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.
Pushing the boundaries of the question, but 40k orks! How can you not love the big green lugs?
Dragons!
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.
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.
Basic is good. In fact I asked this question because I wanted to get a “vibe check” on what people thought was iconic.
Tieflings. The “alignment” section of the 5e PHB (before they decided describing alignments was racist and removed it) read:
Tieflings might not have an innate tendency toward evil, but many of them end up there.
Which is such a powerful storytelling device. It does what sci-fi and fantasy are so often great at: comment on real-world social issues with a step of indirection that makes the story feel less on the nose. Their internal innate selves are indistinguishable from humans, but because they have horns, a devil’s tail, and often reddish skin, people assume they’re evil and treat them accordingly.
It’s an element that is handled so excellently by Erin M. Evans in her Brimstone Angels series:
A woman stood in the doorway opposite the bench, watching Farideh with a wary eye, no subtlety in her distaste. Farideh shifted uncomfortably.
“You waiting for someone?” the woman said after an interminable time.
“My friend,” Farideh said. “He won’t be long.”
“Buying spices from another devilborn.” She sniffed. “Your kind do like to stick together.”
Farideh’s tail flicked nervously. She pulled it closer to lie along her thigh. “My friend’s human, many thanks.”
“Is he now?” Farideh met the woman’s skeptical gaze. Without the ring of white humans were used to, Farideh’s eyes were unreadable. Emotionless. Inhuman. The shopkeeper could stare as long as she liked and Farideh knew she wouldn’t see anything there, not without practice.
“Do you want me to have him show you?” Farideh said. “Or do you want to say what it is you’re getting at?”
Farideh knew perfectly well what the shopkeeper was getting at: she didn’t belong here. Whatever clientele the shopkeeper was used to dealing with, a seventeen-year-old tiefling trying to rein in the tendrils of shadow that curled and coiled around the edges of her frame was not a part of it
Longer excerpt available on author’s blog. (It’s book 3 of the series, but no significant spoilers here.)
Of course that’s only one small part of the characters, but it’s done so well. They’re well-rounded full people who, like any real human, have to deal with getting through life (in their case, fantasy action adventures) while other people react to them.
Skaven yes yes.
K’chain Che’malle. Fricken’ dinosaurs with fricken’ sword arms.
Fricken’ dinosaurs with fricken’ sword arms.
The undersells them by a lot! That makes them sound comparable to Deathclaws in Fallout, but K’chain Che’malle scared gods!
Yes. This pleases me.
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
I love goblins and lizardmen
Fine 😔
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.
