D&D 5E Player's Handbook Races

[I'm A Banana]

I have to admit that I forgot what they did to the Tiefling race which created the necessity of creating the "Planetouched Tiefling" as a word. It's the reason I don't like the appropriation of terms to mean something different from the intention of the original meaning.

For you and others who might not know:

4e tieflings are former humans who lived in the city of Bael Turath. There, they made a pact with Asmodeus, and gained great (and ambiguous) magical power (and also apparently devil horns the size of handlebars and a tail that makes stools a necessity if the 4e visuals are anything to go on) until their evil magical empire was brought low by the noble knightly Dragonborn and who now cling on in small enclaves and dark ruins and might be PC's for...whatever reason. Very sword & sorcery, pulpy, evil-magic-devil-pact kind of stuff. You can play an evil devil wizard, all proud and imperious and reminscent of decadence and the sins of ambition.

Planescape tieflings are humans born with some lower-planar "taint" on them. Perhaps there was a demon somewhere in their ancestry or a yugoloth performed experiments on their granddad or they just come from a city that was a little too close to the lands of evil, and they are born mutant and wrong, with horns and scales and tails and cloven feet and other deformities. This mark stigmatizes them, rendering them outsiders in society, castoffs who are assumed to be wicked and nasty simply for how they were born (and some of them, either due to nature or nurture, totally do turn out to be wicked and nasty). This is gray, urban fantasy where you explore the question of nature vs. nurture and the abuse society heaps on the marginal (the ill, the disabled, the deformed). You can play an outcast who rises above the society that casts them out to prove that it is not what you are born as but the choices you make that define you.

These are different aesthetics. A little superficially similar (humans tainted by evil), but very different core narratives. (Forex, there is no one to blame in the PS tiefling's story -- evil is a reality of the world that character lives in. For the Turathi tiefling, there is a specific historical sin that casts a stain that they are supposedly working to overcome.)

FWIW, dragonborn are also different in 4e, but are probably better in 4e than in their first incarnation. Gnomes are also different in 4e, and their story there is....meh (it's the "Escaped From Slavery By Evil Guys" story, again). But their story pre-4e is also a little meh (Okay, they're magical tricksters who love gems?).

So for me, while I hope they enable PS tieflings, I hope they also keep 4e dragonborn (even alongside 3e dragonborn, if anyone ever really cared about 3e dragonborn...), and hope they do something a little fresh with the gnome (but I should be able to recognize both gnomes in whatever they do). The gnome will be where I'm looking to be surprised.

 

[Charles Wright]

Thanks for the fill-in info, KM.

I knew about the 2e/3e Tiefling and I wish that the 4e Tiefling hadn't usurped the original's name.

 

[billd91]

Because one of the goals they had for the races (as stated way back in 2012) was to have all races that were present in every edition's first Player's Handbook playable right out the gate.

And that's why including dragonborn and tieflings is no skin off my nose. I may not like aspects of those races (mammalian features and misappropriation of the name, respectively), but I don't object to adding new (or newish) stuff. It's the replacement aspect I objected to in 4e's PH.

 

[jrowland]

I just hope that female dragonborn look like they do in 4e. They are not lizards so I am happy with dragon boobs.

I am pro-boobs. Mammalian, Reptilian, Aberration, or otherwise.
Once you've seen one set of dragon boobs...you want to see them all.

 

[doctorhook]

I can totally understand the inclusion of Tiefling over Aasimar. Demons and devils are wide, diverse and have a lot of interesting traits and powers. A person with demonic or devilish blood is immediately apparent.

But angels? Oh, so hopelessly dull. Just Nazi Germany's vision of perfect humanity with wings in most depictions. And a halo. And maybe a harp.... and if one is angel-blooded, then they just lose the wings and thus look like an "genetically pure" SS soldier. And what are they going to gain from it? A healing spell or some such?....

Seriously-- if they were going to do people with celestial blood, I would want it to be some interesting looking celestial beings! Give them blue skin, black hair that prematurely silvers and whitens (or, better yet, give them feathers for hair!), they can have the big dove wings but also give them a third eye. And when people have their blood, it ought to be just as instantly recognizable as Tieflings are.

But then.... would it still be an Aasimar?

Deva.

The only reason Angels are dull is because they haven't been written up properly.

It's the short-sightedness of the writers who don't use the suggestions from your third paragraph that supports the common misconceptions you mention you second paragraph.

And yes, they would still be Aasimar, dagnabbit!

Deva.

Seriously, I like devas as a player race. I didn't mind aasimars either, but their fluff is less interesting, and their name is awful. "Deva" isn't great, but it's still a lot better. Let's call them "daeva" anyway though, just to end the popstar jokes.

Has there ever been a great adventure where aasimar were the main enemy? A cult of aasimar devoted to one of the archdevils who is a fallen celestial would be cool I think.

There's something like this in Eberron. The city of Sharn is built in a place where the plane Syrania bleeds into the world (allowing flight- and levitation-magic to work more easily), allowing the city to build numerous floating and impossibly tall towers. During the Last War, one such tower suddenly dropped, crashing destructively into the ground in a suspected act of war or terrorism for which no group ever took responsibility. One supplement (Dungeon magazine, maybe?) described how the fall of this tower was actually the result of a fallen angel (from Syrania) being cast into the world and cursed to never again fly. Ultimately this fallen angel ends up trying to establish a new cult based around himself, with which adventurers are expected to then deal.

I had the exact opposite feeling. I was never a fan of the Eladrin.

I liked 4E eladrin too; they were really just a more-magical extension of the high elf, albeit possibly too magical for some people. (Interplanar movement as a racial power, what?) The celestial eladrins bore the hell out of me.

Given that the elf section of the 5E PH is longer than that of other races, it's not a stretch to imagine some of that space devoted to a variant 4E-style high elf/"eladrin". If WotC wants every editions' core races in the PH, then Eladrin is the only such race not yet confirmed.

Side note: duergars? Basic talks about grey dwarves in the dwarf section of the race rules. Are we gonna get these guys too?

And Dragonborn are in need of a major redesign. The look of Dragonborn screamed that they were designed based on the stats they were willing to give them. Previous D&D editions have had Dragon-humanoids. Dragonlance had Draconians, Faerun had Dragonkin... the Dragonborn ought to have simply united such concepts under a single racial model.

If they are Dragons, less inarguably so than Kobolds, then give them wings! Give them a bit thick tail. It is perfectly find to say that their wings aren't quite powerful enough to carry them and the tails hinder them as much as help them. And they should come in all the varieties of dragon colors. It would then be up to individual campaign settings to make more of the colors or not.

But, really... if one is saying "dragon people" then the image that pops into one's head isn't muddy brown tailless lizard-people with boobs who can belch an almost harmless cloud of flame or ice or whatever once a day. Such a design could only have come about by thinking about how their 4E stats would function first and foremost.

Also, what's with them being super friendly and cuddly with everyone? Being super aligned to being good and faithful and noble and serving humans like puppy dogs? They are the descendants and armies of the biggest, baddest, most powerful creatures in all the land-- and not worthless slaves like the Kobolds. By all rights they should be declaring themselves the masters of the world, forming up armies to expand the area of influence of their masters-- collecting as much treasure as they can and putting down threats before they come anywhere near the dragons. They should be every bit as off-putting and aggressive as any Hobgoblin or Githyanki. Which shouldn't disclude the possibility that one in a hundred might end up becoming a mercenary perfectly happy to work with other races.

But, still-- their alignment and intentions and position in the world was silly. How is a 8' tall, reptillian warrior not going to be arrogant, self-centered, dismissive of "lesser" races and working to build up empires for their own kind? The very word "draconian" both means "dragon-like" and "cold, brutal and oppressive". They would be a hundred fold better with those obvious tweaks.

I think you're a bit over-the-top, but in general I agree with you: I hope dragonborn got a redesign. I'm not particularly upset about any particular element of their design (no wings, no horns, no tail, boobs; I don't care much), but I do think they're pretty damn ugly. With their "hair", they don't remind me especially much of dragons, but worst of all is that they lack the proud, strong colouration of true dragons! Mud is not a particularly inspiring colour.

 

[Bugleyman]

Has there ever been a great adventure where aasimar were the main enemy?

I think Burnt Offerings (http://paizo.com/products/btpy7zkr?Pathfinder-1-Rise-of-the-Runelords-Chapter-1-Burnt-Offerings) qualifies; it was written for 3.5.

 

[Jack Daniel]

It would! And there should be one like that. Aasimar are no more tied to being Good than Tieflings are tied to being Evil.

Cf. nephilim.

 

[synthapse]

I know there are some races in the DMG (warforged and kender) and MM (orcs, goblins, etc) but I wonder how long we will have to wait to see aasimars, goliaths, changlings, shifters, genasi, and other additional races?

I'm holding out hope that the DMG will include shifters, changelings, half-giants, and thri-kreen. If the goal is to introduce races that are unique to certain settings, then those certainly fit the bill.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I'm holding out hope that the DMG will include shifters, changelings, half-giants, and thri-kreen. If the goal is to introduce races that are unique to certain settings, then those certainly fit the bill.

Mearls has mentioned some, but not all, of the Eberron races will be in the DMG.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Charles Wright]

I'm holding out hope that the DMG will include shifters, changelings, half-giants, and thri-kreen. If the goal is to introduce races that are unique to certain settings, then those certainly fit the bill.

And Muls!