So what races and classes do we consider core?

[Tallifer]

"Everything is core." My favourite mantra of 4th edition.

1. Let 5th edition be modular enough to allow people to leave out the stuff they do not like. But make that subtraction the option. Make inclusion the easy default.

I want to drink from the fire hose. And no one should forbid those of us who want it. If you hate dragon boobs and talking crystals, then simply do not play them. But let me in my own game.

2. If all the high level stuff for classes is postponed into a later Players' Book (Epic Players' Handbook), then there will be AMPLE room in a nice 400 page First Players' Handbook to include almost every popular class and race.

3. Fighter
Archer
Barbarian
Rogue
Bard
Wizard
Cleric
Warlord
Paladin
Druid
Sorcerer or Warlock

4. Men
Wood Elves
High Elves
Dwarves
Hobbits
Gnomes
Half Orcs
Tieflings
Dragonborn

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Core?

Races: human, dwarf, elf (elf/eladrin OK), halfling, half-elf, half-orc

Classes: fighter, ranger, paladin, barbarian, cleric, druid, wizard, rogue, bard, plus some alt-arcane class of the sorcerer/warlock variety. Plus a multiclass option to be able to combine roles/skills/powers of the core classes.

 

[Wormwood]

I'm liking the Orc option more end more. They fulfill both the 'strong guy' and 'savage' archetypes pretty well, something the other core races lack.

(of course, I may be biased by my awesome Orsimer character in Skyrim. Hey, he's good enough to be dovahkiin, but not play Keep on the Borderlands? Bah.)

 

[Aldarc]

I'm liking the Orc option more end more. They fulfill both the 'strong guy' and 'savage' archetypes pretty well, something the other core races lack.

(of course, I may be biased by my awesome Orsimer character in Skyrim. Hey, he's good enough to be dovahkiin, but not play Keep on the Borderlands? Bah.)

I am surprised, though pleased, at how full-blooded orc characters have seemingly become a more acceptable option and picked up momentum in this thread. But the reasons you list here are why I included orcs as the 5th race "other" option for core. You can include the classic four most placed races (i.e., human, dwarf, elf, halfling), but there will always be the player who wants to play the racial "other."

 

[OpsKT]

What I consider Core

Remember, I started 23 years ago with the original Red Box --

Races
Human
Dwarf
Elf
Halfling

Classes
Fighter
Cleric
Rogue
Wizard

Anything else is really extra.

 

[Wormwood]

You can include the classic four most placed races (i.e., human, dwarf, elf, halfling), but there will always be the player who wants to play the racial "other."

That's the point---we ALL have one or more of those players at our table.

They want to play D&D, and they want to play a non-standard race. I'd rather run a game that accommodates this player than one that excludes them.