Are half-races an essential option in D&D?

[mhensley]

horse + donkey = mule

tiger + lion = liger

horse + donkey = sterile

tiger + lion = retarded cat that usually dies young


Half-orcs could easily be replaced by orcs. Half-elves no longer have a niche in D&D and should be dropped. In previous editions they allowed you to play a human-like character that could multiclass. Its outlived its purpose.

 

[Voadam]

I'm not sure I see what the problem is. How much of the average fantasy world is grounded in hard science? Does your world include the theory of evolution? Seems like just about every campaign setting I've heard of attributes its creation to super powerful gods and such.

If we're generally willing to ignore real physics and accept entire planets birthed by magic, why is it so incredibly important to have realistic genetics?

You can have half races with realistic genetics, make elves and humans and orcs one species and they can interbreed. Or make the halves as sterile mules.

It is not a question of realistic fantasy vs. realistic genetics. It is a question of preferred flavor. What are the flavor pros and cons of half x races and different explanations of them versus not including the concepts.

My disdain for half races is primarily one of flavor. Distinct fantasy races are better than diluted ones for creating a striking fantastic milieu IMO. I like the distinct racial flavors of WFRP, Paladium, Shadowrun, and Earthdawn over default core hybrid D&D. Too much mixing and things become a mush.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Another example of taking a race and doing something with it that fits the world: Sword and Sorcery Studios looked at the core races in Third Edition when they licensed the Ravenloft setting and said "There are almost no orcs around! Half-orcs don't fit!"

So they came up with the caliban: "cursed" offspring of humans and the like, with a half-orc's game statistics (minus the orc-blood traits, of course) and a half-orc's "reviled outsider" status among most civilised communities.

That's a good example of how you can fit game elements into a world that has no place for them. I remember similar examples - somewhere I believe I once read about someone's homebrew where there were no half-elves, but rather the elf race described in the Player's Handbook were the setting's elf-human crossbreed, because full-blooded elves were an immortal fey race a la Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

One of the projects I am working on involves the question of half races and D&D. Are they really an essential part of the game and a mandatory option for player characters to choose from? In my opinion, the game could do without half races and it would no effect at all on the game and how it is played.

Your thoughts?

They are an essential part of the game mechanics the way any given race is - which is: not at all.

However, they may be an essential part of the game world, depending on which world you play in (like the Forgotten Realms, for example).

Frankly, if you want to drop half-races in your game world, then that's up to you. Personally, I don't have gnomes, halflings, or dwarves in my homebrew. I also don't have half-orcs, because orcs don't exist. Elves are replaced by fey, so no half-elves either. However, I do allow several other races to make up for the lack of PHB races - various fey (homebrew, from ECL +0 to +10), half-fey, various humaniods from multiple sources, and a few others.

I once played in a game where the only races allowed were humans and elves, and they couldn't breed, so no half-elves. It all depends on what feel you are going for in your game world.

 

[babomb]

horse + donkey = sterile

tiger + lion = retarded cat that usually dies young

Actually, while rare, some female mules (male donkey + female horse) are fertile, and when mated with a horse produce a full-blooded horse. At least one female hinny (male horse + female donkey) has successfully mated with a donkey to produce a donkey-hinny.

At least one liger (male lion + female tiger) has lived to the age of 24, and several others have lived to about 18. And I hear they're good at magic, not retarded. Both liger and tigon (male tiger + female lion) females are usually fertile, and have successfully mated with fullbloods of either species. The males are sterile.

There were reportedly experiments in the USSR to produce human-chimp hybrids, but they were (fortunately) unsuccessful.

Edit: I've been wanting to play a three-quarterling for years.

 

[fusangite]

First of all, if Mendelian genetics were true, there would be no way to explain the ecosystems and species of D&D worlds. So I think we can safely start from the assumption that D&D worlds' physical laws are going to be inconsistent with ours. The question then becomes: how much do D&D's unique physical laws interact with inherited traits.

I think we have ended-up in D&D with Half-Orcs and Half-Elves pretty much exclusively because of LOTR. However, just like the Ranger class, the Tolkienesque concept as horridly mangled as it is imported.

As I understand Tolien's various remarks about curses, lineal obligations and burdens and the heritability of a generation's greatness, it seems that he subscribes to something like 15th century Iberian ideas of race. There, various peoples were considered, due to past bad actions by their forbears to have tainted blood; those whose ancestors had behaved in a morally exemplary way inherited pure blood. Over time, it was thought, a race of people could, through collective moral uprightness, clean their blood, as it were.

For this reason, what racial traits were transmitted by one generation to the next had to do with that generation's choices. Elros chose his human nature; Elrond, his elvish. Elros's children were 100% human (high men, though they were) whereas Elrond's were 100% elf. Tolkien's half-orcs, similarly are already a kind of orc and, by the next generation, probably will be a kind more like their forbears, again, because of their choice.

For this reason, I tend, in my own campaigns, to handle interracial relationships like Tolkien, therefore never using the half-race categories. It works fine for me.

 

[Nyaricus]

Actually, while rare, some female mules (male donkey + female horse) are fertile, and when mated with a horse produce a full-blooded horse. At least one female hinny (male horse + female donkey) has successfully mated with a donkey to produce a donkey-hinny.

At least one liger (male lion + female tiger) has lived to the age of 24, and several others have lived to about 18. And I hear they're good at magic, not retarded. Both liger and tigon (male tiger + female lion) females are usually fertile, and have successfully mated with fullbloods of either species. The males are sterile.

There were reportedly experiments in the USSR to produce human-chimp hybrids, but they were (fortunately) unsuccessful.

That last bit gave me a bad mental picture

And the rest I was just about to say

 

[Nyaricus]

Interesting post, fusangite

 

[Jin_Kataki]

Why does it seem that DM's always have something against half-races while many players prefer them. Half races give use a little bit more to work with upon creating our characters back story.

 

[Nifft]

My players shun them. I don't much care either way.

-- N