D&D 5E Companion thread to 5E Survivor: Species

[RealAlHazred]

I used warforged extensively in a short-lived Valoreign campaign. Ancient war, check. Weird magical weapons, check. Magical "mutations" as aftereffects, check. I had a player play a warforged who had been damaged to 0 hit points during the war, but not completely destroyed; he was then "reactivated" during the first session when found by the other PCs and healed. Worked nicely and let me drop in some campaign lore in an organic way.

 

[CreamCloud0]

They are fine for Eberron. And I'd even potentially allow one as one-off weirdo in another setting, but as a species that there are multiple of in another setting? I am just not down with it.

That’s fair, I guess I just see them as just another, if slightly more advanced, variant of golem, which are typically widely accepted as existing in a standard fantasy setting, as are also liches: if someone is willing to transform themselves into an undead for whatever reason why wouldn’t they also consider doing the same with a suit of armour*, many similar benefits without the bother of priests and paladins trying to cleanse your soul away to the afterlife.

*yes i know warforged aren’t just a suit of armour but you get the idea of what i mean.

 

[CleverNickName]

Most arguments for and against the Warforged focus on whether or not they "belong in D&D." But the better argument would be whether or not they belong in Ravenloft, or on Athas, or in Midgard, or in whatever fantasy setting you happen to be playing. "Warforged in D&D" and "warforged in Middle Earth" are two different topics.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Most arguments for and against the Warforged focus on whether or not they "belong in D&D." But the better argument would be whether or not they belong in Ravenloft, or on Athas, or in Midgard, or in whatever fantasy setting you happen to be playing. Warforged in D&D is a different topic than warforged in Middle Earth.

True. And they absolutely belong in Middle Earth!

/s

 

[overgeeked]

Oh completely! The satyr has been around since the Expert Rules Boxed Set, and they're in a couple of classic adventure modules from back in the day (UK1, "Beyond the Crystal Cave" and C5, "The Bane of Llywelyn" come to mind, but I'm sure there were others.) The Internet says there was a Spelljammer adventure module that featured satyrs as well, but I never played SJ so I wouldn't know.

They weren't a playable race species until the newer Theros campaign setting came out, though.

The satyr/faun was a playable species in Creature Crucible: Tall Tales of the Wee Folk, for Basic circa 1989.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Oh completely! The satyr has been around since the Expert Rules Boxed Set, and they're in a couple of classic adventure modules from back in the day (UK1, "Beyond the Crystal Cave" and C5, "The Bane of Llywelyn" come to mind, but I'm sure there were others.) The Internet says there was a Spelljammer adventure module that featured satyrs as well, but I never played SJ so I wouldn't know.

They weren't a playable race species until the newer Theros campaign setting came out, though.

They were playable in 4e, actually. Unless you men "they weren't playable in 5e until the newer Theros campaign setting."

 

[CleverNickName]

They were playable in 4e, actually. Unless you men "they weren't playable in 5e until the newer Theros campaign setting."

That is what I meant, yes. I never played 4E.

 

[Maxperson]

I totally get it. Unfortunately, the "wait until the list is smaller" only makes it take longer for the list to become smaller...it's sort of self-defeating.

I get it. Unfortunately, I have ADHD and the super long lists or lists that begin at like 30-50 often drag on so long that it becomes not fun for me. I've tried them in the past. Better for me to wait until they are at a point where I will enjoy it through the end.

The largest "group" of species at the moment is still that unnecessarily large group of human-animal hybrids...followed by a ton of tieflings and a half-dozen elves. I think that once we've got those three groups whittled down to a respectable size (with only one or two of each), the list will become a lot more manageable.

For my part: the two elves I'd be content to keep are the High Elf and the Wood Elf--they're the more iconic options in the game, IMO. The two animal-heads I've decided to spare are the Minotaur and the Satyr, because they're so well-established in both the game history and Greek mythology. And we really don't need more than one tiefling, so I'll spare the variant. That would remove two dozen options from the list, and leave us with a more interesting assortment. THEN the contest can truly begin, in my opinion.

 

[AnotherGuy]

man, my one man down voting of all human options is taking forever.

Help me with the elves first and I will join you in removing the humans.

 

[CreamCloud0]

My daily downvoting of the Tortle is locked in stalemate with two other people who apparently like the thing, if someone wants to help make some turtle soup I wouldn’t be ungrateful