What race can you not bring yourself to play?

[Starglim]

Gnomes.

Nothing bad about the race itself, but the name is "wrong".

Gnomes are 6" tall and help shoemakers make shoes while the shoemaker sleeps.

Take the D&D gnome race and change it to something else...then I'd be more likely to play them.

I've played each of the core races at least once, but I would have to agree with the general thrust of this statement, though with different specifics. To me, gnomes are mostly made of earth and stone and live on the Elemental Planes, apart from the rare outcasts who sit in gardens with coloured hats and fishing poles. I have no picture in my mind of where any of this illusionist, bard, alchemist or clockwork-loon stuff comes from.

There's a place in the game for small folk. I've sometimes considered providing wilder and more magical cousins to the halflings by allowing brownies or quicklings as PCs.

edit: Actually, a small-sized fey trickster with a red hat has possibilities. A redcap would be too much as a PC race though.

 

[Aus_Snow]

gnome

 

[hero4hire]

for some reason..I cant stand to play halflings or any halfling like characters. (esp Kenders!)

Though, I enjoy playing an annoying gnome once in a blue moon.

 

[Turjan]

I don't like half-orcs or halflings. The first one has this 'stupid' image, the second one feels like a displaced hobbit to me. I don't play half-elves for mechanical reasons, but don't have any dislike for them. With elves, I have the same problem already mentioned further up in the thread: their favoured class does nothing for them, and therefore I rarely consider them a good choice.

I don't mind dwarves, because they are nothing but grumpy humans and very easy to roleplay. I like the gnome race concept, and maybe I'm lucky that I don't have any silly connotations with the name 'gnome', as in my native language 'garden gnomes' are called 'garden dwarves'. That means that for me it's the dwarves that have the slightly silly aspect to them .

 

[Shade]

Definitely half-elf. I've never seen a reason for it to exist. The half-orc was at least needed when orcs weren't playable in past editions, and still are a lower LA than the orc. The half-elf always bugged me because it was the only "half" demihuman race.

If you want your characters mom to be an elf and dad a human, just say so and play either a human or an elf. If anything, it should have been a feat.

Half-Elf [General]
One of your parents was an elf, the other was human.
Prereqs: Elf or human.
Benefit: You gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks. You are treated as having both human and elven blood for all effects related to race.
Special: This feat may only be taken at 1st level.

 

[Gothmog]

Elves, never, ever, ever. I simply cannot relate to their mindset as presented in D&D, and the seem worse than useless. Now elves as fey are ok, but thats because they are so alien and inhuman- cold, uncaring, and somewhat malicious. Half-elves by extension as well- just seems ludicrous to me.

3E halflings are way too much like Kender for my tastes. I like my halflings fat, sneaky, and innocent-looking, until you discovered he swindled/robbed you for everything you're worth.

Half-dragon, half-illithid, half-woodchuck, etc races- come on, are these just a little over the top and silly?


That said, my favorite race to play is humans, but I also love dwarves, and have had several cool characters of other races I really enjoyed, including a TN gnoll druid/ranger, NE gnome rogue/cleric, and a CN bugbear barbarian.

 

[sniffles]

I would not be opposed to playing any race, although I admit I've actually only played a few. I'd probably be least likely to play an orc or half-orc. I *love* playing elves. I cannot abide people who insist on playing them as arrogant or snobbish, though.

What I am opposed to is referring to half-elves and half-orcs as races. They're not a separate race! (Except in Eberron, where half-elves are a race.) I just find it irritating to refer to a being produced by a combination of two races as another race. And while I'm in pedantic mode, they're not "races" anyway. They should properly be called species.

I'd also really like to know why we have half-elves and half-orcs, but no half-dwarves or half-gnomes or the like. Is there some reason why humans can interbreed with elves and orcs, but none of the other "races" can interbreed with each other or with humans?

I know what the reasoning probably was in the beginnings of D&D: there are half-elves in LOTR (never mind that there are only a very tiny number of D&D-type half-elves in the entire history of Middle-Earth). I suppose somebody thought it would be fun to add another half-something to the mix. I know there's nothing expressly prohibiting people from playing other types of hybrids, but there aren't any rules for it. It would at least seem reasonable that the smaller races could mix, however horrifying KODT has made that idea.

 

[Abraxas]

Gnomes & Half-orcs

 

[demiurge1138]

Well, half-orcs are in LOTR as well. The jerk who owns Bill the Pony and a few spies in Bree and the Shire are half-orcs, although they're called "goblin men" and are the product of Saruman's sorcery, not any breeding between orcs and humans in their natural habitat.

And, since anything in Tolkien is fair game to be looted for D&D, the half-orc was born.

Demiurge out.

 

[Trance Fiend]

I have never played a half-orc, not even when playing a barbarian. I prefer Dwarf when playing Barbarian. I also never played a halfling, but I still might in the future.