What is your favorite new race?

[Brennin Magalus]

Warforged, changelings, shifters, and illumians in that order.

 

[Gothmog]

None of the official new PCs races seem very interesting or inspired to me. However, the best new race WotC has put out in years are the tsochar in Lords of Madness. All sorts of tentacly goodness!

 

[Kanegrundar]

I voted for Warforged. I like the background and the ideas that sprout forth in my imagination when I think about them.

Beyond the Warforged, I would say Goliath, Shifters, and Raptorans (though I reworked them a bit to remove the silly pact with air elementals).

Kane

 

[Desdichado]

None of the official new PCs races seem very interesting or inspired to me. However, the best new race WotC has put out in years are the tsochar in Lords of Madness. All sorts of tentacly goodness!

I was wondering if they were new, or if I just had missed them prior to this point. I'm quite liking the tsochar as well, although I've only skimmed that chapter so far. Too much to read; too little time! I'm really enjoying Lords of Madness though.

Although as an old skool Cthulhu fan, it was naturally right up my alley...

 

[Gothmog]

I was wondering if they were new, or if I just had missed them prior to this point. I'm quite liking the tsochar as well, although I've only skimmed that chapter so far. Too much to read; too little time! I'm really enjoying Lords of Madness though.

Although as an old skool Cthulhu fan, it was naturally right up my alley...

I think they are new JD, I don't ever remember seeing before either. I'm enjoying Lords of Madness a lot as well, especially the sections on aboleth, grell, and the tsochar. The Lovecraftian influences are thick in that book, and I'm loving it. I still haven't finished LoM yet, and have yet to crack GR's Advanced Player's Manual or Necromancer's Glades of Death. That new Warhammer RPG is keeping me too busy!

 

[Mercule]

Elans are the most interesting of the EPH trio, because they are warped -- a conscious choice from their part, rather than a race. In this, they're a bit like the Mojh from AU/E. But they're made as a race rather than a template -- a shaky design decision, IMNSHO.

Agreed. I also dislike the "hey, you lose all of your levels and gain 2 PSP" aspect of Elan. Statistically, and somewhat conceptually, speaking, however, they fit a niche in my campaign. IMC, I explain psi as people with inherent magic, whereas arcanists tap into external forces and manipulate them in a more scientific fashion. So, psions are mutants (in the Marvel Comics sense), basically.

Since 1E, I've had an "evil, monolithic empire" that heavily relied on psionics. This is mainly because they were amoral/immoral enough to experiment with all sorts of nasty magics. Much of those magics "leaked". Kind of a radiation poisoning scenario. The humans in this evil empire have a tendancy to turn up psionic. This is partly because of the general leak and partially because the empire has actively set up an Eugenics program to encourage it -- especially Telepaths and Teleporters.

In previous editions, that had random wild talents, I just said these humans had a 25% chance of psionics instead of a 1% base. Now, I just have some Elans amongst the populace. Often they come out of the breeding program, but they may show up from human slave parents. Or, an Elan may give birth to a human child, but Elan + Elan tends to breed true. Elan is not a voluntary tranfiguration of an already adult human, IMC. It's an "evolution" of the human race.

So, the backstory is parellel, but not the same. Statistically, Elans are the same IMC, though.

 

[The Shaman]

Killoren.

I would consider allowing killoren in my homebrew in place of hengeyokai - they fit a niche in the setting quite well.

 

[Dracomeander]

I enjoy the Kalashtar from both a mechnical and flavor perspective. From a numbers perspective, they're one of the first non-LA psionic races, and their "Naturally Psionic" trait grants an extra power point every level, instead of the small 2-3pp bonus at first level that most have.

From a flavor perspective, they make more sense than a lot of new races, since they're humans who chose to merge themselves with benign psionic entities, not some random new species that's just been discovered. Played right, the dual nature of the Kalashtar soul can be really cool, sort of like having a second conscience. Their empathetic nature, coupled with their somewhat alien features and philosophy, create an interesting paradox, as they are inherently good at relating with people's inmost desires and fears despite their obvious not-quite-human-ness. Sort of like a race of extraterrestrial Dali Lamas.

I have to agree with most of this. The background material on the Kalashtar in Races of Eberron really put a nice role-playing perspective on them.

I have always liked trying to incorporate psionics into my games and the XPH finally does it in a manner that is logical and balanced with the rest of the game. I think I would be tempted to use the Kalashtar model for the Naturally Psionic ability of the other races in the XPH. A point/level or a point/2 levels seems to be a better fit for races that are supposed to have a psionic focus in the developement of the race.

I also really like the Changlings and Warforged from Eberron. The scope of exploring their personalities art inspiring many charcter ideas.

 

[Desdichado]

I have Races of Eberron but I haven't read it yet because Lord of Madness was more tempting. What did they do that made the kalashtar so enticing? They seemed pretty boring to me from the ECS book.

 

[the Jester]

Warforged is the only one I especially like so far.