Reflavoring Races

[ferratus]

I re-flavoured Tieflings in my campaign by making them known around the world as paladins. Bel Turath fell not by the Dragonborn, but through revolution by a saintly figure that overthrew the warlock lords. Bel Turath thus still exists as a remote Shambala-like realm that contains monastic communities living in austere discipline. They send knight errants out to combat evil wherever it might be in mortal lands, seeking to atone for the original sin latent in their fiendish blood.

This solves a pet peeve of mine, that tieflings don't really seem like they would be accepted in the world if they are associated with irredeemable evil. If instead they are associated with crusading holy warriors and heroes, it fits better with the campaign world.

 

[Garthanos]

I love reskinning/reflavoring.

I like the idea of a magic-infused all-human campaign, where the diknown fferent races are actually just uniquely touched humans, almost superhero-esque. "Dwarf" or "Gnome" are not known races, but every once in a while a human is born with those traits. It cuts down on the need to gloss over the prejudice and racism issues, and ramps up the "heroes are special" aspect.

Thats for the most part exactly true for my world .. that said... just as there are humans who are warforged and shifters reskinned as humans with the innate healing gifts there are dwarves who are barely reflavored warforged but used as miners and there are household dwarves which are haflings reskinned. A hero using the gnome as a template might be a child.

Reincarnation is a big theme for my game world as in real life the most common after life belief is reincarnation. Deva work perfectly fine as humans ... who is to say where flashes of insight and brilliance come from. Humans can be reskinned reincarnating with there 4e mechanics too... reincarnation sometimes lets you learn deeper mysteries... etc. The elves of this world are members of the human species but they were genetically engineered.... attempt at a master race.. they are ageless. (be sure to not optimise your attributes you are a generalist take bard or jack of all trades etc). Humans are often able to keep up with the ageless elves because of sublime reincarnative memories which come to the foreground even more in heros.

Basically I think when you are making a hero all bets are off and npcs simply are what they are.(description is 99.6% of it.)

I am thinking of an all Fey Campaign... set in a golden age where unicorns are common and bronze is the dominant metal... etc.

 

[Garthanos]

Something else we do is reskin/reflavor by attribution of the source of an ability... if your "race" can shape shift ... maybe you build the character with enough druid levels or as a hybrid so that your character can do it.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Playing in a FR campaign, but wanted to try a warforged.

We had just completed a story arc in the campaign where we defeated a corrupted Walking Statue of Waterdeep.

I figured Blackstaff had to have a prototype or two sitting around in his underground lair, so one of those statues (animated with the soul of a bound devil) was able to escape via the tunnel blasted by the corrupted statue and VOILA! A reskinned warforged artificer joined the party.

DS

 

[Darrell]

I did a bit of 'racial reflavoring' an age or two ago, right after I'd read a book called (as I recall) King Arthur in Fact and Legend. It was one of the first sources I read that suggested the Arthurian mythos was originally from the north of England along the Scottish border (like the Clive Owen/Ioan Gryfudd King Arthur movie). I mixed it with the movies Dragonslayer and Willow, and a healthy portion of Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead.

As 'reflavorings' go, it was more like a fresh coat of paint. I kept a lot of the general D&D conceits, but tried to twist them just a bit; and to work in only the D&D races that I liked the most. (Though I'd have gotten rid of gnomes altogether, had one of my players not been oddly compelled to play them.)

Anyway, here are the races I used, and the racial flavorings thereof:

Humans were either Britons, Scots, or (rarely) Saxons. They were fairly standard, gamespeak-wise. The Britons and the Scots were at war, and the Saxons hated everybody.

Elves lived in the forests and hills to the north of Hadrian's Wall. They called themselves the 'alfar,' though their habit of painting their skin led other to call them 'Picts.' They had a tenuous pseudo-alliance with the men of the Scottish highlands.

Dwarves were originally from the Scandianavian lands, but had several colonies in the Scottish mountains. Their racial name for themselves was 'dverg,' or 'dvergar,' and their only real allies were the elves.

Halflings were derisively called 'pechs,' by many humans, but their own racial name was 'faen.' They kept to themselves in isolated villages across the English countryside.

Gnomes were primarily transplants from Ireland, where the locals knew them by the name 'leprechaun,' and were rarer then an honest preacher.

Orcs were actually remnant populations of Neanderthals, and lived on the very fringes of human societies, where they raided human settlements. They had no name for themselves, but the elves called them 'yrkh,' the dwarves knew them as 'uruks,' and the few humans who knew of them called them the 'wendol.'

Goblins (who called themselves the 'gebli') lived underground, and were known by various names: 'goblin,' 'kelbyt,' 'kobold,' and 'knuckers' or 'knockers' (the last two names were bestowed upon them by miners, from ther habit of tapping on stones underground - possibly a means of long-distance communication). They were almost constantly at war with the dwarves and elves of the Scottish highlands.

Well that's about it.

Regards,
Darrell

 

[Rechan]

However, what about re-skinning the Warforged to be a crystalline race? They already have all the proper immunities, etc., so that doesn't need to be reworked..

They are susceptible to disease and poison.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

They are susceptible to disease and poison.

You must have misread- i'm looking at their entry right now, as it happens:

Eberron campaign setting, p23
Warforged Racial Traits

1. - <snip>
2. - Unlike other constructs, a warforged is not immune to mind-affecting spells and abilites
3. - Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effets that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain
4. - A warforged cannot heal damage naturally
5. - Unlike other constructs, warforged are subject to critical hits, nonlethal damate, stunning, ability damage, ability drain and death effects or necromancy effects.
6. - <snip>

Emphasis mine.

 

[Rechan]

See, I thought we were talking about 4e.

 

[Rechan]

While it's not a reflavoring, the DM in one game I'm in gave Tieflings a new creation myth:
[sblock]
The Tieflings were once a humble people living in what is now Ravahc. Not two thousand years ago, as best as any scholars can place the time, Ravahc was a lush valley of arable soil. It was called Tiefwuld then and its human inhabitants tieflings. Tiefwuld was a relatively peaceful realm, and the wealth of its people was sung about far and wide.

Few of the people of Tiefwuld knew of or suspected the massive network of underground tunnels that was being fought over beneath them. Ancient and vast, this subterranean world was home to numerous vile creatures at war with each other.


As the yuan-ti began to consolidate power and push back their enemies, they set their eyes to new prey, the supple farmers andartisans of Tiefwuld. Suddenly one summer eve the people of Tiefwuld were overcome by the invading yuan-ti. Hundreds of tieflings were slaughtered while others were taken as slaves.


It is said in an hour of desperation, the king of Tiefwuld called out every name of every god he had ever heard, but only one responded. In that hour, the king made a vow with Telesk. The king promised his people would do anything required in order that they might live without the threat of the yuan-ti. Days passed with no change. The king was slaughtered and his people made to live as cattle among the plundering yuan-ti.


On the fourteenth day after the king's vow, Tiefwuld was set aflame. Fire fell upon the earth for miles, scorching everything above and below land. The ground collapsed into the underground tunnels. The land burned for three days, the black smoke rising to the sky in an otherworldly vortex. Every living thing was turned to ash. The story of Tiefwuld's fall was hereafter known as the Deceiver's Gift.


One morning many months later, the tieflings were resurrected from the blackened char, forever changed. Their heads were horned and their skin was red and rigid. They had long tails where their spines should have ended.


Accursed and universally hated, even at times by each other, the tieflings scattered far and wide. They were hunted for years by the dwarves as demons and servants of Telesk. Tiefwuld became in time a barren, colorless desert. It is now called Ravahc, the Sea of Ashes.


Tieflings have been redeemed somewhat in the eyes of the other civilized races by the acts of a few notable pioneers who went to great lengths to dispel common misconceptions. Though no longer actively hunted, they are still treated with great suspicion and forced to live on the outskirts of society. Their numbers are small but they can be found if sought after in the dark alleys of the cities of men.[/sblock]

 

[Intense_Interest]

The Elf race and all its offshoots is actually all single race that develops similarly during childhood. All Elf children (half elves, elves, eladrin, drow) begin as children for a good thirty to fifty years. However, during the time in which one becomes an adult they go through the Deladra Fianhal, in which each culture converts them to their race and they forget their childhood. Half-Elves are a result of either never having the Deladra Fianhal, or having it done incorrectly.

This means that the Drow do very much enjoy kidnapping children to raise as their own.

Dwarves are divided into two major philosophies- those that believe that Moradin was the first Dwarven King and all Kings afterwords are ascended to godlyness after death, and the apostates whom do give thanks to Moradin but aren't much into the regency-as-god thing.

From the thread, I really like the Devas-as-subset of Humans thing, especially because it hints at a human racial god. Gonna have to incorperate that if anyone at the table wants to roll a Deva.

Also Halfing-as-small-child makes me think that the re-roll a hit part is entirely because people are nervous about killing a kid.