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

[Vaalingrade]

Animal-human hybrids are the most likely to win...there's like, two dozen of those on the list...almost 200 points.

This is Enworld though.

 

[Tonguez]

Animal-human hybrids are the most likely to win...there's a total of 17 on the list... 170 points. It's almost a foregone conclusion that one of these will "survive."


Precisely. Followed by a cat, and then a goat.

Well if we think of humans and halflings as ape/monkey hybrids and dwarfs as badger hybrids then every race is an Animal-hybrid

 

[CleverNickName]

Well if we think of humans and halflings as ape/monkey hybrids and dwarfs as badger hybrids then every race is an Animal-hybrid

It's just so weird, right?

Wizards of the Coast takes an elf, changes its appearance and gives it a unique ability based on its ancestral home, and everyone complains "oh yuck, another elf, get rid of it, why are there so many," etc.

Wizards of the Coast takes a tiefling, changes its appearance and gives it a unique ability based on its bloodline, and everyone complains "oh gross another tiefling, toss it in the bin, there are just too many of these," etc.

Wizards of the Coast takes a human, changes its appearance and gives it a unique ability based on an animal, and everyone exclaims in wonder "oh wow a totally unique species, such a rich contribution to my game world, why didn't they do this sooner," etc.

 

[Scribe]

Tieflings have 69 points. Nice. Halflings have 51. Dragonborn have 46. Shifters have 46. Elves have 41. Lizardfolk have 17.

Nice (Tiefling is at 58 now), but the thing is not all of those options even count. If its not Tiefling, Variant, I'll be downvoting the other pretender Tieflings, once my righteous crusade is concluded.

 

[overgeeked]

Nice (Tiefling is at 58 now), but the thing is not all of those options even count. If its not Tiefling, Variant, I'll be downvoting the other pretender Tieflings, once my righteous crusade is concluded.

My point was only that species with multiple entries have a clear and distinct advantage over those who do not.

 

[Scribe]

My point was only that species with multiple entries have a clear and distinct advantage over those who do not.

Right, but only if one considers the base species, as more important than the various distinctions. I would have been working down other Tieflings, if not viciously attacked earlier by a Gnome of all things.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Wizards of the Coast takes a human, changes its appearance and gives it a unique ability based on an animal, and everyone exclaims in wonder "oh wow a totally unique species, such a rich contribution to my game world, why didn't they do this sooner," etc.

See, I liked the Aarakocra way before Wizards of the Coast had anything to do with the race. They stood out for me in the original Fiend Folio (1981) because they were plausible and weirdly different than the bog-standard humans and humans-with-funny-ears and short-humans-with-beards, which was how we were playing the other races at the time. Lawrence Schick created them for that book, and they were wonderfully illustrated by Jeff Dee; you can see the images at the beginning of this article. I don't consider them in the same light as the later animal-people; even the tabaxi, who originated in the same book, received a far less detailed treatment, with no real consideration of society or culture; they really were just cat-people out to eat your face and steal your stuff. The aarakocra were interesting. And the later article, "The Wings of Eagles" by J. E Keeping from Dragon #124 (August 1987), expanded on the stuff intelligently, providing an interesting group of NPCs to use, scenario hooks, PC options, and the like. Wizards of the Coast's only "contribution" was to cheapen the aarakocra by giving them an extra pair of arms...

 

[Tonguez]

See, I liked the Aarakocra way before Wizards of the Coast had anything to do with the race. They stood out for me in the original Fiend Folio (1981) because they were plausible and weirdly different than the bog-standard humans and humans-with-funny-ears and short-humans-with-beards, which was how we were playing the other races at the time. Lawrence Schick created them for that book, and they were wonderfully illustrated by Jeff Dee; you can see the images at the beginning of this article. I don't consider them in the same light as the later animal-people; even the tabaxi, who originated in the same book, received a far less detailed treatment, with no real consideration of society or culture; they really were just cat-people out to eat your face and steal your stuff. The aarakocra were interesting. And the later article, "The Wings of Eagles" by J. E Keeping from Dragon #124 (August 1987), expanded on the stuff intelligently, providing an interesting group of NPCs to use, scenario hooks, PC options, and the like. Wizards of the Coast's only "contribution" was to cheapen the aarakocra by giving them an extra pair of arms...

I agree those original Fiend folio Arakocra were outstanding and remain my favourite iteration - much better than the ridiculous Raptorans or the stupid six-limbed eagle people we have now.

if only they had a name we could spell

 

[CleverNickName]

This is all why I was a fan of the "Custom Lineage" option in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Using those rules, you could replace almost every species and subspecies on this list with one that was balanced and uniform. You didn't need a dozen flavors of Tiefling, no horde of elves, no petting zoo.

You want to play a classic 1E D&D elf with just a few adjustments? Here's how. Inspired by something you saw in the Monster Manual? Let's build it. You want to play a winged pegasus/centaur/unicorn that starts with a feat? Sounds awesome, let's do it. The shackles are off, go wild!

But alas. This is a Survivor thread; we can't have nice things.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I agree those original Fiend folio Arakocra were outstanding and remain my favourite iteration - much better than the ridiculous Raptorans or the stupid six-limbed eagle people we have now.

I will never understand how they decided for a book about races, "Let's do a flying race!" and then never once considered using a flying PC race they already had in the archives. Instead, they created something new that was "exactly the same but different". I eventually decided it was because someone read about the foot-hands and decided that it was too silly for his serious game about floating eyeball monsters and Demon Lords of Jello.

if only they had a name we could spell

You got it almost right in your post, just skipped an "a"! Their name is not nearly as bad as "svirfneblin" or "baatezu" or "bards"...