Speculation -- next Friday's PH3 Playtest?

[Jhaelen]

I don't think we'll see a Large player race in 4E, ever. We already got the goliath to cover that niche.

I'm not sure any of the other races introduced in the 3E 'Races of ...' series had enough traction to put them into a 4E PHB. Illumian, maybe - have they been a popular choice in 3E?

Kalashtar strike me as being too strongly tied to the Eberron setting.

Of course I'm hoping for Darksun to be the setting after Eberron, so the Thri-Kreen would make sense. They're not setting-specific, since they existed since 1E, so they're a good choice to include in a PHB.

 

[alleynbard]

I am gunning for the illumian. I really liked that race.

 

[ppaladin123]

I think the illumians would work something like the genasi. At character creation you pick a primary sigil and gain associated static benefits and maybe an encounter power.

There might be feats to change sigils (like additional manifestations) and you'd eventually (at epic) be able to manifest two or more primary sigils at once.

Alternatively (or maybe simulatenously) you could gain secondary sigils that provide different benefits depending on your primary sigil.

Illumians could multiclass easily in 3.5e (like humans they had no preset favored class) and could even multiclass freely as paladins. That suggests to me that they'd have some connection to the hybrid class system if they show up in PH3 too.

 

[hong]

I'm not sure why they'd bother to reintroduce illumians. They appeared right at the end of the 3.x era, didn't grab anyone's imagination, and have a rather obscure schtick.

Mind you, the same could be said of goliaths, so....

I'm hoping for tengu, personally.

 

[exile]

I think the preview race might be the mul/half-dwarf and be a sign of things to come (Dark Sun in 2010).

As an aside, I bet the Eberron Player's Guide will include Changelings and Kalashtar, as well as a bunch of new goodies for Warforged.

When PHB3 is finally released (and psionics re-introduced to the game), we'll see scads of new options for Kalashtar.

Chad

 

[doppelganger]

I don't think we'll see a Large player race in 4E, ever. We already got the goliath to cover that niche.

Goliaths are Medium.

 

[Runestar]

The flavour of elans seems mostly subsumed into the deva's fluff, so I don't think we will be seeming them either (unless they get a complete overhaul, but then that kinda defeats the purpose).

I am wondering if the new race will break the mold in some way. Currently, the existing races are all built similarly (with the exception of human, they get +2 to 2 stats, grant small skill bonuses to select skills, possess 1 encounter power and maybe 1 or 2 other very minor abilities).

I am hoping for a "true" monster class of some sort (something like savage progressions). For instance, perhaps a true dragon race of some sort. Its racial abilities may come in the form of powers you add to an existing class' list and feats. Not some watered down LA+0 race.

 

[Phaezen]

Looking at the 29 player races available at the moment they all follow the following traits:

Humanoid, 2 arms, 2 legs, no prehensile tail, no working wings.
Medium or Small

So the assumption has to be for a race to require playtesting it has to break atleast one these those two: something non-humanoid or something large or tiny.

There are already shapeshifters, constructs, natural weapons, minor supernatural powers (invisibility, teleports, concealment, attacks, etc), origins other than natural. So I can't see playtest being required along those lines unless it is something big.

 

[exile]

I'm not 100% sold on a playtest having to present material that is a radical departure from what we have seen before.

Chad

 

[hong]

Looking at the 29 player races available at the moment they all follow the following traits:

Humanoid, 2 arms, 2 legs, no prehensile tail, no working wings.
Medium or Small

So the assumption has to be for a race to require playtesting it has to break atleast one these those two: something non-humanoid or something large or tiny.

There are already shapeshifters, constructs, natural weapons, minor supernatural powers (invisibility, teleports, concealment, attacks, etc), origins other than natural. So I can't see playtest being required along those lines unless it is something big.

? The goliath was also playtested, IIRC.