D&D 5E why has none of the wisdom races caught on?

[Mind of tempest]

in one of my other threads, the topic of primarily wisdom races came up and it honestly bugs me as we do not even have one of them in the players handbook?
by wisdom races, I mean at least in 5e a plus two to the wisdom attribute so these guys:

• Githzerai
• Firbolg
• Wildhunt Shifters
• Kalashtar

I am not counting hill dwarves as no one has been able to explain to me how they differ from mountain dwarves.
Has anyone got any thoughts, knowledge of past wisdom races or theories as to why none of them has quite caught on?

 

[Vaalingrade]

None of them are all that 'sexy': Space mummies, cow giants, shifters, whose art issue has been discussed at length here before, and Go'auld who are also psionics replete with all of 5e's failures with psionics.

 

[Mind of tempest]

None of them are all that 'sexy': Space mummies, cow giants, shifters, whose art issue has been discussed at length here before, and Go'auld who are also psionics replete with all of 5e's failures with psionics.

what does sexy mean in this context as I am lost on that word normally?

I see your point on psionics.

 

[Steampunkette]

I'mma break this down a little:

1) Why no wisdom race in the PHB?
Because wisdom just isn't important enough to any class. Sure, it's the save DC determiner for Clerics and Druids, but lots of what they do doesn't have a saving throw because it's self-targeting, buffing, or healing. So it wasn't immediately needed out the gate.

2) Why no Githzerai in the PHB?
Because the PHB is all about being basic fantasy. You don't get the wild races in the PHB, you get the Tolkienesque ones.

3) Why no Shifter/Kalashtar in the PHB?
See above, but also add "WotC both loves and hates Eberron" because it's not standard fantasy.

4) Why no Firbolg Wis Mod in the PHB?
Because firbolgs being wise is a NEW thing. And it's mostly because of Matt Mercer and his hilarious shopkeeper with clones.

This is the 2e Firbolg. With a +7 damage bonus from his 19 strength he could one-hand a small tree and smack you with it. Yeah, they also had some spellcasting traits, but when you look at that big burly dude you're not thinking 'peaceloving forest spirit gently tending the land'. This is what Firbolg -were- 'til 5e launched and made them nature-folk in the Monster Manual... and then Mercer came up with the sheep-people. Not cow. Sheep. Look at Caduseus Clay and tell me that's a cow and I'll giggle.

Ever see the 4e version? Woofta.

So yeah... Wisdom just has never been that important to D&D characters. It's good to have a high wisdom, but it's not "I need a 17 at level 1 or I'll suck!" material.

 

[RuinousPowers]

what does sexy mean in this context as I am lost on that word normally?

I see your point on psionics.

Sexy, as in not having a cool hook or visual appeal.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I'mma break this down a little:

1) Why no wisdom race in the PHB?
Because wisdom just isn't important enough to any class. Sure, it's the save DC determiner for Clerics and Druids, but lots of what they do doesn't have a saving throw because it's self-targeting, buffing, or healing. So it wasn't immediately needed out the gate.

2) Why no Githzerai in the PHB?
Because the PHB is all about being basic fantasy. You don't get the wild races in the PHB, you get the Tolkienesque ones.

3) Why no Shifter/Kalashtar in the PHB?
See above, but also add "WotC both loves and hates Eberron" because it's not standard fantasy.

4) Why no Firbolg Wis Mod in the PHB?
Because firbolgs being wise is a NEW thing. And it's mostly because of Matt Mercer and his hilarious shopkeeper with clones.

This is the 2e Firbolg. With a +7 damage bonus from his 19 strength he could one-hand a small tree and smack you with it. Yeah, they also had some spellcasting traits, but when you look at that big burly dude you're not thinking 'peaceloving forest spirit gently tending the land'. This is what Firbolg -were- 'til 5e launched and made them nature-folk in the Monster Manual... and then Mercer came up with the sheep-people. Not cow. Sheep. Look at Caduseus Clay and tell me that's a cow and I'll giggle.

Ever see the 4e version? Woofta.

So yeah... Wisdom just has never been that important to D&D characters. It's good to have a high wisdom, but it's not "I need a 17 at level 1 or I'll suck!" material.

we have teifling who are not exactly Tolkien or dragon born for that matter.
I thought wisdom was a casting stat for several classes is that not important?
has there never simply been an effort to make one not even in the tsr gotta fill in all possible boxes?

Sexy, as in not having a cool hook or visual appeal.

so lack of a cool aesthetic and an interesting basic concept ah I now see what is meant in this context.

 

[Steampunkette]

we have teifling who are not exactly Tolkien or dragon born for that matter.
I thought wisdom was a casting stat for several classes is that not important?
has there never simply been an effort to make one not even in the tsr gotta fill in all possible boxes?

so lack of a cool aesthetic and an interesting basic concept ah I now see what is meant in this context.

Number 1 was that wisdom as a casting stat for Clerics and Druids was not that important, because a lot of what they use spellcasting for doesn't have saving throws. I feel like you didn't actually read what I said if you immediately point out it's a casting stat and therefore important...

Tieflings and dragonborn aren't "Standard Fantasy", it's true! Dragonborn and Tieflings exist in the PHB because 4e did it's absolute best to break the mold and do something different for differentness's sake. Dragonborn in order to slake people's thirst to play Dragons ('Cause there's always someone who wants to) and Tieflings because holy crap they were a huge hit with the LGBTQIAP+ community!

So many people slapped the roof of a Tiefling and said "You can fit so many traumatic allegories into this bad boy" and ran with it. It's also why they come in a rainbow of colors in artwork while the book says they run the gamut from normal human skin tones to red.

This look red to you?! (I love tieflings, obviously, 'cause I'm B and T, myself, but, y'know >.>)

That said, demons and dragons and half-demons and half-dragons appear in so much fantasy stuff in the past 30 years that I think they've kind of -become- standard fantasy, at this point, even if they're not Tolkienesque fantasy, per se? Stuff like Healing Potions are Standard Fantasy, these days, but were never part of Tolkienesque High Fantasy, y'know?

Gith, on the other hand, are very much D&D Niche. Like. Straight up protected IP. Not out in the greater consciousness.

 

[billd91]

has there never simply been an effort to make one not even in the tsr gotta fill in all possible boxes?

I'm honestly glad they didn't set out to "fill the boxes" for this. I am fine with fantasy races having different distributions of ability scores compared to a baseline 3-18 bell curve, but I'm not keen on designing racial options just so there's a races with a natural advantage for each class.

But if you're curious about the hill dwarf/mountain dwarf divide, check out Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. They cover it there.

 

[Jer]

I don't think the races missing from the PHB are a standard fantasy issue - I think it's more that the 5e PHB tried to put in every race and almost every class that had ever been in a PHB before. Firbolg, githzerai, shifters and kalashtar were never in a roll-out PHB before, while tieflings and dragonborn had. I don't think there was ever any thought of including them (if they were going to include a race that hadn't appeared in a PHB before I suspect they would have included the warforged).

As for why they haven't caught on - I suspect that it's mostly lack of exposure. I think shifters could be really popular given more exposure, for example - they're animal/human hybrids and it's not like that isn't something people are into. But even in Eberron IME shifters tend to take a back seat to more visibly cool races like changelings and warforged.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It's weird how the uniform teifling design hit it so far out of the park that it broke a window in the neighboring hotel, but then the dragonborn somehow missed every feature people wanted in dragon folk, including the tail they just gave the teifling.