Additional Races

[Grandore The Giant Killer]

As a DM do any of you allow players to play with other Races aside from what is in the books?

As a DM I allow the following Races. Snake, Cat, Lizard, Centaur, and Elementals. Also just for fun I let them create Imps for those moments where I see fit that it's simply time for those wild Imps to come out and annoy a player.

[Skunkape]

I've actually created my own races for my current campaign world, using races from the MM as a guide.

[DMMike]

Grandore - some of those look like additional species, not just races. Are you talking snake-people, or flat out snakes?

Anyway, I don't dig on different races much, because they do two things:
- blur the line of verisimilitude
- risk giving the player more than he can roleplay.

I offer goblins and hobgoblins as PC races, simply because mine are more people-like than monster-like.

[Farcaster]

In general, I avoid monster races like the plague.

[Grandore The Giant Killer]

when I say Snake, Lizard, and Cat I mean people.

[ronpyatt]

I now allow alternate races, as I could not balance them in previous editions.

[ignimbrite]

I will usually allow goblinoids and the sub-types for the normal races and then on special occassions we dip into other source books for some cool story hooks - like the hellbred or githyanki, etc

[tesral]

I have a number and no problem balancing them.

[Thoth-Amon]

Sure. It always depends on the theme of the game, but balance has never been a problem.

Thoth-Amon

[Kalanth]

I allow just about any race as a PC, but I have also noticed that even with the option opened to them the players tend to stay away from those options. Only once have I had a majority monster race party, the rest of the time it is 90% humans, which I find rather surprising.

[rabkala]

If it is in one of the books, chances are somebody has played it in one of my groups. I love the weird races and stuff. I usually take away some of the non favored class penalties and such to make it extra attractive. I also liberally make use of an expanded reincarnation table that includes almost everything. You want to bring your dwarven paladin friend back, oh look he is a poison dusk lizardfolk now! The elven wizard just happens to come back as a Thri kreen.... etc.

[DMMike]

So no one gets too much of a fable/Animal Farm/Narnia feeling from allowing non-humanoid races?

I do. It's creepy.

[tesral]

So no one gets too much of a fable/Animal Farm/Narnia feeling from allowing non-humanoid races?

I do. It's creepy.

I guess that is you. My players are good with it. We have a Tanuki and a Minar (Smallish minotaur) in the party right now and Narina is the furtherest thing from anyone's mind.

Race has always meant your species in my game. I run high fantasy high magic. We like it that way.

However, that said not everyone does. You are not wrong for not liking it.

[Grandore The Giant Killer]

Well I see more Elder Scrolls with the cats and lizards them being the Argonian and Khajit.

In my game the lizards hate the dragons because they think they are high and mighty and use lizards as slaves and treat them like peasants. The Cats are usually hard working bruisers who can be found in armories. In Armies they can be quite deadly. Centaurs usually are found in churches and a good majority are paladins.

Snakes believe it or not are Swashbuckler Pirates. Wanna know why? The big man down in the ocean Poseidon is angry as hell. (If any of you don't know who Poseidon is please stick your head in a beehive.) The Dwarves from an island have been dumping oil into the ocean and pretty much so anything that has 2 legs and is not a lizard or sea creature like a Mer he'll kill. However... With Snakes they don't have legs. They have a long coiled body like a snake. So technically it's a loophole. That's why Snakes get away with riding the seas safely.

[grimwell]

I'm completely neutral on the topic in my campaigns. My rule is that it has to make sense for the campaign.
Which means:


The race has to exist.
My version of it has to be sentient enough to be "played" as a character.
The race has to fit in well enough with other playable races so it's not killed on sight trying to enter a town.
It has to be roughly balanced.

That's really it. I don't want someone playing the wizards familiar cat; and things like dragons are just out (not so welcome in town, not so balanced). Bugbears? Sure. Trolls? Sure. Whatever. As long as it's not going to break the game... it's not going to break the game.

[Thoth-Amon]

Best i read in a while was a monster using a human as a familiar. The party thought it the other way around, imagine their surprise when they glimpsed the truth of it. LOL

Thoth-Amon