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

[Maxperson]

One obvious example was the Dungeon of Despair. The DM had spent hours constructing the thing and tended to like killer traps. The players noped out and chose to go in the other direction and run schemes of their own. Certainly vetoing the DM's choice for the next adventure.

That's not an example, though. Assuming the DM is being a jerk, he can just tell you guys no. The dungeon pulls you in or some such. Assuming he's not being a jerk, then he has tacitly authorized your deviation and you guys go on in the direction you wanted to go. In both cases, his authority is absolute by RAW.

Once again I say halflings. I find a dragonborn, a tiefling, or even a tabaxi, any of whom have more or less human physical limits whatever their skin is made of easier to relate to being one of than I do to a toddler-sized adult navigating round spaces intended for human sized creatures when the act of doing so is not meant to be a core focus of the game.

There is a reason why, despite the Tolkien influence and despite how long halflings have been part of core D&D Dragonborn and Tieflings are more popular.

This is a strawman/red herring argument, though. We aren't talking about realism here. We're talking about comfort zones. Is someone more comfortable with a cat man or halfling? Is he more comfortable with an elf or a dragon man?

 

[Charlaquin]

Not really.

Gnomes’ identity in D&D has gone through several iterations, in part because the community at large never seems fully satisfied with any one take on gnomes. Which appears to me to be why they’re kind of all over the place in 5e. They basically just decided that every past version of gnomes is a subrace this edition. And that mostly works. I prefer something a bit more cohesive, but yeah, gnomes are fine.

 

[Maxperson]

Gnomes’ identity in D&D has gone through several iterations, in part because the community at large never seems fully satisfied with any one take on gnomes. Which appears to me to be why they’re kind of all over the place in 5e. They basically just decided that every past version of gnomes is a subrace this edition. And that mostly works. I prefer something a bit more cohesive, but yeah, gnomes are fine.

In the 37 years that I've been playing, I have seen fewer than 10 gnome characters. In my experience, people that want to go with an earthy race pick dwarves, and ones that want to go with a short and nimble race go with halflings. I'm not sure I agree that they are having trouble with having a distinct identity, though. It just seems like that identity isn't one that most people like very much.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Gnomes’ identity in D&D has gone through several iterations, in part because the community at large never seems fully satisfied with any one take on gnomes. Which appears to me to be why they’re kind of all over the place in 5e. They basically just decided that every past version of gnomes is a subrace this edition. And that mostly works. I prefer something a bit more cohesive, but yeah, gnomes are fine.

I mean, they've always been little dudes associated with the earth who live in little burrows and are magical and clever. That's a solid ID.

Now, I do think that they should have put the talking to small animals in the base race in 5e, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Besides, arguing physical viability in D&D is kind of a waste of time..because fantasy.

It's not Earth, there is magic, all characters, settings, and actions are imagined. All "that's not realistic" does is start silly (if perhaps fun) arguments.

sure. I mean, how many races have magic spells as part of their dna? Worrying that the game doesn't model the difference between 3 ft tall and 5ft tall is just...weird.

 

[FrozenNorth]

So, where does the idea of halflings as simple-minded agrarian folk with leathery soles who don’t wear shoes and love homely comforts come from? Well, it’s how Halfling slaves were commonly depicted. How about the stereotype of the wily halfling rogue? Well, that’s a more modern stereotype, which comes from the fact that halflings are often pushed to criminality as a result of the generational poverty they’ve suffered in the aftermath of abolition.

It’s interesting, because that is definitely the direction taken in Pathfinder.

That interpretation doesn’t seem to have much support in the PHB or in Mordenkainen’s, though (with the caveat that individual players are always free to create their own interpretations).

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I mean, they've always been little dudes associated with the earth who live in little burrows and are magical and clever. That's a solid ID.

That sounds like halflings.

 

[Charlaquin]

It’s interesting, because that is definitely the direction taken in Pathfinder.

That interpretation doesn’t seem to have much support in the PHB or in Mordenkainen’s, though (with the caveat that individual players are always free to create their own interpretations).

I actually got the idea from Scarred Lands, which was a 3e setting originally but has been updated to 5e. I’m not really familiar with Pathfinder’s default setting. Golarion, I think it’s called? But yeah, the interpretations I use in my homebrew setting are definitely different than the default 5e assumptions. 5e largely plays the fantasy race stereotypes straight, where I, as I said, treat them as in-universe stereotypes and try to imagine more robust cultures that said stereotypes might develop about.

 

[Oofta]

Halflings are about the only race in my campaign that don't really have a home. They're travelers, trading goods and fixing things (they're especially good at fine repairs). When they do settle in cities, they're most likely to take up residence in nooks and crannies. Not necessarily in "poor" sections, but in attics of grand homes, small rooms in odd spaces of buildings or between other buildings and so on.

In addition, they have very unique view of the gods. Yondalla is the mother of countless gods, minor gods seemingly without number. For every niche, there is a god. To non-halflings, halflings just make up gods as they go along.

Gnomes on the other hand tend to be tinker gnomes, always creating and tweaking their inventions. As a long lived race, they find joy in finding new and unique solutions. Often combining magic and technology, the point is not necessarily to improve but to think outside the box.

On a related note, goblins and gnomes are distant cousins, both descended from fey proto-goblins*. In the far distant past when they were forced out of the feywild, those with dark hearts that were bitter because of their eviction chose to follow Maglubiyet while those with hope chose Garl Glittergold.

*There are still proto-goblins in the feywild, effectively they're like Harry Potter goblins.

 

[Charlaquin]

That sounds like halflings.

Not to me, apart from being little guys and living in burrows, and even that is a Tolkienism that didn’t really carry over to D&D. The earth association is more dwarflike and the nature association and illusion magic is more elflike. Though, that’s forest gnomes specifically, whereas rock gnomes double down on the earth association and add in crafting, which makes them even more like dwarves.