Strangest race you've ever played as/with?

[Bphill561]

Silveraith Anthropomorphic Squid Necromancer. I spent a lot of time bad touching my undead minions and party members to heal them.

Anthropomorphic Panther/lesser-drow/half-shadow dragon/dark outsider

Start with Panther and otherworldly feat. Shaper of Form PrC lets you change races as long as the new race does not have LA or a different type. So you switch to lesser drow which does not have LA and type is still outsider because of otherworldly, but you keep all of your ability scores. Then used the savage progressions for half-dragon, 2 levels of which were raised with Uncanny Trickster. Throw in the collar of umbral metamorphosis for the dark template and a ton of grafts. Basically played a soul eater/warshaper that explained all his gained shapes and morphic weapons through eating souls.

A 3.0 Cursed Kensai that had the original +1 Spellblade effect (before the update to a straight 6,000gp) placed on his Jaw to be immune to Remove Curse.

Petal Dreadnecromaner. She was dark purple to be more Emo

Succubus, Fiend of Possession, Ur-Priest. Stole Mirror Mephits Simulacrum Spell-like ability with Ur-Priest (Practiced Magic feat to increase caster level on spell-like) and made lots of copies of me which were Fiends of possession to inhabit all my equipment.

I think I played a Player's Handbook race once...

[Aniikinis]

Depends on if we're going with homebrew too or not, since there's a lot of weird homebrew and my group allows practically all of it. Some of my non-homebrew favorites are:

• Ghoul who had a ring of sustenance around his spinal cord near the base of the skull. With no cravings, he was actually able to be a pretty good guy.
• Medium-sized awakened squid with the ability to breathe air, basically octodad. Went wizard because why not?
• Grey Ooze with the Sentry Ooze template. Worst rogue I've ever made but my gods was it fun.

[Katie Boundary]

Found another. I've had the Glimmerskin in my Index for a long time, but I've never actually read the DESCRIPTION until now. They can't speak, they have no physical form, and they can't survive in the material plane for more than a few hours. They have to pop back to their home plane every few hours to recuperate. Obviously even more perfect for player characters than the ixitxachitl, right?

Favored class: fighter
ECL: class levels + 15

[mouser13]

Maeluth, Lesser, artic, Dragonborn. On a wizard point I had like 180 hp that I would polymorph my wizard familiar into things had 1/2 my hp so made it more hp then rangers and cleric but not as much as fighters.

[Particle_Man]

I had a crusader reincarnate as a treant where the DM said I had neither racial HD or +LA. It really helped against a mind flayer since plants can't be stunned or have their brains sucked out. I was a beast in combat but a pain in the butt to teleport so we did a lot of overland travel the old way. Lots of fun, though!

In another campaign, also ignoring LA, I was an Angel. Interesting but I think I came on too strong with it and would play it differently nowadays.

[SnugUndies]

My current character is a thri-kreen warblade, and she's the most fun character I've played to date. +30 to jump checks (really +34 with that increased base speed) and four arms for multiweapon fighting sure corresponds nicely with a lot of those Tiger Claw maneuvers. Still, I'm mostly focused on what bits of utility and versatility I can get out of the maneuvers rather than combat capability, since no maneuver can stand up to the sheer amount of damage she can put out with a full attack.

[16bearswutIdo]

I ran a year-long campaign where everyone played an awakened animal. We had a gorilla, a cat, an English mastiff, a goldfish in a bowl carried by his manservant Charles Butlerton, a crocodile, and a Brixashulty. The campaign culminated in a fight against the ancient Lich Smokey Shadowwhiskers, the level 20 awakened cat Lich wizard.

[Telonius]

One of my players played a Warforged with the "Wyrm Blooded" trait in Shackled City. We fluffed it as him being a "special edition" with draconic styling. One of the major dragons in the setting helped in his construction.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I feel I want to note: my current character is a naztharune from Earth (long story) who views Black Friday has a holy day of evil.

[Aniikinis]

views Black Friday has a holy day of evil.

As a retail worker, I can confirm that this is true.

[unseenmage]

- displacer panther (do not recall what it was called)
- undead warforged
- half golem half elf
- 2 headed anthropomorphic elephant
- illithid larvae (the tadpole one from the fluff, not the larger one that has stats)
- soulbound shell that became a worm that walks that became a lich
- several each androids, robots, and clockworks
- more gnomes, kobolds, goblins, warforged, ratfolk than I can count

[Thurbane]

- displacer panther (do not recall what it was called)
- undead warforged
- half golem half elf
- 2 headed anthropomorphic elephant
- illithid larvae (the tadpole one from the fluff, not the larger one that has stats)
- soulbound shell that became a worm that walks that became a lich
- several each androids, robots, and clockworks
- more gnomes, kobolds, goblins, warforged, ratfolk than I can count

That's an impressive list!

The elephant reminded me: I had an NPC that was a Loxo Vampire... Tantorius Bloodsworth.

---

I really wish there were rules for playing intelligent magic items.

Did PF or any 3.X splats ever tackle this?

[unseenmage]

That's an impressive list!

The elephant reminded me: I had an NPC that was a Loxo Vampire... Tantorius Bloodsworth.

---

I really wish there were rules for playing intelligent magic items.

Did PF or any 3.X splats ever tackle this?

Thanks. It's definitely not comprehensive.

And PF has its race builder that probably couldnt let one play an item.

The CR calculator would get closer, because there are also rules for playing any monster with CR equaling ECL.
They work okay.

But officially? Barring psionic sandwhich or similar cheese there arent any rules I know of.

Then again, with the Constructs Are Magic Items rules interpretation one could improve one's playable Construct using the Intelligent Magic Item rules. Theoretically.

[Efrate]

Fiend of possession?

[Cirrylius]

In an evil epic campaign, our first two character concepts were a pseudonatural Paragon gargoyle and a Paragon Vashar- the racial progenitor who was basically evil Adam.

Those guys really were jerks.

[Tzardok]

I once played a purple wyrmling. Someone in the group was an aquatic hadozee monk. Twas so silly. Sadly just a one shot.

1) I've seen enough hentai to know how that ends
2) With all the different kinds of elves there are, and especially the various flavors of Drow that exist (Albino Drow, Deepwyrm Drow, Half-Drow, Albino Half-Drow...), I'm surprised that Sea Drow aren't a thing.
3) Sea Drow should totally be a thing.

There's a reason why I once used the Tauric template to combine a drow wizard and a giant octopus into Ursula the Sea Witch.

[ranagrande]

I ran a game once in which the PCs were a Human, an Elf, a Zenythri, a Thri-Kreen, a Half-Golem, an Awakened Deinonychus, and an Awakened Furniture Dolly.

[Illogictree]

I haven't played anything particular strange race-wise, especially compared to some of these. I have had a few attempts at a kitsune, a kobold (a current character), and the most stereotypical dwarf ever.

It's not that I haven't thought about doing stuff that's much weirder, it's that I haven't had much chance to try.

[Aegis013]

I briefly played an anthropomorphic whale.

I DM'd a game for a semester in college in which one of the players was an Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Duskblade. Since I extremely rarely use anthropomorphic animal races I made a whole sub-plot about a banished deity that created beast people and why there were so few.

It was a nice way to give the Water Orc Crusader/Binder a custom vestige when I was doling out custom rewards.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

A dog. Just a dog. He had levels in Paladin.

So he was a lawful good boy?

His alignment just said "Goodest Boi"

All heroes must have an origin story. This... is Good Dog's.

[TiaC]

I played a Five-headed, Draconic Petal Dragonfire Adept, reskinned as an itsy-bitsy little clone of Tiamat.

[ngilop]

an awakened turtle in the WOTC legend of 5 rings d20 stuff. But, never got to play it because the DM (who was majoring in asian studies) said 'you could, but people will try to make soup out of you' To which i responded 'But, I am a sacred animal, yo"

I ended up quitting soon (not as my turtle whom I still have the character sheet of) as the campaign was really just an excuse for the DM to show us how much they 'knew' about asian history and culture...

[tstewt1921]

I ran a year-long campaign where everyone played an awakened animal. We had a gorilla, a cat, an English mastiff, a goldfish in a bowl carried by his manservant Charles Butlerton, a crocodile, and a Brixashulty. The campaign culminated in a fight against the ancient Lich Smokey Shadowwhiskers, the level 20 awakened cat Lich wizard.

I'm sorry, what!?!?!?

[tstewt1921]

One of my players played a Warforged with the "Wyrm Blooded" trait in Shackled City. We fluffed it as him being a "special edition" with draconic styling. One of the major dragons in the setting helped in his construction.

Where is the Wyrm Blooded trait from?

[Thurbane]

A CG trumpet archon whose trumpet was a saxophone. When he was banished to the mortal world to learn the value of law he instead invented jazz. He would have lost his archon traits if that campaign had kept going.

You know, I misread that as Crumpet Archon, and now I wish that was a thing. Maybe it could be friends with the Psionic Sandwich?

[Beldar]

I've played a number of unusual things including Earth Mephit, Psionic Were-Tiger, and Rhek, but by far the strangest was a Perfectly Normal Human.
His race was indeed human, but he took all the levels of Geomancer, which mutates you a bit with each level.
So his skin could change color like an octopus.
His jaw was extended and crocodile-like including the teeth.
He had deer antlers and a rhino horn and a couple tails.
His legs and feet were thick like an elephants and gave him the trample ability, which became over-the-top useful when combined with his ability to sprint like a cheetah.

There were probably a couple other things i have forgotten, all straight from the Geomancer class as written, making him so delightfully weird I decided to double-down on it.

So he got some feats from Lords of Madness, giving him another tail, tentacles growing from his waist, and another set of arms.

We were playing with the ability to buy off level adjustments, as described in Unearthed Arcana, and the templates in Savage Species can be obtained via magic ritual, then bought off with some xp.

So he got the Tauric template and became a medium-sized giant scorpion from the waist down, granting him a scorpions pincers and tail, and giving him 8 of those elephant-thick cheetah-fast legs.

The Tail Blade item from Savage Species made even his cat-tail able to attack.
So by this time he had 13 natural attacks per round not counting his 4 arms.

Then we gave him the Multi-headed template also from Savage Species. So he had 3 heads total.
That gave him more of his head-based attacks (bite and gore and i think a couple others). I don't remember exactly what that totalled by that point, since the campaign only lasted a little while longer.
But when he full-attacked, things noticed. :)

And through it all, we continued to call him a Perfectly Normal Human :)

He has since shown up as a big bad end boss npc in a high-level campaign I dm'ed.
Who says powerful PC's can't be challenged >:-)

[Skysaber]

One campaign, nine years ago, we played a fey campaign where all of us were monsters cobbled together by the fairy queen and her leprechaun assistants in a last ditch effort to create combat monsters that could save the kingdom from an assault by Slaadi.

Most fey are tricksters or pranksters, not at all combat oriented. We were the exemption.

One player had, as his character, a 5-headed pyro-hydra crossed with a lammasu. And, naturally, the half-fey template because we all had that. Pretty sure he had clerical levels.

Basically, each of us was granted a budget of a certain amount of CR to buy monsters, then combined all of their bonuses and special qualities, then topped it off by adding Half-Fey.

And, boy, did we get some weird ones. The DM had sample characters set up for us. I remember the Feral Twelve-Headed Croco-Elephant, and Flying Pink Hippo.

One player was a Yuan-Ti Abomination, crossed with a displacer beast. Another was a Xill crossed with a troll, and done up as a scorpitor.

Then we had a unicorn and lupinal, crossed.

One of my favorites was a treant/woodpecker cross. It came out looking like a topiary bird of very large size.

Then a Tojinada, crossed with a polar bear, crossed with a brine swimmer.

I might have been the two-headed Rakshasa-Choker, but it's a bit dim with time.

Ah, what a campaign that was.

As I recall, one of the major events was getting the humans involved, because they'd stopped believing in Fey a couple centuries ago.

We solved that by standing outside of their town, in our natural forms, holding up a sign, that said in common, "The Fey Are Real" and let our appearance speak for us.

That campaign was tough. We all had about 15 character levels on top of our monster CR and templates, and still we had one or two of us go down in each fight - because, as I later learned, the slaadi also had a dozen or so character levels each, and they always came in greater numbers than us.

[Thurbane]

I'm DMing a "monster" 1 shot shortly- current party composition looks like this:

Gloura Bard
Centaur Cleric or Steel Dragon Wyrmling Sorcerer
Minotaur Barbarian
Marrulurk Warmage

...far from optimal (except the Gloura maybe), but it'll be a first time playing monster characters for most of my group.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Thurbane
I'm DMing a "monster" 1 shot shortly- current party composition looks like this....

What will be the storyline of the one-shot? Presumably oriented around their monsterness, but how?

[Thurbane]

What will be the storyline of the one-shot? Presumably oriented around their monsterness, but how?

Actually it will just be a pre-published module due to time constraints. More or less just an opportunity to take some weird characters for a spin in a short-ish adventure.

I would love to do a more detailed, long term monster campaign at some point, when I have the time.