D&D 5E (2014) How do the races breed?

[jrowland]

You get THIS. That is all.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Heck, there was so much speculative mixing back in the day that it led to a pixie/storm-giant parody in Dragon mag.

Heh, that reminds me of the picture of Hagrid and his dad--compared to the size Fridwulfa (Hagrid's mother) must have been, he wouldn't have seemed much different from a pixie!

 

[Lanliss]

Normally, I'm not inclined to assume that dragonborn are capable of hybridization with mammalian species. However, if you're going with that, that might be a good place to invoke the "dragonfear" ability. Hybridized dragonborn would: have a solid, heavy frame for the other parent's race; tend to be hairless except on the head, and may take longer to grow their hair out; have fine scales on the face, hands, feat, joints, perhaps down the spine, etc; and cannot use dragonbreath, but do have a preternatural "aura" or "charm" to them. Might have particular other-parent races determine whether it's more a "dragon's charm" or "frightful presence," e.g. the children of orcs or half-orcs, dwarves, goliaths, and other "strong/uncharismatic" races would get dragonfear, while the children of elves (including drow and half-elves), gnomes, halflings, and deva/aasimar would get something more "beguiling." The children of humans--the "greatest monsters" in Gygax's words--can swing either way.



Well either this means an aasimar that had a kid with a fiend (something I find a bit unlikely), or an aasimar/tiefling child anyway. Either way, I'd personally argue that the crossed influence of both celestial and fiendish blood "cancels out" in that particular person--the two traits mutually inactivate each other, leaving an apparently "normal"-looking "tiefling" mother. Her children, however, can be any of four categories: inactive carrier (celestial and fiend), celestial, fiendish, or normal human (failing to inherit either trait). Inactive carriers and normal humans would probably be indistinguishable except by careful arcane/divine analysis, so you'd have a 50% chance of at least a normal-looking gnome-human, and 25% chance each of a half-gnome, half-tiefling or half-gnome, half-aasimar.

"Pigmy" seems like an exaggeration, since that would probably end up being of similar size to the gnome father. I'd guess the child would be very short for a human but tall for a gnome--four to four and a half feet (1.2 to 1.4 meters). A child with the celestial trait would have one of the classic aasimar "tells," and +Wis as a secondary stat; a child with the fiendish trait would have a tiefling "tell" and probably +Cha (or maybe Dex) as a secondary stat. Int, of course, would be primary. The carrier/"normal" human would benefit from the stat flexibility of the human line.



Well, if we're open to all sorts of hybridizations here, I'd argue the most recognizable human traits are:
- Height typically between 5 and 6.333 feet, counting both genders (~152 cm to ~193 cm)
- Facial hair for males; head hair, as well as armpit/groin/etc. hair, for both genders
- Hair color of either brown, red/orange, yellow, white, or black
- Skin color chosen from variations on the brown-orange spectrum (occasionally leaning to either side on the color wheel--"coppery" or "golden")
- Eyes of grey, blue(/violet), green, hazel, brown, or black
- Nose halfway between being "wide/stout" (e.g. dwarf noses) and "tall/narrow/pointed" (e.g. elf noses)
- Game-statistics-wise, significant flexibility (able to improve any or even all stats)

All but the last are generally subject to change--but never more than a few of them at a time. Height is almost always treated as the average of the two parents', though I feel like in some cases (perhaps half-orcs?) that might not necessarily be true. Facial hair is probably the only trait that is consistently heritable into races that don't naturally have it--in fact, it's not uncommon in fiction for a species to not have facial hair, except for the fraction of the population that has a tiny amount of human ancestry (see: the Minbari of Babylon 5). However, hair generally can be subject to substantial change if paired with a sufficiently "magical" other parent--genasi, aasimar, and tieflings can all have it tweaked into something more magical (hair that's literally fire, for example). Skin, eye, and hair color varies widely; close-to-human species like elves and orcs don't tend to feature non-human hair colors, but going further afield (such as the previously discussed human-dragonborn hybrid) might have hair colors based on some feature of their nonhuman parent's ancestry (e.g. dragon color, though metallic descendants might be hard to detect unless it's REALLY DAMN SHINY).



As said above (just separating it out so it's easy to see):
Gnome-human with no visible outsider traits: +Int and +stat of choice (possibly +1 to two, like the half-elf)
Gnome-tiefling: most likely +Int, +Cha (maybe +Dex)
Gnome-aasimar: most likely +Int, +Wis (maybe +Cha)



In that case, I recommend that you either select particular traits that you wish to "predominate" over others (e.g. fiendish/celestial/genie blood always preferentially displays, if it is inherited at all), or determine some kind of rule for the "amount" of inheritance required for someone to be likely to manifest a trait.
For example: Ancestors further removed than great-grandparents (3 generations) do not typically appear in children. This is convenient, because it lets you use a d8 to determine which inheritance dominates. For the above child, 4 of its great-grandparents are gnomes; presumably 2 are humans; and one each is celestial or fiendish. If you wish to allow for "throwbacks," a second die can be used for that. I'd personally recommend a d100; for 1-89, nothing unusual occurs and you do a simple determination (e.g. decide what the "main half" is, like the gnome father above, then roll for the "other half"). For 90-99, the child's physiology is a bend of two randomly-selected inheritances, not just one--it's still slanted in favor of gnome, but it could end up LOOKING like a half-human, half-fiend (tiefling), or even a half-gnome, half-celestial. But then if you get that precious 00...that's when the throwback considerations come into play. Pick a (part) race of one of the parents, and then roll on a full table of all options--you never know what species are hidden in your family tree!

Thanks, this is exactly the help I was hoping for. All of this is great, and accounts for the very-rare unique combinations.

 

[Cyan Wisp]

Okay, so what if you just halved everything in a race's features (as much as possible)? Then combine the halves, including with each other to get a full breed. There might be two options for a half and the player chooses their option. Note that I might be using biological terms like "genome" incorrectly here. Whatever.

So, using Basic rules: (This is really rough and not thought through thoroughly! Imagine they are balanced. )

Hill Dwarf Genome A (scholar genes): Con+1, Wis+1, 2 ft tall, speed 10 ft., Darkvision 30 ft., Dwarf resilience, Dwarf tool proficiency, Stonecunning, Common, Dwarvish

Hill Dwarf Genome B (warrior genes): Con+1, Dwarf Toughness, 2.5 ft. tall, speed 15ft, Darkvision 30 ft, Dwarf resilience, Dwarf combat training, Common, Dwarvish

Wood Elf Genome A (wood spirit genes): Dex+1, Wis +1, 2.5ft tall, Darkvision 30 ft., Fey ancestry, Trance, Common, Elvish, Movement 15 ft., Mask of the Wild

Wood Elf Genome B (warrior genes): Dex+1, 3 ft tall, Darkvision 30 ft., Perception proficiency, Common, Elvish, Movement 20 ft., Elf Weapon Training


Given these "half" races, then combine two genomes of your choice. Combining wood Elf A and B just gives you a wood elf - double ups don't stack unless numerical (e.g ability scores, darkvision, height). Choose only one "Weapon Training"-type feature, not both.

What if some freaky visionary woman (thinking Rachael from Orphan Black here) was breeding Hill Dwarves and Wood Elves for fun. They would choose the "B" or "A" Genomes from each and add 'em up.

Woody Hill Dwelf Warrior: (combining genome B from each race)
Dex+1, Con+1, 5.5ft tall, Darkvision 60 ft., Dwarf Toughness, Perception, Speed 35 ft., Dwarf Combat Training, Dwarf resilience, Speaks: Common, Elvish, Dwarvish

Hilly Wood Dwarlf Mystic: (combining genome A from each race)
Dex+1, Con+1, Wis+2, 4.5 ft tall, Darkvision 60 ft., Fey Ancestry, Trance, Speed 25 ft., Mask of the Wild, Dwarf Tool Proficiency, Stonecunning, Dwarf resilience, Speaks: Common, Elvish, Dwarvish


So, you may end up with fewer ability score increases, but more special features or vice versa. Just imagine the optimisation fiends getting hold of this, though. To me, the cultural aspects (e.g. weapon training, stonecunning, languages) don't really fit here. It's not like they're inherited traits.

 

[Wuzzard]

Races breed? Carefully, very carefully.

 

[Cyan Wisp]

As to "how they breed"...

DWARFS: Dwarf women lay dwarfspawn egg-froth in a beer mug (indistinguishable from normal head of a beer) and the males drink it and fertilise it throughout the night via genital apertures in their leathery gut. The resulting union is then incubated for 8 hours. In the morning, the dwarf male vomits the contents into a barrel containing matured beer sediment. A hairy ball (sometimes two) grows over the course of 40 days, then "pops" out of the barrel in an explosion of foul language and Scottish curses. The ball unfurls and there now stands a small, hairy spherical thing. This is a dwarf child, also known as a "Popple", or a "Bleedin' Leech" depending on how much of the father's beer it consumes in childhood.

HALFLINGS: Everybody knows that halflings are really just Cabbage Patch Kids grown up. Look to the gardens for your answers. Their secret is well-guarded, like the Halfling language. Probably because the Halfling language is actually just a collection of garden-based pick-up lines. Conception probably involves trowels, hoes, "special fertilizer", moonlight and a fair quantity of moonshine as well to get in the mood.

ELVES: This happens somewhat similarly to how penguins conceive in Happy Feet. Partners sing songs all day. The combined resonant frequencies of compatible couples cause things like seed pods to burst in a beautiful Anime-style snow. When said "snow" touches any rainbow or sunbeam, (or moonbeam for nocturnal lovers), there is an explosion of technicolour, including octarine, and, at the core is a little fairy light that swells into something resembling Tinkerbell, including the tinkling sound and fairy dust. The fairy larva grows from exposure to lyre music, susurrus, frivolity, and emo poetry until its wings cannot hold it aloft any longer. The wings atrophy and eventually fall off. What you have now is an elf-child.

HUMANS: You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Its just... too weird.