Saturday, January 12, 2008

Dungeons and Dragons' New Racial Tension

For those of you that have never played D&D, this post is not for you. Sorry. Read on if you want, but you'll be bored.

Anyway, the news dropped recently that in the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons they are adding the Tiefling to the list of player classes in the Players Handbook. They're also "demoting" one down to monster status, and will be in the 4th Ed Monster Manual: Gnomes.

It makes sense to me. I really don't see a whole lot of mechanical difference between them and haflings. They're both short oddball humanoids, with the same -2 to Strength. Gnomes like illusions and pranks, Halflings like crawling around and under things and stabbing you in the back, or eating second breakfast. And it's not like you can't make a monster into a playable race. People were probably doing it so much with the tiefling that they figured it would just be easier to put it in the PHB with the rest of the playables.

Besides, the gnome doesn't seem to mind.

No comments: