I love goblins and lizardmen. Goblins because deranged little dudes running around is always a blast. Lizardmen because alligator people with melee weapons are the way I wish dinosaurs evolved instead of being birds.

  • Skua@kbin.earth
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    18 days ago

    Kenku! Little crow folk who can only speak in mimicry. I made it all the way through the D&D 5E adventure Wilds Beyond the Witchlight as a kenku bard, taking enormous amounts of notes of the things I heard so I could go back to find things to imitate.

    I mean at the core of it I actually just love crows, but kenku are a really fun challenge to RP and their current abilities in 5E are very conducive to creative usage

    • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Awesome, I love the idea of building a working library of dialogue to make use of. Technically mimicry would mean having no actual understanding of the phrases actual meaning so it would have to be coincidental to say something useful in context… but it would be such a fun mechanic I would find some way to hand-wave it into making sense.

      Might also be fun to extend the mimicry to physical mimicry too. Maybe picking up something that you have seen X number of times. Though that would add even more data tracking, hehe.

      • Skua@kbin.earth
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        18 days ago

        Ehhh it’s literally a magic curse, I’m okay with ignoring the details of how real life mimicry works. Going by old lore they also couldn’t come up with any new ideas of their own either, but this makes them kind of impossible to actually use as characters, so I’m content to ignore that as newer stuff seems to

        • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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          18 days ago

          Ah ok, they already have a built-in hand-wavey mechanic to explain it. That’s handy. Extrapolation from their inability to think creatively and only mimic, it seems like that would indeed set up for physical mimicry too. But that would probably get old fast, since it would have to be at the expense of gaining stuff naturally with levels. You’d either have to be trained everything you want to know, or have the DM set up encouters that makes sense for picking it up eventually. Maybe fun for the first couple levels, but just unnecessary tedium as it goes on.

          Certainly makes more sense fun-wise to retcon the scope of the curse to a more limited handicap. Something that fits the scope of a single hardship slot.

    • Mister Neon@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 days ago

      Hobgoblin is a subspecies of goblin thus I would include them in my statement of fondness. Gotta have someone ordering the goblin rabble around and nothing beats a hobgoblin at that.

  • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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    18 days ago

    I’ll go with the Alzabo from Gene Wolf’s worlds. Mimics the intelligence of anything it eats and begs its prey to be eaten in the voice of (already eaten) loved ones.

    The people who submit, don’t do so out of momentary stupidity, but because the Alzebo/Loved Ones make such a compelling case that the only way to be reunited again is to join the beast.

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    I need to put a vote in here for owlbears and owlcats, if only because of how excited they make my partner when encountered.

  • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    Parshendi, if they can be called a monster race.

    Having completely different forms they take for specialization depending on task is fascinating. And I love the way rhythm is baked into their being so innately, how every Parshendi can hear the same rhythms and attune them to express or mask emotion.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    18 days ago

    Probably dwarves - they’re not that exotic but I really vibe with them… for something more out there I’m a big fan of Yuan-Ti, they have spectacular lore and it’s always tickled me that their most human-like form is basically considered low-born while the pure bloods are full on snakes.

    Dwarves definitely take the cake for me though, big beards, stout, egalitarian, sometimes greedy - but always devout craftsfolk. As a big gender non-conforming man with a bigger beard and an intense love of my craftwork, I really vibe with them.

    … I am a dwarf, and I’m digging a hole Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole

    • mercano@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      Interesting use of terms. In Discworld Dwarven society, being lowborn would be a good thing and while being high born is only one step below surface dweller. The dwarves are ruled by the Low King (or Queen). The lower you are, the deeper you are in the mine, and the more rich and important you must be.

    • Albbi@lemmy.ca
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      18 days ago

      I love dwarves too. If I had to pick another race it would be the Nac Mac Feegle from Discworld.

      I couldn’t even understand the text I was reading at first when they talked, but once I figured out the accent I loved reading them. Plus the only thing they’re afraid of is lawyers.

    • Owl@mander.xyz
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      18 days ago

      their most human-like form is basically considered low-born while the pure bloods are full on snakes

      Wait, what ?

    • dumples@midwest.social
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      18 days ago

      I love the classic elves and dwarves as fantasy races. They don’t give a shit about our human centric concepts of gender roles. Dwarf women have large beautiful beards and elf men wear long flowy clothing with their long scented hair.

  • HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone
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    18 days ago

    Kobolds deserved the place in the player’s handbook that dragonborn got. Those little scrappy fuckers maybe being the actual scions of dragons appeals to me in a way that dragonborn just do not.

      • HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone
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        18 days ago

        For sure, they’re great in 2e. I remember that -4 penalty to strength in pf1e and their poochie-esque Wyvaran cousins trying to dragonborn it up tho

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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    18 days ago

    Dragons, dragonborns (though half-dragons are original and better than dragonborn but more poweful so they wasn’t balanced as player race) and kobolds.
    Khajiit and all other cat-people and cat-monsters everywhere (maybe except Kzinti)
    Owlbears are great too.
    Trolls come in dizzying array of variants (my favourite are the troll gods from Edding’s books).
    Tengu, especially the crow-tengu

  • zod000@lemmy.ml
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    18 days ago

    Beholders and Mind Flayers are probably my favorites. As a bonus, whenever someone says “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” I can’t help but ask “but which eye? They have so many!”

  • mossberg590@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    The PCs. The party are the real monsters in any campaign. That old woman hoodwinked is out of 2gp. KILL HER.

  • Paradox42@programming.dev
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    14 days ago

    Changelings (d&d style), Doppelgangers, Werewolves, really any kind of shapeshifter, the more shapes/types they can take on the better.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    Elves. They’re basically a cross between the 1% and the most insufferable celebritity influencers imaginable. Having a murder-hobo license to burn down their superiority complex is the best solution imaginable.

    • gazter@aussie.zone
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      18 days ago

      Are you a Pratchett fan? I think you’d like his take on elves, I think the first Discworld they’re in is Lords and Ladies.

  • proudblond@lemmy.world
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    18 days ago

    I know it makes me super basic but… dragons. I know, it’s not inspiring. But I must add a caveat. I prefer that they are intelligent, on par with or surpassing humans in intelligence and willing (if reluctantly) to interact with them. Game of Thrones dragons are cool and all but they don’t really do it for me in the same way as, say, the dragon from Dragonheart.

    • Mister Neon@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 days ago

      Basic is good. In fact I asked this question because I wanted to get a “vibe check” on what people thought was iconic.

    • dumples@midwest.social
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      18 days ago

      If a dragon is looking down on us magic less short lived specifies as trash what is the point? I want my dragons innately magical in strange ways, clever and older. I enjoy a rampaging dragon but even better if they are doing it on purpose