Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 9546639" data-attributes="member: 7023887">These are my favorite versions of each of the core 5e races.Aasimar: Eberron’s Shulassakar. They’re celestial humanoids whose ancestors were transformed into divine Yuan-ti by the Couatls, before the angelic serpents sacrificed themselves to trap the Demon Overlords in Khyber. Now the Shulassakar work ruthlessly to keep the forces of Khyber trapped in their demiplanar prisons. They live in ruined Couatl cities, isolating themselves from the outside world, and worshipping the Silver Flame in their own unique way. They also have their own equivalents of the various levels of Yuan-Ti enemies, which I think is cool.I have always liked Couatls and I think the Shulassakar are genius. They’re pretty easy to transport to other settings too, which you normally can’t say about Eberron-specific content.4e’s Devas are also pretty cool. That’s my second choice.Dragonborn: Exandria (Critical Role setting), by default. Wildemount’s division of Dragonborn into two subraces; Draconians (who have tails and lived in floating islands) and Ravenites (don’t have tails, and were slaves forced to mine in dangerous chasms) is an interesting, if slightly cliche, dynamic, especially with the plot point of the Draconian cities having fallen and the Ravenite slaves overthrowing their former masters.I like Dragonborn mechanically and as a concept, but I haven’t really found a version of lore that makes me really like them. Every version that I’ve seen just seems like they’re missing something. Eventually I’ll make a homebrew version in line with my preferences. I think it has potential, just I can’t think of a setting that has done them really well.Dwarves: Does The Elder Scrolls count? The video game series is based off of D&D, and there’s an unofficial TTRPG adaptation. If it counts, the Dwemer are definitely my favorite version. They’re mysterious Mesopotamian Dwarves that accidentally erased themselves from existence by messing with a dead god’s heart.If The Elder Scrolls doesn’t count, then Eberron’s Daelkyr Dwarves. It fits the “dug too greedily and too deep” line from The Fellowship of the Ring.Elves: Eberron’s Aereni elves. They’re ancestor-worshipping isolationists that live on a small island continent that is magically linked to the Planes of Light and Death, causing the island to have magically exotic wildlife like trees with wood that is lighter than air. Also, these planar connections allow for the collective worship of the Aereni Elves to be used to reanimate the most wise and skilled Aereni elves as light-powered divine undead. The Undying Court of the Aereni ancestors is so powerful that combined they could fight off a Demon Overlord.I have yet to find a representation of Elves on any other D&D setting that I think is as interesting as the Aereni.(Honorable mention to The Elder Scroll’s Bosmer and Dunmer, they’re my favorite representations of Wood and Dark Elves in a fantasy setting.)Gnomes: Spelljammer’s Tinker Gnomes. Which is weird because I hate Dragonlance’s Tinker Gnomes. But steampunk spaceships that are powered by Giant Space Hamsters running on wheels and manned by artificial clockwork gnomes is inspired. Gnomes are ridiculous, Spelljammer is ridiculous, so it makes sense that the would shine in that setting. Eberron’s KGB gnomes are a close second, though.Goliaths: They’re too new of a race. There aren’t really alternate versions of them in different settings the way there are in other settings. They’re always tribal mountain Spartans. I guess 4e Dark Sun’s Goliaths win by default, but that kind of feels like cheating, given that the older Half-Giant race were forced to become Goliaths. Halflings: Dark Sun’s cannibal Halflings. Half-Elves: Eberron’s Khorovar. They have something going for them, which is more than I can say for Half-Elves in most other settings. Half-Orcs: Eberron’s Tharashk Half-Orcs. They’re a Dragonmarked House that has a monopoly on bounty hunting and prospecting. Humans: Probably Eberron again. Humans tend to be boring in every setting, but there are some unique stuff for humans in Eberron, and the human-founded countries are pretty interesting. Orc: Eberron’s Ghaash’kala Orcs protect the world from demonic invasion and worship the Silver Flame. Tieflings: I like the base Tiefling lore well enough and there’s not really any setting that has an interesting different version of them that I’m aware of. So probably whatever setting that came from. Planescape?</blockquote>

Verification