Just curiouse if I am in the minority....
The one thing that makes me wince...is when a player want's to run with a Aasimar/Damphir/Ifrit/Oread/Sylph/Tiefling/Undine...etc...etc...
Is the visuals......
If I create a character of any of the above races...they primarily appear to be Human/Dwarf/Elven/Orc....with MINOR traits that give away their "outsider" or "non-humanoid" heritage....perhaps odd eye/hair color, strange shaped pupils...an odd smell that seems to follow them...that kind of subtle stuff.
A character who's skin looks like stone, or has fins for ears and blue skin....just seem silly and disruptive to me.
Opinions ???
I generally let players run with what they want, as long as it's logically within the bounds of the race. Blue skin for an undine? Sure, that's specifically called out as a possibility. Same deal for oreads with stony skin, though if they want it to be merely described as rough skin then I'm cool with that too. Same deal with the non-outsider races, like the Vishkanya. I'll let the players describe them as having obviously scaled skin, or it can look like a faint pattern until people look closer.
The primary reason I go with that attitude is because I know how much it would irritate me to have a character concept complete with appearance that fits within the norm for the race I chose, and be told "nope, you look human with a minor differentiating feature".
That said, if that was what they looked like in the GMs world, then sure, I'd accept it, just wouldn't be particularly happy about it. So if you want your players native outsiders to look like like normal humans with minor differences, go for it.
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Eh, it's a fantasy. Doesn't bother me when wizards can throw fireballs from their fingertips.
If it were a low magic fantasy, I could see toning down the fantastical look of some races.
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Honestly appearance bothers me far less than the Special Snowflake mentality those races can attract. I actually really like all of them. They have great potential for good storytelling wrapped up in their natures. It's just that I hate to see it squandered by a player who just wants to spotlight hog.
A dramatic appearance can be great for storytelling at the table (or the messageboards, since most of my gaming is done online). I got no beef.
I don't really care as long as it's withing the boundaries provided for the race. Then again, I tend to limit races to ones that are core plus ones that thematically fit the campaign.