DId WotC make a mistake? (Half-Elves)

[TheAuldGrump]

The genetics of my home campaign are a bit too involved for a template. Not all races can breed to create hybrids, for example:

Humans and elfs produce sterile hybrids

Humans and orcs create fertile offspring. (Which means that in my campaign Orcs are humans folks... orcs have no ships, humans have good ships, guess who was the invader? Orcs hate and kill humans for much the same reason that American Indians hated and killed the white settlers - with much the same result.)

Halflings and humans produce offspring that is indistinguishable from humans. Two half-halflings breeding have a 25% chance of producing a halfling child.

Dwarfs and gnomes are the same species, merely a racial and cultural difference and may interbreed freely.

Goblins are fey, not the standard D&D critter. As indeed are many of the Monster Manual creatures, who are slowly making a reappearance in the world after a 1400 year absence. The monolithic church that kept them out has begun fracturing and the walls of faith are crumbling... As a side result sorcerous bloodlines have also come back, and wizards have found that their spells have become easier. (The appearance of 3e was stangely congruent with this change... )

Fey can breed with anything, being an incarnation of magic shaped by people's beliefs.

Dragons do not create offspring with anything but dragons, or is there anything like the metallic/chromatic split between dragons - a dragon is a dragon is a dragon ranging across many, many types...

And the Wars of Religion (Reformation - counter reformation) have begun. Guns are fairly common - counting as exotic in the first 20 years of the war, becoming martial thereafter.

The Auld Grump

 

[Luddite]

Half-Elf and Half-Orc as individual races are just part of the "Tradition" of DnD.

And in Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, I accept them as much.

But, IMC, I decided to allow all "base" races to interbreed with other "base" races. So one could be Half-Elf and Half-Orc. Or Half-Human and Half-Orc. There were a lot of Half-Elf/Humans in the region because of the history of the area being under Elf rule long time ago, though it is now mostly Human.

So the question is, how would you mechanicaly make hybred/cross races. If I wanted to make a Half-Elf/Half-Orc would I apply the Half-Elf Template to the Orc, or the Half-Orc Template to the Elf? Or would there be two "Half Races" I would just combine to make the cross race.

-The Luddite

 

[mattcolville]

The reason there is no half elf template is because the race is the blend with elf and human.

I don't think that's the 'reason.' I think the reason is: that's the way it's been for a long time and WotC didn't want to mix things up just for the sake of design consistancy. It's one of those sacred cows that, even though they don't make sense any more, stay in the game so people who read the books would still feel like it was D&D.

 

[Frost]

I already think there's a glut of half-this, half-that templates out there already, and I certainly don't need more.

I agree... Besides, if it's not broke, why fix it? There is such a thing as getting mired in rules and losing sight of the game.

Then again, I refuse to "upgrade" to 3.5 for pretty much the same reason (3.0 works just fine for me).

 

[dcas]

Dwarfs and gnomes are the same species, merely a racial and cultural difference and may interbreed freely.

Interesting . . . my campaign is somewhat similar -- Gnomes are the "Petty-dwarves" (i.e. smaller dwarves) of Tolkien (see The Silmarillion etc.) and could potentially "cross-breed" with the "true" Dwarves, but Dwarven racism prevents this from happening. I also have Half-dwarves (i.e. half-humans) reminiscent of Dr. Cornelius in Prince Caspian who (again) are the target of Dwarven racism.