Who's Yo Daddy?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Over the decades of playing D&D in all its editions, I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the number of crossbreed races. For one thing, why does EVERYBODY do it with humans? Its like we each have all the cross-species charm of Captain Kirk...

I've done some revision of this in my homebrews: I took all of the Planetouched, renamed them Nephilim, and made them into a racial character class similar to those in Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved. What abilities you got depended on the bloodline you chose. It worked pretty well. Mechanically, the Nephilim were very similar to the source material...and there was also a blueprint for creating cross-planar crossbreeds of kinds as yet unseen.

But it didn't address all the other human crossbreeds, the half-orcs, half-elves and whatnot. Tonight, as I was looking at the 3.5Ed rules for Changelings, I saw the key to revising all of them as well.

Why not make Doppelgangers the race all those others crossbred with?

IOW, just like the Changeling, a Half-Orc is actually Half-Doppelganger. So is the Half-Elf. Etc.

Well, that covers the logistics of the parenting procedure...but what are the ramifications of this revision? Would this require a practical mechanical revision of those races? Are the Changelings the only crossbreeds who retain any of the shapechanging ability of their Doppelganger parent?

Ideas? Musings? Rotten tomatoes?

 

[Quickleaf]

I have an idea, a musing, and a rotten tomato.

My idea is that Changeling could be reinterpreted as it seems to have been historically used - to describe a babe stolen by and replaced with a faerie double.

My musing is I thought elves were supposed to be the pointy eared sex kittens/tigers, so what's with all the half-humans? Leftovers?

My rotten tomato is its your game! If you don't like 'em, change 'em or cut 'em out!

 

[Dragoslav]

Because humans are easy, and they are so widespread that there's always one convenient for a quick tumble. Elves are the snooty race that never put out.

EDIT: I consider the above to be an idea, musing, and rotten tomato simultaneously.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Its like we each have all the cross-species charm of Captain Kirk...

Don't we?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don't we?

I don't seem to.

*imagine sad panda face right now*

Even though I could simply excise the halfbreeds, I don't really want to. They can serve an interesting narrative purpose and people like playing them.

Now, I realize that- for a PC aware of his true origins- my idea changes that narrative a bit- but it doesn't HAVE to if the PC isn't.

So...any ideas on what mechanical changes you would make- if any- given the different ancestry?

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Perhaps humans are the results of the other races breeding.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

There was a third party source (possibly Green Ronin, can't recall offhand) for 3rd/3.5 we played with once called Bastards and Bloodlines which had a variety of new half-breeds, including many that were non-human based. I remember my friend played a half-ogre, half-Orc barbarian which was pretty fun. Others included elven/dryad or elven/unicorn (yup) mixes. Some were fun race ideas, and some had... questionable implications.

Trit

 

[Gilladian]

My assumption has always been that only humans have whatever gene it takes to produce crosses. Elves and halflings could have encounters, for example, but they can't breed. Dwarves, being made of stone, don't have sexes, and don't mate. Other races either are sterile outside their own species, or they just don't/can't mate with each other. Orcs and humans, elves and humans, are about it. Elves and orcs are actually the same race, split off from each other a few aeons back; humans might be another offshoot, I suppose. I've never said they weren't, nor that they are.

All my own campaign world, of course; that's the fun of being DM and ultimate God!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My assumption has always been that only humans have whatever gene it takes to produce crosses.

Right. And I'm wondering about the implications of subbing Doppelganges for humans in that basic assumption in D&D's fantasy genealogy.