Plea to traditionalist fans: No more “half” races?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Nope, half-races are iconic and should stay as stand-alone full races. Add in "orc" as a race if you feel you must, but don't take away my half-orc. And don't even suggest some sort of bloody half-human template.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Why not have both? Then you're not taking half-orcs and half-elves away from those who like them, but you don't have to use them.

Yup. Can't XP yet but there is certainly room for both half and regular races.

I would like to see a half dwarf.

 

[rjfTrebor]

people who don't like them won't be using them, so taking them out of the game is just going to burn the people who like them.


dnd next looks like it'll be the perfect "picky eaters'" game and i like that. we can all have what we want and drop what we hate.

 

[grimslade]

I always felt that the half races got short shrift. Half Orc yo-yoing out of the editions, half elf being the blander shade of human. I want the half races in D&D, but give the Half elf some life. Oh, and put the Orc in too.

 

[Sadras]

It seems unlikely that either half-elves or half-orcs will be in the core.

Why do you have that feeling? I presume it was hinted or mentioned upon?

 

[Lwaxy]

Plea: No more “half” races?

Its awkward treating “half” races as separate races.

Talking to the traditionalist players, can you handle getting rid of “half” races?

So instead of a “Half-Orc”, just play an “Orc”?

Its easy to use either Orc or Human mechanics and reflavor it as a hybrid.

If for roleplay reasons its important to mechanically express part human parentage, maybe select a “Half-Human theme” that grants some Human features, perhaps including humanoid shape and size in some cases.

Are you kidding me? We need more of them. half-dwarfs, half-halflings, half-anythings. They are, and will always be, a fixed part in my campaigns. Never made sense to me just to allow a few mixes and not others.

Whatever players want, they can include. If you don't like it, just don't play it, where's the problem?

 

[Mercurius]

I was tempted to start a thread entitled "Plea to Newbie fans: Get rid of WoWesque races," but then thought better of it

Then I thought of saying, "I'll let you nix half races if you let me nix shardminds, dragonborn, etc," but then realized that this is D&DNext, and the point is not to cut down options but to consolidate a core flavor and allow any number of options for variation.

I'm find with no half races in the 5E PHB, but I see no reason why, say, half-elf can't be included as a sub-race of elf. I'm also fine with the first PHB only including humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, and maybe gnomes, with a couple variations of dwarves and elves, and then all other races coming later, either in a second PHB or online. The same goes for dragonborn et al - no reason to get rid of them altogether, although my preference would be if they aren't in the first PHB, if only for aesthetic reasons, and because I like the idea of the PHB offering a very classic D&D feel, with later splats offering different directions in terms of flavoring.

(I'd actually like to see the dragonborn saved for a "gonzo PHB" with high powered races and classes, and then souped up so that breath weapon is actually useful and gets more powerful, perhaps they have wings and can fly, etc)

 

[Guest 85555]

Half races add flavor to the game IMO. There is a lot of interesting implications behind half races, and they have a longstanding tradition in the game. But lets just follow morrus's suggestion and include the full races as well. If we are going by the traditional PHB, that just means you need to add full orc.

 

[Sadras]

Truthfully, I would prefer to have the Human, Dwarf. Elf, Halfling races and have a few of the traditional classes along with the given the introduction of all the themes andthe various modular options, and include the "extras" for both races and class in an expanded book which would focus strictly on classes and other races.
That way we get a bigger chunk of the modular and themes in the core book while the expanded can focus on all the weird and wonderful

 

[herrozerro]

Are you kidding me? We need more of them. half-dwarfs, half-halflings, half-anythings. They are, and will always be, a fixed part in my campaigns. Never made sense to me just to allow a few mixes and not others.

Whatever players want, they can include. If you don't like it, just don't play it, where's the problem?

To me Half Races make me wonder how there are any pure races left, if anything unless its a huge taboo thats been in place since the races arose, it would seem like the half races would outnumber the actual races.

Edit: Unless half races are sterile like most real world half breeds (mules spring to mind)