Maybe human are so prolific in breeding that they have a magical tendency to be more compatible with other races? I feel like I've seen that somewhere but it could be made up in my own mind. Humanity is often viewed as very fecund compared to elves dwarves and gnomes that don't reproduce as often but live longer.
Or just humans are more willing to get around... who knows.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Stuff is all half-human because, as Star Trek told us, humans will mate with anything.
That.
And also, both the people who run and the people who play D&D are extremely lacking in any sort of diversity: every single one of us is human. So we naturally assume the universes revolve around us, and that all other species would love us and want to breed with us, rather than with each other. In other words, we will mate with anything, and everything wants to mate with us (just ask James T. Kirk).
This is what happens when you allow one species to dominate an entire planet... it's a cautionary tale.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Stuff is all half-human because, as Star Trek told us, humans will mate with anything.
That.
And also, both the people who run and the people who play D&D are extremely lacking in any sort of diversity: every single one of us is human. So we naturally assume the universes revolve around us, and that all other species would love us and want to breed with us, rather than with each other. In other words, we will mate with anything, and everything wants to mate with us (just ask James T. Kirk).
This is what happens when you allow one species to dominate an entire planet... it's a cautionary tale.
To clarify, centaurs, satyrs, and mermaids aren't half-human, they're their own species.
Centaurs and satyrs are fey, right, but their ancestry is still hybrid, no?
No, I don't think they are, the only hybrid race I'm aware of is the Simic Hybrid.
You don't get a centaur from a human mating with a horse (gross), you only get them when two centaurs mate with each other, so for them you couldn't say they're "half-human" in the same way that a half-elf is, having resulted from an elf/human pairing.
Yeah, you are right about mating. So besides that, about the looks, the upper body of those races looks like a human, even if they have no connection to them. Maybe it's because of the ancient myths which were mostly human like.
And here in D&D there is also no djinn with other races(genasi), fiend with them(tiefling), celestial with them(aasimar), and such...
Uhm, you do know that just because something looks like something else doesn't mean they have to share a common ancestry, right? Elves look kind of like humans, that doesn't mean that they have have to have a common ancestry.
Also, dunno if it's generally in D&D or if it's from somehwere else but thepoint about half-races was (as mentioned) that humans are so numerous and willing to breed with eveything else that they have been teh norm for half-races. In some versions humans are the only races that other races are even able to breed with. It doesn't have to be like that. Many people run their game the way that a half-elf for example is a person of elven heritage where the dominant traits are elvish and that's why they get the half-elf stats. Even if the other "half" (so to speak) is orcish, in this individual it was the elvish traits that were the most noticable. Some races, dwarves and halflings, are too similar to justify new stats so mechanically a child with those parents would be either a dwarf or a halfling but it could still be a stockier halfling with slightly less facial hair but still quite hairy feet.
It's the same with tieflings, aasimar and the like. It doesn't have to a be human who boinked a devil but the child of say an elf and a devil will still be a tiefling even though they might look a bit more like an elf than the child of, say a demon and a dwarf.
Humans are the most relatable, because it's what we are.
If you're going to get fantastical and 'out there' with races, species and such, it's much easier for the majority of an audience to have a baseline. In this case, humans are the foundation upon which we can then stretch our imagination. Without that context, it becomes more difficult.
We don't read books to learn about elves. We read books to learn about ourselves through a fantasy version of ourselves that has certain traits exaggerated or minimized.
We can all agree Tortles are not the product of human / tortoise breeding, right?
In a Delta Green (think Call of Cthulhu meets X Files) game I run outside of D&D, an operative foolishly went on his own to poke around a suspect BBQ stand after hours and underwent in some aspects literally visceral vicissitudes by "forces without flesh and bone yet with great power over flesh and bone" into what I called a Turtloid (it was apt, because the character was already well down the SAN fail rabbit hole and their "break" deluded themselves into thinking they were their dungeons and dragons character, a Tortle Ranger). In D&D they would have likely gotten new beefed up stats a high natural AC and natural weapons. In this game though, his colleagues found him a barely functional grotesque, so they placed him in a goo filled stasis pod and filed him at an undisclosed location next to the other tortloid monstrosity they had found at another BBQ franchise and the player roles a new character not using SAN as a dump stat.
I eliminated the "half" races from my game and made them feats you could take instead (everyone in my campaign gets a feat at first level). So, there's:
Fey Ancestry (instead of half-elf)
Infernal Ancestry (instead of tiefling)
Primal Ancestry (instead of Gensai)
Orcish Ancestry (instead of half-orc)
This eliminates the "why is it just half-humans" issue. You want to make a half-elf/half-dwarf? Just make a dwarf character and take the Fey Ancestry feat. I think it works out pretty well.
I eliminated the "half" races from my game and made them feats you could take instead (everyone in my campaign gets a feat at first level). So, there's:
Fey Ancestry (instead of half-elf)
Infernal Ancestry (instead of tiefling)
Primal Ancestry (instead of Gensai)
Orcish Ancestry (instead of half-orc)
This eliminates the "why is it just half-humans" issue. You want to make a half-elf/half-dwarf? Just make a dwarf character and take the Fey Ancestry feat. I think it works out pretty well.
This... is not a bad idea. In fact I think it might be a darn good idea.
I say that because, my first reaction to it was a knee-jerk, HECK NO! -- but when I react that way that usually means there is something to it. After thinking on it a little more, there is a lot to love about this idea.
I'd still have to do some real parsing to figure out how to work it into a new world, and it would not fit into my existing one. But I just might use this or some variant of it if I ever start a new campaign.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Humans could be the Elder Folk, the Root Race (in a given campaign). The demihumans would all be human offshoots. The beastmen: centaurs, satyrs, minotaurs, etc. would have derived from divine curses or magical hybridization of humans and animals.
Before making my own post for how you could do hybrid races in a fairly simple way, I will point out that Driders exist. They're half-dark elf half-spider. There are also Draegloths, half-drow half-glaberzu demons and Barghests, who are shapeshifting half-yugoloth half-goblins. In previous editions there were also Fey'ri, who were half demon half elves.
I eliminated the "half" races from my game and made them feats you could take instead (everyone in my campaign gets a feat at first level). So, there's:
Fey Ancestry (instead of half-elf)
Infernal Ancestry (instead of tiefling)
Primal Ancestry (instead of Gensai)
Orcish Ancestry (instead of half-orc)
This eliminates the "why is it just half-humans" issue. You want to make a half-elf/half-dwarf? Just make a dwarf character and take the Fey Ancestry feat. I think it works out pretty well.
Please detail how this works. It's an interesting concept and strikes me as potentially one worth exploring further, but it also seems to unfairly penalize those who enjoy playing the planetouched species. What do these feats look like, and what are the drawbacks associated with taking them (beyond losing a 'better' feat at creation)? What happens if a player wishes to use the original, regular half-'human' stat block for characters such as tieflings, aasimar or genasi? How have your players taken this option?
I eliminated the "half" races from my game and made them feats you could take instead (everyone in my campaign gets a feat at first level). So, there's:
Fey Ancestry (instead of half-elf)
Infernal Ancestry (instead of tiefling)
Primal Ancestry (instead of Gensai)
Orcish Ancestry (instead of half-orc)
This eliminates the "why is it just half-humans" issue. You want to make a half-elf/half-dwarf? Just make a dwarf character and take the Fey Ancestry feat. I think it works out pretty well.
Why do they have to give up a Feat to get something they would get naturally?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I eliminated the "half" races from my game and made them feats you could take instead (everyone in my campaign gets a feat at first level). So, there's:
Fey Ancestry (instead of half-elf)
Infernal Ancestry (instead of tiefling)
Primal Ancestry (instead of Gensai)
Orcish Ancestry (instead of half-orc)
This eliminates the "why is it just half-humans" issue. You want to make a half-elf/half-dwarf? Just make a dwarf character and take the Fey Ancestry feat. I think it works out pretty well.
I did something like this with Planetouched Supernatural Gifts, similar to the Hollow One supernatural gifts. Them being Supernatural Gifts makes it so you don't have to give up a feat to take them, and they can easily have it at level 1. I've only made ones for the Inner Planes and Far Realm, but I'll just link them for anyone who wants to check them out:
Humans could be the Elder Folk, the Root Race (in a given campaign). The demihumans would all be human offshoots. The beastmen: centaurs, satyrs, minotaurs, etc. would have derived from divine curses or magical hybridization of humans and animals.
First, "demihuman" hasn't been used in D&D since 2nd Edition. Second, in practically every D&D world except Dragonlance, humans are a young race that came into being well after races like elves, orcs, and dwarves. In Dragonlance they're one of the three original races created by the gods at the beginning of time (the other two being gnomes and the original ogres, which were beautiful and intelligent before becoming corrupted by evil), and all other races came into being as a result of magic, primarily caused by the Chaos Gem mutating different races.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Humans could be the Elder Folk, the Root Race (in a given campaign). The demihumans would all be human offshoots. The beastmen: centaurs, satyrs, minotaurs, etc. would have derived from divine curses or magical hybridization of humans and animals.
First, "demihuman" hasn't been used in D&D since 2nd Edition. Second, in practically every D&D world except Dragonlance, humans are a young race that came into being well after races like elves, orcs, and dwarves. In Dragonlance they're one of the three original races created by the gods at the beginning of time (the other two being gnomes and the original ogres, which were beautiful and intelligent before becoming corrupted by evil), and all other races came into being as a result of magic, primarily caused by the Chaos Gem mutating different races.
First, I've been playing since 2E days (though I started with B/X, really, and it remains my fave).
Second, I am talking about a way a DM could describe humans in a campaign, not about how TSR did it in certain settings. Recall that many, possibly most, DMs run homebrew or some combo of homebrew and published settings. So 'practically every D&D world but Dragonlance'' leaves out a lot of worlds.
You might want to add FR to your short list, as Humans were listed as one of the Creator Races in The Savage Frontier. Elves were later arrivals.
Maybe human are so prolific in breeding that they have a magical tendency to be more compatible with other races? I feel like I've seen that somewhere but it could be made up in my own mind. Humanity is often viewed as very fecund compared to elves dwarves and gnomes that don't reproduce as often but live longer.
Or just humans are more willing to get around... who knows.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
That.
And also, both the people who run and the people who play D&D are extremely lacking in any sort of diversity: every single one of us is human. So we naturally assume the universes revolve around us, and that all other species would love us and want to breed with us, rather than with each other. In other words, we will mate with anything, and everything wants to mate with us (just ask James T. Kirk).
This is what happens when you allow one species to dominate an entire planet... it's a cautionary tale.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Maybe. But that green alien chick though....
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Galaxy Quest...
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Uhm, you do know that just because something looks like something else doesn't mean they have to share a common ancestry, right? Elves look kind of like humans, that doesn't mean that they have have to have a common ancestry.
Also, dunno if it's generally in D&D or if it's from somehwere else but thepoint about half-races was (as mentioned) that humans are so numerous and willing to breed with eveything else that they have been teh norm for half-races. In some versions humans are the only races that other races are even able to breed with. It doesn't have to be like that. Many people run their game the way that a half-elf for example is a person of elven heritage where the dominant traits are elvish and that's why they get the half-elf stats. Even if the other "half" (so to speak) is orcish, in this individual it was the elvish traits that were the most noticable. Some races, dwarves and halflings, are too similar to justify new stats so mechanically a child with those parents would be either a dwarf or a halfling but it could still be a stockier halfling with slightly less facial hair but still quite hairy feet.
It's the same with tieflings, aasimar and the like. It doesn't have to a be human who boinked a devil but the child of say an elf and a devil will still be a tiefling even though they might look a bit more like an elf than the child of, say a demon and a dwarf.
I like this!
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
No, Star Trek. Those Orion women.... Woofta.
Of course, I always had a thing for Cardasian women too. 🤷♂️
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
We can all agree Tortles are not the product of human / tortoise breeding, right?
In a Delta Green (think Call of Cthulhu meets X Files) game I run outside of D&D, an operative foolishly went on his own to poke around a suspect BBQ stand after hours and underwent in some aspects literally visceral vicissitudes by "forces without flesh and bone yet with great power over flesh and bone" into what I called a Turtloid (it was apt, because the character was already well down the SAN fail rabbit hole and their "break" deluded themselves into thinking they were their dungeons and dragons character, a Tortle Ranger). In D&D they would have likely gotten new beefed up stats a high natural AC and natural weapons. In this game though, his colleagues found him a barely functional grotesque, so they placed him in a goo filled stasis pod and filed him at an undisclosed location next to the other tortloid monstrosity they had found at another BBQ franchise and the player roles a new character not using SAN as a dump stat.
Somehow seemed germane to this thread.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I eliminated the "half" races from my game and made them feats you could take instead (everyone in my campaign gets a feat at first level). So, there's:
This eliminates the "why is it just half-humans" issue. You want to make a half-elf/half-dwarf? Just make a dwarf character and take the Fey Ancestry feat. I think it works out pretty well.
Wouldn't that make half-elf/half-dwarf a more powerful character than a full elf or full dwarf?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
you would get a feat as a full dwarf so no
I am leader of the yep cult:https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/adohands-kitchen/82135-yep-cult Pronouns are she/her
This... is not a bad idea. In fact I think it might be a darn good idea.
I say that because, my first reaction to it was a knee-jerk, HECK NO! -- but when I react that way that usually means there is something to it. After thinking on it a little more, there is a lot to love about this idea.
I'd still have to do some real parsing to figure out how to work it into a new world, and it would not fit into my existing one. But I just might use this or some variant of it if I ever start a new campaign.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Humans could be the Elder Folk, the Root Race (in a given campaign). The demihumans would all be human offshoots. The beastmen: centaurs, satyrs, minotaurs, etc. would have derived from divine curses or magical hybridization of humans and animals.
Because Humans are both the Universal Donor and Universal Recipient of race procreation.
Before making my own post for how you could do hybrid races in a fairly simple way, I will point out that Driders exist. They're half-dark elf half-spider. There are also Draegloths, half-drow half-glaberzu demons and Barghests, who are shapeshifting half-yugoloth half-goblins. In previous editions there were also Fey'ri, who were half demon half elves.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Please detail how this works. It's an interesting concept and strikes me as potentially one worth exploring further, but it also seems to unfairly penalize those who enjoy playing the planetouched species. What do these feats look like, and what are the drawbacks associated with taking them (beyond losing a 'better' feat at creation)? What happens if a player wishes to use the original, regular half-'human' stat block for characters such as tieflings, aasimar or genasi? How have your players taken this option?
Please do not contact or message me.
Why do they have to give up a Feat to get something they would get naturally?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I did something like this with Planetouched Supernatural Gifts, similar to the Hollow One supernatural gifts. Them being Supernatural Gifts makes it so you don't have to give up a feat to take them, and they can easily have it at level 1. I've only made ones for the Inner Planes and Far Realm, but I'll just link them for anyone who wants to check them out:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/79019-planetouched-supernatural-gifts-similar-to-hollow
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
First, "demihuman" hasn't been used in D&D since 2nd Edition. Second, in practically every D&D world except Dragonlance, humans are a young race that came into being well after races like elves, orcs, and dwarves. In Dragonlance they're one of the three original races created by the gods at the beginning of time (the other two being gnomes and the original ogres, which were beautiful and intelligent before becoming corrupted by evil), and all other races came into being as a result of magic, primarily caused by the Chaos Gem mutating different races.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
First, I've been playing since 2E days (though I started with B/X, really, and it remains my fave).
Second, I am talking about a way a DM could describe humans in a campaign, not about how TSR did it in certain settings. Recall that many, possibly most, DMs run homebrew or some combo of homebrew and published settings. So 'practically every D&D world but Dragonlance'' leaves out a lot of worlds.
You might want to add FR to your short list, as Humans were listed as one of the Creator Races in The Savage Frontier. Elves were later arrivals.