A multitude of disliked races

[Kae'Yoss]

So in the recent slew of threads on Elves and how you like your other fantasy humanoids, I've noticed a lot of people not liking a lot of races. So, what can your players be? Does anyone run a humans only campaign? If not, who or what populates your world?

I have no real problems with any of the races.

I have a bit of an aversion towards dwarves, but that's because I have seen one too many annoying dwarf player, and because I think that they're a bit too good for LA+0. But that's easily amended: Our group contains no annoying dwarf players, and things are balanced out (usually by dwarves losing something, or other races gaining something).

I also don't really see the point of half-orcs as a core race, but it won't launch me into hissy fits about how much half-orcs suck and how everyone who likes them is a raving half-orc fanboi.

So, in our campaigns, usually everything goes, as long as it makes sense in said setting (and I'm not too stingy about that).

 

[Tonguez]

imc
Missing Races
Dwarf (didn't fit the theme), Halfling, Orc (replaced by Sahuagin)


PC Races
Human
Tainted Human (Half-Orc)
Fey Touched Human (Half-Elf)
Gnome
Goblin

NPC Races
Aquatic Human
Winged Human
Half-giants
Mangani (TN brachiating Bugbear)

Monsters
Ogre
Insectoid Goblin
Sahuagin
Sidhe (Elf)
Gnoll
Kenku
Lizardman
Merrow-Magi

NPCs
An Awakened Half-Fiend Pseudonatural Aquatic Otyugh Barbarian
Scorcerer
A Half celestial, half-abberation Human (daughter and enemy of the above 'Otyugh')
A Magma Paraelemental Ogre
A Half-celestial Merrow-Magi
A half-dragon fiendish giant dire eel
An aquatic willowisp

* Templates are used freely imc

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

I allow the PHB races, but currently not half orc, as in the setting I am currently running there are no orcs on the current continent. (but possibly else ware) I would allow many of the crazy elven subraces (gray elves, wild elves, etc) but not drow. (Again, not currently present in setting) If I ran a setting where the above races were common, they would most definitely be in.

If the game starts around 3rd or higher level I would allow any reasonable monstrous race. By reasonable, I mean it isnt totally silly (Fiend Folio's 'Keepers' are an example) and could be easily explained without having to work in too much new material to the campaign, and obviously isn't broken. I let one player play a Minotaur, and another played a half-celestial cleric in a short-term game. (Big mistake on his part; game started level 5 or so, and so he had like 20 Hp for most of the game when everyone else had 30-50)

Other races I like and would implement if they fit my setting:
Warforged - The ability to play a Terminator trumps any reason not to play them.
Drow - I like the drow, and a chaotic group of murderers with ninja skills make for good opposition to PCs. Interesting player race option for roleplaying, if the player doesn't make a Drizzt clone.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think the following races should be added to the Tolkienesque core 7:

Catpeople - Big in Japan
Warforged - Robots
Drow - Elves but cooler. WoW's night elves are an amalgam of drow and anime elves.

 

[FireLance]

What I dislike are races that aren't very well differentiated, e.g. elves and half-elves. What I'd like to do is to tie each race to a thematically appropriate element or concept, which will suggest other game mechanics such as favored terrain, classes, schools of magic, etc. For example:

Humans: Fire, desert, psychic warriors, warmages, evocation, Desert Wind
Dwarves: Earth, mountains, crafting, shapers, artificers, transmutation (objects), Stone Dragon
Elves: Mind, logic, tundra, telepaths, factotums, enchantment, Diamond Mind
Halflings: Life, community, defence, plains, incarnum, knights, abjuration, White Raven
Gnomes: Shadow, emotion, underground, lurks, beguilers, illusion, Shadow Hand

Just to complete the set, I'd add the following races:

Shifters: Change, growth, forests, egoists, transmutation (creatures), Tiger Claw
Raptorans: Air, travel, movement, the skies, nomads, conjuration
(Some ECL 0 lizardfolk): Water, insight, swamps, seers, divination, Setting Sun

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Well, currently IMC, PC races include:

• Humans
• Changelings (ala Eberron)
• Dwarves
• Elves
• Gnomes (a half-dwarf, half-halfling race with traces of fey blood)
• Half-Elves
• Half-Orcs
• Halflings
• Orcs
• Aasimars
• Tieflings

Races that I'm going to add to the list of available PC races are:

• Drow (actually half-drow; true drow are extinct)
• Cyclopeans (from a Dragon Magazine issue)
• Genasi
• Nehwon ghouls
• Shifters (maybe--still debating this) or Hengeyokai (if I can find 3.5 updated info for them)
• Warforged (as a bonus option for a race for the reincarnation spell)
• Xvarts
• Mongrelfolk (maybe)
• Thri-Kreen (maybe)
• Half-Ogres
• Catfolk
• An aquatic race, akin to River or Sea Spirit Folk in abilities

 

[The Green Adam]

What I dislike are races that aren't very well differentiated, e.g. elves and half-elves. What I'd like to do is to tie each race to a thematically appropriate element or concept, which will suggest other game mechanics such as favored terrain, classes, schools of magic, etc. For example:

Humans: Fire, desert, psychic warriors, warmages, evocation, Desert Wind
Dwarves: Earth, mountains, crafting, shapers, artificers, transmutation (objects), Stone Dragon
Elves: Mind, logic, tundra, telepaths, factotums, enchantment, Diamond Mind
Halflings: Life, community, defence, plains, incarnum, knights, abjuration, White Raven
Gnomes: Shadow, emotion, underground, lurks, beguilers, illusion, Shadow Hand

This is a very cool concept and reminds me a lot of one of my favorite rpgs, Wares Blade. Wares Blade is a Japanese tabletop (or tabletalk as they sometimes call them) rpg in which all things are related to 'Gates' or spheres of magic and nature. Dragons are of the Fire Gate, Elves are usually Wind, Sun, Water and/or Forest Gate and Dwarves are Metal and Earth Gate. Interestingly the distrust between Elves and Dwarves may come frokm the Earth Gate. In addition to rock, minerals and soil, the Earth Gate covers things in the soil such as the buried dead. Therefore necromancers use the Earth Gate, leading Elves to make a connection between Dwarves and necromancy.

 

[The Green Adam]

Ah yes, reading everyone else's posts I realize I forgot to include some other races available in my main world...

Centaurs
Half-Dragon (Called Dragonkin)
Half-Fae (Changelings)
Hengiyoki
Kenku
Lizardfolk

Probably a few more. Not enough sleep before responding

Of Elves there are several sub-races:

High
Wood
Grey
Ash(White) - Extinct save 3 or 4 individuals
Drow
Wild
Isle - A race of Elf/Humans who have been mating for so many centuries it's like Half-Elves are there own species
Jungle
Desert
Lone (New) - A group of former Wood Elves who left for social/political reasons and found a new nation.

 

[GreatLemur]

I'm currently starting up an all-human campaign, and I'm playing in a game that wasn't intentionally all human, but the PCs somehow ended up that way. Which is kind of cool, since this way the scary, imperialistic dwarf nation to the south actually comes off as kind of alien.

I don't picture myself ever running a game with the standard PHB races again. I've been sick of humans-but-with-funny-ears-and-a-ridiculous-shallow-and-stereotyped-culture fantasy races for years, and most of the alternatives out there ain't any better (that's right, anthropomorphic animal races: I'm talking about you). My own inclination is to go all-human, with the possible addition of human-derived races (in the sense of offshoots or re-engineerings of humanity, or of acquired template-based quasi-races).

Basically I've just house ruled the following: Elves preggers by humans begets Half-Elves; Humans preggers by elves begets quarter-elves

That's an interesting kind of math.

Drow - Elves but cooler. WoW's night elves are an amalgam of drow and anime elves.

I agreen with you on the anime angle, but I'd say they're a hell of a lot more like wild elves (or wood elves or whatever) than dark elves.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

NPCs
An Awakened Half-Fiend Pseudonatural Aquatic Otyugh Barbarian Scorcerer

Hmmm, sounds like good ole Cthulhu himself.