New Playable Races?

[Jools]

Vampires

 

[Mengu]

I would rather see racial power alternates to existing races than a new set of races, like what they did with humans and half-elves.

But if they were making more races, I'd want to see some more exotic stuff like the shardmind and wilden, something off the beaten path.

 

[jbear]

Nymphs?

 

[TarionzCousin]

Galactus, Devourer of Worlds.

 

[The Human Target]

Spriggan

I would be down for that.

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

WOTC already has said that they will not be doing any more monster race write ups for PC's. They made the statement before PHB3 was released when people wanted both Gith races to be included.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I think 4E has enough races already.

 

[bbjore]

I think Kobolds, Goblins, and Orcs are all in need of some love and especially feat support.

While I don't mind stuff like shardmind or wilden, I think a lot more people pick up a DnD book and want to make a PC with one of the first three races rather than some new one, which while nice or interesting, doesn't have the iconic gaming or even literary history the others do.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Satyrs- I think these would be great. Another fey race.

What's wrong with re-fluffing Tieflings or Eladrin or, I dunno, Halflings as Satyrs? (in fact...)

Goblins- Why haven't these been done already? Good rogue possibility.

They're around, just not very well supported. Which points to the bigger problem in 4e -- too many races! Also a problem with too many classes. They can't support all of them!

Half-ogres- A race with the possibility of becoming large sized through feats.

What's wrong with re-fluffing minotaurs or goliaths or, I dunno, Bugbears as Half-Ogres? Is it just that you'd like to see a race that can get Large? Because that has some mechanical/design issues (such as: Does the DM need to now design the game so that every encounter map has at least two squares worth of width for me to move down?) that are kind of impossible to work out without a brand new system.

Sprites- Tiny fliers!

What's wrong with re-fluffing gnomes or halflings or, I dunno, Eladrin as Sprites? Is it just that you'd like to see a race that is Smaller Than Small? Because that has some mechanical/design issues (such as: Does my armor cost as much as outfitting a Goliath?) that are kind of impossible to work out without a brand new system.

Dreamlings- creatures from the Plane of Dreams, who have illusory powers.

Know ye of the kalashtar, creatures from the Plane of Dreams?

Mutates- Humanoids touched by the Far Realms who are mutated, feats for different powers based on mutations

Know ye of the foulborn, spawn of the Far Realm?

Merfolk...Kronosians...Witchlings...Hobgoblins...

Limited campaign scope, limited cultural scope, have you heard of Eladrin?, and See Above for "Goblin."

Don't get me wrong. These are all solid ideas for characters. But I don't know why you'd want to make another Bladeling, another brick that sort of sits there and doesn't get played with.

But I don't think 4e is done entirely with "new races" of one stripe or another. However, I don't think we're likely to see "new races" wholesale. After Essentials, the design team seems to have a new appreciation for integration, of creating things that are future-proof and past-usable. See: the Essentials classes (the Mage is a Wizard, not a new class. The Hunter and the Scout are both rangers, not new classes).

We might see a "new race" that thinks broadly of the concept of race rather than narrowly. An "elf" that can embrace eladrin, wood elves, drow, and half-elves all without giving you four different stat blocks, perhaps, one that can be expanded in the future with a simple brief addition rather than an entirely new racial write-up, so that all elves can cull from the same broad spectrum of abilities, and only vary subtly, in detail.

Or not. I dunno. There were some ideas getting mentioned here that might have appeared in those books that may now be cancelled, so it's anyone's guess.

 

[Dice4Hire]

If there are more races, they need to be races that are first part of the world, and fit in with the cosmology and organization of 4E. I don't like shardminds much, but at least they do do this.

Second, they need not bring a lot of rules baggage with them. No large, or smaller than small races is a good rule for 4E. They were a massive headache in 3.5. Also, races that have too powerful abilities (pixie's natural invisibility, or charm abilities) need to be left on the cutting room floor.

If the racial ability is higher than say tenth level or so, it is too powerful.

In classic 4e, the thing that bothers me is all the support necessary for a new race. If you have 20 some classes and 3-4 builds per class, that is about 100 or so feats (including a couple dozen race and not class specific feats) needed to 'support' that race. That is a whole lot. Add in a few magical items keying off their abilities nad that is a whole book for one race.

Now that said, if they want to add new races, that is the way to do it, for me. Make a dragonborn or tiefling book that offers a wholly new race, the 100 or so feats, 6-10 paragon paths, a few epic destinies and a score of magical items, and I think that would be good, though I do not think it would sell well.