What "classic" races are left? -- Forked Thread: PH3 Playtest Race: Wilden

[Quickleaf]

Nature spirits? I'm thinking the river spirit lady in Terry Brook's Druid of Shannara.

Of course, this could also be modeled with a genasi or even a storm sorcerer.

 

[Wormwood]

Traditional fantasy? I'd say that's pretty much covered already: elementals (genasi), demonoids (tieflings), sauroids (dragonborn), giants (goliaths), savages (shifters/half-orcs), etc.

Centaurs are still available I suppose.

Personally, I'd like to see some love thrown to Goblins and their kin.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Well, in current FR lore, shades are an "upgrade" to make you uber-powerful. But it would be cool to have a shade or shadow-person race you could play from level 1. Maybe when we get the shadow power source . . .

Isn't that essentially what the shadar-kai are about? Admitedly they've only received the dragon article/monster manual treatment so far.

Minotaurs and Gnolls similarly are something that could get 'official' treatment.

Various 'classic monster' races (orcs, goblins, kobolds) could be interesting. Again they have racial writeups in the Monster Manual, but they don't even have a full dragon article for themselves. It depends on whether they are willing to take a page out of the WoW/OotS/Goblins handbook and have the monster races have a side the PCs don't normally see. Then again, they may prefer having things like the tiefling and half-orc for that kind of player, and leave actual "monsters" to the dragon magazine or monster manual back pages.

 

[Rechan]

I think what one needs to do, is decide what "classic" and "traditional" is. Since, while say for example a Thri-Keen is deemed a classic race from early editions, people who say they want to play a "traditional fantasy" game wouldn't ever consider that.

I think that is more what the difference is. People who don't want races to go far from elves, dwarves, etc. Then there is also those who like more exotic races.

I think 4e has covered the majority of "traditional races".

Bingo.

I mean, Hobgoblins might be traditional to one person, while the other says "That's a bad guy". Centaur might be traditional to one, and another says "That's a furry." Any Oriental Adventures race is traditional to one, and "Eastern fantasy in my Western fantasy!"

Shifters cover the anthropomorphic person theme, or "furries", pretty well.

Shifters are about as anthropomorphic as Wolverine.

 

[Remathilis]

More seriously, Shade.

Doesn't Shadar-kai fill that role?

Well, there aren't that many roles left to fill. TV tropes suggests five races, all pretty much filled.

The Stout: Dwarf, Dragonborn, Goliath, Half-orc
The Fairy: Elf, Gnome, Eladrin, Shifter
The Mundane: Human, Halfling
The High Men: Deva, Half-elf, Eladrin, Tiefling
The Cute: Halfling, Gnome

We even have the Sixth ranger, the Evil (Drow, Tiefling), though D&D seems to lack in "cute" races and mundanes...

Alternately, we could go by primary attribute (note, not just ability score modifier, but how the race is visualized, treated, and what their racial abilities lend themselves to:

Strong: Dragonborn, Half-orc
Quick: Shifter, Elf, Halfling
Hearty: Dwarf, Goliath
Smart: Eladrin, Tiefling
Wise: Deva
Pretty/Social: Gnome, Half-elf, Drow

By that measure, we could use more "wise" races, I guess.

 

[Wormwood]

Shifters cover the anthropomorphic person theme, or "furries", pretty well.

I gotta go with Rechan here----shifters may be a lot of things but furries ain't one of 'em.

Dragonborn seem to fit the bill nicely, however. You know, except for the fur and all.

 

[Rechan]

Doesn't Shadar-kai fill that role?

Well, there aren't that many roles left to fill. TV tropes suggests five races, all pretty much filled.

I think "The Ugly" or "The Brute" is missing from that race list.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Well the asian flavored classics can also be considered traditional fantasy by a lot of people and I don't see why they need to be reserved for whatever PHB comes with the ki power source (since they most likely use classes from the divine and primal power sources).

I guess we could add Asian as a race, but it just seems wrong.

Maybe if they got an encounter power involving flight?

 

[Wormwood]

By that measure, we could use more "wise" races, I guess.

This Centaur thing is looking more promising

And yes, I understand that the apparent Medium requirement for 4e races precludes them. Maybe Shetland Centaurs?

 

[Doug McCrae]

We got demons, how about angels.