Only Five Races in PHB2?

[doctorhook]

Deurgar.

Whatever it is, I won't like it.

It's spelled "Duergar", and no, that seems unlikely at this point.

Duergar in 4E are a type of dwarven devil. Mortal, native to the world, and otherwise "natural" humanoids, just like other dwarves, but racially fiendish thanks to a long history of breeding with devils. Instead of Moradin, Duergar generally worship Asmodeus. Thematically, you can think of Duergar as a dwarven equivalent to Tieflings, except completely different in appearance, substantially more evil than the average Tiefling, and possessing the (devil) subtype. (The MM-style write-up for Duergar appears in H2, but will hopefully be reprinted in a real Monster Manual eventually.)

Why won't you like it, (whatever it is), Kzach? You don't like Angels? You don't like Changelings?

 

[jedrious]

you're also forgetting the mention of a feline race

 

[garyh]

you're also forgetting the mention of a feline race

I thought that was someone misinterpreting the ghost panthers on the cover?

 

[Lizard]

I can definitely live with "only" five more races, esp. if two of them are "Gnome" and "Half-Orc". It's a LOT easier for me to integrate new classes into the world than new races. After all, it's pretty easy to say that the NPC who used to be Rogue with a rapier is now a Swashbuckler and, retroactively, always was; it's more of a pain to fit entire new nations into the world's history and explain where these people were and why you never noticed them before. Hardly impossible, of course, and when starting a new campaign, it's always good to have a large "palette" of races to choose from, but for the PHB II (or any splat) to have value, it ought to be just as useful for an ongoing campaign as for a new one.

 

[Zsig]

Remember that there are at least 2 kinds of shifters, so even though they're all still one race, they each get different stats and racial encounter powers.

 

[Nifft]

the last race is De_______.

Desmondu.

WotC has been shoving them down our throats for years.

Cheers, -- N

 

[thundershot]

Desmodu.

WotC has been shoving them down our throats for years.

Cheers, -- N

That.... that wouldn't surprise me in the least.

 

[jedrious]

which is an extremely odd statement because they have been seen in one adventure and one monster manual, if anything it's the Thrikreen that's been pushed appearing as a monster manual entry and two separate racial traits profiles, let's go even futher, WotC has been pushing Dragons on us for years, I mean it's not like they have anything to do with the game

 

[chronoplasm]

DE for...

Deadite.
..because they need an undead PC race.

 

[garyh]

Remember that there are at least 2 kinds of shifters, so even though they're all still one race, they each get different stats and racial encounter powers.

Yeah, but, I dunno... that seems kinda cheat-y for taking up to slots. Then again, 3/8ths of PHB1 were different kinds of elves...

DE for...

Deadite.
..because they need an undead PC race.

I doubt it, but I'd love to see that happen. I wouldn't even mind if people claimed PC undead were video-gamey and imported from WarCraft.