Half X/Half Y races

Lanliss

Explorer
This will tie in with my homebrew thread as I progress. I plan for races to be capable of interbreeding, except in special cases, so I will have a fair number of subraces for every race. For example, someone could choose a Half Tiefling/Half Gnome. For this, they would be able to choose the Half Gnome Tiefling subrace, or the Infernal Gnome Subrace, whichever fits their aim better. I do plan for these to be unique options, but expect it will take me a while to get this plan to a usable stage. For now, I would like to ask for ideas.

Just put up any combinations you would like to see, and I will do my best to put up interesting variations, in one form or another. This might be a false start, but I want to get my brain moving on this subject, and maybe get some good ones out of it.
 
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If you're going to do something like this, might I suggest you start with two lists, one is the dominant race list, and it's the base race's features, where you select a feature (or two) to replace, and then dilute some others, the other list would be the subordinate list which would have the feature of the race that you can add to the dominant race. I'm not implying that some races should be automatically dominant or subordinate, I mean each list would contain each race that is interbreedable, and then one list is where the bulk of the race features come from and the other is the bonus feature.

So, say you want to breed Orc and Human, already done; they get the darkvision, savage attacks, and relentless endurance of orcs (the playtest orcs I saw had relentless endurance), and the human aspect is menacing which grants them proficiency in intimidate. Say you want a Half-Orc Half-Dragonborn, half-orc dominant, they drop menacing and pick up Draconic Ancestry, except they only get the breath weapon (would you rather grant them all of the other half-orc stuff and resistance, or let them get a small AOE that costs an action and recharges on rest). Let's say you want a Half-elf Half-Dwarf (for the lols), half-elf dominant, grab the half-elf, and trade out the bonus proficiencies (since that's what SCAG does) and throw in Dwarven Resilience (can't see this character getting trained by dwarves so combat training and tool proficiency seem right out, other features are subrace features, which you may want to require rather than general dwarf features, dunno). Let's say you want the half-elf half-dwarf, but you want it to be dwarf dominant, take all the dwarf stuff and drop combat training and tool proficiency for fey ancestry (immune to sleep, adv vs charm). The former moves at 30 base (since it's elf dominant) and the latter moves at 25 (since it's dwarf dominant).

It would be quite the undertaking to go through all of the races, two times, and determine what would be most appropriate to switch out, while still keeping it balanced, but man I bet it would see a LOT of play (and probably sell pretty well for a buck or two a pop on the DMs Guild).

The real question is, do you want to go a generation further and have hybrid hybrids, with super diluted racial abilities, but maybe an extra stat boost (keep things like darkvision but drop most everything else, get an extra ability point depending on race, so a half-orc/half-dragonborn hybrid fell in love with a half-elf/half-dwarf hybrid, creating a Orcgoneldorf (or some kind of crazy combination) that gets +2 Str +1 Dex +1 Con, darkvision, fey ancestry, savage attacks, stonecunning, and a breath weapon (three of those races can grant +2 strength, only one offers +2 con, and only one offers +2 dex, other stats are at +1 bonus so can be disregarded). That would be an insane amount of work, not even considering the effort it would take to balance it.
 

If you're going to do something like this, might I suggest you start with two lists, one is the dominant race list, and it's the base race's features, where you select a feature (or two) to replace, and then dilute some others, the other list would be the subordinate list which would have the feature of the race that you can add to the dominant race. I'm not implying that some races should be automatically dominant or subordinate, I mean each list would contain each race that is interbreedable, and then one list is where the bulk of the race features come from and the other is the bonus feature.

So, say you want to breed Orc and Human, already done; they get the darkvision, savage attacks, and relentless endurance of orcs (the playtest orcs I saw had relentless endurance), and the human aspect is menacing which grants them proficiency in intimidate. Say you want a Half-Orc Half-Dragonborn, half-orc dominant, they drop menacing and pick up Draconic Ancestry, except they only get the breath weapon (would you rather grant them all of the other half-orc stuff and resistance, or let them get a small AOE that costs an action and recharges on rest). Let's say you want a Half-elf Half-Dwarf (for the lols), half-elf dominant, grab the half-elf, and trade out the bonus proficiencies (since that's what SCAG does) and throw in Dwarven Resilience (can't see this character getting trained by dwarves so combat training and tool proficiency seem right out, other features are subrace features, which you may want to require rather than general dwarf features, dunno). Let's say you want the half-elf half-dwarf, but you want it to be dwarf dominant, take all the dwarf stuff and drop combat training and tool proficiency for fey ancestry (immune to sleep, adv vs charm). The former moves at 30 base (since it's elf dominant) and the latter moves at 25 (since it's dwarf dominant).

It would be quite the undertaking to go through all of the races, two times, and determine what would be most appropriate to switch out, while still keeping it balanced, but man I bet it would see a LOT of play (and probably sell pretty well for a buck or two a pop on the DMs Guild).

The real question is, do you want to go a generation further and have hybrid hybrids, with super diluted racial abilities, but maybe an extra stat boost (keep things like darkvision but drop most everything else, get an extra ability point depending on race, so a half-orc/half-dragonborn hybrid fell in love with a half-elf/half-dwarf hybrid, creating a Orcgoneldorf (or some kind of crazy combination) that gets +2 Str +1 Dex +1 Con, darkvision, fey ancestry, savage attacks, stonecunning, and a breath weapon (three of those races can grant +2 strength, only one offers +2 con, and only one offers +2 dex, other stats are at +1 bonus so can be disregarded). That would be an insane amount of work, not even considering the effort it would take to balance it.

Yep, I knew it would be a massive undertaking, and that it would be worth it in the end.

As for a next gen hybrid of hybrids, I was thinking that once I got the basic groundwork down with the first set of hybrids, it wouldn't be hard to do the next gens on a case-by-case basis, as my players bring them up.

I am not too worried about balance, at this stage anyway. My players are not the most power gamey to begin with, and I would be able to bend the world to handle whatever they put out. Not to mention, some breeds really are just going to be Better at some things. Over time, I plan for evolution and Darwinism (in the basic state that I understand it) to play a role with the world, if my players choose to let it happen, or they could directly influence it by choosing which races to defend or let die.
 
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Well here's what I'd be most interested to see:
gnome/dragonborn
half-elf/half-orc
human/halfling

But if you're doing UA races too then
halfling/goliath
warforged/changeling
genasi/shifter

Just 'cause those seem like interesting combinations :)
 

Easiest is to work with abilities.

I.E. half orc/elf would get
+1 str,+1dex, +1 to one ability,
darkvision 60ft,
elven immunities,
orc critical bonus,
proficiency in intimidate and perception
languages; common, orc, elven,
 

half-elf/half-orc
This one's come up a lot over the years. Humans breed with both elves and orcs, so it seems plausible. The official explanation, back in the day, was that elves & orcs hated eachother so implacably that they'd never mate willingly and invariably murder any example of the other in their power.

In one campaign, I implied that humans were the result of elf/orc cross-breeding in the distant past.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...rc-Elf-equal&p=6339349&viewfull=1#post6339349
 
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Pricing all of the races' abilities in a pointbuy style approach and then having halfbreeds buy their abilities seems like the easiest way to do this.


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This one's come up a lot over the years. Humans breed with both elves and orcs, so it seems plausible. The official explanation, back in the day, was that elves & orcs hated eachother so implacably that they'd never mate willingly and invariably murder any example of the other in their power.

In one campaign, I implied that humans were the result of elf/orc cross-breeding in the distant past.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...rc-Elf-equal&p=6339349&viewfull=1#post6339349

Well, elf/orc is one thing. But I do like the half-elf/half-orc somehow. Not least because it's awkward what to call it. :) I see you found your own solution to that!
 
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Well here's what I'd be most interested to see:
gnome/dragonborn
half-elf/half-orc
human/halfling

But if you're doing UA races too then
halfling/goliath
warforged/changeling
genasi/shifter

Just 'cause those seem like interesting combinations :)

Ok, just rough ideas at this stage.

Gnome/Dragonborn

Whichever parentage acts as the primary Race, you can either take the Draconic ancestry of your Dragonborn parent, or take the Faerie Dragon ancestry.

Faerie dragon gets the Euphoric Breath weapon, as in the Faerie Dragon stat block (MM page 133), but with a range of 20 feet.

Dragonborn subrace: Half Gnome
+1 intelligence, darkvision

Gnome subrace: Half Dragonborn
+1 Constitution, Draconic ancestry, either the same color as your parent or Faerie Dragon.


Half-elf/Half-Orc

Not sure if you meant Elf and Orc, or a combination of the half breeds. If the latter, that was planned for later, after I had the basic framework down for how I will handle the blends. Oh well.

Elf subrace: Half Orc
+1 strength or Constitution, relentless endurance

Orc Subrace: Half Elf
+1 Dexterity, choose Fey Ancestry or Trance

Half-Elf/Half-Orc
For the purposes of this, I will assume both are Half-Human, half X, so this will be a subrace to human.

Human Subrace: Quarter-Elf, Quarter-Orc
+1Dex, +1 Str, Darkvision, Relentless Endurance, Fey Ancestry


Human/Halfling
A tricky one, since I consider Halflings small lazy humans.

Halfling Subrace: Half-Human
2 points to spend as you wish

Human subrace: Half-Hin
+1 Dexterity, Lucky


I will get to the UA combos later, I cannot look at the PDFs and type here at the same time, since I have the PDFs on this device. Until then, what are your thoughts?
 

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