A mystery race ?

[Aloïsius]

Do people remember this "mystery" character in one of the staff's blog ?
I think at least one race is still "secret", so that we will have a surprise, either with the preview books or the PHB.

What could it be ? We haven't see any half-orc until now, but half-orc won't be a real surprise, because they were there in 3e. However, because 4e seems to be "role-based" we might have a new race that would have the same niche, or even better.
What were half-orcs good at ? They were good at being the big strong fighter. Sure, darkvision allowed them to play play shadowy/scout character, but their penalty in INT does not help. Ad tiefling probably steal this stuff.

So, I think we might have a "strong" race in 4e. Half-giant ? Goliath ? Something like this. They have removed one of the small race, we may have a large one. And I think it may fit nicely in the "point of light" setting.

 

[azarias]

Changeling?

I've played one of these. Very rewarding in roleplaying terms, though I found the racial characteristics a little underwhelming: the rules on changing shape were blurry and, once you cut through the blurriness, pretty restrictive ("so I can be 1' taller or shorter, and only of the same type, but my clothing doesn't change, and I gain no actual crunchy abilities, ever?")

I would prefer that clothing didn't change, of course - that would be foolish - but the changeling-ness of the changeling needs to be beefed up a small notch, in my experience.

If types have been removed - or if 'humanoid' is now only a physiological descriptor - then that alone could make a big difference. I could also see level-based racial perks making a substantial difference to the changeling: there's so much room for incremental crunchy increase with the core racial power.

All in all, I'd be excited to see the changeling in the phb. Just a guess though.

 

[Exen Trik]

I believe they've made a point of changelings being in the MM, and of being playable that way so I don't think that's it.

A mystery race that is a surprise? Controversial perhaps? Goliaths don't seem like that big of a deal, they probably would have told us already. Same with half-ogres, orcs and the like. I don't think they made anything totally new, or off the wall like playable undead. Maybe they took out gnomes, to replace with another small race?

For some reason, only one possibility is ringing bells for me here: GOBLIN.

 

[Li Shenron]

While i have never used goliath, having never read their book, i think they sound a pretty cool addition. I can think of them easily in every setting.

I hope it's not a half-race that they are adding, the more these are confined to the MM, the more they can be treated as exceptions, which is the idea i like most.

 

[Li Shenron]

after reading another thread, i realized that the mistery race could be Tauren...

 

[JoeGKushner]

Are we counting full blooded orcs? Warcraft has made them pretty acceptable as a PC type no?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Have halflings been confirmed? Perhaps hobbits?

 

[loseth]

I'm hoping it's half-dragon, half-troll half-celestials.


Who wield not double, but triple-bladed swords.


With blades 1' wide and 6' long.

 

[Reaper Steve]

Drow.
(My guess since the new DDM starter appears to be a Dragon vs. a PC party... and one of those minis is a Drow.

But I would like a 'larger than human' core race.

 

[Aage]

Have halflings been confirmed? Perhaps hobbits?

The name hobbits, no. Halflings on the other hand are confirmed, am I right?

A large race would be a nice thing, since there are small ones..