D&D 5E My favorite race- what I play, what I want to see

[Fralex]

Gnomes. I still haven't gotten the chance to play the Rock variety and try out that Tinker ability, but when I do it's gonna be SO cool. Given the lack of crafting options for the tinkerer's tools, I'm just going to assume they're for making whatever insane contraptions the DM will allow. And possibly firearms.

 

[exile]

Halfling... though I wish D&D halflings would lose the shoes.

I'm quite fond of humans too.

 

[Beleriphon]

What I'd really like is for D&D to allow some mechanical differentiation within humanity...not necessarily by ethnicity, to avoid claims of "unfortunate implications" because Flan get a bonus to intelligence, and bakluni get a bonus to charisma, to take one example, and instead have people pick humans based on type: a "big bruiser" who gets bonuses to strength and con, with say a minor ability to rage, or "lithe charmer" with bonuses to dex and charisma, with a minor ability of "luck" (if those sounds a little like the halfling and half-orc...well yeah)

I always liked to use the the NPC array to differentiate human cultures background, and in 3.xE the bonus feat, to reflect how many humans of a particular culture tend towards certain skills/tasks/abilities. For example in Eberron the Thranish commoners all have Longbow proficiency via a feat since Thrane is known for its peasant archers.

As for my personal favourite, I have a soft spot for warforged and shifters. In no small part to the Eberron novels.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

It's been interesting, watching the non-human picks rise and fall. As noted before, Dragonborn were off to a very slow start (I was the second voter, and it remained that way for quite a while), but have since hopped, skipped, and jumped their way up--they were tied for 5th for a while, IIRC. Dwarf and half-elf also surged in popularity. Gnome made a strong showing from the beginning, holding pretty steady at 4th place, perhaps ironic given WotC's data that suggested they weren't as popular (perhaps 4th edition catalyzed a 'gnome revival'?) Drow--possibly due to the Drizz't reference--almost didn't show up, getting their first votes only recently. Ignoring the obvious favorite (I mean really, did anybody expect 'human' to not be #1 by a landslide?), we get an interesting "popularity" breakdown split rather nicely into categories of 6 or 7. In descending order, alphabetically for ties:

High (14-20 votes thus far): Half-elf, dwarf

Moderate (8-13 votes): Gnome, elf, dragonborn, halfling, tiefling

Low (1-7 votes): Half-orc, Drow, "supplemental"*

*Since I've seen at least one person mention minotaur and warforged, and expect that at least one person counted this for another listed race, no single race within "supplemental" could count among the Moderate group for this poll.

Of course, as I've said elsewhere, unreliable forum poll is unreliable--but it's been interesting seeing the breakdown thus far. I'm halfway tempted to make a follow-up poll--"What is your favorite NON-human race?"

 

[epithet]

I used to be drawn to the exotic races, like dragonborn and warforged. Never really found tieflings appealing.

Now, I'm more into humans, in large part because I like playing the "ordinary" fellow in an extraordinary situation kind of character. The one who you expect will go back to sheep farming after we get done saving the world.

 

[michaeljpatrick]

Gnomes are my favorite and have been for years. I'm actually surprised to see they placed as high as they did in this poll since most people consider them a joke. That's what I like about them, though. It's fun to be the one that no one expects anything of.

In 5E halflings look pretty good too, though. I was never a fan of them before this edition.

 

[sleypy]

I usually choose to play as a human. I prefer to stick with the most run of the mill race in general. However, if a campaign had something other than human as the primary species, nine times out of ten I would choose that instead. For the most part, I completely avoid orcs and half-orcs; for me goliath have fully replace them in any game I run, unless a player has some background reason to include them.

 

[TerraDave]

I think we have known for a while that humans are back and half-elves are here.

Glad to see the gnomes hanging in there. I worry about them, the gnomes.

 

[Celondon]

I've enjoyed playing the Dark-Sknned Light haired elf-type character since Arcanum/Talislanta. The fact that Drizzt made most sane people sick to death of 'copy-cats' has been a particular pain for me for years...I like them for the visual appeal, really.

Half-Orcs are another favorite and probably my most played D&D race outside of human. Elves would be a distant 4th. The short races I actively dislike playing.

 

[Charles Wright]

For me it all depends on my character concept. I've played all races except Drow, but I did play a half-elf of Drow ancestry once.