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

[ReshiIRE]

Have you seen Keith Baker's take on Lizardfolk in Eberron?

I would like to get into Eberron and explore it more eventually; I have a lot to read soon though.

 

[TwoSix]

We went the other way a long time ago and leaned into the idea that if Humans and Elves* (and Humans and Orcs*) are genetically compatible enough to interbreed, then their offspring would - or should - also be able to interbreed with each other and-or with either parent species, eventualy leading to 3/8 Elves or 9/16 Orcs etc.

That's how I do it in my homebrew world, although it's Elves and Dwarves instead of Elves and Orcs. A "Half-Elf" or a "Half-Dwarf" would normally have anywhere between 1/4 and 3/4 of each bloodline; less than that and they generally appear to be like a normal Human, Elf, or Dwarf with some inherited features (cosmetic, not game mechanic) from their other heritage.

Elf and Dwarf heritage essentially "cancel" each other out, so the child of a Half-Elf and Half-Dwarf will appear to be cosmetically human, although they can pass elf or dwarf traits to their children. Most humans in the setting are, ancestry-wise, between 10-20% elven and 10-20% dwarven.

 

[Lanefan]

Exactly what I think I want to avoid, by just cutting it off at the root.

That's probably the wise approach, but as wisdom has always been my dump stat I went the other way and many years ago - using the MM, FF and MMII from 1e plus a few homebrew creatures - put together a great big chart showing what can (potentially) interbreed with what, the way I saw the various genetics working and also accounting for shapeshifters, deities and immortals, and so forth.

It's a glorious mess!

 

[Lanefan]

That's how I do it in my homebrew world, although it's Elves and Dwarves instead of Elves and Orcs. A "Half-Elf" or a "Half-Dwarf" would normally have anywhere between 1/4 and 3/4 of each bloodline; less than that and they generally appear to be like a normal Human, Elf, or Dwarf with some inherited features (cosmetic, not game mechanic) from their other heritage.

Elf and Dwarf heritage essentially "cancel" each other out, so the child of a Half-Elf and Half-Dwarf will appear to be cosmetically human, although they can pass elf or dwarf traits to their children. Most humans in the setting are, ancestry-wise, between 10-20% elven and 10-20% dwarven.

In my setup Elves and Dwarves are about as different as you can get. There's two main "lines", one running from Gnome through Dwarf, Orc, Ogre, and eventually getting to Giant; the other running from woodland creatures through Hobbit or Elf to Human to Orc/Ogre (these are the "meeting points") and then up into other creature types.

I've always figured this is why Dwarves and Giants hate each other so much: neither culture can bring itself to admit to being genetically related to the other!

 

[Bolares]

I would like to get into Eberron and explore it more eventually; I have a lot to read soon though.

This article has some cool concepts about them, about halfway through Keith details Lizardfolk...

Dragonmarks: Lizard Dreams

My previous post dealt with creating an Eberron campaign based in Q’barra, and it spawned the following question. How do you see a human (or dwarf or whatever) barbarian raised by Cold Sun li…

keith-baker.com

 

[Undrave]

You can also have it that more exotic creatures are technically available as PCs but keep them hard-gated behind a very difficult die roll (in my game it's 00 on d%) in order that they remain rare and unusual in play.

Exotic creatures are only exotic if you decide to make them so.

In the all-dwarf game I played in, Elves were basically legends and had disappeared from the world in the distant past.

If you want a world with no Dwarves, but with mountains filled with Goliath and Kobolds as the mining people? you can do that.

What to make Genasis the dominate 'boring' specie? Go ahead!

And just because a race is available to a PC doesn't mean it HAS to appear in the world if nobody picks it. Nobody picked Dragonborn? They don't exist in that world! Nobody picked Gnome but you had plans for a gnome village? Just replace them with Firbolg or Satyr since Joe insisted on playing one.

It's your world, you decide.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The Eberron Model! Proof that Eberron is the best D&D setting!

You're right. it's the best living D&D setting

-tries to ignore the gurgling screams from Spelljammer as Planescape feasts on its entrails-

 

[Minigiant]

I have been continually shocked that there hasn't been an official dog-person race in a D&D book. People love dogs!

I'm still puzzled by this.

Also hyenas aren't dogs people.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I'm still puzzled by this.

Also hyenas aren't dogs people.

Super weird tangent: In the Log Horizon anime, gnolls are portrayed as what I can only describe was 'punk rock saint bernards'.

 

[Minigiant]

Super weird tangent: In the Log Horizon anime, gnolls are portrayed as what I can only describe was 'punk rock saint bernards'.

I remember the mohawks.