D&D General what is the worst race in dnd?

[Zardnaar]

Kender.

 

[Charlaquin]

Interesting that Dragonlance itself is so popular, yet two of its best-known races are so unpopular. I can only assume the story must have been really good, cause people clearly don’t like it for the races.

 

[James Gasik]

Well in 5e, I'd say Lizardfolk. 4e, it's hard to say, since most races were ok. Maybe Dragonborn before they fixed the scaling on their breath weapon?

3e? Kobolds before they got all their enhancements. -4 Str, +2 Dex? Yuck. Insert anything with a crippling Level Adjustment here as well.

2e? Fremlins. I was going to say Furchin (Polar Halflings), but their stats aren't actually bad, if I'm being objective. Wait, I know, it was these stupidly broken and OP jerks:

 

[Corinnguard]

I'm not liking the animal headed things in the new playtest.

The Ardlings wouldn't be so bad if 1) WoTC found a better name for them, 2) they are the descendants of the Guardinals, and 3) they are an Aasimar variant. Btw, why are the Aasimar in 5e officially tied to just the angels? There are other kinds of Celestials in 5e too.

 

[Mind of tempest]

just the classic demi-humans the elves dwarves and halflings, maybe the gnomes but I just hate them for how dull and over present they are, I hate the animal people if only for how lazy they are at least hurl three into a blender and make something worth doing.

 

[humble minion]

The desperate scrabbling for content in late 3e threw up some dreadful shovelware races, I have to agree. Most of which have mercifully vanished from my memory. Some definite wtf memories being inspired by posts about Raptorans etc. Oh, and the late 2e love affair with Every Elf Variant Imaginable Because Elves Are Special And Wonderful is something I suspect people are a bit embarrassed about now. The elves with not just wings, but FIERY wings were a particular romance-novel-cover low point.

From a 5e mechanical point of view, it’s hard to go past goblins though. The iconic goblin pc would be a rogue, but goblin racial abilities duplicate rogue abilities so you gain little, and their only other ability of note is a teeny tiny damage boost a couple of times a day. For a race that should be one of the most obvious ‘monster pc’ options, it’s a dud.

 

[Shiroiken]

Kender.

Kender are fine... players ruined them, as noted below.

Interesting that Dragonlance itself is so popular, yet two of its best-known races are so unpopular. I can only assume the story must have been really good, cause people clearly don’t like it for the races.

Gully Dwarves were a poorly thought out idea of making a mongoloid version of dwarf. They were stupid and cowardly, being only useful as slaves. They had overall minimal impact on the story, appearing only in the first novel, but one of them has an important impact on one of the primary characters.

Kender were perfectly fine in the original two trilogies, and also in the other stories I read. The problem with Kender is the way players would play them: as obsessive and annoying keleptomanics. Kender "acquire" various items, most of which are not valuable or useful, and are seldom even aware that they are stealing. Mechanically this was represented as a chance to pull something random in an emergency. Instead, jerkwad players would use them as an excuse to try and steal everything not nailed down. Not only did this steal the spotlight endlessly, when the character was caught and the party in trouble, they'd fall back to the "I can't help it, it's what my character would do!"

 

[Charlaquin]

Gully Dwarves were a poorly thought out idea of making a mongoloid version of dwarf. They were stupid and cowardly, being only useful as slaves.

Umm…?!

 

[Tonguez]

Gully Dwarves were a poorly thought out idea of making a mongoloid version of dwarf. They were stupid and cowardly, being only useful as slaves.

so benefit of doubt and all but just noting that mongoloid is an obsolete term and offensive in many ways, so use of it is best avoided.

but Yes Gully dwarfs were pathetic and unecessary

 

[cbwjm]

Aardlings from the origins playtest are pretty uninspiring mechanically, so they get my vote for the worst in the current edition.

I feel like 3e had a whole heap of races that were there to fill a themed book that likely didn't get much playtime but I can't think of any because they languished in that edition, never to be brought forward.