Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Foxface Sep 21, 2014 1:31:16	Do you have an alternate interpetation or variation on one or more of the races that you want to share with others?  Are you in search of an alternate interpretation of a race?  Looking to spice up your character or campaign, and break out of "the norm"?  Looking to surprise your players or DM?   Then you've come to the right place!   The goal of this thread is to collect and present different "versions" of the races of D&D (especially the "classic" ones) for the benefit of helping players and DMs break the mold, if that is their goal.   D&D has a long history of creating alternatives to the races, some for the purposes of variety, and some for trope-busting.  One of the core conceits of Dark Sun was to present the races in very different terms.  Eberron does this too, to a lesser extent.   So contribute away!  Your contributions could range from new sub-races, complete with homebrew mechanics, to simple fluff changes that change the way you look at a race (those are my favorite, btw).  They don't even have to be yours!  If you've come across something you think is cool, share it!  As more are contributed, I'll collect them here in the first post (inside spoiler tags) so this thread can become a repository for DMs and players to mine for ideas.   I'll start things off:   Dwarves who refrain, if not outright refuse, to use hammers (and maybe axes) in battle because of the hammer's position as a sacred tool.  To stain a hammer with the blood of enemies is to do it a great dishonor, and its purity as a tool of creation is forever tainted.
#2 rampant Sep 21, 2014 1:42:07	Orcs who refuse to eat other sentient races, not because they care about their rights or nothing, but because dwarf tastes like rubbered sweatsocks, gnomes are full of transfats, halflings aren't meaty enough to be worth the effort, elves carry diseases, and humans smell so bad that their sensitive orc noses start to burn.
#3 Novacat Sep 21, 2014 2:12:35	In my setting:   The two Gith races are always born as twins: one Yanki, and one Zerai. They are two bodies that share a soul, and so that soul is split between them. Yanki receive the soul's passions, its courage, wit and  drive for adventure, while the Zerai gets the contemplative side of the soul, the discipline, and the diligence. When a Gith dies, the soul transfers entirely into the linked individual, forcing him or her to experience the full weight of the soul for the first time in their life. This can be very traumatic.
#4 Uchawi Sep 21, 2014 6:33:52	In Foxfaces's excellent collaborative world project, I mentioned the idea of a band of elves that wear helmets or visors whenever they are out in the open in public, and only take them off when they are in specially prepared rooms that is shielded with a special type of curtain. You never see them converse in the public and they act through couriers. I will leave the reasoning behind open so others may use it, but I had my own reasons that I may play out if I run a campaign again.
#5 Orzel Sep 21, 2014 7:30:08	My gnolls in my world are all born male. As they age they grow aggressive and lash out on other races. Once they kill enough poweful wildlife or intelligent beings, a gnoll will grow female body parts and turn female. Gnolls need to kill to ensure the survival of their species, making them dangers to others if not sicced on a common enemy. Clans trade "innocent males" for breeding purposes so their males are feel to kill and turn female.   My orcs are a magically fusion of elf, human, ogre, and dwarf. They were created by the elves are grunts for their war with the hobgoblins. Orogs and half orcs are random appearances in orc births programmed in by the elves for smarter or tough soldiers.   My gnomes use photosynthesis. A gnome can live off the fat in his or her body for a year if provided with 12 hours of sunlight, enough drinking water, and movement is minimal each day. Well "sunned" gnomes do not need sleep.   Halflings culture revolves areound food by choice.  The entire halfling society revolves around a stict food based caste system. Cooks, waiters, farmers, butchers, fisherhalflings, knife makers. stove mages, and dishwashers are all castes. Most halfling thieves are butchers, waiters and knifemakers tired of their jobs.
#6 quindia Sep 21, 2014 7:35:09	In the Realm of Quindia, wood elves have been replaced by savage elves (at least on the prime material plane - the Feywild is the source of PC wood elves), thirteen nomadic tribes that range through the Jungles of Omeer. The differences are mostly cosmetic - war paint, accoutrements of bone and animal hide, masks of totem jungle animals, etc. In 5E game terms, replace proficiency with the long sword and short sword with the spear and javelin. Their alignments tend more toward neutral than good.
#7 draegn Sep 21, 2014 22:34:46	In an Egyptian setting a group of wizard priests attempted to use ritual magic to become closer to their gods. They failed. The results of their work turned on them and nearly destroyed their civilization. In the aftermath of the war the humans had retreated to their once great cities, the countryside became overrun with the new beings called god children:   lizardmen gnolls minotaurs leopardmen lionmen winged vulturemen
#8 Artifact Sep 21, 2014 22:59:17	Some alternate flavor for 4e devas:   Devas whose souls become corrupted are reborn as . . .   Dark Devas:  Deep in the recesses of memory, devas recall what they once were: immortal servitors of the gods of evil, spirits forcefully bound to the world in mortal flesh. For millennia, their souls have been reborn to wage an endless war against the forces of light.   This supplants the default flavor of corrupted devas being reborn as rakshasas (see PHB 2).  Devas and dark devas are essentially ‘pallet swaps’ [MK Ninja-style] of the same race, light and dark, good and evil.  This gives devas of all alignments raison d’etre.    All devas were once angels; there was never a sundering [like there was between eladrin, elves and drow for instance].  For this reason, dark devas never work against their own kind (non-devas are fair game of course).  The conflict within their hearts hinders constructive interaction with other devas, so most dark devas choose to keep themselves separated (and vice-versa). This ‘gentleman’s agreement’ holds in part, because outside of their immediate circles, devas are largely isolated from one another anyway.   Perpetual rumor aside, rakshasas are not corrupted devas, reborn in an alternate form.  Legends say that they stole the secret of reincarnation from devas.  Or more disturbingly, perhaps they ‘borrowed’ it from dark devas.  Neither side is telling.  As far as rakshasa are concerned, they even improved upon the process: Rakshasa reincarnate immediately upon death and remember their previous lives (devas do not).
#9 5Shilling Sep 22, 2014 3:30:02	I've tried to tweak most races in my homebrew setting. Major notes - this is an archipelago setting, and most non-human races have fey ancestry, similar to elves. Big influences on this setting were the Earthsea novels, The Voyages of Sinbad and other Tales of the Arabian Nights and Celtic folkore. Civilisation level is 'enhanced classical' (ie more advanced than you might think!)   Biggest change is probably:   Goblins - in addition to having fey ancestry, the majority of savage and 'monster' races (including goblinoids, kenku, kobolds, gnolls, and so on) are 'phenotypes' of goblin. That is, when a goblin is born (or perhaps comes into existence) it does not matter what its parent is; it has a completely random chance of having a heyena head (gnoll) crow head( kenku) or some other crazy random deformity (other races). Some of these types like to cluster together in particular types of environment (like kobolds) but plenty of them will all mix in happily. So an encounter is unlikely to be "just goblins" but rather a random mix of several different savage huanoids, all of which are technically goblins - they could even be members of the same family!   A bit more background on the fey heaviness - fey and creatures of fey ancestry are roughyl divided into seelie and unseelie. These two groups and often nicknamed "elves" and "goblins" respectively, even though sveral different races actually make up each type.   Dwarfs are much more magical than in other worlds. They live on mountain rather than in them, and are solitary or live in small groups. They are prophets, sages, philosophers and mystics. The too have fey ancestry and claim to be Seelie, though in fact lots of evidence points to them, along with gnomes, being Unseelie.   Wood Elves are very terratorial - like tigers, each elf constantly patrols it's own area. They meet up for festivals but are otherwise pretty solitary. They mark their bordes with grisly totems. They are stern and quiet.   High Elves live on invisible islands and other magically hidden places, often magically shaped hollow hills. They are pretty friendly though when they take a liking to somone. They are very good sailors when they can use magic to aid them.   Halfings are renamed Raftlings and live in villages of houseboats lashed together, Many of them never set foot on dry land.   Tieflings deformities can take many forms but can usually be kept hidden. They are heavily mistrusted but are actually mostly good, trying to make up for nthe sins of their ancestors who rules the previous empire before it fell. A few notable noble families are secretly tieflings.     I also made space for most other 4E races with their own twists (eg the extremely rare Warforged are made mostly of exotic wood). I'm not sure how 5E will change things just yet but can't wait to get back to this world (at the moment we are playing Lost Mines without changing much as written).
#10 arnwolf666 Sep 22, 2014 4:37:48	For me, High Elves are fae and are the Seelie Court.  Drow are Fae and are the Unseelie Court.  I kinda hate how D&D changed ot so Elves are no longer Faerie.
#11 Hebitsuikaza Sep 22, 2014 14:16:46	You know, something that might be considered is now throwing race into your world willy-nilly. Think about the niches each race is trying to fill. What is about them from a fundmental design perspective that is different from humans. Try to create a range of archetypes. Maybe even set up your archetype system and THEN consider what race to put into each and then disclude any races that double-up. If you don't do this you'll almost certainly end up with races that are criminally under-utilized.   You see these same archetypes pop up not only in D&D and other fantasy games, but to some degree you'll see these same archetypes to various degrees in Star Wars, Star Trek, Guild Wars, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy... basically in successful franchises, even when people don't have 'elf' and 'dwarf' you still see the same basic archetypes pop up.   Examples....   1. A race that is beautiful, graceful, intelligent, long-lived and seemingly perfect in every way. Perhaps also to a degree detached, logical and lacking in a certain spark of wild passion (for if a race is passionate and emotional, how could it possibly live very long)? They probably even have an advantage on mysticism or technology. Generally you should only have one race like this in the world, but it can be divided between a beneviolent sect and a malicious sect who might go by different names.   2. A race that might be tough but probably lacks a bit in overall physicality. Might more than make up for those failings via use of magic or technology. This race should be conservative, orderly and structured using strictly upheld rules that they try to hold others to since through construction of these rules they can get the advantage. They ought to be very good at things with a very solid and structured foundation, crafting, economics, construction, etc.   3. A race that is highly energetic and brilliant, but generally lacking pretty severely in physicality. Probably has a significant advantage over the other races in terms of magical or technological power. They should be generally extroverted and talkative, sharing ideas between each other but also listen well and remember everything people say to them. Their high intellect ought to come with a certain spark of madness that might blind them to more obvious, easier or direct ways of handling situations, but don't take this to a too exaggerated extreme. This archetype likely tries to avoid violence and prefers to handle thing socially, at least among its general members. They might also be swindlers.   4. A race that is highly physical, but orderly and restrained in a very militaristic manner. They ought to be quick to follow orders and give them too. Clever and tactical, but also quite willing to handle things directly when it is the most expendiant solution. They likely lag behind other races in terms of magic or technology, but not terribly so. This race is probably found lacking when it comes to artistic spirit, beauty and compassion. They are certainly violent and arrogant, maybe even go out of their way to dominate other races, but are also honest and sincere.   5. A race that is just beastal. Maybe driven to madness by the moon, maybe universally filled with ever brewing anger and strife, or maybe simply not all that far removed from a predatory or territorial animal ancestor. They have short fuses and resort to violence quickly. Always takes the most direct and obvious route to solving their problems, knocking down barriers with sheer force of strength and will rather than trying to find a way around them. In a fight they are scary, but they probably to some degree lack the intellectual and most certainly the mystical and technological skills to really keep up with other races. Probably quite primitive and probably quite ugly... or at least very animal-like in appearance.   6. A race whose primary defining feature is being smaller than everyone else. This can come accompanying some other advantage-- for instance, they might be fantastically advantages when it comes to mystical or technological powers or the race might be advantaged in the fact that they are constantly aware of their surroundings and how to use what is in them to their advantage or that they have a special bond with the wild or... something..., but... alternatively, a more dull route could simply be to make being small their only defining feature and exaggerating the benefits of small size while downplaying the disadvantages. This is the only categoy where you can probably get away with multiple races particularly if they are rivals, but D&D has too many filling this niche. No more than 2-3.   7. And the opposite-- a race that too large for the world it lives in. With great strength and toughness, but also big clumsy hands that are almost certain to break whatever it handles. Maybe they can carry more, maybe they can use larger weapons, but they also have a hell of a time navigating. They might be slow, particularly when they get caught up in difficult terrain, or they might be severely lacking in both intelligence and social skills (and certainly lacking all mystical and technological benefits). The point is that they are bigger than all the other racial options.   8. An artificial race. A race that is functionally physically adult, but they could either be impossibly young or impossibly old and left lost and forgotten somewhere until awakened. They don't have any real experience in the world, they almost certainly don't have real emotions and they have never been raised. Their minds might be empty or might be filled with bookish knowledge, but they almost certainly lack a lot of social skills and maybe even the knowledge of how to properly care for themselves. They probably have great advantages over a non-artificial person, both physically and intellectually, but at a severe cost of social and creative abilities. They might even get 'stuck' in situations and have a complete mental meltdown when non-artificial beings would be more willing to engage in trial and error experiments until they find a workable solution. A race like this might need to be reacharged or regulated instead of eating or sleeping and their special method of doing so might come with special restrictions that most don't have to deal with.   9. An instrutable primitive or alien race that is wildly distantly or not at all related to the other races. Lacks any form of common communication and may lack the ability to even speak works as we would be able to comprehend them due to lack of similar biology (no vocal chords or very differently shaped mouth). You can cheat and give them telepathic communication, but then it becomes an advantage rather than a disadvantage and you should balance them accordingly. A race like this is almost certainly massively advantaged in some other way-- be it physical, mental or mystical.   10. A race born with a particular curse that basically defines them. It leaves them marked and everyone recognizes that they are marked and this puts them at a serious social disadvantage. This curse almost certainly gives them some sort of great magical, but possibly physical or even technological edge that others can't match... problem is that others will not help but to perceive them as enemies and treat them as such.
#12 Sailing_Pirate_Ryan Sep 22, 2014 19:53:16	I've been tinkering away at a homebrew setting based on a random draw of the Small World board game [for those not familiar, the game has tiles for races (elves, trolls, orcs, dwarves, etc) and powers (diplomatic, wealthy, seafaring, etc) that, when randomly paired together, can make for very interesting combinations]. These are the combos I'm bringing to my world:   Flying Dwarves - Displaced during the Cold War of the Gods, the dwarves live upon a series of enormous earth motes (their former mountain homes) flung skyward when Pelor escaped Torag's prison deep underground. Being master engineers, the dwarves developed a means of using the soaring stone and wood of their earth motes to craft elaborate skyships that could fly them through the air like birds. This has enabled the dwarves to become the masters of long-distance trade throughout the known world.   Seafaring Halflings - hailing from a pair of pastoral islands in the middle of the Crystal Sea, the halflings' small size and natually tough feet have made them some of the best sailors in the known world, and their presence is highly prized even on human ships.   Wealthy (Half-)Elves - Three centuries ago, the Adventuring Prince of Calontir found himself unexpectedly coronated as King following the untimely deaths of his father and four elder brothers due to plague. Never one to listen to his father's bureaucratic courtiers, he defied tradition and married his elven lover, a fellow adventurer. As a result, his heirs were all half-elven and, because marrying elves had become "fashionable" amongst the nobles, so were the heirs of Calontir's noble families. Over time, this resulted in an aristocracy that was composed almost exclusively of true-breeding half-elves (aka Khoravar), their inhuman beauty visibly distinguishing them from the purely human commoners they ruled. While the greater stability fostered by the longer lives of their rulers helped make the nation wealthy, the racial divide between the social classes has resulted in that wealth being largely excluded from human hands (and they're rather bitter about that).   Forest Kobolds - Instead of inhabiting caves and dungeons, the kobolds of the known world inhabit the forests and litter them heavily with traps. Basically, they're Ewoks. You'll be dead before you even realize that they're there.   Diplomatic Orcs - [This was easily my most interesting draw]. The Orcs are a caste society, segmented by natural ability rather than familial bloodline (given the orgiastic nature of orc mating season*, familial lines are blurred at best). The mighty warrior caste of Joruk raids and pillages, but the canny gentry caste of Karjhuuk is intelligent, charming, and just as ruthless. The common caste of Thaark consists of the simple orcs, not strong enough to be Joruk or clever enough to be Karjhuuk, who do the simple labors and serve as cannon fodder in times of war (as opposed to raids). The civilizations neighboring the orcs usually pay one way or another. Either the diplomats of the Karjhuuk caste secure the danegeld (protection money) from them or the warriors of the Joruk caste take it by force.   * - Orcs don’t have families or even mates. Instead, they have a massive, violent orgy after each raiding season concludes in the fall and any offspring produced during the following spring are raised by the Karjuuk while the Joruk go back to raiding. The children are raised collectively and their attributes are evaluated during childhood for placement in the correct caste. The Joruk value Toughness, the Karjuuk value Guile and Charm, and Thaarks are left with Quickness. Orcs of all castes are Strong.   I have many more like that, but that's enough for now.
#13 sleypy Sep 23, 2014 10:14:44	Uchawi wrote:
#42 Jenks Oct 15, 2014 16:32:09	Want interesting takes on the normal races? Look no father than the Warcraft Universe!   Drow that are 9 feet tall, druidic, and the protectors of the world? sure!   Orcs that are shamanistic and honorable (Barring those pesky fel orcs)? You've got it!   High Elves that are completely addicted to magic driving a good amount of them insane? It's there.   Trolls being very spiritual instead of monstrous? Yup.   Undead? Ok, still evil.
#43 edwin_su Oct 16, 2014 2:41:18	Some times it is small things that add flavor to a race.   In my campaign world the dwarves use a base 5 counting system. based on counting using one hand for single numbers and the other for multiples of 5. making them able to count to 30 using fingers if they use both hands.   They are the master architects of the world and this counting system is now comonly used aong builders and  architects of all races. this explains in the world why it is common to have rooms that can be divided in 5 feet squares, becouse counting in base 5 is is very easy to lay out a plan in multiples of 5 feet.     and don't get me started on the complicated elven counting system.
#44 machinegunn1 Oct 16, 2014 4:29:42	to me dwarfs are the best smiths not elves they are also the best miners. elves are more enchanters and jewelers and wood elves are the best hunters while orcs can be friendly if you dont anger them. i also like the thought of dragonborn having tails and cities not being of mainly one race.
#45 DoctorBadWolf Oct 16, 2014 18:37:30	My Kenku are mostly bards, messengers and scribes, my halflings ride giant sea hawks and live in cliff side cave towns, my drow are desert nomads with communal burrow towns under the sand for when they need better shelter than their tents or for big meetings, the warforged were made by warlocks thousands of years ago, and these days are the only ones who know how to make more, and half-orcs are paragons of ideals like freedom and impartial justice, and have the setting's most "good" kingdom, basically playing the part of a romanticized arthurian england, complete with goodguy knights.