Your favorite nonstandard races?

[Stormrunner]

Well, I like a lot of animal-races, but culture is an important point.

I like the nezumi ratmen from the Rokugan setting because of the extensively-developed culture presented for them (only tiny bits of which showed up in oriental Adventures, but I went out and bought Way of the Ratling for L5R solely to use it as a culture-source).

Lizardfolk in my campaigns are not the strong-but-stupid, swamp-dwelling alligator-men of the MM, but fast, agile, leap-attacking desert and plains dwellers. The "Don't go into the tall grass!" raptor attack from Jurassic Park II is almost perfectly the way I imagined a lizardfolk ambush.

Gnolls - RL hyenas are such weird creatures that hyena-folk SHOULD provide a lot of role-playing opportunities. Unfortunately, the MM gnolls are so vanilla as to be boring - other than appearance they're basically just bigger orcs. I had high hopes that Nyambe would give us an innovative hyena culture, but no, they instead spent many pages on orcs (why orcs?) and barely even mention gnolls at all. Ursula Vernon's comic Digger has, among other critters, a matriarchal tribe of hyena-folk, and a while back she treated us to some hyena mythology involving the primal hyena deities He-Is and She-Is, and how the dark whispers of the demon Sweetgrass Voice corrupted He-Is, leading to the death of the couple's unborn child, the un-naming and exile of He-Is, and She-Is becoming a more warlike incarnation, She-Is-Fiercer. (Unfortunately the site requires a subscription fee to view any pages but the most recent one)

Centaurs - most settings relegate centaurs to the fringes, barely mentioning them if at all. But it doesn't have to be that way. The Mongols conquered China and large parts of Europe and Arabia, making - for a while - the largest empire in the history of the world, bigger than the USSR. The horsefolk could be a powerful force in a setting.

 

[Yair]

I like Elan. It's fun to play guauld.

I like Half-Giants. It's fun to wield those oversized weapons.

I think Dromites are fun too, although I wouldn't really make them a major race.

And I like illithids.

I only skimmed Arcana Evolved, but what I saw there I really liked in concept (no idea on the mechanics). The Giants seemed interesting (I like the concept, what can I say), the faen with their metamorphosis to tiny sprites, the dragon-warped races... it seemed to have very, very nice races.

 

[greywulf]

I'll add in a vote for Nezumi, after just having re-read Oriental Adventures. Nezumi rock!

Also, the Grippli write-up from Dragon. I played a Grippli Ranger when one of my players GM'd a while back and loved it.

Lupins too, especially if you include catfolk as well. Now, that would make a fun adventuring party "Lupin, meet catfolk. Come back! COME BACK!! And get down from that tree.........."

Anything from Mythic Races works for me, as I like the whole Talislanta feel of thousands of different races thrown together on a huge planet. I'm tempted to run Ptulos with LOTS of races, kinda like Mos Eisley with magic.

We've House Rule'd so that +1LA means you don't get the free feat at first level, and +2LA means you don't get it at third level too - and that's it. LA has nothing to do with your level at all. This opens up a LOT of cool races without crippling the character - that Hobgoblin Fighter-1 is first level, just like you, but with one less feat. It evens the whole thing up a lot.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

Another vote for Litorians. Very cool, and I like the racial levels.

Vanarans (also from Arcana Unearthed? I think?) Go, Monkey people!

I second the Centaurs. Though a centaur monk in one of my campaigns proved to be fairly crazy, and led me to stipulate they could only take the first level of centaur (from Savage Species)

Finally, Sesheyans from d20 future. I like them. I did my own cultural info for them for my homebrew.

 

[Gundark]

I like Warforged, Shifters, and Changelings from Eberron
I also liked the concept of Giants from AU/AE

Have you considered the Skorne from Iron Kingdoms? Expansionist evil humanoid race. And they have a strong eastern look to their armour and equipment. I really like how these boys (and girls) look.

While we're on the topic of Iron Kingdoms...I really like the Ogrun and Trollkin races

 

[Garnfellow]

Just to shake things up, I have been toying with a campaign that would move away from the standard Tolkienesque race array and instead offer +0 LA PC races from almost every available creature type . . . humans would be the only big humanoid race, but a rejiggered elf would fill the fey role, warforged would fill the construct niche, half-giants the giant niche, and so on. I'm thinking throwing in a few different monstrous humanoids . . . classic (non-Tolkien) fantasy archetypes that aren't currently represented well in D&D: a +0 LA, 1 HD lizardfolk, and maybe some kind of insect folk and catfolk. Each base class would have a race that really worked well with that class.

I dunno, this idea is still only partially baked. But I like the idea of each race option being from a completely different creature type, to help distinguish the choices.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Vanarans (also from Arcana Unearthed? I think?)

Actually, that's a race from Oriental Adventures.

 

[GreatLemur]

"Human with one tiny physical difference" is boring. That means you, Maenads, Elans, Illumians, Karsites, etc. It's so "Star Trek" where all the aliens are humans with a funny nose.

I don't really have much of a problem with "humans but slightly different" races in theory, as long as they aren't the standard D&D races. Unfortunately, the human variants we're given usually just ain't variant enough. I mean, they didn't really try too hard to make the Maenads look interesting, did they? I'm of the opinion that you can slap a hell of a lot of racing stripes--things like odd coloration and markings, funny-shaped ears, horns, antennae, catfish whiskers, dorsal fins, whatever--on a human before people start having even a little bit of trouble identifying with it.

Following this whole line of thought, I actually really dig the idea of a campaign setting where humans are the only PC race . . . but they can have themselves magically and biologically transmuted into more specialized forms (by taking on leveled templates that come with things like ability score modifications, energy resistances, and spell-like abilities). I'd just find that a little easier to buy than a world with a dozen different unrelated intelligent species.

Also: Am I alone in being sick of anthropomorphic animal races? It's hard to imagine a lazier cop out in race design, especially when--inevitably--Cat People Race #193 also turns out to be an agile, stealthy race of playful tricksters, just like the other 192. (But, somehow, I'm willing to give lizard races a pass. I have no excuse other than just thinking lizardfolk are cool.)

 

[Nifft]

I don't really have much of a problem with "humans but slightly different" races in theory, as long as they aren't the standard D&D races. Unfortunately, the human variants we're given usually just ain't variant enough.

That's exactly why I like Elan and Changelings. They're NOT human, but they can look human to avoid trouble when they don't want it. IMC, Elan start as Humans and can take a four-level "paragon" class to become an Elan.

I like voluntary transformation more than XXX bazillion sentient races.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Tuzenbach]

Firenewt (not to be confused with the "Frost Gecko")
Blue (psionic goblins)
Duergar
Yazirian (Star Frontiers race)
Flind
Hobgoblin
Kobold
Ghast
Quickling