D&D 5E The Race Docket: What Races do you want to see first for 5e?

[Ruin Explorer]

The only non-historically included race that I am hoping lands in the PHB is dragonborn. In general I think D&D4 went both race- and class-crazy; delegating the shifter and tiefling to later releases would not offend.

I think the issue is that Tiefling is one of D&D's most popular races in terms of how many people like to play it, so it probably needs to make the PHB (given the four-month delay on the DMG), though it could just appear in Dragon or the online tools (presuming these exist) until the DMG. Shifter yeah, that's not a popular one (I've played them, I've seen them played, but I don't think anyone was very attached to the race as opposed to it's abilities).

D&D4 didn't really "go crazy" though, it had considerably fewer races and classes than 3.XE, and even all the Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies together don't even vaguely approach the number of PrCs in 3.XE - the difference is that 4E frontloaded them (most of the 4E races are 3.XE or before races) because people demanded them back, and made them highly accessible via the DDI, whereas in 3.XE, unless you owned Book X, you probably didn't even know about Obscure Race #11232-C78 (I still remember the "What the **** are Illumians?!" from one of the players in 3.5E), whereas in 4E, when you booted the CB, all the races were presented as options (unless in Essentials mode, which admittedly became the default).

I think Eladrin could step into the shoes of upper-planar Tiefling counterparts. Just take them back to their 2e Planescape roots and create a race with bizarre, disturbing features, some of which could be reminiscent of angels. For starters, their name would be infinitely more appealing.

That's a great idea. 4E was never quite sure what to do with them, I felt, and Devas never took off (cool as they kinda were).

Beyond that?

* Goliaths. D&D lacks a legit "big" race and there is a nice area from a giant/brute race not automatically tainted with evil assumptions.
* Changelings. A shapeshifter race? Yes please.
* Genasi: There is a lot of milage that can be drawn from an elemental race. I actually like 4e's "storm" style ones as well.
* Aasimar: People will complain without a tiefling counterpart. Though I could see something akin to Deva's coming back too.

I wouldn't mind seeing more specific races for worlds (such as shifters and kalashtar for Eberron) fairly early soon, just to help with conversion. Additionally, I'd like to see a good aquatic race (something like sea elves or aventi) and avian race (like raptorans or avariels) be a playable option.

That's a smart list, but I personally strongly question whether the people who complain about the lack of a Tiefling counterpart actually play games with Tieflings in, and further, would actually play/use the Tiefling counterpart. Still, an actually interesting counterpart would be cool.

 

[Patrick McGill]

I'll admit that while not being a huge 4e fan (though certainly not a hater, and I still play it when my group calls for it), I do hope to see the Dragonborn supported. In our shared world the dragonborn has a good history and fits right in. I suppose it's because I love draconians so much due to my early infatuation with Dragonlance, but I never thought it was a silly race or unfitting.

So go ahead and toss my hat into the ring of hoping the Dragonborn is in the PHB.

 

[gyor]

Given that the DMG will have warforged, I suspect the Eberron section will also have that race with two souls and Doppelgangers/changelings, and Shifters.

I expect the FR section will have Planetouched (as discussed in the Tiefling race in the playtest it would seperate from 4eish Tieflings), Drow, Shadar-Kai.

Athas section would have Muls and Thrikreens. Maybe halfgiants.

Dragon Lance Kender.

Not sure about the rest.

MM will problemly have side bars for none setting specific races like Orcs, Gnolls, Minataurs, Goblins, Knobolds, ect...

 

[Snapdragyn]

In addition to the usual suspects, I'd like to see changelings (loved playing one), and darfellans (the 'orca-oid' race from 3.5 Stormwrack).

Also, if they could do something like the Sylvari from the MMO Guild Wars II, that'd be awesome; they're one of the most interesting races I've played in any fantasy game (MMO or RPG). I seem to recall a plant race in one of the 3.5 MMs, but haven't looked back through to compare.