Nonstandard Races of D&D

Personally, I love the vast array of non-standard races that D&D has produced. From embracing humanity's *ahem* "versatility with hybrids like half-dwarves, half-gnomes, half-goblins and half-gnolls to finding plenty of alternative races to build my setting up and make it feel different, there's so many different possibilities.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/List_of_D%26D_PC_Races

File: Lupin Tribal Warriors.png (620KB, 493x750px) Image search: [Google]

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Lupins: Fun fact is, I came to D&D very late in the game's lifespan. Just the wrong combination of hometown, country, birth-year and being suckered into buying Warhammer Fantasy & 40K codexes instead of D&D books. So, most of what I know was born out of searching for D&D stuff online. Thus, my first exposure to Lupins was in their 3.5 unofficial reboot in Dragon Magazine #325. At the time, I read them and just went "huh, neat", and would have passed them over - I mean, giant wolf-riding Great Plains Amerindian-themed wolf-people is not really that unique. That's, like, one of the more cliche cultures you'd get in most anthro fantasy settings. Except one small sidebar (criminally missing in Dragon Annual) caught my eye. Pictures, evidently taken from old school D&D sourcebooks, introduced me to the kingdom of Renardie, and that caught my attention. Faux-French Swashbuckler-themed wolf-people? Now that is something unique!

Heck, the division between Civilized, Tribal and Nomadic is practically tailormade for 5e's subrace mechanics, although as one who's tried to convert them, I must confess that I struggled with meaningful stats, given their rather lackluster mechanics in previous editions.

Now, I don't know if we can legitimately have Rakasta return, what with Tabaxi already filling the "catfolk" role. But Lupins certainly have a free slot. And if they brought them back, I'd rather they went deeper than the wolf-riding Great Plains Amerindian culture of their 3.5 revival - it's interesting, but obvious - and took from their source. Bring back the Kingdom of Renardie, of lupins who are urbane and cultured, intellectual and studied with a mighty and developed civilization that spits in the eye of all those who insist that beastfolk can never be anything more than blood-drenched marauders or Stone Age tribals.

Besides, are you seriously going to tell me that a jaunty, wise-cracking, devil-may-care, wine-sipping, swashbuckling wolfman paladin isn't D&D?

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Phanaton: These guys are just goofy fun. Halfling-sized raccoon-monkey-flying squirrel hybrids; there's just something so charmingly silly about them. Plus, they'd make a wonderful forest-dwelling alternative to gnomes or halflings.

>>54909827
Old Lupin are fucking awesome, and new lupin are just boringly cliche.

>>54910194
Yep. Mystara had its quirks, but it was really emblematic of what D&D could be if it just tried to shake off its Tolkienian roots.

Seriously, what's not to love about an empire of samurai catfolk who ride flying sabertoothed tigers down from their home on the moon? Or a magocracy ruled by shapeshifting, non-evil spider-sorcerers?

>>54909356
I run my campaigns in the Planes. Any races that aren't planetouched or otherwise indigenous to the Planes won't come up unless the player go out of heir way to find them or make them.

>>54909827
They were in Dragon Compendium though.

Actually, most Interesting races come from that book, including Literal Daemonettes from the Plane of Nightmares that's getting it's shit fucked by the Far Realm.

Also, Ecology of the Gnoll 1e stuff 4e is shit, that Article kicks 4e's fucking savageshit in the dick.

>>54911138
>They were in Dragon Compendium though.
The Tribal Lupins were in Dragon Compendium, but that book skipped out the sidebar from the original Dragon Magazine issue. You know, like I actually said?

>Actually, most Interesting races come from that book, including Literal Daemonettes from the Plane of Nightmares that's getting it's shit fucked by the Far Realm.
You mean the Diaboli? Another Mystaran race?

>Also, Ecology of the Gnoll 1e stuff 4e is shit, that Article kicks 4e's fucking savageshit in the dick.
What "Ecology of the Gnoll"? There isn't one, as far as I've found - just the Ecology of the Flind.

>>54911201
Well, the Flind has got most of what you want for the Gnolls anyhow, Hierachy, number of Flinds to Gnolls, the Tribal totem thing, correct distribution of spells to their clerics, and show shows they aren't all gonna sacrifice your ass if you're lucky, but instead maybe make you one of their own.

With many beatings and lack of bathing. But yeah, Gnolls get a favoured enemy based on Tribe is what it translates too.

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My first thought upon seeing this image in a 2e Monster Manual is that I had to play one. I know they ha e a cult following, so obviously I'm not the only one.

>>54913766
They've actually been playable in AD&D, 3e and Pathfinder, so you're certainly not alone.

>>54913841

4e had a bullywug monster race option... That basically wasn't supported.

... And might not be what you are referring too.

Lord knows that a IP can have multiple beast folk

Warforged hit just the right place for me

>>54913926
No, that's the Grippli, one of... at least three different frog-people we had in 1st edition D&D. Grippli are goodly-aligned tree-frog-people who can live for centuries and initially had a lot of psionic powers.