D&D (2024) Which races would YOU put into the 50th anniversary Players Handbook?

[jmartkdr2]

Human

Dwarf
Dragonborn
Tiefling
Elf, high
elf, wood
elf, dark (edit to add: I think elves need subraces to be DnD elves. But pretty muh only elves do, and maybe genasi. Most other races just have cultures (ie dwarves don't need separate rules for clans) or variants (ie dragnborn just need an energy type and some feat support))
Halfling/gnome (one race. They're redundant as is, but the new race should include the tropes of both)
Goliath/Firbolg (one race, same reason)

(all are equally necessary - including dwarves but not dragonborn is a huge step backwards and abandonment of waht makes DnD distinct. Including dragonborn but not dwarves is crapping on decades of fantasy history. Etc.)

Aasimar
Genasi
kolbold

Half-elf
Half-orc
Orc

Centaur
goblin
hobgoblin
bugbear

lizardfolk
kenku
all other beastfolk as a general build-a-beast toolkit

Weird stuff like warforged, shardminds, or plasmoids.

 

[Charlaquin]

Dragonborn - As per the Metallic Dragonborn in FToD.

Dwarf - with racial weapon/armor proficiencies and ASIs both going away, mountain dwarves lose both their features. So, I suggest making the hill dwarf’s HP bonus a standard dwarf feature, which will help compensate for the loss of their weapon and tool proficiencies.

Eladrin - Exactly as seen in MMotM. Replaces high elf as the magical flavor of elf.

Elf - Lose trance to further distinguish from Eladrin. Still gets choice of any two weapon/tool proficiencies but can’t swap them out after a long rest. Keep the other base elf features, plus Mask of the Wild.

Gnome - As per the Forest Gnome, but with the new MMotM version of Gnome Magic Resistance. (Rock Gnomes can go in the Dragonlance book as “Tinker Gnomes”).

Halfling - Gets both halfling resilience and naturally stealthy, since halflings need a bit of a boost anyway.

Human - As per the non-variant version.

Orc - Exactly as seen in MMotM.

Tiefling - Unchanged except that their spells can be used with appropriate-level spell slots.

Custom Lineage - Exactly as seen in TCoE. Replaces Variant Human as the “start with a feat” option.

 

[Lazvon]

1. Human
2. Half-Elf
3. Dark Elves (Drow)
4. High Elves
5. Wood Elves
6. Mountain Dwarves
7. Hill Dwarves
8. Stout Halflings
9. Lightfoot Halflings

 

[Mecheon]

1: Human
2: Elf (The three regular ones, they're enough of a Thing nowerdays folks recognise them outside of the D&D space)
3: Dwarf (Just the one. D&D's never really had a good case of making the two dwarves seperate so we can shove the other one off somewhere)
4: Halfing (Just the one again)
5: Gnome (two of them, as say what you will about gnomes, but they're at least differentiated and both archetypes widely known enough they'd fit)
6: Goblin
7: Orc (With probably some half-orc flavour option)
8: Tiefling
9: Dragonborn (Just metalic and chromatic)

 

[Lanefan]

• Humans +
• Werebats
• Werebears
• Wereboars
• Wererats
• Weretigers
• Werewolves

Wouldn't it be simpler just to call them all Werehumans and then roll for alternate-form creature during char-gen?

 

[Scribe]

Human

Aasimar (No Subrace)
Genasi (Pick an Element)
Tiefling (No Subrace, SCAG/Pre 4e Style)

Elf (Wood)
Dwarf (Hill)
Orc (No Subrace)

Dragonborn (Pick a Colour)
Gnome (Rock)
Halfling (Lightfoot)

Elf (Drow)
Dwarf (Duergar)
Goblin

Satyr
Fairy
Harengone

Elf (Astral)
Plasmoid
Gith

Reborn
Dhamphir
Thri-kreen

If I wanted to present the new edition as a wholistic 'we can do it all' that is the list I would go with.

Humans, Planetouched, Tolkien-esque, Monsterous, Fairytales, Space, Under-(whatever), and Gothic. I dont like the whole subrace as a stand alone thing, and I dont think it works for everyone, like Dragonborn...but yeah something like that.

 

[Cadence]

Yeah so blarg my fighter looks for any stray cats in the village. He ran out of rations a day ago and wants to stock up.

Younger players stare in abject disgust.

What man?! I am just playing my character!

It's good to see you've embraced the true spirit of it!

Looks like no one has quite nailed it down yet, either:

 

[deganawida]

1. Human.
2. See (1).

Honestly, after much thought, I also have concluded this. The problem with elves and dwarves and whatnot in the core, apart from their implementation owing a lot to Tolkien, is that not every setting should include these things. Have just humans, and then develop what races are in each setting organically.

 

[Reynard]

The "Mos Eisley" issue of race means that ultimately most players are really a) just picking stat bonuses or b) are just picking aesthetics, and no one is actually picking "this alien mindset." Because Tolkien was such a strong influence, it was easier for folks to pair a very "gamist" choice with a "narrative" one. But there is no equivalent for Dragonborn or Tieflings. I won't special to whether "gamist" beats out "narrative" in those cases, but broadly speaking i don't think the choice is usually culturally driven.

I think that the higher number of available races equates to a lower interest in making any particular race interesting and culturally distinct.

 

[J.Quondam]

Honestly, after much thought, I also have concluded this. The problem with elves and dwarves and whatnot in the core, apart from their implementation owing a lot to Tolkien, is that not every setting should include these things. Have just humans, and then develop what races are in each setting organically.

Yeah, I'm of similar mind. Although personally I'd open that up a bit and, instead of starting with humans necessarily, just start with one (or at most two or three) of whatever races, then develop the rest organically from that seed.
Starting from, for example, tabaxi + grippli would lead to a very different world-building exercise than one starting from humans.

edit: @doctorbadwolf started a thread last year about settings based around very limited race and class selections. Those constraints generated a lot of fun ideas.
Personally, I think that those sorts of restrictions can be a real boon to creativity.