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

humble minion · Nov 26, 2020

ccs said:
Well that's a weird reason to say no to them as a DM.
I mean, a stock DB has slightly more going for it than the standard human mechanically. And you don't so no the Humans do you?

If your group is into character optimisation, you're not going to see many dragonborn. They're certainly one of the mechanically weaker PC races out there, and I'm equally sure that it WotC had their time over again they'd strengthen them a little. But playing one certainly won't cripple your play experience or leave you a drag on the group (drag on - dragon - geddit?) unless your table is pretty hardcore. The breath weapon is worthless after a couple of levels, but the resistance can be huge, circumstantially. My current PC is a silver dragonborn, and while i didn't know this was going to happen in advance, we've spent a lot of time in arctic areas and the cold resistance has been priceless.

zarionofarabel said:
Hahaha! So many posts on this thread where people mention wanting to experience the world through the eyes of a different race, of some such thing. Yet there are virtually no threads on this forum, or any other, where there are really lengthy discussions as to what it must be like to live hundreds of years.

100% agree with this though. Getting into the headspace of an elf, who might live hundreds or thousands of years, is much harder for me to get into the headspace of a dragonborn whose life experience is much more, well, human, barring the scales and bad breath and stuff.

doctorbadwolf · Nov 26, 2020

My homebrew world still doesn’t have a name, for some reason, but it has a dozen or so nations/cultures that I’ve written at least a paragraph or two about, a place for most of the D&D races, and some really fun lore for the gods.

What it doesn’t have is humans. At all.

The Dwarves are part of many cultures, with a few secretive Dwarven enclaves but most of the old Dwarven Holds are open, and multi-racial. The Elves are originally from a continent-island that holds a pseudo-French Kingdom called Capet, and a pseudo-Spanish kingdom to the south of it called Albarona. Between them and along the coast are very old Gnomish kingdoms heavily inspired by the Celts, and to the north are Goliath and Firbolg Vikings of the Nine Kingdoms of Cardan, and their High Priestesses.

The current campaign takes place in a turtle shaped archipelago originally home to felinoid and reptilian peoples, with an ancient history of Vy Shaar (Vryloka and shadarkai are one race, called Vy Shaar) and Orcish habitation, and only slightly more recent Halfling and Gnomish residence. Tortles migrate there regularly in numbers, and people from all over the known world trade there.

Zardnaar · Nov 26, 2020

doctorbadwolf said:
My homebrew world still doesn’t have a name, for some reason, but it has a dozen or so nations/cultures that I’ve written at least a paragraph or two about, a place for most of the D&D races, and some really fun lore for the gods.

What it doesn’t have is humans. At all.

The Dwarves are part of many cultures, with a few secretive Dwarven enclaves but most of the old Dwarven Holds are open, and multi-racial. The Elves are originally from a continent-island that holds a pseudo-French Kingdom called Capet, and a pseudo-Spanish kingdom to the south of it called Albarona. Between them and along the coast are very old Gnomish kingdoms heavily inspired by the Celts, and to the north are Goliath and Firbolg Vikings of the Nine Kingdoms of Cardan, and their High Priestesses.

The current campaign takes place in a turtle shaped archipelago originally home to felinoid and reptilian peoples, with an ancient history of Vy Shaar (Vryloka and shadarkai are one race, called Vy Shaar) and Orcish habitation, and only slightly more recent Halfling and Gnomish residence. Tortles migrate there regularly in numbers, and people from all over the known world trade there.

See that's interesting, it's not anything goes but everything has a reason.

You're playing in FR, someone wants a Tortle.......

ccs · Nov 26, 2020

Zardnaar said:
Default human doesn't get picked either, saw my first DB this year.

Yeah, but did you ban them for being "meh"? Or is it just the players opting not to use them because A) the Variant offers a feat, B) there's other things to play than Humans?

In my current game? One of the players surprised me. He chose the base Human specifically because it added +1 to all his stats. IMO he didn't mechanically need the bonuses & I think a feat would've served him better. But his character. He feels that those extra +1s best represent his characters training.

Another player CHOSE to have his 1/2elf permanently turned into a base Human spending actual game time & treasure making it happen. Even requesting to roll an old school 1e Resurrection/System Shock roll to survive the process. (story reasons based upon play)

MGibster · Nov 26, 2020

Charlaquin said:
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but personally I’m kind of bored of Mos Eisley Cantina worlds, or “fantasy kitchen sinks” or whatever you want to call them. Like, I totally get the desire for something more exotic than the same-old Tolkienesque fantasy fare. But I prefer a setting to be a bit more judicious with its milieu than you see in such kitchen sink settings.

Me too. I don't need my fantasy races to be alien or somehow more human than human, but I want them to have a specific place in the setting. And when you have thirty fantasy races for players to pick from that can be a tough row to hoe.

ccs · Nov 26, 2020

Zardnaar said:
See that's interesting, it's not anything goes but everything has a reason.

You're playing in FR, someone wants a Tortle.......

I'd have him be a strange visitor from the far away & hitherto unknown Galapagos Islands.

Zardnaar · Nov 26, 2020

ccs said:
I'd have him be a strange visitor from the far away & hitherto unknown Galapagos Islands.

Do penguin people exist? Could come from same area.

Shardstone · Nov 26, 2020

Scott Christian said:
I doubt it was "tapped" for anyone here. But since that road is being trodden...

Perhaps it is "tapped" for you. Perhaps you can only dig superficially into a culture, and then want to move on. Whereas, many DM and players might start by playing an elf and playing with the woodsy concept. Then they switch over and start peppering in what their wood elf eats. Later, with another character, they start showing other players the symbology used for their elves. After playing a few other characters they can revisit that elf, and start discussing family trees. Then they start thinking and describing the wood elves clothing styles that are their heritage. After a few more years, they might draw spellbooks because they like art and tailor it to their elf. Then they start to wonder about elven haircuts and whether there should be anything specifically that reflects the elven culture. Then later...

You get the point. Some can keep digging into a subject. Others like to read at a glance, then move on. Neither one is "tapped."

You missed the point of my comment. We're agreeing on things, friend.

DammitVictor · Nov 26, 2020

doctorbadwolf said:
My homebrew world still doesn’t have a name, for some reason, but it has a dozen or so nations/cultures that I’ve written at least a paragraph or two about, a place for most of the D&D races, and some really fun lore for the gods.

What it doesn’t have is humans. At all.

See, for me it's the other direction-- there's Humans and there's the weird stuff, and there's nothing between. Especially no half-anythings.

Humans are a little weird, themselves, because they're all planetouched. But outside of Humans, it's all dragonborn/tortles, trickster warforged, and old-school kobolds.

doctorbadwolf · Nov 26, 2020

ccs said:
Well that's a weird reason to say no to them as a DM.
I mean, a stock DB has slightly more going for it than the standard human mechanically. And you don't so no the Humans do you?
And now with Tasha's (haven't read it yet myself btw) I'm sure there's some way to tinker with the DB.

I think as long as they'd fit the world/story/setting/campaign etc I'd just shrug & leave it to the player to worry about their poor mechanics.
As in: "You're the one who wanted to play the crappy dragon guy...."

And in 5e it just...doesn’t actually matter.

Play a rock gnome Barbarian, and unless there is a Goliath Barbarian next to you, the fact you’re playing a gnome will only matter in terms of roleplaying.