D&D 4E XPH Races in 4e?

[Dragonhelm]

I don't know if this has been covered already or not, so pardon me if it has.

I'm kinda curious about whether we will see the the XPH races in 4e or not. I know we have some, such as Thri-Kreen (in Dark Sun), half-giants (goliaths), duergars, and githzerai (with githyanki being monsters). That's all good stuff.

What about dromites?

Also, will we see the near-human races, such as elan, maenad, and xeph? Have the kalashtar killed these other races and taken their stuff? I figure the shardmind takes the maenad's crystalline theme.

 

[Destil]

Thri-Kreen: Coming in DS
Half-giants: DS is using goliaths for them, most likely all we'll see (maybe some new racial feats, though).
Githzerai - Coming in PHB 3.
Githyanki - Comming as soon as wizards finally decides we're worthy of a Con/Int race. Could be a while, may be the running joke of 4E that such a good stat pair never gets a PC race.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I hope we don't see these other races I personally hated the the Elan and Meaned with a passion.

 

[Turtlejay]

Hey, I liked Elan. Too bad the precedent has been to not release races in Power books, they would fit well in a Psionic Power book.

PHB3 will probably focus more on the new power source? Maybe? PHB2 had some pretty all purpose races, PHB3 seems to have a real Psionic bent to it, race wise.

Maybe the 2011 setting book? MM3? Who knows.

Jay

 

[Mouseferatu]

This is just pure theorizing on my part--I don't know anything official--but when it comes to the elan, I think 4E has better tools to represent them than a brand new race. Given that they were a "transformed" race, I think a power theme would be a better way to represent them.

One could even, going that route, open them up to more than just transformed humans, if you wanted.

 

[Destil]

Hey, I liked Elan. Too bad the precedent has been to not release races in Power books, they would fit well in a Psionic Power book.

PHB3 will probably focus more on the new power source? Maybe? PHB2 had some pretty all purpose races, PHB3 seems to have a real Psionic bent to it, race wise.

We already know the PHB 3 races from the RPG Net Spoiler.

Races (not listing every ability)
Githzerai - 2 Wis; 2 Dex OR 2 Int, Shift 3 with Second Wind, Iron Mind (Immed. Interrupt +2 Def for 1 turn, Enc.)

Minotaur - 2 Str; 2 Con OR 2 Wis, charge bonuses and a free basic attack when dropped to 0.

Shardmind - 2 Int; 2 Wis OR 2 Cha, extra +2 to any Skill in addition to Arcana and Endurance. Extra language other than Common and Deep Speech. Telepathy to 25 feet. Resist 5 psychic (increases w/ level). Living Construct. Immortal. Teleport encounter power. Thematically, it's a crystalline construct (I intend to use it as the Psi-Forged). Mechanically it seems pretty strong.

Wilden - 2 Wis; 2 Con OR 2 Dex, Fey, three different Enc powers choose one after an extended rest. The powers either allow for more mobility or setup certain enemies for extra damage. Thematically, this is an entity that is meant to be a part of nature.

 

[Tallifer]

What does XPH mean?

 

[Turtlejay]

eXpanded Psionic Handbook (I think) from 3.5, and I probably meant PHB4 when I was typing PHB3. Probably.

Jay

 

[Dragonhelm]

What does XPH mean?

Expanded Psionics Handbook. Sorry, used the phrase XPH so long I forget not everybody knows what it means.

 

[Dragonhelm]

This is just pure theorizing on my part--I don't know anything official--but when it comes to the elan, I think 4E has better tools to represent them than a brand new race. Given that they were a "transformed" race, I think a power theme would be a better way to represent them.

One could even, going that route, open them up to more than just transformed humans, if you wanted.

I suspect that we could represent elan with the kalashtar or human and the right flavor text. I'm not certain they're necessary.