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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 5034111" data-attributes="member: 40177">As the the title says.  4e Races that would be awesome to see in play, but will almost certainly never be found in a 4e book (MAYBE a dragon article).  I'll start - feel free to add.Aquatic Elf:  An awesome race of slightly-less magical elves that live under the waves, but can visit the surface world for long (ish) periods of time.  They live in underwater coral cities populated by dolphins.  I love them because they're a great take on elves, without the inevitable "froofyness".  You'll never see them in 4e, though, because their powers wil leither dominate the campaign (if it's an aquatic campaign) or be absolutely useless.  And you won't see the "they need to be immersed in water occasionally" schtick pop up that often, either.  Dragons:  Remember 2e's Council of Wyrms, where you could play dragons?  When 4e came out, I figured we'd finally see a return to that - the idea of a playable dragon PC race.  Hell, I thought someone would do a Savage Species book, with Dragon PC classes or something.  But, it's looking less and less likely - dragon flight being just one of many problems the class presents from a "balance" perspective.  I still think being a baby dragon is awesomesauce, though.  At least in 4e I can finally have pseudodragon familiars without having to spend so many damned feats, though.  Centaur: Ever since the character Ken from the Shining Force Sega game, I've been in love with the idea of a Centaur Knight.  I've played them in 2e, and I've made them in 3e (with Savage Species, and with 3.5E monster ECL levels).  But, with 4e's "no large monsters as PCs" ruling, and the whole "PC races need to be able to have full adventuring access" thing, we won't see the centaurs.  After all, they can't even climb a friggin' ladder.  Too bad, though...Hobbits:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We have halflings.  But halflings in 4e are more like 2e Kender, without any of the fun (or "infuriating", depending on whether you're playign the kender, or someone else is).  I want to see hairy-footed, pipe-smoking, anti-magic hobbits.  I'm sure I'm not alone.Fairies: Or Earthdawn's Windlings.  Something that can fly, can turn invisible, and is something of a trickster.  God, that'd be cool.  Hell, I'd even play the race if it came with a "sidekick clause" or something that relegated you to being a supporting actor for main PCs.  Like, a fairy companion character or something (I know, I know, I can do this already... but how cool would it be to see support for the idea?)Ghoul:  As in, Shadowrun-style ghouls.  Humans who are infected with a virus, who are blind but have extraordinary hearing, and who are super athletic.  And also able to astrally perceive (no real analogue in 4e, but still super cool).  Imagine a cross between Riddick and a Vampire, without any of the pretty boy emo looks or the posturing, and you'll know what I'm talking about.  The idea of someone who needs to feast on flesh, and has to fight "going feral" but is still more or less a decent human being is something I think is amazingly cool.  Giff: Yeah, the hippos that love explosives and everything to do with the military.  Yeah, I know they're a silly race.  Yeah, I know most spelljammer races are kind of silly, but even then Giff take the cake. And Yeah, we'll never see them because then there'd have to be firearms, and how do you balance that? Still, sometimes it's fun to be an oddball.  Speaking of which...Grippli:  Apparently, everyone else thinks the Frog People who love to hang out in jungle treetop villages, shooting poison darts at those who trespass in their territory and fighting a losing war against the Tasloi are stupid.  But I think they're awesome.  Mostly because I think amphibians of all stripes are awesome.  And if there were a newt people, I'd love them too.  But, I mean, who cool would a grippli be?  Plus, you could always perch yourself on your ally's shoulder to cheer him on.  We won't see them because they are super good at climbing (which is almost like flying, at least from a design perspective), and because they are hard to imagine leaving the jungle (their skin would dry up!). And finally...Phanatons: Flying raccoon squirrel people.  Who can glide.  And are superstitious.  I love 'em.  Quite a bit.  And I wasn't the only one - there happened to be a quite successful Phanaton Warmage in my Isle of Dread campaign.  Who had boots of levitation.  Who, during an easy attack, flew over the heads of a dozen or so savages with poisoned javelins, blasting them with lower-level spells.  And who, of course, was the easiest target presentable (he had no cover).  And who promptly took about four poisoned javelins, which knocked his constitution so low that the subsequent HP drop killed him.  And who, because his boots were activated, just hovered in the air, dead, while the rest of the party finished off the savages while barely taking a point of damage.  The moral of the story?  Phanatons are cool, and I really don't see why flying is such a bad thing.  It just makes you an obvious target for savages with poisoned spears.</blockquote>

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