What RACE has changed the least through the various editions?

[Emirikol]

What RACE has changed the least through the various editions?

jh

 

[Glyfair]

Very tough to measure. How do you measure the changes between systems? There is no question the answer is human, if you exclude 3E/3.5. They underwent no changes, while all other races did.

 

[Emirikol]

Very tough to measure. How do you measure the changes between systems? There is no question the answer is human, if you exclude 3E/3.5. They underwent no changes, while all other races did.

I just went back and looked:

Halflings throw rocks in BD&D
Dwarves always had all that useless mining stuff that could never directly correlate wth secret doors (secret doors btw, are strong enough for a dwarf..but made for an ELF!!!! lol)

Elves their stuff changed, like dwarves with definitions of their ability to see in the dark.

Half orcs disappeared for an edition

Gnomes didn't appear originally (are they still part of 3.5? again..bad joke).

Humans went from being an entire section in the monster manual to not appearing at all.

jh

 

[Glyfair]

Humans went from being an entire section in the monster manual to not appearing at all.

That's not a change to humans, that's a change to presentation.

Humans had nothing special through all pre-3.0 editions, and could be all classes in every edition. Non-humans in BD&D had no classes beyond their race as a class. They had varying level limits in each edition.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I've got to go with half-elves...

Humans got access to extra skills and a bonus feat, not significant, but is a change.
Elves & Dwarves went through some minor tooling.
Halflings lost weight and became more kender like (I hate that BTW)
Gnomes had a complete body make over (How can you have a gnome without a gigantic nose) but finally lost that ridiculous mad inventor label the picked up over from Dragonlance (I hated that too)
Half-orcs changed from the pig like to the ape like facial structure (I like the piggies) and somehow became super-human (I never understood this, humans are taller than orcs, but half orcs are taller than humans???)


But that's just the core races, lets not forget the other re-tools
Kobolds, the dog-like reptiles of the underground became related to '??DRAGONS??'
All the animal type monsters went on Todd Lockwood's anorexia diet plan (I'm sorry the displacer beast just looks stupid! Thank goodness for the new DDM.)
Githyanki evidently got into bondage and S&M
Gold Dragons grew wings
Medusea became reptilian
Carrion Crawlers had all of their tentacles move below their mouth instead of all around it.
Hippogriffs grew talons instead of hoofs
Manticores evidently mated with primates at some point.
Umber Hulks lost weight
Ogre Magi moved from the Far East into the Western hemisphere
Vampire Spawn started to dress like Marilyn Manson instead of vice versa
And that's just Monster Manual 1...

 

[FireLance]

Human, because they have always been able to take levels in any class, and rise to the highest levels in any class.

Every other non-human race had some class and level restriction that changed from time to time between editions.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Yes humans

All the other races saw serious power increases. Except in the area of multi-classing which ws incredibly broken in 2E.

 

[diaglo]

I just went back and looked:

Halflings throw rocks in BD&D

in Chainmail too. but they were hobbits.

Dwarves always had all that useless mining stuff that could never directly correlate wth secret doors (secret doors btw, are strong enough for a dwarf..but made for an ELF!!!! lol)

Elves their stuff changed, like dwarves with definitions of their ability to see in the dark.

yup, from OD&D(1974) too

Half orcs disappeared for an edition

they didn't start until the game was into 1edADnD. they weren't in OD&D really.

Gnomes didn't appear originally (are they still part of 3.5? again..bad joke).

actually they are older than Half orcs. gnomes were dwarves. even in Chainmail. just some of the things that make them gnomes in 1edADnD didn't appear until then.

Humans went from being an entire section in the monster manual to not appearing at all.

jh

but stats are still based on the humanocentric view. humans have changed the least. they can still go to infinite levels as they did in the beginning.

 

[Presto2112]

Humans went from being an entire section in the monster manual to not appearing at all.

Oh, right! In the 1E Monster Manual, humans were the Spawn of Tiamat of the day, for the amount of space they occupied in a monster book.

 

[Kaodi]

(I never understood this, humans are taller than orcs, but half orcs are taller than humans???)

Two words for you: Male Liger