If they weren't in the phb...

[Irda Ranger]

I voted "none of the above," because honestly? If they weren't in the PHB, I wouldn't have given them a second thought. Not because I hate the new races, mind you; I just never wouldn't have thought "gee, what my game needs is another type of elf...and a couple more human hybrids, too."

This. The question was "Would I allow them", but I figure the answer "No" was closest to "The subject simply would never have come up." My group sticks to what's in the PHB.

That being said I may find a place for them easily enough, but I do expect that Eladrins and Elves will be perfectly interchangeable in 99% of circumstances. If you changed the PHB to one "elf" race with two build options "Wood Elf" or "Fey Elf", I bet no one would even notice, thematically.

But I'm glad the Dragonborn and Eladrin are in and that Minotaurs are a PC-ready race in the MM. It sure makes my DL conversion like falling out of bed.

Minotaurs : Minotaurs
Humans : Humans
Qualinesti/Sylvanesti : Eladrin
Kagonesti : Elves
Dwarves : Dwarves
Kender : Haflings (no rule changes needed!)
Draconians : Dragonborn
Irda : Changelings

We'll have to see if the PC-ready Bugbear makes a good stand in for Ogres, but no one ever plays those anyway, so it's probably not an issue.

And I'm thinking that all those humans who made dark pacts with Takhisis may be developing some horns ...

 

[nittanytbone]

Voted yes on tieflings and eladrin. Dragonborn leave me completely cold and uninterested--I probably won't bother actively banning them, but I'll almost certainly never play one and won't shed a tear should all of my players choose to ignore them as well.

Agreed.

 

[Terramotus]

First thing I'm doing is banning halflings.

A man after my own heart.

I answered yes to all three. Tiefling and Eladrin absolutely... Dragonborn I might have nixed depending on the type of campaign I'm running, but I've designed them into the new campaign I plan on running when 4E starts.

I've never liked half-orcs as the "strong" race. Hobgoblins would be much better, but are too setting specific. I've always liked lizardmen and draconians too. Dragonborn seem a great solution to me.

 

[TwinBahamut]

As a DM, I prefer to let people play what they want to play. As such, I wouldn't ban anything unless there was a severe balance reason. So, I would probably let a player pick any of those races.

Of course, the fact that those races are in the PHB does increase the odds that someone will ask to play one, but I have no problem with that either. I rather wish Orcs were made into PHB races instead of Tieflings, though.

 

[der_kluge]

Tieflings no, Dragonborn absolutely not. Eladrin - maybe. I wouldn't mind having a more "high elf" kind of a race, and it sounds like that's what Eladrin are.

But, I said maybe. Which isn't a poll option.

And I intend to ban Tieflings and Dragonborn and allow Gnomes on day 1.

 

[_sheepy_]

Dragonborn and Eladrin.

Dragonborn seems to be quite a refreshing martial race, I would very much prefer it to yet another W??d Elf. And I quite love the idea that you may eventually get wings and breaths.

Eladrin because I definitely support the idea of separating the forest elf from the magical elf. They don't have to be called eladrin but the separation is much needed in my eyes.

Tiefling because I am never much into badass coolness. Plus I am not confident in the player's ability to roleplay these minority human correctly as some isolated culture rather then as yet another cool race. Tail? Yes they are cute, but can I have pointy ears, colourful fur, and the ability to purr to match, please? Pretty please?

I admit that tiefling is much more D&D then any catfolk you can think of, though. But then I am chaotic, not lawful.

 

[ferratus]

In my own homebrew campaign I'm designing, I'm finding Eladrin and Dragonborn easy to incorporate as PC races.

- I've dumped the elves and replaced them with the rowdy and drunken satyrs, and use Eladrin to represent the elves completely. I figure faerie kingdoms suits elves better than forest barbarians.

- The Dragonborn are basically Lizardmen that start manifesting Draconic traits as they adventure and get more powerful, according to the clan they are from. (Quick question, can Dragonborn have Chromatic dragon traits?) Cousins to Kobolds and Trogdolytes.

- Half-elves are still lame, so I'm replacing them with changelings (hopefully I can use the name if changelings and dopplegangers are now the same race). Basically, they have deformities which grant various advantages (hunchback, extra finger, mismatched eye color, club foot etc.) because fey and human blood mixes to create a malformed savage human. The Picts from Robert E. Howard's Bran Mac Morn stories were my inspiration.

Tieflings - I can't really find a place for them. I could see them in certain campaign settings, but frankly they are so EeeeVIL that I can only think of three backgrounds for them. 1) Decadent Nobility 2) Religious sect or Warlock Cabal 3) Slave populations forced into it. In any case, you have the backstory that humans and devils were doing the nasty. It just feels like it is uninspired to me, probably because FR and Greyhawk have had so many demon or devil descended families that I feel that vein is tapped out.

If I was to have tieflings therefore they would have to be rare, and if they are rare, they would have to have the flavour text of being able to easily pass for humans. I'm not sure if the mechanical rules of the race will let me do that.

As villains though, I've already got plans for how the agents of the devils will be on the move in the material world.

Halflings - I would like to ban halflings, as I agree that being short is a nutritional deficiency rather than a flavourful racial concept. I've slotted them in as being seafarers on the scattered islands east of the main continent (to explain their dwarfism) but I'll have to see if the rules interest me enough to think halflings are cool again.

I've also added the Kenku and Dromites as playable races. Umm... anyone got any Satyr, Kenku, or Dromite plastic miniatures? I already have one of each.

 

[Pale Jackal]

I voted "yes" to all the above, since I prefer the lot of them (except that Tieflings look dumb, though I like their background) over halflings, gnomes or half-elves.

 

[drothgery]

I voted yes on Eladrin -- I've always thought 'woodsy elves' and 'high magic elves' ought to have different mechanics, at least if making a race good at both roles would be unbalancing -- and Dragonborn (because if someone wanted to play one it wouldn't be difficult to create a place for them in the world, and I like them better as the big, strong race than half-orcs or orcs), and no on tieflings because I'm not a big fan of the angsty evil-tainted race archetype. But I'd let any of them in if they were a core race in a setting I liked; I'm pretty much in favor of letting people play what they want (as long as they're playing heroes).

 

[Doug McCrae]

I like the weird races. Killing the Other has always been strongly encouraged in D&D. In 4e, we're still killing freaks but at least we got a few token monsters on the team.

Plus, humans and demihumans are boring.