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Message: <blockquote data-quote="airwalkrr" data-source="post: 6485702" data-attributes="member: 12460">When I get around to running 5e, which I hope to do soon, I will be going back to running Greyhawk for the first time in nearly 10 years. (I have been running Eberron in 3.5/Pf ever since the campaign setting was released because I like it, and my first love, Greyhawk, just never felt right with 3e rules.) For me 5e seems to fit the milieu of Greyhawk with minimal tweaks. I want to model it after the respective rarity of the races and classes in 1e AD&D (having to make a few compromises of course). With that in mind, I have the following ideas in mind:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Common Races and Classes: Dwarves (hill), elves (high-not including gray and valley), halflings (lightfoot), and human (Flan and Oeridian-no special mechanics) are the most common adventuring races throughout the Flanaess, and are thus unrestricted. Likewise, clerics, fighters, rogues, and wizards are the most common adventurer classes found throughout the Flanaess, and are thus unrestricted.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Uncommon Races and Classes: Dwarves (mountain), elves (high-gray, wood-sylvan), halflings (stout), humans (Baklunish and Suloise-no special mechanics), gnomes (rock), half-elves, and half-orcs are uncommon adventuring races. Likewise, bards, druids, monks, paladins, and rangers are uncommon adventuring classes. As a rule of thumb, I will probably allow no more than half of the party to consist of these races or classes. Also, an uncommon race + uncommon class = a rare character (see below) and may be subject to further restriction. As a side note, if assassins are ever added as a full-fledged class to 5e, I would likely include them as an uncommon class for my 5e Greyhawk.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Rare Races and Classes: These either did not exist in 1e AD&D or were rare as player character options because they did not appear as options in the 1e AD&D Player's Handbook. (Note, I included bards as uncommon above because, although the prerequisites in 1e were steep, they were still included in the 1e AD&D PH.) Dwarves (deep aka duergar), elves (high-valley, wood-grugach, dark-drow), humans (Olman and Rhenee-no special mechanics), and gnomes (forest) are rare races, either because they are xenophobic (valley elves, grugach, Olman, Rhenee, and forest gnomes) or typically very evil (duergar and drow) in the Greyhawk campaign setting. Likewise, barbarians would be rare because they were not in the 1e AD&D. Sorcerers and warlocks are rare classes, almost unheard of in the world of Greyhawk and certainly oddities. As a rule of thumb, I will probably allow no more than one of these in the party, and it would have to be agreed upon by all players at the table because the very presence of these races and classes are likely to have significant role-playing consequences.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Restricted Races: Dragonborn and tieflings would generally not be allowed. Dragonborn never existed in 1e AD&D Greyhawk (not to my knowledge anyway), and tieflings would be assumed to be minions of Iuz or worse, and thus have the worst role-playing consequences for the group. Unless the campaign and story specifically called for it, these races would not be available to player characters.</li> </ul>I am flexible as a DM and willing to talk things out, so if a player requests something unusual and had devised a very good and campaign-appropriate explanation for it, I may allow it. But in general, the above would be my guidelines, and I would not deviate from them very much.Now the way you played Greyhawk might have been very different. But I am an avid Greyhawk and 1e AD&D fan and feel the two go together like a hand in a glove, so these guidelines seem to fit the setting very well to me. This is all for the sake of the campaign setting and milieu. I honestly have no problem with the balancing mechanics of the races and classes as written in the 5e PH. But for me, there is more to the races and classes than mechanics. The role-playing consequences and setting rarity of the races and classes is important to establishing the right tone. Encountering a forest gnome or a drow should be a very unusual event in Greyhawk. If I were running Forgotten Realms or a very cosmopolitan campaign setting of my own design, for example, I would probably be very permissive of the races and classes I allowed.</blockquote>

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