A thought about how to handle races

[Glade Riven]

With all the debating of what should and should not be core with races, here's an idea that I think would work as a decent compromise (especially with the modularity theme):

5 or 6 fleshed out races, maybe even harkening back to older editions of D&D (Human, halfling, elf, dwarf, orc). Rules for half-breeds, as well as stats and a brief description for a number of other popular races in an appendix in the PHB. Seriously - those of us who have already played D&D know what a Dragonborn or a Warforged is. We just want stats so we can play our favorite race. Gnomes are still in the PHB for those who want to play them. Save the details for setting and race splats.

Heck, I actually wouldn't mind if a dozen races were dumped into a table with stats and a brief description, instead of taking up a page or three per race in the core book. Save the ecology for settings, splats, and monster manuals.

 

[mkill]

The only option I agree with is making half-races some kind of kit.

Apart from that I hope they use the same rule as for classes - if it's in any previous PHB, it's in.

I don't want to see an Appendix - what's that for? If you print it, you might as well do a proper writeup. Don't waste paper on something half-baked.

Now, popular non-PHB races should still be available from the start, but that's what we have the Web for. Only put them in print with proper mechanics, flavor text, playtest and support.

 

[harlokin]

For me, I don't want any "half-breeds", and to start with I want a selection of races that are actually different (not 3 or flavours of Elf and Dwarf) regardless which edition they hail from.

So that's a yes to:

Dwarf
Dragonborn
Elf
Halfling
Tiefling
Warforged

 

[Nivenus]

Based on what we're seeing about classes, I think it's fair to guess that races will follow the "everything from the PHB" format. So I expect to see the following as part of the "ready to play now" core, whatever they end up calling that:

• Dragonborn
• Dwarf
• Eladrin
• Elf
• Half-elf
• Halfling
• Half-orc
• Human
• Gnome
• Tiefling

I'm still hoping to see half-elves and half-orcs as hybrids, of course, with orc as a race to make up for half-orcs, but this doesn't seem all that likely. I'll be content with the two as regular races if that's what they go for.

 

[harlokin]

The problem I have is that I quite like Half Orcs (they remind me of Jagerkin), but don't like the idea of them be "half anything"......

 

[Nivenus]

The problem I have is that I quite like Half Orcs (they remind me of Jagerkin), but don't like the idea of them be "half anything"......

I've actually been using jagerkin as a base inspiration for hobgoblins in the campaign I'm currently running.

 

[harlokin]

I've actually been using jagerkin as a base inspiration for hobgoblins in the campaign I'm currently running.

Sounds very cool

 

[Wormwood]

I'd like something akin to (what I believe) they're planning with classes: all races from PHB1s, sorted by rarity

Common

• Human
• Elf
• Dwarf
• Halfling

Uncommon

• Half elf
• Half-orc
• Eladrin

Rare

• Tiefling
• Dragonborn
• Gnome

 

[Banshee16]

Aside from the fact that Eladrin in 4E got rid of a cool race of planar creatures that I loved from Planescape, I kind of liked the "faerie-ish" split they created in elves.

If anything though, I'd like the Eladrin to be more faerie-ish. Mechanically, they didn't really seem to be. I kind of preferred Bastion Press' take on them, when they were called "Feorin" in the "Faeries" book in 3E. Customizable was really neat.....less like WoW High Elves.

Maybe they could be called something else....make it outright...Faerie, Sidhe, or something like that.

Banshee

 

[Wormwood]

Maybe they could be called something else....make it outright...Faerie, Sidhe, or something like that.

Everything indicates that 5e is intended to be the 'D&D Unity' edition, where everyone from any edition can find something they recognize and enjoy.

Renaming a popular race is probably off the table for this very reason.