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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Estlor" data-source="post: 5823203" data-attributes="member: 7261">I've always been a fan of this 7 race dynamic:Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Dragonborn, and Goliath.You're not going to get D&D without the first five.  Even if you've never played one of those and you don't know someone who has, there's just something... wrong... about those races not being in the PHB.  (And yes, gnomes belong.  They've been trying to get rid of them for two editions and it hasn't worked.)I really liked the 3e fluff for goliaths in Races of Stone.  The fact that they slide into the otherwise largely ignored "big race" design space just makes it sweeter.The half- races never did much for me, but I understand why they exist.  Personally, what I would do is design up the races as two tiers of complexity - a base level and an (optional) subrace level.  If you only play with base races, you end up with a picture that looks a lot like BECMI or AD&D.  Add in subraces and you start to get more of a 4e look to the races.  To that end, here's an example of how it would work.Human - Mankind, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Tiefling, Deva, Shadar-KaiElf - High, Wood, DarkDwarf - Hill, DuergarHalfling - Shire, KenderGnome - Earth, Forest, Tinkeretc.So, speaking in 4e terms, if you play a dwarf, regardless of subrace you'd get +2 Con, +2 to Dungeoneering, +5 bonus to poison saves, and the ability to move at your base speed in heavy armor/load.  If you're DM uses subraces and you pick Hill, you also get a +2 to Endurance, proficiency with throwing and war hammers, stand your ground, and the minor action second wind.  If your buddy picks duergar, he gets deep speech, infernal quills, +2 to some other skill - that kind of thing.  You're both dwarves, you just have different (yet balanced) optional packages on top of the core.</blockquote>

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