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

[doctorbadwolf]

[MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION] why would you strip all that out, anyway? I still haven't been convinced that we can't have a PC race that can't be resurrected. Or that Draconians can't just be harder/more expensive to resurrect than other races. But also...you still haven't established literally any issue whatsoever with having multiple kinds of draconic humanoids.

As for the lore, that isn't how putting a race in a different setting works. You don't strip out all the lore and then leave them like that, you translate the lore to the new setting.

In some settings, Draconians' origins will be in the very distant past, a blight on their legacy like that of tieflings in PoLand. In others, the PC playing them will be of the first generation. In still others they will just literally be another draconic humanoid alongside Dragonborn, with their own distinct culture and history, just like humans and dwarves.

You are inventing problems to justify your dislike for a thing you don't need to justify your dislike of. It's fine, man. Your opinion of draconian PCs doesn't affect my 4e game where they are a major race, and it won't affect a future 5e DL game, if I get one going.

If one shows up at your table, I'll give you the same advice I give myself when I play in FR and the stupid filthy hobbitses show up. Just pretend it's a gnome and don't let the player see the hatred in your eyes.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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.

But no one ever just does that. Eberron Drow are not the same, in lore, as FR Drow, but hey don't just "strip away the lore" and leave it at that. If they did...that would be a huge, glaring, nonsensical, failure on their part, not a problem with porting Drow to another world.

i can't even imagine how one could do that, much less why one would try. It seems harder than giving them new/translated lore would be.

I mean, just the process of literally giving them a basic outline of a culture, political structure, determining how they view and are viewed by other races, ie he very basics of including race in a setting, will make them more than "a dark skinned elf that lives underground".

Or that sont live underground. Or that sometimes do but sometimes don't.

Hell, I've a setting where they live nocturnally in deserts in hidden clan holds dug into and under rock outcroppings, keep very clever sand cats and their larger and even smarter Dune Panther cousins as pets and guards, worship the moon and her two sisters, and gather yearly in a hidden oasis called The Court of Stars, accessible only through tunnels or via magic, where they celebrate births, exchange gifts, set up trade deals and marriages and the like, and take council amongst eachother.

There is also a culture of raider drow, who worship scorpions, get high on their venom, and are generally a bad time.

The dwarves in that setting are more Black Forest dwarves, as well, and the elf elves live in cities with a vaguely pseudo ancient Persian culture, and humans are a small minority that has only recently come to the region.

In Eberron, many of the drow live in the jungle, or amongst the ruins of the Giants' empire, and some worship fire.

This stuff is malleable.

 

[cbwjm]

Dark elves in my setting were just elves that were corrupted by a malevolent force called the lord of decay/the darkness while the elves were still in the Feywild. Now, even if they aren't evil, they are still marked by his touch with black skin and white hair. No real spider of demon worship, some probably still follow the lord of decay but in one part of the world, I have dark elves living in caverns within a plateau in the middle of the desert while above ground, the high elves and wood elves make their home. Representatives from each race rule their small kingdom.

On a side note, eladrin are almost like angels, serving the immortal Ilsundal in the Feywild. They were all once regular elves that died during the crossing, defending refugees who were fleeing through a portal to the prime plane. When Ilsundal detonated the portal it devastated the forces of the Darkness and killed all of the elves who were left. The energies unleashed granted him immortality and he brought the elves who dies back as Eladrin. Elves with immortal souls, when they die, they are reborn anew and constantly guard the Feywild from the corruption of the lord of decay.

I like world building and fitting in the various races, not all of them make the cut every time but for those that do, finding out where they come from is a lot of fun.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Dark elves in my setting were just elves that were corrupted by a malevolent force called the lord of decay/the darkness while the elves were still in the Feywild. Now, even if they aren't evil, they are still marked by his touch with black skin and white hair. No real spider of demon worship, some probably still follow the lord of decay but in one part of the world, I have dark elves living in caverns within a plateau in the middle of the desert while above ground, the high elves and wood elves make their home. Representatives from each race rule their small kingdom.

On a side note, eladrin are almost like angels, serving the immortal Ilsundal in the Feywild. They were all once regular elves that died during the crossing, defending refugees who were fleeing through a portal to the prime plane. When Ilsundal detonated the portal it devastated the forces of the Darkness and killed all of the elves who were left. The energies unleashed granted him immortality and he brought the elves who dies back as Eladrin. Elves with immortal souls, when they die, they are reborn anew and constantly guard the Feywild from the corruption of the lord of decay.

I like world building and fitting in the various races, not all of them make the cut every time but for those that do, finding out where they come from is a lot of fun.

I like that, I may steal that immortal Eladrin idea if I ever need to include Eladrin in my games.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Here's something that might be of relevance to folks here; finally scratching an itch that's been nagging me for weeks, I went ahead and created a definitive list of every D&D PC race that's ever appeared in every edition, to the best of my knowledge. There might be gaps in it, but still, this should hopefully provide a handy memory-jogging for anyone who's trying to remember old favorites they want to see come back.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/List_of_D&D_PC_Races

 

[cbwjm]

I like that, I may steal that immortal Eladrin idea if I ever need to include Eladrin in my games.

It certainly makes them more interesting than high elves that can teleport which is sort of how I see them. I knew in my world that they were still in the feywild and, while developing an adventure, came up with a more interesting reason why they were still there while the other elves had moved to the prime.

 

[DM Howard]

Give me some decent rules for creating a Centaur PC that isn't overpowered and I'll burst with joy! I've alwats loved the idea of running a centaur character since I saw the picture of a human warrior riding on the back of a centaur warrior who was wielding a double-bladed sword as they charged into the foreground in player's book from D&D Basic Adventure Game (the silver TSR logo one with the red dragon on the front).

 

[Redthistle]

Here's something that might be of relevance to folks here; finally scratching an itch that's been nagging me for weeks, I went ahead and created a definitive list of every D&D PC race that's ever appeared in every edition, to the best of my knowledge. There might be gaps in it, but still, this should hopefully provide a handy memory-jogging for anyone who's trying to remember old favorites they want to see come back.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/List_of_D&D_PC_Races

Thank you! This is a wonderful reference!

 

[Azzy]

Here's something that might be of relevance to folks here; finally scratching an itch that's been nagging me for weeks, I went ahead and created a definitive list of every D&D PC race that's ever appeared in every edition, to the best of my knowledge. There might be gaps in it, but still, this should hopefully provide a handy memory-jogging for anyone who's trying to remember old favorites they want to see come back.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/List_of_D&D_PC_Races

Nice. However you forgot 1e Oriental Adventures' Spirit Folk, Hengeyoukai, and Korobokuru.

Also, Basic D&D had more options in some of its splat books.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Nice. However you forgot 1e Oriental Adventures' Spirit Folk, Hengeyoukai, and Korobokuru.

Also, Basic D&D had more options in some of its splat books.

I didn't start collecting D&D books until 4th edition's "Wizards Presents:" duology came out. It's a sheer stroke of luck that the list is as complete as it is. As luck would have it, that wiki allows you to edit it without needing an account on it, so if you're aware of races missing from it, please, feel free to add them to the list where it's appropriate.