D&D General what is the worst race in dnd?
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Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Interesting that Dragonlance itself is so popular, yet two of its best-known races are so unpopular. I can only assume the story must have been really good, cause people clearly don’t like it for the races.
Well in 5e, I'd say Lizardfolk. 4e, it's hard to say, since most races were ok. Maybe Dragonborn before they fixed the scaling on their breath weapon?
3e? Kobolds before they got all their enhancements. -4 Str, +2 Dex? Yuck. Insert anything with a crippling Level Adjustment here as well.
2e? Fremlins. I was going to say Furchin (Polar Halflings), but their stats aren't actually bad, if I'm being objective. Wait, I know, it was these stupidly broken and OP jerks:
3e? Kobolds before they got all their enhancements. -4 Str, +2 Dex? Yuck. Insert anything with a crippling Level Adjustment here as well.
2e? Fremlins. I was going to say Furchin (Polar Halflings), but their stats aren't actually bad, if I'm being objective. Wait, I know, it was these stupidly broken and OP jerks:
Corinnguard
Adventurer
The Ardlings wouldn't be so bad if 1) WoTC found a better name for them, 2) they are the descendants of the Guardinals, and 3) they are an Aasimar variant. Btw, why are the Aasimar in 5e officially tied to just the angels? There are other kinds of Celestials in 5e too.
Mind of tempest
(he/him)
just the classic demi-humans the elves dwarves and halflings, maybe the gnomes but I just hate them for how dull and over present they are, I hate the animal people if only for how lazy they are at least hurl three into a blender and make something worth doing.
humble minion
Legend
The desperate scrabbling for content in late 3e threw up some dreadful shovelware races, I have to agree. Most of which have mercifully vanished from my memory. Some definite wtf memories being inspired by posts about Raptorans etc. Oh, and the late 2e love affair with Every Elf Variant Imaginable Because Elves Are Special And Wonderful is something I suspect people are a bit embarrassed about now. The elves with not just wings, but FIERY wings were a particular romance-novel-cover low point.
From a 5e mechanical point of view, it’s hard to go past goblins though. The iconic goblin pc would be a rogue, but goblin racial abilities duplicate rogue abilities so you gain little, and their only other ability of note is a teeny tiny damage boost a couple of times a day. For a race that should be one of the most obvious ‘monster pc’ options, it’s a dud.
From a 5e mechanical point of view, it’s hard to go past goblins though. The iconic goblin pc would be a rogue, but goblin racial abilities duplicate rogue abilities so you gain little, and their only other ability of note is a teeny tiny damage boost a couple of times a day. For a race that should be one of the most obvious ‘monster pc’ options, it’s a dud.
Kender are fine... players ruined them, as noted below.
Gully Dwarves were a poorly thought out idea of making a mongoloid version of dwarf. They were stupid and cowardly, being only useful as slaves. They had overall minimal impact on the story, appearing only in the first novel, but one of them has an important impact on one of the primary characters.
Kender were perfectly fine in the original two trilogies, and also in the other stories I read. The problem with Kender is the way players would play them: as obsessive and annoying keleptomanics. Kender "acquire" various items, most of which are not valuable or useful, and are seldom even aware that they are stealing. Mechanically this was represented as a chance to pull something random in an emergency. Instead, jerkwad players would use them as an excuse to try and steal everything not nailed down. Not only did this steal the spotlight endlessly, when the character was caught and the party in trouble, they'd fall back to the "I can't help it, it's what my character would do!"
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Umm…?!
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
so benefit of doubt and all but just noting that mongoloid is an obsolete term and offensive in many ways, so use of it is best avoided.
but Yes Gully dwarfs were pathetic and unecessary
cbwjm
Legend
Aardlings from the origins playtest are pretty uninspiring mechanically, so they get my vote for the worst in the current edition.
I feel like 3e had a whole heap of races that were there to fill a themed book that likely didn't get much playtime but I can't think of any because they languished in that edition, never to be brought forward.
I feel like 3e had a whole heap of races that were there to fill a themed book that likely didn't get much playtime but I can't think of any because they languished in that edition, never to be brought forward.
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Yes, I believe it was in 2019 (I could be wrong...) that this was "officially" refuted in the genetic distinctions between the "main 3 races".
Many people are still not aware of this IME.
MockingBird
Hero
Don't the gully darwves have a whole novel about them?
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
It’s been scientific consensus for a lot longer that there’s no meaningful genetic distinction between racial groups. There is in fact more genetic diversity within racial groups than there is between them. The whole “three/four main races” idea is nothing but scientific racism.
I grew up on the 70s/80s, so weird and unusual races were pretty common 
. Between DnD and TMNT…
I even played a fully dwarf once. The whole thing was to keep people thinking he was an incompetent idiot while sneaking into places and backstabbing.
I’d hav to say the weirdest official race would probably have to be those blobs in spelljammer.
. Between DnD and TMNT…I even played a fully dwarf once. The whole thing was to keep people thinking he was an incompetent idiot while sneaking into places and backstabbing.
I’d hav to say the weirdest official race would probably have to be those blobs in spelljammer.
Raptorians are bad, but I'd also like to do a callout for Jerren. One of the two races from the Book of Vile Darkness, they're just evil halflings. Which apparently makes them their own stand-alone thing
The Vashar at least had a neat idea of a story behind them, even if everything past their origin was dumb (especially due to their stats being "Humans except you can only pick EVIL feats")
The Vashar at least had a neat idea of a story behind them, even if everything past their origin was dumb (especially due to their stats being "Humans except you can only pick EVIL feats")
Baron Opal II
Hero
Oh, I thought he was using a term for MRDD that was retired in the 1950s. The gully dwarves are supposed to be mentally deficient?
Zardnaar
Legend
Always thought those races were Drow equivalents since Dwarves had Duergar already.
Vaalingrade
Legend
Calling something that came from the BoVD or BoED the worst is like shooting fish in a barrel though. They're the worst two books in the official publication history. And I'm including the book with a class that literally got worse at using its abilities as it levels until it couldn't. Because at least Incarnum was a good idea.
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
The race that has been the absolute biggest pain in my ass as a DM has been Kender, BUT that has not been a result of how Kender are written or portrayed in official D&D products. It has solely been a product of jerk players whose idea of fun is to make the game suck for everybody else.
I will defend BoED for exactly one thing: It knew what it had to do race wise, hence why it gave the Baurier as an 'actually intended to be playable', along with giving a whole heap of Archons, Eladrin and Guardinals stuff.
I mean, they weren't great, but it at least went "Okay, here are Neat Ideas you might want to play". Meanwhile the best BoVD can do is 'i dunno what if halflings were murder-hobos as an entirely new race'
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