So will Half-Drow be in PHB

[Rechan]

So half-tieflings are in the PHB?

What about the Half-Dragonborn?

Where are my Half-halflings!

 

[DandD]

For all intents and purposes, half-races are really a dumb thing, and I wouldn't cry if half-elves suddenly vanished and never existed, unless the developers devised a rule how to create half-races from any mixes of species involved, and not limited to things with humans. If there are rules for human-elf-hybrids, there should also be things for dwarf-dragonborn, human-dwarf, halfling-devil and whatever there is. If there should be such a rule, I hope to find it in the Monster Manual.
If not, then half-races should simply go the way of the Dodo, and never reappear.

 

[Sadrik]

Well if half-elf stands for half-"elf" that means that half-elf/eladrin/drow will be in. Geez, I hope they reconsider the path they are on with this.

 

[pawsplay]

For all intents and purposes, half-races are really a dumb thing, and I wouldn't cry if half-elves suddenly vanished and never existed, unless the developers devised a rule how to create half-races from any mixes of species involved, and not limited to things with humans. If there are rules for human-elf-hybrids, there should also be things for dwarf-dragonborn, human-dwarf, halfling-devil and whatever there is. If there should be such a rule, I hope to find it in the Monster Manual.
If not, then half-races should simply go the way of the Dodo, and never reappear.

Your logic eludes me. Simply because elves and humans can mix does not mean any other combination is viable, not even human-dwarf and definitely not dwarf-dragonborn. I do not perceive this dumbness of which you speak.

 

[Insight]

Your logic eludes me. Simply because elves and humans can mix does not mean any other combination is viable, not even human-dwarf and definitely not dwarf-dragonborn. I do not perceive this dumbness of which you speak.

Potentially, you'd need to state which races can breed with one another and that can get kinda yucky for most folks (people who don't like to think about their characters procreating). Not only that, but it becomes a logistical nightmare trying to ensure consistency in this matter across all the core materials and future products.

We don't have other intelligent races on Earth, so this concept of a "half-race" is an entirely fantasy idea. You could just as easily rule that humans cannot breed with elves or any other intelligent race (ie cannot create a viable offspring, or that it is always human or whatever), or the other way (humans can breed with any intelligent races and create viable offspring with traits of both parents). You don't have any biology to base this on, so it's really a thematic or setting based decision. You should be consistent though; if elves and dwarves and eladrin and halflings are mammals and humans can breed with any one of them, they should be able to breed with any of them*. Not wanting to breed is not an issue, as we all know that forced breeding can and does occur.

EDIT: I can see humans not being to breed with dragonborn, since they are reptiles and lay eggs. Tieflings - not sure since they are demons and whatnot.


* I know this seems a little broad at first, but think about it. How are elves, dwarves, halflings, etc, biologically different from humans? Earth humans cannot breed with cats and monkeys and horses because they are significantly biologically different from humans (ie they have different, incompatible DNA). If elves, dwarves, and halflings have live births and conceive the same way biologically that humans do, and they certainly seem to be very similar biologically, it seems illogical that humans could breed with elves but not the others.

 

[withak]

So half-tieflings are in the PHB?

What about the Half-Dragonborn?

Where are my Half-halflings!

I know I'm responding to a half-serious post here, but in R&C, they have explicitly stated that the result of a human-tiefling pairing is always a tiefling.

Anyway, the amount of conclusions-jumping in this thread is astounding.

 

[Darkwolf71]

Not wanting to breed is not an issue, as we all know that forced breeding can and does occur.

Considering that 'forced breeding' is one of the reasons that Half-Orcs are on hold I highly doubt they will introduce it as fluff for other races.

 

[DandD]

In D&D, every combination has (unfortunately) been viable, even half-insects, half-oozes and half-elementals, and sometimes, it doesn't even involve magic for procreation.
By eliminating half-races, the games developer would greatly streamline the game. Alternatively, I would rather see half-races being created by an unified rules-system, instead of wasting space for every half-race in whatever mix imaginable, like Ork-Goblin, Elf-Demon, or whatever inane thing, and this be limited to the Monster Manual. Half-elves deserve to get reduced as an oddity only mentioned in the Monster Manual, like their Dragon-Rabbit-kin, or the Ogre-Troll-brethren, or whatever hideous hybrid is makeable in D&D.

 

[Insight]

Considering that 'forced breeding' is one of the reasons that Half-Orcs are on hold I highly doubt they will introduce it as fluff for other races.

It's unfortunate, but I see why they'd want to do that.

The problem is that it's a slippery slope. What if a human DID want to mate with an orc? Are they prohibited from doing so? If it's not a biological impossibility (and I'm not saying that it is), there's no reason you can't ever have a half-orc, just that they'd be extremely rare in the default setting.

What I'd rather see in the fluff is that humans and orcs do not commonly live in peace and that their offspring are extremely rare - and then not give any stats for a half-orc. Force the DM to come up with their own half-orc, reinforcing the notion that they are a rare creature.

Or, failing that, simply state that humans and orcs cannot create viable offspring due to biological incompatibility. Case closed.

 

[Stone Dog]

Considering that 'forced breeding' is one of the reasons that Half-Orcs are on hold I highly doubt they will introduce it as fluff for other races.

I only read the blog post that had ONE developer uncomfortable with rape so she didn't mind too much that half-orcs were cut. not that rape half-orcs were cut because of implications of rape or even that she had a call in the decision. That same developer in the same article also states that she plays half-orcs sometimes, just doesn't have any investment in keeping them around.

Is there a link to somebody actually saying "Yeah, the rape implications were too much to handle so we dropped half-orcs?"