Might Classes (pick 2)
- Dark Warrior (Str/Wis)
- Warlord (Cha/Str)
- Gadgeteer (Int/Str)
- Ranger (Dex/Wis)
- Paladin (Cha/Wis)
- Warlock (Cha/Con)
- Shaman (Int/Wis)
- Psion (Wis/Con)
- Druid (Int/Cha)
- Priest (Int/Con)
- Assassin (Int/Dex)
- Rogue (Dex/Con)
- Bard (Cha/Dex)
- Skin Shifter (Str/Con)
- Monk (Dex/Str)
And if anyone has some reassignments they want to do, I'm all ears. Anyway, races can plausibly be anything. They can be selected from Tolkien, D&D, other fantasy stories, world myth, anything.
The important thing is that you would want to read or tell a story about this character when they are running around in the shadows of their village while it is being assaulted by stampeding moose and when they standing on their personal cloud threatening a hundred handed demon king.
Examples:
Hobgoblin Dark Warrior Irish Red Caps? Resigned Kshatriya? Demon-painted Samurai? Tibetan warrior contemplatives? Orange skin? Black skin? Regular flesh tone? Do they have body fur, or do they even have eyebrows? Do hobgoblins have lots of rows of sharp teeth like a shark? Do they cast a shadow? This particular Hobgoblin has a wickedly large sword and a stoic attitude.
Risen Dark Warrior These guys could be skeletal or well preserved bog mummies. Hell, they could even be gothically attractive vampires. This one sleeps in heavy armor and hisses when the sun rises. She carries a wickedly barded spear into battle.
Orcish Warlord These can be green-skin, slack jaw Games Workshop Orcs, or Green Skin attractive Warcraft Orcs. Or they can be muscly fanganged but-basically human Tolkien Orcs. She has a sword and she shouts. She comes from the mountains, where life is hard, she is also hard.
Dwarf Warlord These can have bearded or unbearded women, and they can be patterned on Dunkalfar or Tolkien. He has an axe, and he shouts a lot. He comes from under the earth, where life is hard. He is also hard.
Fareshta Gadgeteer These can be the cold-loving Caelumites of Dominions or the wander-lust driven D&D Raptorans. He has feathered wings and he comes from the mountains. He makes things from the metals within the Earth and that makes him weird among his people.
Gnome Gadgeteer Rock Gnomes? Whisper Gnomes? David the Gnomes? Basically, Gnome just means "small person" and it could take literally any little folk schtick you want. This young lady comes from some kind of burrow that's either in the woods or rolling hills or both or not. And she tinkers with things and makes things with steam and gears.
Elven Ranger Are these guys just like Humans but all glowing and superior? Are they just like humans but with pointier ears? Are they blood drinking Vanir? Are they haughty and confused Tuatha? Shorter than humans? Taller? She has a bow and he comes from the woods. She snipes people.
Bander Ranger Gorillas or monkeys? Tails or no tails? Either way, this monkey-man is at home with a bow as he is with a thrown, um... projectile.
Human Paladin She has shiny metal pants and a shiny metal sword. Humans could be cosmopolitan or backwards.
Halfling Paladin Hearth-loving Hobbits? Kender? 3rd edition D&D midgits of death? Dominions Hoburglings? Brave or cowardly? This one rides into battle on the animals that halflings have domesticated for this purpose, which could be war dogs, boar, giant moths, eagles, wolverines, big lizards, or something else altogether. War tapirs. Anything. Smaller creatures could potentially ride a much wider range of things than we can.
Tiefling Warlock Part demon, fallen demons who lost the juju, or imps who got uppity and turned themselves into humans in order to excape their Dharma? Do they look like Star Trek aliens or Ultima Gargoyles? Tails or no tails? Attractive people with little horns? This one makes pacts with the real demons to gain power and cuts herself to draw upon reserves of dark magic in her blood.
Lizardfolk Warlock Are we talking frilled Warhammer Lizardfolk, Snake-like Dominions Lizardfolk, or craggy D&D Lizardfolk? And they reptillian or saurian? Swamp dwelling savages? Aquatic neolithics? Eqyptian charioteers from the River Kingdom? Crystal using Land of the Lost villains? In any case, this one has brightly colored mud that he paints dangerous magical symbols on his bare scales with. They phorsphoress slightly and promise dark secrets. Dark secrets which he knows.
Goblin Shaman Are we thinking about the gremlins from Gremlins? Or the Warhammer goblins? Or the D&D Goblins? The Tolkien cave-goblins? Are they running around with skin which is a funny color? Is that color Black, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, or Orange? Have they tamed carnivorous beasts for war, and if so are those beasts wolves, giant spiders, huge bats, or cobras? This one comes from the most inhospitable portions of the wastes/jungles/swamps/caves/mountains/or cities that goblins live in and has secrets of Fire and a funny shaped stick. His mouth has a lot of sharp teeth in it. Probably.
Deep One Shaman Are these guys Lovecraftian fish, Dominions frogs or Sahuaginicious sharkmen? Do they live in the sea or can they just breathe water? Do they want to mate with humans? Sharp teeth or no teeth at all? Is their skin smooth and covered with a layer of slime, pebbly and rough, or sharp like sharpaper? This one opens his mouth and speaks utterances which make things explode.
Klackon Psion Bug people can be formed by taking any bug (ant, bee, beetle, scorpion, mantis, whatever) and mixing it to any degree with human. They can have four arms, four legs, or just limit the bug metaphor and not have six appendages at all. They can have functional or non-functional wings. Whether they are attractive humans with antennae and fairy wings or crazy chitonous Gelugon, they can have hives or nests or just live in cities like everyone else. They can have queens or not. In any case, this one has psychic powers, which allow her to see what others cannot see and blast things with her mind.
Merfolk Psion They either have webbed feet or they have fish tails which turn into legs Ariel style when they get to land. Blue skin or flesh tone. They can require salt water immersion or something, but I suggest against it. This one has weird shells which he arranges into patterns to focus his mind into blowing things up.
Gnoll Druid When we speak of gnolls, we speak of gem loving hyena-people. But that still leaves open the question of how much hyena and how much humanoid. I could see anything up to basically the villains from the Lion King, where they ran around on all fours. Or they could be more traditional beastmen. They are perhaps inherently in tune with nature as a people, and in any case this one in particular is all about the Nature and calls upon the wrath of the forest to send a squirrel army against her foes.
Catfolk Druid Humans with cat ears? Dangerously furry? Erect or stooped posture? Claws and Paws or normal hands? This cat boy has the ability to call on his forest friends and bind people in plants.
Abyssian Priest Whether these are humans who have been marked by the Sun, or magma given life, or humans who mated with genies, or spenta who rebelled against the sun and were thrown to earth in a crater, these guys are red and hot to the touch. They may or may not have hair. They can be burningly hot to the touch, or just running constant fevers. Whichever, this particular Abyssian wears the robes of a sun priest and calls upon the light of the Day Star to use White Magic to heal his compatriots and turn aside the arrows of her enemies.
Ratling Priest We could seriously be throwing out OA Nezumi, or Warhammer Skaven. They either have normal human hands or they have advanced rat hands (four fingers, and two enlarged and opposable carpals). Tribal or civilized, these might be nomadic or arranged in secretive cells in the cities of other races. Regardless, this one carries an idol to his god and turns the healing stare of its great eye upon his compatriots.
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And so on. Seriously, nothing ruins a setting more than trying to cram all the races into it. I should think that there is room for at most 20 basic races, and that's honestly way too high unless you're trying to make a point by cramming it all in. So in addition to paring down each of the races into a single consistent schtick, a goodly portion of the characters listed above are probably going to be cut out simply because there isn't room for them in the world.
-Username17