D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

[Oofta]

Just to add my 2 cents.

Let reverse the question, why would you ever play a human in a fantasy setting, where you could be just about anything?

Instead of the fantasy classes do you pick "commoner" or "expert" as your class (cause thats what you are in real life)? Do you use your own stats for your character?

F no! You choose something fun and exotic that you can never be in real life.

Do you play Bob the level 4 Human Accountant, with average stats, who can do your taxes?
Or would you play Xragis the Kobold Master Transmuter who can turn his allies into T-Rexes and foes into rabbits?

I guess some people just like vanilla and only vanilla.

I've played PCs like Bob. The guy just had a normal life (not an accountant but a cook) who would like nothing better than to go back to the simple life. Unfortunately he got caught up in something and had to become an adventurer. Throughout his career all he wanted to do was settle down and open a restaurant.

Because of the way the game works he was a cleric (and the Chef feat from Tasha's would have been perfect), but at heart? He just wanted to open a chicken shack. Maybe a small chain of restaurants. I played it mostly for laughs, but playing someone who would rather do anything but risk their necks adventuring (but does it anyway without excessive whining because it's necessary) is a pretty common fantasy trope.

Since I want to contribute to the party and the way the game works I'm going to have character levels, that doesn't change the mindset or approach of the PC.

But no, I wouldn't want to play Xragis. He sounds silly and has no grounding in a reality I could relate to. YMMV.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Just to add my 2 cents.

Let reverse the question, why would you ever play a human in a fantasy setting, where you could be just about anything?

Instead of the fantasy classes do you pick "commoner" or "expert" as your class (cause thats what you are in real life)? Do you use your own stats for your character?

F no! You choose something fun and exotic that you can never be in real life.

Do you play Bob the level 4 Human Accountant, with average stats, who can do your taxes?
Or would you play Xragis the Kobold Master Transmuter who can turn his allies into T-Rexes and foes into rabbits?

I guess some people just like vanilla and only vanilla.

On occasion one player or another will evidence a strong desire to operate as a monster, conceiving a playable character as a strong demon, a devil, a dragon, or one of the most powerful sort of undead creatures. This is done principally because the player sees the desired monster character as superior to his or her peers and likely to provide a dominant role for him or her in the campaign.

Xragis the Kobold Konjurer: "What is the definition of irony?"

Bob the Fighter: "15,000 people at a concert, chanting in unison, 'Eff you, I won't do what you tell me.'"

 

[DND_Reborn]

Just to add my 2 cents.

Let reverse the question, why would you ever play a human in a fantasy setting, where you could be just about anything?

Instead of the fantasy classes do you pick "commoner" or "expert" as your class (cause thats what you are in real life)? Do you use your own stats for your character?

F no! You choose something fun and exotic that you can never be in real life.

Do you play Bob the level 4 Human Accountant, with average stats, who can do your taxes?
Or would you play Xragis the Kobold Master Transmuter who can turn his allies into T-Rexes and foes into rabbits?

I guess some people just like vanilla and only vanilla.

I play humans so I can more imagine putting myself in the adventure, with a human mindset, etc.

FWIW, yes, personally, I have made myself as a PC and put myself in the game. Three times. In high school, college, and grad school with three different groups. The first time in high school it was a literal "D&D cartoon-like" scenario, normal high school kids magically transported to a realm of adventure and danger, etc. The second time we went more the Unearthed Arcana route, starting as home-brewed 0-level PCs. That was very challenging but a lot of fun! The last time in grad school, we more pretended that we were born in the fantasy world and judged what paths we would have taken when making ourselves as PCs.

I've never chosen a race because it was fun and exotic, it is more for story/background/character concept or mechanics.

As far as stats are concerned, I played Bob the Cleric whose stats were all 9-12's back in AD&D. He made it to level 9 and it was fun to play someone who was average because it made the game more challenging.

In 5E, PCs get SO much stuff and the default game is set to easy that making it more challenging by making it more mundane (instead of increasing the stakes even more to make it a challenge) is sometimes a good thing.

Anyway, while I can appreciate vanilla, I prefer chocolate for ice cream, but I know a lot of people like "crazy mixture" ice creams... shrug

 

[Maxperson]

The more traditional fantasy races - elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. are kind of played out. People have seen a million different interpretations of them in a million different fantasy settings, and generally don’t get excited by them any more. Even subversions of their common depictions are kind of ho-hum these days. On the other hand, more exotic fantasy races are still unexplored territory (well... less explored territory), which makes them more exciting for a lot of players.

Yet I have never seen these exotic races played as anything other than human in behavior. Not one cat person that I've seen played has gone chasing an arrow that missed him or hacked up a hair ball for example. Why play a cat person if you are just going to play a human anyway?

 

[Undrave]

There's a saying "correlation does not imply causation". I think you are massively understating the draw of +1 to six different stats, a skill, & feat. If variant human were the bogmonster race you would see a huge percentage of bogmonsters & vastly fewer humans

Wait... are you saying Humans are more or less common than the person you're responding to is saying? The D&D Beyond stats are clear that humans are the most popular race, and Human Fighter the most popular combination. Also, you can't have +1 to everything AND a feat at the same time.

Yet I have never seen these exotic races played as anything other than human in behavior. Not one cat person that I've seen played has gone chasing an arrow that missed him or hacked up a hair ball for example. Why play a cat person if you are just going to play a human anyway?

Why not? Dare I say why not? Cat-people are people too.

 

[tetrasodium]

I've never chosen a race because it was fun and exotic, it is more for story/background/character concept or mechanics.

I almost always do, but I notice an employment trend in monstrous race player, they tend to lean heavily into careers where stressful emotional labor is a significant chunk of their work

Spoiler: like so

hen you gp to to work 4-5 days a week for 8-10+ hours a day putting on a different human shaped (often somewhat doormaty) personality masks over and over acting the part of someone not emotionally dead inside who considers the customer as a living being worthy of whatever placation being given... it can be cathartic to put on a mask that would get them fired. Monstrous races allow a player to do that in clear & certain terms with no questions when they even filter reactions to mundane situations through a hint of twisted Connecticut Yankee. There's a reason why you see things like /r/talesfromtechsupport /r/talesfromthefrontdesk /r.talesfromretail & so many others, monstrous "weird fantasy" races allow players to vent by using a set of well trained personality shifting braincells in new & exciting ways.

Edit: @Undrave invoking "correlation does not imply causation" should not have cconfused you enough to reach that conclusion. There is no doubt that humans are "popular", but it's absurd to dismiss & downplay the importance of six +1s or +2 & a feat as was done.

 

[jasper]

Wow. I mean, really? Cookie monster is a good guy? I mean, "monster" is right in the name. If you actually ate as many cookies as he did you're health would be at risk! Evil and insidious, I can only imagine that he was secretly funded by insulin manufacturers and diet companies looking at future revenue.

Don't forget CM used to do work of the CIA before he couldn't any more. Now he tries to forget the past while drowning his sorrows in cookies and the odd child now and then.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Let me say that a lot of you are vastly underestimating the number of furries who play this game. Just something to consider.

 

[MGibster]

Instead of the fantasy classes do you pick "commoner" or "expert" as your class (cause thats what you are in real life)? Do you use your own stats for your character?

I don't use my own stats for characters in D&D because it would be unfair to start out with 18s in everything.

 

[MGibster]

But no, I wouldn't want to play Xragis. He sounds silly and has no grounding in a reality I could relate to. YMMV.

There's some difficulty when it comes to discussing D&D in that there are a wide varieties of ways to play the game. I can certainly envision a campaign where Xragis the Chickener is a completely appropriate character and others were he wouldn't be.