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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LurkAway" data-source="post: 5743540" data-attributes="member: 6685059">In a campaign that seeks consistency but wants to allow for full player choice, the setting could have a mutagen backstory (aberration magic, Far Realm virus, divine curse, etc.) to cover these unique individuals.I agree, but I think there is another nuance there.If there are 3 physical stereotypes -- thin & agile, standard variation, or short & stout -- and 3 cultural concepts -- fey/forest affinity, versatile, or earth affinity -- then the race of elf, human, and dwarf is a combo of each. That is, you don't get the complete elf racial mechanics when you strip out the cultural/environmental role, you only get something like +2 Dex leftover.If I was to reskin an elf as a human, I could make it a tribe of fey-touched forest-dwelling humans, in order to lock in the racial aspect with the physical stereotype.If you disconnect the physical stereotype from the racial concept, then you're implying that non-human races have the same body diversity as humans. You can have obese elves and tall foppish dwarves.Which is fine, except that some of these racial physical stereotypes is an easy (maybe lazy) way of classifying their non-humanity. Remove some of those stereotyped traits and the racial lines are more blurry. The obese elves in the forest and the tall dwarves living on the mountain start to feel more like eccentric human colonies.So then you really have to try hard to make the non-humans think and behave differently than humans  -- otherwise they're just regular people in funny suits that are now less funny-looking and more ordinary, so might as well take off the funny suit and call yourself what you are: a human variant.But in tackling such fictional issues, D&D isn't exactly well-known for taking the deep-thinking route.</blockquote>

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