D&D (2024) How did I miss this about the Half races/ancestries

[Faolyn]

As for bullywugs, as long as they aren't based on the Surinam toad, I'm happy. (don't google those). However as bullywugs are int 7 as standard, I don't think they're really suitable as a PC species.

Apparently, when I was little (3-4) I was with my mother in the backyard and I suddenly said "look mommy, I got a snake!" And when she turned around, scared to death I was about to get bitten... I was just holding an earthworm.

I'm one of those weirdos who think Surinam toads (and ribbon worms and tongue-eating lice and all those sorts of things) are actually really cool.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Interbreeding was possible, at least with the Neanderthals, so they were pretty much the same as us. The same race, even if another species of that race. This is about something completely alien, not the same race.

They were classified as different species, which by definition is a different race when it comes to taxonomy. Race is such minor differences that it's not really even covered by taxonomy.

You can't be the same race but different species.

 

[Faolyn]

Faolyn. I mean this in the most friendly way possible, I can't respond to you until you stop being rude to me. And I am not going to answer questions that sound like an interrogation or demand (I just resounded to another poster who asked for reasons, feel free to look at those if you want---if you want further clarification just approach this conversation in a more friendly way and I will be happy to accommodate you)

OK, since you're not my mother, I'm not going to play these sort of "say pretty please and maybe I'll be nice" games with you.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Fair enough. Again like I said, maybe you have a very relaxed attitude around the whole punching up thing. Whoever I have encountered it before though it is usually used as a way of just saying something is bad without going into any other detail

Maybe they just have gotten tired of explaining it? It isn't a very difficult concept to grasp, and is many times rather self-explanatory. Even if you have earnest questions, sometimes you are the seven hundredth person they had the exact same conversation with, and five hundred of those weren't being earnest, but were pretending so they could attack them.

It isn't so much about liking, as it is about this thing essentially being a predator. I would argue that humans are special though. And I think human life is special. Other forms of life also matter, but I would protect a human before a bear

Humans aren't special. Humans are also predators, we are actually vicious and cruel predators much of the time, our entire hunting strategy was running animals to exhaustion until they were too worn out to do anything except accept their inevitable death at our hands.

And of course I would protect most humans before I would protect most bears, but that is because I am a human, and I am not a bear. But there is nothing special about us. We could encounter an alien species with all of our strengths and none of our flaws, because we are not inherently different than any other type of life. We just walked a different path into the future.

That isn't what I am trying to say. What I am trying to say is if you have a being who is different enough from us that they are effectively our predators, even if they are sapient and free willed, would we call them people?

And again, yes. They would be people. There is nothing about being a predator to humans that makes them not people. They simply aren't human.

And again, I think being human automatically does make you a person (the definition is essentially a product of humanity reflecting on itself). That doesn't mean there can't be other creatures we would label people, but I think it is questionable if sapience and free will alone make it so (for example some people argue dolphins are sapient and I am actually inclined to agree. I think that makes them precious and special, but I don't think it make them people because they have such different nature from humans.

What else other than sapience and free will (for the value it exists) could it be? Other animals grieve and bury the dead. Other animals make art and music. Other animals use intelligence and tools to reshape their environments. We don't have some special spark that makes us wholly unique, except for our perceptions of our own abilities.

 

[Maxperson]

They were classified as different species, which by definition is a different race when it comes to taxonomy. Race is such minor differences that it's not really even covered by taxonomy.

You can't be the same race but different species.

Human is human. Show me a non-human in the real world and we will see if it's considered a person, an alien or something else. I'm not going to worry about what I would do until I meet a non-human here in the real world.

 

[Incenjucar]

This is a thread about non-human and part-human people in a fantasy world.

 

[Maxperson]

Humans aren't special. Humans are also predators, we are actually vicious and cruel predators much of the time, our entire hunting strategy was running animals to exhaustion until they were too worn out to do anything except accept their inevitable death at our hands.

If we had claws and cheetah speed, we wouldn't have needed to do that. There's nothing more or less cruel about running prey to death because that's the tool you have and ripping prey apart with claws.

And of course I would protect most humans before I would protect most bears, but that is because I am a human, and I am not a bear. But there is nothing special about us. We could encounter an alien species with all of our strengths and none of our flaws, because we are not inherently different than any other type of life. We just walked a different path into the future.

We don't know that. Any other intelligent life we find is probably going to be, well, totally alien in thoughts, morals and all the rest. They may not even be carbon based.

What else other than sapience and free will (for the value it exists) could it be? Other animals grieve and bury the dead. Other animals make art and music. Other animals use intelligence and tools to reshape their environments. We don't have some special spark that makes us wholly unique, except for our perceptions of our own abilities.

Top 10 Things That Make Humans Special

This is what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.

www.livescience.com

 

[Incenjucar]

That article was clearly written by someone who doesn't know much about zoology. There are animals that use fire.

 

[Chaosmancer]

My argument that games are not real life and unlike real life news, don't turn people into bigots. If yours wasn't refuting that, then they are irrelevant. My bad.

When talking about stories and tropes, that doesn't mean I was talking about games. I also never said it turns people into bigots. You really need to read my posts more closely, if you expect me to take your arguments seriously.

Lots more barbarians than just them.

Like....

Those are the only ones I've ever heard about living in the Sword Coast, but please tell me about Neverwinter's native barbarian population.

I did prove it. They create studded leather armor. They forge weapons of steel. That means that they can forge armor. For your argument to work you need to show that they are too dumb or incompetent to forge armor.

Ah. So one cave system among thousands is proof that none have forges and blacksmiths. Hell, someone was arguing about how a bunch of orcs took over a dwarven hold and kept it for a long time. No forges there!

Ah yes, because no one has ever created any studded leather armor without metal. INCONCEIVABLE! I say.

And you forget, I don't need to show anything. I just need to quote the book. And out of all the writings about orcs, there is only one mention of smithing at all. And it is "They fashion crude weapons, armor, and the few manufactured items that the orcs need for daily life.". Talking about the Priestess's of Luthic. And remember, it ALSO says "Since orcs are poor crafters, most of their wagons are stolen from human or dwarven strongholds, and then decorated with uniquely orcish accessories."

So, orcs are such poor crafters that they can't even make wagons and prefer to steal them (according to the source material) but you want me to believe they are equally capable of crafting highly advanced plate armor?

And again, in the depiction of a typical orc settlement, which was expressly put as the typical, standard example, in fact, to quote "The orc stronghold depicted and described here is an example of such a place, which could suit the needs of a tribe for several years or even decades. It has several subterranean chambers, conveniently configured to provide every group of worshipers with appropriate quarters, and it is accessible from the surface through only one well-guarded passageway." And yet not a single mention of a smithy, a forge, or any metalworking in the entire map.

Meanwhile, other than the smallest and poorest of farming villages, have you ever seen a map of a human settlement that DIDN'T have a blacksmith on the map?

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Human is human. Show me a non-human in the real world and we will see if it's considered a person, an alien or something else. I'm not going to worry about what I would do until I meet a non-human here in the real world.

Human is Homo Sapiens. A neanderthal is Homo neanderthalensis. Which is, by definition, not human. It's like calling a lion a tiger. A lion being Panthera leo, while a tiger is Panthera tigris.

So neanderthals would fit in the definition of a non human people.