Races born at random

[GoatBoy]

I was reading about the Karsite from Tome of Magic, special humans who are randomly born when an ancient bloodline becomes strong enough. It reminded me of the Azurins, humans who are randomly born among humans and touched with Incarnum.

So, then I got thinking... how many races, templates, or other variants are possible for humans, assuming an otherwise natural offspring with no magical tampering? Should humans be glad whenever they have a child who DOESN'T have glowing eyes or spell-like abilities or extra limbs?

[unimaginable]

Sorcerers. :-p

[AstralFire]

Psionics, too. I think it's theoretically possible for all *touched to spontaneously appear in bloodlines so long as there was, at some point, a proper ancestor. Warlocks.

[LOTRfan]

Warlocks aren't born warlocks, are they? I thought they had to make a pact with an extraplanar power.

[Kelb_Panthera]

As I understand it the draconic template can pop-up after a long dormancy in a family.

[AstralFire]

Warlocks aren't born warlocks, are they? I thought they had to make a pact with an extraplanar power.

My memory on this point is more oxidized than a warforged's hangnail at a rust monster convention, but I think that is only the 4E wizard and the 3E has bloodlines. I could be totally wrong.

[SurlySeraph]

Born of a supernatural bloodline, a warlock seeks to masterthe perilous magic that suffuses his soul. Unlike sorcerers or wizards, who approach arcane magic through the medium of spells, a warlock invokes powerful magic through nothing more than an effort of will. By harnessing his innate magical gift...

Yeah, bloodlines.

Also, other human-ish subraces/ offshoots include Illumians, Deep Imaskari, Shifters, Changelings, Kalashtar, Elans... I'm sure there are a lot more. And that's before considering feats like Aberration Blood and Illithid Heritage.

[Greenish]

Yeah, bloodlines.

Also, other human-ish subraces/ offshoots include Illumians, Deep Imaskari, Shifters, Changelings, Kalashtar, Elans... I'm sure there are a lot more.

Aventi, Azurin, Deep Imaskari, the Chosen, Extaminar, Mongrelfolk, Neanderthal, Sea Kin, Silverbrow Human, Underfolk, Varsharan…

Of the lot, to my knowledge only Azurin are randomly born from normal humans.

[Amphetryon]

The text on Krinth is unclear, but seems to indicate they are born of non-Krinth parents.

[hamishspence]

The text mentions "demonic creatures made of the same tenebrous substance as the plane itself" (Plane of Shadow) as their progenitors- they are human-shadow demon hybrids.

However, while initially the hybrids were infertile, apparently they became fertile 1000 years before the present Faerun era- and became a true-breeding race of their own.

The true-breeding ones look with distaste on the hybrids born in the present era.

[absolmorph]

My memory on this point is more oxidized than a warforged's hangnail at a rust monster convention, but I think that is only the 4E wizard and the 3E has bloodlines. I could be totally wrong.

3.5 Warlock is fluffed as either having made a deal with fey, demon or devils or having parents/ancestors at some point who did.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

You gotta wonder, is D&D humanity possessed of an ultimately adaptable structure, or simply unstable?

I'm guilty of it as anyone. Nearly all my races are human branch-offs.

Chevals: Humans with Nerrah in their ancestry
Chimneyfolk: Humans of the oldest cities adapted to living on rooftops.
Okilei: Psionic humans born to a parent infected with Ohrwurm, a sort of musical psychosis.
Somnambuls: Another race of psionic humans, but these were born partially in the realm of dreams, partially in the womb. Believe they never sleep but live dual lives.

[AstralFire]

Well, I mean, dwarves, elves, gnomes, orcs and halflings aren't exactly SHOCKINGLY DIFFERENT in appearance from humans as it is.

Also, Chimneyfolk? That's awesome.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Also, Chimneyfolk? That's awesome.

Totally not inspired by this scene...

[AstralFire]

Totally not inspired by this scene...

Oh, good. Now I feel less silly for liking it because of Mary Poppins.

[Thurbane]

Not exclusive to humans, but the Unholy Scion template (HoH) can manifest on a baby in the womb...

[Halae]

depending on the way you end up fluffing Hellbred, it's possibly it applies here too. after all, it's quite vague on how your character gets back into the world once the gods are done scouring him, but everybody seems to agree that it happens in one of two ways - you are either born again, or you simply poof into existence

[LOTRfan]

I've always had Hellbred crawl out of their graves, but that's just me.

[GodGoblin]

Dont forget Aasimars and Tieflings just pop up randomly too, happy human couples seem to spawn the occasional goat legged sprog now and then it seems

[Tiki Snakes]

Also, Chimneyfolk? That's awesome.

Seconded.

I secretly decided for my homebrew planar-game that Humans are actually the breeding equivalent of that icky brown-grey you get when you mix all your paint together.

They are basically half-everything, so all manner of throwbacks crop up, not to mention niggly little mutations like extra fingers or the occaisional scaley patch. It's also why you basically find them everywhere, but never with a convincing ancestor god.

[Flickerdart]

What about Zarus? He's pretty convincing.

[Greenish]

I secretly decided for my homebrew planar-game that Humans are actually the breeding equivalent of that icky brown-grey you get when you mix all your paint together.

They are basically half-everything, so all manner of throwbacks crop up, not to mention niggly little mutations like extra fingers or the occaisional scaley patch. It's also why you basically find them everywhere, but never with a convincing ancestor god.

So humans are mongrelfolk?

[Psyren]

I've always had Hellbred crawl out of their graves, but that's just me.

Okay, this is pretty awesome.

(It gets a bit wacky if you were disintegrated/dismembered at the end of your former life though )

What about Zarus? He's pretty convincing.

The only thing Holy Hitler ever convinced me of is that humanity needs a better patron

[Greenish]

Okay, this is pretty awesome.

(It gets a bit wacky if you were disintegrated/dismembered at the end of your former life though )

Or eaten.

[Tiki Snakes]

So humans are mongrelfolk?

Humans are mongrelfolk given enough generations to refine down to something that passes for a normal race, basically. Yes.

What about Zarus? He's pretty convincing.

Zarus, if you consider him to exist at all (he's obscure enough to not even have a wiki page, after all), is clearly just a deified early human, rather than any kind of projenitor.

Besides, I hear he prefers to be called Pelor, these days.

[hamishspence]

Humans are mongrelfolk given enough generations to refine down to something that passes for a normal race, basically. Yes.

They might have selectively bred themselves to try and eliminate the more normal mongrelfolk traits.

Humans as a variant of mongrelfolk, is an interesting concept.

[Sir Swindle89]

3.5 Warlock is fluffed as either having made a deal with fey, demon or devils or having parents/ancestors at some point who did.

Pretty sure you're thinking of 4E. 3.5 Warlocks were to Sorcs as Sorcs are to Commoners. The lower planes thing might have some ground but i'm not buying the Fey pact in 3.5

Edit. Now that i think about it some of the PrC's give different causes for Warlocks having magics

[Halae]

Pretty sure you're thinking of 4E. 3.5 Warlocks were to Sorcs as Sorcs are to Commoners. The lower planes thing might have some ground but i'm not buying the Fey pact in 3.5

Edit. Now that i think about it some of the PrC's give different causes for Warlocks having magics

for the most part, warlocks in 3.5 are left to the player, but they generally come from one of 4 things: Bloodline, Infernal Bargain, Fey Pact, or following an unknowable yet chaotic force