D&D 5E (2014) Alternative PC Races

[RufusDaMan]

That is awesome... Half gnoll paladin

 

[Tormyr]

Tormyr, I love the imagination that went into that story twist. Gnoll aasimar? A half-gnoll offspring? I'm trying to picture that kid fitting into a typical child day-care.

Thanks. I had the notes from our DM for the gnoll encounter and a map. I wanted to put an interesting twist by making it a good gnoll village and keeping the encounter as evil gnolls attacking the village. I scoured the internet for examples and stumbled upon dandwiki's treatment of gnoll aasimar. As for the offspring...if several things had not transpired the way they did, it never would have happened. He had a little trouble fitting in at the home village, so he felt the call of Heironeous* and set out to be the light in the world.

This is one of the prime examples of why I thoroughly enjoy D&D.

*Yes, he started in the Forgotten Realms and ended up in Greyhawk. Please try to not pay attention too closely.

 

[TrippyHippy]

It is a pity that the use of MM entrees isn’t fully endorsed in the game as a source of PC races (in a manner that they are in RQ, say). There are mechanisms provided in the DMG to turn them into that, but it takes some work and the guidelines aren’t as explicit as they could be. One idea though:

- Replace Halflings with any sort of diminutive anthropomorphic creature (as in Narnia or Wind in the Willows) that you like. You don’t need to replace the stats at all, although you could make a series of sub-races based on different animals (rabbits, beavers, badgers, etc).

 

[Remathilis]

Check out the alternative PC races developed by Remathlis before the Monster Manual came out:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?361168-D-amp-D-Conversion-Races

My advice is that you would want to use his work as a model, but make sure what you develop is compatible with RAW in the PHB and MM.

Thanks RT.

Since the DMG came out, I have considered revising some of them. In particular, the goliath and the rakasta need some fixing. The rakasta is going to be more slim-lined, while the goliath is losing Brute (since that really throws the math out of whack) and I'm considering just making them Large and be done with it.

I'll probably get around to those revisions sometime soon.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

The long way to answering this question because I love this story. I should write it out somewhere so I can just paste it whenever it comes up.

Back in our previous adventure before our current Age of Worms campaign, the previous generation of heroes were travelling from Murder in Baldur's Gate to Legacy of the Crystal Shard. Our previous DM was frustrated with the sundering adventures and had us doing everything except get to Icewind Dale. We found ourselves travelling to a magical horse farm. Cale, the human druid went out into the pasture to talk with the horses to figure out what shenanigans were going on. As he stayed out there, he could tell that he was starting to change into a horse. He ran from the pasture, but not before he had an elongated snout, one long ear, and was hung like a horse.

The next week I filled in for the DM. It was only my second time doing this, and I had planned out a full session that somehow went mostly as planned. As they started, they were caught in a freak blizzard (start of The Legacy of the Crystal Shard. The party had lost their cold weather gear and were going to suffer levels of exhaustion, but the elf wizard player came up with the idea of going into their rations and smearing their bear fat all over as an insulating layer. Having done that, they pressed on and found a hut. The hut turned out to be just a cover for a stairway that led down to an underground hot springs and a village of gnoll aasimar. They were welcomed in and offered use of the baths. Cale decided to go look around and went off on his own. He ran into a female gnoll healer who was heading to the village square to help heal the party. Well, one look at how Cale was built and the aphrodisiac effects of the bear fat was all it took, and Cale found himself invited into her hut.

The party helped the village fend off an evil gnoll attack. Shortly after, I took over being DM for the group. The party made it to Icewind Dale and played the second half of Legacy of the Crystal Shard. During the wrap up exposition, the party learned that a gnoll had traveled with the first caravan after the spring thaw opened the southern pass. He told Cale that he needed to return to the village and discuss things of a personal nature with his lady friend.

So Rawrland son of Cale, the Half-Gnoll Oath of the Ancients Paladin, was the result of that. When Cale's player asked if he could play Rawrland in our new campaign, I had to say yes.

That is thoroughly awesome! Please have some exp