Redwizard007
Adventurer
Oh, I don't know. Every Gnome that I've never played has been cunning enough to avoid a brutal death.
D&D General what is the worst race in dnd?
jasper
Rotten DM
Death snail racing the two hundred laps in Waterdeep. Still going on. Ricky Beholder is in the lead,
humble minion
Legend
I honestly can't remember what they were like in Volo's, but i do remember being unimpressed. Orcs are pretty good in MMoM though.
Mad_Jack
Legend
I liked both the wilden and shardminds in 4E, but they really didn't seem to be all that popular - probably because, although they were definitely cool from a flavor perspective, they weren't exactly impressive mechanically.
jmartkdr2
Hero
Given the number of homebrewed plant-people I had to sift through to find a good one, it's definitely not the concept that's the problem.
Corinnguard
Hero
I will have to go with the 3.5 Dragonborn and the Raptoran as the worst two races in D&D. Does anyone here remember when WoTC introduced everyone to Level Adjustments (LAs) and Effective Character Levels (ECLs) in their Savage Species book? This book had rules on how to play powerful beings such as Minotaurs and Giants as player characters. It did this by looking at every trait in a monster's stat box and assigning each of them a LA, which could then be totaled up to determine that being's ECL. As a result, beings such as Minotaurs had an ECL of 8, which meant that they could only be played when everyone else in the party was 8th level as well. You couldn't play one as is at 1st level because they were simply too powerful. You could, however, play one if you took up a Minotaur class and then later multiclassed into the character class you wanted them to have.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I found the whole LA/ECL to be pretty discouraging. Which apparently was WoTC's intent all along.
I can't remember which 4e book spilled the beans on WoTC's intent to discourage the players from playing Giants, Hags, etc. But I do remember reading that WoTC was worried about the fans 'desire' to play something powerful would render the standard races obsolete. There was also that nagging balance issue.
Anyway, the very rules that were meant to discourage players from playing something powerful also proved to be something of a hindrance to any attempt on WoTC's part to create new player character races. How else to explain the staggered approach they used for each of the paths a 3.5 Dragonborn could take for their breath weapon, their senses and their ability to fly? Ditto for the staggered approach in the Raptorans' ability to fly.
I am glad that the 5e Dragonborn are slightly better than their 3.5 counterparts. I say slightly because they're still being 'confused' for Half-Dragons. Not really.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I found the whole LA/ECL to be pretty discouraging. Which apparently was WoTC's intent all along.
I can't remember which 4e book spilled the beans on WoTC's intent to discourage the players from playing Giants, Hags, etc. But I do remember reading that WoTC was worried about the fans 'desire' to play something powerful would render the standard races obsolete. There was also that nagging balance issue.Anyway, the very rules that were meant to discourage players from playing something powerful also proved to be something of a hindrance to any attempt on WoTC's part to create new player character races.
How else to explain the staggered approach they used for each of the paths a 3.5 Dragonborn could take for their breath weapon, their senses and their ability to fly? Ditto for the staggered approach in the Raptorans' ability to fly. I am glad that the 5e Dragonborn are slightly better than their 3.5 counterparts. I say slightly because they're still being 'confused' for Half-Dragons.
Not really. 
The funny thing is, I always wanted to play a Half-Dragon, but never found a DM who would let me. And then when I saw Dragonborn, I was like "nah, hard pass".
Corinnguard
Hero
I wish I could have played a Half-Dragon back then. The 5e Dragonborn will do. What about a Half-Dragon Dragonborn?
One way to look at a Dragonborn is that they are Half-Dragon and Half-Humanoid.
