D&D 5E why has none of the wisdom races caught on?

[Baron Opal II]

cleric, druids and monk that is at least two whole subraces right there.

If there was a solipsistic / reality bending monk subclass that would make the githzerai stand out and be an interesting foil to the githyanki. Has there been one since 2e?

 

[Mind of tempest]

If there was a solipsistic / reality bending monk subclass that would make the githzerai stand out and be an interesting foil to the githyanki. Has there been one since 2e?

there was one in 2e? as there is not one in 5e.

 

[Baron Opal II]

there was one in 2e? as there is not one in 5e.

Yes, it was in the Planescape book that featured limbo. It was a pretty neat idea, but it was limited and unlikely for a player to gain a useful or cool level of proficiency. I retooled it for my purposes, and it was like a low-powered bender from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Yes, it was in the Planescape book that featured limbo. It was a pretty neat idea, but it was limited and unlikely for a player to gain a useful or cool level of proficiency. I retooled it for my purposes, and it was like a low-powered bender from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

yeah, we do not even have anything close to that.

 

[tomBitonti]

I don't think most campaigns would allow either Firbolg or Gith. They would be hard to fit into most campaign worlds. And players would ultimately be disappointed if they were, as they would lose most of their strengths (which, I admit, would be unbalancing).

Shifters suffered in 3.5E from a feat tax: Improving shifter abilities used feats, which could not then be used for other essential improvements. And, the feats were underpowered. I think shifters would have been used more if their abilities were handled differently. I think they were a desirable choice, until the reality of the implementation sank in. (Dragonmarks had similar problems: A cool idea, but an underwhelming implementation.)

Kalastar were taken, but required (in 3.5E) for the campaign to include psionics. Which was a minority of campaigns. Overall, that made them a rare choice.

TomB

 

[Mind of tempest]

does anyone know of any other wisdom races are is this all there ever was?

 

[FrozenNorth]

I don’t have a serious answer for you. My non-serious answer is that wise people don’t go adventuring, and when they do, they don’t get into the hilarious scrapes that are so fun to play.

The only answer that I have for you is that it is difficult to conceptualise a race that is simply “wise”, because as an attribute, Wisdom is all over the place. It covers both traditional wisdom, devotion to ones gods, connection to nature and perceptiveness, but it would also have to find a niche among the already established races.

So, it would have to be super devoted to their gods, more so than even dwarves who tend to be extremely traditional and religious (plus pretty much all races are devoted to their gods).

Or they could be super nature focussed, like Shifters and Firbolgs, in a world where that niche is already occupied by elves and forest gnomes.

Or they could try to develop their own niche, like Kalashtar (psionics) or Gith (spaaaaaace neeeews), but you won’t necessarily see much of either in traditional D&D worlds.

Finally, I don’t think it is a priority for the developers, who are moving away from race-based attribute bonuses.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I don’t have a serious answer for you. My non-serious answer is that wise people don’t go adventuring, and when they do, they don’t get into the hilarious scrapes that are so fun to play.

The only answer that I have for you is that it is difficult to conceptualise a race that is simply “wise”, because as an attribute, Wisdom is all over the place. It covers both traditional wisdom, devotion to ones gods, connection to nature and perceptiveness, but it would also have to find a niche among the already established races.

So, it would have to be super devoted to their gods, more so than even dwarves who tend to be extremely traditional and religious (plus pretty much all races are devoted to their gods).

Or they could be super nature focussed, like Shifters and Firbolgs, in a world where that niche is already occupied by elves and forest gnomes.

Or they could try to develop their own niche, like Kalashtar (psionics) or Gith (spaaaaaace neeeews), but you won’t necessarily see much of either in traditional D&D worlds.

Finally, I don’t think it is a priority for the developers, who are moving away from race-based attribute bonuses.

true but it is interesting to note.
maybe it interests me as I keep looking for something which just inspires or is interesting for me as none of the fantasy races do.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

in one of my other threads, the topic of primarily wisdom races came up and it honestly bugs me as we do not even have one of them in the players handbook?
by wisdom races, I mean at least in 5e a plus two to the wisdom attribute so these guys:

• Githzerai
• Firbolg
• Wildhunt Shifters
• Kalashtar

I am not counting hill dwarves as no one has been able to explain to me how they differ from mountain dwarves.
Has anyone got any thoughts, knowledge of past wisdom races or theories as to why none of them has quite caught on?

Githzerai are basically built on one solitary character for the longest time, though I think there's a prominent githzerai in Baldur's Gate 3. Their coolest hook isn't being made to be monks, but using their willpower to mess with Limbo ... except this is pointless in the Prime Material Plane (or natural world, etc) and it's not usually part of their character sheet anyway. I also see them as a reflection of the githyanki, little more, or one of many victims of mind flayers (there's so many of them!). If there's no githyanki, there's little reason for githzerai. (By contrast, you could write an entire novel about drow where surface elves never appear. You could do an entire novel about drow, entirely in the Underdark, where no non-drow appear.)

To me a firbolg is something for a GM to play with. I'm completely unfamiliar with the 5e firbolg, however, just recalling them from 3e and possibly 4e.

Wildhunt shifters are cool for the Eberron setting, but IMO they're one of the lesser lights. They're too tied to the Church of the Silver Flame. There's also not really a place for them outside Eberron. Mechanically I think they're pretty cool, especially in 4e.

Kalashtar are also an integral part of the Eberron setting. If you're not using psionics, there's really no place for them. Furthermore, a big part of their lore is just opposing another faction. I don't think I ever looked them up in 4e. (One of my 4e campaigns featured psionics, but that was a Dark Sun campaign. We didn't have kalashtar, warforged, or anything like that.)

 

[Mind of tempest]

Githzerai are basically built on one solitary character for the longest time, though I think there's a prominent githzerai in Baldur's Gate 3. Their coolest hook isn't being made to be monks, but using their willpower to mess with Limbo ... except this is pointless in the Prime Material Plane (or natural world, etc) and it's not usually part of their character sheet anyway. I also see them as a reflection of the githyanki, little more, or one of many victims of mind flayers (there's so many of them!). If there's no githyanki, there's little reason for githzerai. (By contrast, you could write an entire novel about drow where surface elves never appear. You could do an entire novel about drow, entirely in the Underdark, where no non-drow appear.)

To me a firbolg is something for a GM to play with. I'm completely unfamiliar with the 5e firbolg, however, just recalling them from 3e and possibly 4e.

Wildhunt shifters are cool for the Eberron setting, but IMO they're one of the lesser lights. They're too tied to the Church of the Silver Flame. There's also not really a place for them outside Eberron. Mechanically I think they're pretty cool, especially in 4e.

Kalashtar are also an integral part of the Eberron setting. If you're not using psionics, there's really no place for them. Furthermore, a big part of their lore is just opposing another faction. I don't think I ever looked them up in 4e. (One of my 4e campaigns featured psionics, but that was a Dark Sun campaign. We didn't have kalashtar, warforged, or anything like that.)

I see your point but why did no wisdom race ever catch on?