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

[Eltab]

I think upcoming new races should be the ones iconically tied to various campaign worlds.
Thri-keen and Mul for Dark Sun
Warforged in Eberron
Giths(both) for plane-hopping

Another 'plant-people': Volodni, from FR.
I've homebrewed a 5e conversion; they fill the space between (and overlap a lot with) Wood Elves and Humans.

 

[steeldragons]

Tolkienesque Elves.

 

[Hussar]

/snip
Anyway, personally, I think Draconians have a lot of potential as a PC race in other settings; their origin as dragon eggs warped to create slave-soldiers by some evil wizard, cleric or regime only to be orphaned after its defeat is one that works in any D&D setting with a higher magic level than, say, Westeros. The big issue is giving them a balanced set of racial abilities, something I struggled with in my own attempts to convert all ten.

Except, at that point, why not just use dragonborn? Seems to solve the problem nicely.

And, yeah, again, copping to my own ignorance, I never even bothered with the Saga stuff at all. AFAIC, the setting went very much off the rails at that point.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Because, in terms of abilities, dragonborn and draconians don't really mesh up all that well. You could refluff dragonborn to have the same origins as draconians, sure, but they're different takes on the idea. It's one of the reasons why I'm trying to convert draconians and dray and use them alongside dragonborn for my "Drakken" species in the Malebolge setting I'm homebrewing.

Can I get away with adding other races I'd like to see after having remembered them, or is that cheating?

 

[cbwjm]

Because, in terms of abilities, dragonborn and draconians don't really mesh up all that well. You could refluff dragonborn to have the same origins as draconians, sure, but they're different takes on the idea. It's one of the reasons why I'm trying to convert draconians and dray and use them alongside dragonborn for my "Drakken" species in the Malebolge setting I'm homebrewing.

Can I get away with adding other races I'd like to see after having remembered them, or is that cheating?

For the draconians, you might want to create a dragonborn subrace. I'd probably fold the breath weapon into the subrace along with the +1 Cha boost. I have tried converting draconians before, you have to really cut some corners to bring down the power level of the more powerful types (Auraks mostly, those guys were crazy powerful). You might be able to follow the deep gnomes and have an Aurak only feat that expands on their magical abilities.

Another option is to create each specific type of Draconian as a specific race with differing stats. I've seen a fairly decent version of them online before which I think I followed when trying to convert them. It meant I could give a kapak bonuses to two completely different stats as an aurak without having to force them into a subrace which always gets that +2 Strength. Although I could also see having the base race grant +1 Strength and then giving the subrace two +1s to play with. If you went that way then a dragonborn subrace could be a +1 Str, +1 Cha, and a breath weapon, whereas a Bozak might be +1 Int, +1 Cha, vestigal wings (allowing them to glide, not fly proper), and some minor spellcasting ability.

I'm hopeful that there will be a dragonlance update sometime in the future, otherwise, I will continue to think about the various races that might come out and how I will be able to recreate them.

Also, bring on any more races that you would like to see, it's all good.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Half-ogre.

Goliaths are for wimps.

Especially is they use the old 2nd Ed. stat rolling rules!

Str: 1d6+13
Dex: 3d4
Con: 1d6+13
Int: 3d4
Wis: 2d6
Cha: 2d4

 

[Irda Ranger]

Except, at that point, why not just use dragonborn? Seems to solve the problem nicely.

And, yeah, again, copping to my own ignorance, I never even bothered with the Saga stuff at all. AFAIC, the setting went very much off the rails at that point.

I hope my user name and profile pic give me some cred as an OG Dragonlance fan (and I've been using them on other gaming forums longer than I've been on EN World), and I have never thought that Dragonborn were a very good Draconian substitute. They're very different takes on what a draconic PC race might look like.

Each of the Draconian races are also very different from each other. If you made a single Draconian race the sub-races would have to be where most of the rules are, including all the stat modifiers.

 

[QuietBrowser]

I hope my user name and profile pic give me some cred as an OG Dragonlance fan (and I've been using them on other gaming forums longer than I've been on EN World), and I have never thought that Dragonborn were a very good Draconian substitute. They're very different takes on what a draconic PC race might look like.

Each of the Draconian races are also very different from each other. If you made a single Draconian race the sub-races would have to be where most of the rules are, including all the stat modifiers.

Exactly my point. Hell, my attempt at a 5e conversion, I actually toyed with making all ten races completely seperate, before ultimately going with "subrace, but the core race just gives them size, speed, darkvision and the base rules for Death Throes".

 

[Irda Ranger]

Exactly my point. Hell, my attempt at a 5e conversion, I actually toyed with making all ten races completely seperate, before ultimately going with "subrace, but the core race just gives them size, speed, darkvision and the base rules for Death Throes".

I just wrote up my own rough-draft conversion notes today and this is exactly what I did. Actually, the core race doesn't even give them size. I made them all Medium, but I put the Size description in the sub-race anyway so I could separately describe them as tall and thin (Aurak), short and stocky (Baaz), and everything in between.

One fun part of making them myself was I was able to make the Baaz a respectable choice.

I ended up making six sub-races, the original five plus "Ferrak" draconians that I just made up. I went that way because with the core five each sub-race gave a +2 to a different stat, and with Ferrak giving a +2 Wis there's a sub-race for each stat. That sort of symmetry wasn't really necessary but it was a fun creative exercise.

(In the rules I just made up, Ferrak draconians are "steel" dragon (Fe for iron, get it?) draconians)

 

[QuietBrowser]

I just wrote up my own rough-draft conversion notes today and this is exactly what I did. Actually, the core race doesn't even give them size. I made them all Medium, but I put the Size description in the sub-race anyway so I could separately describe them as tall and thin (Aurak), short and stocky (Baaz), and everything in between.

One fun part of making them myself was I was able to make the Baaz a respectable choice.

I ended up making six sub-races, the original five plus "Ferrak" draconians that I just made up. I went that way because with the core five each sub-race gave a +2 to a different stat, and with Ferrak giving a +2 Wis there's a sub-race for each stat. That sort of symmetry wasn't really necessary but it was a fun creative exercise.

(In the rules I just made up, Ferrak draconians are "steel" dragon (Fe for iron, get it?) draconians)

4e beat you to it. Ferak (Iron), Adamaaz (Adamantine) and Kobaaz (Cobalt) Draconians all appeared in the Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons for 4e. Feraks turn into caustic clouds of rust, Adamaaz explode in bone-breaking thunderclaps, and Kobaaz transform into superchilled ice statues that fatally freeze anybody who gets too close.