races include goblins, orcs, gnolls, humans, halflings and .. well, possibly ghouls or centaurs? All races modified to be LA+0. Also, for what it's worth you can play pretty much anything you want - with stats picked from say humans. So, you wanna play a mind flayer, you make a human psion, fluff it as a tentacle-faced horror, and roll with it.

Millstone85
2019-03-24, 07:20 AM
There is the planetouched approach:

aasimar/tiefling
daelkyr (half-blood)
elf
genasi
human
shade

Floret
2019-03-24, 07:20 AM
I really liked how Symbaroum did it:

Split the humans into "barbarians" and "civilised" (Biologically identical, but due to cultural differences different stats).

Add Goblins.
Add Ogres.

Add Changelings. They do end up looking a good bit like halfelves, but elves in the setting are... weird. To say the least.

Mastikator
2019-03-24, 08:35 AM
I'm assuming I get to tinker with the races:

In order of "good relation to humans to bad relation to human"

1 Centaur
2 Harpies
3 Lizardfolk
4 Jorogumo
5 Mindflayer

Centaurs and humans are mostly friendly and occasionally co-exist.
Harpies and humans leave each other alone
Lizardfolk and humans view each other with suspicion, each think the other untrustworthy, occasional war
Jorogumo predate on human and keep them as livestock, humans kill Jorogumo on sight
Mindflayers dominate all species including humans

LibraryOgre
2019-03-24, 09:02 AM
Five seems like way too many!


Less than in 1e:

Dwarves
Elves
Gnomes
Halflings
Half-elves
Half-orcs

And that's without getting into Dug-Up **** and all its subraces.

:smallbiggrin:

Pleh
2019-03-24, 09:30 AM
If you were putting together the race list for Player Characters, and were told you needed to have 5, in addition to humans, but could only use 1 of the standard races (dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-elf, half-orc), which would you include? What races would you have to replace the others?

Rules are: need total of 5 races (6 with humans included) and only 1 can be from the standard core set (but none of them have to be).

I'm quite comfortable leaving the core set aside.

Goliath, but scale them down so they are balanced with other "starter races" (no LA+1 or system equivalent). The only thing important to keep is Powerful Build and the Half Orc's Physical Brute ability stat mods. Nice that the "half orcs" no longer need to come with social stigma baggage based on lineage. They represent the giant/mountain origins.

Warforged. It's just such a classic and unique element. I think the game is that much less magical when you don't have the option to not need food, breathing, or much rest. They represent the arcane origins

Raptoran. The natural, limited flight that scales back limits with level is a great flavor for a race. They represent the fey/woodland origins.

Tibbit. Gives the Small Race option with some extra boost to most of the things that being small is advantageous for. They represent the urchin/urban origins.

Dragonborn, with the caveat that this really is the only Dragon Related race. It always annoyed me how they kept trying to reinvent the wheel on this one. Getting a level balanced breath weapon is about all the race needs to give players everything they really want out of this. They represent the Draconic bloodline origin (obviously).

That makes 5, but looking back at the set, I would want to change the humans, too. Maybe instead of getting a free feat, you get to choose between one of the variant humans, like Azurin, Kalashtar, Changeling, maybe Planetouched.

geppetto
2019-03-24, 10:19 AM
It would depend on the campaign. For my next one I'm planning a wilderness exploration theme where the PC's are members of a new colony exploring an untouched/wild continent.

So I'm going with
Human
Dwarves - the 2 colonist races

Gnolls- most common on the new continent
Homebrewed fey goblins- dwell in mountains and underground. Cannibals/slavers, magical race
Centaurs- friendly barbarian tribes, druidic shamans focused on protecting the land.

Millstone85
2019-03-24, 11:13 AM
It is not exactly within the rules of the OP, but here is what I just came up with:

Dragonewt

Kobold
Lizardfolk
Dragonewts were bred in prehistoric times by the mighty dragons.
Kobolds are considered ideal servants, and lizardfolk ideal soldiers.

Golem

Shardmind
Warforged
Shardminds self-assemble from the debris of crystal spheres, with an innate drive to protect cosmic structures.
Meanwhile, warforged are some of the most advanced constructs ever built by mortals.

Human

Planetouched
Primeling
Planetouched humans include aasimar, elves, genasi, tieflings, half-daelkyr and more.
Primelings are named after the Prime Material, and usually accepted as the original humans.

Smallfolk

Dwarf
Gnome
Some believe the All-Father created the smallfolk after forsaking the giants.
While dwarves and gnomes share a love for gems and metalworking, the latter prefer burrows to great mines.

Sylvan

Dryad
Faun
These lesser fey consider themselves the guardians of the flora and fauna.
Rather than a racial division, their is a case of extreme sexual dimorphism.

Mr.Sandman
2019-03-24, 11:36 AM
I would think from more of an evolutionary, sociological, and biological niche standpoint. What races occupy diverse enough ecological niches that they would not come into much conflict over resources in the early days of their existence so that they can all develop societies. My choices would be:

Humans: Plains dwellers.
Dwarves: Subterranean dwellers.
Raptoran: Live in high mountains.
Lizard folk: Live in marshes.
Merfolk: Live underwater.
Killoren: live in forests.

D+1
2019-03-24, 12:35 PM
Humans
Tabaxi (cat people)
Gnolls (dog people)
Golem/warforged
Lizardfolk
Dwarves

EccentricCircle
2019-03-24, 12:39 PM
It really depends on the type of setting I'm going for. After all the classic Tolkienesque lineup is largely drawn from Norse myth.

I once made a south east Asia inspired setting where the core races were Humans, Naga, Vanara, and Apsara from Indian mythology. Then added Goliaths as a sort of Sherpa-ish culture, and then Fire Genasi/Ifrits, to make it into a bit of an elemental ensemble.

At some point it would be cool to do a stronger elemental theme, with Humans as the base race, and then the four Genasi subspecies as the demi humans, maybe with Ghuls as a playable if monstrous race to tie it into an Arabian knights type theme.

A setting themed around a battle between Heaven and Hell could feature Tieflings and Aasimar who have been touched by God or the Devil, I don't think there would be much need for additional races in that one, but you could have semi demonic beastmen as in Warhammer. Not quite sure what angelic archetype would match them though. It would need to be symmetrical.

For an Ancient Greek setting you could have Humans and Amazons, Centaurs as the big guys, Harpies as the flying option, Nymphs (Of various types) as the nature loving magical type, and satyrs as the roguish race. A lot of things in Greek myth were kind of unique, like Medusa, so it doens't lend itself quite so well to racial archetypes, but I think the above list could work quite well.

Underwater settings are also quite fun. In mine the main races are Mermaids and Tritons (the same species but with sexual dimorphism), Sea Elves as the aloof elder race, Atlanteans/Aventi as the closest equivalent to humans, and finally Sahuagin as the wild and savage option. We also had one player be a Kuo Toa which was fun.

Max_Killjoy
2019-03-24, 01:14 PM
If you were putting together the race list for Player Characters, and were told you needed to have 5, in addition to humans, but could only use 1 of the standard races (dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-elf, half-orc), which would you include? What races would you have to replace the others?

Are you specifically looking at the selection being made from D&D's various less-prevalent races, or wide open?

zlefin
2019-03-24, 04:52 PM
i'd probably decline to use any of the standard ones, I mean why bother? there's enough alternate choices around to make stuff with if that's the goal.
if I were doing it low-effort I'd crib a subset of the races in some random existing games; like Dominions, or Age of Wonders

Vizzerdrix
2019-03-24, 05:04 PM
Hmm... Minotaur*, mephling, catfolk, greensnake naga, and awakened animal.


*the no la one from kingdoms of kalamar.

LibraryOgre
2019-03-24, 08:06 PM
Are you specifically looking at the selection being made from D&D's various less-prevalent races, or wide open?

This is just this side of a Silly Message Board Game.

Xuc Xac
2019-03-24, 08:54 PM
Humans are inquisitive, progressive, forward-looking but expansionist. They are aggressive but gregarious, so they are just as likely to conquer and colonize you as ally with you. Very versatile. There are several prominent human nations but they are overshadowed by the Dwarven empires. When human nations go to war with each other, more often than not, it's a proxy war between Dwarven superpowers. The strongest human nations are the ones that have good defensive militaries to hold their own and skilled diplomats to keep them from getting sucked into skirmishes that benefit their Dwarven "allies" more than themselves.

Dwarves are traditional, disciplined, organized, and technically minded. They are the elder, cultured race that invented writing and wrote most of the literary classics that form the foundation of a complete education including the "7 Great Books" on every academic's bookshelf. They are renowned engineers, bureaucrats, philosophers, and tacticians. Less "drunken miners" and more "togas in marble halls". The dwarves have three empires that dominate international politics: the Belghad Federation, the Khazad Union, and the Empire of Athuz. They are essentially locked in a cold war stalemate like a giant game of Paper-Rock-Scissors and usually try to maneuver colonies, client states, or smaller "allied nations" into wars or alliances to alter the balance of power.

Kenku combine the curiosity and flexibility of humans with the practicality and materialism of the dwarves. They are thieves, merchants, smugglers, archaeologists, art dealers, and museum curators. They have no large nations, but easily find a niche in the cities of other races as acquirers and purveyors of fine and rare goods. If you need a wagon load of turnips or a stack of lumber, it's unlikely to be sold by a kenku; if you need a bundle of herbs and spices or a log of ebony, it's more than likely to be available from a kenku. Some of them found monasteries where they study natural philosophy and martial arts. They have no armies, but produce many skilled fencers.

Lizardfolk are regarded as tribal barbarians but many tribes are eagerly developing and integrating into modern society. Some tribes ally with the humans or dwarves to trade raw materials for manufactured goods and aid in developing their own infrastructures. Many lizardfolk princes and princesses attend universities in a dwarven capital city before returning to their homelands to apply their knowledge. Some isolationist tribes live on the borders of civilization and live as bandits or retreat further into the wilderness each year in an effort to maintain their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles, but many tribes are building settled villages and becoming clients/tributaries of the dwarves. Some nomadic tribes live in human lands as cattle ranchers or sheep herders and sell their services as shock cavalry units on their dinosaur steeds.

Ratlings are the small and downtrodden race filling the halfling/kobold niche. Until very recently, most rural ratlings were serfs doing agricultural work and their urban brethren were slaves doing semi-skilled labor (the archetypal example is a group of bricklayers working for a dwarven supervisor). They have nimble fingers, keen senses, and a predisposition to technical skills, but they are seen as untrustworthy with criminal tendencies. Every ratling knows that if something is stolen and they don't have an ironclad alibi with non-ratlings to vouch for them, they are better off running and hiding than trying to explain their innocence. They are treated as citizens equal to any other race in the Khazad Union, but they are generally an underclass elsewhere. Outside of Khazad, a ratling's best chance at achieving any sort of prestige is honorable military service as scouts for Athuz or some of the human nations.

Aurks are large, powerfully built people with hulking, muscular bodies and heads resembling large swine (like a boar-headed "minotaur"). They are physically the strongest and most imposing people but suffer from an intense form of dyslexia that puts literacy or numeracy beyond their grasp because they just can't understand written symbols. In spite of this, they value wisdom above strength and maintain a strong oral tradition and have keen memories. They primarily work in the military or physical trades. Most people expect them to be brutes, shock troops, or manual laborers, but they also excel in logistics and navigation. They can't read or write in a ledger, but many aurk quartermasters excel at calculating with an abacus and memorizing long lists of supplies. Aurks are renowned as pirates, but many of them are actually lettered privateers for human nations (although, ironically, they can't read their own letters of marque). All three Dwarven empires have large numbers of Aurks in their navies and Belghad has many aurk merchant companies, most of which employ clerks of other races to keep written records. One notable exception is the all-aurk House of Khosh which famously keeps records with bundles of knotted cords and decorated jars of colored stones.

Pauly
2019-03-25, 12:46 AM
This is just this side of a Silly Message Board Game.

So leaving D&D aside, and looking at races that have humanish levels of power, and avoiding the standard D&D variations such as tieflings et al.

1) From Japan: Tanuki and foxes. Shapeshifters who can assume a human form, generally sneakier and more agile than humans. Chaotic aligned.

2) From Celtic legends. The Fomorian. Strong powerful fighters, not too smart. Raiders from the sea and are possibly amphibian depending on the legend. Antagonistic to humans as they compete to use the same land.

3) From Warhammer: Skaven. Underground living ratmen. A focus on agility and technology. Evil aligned.

4) From Malaya/Borneo: The man of the forest. Orangutans with human level intelligence. Said to be knowledgeable about herbal lore and magic. Good aligned.

5) From Roman mythology: Fauns. Half human, half goat. Tend to be anti-social and live in wild places.

Bastian Weaver
2019-03-25, 03:05 AM
Okay.
From Quest for Glory/Hero-U:

Katta - bonus to agility, night vision, natural rogues.
Ratties - what's not to love about a friendly humanoid rat? They're good at magic, too.
Liontaur - first-grade fighter material. Half-lion, half-human, all the rage.
Meep - because I've always wanted to play as a little hairy ball-shaped hippy. Like, cool, man.
Goon - when you just need a little brute strength. Or better yet, a lottle of it.

From Dragonlance:

Kender - because they're absolutely the best race, ever.
Sea elf - when you want to play a "fish out of water". Hoo, hoo, hoo.
Draconian - you're a living weapon created by darkest magic from a dragon's egg. Angst, man.
Minotaur - perfect barbarian.
Gully dwarf - Intelligence is a dump stat, anyways!

Floret
2019-03-25, 03:12 AM
A comment on having humans be different as well made me remember a setting I once made for a selfmade RPG that has yet to see playtesting (but by making it there probably wins the "furthest project" award regardless).

Anyways, we had:

Humans. Except, not really, they had feathers instead of hair, and otherwise a tendency for more pronounced fingernails, toenails and noses. They were the race dwelling in plains and forests, the most readily seafaring, with a tendency to also just be whereever birds are, and for the most part building communities, cities, and countries.

Gnolls. Well, Hyenafolk, this time done with a knowlege of how hyena sexual dimorphism works. The classical "barbarian" race, obligate carnivores, somewhat replacing orcs or more feral elves.

Half-gnolls, or feathered hyenas. Mixtures between the "humans" and gnolls, occupying a half-orc sort of place in a setting where civilisation vs. Wilderness was a big theme, and half-orcs felt necessary. Not completely feathered, they just had feathers interspersed with their fur the places humans have hair.

Dwarves. Except, you guessed it. With a hint of Tiefling and leaning into the "people of the depths beneath mountains", a race that looked more demonic than anything, short, but horned, with skin the colours that coal could have naturally (including red from being on fire), and tentacles for hair like drenai. Mountain kingdoms and deserts were their preferred habitats, but beyond their appearance they were no more "evil" than the others.

Dolphinfolk. Somewhwere between DnDs Darfellan and the Quaggan from Guild Wars in anthropomorphisation, they were somewhat waddly on land, but master swimmers in water, occupying coastal towns, villages and islands, with some more nomadic boatdwellers.

Constructs. Warforged, basically, made from binding the souls of people whos body was too beaten up to ressurect (or just because) to artificial bodies.

I really should get back to that project some time...

Ken Murikumo
2019-03-25, 08:59 AM
Goblins: for your token small race. You could even shed the normal tropes and make them more akin to WOW goblins where they are rivals to Gnomes with technology and society.

Giant/Titan/Goliath: whatever you want to call it. It's your token big race for people who want to be bigger than everyone.

Beastfolk: a catch-all for intelligent animalistic humaniods for people who want to be a lizard-man or cat-girl

Dragon Kin: who have some kind of draconic heritage polluting their bloodline. For those who want to be some kind of dragon-ish character.


& for the normal trope race; Elves: boring, yes, but if you shed their normal baggage and make them mysterious and alien to the other races it opens up way more on what can be considered an "Elf".


I'm currently running a future fantasy game and the term "elf" is a catch-all for any race beyond whats published. The idea is that for tens of thousands of years, bog standard elves have been traveling the galaxy muddying up the gene pool with their own seed. The resulting races are thus just called "Elves".

Grek
2019-03-25, 01:06 PM
Garuda (can fly when hands are empty), Naga (aquatic, venomous), Vanara (can change size at will), Asura (four arms) and Rakshasa (disguise self at will).