Quote Originally Posted by Witty Username View Post
Spelljammer and Ravenloft are pretty good homes for these ideas officially.

Ravenloft already is essentially microsettings shaped by singular dark lords, so the worst possible outcomes are somewhat given.

Spelljammer also works reasonably due to shear size, vampire king that destroyed an entire solar system pales in comparison to the vastness of the Astral.

A vast world where Maglubiyet has claimed all and everyone is goblin could be the framework of a cool module.*

*and for those still uncomfortable, everyone is goblin could mean instead of always evil goblins, a world where elves, dwarves and humans have been Anexed. All are goblin in the eyes of the great one.
I'd have no problem with a Planet of Evil Orcs or Demiplane of Evil Orcs way over there somewhere. But there's no need to wait for WotC to make such a thing either, they have way more important books to work on. Moreover, I don't see why you couldn't do Planet of Evil Dwarves or Demiplane of Evil Halflings either.

Quote Originally Posted by Mordar View Post
I'm becoming more and more enamored of this kind of idea. Not just an ability that scales with levels, but perhaps some trees that evolve with levels. Maybe a progression chart for the races that layers with Class so as you level in one you level in the other. In effect, you become a 5th level Dwarf Cleric, not a 5th level Cleric that happens to be a Dwarf, if you will. But how to do that in an interesting fashion (and not just a table of +1s to things)?

Yup, I can see it being bookkeepy, but I love(d) Rolemaster, so that holds no fear for me!
I definitely recommend you give PF2 a try then, it has more of the race-based progression you seem to want to try. I think PF2 took a lot of 4e's design principles and refined them. Again, not saying you couldn't bolt/kludge something like that onto 5e, but 5e races aren't really designed for that kind of lifelong progression; at most, they either have features that are evergreen or that scale at particular thresholds, but you're not actually making build choices related to your race.