Which PHB race doesn't fit into YOUR fantasy campaign?

mzsylver · Feb 11, 2002

My Pick: Halforcs. i just never liked the idea of halforcs being common & id never let a player be one without some serious bribery/begging... teehee.

the campaigns i run consist mostly of halflings, humans, elves, and dwarves (in that order). on one occasion i let a guy play a Gargoyle for a few years (that was interesting, considering he turned to stone in the daytime until the party got a Wish to fix that - hehe).

and to the person who doesnt like halflings... HALFLINGS ARE THE GREATEST RACE EVER!!! i run them as kender. oh ya, baby

BiggusGeekus · Feb 11, 2002

Eosin the Red said:
I have always wanted to play a Tolkien Half-Elf (IMO the basis for this "race"). 3E, 2E, & most other rpgs in general haven't represented this well.

No, they haven't. And I will grant you that playing a Tolkien half-elf is very different from a D&D half-elf.

Kesh · Feb 11, 2002

In a generic D&D campaign, anything goes.

However, in my homebrew world, there's no half-orcs. Why? Well, because there are no orcs. Gnolls are the main antagonists in this world.

And no, you can't play a half-gnoll.

Gez · Feb 11, 2002

My niche for Gnome ? Hey, what Gnomes are supposed to be: keeper of knowledge. They are overlooked and ignored by the fools, and this allows them to go everywhere they want, and to record everything they want, unnoticed. Gnomes knows. Their very name comes from knowledge (gnosis, in greek, which means knowledge or wisdom).

Forest Gnomes are keepers of nature's secrets. They are instrinsically, innately much more attuned to nature than a sylvan elf druid.

Deep Gnomes are keepers of science's secrets. They are the only "tinker" gnomes I have, and they are more "engineer" than "tinker", if you see what I mean. They don't design useless gadget that blows them up, but efficient machinery for their underground lives, like magically-motionned subway trains, watermills, digging machines...

The mysterious Night Gnomes are the keepers of cosmological secrets. They knows the old legends and prophecy. They know the politics of gods. They know what goes in the other planes. And they are themselves a legend, tiny ghostly silhouettes seen from a long range, performing complex and beautiful rituals -- but if you come closer, you discover it was only a mirage. The lake you've seen, with all the gnomes around, don't exist. There's nothing here. You turn around, and promise yourself to drink less beer from now on.

Finally, rock gnomes are merchants and travellers that serve as link between the other gnome subraces, and between the gnomes as a whole and the other races.

Deep gnomes are known to dwarves, who enjoy working with them, and forest gnomes are known as the "weird people that live in the heart of the forest, where you can't go because of all these big angry giant foxes, pit concealed by dead leaves, thorny bushes, and disturbing acoustic phenomenons" to some druids. They are druid themselves. But other than that, they are little known.

In fact, gnomes are the Illuminati: a secret, invisible hand, which control (a little) the world through its knowledge and its secrecy.

Ain't that a perfectly good niche ?

MythandLore · Feb 11, 2002

Humans.
Humans gotto go.
Humans have no place in a fantasy game.
What was WotC think when they decided to put Humans in the game.
Besides if you look at there race powers, they're all uber-munchkin.
Extra feat, any favored class, and extra skill points, for goodness sake!
Why didn't they just call them lil'gods.

Tonguez · Feb 11, 2002

If I had my way the ONLY playable races in my campaign would be humans and gnomes

I dropped Dwarves because they just didn't fit the setting (other than that I like dwarfs although I've never played one)

Was going to drop half-orcs (cause my world doesn't have orcs) but kept them as degenerate humans

I also kept half-elfs for the players

I made Elves a NPC/+3ECL race (made them Sidhe essentially by suping up their magical abilities including gaseous form)

I made Halflings into Fey and a +2ECL/NPC race by giving them 'ethereal touch' ie these creatures are able to take the 'shadows' of objects and use them like solid items. The original items loose something in the process (a - 1 modifier for weapons) but otherwise remain intact

The problem with PHB Gnomes imho is that they are greatly misrepresented - they are too tall (real gnomes average around 15 inches or shorter and are rarely over 2 ft tall), they are not tinkers - they are however wonderful civil engineers able to construct intricate burrows or erect amazing stone monuments, gnomes almost never leave their clans - gnomes are a hive creature (like the naked mole rat or the smurfs) who can achieve amazing things when in groups of 100 or more (the normal clan size) but are much less effective individually. My gnomes are also hermaphrodites with only one female born per 100

Black Omega · Feb 11, 2002

Halflings all the way out the door. I think it's just kender giving them a bad rep, but nothing says "Kill it and cut off the ears' like halflings.

Madfox · Feb 11, 2002

It would depend entirely on the campaign I am running, but in general I have no problems with any specific race.

Birthright: no elves, half-orcs and gnomes.
Current FR: Only races with dark-vision (basically only dwarves with an adopted half-orc) because we wanted to run an Underdark dwarven campaign.

DwarvenBrew · Feb 11, 2002

No more gnomes

In 3e, since gnomes have become a combination of kender and tinker gnomes, I can't stand them.

In 2e, I actually liked gnomes. Some of the descriptions of gnomes in 2e made them out to be the WISEST and most peace loving race.

I always envisioned them as a cross between elves and dwarves.

The lived in harmony with nature and their surrounding evironment (as shown by their homes and ability to converse with burrowing animals), while they were also long-lived and enjoyed merry-making like elves. Yet, unlike the elves, they didn't show the extreme prejudice and general high-brow attitude.

Like the dwarves, they shared many physical traits and a love for mining and precious gems. However, they lacked the extreme work ethic and isolation that dwarves sought (although they tended to live far from humans and other PC races, they were protrayed as having good relations with other Sylvan races).

Their long lives, curiousity and non-aggressive attitudes often earned them the title as the "wisest" of pc races. They were made out to be natural peace makers and negotiators, and in many ways the most idealistic of all the races.

Some developers stressed the mad scientist, smart but unwise, mischeavous stereotypes. However, others stressed the aspects that I outlined above. Although somewhat contradicting in their portrayals, at least you had a choice in 2e.

3e gnomes are unbearable.