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

[Guest 85555]

I am still waiting for the ultimate cross-breed: half orc and half-halfling.

 

[Lwaxy]

Good point, but I usually blame that on said taboos or make some combinations sterile. Like orc-dwarf

 

[Lwaxy]

I am still waiting for the ultimate cross-breed: half orc and half-halfling.

I have a player with an orc-halfling, does that count?

 

[am181d]

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

It has not. And given what the designers have said about inclusion on the class side, I would be *stunned* if half-elf and half-orc weren't in the 5e PHB.

 

[hafrogman]

Perhaps the counter argument should be made to instead remove elves from the list of playable races. We go back to the source material and find they don't really make good adventurers. They're evil (chaotic), untrustworthy, inherently magical and they can't abide the touch of iron and steel.

Half-elves have enough human blood to allow them to overcome their baser half.

No, I'm not going to sell anyone on this idea? Oh well. Maybe being racially inclusive is the way to go then.

 

[Janaxstrus]

Half-Elves - Want
Half-Orcs - Don't care


So if it's choice between not having either or having both, I'd rather have them both in. They have a lot of history in the game.

 

[GreyICE]

I thought they were really well done in 4E, especially with the 'Half-Orc' really being more accurately named the 'Orc-Blooded,' with it basically encompassing an entire spectrum of people, all of whom had some orcish blood.

So, keep the 4E flavor, and keep them in. It also makes them significantly less awkward in terms of family history (guess how most half-human/half-orc babies are made. If your answer is "the parents fell in love," well... no).

 

[JeffB]

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

+1.

My games onky use the core 4 from O/B D&D so I would love to see that...but I am not hopeful.

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

Considering the "half-races" are frequently treated as full races themselves in campaign settings, I fail to see what the issue is. Half-elves that are the children of elves and humans are UNCOMMON in Eberron relative to their pure-blood half-elf counterparts (born to half-elf parents). In 4E, half-orcs aren't even known to include any orc-blood at all, and again, are a true-breeding race in and of themselves.

In a game that is supposed to be all about options, they would be shooting themselves in the foot removing the half-races, considering they have been options in practically every edition of the game.

If you don't want to use them, don't use them. Seriously, the most douche baggery claims in the whole discussion of DDN have been the "take this out, take that out" in reference to stuff that has been core for decades.

 

[Sadras]

My games onky use the core 4 from O/B D&D so I would love to see that...but I am not hopeful.

We currently roleplay in Mystara so I'm with you there re races. The main campaign uses 4E, but in between the main adventures I run mini-adventures around other areas within Mystara and thats when we crack open and play older editions or homebrew systems (different characters)
Allows the players to experience the richness of the world and at the same time never lets any of our editions get old, also lets me be more lethal since these side characters are once offs.