D&D 5E Do you use all of the P.C. races and classes from the PHB?

[machineelf]

The PHB and other supplements just give you options. You don't have to allow all those options in the world you create and run. Or you could. It depends on your world.

I run the Forgotten realms circa 1372 DR, so Dragonborn and Tieflings, and a lot of the races from Volo's Guide to Monsters, do not exist or are not playable races in my world. I have a very thought-out and detailed world, so if I allowed just any race option anybody wanted to play no matter what, it would change the world I am presenting to the players. If I were running a much less detailed campaign on the fly, I would probably allow everything.

Likewise, if I were to create a whole different world, a lot of different races might be playable. But I don't think that just because various options are in printed books that they all must be allowed in a particular world.

You don't have to be mean about it to your players, just be steadfast and upfront, and say from the start of the campaign that the world you run has these particular features and doesn't have these other features. If that's the way it is, your players will accept it and move on from there in their character creation.

 

[Bitbrain]

Hmmm . . . Well, I suppose it depends.

The main DM for my group is a big fan of both Golarion and the Forgotten Realms, and tends to use those worlds as his setting.
As such, all playable races and classes are permitted, because all of them already have a place in those pre existing worlds.
Meanwhile, the secondary DM for my group has created a homebrew setting. Only a certain number of PC races and classes exist, and some of the races he specifically created for his setting.

I honestly see no problem with either approach.

 

[Sadras]

No Monks, No Dragonborn, No Tieflings in our current campaign.

 

[schnee]

Honestly, I think the idea of Dragonborn and Tieflings as everyday characters in anything approaching a standard DND setting is just absurd. Total fanboi crap that just can't seem to be avoided it seems. Don't even get me started on warforged or those crystal rock thingies from 4th ed. /eyeroll

One of the most beloved AD&D modules had robots.

ROBOTS.

One of the PCs of the original AD&D campaigns was a cowboy with magic 6-shooter ranged weapons, dual wielded. Yes, he was the players' Boot Hill character, translated to Greyhawk.

This game is way less serious than you think.

 

[Davelozzi]

One of the most beloved AD&D modules had robots.

ROBOTS.

One of the PCs of the original AD&D campaigns was a cowboy with magic 6-shooter ranged weapons, dual wielded. Yes, he was the players' Boot Hill character, translated to Greyhawk.

This game is way less serious than you think.

The thing is that the game can be way less serious than he thinks, but it doesn't have to be. Sure, genre crossovers can be fun once in a while, but not every campaign needs to be a giant kitchen sink. Whether or not Gygax etc. had sci-fi and Old West elements in his home game, doesn't mean that it is a good fit for every other game.

Even though it is fantasy based doesn't mean that it can't be played with a little verisimilitude and internal consistency if desired. Every group should be free to play the game that feels right to them, from one extreme to another or anywhere in the middle.

I'm glad I started the thread, it has been interesting, and doubly so because I mostly see it on my phone where the poll doesn't even appear, so I keep forgetting that there are still results coming in. Seems like the majority are definitely pretty welcoming off just about whatever, but there are still significant percentages that feel differently.

 

[Ganymede81]

I've been running Curse of Strahd with my group and have allowed them to use whatever race they want from the PHB. The party ended up being pretty exotic: a half orc, two tieflings, a dragonborn, a half-elf, and a human.

Using mostly exotic races really wasn't a problem. It let me start the campaign by having them all rounded up by an unscrupulous carnival master interested in stocking his freak show, and the denizens of Barovia are used to a slow trickle of weird foreigners.

 

[schnee]

The thing is that the game can be way less serious than he thinks, but it doesn't have to be. Sure, genre crossovers can be fun once in a while, but not every campaign needs to be a giant kitchen sink. Whether or not Gygax etc. had sci-fi and Old West elements in his home game, doesn't mean that it is a good fit for every other game.

Understood, but slightly misses my point.

He's saying those things "as everyday characters in anything approaching a standard DND setting is just absurd. Total fanboi crap that just can't seem to be avoided it seems."

He can make the game as 'serious' and 'sensible' as he wants. It's his prerogative.

But he's wrong. From the beginning, 'standard DND' has been really weird and odd and stupid. The makers of the game made it that way.

It added earthly religions from every continent and era all together in the same place and time. It mashed together monsters and creatures from thousands of years of radically different cultures - Rakshasas alongside the Penanggalan and the Sprite and the Balor. And it pulled in character stereotypes from all over the place in literature from medieval poetry to modern pulp fantasy.

His idea of 'standard' is not what the game has ever been.

I admit, it is verging on hair-splitting, but I feel it's worth saying.

KEEP D&D WEIRD

 

[Davelozzi]

I hear ya


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[Bacon Bits]

I tend to run Greyhawk. For PCs that means no drow, no dragonborn, and no tieflings. Tieflings and dragonborn are unheard of in the Flannaess (lizardmen are not dragonborn), and the number of known drow renegades can be counted on one hand and most of them are still evil.

The known non-evil renegade drow are each powerful wizards capable of avoiding being recaptured or imprisoned and have powerful friends. For example, the librarian at the wizard's guild in the city of Greyhawk is a renegade drow wizard of fairly high level that was personally appointed by Zagyg. Have you got a mad demigod in your corner giving you a high ranking job at the most prestigious magic academy in the setting? No? Then you're just going to be killed because initial NPC reactions will vary from "Unfriendly" to "Hostile."

 

[Ketser]

I tend to run my own settings so what races and classes are allowed depend on setting/campaign/one-shot. Some races and classes have their fluff and background changed. In some cases i take a race or class and alter it to fit it, like having drow stats for shadow or dark elves, but no use of the name drow or any of that always evil spider-worship BS.

Only things that tend to be constantly banned are dragonborn, wild magic sorcerer and the standard beastmaster ranger. And tbh my issue with dragonborn is mostly how they look, might use their stats for something else. Beastmaster and wild sorcerer are usually banned for mechanical reasons, although the latter has a bit of my dislike of wild magic in it. Great Old One warlock gets occasionally a ban or background change because i dislike Pseudo-Lovecraftian stuff.

The weird thing is that i used to be a bit more stingier with races and classes when i was younger and started with DMing. I remember in a few of my first 3.5 games i tended to ban barbarians and monks for cultural or regional reasons And now i can talk long conversations how there is no problem in fitting a monk into a western-europe like setting, without any stroing eastern trappings