Races & Classes spotted?

[Tquirky]

You're argument doesn't float.

It depends on how many "gnomes" in the game that there are to throw out, though. Just ranting that maybe it would be an idea to keep them to a minimum. Luckily, things like classes, races and weapons don't tend to have other components of the game dependent on them, so you're right, they can be removed.

In any case, I'm just micturating into the zephyr here, as has been pointed out.

 

[Goobermunch]

Well...I do like warlocks. And Points of Light.

Over there on the happy side...do you have balloons? And puppies?

Of course we have puppies. What do you think the tieflings eat?

--G

 

[DarkWhite]

It bears mentioning that neither of the two tiefling minis from Desert of Desolation looks anything like the tiefling illustrations we were shown thus far. Both are red skinned humans with white hair, small white horns, and long devilish tails.

I hope that doesn't mean that ALL tieflings are now red-skinned, white-haired, with horns and tails? I kind of like the idea that tielfings have decended from multiple demonic sources, and therefore are wildly varied - I like my Tiefling Blademaster (WarDrums) - and their racial abilities and resistances should likewise be varied - when you encounter a tiefling, they should be unpredictable, you don't know what to expect from them as a race. Otherwise, they're the new drow - they all look alike, I just can't tell them apart.

 

[Irda Ranger]

By the way, in regards to the "Horned Folk" images.

The spikier ones that some said might be dragonborn? All male.
The smoother ones? Female.

What are you saying? That there's some subliminal message in the concept art about females having curves and males having something that's straight, hard, and protrudes at an acute angle ... from their head?

 

[Lurks-no-More]

So, if the dragonborn are real, instead of just a catchy rumor, I'm perfectly okay with them.

As others have said, reptilian people are an old stand-by of both sword and sorcery novels and of D&D (see yuan-ti and lizardfolk). Having a detailed, scaly race in the PHB (for use either as PCs or NPCs) is a pretty good idea, I think; it's getting further from the "all Tolkien, all the time" racial line-up of the earlier (A)D&D editions, but that's not a bad thing.

Linking them with dragons seems also like a good idea; the game is called Dungeons & Dragons, after all, and dragons are the iconic monsters, both in D&D and in reality. A lot of people like dragons, and would undoubtedly find a dragonborn race interesting. (I think this is another case of WotC re-using or re-imagining a name used earlier; I really don't think the DB are going to be templated creatures in 4e.)

I also hope this will ease the worries of those people who were concerned about the supposed focus on fiends w. tiefling, warlock etc.; if dragonborn are in the PHB, you are going to see a lot of emphasis on dragons as well. (And the eladrin are probably going to be the fey/celestial race.)

Finally, what is it with people complaining about names? With eladrin, there were complaints it didn't mean anything; with dragonborn, it's a "lame compound word". Would you be any happier if they'd been named "draccaryn" or something similar? I doubt so.

 

[BASHMAN]

I thought the spellscales were pretty cool in concept . . . . but that terrible artwork!!!

I had a player who insisted on playing a spell-scale in my campaign and I begrudgingly agreed. He also declared his character (who was supposed to be a knight) wore sequined rainbow suits to match his scaly, iridescent skin. In order to avoid dealing with more such freakshows, I declared he was unique-- there were no other members of his species on the planet. I hated all that stuff about the town's "Spell-scale district" as if they had always been around.

I think that the dragon bloodline would have been a better way of dealing with a race of humans with draconic blood.

As for tieflings, I suppose we'll have to rely on 2nd ed resources & tables to make the cool wacky random tieflings of the past. Every game I've been in with tieflings has done this anyway in 3.x so it will not be an issue in 4e.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

Dragonborn have scaly skin, with "spikes" in their chin and tail, they have almost straight horns (at least what seems to be the "red dragonborn").

Then there's this picture on the Wizards site, which is handily labeled "Tiefling Warlock." Note the spiky chin. And if the horns aren't straight, they're less curvy than the female's.

I think the pictures you're identifying as dragonborn are all male tieflings.

 

[Sir Sebastian Hardin]

Then there's this picture on the Wizards site, which is handily labeled "Tiefling Warlock." Note the spiky chin. And if the horns aren't straight, they're less curvy than the female's.

I think the pictures you're identifying as dragonborn are all male tieflings.

Ok, ok, my bad. Was a wrong guess. It must be that I got to see the 3e dragonborn AFTER I posted those images. The spiky chin must be like beard or something.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Then there's this picture on the Wizards site, which is handily labeled "Tiefling Warlock." Note the spiky chin. And if the horns aren't straight, they're less curvy than the female's.

I think the pictures you're identifying as dragonborn are all male tieflings.

Either that, or they figured that the dragonborn resemble tieflings enough that they can pass for them, and since dragonborn are the mystery race, they weren't about to label the picture "Dragonborn Warlock". The reason that the pictures exist in the first place may be because someone thought it would be clever to hide them in plain sight, to reduce the chance of leaks. They can always just say, "no, no, that's a tiefling, not whatever it was you thought."

Anyway, just devil's advocate here.

 

[morbiczer]

1. Okay, first I wish I had proofread my letter to Morrus a few times, there are some really embarrassing typos left in it.

This sentence: "I no that I all this might soun a strange..." for example makes me cry.

I wrote the email well after midnight, but really should have payed better attention.

2. "I couldn't find any passage saying that those and only those detailed would be in the PHB. (Five base classes certainly seem to much.)" should read:

"I couldn't find any passage saying that those and only those detailed would be in the PHB. (Five base classes certainly DON'T seem TOO much.)" As in "I would be very surprised if there were only five core classes in the PHB."

Oh, and the Dragonborn pictures I remember didn't look anything like the "possible Dragonborn" picture linked to before. I'd say that is simply a Tiefling. Although the Tiefling in the picture I remember had curved, not spiky horns.