Your favorite nonstandard races?

Psion · Nov 21, 2006

My new campaign once again has my tinkering with my new campaign world. I'm trying to flesh out bits and pieces of the world.

What I'd like to do as a method of connecting PCs to the world is to be able to connect existing resources to certain places in the world. That way, when a player wants to make a character with a certain races, prestige class, or organization affinity, I can point to the map and say "okay, you are probably from there".

With that in mind, I have to make a little laundry list of races and find homes for them, in hopes to work them into a consistent whole. To that end, I am wondering: what are some of your favorite non-standard (non-PHB) races? Be they WotC or third party?

PC races are good, but I am also considering any empire-building race that would make for good rival nations/regions.

So far I am thinking:
- Psionic races, in particular Maenads, Elan (though they are more a sect in my world than a major race) and Dromites.
- Goliaths
- Illumians
- Ophiduans (Iconic Bestiary: Classics of Fantasy... no, not for PCs)
- Inphidians (Tome of Horrors)
- Asaathi (Scarred Lands)

lukelightning · Nov 21, 2006

"Human with one tiny physical difference" is boring. That means you, Maenads, Elans, Illumians, Karsites, etc. It's so "Star Trek" where all the aliens are humans with a funny nose.

I like dromites. I don't care about their powers, heck, take the powers away and make them LA+0, and replace either halflings or gnomes or both with them.

llamatron2000 · Nov 21, 2006

I agree. The whole "human, but with something different" or "standard race, but optimized for a certain class" thing is really lame. I like races that people generally want to take for flavor reasons.

For some reason, Kobolds are at the top of this list. They're about as equally popular as halflings, and infinitely more popular than gnomes among certain players in my games.

Psion · Nov 21, 2006

lukelightning said:
"Human with one tiny physical difference" is boring.

Sorry, I don't subscribe to this. I am more than happy to include more exotic races for players with a taste for the more exotics, but one of the main thrusts of this effort is to put races that players will want to play on the map.

If history is any indication, this means that includes characters that mostly resemble humans will be popular choices. It's my feeling this is why elves remain popular, even though they were largely gimped in 3e. Many players like creatures that are near human but not.

Of course, I agree with you to a certain extent; I don't think simple physical features are effective at making a race distinctive (which almost sounds like what you are advocating.) I think the Incarnum races exemplify this. But I think that Illumians, Elan, and Maenads have significant enough cultural and background differences that making them look more like bugs or whatnot wouldn't buy them anything special.

BullMarkOne · Nov 21, 2006

Hobgoblins, Especially Roman or Russian themed, make some appearance in almost every setting I design. I really have a hobgoblin fetish. I prefer them to orcs as a standard cr 1/2 humanoid beastie. If I allow them as a PC race I usually ditch the +1 LA.

So far I haven't been to impressed with any of the nonstandard races published in the splatbooks I've seen.

Psion · Nov 21, 2006

BullMarkOne said:
Hobgoblins, Especially Roman or Russian themed, make some appearance in almost every setting I design. I really have a hobgoblin fetish. I really prefer them to orcs as a standard cr 1/2 humanoid beastie. If I allow them as a PC race I usually ditch the +1 LA.

I guess I said "non-PHB", but what I should have said is "non-SRD". Traditional creatures like hobgoblins, orcs, gnolls, etc., will be accounted for.

But yeah, I dig hobgoblins, too. Though I make mine more east asian.

sjmiller · Nov 21, 2006

I am a big fan of the Litorians and Faen (Loresong, Quickling, and Sprytes) from Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. They currently feature prominently in my campaign.

Let's see, I also like the different interpretations of the "standard" races that are shown in Nyambe. Of course, lately I am a huge fan of that game world, so my bias will show.

I am sure there are other good ones out there, I am just tired so I can't think straight.

smootrk · Nov 21, 2006

I really like Kenkus from the MM3 which are ideal at +0 LA.

In my signature are 2 different takes on warforged, but I know many have inherent dislikes of them. The yuan-ti inspired version may have uses for you with some changes to more closely connect them with the Scarred Lands snake race Asaathi.

Voadam · Nov 21, 2006

Dover (Complete Minions/Oathbound CS/Wildwood) I just like the wilderness dogmen.

Giants (Arcana Unearthed) Its great to have a medium size giant next to a medium size dwarf. Played two in D&D games.
Luminous (Mythic races). Played one in an Oathbound game
Grippli (Tome of Horrors Revised). Made one for a game.
Littorian (Arcana Unearthed) Made one for a planescape game.
Half-Ogre (Dragonlance CS) played one in a Dragonlance game.

I've had players pick warforged (Eberron CS/MMIII/Dragon 318?) and the blindsight Illonis (Mythic Races)

I guess tiefling and aasimar are in the srd so don't count.

Set · Nov 21, 2006

Favorites;

Eberron - Shifters, also Warforged and Changelings to a lesser extent.
Scarred Lands - Asaatthi, Proud.
Al-Qadim - Ogrima (1/2 Ogre Magi!), Pahari (fish-maidens).
Arcana Unearthed / Evolved - Mojh, Faen, Sibeccai.
Oriental Adventures 1e / 2e - Spirit Folk.
Nyambe - Unthlatu (dragon-descended humanoids).

Various 'takes' on established races, like the Dargonesti sea-elves of Krynn, or the militant Hobgoblins of Kalamar, or the Anpur (Anubis-worshipping Gnolls) of Hamunaptra, also appeal to me.

For Core beasties, I'd love to see a class / PrC / racial levels / whatever by which a standard arcanist or psion could transform over 10 levels or so into an Illithid, making it not so much a race one is born into, as a Far Realms-sort of stage of 'evolution' that an an arcanist / manifester can choose to progress into, becoming less and less human and more and more otherworldly and alien as he tampers with alien and otherworldly forces...

Your favorite nonstandard races?

Psion

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lukelightning

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llamatron2000

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Psion

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BullMarkOne

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Psion

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sjmiller

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smootrk

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Voadam

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Set

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