D&D 5E Player Races in Upcoming Volo's Guide to Monsters

[mach1.9pants]

Well, the Orc, Goblin, Firbolg, Triton, Kenku and Tabaxi are confirmed playable; while it is true the Aasamir was only confirmed to be in the book, I'll bet on them being playable.

I want following the thread so this is (great) news to me

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm not really opposed to race overlap, but I do prefer the humanocentric position that there should be a reason to add races beyond human. Each race should be somehow alien, if only slightly. Dwarves and elves get a pass because of Tolkien, even though Tolkien elves and dwarves really were somewhat alien if you got into the mythology. I've never dealt with the Warcraft universe, but I could see the orcs getting a similar bye because of it (and I'd rather deal with full orcs than half-orcs; I'm not a huge fan of half-humans).

Basically, I don't want to end up with Star Trek, where 90% of "aliens" were pretty much just humans with random forehead (or ear) prosthetics. Sometimes, they acted as caricatures of certain human traits, but they were more often just as varied. I find that kind of "meh". YMMV, but that could be where some of the resistance to overlap comes in.

And, yes, I get that looking alien can qualify. If you end up with goliath, firbolg, and half-ogre having stats that are 90% identical, then there really isn't a good reason to have them all. Being "ridiculously large and strong without being restricted from normal buildings and adventures" only goes so far before you realize that they could all be one race with the goliath being a world-specific variation that lives in the mountains and tends towards honor, the firbolg is a different world-specific variant that happens to live in the frozen north (or whatever they do with them), and the half-ogre is another variant that happens to have a more primitive culture. Those three might be no different than the Medieval Japanese, Estonians, and Congolese (not checking for historic accurate names), all of which are human.

I'm pretty much the opposite, I guess.

I don't care if humans even exist in a given world. I'd rather have a bunch of other races, of varying degrees of "alien".

But when I talk about race niche overlap, i'm talking mechanics more than thematics. I don't care, at all, if orcs and half-orcs serve different mechanical niches. They fill different story roles, which is more than enough reason to have them both, IMO.

Same with Goliaths and Firbolgs. They are thematically very different, so at most I'd want them to be subclasses of a Giant-kin race. But since one is already a race, I'd rather just see both as full races. Way I see it, the dnd races are largely like canids. They're all in the same clade, and pretty similar unless you get granular, but they have different histories, looks, etc, which is enough for me. And I'm glad when the game includes things like Hyenas, which seem similar on the surface, but are actually a very different thing, and Bears, which look totally different, but are actually pretty closely related.

And I certainly don't want any races that aren't just as varied as humans. IMO, that variety is a function of Will, and sentience, not of being a homo sapien sapien.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Regarding the Orc Half-Orc diversity issue, I think it would be interesting to add something akin to the half-elf variants from the SCAG to the half-orc, like a half-orc half-dwarf or a half-orc half-tiefling, or a half-orc half-dragonborn (since they're not produced only through ritual and born from magical faberge eggs anymore). Bwahaha... half-orc half-warforged

I'd love rules/guide for making half-anything combinations. yes please!

 

[Demetrios1453]

Regarding the art from the guide: on http://dndwizards.tumblr.com/ they have 2-3 lines of text about the monsters depticted (Ki-rin, Pit master, Flail snail and Death Kiss).

So Mr Snakearms is a Pit Master. I haven't heard of it and a quick Google search didn't reveal anything. The description seems to be purposely vague. I'm still guessing that it's a yuan-ti variant.

 

[Demetrios1453]

So another question is, what unrevealed races will be given playable status? I assume that hobgoblins and kobolds will as well, given that they are classic D&D humanoids. And since tritons will need someone to adventure with underwater, I assume merfolk will become playable and we'll see aquatic elves detailed in the book.

 

[Parmandur]

So another question is, what unrevealed races will be given playable status? I assume that hobgoblins and kobolds will as well, given that they are classic D&D humanoids. And since tritons will need someone to adventure with underwater, I assume merfolk will become playable and we'll see aquatic elves detailed in the book.

Stan!'s revelations about the structure of the player material chapter blow that question wide open: the table of "quick rules" races likely doesn't need to be AL legal, so they might go hog wild on that front. I imagine the big distinction between the detailed races, and the quick rule races, is who WotC felt comfortable seeing overrun the Moonsea: hence, no detailed Gnolls for AL use...but maybe an entry on the table to let people who want Gnolls at home run them with "legit" rules?

 

[Parmandur]

I wasn't speaking, in any way, on what other people want, or even on whether dryads are a good race option.

I was commenting on why a race like the Wilden are a nice addition to the game.

Yeah, and I think they would be cool as far as it goes; but the cultural baggage is actually one of the Dryads advantages for RPing purposes over an invented race.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Let me refine my question then. Which creatures will get the deluxe playable race treatment and which will get the quick 'n' dirty rules?

The creatures I mentioned in my previous post will be those I believe will get the deluxe package.

 

[Parmandur]

Let me refine my question then. Which creatures will get the deluxe playable race treatment and which will get the quick 'n' dirty rules?

The creatures I mentioned in my previous post will be those I believe will get the deluxe package.

Merfolk are problematic, as they have no feet: I'd see them more in an underwater AP, like the Genasi, than in this book. I imagine they went with Tritons because they are mobile on land and not evil.

Here are the survey results on Race from last year:

"Races fell into three tiers of popularity, with the thri-kreen, the goblin, and the aasimar at the top—an interesting mix. In my own campaigns, I’ve seen people play goblins for comedic value. Thri-kreen are pretty tough to model using our existing races, but are key to the Dark Sun setting. Aasimar would be a lot of fun to work on. Personally, I’d want them to be as interesting and compelling as tieflings. My personal bias might be showing (since aasimars are my favorite race), but it’s easy to make good guys kind of boring and lame. I’d love to recast the aasimar a little bit, giving the race a few unique traits and a visual appearance attuned to a holy avenger out to kick ass.

"The next most popular tier of races includes catfolk, devas, githyanki, githzerai, gnolls, half-giants, hobgoblins, kender, kobolds, lizardfolk, pixies, and revenants. Personally, I’d love to pick up Mystara’s rakasta as our catfolk race, but all these options have strong legacies to build on. The less-popular races are by no means off the table, but they’re likely at the back of the R&D queue—and might run the risk of other races beyond those addressed in this survey cutting in line ahead of them."

 

[Satyrn]

Like, take another crack at the concepts behind the Wilden, guys? I want a being that is made of nature, without all the weird baggage of a dryad.

Or, Satyrs, Centaurs, Pixies, Quicklings, etc.

What?

Oh, those guys. Not me.