what races do you find the most cool/fun mechanically?

[Rfkannen]

Bassically the title. A lot of the enjoyment when playing a race is with the fluff, but divorced from the fluff, what races do you think are the most fun/cool?


edit; just thought of a secondary question, what do you think they could be refluffed as that would be even more fun/cool?

[Shining Wrath]

That ties into what class you like.

Half elves getting 3 free skills is pretty sweet.

The half-orc "not gonna die this round" feature is also pretty nice.

I like Perception, so elves getting automatic proficiency there is good.

[Mr.Moron]

Half-Elves for me too, bonus skills and Paladin-friendly stats.

[Ralanr]

I enjoy playing dragonborn. Probably for silly reasons, it makes the child in me smile.

Other than that I'm a dwarf player. We have a lot in common, in person I'm pretty stubborn and strict when it comes to rules and tradition.

[Rfkannen]

I enjoy playing dragonborn. Probably for silly reasons, it makes the child in me smile.

Other than that I'm a dwarf player. We have a lot in common, in person I'm pretty stubborn and strict when it comes to rules and tradition.

Yeah playing as a dragon is pretty awesome. Mechanically I love the breath weapon


Bolth your awnsers are related to fluff though, are those your favorites crunch wise to?

[Ralanr]

Yeah playing as a dragon is pretty awesome. Mechanically I love the breath weapon


Bolth your awnsers are related to fluff though, are those your favorites crunch wise to?

I usually avoid crunch reasoning when it comes to races (Not so much in pathfinder). But I do like the resistance choice from dragonborn, plus dwarves get darkvison and anti poison stuff, which is always pretty nice.

Edit: I do feel that dragonborn should get a skill proficiency (Even something like history would be fine. I'd prefer intimidation) but don't because they're trying to nerf/depower them due to their status in 4e . I haven't even seen any new dragonborn drawings from WoTC.

[JAL_1138]

Feat-variant humans and half-elves are both great.

[Naanomi]

I have always had a weird fondness for water breathing; so air/water genasi making an appearance was welcome

[Giant2005]

Halflings are my favourite for their "I laugh in the face of those natural 1s!" ability.

[Gritmonger]

Variant humans - I really like the idea that I can start a character with a feat plus a background and even without much class ability be close to a character concept. A charlatan with Actor? I can start play as a nearly undetectable con person.

[Rhaegar14]

Tieflings' racial magic is something I've had lots of fun with thus far. My character is a Paladin, so getting a utility cantrip when I otherwise wouldn't have one is pretty nice. Plus, darkvision is really useful with any DM who decides to actually worry about lighting, and my fire resistance has already come up at level 2.

[Jermz]

We just played our first session of 5e last night after years of playing 3.5. I looked at all the races in-depth, and ultimately choose a Wood Elf. I found that the 35-feet movement is a pretty big mechanical plus, especially with the whole disengage mechanic now. Those extra 5-feet are pretty important, and looks like they'll be even moreso during later levels when it can be combined with Cunning Action next level.

[Inevitability]

Aaracokra. I mean, you get to fly. There's a lot of uses for that.

Need to get to the top of the evil wizard's tower? Fly.
Falling to your doom? Fly.
Need to quickly get a message to a nearby town? Flying is faster than walking.
Fighting some pesky airborne foes? Fly!
Want to abuse cunning action? Fly down, attack, disengage, fly up.

[Rfkannen]

Variant humans - I really like the idea that I can start a character with a feat plus a background and even without much class ability be close to a character concept. A charlatan with Actor? I can start play as a nearly undetectable con person.

yeah that is fun and cool, I am kind of sad that by raw not all players start with a feat at first level.

Tieflings' racial magic is something I've had lots of fun with thus far. My character is a Paladin, so getting a utility cantrip when I otherwise wouldn't have one is pretty nice. Plus, darkvision is really useful with any DM who decides to actually worry about lighting, and my fire resistance has already come up at level 2.

ah teiflings. God I love em.

We just played our first session of 5e last night after years of playing 3.5. I looked at all the races in-depth, and ultimately choose a Wood Elf. I found that the 35-feet movement is a pretty big mechanical plus, especially with the whole disengage mechanic now. Those extra 5-feet are pretty important, and looks like they'll be even moreso during later levels when it can be combined with Cunning Action next level.

Oh yeah that 5 feet is deffinitly imporant. With my dwarf archer I found that not haveing 5 feet just kept screwing me over XD

Aaracokra. I mean, you get to fly. There's a lot of uses for that.

Need to get to the top of the evil wizard's tower? Fly.
Falling to your doom? Fly.
Need to quickly get a message to a nearby town? Flying is faster than walking.
Fighting some pesky airborne foes? Fly!
Want to abuse cunning action? Fly down, attack, disengage, fly up.

Yeah, but most dms I know just build their encounters so your not op with your flying.

[VoxRationis]

In a certain, highly limited way, high elves are a gish-in-a-race! Sword & bow proficiency for free plus a free cantrip. (Plus I'm always partial to elves.) Obviously, not in a way which is relevant past low level, but hey.

[Ralanr]

Tieflings' racial magic is something I've had lots of fun with thus far. My character is a Paladin, so getting a utility cantrip when I otherwise wouldn't have one is pretty nice. Plus, darkvision is really useful with any DM who decides to actually worry about lighting, and my fire resistance has already come up at level 2.

Tiefling Paladin? That sounds fun rp wise.

[Rhaegar14]

Tiefling Paladin? That sounds fun rp wise.

It's been pretty good thus far. The campaign setting uses the old fluff for tieflings, where they have a fiendish ancestor somewhere up the line, so he's mistrusted and discriminated against as "devilspawn" a lot. I mostly represent the effect this has on him by giving him trust issues in-character; he tends to assume that others will let him down if he places his faith in them. But he's still really good to people even if he doesn't trust them; he's used Lay-On Hands to heal innocents that could offer him nothing on multiple occasions now.

Also, muttering in Infernal and causing the ground to shake (yay Thaumaturgy) while shooting a death glare is a great way to prompt an Intimidate check lol.

[squiggit]

feats in 5e are really cool, so I have to side with the mention of variant human.

It's funny, in older editions I generally avoided playing humans because I thought they were kind of bland in general, but the feat is so awesome in this edition that I find it almost impossible to not play a human.

[Mrmox42]

I side with the Variant Human for the Feat, but I also have a soft spot for the Halflings. Luck is a fun and useful ability.

[Person_Man]

I honestly don't like the mechanics of how races are set up in 5E at all.

Ability Score bonuses strongly encourage certain race/class combinations and discourage others.

Several have a bunch of small/fiddly benefits, which I generally dislike (more book keeping), and don't make sense. (Every Dwarf everywhere of every age is trained to use a battleaxe, handaxe, throwing hammer, warhammer, and tool of some kind? Really? Its genetically encoded?)

I also personally have a tendency to forget about passive benefits that I don't use frequently, like Advantage vs. Whatever.

I would prefer a small number of potent/active racial abilities.

[Naanomi]

I honestly don't like the mechanics of how races are set up in 5E at all.

Ability Score bonuses strongly encourage certain race/class combinations and discourage others.

Several have a bunch of small/fiddly benefits, which I generally dislike (more book keeping), and don't make sense. (Every Dwarf everywhere of every age is trained to use a battleaxe, handaxe, throwing hammer, warhammer, and tool of some kind? Really? Its genetically encoded?).

It is much less of a problem with rolled stats, but yes with point buy choosing a race without at least +1 in any stat you want 20 in feels like a significant setback in your progress.

And I don't know about the weapons but... Every dwarf is born knowing how to make booze unless society channels it into a more useful pursuit.

[Slipperychicken]

I want to play a goliath barbarian with tavern brawler who uses his huge carry capacity to throw enemies at each other, strike enemies with other enemies, and beat people to death with furniture.

[eastmabl]

I honestly don't like the mechanics of how races are set up in 5E at all.

Ability Score bonuses strongly encourage certain race/class combinations and discourage others.

Several have a bunch of small/fiddly benefits, which I generally dislike (more book keeping), and don't make sense. (Every Dwarf everywhere of every age is trained to use a battleaxe, handaxe, throwing hammer, warhammer, and tool of some kind? Really? Its genetically encoded?)

I also personally have a tendency to forget about passive benefits that I don't use frequently, like Advantage vs. Whatever.

I would prefer a small number of potent/active racial abilities.

While I might prefer a class/race structure more like 13th Age (one bonus to a stat based on class, on bonus on a stat based on race, one cool ability from your race), let's consider this a step ahead of previous editions.

Previously, you had +2/-2 to stats based upon your race, and in 3.xpf, your stats went up to infinity (in theory). If you're a half-orc and you want to be a wizard, it was foolish because you started out 2-4 points behind the curve.

In 5e, there are no stat penalties for PHB races - it's +2, +1 or nothing - and the stats cap out at 20. Now, if you want to be a half-orc paladin or wizard, you're not penalized in your key stat. Just put your highest stat in Int (let's say 15) and you can cast spells without severe impediment. Sure, you're a little behind the races with +2/+1 to Int - but the cap at 20 comes soon enough.

(Or, it could make sense for the orc wizard to use the Amulet of Intellience and turn into a gish by focusing on Str/Con).

***

And for something on topic - I like the lightfoot halfling the most. It's got some fun abilities like Lucky (it turns the probability of crit fails from 1 in 20 to 1 in 400, and makes rolling Death Saving Throw less dangerous) and Naturally Stealthy (cheese aside, it's a fun way to recognize that halflings can get lost in crowds).

[VoxRationis]

What's wrong with having penalties? It makes sense that a gnome the size of a child wouldn't have Strength comparable to a human in the same percentile for their respective races.

[Slipperychicken]

What's wrong with having penalties? It makes sense that a gnome the size of a child wouldn't have Strength comparable to a human in the same percentile for their respective races.

Small characters' weakness is already represented by halved carry capacity and disadvantage on many combat maneuvers against bigger opponents. By pretty much any measure observable in-character, small characters are weaker.

[WickerNipple]

I like that they finally made Human (Variant) feel like it has a reason for being the dominant majority race.

[eastmabl]

What's wrong with having penalties? It makes sense that a gnome the size of a child wouldn't have Strength comparable to a human in the same percentile for their respective races.

Because the gnome and the halfling are markedly weaker in their MM listing than your average human would wind up being.

However, this is D&D. You're not playing Noam, the run of the mill MM gnome. You are Gnomus T. Burrowguard, the strongest gnome in the history of gnomes, or Wholling P. Hornswaggle, the hafling who could carry more treasure than a dwarf!

Most gnomes as PCs will probably wind up having Strength as a mediocre-to-dump stat because of a multitude of reasons. However, a penalty to Str effectively relegates the ability a dump stat for all characters - even for the special little snowflakes.

[Ralanr]

Small characters' weakness is already represented by halved carry capacity and disadvantage on many combat maneuvers against bigger opponents. By pretty much any measure observable in-character, small characters are weaker.

I don't think they have halved carrying capacity. I think that's just for tiny races, not small.

[Slipperychicken]

I don't think they have halved carrying capacity. I think that's just for tiny races, not small.

That is right, thanks for pointing it out. I will concede that a 3ft tall halfling should not have the same carrying capacity as a full-grown human adult.

[burninatortrog]

I think Half-Elves are hard to beat. A total of +4 in stat bonuses, including +2 to Charisma, the only ability that is the spellcasting ability for four different classes. Freedom to choose where the other two +1's go. Not one but two skill proficiencies, player's choice. Darkvision for icing on the cake. All these go together for a very customizable and effective set of features.