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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6797029" data-attributes="member: 6790260">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!</blockquote>

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