D&D Players, Tell Me Your Unpopular Race Hot Takes

[@lavish_cactus]

Man, the title...

[@faheezy804]

I had to double take 💀💀

[@l_ndonmusic]

Literally went 😨😨😨

[@nl4real]

"I blame inflation on the gnomes!"

[@jamiehughes5573]

​@@nl4realplease dont inflate the gnomes, we dont want the deviantartists to invade

[@williamclark9387]

It's called clickbait

[@SáreOfAlaska]

Its all about how its played. Ive got a PC playing a "half minotaur, half centaur; but only the human bits. " He's got tiny horns, but everyone in the world just thinks hes a weird looking tiefling. its absolutely hilarious.

[@TruthKeepersOfficialHD2]

This is brilliant. I like that guys imagination, I wish my party was like that

[@MaxConlo]

Umm... Don't they both have animalistic lower bodies? What do his legs look like?

[@Lenorewolf312]

​@@MaxConlo Minotaurs have the head of a bull, body of a human. The hooves are a more recent addition.

[@MaxConlo]

@@Lenorewolf312 in DND I'm pretty sure that's been there since it was conceived.

[@itap8880]

@@MaxConlo It's all inheritance anyway. Sometimes in genetics, 2 lefts make a right.

[@ReinaSaurus]

"what do you mean i cant eat the flesh of creatures that can think and talk?" "what do you mean i cant hunt a god and be an iconoclast?" "what do you mean i should accept this as currency?" when the table expects the lizard folk to act within the societal behavior of humans...

[@zeehero7280]

If I dont eat the flesh of slain enemy warriors how can I honor their skill in battle?

[@T3nch1]

The time I played a Lizardfolk I thankfully had a DM that was okay with most of the animalistic behavior I got up to which included; -Harvesting rations from slain enemies in the form of limbs. Made the other PCs super uncomfortable when, while on a march, I'd pull a partially rotting human arm from my sack of food and start snacking. -Completely ignoring social concepts like manners, money and most laws simply because he both didn't understand and didn't care about them. The party had to keep me on a short leash whenever we were in town. -Completely ignoring party dynamics since my character was written to be a solo. The other players stopped trying to make plans that included me because my character would do his own thing and disregard any and all level of planning. 5e Way of the Long Death(SCAG) Monk/Assassin Rogue. I called him my Velociraptor because of how I could effectively teleport around and ambush anyone, even during combat, was super fun to play. He wasn't a raptor though, he was more like a bipedal Komodo.

[@RutraNickers]

@@T3nch1 I was okay with everything you said until you stated that you were ignoring the party and basically playing solo. There is no way around it: That's an awful character. Even if it "makes sense, because that's how my character would act", that ain't a character to play in a community game, like literally all tabletop rpgs are. Being an animal does not mean you can't comprehend working in a group. Wolves do it, and do not say "but wolves are mammals, I was playing a lizzardfolk!" when we have evindence that real Velociraptors, the same animal you compared your character to, were pack hunters.

[@HappyJames420]

​@@RutraNickersI disagree. I've never played a solo built character, but I've been in parties with them enough to know if done well they are fun as f*ck to play with, but if done wrong (which is easy from what I've seen) they are like you said.

[@monk3110]

@@RutraNickersidk.. if anyone is gonna go off alone it’s the stealth character. I’m sure he/she didn’t abuse it. Also hot take, a good campaign at least compels you to split the party if not demands it at some point

[@SuperGamefreak18]

Dark vision is easier to work with than some people realize you can only see stuff in back and white something a dm could exploit with the classic describing water and it’s actually blood etc. But a lot of these are some good points.

[@frazonedracaoo6981]

Also dark vision turns darkness into dim light, creatures have disadvantage on perception checks when in dim light. Take advantage of that a few times and your players will obsess over torches before long.

[@beastwarsFTW]

I have Dark Vision IRL and it's almost impossible to read

[@MrGBH]

Colour-based puzzles are a great thing to use here. I set up rules about different colours being used on magic runes affecting what the rune does, and applied these to magic circles made using those runes. Players had to work out which effects were likely to occur based on what they'd seen during earlier sessions. Lots of fun when they get it right (And even more when they get it wrong)

[@QuatarTarandir]

Yeah, I feel like just a simple explanation and talking with the PCs can fix the person's problem super quickly, and just say "I may describe a dark room, but I will get to what the people with darkvision see after describing it". There, problem fixed. Also, removing darkvision? That feels super dumb to me, unless the alternative is cool and interesting

[@DragonKnightJin]

The whole "Exotic species draws attention" thing? Yeah, my Paladin's party has that. We have currently: A Tiefling Wizard, a Half-Elf Wizard, a Firbolg Druid, a Loxodon Barbarian, and finally my Naga Paladin. Only my Paladin is an OG character from the start of the campaign, and I'm the only OG player in the group. As for the exoticness... My character's introduction was LITERALLY him arriving in a town and getting picked up by the Town Guard with a request to come with them, because he was making people uncomfortable. And then joining the Adventurer's Guild because membership would help people be less immediately wary of him. To the point where he's mostly grown out of the learned habit of holding up said membership token whenever he meets someone. Combined with the fact that he's more well-known around the continent as a good person, honestly. But, he knows the town guard of ANY city he visits will still be keeping an eye on him. Which is why HE is the party treasurer. Because with the town guard keeping an eye on him, anybody trying to rob him is just BEGGING to get arrested. If they don't get fucked up by him and/or the rest of the party first.

[@tobiasbayer4866]

Thats why I tell players during session zero/before character creation what the setting is like and what races are common there so that If they choose an uncommon one they do so intentionally and with the expectation of standing out. Although there is obviously a spectrum to this and I have disallowed certain races before If they just straight up didnt exist in that setting or where so rare in the area the story is set in that noone there would have ever seen someone of that race before.

[@hannahdigioia692]

That makes me think of the ace attorney "present your badge to everyone" thing.

[@parkershaw3753]

One of my groups was a human, an Eladrin, a bugbear, a Shadar-kai, and an awakened snake. The title of the campaign was "Intense Racism Personified" which worked since there was basically nowhere where we were all treated well. There was one planet we went to at the end of the campaign that was mostly good to us all, but the wizard in charge of the place *did* wonder out loud why our powerful wizard decided to take the form of a snake at all times.

[@apathyjak8796]

Marathons Aint nobody got time watch a bunch of people with different athletic skills run, bike, and swim.

[@criticalblaster458]

Honestly, I hate sprints. Just too darn fast.

[@MaxHolleyBC]

Also I think that’s a triathlon mate

[@apathyjak8796]

@@MaxHolleyBC still not my favorite race..

[@raphaelalmeida7326]

The "orcs cant be heroes" speach is precisely why i like playing orcs, overcoming bad stereotypes is just so cool in a story

[@jediping]

And honestly the orcs can only be evil thing and the “tempered with human blood” stuff sure sounds like some of the stuff racists spout.

[@theprinceofawesomeness]

agree, there is nothing about Orcs not being able to be heroes or even be wizards but it should all do with their cultural standards, orc culture should just be more brutish, violant, and sadistic so a orc who's a hero to the wider world should be rare

[@thebusiness8212]

Yeah that definitely seemed like an assumption they made themself and then pointed at the company and said “It’s your fault!”

[@jediping]

@ I think in older versions of the game it may have been written that way, but I haven’t bothered to verify that.

[@maxtube1952]

@@jediping It was. In fact, in even older editions, even Half-orc wasn't a playable race, only Half-ogre.

[@Coffy-chan]

Wasn't kidding about these being hottakes. Even the narrator had hot takes on this one.

[@pcalix17]

Anyone can learn to live and love. Understanding how genetics work among species and how a world is filled with taboos and norms creates a lot of headaches. However, some moments drive players, such as a human learning magic to romance a fire elemental without being killed by proximity.

[@zeehero7280]

Or a certain general learning gravity magic so he can still ride his tiny horse...

[@monk3110]

In their own way yes I guess. Like orc “love” isn’t the same as ppl love because they’re bla-no Mexican?

[@pcalix17]

@@monk3110 Don't insult the clans, holmes.

[@mr.critical5523]

Remember folks. It doesnt matter what you play, but how you play it.

[@6ftTiny216]

I agree, and I think a lot of the sentiment with many of the opinions in the video comes from an unspoken semyiment of most people not being good at roleplaying. So IF they are at least open to it, they twnd to default to a lame, yet sexier version of themselves. Thus, making all the races 'blend' together by making them all intelligent, 'equal' in the official lore, making them 'cutesy' , and making them all havs access to the same stats, deprives your run-of-the-mill player of valuable narrative tools that can guide them towards having an interesting character. And now we have a lot of those players - which is not a bad thing on it's own - but that leads to 'mediocrity' being more noticable. And the frustrating part is WOTC have gone all-in on appealing to what they percieve as the lowest common denominator. Which can be annoying for people who are more heavily invested into the hobby and want something more substantial to sink their teeth in.

[@Attaxalotl]

The 400m dash has no reason to exist. The 100m is a test of speed, 800m+ is a test of endurance, but 400m is a sad middle ground where it's too far to go all out but not far enough to be the same kind of test as a longer race.

[@wowb1965]

I’m gonna say it. Street racing is VASTLY superior to those filthy nascar races. Congratulations, you can turn a single direction. The cars also lack the striking aesthetic of street racers. Instead they have more stickers than the kids section of a dollar store. How much more abhorrently inferior can a race be?

[@zachswanson6643]

Sounds like somebody's gotta take some ASIs in constitution bc the 400 is absolutely short enough to go all out if you have the stamina. A good 400 runner is going full speed the entire time.

[@alexandraford4739]

1:57 this one makes me livid. Not because of the take itself, but because of the context. Shadar kai weren't elves at all prior to 5e. They were their own weird clan of raven queen fanatics and bdsm enthusiasts with cool lore about having once been a human tribe that was scared of death. The raven queen lore is what made the shadar kai shadar kai. And they stripped half of it in 5e, and the suggestion to strip the other half honestly makes me sad.

[@megatronryker8930]

I recently made a character or two using this race and went to previous editions fore lore on them and to create a better backstory... the only thing wrong with them is the later the editions go... i.e. 5e. Bits of lore just keep getting dropped from races as a whole. Not just shadar-kai.

[@ZiseGzu]

I agree with the guy saying not all races should be equal. I hate the fact that a goliath can have the same starting strength as a gnome. Every race has areas where they shine and those where they do not. Choosing +2/+1 gets rid of that.

[@zeehero7280]

Not equal but congruent! overall equal but different. That is only one reason 2024 sucks. removing half races is already enough to boycott the trash.

[@boomkruncher325zzshred5]

I dunno, why can’t a gnome work really friggin hard on their strength training and get just as swole as a Goliath? What makes races different is the real question. What makes a species unique is their features in 5E, not their stats. Anyone can train their stats to buck the trend of their stereotype, it is a perfect foundation for a heroic adventurer who works hard to succeed at something people don’t expect from them. However, a Goliath is going to have abilities specific to their race that no gnome can replicate, even if their stats are the same. That IMHO is a far more nuanced way to show the difference in the different races than otherwise.

[@ZiseGzu]

@@boomkruncher325zzshred5 Of course a gnome can work really hard on their strength and become as strong as a goliath. But a goliath may do the same and outperform a gnome, due to its biology. Not every goliath is stronger than every gnome, but peak strength goliath is stronger than peak strength gnome. The "working really hard" part is, for me, the base stats. As a gnome, I can put a 15 in strength. Maybe a goliath puts 10, because he does not work out, but gets a +2 for 12 in total. Gnome worked hard and is stronger than a goliath. But a goliath may put 15 in strength, too, for working hard, but due to its biological advantage, these +2 get him to 17. I get that the mechanical reason for that is that if somebody wants to play a gnome barbarian, he will be behind in stats as opposed to goliath barbarians. But it still does not sit right with me.

[@QuatarTarandir]

Well, you have to remember the players are pretty much the exceptions. They are incredibly special and unique people that sometimes go past even the laws of the universe. Maybe the explanation is magical more than physical or such, but either way they are unique and I don't have a problem with it. You can still make the npcs follow those rules, but the PCs don't have to

[@ZiseGzu]

@@QuatarTarandir That is true, I'm not denying that. I'm fine with a PC gnome that is stronger than even above average NPC goliath warrior, but a PC goliath should be stronger then PC gnome (strength-wise), if they both decide to play the strongest character possible. Goliath with incredible strength being on the same level as a gnome with incredible strength, for me, feels like downplaying a goliath character. I get that it is a mechanical reason, for gnome barbarians not to lag behind on damage and chance to hit. When I play such a character, I like to reskin their damage and hit as gnomes being more intelligent and analytic, so their attacks are not as strong, but more well timed and precise, hence the same damage and hit chance as goliaths. But it still feels lackluster for me, since, for example, their intelligence saving throws are the same and then it's downplaying gnome advantages, etc.

[@TheBirdsDen]

Dnd players stop bitching about furries or furry races challenge (impossible) considering most players are elf human tiefling or varient. Consider also adding salt to your food if you want to explore food eith a modicum of flavor

[@Thurmanation2011s]

More options more fun. It's fantasy and I want the fantastical.

[@NotPoggies]

Read the last sentence in huggbees voice

[@meshajity]

Least obvious furry bias 😭

[@magnusfundal1970]

The observation about remembering to *play* your race is why I tend to stick to humans and half-humans. I don't feel up to the task of seeing everything through the lens of, say, a Tabaxi, without feeling like I am just roleplaying cat stereotypes.

[@Terestrasz]

The neat thing is you don't have to play cat stereotypes. ;) Imagine if we treated humans the same way. "Hm, hold on, I'm a human. Did I mention I'm a human? I need to make eye contact with people because I'm human."

[@magnusfundal1970]

Yes, I sometime want to make a human as imagined by someone who only heard of them 😁 Especially when I see BG3 meme posts with a gold Dragonborn called Aurelia or a Duergar called Ebovy or something. Maybe I'd call my human "Fleshy McFlatteeth" or "Hugh Mann". I would constantly be describing my thin hair and my soft unprotected skin 😄

[@magnusfundal1970]

​@@Terestrasz But the point still stands that a Tabaxi is, or should be, different from a Half-Elf, so even if I am not doing cat stereotypes, I need to include enough inhuman flair to make it feel different.

[@Terestrasz]

@@magnusfundal1970 i describe their body language such as their tail twitching when they are agitated or their ears moving. There's no reason to be all "Hello how are meow doing?"

[@ShadowDude6488]

Halflings = Midget Humans Gnomes = Midget Dwarves Goblins = Midget Orcs Kobolds = Midget Dragonborn Also this one's true in my homebrew campaign: Elves + Dwarves = Enemies Elves + Drow = Enemies Dwarves + Duregar = Enemies Drow + Duregar = Co-Existing Allies

[@Wyatt-kj7ou]

If goblins are midget orcs, what are hobgoblins and bugbears?

[@brianjones9780]

​@@Wyatt-kj7ou redneck orcs and their inbred cousins

[@morgantaylor84]

I'm sorry, Gnomes are midget Dwarves? Gnomes are friendly, mad scientists, inventors, and alchemists, Dwarves are sirly at best and xenophobic isolationist at worst, black smiths and stone crafters. Other than the fact they both mine and are both smaller than everyone else (except Goblins+Kobolds) on the size scale they are NOT the same. It's your and your party's fault for playing them that way, but vanilla lore they are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT races. Oh and when I say Gnomes are inventors I don't mean they make traps out of wood and stones. I mean they make machines made of metal that you wouldn't think is out of place in a steam punk setting. Any other race's trap is a giant boulder to roll onto you. A Gnome trap is a vat of acid that floods a hallway making it impossible to travel. Which brings me to one of my race hot takes. All of those ridiculously intricite traps that DMs have their Kobolds make in their layers. The Kobolds wouldn't do that because, as a race, they're NOT SMART ENOUGH. They would just drown you in simple traps, not incredibly intricate ones that launch saw blades down a 200 foot hallway at average human height. All of those incredibly creative trap ideas are what Gnomes would make as traps, not Kobolds.

[@clarehidalgo]

Gnomes have pointy ears like elves

[@AnoNymous-gn6tl]

@@morgantaylor84 **Gnome artificer has entered the chat...**

[@lordmars2387]

Templates, alternative class features, and new classes would have really improved 5E. The game is old enough to give us depth now. Fear not the min/maxer but do not cater to them; what you should despise is the bland uninteresting samey corporatist slop where they flatten your world lore and options and condemn all critics.

[@jordan89124]

Can I offer you a Pathfinder in these trying times?

[@Xecryo]

Ok incoming lore dump explanation but my hot take? Orcs are the victims of the other races. To clarify, in Forgotten Realms lore the myth goes that all the pantheons of the races got together and divided up the world between their races. Dwarves got mountains, elves got woods etc. Only two races did NOT get anything, Halflings and Orcs. Why you might ask? Well for Halflings the head of their pantheon, Yondalla, stole bits and pieces from the other races in order to make the halflings and got caught red handed by the other pantheons and the conditions to not being punished more severely was Yondalla had to get rid of her thieving aspect AND halflings would get no land and rely on the hospitality of other races. And Yondalla didn't even do that she secretly split her dark thieving half off into another god, Dallah Thaun, who halflings secretly worship to this day but remains unknown to other gods. Orcs on the other hand got screwed for no reason. When Gruumsh wen to claim land for the orcs he was told by the elf god Corellon (gaslighting dick that he is) that there was no room left for orcs and that no room would be made for them in the world. Gruumsh, understandably pissed off about this fought Corellon resulting in the loss of his eye and to Loth's eventual betrayal of Corellon. But tell me in what universe is that fair? Halflings' deity engages and is caught in a demonstrable crime gets mildly punished. The orcs' deity on the other hand has a reputation for being mildly unpleasant, gets gaslit, and then orcs get to be the fodder for other races. And remember Corellon is the "good" deity and Gruumsh is the "evil" one. Gruumsh did nothing wrong! Justice for the orcs!

[@stephenwood6663]

I always feel like the tale of Corellon and Gruumsh's rivalry (and how this translates out into the rivalry between orcs and elves, and how this somehow makes Corellon and the elves the good guys), is one of those "Wow, that's what the history books say, huh? Who wrote those history books? Was it the elves?" deals.

[@Xecryo]

@@stephenwood6663 There’s an apocryphal myth that Corellon and Gruumsh are brothers and basically their parents gave them different martial gifts to fight in the dawn war. IE Gruumsh is ugly and strong but Corellon is beautiful and graceful. Orcs and Elves both deny this myth. But my headcanon is it’s true and Corellon represents a sort of sanitized and romanticized idea of warfare whereas Gruumsh is the ugly truth of warfare that people would rather ignore.

[@tedparkinson2033]

​@stephenwood6663 always a fun aspect to play on. History is written by those who choose to write it.

[@zeehero7280]

They may be victims but that doesn't make it wrong to defend ourselves from them. Would some maybe feel sorry for the Orcs, abandoned by the gods and world? yeah most likely. But they would still slay as many as they need to without mercy to defend their homes.

[@tobiasbayer4866]

I think this is just a relic from them being a non playable race before. But hey, atleast they arent literally reduced to being nothing more than plundering savages anymore.

[@JohnJohnson-vf1kk]

Video idea: What was a “we’re just gonna pretend that didn’t happen” moment in one of your campaigns?

[@HaughtyToast]

"Should maybe try an older version of D&D" 5e has comparatively few playable races compared to the older editions because there is no dedicated system for balancing monsters as races. 3.5 had well over 200.

[@monk3110]

That system was awful tho lol. A raskshasa has a lvl adjustment of +7 have tons of BS and stat boosts…. and can cast spells as a 7th level sorcerer 🤣

[@HaughtyToast]

@@monk3110 The rakshasha is an extreme example. Most of the published races only had an adjustment of +1 or +2. 3.5e was still running on logic from older editions. Generally it's assumed that any creature with a level adjustment above +2 is treated like non-humans were in the earlier editions, as temporary companions that you wouldn't take through the whole game. They weren't designed to stay balanced with the party because of that. They're there as filler so players can still play after their main playable dies and not disrupt the narrative by having a new elven bard materialize in the middle of a dungeon when it doesn't make sense.

[@theprinceofawesomeness]

i agree that Races should be treated as being different however in my curent game i'm playing a Kobold, the people around me while not all are racist they are weary of me, there are some places i can't go to because of this racesim, some places are plot relative. i am expected to break in using stealth and disguises to get in to those places but that's not who my character is, so it happens that i wait outside around the city doing things (opening my own bussnes that have become vital to the economy). in the end when i and the party meet up they need to inform me what happened. this is an Adventure Path and the writers never thought that someone wanted to play a non-core race, my group is fantastic and still allow me to play a non-core race

[@AJ-hu4ig]

Speaking of orcs not needing to be subhuman, I like how one anime did it, "I became an adventurer at 30." One of the characters is an Orc named Broughston. He was raised around regular orcs who were subhuman brutes, but Broughston was blessed with high intelligence and incredible strength. As far as I'm aware, no human lineage, just got incredibly lucky.

[@derrickhaggard]

I'm playing an Infernal Heritage Tiefling in a Ravenloft game using the 2024 rules and part of her backstory literally states she is unfairly viewed as the "Daughter of Asmodeus" due to the fact she was born a Tiefling due to the fact her mother is a Fiend Warlock who is in a pact with the Archdevil. And despite being good people my character and her mother are still treated like crap by other people that even going out in public they're in danger from attacks at the hands of racist people.

[@jesternario]

Three hot takes: 1) Your race/class combination does not make you special. In fact quite the opposite. More often than not, being a race that isn’t normal for the setting is all you care about, and you don’t care about backstory. That human that gives me a story about how they came from a poor former noble family out to reclaim their nobility? That character is interesting. 2) not every class should have darkvision. In my games, I split races between types: infravision and ultravision. Infravision lets you see the heat from different surfaces and is possessed by those that normally live underground. Ultra vision lets you see easier in twilight. Edit: If your race mostly lives in the light (e.g. humans, elves, halflings, forest gnomes), you get neither. 3) All dwarves have beards. All of them. Part of the mating process for dwarves is using spying and subtle questions to figure out what type of relationship you have. Some female dwarves braid their hair, wear makeup, dresses, and hair bows, but would never shave their beards.there’s being openly female, and then there’s just not being a dwarf (thank you Terry Pratchett)

[@offnet6934]

Only problem with darkvision is that nobody read lore/rules. In dark you use see in dim light and in blurry monochrome in most cases (see some night vision googles) or termovision if they are underdark natives. You need light source to see normally even with dark vision(exception is devil sight, you see even worse with light). This force you to use light in all somewhat complex task like reading, searching, crafting etc. without penalty. Not to mention identifying what you fight, 3m burly shadow can be many thing.

[@AenVegra]

In my settings, I have lotsa homebrew... But I make darkvision more of a... 'has to have light to see' or a tremorsense combo thing. And nerf the range. So there's a reason for people to want light. And for one of my premier underground races, Devai, they have exceptional low-light vision. Whhhyyyyyyy? Well. Combination of tremorsense from their thick yet soft pads on their feet, and very, very large eyes combined with bioluminescence. And yes, they hate sunlight. Well, not so much hate... but it is very uncomfortable for them. It kills their nice little biome of fungi, and being fungal themselves, it harms them. Though they have regeneration, it is still quite uncomfortable, and it, along with the 'roofless' environment, makes it harder to see (and tremor/blindsense) too, which means... If you're going into Subterra (underdark sorta thing), you'll want one as your guide. They will be able to locate nearby tunnels through walls, see or sense a long way ahead, effortlessly avoid tunneling umber hulks, sniff out most threats, and their psychic abilities make their existing awareness even sharper. Consequentially, they are much weaker in actual combat, despite being tough as nails to take down, they hit like a stuffed animal and are much better at contorting themselves in one-inch spaces to get away from predators than they are at dealing with them head-on.

[@Viehzerrer]

If there is a pointless race, it's gnomes. Next to dwarves and halflings, they struggle to have any real identity. Incidentally, halflings are among my favorites. They just hit the right spot between ordinary and special and a palate cleanser to all the weird critters that encompass commonly played D&D races now. I would have liked those a long time ago, but these days I prefer something more "normal" to the point that I even play a human in my group (would have been unimaginable 10 years ago). Now, something that's apparently an actual hot take, but really shouldn't be: There's nothing wrong with "evil races" (although using that word makes it sound worse than it is). People act like portraying the entirety of certain sentient fantasy creatures makes you racist, which is just laughable and shows even less faith in people than I have. It really only becomes a problem if those creatures resemble real life human cultures. Beyond that, most people are perfectly capable of distinguishing between fantasy monsters and human beings. And those that aren't, are intentionally projecting their racist views upon them.

[@shagohad3]

4e is the only edition to make gnomes interesting. Back then, they were paranoid doomsday preppers who were on constant alert for slayers. Going so far as to have secret police in each village to make sure there they stayed slaver free.

[@sjoerdderks4731]

Someone told me gnomes are the jackasses of D&D, they live every day as their last even with the fact they can live longer than most races, they are chaotic in a nutshell

[@adadakaka2835]

My racial hot take is that demons and devils are way too varied to have tieflings as just "Red skin with horns and tails" Give them spines, wings, sharp claws, disgusting features such as semi digitigrade legs or hunched over backs! They should look like a fiend and that's what adds to their "foul blooded" nature! Same thing for aasimar! Whenever I make a tiefling, I always try to base it off of a particular devil and work that into its design

[@rayzerot]

Not really a hot take because that's how tieflings are described in the books- with various colors and various features depending on the lineage. Players are just stuck on the stereotypical archetype of red with horns

[@uberculex]

The problem is people who want that aren't the ones who pick tieflings. If you enforced that, the people who DO pick tieflings would probably just switch to a different race.

[@Thagomizer]

Congrats, you justified the tiefling racial traits table from the 2e Planewalker's Handbook.

[@MayHugger]

@@uberculexGood! They all seem to just want hot lgbtq+ race a way, and Changelings are right there, they can literally change every part of their appearance on a whim, Tieflings have so much more potential than what they kept getting seen as.

[@johngleeman8347]

As others have said, what you want is exactly how it was handled in older editions. Give the homogenized tieflings the boot and bring back variation to the table.

[@matthewscorner2990]

Love the immediate shift from the comment talking about all the value in the wide range of races to the comment talking about how there are too many races. Personally, I agree with the first comment. D&D is such a fantastical world that is meant to facilitate player creativity and fun. Having more variety in what you can make your character can contrbute to that fun. I genuinely find human/human adjacent races to be a bit boring. Humans, dwarves, gnomes, elves, halflings, half-elves etc. Obviously I have some characters that are these races and the race itself does not an interesting character make, but still, I find it hard to not be drawn to the more outlandish, monstrous, or animalistic races. They provide more visual, thematic, and flavor interest to a character a lot of the time. And then you have the middle range of races, human-esc with strong differences. Genasi, half-orcs, firbolgs, tieflings, triton, aasimar, etc. In the middle range of interest for me. Also, I don't care if having a furry race for every animal is lazy, I still find its exclusions confusing. If we can have characters based on cats, lions, hippos, elephants, eagles, crows, owls, lizards, rabbits, turtles, fish, bulls, hyenas, bugs, snakes, monkeys, and even goddamn dragons, why then don't we have dogs, bears, boars, rodents, or anything else like that? If you're gonna have that subset of races exist, you may as well commit and go all the way. Also, Dragonborn should have tails. Lore-buffs, don't at me.

[@guzonjaguzic9742]

I alsways saw dragon having tails. Argonian from TES comes to mind first to me. I grew up with that series.

[@matthewscorner2990]

@@guzonjaguzic9742 I view Argonians more akin to Lizardfolk rather than Dragonborn, but I also know next to nothing about those games' lore. Either way, agreed on the tails thing.

[@guzonjaguzic9742]

@@matthewscorner2990 well, in lore they are similar to lizardfolk in lifestyle but more like dragonborn in society. Lizardfolk in lore dont have emotion as others do and view the world completely different. Everything is food and survival is the point of life for them apparently. I dont know any other race that is described as such. So they enique and hard to roleplay somebody like that xD

[@matthewscorner2990]

@@guzonjaguzic9742 Fair, I forgot Argonians don't have that distinction. I actually have a Lizardfolk meant to specifically contradict that bit of lore. He's able to feel proper emotions, but doesn't really realize it, comprehend it, or know how to deal with it. He seems relatively normal on the surface as he's very reclusive and objective, so that passes off as unfeeling. But I would love to play him a good roleplay party that can really explore that side of him.

[@guzonjaguzic9742]

@@matthewscorner2990 nice, i hope you get your chance to play it. Sounds like a interesting concept but i dont know if i could pull it of.

[@VexedVergil]

I wanna play a hyper intelligent squirrel! Think of it, a squirrel artificer that uses its power armor/ walking balista and some sort of mech suit to compensate for its short stature 😂

[@dizzydial8081]

Dwarves, regardless of sex, grow magnificent beards. Cutting it off is seen as dishonorable and a huge taboo amongst dwarves. In some drawvrn societies, cutting off a beard is a form of exile. They also don't grow back after being cut, so if you're exiled as a dwarf, it's over for you.

[@mr.cobalt1668]

I have something similar in my setting, with the added lore that the reason shaving a Dwarf is associated with exile is because the beard serves as a sort of natural dust filter for underground air, and without it a Dwarf is a lot more susceptible to suffocation and disease from airborne particulate if they try to continue living in their underground homes instead of the surface they are exiled to.

[@jimskywaker4345]

I don't like that last part because it means in theory you can be screwed over by someone else.

[@addison_v_ertisement1678]

"Nice argument, Senator. Now, how about you back it up with a source?"

[@Uhhhhhhhhhhh6]

This isn't a hot take, this is a cool ass worldbuilding idea.

[@rayzerot]

The beards, "Don't grow back after being cut" Dwarves would never become adventurers then. The first bad fight would have a monster tear chunks of beard out or an enemy warrior slash their chest where the beard hangs. One dragon breath would scorch the beard right off. Then the dwarf would look exiled and outcast for life. It would never be worth the risk

[@DarkRabbit-ck2ur]

Orcs look like wild boars/warthogs. Half-orcs look like domestic pigs.

[@Liethen]

In one of my homebrews i had two types of orcs, wild hillbilly orcs that look like wild boars and 19th century industrialist orcs that look like domestic pigs in top hats and monocles.

[@coalcreekdefense8106]

I did like a moment in Legends of Avantris when a character got briefly transformed into a Mammon tiefling, and the player played him as something between a Jersey used car salesman and a Ferengi.

[@zeehero7280]

thats amazing lol.

[@jblask2]

"There are too many races!!" I get it that there are definitely a lot and a new player might get confused but I absolutely love looking at the art and seeing the stats of new and different creatures. I remember the first time I tried to play DND at a friend's house and I don't know the edition (this was in like 2004 I think) and I only had the option of playing an elf, human, or gnome and I just remember none of those options really appealing to me.

[@seanhunkins3508]

I hold the opposite opinion on the Shadar-kai, I liked it better when they were humans who feared death and made a pact with the Raven Queen for immortality. Say what you want about 4th ed, but both the Raven Queen and the Shadar-kai were 1000× more interesting then.

[@commonviewer2488]

It makes more sense for Dragonborn to be the dragon equivalent of Tieflings than to be a whole seperate race.

[@RioDrake]

3.5 had them as a template for those you whole heatedly served bahamut. It was pretty cool.

[@Uhhhhhhhhhhh6]

I like both ideas honestly...

[@aperson3996]

@@Uhhhhhhhhhhh6honestly, I like both as well. I love the Abeir Dragonborn, but I admit the other former human dragonborn sound pretty cool ngl. In the lore, Im pretty sure there are both able to coexist

[@monk3110]

Goblins should be *pugly* but scary when smiling and flashing fangs

[@morgantaylor84]

Mine is quite simple. Alignment and race are NOT mutually exclusive. Just because someone is an Orc. Goblin, Ogre, Red Dragon etc does not automatically make them evil. And vice versa just because someone is an Aasimar, Elf, Dwarf, Forest Nymph etc does not automatically make them good either. Every smart race has an equal capacity for being good, evil, or just not giving as far as they can toss something that's heavy to them. So yes, have a continent where evil won in the past and all of the societies generally skew towards some form of evil. Just don't make them exclusively the home of "traditionally bad guy races" and evil Humans. And same goes for your generally good continents and countries as well. Don't fill them exclusively with "traditionally good guy races" and good Humans. It's boring, it robs the game world of depth, and worst of all it teaches your players to limit their expectations to "Good guy race, trust them implicitly, bad guy race, kill them at first chance". You know, instead of actually having them engage in your game world and with your NPCs to sus out if they're actually helping you because they're good or if they're helping you because they want something in return, something that the players aren't going to like having to do but will be honour bound to do anyway.

[@karenmiles4431]

The lore of species in D&D CAN, and SHOULD be separate from their identity. Lore is dependent on setting, identity is what makes each species unique. Example: Elves having a connection to nature is part of the identity, while their coming from the Feywild, or being byproducts of a battle between Corellon and Grumsch is lore. Alignment tends to get tied to lore more than identity. This means, as you were saying, that every species/race has the capacity for either good or evil. It ultimately comes down to the lore that one establishes for their world. It is why I have complained about connections, and some of them continuing, between Gods and species (looking at you Lloth, and your hold on the Drow). For a DM that wants to change the LORE of a species, they will be working to stay ahead of player expectations. Example: Shifting Drow origins away from Lloth (as well as Corellon) and the Underdark, to the Feywild (research Thelania, Unseelie Court Queen of Dusk and Shadows) to be inline with the other sub-races/species of Elves would require a DM to establish that lore ahead of players creating characters. At the very least communicating a plan for different origins, lest a player put in work to create a character and backstory based on PHB lore. Creating a deep and immersive world, with wonderful complexity of people and places, will require a worldbuilder to develop the lore of those elements. From there, details on culture and alignment will start to fall into place. No one should feel like they have to copy/paste from previous editions, or campaign settings (i.e. official worlds).

[@uberculex]

My reasoning is many of the "evil" races either products of being entranced by an evil god (which doesn't affect those that can break away but does affect the majority) like goblinoids or just their dominant cultures are evil.

[@duskgaming18]

Honestly, yeah. If the DM tries to set up a murder mystery of sorts where the suspects are say a Tiefling, a Loxodon, a Human, an Elf, and a Lizardfolk, and all throughout the campaign the only races shown to be pure evil at least 50% of the time are Tieflings and Humans while the other 3 have been nothing but good boys, it trains players to think "...Okay, it's either the Human or Tiefling, or Both." Like, give me a variety pack of bad guys, they don't even have to be major antagonists, just make some of the mooks different races. Seriously, how hard is it for people to say like maybe 2 or 3 Thugs in a group of 10 are a pair of say an Elf, a Loxodon, and a Fairy. Adds some variety and can actually add some challenge to the encounter as the Elf and Fairy could have innate magic

[@torgranael]

Counterpoint: Defying expectations makes for a fun story, but cannot be done without setting them in the first place.

[@mmangalisomasinga432]

Well, since no one else has made this take, I suppose I'll be the one to burn at the stake. I like the inclusion of negative traits for races.

[@FizzieWebb]

Honestly, good take. Different races and species would have different natural aptitudes on a wider level before personal interest and skill is involved, and leaning into or working around them would make for good roleplay scenarios. Orcs are strong, but clumsy and a bit stupid for the most part, lending them to be good barbarians and fighters, but they really have to work at being mages or rogues. A smart orc could either be a good tactical fighter, or really push to be a powerful mage through application and study. Elves are wise, smart, dexterous, and charismatic, owing to their longevity, but are frail and weak due to their reliance on healing spells agility. A particularly old elf could be a bit of a racist bastard depending on the background of world, maybe a young elf has taken an interest in smithing after seeing a smith of another race demonstrate the more physical art and starts building themselves up through more martial practices to be strong enough to work the forge. Typical stuff like that. I can see something like a Tiefling allowing for more freedom in stat placement depending on the demon/devil whose lineage they are a part of, but they have a natural substantial charisma hit due to their demonic visage. etc. etc.

[@robertsilvermyst7325]

Why are there no canine races in base D&D? And no, werewolves do not count: that's an additive much like vampirism. We have Tabaxi, Leonin and Harengon. I have to go to homebrew for something like Lupin, and the campaign setting like Dark Sun for Khenra. They love their cats (cats and bunnies are cute), but we need canines too. If anything, in Japan, Kobolds are canines and not dragon blood lizards.

[@kereymckenna4611]

In my homebrew i'd rule for lore that ALL weird little guys (dwarves, Gnomes, haflings and goblins) are actually pretty closley relsted biologically...

[@thegreatandterrible4508]

Kobolds?

[@zeehero7280]

Not a race hot take, but I will stand my ground on Oath based Paladins being more real paladins than the old god based ones. I want to play a Paladin not a more fighty cleric.

[@MayHugger]

Agreed.

[@tobiasbayer4866]

Also you can still play a paladin that is religious and fights in the name of a god If you want to. Its just not the source of their power anymore.

[@soulwynd]

Orcs aren't Mexicans, wizards of the coast.

[@iivin4233]

Did they say that?

[@soulwynd]

@@iivin4233Art for the new edition shows them as Mexicans. Sombrero included.

[@l_ndonmusic]

Halflings and Gnomes are just, visually, really similar, and a lot of newcomers to DnD and TTRPGs struggle to tell the difference. That’s why, going forward, I wanna make halflings into Mice People. Think An American Tale, or Stuart Little. Like 2ft-3ft tall, Halfling luck, naturally stealthy, all the Halfling traits and whatnot.. but they’re now just more distinct now

[@mr.cobalt1668]

I've been toying with a similar idea except instead of being full mice people they're still mostly humanoid but have rodent-like ears and lower legs/feet, and possibly vestigial tails.

[@tonberryking42]

Gnomes are to Halflings like Elves are to Humans, really. They're treated like basically weirdling variants of the other by most people, but when I play a halfling, I *want* to play into the perils of being smaller, generally weaker, with the big scary world where my wit and deftness carry me through, and I DON'T have the benefit of living more than 70 years, assuming nothing kills me. I like most the settings where being the little one means I'm either underestimated, viewed with suspicion due to propensity for being sneaky, or treated as in need of protection. Really, it's more that people rarely, if ever, actually explore the consequences and meaning of there being long lived and short lived species. I mean, how often does it come up that the elf who's been here for 400 years would get the opportunity to actually *show that* at the table? And yet we get the ancient human of a mere 90 years giving a lecture to the nearly eldritchly old elf who's basically an adventurer because that's what they're doing with their midlife crisis.

[@alsenddrake7764]

I approve more anthros :3 I played an original Raccoon Person race years ago and used the Lightfoot Halfling statline for em.

[@rayquaza5059]

I’ve got a race of mouse people in my campaign, which I’ve been calling Mousefolk. They’re natural enemies to the Tabaxi because of the cat and mouse dynamic.

[@CooperAATE]

I also dislike 'cute goblins' ...and avoiding tiefling racism (or speciesism in general) ...and when ppl don't actually roleplay any of their species' traits and just play them as humans ... but I LOVE halflings, and that person can shush lol

[@darioschottlender]

I know right? I don't know why was he so mad about halflings lol

[@DrakeKnight99]

Actually the Tiefling racism thing is tied to how mine became a death domain cleric working for the Collector of Souls

[@stephenwood6663]

@@darioschottlender Maybe a halfling stole some of his jewlery one time and threw it into a volcano.

[@MayHugger]

Dealing with the fantasy racism was supposed to be one of the appeals and challenges of playing a Tiefling.

[@shagohad3]

I don't agree that tieflings should be a lineage. Tieflings are the result of HUMANS having relations with fiends. Elves have Fey'ri, orcs have tanarukk, haflings had wisplings and dwarves had maeluth. If anything, shadar-kai and tieflings should become human sub-races

[@zeehero7280]

I think a tiefling should be possible to be born to 2 human parents like an Aasimar. Tieflings are basically the anti-aasimar so it makes sense for them to work in a similar way.

[@whitehawk4099]

​@@zeehero7280I would argue that because of the aasimer status as the anti-tiefling, they should not emerge through the same process. Instead, the aasimer are thematically the product of divine intervention, while Tieflings are thematically the offspring of Faust and Mephistopheles. You have to purposefully engage in relations with a fiend to have a tiefling, while aasimer spring forth more mysteriously, according to providence for all we know. For then to feel like opposites, we need some inversions there also. After all, the opposite of a murderer isn't a murderer who kills different people, but someone who saves lives.

[@Helius42]

4:02 Agree with that. I once asked for information about the dragonborn code of honor for me to use on my character. I heard several responses like: "Being of a race does not determine the entire personality of the character" But what if I really want to determine my entire personality around race? It seems that many people think it's bad to want to use certain traits of their own race and you always have to do something that is different than a race is supposed to be.

[@tazman2253]

the darkvision thing is easy to overcome you start making puzzles that are color based. Remember with only 1 exception (and thats a class with a very specific ability taken) darkvision is black and white only. The Orc thing Allow me to introduce you to Obald Many Arrows. The chosen of Gruumsh. Why because he was exactly the opposite of what the person complaining about orcs claimed.

[@zeehero7280]

just hope your players aren't colorblind, hard to imagine what "red" is if you've never seen it!

[@tazman2253]

@@zeehero7280 that and if people would just read what the ability does its not nearly as powerful as people make out. Because you need to remember what effects dim light gives

[@MayHugger]

@@tazman2253So you admit the feature isn’t that good, but you also want to go out of your way to counter it? Why?

[@tazman2253]

@@MayHugger just pointing out how easy it is to overcome for Dms that get tired of everyone having dark vision and refuse to read up on what the ability actually does

[@NSPresbyterian]

I play a Half Orc in a game that I WANTED the discrimination so he could overcome it, but every campaign I am in treats every race the same! I even had my parents be lawfully married, as my father was captured by a tribe, with his mom who was a captive but a member of an enemy tribe, helping him escape in exchange for his also helping her escape. But noooooooo... All races have to be inclusive.... No more plot drama...

[@vincenthernandez2242]

I like Shadowrun in that regard bc technically all races are equal but there's still a ton of race tension between conservative humans and metahumans

[@MrGBH]

That sounds like something you should discuss with your DM. If you want your character to overcome prejudice, make sure the DM is aware that you're ok with NPCs acting prejudiced against them

[@zeehero7280]

I see racism from player characters a lot in my games, and its a good thing! fictional racism helps tell a good story. People who cant distinguish reality from fiction should never come within a trillion miles of D&D

[@QuatarTarandir]

Yeah, as I DM I find those ideas interesting, so I usually have some sort of "racism" that I will remove if a player or players are uncomfortable with it

[@SuperGamefreak18]

I agree with the goblin thing and honestly extend it to the kobolds as well. Like they shouldn’t be supermodel attractive but they can look appealing to someone like in the way some people find lizards bugs etc as cute but others scream in horror when they see them. Like I don’t mind if they look appealing enough that someone wanting to well bed one is believeable but I rather not be staring at like the message said a green or red halfling

[@mmangalisomasinga432]

I prefer a mix of both. If humans can come in all forms of complexions, so can everyone else.

[@SuperGamefreak18]

@@mmangalisomasinga432 not wrong there I just wish the extremes especially the smut extreme wasnt as popular

[@uberculex]

@@SuperGamefreak18 The majority of people will always want their characters to be attractive. That's it.

[@louisup5]

You do need to be a half orc to be a player. Orc’s a monster. A level 1 orc would have the stats of a level 4 human. Making them a half orc makes their biology work right for game mechanics

[@yarion4774]

16:12 in my setting a population orcs have been at war with the human led empire for centuries. Massive invasions have formed the politics and militaristic nature of the empire. But for 100 year there was relative peace aside from a few smaller warbands every now and then. No "greentides". Why? Because the orcs are not stupid but were heavily dogmatisedby Gruumsh. War, plunder and destruction was their culture due to an effective theocratic leadership and might makes right mentality. But now the veil between the gods and mortals grows thicker. Divine influence grows weaker. More orcs are wondering if live always has to be about strife and violence. So more and more orc chieftains want to create an orc civilisation that rebels against Gruumsh's revenge and hate. So for the past 100 years, orcs have been busy in a civil war over religious zealotry. While on the other side of zhe planet, in a deadly desert, a different kind of orc exists. A type of orc that grew strong amidst a place only the strongest creature survived. There are not many of these desert orcs. But only a handful of them are enough to destroy even fortified city. But they are more myths among the people near the desert.

[@Dan-fw2db]

For Dragonborn, don't give them Darkvision. Too overused. Give them Blindsight.

[@MayHugger]

Can’t some reptiles sense by licking their air or something? Could do something like that.

[@AenVegra]

Too op. Give them tremorsense.

[@twinsen1949]

My favourite part of the dark elves is the racism. It leads to such fun interactions and dynamics, so long as you're okay with the party always wanting to stab you in the throat

[@BorisderBankwarmer]

Hot Takes about Goliaths: Goliaths should not be that tall. What is the advantage of being 8 feet tall while living high on the mountain peaks? There isnt much food at a height of 6km and all of it has to sustain 2,50 metres tall,muscular Giants everyday. And not even one of them,we are talking about a whole group. They would starve to death up there. Also they are often too heavy and/or too tall to be efficiant climbers. Noone can tell me that a fuckin Ice bear would be good as a climber. Why not make it so that they live in the mountains in general? They could hunt in the valleys and in the mountains then and be somewhat smaller,like maaaybe 2m tops. This brings me to my second point: They should absolutely have a climbing speed: They live in the fucking mountain peaks. Even Lizardfolk get a climbing speed(for whatever fuckin reason) but not the one race who actually needs it to survive? And how come that they are so isolated? Arent there like atleast two other races nearby who also live in the Mountains? Like Dwarfs and Gnomes. Granted they could live there,atleast in the caves,but still,a portion of them would still inhabit the mountains and have some relationship to them,good or bad. And wouldnt those groups not tell anyone else? Would they not write it down atleast?

[@zeehero7280]

but then why call them Goliaths?

[@BorisderBankwarmer]

@@zeehero7280 I don't know,i didnt pick that name. I wouldve picked small,goatlike people or something for mountaintops. I just think that they live in the wrong Environment. Maybe in the Hills, or on Grassland or near the Coast would be better. Or have them live in the colder regions up north where it would make somewhat more sense for them to be big. They could still be isolated,but simply less. Maybe more because of their nature regarding outsiders. They could just want to be left alone. Thank you for your Feedback btw,i appreciate it.

[@uberculex]

It's based on Norse legend. You're losing the plot.

[@BorisderBankwarmer]

@@uberculex That might very well be. But i(and probably many others) dont know this myth and get confused when there are Giants in the mountains. Also someone couldve placed everything up there,even newly created stuff. I for one would put other Folklore creatures like the Krakonoš,Dwarfen Kings,Mountain spirits,Trolls,Mountain Devils and all kinds of Folklore from Medieval Europe. A much better choice in my opinion than Giants. Fuck im dumb. Its all just a matter of taste.

[@AenVegra]

@@BorisderBankwarmer You could also have them have slower metabolisms. Bursts of anerobic speed-making them quite strong, mixed with slower movement and dogged endurance in that slower movement, as well as cold resistance due to lower body heat due to slower metabolism. Allow them to hibernate/deep sleep to sustain themselves better. Bigger animals are generally lower-maintenence and lower-upkeep than smaller ones, per pound. Also, make them live longer. They'd probably do less mating and such with their less activity. And yes, CLIMBING SPEED GODDAMNIT.

[@coloradoblue6929]

"I dont want cute! I want realistic." In a setting that is, by its very foundation, unrealistic. Like, i get what he was trying to say, but thay was worded so poorly. But i do agree, that minotaur artwork is pretty bad

[@swapertxking]

i believe there is a distinction between realistic for our world, and realistic for the setting.

[@CMacK1294]

Stop that. Do not feed fuel to the fire of 'magic exists so it's not realistic'. It's nonsense.

[@boomkruncher325zzshred5]

@@swapertxkingI hear ya, but what *isn’t* realistic for D&D at this point? It’s all possible technically. There’s some goofy-ahh Minotaurs wandering around because why the eff not? Is there a lore-specific reason all Minotaurs *have* to be ugly?

[@kotzpenner]

@@swapertxkingwhat you mean is logical consistency for successful suspension of disbelief. Wildest magic can exist as long as it follows rules.

[@whitehawk4099]

The entire discussion about realism and being realistic can be sidestepped with simply using the terms plausible and plausibility instead.

[@jkl1110]

almost all of these are just "i don't think people should play their character like that because x shaped my youth". This is fine but pretty typical

[@Talladarr]

For "unpopular hot takes," most of these takes aren't that unpopular.

[@MayHugger]

Yeah, and several of them were just “me hate new stuff”.

[@rayzerot]

My hot take is that all racial stat modifiers should be considers recommendations and restrictions. No stat block should hold players back from writing a compelling character Every group has people that are wicked smart or dumb as bricks in spite of their background. Someone from a "strong" race could have a partial physical disability that lead to them being patient and wise. Some characters maybe spent more time trying to be funny and charming instead of honing their race's natural dexterity Required preset racial stat modifiers are dumb

[@zeehero7280]

But this is what rolled stats or pointbuy is for.

[@rayzerot]

​​@@zeehero7280Those don't allow for the savants and Olympic level performers that are naturally in every population Just think of how many people have compromised on character creation, character development, and character concepts over the years/decades to get that extra +2 to a stat Edit: Picture Peter Dinklage vs Eddie Hall. Same species/race but you would never say they come with the same natural modifiers. Creatures and genetics just have too much variety to say, "All creatures of this type have to be good at this thing"

[@blueshellincident]

If minmaxing is holding you back from running a compelling character, that’s literally a you problem. Part of the role-play can be the unoptimized build. I hate having low Constitution but my main character has a minus to the constitution, you play into it. He’s weak and he needs protection, creates an interesting dynamic. If you let the numbers run things, you’re not a role player, and that’s fine but don’t pretend it’s the game holding you back. You were always going to Buckle for the optimal choice.

[@NeverbitFG]

​​@@blueshellincident Oh my god, dude, stop. Okay, brief intro - the game EXPECTS you to have 16 in your best stat at first level, take no feats until you do 20, and so on. It's not 'minmaxing', the game DEMANDS that. (And it deprives you of feats, which is boring). And you want to *exasperate* that by depriving people of a racial bonus they need? You can play into your bad CON all you want, that is suboptimal but bearable. You can't just not be an adventurer, and being behind the curve means exactly that.

[@HaughtyToast]

Rakasta tried to cover too many bases by including every cat, big and small, in a single species. A lot of cats have pretty different physicality like tigers being absurdly good at jumping for how huge they are or how, as represented by the more current tabaxi, cheetahs aren't very good at climbing. It'd be more interesting if the Mystara setting included leonin, tabaxi, and possibly a new tiger or puma race and had the rakasta really lean into more domestic cat tropes to distinguish them. Give them an ability that gives them proficiency in acrobatics and advantage on checks made to maintain balance. Too bad it'll never happen because Mystara likely isn't coming back.

[@ImFangzBro]

2:20 I'm living this one. I'm playing a kobold in the Humblewood setting. A Primal Soul Kobold. She claims she's a Tilia orphan (a kind of geckofolk from another continent) who was raised by a hermit wizard.

[@Nyghtking]

It's probably not an unpopular take, but when I heard there were people who looked at Orcs and saw them as African Tribals, I don't agree Personally when I look at Orcs in the lore to me that come off as stereotypical Vikings, since the stereotype for Vikings was they had nothing and had to raid for everything as they have nothing, live in a place with nothing, and need to take from everyone else to keep going. Also probably not unpopular but: I think Assimar, Teiflings, and sorcerer's should have the potential of being the way they are from the same source, like a corrupted angel should be able to cause your family to be able to produce divine soul sorcerer's, fallen assimar, regular assimar, and teiflings.

[@Ike_of_pyke]

10:50 THIS IS A HUGEEEE PROBLEM to me a Rogue fairy in the current edition can be equal CON to a Barbarian Goliath of they make Con their second primary stat

[@ryanproulx7641]

100% agree with the Firbolg bit.

[@FizzieWebb]

I dunno, Pumat Sol and Caduceous Clay, and the other firbolgs in crit look like they're sticking with the design ideas set by 5E Firbolgs going by the fan and official art. Maybe people just don't like the 5e interpretation?

[@Fusrodog]

I didn't realize that's what Critical Role did and even I despise it!

[@calebkopp7636]

@@FizzieWebb In the older editions firbolgs were -checks notes- humans with red hair and tall. They were this weird mix of Norse and Scottish/Gaelic inspired, pretty interesting. Some people felt this was fine as a race, clearly people at Wizards thought it should be a bit more unique one- and made the druidic cow people who have no issue leading you into a death trap if you're an enemy of their forest. Both are cool and very interesting IMO, but they also both feel very very removed from each other. This understandably causes issue with people who prefer the old version, but every time they bring it up, everyone looks at them like they're crazy cuz in their mind 'Firbolg' are the cow druids. TLDR: it's a fairly common example of Old DnD where the lore used to be very different and got changed- and the 5e version becoming the collective consciousness one has caused people who miss the old one to resent the new one for it.

[@manegirl93416]

*cautiously slowly pokes head in to give her thoughts* Well, I certainly didn't expect to learn that Shadar-Kai aren't Elves today. I can't say I've ever heard of Kenku not having free thought either? Unable to talk without mimicry, sure (though frankly, why crows? Isn't it typically parrots who are mimicry birds? Sure corvids can do that too, but aren't most people surprised by that while with parrots are standard?), but I wouldn't expect a hivemind or whatever that's supposed to imply. I could've sworn the Furbolgs being cow-esque was a 5E thing, not specific to CR in particular? Also, tell that to WoW where their Furbolgs are bear people for the past few decades now. We haven't had an ancient Giant clan that was vaguely Celtic-esque for Furbolgs in ages now. I'm surprised nobody's connected them racially as an offshoot of Minotaurs though. To be fair about Genasi, I assume they didn't go for the literal elemental skin because it'd be hard to touch stuff or wear armor? Kinda hard to put armor on something made o' wind unless it's specially made. Kinda hard to touch anything safely if your skin is fiery. They might've also been trying to distinguish them physically from Elementals too? Wait, are Trolls and Gnomes not classified as Fey already? Odd, could've sworn Gnomes were by now. Yeah, Ancestry (Lineage too!) is arguably better than Species. While I don't necessarily mind Race as a character worldbuilding thing (long since used to it and accepted it as a generic term), the change to Species feels a bit off. Like, two Species breeding tends to produce "mules", right? Nobody has it that Half Elves are infertile except Dungeon Meshi. Forget whoever Marcus Heights is, *Tolkien himself* has both genders of Dwarves be bearded! (Don't know what inspired that) "I miss when orcs were monsters." I get what you're saying, but... I dunno, "monster" can also be overdone and genericized too. Why can't we have both kinds? Same with Drow. "Why can't I have my Tiefling be from a family of Elves?" Can... can that not already be a thing? I could've sworn Tieflings were the result of either fiendish deals or fiendish coupling somewhere in your family line. Can elves not do that?! Eh, I get what you mean about the stats thing, but I don't mind it either. Having the basic character creation emphasize that "All Races are X number in stat Y" also kinda feels out of place, because commodifying that into a single box downplays diversity in said creation. Not all members of this group of people are stupid, or immoral, or what have you. You're an adventurer, you *should* stand out in some fashion, I think. Otherwise you reduce everyone into stereotypes, and no matter what grognards tell you, old D&D had those and it wasn't a good thing IMHO. I totally agree on the "Warforged/Autognomes are perfectly viable in a lot of settings!" point. Except, sadly, for my own setting based on an existing IP's world. Unless I either see evidence of their existence in the world/lore (and hey, we haven't been to every spot on the map yet! We just found out that Tanuki and Armadillo people exist!), or my players can think of a good justification for why they're X (I would love it, honestly! Please tell me there's at least one Scientist person out there who wants to create robots instead of roleplaying as Dr. Frankenstein...), it's a no go. In any other setting, it'd be fine! (And yes, I know the IP my campaign is based on also started in D&D, so technically you could justify it away, but I'm conflicted) Oh no!!! Not the MOTM Minotaur art discussion again! Anything but that!!! Look, I get it, but... god, I want some variety in how races look! My Minotaur Monk was a real sweetheart, she wouldn't fit the typical "I'm an evil beast roaring and covered in viscera from tasty human remains" look that seemingly everyone wants Minotaurs to be. Yes, I understand that Minotaurs are monsters, but *one* piece of art doesn't mean "Minotaurs can only be this now!". Because how dare an adventuring Minotaur not stop and pose on a rock for a second in a moment of calm? Gary Gygax, is that you on the Halfling point? ;) Seriously, I got the impression that he *hated* Hobbits for some reason in the earliest editions of D&D and, I wanna like you Mr. Gygax, but what do you have against Halflings that they couldn't even be *resurrected* by spells normally?! I was going to call out the wording of that last point on Orcs being subhuman and that "Only a civilized race can give them intelligence" bit (had me in the first half not gonna lie), but I can see your point and it was sarcasm directed at your actual point. Though it does make me wonder, okay Orcs can be just as heroic as humans, awesome! But what would you call it if an Orc and a Human had a baby together then, assuming that's even possible in your setting?

[@FizzieWebb]

Yeah, some simple checking on the Firbolg thing is like "Crits Firbolgs are perfectly inline with the 5e interpretation of them, could it be you simply don't like the 5e firbolgs?"

[@manegirl93416]

@@FizzieWebb I knew it! Right?!

[@floofzykitty5072]

The DMG (if you've read it) says that the PCs are extraordinary compared to the average person. Every PC is an outlier because D&D is designed to be a story about heroes, and if you don't like that there are a lot of fantasy TTRPGs you can play that do not work from this assumption. Even in gritty realism campaigns, the average PC is stronger and more capable than almost any peasant. That is to say, every D&D party is comprised of freaks of nature, and freaks stick together. The average person only has an inkling of what D&D even is through Stranger Things, yet we can find enough people to get together and even play a game of it. It wasn't that long ago that playing D&D made you a freak. It would stand to reason that a party of PCs would in some way reflect the actual group behind them.

[@TheTolnoc]

My most recent Tiefling used to be Catfolk, but an extremely potent alchemical explosion changed the fundamental nature of her being, turning her demonic. And evil, but the party hasn't figured that bit out yet. And neither has she! It's going to be very awkward.

[@atomictomfoolery4400]

*DAMN GOOBLERS, STINKIN UP DA PLACE!* -Borgus

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

PANR has tuned back in.

[@hescoming4544]

What the fuck is pan r

[@MrRukrio1]

as a furry, i get it. but at the same time: fuck being simply 'former human' or 'once was a leaf loving knife eared elf', i want to play an anthro dragon that isn't based on some other race or species, as i already spend my entire actual life being a boring ass human. it's why i like more modern takes on Dragonborn and (as far as i know with my normie DnD groups) nobody has questioned the big armorclad artificer knight when i bring him to the party. also. the idea for We Be Goblins is cool and all but it wears itself thin VERY FAST. Variety is the spice of life and what drives the inter-party drama. EDIT: also fuck elves. not in the horny way like one of my DMs, but like. they're just pointy eared humans with longer lifespans who treehug in most cases, and the more interesting ones are edgy as fuck drow.

[@duskgaming18]

I would add in Half Elves cause its like...okay so you couldn't commit to either regular ass Human or pointy ear Human...so you took both and don't get many benefits from either, and 99% of the time there is some daddy and/or mommy issues. Anyways, I understand what you mean. Hell, I've been playing Thri-kreen a lot myself for example since Spelljammer 5e came out (the overall product sucks, but the player options are nice). I enjoy playing quite literally an alien insect person who isn't accustomed to the Material Plane or how normal societies function, plus the Telepathy is funny cause if NPCs start trying insult my character behind their back in a language they think my Thri-kreen can't understand cause they are physically incapable of speaking anything besides Thri-kreen, I always like the reactions when suddenly they have a voice in their head thats not their's

[@aaronbig1]

Personally, only allow one tiefling party. tiefling Suppose to be super rare, and it seems like most parties Wanna have a 2 or 3.

[@Arlesmon]

Just because some are rare doesn't mean that chance isn't in their favor. But that depends on the DM, and while yes, they are very rare, the world can accomodate to their ends and have those odds, but again, it's up to the dm

[@tonberryking42]

Rare doesn't mean so scarce that it's an event that two of them are seen at the same table at the in - that's Frieren's elves levels of endangered species. If you want a "only one in the party" really look into the setting you're playing in, and take note of the geography. Tieflings *just happen* because someone got nasty with a devil, or their parent was a warlock, or a devil cursed a guy 13 generations ago, or what ever. If Tieflings are so rare that you will hardly see more than 1 of them in your LIFE, then there shouldn't be nearly as much suspicion and distrust about them, simply because they're that unknown to the average joe - they should only be getting the "Fear of the Unknown" sorts of biases and suspicions, rather than the "Devilspawn walked into town thinking they could pull the wool over our eyes by asking if we could sell them food and water" that they do get. Needs to be common enough that they're recognizable even out in the boonies where someone might go most to their entire lives without actually meeting one, while in a particularly large city, there might be enough of them that not even they know the count of how many of them there are unless they looked into the local census; only that they're a few dozen to a couple hundred at the upper end, in a city numbering the high hundreds to high thousands.

[@zeehero7280]

I dont play them ever I'm a human and half-elf enjoyer.

[@MayHugger]

Tieflings are considered a common race according to the book they came in, so no, they aren’t super rare.

[@floofzykitty5072]

On the contrary, the DMG (if you've read it) says that the PCs are extraordinary compared to the average person. Every PC is an outlier because D&D is designed to be a story about heroes, and if you don't like that there are a lot of fantasy TTRPGs you can play that do not work from this assumption. Even in gritty realism campaigns, the average PC is stronger and more capable than almost any peasant. That is to say, every D&D party is comprised of freaks of nature, and freaks stick together. The average person only has an inkling of what D&D even is through Stranger Things, yet we can find enough people to get together and even play a game of it. It wasn't that long ago that playing D&D made you a freak. It would stand to reason that a party of PCs would in some way reflect the actual group behind them.

[@jackmack4181]

9:12 This is why I love the Unexpectables Aasimars because they look like. Like Brork Bronze fang, an Aasimar that came from an ork tribe. Hammergnar, a half dwarf half elf aasimar that has to deal with the conflicting feelings of drinking hard liquor some days and wines on others

[@RickSolus]

That pronunciation of Frieren gave me shivers

[@ERBanmech]

Bring back large or tiny characters, the flavors of height in 5e suck as there is only small and medium. Just because some power gamer wants to use the legacy “large weapon” rules doesn’t mean that having characters of that size can break your game, just homebrew around it. I’d say give an AC boost to tiny characters and an AC deficit to large characters. Theres also the talk of how spells and weapons work for these characters but that needs even more homebrew.

[@jettblade]

My hot take: Racial Weapons and Armor makes no sense, not talking about Natural Weapons or Armor. Always bugs me that Dwarfs get a whole bunch of weapons and armors just by being a Dwarf. The world and character background don't have any impact on that either. You could be a Dwarf raised entirely by Giants never even seeing another Dwarf but are really good with an Axe for no reason other than genetics?. I could possibly see Elves having temporary ones because their like reliving a past life or such but even that is a little bit of a stretch.

[@sophiescott143]

My unpopular "D&D" race opinion: Common wisdom says that humans are stupid, boring, and the worst possible choice in all cases. That's false. Humans are great. If you can't come up with an interesting human character, that's a problem with your imagination, not the race. "No one should be able to tell the sex of a dwarf just by looking." Except a dwarf.

[@zeehero7280]

Thats unpopular? The first one I mean. Female Dwarves never have beards. You just rarely see them as most prefer to stay in the mountainhome crafting things for their families and clans.

[@MayHugger]

Back when races had their own starting stat modifiers, humans had a +1 to all stats, making them one of the smartest and wisest races.

[@JustinAshworthMusic]

My main issue with all the DnD race stuff has always been that the lore for them should be suggestive, and setting dependent. In the PHB they should suggest multiple different ways how they could fit into a setting, not reduce them to a single type of person. That way, DMs and players can determine the norms and exceptions for their worlds and generate better stories. This game is supposed to be creative, so use everything as a tool to create and change whatever you don't like.

[@robertheinrich2994]

easy way around darkvision: with dark vision, you can only see shades, not colors. good luck putting the green key into the green lock, if you can't see the color. suddenly, the guy who brought a torch has an advantage.

[@darioschottlender]

I don't know if the issue for it Is balance, it's just weird that everything that isn't a human (beside the dragonborn who should absolutely have it apparently) have dark vision. I don't know why

[@MayHugger]

Why do so many people insist on trying to counter a mid feature? If I’m expected to bring a torch everywhere despite being able to see in the dark because of all the colour-based locks and puzzles, what’s the point of even having the feature? Besides, you can just use fog.

[@duskgaming18]

I don't get why Dark Vision gets so much hate. Plus, most races can only see up to 30 feet away with Dark Vision. So it's not like my Thri-kreen Bard can see off into the distance at night, she can only see up to 30 feet away.

[@darioschottlender]

@@duskgaming18 I don't say it's op or that I hate it, it's just that me as a player that doesn't often play D&D as the main system it doesn't really make sense that 90% of every race has it. Why not just make it the normal distance you can see in the darkness rather than make it a passive for pretty much everything

[@MikeAsbestos]

14:55 THIS! I made a gnome who studied nomadic tribal races as part of his university studies. This includes kobolds, orcs, goblins, gnolls, etc. He became enamored with them and realized their violence was not senseless and cruel. It was cultural, steeped in tradition, and meaningful to them. The races that preferred long-term settlements and civilizations simply labeled these races as savage monsters and justified their slaughter. They invaded their homelands and colonized them. They stole all the natural resources and made it impossible to live. So my gnome decided he would become a freedom fighter for these races. He would sabotage imperial colonial settlements by disrupting trade routes, burning/looting storehouse, and sowing chaos throughout. I made him as a way of demonstration that DnD alignment is not tied to morality. He aims to liberate races that have suffered from prejudice, genocide, and oppression, but because he stands diametrically opposed to the lawful good guards and politicians who uphold these systems, he is chaotic evil.

[@DHTheAlaskan]

"This author wrote this race to be like this so that's how they should be!" Drives me up the FUCKING WALL! Just because orcs in LOTR are all brutal monsters doesn't mean I have to have them be so in my game. If I want them to be pacifist island dwellers, you can't fucking stop me if I'm behind DM screen. If I want Halflings to be the predominant race due to them grabbing soft by the shorthairs and creating a society where they are top dog, why not? All respect to the authors who had established the tropes of fantasy, but it's a game where dragon people shoot fire out their fucking faces, we don't have to be entirely realistic.

[@TheTolnoc]

Dungeon of the Mad Mage sounds a lot like Diablo, but I fuck with it.

[@darioschottlender]

3:27 that's pure FACTS. As someone who didn't start roleplaying in D&D when I saw everything that isn't a full on human gets darkvision I was quite confused... I still don't know whats the point on that Edit: And I just learnt that the dragonborn, a race that should absolutely have dark vision doesn't have it... What?

[@T3nch1]

Aasimar, Tieflings and Genasi are wildly over rated and the vast majority of current players run then 2 dimensional. They didn't get past "This looks edgy" during character creation. Kinku, Warforged and Shifters are super undervalued because most players don't have any idea how to make a compelling character using the race. Most players also can't make a decent character with a Gith, Lizardfolk or Firbolg either. Most DMs are idiots when it comes to Monstrous PC races and have no idea how to handle when a player wants to run a Goblin, Bugbear or heaven forbid Yuan-Ti Pureblood. The DM overwhelmingly shuts down the concept without any level of dialog to see if or how it could work, most of the time because they're scared off by racial abilities that are completely negotiable. "Bugbear has a 10foot reach? Nope you can't play it." "Pureblood gets magic resistance? Not only am I going to say no but I'm going to deny any kind of magic resistance for a PC because that will nerf encounters."

[@superdupergrover9857]

I also agree that half humans are WAY too common. Humans just won't interbreed with other races that often, and the likely hood of having any offspring at all is low, let alone having fertile offspring.

[@thegreatandterrible4508]

Races =/= Species WotC is being ridiculous. Humans, elves, and orcs are all the same species, but different races. Various tieflings can be completely different species, but they're the same race.

[@hescoming4544]

I thought about making a scientist character npc that explores that concept, that all races are connected somehow

[@thegreatandterrible4508]

@@hescoming4544 i like that concept, almost want to make it a PC (because I totally get to play those *cries*)

[@rayzerot]

Are they all the same species though? There are numerous examples of different species successfully interbreeding in real life. Sometimes the offspring is sterile but the point holds

[@ashtongiertz8728]

​@@rayzerotif the offspring isn't sterile, then they shouldn't be separate species by the scientific definition of the word.

[@zeehero7280]

Are you defining species based on who can interbreed?

[@torgranael]

Most unpopular takes for most things regarding character creation can be summed as "Your character sheet doesn't make you interesting, your roleplay does.".

[@aeonamadi]

The fact that 11:06 is considered a "hot take" probably says more about the community that 5e / WotC has cultivated than anything. Further, the fact that it even needs to be said is more concerning than any of the "hot takes" in the video...

[@dannybob42]

Honestly if you really want to, you can just go along and do these things anyway, it's roleplay nothing is stopping you from having a tiefling made by a demon pact, a heroic orc, darkvision dragonborn, firbolgs of a different design, ugly looking races, or just not using a halfling - though a DM may argue with it if it doesn't coincide with the worldbuilding of the setting - but the whole 'just add it to the core rules so we don't have to discuss it with the DM' dispute just feels a tad lazy, essentially wanting to role reverse with people following the core rules that are disagreed with. Honestly players should talk to the DM about character creation too, it helps them find ways to tailor adventures to the group and the individual. Btw it's 'free ren', really good anime would recommend but it is more like a gentle stroll than a high action anime

[@PleaseElaborate]

Humans are the best. Yes, even standard humans. Roleplay, versatility, relatability, no darkvision to trivialize the entire darkness mechanic, no ability-based special features that feel wasted if not used or conflict/overlap with class features. I seriously just want my characters to be real imaginary people dealing with real imaginary problems.

[@uberculex]

" no darkvision to trivialize the entire darkness mechanic" Just cast a light spell. Congrats, darkness trivialized.

[@PleaseElaborate]

Hardly. Now the whole party is illuminated and ripe for ambush while everything more than 40ft out remains obscured. Moreover the DM can now describe how various woodland creatures or creepy crawlies seem to be constantly darting away from the edge of the light, or shadows cast by the party's torches moving in strange ways.

[@Shukuyou]

Speaking of orcs... why only human half-orcs? Why not any other combination? Sure, some combinations doesn't make sense due to how they breed, but other? Why no half-orc/half-elf, or half-orc/half-goliath?

[@ToTheKneeProductions]

Well that's up to you to decide. I believe the lore/flavor text says it's an orc and human mix but there's nothing stopping you from changing it. Flavor is free, just leave the mechanics of your racial features the same of course.

[@mr.cobalt1668]

Pathfinder 2e made half-elf and half-orc a Versatile Heritage any Ancestry can take for this very reason.

[@zeroknight1311]

Personally, I don't like the stereotypes that everyone expect when someone is playing certain races. And would rather give them unique twists. For orcs, instead of just being pure brutes, they're also quite intelligent and poetic. Leading to a Orc becoming a bard who moves many to tears with his songs. While elves would have talent with magic and look down on other races massive egos, many would respect the other races and wouldn't use their magical talent in favor of what they see as their passion. Of course, it really depends on where they lives. Since a city populated purely by elves would have majority of the people there look down on other races. Dwarves, while they are skilled blacksmiths, brewers and miners. They would also be great geologist due to their knowledge and experience with the earth. Allowing them to get an understanding of geomancy/earth magic.

[@darioschottlender]

The thing is both player (and character ovbiously) and npcs should expect the orc to behave like any orc. To break the rules first you must know them

[@FizzieWebb]

That's why the reveal of The Gourmet's identity in Skyrim worked so well. No one would expect the true race of a world renowned chef to be what they are.

[@uberculex]

Orcs being poetic is literally Tolkein. The movies and media lost that in translation. Everyone was singing and saying poetry in LotR.

[@Terestrasz]

I've had an elf who lives around OWlins pick up their habits. Ie, she has conversations without turning to face someone because she's used to owls with Creepy Bird Neck. Similarly, the owls often make more subtle beak movements than the Aarakocra&Kenku.

[@charrleschervanik3632]

4:30 One of my favorite characters was a Changling Warlock that had deceived the party into believing they were a Tiefling. The characters' arch was quite literally learning to accept themselves as they were, as they have an obvious crisis of identity trying to blend into the surroundings. The best part is that I worked out a code with the DM to justify the differences in racial abilities. The reason for my Fey presented ancestry was because of was a magic item I "had," The shape changing ability was the "Mask of Many Faces" Invocation, and the lack of fire resistance came as a downside to that magic item. "The circlet of Mental Fortitude," which allegedly changed my species from humanoid to Fey (not actually), in return I lose the racial resistances associated with the race whilst attuned. (Again, not really). Pair this with a High deception (Warlock with a charisma focus, skilled feat expertise in deception), and I managed to keep up the charade for a very long time. All that to say this: there are ways to play a narratively interesting character because of the their race and class, you just have to give people a reason to care.

[@player1connected]

Never played dnd but I love these stories 💯

[@TruthKeepersOfficialHD2]

The "exotic race" point is literally something I build my world and campaign around. There are many races to choose from, with the world being post-apocalypse with only one of them (its Minecraft based, and they're the Villagers) being common as a civilization. The others are very sparse, including humans (half of the races are magic-modified humans and human experment leftovers or something that evolved from them, but I do have separate ones). This way there's like one race (villagers) that's playable and doesn't stand out from the crowd. My group will have to deal with being looked at a lot if they want to take something very cool (fire people, fish people, bird-people, winged people).

[@oatstealer5075]

my take is there can be multiple cultures of the same race that evolved due to different circumstances. You can have elves who never lived among humans and are isolitionists, cold and calculating with xenophobic or even racist views, seemingly emotionless, They are talented artists but they capture everything as is, their paintings look as if you can walk into them, their songs are hard to perform and leave you in awe. or you can have elves who have lived amongst humans who befriend entire families, they learn about the lore of the races they live with, they practice art in more a passionate way. They draw people as they see them from their eyes, they play songs that are meant to draw people to dance. However their reasons can change from a sense of being one with the culture to feeding their own surperiority complex by improvin on a "lesser" culture

[@thebusiness8212]

I thoroughly enjoyed playing as a Chaotic Neutral Kobold Alchemist/Engineer that had a penchant for bomb making. I can already feel the collective eye roll and "Oh one of these people" through the computer screen. Watch my party be pleasantly surprised that I wasn't always trying to derail the story or just running through town throwing bombs at the shopkeepers or town guards like some Fantasy Unibomber. My Kobold was a CN mostly because he was just a self-centered little bastard that studied different bombs me and the DM agreed on in his off time and trying to make perfect formulas so he could make grenades small enough he could throw but also able to make ones big enough his Orc Barbarian could throw without it being like the orc throws a firecracker at the ogre. He was also CN because he would look for homeless people and drunkards at the tavern take them into the wilderness and test his new impact grenade formula with a few unfortunate accidents in the name of science. He would never try it on his party because he considers them free bodyguards so why injure his free labor? And one of his flaws was knowing Alchemy so he could make a potion if he wanted but he was so absorbed in bomb making that he would just throw some shit into a bottle and maybe it heals you maybe you just drank bad tasting water who knows give him some money if you want a good potion which then didn't negate our Cleric in the party.

[@graveyardshift2100]

I think i might actually remove orcs and halflings from old school d&d when i run it, for basically the same reason that was explained here about halflings being pointless. I think i want to run more of a fairy tale inspired game, instead of a traditional d&d style one anyway. So that would mean most of the creatures (playable or not) simply exist. And there's plenty to draw from in actual folklore without needing additional races pulled specifically from one guy's books.

[@amorencinteroph3428]

On races not being equal, man, hard agree. Kobolds became my favorite race in 3.5 precisely BECAUSE of their terrible stat line contrasting against their racial pride and animosity for almost all other creatures. A spiteful little ball of scales that seethes with righteous indignation at a world that dismisses them as 'vermin', but have the deepest connection to magic next to dragons themselves, an industrious spirit that would make humans and dwarves blush in comparison, and ingenious trap, crossbow, and alchemical technology that actually SURPASSES human civilization in some areas. Nothing felt more satisfying than taking my little murder lizard rogue with -4 to strength and cutting down foes many times his size thanks to his cunning and ingenuity. Now, however, there's absolutely no penalty that makes the kobolds the 'underdog' to the world. They're just another race as PCs. While, at the SAME TIME the race has gotten flanderized to the point of being slapstick comedy! The kobold canon, three kobolds in a trench coat, their depiction in BG3 as barely speaking common comedic relief or drunkards. It's a sad state of affairs to their depiction in Races of the Dragon as a proud and advanced race despite their tribal social structure, with actually a pretty legitimate grievance against gnomes to justify their eternal race war.

[@dragonriderabens9761]

Dragonborn SHOULD have darkvision, as well as one free feat for their racial feats (wings should have left UA with a 30ft fly speed rather than a 20ft, and then there are fear and hide. you should get 1 of these at level 1 if you play dragonborn for free) Fizban's dragonborn should be the default in EVERY 5e campaign and should get the "gift of the X dragon" feat for free at a high level (thinking 17, but that might be too high. but it's a free feat) with X=whatever dragonborn type you picked (metallic dragonborn (gold, bronze, silver etc) get gift of the metallic dragon for example)

[@commonman4413]

Things like tieflings,drow, and halfdragons are supposed to be rare in the generic campaign world. But because they are now in the players handbook they come off as a commonly found race, which really undermines the cinceptvfor the race. Not against players playing them per se.

[@DietBuddah]

My hot take is that races don't do enough mechanically to matter. Maybe races are primarily supposed to influence the social interaction/roleplay aspect of the game, but they do put combat mechanics into some of the races. Goliaths have the stone endurance, Dragonborn have their breath weapon, Lizardfolk have a bite, but aside from the Dragonborn other race's mechanical abilities don't scale with level. Which is why I have homebrewed every playable race in my games to be more like a subclass in of itself, with scaling abilities and natural spell casting. All my players have been much more interested in the different races because they matter more than a "fancy hat".