Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Okay, quick clarification before I get into this a bit more. I do not mean that current official D&D races need to get weirder/more unique, I mean that we need future official races to be weirder and more unique. Sure, D&D already has quite a few weird/unique races, but a lot of them have quite a bit of overlap. Orcs have significant overlap with Goliaths and Hobgoblins (all three being proud warrior races), Tritons, Sea Elves, and Mermaids all fill the same niche, Elves have overlap with Gnomes and Firbolg (all being magical fey races with long lives), Tabaxi and Leonin are both cat people, Aarakocra and Owlfolk are both bird folk, and so on.
Now, I'm not saying we can't/shouldn't have new races that do have some overlap with current existing D&D races, I just would like future races to have less overlap and be more unique culturally and mechanically. Here are some examples (Keep in mind that I don't want all or even most of these to become official, I just would like some more diverse races thematically):
Now, I'm not saying we can't/shouldn't have new races that do have some overlap with current existing D&D races, I just would like future races to have less overlap and be more unique culturally and mechanically. Here are some examples (Keep in mind that I don't want all or even most of these to become official, I just would like some more diverse races thematically):
- Bug People. Now, most people don't like most bugs, which is understandable, but there are some bug people that wouldn't completely gross people out. An example that come to mind from fantasy series, like the Grinaldi from the 5 Kingdoms book series, who have grasshopper legs and wings, who are fantastic jumpers and are very stealthy and perceptive. Other bug people that could become official in D&D without grossing people out could be honeybee/bumblebee people, moth/butterfly people, firefly people, ladybug people, and so on.
- More Anthropomorphic Animal Races. We already have quite a few of these, like the Rabbitfolk, Tabaxi and Leonin, Tortles, Aarakocra, Owlfolk, Lizardfolk, and so on, but we could use more, especially more unique ones. What about terrestrial-birdfolk? No humanoid penguins? Or some fairly popular ones that aren't official, like Ratfolk, Bearfolk, and Foxfolk. As mentioned in the Unearthed Arcana: Draconic Options thread, we could also have Platypus and Echidna folk. Maybe even some marsupial humanoids, like Koalas, Kangaroo/Wallaby, or Wombat people. There are a ton of animals, so we could have even more races.
- Otherworldly Races. We have already been getting some of these through the Feywild and Gothic Races/Lineages, but there are a lot of planes of existence and a lot more new and unique races could be created through them. We could get a Far Realm touched race, more Celestial races, a Limbo-related race (chaos grung?), and so on.