D&D 5E What PC species should return for 5ed?

[NN]

None of ‘em. Exotic PC races are a cry for help by players because they are bored.

Oh alright then. Gibberlings and Qullans.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

None of ‘em. Exotic PC races are a cry for help by players because they are bored.

I think that's a rather judgemental and unhelpful oversimplification.

I think a lot of more exotic races aren't about boredom but rather people loving things that are strange and specific, rather than generic and heavily-used. Especially as most RPGs don't really hit all the "archetypes" of being that people might want to be in fantasy in their core book selection.

And what was "exotic" once often becomes popular through people repeatedly selecting it - that's certainly how Tieflings got into the PHB, and then more recently Aasimar and Goliaths.

 

[NN]

And that endless arms-race of ever more exotic PCs rather proves my point.

 

[Corinnguard]

Vanara. This was a race of monkey people from Oriental Adventures 3rd edition. They take inspiration from the Monkey legend in Chinese mythology. There are two downsides. First, I'm not certain how open to content from OA that WotC is. Second, after the controversy around the hadozee, I don't think that WotC will be interested in a new monkey race any time soon. Perhaps the best route would be to reskin the hadozee for settings inspired by East Asia?

The Vanara appeared in both PF1 and PF2 as a PC race. As for 5e, we might have to settle for someone's homebrew of them.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And that endless arms-race of ever more exotic PCs rather proves my point.

How so? I would suggest what it actually proves is that the default D&D races were missing basic archetypes that people today want to play. The players most likely to select Tieflings and Dragonborn, for example, in my experience, aren't bored/jaded D&D vets, but players new to D&D.

 

[Marandahir]

Except not really. 4E Devas are the result of aasimons who gave up their celestial existence to be reincarnated in the Prime each time they're needed and come into existence as fully formed adults. Plus if they turn evil they transform into Rakshasas.

You gave a Watsonian explanation for why not; mine was the Doylian explanation for why given at the time.

I wasn't saying that Devas = Aasimar in lore; I was saying that Devas replaced Aasimar in 4e because people thought Aasimar and Aasimon are words that suck aas.

I'm fairly certain that WotC tried to give us animal people in 2024 PHB with Ardlings, not because animal people aren't an important trope that could use some consolidation, nor because divine animal people representative of Archons, Guardinals, and Egyptian Gods are a cool lore concept worth adding to D&D, but because they wanted a make a parallel celestial species to that of Tieflings without having to include Aasimar, because the name sucks aas. Ardlings just couldn't hit the acceptance threshhold without a lot more revision work, and there was no time for that for 4e PHB, so WotC threw up their hands and accepted that we just want Aasimar to parallel Tieflings. But I'd personally still love Ardlings, Glitchlings, Plasmoids, Genasi, and other Planar playable characters - would be nice in a Planescape 2 setting book that sets aside Sigil and the Outlands to explore the various planes of the multiverse more directly (maybe even calling it, say Manual of the Planes!).

Playable Devas with the above 4e Backstory would be pretty cool. But I struggle to see how they wouldn't just be a variant on Aasimar in 5e, or else too overpowered for PC species in 5e. The Deva in the Monster Manual is pretty darn strong, as Astral Devas were in every edition prior to 4e.

 

[Corinnguard]

How so? I would suggest what it actually proves is that the default D&D races were missing basic archetypes that people today want to play. The players most likely to select Tieflings and Dragonborn, for example, in my experience, aren't bored/jaded D&D vets, but players new to D&D.

Or veteran players who wanted a PC version of their favorite monster race but had to wait for 5e to see a playable version of them.

 

[NN]

Or they think the breath weapon attack will come in handy.

Why cant you kids today just be happy playing gnomes?

 

[Marandahir]

Vanara. This was a race of monkey people from Oriental Adventures 3rd edition. They take inspiration from the Monkey legend in Chinese mythology. There are two downsides. First, I'm not certain how open to content from OA that WotC is. Second, after the controversy around the hadozee, I don't think that WotC will be interested in a new monkey race any time soon. Perhaps the best route would be to reskin the hadozee for settings inspired by East Asia?

The Vanara appeared in both PF1 and PF2 as a PC race. As for 5e, we might have to settle for someone's homebrew of them.

Vanara are also one of the species in Oriental Adventures 3e that were included despite not being featured in Rokugan, so they're not locked behind the Legend of the 5 Rings IP.

I do think WotC want to tread carefully when doing East Asian-inspired fantasy. Vanara might fit into Kara-Tur, but they stray very closely to the problems that came up with Hadozee in Spelljammer and they don't want to do that again. I also think it's very likely that if they do East Asian fantasy, it's more likely to be an adaptation of Kamigawa than Kara-Tur, despite Kara-Tur being a classic D&D setting and part of the Forgotten Realms (though predating that association akin to the Land of Arn/Blackmoor being its own setting before inclusion in Oerth). Doesn't mean Vanara's not a cool species though, and if they did Tarkir instead of Kamigawa, I could totally see Vanara fitting in. They're not a part of Tarkir currently, but Tarkir adapts Asian fantasy tropes broadly, as opposed to specifically Japanese or even Chinese fantasy tropes (and Vanara are a reference to Hindu mythology and King Hanuman).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Or they think the breath weapon attack will come in handy.

Why cant you kids today just be happy playing gnomes?

Ok are you just playing with us lol? I call shenanigans! Hardly anyone ever wanted to play a gnome, even back in the "Good Old Days", but let alone now.

As for the breath weapon, let's be real here for one minute - how many elves and dwarves were selected over the years primarily for their abilities (particularly infravision/darkvision, or weapon bonuses, or multiclassing, etc.) rather than because people genuinely wanted to play them? I'm guessing a lot higher of a percentage than poor fools suckered in by the terrible Breath Weapon ability of Dragonborn (or did they fix it in 5E 2024?).