Subraces

[Tale]

Lake of Drowned Tombs is cut off on the map to look like Lake of Drow Tombs.

[Tamerlane]

For those unaware, they have confirmed that subraces will exist.

 

And as far as complaints about sub-races being kinda lame go, I'd love to see a subrace inspired by Canada's Metis people...

 

I haven't read that, got a link?

I have no godly idea where I read or heard that. Dunno if it was on SA or formspring or this forum or a kickstarter comment or from a livestream or...

 

... it just sticks out in my head as being something confirmed.

[Nerei]

Care to elaborate why you don´t want to see a drow-esque like race? They aren´t even overused in fantasy worlds.

Or do you have any other elven cultures/subraces on your mind?

 

Forgotten realms use the drow quite extensively, probably a bit too much too (we can probably blame R. A. Salvatore for it).

Just look at D&D Neverwinter, they got all the really standard D&D races: dwarf, elf, human and half-elf as well as drow and thiefling, but no Gnomes or halflings. I guess it is about the rule of cool.

 

That said though I do not mind having them, it can add diversity to the world and it could make for a fairly different playthough if done right.

I just hope they would not just carbon copy them from D&D and actually make it so that it feels like you're playing one and not just an elf where you picked a slightly different colour from the list of skintones.

[Feynt]

I'm keen to have a bestial subrace category. All too often half animal creatures are enemies and enemies alone. It really isn't that hard to fathom the idea of wolfmen being at home in a village or town environment, it's a surrogate pack.

[Gyor]

I hope we get to find out about more about the races soon and more about the subraces soon and how many subraces each race gets. We know so little its hard to speculate.

[xLegionx]

I would like to see a re-appearance of a drow/darkelf like elven subrace with the same bad reputation they had in the DnD universe.

There could be some nice dialogue options with many of the NPCs and maybe your companions have to pledge for your good intentions, or you have to build up a good reputation first to get certain quests etc. Maybe you can even try to hide your culture like Viconia did in Baldurs Gate,

 

Yes please. I have always enjoyed playing as my drow assassin Lolillethon Bal'thurz in every dnd game I play and I wouldn't mind bringing him into project eternity.

[TXTwilight]

Care to elaborate why you don´t want to see a drow-esque like race? They aren´t even overused in fantasy worlds.

Or do you have any other elven cultures/subraces on your mind?

 

Forgotten realms use the drow quite extensively, probably a bit too much too (we can probably blame R. A. Salvatore for it).

Just look at D&D Neverwinter, they got all the really standard D&D races: dwarf, elf, human and half-elf as well as drow and thiefling, but no Gnomes or halflings. I guess it is about the rule of cool.

 

That said though I do not mind having them, it can add diversity to the world and it could make for a fairly different playthough if done right.

I just hope they would not just carbon copy them from D&D and actually make it so that it feels like you're playing one and not just an elf where you picked a slightly different colour from the list of skintones.

Okay, they are frequently used in DnD scenarios and play a minor role in Warhammer, but besides that, you mostly see High Elves, Wood Elves and Moon/Night Elves in fantasy worlds. So I would still say that they are a rare sight.

 

With the Orlans, we have some kind of halfling race, atleast thats what the sound like to me.

 

Anyway, as Gyor sad, we can only speculate at the moment until Obsidian reveals what they have in mind.

Atleast we will have mods to get the races/subraces we want to see.

[Pope]

Care to elaborate why you don´t want to see a drow-esque like race? They aren´t even overused in fantasy worlds.

I'm just not keen on any inherently evil (or even good) race. Please name me one evil culture in the real world.

[TXTwilight]

Care to elaborate why you don´t want to see a drow-esque like race? They aren´t even overused in fantasy worlds.

I'm just not keen on any inherently evil (or even good) race. Please name me one evil culture in the real world.

Humanity as the whole? ^^

Just kidding.

I agree with you, that there is no such thing as evil or good. This concept is old, boring and outdated.

Should we consider a group of people who have a different view on values and morality as plain evil, just because they are different from our culture? I don´t think so.

Also, a culture with a similiar moral compass as ours isn´t de facto good.

In the end, it is the decision of an individual to do bad or good things, from his/her point of view.

Even though, many of the habbits of the drow cultures seems evil to us, I´am pretty sure they don´t view themselves as evil and they don´t consider their actions as bad. It´s all a matter of perspective and since Obsidian wants to make a game whith mature themes, a culture similiar to the drow would be the perfect opportunity to examine the concept of good and evil and to uncover it´s flaws. You simply can´t judge a whole group. You have to look at every individual, keep in mind his/her motivations, the persons background and so on, before you can make a decision, that he/she acted bad or good.

[Gyor]

They've said that traditional races will be done with unique spin, so maybe thier not evil and maybe they live in Jungles, with a kind of Aztec culture. They'd have humaniod sacrifice, but in order to protect the world some kind of threat.

[.Leif.]

Given the Drow lake and the concept art for that Drow Wizard companion, I have a feeling they'll be included. I would really like Obsidian to give us some more clarity on how many subraces each species will get.

[Sensuki]

Actually I was pretty sure they said there'd be no Dark (Black) Elves in the game. I can't remember where I read that though. Brown Elves however ...

Edited October 20, 2012 by Sensuki

[Nerei]

Given the Drow lake and the concept art for that Drow Wizard companion, I have a feeling they'll be included. I would really like Obsidian to give us some more clarity on how many subraces each species will get.

 

From what I have heard the "drow" tombs are really supposed to be "drowned" but the last letters have been cut off by the map border. The placement near the edge and the other number of cut-off words makes it a fairly realistic explanation.

[rjshae]

If they're in, I hope they're given a lot of thought and effort, because I definitely don't want to see throw-away subraces that are there only for different starting stats, e.g. make brown dwarf for +2 STR and +2 CON but -2 CHA.

Yes, that is a problem with the D&D approach to sub-races. All the bonuses really do is allow you to push the envelope on certain stats. If they want to do that, they could just provide three different point cost sequences for the favored, normal, and unfavored stats.

 

The racial differences would be much more emphatic if the modifiers were applied to the derived statistics rather than to the base ability scores. For example, they could give elves significant bonuses (+3) to Move Silently and Hide skills, rather than just bumping up Dex. A -2 penalty to Fort would be more distinctive than a reduction in Con. Adding racial-specific magic abilities would also help.

Edited October 20, 2012 by rjshae

[stiltskin]

unless there are extreme differencies in their habitat (e.g. outer space, hell), please dont call them subraces. i mean, desert dwarves will have the same fantastic physiology as i-dont-know sea dwarves or whatever, will differ only in skill sets/level of proficiency in certain skills, terrain knowledge and maybe culture. If neccessary, just make some backgrounds, like "farm-raised redneck = +2 to proficiency with pitchfork&ho, automatic negative/hostile reaction to anything different/foreign", "autistic=+3 to arithmetics and attention to detail, -10 to social skills", "raised by rabid weasels= +5 outdoorsman, +5 unarmed, -15 personal hygiene", etc. its simpler, neater and more in accordance with common-sense.