Woot -- quality new race flavor!

[comrade raoul]

All of the flavor for the new races seems really cool! I'm surprised that I like the dragonborn, but a naturally draconic race of wandering mercenaries seems very appropriate--basically, they seem like a core race that combines some of the most appealing features of 3e kobolds (the genealogy) and hobgoblins (the aggressive martial flavor). Viewed as a kobold/hobgoblin hybrid, I think they fit better in terms of the historical trend of D&D than we might've feared--certainly better than the Races of the Dragon version.

I'm also fairly pleased with the halflings, and the backstories on dwarves and tieflings.

On the whole, this news does a lot to boost my confidence in 4e. The designers are taking a big risk by building in a lot of flavor into the core rules, and I keep worrying that this flavor is going to be hackneyed and childish. But this definitely seems like the sort of thing I could work with (and even enjoy). Here's hoping!

 

[Remathilis]

I also applaud the new fluff. I like that tieflings are far older and unique (rather than simply some devil gettin his groove on) and that dragonborn are not simply half-dragons.

Elves and Halflings get a height boost as well!

All and all, good stuff.

 

[BryonD]

All and all, good stuff.

Agreed

 

[Lurks-no-More]

That looks very nice, overall; I really like the ancient DB / Tiefling connection, and the roots of the dwarf-giant animosity.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Not bad. Minor quibbles with humans being the "most resilient" (dwarves?), and with halflings becoming river-plying merchants (first of all, generally speaking, they bear little to no resemblance to the hobbits anymore even in passing or potential; second, this takes the cultural space of the Selkies in FFZ, though that's probably not much of a big deal).

I don't mind the Dragonborn history (though now their name makes even LESS sense!), the Tiefling history is golden for a non-PS tiefling (very Sword and Sorcery, really) without necessarily contradicting PS tieflings (the core race is just one present on a given material plane...there's plenty more out there on the planes), the elf split is one that serves the elves pretty well, dwarves being the slaves of giants makes perfect sense....

I'm not sure how I feel about the halfling size boost. Does this make them Medium-sized? Does this mean the core book has no Small-sized races? Just "slightly shorter" and "slightly larger" humans? Weren't dwarves about that height in 3e, and considered medium creatures? (odd in and of itself, with "dwarf" meaning "small")

I still think I would've LOVED the "trickster rabbit" approach to gnomes, but in time, I'm sure.

I can accept this. I'm not in passionate love with it, but I'm definitely not offended by it, so it's a positive development.

 

[BryonD]

Not bad. Minor quibbles with humans being the "most resilient" (dwarves?),

Maybe not the best choice of words.
I read it to mean that they adapt and bounce back better than other races.
In a very broad sense, the dwarf can take more damage, but the human can recover more quickly and they come out roughly the same in the long run.

But maybe I read it wrong...

 

[Mostlyjoe]

The only issues I might have is with the whole...been around for ages thing with the Tieflings and Dragonborn in some of the preexisting settings.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Anyone else read the thing about the Dragonborn empire (presumably worshiping Bahamut) and the Tiefling empire (which could be making deals with Tiamat), then see the part about Io splitting into those two gods, and immediately make a connection to The Dark Crystal?

Just me?... okay.

 

[Aloïsius]

The only issues I might have is with the whole...been around for ages thing with the Tieflings and Dragonborn in some of the preexisting settings.

Aber + Toril = Aber-Toril. The dragonborns and tieflings are back, I guess.

Minor quibbles with humans being the "most resilient" (dwarves?)

I don't realy know how it works in English, but resilience and resistance seems to be two different qualities : resistance is about soaking damage while resilience is about recovering from damage. Basicaly, humans heroes will be of the "no, I'm not dead, you evil bastard !" while dwarves will be "is that the best you can do ?" kind of heroes.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

. Dwarven women DO have beards, damnit. That little blurb of lies in itself is enough for me to boycott 4e. Even if it came with free beer.