Playable races not in the PHB

[ewancummins]

DMs: Besides the usual suspects from the PHB which races would you allow as PCs in a Ravenloft game?


Players: Any interest in nonstandard types?


I might go for a ravenkin.

I have allowed half-Vistani and calibans in the past.

Afflicted Kender might work.

[Zilfer]

I've had a Dhampir player back from Pathfinder, and we had a Dhampir PC in a group I played with for a long while that started here. Had a half Vistani before as well, and i feel like I'm forgetting someone's character as I feel there was one other non standard that I had in a Ravenloft game. (Someone played a Tabaxi in CoS if that counts.)

[ewancummins]

Sure, I count CoS even though, as written, it isn't the DoD.

( I've considered using a tabaxi as the Lion Tamer in L'Morai. That would be an NPC.)

[Zilfer]

Ended up using Tabaxi for Shih Suren in one of my play by post games on Discord recently as well, though wasn't a player character in that but I did use it to fit him a bit more into 5e.


Edit: (Still called him a Caliban though)

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I've become a lot looser on this in my old age. If the player had a good backstory, and was willing to put up with whatever complications arises from their choice, I'd allow most anything. I'd strongly encourage races that could pass for human, but again, if there's a good enough story to be told, even that is flexible.

In practice, I've only had humans, half-vistani, and a feytouched human.

[Zilfer]

Yes, my ravenloft games have probably been my most human centric campaigns.

[The Lesser Evil]

The group's been mostly humans, halflings, and a couple of elves or half-elves. We've had a half-giant strongman/wrestler patterned after circus strongman in the Eugene Sandow mold. He was usually just viewed as a caliban or extraordinary human. However, his complete and real ancestry remains uncertain. Treating the other half-human races (aasimars, tielflings, calibays, half-fey, etc.) as caliban variants or unusual seeming humans in-world is probably what I would do most of the time. Probably do similarly with goblinoids (with goblins viewed as calibans of halflings).

The version of Ravenloft I did is a fairly advanced steampunk, so warforged are a thing. However, they're never made intelligent but sometimes spontaneously "spark" with intelligence, something akin to Johnny-5 from the film "Short Circuit". If I were doing the normal Core, I might be a little bit more restrictive.

Ravenkin is a thing I'd totally allow. There was an article in 2E that had rules for them in a Dragon magazine. I think most NPCs would assume a ravenkin PC is an exceptionally intelligent raven or at most a familiar.

[ewancummins]

My major concerns about ravenkin arise from the ability of a flying PC to easily evade various traps and combat encounters and to cut travel times down to mere minutes.
But this also applies to wizards at mid levels.

Restricting the weight a ravenkin can carry makes sense to me.

[ewancummins]

I agree that ravenkin ought to be able to pass as huge ravens. Their feet can manipulate like hands, but the illustrations don't make the feet look so unnatural that a glance would reveal the difference.
Don't cast spells in front of NPCs, use weapons, or speak...

I think wizards' familiars in many domains would be regarded as a kind of monster or at least as something creepy. That doesn't mean that the commoners are immediately going to grab pitchforks and torches, but a strange magician stalking about town with a black cat or a toad will attract attention.

[Cromstar]

I agree that ravenkin ought to be able to pass as huge ravens. Their feet can manipulate like hands, but the illustrations don't make the feet look so unnatural that a glance would reveal the difference.
Don't cast spells in front of NPCs, use weapons, or speak...

I think wizards' familiars in many domains would be regarded as a kind of monster or at least as something creepy. That doesn't mean that the commoners are immediately going to grab pitchforks and torches, but a strange magician stalking about town with a black cat or a toad will attract attention.

Depends on the domain, probably. Honestly, just being a wizard (openly) might be grounds for torches and pitchforks. I mean, if there weren't wizards, there wouldn't be all the evil wizardry/magic stuff happening! Burn them all!

If the player had a good backstory, and was willing to put up with whatever complications arises from their choice, I'd allow most anything.

In Ravenloft, I'd definitely default to human-only for native characters...but I'd use anything for outsiders (provided if it was a long campaign I'd make sure the players knew what they were getting into with non-humans and some character classes). But this quote pretty much summarizes how I handle PC ideas in any setting: if you want something that's not in the books or breaks the rules...sell me the story.

[ewancummins]

I've been relatively soft on magic use and demihumans, as per the general trend in the 3e setting materials.

But If I run a 2E game in the future, I will revert to the 2E approach, which was less 'adventurer freak show' friendly.
It's a question of emphasis and degree.

In my 3E games here on FoS, most of the PCs have been humans, anyway, and spellcasters have largely been lowkey about their magic in public.

[Mistmaster]

Well, every domains have it's possible native races, and I allow any race but of course its nationality must be in accord with it, with all the necessarily adaptations in the background.

[kourkenko]

I take a different approach about this. My players choose the cluster where they'll begin and i put different races in each clusters. For example in the golden peninsula, Elves, dwarfs, gnomes and halfling will not appear (beside on pirates boats) and i'll put differents races that would be considered weird, strange or even monstrous in the Core but normal there. I was thinking about Goblins Monkeys, Lizard Men, Sea Elves, Merfolk, Relluks (construc made of stone or wood animated by a soul gem. They were created by Alluria for an Inca or Aztec setting) and one or two based on plants.

The only stable one is human. I change all the others in each cluster based on the original culture. It's easier and it's the PC that seems strange when they travel but in their origine country, they're normal. It help make any travel unpredictable and a cultural clash.

[brilliantlight]

I allow almost any humanoid. Not all my players come directly from RL. The Mists can pull in anything for its inscrutable reasons. The most exotic one I have had is a dragonkin bard from Faerun. Note that this was only background. The game started in RL.

[ewancummins]

If one is inclined to allow a range or unusual or monstrous races, mongrelmen have a long history in the Core.

And ( at least outside Ravenloft) they are a LN race instead of evil-monsters like goblins. This may not help them much with human fear of freaks, but it does remove any questions about playing an always/usually evil monster.