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Read click bait title, resisted, failed.
Not disappointed.
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The normal hero is a story trope: the ordinary person thrown into the fantasy world becomes a powerful hero. Starting out exotic diminishes the epic of becoming exotic. While Pathfinder does not drop a non-magical nobody from Earth into a fantasy world, a Golarion farmboy or a tavern wench or even a new student at the wizard academy counts as sufficiently ordinary.Hmm, doesn't really sound open minded to me. I mean, you could have totally ordinary dwarf farmer become hero as well, there isn't "normal" in a fantasy world :D
Yes, it isn't open minded. To us humans, normal means human. Nevertheless, a major exception occurred when J.R.R. Tolkien used a hobbit, the race that inspired halflings, as the ordinary homeowner who ran off to adventure with dwarves and a wizard for a dragon's gold. Then he used that hobbit's nephew as the bearer of the One Ring. Both represented ordinary people.
Also, the original poster, Naoki00, said, "No longer do elves, dwarves, halflings, etc, feel fantastic in the way that really draws out my creativity." So she does not play dwarf farmers, because she sees them as totally ordinary.
Ironically, I just logged back on after running my weekly Pathfinder game. The PCs are a human fighter/investigator, a dwarf gunslinger/rogue, a half-elf magus, and a strix skald. That party is across the board from ordinary to exotic. The human would claim ordinary beginnings, except his player keeps adding special Mary-Sue-type details to his background. The dwarf is a ordinary dwarven smith thrown into extraordinary circumstances. However, this ordinary dwarf is seeped in dwarven culture because that is what ordinary means to her player. The half-elf is a brooding loner. His mixed race might be relevant in the brooding, but otherwise he might as well be human. And the strix is 100% exotic. Her player even read Nightglass, a Pathfinder Tales book by Liane Merciel, to learn about strix culture and give the strix a special birth by strix religion.
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My last few characters have been, in no particular order:
Halfling Witch (Gravewalker) to lvl 3
Lizardman Barb (hurler)/Oracle (Ancestors) to lvl 16
Gnome Sorcerer (Fey) to lvl 12
Tengu Rogue (Swordmaster/Scout) to lvl 17 Mythic 9
Human Wizard (Sin Mage/Thassalonian Specialist) to Level 3
Oread Summoner (Shaitan Binder) to lvl 3
Gnome Wizard (Illusionist)/Veiled Illusionist PRC) to lvl 13
I play in 2 very regular games, and then sometimes in a 3rd if the chance permits. Sometimes we start APs and decide we don't like them, or to take a break, thus the varying low levels.
For me, it's more about the flavor of the character, and what I'm trying to get it to do mechanically. I tend to play a variety of "traditional" and "out of the box" characters.
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Read click bait title, resisted, failed.
Not disappointed.
I honestly didn't feel like it was click bait, just an honest question I've pondered for a little while. Especially after seeing how many people enjoy adventures of lvl 1-5 with plucky average joes rising up to adversity (often being a group of core races). You know the old classic stuff, and I can't say it's not classic for a reason, just was hoping to get other peoples ideas too. I'm really enjoying the discussion personally.
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So this may come out as an attack, but it is NOT meant to be. different strokes and all that, just how I feel.To me, the out there races are a gimmick, and somewhat a crutch. Sort of like, no need to develop a personality, there's one right out of the box for you, add seasoning to taste.
I actually enjoy...
Doesn't feel much like an attack, you're welcome to share your thoughts even if it were. I did open a discussion on opinions after all!
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to show that the human spirit and ingenuity can triumph over adversity on it's own without cheating.
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I like to play fantastic races for the same reason I like to play fantastic classes, like spellcasters. It's 'come as you aren't' night, and a human postal worker is about the last thing I want to be on fantasy night, when I can be *anything*.
As for 'easier to identify with,' maybe I'm just a tiny bit autistic, but I've often found my fellow humans to be mystifying and alien and occasionally frustrating, speaking some weird language that I have to struggle to translate in my head before replying. I work in a 'cantina' every day at the post office, seeing creatures far more exotic and bizarre, with behaviors and beliefs that I find literally nonsensical, than anything that you'd see in Star Wars or Spelljammer or a David Brin novel.
That said, I'm also a twinky powergamer, and humans, with that sweet extra feat and floating stat bonus I can put anywhere (and lack of stat penalty), have been my go-to race pretty much since 3.X.
But 2nd edition? It was all aquatic elves, all the time, with the occasional bit of strangeness like Spelljammer, where I got to play a xixchil fighter (myrmidon kit, just because I am insane that way, and the joke nobody else got amused me) and a gnomish were-giant-space-hamster who was also a clockwork mage who 'assembled' tiny machines to cast his spells each morning. And then there were the 'monster games,' in which entire parties would consist of centaurs, giff, ogres, thri-kreen, etc.
It's a role-playing game. I like playing roles. Playing myself is a role I have to play every day, and sometimes I want a break to be someone magical and special and not-me for a few hours.
But it's not like there aren't a zillion other human configurations that are nothing like me, so I don't *have* to play a non-human to play someone very different than myself... If a game world had no aliens or fantastic races, like Call of Cthulhu or one based on the Asimov Foundation novels, I'd could find a voice easily enough.
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to show that the human spirit and ingenuity can triumph over adversity on it's own without cheating.
^_^
LOL. Does without cheating mean you only play human commoners. This is Pathfinder, a game wholly devoted to clever and special ways of making the rules as bendy as possible for your character. Human racial stuff is so superior it is practically cheating for several classes.Now my brain tells me you lifted the line from somewhere, but won't tell me from where.
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I will note that I'm not a particular fan of human exceptionalism in fiction featuring multiple sapient species. One of the things that drew me to Pathfinder to start with was reading about how humans only have their mandatory advantage as the dominant species because they were elevated by the aboleths and subsequently had a living god giving them serious advantages after that.
There's a few reasons for that; I try to maintain an objective and realistic view of humans which can sometimes stray into misanthropy due to how awful we can be at times. I do try to keep that in check and genuinely believe that ultimately our virtues outweigh our failings, but we humans have a long history of inhumanity.
Secondly, and Pathfinder isn't anywhere near as bad about this as some other settings can be and take active steps to avoid it for the most part, but there's a tendency in fantasy to draw uncomfortable parallels to colonialism, especially given that most fantasy takes place in Not-Europe so most humans in fantasy are white, and as an easy short hand the non-human races tend to have their culture influenced by real-world non-white cultures. So it's easy to fall into the trap of human dominance in generic fantasy settings equating european dominance over non-europeans. Warcraft is terrible abut that, as an example.
Which isn't to say that this is the intention or philosophy of anyone who does enjoy playing humans, even to the point of human exceptionalism. Just a personal quibble I have with it and why I don't enjoy playing that way.
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Hmm, I always find it interesting how PC race is one of those topics where there are opinions to both extremes. I see it as really narrowminded regardless of which side you are on.
Like, if you feel like you have to play stereotypical member of the race or that race gimmicks is a bad thing(all class features are just gimmicks after all :P After all, no gimmicks would be what npc classes are), I think you have put the line to really arbitrary spot. On the otherhand, if you only play non humans because humans are boring, thats narrow minded too.
Like, I can say that I like non core races more because I don't like fantasy races that are aesthetic wise "human but short, human but lithe", etc. However, I do end up playing core races more often than you'd think regarding my preferences. I pick races usually by what I think fits the ap best or the idea I got inspiration for the campaign(like my Reign of Winter character is ulfen bard whose mother came from far north and had life long dream to visit his mother's homelands).
I only really pick weirder races when the gm/player's guide provides no inspiration or reason me to pick specific concept for the campaign.(so in Kingmaker where there isn't really any incentive for most campaign traits or the story to play human, I made tengu wandering drunken swordmaster rogue with brigand trait. Tengu are weird race in that their name implies eastern stuff, but since they are just crow/raven people they fit pretty much everywhere and can be found pretty much everywhere in smaller groups, so aesthetic wise they fit wilderness campaign as well as core races do.)
In general, I think humans are most interesting when thinking of specific human culture or if setting provides reason for humans to be interesting. In Golarion being a human isn't by itself much of interesting since setting is humancentric, but one of my campaign ideas I'm interested in trying out would be a setting where humans are in position of "minor race". Just one nation of humans surrounded by warring powerful inhuman nations who don't much care about humans. In setting like that were humans are underdog, being human is much more interesting. As much as some people claim "human is best for normal badass character", in setting that is humancentric, humans never feel like underdogs to me.
THAT is actually part of reason why I don't like concept of playing "just a human" unless my inspirational idea requires character to be human: Humans aren't mechanically and flavorwise the underdog, other races are. I find as concept it more fun to play obscure race that doesn't act according to stereotypes in human dominated world more interesting since all those factors make them the underdog.
(But yeah, just to clarify, like I said I end up rarely actually playing those rare races even if concept wise I prefer them so I'm more in middle than in either extreme)
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I will note that I'm not a particular fan of human exceptionalism in fiction featuring multiple sapient species.
[tangent] One thing I've noticed in sci-fi, in particular, but also some fantasy, is the notion that humans are superb generalists. Race X might be great at technical stuff, but crap at social stuff. Race Y might be great at art, but hopeless with machinery. Race Z might be psychic and wise, but useless in a fight with something that can't be reasoned with.
In David Brin's 'Five Galaxies' (setting of Startide Rising and the Uplift War, among other books I enjoyed less), humans are friends with a race known as the Tymbrimi, who literally adapt physically to their circumstances (and are mentally / socially flexible as well), knifing the trope of 'humans are more adaptable / better generalists' and leaving it bleeding in an alleyway, which amuses me. Humans are still plucky and resilient and all that (and still the primary protagonists of the stories), but the 'hat' they tend to wear in other settings is denied them. [/tangent]
The sentiment that by playing a human you are undercutting your fantasy experience has been growing of late. I've heard it expressed by many people recently. It's an interesting development.
I find playing a pirate, a desperado, or a swashbuckling cad to be just as much a fantasy as playing a wayang pirate, kitsune desperado, or a vanaran swashbuckling cad, because I am none of these things.
At the front of this thread, someone called them gonzo species. I like the term, but I would apply it as gonzo fantasy. Gonzo fantasy is like gonzo porn, in that one becomes so jaded to typical fantasy tropes that they pursue more exaggerated forms to get their fix.
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Most of my favourite fictional characters are human.
I quite like those Star Trek stories where they explore, "What would a society be like if everyone was logical / greedy / aggressive?" But that's not really something I can do by making a PC.
Nonhuman fantasy races tend to be either:
(a) Weird and alien - lizard people, that sort of thing. I find these hard to empathise with because I tend to assume that they will have very little in common with people as we know them - thing like smiling, frowning, kissing, and so on will probably mean nothing to them, and I have no idea what the racial equivalent is. This makes it hard for me to empathise with such a character. Also, if they're exotic within their own world, it means the world will treat you as a freak rather than a person. How many times do you want to repeat the "I'm an orc, but I'm not one of the murderous orcs," interaction with every NPC you meet?
(b) Human-ish. These tend to resemble human stereotypes, with a couple of physical features (short, bearded, tough, lithe) and a couple of psychological traits (greedy, serious, angry, flighty). I find this less interesting than a human possessing these traits simply because that's the kind of person they are.
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This is kind of a weird thread.
The more I read the more it seems like people think that playing none human races is basically saying "I don't have an interesting character or personality or background, but my character has scales so its kewl" - which is nonesense
or
"I'm playing a human because I have no imagination" - also nonesense.
The fact that people actually feel the need to come into the thread and say "you don't have to a be a stereotype if you're a human, humans can have all kinds of stories" is kinda crazy to me. You'd think that went without saying, given about 5000 years of real world story telling which is almost all human.
Yet the more odd idea is people seem to think that otherwise creative, intelligent people simply turn into potatoes running a stereotype when they come to the game because they picked Grippli? Is it so hard to believe that said person had an interesting character idea they wanted to explore and that they didn't in fact take leave of their creativity the moment they wrote Grippli down on the page?
The idea that in a fantasy setting about people who can throw fire with their hands, talking trees, giant flying lizards that live thousands of years and meteors being pulled out of the sky by sea monsters, that in that setting, one should have to justify the existence of frog people, is completely insane to me.
It would be rather less painful to read threads like this if people could suggest why they do something without simultaneously implying that the alternative is in someway wrong or less than. Not that everyone does this, but it is certainly a theme.
What the Durgon said.^^
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I've since gone over all of my characters that I've had since I started playing D&D in 2001, and I counted precisely one human among them. Even when I play computer RPGs that allow for character customization, I never pick human.
I suppose it's similar to what Set said, that when I'm gaming it's time to set myself aside and have some fantastical adventures as someone else; therefore, picking human to me just feels like more of the same, sort of like a wasted opportunity. As in, I could be whatever interesting race the setting has to offer, I can see the world from so many different perspectives, so why would I want to pick the one race that I am in real life? It just seems terribly bland to me, is all.
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I don't play (or GM) anymore (lack of time mostly), but I do like playing oddballs, misfits, and outcasts. So, yeah I like non-core races, especially tieflings, skinwalkers, and goblins (and the occasional skindancer). But I've never played any race for DPI reasons or to be in the spotlight. Tieflings, werefolk-kin, and dopplekin are just cool; they are far enough away from my daily experience of being human that I can really immerse myself in exploring their character aspects. More what's it like being an uncommon race, differences and commonalities, in a world largely filled with core races, and what those pre-1st level experiences bring new or slightly skewed to the rest of the party.
I confess I like Pathfinder goblins mostly because I like pretending to be impulsive and silly with little regard for personal safety.
My current characters are both 'human' genetically, but one is largely plastic and metal and the other seems to be more shadow than flesh.
Start normal. Become strange. :D
Most nonhuman races seem to come with some culture or personality type assumed. For people who prefer a blank slate to work with, or who can't be bothered learning about that, humans are an easier answer.
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My current characters are both 'human' genetically, but one is largely plastic and metal and the other seems to be more shadow than flesh.
Start normal. Become strange. :D
Yes. "I believe whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you... stranger."
I play human PCs pretty much exclusively. In the past 7 years, I've only run one PC that wan't. (She was a gnome.) I do get into characters' ethinc or regional backgrounds. Their backstories and personalities have been all very different as well.
My PCs are women about half the time... that's enough of an RP challenge without also adding a nonhuman race on top of it.
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I play concepts, not races.
And usually, core races, being more widespread, are avaliable for a wider range of concepts.
I have a good concept for a non core race? Cool, I go with it. I have a good concept for a core race? Cool too. I don't feel more or less special for playing any kind of races, as a good concept for a human is as appealing to me as a good concept to the most esoteric race.
Some races are so specific that will allow a more limited quantity of concepts, so I won't pick them as often.
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I play humans and half-humans exclusively because I find it easier to connect with and role-play a race that I am familiar with. I know how human societies work. It's more of a struggle for me to create backgrounds, motivations, and familial and cultural ties for the made-up ones.
When I want someone a little unusual, I go with a mixed ethnicity, a half-human, or an ethnicity that is geographically out of place. These help me create richer character backgrounds and avoid tropes, or events that are overly tragic or heroic.
I guess what it comes down to is this: people are interesting, even the so-called mundane ones. That's enough for me.
I can't say i've ever played as a human before.
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I can't say i've ever played as a human before.
What race do you play as at work? {imagines stuffed animals being squeeze-fluffed by a 7-ft. half-orc}
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Quickling.
Good luck catching me and if you do I'll just disappear anyway.
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<shrug>
Maybe it's my experience as a GM, but I don't have an issue with playing either "normal" or "exotic" races, when appropriate for the setting, campaign, and character.
I do get (slightly) annoyed with players who just have to run their "super-special race/class combo" (or, for some, their "flavor of the week") without trying to put any thought into how they came to be in the area, what would motivate them to adventure with the other PCs, why they should pursue the campaign plot-line, etc. Of course, this goes for the "normal" characters, too; like a human pirate in a Darklands campaign (not involving the Sightless Sea).
As far as why "normal" characters are popular, it goes back to the origin of fantasy. Most classic fantasy stories aren't about the fantastic races, but rather about humans (and the hobbits in Tolkien's stories are basically human, more or less) and their interactions with the fantastic races. Humans give a "normal" frame of reference that grounds the more "exotic" aspects of fantasy (just like "normal" animals and plants are abundant, "normal" terrain and weather occurs in most places, etc.): different, but not too different; strange, but not too strange.
For me, it's not about what race I play, it's about what the character can do. I am drawn to versatile, adaptable characters that can do a little bit (or a lot preferably) of everything. Whatever concept I am going for heavily influences the race of the character I will play. If a human works better, I will play a human. If a gnome makes the character more believable, and enjoyable, I will play a gnome.
I don't mind playing the "mundane" (core) races because I find nothing "mundane" about them. While they are a set block of stats, there are so many different alternate racial traits and backgrounds to draw from, that I will never grow bored with one race, let alone seven of them.
I've played:
Half-Orc nature fang Druid in Giantslayer
Gnome Havoker witch/Spellslinger in Skulls and Shackles
Tiefling Spirit Guide Oracle and Half-Elf Occultist in Hells Vengeance
Goblin Bloodrager/Dragon Disiciple in Reign of Winter
Half-Elf bard archeologist/sleuth investigator in Carrion Crown
Human Alchemist/witch/sorcerer/wizard/dragon disciple in a home brew game
Halfling Titan Mauler/Viking Fighter in another home brew game
Dwarves fighter in a one shot game
Human Skald in a one shot game
Human Brawler/Chevalier in Council of Thieves
Human Magus in a home brew game
Human Druid/sorcerer/mystic Theurge in Rise of the Runelords
Gnome Iroran Paladin in Wrath of the Righteous
And many more that have faded from memory, as well as the multitudes I breathe life into as a DM. For me, it's all about the story.
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I don't like more exotic races for 2 reasons:
-As a GM I found out how most players asking to play those races just wanted what they deemed like a "power boost" from the core races in connection with feats/traits/spells but never shown any indication of their exotic racial heritage being a factor or even to exist. They were playing humans and expecting to be treated by humans even if they were Gripplis or Kitsune (in this case they were treated as humans as long as they could convince everyone they were, of course). Since I make a point of keeping player choices relevant, what they choose mattered and caused social stigma providing drawbacks. Those players grumbled and when they realized the downsides suddenly lost all interest in their shiny new races.
-As other people stated already, when used out of context these exotic races risk damaging suspension of disbelief. Having a good aligned party made of a kobolds, orcs, shabtis, humans and dwarves doesn't help this.
Thas said a campaign tailored and focusing on such races can instead be successful as long as players don't just expect to be able to play whatever they want in settings where such races would be at a disadvantage (see above I guess, it's like having those players who want to play an hobgoblin in Ironfang Invasion or Drow in Second Darkness or a Iomedean Paladin in Hell's Vengeance...)
Hmm, I always find it interesting how PC race is one of those topics where there are opinions to both extremes. I see it as really narrowminded regardless of which side you are on.
Like, if you feel like you have to play stereotypical member of the race or that race gimmicks is a bad thing(all class features are just gimmicks after all :P After all, no gimmicks would be what npc classes are), I think you have put the line to really arbitrary spot. On the otherhand, if you only play non humans because humans are boring, thats narrow minded too.
Like, I can say that I like non core races more because I don't like fantasy races that are aesthetic wise "human but short, human but lithe", etc. However, I do end up playing core races more often than you'd think regarding my preferences. I pick races usually by what I think fits the ap best or the idea I got inspiration for the campaign(like my Reign of Winter character is ulfen bard whose mother came from far north and had life long dream to visit his mother's homelands).
I only really pick weirder races when the gm/player's guide provides no inspiration or reason me to pick specific concept for the campaign.(so in Kingmaker where there isn't really any incentive for most campaign traits or the story to play human, I made tengu wandering drunken swordmaster rogue with brigand trait. Tengu are weird race in that their name implies eastern stuff, but since they are just crow/raven people they fit pretty much everywhere and can be found pretty much everywhere in smaller groups, so aesthetic wise they fit wilderness campaign as well as core races do.)
In general, I think humans are most interesting when thinking of specific human culture or if setting provides reason for humans to be interesting. In Golarion being a human isn't by itself much of interesting since setting is humancentric, but one of my campaign ideas I'm interested in trying out would be a setting where humans are in position of "minor race". Just one nation of humans surrounded by warring...
You make a really good point about the narrowmindedness of the opinion that I really can't argue. I know it's a narrowminded view, but it's kinda hard to avoid I think after so many years of fantasy bloat in writing/games/movies. I should say that I won't ACTIVELY avoid playing a human or elf if that is the best race for the type of character I want to play, but I try to make the latter less Tolkien-ish so it feels a little fresh. I'm not tired of elves and dwarves in the Dragonage universe as much as in Golarian for example (though the dwarves are pretty close). I do think in a game where humans aren't the centric focus of the setting that they would be more attractive to roleplay, so it may be that my preferred version of escapism is to just embrace the social issues with relating to humans I already have.
I will admit however some of my most memorable characters HAVE been humans, but they were in games where there were very, very, few other races and was more like "fantastic Victorian England" sort of settings. I don't much mind playing them and trying my best to freshen that in my head when the game calls for it, but when there is a wealth of other, more intriguing options, I have more issues.
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I used to hate playing humans because EVERY BLOODY GAME I played had a human as a default, and as the only option (one of the main sources for this annoyance was Runescape). When I first got my hands on World of Warcraft, I loved having some non-human options, and it's why I latched on to the Horde so readily after playing Warcraft III, my best character being a Tauren Druid who got all the way till Black Temple in the Burning Crusade.
That said, having spent some time balancing my mindset out, I can appreciate some people just playing normal humans. I like to mix it up and pick exotic options (but of course make them interesting characters in their own right each time), having played a Half-Drow Ranger in my last Pathfinder game. My main gaming group also runs a lot of GURPS alongside Pathfinder and D&D, and the default race in most of those campaigns is human, with no alternatives. And that's fine by me. It's all about finding what fits for most people, though stubborn absolutism to one way or another usually just causes drama.
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Then, it comes back around to playing humans. I have never understood why people like to play humans in the game personally. It feels silly from a roleplay aspect in a fantasy game about all powerful gods and magic (usually, not always) exuding out from some characters very pores to want to just be the same thing that you are, but I do understand that it's in many ways human nature to want human-like stories.
Well to me it's that I don't like playing super-heroes. Even in D&D- and Pathfinder-style games, I prefer playing people that are nothing special to start with, but then have to really up their game because if they don't, the world around them will suffer. That doesn't mean that I want to be the same person ingame I am in real life though. Now non-human races come with superpowers most of the time (and if it's only darkvision) which already sets them apart from everyday people in a way that I don't want to start the game with most of the time (I'm fully aware that any human character stops being comparable to everyday people when he starts taking levels in PC classes).
Add to that, that I have yet to see anyone playing a non-human character, that couldn't be easily replaced with a human character withouth changing anything about the char's personality, I don't see much sense in playing other races just to be different. I have my share of non-human characters, and I like playing them, but most of the time, them being part of another race does not add to the actual game at the table.
Oh, I also prefer my game a bit more low magic and low fantasy than the Pathfinder standard in 2017.
I go primarily for culture when choosing races and human races tend to have the most interesting cultures in most settings, and they mostly avoid the race-based cultures (which can be fun if done right but are often monolithic and boring).
That is actually a point I attempted to address in the campaign setting I made for my own games; there's more cultures for each race than just one. So instead of one elven nation like in Golarion / the Inner Sea, there are like three of them, but they are not very similar to one another since they are rather different culturally. Same goes for the humans, dwarves and most other races in each continent of said world. The Underdark / Darklands are their own can of worms to deal with, but that's neither here nor there at the moment, even if there are a few Drow settlements above the surface in my setting, mainly to do some trade with slightly more reasonable folks.
I often play Dwarves, more rarely elves, but humans will do only if it fits a concept better than any classic race (I don't generally play exotics because I don't master their culture and way of thinking, the same way I avoid religious characters if I'm not very familiar with the god they worship)
Instead, I find that I want to play the 'rare' races (that are at least more socially acceptable in some games, others not so much) like Aasimar, Tieflings, Reapers, and other races that possess more complex social dynamics with a more out there fantasy feel to them.
I was about to give you (and anyone else in this thread) my stand speil about our awesome races. Then I saw you mentioned Reapers, and I all but jumper out of my seat. Glad to see you are already woke to our awesome races. *Fist bump*
Not because I want spotlight time and to be 'special', but just because I find myself being easily bored with characters of the other races.
Right there with you. This is why I made the lesser ... shall we say 'appreciated' ... races so much attention. Those that want to express themselves in new and different ways. Check out the Advanced Compendium if you haven't already for expansions on a dozen races.
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I'm a celestial procyon lotor, so playing a human would be escapism to me ;3
i hear you're real good with motors...
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Instead, I find that I want to play the 'rare' races (that are at least more socially acceptable in some games, others not so much) like Aasimar, Tieflings, Reapers, and other races that possess more complex social dynamics with a more out there fantasy feel to them.I was about to give you (and anyone else in this thread) my stand speil about our awesome races. Then I saw you mentioned Reapers, and I all but jumper out of my seat. Glad to see you are already woke to our awesome races. *Fist bump*
Not because I want spotlight time and to be 'special', but just because I find myself being easily bored with characters of the other races.Right there with you. This is why I made the lesser ... shall we say 'appreciated' ... races so much attention. Those that want to express themselves in new and different ways. Check out the Advanced Compendium if you haven't already for expansions on a dozen races.
*Bumps that for sure* Reapers are honestly my favorite of the 'half and half' style races. I'm currently trying to play a Reaper in my current game to test out my homebrew Ivory Weeper class that I've asked the forum here in help designing a long while ago (Necromancer that fights necromancers using a MASK made out of condensed souls of the dead. It just fits for the play testing you know?). I'll definitely take a look at the advanced compendium though when I can get the time, you guys do awesome work.
I dont play to escape real life, I play to get better at it.
you guys do awesome work.
You made my night!!!
Good luck with it.
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One thing I've noticed about this discussion is that people equate Humans with being a weaker option mechanically, or in the lore. They are neither. In Golarion, as well as most other D&D settings, Humans are the most populous race, on the rise, the empire builders, etc. If you look at a "who's who" of the highest level and most influential NPCs in a given setting, they are mostly Human.
Case in point, Elves live flipping forever as someone said- 12 times a Human's lifespan. Yet, the incredibly ancient and powerful Elven Conjurer could be nine hundred and level 18. A Human Abjurer reaches level 18 by... 70? 50? Less? There is something remarkable about Humans.
I like contrasts.
In a realistic setting like modern Earth I prefer to play the: alien, robot, superhero, vampire or other exotic fantasy creature.
In a fantasy setting like Golarion I prefer to play humans or standard human-like races.