Favourite races (D&D)

In 3.5e, I always find myself being the only guy in my group who actually likes Half-Giants (from the XPH). I don't know exactly why I loved them so much... Probably because they perfectly fit the Gentle Giant archetype, while not being too huge, slightly smaller than average Ogres. They are just large, big, sympathetic quasi-humans who are not completely stupid or plain grotesque.

Plus, I liked their mechanic for "bigger weapons". It was later took away by Goliaths, who are pretty much better at everything for the same LA. But still, while Goliaths have a well-developped society, I still prefer the Half-Giants look. At this point, I guess it's plain Author Appeal from me...

On the more "outlandish" side of things, Thri-Kreens (from the XPH) are fun to play, especially if you put theirmajor differences with every other race. And, if you want to stay Core, Half-Orcs are my first choice, followed by Humans and Halflings/Gnomes depending on the setting.

Dwarves, Gnomes, and humans are my favorite. I'm currently looking to try out Hadozees, and I really want to play a Vanara (I LOVE MONKEYS and this one will look like a douc langur).

Shifters, half-elves, whoever has the most interesting fluff. I've been a fan of tieflings for most of their history, too, but in 4E I'm more comfortable with houseruled variants than with the default race; they lost a lot of their appeal when most of the weird stuff you could do with them in (e.g.) Planescape gave way to a single phenotype and set of stats.

I will keep my soul in a place out of sight, Far off, where the pulse of it is not heard.

Dwarves, dwarves, dwarves. I'm a dwarf girl all the way. My character loves gold, gold, gold, eats rats with ketchup and has a beard despite being a female. Oh, and LOATHES elves, which is something she got from me. Yeah, my dwarf is kinda pratchettesque. But the mechanics of playing a dwarf are fine, too.

"This must be Thursday," said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer, "I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

The best race in D&D are the mind flayers.

If I may name a least favorite, gnomes. As a folkloric race, they're just a synonym for the Germanic kobold/Romance goblin (the same creature). As presented in D&D, they're instead redundant with dwarves, often taking the "short bearded men who invent advanced technology" niche that a Standard Fantasy Setting created in recent decades usually gives to dwarves.

“Love is the eternal law whereby the universe was created and is ruled.” — St. Bernard

Sharakim (Races of Destiny): They've got an angsty backstory, a bonus to int and str (lets me dumpstat str harder), Wizard (my favorite class) as a favored class, and function best at night? wonderful. I also guiltly enjoy half elves

"Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Coffee! Not as strong as Meth-amphetamine, but it lets you keep your teeth!"

Derro, they're all insane and require divine intervention to be cured of their madness.

They look like a highly debased cross between dwarfs and humans. To dwarfs and humans though they look like " all of the worst features of the other race." so they manage to look like racist caricatures to Dwarfs and Humans, offending two major humanoid races.

Finally their madness leads them to an obsession to get over their fatal allergy to sunlight but it also prevents them from ever making an effective cure.

It's like they always say "Oh God no, please please please, you don't have to do this, please God no I have a..."

I played a sharakim paladin once, briefly. (Reincarnate happened; long stupid story.) That was rather awesome.

I've been playing a darfellan cleric (ditto on reincarnate happening), but that game looks to be on the verge of imploding over some guy's temper tantrum.

This thread makes me pine for a good D&D 4e game. Alas.

Tiefling bards have always served me well, but lately I've been wanting to try something Leader-ish with a dragonborn. Any suggestions?

WOOF!

Obviously Marshal is an option. I would also suggest paladin, or maybe bard if you are comfortable with them.

My favorite race is Elan for 3.5, Gnoll for 4e. I don’t generally choose race based off of stats, my two examples because Elan is fun to make Humanoid Abominations and Gnolls because Hyena jokes are easy~

"To fan the flames of war is to burn the land away"

Go with Ardent; have your plusses in Cha/Con.

My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.

In which PHB do the Ardents show up?

WOOF!

In 4E? PHB 3.

My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.

Thri-kreen, duh...though I wish their more recent artwork wasn't so humanoid. Does EVERY playable race have to be so anthropomorphic? In old-school Dark Sun they were practically just mantids with hands, quadrupedal and everything. Last illustration I saw didn't even have an abdomen, puh.

If we're not limited to designated player races, then the Mind Flayers.

edited 13th Jun '11 11:33:26 PM by scythemantis

bogleech.com for my writing, comics and cartoons.

...I don't know; they may have been trying to head off any accusations of thri-kreen being thranx knock-offs.

...nah, it was Fail Polish.

But the Thranx have EIGHT appendages! That's completely different :p

bogleech.com for my writing, comics and cartoons.

eh, I never had to deal with the thri-kreen, If I wanted to play a bug a played an anthromorphic spider or scorpion. I'm turned off from that race because of all the armies of Thri-kreen Warblades using Tiger Claw

"To fan the flames of war is to burn the land away"

If we're not designated to player characters, then my favourite D&D race is an easy pick: JACKAL LORDS!

I've played P Cs whom I have immediately dumped when reaching lv. 12 for a Jackal Lord.

WOOF!

You'd be surprised at how many people missed the fact that thranx have one more pair of limbs than actual insects. (Or that they're more like social insects than mantids, for that matter.)

I do wish some races as weird as the kreen were in the core handbook. All players have automatic access to races as over-the-top as half dragons and half demons but if you want to play a bug guy you have to ask special permission of your DM? Pah.

They should just pick out a hundred races you can play uncontested.

edited 14th Jun '11 5:44:01 PM by scythemantis

bogleech.com for my writing, comics and cartoons.

Scythe: Eh.... I personally think DM should have the right to veto any race. For instance, in my new setting there are no elves. Are Elves a core race? Yup. Am I a shitty DM for not allowing them i n the setting? No, I don't think so.

My name is Cu Chulainn. Beside the raging sea I am left to moan. Sorrow I am, for I brought down my only son.

I often run all one-race games myself. I was tempted to do that with a Thri-Kreen party set in their Dark Sun Empire but never got around to it.

That said? Araneas are awesome, if primarily because they're portrayed as giant shapeshifting sentient spiders that don't necessarily want to eat you (just maybe corner the silk market in a nice city where there are plenty of rats to eat, or something).

Changelings.

Changelings are awesome. Especially since my class is Assassin.

My other signature is a Gundam.

Shardmind(s), full stop.

Putting aside their amazing minmaxability and borderline story-breaker traits (Not having blood or needing to breath tends to let you ignore quite a few otherwise lethal threats), I'm in love with the uniqueness of them. I mean really, psychics made of loosely-bound crystals. It's just a pity that all the official art for them (all two pictures of it) don't really capture the feel of their back story, and I haven't seen anyone else do anything with them. Ever.