D&D 5E What are your (up to 3) favorite character races? - Wizards Survey Duplication

[Scribe]

Each and every word in that sentence could have multiple meanings! As a group, we should dissect each one!

I must be missing out on quite a winner.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

"High fantasy" pretty clearly means different things to different people, because some classify LotR as high fantasy, and others classify it as low fantasy. That is, with the incredibly ultra-broad definition above ("fantasy typically with magic") then essentially any fantasy ever that's set in a differetn world is high fantasy, even if there's no magic in it at all. But for a lot of people LotR is low fantasy because:
A) there's only a small handful of people who practice outright magic and only one of them is anything like a main character (Gandalf),
B) actual magical objects are quite rare, e.g. there's only seven Palantiri, we only see like four magical weapons in total, and there's a precise and exact accounting of the magic rings that exist, namely 20: 9 for humans, 7 for dwarves, 3 for elves, 1 made by Sauron,
C) Beings that exhibit other overt supernatural characteristics are very rare. The trolls in the Hobbit, the Ringwraiths, maybe kinda-sorta Shadowfax, Smaug, the souls of the dead people in the mountain, the ents, Sauron. Pretty much everything else is "human, but cooler or a different size," "non-human, but an animal (possibly enlarged) of humanlike intelligence" (e.g. the eagles), or "not actually all that fantastical."

For these folks (which I am generally more sympathetic to than the above alleged definition), a "high fantasy" setting is one where magic is woven into the fabric of things. D&D has powerful spellcasters, but society doesn't really change because of this. Eberron, despite actually being comparatively "low" magic (because magewrights can't replicate high-level spells), is emphatically "high" magic because magic is EVERYWHERE and people use it extremely casually. Harry Potter would be a "high fantasy" setting to them, even though in principle it's literally set on our actual Earth, because literal actual magic is everywhere and literal actual magic-users are by far the most common beings interacted with, whether or not they're human.

 

[Aldarc]

@AcererakTriple6 about warforged in other worlds. I agree they don’t really fit as a race, but as a one off, or a reskin of other artificial beings they would have a place in most settings

Yep. That was basically my point. Warforged as a race/culture are specific to Eberron. An individual, unique Warforged in any other world could work. In Theros, they could have been created by Purphoros. In Ravnica, the Izzet Guild. In the Forgotten Realms, they could be an advanced form of a Nimblewright or Netherese construct. In Exandria, they'd probably be an Aeormaton.

There are a few settings that I don't think they'd fit in at all (Dark Sun, for example), but in most D&D worlds, as a one-of-a-kind character, they certainly could fit.

IMHO, Warforged do not necessarily fit as a race in other campaign worlds as-written with Eberron's take on them. But they would not be hard, again IMO, to drop them into some other setting like Greyhawk and declare that "Warforged were creations of the Suel Imperium for use in the Baklunish-Suloise Wars. Thought to be extinct in the Rain of Colorless Fire, the Warforged have woken from their slumber after numerous generations. Their total numbers and current purpose remain unknown."

 

[Hussar]

Heck in Greyhawk there are a million possible things. Given the pretty constant state of warfare depending on period, there’s lots of possible sources - Scarlet Brotherhood, Iuz, etc. Heck other planet isn’t all that out of line. They fell from the sky isn’t terribly strange for Greyhawk.

 

[Aldarc]

Heck in Greyhawk there are a million possible things. Given the pretty constant state of warfare depending on period, there’s lots of possible sources - Scarlet Brotherhood, Iuz, etc. Heck other planet isn’t all that out of line. They fell from the sky isn’t terribly strange for Greyhawk.

"Zagyg did it..."

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I find that the vast majority (though not quite all) arguments of the form "X only fits in setting Y, and not anywhere else" or even "X just isn't appropriate for D&D" demonstrate an argument from incredulity rather than any actual problem with the combination. In the case of warforged, you just generalize the concept to the broader class of "artificial lifeform" and suddenly it fits in quite well. Consider the Greek myths of Talos. Pandora, and Galatea for classical examples of inanimate objects brought to life, or myths about Daedalus being such a gifted craftsman that his statues were not merely lifelike, but actually had to be tied down so they wouldn't walk away.

Warforged--presumably by some other name--are quite compatible with most settings, but as others have noted above, they may be more like one-off or rarely-made entities rather than mass-produced soldiers as they are in Eberron. As with most things, you need to adapt the creation and details in order to make things work in a given setting. We don't have Elves that spent immortal centuries under only starlight created directly by the one true deity of all reality, nor Dwarves that were originally created by the impatient god-like master of the forge who wanted students to teach and helpers to work alongside; each setting has different founding myths (or lack thereof!) for all of its races, as it should.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I find that the vast majority (though not quite all) arguments of the form "X only fits in setting Y, and not anywhere else" or even "X just isn't appropriate for D&D" demonstrate an argument from incredulity rather than any actual problem with the combination. In the case of warforged, you just generalize the concept to the broader class of "artificial lifeform" and suddenly it fits in quite well. Consider the Greek myths of Talos. Pandora, and Galatea for classical examples of inanimate objects brought to life, or myths about Daedalus being such a gifted craftsman that his statues were not merely lifelike, but actually had to be tied down so they wouldn't walk away.

Warforged--presumably by some other name--are quite compatible with most settings, but as others have noted above, they may be more like one-off or rarely-made entities rather than mass-produced soldiers as they are in Eberron. As with most things, you need to adapt the creation and details in order to make things work in a given setting. We don't have Elves that spent immortal centuries under only starlight created directly by the one true deity of all reality, nor Dwarves that were originally created by the impatient god-like master of the forge who wanted students to teach and helpers to work alongside; each setting has different founding myths (or lack thereof!) for all of its races, as it should.

You can do that, but it leads to blandification. First the races must lose a lot of definition to become generic and then worlds become more similar to each other by all including those same generic races. I'd rather have worlds that have their own unique character and that included unique races. And yes, this also means that there doesn't need to be elves and dwarves in every setting.

 

[Hussar]

You can do that, but it leads to blandification. First the races must lose a lot of definition to become generic and then worlds become more similar to each other by all including those same generic races. I'd rather have worlds that have their own unique character and that included unique races. And yes, this also means that there doesn't need to be elves and dwarves in every setting.

I get the reasoning.

I just think that that ship sailed a LOOONG time ago.

There is just no way that WotC is going to present a major setting (as opposed to a sort of one book once off like Theros) with any support that doesn't include all the main races and classes. Gone are the days where picking up a given setting meant that you had to put 3/4 of your gaming collection on the shelf because you couldn't use it in that setting.

Like it or not, moving forward, settings are going to include all the major races, certainly all the PHB races, in some form or other - like replacing Dray with Dragonborn a la 4e Dark Sun.

The goal, I suppose, is to differentiate the different races culturally, rather than simply presenting monolithic race/cultures.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Each and every word in that sentence could have multiple meanings! As a group, we should dissect each one!

Let me smugly tell you what 'sentence' means just to increase the aggression in the thread.

 

[Yaarel]

I get the reasoning.

I just think that that ship sailed a LOOONG time ago.

There is just no way that WotC is going to present a major setting (as opposed to a sort of one book once off like Theros) with any support that doesn't include all the main races and classes. Gone are the days where picking up a given setting meant that you had to put 3/4 of your gaming collection on the shelf because you couldn't use it in that setting.

Like it or not, moving forward, settings are going to include all the major races, certainly all the PHB races, in some form or other - like replacing Dray with Dragonborn a la 4e Dark Sun.

The goal, I suppose, is to differentiate the different races culturally, rather than simply presenting monolithic race/cultures.

Your view is valid. WotC seems to want each setting to support the main species and classes (and visaversa).

Also, your supposition that the goal of a setting is to define the cultures of a particular species, is solid. Arguably, the recent UA astral elf is an example of an elf culture in a different setting (here a different plane).



At the same time, there is a conflicting trend that wants a setting to specialize on only the species and classes that are pertinent to a setting. For example, part of the challenge of Dark Sun is how to translate the specific species and class archetypes into 5e.



Perhaps both can be true at the same time, with a setting only featuring specific species and classes, but with comprehensive advice for how a DM might incorporate other 5e traditions as well.