Some alternate ideas for Goblins, Orcs and Elves..

[LoneWolf23]

Been building a homebrew campaign world for this online game of mine, and I've been doing some thinking about the races I plan to add to my gameworld. One PC's a ranger with Goblins as his Favored Enemy, and one's a half-orc cleric who's already mentionned Drow and Driders In-Character, so I know I have to have Goblins, Orcs and Drow, and thus I also have to add other Elves, too.

...But I still want to do something different. So here's what I'll do. I'll create variants on each race that will fit as seemlessly as possible into the campaign world, and into the Players' expectations, even as it surprises them with variety.

The Goblins, for starters, are just as organised and intelligent as Humanity (the dominant race) and have the advantage of genetic variety. For not all Goblins are Small Humanoids. Just as many are the same size as Elves or Humans, and some are taller and stronger. And they all share similar traits: features that somehow mirror the faces of elves and men, only sharper and more vicious, and an intelligence to match. They are also unified by the belief that They, not Humanity, are the rightful rulers of the world, and that their birthright was taken from them.

In game terms, I've taken the stats for Goblins, Hobgoblins and Bugbears, and put them all under the label of Goblins, explaining that they come in all shapes and sizes. Goblin groups can consist of any combination thereof, with leadership being held by the most powerful in the group, whether it's a powerful Big Goblin who rules through strength, a Short Goblin magic-user who rules through magical power of a high-level Common Goblin who leads because his plans work.

There are also beings known as Hobgoblins; They are Goblins (of all kinds) who have the Half-Fiend template, and often some levels of Sorceror to go with it.

The Orcs are pretty much your standard PHB fare, but there are many amongst the Orcs who are not as dull-witted or as chaotic as the average Orc. They are just as strong, tough and vicious as most orcs (though slightly clumsier), but their added wits allow them to become more cunning warriors, and thus become chieftains and warlords. They are commonly referred to as Orclords, and use the stats for Conqueror Orcs in Green Ronin's "Wrath and Rage" book: replacing the usual Orcish -2 penalty to intelligence and charisma (or perhaps wisdom) with a -2 penalty to Dexterity, and with the favored class switching from Barbarian to Fighter. Orclord wizards and sorcerors are not uncommon, especially in large armies.

Finally, while there are Drow who follow the classic "Dark Underdwellers who live in vicious, slave-abusing theocratic matriarchies with a spider fetish" mold, not all dark elves do. That's just one of the more powerful and well-known clans of Dark Elves, the Arachnis Clan. Another clan, the Nagaja clan, follow a snake-like pattern, and actually have more in common with Yuan-Ti (in fact, I may just used the Yuan-Ti Pureblood stats for them). The Good Elves are also spread into clans following an animal (or plant) theme, depending on their environment.

So, any opinions?

 

[LGodamus]

thats pretty cool...

For Dragons I always like them all to be unique...no bunch of red dragons so everyone knows to protect themselves from flames. I have each dragon look different and have different breath weapons but all be from the same species...they are a race so highly magical that they are prone to mutation when the weave fluctuates around their eggs....

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Ar, me matey! They be keen idears of ye![/pirate] Have a couple of questions, though:

* What races are already established in your game (& thus not really that viable for stat modification)? For example, the races that the PCs belong to really wouldn't be open for modification (unless you discussed it with them beforehand). However, any race or monster that hasn't been brought into the "canon" of your game are open to change.

* How much change are you going for overall? A lot, which may impact mechanics, or a little, which may just be flavor-text & thus have no impact on mechanics?

As for the ideas you currently have, they're quite cool. Here's a few suggestions which may or may not meet your vision:

* The different "good" elven clans could correspond to the different D&D subraces, if you wanted. For example, high elves could be the Cat clan, wood elves could be the Eagle clan, grey elves could be the Owl clan, etc. Then again, you could have several different animal & plant-based "good" clans, yet all of the elves from these clans are basically the standard elves from the PH.

* Maybe tweak racial abilities. Perhaps the good elves are automatically proficient with the scimitar and falchion instead of the longsword & rapier (thus they'd go around with the curved swords that the elves use in the LotR movies). Maybe their Favored Class is Sorcerer instead (for "standard" elves), reflecting more of the inherent magical abilities of elves rather than magic via study.

* Even simple physical appearance changes may work. Your gnomes could have orange skin & green hair (possibly heralding countless Oompa-Loompa jokes), but they'd effectively be the same, stat-wise. Nevertheless, it'd be different from the norm. Or, perhaps the good elves look like typical Drow (black skin & white hair), while the "Drow" look like typical surface elves (dark hair & pale skin).

* Just increasing the rarity of a creature (esp. a relatively well-known one to gamers) may do the trick. Perhaps gnomes are deemed a myth because they are so rarely encountered or seen by the populace ("Gnomes? They don't exist. Pull the other one!"). Or maybe troglodytes are near extinction (the pocket of trogs the PCs meet & slay wipes out the race entirely).
Just a twist on player expectations, making the common rare and the rare common.

Hope that helps some. [pirate]Good luck to ye, matey! May the wind catch yer sails!

 

[Kobold Avenger]

In my campaign world elves are pretty well the same they've been before, except for perhaps the drow who are closer to the dark elves of norse mythology. However goblins, hobgoblins and orcs are quite different, and aren't a overly villainous race of people as they live with other races such as humans quite well.

Most Goblins are technologically adept, the only other race that rivals them are gnomes. Goblins are scavengers and good at putting things together from trash. Their culture also works like that in the way that goblin philosophies, ideas, cultural trends and religions have a way of been dumped into the trash after a few generations, and then later dug up and recombined into something. As a result there's so many goblin cultures and subcultures that most other races view them as being fickle and unsophisticated. There's a handful of goblin subraces with the most common being Tunnel Goblins (+2 dex, -2 str, and some slight differences from the MM goblins).

Hobgoblins are a nomadic race who are more about adaptablity and survival. They purposely live in harsh climates because they feel it shapes them to be better people. Hobgoblins are hard-working and can't be as bothered with the concepts of social class as other races are. There are three core subraces of Hobgoblins corresponding to warriors (using MM stats), workers (no stat mods) and mystics (+2 wis, +2 con, -2 str), along with a bunch of mutations created by environments they resided in.

Orcs are a people with two main divisions, savage orcs and civilized orcs. Savage orcs are a spiritual people who live close to nature and view civilization as being corrupting and damaging to nature. Civilized orcs are another hard-working race of people who are about community and practicality. The main orcs subraces are green orcs (+2 str, +2 wis, -2 dex, -2 cha), mountain orcs (MM orcs), gray orcs (from Races of Faerun), blue orcs (+2 con, -2 wis) and red orcs (+2 cha, +2 con, +2 int, -2 str, -2 wis).

 

[Norfleet]

I've run a campaign with Orcs as an honorable warrior culture much like the Japanese, with the Hobgoblins being the equivalent of the Mongol Horde.

 

[Tonguez]

In GURPS Goblins, Goblins are a race which adapt to the mistreatments and depravity of life and come in every imaginable form

At birth they (Goblins) have an unformed, foetal appearance, exactly 12 inches long and weighing exactly 3 lbs., with a coffee-and-cream complexion and no distinguishing features. Because they are all the same they are not given names, but instead are all known as Prole.
"From the moment of birth however, individual Proles start adapting to their environment, growing tall if food is found in high places; becoming tiny if safety is found in small nooks and crannies. Those brought up in dark places develop keen night vision, while those raised near the sea become sleek-bodied and proficient swimmers. By the age of six, the Proles have been stretched and warped into every conceivable shape and size by their unique histories and environments . . ."

This I think gives a perfect escuse to lump as many humanoids as you want under the Goblin title and add strange new abilities to individual gobos as you desire - so yep Sahuagin are now aquatic goblins!

IMC Bugbears are forest dwelling apemen with Brachiate (swing in the trees) speed and Climb +5

As for Elfs I'd make ALL Elfs (including PC elfs) into malicious, capricious and down right nasty Dark Elves and have both surface dwelling (Night Wolf) and underground (Aracnis, Nagaja) types.

Orcs could be LE and replace Hobgoblins as the disciplined and vicious force whose Discipline drives them to incredible feats (Rage)