D&D (2024) How did I miss this about the Half races/ancestries

[MGibster]

Well, I do for one. I think a large number of people would care.

Okay, why? Why does it matter that orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, or trolls are ugly?

 

[Incenjucar]

Any intelligent, self-willed being has the potential for complexity, even mind flayers. If you want an enemy you can turn your moral compass off for you have things like mindless undead, constructs, oozes, etc.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Any intelligent, self-willed being has the potential for complexity, even mind flayers. If you want an enemy you can turn your moral compass off for you have things like mindless undead, constructs, oozes, etc.

The mind flayers which eat the brains of sapient beings for food? The ones which implant tadpoles in other sapient beings to reproduce?

A mind flayer can be helpful to the party, and give them resources and aid. That same mind flayer will still be consuming other intelligent beings alive on a regular basis for food.

 

[Incenjucar]

The mind flayers which eat the brains of sapient beings for food? The ones which implant tadpoles in other sapient beings to reproduce?

A mind flayer can be helpful to the party, and give them resources and aid. That same mind flayer will still be consuming other intelligent beings alive on a regular basis for food.

That just makes them a variation on vampires, which have whole genres devoted to finding the good in them.

 

[Minigiant]

Historically I think people have just liked an enemy which they can go and fight without moral questions. Like with human bandits you will get half way through the fight and they will surrender and say they have families. Which instantly turns it into a moral dilemma. Of course with orcs they are now depicted as clearly having families, and just like a human bandit, an orc, goblin, or kobald bandit can pull the exact same card.

5e gnolls and mind flayers on the other hand still allow the 'brains off combat/dungeon crawl' kind of approach. Though mind flayers themselves introduce body horror which in itself can make it unsuitable for some players. They're also quite psionic themed, so some DM's might not want them in their setting. And though 5e gnolls are depicted as literally demons who spawned from dead bodies eaten by hyenas, the fact that other editions and other media has shown them as a more standard species makes me suspect that they are on their way to being PC's too.

One thing I did to give my players both new things to fight and avoid moral dilemma is to create a new race that can be straight forwardly killed without worry.

The Purple are purple humaniods with square ears and ears who don't resprect anything not purple. Anything not purple most be destroyed. Nonpurple things cause them fear, disgust, and rage. Even their children are destructive and caannot be curbed. It is no god pulling the strings or bad culture, they are an arcane experiment gone wrong. If you see purple, turn your brain off, kill them, and burn the bodies.

The Purple like the other KOS human-shaped monsters I use are aberrations.

I think this is again a part of the game WOTC must address. D&D stopped being purely and only a no-worry, beer and pretzels game shortly after the game when public.

It's high time D&D explain what physically, mentally, and spiritually each creature type is.

What is a humanoid?
What is a giant?
What is a fiend?
What is a fey?
What is a celestial?
What is a beast?
What is an aberration?

 

[Frozen_Heart]

That just makes them a variation on vampires, which have whole genres devoted to finding the good in them.

A vampire can drink a small amounts of blood from multiple people. In most media, people turned into vampires still remain as that person.

You can't eat just a bit of someone's brain. A new mind flayer isn't just the person it was before but with tentacles.

 

[AnotherGuy]

So I'll take that as a no then.

I've provided a list of ways upthread how racism can be utilised in a D&D game in interesting ways. Perhaps you'd like to reply on that post and provide me with some constructive criticisms.

I don't think it's a valuable discussion to see what spicy topic could be added to a movie to make it better. That's trying to set up a gotcha moment with an absurd question.

 

[Incenjucar]

A vampire can drink a small amounts of blood from multiple people. In most media, people turned into vampires still remain as that person.

You can't eat just a bit of someone's brain. A new mind flayer isn't just the person it was before but with tentacles.

Magic allows for a lot of crazy scenarios with regeneration etc.

The cannibal anti-hero who only eats bad guys is a trope - see Venom.

Undead mindflayers are a thing; heck of a heroic sacrifice method.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

One thing I did to give my players both new things to fight and avoid moral dilemma is to create a new race that can be straight forwardly killed without worry.

The Purple are purple humaniods with square ears and ears who don't resprect anything not purple. Anything not purple most be destroyed. Nonpurple things cause them fear, disgust, and rage. Even their children are destructive and caannot be curbed. It is no god pulling the strings or bad culture, they are an arcane experiment gone wrong. If you see purple, turn your brain off, kill them, and burn the bodies.

The Purple like the other KOS human-shaped monsters I use are aberrations.

I think this is again a part of the game WOTC must address. D&D stopped being purely and only a no-worry, beer and pretzels game shortly after the game when public.

It's high time D&D explain what physically, mentally, and spiritually each creature type is.

What is a humanoid?
What is a giant?
What is a fiend?
What is a fey?
What is a celestial?
What is a beast?
What is an aberration?

If I was to design that kind of enemy I'd probably give it the following criteria:

• No free will. It can't be a PC as it's essentially following a programmed directive, even if it can be smart enough to use tools and make traps while it's doing so.
• Doesn't have children. Either reproduces via parasitism like a 5e gnoll or mind flayer. Or is created through magic rituals fully formed.

Though in my homebrew setting I have no enemies like that. No 'evil' species at all. As that goes against the entire idea of the setting. (lots of evil individuals though).

 

[Minigiant]

A vampire can drink a small amounts of blood from multiple people. In most media, people turned into vampires still remain as that person.

You can't eat just a bit of someone's brain. A new mind flayer isn't just the person it was before but with tentacles.

The big picture is that mind flayers aren't humanoid. They are aberrations.

A mind flayer will never see a brain-having non-mind-flayer humaniod as anything but food. EVER. They literally cannot.