D&D Race You Hate the Most

[KarinsDad]

This thread reads like a self-help group for narrow-minded DMs of a Middle Earth RPG. Everything is bad unless it was written by Tolkien and approved by Gygax. Yawn.

I might be boring to you, but I cannot stand the concept of yet "another monstrous (and sometimes misunderstood) PC".

Talk about yawn.

Everyone and his brother wants to play a monstrous race (and mostly not for roleplaying reasons, but because of class / race synergies).

I consider Tieflings and Dragonborn and Warforged and Goliaths and Changelings and Shifters and Shardminds and Wildens and Satyrs and all of the "new wave races" to mostly be monstrous.

Monstrous PCs should be attacked in the streets by mobs of locals. Instead, they are heroes. That is so non-plausible and reeks of political correctness in gaming.

 

[Lwaxy]

Monstrous PCs should be attacked in the streets by mobs of locals. Instead, they are heroes. That is so non-plausible and reeks of political correctness in gaming.

A monster, by my definition, if defined by intend. Any race can be a hero race if the PC is not evil (unless of course it is an evil campaign).

I'm really tired of the racism in the games so I'm happy for most of the races, even if they do not all belong in our settings.

We used to have a world where the elves and dwarfs were mostly monstrous instead of having drow and the like.

 

[Aeolius]

Only diehard fans of Dragonlance think kenders can be saved!

Kender, spelled backwards, is rednek... there's a lesson there for all of us.

 

[Aeolius]

winged folk/raptoran/etc Flight is something to be introduced under the GM's terms, not as a starting race.

Unless the campaign is set on an aerial world without solid ground. C'mon, I've been running undersea games since 1998. There HAS to be a DM out there with an aerial campaign, somewhere.

 

[KarinsDad]

A monster, by my definition, if defined by intend. Any race can be a hero race if the PC is not evil (unless of course it is an evil campaign).

I'm really tired of the racism in the games so I'm happy for most of the races, even if they do not all belong in our settings.

First, intent shouldn't mean squat to a bunch of locals. How would local NPCS know that a monstrous PC isn't just trying to trick them? A hobgoblin shows up? Kill it. A dragonborn (which for all intents and purposes looks like a lizardfolk)? Kill it.

The default points of light setting should encourage xenophobia, not enlightenment. Playing it the opposite way reeks of current 21st century "human rights" activism, not most medieval thought. Suspicion at best, slaughter at worst, but not open handed acceptance. Even dwarves and elves should often be considered fair game in many human settlements in a points of light setting. Look at your racism comment. It drips of current human rights entitlement that in real human history, hasn't been a strong part of human culture until the last century.

I find it vastly amusing that the PCs go around trespassing, murdering NPCs, and looting them right and left, but PCs have this "PC stamp" on their foreheads such that NPCs in an NPC community should consider them heroes instead of the murderous (monstrous in come cases) cutthroats that they really are. snort

 

[Minigiant]

First, intent shouldn't mean squat to a bunch of locals. How would local NPCS know that a monstrous PC isn't just trying to trick them? A hobgoblin shows up? Kill it. A dragonborn (which for all intents and purposes looks like a lizardfolk)? Kill it.

The default points of light setting should encourage xenophobia, not enlightenment. Playing it the opposite way reeks of current 21st century "human rights" activism, not most medieval thought. Suspicion at best, slaughter at worst, but not open handed acceptance. Even dwarves and elves should often be considered fair game in many human settlements in a points of light setting. Look at your racism comment. It drips of current human rights entitlement that in real human history, hasn't been a strong part of human culture until the last century.

Hornsbury the Minotaur: "Fine. I'll leave, townsfolk. You don't want help from the scary minotaurs. Fine."
Gorrax the Dragonborn: "Good luck with the goblin marauders!"
Rage the Tielfing: "Hope they only steal half your livestock and kill only one of your children."


Just because they are monstrous looking, they don't have to be misunderstood redeemer. They can be jerks with dollar signs for eyes who are crazy enough to do the dangerous quest.

The townspeople could be racist but the PCs are stronger than them and wiling to help. They don't have to be nice when they give the quest. It's even more fun for the townspeople to eventually trust the heroic monsters that help them.... only to for the monstrous PCs to ask for more money because the citizens of Elmville were so inhospitable.

 

[KarinsDad]

Hornsbury the Minotaur: "Fine. I'll leave, townsfolk. You don't want help from the scary minotaurs. Fine."
Gorrax the Dragonborn: "Good luck with the goblin marauders!"
Rage the Tielfing: "Hope they only steal half your livestock and kill only one of your children."


Just because they are monstrous looking, they don't have to be misunderstood redeemer. They can be jerks with dollar signs for eyes who are crazy enough to do the dangerous quest.

The townspeople could be racist but the PCs are stronger than them and wiling to help. They don't have to be nice when they give the quest. It's even more fun for the townspeople to eventually trust the heroic monsters that help them.... only to for the monstrous PCs to ask for more money because the citizens of Elmville were so inhospitable.

Yeah and the Barbarian Minotaur with a -1 Diplomacy is going to convince the townspeople to put away their pitchforks because he found out that Goblins are attacking them.

This is a form of Deux Ex Machina. The NPCs act the way the PCs want them to because it continues the DM's story instead of because of how NPCs should really act in that situation.

Townsfolk being attacked by Goblins should sound the alarm and shoot arrows at monstrous PCs before those PCs even get close enough to talk to the townsfolk. The townsfolk are already on alert because Goblins have already attacked them. If not already alerted, the townsfolk should probably scatter when monsters come to call.

That's why they are called MONSTERS. What part of MONSTERS is not understood?

Wouldn't a Minotaur be even more scary than Goblins? This should be an instant situation of NPC Fight or Flight, not conversation.

Granted, I am talking about a Points of Light setting (the default of 4E) where the very definition of the campaign world is one where there are islands of light surrounded by seas of darkness. Other campaigns can and are totally different. But I've always preferred campaigns with dangerous wilderness areas where monsters are outlaws by definition and not ones where monsters walk the streets of cities. If they walk the streets of cities, they shouldn't be called monsters. Instead, they'd be called citizens.

 

[Derren]

That's why they are called MONSTERS. What part of MONSTERS is not understood?

When it can speak and reason why would it be a "monster"?
What makes a kobold different from a gnome?
Imo the term "monster" is not one applied because of inherent racial traits but because of social stigmas. And those can change depending on the world or region.

A village can easily see elves as monsters because they kill everyone who sets foot into their forest but have no problem with kobolds because they trade ore for supplies once a season.
Even in a 4E PoL setting what speaks agains the "Point of Light" being a civilized minotaur underground city beset by marauding bands of dwarves (descandants of a fallen dwarf kingdom turned barbaric)?

 

[Lwaxy]

And that's the thing, you are going by a campaign setting I don't use (or don't know anything about).

I totally agree that in the setting you describe, I'd either not allow any out of the norm PCs or maybe allow one rare one and make him/her an outcast.

However, in our settings (except when we use the official ones and even then we tend to modify them somewhat) the normal everyday people know, in theory, that it matters not what you look like. They may have a minotaur as mayor. The further you leave civilized area, the less this is the case though and you'll find even the humans and elves as monstrous savages.

We used to have a setting where all dwarfs were seen as monsters because some of them helped an evil god to kill civilization. No dwarf PCs there.

 

[the Jester]

I voted for Drow, duergar and raptoran/winged folk- because they are monster races, not pc races (or ought to be IMHO).

I also voted for kender because nothing, nothing, NOTHING has ever been more annoying.

If DragonLance tinker gnomes were on the list, you better believe I'd have voted for them, too.