D&D General How many Races it too much?

[Helldritch]

Just the PHB would be fine. Even then, a few subraces would be cast off as being not that great of a deal.
Humans
Halflings
Elves
Dwarves
Half-orcs
Gnomes
Half-elves
Of the variants: Stout Halflings, Rockgnomes and darkelves would be on a case by case basis. I don't find them that relevant.
Aasimars, Eladrins, Dragonborns and Tieflings. Would also be on a case by case.
I think it shows my age too. And even then it is because my groups voted on these.

 

[steeldragons]

42.

It is always the answer.

BUT, it wasn't on the list so I'm going with 12.

The way I sees it, 12 species gives you infinite options. Each species can have various "sub-species" and innumerable different cultures that can be fluffed from one horizon to the other and cover any fantasy base you want. My own campaign world uses the following general list:
COMMON/BASIC RACES to choose from:
Humans: 8 distinct cultures/ancestries.
Elves: 1 PC default, 2 more "uncommon" PC types. 2 more "rare" if the DM is feeling generous. 6 total types.
Dwarves: 1 PC default. 1 more "uncommon PC option. 2 more "rare" types if the DM wants. Count the irretrievably evil Derro (my world doesn't have/use Duergar) as a "dwarf" type as my world's lore does, and that's 5 dwarf types.
Halflings: 1 common default (hairfoot), 1 "uncommon" PC option (tallfellow equivalent). 1 NPC only "evil/dark halfling" type. So there's 3 more.
Satyrs: just one kind for PCs. There are 2 special (that's "SPEE'-see-ahl", not "SPEH'-shul") variants not available to PCs.

Uncommon/"Expert" Races:
Gnomes: 1 PC option. 2 rare options more prone for NPCs ("deep gnomes" and earth elemental-gnomes). 2 rare evil subtypes. 5 subspecies total.
Half-Elf: Either the usual "half0human/half-elf" heritage or "humans" of an ancient realm that was originally an elfin land and enough elf-blood courses through the population that a "human" from that land can, in fact, possess the half-elf traits (while looking entirely human).
Horken: Half-Orc/Hobgoblin replacements. Heritage can be the engineered slave/solider self-sustaining species or usual "half-human/half-orc" or "half-human/half-horken" options.

RARE/"Advanced" Races:
Zepharim: feather-winged humanoids, think Thanagarians (in look, not culture. Cultures are very different...Well, the males. Female zepharim, actually, are very like Thanagarians. Winged Amazons, basically...or Valkerie with their own wings), not aarakocra.
Jerali: felinoids who skew a bit more "Thundercats" than "tabaxi/rakasta/catfolk" (again, in looks, not culture). 5 sub-species, but all found among one culture. I don't need to find a place in the continent for "lion folk, and panther folk, tiger folk, lynx, leopard, cheetah,..." ad infinitum. There is a felinoid species. Take on the sub-species traits of whichever one you like.
Centaurs: Pretty homogenous, culturally, really. And while they may travel just about anywhere (thus being eligible to become a PC), their origin territories are fairly contained, unlike other playable species that might be found living collectively in at least a few, if not many, places (Though there are rumors in the great grasslands of a dark-skinned zebra-striped variant.).
Lizardmen: the mutated people of an ancient human [reptile demon-worshipping] civilization, long forgotten. Now, while most existing lizardfolk have devolved to fairly primitive subsistence tribal culture. They are not inherently evil and have a capacity to learn (with some difficulty) the tongues and ways of the setting's goodly peoples. A select few are born with some mental drive of curiosity and wonder -genetic throwbacks, perhaps- with a capacity for a limited array of PC classes.
Sprites: dragonfly-winged 2' tall (fae beings who continue to inhabit the setting's Material plane) are on the proverbial "table," though I've never seen one played at an actual table.

So, with a list of 13 "races"/species, I get to 32-35 conceivable options for PCs...Populating the world with varying cultures of the same, not so many, peoples...And leaving me with up to 5-10 potential "haven't used/come up with them yet" slots for other species (or divergent/unknown cultures and civilizations) players might want to use...if a DM will allow.

42.

 

[cbwjm]

Just trying to think how many races inhabit my world.

I definitely have halfling, half-elves, dragonborn, lizardfolk, and warforged (total 5) as these are the races played by my players. Starting town also had dwarves running the mines and a genasi (total 7) who did all of the mine's paperwork.

Opponents my players have run into have included orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, and gnolls (total 12), many of which are now little more than cinders thanks to the dragonborn. When they visited a dragonborn city state, there were kobolds integrated into society (13)

The setting has as part of the establishing mythology a three way war between dragons, giants, and elementals. This is where the genasi and dragonborn came from as well as goliaths and firbolg (total 15).

We have half-elves so humans and elves also exist and they've been told about a gnome village (total 18). I also said anything from the PHB is playable so that means tieflings and half-orcs (total 20) are also kicking around.

Not all of these are playable (not sure if that was meant to be a limiting factor) and of those that are, I haven't even included the various subraces. There are probably a lot more that will be eventually encountered.

 

[Vael]

I like stepping into an adventurer's tavern and having that Mos Eisley cantina feel, so the more the merrier for races, for me.

HOWEVER, I am anti-subrace. I dislike having 20 different types of elves, dozens of dwarven subraces, etc. This is where I think that 4e got it right, by cutting the elves down to drow, elf and eladrin.

 

[tetrasodium]

I like stepping into an adventurer's tavern and having that Mos Eisley cantina feel, so the more the merrier for races, for me.

HOWEVER, I am anti-subrace. I dislike having 20 different types of elves, dozens of dwarven subraces, etc. This is where I think that 4e got it right, by cutting the elves down to drow, elf and eladrin.

I wouldn't mind subraces if for example elves had a subrace for FR style Rivendell extras, darksun style desert dwelling migrants, & spelljammer's refugees from a collapsed advanced civilization with maybe a couple variants of each where there are distinct differences but when high elf wood elf, dwarf, lightfoot halfling, stout halfling, & humans are written & statted to fit "in the forgotten realms" & nearly every other race is written for the same but faerun or specific things in/attached to fr with other settings only mentioned if the race is basically the same there leaving multiple books to say things like x elfs from that setting are best represented by wood/high elves... something has gone terribly wrong to confuse a core rulebook with setting specific campaign setting. When volos came out & a bunch of monstrous races were made pc races presented as the are "in the forgotten realms" despite being monsters there & people in other settings not reflected in the pc race or the lore attached to them in volos the problem became even more clear.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The proper answer is, "There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer." The closest answer to the way I actually do things was "17+, bring them all in," so that's what I voted. That is, I set no maximum number; choosing an arbitrary maximum is too limiting.

In my current game, we have seen the following races (though most are not player characters):
Humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, orcs, half-orcs, minotaurs, ogres, tieflings, dragonborn, efreet, genasi-equivalents, marids, djinn, jann (my word for earth genies), mizaj (my word for genies of a mixture of all elements), owlfolk, sahagin, dragons of various colors. There's also the "shi," my semi-Arabized version of sidhe, who are "like to elves as elves are to men": even more gracile, alien, and mysterious. Even if you exclude dragons and sahagin (who are borderline monsters), that's 18 races. And I am totally open to adding more, if it makes sense. I would have previously called my barriers to such additions "reasonable but not difficult to meet," but evidently compared to many DMs out there I am insanely permissive.

Our party has had humans, a half-elf, a half-orc, a tiefling, and a dwarf at various points along the way. I invented the owl-people race for a previous party (which effectively was two humans, a half-orc, an owl-man, and a genasi) because the player was interested in such a thing, so we worked out a baseline for their physiology, typical habitat outside of city-life, etc. It took no special effort on my part to do that, and the player felt supported and included.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I'm going to go for a very many or very few approach. Either it should be a carefully curated list which the setting is meaningfully developed around or it should be a complete kitchen sink setting where players just bring whatever they like. Basically if there is already a pile of included but underdeveloped and underincorporated races I think not allowing players whatever they want gets to be about a DM enforcing their arbitrary aesthetic whims.

 

[Mecheon]

I'm an old Warcraft person, so bring 'em all. You're not going to interact with half of them unless you go seek them out, but, they're around if you need somewhere to come from

 

[SehanineMoonbow]

I enjoy a variety, so bring it!

 

[Umbran]

I don't count. I don't usually even make a list. I know that the races selected by the players for their characters exist. Others exist as I use them.