A Concern About Wizard's Race Designs of Late

[Prestidigitalis]

At the enormous risk of having everyone here tell me I'm an idiot (AGAIN) I'm going to say that I would be happy with a campaign setting where there were nothing but humans and "race" distinctions were in fact cultural rather than genetic.

Ye Olde Mileage May Verily Vary.

 

[knifie_sp00nie]

I liked the new races and am playing a minotaur currently.

I see the wilden as a pretty generic stand-in for any number of fey creatures like pixies or brownies.

The shardmind has a special place for me because I wrote up something almost exactly like it (or did WotC copy me?) for a 3.5 all-psionic game. For me they were psi crystals that were imbued with extra life energy from their creator at the time of death. They grew into larger crystal heads and had bodies made of ectoplasm. They were living constructs rule-wise and had similar abilities.

The options for dealing with odd races have already been listed. What I find odd is how rigid people can be interpreting the ultimate game of imagination and their sense of entitlement that the game only cater to their particular taste. Why wasn't the shardmind in PHB1? Obviously I wanted a pure psionic race, so everyone wants one.

When I wasn't happy with the races or wanted something particular I tweaked or wrote my own. It's easier than ever with the abundant examples and how the system math is laid out. I'm sure people on message boards would even do it for you if you asked nice.

 

[Rechan]

Actually I'm hoping this is the last PHB. I think they were reaching deep to come up with what they did for PHB3. Unless the PHB4 is something like Oriental Adventures, I would think they have all the bases covered.

They still have the Shadow and Elemental power source to flesh out.

 

[Rechan]

For the record. My next campaign is going to involve the colonization and exploration of a newly discovered "Dark" Continent. Shifters, Lizardfolk, Genasi, and Wilden are going to be the most commonly encountered "Native" races. Wilden being fey plants is perfect for my jungle based game, as well as Shifters. Genasi make great "Spirit-born"; either half-spirits or a race infused with a spirit's power (such as a Volcano god empowering his worshipers and turning them into fire genasi).

The only race I have a problem with is the kalashtar, since their racial write-up in the Eberron PG had too many Eberron-specific references. The write-ups for warforged and changelings had much less Eberron "baggage."

I would presume a race in a campaign setting book, a race created specifically for that setting to introduce psionics, would have a lot of Eberron-specific baggage.

 

[Felon]

I'm not thrilled about the wilden and certainly not the shardmind. I find WotC's unrelenting obsession with cramming two words together in an effort to create something cool-sounding to have reached the stage of inducing the dry heaves. This is especially true in the case of words that get used in this capacity over and over again, like "spire" and "mind". I am at least thankful that shardminds don't get a Con bonus, so shardmind battleminds won't be too common.

But here's the thing: I have reached a point as a DM where I realize it's far more important for players to have a character about which they feel excitement and investiture than it is for me to feel like my world is prisitine and unpolluted by the likes of magical robots and crystal people.

 

[AverageCitizen]

But here's the thing: I have reached a point as a DM where I realize it's far more important for players to have a character about which they feel excitement and investiture than it is for me to feel like my world is prisitine and unpolluted by the likes of magical robots and crystal people.

This. You win the thread.

A lot of good points guys, and I do like reskinning things and making things fit. I'll be back to bring up a few things later, but I think Felon hit it on the head.

Still, my concern about a dip in quality stands. A lot of people like the new races, and thats cool. A lot of people don't, and its a lot more than it was with the PH2. Looking at the percentage of satisfied users is an adequate gauge of quality, IMO, and by that measure wizards is definitely slipping. Hopefully PH4 with shadow will have more consistently exciting races and classes.

 

[Antithetist]

I agree that the Wilden and Shardmind are a bit conceptually lacking and unnecessary, but I think this issue dates back to far beyond the PHB3. I'm surprised that your alarm bells are only beginning to ring now, if you have a real problem with it. WotC have been making up gratuitous new PC races with no compelling roots in any campaign setting throughout the 4E cycle (Dragonborn...), and it was prevalent in 3.x as well (Dromites, Elans, Maenads and Xephs from the ExPHB, and all the new races in the 'Races of...' series). Seems to me like these stemmed essentially from the desire to provide new mechanical options for players, rather than from any worldbuilding impulses.

In any case though, there's really no need to include this stuff if you don't like it. If one of your players is really keen to play one of the new races then you can flesh it out, reskin and refluff it if necessary, and make it a credible part of your setting. If not, there's no need to even think about it.

 

[Rechan]

Still, my concern about a dip in quality stands. A lot of people like the new races, and thats cool. A lot of people don't, and its a lot more than it was with the PH2.

A lot of people do not like Dragonborn or Tieflings either. In fact here's a nice fat poll and huge thread about some's hate for DB/Tieflings. Not to mention the poster above me claiming there's nothing worldbuilding inherent with them and the races are "gratuitous".

Does that mean the PHB1 quality was bad?

I do not think they are meant to appeal to everyone. They are meant to appeal to enough to justify their inclusion, because they are a fun option that presents something new. I for one will not be satisfied until we have an insect race (I GUESS Tri-Keen will do).

At what point does popularity = quality?

 

[Antithetist]

Not to mention the poster above me claiming there's nothing worldbuilding inherent with them and the races are "gratuitous".

For the record, I've got nothing against the Dragonborn - might even play one someday - and I positively love Tieflings (and didn't speak a word against them). I also agree entirely that as long as a decent number of people are enjoying the new races, WotC should keep making them. But the fact is that D&D covered the standard fantasy bases an awfully long time ago, and the new PC options they're coming up with now are getting further and further away from those central assumptions. If you prefer to play within those standard assumptions, the new races being constantly added into the game are probably not for you. This has been true for many years.

 

[Felon]

They still have the Shadow and Elemental power source to flesh out.

Looks they're handling shadow through Dragon. And Elemental was mentioned in the same breath as ki. If they rolled ki into pisonic, they can just as easily roll elemental into primal, as it seems they've done.