Opinions on the non-PHB races?

[GoodKingJayIII]

Lots of races feel goofy to me. It works in an interplanar/planetary setting because there's a lot more space. But I have a hard time seeing five or six different races grow up in a relatively confined area and not vying for dominance in one aspect or another.

I'm probably more traditional in my fantasy tastes and I have a lot of problems with non-humanoid races. Having said that, I love sibeccai, litorians, and mojh but have always abhorred elves (stinkin' nancy boys!). I can't explain why; I've never been a huge anime fan and most furries strike me as silly. But these caught me as just right. Plus mojh are dragon-like and creepy.

Half-giants never made sense to me. None of the giants I'm familiar with have demonstrated psionic potential. I do like the other races in the EPH though.

Eberron races are great. Changelings are awesome and Warforged have a great "tabula rasa" background that has a lot of RP potential. Also, let me add that Eberron gave gnomes their balls back.

I know absolutely nothing about the Races series. They have never interested me and likely never will. Someone else posted an ideal list of races for their campaign. I'd have to give it some serious thought, but right off the bat:

Gnomes (PHB)
Humans (PHB)
Litorians (AU/AE)
Sibeccai (AU/AE)
Warforged (ECS)

Not sure what else I'd include. Definitely would have racial levels, though. So, I've kinda contradicted what I said about myself as a traditional fantasy gamer and picked a bunch weird races to populate my campaign.

 

[Drowbane]

I like the Warforged conceptually. They have a few balance issues I agree, but giving them darkvision and a bonus feat from a short list would bring them up to speed.

As is they really are noticeably weaker than the PHB races. People drasticly overvalue their advantages, and ignore their serious downsides because they don't like the concept and want to be able to pretend the warforged are objectively bad.

QFT

I was playing a Warforged in shackled city... he was easily the weakest PC in the party!

Darkvision 60ft and one free Warforged-feat would do the trick.

 

[Ripzerai]

Half-giants never made sense to me. None of the giants I'm familiar with have demonstrated psionic potential.

That's because they don't make sense outside the Dark Sun campaign, where they originated back in 2e. All races in that campaign setting are psionic.

 

[Ripzerai]

Another race was in the Wild book, a fey-like race that I think looked exactly like a half-elf. However, the illustration shows them to be green feline humanoids.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/row_gallery/86635.jpg

Killoren were described as resembling half-elves with green leafy skin, so the picture's not all that far off. The feline faces seem to be the artist's interpretation.

 

[TomWhitbrook]

I'll only comment on what I own here.
ECS: I love the Eberron races, very dearly. One thing I would say is that I feel it is a great challenge to roleplay a warforged character accurately, as their worldview is such a distance from that of the humanoids that populate most worlds. The same could very nearly be said of the changeling.
XPH: I think the newer psionic races are mechanically interesting, but I've never honestly felt the urge to play one or stat up an NPC of that race.
I much prefer races when they're strongly tied to the campaign setting, which explains why I didn't feel like buying the Races series. Generally, I buy a significantly larger amount of campaign setting specific books than the more general D&D supplements.

 

[Rolzup]

Of all of them, I think that the Changeling is my favorite. It's a fantasy archetype that was conspicuous by its absence, and it's the sort of thing that is a lot of fun in the right hands.

There's a part of me that really wants to run a game where *all* of the various humanoid races exist, and interact. I came up with a decent enough campaign concept, more as a thought-experiment than anything else, and the idea of taking all that strangeness and really running with it appeals to me on a lot of levels.

I'm more likely, however, to just take the traditional races as a default. If someone wants to play something bizarre, like an Illuman or a Goliath, that's not a problem -- it wouldn't be difficult fitting these things into a game, and I actually enjoy the process of coming up with a niche for them quite a bit. But the less I have to write up ahead of time, the happier I am.

Honestly, though, my #1 priority os for the players to be happy with their characters. If that means letting someone play a neanderthal, so be it. I don't mind at all.

 

[Soel]

Races series - I like Goliaths, Killoren, Skulk and Whisper Gnomes.

Eberron - I played a Shifter and had a lot of fun, but I'm not thrilled about any of the races, fluff-wise.

XPH - Dromites are great! Elans have good mechanics, but I hate the fluff and the fact that they are really just human in appearance ( I made them living crystal in my campaign.) The older races are champ as well.

Magic of Incarnum - Boring through and through. THE most lackluster races I've seen. They felt as if they were added last minute to fill some needs of the book.

Environment books - I like the glowing skin desert race, and the neaderthal could be cool in the right circumstances.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I really like the changelings and kalashtar.

I quite like the shifters and the warforged (although I made one modification to them - IMC they are subject to energy drain).

I don't like any of the others and would never use any of them in any campaign.

 

[Dragonbait]

I'm please to see the changeling getting lots of love on this thread. I rarely see them mentioned when hidden in the shadows of the 'forged and the shifters.

 

[pawsplay]

Warforged - Introduce too many goofy mechanics, should be +1 LA, and are strangely optimized (for instance, they make good psions and fighter/clerics). I would allow them only to make a player deliriously happy.

Shifters, Changelings - Fine little races. However, the changeling ability to disguise seems almost too good for a non-rogue, non-caster.

Raptorans - Terrible. Some cute concepts, but a +0 LA flying race just isn't going to fly. Also, they gain bonuses that would logically extend to other races that don't have them. Their air elemental affinity just doesn't work in standard campaigns, where air elementals don't grant divine powwers, and there is a serious problem with a race whose mature, adult members have to be 5th level or higher (since they are considered adults and full members of the community when they can fly), making them racially as strong or stronger than githyanki and planetouched (in the sense of having many high level members).

Whisper Gnomes - Get real.

Goliaths - a wrongheaded attempt at a +1 LA giant, that ended up being a monstrous humanoid. Powerful Build was a bad idea then, and it's a bad idea now. D&D 4.0 should not have Powerful Build in it. They're actually not a bad race from a play standpoint, they just cause so many rules headaches, and at lower levels, can be very heavy hitters.

Illumians - Fun, but problematic in that basically, the PC illumian is the only one the party will ever deal with unless they go on a mission for an illumian community. Also, their backstory assumes immortal ascension is possible. Some say they are boring, but it's kind of interesting to see a human sub-race.

Elan - a little strong for +0 LA, but I think they are intended to be attractive in a psionic campaign, and their abilities become less insane at higher levels compared to other psionic powers.

Xephs - Fast soulknives who are normally chaotic? It's hard to see what to do with them.

Maenad - Fantasy vulcans. Ok as what they are.

Dromites - If they are all from one queen, does that mean the race has only one reproductive female?