D&D General Which non-D&D races would you like to see in D&D?

[Corinnguard]

I can imagine that a number of you have come across a race in a Non-D&D setting such as one found in an anime, a computer game, or in a live-action series/movie, and wished it was in a D&D setting as a player character race. So what are your choices?

Here are a couple of mine.

1. the Mass Effect computer game- the Turians and the Krogan.
2. the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series- the Karkarodons http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...est/scale-to-width-down/499?cb=20160913054327
3. the animated Star Wars: Rebels series- the Lasat https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.ne...ll_Body.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150217044111
4. Star Wars- the Mon Calamari

 

[delericho]

I'm finding it hard to come up with anything that I can't model by reskinning an existing species. I daresay there's something.

(I'm quite fond of the Perdido Street Station Khepri. They might count.)

That said, these days I'm leaning towards the view that species might be better treated as a purely aesthetic choice and totally divorced from mechanics. Instead, players would be allowed to choose a few traits for their characters, and justify them however they want. So maybe your character has darkvision because they're a dwarf (Bruenor), because she has undergone unique and brutal training (Arya), or because he was mutated using arcane elixirs (Geralt) - it's the same power either way. (And, conversely, maybe your dwarf doesn't have darkvision because they were raised entirely among humans and the ability atrophied.)

 

[Corinnguard]

Instead, players would be allowed to choose a few traits for their characters, and justify them however they want. So maybe your character has darkvision because they're a dwarf (Bruenor), because she has undergone unique and brutal training (Arya), or because he was mutated using arcane elixirs (Geralt) - it's the same power either way. (And, conversely, maybe your dwarf doesn't have darkvision because they were raised entirely among humans and the ability atrophied.)

This is sort of what Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition has done by allowing you to choose the culture your player character was raised in. But instead of just writing it up as a part of your character's background, it provides some game mechanics too.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In certain way, D&D created their own version of karkarodons, the darfellans, from Storwrack (3.5).

Lots of sentient species from Star Wars were adapted to system d20 in the oficial TTRPG.

* I feel curiosity about a d20 version of sentient species from Star Trek. Maybe with some changes you could create something using as template the version by Mophidious.

* Cybertronians (medium size), yes, the famous transformers. Technically they are living constructs with the best cyberpunk craft.

* A 5e version of original species from Starfinder and Pathfinder.

* PC species based in the folklore and mythologies from the rest of the world.

For example the "coloraos", based in the Spanish saying "you know more than the colored mice". They would be redhaired micefolk with a high cultural level, or astuteness.

Or the dokkaebi from Korea, a mixture of living construct and fey. Their origin is an artificial object, maybe clothing or tools, tainted by blood of sentient beings. Then they have the power of shapesifting into a certain object (and this is necessary when they have to rest).

 

[Corinnguard]

Lots of sentient species from Star Wars were adapted to system d20 in the oficial TTRPG.

Yeah, there was a Star Wars book from the 3e era that took a number of Star Wars races and wrote them up using D&D game mechanics. I got that book in my collection of RPG books. Thanks for reminding me.

Cybertronians (medium size), yes, the famous transformers. Technically they are living constructs with the best cyberpunk craft.

Warforged in Disguise. There is actually a homebrewed Druid class called Circle of the Forged Druid: Circle Of The Forged (HB) - DND 5th Edition Think of the Maximals from the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts movie.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Indeed, you could probably do these with existing stuff. For example a lasat is basically a bugbear with prehensile feat (which has little mechanical impact).

Really, the question is, can you think of a race with an ability that is mechanically distinctive but not unbalancing?

 

[Corinnguard]

Indeed, you could probably do these with existing stuff. For example a lasat is basically a bugbear with prehensile feat (which has little mechanical impact).

Zeb looks more like a Hobgoblin than a Bugbear to me.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Zeb looks more like a Hobgoblin than a Bugbear to me.

Close enough, and the Volo's hobgobin abilities would be a decent fit.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Gorons, Zoras and Koroks!

Tarnisheds, Good Hunters, Ashen Ones, Hollowed Ones

 

[greg kaye]

Whatever races are used, please, they need to be balanced and thoughtful/evocative in their design.
I'd recommend that the fantastic Humblewood races be used (initial set options to 'vulpin'). The medium and small-sized birdfolk races have flight typically limited to 'glide' though some races have a, from standing, 'wing flap', bonus-action ability to gain limited height. It's so much more though balanced and thoughtful than things like the Aarocokra race with their 50ft, "I can do this all day", flying speed and other options are similarly fitting to the various animal character tropes.