why so few humans

[3.5 Loyalist]

Yeah, it can get pretty annoying.

[Icyshadow]

Then it falls unto the DM (and the players to change that. Make them seem less human.

You'll probably need to reinforce it with both undertones of differences as well as overtones of it.

[3.5 Loyalist]

True, they can, I've tried it as a dm.

But elves, for one example, are so often portrayed as arrogant wizards or hippy archers with a hard-on for the longbow, that it gets old fast. Players also follow these imaginings and after ten years, it loses charm. Second Darkness was terrible for that. Come and help us fight the drow, but we hate you, and are arrogant. Did you know how arrogant we are as we lose this war? Pretty arrogant.

Part of me wanted to not play an honourable LG character, and to instead bring in a gank ranger (favored: all the elves) and go to town on both sides. "Dude, yeah we solved that problem for you, a real shame none of your elves mad it back, war is tough, condolences head dude (Bill & Ted's Excellent Elf Killing Adventure). I take it you will still be needing our services then?"

[Icyshadow]

Kind of funny how Pathfinder claims they are usually Chaotic Good...

[Craig Frankum]

Current party consists of:

an Aasimar Cavalier
an Undine Bard
a Half-Elf Paladin
and an Elf Rogue

[Drachasor]

Kitsune Knight wrote:

I don't know. After going to other systems such as Eclipse Phase for a while the diversity of races that exist within pathfinder seems limiting in the comparison.

In short, I echo AD's statement. All of the races in Pathfinder just look like some variation of Human to me.

Yeah, even with sticking to a humanoid theme, there's a lot more variety one can go in.

Then if we do get one, the likelihood it is well suited to all classes is small. Kitsune are probably one of the more unique races, but they are far more suitable to some classes than others.

I also find the small races rather uninteresting. Part of the problem is that there just aren't that many.

I admit there's a bit of a tightrope to walk here. In some ways the more unique you make a race, the more likely someone might not want that uniqueness for a given character. On the other hand, I do think there could be some races that aren't very human-like at all, yet still are quite flexible (able to excel at any class like humans).

Related to this, there are way too many mammals.

Right now I'm going to play an Aasimar in an upcoming game, and I'll probably choose some of the appearance options from the table to give myself a more non-human appearance. I think the fact one idea on that table is a shadow that doesn't look like you (e.g. has wings) is a tiny step towards races that are really fantastic (e.g. follow fantastic laws rather than more mundane ones). Honestly a lot can be done without even touching game stats, imho.

[Der Origami Mann]

Blueluck wrote:

Kingmaker:

• Human
  
• Human
  
• Half Orc
  
• Elf

Kingmaker:

• Human - Paladin
  
• Half Elf - Fighter Wizzard / Arcane Archer
  
• Elf - Barbarian Sorcerer / Dragon Disciple
  
• Halfling - Bard / Harrower

|
|
-> But I think the race is a question of

• rule-options
  
• flavour
  
• the campaigne/setting/group
  

[3.5 Loyalist]

Icyshadow wrote:

Kind of funny how Pathfinder claims they are usually Chaotic Good...

Yes chaotic, but they follow the rules and old traditions of their people, the society never really changes, and they all do national service.

:?

[Broken]

I always give the race alignments the same breath as the deity restrictions before the rest of the race starts going "that bob guy is really strange."

So elves tend toward CG, but NG and CN are not so strange.
But that LG Paladin guy over there, yeah he needs to loosen up a bit.

Though...I throw this out the door if the Elf is Forlorn. There is no telling how much they have deviated from the race as they are out on their own.

[Jenn Taylor]

Weird. About half my characters are human.

I have a half-elf, an undine, and three humans.

[Haladir]

Current game:

• male human barbarian
  
• male human cleric
  
• male human wizard
  
• female human paladin
  
• male half-elf rogue
  
• male dwarf ranger

Previous game (3.5):

• male human fighter
  
• male human wizard
  
• female human druid
  
• female elf ranger
  
• male human rogue

And the game before that (3.5)...

• female human rogue/wizard/arcane trickster
  
• male half-elf sorcerer
  
• female human cleric
  
• male aasimar sorcerer/paladin/Transcendent Champion (homebrew prestige class-- think holy eldritch knight)
  
• male human bard

The three campaigns I was involved with before that were in other game systems: Amber Diceless Role-Playing, GURPS (Horror/Conspiracy), and Champions.

So, yeah, my group tends toward humans.

I, for one, haven't played a nonhuman PC for regular campaign play in more than a decade.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

Current games:

-Half-Orc; Inquisitor
-Aasimar; Cleric/Fighter
-Tiefling; Witch
-Fetchling; Rogue
The 'ha, we don't need light' group.

-Half-elf; Magus
-Human; Gunslinger
-Human; Samurai
-Samsaran; Oracle
-??? Cleric/Inquisitor (( Never paid attention now that I think about it, might also be aasimar. Same player as the other cleric, running gag is what stuff goes with which cleric ))

-Earth pony; Cleric
-Pegasus; Bard
-Unicorn; Wizard
-Vanara; Gunslinger
-Human; Barbarian
I'm the token human, and often bring it up ooc.

previous game:
-Half-Orc; Fighter/Dragonrider
-Gnome; Bard
-Gnome; Cleric
-Gnome; Summoner
-Halfling; Gunslinger
-Human; Sorcerer
-Human; Rogue/Sorcerer
-Human; Paladin
-Human; Ranger

[Heymitch]

Humans... They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled. To challenge them is to court death.

[W E Ray]

Last night in Pathfinder Society there were 5 PCs and, for the first time probably since the '80s, ALL PCs were Human.

But in all the Home-Games over the last few decades, it's more like 20% Human.

[Zhayne]

The reason the PC races look mostly human is a matter of gameplay. They want the PCs to be able to use stuff they find, and not have to clutter up equipment lists for non-humanoid PCs.

A quadruped race, for example, couldn't use weapons, rings and boots would be iffy, and armor would probably have to be custom built.