Would you guys be interested in a video series going over the races in 3.5e?

[dryver]

Title says most of it, but would you guys be interested in a video series that goes over the different races in 3.5e, and putting them into tiers? I've already got an introduction video made up explaining what the series will be and what each tier represents and everything.

If you guys have suggestions, let me know.

EDIT: I have decided against this series of videos and have started a series going over the fluff and history of unusual races instead. I have made one video found on my youtube channel (just type in dnd nerra and it will be the first video) about the Nerra.

[GilesTheCleric]

I don't think tiering races would accomplish much, unless you had several categories for different class archetypes (arcane, divine, skill, mundane). Without some granularity, you'd probably have to treat each race more like a class, where things like SLAs and vision or movement modes are the primary differentiator. That would also be a lot of work for the ~1000 or so different races you can play.

I personally would be more interested in dives into the fluff of each race. That could mean either a fresh take or historical analysis (in terms of editions) on a familiar race; or a highlight of a neat, perhaps underrated, underappreciated or otherwise obscure race.

Edit: my proposed latter approach also seems a better fit for the medium of video. If you're just making lists of tiers, I think text would be more appropriate -- it's both easier to parse when looking at larger datasets, and more efficient to manipulate than video.

[dryver]

I personally would be more interested in dives into the fluff of each race. That could mean either a fresh take or historical analysis (in terms of editions) on a familiar race; or a highlight of a neat, perhaps underrated, underappreciated or otherwise obscure race.

Thanks for your response. I could make a series where each video focuses on everything about one specific underused race or monster, like Myconids one video, or Grippli in another, going over the history, descriptions, societies, et cetera, and then moving into the mechanics of the race and some talk about how to potentially optimize it if that sounds interesting to you.

[GilesTheCleric]

Thanks for your response. I could make a series where each video focuses on everything about one specific underused race or monster, like Myconids one video, or Grippli in another, going over the history, descriptions, societies, et cetera, and then moving into the mechanics of the race and some talk about how to potentially optimize it if that sounds interesting to you.

That does sound more interesting, and seems like it would offer more opportunities to inject your personality via video. I remember in the "what is 3e missing" thread that a lot of folks wanted more books about eg Fey and Yugoloths, in the style of Lords of Madness or Draconimicon. Luckily, many D&D creatures are based on real-world mythology and thus aren't too tricky to research. In case you don't already have it, here's Unseenmage's comprehensive list of races.

Focusing primarily on the fluff will expand your audience, too. 3.5 has the smallest audience of the top-played D&D editions, behind 5e and PF.

It sounds like you already have some races in mind, which is great. I'll mention a few that I personally would like to see a series on, but I couldn't speak to how popular they might be among others: Tortle (Drag315 72), Pterran (Dark Sun 3 20), Khepri (Drag352 44), Remade (Drag352 46), and Varoot Nerra (FF 130). There was another dragmag race I really liked, which had a build-in reincarnation method via a gem in its chest, but I can't recall what it was called nor which mag it was in.

Edit: Do you have a link to your channel?

[dryver]

Edit: Do you have a link to your channel?

Still in the midst of setting up the channel for 3.5e videos. I'll link it when that's completed.

[flappeercraft]

I would definitely like to see the video series but I also second what Giles said, with the amount of races there are that are playable and all variants of such would just prove too lengthy of a job but if you're willing to take that time then by all means go ahead and do it.

[GilesTheCleric]

Your first video on Nerra was interesting. The bit where you talked about the Sillit just hanging out and being spooky in their red and black robes gave me a good chuckle.

[dryver]

The bit where you talked about the Sillit just hanging out and being spooky in their red and black robes gave me a good chuckle.

I appreciate you posting the link! If you guys have any comments or suggestions about it, I would be glad to listen. To be honest I'm convinced that the Sillit are just Varoots that are a little smarter and like wearing robes.

[eggynack]

A more mechanics based perspective is possibly viable, but, yeah, tiering would be utterly meaningless. Instead, you'd probably want to focus on where each race fits in, and how to maximize its value. Not entirely sure I see the point though. Races add power to classes, not the other way around, so you'd usually want to tier every race in the context of a class before you'd want to tier every class in the context of a race. You'd want to do either before tiering every race independent of class though. How would one even assign a tier to, say, gray elves? It's a race that's thoroughly mediocre, often actively bad, for most classes, pretty good for classes with intelligence dependency, actively great for wizards, and secretly actually excellent for everyone if you use dark chaos shuffle. That's such a complicated thing to give only one number to. And at least elf has a weird high end smoothness. Something like shifter is going to be pretty awful for most classes, and great for a few.

[dryver]

A more mechanics based perspective is possibly viable, but, yeah, tiering would be utterly meaningless. Instead, you'd probably want to focus on where each race fits in, and how to maximize its value. Not entirely sure I see the point though. Races add power to classes, not the other way around, so you'd usually want to tier every race in the context of a class before you'd want to tier every class in the context of a race. You'd want to do either before tiering every race independent of class though. How would one even assign a tier to, say, gray elves? It's a race that's thoroughly mediocre, often actively bad, for most classes, pretty good for classes with intelligence dependency, actively great for wizards, and secretly actually excellent for everyone if you use dark chaos shuffle. That's such a complicated thing to give only one number to. And at least elf has a weird high end smoothness. Something like shifter is going to be pretty awful for most classes, and great for a few.

Thanks for the feedback! I actually decided against this video series and I have started a new one describing the lore and fluff as well as mechanics of much less common races. I've made one video so far going over the Nerra.

[KillianHawkeye]

It's kind of hard to see the need for a video series detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the various races in a game system that's been out of print for a decade already. Basic stuff like that has pretty much been discussed to death by now.

[Faily]

Good idea to do more fluff-stuff on races. Makes me think of the Ecology-articles in Dragon... I always did enjoy reading those.

[GilesTheCleric]

It might be worth updating the OP so that folks know what the series ended up being about.

[dryver]

It might be worth updating the OP so that folks know what the series ended up being about.

Thanks, just did it!