Mixing Races....and why DM's shouldn't allow it

[William drake]

I just read somewhere that a player was a Kobal (ya know, the little lizard guys) and a Halfling....

I wonder, how did that happen? And why kind of DM allowed it?

I mean, mixing races are fine, but put some thought into it. There is a reason that a Man and a female HORSE can't breed? Not the same thing....prob with the whole mateing...

I'm just saying this because I also see Halfdragons, half weretigers on here and I laugh, not becaue its funny, but because one day those players are going to come to me and say "well my old DM allowed me" and I'm just going to continue to laugh.

I don't know, your thoughts.

Is it ok to stack races or monster classes onto others, does it make sense, and how would it really work?

I say, no, the creature, if survived, if somehow was able to be born, would die soon after, or as gross as it is, not survive the months in the womb in the first place and be born already dead.

I think players just do it to see what kind of nasty things their DM's will alow them to play for the sport of making red-mush out of anything the DM throws at them.

or it may just be that DM just want's players so he will let anything go.

 

[Moonstone Spider]

Hmm, where do the rules for mixing these races come from? The half-dragon, half-elf, etc. races clearly support some mixing but I've never heard of a half-kobold template.

It's not okay to stack races onto each other. There's a handful of specific templates, such as half-dragon or half-celestial, designed to stack onto another race neatly, and those are okay for that purpose.

 

[FireLance]

Why restrict your argument to race? Apart from real-world issues like genetic compatibility (which could be made irrelevant by magic), the same would apply to any other DM-allowed character option. Would you laugh if a PC had levels in a homebrewed class? Or if he had a non-standard magic item or feat?

 

[S'mon]

Well I don't allow the whole crazy 3e half-X template thing, but I allow half-elves, half-orcs, hobgoblins IMC are "half goblins"; and I might use a half-gold-dragon NPC, though I've never done so yet. Plus Cambions & Alu-demons. I'm pretty 1e on this.

 

[Herzog]

1. How can this kind of mixing exist?
'It's Magic'....
2. Why should a DM allow these kind of mixed races?
Because he likes the idea? It fits in his setting?
In my current campaign, all humanoids interbreed and have offspring. Due to severe population decrease in all humanoid races, halfbreeds have become the norm instead of 'purebloods'.

It's campaing flavor. It's houserules. And if you, as DM, don't like it, there is nothing in the rules that says you have to allow them in your campaign...

herzog

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Well I don't allow the whole crazy 3e half-X template thing, but I allow half-elves, half-orcs, hobgoblins IMC are "half goblins"; and I might use a half-gold-dragon NPC, though I've never done so yet. Plus Cambions & Alu-demons. I'm pretty 1e on this.

Why the discrimination against everything not demon? Do you allow tieflings? Aasimar? (Where do they come from?)


Personally, I couldn't just let all humanoid races be interfertile with each other. No orc/elves, for example (though there was a half-orc, half-drow in a recent FR-Novel).

"Magical" races, on the other hand, I can see creating offspring with "mere mortals". With magical races I mean outsiders and dragons mostly, maybe elementals, too. So I can see half-fiends, half-celestials, half-dragons. It's the whole supernatural power thing, infusing mortals with otherworldly power.

I'd also say that humans can breed with most other humanoids: Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, you name it (smaller races like halflings would be a stretch - excuse the pun - but it would also work).

Of course, you can go the Midnight way and say that humans are the one race that can't breed with any other humanoids (them not being fey and all). Midnight doesn't have half-elves (or, rather, has them, but the other half is halfling. They're called elflings, are descendants of the already small jungle elves and halflings, and are extremely agile), and no half-orcs, either (again, there are half-orcs, but not of human stock. They're dworgs, their mothers being dwarven females that fell victim to atrocities. Dworgs are at once the most impressive humanoids - in ways of physical prowess - and the most pitiable creatures, and the only creatures that hate orcs more than the dwarves.)

 

[Li Shenron]

Is it ok to stack races or monster classes onto others, does it make sense, and how would it really work?

I like things such as a half-celestial and a half-fiend because possibly any culture had its share of myths about divine creatures mixing with humans.

Magical beasts and aberrations, as their names imply, can also be exceptional cases of mix, and some of them develop a progenie and become a new species.

The rest I usually dislike. I use half-elves and half-orcs only because they are in the PHB, but I've never been fond of them. I would like two races to be able to "mix" only if they have a common ancestry: if orcs were once humans, then it's ok for me that there are half-orcs.

Some "half" are really too off for me. Half-lycanthrope for example to me makes no sense at all: lycanthropy is already something that can affect any race, it's a STATUS, either you are a lycanthrope or you're not!! It's like saying, "I'm half ill", "I'm half allergic to peanuts" or "I'm half pregnant"

 

[C.W.Richeson]

For strange 'races' and magical creatures I just assume a transmuter was performing experiments at some point in the past and the strange 'race' is the result of those experiments.

 

[Nellisir]

I don't have a problem with it. I might not allow someone to play a half-doggleganger halfling medusa, but if I need one as an NPC...it's fair game.

The defining trait of fantasy is magic. If you're uncomfortable without the scientific structure of genetics around your races, that's fine, but recognize in a magical fictional setting, it's just an excuse to restrict your options.

(and restricting options is not always bad.)

 

[awayfarer]

I say, no, the creature, if survived, if somehow was able to be born, would die soon after, or as gross as it is, not survive the months in the womb in the first place and be born already dead.

You're just paving the way for my army of undead half-breed babies.

"Magical" races, on the other hand, I can see creating offspring with "mere mortals". With magical races I mean outsiders and dragons mostly, maybe elementals, too. So I can see half-fiends, half-celestials, half-dragons. It's the whole supernatural power thing, infusing mortals with otherworldly power.

Seconded. If a race seems to have something of a moderate-heavy magical basis I don't see a problem with it.