D&D 5E What Nonstandard/Untraditional Races do you wish would return?

[QuietBrowser]

We're all more than familiar with the iconic line-up of PC race options in D&D; that neo-Tolkienian array of Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Half-Elf and Half-Orc that has gone mostly unchanged throughout the editions (AD&D 2e, 4e and 5e being exceptions). But, they're not the only races that D&D has offered throughout its existence. Some of those races have been pretty bizarre by comparison.

In Basic D&D, we had traditionally evil humanoids - orcs, gnolls, goblinoids, trolls and ogres - in the "Orcs of Thar" gazetteer, as well as Lupins & Rakasta in "Champions of Mystara", sprites/pixies/treants/centaurs in "Tall Tales of the Wee Folk", harpies & sphinxes in "Top Ballista", and nixies, tritons & aquatic elves in "The Sea Peoples".

Advanced D&D gave us a whole splatbook full of normally monstrous races in "The Complete Book of Humanoids", which covered everything that Orcs of Thar did, plus centaurs, ogres, oni (ogre mages), kobolds, pixies, satyrs, minotaurs and more. The very first hardcover Dragonlance sourcebook, "Dragonlance Adventures", featured playable minotaurs and Irda (the spellcasting, non-evil "proto ogres").

We'd be here all day if I tried to list the races 3e added, especially with the Monster Manuals & Dragon Magazine, and whilst 4th edition added lots of races through Dragon - such as gnolls, hobgoblins, bladelings and kenku - it also featured odd races right in the supplemental PHBs, such as minotaurs, shardminds and wildren.

So, I figure that there have to be fans of all the weird and wonderful races we've seen in editions past. So I figured it couldn't hurt to ask: which ones do you miss the most? Which do you wish WoTC would bring back in official capacity for 5th edition?

 

[Leatherhead]

I'm rather fond of Warforged.

 

[Nevvur]

Is none an acceptable answer?

As both DM and player, I like to tell stories about familiar heroes (humans, elves, dwarves, etc). Nothing wrong with dipping into the weird races, just not my cup of tea.

I did have a fascination with avariel from 2e, but 20 years and lots of DMing later, I strongly dislike flying races as PC options!

 

[delericho]

To be honest, I'm only really interested in the setting-specific races, and only in the context of their settings.

So, if any when they do Dragonlance, I'd like to see Minotaurs; for Dark Sun the Thri-kreen; Giff for Spelljammer; the four races for Eberron... Obviously, if they were to do a new setting, that might well also introduce some new races. Though I'd be surprised if they did that anyway.

Otherwise, though, the truth is that I'm more likely to go human-only than to use any non-standard races. Either that, or brew up my own PC races for a homebrew setting.

 

[Zardnaar]

I still have a soft spot for proper Drow (read AD&D) and Avariel.

 

[Mecheon]

Thri-Kreen for life.

Though honestly, I think we're at a point where they're standard and traditional, given they've been in everything since 2E.

I'd be down for Shardminds showing up again because they were a heck of a distinctive race.

Didn't the book that gave us Shadar'Kai have a few other semi-interesting things?

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I'd like to see the 4E pixies. They were chock full of backstory flavor and it'd be really nifty to play a Tiny character. On the other side of the spectrum I enjoyed the Arcana Evolved giant race--especially the PrC that could make you Huge. I don't know how well that would gel with 5E but I think it would be cool to play a giant PC.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

As someone who uses the 4e's Nentir Vale a lot for any games/systems, I'd like to have Minotaurs, Shardmind and Wilden because they fit the lore of that setting.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Guest 6801328]

Half-ogre.

And pixie, as somebody above mentioned.

Unfortunately, 5e's emphasis on balance probably wouldn't support doing justice to either option.