D&D General What are your Core races?

[NaturalZero]

The 5e PHB has 9 "core" races that are assumed to be basic to D&D 5e in a general way.

For the sake of discussion, let's say that you're putting out your own homebrew campaign setting and you get to choose 9 races but CANNOT include the original 3 demihumans - elf, dwarf, halfling. Your new lineup can be from the history of canonical D&D lore or something new to the game.

What does your world's core 9 looks like?

 

[Wulffolk]

The only races really suitable to be core races are:
Human, Elf, Dwarf and Halfling.
I may allow one player to play something odd, if the concept fits the group and the story.

 

[Chaosmancer]

No Elf, No Dwarf and No halfling.

Okay, let's get the boring out of the way first. Going to have humans. You just can't get away from them

After humans, since I need eight other races I'd definetly put in Gnomes. I like them a lot and they fill in some needed niches.

Now, because I don't want to run out of spaces, I want to throw in two big ones that I'd say probably would need to be put in as new races. The first is a Plant-Folk race. I find it kind of fascinating to have a race of people that are plants. Lot of fun things you can do with that. I know DnD has a few plant-folk races, but I've never been super familiar with them and I'd want to be broad, covering tree-people, flower-people, ect. I have a story I'm thinking about starting soon where I came up with "Arboreans" so I'll use that.

Following that, a Beastkin race. I could accept them as shifters, but I'd really want to combine a lot of seperate "motifs" under one larger blanket. Get "tabaxi", "leonin", "minotaurs", "lizardfolk", "gnolls", ect all under the same category. It might be a bit messy mechanically, but I don't need to worry about that right now.

hmmm, five left.

Orcs definitely. I've done some cool things with orcs and I'd want to include them. They wouldn't have a really unique place at the moment, but I'd likely make them closer to goliaths in size and just yoink some of that pastiche to make Orcs just the biggest and scariest... except...

Goblins would be another, and I have a weird idea about Goblins stolen from "The Wandering Inn" that I've been adapting into various forms. Goblins go through three "puberties" in my mind. So, little green goblins "grow up" into Bigger less green hobgoblins who then "grow up" into massive hulking "Ogres". But all I'd take from the Ogres is the size. Now in this set up, I'd probably never make an "Ogre" a player character. They are definitely NPCs or the like. But it is a really cool idea, especially when combined with the Eberron Dar and their concepts of Atcha and Muut.

Dang, only three left.

I've got to have some version of Tielfings and Aasimar. They are more a modification on races than a pure race, but they help fill things out.

And then I'd have to take Warforged.

Honorable mention to #10 would be Changelings, because I am a sucker for shapeshifters, but they wouldn't really make a cut for "core"

So, TL;DR

Human, Gnome, Tiefling, Aasimar, Warforged, Orc, Goblin, Arborean (Plant People), and Beastkin (combining multiple anthros under a single banner. Or just shifters) That would be my line up of 9

 

[NaturalZero]

Now, because I don't want to run out of spaces, I want to throw in two big ones that I'd say probably would need to be put in as new races. The first is a Plant-Folk race. I find it kind of fascinating to have a race of people that are plants. Lot of fun things you can do with that. I know DnD has a few plant-folk races, but I've never been super familiar with them and I'd want to be broad, covering tree-people, flower-people, ect. I have a story I'm thinking about starting soon where I came up with "Arboreans" so I'll use that.

It's weird to me that they haven't tapped this obvious space in 5e.

Since 3.5, I've had a homebrewed Mandrake race in my settings that are gendered plant-people (as a nod to real-world mandrake folklore) with ties to alchemy and sound magic. I had racial feats to cover different types of plant morphologies like Nightshade with poison features and Luffa for desert adaptation. I haven't redone them for 5e but the subrace system would make them even easier to build.

 

[Chaosmancer]

It's weird to me that they haven't tapped this obvious space in 5e.

Since 3.5, I've had a homebrewed Mandrake race in my settings that are gendered plant-people (as a nod to real-world mandrake folklore) with ties to alchemy and sound magic. I had racial feats to cover different types of plant morphologies like Nightshade with poison features and Luffa for desert adaptation. I haven't redone them for 5e but the subrace system would make them even easier to build.

It doesn't surprise me too much, because Fantasy in generally leaves this ground fallow.

Usually if you are seeing "plant people" it is ancient forces like Treebeard, or some fey thing, or monstrous Alruanes or other forces. They are rarely adventuring people who interact with society.


That being said, it is a fascinating design space. Imagining how their culture would arise, what beliefs and burial practices they would have. I mean... we bury people in the ground, but plants traditionally get nutrients from the ground, which are added back in my decomposing plants and animals, so how does that all play together.

 

[Yaarel]

The core lineages depend on the region. In the Norse-esque region there are various locales, and one is in the sky among the clouds. Across the region, players can be:

• Human
• Alfar or Dvergar
• Jotnar: Risar, Thursar, or Troll (the Troll are various hybrids)
• Aesir or Vanir
• Drekar (a Troll taking the form of a monstrous serpent)

The nonhuman lineages are nature spirits, meaning the consciousness of a specific natural feature, that manifests remotely into a form that is moreorless human, but with some of the natural aspects.

Every manifestation starts at level 1 (including Aesir for example), but can advance into epic levels.

It is possible for a member of one lineage to become a member of an other lineage.

I havent written these lineages up for the new Tashas custom lineages but will soon. Essentially each lineage can choose one from several feats, or two half feats.

 

[Minigiant]

I have that in in one of my backpocket setting: Pantheon War.

Men
Asgardians
Olympians
Satyr
Dragonborn
Goblins
Critterfolk
Gnomes
Warforged


Followers of the Order/Knowledge Pantheon
Men, Dragonborn, Warforged

Followers of the War/Trickery Pantheneon
Men, Asgardians, Goliaths, Warforged

Followers of the Tempest Panthenon
Men, Goliaths, Satyrs, Olympians, Warforged

Followers of the Life Pantheon
Men

Followers of the Nature "Pantheon""
Critterfolk, Gnomes, Satyrs, Warforged

Followers of the Light God
Men, Goblins, Satyre, Olympians, Warforged

Followers of the Death Panthenon
Goblins, Warforged

 

[Tonguez]

Humans
Variant Humans
Near Humans
Gnomes

 

[jgsugden]

My homebrew's basic philosophy is that all the humanoid types exist in significant numbers in at least one place, and they also tend to be spread across the globe. The idea is specifically not to have any humanoid type, other than human, that exists in significantly disproportionate numbers or would be seen as a core humanoid type. Elves and dwarves were more prolific once, but both declined over time due to the baggage from when they were the dominant ones.

However, if you're asking me what humanoid types I would want to see represented in a setting in which I was a player, it would includes dwarf, elf and halfling, but the 9 other types would be human, tiefling, aasimar, dragonborn, gnome, changeling, goblin, orc, and genasi.

 

[ccs]

The 5e PHB has 9 "core" races that are assumed to be basic to D&D 5e in a general way.

For the sake of discussion, let's say that you're putting out your own homebrew campaign setting and you get to choose 9 races but CANNOT include the original 3 demihumans - elf, dwarf, halfling. Your new lineup can be from the history of canonical D&D lore or something new to the game.

What does your world's core 9 looks like?

Well, without Elves/Dwarves/Halflings, then I guess you won't be seeing my homebrew campaign setting.

But let's pretend....
My list would be:
1) Humans
2) 1/2 Elves
3) 1/2 Orcs
4) Gnomes
5) Tieflings
6) Goliaths
7) And the 3 races as they appear on pages xxx, yyy, & zzz of The Players Handbook, published by WoTC for their 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. (and guess what you'll find on those referenced pages )