D&D General DnD Stereotypes In The Home Game

[Oofta]

My group had a lot of fun subverting this in our last game. My half-orc barbarian was a surly teenager who liked to talk about all of the prejudice he'd experienced at the hands of humans due to his parentage, when in fact his parents had been two half-orcs (PCs from a previous campaign) who had won general public acclaim and risen to found a fledgling kingdom, and raised him in relative luxury and with the goodwill of the local populace.

I may have to steal that. Have a PC with "local hero" or "noble birth" as background that's the son of two half-orc parents. He moved to the big city and doesn't understand the discrimination he never felt in his home town.

 

[Arnwolf666]

We once played a game with a human, half-elf, half-orc, air genasi, tiefling, Goliath (half-giant) all with the same mother. The joke was mama got around. It was eventually worked into a plot that Iggwilv was our mother and she had a mysterious scheme for putting her son Iuz in his place. Step father Grazzt was very helpful as he had grown to hate Iuz over the years.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What is banned in all of my world are Halfling barbarians, they are the anti achetype per se for me especially if they wield a greatsword.

...thereby tossing out the best race/class combo for running a D&D version of Wolverine.

Short? Check.
Fuzzy? Check.

Just add bladed gauntlets for 2WF, cigars and poutine.

 

[BookBarbarian]

...thereby tossing out the best race/class combo for running a D&D version of Wolverine.

Short? Check.
Fuzzy? Check.

Just add bladed gauntlets for 2WF, cigars and poutine.

Hill Dwarf Battlerager is my go to Wolverine. Temp HP for reckless attacks is a pretty great regeneration substitute. I just refluff Spiked armor as spiked gauntlets.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hill Dwarf Battlerager is my go to Wolverine. Temp HP for reckless attacks is a pretty great regeneration substitute. I just refluff Spiked armor as spiked gauntlets.

pfft
Not short OR fuzzy enough.

 

[Xenonnonex]

pfft
Not short OR fuzzy enough.

Play as an awakened giant badger. Fluff it as a wolverine or honey badger. Give it frenzy. Give it battlerager class features. Give it limited regeneration.

 

[cbwjm]

I tend to use stereotypes. In my current campaign, a tribe of orcs and a tribe of gnolls are the bad guys. Gnolls are batshit crazy, orcs are brutish but can also be cunning, particularly the leaders. Mainly, I want it to be clear who the bad guys are, and as they are the children of the Destroyer, the orcs are bad guys.

That said, I don't bring it up in game if a player runs a half-orc with villagers refusing service or snearing or chasing them off with a pitchfork, I want to play a fun game and having every village they enter treat their PC like dirt sounds like it would be exhausting work and not be much fun for anyone. Also, it makes the exceptions stand out more if orcs are pretty much always the bad guys, then the happy marriage between Gorga Skullsmasher and Simon Tiller stands out as a great exception to the standard stereotype. If their town is attacked by orcs, she'll be fighting against them to defend her home side by side with the humans and dwarves of the town.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

In my campaign the major enmity is between Wood Elves and High Elves from something that happened thousands of years ago (part of the campaign plot) and generally the 'monstrous races are treated with distrust - but other than a few regions with rivalries the races are generally peaceful - more issues between two separate pantheons of Gods.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Play as an awakened giant badger. Fluff it as a wolverine or honey badger. Give it frenzy. Give it battlerager class features. Give it limited regeneration.

Anthropomorphic badger would be better. DIRE, too.