D&D 5E Nonstandard Races You Love And Want Back

[QuietBrowser]

I'd laugh with your posting, but I'm too busy looking for my brown pants. What is that thing - Grendel's mean step-brother?

The Carnifex, also known as, amongst other things, the Screamer-Killer, is the oldest Heavy Assault Unit in the Tyranid hive-fleets of Warhammer 40000. Part of the setting's genome-assimilating space locust race, the Carnifex is a heavily armored berserker whose priority is to pound through obstructions and reduce swathes of infantry to mincemeat.

 

[Brandegoris]

I once played a Pixie and also a Centaur knight. I really liked My Centaur Knight

 

[Shasarak]

Strip the lore away from draconians, and you're left with ... what? Lizardfolk with wings? Dragonborn? They certainly aren't draconians.

Just like when you strip away all the lore from Drow you are left with....Black Elves?

 

[Hussar]

No, you're left with "Militaristic dragon-people". Which, yeah, is more evident in certain ones of them, but that's what they are at the core. Strip out all the background and just shove them in as mooks and that's all people get from them. They're dragon people, and they have some attempt at an organised structure

As it turns out, that is an easy concept to transfer

And dragon people are different from lizard people. Who are different from dinosaur people

And "militaristic dragon-people" is somehow different from dragon born how?

 

[Hussar]

Actually the evil race of dinosaur/reptiles from this module....

View attachment 83639

Y'know, I totally have never seen this module. Just read the Wikipedia blurb. Sounds like an excellent adventure and I'm a huge Moldvay fan.

 

[Hussar]

Just like when you strip away all the lore from Drow you are left with....Black Elves?

Pretty much, yes. You'll note that drow as a PC race do not have the lore stripped away. They are still closely tied to Lolth, matriarchy, and, at least in the art, a BDSM fetish.

Strip away all that, and we have what? A dark skinned elf that lives underground. Snore.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Going back to some of the original post, I'd also really like to see updated versions for the Changeling, Shifter, and maybe even the Warforged. I've got places in my world for Changelings and Shifters, warforged are more difficult.

One thing I don't want is Devas. I know it is simply a knee-jerk reaction from a bad player experience, but a race of Immortal beings who remember all of their past lives is too much for me. I had player decide that since she was an immortal angel her boyfriend was a god... which had so many, many problems for a level 1 character that it still all these years later aggravates me (I was a younger and less experienced DM in those days)

I also wouldn't mind a dryad race (all girls doesn't bother me that much) and perhaps some other plant based race, though I never really got what Wilden were supposed to be or why I would ever want to play one, so there is that.

 

[cbwjm]

No, you're left with "Militaristic dragon-people". Which, yeah, is more evident in certain ones of them, but that's what they are at the core. Strip out all the background and just shove them in as mooks and that's all people get from them. They're dragon people, and they have some attempt at an organised structure

As it turns out, that is an easy concept to transfer

And dragon people are different from lizard people. Who are different from dinosaur people

Oh yeah, saurials. I wouldn't mind seeing them back in.

 

[cbwjm]

... which leads to this thought: the existence of half-elves and half-orcs demonstrates that elves and orcs are one species with humans, much as earlier modern humans crossbred with Denisovians and Neandertals.

[For the sake of this commentary, let's ignore the fact that all the races except humans in D&D are the product of intelligent design by gods created by the writers, not of evolution.]

Hmmm.

Is it possible that orcs and elves can also produce viable orc-elf offspring?

They can, the offspring is called a human.

 

[bedir than]

They can, the offspring is called a human.

My default for 90% of cross-breeding among intelligent races - human.