Would you allow half-races?

[philreed]

I've always wondered why just half-elf and half-orc, where are the half-dwarf, half-gnome and half-halfling (quarterling?)?

MonsterMash, please e-mail me at roninartspresident@yahoo.com to claim your prize.

 

[Panask]

Hey, I said "quarterlings" five posts ago! Don't *I* get a prize?!?




Panask
Servitar to Baldur

 

[Buttercup]

I like the half-races less and less as time goes by. Next campaign, they're gone. Along with elves, orcs and gnomes. And maybe halflings.

 

[ForceUser]

I like the half-races less and less as time goes by. Next campaign, they're gone. Along with elves, orcs and gnomes. And maybe halflings.

I just got tired of the standard races. I like giving players options other than human, though, so I drew upon my vast library of 3E and d20 books for inspiration, then homebrewed a bunch of new races tailor-made to my world.

(I also included a few cool Eberron races.)

[sblock]THE RACES IN BRIEF
Humans are adaptable, diverse, and industrious, and many human kingdoms flourish upon eastern Eriador. A human’s favored class is simply the class she has the most levels in.

Aelfborn are humans with traces of fey heritage, and are often magical, mysterious, and secretive. Their favored class is bard.

Anhardd are cunning survivors with little binding them to the expectations of their human or hobgoblin kin. Their favored class is fighter.

The Weretouched are loners from the far north, animalistic humans whose lycanthropic lineage has marked them for all to see. Their favored class is ranger.

Gnomes are inventive builders and thinkers with a flair for creation, espionage, and song. Their favored class is artificer.

Goblins are crafty skulkers in human society, unusually adept at getting what they want with minimal personal risk. Their favored class is rogue.

Warforged are newly-sapient living constructs built by gnomes to fight in human wars, who have begun to assert their individual freedoms from their creators and masters. Their favored class is fighter.[/sblock]

 

[Evilhalfling]

Nope, none of them in my world.
Half orcs are called fair orcs, and are a more civilized subrace of orc. - slightly altered
Half elves are discouraged by leaving them as printed. No NPC 1/2 elves exist, and no player has asked to play one, but for a strong concept I might relent.

 

[Dark Jezter]

If one of my players wants to shoot himself in the foot by picking half-elf as a race, he's more than welcome to.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I actually worked out a list of what can breed with what in my homebrew world.

Humans and elfs produce sterile hybrids.

Humans and halflings produce humans, but two half-halflings have a 25% chance of producing a halfling. (Technically a halfling is a human with a double recessive trait.)

Humans and dwarfs - no offspring.

Humans and ogres - no offspring. (Ogres are not quite the normal D&D ogres.)

Humans and orcs - fertile offspring. (Again, orcs are technically the same species as humans, differences are racial, not special.)

Dwarfs and Gnomes are the same race, differences are cultural and dietary. (Dwarfs eat more meat, exercise more.)

Dwarfs and Ogres would produce sterile hybrids. (Dwarfs are giants in this world, just very short giants...) However in over a millenium of written history it has never happened.

Humans, elfs, and orcs are the only races prone to rape.

Fey, celestials, and fiends are fertile with everything, but only with one species at a time. Their bodies are essentially recreated for the purpose.

Dragons breed only with dragons, and spawn in great numbers when they spawn at all. (Dragonspawn are fishlike amphibeans, going through multiple stages before becoming a full dragon.)

The Auld Grump

 

[Aus_Snow]

If you were creating a new world, would you allow for the birth of half races?

Definitely.

What I like (system-wise) is half-race templates, each applicable to a range of other races. That, in my opinion, is the best way of doing things, though of course GM (and player) discretion is advised.

 

[Turjan]

I actually worked out a list of what can breed with what in my homebrew world.

Some of those points reminded me of my own latest homebrew .

Humans and elfs produce sterile hybrids.

I use the same rule. However, humans and elves are that far apart that the chance of survival for the offspring is extremely low. You can count the number of half-elves in the setting with the fingers of one hand. They are something special, though, slightly insane, but potent oracles. Not suitable for player characters.

Humans and halflings produce humans, but two half-halflings have a 25% chance of producing a halfling. (Technically a halfling is a human with a double recessive trait.)

Same rule here. Technically, I don't have halflings, just very small humans.

Humans and dwarfs - no offspring.

Dwarfs were eliminated by the elves. The ruins of their underground palaces are adventure grounds.

Humans and ogres - no offspring. (Ogres are not quite the normal D&D ogres.)

What are your ogres like?

Humans and orcs - fertile offspring. (Again, orcs are technically the same species as humans, differences are racial, not special.)

Here I go also for infertile offspring. They don't have any special traits. They are also very rare, though. Orc men find human women as ugly as human men orc women; that usually precludes any intercourse, and even then, offspring is unlikely. Additionally, goblinoids and orcs are the same species (mostly regional cultures) in that setting.

Dwarfs and Gnomes are the same race, differences are cultural and dietary. (Dwarfs eat more meat, exercise more.)

I use elves and gnomes as the same species, more like regional subtypes. Dwarfs were elves, too, although no human knows. Elves don't talk about that.

Humans, elfs, and orcs are the only races prone to rape.

Which leaves us with elf/orc hybrids. They are also very unlikely and sterile, but one orc nation keeps them at a special place. They are the "dreamers", in a perpetual unconscious state, but forming a large dream realm with their collective minds. This gives orc shamans some special advantages.

Fey, celestials, and fiends are fertile with everything, but only with one species at a time. Their bodies are essentially recreated for the purpose.

I don't use celestials and fiends, but fey are a ceremonial advancement option for elves/gnomes, which grants potential immortality, but for a big price (something similar to insanity rules). No interbreeding.

Dragons breed only with dragons, and spawn in great numbers when they spawn at all. (Dragonspawn are fishlike amphibeans, going through multiple stages before becoming a full dragon.)

That sounds at least slightly like the good old Gloranthan dragonnewts . I use something like the latter.

 

[Gold Roger]

I don't like standart half-breeds, and if I use them in a hombrew, then they are the "on-one-hand" kind of rare. But then, I'm bored by all the races as they are in the PHB. My next Homebrew has only Humen and Neogi as major race and those produce offspring, obviously. The only Humen thing is mostly because it's an IH Heroes game, and I will have Traits for Fey heritage. If I where to create a new standart D&D Homebrew, I'd propably use Humen, homebrew Half-Fey, totally different Dwarfes, Shifter (but as completely original race, not lycanthope descendants), Changelings (again as race of their own), Warforged and PHB Elfes as Half-Elves with true Elves as NPC Race.

Edit: I do love all the Half-Monster templates, though I see them more as the product of magic than actual breeding as well.