Absolutely vital core races in D&D

[AllisterH]

Strange...I don't associate elves with wild/wood elves but with magic/eladrin.

So my vote was halfling, eladrin, human and dwarf.

 

[drothgery]

Strange...I don't associate elves with wild/wood elves but with magic/eladrin.

So my vote was halfling, eladrin, human and dwarf.

Same here.

 

[Hellzon]

I voted for High Elves as one of my choices because they were the default elven race until 4th edition... when they became eladrin for some reason.

Gah! I knew this was going to be ambiguous. Guess the two elves are a bit of a wild card.

Human, (wood) elf, dwarf, half-elf, halfling, half-orc, orc, and changeling.

Hee! Makes me want to read the backstory for those two.

Human.

That works too. You... humanist!

Now that some people have voted, I snuck mine in. Human, (wood) elf, dwarf. Halfling is a solid fourth, but not vital to my D&D experience. Wood elf could have been eladrin. (I guess what I mean is that I want at least one of them in, but don't care which one.)

 

[Cadfan]

I voted human and elf. I answered strictly from my own perspective, though, not as an estimation of the "D&D genre" or what the "D&D community" might need.

If the PHB had humans, elves, tieflings, dragonborn, and eladrin, I'd be satisfied. I don't view all of those as necessary, but I'd be happy to see them. Humans are humans, and you need those just to cover the generic basis. Elves are the one-with-the-wilderness archetype. Tieflings cover the dark, accursed archetype. Dragonborn cover the proud alien race archetype. And eladrin cover the "more magic than you" archetype.

I could do without dwarves (short, fat, drunk archetype), halflings (... just plain short archetype?), gnomes (...still short archetype?), half elves (weird fantasy genetics archetype?), and half orcs (something initially created to represent the children of bestial rape, but we no longer consider that acceptable, so we're rushing around for a new archetype archetype?). Most of those just aren't different enough from regular humans for me to care about them.

Its possible that I might change my mind on gnomes if they ever develop a strong personality. Dwarves and halflings and half-orcs, though, they had their chance.

If I were going to add something to the list, I'd go for some of the really different races like Deva, Shifter, or Warforged. Races that imply a strong, defining theme.

...although to a certain extent the "races" nomenclature is misleading for some of these. I sometimes feel like insisting that devas, shifters, warforged, and tieflings might be better off if they weren't "races" per se, with cultures and histories and lots of members, but rather as just "things you might be."

 

[Belorin]

I figure most PHB's have an average of eight races, I've seen more and less;
Dwarf
Eladrin (High Elf)
Elf (Wood)
Gnome
Half-elf
Half-orc
Halfling
Human

These are your most populous races, later phbs can introduce the more exotic and/or rarer races.

Bel

 

[Rechan]

There wasn't a "None" option, so I didn't vote.

I don't consider any of them to be vital to me. I am sick of them all (well, aside from DB and Tiefs).

 

[AllisterH]

Based on archtypes, Cadfan's one makes sense....

p.s. When did elves become by default associated with the wild? They've had a negative to CON since pre 4e and I always thought the fluff made clear that magic was the life/art of the elven race.

(The Complete Munch....er I mean, Elves' Handbook certainly hammered that point)

 

[Dausuul]

Human.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

p.s. When did elves become by default associated with the wild? They've had a negative to CON since pre 4e and I always thought the fluff made clear that magic was the life/art of the elven race.

From "the Hobbit" and "LotR". The elves who haven't seen the light of the two trees (eg the Teleri) were wild elves, especially noteworthy in "the Hobbit", since those wild elves copy humans, rather than the other way around (Elves you can actually argue with!) Legolas was one such elf in LotR. Some of the other elves were "high" elves (Noldor), however, being much more magically powerful and civilized (eladrin). Examples are Galadriel, Arwyn and Elrond (who is half-human). The main elf characters of the Silmarillion were for the most part Noldor.

In a LotR RPG, Noldor would probably be too powerful to be playable.

The lack of Con doesn't mean much, given their fighting style (and elf speed bonus and wild step). Having ranks in Survival/Nature is far more important (and the +1 bonus that elves get in 4e can't hurt either).

Many DnD settings have "wild elves" and (ignoring the rules, which often give them different stats for no good reason) we have the green and one other type of elf (aka wild and wood) from FR and the Kagonesti from Dragonlance. Analogues can be found in Dark Sun (they're both, but more wild than magical) and Eberron (the mercenary elves aren't magical, and there's minimal silly rules differences).

(The Complete Munch....er I mean, Elves' Handbook certainly hammered that point)

I don't care what that book said.

 

[weem]

Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling for me - they represent the "standard" (imo) when I think of available races. Of course, I like having a lot of options so the more the better (in most cases), but that's my choice as standard.