D&D (2024) No Dwarf, Halfling, and Orc suborgins, lineages, and legacies

[Yaarel]

to my limited and unback knowledge were there not two types of magic practised by the Norse?

any idea on what to do with this and dwarves in a player sized way?

The Norse have several kinds of magic. But they tend to gender divide.

The songs are warrior magic, with healing and protection, and have a D&D Paladin vibe.

The function of the shamanic vǫlva is psychic readings. But these often know other kinds of magics as well, such as outofbody projection which relates to shapeshifting and so on. These have a D&D Bard vibe.

All Nordic magic (Norse, Sami, Finnish) is via ones mind. In other words the D&D psionic power source.

 

[Remathilis]

While i have never played an edition with them myself I think it is a loss to its design that 5e never implemented species(and similar, curses, ect...) templates, it probably could’ve fit in quite well with the 5e subspecies mechanics as ‘universal subspecies’ that anyone could take

They tried them with the revenant who got some racial traits changed when they became undead, but it didn't work well because racial traits aren't balanced against one another.

The lineage system in Van Richten is a better, but not perfect, version of that idea.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Satyrs are one of those interesting ones that have been playable in basically every edition, even Basic had an option for them in Tall Tales of the Wee Folk.

I'm not sure they have been playable that often -- I can't think of where they could have appeared in 1E, for instance -- and Tall Tales of the Wee Folk was obscure even at the time. It's not really indicative of their popularity or not.

I don't recall them ever being popular, though, so aren't sure if they'll have a jump like others. While fairly well known the satyr niche is a bit... Yeah . Centaurs are the other one of the well known ones I'd expect to see more from but, they're generally relegated to background characters

Centaurs are tough to use indoors, where most of D&D takes place.

Satyrs, on the other hand, are tailor made for the horny bard -- or horny sorcerer or horny rogue or, well, you get the picture -- that's so popular in the 21st century, but wasn't before those darn Millennials started showing up and bringing their avocado toast the gaming table.

I'd argue the High/Wood split has enough story weight to it over time that it should probably remain in place, its a longstanding thing that folks seem to have at least accepted. Certainly far more than the Hill/Mountain dwarf split

Just all the outdoorsy elves become Wood elves, and all the magic-y arcane ones become High Elves.

Eh, make all of those backgrounds. The hill/mountain dwarf split is especially silly -- at what elevation do they become a different subrace? If anything, the Dragon Age split of surface/underground dwarves makes a lot more sense than "well, Sven lives at 2,000 altitude and Bjorn lives at 7,000 altitude, so clearly, they have completely different cultures and stats."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You are missing the point. Of course you can find a 3pp or build your own setting where halflings and other PHB species have as much clout as elves and dwarves. Heck, Eberron does that! But the question is why does WotC include 10 species in the PHB and only routinely use three of them when constructing backstories for their worlds and adventures? Why do 3pp follow in their footsteps more often than not? Why do so many D&D worlds fall back on the Tolkien tropes: isolationist dwarves, elves in decline, halflings hiding in their pastoral niche, orc raiders and everyone else a nomad with no place in the larger world?

... is it Satan? Laziness?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The function of the shamanic volva is psychic readings.

I'm afraid to Google this.

 

[Yaarel]

I'm afraid to Google this.

Heh, it is what it is.

In the Nordic Lands, the ONLY kind of formal religious leader is the shamanic (Norse vǫlva, Sámi noaidi, Finnish noita). Anything else is a family tradition in ones own home.

Nordic people come to the shamanic with same kinds of questions that people today to go to "psychics" with, and these questions get answered in similar ways, with second sight (ófreski) and intuitions, and various trance inducing techniques.

Where other cultures have "priests", the Nordics have these sacred shamanic psychics.


The Sámi are famous for their divination drum. It works similarly to ouija board, but the drum beats bounce the pointer around, across various cosmological symbols drawn on the drum surface. The pointed symbols are interpreted in the context of the question. Toward the North, only the noaidi uses the drum and for the sake of the community. Toward the South, almost every family has their own drum. In all cases, the entire family or the entire community participates in the spontaneous chanting to mindfully focus on the drummer and drum, to answer a question. No two drums have identical symbols, as each family has its own tradition, but there tend to be regional similarities. These drum symbols give a reasonably clear depiction of the cosmology. The cosmos divides into sky beings, land beings, and underworld beings.

 

[Hussar]

To be honest, ALL the PHB species need more coverage. Adventure writers (both WotC and 3pp) keep getting stuck in the "this place was built by humans/elves/dwarves" as if no other groups build anything. You don't see halfling temples, gnomish mines, dragonborn mausoleums or tabaxi fortresses. The best you get is goblin warrens or other occupied natural cave systems.

I assume partly this is because the trinity was the easiest to excuse; they are all traditionally Empire builders in decline making building abandoned things easier to justify. And small folk would build buildings for their stature, so that makes it harder to design and run for larger party members. Finally, I assume most designers still hold to the notion that players view any race that wasn't part of the Fellowship of the Ring as rare and/or monstrous and that DMs won't use it if they have those species there. I can name a few D&Dish settings that lack halflings, gnome and/or orcs, I can't name a single one without elves and dwarves.

This thread has exploded in the past day, or so, but, I just wanted to repost this quote and say, I absolutely agree. I would LOVE to see settings that actually delve into the non-trinity of builder races.

I'm a huge map nerd. I adore maps. I routinely check things like /rDNDmaps and Cartographers Guild. I can count the number of non-trinity maps you might see on one hand. Any town/building/non-dungeon map is almost always either elven or human. I've seen a couple of halfling maps that caught my eye over the past year or so, but, gnome? Pretty much nonexistent. And dragonborn apparently don't build anything.

 

[Hussar]

The thing is though, while they're the least popular of the PHB races, in being PHB races they're still absolute miles ahead of all of the other options out there. Someone's gotta be the least popular out of any selection, its incredibly unlikely everything would hit the same popularity. I don't see a need to push or merge them

Aarakocra, Goblins and Tabaxi are probably the only non-PHB ones able to put a dent in their numbers due to being the very simple and noted RPG stereotypes of bird-people, goblins, and cat-people, but either way they're absolutely eclipsing stuff like yuan-ti or satyrs

But, that then begs the question - are they only popular because they are in the PHB? After all, gnomes are even less popular than some non-PHB races according to the information we have. And, it's not the ones you list. It's Genasi, Goliaths and Aasimar.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You are missing the point. Of course you can find a 3pp or build your own setting where halflings and other PHB species have as much clout as elves and dwarves. Heck, Eberron does that! But the question is why does WotC include 10 species in the PHB and only routinely use three of them when constructing backstories for their worlds and adventures? Why do 3pp follow in their footsteps more often than not? Why do so many D&D worlds fall back on the Tolkien tropes: isolationist dwarves, elves in decline, halflings hiding in their pastoral niche, orc raiders and everyone else a nomad with no place in the larger world?

Because it's familiar, salable terrain. Why else? You want something different, you have to look a little harder.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If gnomes built a village, this would be like an underground base, hidden among trees and illusions to avoid raids by gnolls, orcs or hobgoblings.

Halflings and gnomes are perfect as background characters if you would rather a family-friendly style.

I imagine aasimars like victims of tall puppies syndrome, something like the children in the classroom reject the student with the best grades, and interested into other threats. They are gifted, and they should be respected, but they suffer the opposite. Do you remember Lex Luthor's hate against Superman? Something like this. They are the cinderella suffering bullying by the stepsisters. In the eyes of the crowd, they aren't humanoids with a purer karma, but reincarnated celectials who were punished for some sin or crime. William Shakespeare said: "Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny."

Even they suffer a harder pressure to seem as saint as possible. In my land we say "Caesar's wife not only has to be honest but to seem it". Any possible scandal linked with an aasimar is worse. Sins by an aasimar aren't so easy to be forgiben and forgotten. Do you remember the Stark noble house in "Game of Thrones"? Don't hope aasimars to enjoy a better fate, or like saint Joan d'Arc. The fact is even aasimar children are one of the main targets of evil cults for sacrifices. If an evil lord suspect an aasimar children will become a witch-hunter/vampire-slayer, then agents will be sent to make "it seemed an accident".

It wouldn't be rare at all aasimars being tried for false accusations of collateral damage in her last quest, for example. An aasimar could go to a brothel to rescue kidnapped children, but rumors would tell that he went there because he is a sinner who wanted to have fun. If an aasimar can't be defeated in the battlefield, then the main attacks will be against her prestige, telling for example to be a wolf with sheep's clothing, or worse things.