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

[jmartkdr2]

If a race doesn't have some sort of cultural touchstone outside of D&D, it either needs to be very iconic within its campaign setting and very interesting concept-wise...
...Or it needs to look damn cool.

Preferably some combination of all three.

Warforged, Dragonborn, Tieflings, Drow, even the Thri-kreen to a certain extent... They all hit those criteria - they're cool-looking, have interesting lore, and are mechanically interesting.

Shifters, Gith, FIrbolg, not so much. They just don't "pop" as much, for various reasons.

I don't disagree, but I wonder why Shifters don't pop - animal people, even 'mostly human animal people' isn't an unusual thing in fantasy media. It's a very common trope in anime, although in that case they're usually spirits or at least inherently magical (specifically illusion magic.)

Someone mentioned the 3e rules for them being a factor, I suppose that could explain it.

 

[tomBitonti]

Agreed. A wolf/fox/dog/jackal race (so canidae) would be great. It's easy to do now RAW with the Custom lineage in Tasha's
(S or M, +2/+1 to any, dkvision, feat* -- done). But a better option would be great.

* particularly appropriate feats might include a choice between Alert, Mobile, Observant, Feytouched/Shadowtouched, but one could easily justify Telekinetic, Sentinel, Athlete, etc.

There are Kitsune. Perhaps too niche, though.
TomB

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

They sound cool, and psionic. Good for campaigns with psionics, not so good for those without (and there's no PC rules for psionicists yet that I'm aware of).

Kidding aside, I absolutely loved the Shardmind...but I might have been the only word on Earth

But yeah, mental stats boost on a race is always hard to pin, even more with such a vague ability as Wisdom, which covers all senses, some knowledge areas and common sense, and ones affinity with sacred magic.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'mma break this down a little:

1) Why no wisdom race in the PHB?
Because wisdom just isn't important enough to any class. Sure, it's the save DC determiner for Clerics and Druids, but lots of what they do doesn't have a saving throw because it's self-targeting, buffing, or healing. So it wasn't immediately needed out the gate.

2) Why no Githzerai in the PHB?
Because the PHB is all about being basic fantasy. You don't get the wild races in the PHB, you get the Tolkienesque ones.

3) Why no Shifter/Kalashtar in the PHB?
See above, but also add "WotC both loves and hates Eberron" because it's not standard fantasy.

4) Why no Firbolg Wis Mod in the PHB?
Because firbolgs being wise is a NEW thing. And it's mostly because of Matt Mercer and his hilarious shopkeeper with clones.

This is the 2e Firbolg. With a +7 damage bonus from his 19 strength he could one-hand a small tree and smack you with it. Yeah, they also had some spellcasting traits, but when you look at that big burly dude you're not thinking 'peaceloving forest spirit gently tending the land'. This is what Firbolg -were- 'til 5e launched and made them nature-folk in the Monster Manual... and then Mercer came up with the sheep-people. Not cow. Sheep. Look at Caduseus Clay and tell me that's a cow and I'll giggle.

Ever see the 4e version? Woofta.

So yeah... Wisdom just has never been that important to D&D characters. It's good to have a high wisdom, but it's not "I need a 17 at level 1 or I'll suck!" material.

I don't disagree, but I wonder why Shifters don't pop - animal people, even 'mostly human animal people' isn't an unusual thing in fantasy media. It's a very common trope in anime, although in that case they're usually spirits or at least inherently magical (specifically illusion magic.)

Someone mentioned the 3e rules for them being a factor, I suppose that could explain it.

Because absolutely no one wants to be werewolf-lite.

 

[Mecheon]

I don't disagree, but I wonder why Shifters don't pop - animal people, even 'mostly human animal people' isn't an unusual thing in fantasy media. It's a very common trope in anime, although in that case they're usually spirits or at least inherently magical (specifically illusion magic.)

Because absolutely no one wants to be werewolf-lite.

Nah, folks loved the idea.

The reason shifters didn't catch on is possibly tied to the artwork that just sort of made them all ugly and didn't really capture the idea of being werewolf-light. Plus mechanics didn't relaly suit the whole... Werewolf-light thing

Anywho:

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

Hooks weren't strong enough. D&D's tried to make races for everything catch on. Remember that one 3.5E monster manual that was pretty much "Let's try to capture the lightning in a bottle that is Gith again", where the only survivor waas the Shadar'Kai?

Githzerai are too tied to D&D's stuff and their whole thing
Shifters got that whole ugly art problem going, plus the mental thought of half-werebeast isn't wisdom, its strength
Kalashtar have always been the weakest of the Eberron natives and just being basically humans never earned them any favours

Firbolg on the other hand I reckon might have a chance at splitting out and becoming their own thing due to CR pushing them into the spotlight. You can track google trends for it and see the massive uptick in interest for them.

 

[cbwjm]

One thing about fireballs firbolgs is that I prefer their previous edition appearance over the current one. They used to look like large Celtic or Viking warriors, though the lore and abilities were largely the same as the 5e version.

 

[Kurotowa]

I don't disagree, but I wonder why Shifters don't pop - animal people, even 'mostly human animal people' isn't an unusual thing in fantasy media. It's a very common trope in anime, although in that case they're usually spirits or at least inherently magical (specifically illusion magic.)

Someone mentioned the 3e rules for them being a factor, I suppose that could explain it.

Honestly? I think it's the art direction. There are two camps when it comes to the look of beastfolk and the Shifter pleases neither.

One camp want your anime catgirls with furry ears and a tail, maybe claws and special eyes, and for them to otherwise be a standard human. The other camp wants the full antro look, your Kung Fu Panda type bipedal animal people. The official style profile for Shifters in art and text tries to split the difference and ends up with something that's neither cool nor sexy. Personally I'd go so far as to call them a bit ugly and off putting.

There's a reason that Tabaxi are more popular than Shifters. At least they fill a proper style niche.

 

[Tonguez]

Wis based races like Wis based classes are niche builds that appeal to a few players but dont have the cool of the more popular types. Wis is also so woefully applied in DnD that its not really a trait you can pin an entire culture archetype on.

if they were to make Elf a default Wis race that might do much to make Wis-races more popular

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

One thing about fireballs is that I prefer their previous edition appearance over the current one. They used to look like large Celtic or Viking warriors, though the lore and abilities were largely the same as the 5e version.

Strange, I've always pictured them as a searing orb of fire, and not at all shaped like RL warriors!

 

[cbwjm]

Honestly? I think it's the art direction. There are two camps when it comes to the look of beastfolk and the Shifter pleases neither.

One camp want your anime catgirls with furry ears and a tail, maybe claws and special eyes, and for them to otherwise be a standard human. The other camp wants the full antro look, your Kung Fu Panda type bipedal animal people. The official style profile for Shifters in art and text tries to split the difference and ends up with something that's neither cool nor sexy. Personally I'd go so far as to call them a bit ugly and off putting.

There's a reason that Tabaxi are more popular than Shifters. At least they fill a proper style niche.

I actually really quite like the hybrid look of the shifters, but I still don't really play them. I think ever since they were released I've only ever had one character idea for them and that didn't work put due to the action economy so I scrapped it.