D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

Monayuris · Nov 25, 2020

I'll admit I'm an old school D&D player/DM. I've never discounted a player idea in osr or 5e, but I still wonder. Turtle people (tortles) flying people (aarokara), dragon people (dragonborn)... and so on.

Why do people chose these races?

To me, elves and dwarves have a human element. But Turtle people, and cat people and demon people and dragon people seem like the new normal. Do people who play D&D now, feel more comfortable with role-playing animalistic type characters than before?

It is kind of off-putting when your player party is a bunch of bird people, elephant people, demon people, cat people... and so on. I mean are humans even relevant in D&D anymore?

Is it a role-playing thing, or just a ability bonus power-up thing?

is the normal for D&D 5e is ampthormorophic / furry role-playing? I don't think I've ever ran a group that had a single human in it.

Aldarc · Nov 25, 2020

Elves, dwarves, and humans are fairly ubiquitous in not just D&D, but also Fantasy RP. So sometimes, people like to explore RP opportunities or character options that they would not otherwise have because sometimes the standard set feels fairly boring. It is not the end of the world.

Monayuris · Nov 25, 2020

Well, when trying to run a human centric campaign. You have players playing anamorphic ostrich bards and dragon men and turtle people. I have to put limits down on what is appropriate for my game.

But players expect to be able to play turtle people and cat people and elephant people. So I have to cut down access to those races. But I probably assume that these races have special abilities or powers or skills that make them superior. So I guess the problem is with WoTC and with D&D 5E.

Players always want an edge... and playing a bird person or turtle person, or dragon person, or cat person, or elephant person gives them an edge over 'boring' human.

The game encourages a typical D&D party to be something from an escaped circus troupe because mathematically they make weirdo amphomorphic races superior to any other races.

Charlaquin · Nov 25, 2020

The more traditional fantasy races - elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. are kind of played out. People have seen a million different interpretations of them in a million different fantasy settings, and generally don’t get excited by them any more. Even subversions of their common depictions are kind of ho-hum these days. On the other hand, more exotic fantasy races are still unexplored territory (well... less explored territory), which makes them more exciting for a lot of players. If you come to the table with an aloof elf archer or a grumpy dwarf with a big axe, everyone knows exactly what to expect. But if you’re some kind of crazy elemental or anthro or something, that can feel a bit more unexpected, more special.

People do definitely still play humans though. They’re the most commonly played race according to D&D Beyond data.

Rikka66 · Nov 25, 2020

Monayuris said:
I don't think I've ever ran a group that had a single human in it.

In comparison, I don't think I've ever ran a group that didn't have at least one human or half-elf in it.

Rikka66 · Nov 25, 2020

Monayuris said:
Well, when trying to run a human centric campaign. You have players playing anamorphic ostrich bards and dragon men and turtle people. I have to put limits down on what is appropriate for my game.

But players expect to be able to play turtle people and cat people and elephant people. So I have to cut down access to those races. But I probably assume that these races have special abilities or powers or skills that make them superior. So I guess the problem is with WoTC and with D&D 5E.

Players always want an edge... and playing a bird person or turtle person, or dragon person, or cat person, or elephant person gives them an edge over 'boring' human.

The game encourages a typical D&D party to be something from an escaped circus troupe because mathematically they make weirdo amphomorphic races superior to any other races.

Variant human and half-elf are two of the strongest races. This isn't a power gamer thing.

NaturalZero · Nov 25, 2020

Dwarves and elves are human characters with beards or pointed ears. I play a human in real life, so if I'm playing a fantasy game with magic, alternate dimensions, dragons, etc, just playing a bearded human or pointy-eared human is like making effort to travel to the bar for a drink and ordering water.

Also, there are 134,245,324 novels, RPGs, video games, movies, comics, etc that use the same old elves and dwarves over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. No other franchise has blue dragonborn with the iconic mono-horn and webbed ears. No other franchise has warforged that look exactly like an eberron warforged.

Monayuris said:
But players expect to be able to play turtle people and cat people and elephant people. So I have to cut down access to those races. But I probably assume that these races have special abilities or powers or skills that make them superior. So I guess the problem is with WoTC and with D&D 5E.

Players always want an edge... and playing a bird person or turtle person, or dragon person, or cat person, or elephant person gives them an edge over 'boring' human.

The game encourages a typical D&D party to be something from an escaped circus troupe because mathematically they make weirdo amphomorphic races superior to any other races.

You have it completely backwards. Variant humans, half-elves, and mountain dwarves are the go-to optimizer choices. On the other hand, dragonborn are recognized as the most underpowered race in the game.

Just look at the threads complaining about imbalance in the new Tasha book. Generic old mountain dwarf is considered the most overpowered option in 5e now.

opacitizen · Nov 25, 2020

In my opinion some (let me emphasize that: not everyone, just some) people pick weird races because they (these players) simply can't or don't feel like designing a proper, interesting background and personality (traits, motivation, and so on) for their player characters, and hope that the weirdness of their race will prove a good substitute for all that.

Mind you, an interesting background does not equal a thousand pages of boring drivel. And remember, playing elves and dwarves used to be weird choices too. Elf and dwarf both (used to) imply and carry a strong personality and background.

Sometimes (for some people and some groups) it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

Monayuris · Nov 25, 2020

Rikka66 said:
Variant human and half-elf are two of the strongest races. This isn't a power gamer thing.

Well this is a good point. I don't use feats.

So if you eliminate feats, players take weirdo classes that grant them feat-like abilities, instead. So humans are rare and weirdo flying, swimming, animal PC become common. Because they need the weirdo special abilities. In the absence of feats, players need super powers.

It is a weird game to play. This whole magice is everywhere/phycics are everyhere, fend for our selves issse will never resolve.

NaturalZero said:
Dwarves and elves are human characters with beards or pointed ears. I play a human in real life, so if I'm playing a fantasy game with magic, alternate dimensions, dragons, etc, just playing a bearded human or pointy-eared human is like making effort to travel to the bar for a drink and ordering water.

Also, there are 134,245,324 novels, RPGs, video games, movies, comics, etc that use the same old elves and dwarves over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. No other franchise has blue dragonborn with the iconic mono-horn and webbed ears. No other franchise has warforged that look exactly like an eberron warforged.

You have it completely backwards. Variant humans, half-elves, and mountain dwarves are the go-to optimizer choices. On the other hand, dragonborn are recognized as the most underpowered race in the game.

Just look at the threads complaining about imbalance in the new Tasha book. Generic old mountain dwarf is considered the most overpowered option in 5e now.

No feats. So variant humans don't exist. Feats are optional and should not be considered in balancing the game.

I don't run with feats. Feats are the worst thing that has ever happened to D&D. The idea of character building has ruined the game.

Mountain Dwarf is kind of cool as a semi-melee wizard. (As it should be). Different races give strengths and weaknesses as they should. Make choice of race meaningful. The way it was supports a drawback. A mountain dwarf can be built as a potential melee wizard, but they have a limitation and a debilitation.

To remove such makes choice of race meaningless.

Ogre Mage · Nov 25, 2020

When I read that there is a ritual which can transform a human into a yuan-ti pureblood I had the following idea for a character:

She was captured by the yuan-ti. Because of her innate magical talent they decided to perform the ritual which transformed her into a yuan-ti pureblood. Not long after the ritual, her adventuring companions snuck into the temple and pulled off a daring rescue, barely escaping with their lives.

Her friends were horrified at her transformation but said they would try to help. Unfortunately, the post-transformation version of her was no longer the good-hearted and humorous woman they knew. She now has little ability to feel emotions, other than occasional flashes of anger and bitterness over her fate. She would mourn the loss except she seems to have lost the ability to mourn anything. That makes her even angrier. She looks in the mirror and sees a monster's face. She pushed her friends away, hating their pity and poorly concealed fear of her. Now she is looking for new adventuring companions who know nothing about her past. She is trying hard to bury what happened to her.

D&D 5E What is the appeal of the weird fantasy races?

Monayuris

Hero

Aldarc

Legend

Monayuris

Hero

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

Rikka66

Adventurer

Rikka66

Adventurer

NaturalZero

Hero

opacitizen

Explorer

Monayuris

Hero

Ogre Mage

Hero

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