D&D 4E A mystery Race in 4E FRCG (Rich Baker scoop)

[Aloïsius]

Shadovars or such... Celestial, Genasi are other possibilities. It's all very planar.

By the way, we know that shadovars now come from the shadowfell, not the plane of shadow...

 

[Godofredo]

shadovars

 

[Gundark]

shadovars

Yeahhhhh...post #19...I called it first!!!!!!

 

[Uzzy]

Most likely Shadovar, given the known information about the new Empire of Netheril being around. Or an actual Orc PC race.

 

[vulcan_idic]

As much as I would love to see Saurials with a full write-up, I know that they will not be the mystery race.

I'm going to guess avarial.

I know you're probably right... but I'll be praying with all my might you're wrong - Saurials have been favorites of my ever since I found them in the AD&D Book of Humanoids and embarked on a quest to discover their literary existance - the Azure Bonds trilogy has since become one of my favorites to read and reread. (In case any one here plays DDO - one of my primaries is a full Cleric, Giogi Wyvernspur)

 

[Masquerade]

Genasi, please!

 

[drothgery]

Hmm... doing a bit of deductive reasoning here...

The 3.0 FRCS gave racial write-ups in the 'characters' section for a bunch of races in addition to the standard 3.0 PHB races. They were

- Gold Dwarves
- Duergar (LA +2)
- Drow (LA +2)
- Sun Elves
- Wild Elves
- Wood Elves
- Svinfneblin (LA +3)
- Ghostwise halflings
- Strongheart halflings
- Aasimar (LA +1)
- Genasi (Air, Earth, Fire, Water) (LA +1)
- Tieflings (LA +1)

Now, Races & Classes and various statesments from WotC people seem to pretty strongly indicate subraces are largely gone in 4e, and that they think all the varieties of elves out there can be covered by elves, eladrin, and drow. So scratch the elf, dwarf, and halfling variants. They've also said that they no longer think all races need a dark/underground/evil variant to go with the drow, which suggests duergar and svinfneblin will be pushed to the background if not eliminated.

Tieflings are already in 4e core. So that leaves Aasimar and Genasi as the leading candidates. Hints that they're doing more with elemental-themed stuff (like the fire archon article), and my opinoin that aasmiars (renamed or not) are probably more general than FR, suggests the genasi are the best bet.

 

[Lurks-no-More]

An orc write-up as a race would be very, very cool.

Agreed. Orcs have been moving from "monster with pie to kill" to being a race, albeit a barbaric and mostly hostile one, in FR, and the edition change would be an excellent time to bring them in fully. (Also, having full orcs around as a player race means you don't need half-orcs, which have various problems associated with them.)

 

[Spiteful Dwarf]

Well, we know that there's a shadovar riding a dragon on the cover of the new book. I'm going to use my deductive reasoning to suggest that they might be keen on making them more integral to the new realms. This is a totally cool idea, IMO too... The return of the shades was the most impressive change (both for the Meta-realmslore and for their dynamic as shadowy, evil interlopers) from 3ed FR.

My hope is that shadovar get out of their primary role as realms-versions of the nazis from indiana jones and become a playable race.

Heck, the drow rebelling against her/his entire kind has become a sort of cliche. Why not have the same for the other evil races?

My only concern is that they've already got a few of these archetypes already. New tieflings, drow, and even dragonborn seem to all stem from this same "long-lost empire that has fallen to decay"-type racial history. It's gonna be hard to make all of those races diverse enough; at least outside of the tail varieties... (Ooh! Scaly or wrinkly!)

 

[Khaalis]

My vote on this is ORC. With the changes we know that have occurred under Obould and the formation of the Orc Empire living in at least a stalemate peace with other regions, it makes perfect sense that Orcs be tailored to be a playable race in the Realms, especially since the drow, the other bad-guy PC race is confirmed.