What is your favorite new race?

[Dragonhelm]

Next up would be Half-Giants from EPH.

I was really disappointed by the half-giant. It hardly resembled the old Dark Sun half-giant at all. It's about 3 feet shorter, at least half the weight. Now I can forgive that to a degree, but they took away the rotating alignment feature, which defined their very personality.

Someone mentioned the Vanara. I played one once and had a blast. Being blatantly honest is fun.

Warforged is what I voted for. I really like all the variations upon the theme that I've seen in the MM3 and Races of Eberron.

Shifters are a cool "wild" race. I like them a lot.

The Kalashter, Elan, Maenad, and Illumians all have the problem that they're mostly human, but not quite. Don't get me wrong, I like them well enough. It's just that they don't seem different enough. *shrugs*

I did play a maenad recently who took the crystal proselyte PrC from Mindscapes/Hyperconscious. That turned out to be fairly good.

I'm indifferent on the changelings, xeph, and dromites.

I think the only one mentioned that I really don't care for are the raptorans. That foot bow thing just seems a bit goofy to me.


What are whisper gnomes like?

 

[Estlor]

I really like the cultural details of Goliaths and the niche they would fill in a party. I'm usually not too keen on LA +1 races because of the sacrifices you make early on, but in a non-psionic situation you can't beat the benefits of powerful build.

Moving beyond that, I like the shifters, not for what they are, but for the potential they have. Their statistics can be repackaged into a lot of other races in both science fiction and fantasy genres that divorce them from the lycanthropy past they have in Eberron.

 

[diaglo]

Other as in none. I've not seen a new race that was not just a new set of numbers.

ditto

 

[Hand of Evil]

I am with diaglo and Crothian, other none.

 

[Bront]

I'm a big fan of the Changlings. I had a few concepts and they fit right in with them. I could fit them in a homebrew, but I'm trying them in the Eberron campaign I'm starting.

I think they did a good job with all the Eberron races however, as far as making and supporting them with a background. Haven't had a chance to paruse the race books yet.

 

[Ashanderai]

It was hard for me to decide on what to vote for.

Races that have already been published that I like (in no particular order) are:

Verrik (AE)
Dracha (AE)
Giant (AE)
Mojh (AE)
Kalashatar
Warforged
Shifter
Changeling
Dromite (probably the only level adjusted race I could bring myself to play some day)
Elan
Nezumi (the Rokugan version)
Spirit Folk (Bamboo, River, Sea, and Mountain)
Vanara (I liked them better before their 3.5 update in Dragon magazine, but they still have cool flavor background)

I have only perused Sandstorm and Frostburn in the stores, but I didn't like what I saw in Frostburn for races, though the ones in Sandstorm looked intriguing. I don't care much for any of the core races, except for maybe Human and Dwarf. I absolutely loathe Halflings. I enjoy the concept behind the Aasimar, Tieflings (I loved their flavor text when I first read about them in the 2E Planescape monster book), and Genasi, but I would like to see them better executed with maybe some racial levels like in AE. Goliaths are okay and I can't remember much about the Whisper Gnomes, so I guess they didn't leave an impression on me. The raptorans just seem... well, I rate them one notch above halflings.

I like the idea of the illumians a lot - lots of flavor there, but I really, really, really, despise their floating neon signs that circle their heads. I cannot envision anything except for those neon runes to actually be stating, "Eat at Joes" or, "Universal Studios". They are living advertisements for a fantasy game. Why couldn't the illumians have just had living, glowing, moving runes on their skin that was always located on or near their faces? That would provide the same effects as far as the mechanics of the race are concerned. If I ever have them in one of my games that is how they will be.

Anyway, I ended up voting warforged for overall originality, innovation, and for the unique way they seem to fit into any adventuring group no matter what their class is. It seems like playing a warforged is a bigger deal than what class he is playing and that really makes them stand out. By the way, I didn't care for warforged very much before Races of Eberron, but after reading about the race in that book their inherent flavor starting to really come to light for me and that is what changed my opinion about them.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to address that new green, plant, fey race from the Races of the Wild; I forget their name. Anyway, they seem pretty original and are a very neat concept. WotC should have expanded upon them instead of the raptorans in that book.

 

[Thanee]

Other = None.

Tho, if I would play in Eberron, I might have considered the Warforged.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Shade]

I voted Other, but not because I dislike all the races. I like quite a few of them. The grippli, lupins, and diaboli in recent Dragons are all good, and are less about the numbers (as they don't have racial ability score modifiers).

I think the poll is flawed, skewing towards Eberron. Heck, all the Eberron races are listed first.

I'm not a fan of most of the Eberron races, as they are just low-ECL versions of greater monsters (changeling=doppelganger, shifter=lycanthrope, warforged=maug, sorta). Same goes for a lot of the races in other books (mephlings, spikers, etc.) If I want to play a construct, I'd much rather play a maug than a warforged.

I thought the goliaths were cool until I realized that their gimmick was already covered by the half-giants in the XPH. I don't see the need for raptorans, as you can just play any other creature with flight using the Savage Species-style monster class progressions. In fact, I find that to be the biggest problem with new playable races. Since it is now possible to play nearly any monster, and even play them starting at 1st-level (using monster class prgressions), there really is no need for the numerous watered-down-to-LA+0 races out there.

 

[Pants]

Since it is now possible to play nearly any monster, and even play them starting at 1st-level (using monster class prgressions), there really is no need for the numerous watered-down-to-LA+0 races out there.

Mostly this is because LA+0 races get to start off in their class immediately, while the monstrous races have to wade through several levels where they might not gain HD, skills, or feats.

I voted Warforged. They're pretty cool. Lots of roleplaying potential.

Runners up:
Changelings
Half-Giants
Shifters
Uldra
Dromites

I'm not a big fan of any of the 'new' races created for the Races of X series. The Kalashtar have never been really intriguing to me. The races in Sandstorm are kind of boring. Most of the other psionic races aren't very interesting to me either.

The races in AU/AE have always struck me as 'different just to be different' (same with some of the classes). Never cared much for the races there.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I voted for Warforged, though I'm overall quite impressed with most of the races from Eberron and the XPH-- though I'm relatively uninspired by the Kalashtar and the Maenad. While the Elan are a little too human-like, I like their human origin and how they became Elan.

I'm really hoping for something like Races of the Mind-- a race book detailing the races listed in the XPH.

So far, I haven't been too impressed with what I've seen of new races in the Races series, especially considering that most D&D worlds already suffer from something I call "race bloat"-- there are entirely too many sentient humanoids on these worlds. Between the huge variety of "monster" humanoids and the proliferation of demihuman subraces, it's difficult to imagine any race actually having a unique niche.