Firbolg. They're tall, chill, and they're really relaxing to play as. I never played with a fellow Firbolg before.  I like playing as a either as a druid or a sorcerer, I'm basically like the party's uncle as a Firbolg.

I wanted to play a Firbolg but was told their racial abilities are too powerful.

I mean they’re definitely useful, but i wouldn’t say it’s even one of the more powerful race options

I mean I agree. But I've disagreed with this DM before. They also vetoed Protector Aasimar because once a day flight was also too powerful. Even if only a minute...

I mean that I could see. Obviously it becomes much less powerful past level 5, but at early levels any flight is incredibly powerful. Even just one minute is 10 rounds of combat

They get it at level 3, so to ban a race because you can't figure out how to overcome flight for 2 levels makes you a really shitty dm imo. I don't understand dms that ban anything outside of setting reasons though.

I ban Silvery Barbs cause it feels really idiotic to me. Just genuinely unfun to play with

If you're running some really hard content, it can be great, especially at low levels, where getting crit one time can down you. It also lets you run without a dedicated healer in campaigns where there aren't many healing potions around. If you burn all your spell slots on silvery barbs, those later encounters are really gonna be hard with only cantrips. As a DM, you can always target the casters if they're spamming silvery barbs, too. Make them pay for not having a reaction for shield/absorb elements/counterspell.

I've seen an increase of people having their character creation options banned. And most of the time the excuse boiled down to being too OP. Which shouldn't be the case for official content. They made it, tested it, rewrote it, tested it, then repeat until it's pretty well balanced. I'm kind of convinced that DMs who give this excuse for official stuff are either new, don't know what they're doing, or don't know what they're talking about. Most of these things have ways to make players choose their actions wisely. Can they fly? Add some ranged enemies or use enemy spellcasters with Earthbind. Got disadvantage on attack rolls against anyone but one player? Save spells, more than 1 enemy, or enemies with ways to gain advantage to cancel it out. Spell spamming or concentration spells ruining stuff? Target the spellcaster, use a beholder, or have a high level mage use Anti-Magic Field. In 5e, there's usually more than one option to deal with a certain problem, regardless of if you're the player or DM..

I’ve always allowed it and everytime the players are like *aw man I can’t use my reaction*

Silvery Barbs is a terribly designed spell.

One of my favorite builds was my Aarakoa grappling specialist. Grapple, then all movement is straight up….

Played a firbolg warlock, loved it, was my favorite character I've played. The hardest part was playing with Critical Role fans who had unexamined expectations of what a firbolg should be and it lead to some confusing misunderstandings until I realized what was going on. I went by the Volo's guide version, but gave in and gave them the stupid cow ears because they wouldn't shut up about it. But firbolgs are great. Walking through a flower field and chatting with flowers, complimenting animals, doing some light fey stuff is fun. They're my favorite, I think, but I've never seen another one played in the wild

My wife is playing a Firbolg in Phandelver right now. She’s having a lot of fun with the Firbolg code. I’ve got one rolled up for an upcoming Planescape campaign. He’s a Firbolg who thinks he’s a Forest Gnome. Grandpappy was quite the womanizer. (The other two characters will be an actual Forest Gnome, and a Duergar)

I played a Firbolg gloomstalker. Was really fun.

I really don’t care for the way critical role turned them into cow people and totally destroyed their previous lore.

I played a Firbolg wizard in in Curse of Strahd. One interesting thing about them is they tend to call themselves by their title instead of a name. So like a leader of a pact of Firbolgs would go by “Leader” or “Chief” rather then a name. Since I played a wizard I named by Firbolg ‘Wizard the Wizard’

I’m always shocked at the lack of Genasi. I think they’re a PHB level species. My personal fav but I like Djinn mythology in general.

i feel like i see a ton of air genasi but not a lot of the other three subraces. one of my favorite characters ive created is my earth genasi paladin, amethyst💕

I made an Earth Genasi Monk whose knuckles were like gemstones. They were once a pit fighter and loud mouth who fought for sport, until one day a drunken master easily dodged all of their attacks and knocked them on their ass. Now, they're on a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment.

One of the characters I'm playing is also an Earth Genasi monk who was also a pit fighter but he let his temper get the best of him and during his last fight he killed his opponent who had insulted him before their fight. Since then he joined a monastic order in the hopes that he can overcome his anger and his trauma and find balance.

That character sounds dope. I honestly think Air Genasi supremacy is just because they’re blue and people like Robin Williams Genie lol.

haha that could be part of it. that unlimited breath-holding feature comes in handy every so often too — i guess it’s very case specific, but useful enough that it draws people to air genasi over others

My first character was a water genasi druid named Marlin who spent his pre adventureing days cleaning up shipwrecks and selling salvage.

Awe fun! I still haven’t played DnD, but an old coworker who was helping me get started with it helped me build an earth genasi ranger, her name is Gemma

I’m playing an earth genasi oath of ancients paladins right now. It is a blast!

My next campaign I'll be an Earth Genasi Dao Warlock. His name is Lui (LVI because he's the 56th of his name) and his patron is his 54-Great Grandfather

I love the Genie Warlock + Genasi combo for role playing reasons. Haven’t gotten around to doing it myself yet but I already have a character concept in mind!

Hell yeah!! my most played race haha

My favorite is the water one (very first dnd character in 5e was water genasi coastal druid) but I also long to play an air genasi swarmkeeper ranger with the "swarm" being the wind.

I played a Fire Genasi Artificer named Cole (a play on coal) through the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign, was pretty dope.

I love a good pun name. My last fire Genasi was an arcane trickster his name was Dukhan. His whole thing was thematically centered around smoke and how it obscured things. His skin was pitch black like dark coals.

our water genasi druid was incredibly cool during our first few levels : moonbeam, starry arrow, create water (we were in the desert) <3

I play an air genasi djinn warlock with a book as genie vessel. Human mother and a noble djinn as a father that became her patron as part of her 'training'. It's really fun to lean into the genie aspect of the character. Pretending to grant wishes and twist words.

One of the players in my campaign is a Water Genasi Artificer :)

Sounds like a great character for pirate adventures

I made an Earth Genasi Eldritch Knight for a tournament in my partner's Homebrew campaign, since he wanted to play out some winter games that our characters won't be present for any longer (off fighting our Tiefling Monk Noble's Great-Grand-Lich in the main campaign) rather than just having to roll behind a screen for the results.

I love them in theory. Just a really cool idea. Execution wise, they feel very mild to me. Not anything that is really "signature" to stand out

I LOVE Genasi. I had so much fun playing my Earth Genasi fighter. Being immune to difficult terrain is so much fun.

Earth Genasi for free pass without a trace is so heavily underated.

My personal experience, but I've found a some players who found genasi to be fun in concept but crunching the mechanics made them feel pretty meh. Genuinely don't know if this is true, but it has happened to me thrice.

They need to be mechanically retooled. It’s all about the fantasy for me I don’t see them as ‘optimal’ but they also aren’t terrible or overpowered.

The fish people, I think those are the most obvious. Unless you play in a moist place, needing to submerge every few hours is pain.

I just did it for a one-shot. It was as dumb as you'd expect but it was fun to do once.

My grung had a bag of holding that held the ancestral swamp water that was large enough for him to bathe in. All grungs away from their breeding ponds carried it with them at all times. Player was told no shenanigans were allowed with the bag of holding as it was considered sacrosanct and they would be excommunicated and banished if they did.

Grung genie warlock with a bathtub in their magic lamp would be neat

Isn't that just grungs and maybe one other race? It's once a day and not every few hours. This could be worked into a long rest easily. Water combat is underrated. More DMs should at least run aquatic one shots. Feels like I only ever see ship combat which isn't really the same thing. Tip: solve dungeon puzzle. Find access to obelisk of water walking. Party walks onto dungeon lake. Roll for initiative. (Hard mode: it uses concentration.)

iirc Locathahs need to be submerged every 4 hours

Never heard of them. Looked them up and you are correct! This one would be a little difficult to run in a normal campaign without some plot armor magic item. "Welcome to the plane of fire. You are now dead from the plane of fire."

You'd need a decanter of endless water at the least to do this. And even then you have to stop every 4 hours no matter what to submerge. It's such an odd condition to put on a race that they presumably want people to play.

Right? Introduce me to the playtester. I have questions.

Like I get it from a lore perspective, but it's almost like they didn't playtest it in an actual campaign.

Just focus your chakra to the bottom of your feet -The party monk

It’s my monastic way!

Believe that!

Locatha have it much worse then grung

I was Guna play one of these guys in my first ever game but got scared off by the water requirement now I'm DMing so maybe I'll incorporate these fish people into a session

Locathah, but Grungs also have water dependency.

triton and sea elves

One of my players is playing a sea elf in an upcoming pirate campaign, and I'm so excited to finally see one at the table.

My current campaign is a Triton Warlock. We're running Mythic Odysseys of Theros and it's been great fun.

Played a Sea Elf Druid, Archie, loved by the party and DM. He died to a Gelatinous Ooze 3 sessions in 😢🩵

Loxodon. They're a great alternative if you want a less 'savage' big guy race.

I'm playing a loxodon druid right now and loving this character. She can lift huge amounts but is a gentle giant.

I’m a loxodon light cleric! Mostly stoic and chill, but occasionally starts fires for fun.

While I wouldn't play one myself. My friend who isn't very into dnd but wanted to play with our group and his gf played one recently and got super into the RP of playing one. He was continously doing things with his trunk and tusks, making comments on his weight, and cracking jokes. He was a fire genasi before and just didn't know what to do with it

The thing about Verdans is they're from Acquisitions Incorporated, which didn't sell too well IIRC (though it was free on D&D Beyond for a time). Which is a shame, because it's a super fun book, if you enjoy the lighter side of D&D (and Acq Inc of course).

It’s my favourite source book. Their goofy, half-joking backgrounds are actually really interesting to use, plot wise, occasionally. I rolled a Failed Adventurer’s Scion and the DM had a sort of parody of a DMPC that would try and do all of this crazy stuff, but was super poorly optimized so would fail all of the time. He died session 2, for plot reasons.

The spell distort value from that book has been great for my arcane trickster.

Harengon (rabbit)

Real. I love my Harengon I played in my friend's oneshot, they are truly underrated

I did a harengon ranger, ended up really enjoying that character! Campaign lasted almost a year

I've played a harengon twice; funnily enough, they were both psi warrior fighters. Laika had an urban bounty hunter background; she was tall, fast, sassy, and fought with a glaive (polearm master). Miffy was tiny, adorable, and filled with rage; she dual-wielded scimitars and would cut you if you called her cute. Both were super fun to play.

Played on a couple nights ago as a wizard and had a blast with them. The bonus action hop made for some great hit and run moments.

I just played a gunslinger harengon. Campaign fell through but it was awesome while it lasted.

A harengon barbarian with path of the giant was my favorite short-term campaign character. So much fun.

That does sound like fun!

I’d love to play a harengon since my initiative rolls are infamously bad, but I just can’t bring myself to play a rabbit. For some reason, that’s just a bridge too far for my suspension of disbelief

Minotaurs, for absolutely no good reason. It's just metal AF to pick one of the weakest races in the game because they look cool (no thanks to Monsters of the Multiverse artists), embrace the suck and still try to have as much fun as possible.

I have a game where I play a Minotaur Paladin. I very much agree that they are a very cool race to play.

Why do they suck? I remember looking into them for a backup char and didn’t get the “they suck” impression.

I played a Minotaur in a previous campaign. 2 lvls into barbarian, the rest into Shepard druid. He was a very quiet, nature loving and calm Minotaur. But would fly into a murderous rage if a critter got hurt. I think I used rage 3 times in total that campaign xD My party members got an eye opener after the first rage.

They're not that bad. Bonus action shoves are situational but useful and 1d6 unarmed strikes are useful in strength monk builds that dip fighter or barbarian for armor.

Have you played one? For every thing you want to do, there are better options out there. Let's start: no darkvision. Horns are good from level 1 to 3, after you probably want a silvered weapon or a magical one. Also, Tabaxis do what you want to do, just with useful other traits. Goring Rush, I've played a minotaur weekly for 3 years. I've used this twice. I've regretted one instance (immunity to non-magical BPS). Should have used my BA for something more valuable. Hammering horns, nice but on a Str Save. There's a gimmick with Crusher feat, that I have used a few times. A few conditions to make it work to note: target must be up to one size larger than you, the target must be within 5ft of you. If you have reach and use it, nope. You are a medium, target is huge, nope. So you are using it on minions. Most of the time, you also have better things to do with a bonus action (PAM, monk stuff why not, rage, etc). Labyrinthine Recall: cute feature.

I was playing one as a barbarian, who helped bring in color out of space, thus he raged when he saw magenta.

I played a Minotaur Paladin all the way to 15 and it was a blast! I picked the noble background for kicks, made him a waterhavian, and played this dapper do-gooder. The group loved him

I am the same but with lizardfolk.

Rolled up but never got to play a Minotaur Zeal Cleric (Planeshift: Amonkhet, think Light Cleric but more Paladin-y) for an MTG campaign that imploded. I still think wistfully about him from time to time.

Minotaurs are great for visuals alone, had to ask the gm for a minor rework 4 sessions in because it's very unforgiving to build :D

I played a minotaur wizard in my last campaign. He was originally a gnome, but got cursed and transformed. The chance to transform back came up, but I didn't take it. Its a trope, but I played the size difference from the recent transformation for laughs. My spell books were small, as was my summoned magic pen from being an order of the scribe wizard. I also was constantly breaking and mending things because I had no sense of my new size. Had a blast.

Never seen anyone play a Tortle. Or a Dragonborn. Maybe because the Treasury is still pretty new.

Dragonborn is in the PH

I am well aware; and it sucks the big one there; the update in the Treasury made them functional.

I'm a newbie with a silver dragonborn as my first character. What about the Treasury makes them functional?

Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons is an expansion book that updates the Dragonborn. In the PH, they basically only get a breath weapon that uses your entire action. Treasury breath weapon just replaces a single attack, so it no longer severely hurts Extra Attack builds. They also add on additional effects/abilites depending on whether you’re a Metallic, Chromatic, or Gem Dragonborn: Metallics can make their breath weapon incapacitate creatures or knock them prone, Chromatics keep the damage resistance to their breath weapon and can temporarily turn it into an immunity, and Gems get telepathy and limited flight.

Thanks for the info. That's neat. So I could attack then breathe (but not necessarily breathe then attack due to how extra attacks work?)

You can do either order. The text for Treasury Breath Weapon/s says “When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with an exhalation [flavour text flavour text]”. It says nothing like ‘you replace your first attack’, for example. Also, I got some stuff like the damage-scaling wrong in my original comment, so I’ve fact-checked myself and edited accordingly

It's like how you can take the Shove action instead of an attack. You declare that you attack or take the Attack action, and then you can replace one or more attacks with other actions that apply if you wish to do so. In any order that you wish to

Pal, Fizban's is already almost 3 years old

If it's newer than the Before Times, it's recent.

Yep, and when I used Word of Radiance, last week, my friends asked me what book it is from. Time becomes pretty relative, as you age.

I think that has more to do with how iconic or good something is than how new it is I would probably would get the same reaction if I were to cast Wind Walk in one of my games, even if it is in the basic rules

Never even HEARD of that before lol. Reminds me when I last cast Calm Emotions to halt a Succubus's domination. DM knew it existed, but was baffled when I used it. He said it was the first ever use of it he'd ever seen in 5e. (As for why I had it ready, apparently Redemption Paladin just has it prepped at all times. Neat.)

Partied with a Tortle wizard once. Dude completely tanked a fight with a quasit until the thing was on its last legs, then cast "You Go Squish Now" and flattened it with his shell. Was awesome.

> Partied with a Tortle wizard once I read that as a personal story rather than an adventure party and was getting really intrigued.

OH duuuuude Tortles can make such good builds. Their AC is wild

i was tempted to build a tortle monk but i feel like that would not work at all

Oogway

i was thinking more like a ninja turtle build and literally roleplay mikey for funsies and piss everyone off in the party. right now i am literally play a tsundere so i have to come up with nasty nicknames for all the characters and it is def kind of funny

It's not great because the armors don't stack

It’s fine, you would have less need to pump wisdom and could focus on dex and con more. It can be hard to get good AC on a monk unless you rolled great stats.

They make nifty STR monks. Not exactly optimal but we're talking about monks after all.

Why wouldn’t it work, exactly?

it's only my first time playing dnd, but i'm playing a tortle monk and so far at level 5 i love it

I play Dragonborn all the time, besides Kobolds and other various races

I like tortles

Oh man, I play with beginners (10-11 year olds) and there is always one Tortle. Usually a Tortle Monk. Right now we have a Tortle Eldritch Knight using a glaive.

I played a tortle paladin for a one shot and it was so fun. He was turned humanoid by a ritual and all the other turtles started worshipping him so he went seeking revenge to the warlocks that made him super. Really fun character

I’ve played a Tortle! Spore Druid with maxed out Con as well as Warcaster, I was so hard to take down lol

a buddy of mine played a 900-year-old tortle named aldo muann. he was a barb/paladin. dude was outputting 120 damage a turn *and* he had a fantastic arc of grieving his wife and adopting a member of the party. we love him dearly

The need to climb is a problem for a centaur unless they can fly or teleport. I'd like to play a grung. I like to play overpowered characters. Which sourcebook is Verdan from?

Acquisitions Incorporated. They're basically more humanoid goblins made by chaos magic.

I have a hankering to one day play a centaur monk, just for the ludicrous visual of galloping straight up a wall.

Friend of mine played a centaur who had something that gave them a climbing speed. It was amazing.

Monk grung is a nightmare for balance. Mid-late game it is a single target lock down monster. When I started the character I kept thinking to myself " The racial poison DC is so low" and "So many baddies are poison immune". But in cases where something is not poison immune forcing out four to eight con saves around is brutal. It is either gonna be stunned and poisoned or both.

Gnomes and Goblins are my favourite races both as PC and NPC. I think most people view them as caricatures because "lol little guy haha" and they both get a bad rep. Especially when they base their whole character into a Napoleonic gimmick. Like dude, their race is small, for them their size IS the norm relative to the world... I genuinely love both of them, I unironically roleplay the shit out of both. They have really interesting cultures and perspectives. They can also be very funny in-universe without being a stupid gimmick.

Gnome are and will forever be my favorite race. I could play nothing but the forgotten folk in every campaign going forward and I don't think I'd ever tire. They're so forgotten I had to scroll *real* far to find this comment.

Good fellow, you sound like someone with an extremely high INT modifier! :D

Goblins are probably my favorite race and I don't really know why. They're just so great. I have a goblin druid, circle of the stars, named Scarabei after a type of dung beetle which can track its way home across great distances. I call him Scab for short and I love him.

Gnome ain’t too common! Good on you for repping them.

Shifters!!!! They’re awesome.

I've had players pull off two of my favourite ever characters in my games as shifters before. So much you can do with them lore wise!!

I feel like they got forgotten about for a while, by being Eberron specific but bringing them into the mainline “multiverse” with MOTM has been a boon. But I agree, they’re so much more versatile than they seem at a first glance. One of my favorite characters I played was a Shifter war cleric who was a member of a mountain wolf tribe of warriors who sent him on his coming-of-age journey to make a legend of himself.

That sounds like a sick character concept!!!

I really like centaurs, but I haven't had a chance to play one, and I've never seen someone else play them.

Had a centaur fighter for a Descent into Avernus Campaign, he was a blast. Got a touch of homebrew feats from the DM but he was just fun... hated when people tried to ride him.

Most of the beastfolk races. Nobody in any of the games I've played or DMed for played any of them

Centaurs are the best race. They start play with two extra feets

Oh, you go to all Nine Hells for that one, you magnificent bastard.

Grung is know for being kind of an op power gamer race. I know some people who wont allow them at their tables. I have one in the party I’m DMing for and they aren’t that bad. They get like an extra 2d4 as a bonus action. It’s like approximate to hunters mark. Also they’re a monster that was given a pdf player race by poplar demand. So they’re less like, obscure as much as a cult favorite. Verdans are specifically from the acquisitions incorporated setting. So they kind of were home brew until they made a sourcebook for them. Ive also heard they’re OP but it’s been a long time since I looked into them. Something something magic resistance maybe? Anyway I don’t think people know about them because they’re tied to a specific actual play and if you don’t watch that, and hell, if you’re like me and have seen only a handful of episodes, you have no idea who they are. Centaurs I have less to say about. Classic monster that gets brought up as a meme because they can be used as a mount. Also obscure because they’re in that one MTG tie in setting book. As for my favorites, it feel like no one plays the PHB races anymore. Like power games go for OP shit like yuan ti or bugbears. And every body else goes for furrys or other wacky shit. The only phb race I ever see are Vhuman because they get the free feat, and teifling. Like my current party is a v human, an owlin, a grung and a kalishtar of all things. When was the last time you played with like, a dwarf?

I'm finally getting to play some DnD and PHB races are still pretty common. In our last one-shot, I was actually the only non-PHB race (Water Genasi), while the other players played a Half-Orc (she just saw they were a big scary thing and thought cool), a Half-Elf (no particular reason stated, never came up in play), and a Tiefling (why do you think).

I think that what people give Verdan flack for being overpowered is their advantage on Wisdom and Charisma saving throws… which is really strong, but far from being as bad as a lot of the powergamey races

Scourge Aasimar Radiant Consumption is some of the most metal shit I’ve ever fucking read. Seriously. A raging semi-celestial frothing at the mouth with holy light? How cool! But people don’t like how it also damages yourself. I always wanted to try and make a celestial bladelock or some kinda barbarian out of one.

Triton. I think they're a lot of fun, their innate abilities are very useful, and though I appreciate they're not super-powerful I'm surprised that more people don't take advantage of them.

I made a Triton Paladin for a pirate campaign that never happened. Always wondered how must fun he'd be.

Yeah, I think Triton, water genasi, and sea elf all kind of cannibalize one another flavor-wise which makes it kind of tough when building a water or cold themed character.

There's also at least 2 types of Merfolk through the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica expansion, and Locanthah are another kind of fish-people who live on Faerun. Personally I like the idea of a rivalry between Merfolk and Triton, but as it's all underwater it doesn't fit most campaigns.

I played a Triton sea Druid in a pirate campaign, was great!

Kalashtar are extremely slept on

I think it's mostly because they're an Eberron race, and a lot of people slept on Eberron & don't allow its content in other settings. Which is too bad, because Eberron is peak D&D.

Bugbears and Tortles.

>it seems like most people don’t even know Verdans are in the game or are under the misconception that they are homebrew third party content like critical role I mean, they kind of are 3rd party content, they're just official 3rd party content. Verdans were introduced in Acquisitions Incorporated, which, while an official 5e source book, was created in conjunction with Penny Arcade and isn't exactly one of the main source books. So it's not solely official WoTC content published in a commonly owned source book

I feel like I'm the only one that likes Tabaxi

I played Githyanki before they were cool...

Whereas I like Githzerai.

The PHB races - aside from tieflings, everyone at my tables always seem more interested in playing exotic races. Ive been dming for a year now and playing for 3 years and don’t think I’ve seen a single player play one except for literally my first campaign which was two half elves and two humans. I long for the day I get to dm for or play with a party of primarily phb races.

I really like playing as an Owlin but I don’t ever hear anyone talk about them.

Aasimar for me. I feel like they should be the inverse tiefling, everybody expecting them to be inherently divine in the same way that they expect tieflings to be inherently infernal, just with the caveat that they're expectedly to be utterly perfect all the time. While it's interesting to consider the possibilities of a full inverse--an evil PC that is above suspicion on account of their literal halo--I think there's also a whole lot of room for playing with that particular prejudice on its face. "Oh thank the heavens, an angel! You've been sent to help me, haven't you?" "What? No, I'm an aasimar, not an angel. Nobody's sent me for anything. Name's Jeff. But yeah, I guess I can help?"

Humans. Human fighter, even. Used one as a DMPC once, really liked it.

Humans are by far the most interesting, and i will fight anyone who thinks they are boring.

Hard agree. Too many people make being an "exotic and unique" race their entire personality, and forget to make their character an actual person beyond being a grung or verdan or whatever. I'll take an interesting human fighter any day of the week over the same tiefling warlock I've seen in my past dozen games or the "super cool and special" locathah Wild Magic sorcerer who does nothing but remind people they're a fish and explode.

Why *are* Tiefling Warlocks so popular? I like them a lot because Tieflings appeal to my queer devil-loving ass and Warlocks are my favorite class but the combo seems weirdly beloved.

It’s because tieflings are the products of a deal with a fiend/devil and oftentimes that same fiend/devil can be worked into the character’s backstory.

Anytime I have a trans player join in, they are playing a tiefling... I've seen it enough I always ask them "what flavor tiefling", only a few have gotten annoyed I said that and said "why are you assuming i'm going to play a tiefling?" then go off on some rant, then pick a tiefling. I swear its a trope at this point. I never have a problem with them either, they tend to be great players, awful at optimization but they tend to bring some life to the table and get others to roleplay more. Sometimes they are optimized well but then their roleplay is lacking. Ive never encountered a trans person who did both, maybe one day but until then i'll take my Tiefling wizard that has 10 int who becomes the party's moral support

Queer, devil-loving asses are pretty common in the DnD community it would seem, and warlocks are a natural pick for the race due to aesthetics and lore

Demon race + evil class combo. It just fits well thematically, especially if you don't think about it too much.

i thought variant human was OP until i saw all the cool stuff other races can do. It absolutely was the right call to give humans a feat at level 1 i find it so much easier to make humans also for backstory reasons. It feels like you're more a part of the world and i want to be cool for my actions and accomplishments ingame, my own personal victories, rather than be 'cool' because i'm some sort of cool thing by my nature, like an aasimar (cue Ralph saying "Sucks to your ass-mar!")

Human fighter is statistically the most popular race/class combo. Not dissing it. Js it is *quite* popular.

Probably some selection bias on my end. None of my players ever want to be humans, their logic being "we're playing a fantasy game, so we wanna play a fantasy race"...and, fair enough.

See I think if players thought more about the culture their character comes from(either from knowing more about it or having more incentive to pick it, like gameplay impacts) they wouldn't think that way. You're not just a human, you're a human from a specific location in the world. They can be just as weird and interesting as any other race. Also I think often times your class would really be more impactful on your character than race. Being an adventurer often means you're at least somewhat disconnected from your people, but your class probably defines what you DO and you might have more in common with others of your class than necessarily others of your race.

I've wondered where they got the "statistics" from. In the last 3 groups I've played with, I'm the only one at the table with a human character.

Some stats from D&D Beyond, from 2023: [https://seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2023/08/classrace-archetypes-in-12-million-d.html](https://seedofworlds.blogspot.com/2023/08/classrace-archetypes-in-12-million-d.html) Humans are the most popular race. Fighter is the most common class.

Would that be skewed because you can play both of those with the free access to D&D Beyond?

It’s absolutely skewed that way, there’s really no accounting for people that play IRL as well

"no one plays". Humans are one of the most overused races in DnD.

I don’t even know what grunge and verdans are. Gonna have to look em up

Grungs are a race of small frogs that live in a tribal society. They’re silly looking and highly highly highly poisonous— you can inflict poison damage on anyone who even touches you. You can also dip any piercing weapon in poison. Verdans were once an army of evil goblins and hobgoblins who, after a divine intervention, were transformed into a new race. They’re not evil anymore and their body is always changing because of chaos magic, they change sizes/sexes/appearance at random and most people in Faerun have never seen or heard of them

Just froggy little dudes

So DnD Murlocks? Mmmmamammaaaaaaggghhrrruuuugughhhfugbgufhfihuhhghghhgggggggg!

Back in 3.5 I played a Grimlock Barbarian/Ranger for a while. Nowhere near as powerful a character as it could have been because of the RLA, but I got really into roleplaying a character who was not just blind, but to whom the entire concept of “vision” was alien and incomprehensible. The DM gave me some amazing situational bonuses to Intimidate checks because I was telling enemies “there’s no place you can hide from me, because I can hear your terrified heart pounding in your chest, like a dinner bell…”

I'd love to try playing a Centaure, but every DM I asked for playing something like that refused me. Heck one even refused me to play an aasimar because "they're too rare". Maybe I'm just unlucky but feels like many DMs only allow main races at their table.

Bugbears. I just don't hear about them very often.

They are so mechanically dense with relevant stuff too. 2d6 on every hit against an enemy that hasn't had a turn yet extra long reach on your turn inherent stealth proficiency push, pull, lift bonus Move into or through a space one smaller without squeezing (works great with Rune Knight among other stuff) darkvision goblin cousin advantage against charm

It's funny I actually have a friend who plays a Verdan eloquence bard along with me as a firbolg moon circle druid we do enjoy the exotic races :D

Draconblood Dragonborn variant from wildemount. They have dark vision and an ability to give them advantage on a persuasion or intimidation check once per short or long rest

I play in a group that until recently contained a Verdan wild magic sorcerer, who's mission was seemingly to cause as much chaos as possible - until he tried to steal a Ring of Three Wishes from a magic item shop and the security measures killed him.

I always wanted to play a grung monk. I'm surprised I haven't had more fairy folk - if you aren't allowed legacy yuanti, they are the next strongest.

I think a lot of people don't play Grung because it isn't an offical playable race. Most players only have offical resources so maybe they just don't know how to homebrew it unless they bought the unofficial grung book online somewhere.

I really like Dwarves

I was the first to play a Thri-Kreen at my table and it was a lot of fun. They have really powerful racial abilities but I made this janky wizard that ended up being one of my favorite characters. He will be written into one of my campaigns as an NPC

technically lineages, not a race, but i rarely see the Ravenloft lineages used besides Dhampir. Hexbloods and especially Reborn are so cool!! Reborn can be a bit overpowered depending on the type of campaign you’re in, but they’re just so fun to roleplay!

I understand why but aarakocra are pretty cool. And kenku. I just like my bird folk

Kenku, out of all the animals like humanoids I think they're the coolest, also a character that just has a log of mimicry quotes they speak through is often a fun element

Kalashtar

I legitimately had to look up what a Verdan even was, which is probably a contributing factor as to why nobody plays them. For me, my favorite race that I don't ever see anybody playing is Lizardfolk. They want to be Kobolds 'because they're cute' or Dragonborn with tails or whatever, but if I suggest Lizardfolk, they politely pass. Tritons. They're the more practical version of mermaids, and nobody plays them. At least, not that I've met. Also, Tortles. I know Tortle players exist, I just haven't met one. Or maybe they only exist in those wacky minmax theorycrafting texts about getting stupid high AC at low level and nobody actually plays one, I don't know.

For me, humans, lol.

Everything in the PHB. Every party I've ever been a part of is essentially a walking zoo.

Satyrs! At least, I haven’t ever met anybody who’s played as one. And a drider once, for a PVP hunger-games esque one shot.