D&D 5E Playable Plant People

[Marandahir]

He didn't say generic plants- he stated "their leaves", etc.

Well yeah – plants barter away their own life force for other resources.

We do the same thing, though. We just don't think about it usually. But there's a lot of bacteria and fungi living in our bodies that, if they aren't fed the right stuff, they get very hangry.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well yeah – plants barter away their own life force for other resources.

We do the same thing, though. We just don't think about it usually. But there's a lot of bacteria and fungi living in our bodies that, if they aren't fed the right stuff, they get very hangry.

But for certain..."banks"...we don't usually engage in economic trade of the products of our own biological processes.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

This is why 2e's book warns about letting any race be any class or get to max level in various classes: it would mean having to build a world that's not dominated by humans, and it's hard to imagine what a world like that would look like, since their mindsets are so alien to humans. It is a big flaw of 3e-onwards: too much tendency to have races be cultures rather than alien mindsets.

Since that's how Tolkien did it, I'm not sure I'd call it a "flaw". If you want true aliens, the SF genre has got you covered. Fantasy is more about holding up a mirror, I think.

 

[the Jester]

You know what 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons doesn't have in it.

Playable Plant People. A plantlike race supported officially.

The question is then "do we want them?"

Not I. Of all the options that the game could/can and will add, additional races is the one I am least interested in. And this has always been true for me; it's hard to shoehorn in new races in a setting when you have already worked out who owns what area. I mean, some are harder to fit in than others; for instance, I find the pc pixie (from 4e) to be a relatively easy fit compared to, say, the shardmind or anthropomorphic animals.

This is very much a matter of playstyle, though, and I don't hold anyone's contrary feelings against them. And there are some nonstandard races that I go for- I like the goliath, I have long had both a tabaxi pc race and a sort of dolphinwere called a merellin, I go for warforged in a big way (they fit perfectly in a role as a new magical weapon created by a mighty magocracy in my campaign right when Eberron came out), I like the dromite, etc. On the other hand, I don't allow Drow pcs under pretty much any circumstance.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nobody is forcing you to add them, AFAIK. Availability just means having he option.

 

[Marandahir]

Since that's how Tolkien did it, I'm not sure I'd call it a "flaw". If you want true aliens, the SF genre has got you covered. Fantasy is more about holding up a mirror, I think.

Weakness, then. Culture of Hats is a fine way to play D&D. Some would argue that races should be more nuanced. 2e certainly did, and it was one of the few progressive elements of the edition that wasn't picked up immediately again in 3e (4e did a bit of a hybrid: while elves have mindsets relatively similar to humans since they live in the natural world, their eladrin cousins have alien mindsets that are amoral and a bit unfathomable to us. In 4e, it's not what race you are that determines your moral axes as much as what sort of world you come from and who else inhabit it).

Plus, a lot of SF does the mirror thing too. I'd argue Fantasy is even less about the mirroring than SF is – Fantasy takes you to some fantastical place that is unlike reality. You're breaking away. That's why Tolkien is one of the critically successful Fantasy writers; he grounds his fantasy. But SF is usually grounded as a mirror of the now, with a few things changed. You get rubber forehead aliens and planets of hats that discuss elements of current society. When it starts going so out-there that it's not reflective of reality, then we're really in Science Fantasy, not Sci-Fi.

 

[Fedge123]

In a plant people society does that make vegetarians lawful evil?

 

[Sunseeker]

He didn't say generic plants- he stated "their leaves", etc.

We sell and donate our hair and blood and sometimes even organs for causes we support or even if we just need money. If you're going to regrow it simply by going about your normal day-to-day life, maybe it's not of much value.

 

[Sunseeker]

This is why 2e's book warns about letting any race be any class or get to max level in various classes: it would mean having to build a world that's not dominated by humans, and it's hard to imagine what a world like that would look like, since their mindsets are so alien to humans. It is a big flaw of 3e-onwards: too much tendency to have races be cultures rather than alien mindsets.

There's no such thing as an alien mindset. Even if it existed, people wouldn't play it.

There are no aliens in D&D. In fact there aren't any aliens in any fantasy or sci-fi setting ever created. Not one.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

We sell and donate our hair and blood and sometimes even organs for causes we support or even if we just need money. If you're going to regrow it simply by going about your normal day-to-day life, maybe it's not of much value.

Some (very few) people can sell hair to make wigs. Blood donation isn't compensated, though you CAN be compensated for donating plasma...up to 2x per week for about $30. You can't sell most organs. Not legally, at least.

Feces, however, can be donated for the treatment of certain diseases (like C. difficile infections) for up to $13,000/year. However, the donors have to be so healthy, only 4% pass the screening process.

Sooo, overall, not exactly a solid basis for a stable trade system.