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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 8376302" data-attributes="member: 7023887">Sure thing! I (literally) was asking for it in the OP!Okay, we're getting back to the Halfling thread a bit here, and I don't want this thread to become another Halfling thread (we all know what the result of those are . . .), so I'm going to steer this around a bit. Why can't halflings, gnomes, and other races/lineages that traditionally/stereotypically are just "short and quirky" be more different from humans? Why can't there be just a bit more non-human flavor added onto these races (or just leaned into more than before)??? If Halflings are "<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/halfling-appreciation-and-development-thread.681476/page-3#post-8349555" target="_blank">the best farmers to ever farm, and nearly magically-so</a>" <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/halfling-appreciation-and-development-thread.681476/page-3#post-8349555" target="_blank">and </a>"<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/halfling-appreciation-and-development-thread.681476/page-3#post-8349555" target="_blank">the happiest people to ever be a people since the Scandinavians, and possibly law-required to be happy</a>", that gives them a bit more flavor that separates them culturally from humans, and in unique and interesting ways.Sure, it's more difficult to differentiate the more human-like races from humans in culture and behavior than it is for animal-folk and golem-people/psionic-people/shapechangers/undead-touched, but it's not impossible, it just takes a bit more work. And that's cool. You're right. It is easier to differentiate magical races culturally from humans than it is for nonmagical ones to differentiate from humans. However, it's not impossible. It's easier to think of problems that races that can teleport or fly would have in human society than it is for ones that don't have those features, but it's not impossible, and IMHO, it's well worth the work. That, and the fact that I've never found Shifters to be that compelling or Eberron specific (well, changelings aren't as Eberron-specific either, but shifters are even less so, IMO). Shifters are tied to the Eldeen Reaches, the Lycanthrope Purge, and Lammania the Twilight Forest, but IMHO, they're not as well-built in culture as the other 3 Eberron races. If their culture was focused on shifting (which is fairly difficult, as the different subraces have vastly different shifting abilities, and shifting is limited in use), IMO, they'd be more compelling in this area. If they were more tied with Lycanthropes (similarly to how Hexblood are tied to Hags and Genasi are tied to Genies), they'd also be more culturally compelling. However, they aren't, so I didn't feel the need to mention them as an example (and are largely why I made it clear that Eberron is "fairly/relatively successful" in replicating what I detailed in the OP, and isn't perfect in that regard). I agree that this aspect of the races helps, but I disagree that it's that setting specific. Changelings are tied to Eberron, but their cultural aspects that depend on their shapeshifting would work in nearly any world. Shifters are also tied to Eberron, but if they were transplanted into a Domain of Dread from Ravenloft, leaning heavily into the "Lycanthrope-person race" idea, they could have a very interesting culture based on their mechanical identity (similarly to how Dhampir are treated in Ravenloft). I disagree that you'd need a fixed default setting (or at least, that it'd need more of a fixed default/base setting than 5e already has). Elven longevity has huge cultural impacts, regardless of the world. How the world treats those impacts are where things differ, from how Eberron has them extremely afraid of death compared to other worlds' representations of this aspect of elven culture. Dwarves in 5e Eberron are tied to the typical aspects of D&D Dwarves (I am a dwarf, and I'm digging a hole. Diggy, diggy hole. Diggy, diggy hole), but are also deeply tied into an aspect of Eberron's world (the Daelkyr being trapped inside Khyber, and creating symbiotic magic items). You can have base racial cultures that depend on their racial features, but that also differ vastly between worlds.</blockquote>

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