D&D 5E Halflings are the 7th most popular 5e race

[Mind of tempest]

Mechanically sound and flavor-wise a dragon.

No wings, not tail, no dragon.


Not players trying them, designers trying to make them interesting. They're a victim of alignment box checking. Tieflings exist and people like them. Here is Good Tiefling. Our work here is done.

you damn well know Wings would get it shot down by most DMs as few seem to be able to handle flying pc and winged but flightless is dull.

the lack of tails is odd to most people perhaps it is to contrast with lizardfolk or something equally pointless.

I would prefer more cultural options for them but I am bad at making cultures.

Mechanically sound and flavor-wise a dragon.

No wings, not tail, no dragon.


Not players trying them, designers trying to make them interesting. They're a victim of alignment box checking. Tieflings exist and people like them. Here is Good Tiefling. Our work here is done.

angles have few hooks as most writers struggle to make the fundamentally good and not secretly screwed up interesting or have depth no idea why but it does feed into my idea that if there is an ultimate idea it is evil rather than Plato's good.

 

[Vaalingrade]

you damn well know Wings would get it shot down by most DMs as few seem to be able to handle flying pc and winged but flightless is dull.

DMs need to learn.

Or rather unlearn the dumb suppositions they've been taught about flight and bad habits that make flight 'scary' to them. We could put this information into some sort of guide for dungeon masters.

angles have few hooks as most writers struggle to make the fundamentally good and not secretly screwed up interesting or have depth no idea why but it does feed into my idea that if there is an ultimate idea it is evil rather than Plato's good.

Then drop the 'fundamentally good'. It's s worthless as 'inherently evil' and aasimars are supposed to be people anyway.

 

[CreamCloud0]

you damn well know Wings would get it shot down by most DMs as few seem to be able to handle flying pc and winged but flightless is dull.

this is part of why i think species really want their own parallel ability progression as they level up, not nearly as extensive as what class is but just hold off that natural fly speed until 5th level when fullcasters will get their 3rd level slots and the fly spell and everything is balanced in lockstep, no 1st level flight to worry about and it makes your choice of species a slightly more meaningful component of your character.

 

[Mind of tempest]

DMs need to learn.

Or rather unlearn the dumb suppositions they've been taught about flight and bad habits that make flight 'scary' to them. We could put this information into some sort of guide for dungeon masters.



Then drop the 'fundamentally good'. It's s worthless as 'inherently evil' and aasimars are supposed to be people anyway.

human barely think in 2.5 dimensions you would need to teach it first and even then it is fighting human weaknesses it is part of how stealth works.

I mean the angle parent not the aasimar people find it easier to play the outcast than what even aasimars are given thay would more likely be exulted.

and having no morals kind of makes angles and demons worthless they are made to be moral exemplars

 

[doctorbadwolf]

But therein lies the issue.

What are you willing to lose to get dryads (in whatever form) in the PHB? If they are going with the 12 race idea, then probably you’re fine.

But which is more important to you? Half orcs or dryads? Half elves? Gnomes? What would you cut, presuming that something needs to be cut for space, from the phb to get a dryad race in core?

I mean, firstly I don’t care if dryads are in the phb, so if there were a hard cap and we had to ditch something to have dryads I’d just save them for the first expansion, or a Fey adventure/setting book.

Or high elves, which are dumb and not meaningfully differentiated from any other elf. 4e had it right with “Elf, Eladrin, Drow”.

I guess 5e Dryads must be somewhat watered down from the Dryads I'm used to, who can all charm/dominate on a whim and are natively as tough as the trees they live in but who risk dropping dead if they go farther than (100 yards?) from their home tree. Oh, and what often happens with those they charm/dominate is most certainly NSFW.

Yeah they haven’t been super powerful for a while now. In lore, they vary n power between individuals.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

you damn well know Wings would get it shot down by most DMs as few seem to be able to handle flying pc

This seems like a massive exaggeration. I'm not bothered by flying PCs, the last campaign I was a player in there where two flying PCs (a fairy and an owlin) and the DM was not remotely bothered.

Do not confuse a small number of people who make a lot of noise on forums with "most".

 

[Vaalingrade]

human barely think in 2.5 dimensions you would need to teach it first and even then it is fighting human weaknesses it is part of how stealth works.

Plenty of games have TONS of flying characters with no issue. There's just the one that has folks whispering in the GM's ear that fliers are ruining their encounters and usurping their power.

I mean the angle parent not the aasimar people find it easier to play the outcast than what even aasimars are given thay would more likely be exulted.

I feel like having a parent who is literally holier than thou should be a platform for way more exciting drama. Especially in D&D where Good is often heinously alien and evil.

and having no morals kind of makes angles and demons worthless they are made to be moral exemplars

They're made to be servants of the Most Powerful Chumps and uphold their rules.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

but it does feed into my idea that if there is an ultimate idea it is evil rather than Plato's good.

Ugh. No. I mean Plato sucks, but if anything people struggle to make Good interesting because it doesn’t present an inherent conflict. Which would suggest that the background frequency of the universe is Good. That we naturally try to find Good, and that it feels “default” to us. If evil were the universal ideal, evil characters wouldn’t present an inherent conflict by virtue of being evil. Being the default isn’t a conflict.

 

[Mind of tempest]

This seems like a massive exaggeration. I'm not bothered by flying PCs, the last campaign I was a player in there where two flying PCs (a fairy and an owlin) and the DM was not remotely bothered.

Do not confuse a small number of people who make a lot of noise on forums with "most".

Plenty of games have TONS of flying characters with no issue. There's just the one that has folks whispering in the GM's ear that fliers are ruining their encounters and usurping their power.

that depends on if people can learn to handle it and people do not just take in loader voices opinions so I do not bet on it.

I feel like having a parent who is literally holier than thou should be a platform for way more exciting drama. Especially in D&D where Good is often heinously alien and evil.

yeah that latter part kind of ruins good as if is equally terrible you do not have a moral conflict just different types of evil.

They're made to be servants of the Most Powerful Chumps and uphold their rules.

few of the chumps agree on anything past being worshipped and have people do stuff for them thus their rules end up more like political factions than anything holy and that kind of removes the god out of it.

 

[Vaalingrade]

that depends on if people can learn to handle it and people do not just take in loader voices opinions so I do not bet on it.

yeah that latter part kind of ruins good as if is equally terrible you do not have a moral conflict just different types of evil.

Both of these go hand in hand with D&D finally letting go of some of it's less useful traditions.

few of the chumps agree on anything past being worshipped and have people do stuff for them thus their rules end up more like political factions than anything holy and that kind of removes the god out of it.

Historically, that's what gods do.

The idea of a god as a moral authority is relatively modern for the most part. They told you what to do, slept with your wife and turned you into something unpleasant if you said 'boo' or proved better at knitting than them.