[DF] Race Option Suggestions

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

So now that I think I have a slightly better handle on what the OP is looking for, suggestions below:
* Satyrs/fauns: Basically people with goat legs and maybe horns. They qualify as much as naga.
* Dryad/other kind of "slightly-plant-y human".
* Big fairies: Pop insect wings on a halfling. To keep the cost down, you don't have to give them very good flight.
* Mono-eye: Not every cyclops needs to be a giant. Just look at Japan.
* Doppelganger: Just keep the shapeshifting limited and they'll fit into the budget.
I think I may have broken your rules with some of them, sorry.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Any race labelled "orcs" who ally with elves are going to start too many geeks screaming in pain.

Eh, the fair-skinned elves (Blood Elves, formerly known as High Elves or just Elves, as opposed to the Shadow Elves on the Alliance side) in World of Warcraft are allied with the orcs (they're part of the Horde), so there's precedent. That said, it does seem weird to have all of "No dwarves because half-dwarves will confuse my players," "Orcs and elves are BFF's," and "Half-naga are fine" in play at once. I don't see how players who have no issues with a long-standing orc-elf alliance and the existence of half-naga (how does that even work - is the top half usually scaly and the half-breeds just replace the top half with whatever race their naga parent mated with?) are going to suddenly lose their minds and revolt over the existence of half-dwarves...

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Varyon

half-naga (how does that even work - is the top half usually scaly and the half-breeds just replace the top half with whatever race their naga parent mated with?)

I assumed a half naga would just have scaly patches of skin and maybe a useless tail.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

* Big fairies: Pop insect wings on a halfling. To keep the cost down, you don't have to give them very good flight.

One thing Dungeons and Dragons did that I thought was interesting was in their Races of the Wild supplement. The Raptorans - bird like humanoids - started out unable to fly; rather, their wings made them better at jumping, and they had the ability to glide. They gained the ability to actually fly - albeit only for short periods of time (rounds equal to their Con modifier, minimum 1, or twice this if they were willing to become exhausted afterward; total of no more than 10 minutes per day) - at 5th level (when most parties get some access to flight thanks to magic), but then this became natural flight (comparable to walking/running, so no more significant limits on how long one can fly) at 10th level.

For halfling-sized fairies, you could start with Flight (Controlled Gliding -45%; Magic -10%; Winged -25%) [8] - or if Magic isn't an available modifier (due to lack of antimagic, NMZ's, etc), it may be appropriate for a fairy to use Lighter Than Air -10% instead. After that, there's plenty of room to upgrade it. If using Lighter Than Air, maybe the fairy can get skilled enough that prevailing wind currents no longer dominate your ability to glide/fly, buying off that Limitation (for [4]). Maybe your magic gets strong enough you aren't reliant on your wings to glide/fly, changing to Small Wings -10% (for [6]) and making it so damage to your wings simply makes landing more difficult rather than causing you to fall from the sky, or even negating the Limitation altogether (for [10]). Maybe you gain the ability to generate lift, changing Controlled Gliding -45% to Cannot Hover -25% (for [8]), or even outright negating the Limitation (for [18]). And, of course, at least once you've upgraded to Cannot Hover you can boost your speed by buying Enhanced Move (Air). And in all cases you could make such upgrades only usable for a short period of time, with things like Maximum Duration, Limited Use, etc, to keep costs down initially (eventually buying off such Limitations).

[Astromancer]

Going by the Norse myths can be tricky. Not only is there nothing in Norse myth that suggests that dwarves are smaller than humans, but the same figure can be referred to as a dwarf or an elf within the same passage. There is nothing to suggest that dwarves look any different than humans.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Going by the Norse myths can be tricky. Not only is there nothing in Norse myth that suggests that dwarves are smaller than humans, but the same figure can be referred to as a dwarf or an elf within the same passage. There is nothing to suggest that dwarves look any different than humans.

The exact portrayal is the maker's own.

Though my second sentence probably didn't help.

[scc]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

So are you saying that you don't want to use dwarves because they are both common and typically do not include portrayals of hybrid offspring?

Yes.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Any race labelled "orcs" who ally with elves are going to start too many geeks screaming in pain. Orcs are far too widely assumed to be the baseline footsoldiers of evil armies, and to be the antithesis of elves. If you want dwarfs, why not have... dwarfs? You can make them slightly non-standard dwarfs, which seems less egregious than coming up with radically changing elf-friending beard-and-axe-loving orcs.

But if a setting includes Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs then it really should innovate with them.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Which reminds me; you don't have gnomes. These can be anywhere on the spectrum from D&D-ish skinny dwarfs with a talent for clockwork and illusion magic to the original low-end earth elementals.

I'm not sure if "makers of clockwork gadgets" is really a good niche to add, plus I'm thinking of giving Widget-Worker to Dark ELves to make them better thieves. As for elemental connections, well I plan on converting the existing the existing Infused templates so that they represent people with a connection to the Elemental Planes. Salamander's for instance will have some minor abilities, but will also be able to perform fire magic as pure Planar abilities, which bypass anything blocking magic.

Originally Posted by TGLS

I assumed a half naga would just have scaly patches of skin and maybe a useless tail.

Yep, probably also get Double Jointed

Originally Posted by Varyon

Eh, the fair-skinned elves (Blood Elves, formerly known as High Elves or just Elves, as opposed to the Shadow Elves on the Alliance side) in World of Warcraft are allied with the orcs (they're part of the Horde), so there's precedent. That said, it does seem weird to have all of "No dwarves because half-dwarves will confuse my players," "Orcs and elves are BFF's," and "Half-naga are fine" in play at once. I don't see how players who have no issues with a long-standing orc-elf alliance and the existence of half-naga (how does that even work - is the top half usually scaly and the half-breeds just replace the top half with whatever race their naga parent mated with?) are going to suddenly lose their minds and revolt over the existence of half-dwarves...

You've got a point, maybe the problem there is me, but if it results in a better game by causing me to think more, I don't think it's a problem

[Astromancer]

Don't dismiss Jinni as a useful Race. Sure, they would have strong advantages (Invisibility, flight, Magery 0) but they'd get plenty of disadvantages involving bad reputations and bad behavior that would bring that down. And Jinn/Human hybrids are typical of Arab folklore. Heck, in the modern day unusually talented and attractive people as well as the deformed or mentally strange, are said to have jinni blood. Although I don't think people actually believe that anymore, it's just a saying now.

[Phantasm]

My own setting has Elf-Orc hybrids. (Rare, true, but that's because the Elves prefer tropical and semi-tropical jungles, while the Orcs lean toward not-Norwegian fjords.) In addition to the offspring of an Elf and an Orc, Orfs can pop up as one of the four possible results of pairing a Half-Elf and a Half-Orc.

And everyone knows the end result of an Elf-Dwarf mating is a Gnome! (This is why my setting has gno gnomes!)

For pairings not in my setting:

Human-Dwarf mating is tough to figure out; quite possibly a beardless Dwarf variant.

Human-Halfling mating could also possibly result in Dwarves.

And I'm pondering whether Halfling and Goblin hybrids could exist in some world.



Of course, you can turn this on its head by not making any of the races interfertile. An Elf and a Dwarf could make a cute couple, but they'd need to adopt.

[naloth]

I'm surprised no one mentioned classic lizardmen - sharp claws, jaws, thick hide. I had a player that did a gecko variety (mostly limited climbing, long weak tongue) once.

Gargoyles are another possibility - basically a human/rockman hybrid.

Ghouls (corpse eating tunnelers) are a common fantasy race. In the game we played in, Ghouls lived among humans and could easily pass or interbreed. It's kind of a daywalking vampire trope.

I'd consider importing the Tymbrini (uplift novels/sourcebook) minus the psychics. With 4e, Gheer transformations can easily be done with alternate form.