D&D General why do we lack a canine race?

[the Jester]

I do have a dog-humanoid race in my game, the canus. They have several subraces- the Hound, Shepherd, and Runner.

Because a race that resembles domestic dogs implies eugenics, which has it's own sordid history in RL.

Funny you should mention that. In my campaign, the canus, along with many other animal-like humanoids, were engineered and bred by an ancient tabaxi empire. Canus culture, along with the culture of many other animal-like humanoids, includes a deep animosity for tabaxi and a lot of legends and cultural memories of being enslaved, bred, and basically treated horribly for many generations before they broke free.

 

[Mind of tempest]

That doesn't apply to cat people? Tabaxi can look much like domestic cat breeds...

it is sort of both they seem to be mostly physically wild less cats the largest being cheaters and pumas to my knowledge

It's to avoid that whole Goofy/Pluto awkwardness.

play it for body horror and the uncanny valley.

Because of werewolves.

Not even joking. Werewolves take the wind out of the sails for any canine-like race. And you don't have to look far to see this in gaming, either.

Elder Scrolls? No dog-people, but there are werewolves, tied to Hircine, Daedric Prince of the Hunt.
World of Warcraft? I mean, there's fox-people, but the actual canine race...are literally werewolves. They even have a human form.
Eberron has Shifters, but they're only weakly animal-like...and guess what, they canonically get mistaken for werewolves!

Werewolves are simply such a presence that there's really nothing else that can challenge them. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if "werewolf" actually becomes a race in 6e or 7e. WotC is trying to capture the animal-person thing with their new race that I can't remember the name of, but I'm not sure it's gonna stick.

And the thing is, the only other proper canine besides wolves would be dogs, which has...unfortunate implications.

that does sound depressingly likely it is that both could exist one should feel natural like a normal part of the world whilst werewolves are supposed to feel unnatural to a great degree not necessarily evil but clearly the products of something not natural as all curses should feel.

 

[LordEntrails]

It's because cats actually rule the world.
And I know that as a dog person I will never really thrive, the cats keep us down!

 

[Kobold Stew]

There's no good reason not to have anthropomorphic dogs in D&D.

In the SF role-playing game Traveller, since the early 1980s, Vargr have been presented Canids from Earth, taken to another world and uplifted. It's a fun story, that canonically leads to dog packs on pirate ships, etc. What's cool within the lore for me is that despite their origins, they develop FTL travel earlier than humans do.

 

[billd91]

What's cool within the lore for me is that despite their origins, they develop FTL travel earlier than humans do.

Traveller tangent
Well... earlier than Solomani humans (by about 1400 years). The humans on Vland had it over 5000 years before the Vargr did. But they were also transported from Earth by the Ancients to an alien environment, so maybe being on the planet where the humaniti natively evolved is just too comfortable to go jumping away to other star systems at first opportunity.
/Traveller tangent

 

[RoughCoronet0]

On the one hand, it is rather weird that we don’t have a canine species in 5e.

On the other hand, I don’t know that it would matter to me much as I think the Gnolls, despite not actually being canines, and natural Werewolves better fit the niche I’d probably put a canine species in for my world. I have been considering a jackal species for my world though, because I really like jackals and because I like adding sprinkles of other mythologies into my world.

 

[Corinnguard]

WotC is trying to capture the animal-person thing with their new race that I can't remember the name of, but I'm not sure it's gonna stick.

The Ardlings? I would rather have Guardinal-descended Aasimar. Hmm...a canine race descended from the Lupinals would be interesting.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I realize this is probably tongue-in-cheek; but, I just got back from Seattle (where I will be moving to in about a year) and I can confirm there are a lot of dog people there. They were all over the place, and they even allow them to come into most restaurants. I got a chai and sandwich next to a big beautiful newfoundland.

Yep. I live in Portland, and not only am I dog owner, but there are tons of us around.

Some folks beat me to it, but the answer is in fact werewolves. They fill that niche.

 

[MarkB]

That doesn't apply to cat people? Tabaxi can look much like domestic cat breeds...

Most domestic cat breeds have similarities to wild breeds. Dogs are all over the place in comparison.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Honestly, I think the way forward is to just have one race/ancestry to cover all animal-hybrids. There are just so many that you'd end up with dozens if you did them separately. This is how I'm handling it. A generic ancestry, and you choose which traits you want to fit the appearance you want.