History Characters / DungeonsAndDragonsRaces

* ReligiousBruiser: Dragonborn have a strong tendency to be devoutly religious; the 3e dragonborn were literally created from worshippers of Bahamut and so were usually clerics or paladins, whilst in 4e they were naturally devout by inclination and with strong traditions of worshipping Bahamut and Tiamat. Their combination of Strength and Charisma bonuses also made 4e dragonborn mechanically optimized for the paladin class, encouraging this portrayal. In the Fifth Edition version of the Forgotten Realms however, they're typically {{Nay Theist}}s - religion reminds them too much of slavery.

* ReligiousBruiser: Dragonborn have a strong tendency to be devoutly religious; the 3e dragonborn were literally created from worshippers of Bahamut and so were usually clerics or paladins, whilst in 4e they were naturally devout by inclination and with strong traditions of worshipping Bahamut and Tiamat. Their combination of Strength and Charisma bonuses also made 4e dragonborn mechanically optimized for the paladin class, encouraging this portrayal. In the Fifth Edition version of the Forgotten Realms however, they're typically NayTheists - religion reminds them too much of slavery.

* ReligiousBruiser: Dragonborn have a strong tendency to be devoutly religious; the 3e dragonborn were literally created from worshippers of Bahamut and so were usually clerics or paladins, whilst in 4e they were naturally devout by inclination and with strong traditions of worshipping Bahamut and Tiamat. Their combination of Strength and Charisma bonuses also made 4e dragonborn mechanically optimized for the paladin class, encouraging this portrayal.

Adventurers in the realms of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' come in many shapes and sizes and from as many backgrounds as you can imagine. A character's [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Classes/DungeonsAndDragons class]] is only half of the equation; their race plays an equal part in determining that character's history, how they view the world, and how the world views them.

* ReligiousBruiser: Nentir Vale minotaurs are usually highly religious, with evil ones worshipping their creator, Baphomet, whilst benevolent ones worship Erathis, Moradin, Bahamut and Pelor. FridgeBrilliance kicks in when you realize that, even without their grudge against Melora and Kord, as the Unaligned gods of wilderness and battle, the two are probably too close to the temptations of Baphomet for non-evil minotaurs to feel comfortable worshipping them: Pelor & Bahamut's tenets of focusing on honor and using strength for goodness serve to reinforce their will against their EnemyWithin, whilst accepting their "inner beast" or revelling in strength for its own sake is a narrow step away from Baphomet's malevolent creedo.

This page is intended to serve as a collection for all playable races in D&D, regardless of their setting of origin. Thus, githzerai are here, whilst their githyanki relatives remain on the Characters/PlanescapeRaces page.

These races represent the archetypical player character options in D&D, having been present in every single edition.

* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Zigzagged. D&D dwarves owe their foundation to Tolkien's take, and so the common "Mountain Dwarf" and "Hill Dwarf" subspecies are secondary {{Trope Codifier}}s for the "generic dwarf" archetype. However, many of the more obscure dwarf subspecies play with the archetype to some extent:

* CantArgueWithElves: D&D has a ''very'' long tradition of its elves being beloved and cherished by the creators, to the point that the AD&D elven sourcebook, "The Complete Book of Elves", is a definite old shame to its creator.

* LandOfFaerie: Elves often have some nebulous connection to this place, although it's usually portrayed as somewhere they came from rather than where they live. The Lythari and the Eladrin are exceptions, as both are natives of the faerielands of D&D.
* OurElvesAreBetter: There are quite a few different varieties of elves throughout the D&D multiverse.

*** Two unique examples of Aquatic Elf are the [[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Krynnish]] Dargonesti and Dimernesti, or Deep Elves and Shoal Elves, respectively. These races not only mirror the High Elf/Wood Elf split in their aquatic environment, complete with Dargonesti having innate spells that the Dimernesti lack, but have the unique ability of VoluntaryShapeshifting.

* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: D&D gnomes are actually based on mythological dwarves from Germanic, Swedish and other European myths, hence their fundamentally dwarf-like appearance being contrasted by a friendly, peasant-like attitude and a knack for magic.

* BareFistedMonk: Their culture resonates strongly with the precepts of the Monk class, and githzerai are considered to make iconic D&D monks, much like halfling rogues, elf wizards, dwarf fighters and orc barbarians.

These races are specifically linked to a given Campaign Setting, and have not seen a broader appeal in subsequent editions.

* GiantSpider: At four feet long and two feet wide, an aranea may be on the small scale of this as far as D&D goes, but that's still pretty healthy by real-world standards.

** Secondly, they're "beastweres"; intelligent beasts that have the ability to assume human form, instead of the more conventional "human that turns into a beast". This is a small grouping of shapeshifters in D&D lore.

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: D&D orcs have undergone significant changes over the various editions. In the earliest versions of the game, they were described as natural servitors, with a drive to conquer melded by a respect for superior strength that made them fitting lackies for any EvilSorcerer or BlackKnight who could beat them into submission. In 3rd edition, they morphed into a more aggressive, rampaging horde-like race, who fought for their own love of battle and divinely-mandated conquest.

* MixAndMatchCritters: Kobold artwork in both Basic D&D and AD&D 2nd edition portrays them as a strange blending of attributes. The former look like dog-headed LizardFolk, whilst the latter is a scaly-skinned blending of dog, lizard, rat and humanoid. Downplayed in 5th edition, which sticks mostly to the DraconicHumanoid version of 3rd and 4th edition, but adds a distinctly canine nose to their otherwise reptilian snout.
* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: D&D kobolds play with the trope. They certainly fill many of the standard attributes of goblindom -- being small, weak, cowardly and dangerous only in numbers -- but, officially, they're not part of the goblinoid family. And, save for AD&D 1st edition, where they had artwork that looked like a big-eyed, nubbly-horned, pug-faced goblinoid, they don't look like goblins either.

* OurMonstersAreWeird: Gnolls actually started out as a hybrid of ''gnomes and trolls'' in the very earliest editions of D&D, but by the time of Basic had become the less-silly hyena-folk they have been defined as ever since.

* TooDumbToLive: The giff obsession with firearms can lead to very dim decisions. For starters, they've been known to try and use their firearms in the Phlogiston... where the air is ''flammable''. The downside of that should be obvious. For another, the iconic (if not only) giff-designed spelljammer is the Great Bombard, which can more accurately be described as a [[BFG enormous cannon]] mounted on a ship that is ''just'' big enough to carry it. It's slow, it's clumsy, and it has almost as much a chance to explode and kill everybody aboard when it fires a shot as it does of doing the same thing if somebody else hits it -- ''especially'' in the Phlogiston.

* BeastFolk: Gnolls resemble humanoid hyenas.

* ALoadOfBull: Minotaurs resemble meldings of human (or ogre) and bovine.

** J'hol are adapted for live in mountains and rocky badlands, and have the most humanoid appearance of any kreen subrace.

** The Renardie lupins are essentially France, as seen through the eyes of swashbuckling stories like ''Literature/TheThreeMusketteers''.

* HalfHumanHybrid: They are the children of human-dwarf pairings. Like many real-life hybrids -- but ''unlike'' many fictional hybrids such as ''D&D'' usually has -- they're sterile as mules, hence the name.

* HeinousHyena: They're monstrous, humanoid hyenas that were originally created by the demon lord Yeenoghu. They are AlwaysChaoticEvil to the point that the 5th edition Monster Manual compares them to demons, in that they lack anything resembling a conscience and nothing can sway them from their destructive tendencies.

* ReligiousBruiser: Gnolls have a very pronounced tendency to worship deities, perhaps as part of their pack instinct. In 4th edition, even those clans tht have forsaken Yeenoghu still tend to wind up as devout worshippers of the Primal Spirits, Kord[[note]]God of Strength and Battle[[/note]], or Melora[[note]]Goddess of the Wild[[/note]].

[[/folder]]

** Finally, their most unique trait is that their "human" form is ''not'' set by species. The "human form" of an aranea can actually be any Small or Medium humanoid, including not just humans, dwarves and elves, but also monstrous races like orcs, goblins, gnolls, and lizardfolk. And "human forms" don't run in families, so the child of two aranea with elven forms could be born with a gnollish form. This trait is completely unique to aranea; no other werebeast in D&D has this trait.

A race of feline humanoids native to Mystara, where they have both a kingdom of their own on Mystara called Bellayne and a separate culture on the moon called Myoshima. They first appeared in the modules X1: Isle of Dread and X2: Castle Amber, then went on to appear in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' #181, Champions of Mystara, Red Steel, the Savage Coast of Mystara, and ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' #247.

* OurMonstersAreWeirder: Gnolls actually started out as a hybrid of ''gnomes and trolls'' in the very earliest editions of D&D, but by the time of Basic had become the less-silly hyena-folk they have been defined as ever since.

*** 2nd edition also had Gray Elves, who were basically High Elves turned UpToEleven, particularly in terms of being xenophobic elitists. These were basically folded into High Elves by the time of 3rd edition.

* {{Hobbits}}: Explicitly called such in their earliest appearance. A later reprint changed the name to Halfling after it was discovered that the word "Hobbit" was copyrighted by Tolkein's notoriously litigious estate. Halflings are still quite similar to their inspiration, but have shifted in flavor over the years to something somewhat more unique.

* TheEveryman: This is humanity's traditional "hat" in D&D.

* FearlessFool: The entire race is almost incapable of feeling fear, due to their childlike innocence and playful mirth.
** At least until Malystryx burned Kenderhome to cinders. A lot of the survivors became "Afflicted", which made them morose, nervous and paranoid. It's not entirely clear whether being Afflicted is purely psychological or partly magical.

** Kender were literally created by the Hickmans asking themselves "okay, halflings in D&D 1e are all thieves; why is that? And if that's the case, how can they still be a good race and so hang out with heroic adventurers?" The result was the kender as they are now; a race of fearless, sticky-fingered eternal children who don't mean to be thieves, but who still act like thieves out of their incessant curiosity.

These races represent D&D's long tradition of MonsterAdventurers.

* GenocideDilemma: The fact that, in AD&D, orcs[[note]]and many other races, including giants and gnolls, but orcs are ''the'' race most parties encounter early on[[/note]] had both a detailed writeup depiction the typical number of children to be had in one of their villages ''and'' a status as AlwaysChaoticEvil has led to this trope being known as the "Orc Baby Dilemma" in D&D circles.
* PigMan: The Basic D&D and Advanced D&D depictions of orcs were notably porcine-featured, and are considered the TropeCodifier for "orcs as pigmen" in anime and manga.

** Ondonti are an orcish subrace native to [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Faerun]]; descending from orc childrens who were [[RaisedByHumans rescued and adopted by priests of a Goddess of Peace]], they are a pacifistic race who dwell in sheltered valleys and practice an agrarian lifestyle. They also have some innate priestly magic, are resistant to poison, and are naturally protected from CharmPerson type spells.

* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: Bugbears are the largest of the goblinoids and the strongest, but are still fairly savage and brutal creatures.
** As of 5th edition, they are incredibly lazy.

* TheMaze: Minotaurs are heavily associated with labyrinths, and described as avid builders of maze-like structures.
** Taken UpToEleven by the minotaurs of the Nentir Vale; not only do maze-designs serve as clan sigils, but they put them ''everywhere''. They wear them on their clothes and banners, put them on amulets and pendants, paint them on shields and armor, etch them into weapons, they even tattoo them into their flesh! They revere the maze so much they actually use it as a spiritual symbol, embodying the struggle between
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: In the Nentir Vale, many minotaurs and minotaur clans hold a deep and abiding hatred for the gods as a result of the destruction of Ruul.
** More subtly, even goodly minotaurs almost completely refuse to worship Melora and Kord, for their role in destroying Ruul in the first place.

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: It's commonly noted that tieflings tend to turn to evil because people assume their ancestry [[InTheBlood mkes them evil]] and mistreat them, until they ultimately snap.

* {{Hobbits}}: They were first created as expies of Tolkien's hobbits, but have shifted in flavor over the years to something somewhat more unique.

*** Two unique examples of Aquatic Elf are the [[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Krynnish]] Dargonesti and Dimernesti, or Deep Elves and Shoal Elves, respectively. These races not only mirror the High Elf/Wood Elf split in their aquatic environment, complete with Dargonesti having innate spells, but have the unique ability of VoluntaryShapeshifting.

* NamesTheSame: Originally, a race called the dragonborn appeared in 3rd edition's ''Races of the Dragon'' sourcebook; these were humanoid worshippers of Bahamut who had chosen to undergo a divine metamorphosis into DraconicHumanoid versions of themselves in order to better oppose Tiamat. The TabletopGame/NentirVale dragonborn of 4th edition has absolutely nothing in common with these dragonborn besides being a DraoonicHumanoid, and the race has effectively replaced its 3e namesake.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Deva skin is two-toned, being comprised of a unique pattern of dark colors (hues of blue, violet, gray or black) and pale colors (white or pale gray), with either light or dark dominating and being offset by markings from the other. Their hair is usually either one of these colors, or even two-toned, but occasionally is an entirely different color.

!!Rakasta
-->Origin: '''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'''

!!Kender
-->Origin: '''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'''
A race of small, elf-like humanoids native to [[Literature/{{Dragonlance}} Krynn]], kender are similar in some ways to the halflings of other worlds, and yet in others are very different.

!!Scro
-->Origin: '''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'''
Descendants of spelljamming orcs defeated during the First Unhuman War, scro forsook their traditional lifestyle and reverence for Gruumsh, instead rallying around the visionary leader Dukgash and restyling themselves so as to transcend their former weakness and defeat the elves.

!!Duthka'gith
A mutant offshoot of the githyanki race created at the order of the lich-queen Vlaakith CLVII, duthka'gith bear the essence of the fiendish red dragon Ephelomon in their veins, adding draconic and fiendish might to the power of the githyanki. Duthka'gith were introduced in Polyhedron #159, which was first printed in Dungeon #100.

* BreathWeapon
* DraconicHumanoid

* GoodCounterpart
* GoodIsNotNice

* VolcanicVeins: In 4th Edition and beyond, they have marks on their bodies that glow with elemental power.

!!Duthka'gith
A mutant offshoot of the githyanki race created at the order of the lich-queen Vlaakith CLVII, duthka'gith bear the essence of the fiendish red dragon Ephelomon in their veins, adding draconic and fiendish might to the power of the githyanki. Duthka'gith were introduced in Polyhedron #159, which was first printed in Dungeon #100.

* TheMagocracy: Aranea value intelligence and, especially, magic, so the most powerful mages rule their society. On Mystara, Herath is even formally titled "The Magocracy of Herath" for emphasis. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it was stated that all aranea NPCs should have the spellcasting abilities of 3rd level wizards, whilst in 3e, they're born with the spellcasting prowess of a 3rd level sorcerer.

* LightIsNotGood

* ElementalEmbodiment

* HollywoodAtheist: A variation on the trope. The githzerai acknowledge the

* BoisterousBruiser
* TheBigGuy

!!Giff
-->Origin: '''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'''

!!Scro
-->Origin: '''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'''

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Scro society has a very Prussian (or Nazi) overtone to it; warlike yet disciplined, demanding physical perfection and adherence to a strict code of conduct, as well as dedication to the greater goals of their race.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: In contrast to ordinary orcs, scro are strictly disciplined, regimented, perfectionist, and driven. They are highly educated and expected to control their emotions.

!!Mul
-->Origin: '''TabletopGame/{{Dark Sun}}'''

!!Thri-Kreen
-->Origin: '''TabletopGame/{{Dark Sun}}'''

* BigCreepyCrawlies: Man-sized mantids, with perhaps a dash of grasshopper in the body-structure.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Monstrous Races]]
These races represent D&D's long tradition of MonsterAdventurers.

* BigRedDevil
* DarkIsNotEvil
* HornedHumanoid

* GoodCounterpart

* OurOrcsAreDifferent

* OurOrcsAreDifferent

!!Half-ELf

!!Lupin

!!Rakasta

!!Kender

!!Giff

!!Scro

!!Mul

!!Thri-Kreen
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Monstrous Races]]
These races represent D&D's long tradition of MonsterAdventurers.