Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana August: Races of Ravnica

Parmandur · Aug 13, 2018

This month's Unearthed Arcana, by James Wyatt, introduces four new Ravnica player races! "A group of races from the world of Ravnica have arrived in Unearthed Arcana: loxodons, Simic hybrids, vedalken, and viashino. While native to Ravnica, these folk could potentially be used in any D&D world. They are destined for the upcoming book Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica, out this November. Now is your chance to help shape their final forms!"

The 5 page PDF details the following races:

Humanoid elephants, loxodons are often oases of calm in the busy streets of Ravnica. They hum or chant in their sonorous tones and move slowly or sit in perfect stillness. Provoked to action, loxodons are holy terrors—bellowing with rage, trumpeting and flapping their ears. Their still wisdom and their furious strength—as well as their fierce loyalty and unwavering conviction— are tremendous assets to their guilds.
The Simic Combine uses magic to fuse different life forms together. In recent years, they have extended this research to humanoid subjects, magically transferring the traits of various animals into humans, elves, and vedalken. The goal of the so-called Guardian Project is to build a Simic army of superior soldiers, perfectly adapted to a variety of combat situations. These hyper-evolved specimens are called Simic hybrids, though they sometimes call themselves guardians.
Nothing is perfect—vedalken believe this and rejoice in it. Every imperfection is a chance for improvement, whether it’s in law or in science, and progress is an endless march toward a state of perfection that might never be reached. This leads vedalken to pursue their work with delighted enthusiasm, never deterred by setbacks and excited by every opportunity for improvement.
Many reptiles derive their body warmth and energy from the sun, but the humanoid viashino are fueled by an inner fire of zeal. Open with their emotions, viashino can be hot-tempered, but they are also quick to their hissing laughter. And they easily form close bonds of friendship. They are fierce warriors and passionate advocates for their guilds and causes.

GMforPowergamers · Aug 13, 2018

Oh wow...these things have 4 arms did I miss that or do they not mention it at all in the stats...

Staffan · Aug 13, 2018

Huh. Well, color me surprised. I was like 99% certain that they would have a new revision of the artificer this month. I'm also surprised they're doing these this close to the release of Ravnica.

Bitbrain · Aug 13, 2018

No artificer?

EDIT
Loxodon = elephant hill dwarves? That's . . . certainly different.

Veldeken = blue Vulcans? Meh.

Okay, I'll admit the Viashino are rather cool. The Lashing Tail trait is really awesome. I can easily see these guys as a variant Lizardfolk in the Eberron setting, maybe the Fallen Bone tribe in Q'Barra?

Simic Hybrids = Cyborg-elf-baboon-manta rays? I'm giving XP for this, because the DC Comics Supervillains Mallah + the Brain fan in me is now squealing with joy.

Inchoroi · Aug 13, 2018

Eh. Interesting, but uninspiring.

jgsugden · Aug 13, 2018

Staffan said:
Huh. Well, color me surprised. I was like 99% certain that they would have a new revision of the artificer this month. I'm also surprised they're doing these this close to the release of Ravnica.

My two thoughts exactly. Maybe we'll get a second article... or maybe they were not ready with Artificer and put this out there as a way to calm the eager masses...

Zarithar · Aug 13, 2018

Interesting. I just have to play one of those elephant dudes.

pming · Aug 13, 2018

Hiya.

The only one that sound remotely interesting to me is the Loxodon...but only just. But, I guess WotC didn't want to really go whole-hog on the creativity because after a while all the "special and unique" would blend into a big, grey, homogeneous mass of "fantasy".

pogre · Aug 13, 2018

Loxodons are something I want to paint. I hope it inspires some cool miniatures.

I painted a herd of elephants for a Carthaginian army years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit.