Speculation -- next Friday's PH3 Playtest?

[Piratecat]

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.

What were tengu? I think I can order that at a sushi restaurant...

I wish I liked goliaths more. I mean, I want to like them. I just don't have a handle on them that excites me. Same with illumians; they don't seem to add much for me. I think I need to make goliaths the degenerate, savage far-realm worshiping mountain race. That's flavor I can work with.

I loved kenku, but that love is irrationally based on their 1e Fiend Folio illustration. I'd totally love thri kreen as a race. And who wouldn't want to play a bullywug! Hop attack FTW.

 

[hong]

What were tengu? I think I can order that at a sushi restaurant...

They're the birdmen from Japanese folklore that kenku are based on. However, the specific tengu I'm thinking of are from Guild Wars, and are a little less whimsical and more menacing.

 

[avin]

I'd rather have something new and original to D&D.

If Wow is inspiration I'd make something like the ethereals:

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I want the Elan to show up in PHB3 too, and I think they'll be putting more of an emphasis on their Aberrant nature, since there isn't an Aberrant PC race yet.

The playtest might be because of the complications connected to having a psionic metabolism.

 

[Atreides]

The Illumians with some flavor rewriting were a major part of my homebrew campaign, so seeing even a playtest version of them would be very helpful to me as I start puting together my 4E campaign.

That being said - my guess is more Thri-Kreen as the more likely candidate that could use wide spread play testing prior to its release.

The Mul could then be the 'featured' race released in the DS setting.

That said,

<-- Optimistically hoping for some 4E Illumians.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I wish I liked goliaths more. I mean, I want to like them. I just don't have a handle on them that excites me. Same with illumians; they don't seem to add much for me. I think I need to make goliaths the degenerate, savage far-realm worshiping mountain race. That's flavor I can work with.

The key to the goliaths is that they had a Str bonus, but weren't dumb. This is important, because everything else up to that point had been strong and dumb.

While the 3.5 half-giants came out four months earlier, they had a half-page blurb in XPH and that was it. Goliaths had far more space devoted to them, and honestly, were just cooler IMHO. As far as I can tell, they were the most successful of the Races of... races introduced.

I never really grokked the Illumians, though.

Brad

 

[Remathilis]

What were tengu? I think I can order that at a sushi restaurant...

I wish I liked goliaths more. I mean, I want to like them. I just don't have a handle on them that excites me. Same with illumians; they don't seem to add much for me. I think I need to make goliaths the degenerate, savage far-realm worshiping mountain race. That's flavor I can work with.

I loved kenku, but that love is irrationally based on their 1e Fiend Folio illustration. I'd totally love thri kreen as a race. And who wouldn't want to play a bullywug! Hop attack FTW.

IIRC, Kenku = D&D's Tengu, just not the same fluff.

Goliaths struck a cord in me because I always felt D&D needed a "larger" race. D&D had an abundance of short races (halfling, gnome, dwarf) and some various mediums (elf, half-elf, human, half-orc) but I always thought D&D deserved a large, strong race that wasn't a half-breed (half-ogre, half-giant). Goliaths filled that niche for me; not a half-breed race, unique ecological niche, mythical sounding name (that evokes its primary image; big man), and mechanics that (for the most part) allowed a PC the feeling of being a large PCs without all the DM headache's of being large. (Of course, powerful build had its own headaches, esp. since it allowed goliaths to qualify for hulking hurler). Out of all the "races of" races, they were easily my favorite.

 

[Inyssius]

? The goliath was also playtested, IIRC.

Not in 4e, unless I'm crazy. If you're talking about an earlier edition, I'm afraid I'm missing your point entirely.

 

[Shroomy]

Here's an idea that I had that I thought I'd throw out there, how about a playtest for a "paragon" or "epic" race, basically something equivalent to the high LA races in 3rd edition.

 

[RefinedBean]

I'd like to see one of the Incarnum races brought back and made, well, better. The originals lacked flavor/fun, for me.

4E Dusklings, booyah.