Races of Avion, Take Two, Part 1

After taking a break from my avion project, I realized that I didn't like how it had been developing. I scrapped some of it, though I may go back to it, even I don't know. I have come up with some different ideas, and I felt like writing them down here.


I scrapped the planar collision idea, though I still like the idea, I'm not currently using it for Avion. After reading a few chapters of a Dark Sun novel, I started liking the idea that there was a lot of small (in population, not size) races striving to make a place for themselves, and only by gaining some adaptation of note can they continue to survive.

Elves, for example have their natural grace, and quick mind, not to mdention that they very well might have been the first race. (But, they would never admit that.) Being a very old race, they have done what seems to be a common trend in my current ideas, their race splits into multiple sub-races. After an event (large war?), several of these sub-races merged so that there are four distinct elf races.

Wood elves (elves) decided that they would rather life amongst the plants, they split further depending on where they lived (jungle, forest, treetop, deep forrest, and possibly even desert).

High elves (Eladrin) believed they were above living in the forests and focused more on magic. They split into separate groups depending on their beliefs, but came together in time of need.

Dark elves (drow) were early High elves that believed in destroying the lesser races before they could get a foothold. Some repented and became the 'Risen elves', eventually joining back with the high elves. Those who remained became twisted and dark versions of their High elf brothers, and were driven underground to escape their destruction at the hand of their brothers.

Orik (Orcs) are wood elves that lived in the magic rich jungles in the southern part of their continent. The magic gave them plant-like properties, made them stronger and green skinned (as well as the ability to absorb some nutrients from the sun). They are able to reproduce with humans or other elves, creating half-orik (half-orcs).


Half-Elves also exist, and partially due to laziness, they are the same no matter what race of elves they are descended from.


Also, surface dwarves are evil.


What do you think of this idea? Please leave a comment!

Peculiar Character Build #1

The D&D 4e Character Builder is awesome.

You get all of the options from the books and D&D Insider content, allowing you to easily make characters with as much creativity as possible.

In order to inspire you (and show off my creations), I will display my characters, both the unusual and impressive.


Super-sized Greatbow
A bow as tall as a man, then make it bigger.
Basically, you take a bugbear, give him a ranged weapon based class, give him the great bow proficiency feat.

Race
This idea used to work with minotaurs and bugbears, but minotaurs lost their "Oversized" race feature when they got promoted to player race status.

Class
Several classes work with this: Ranger, Seeker, Artificers, and Bard have enough ranged weapon attacks to make this effective, but classes that use dexterity as their attack mod work better with the bugbear. Avenger and Rogue both have At-will attacks that work, but lack any more ranged weapon attacks (at least that work with a greatbow), but if you only want ranged attacks, a hybrid class with avenger could work. Hybrid and multiclassing can work, but you may have to spread out your points more.

Ability Scores
The ability scores depends on which class(es) you choose, put points into whatever ability is used by your attacks.

Skills
Pick whatever skills you like.

Feats
The only required feat is the "Proficiency: Greatbow".

Powers
Pick any powers that can use ranged weapons, if none are available, pick what ever suits you (or your character).

Equipment
A large Greatbow and whatever else you want.


Here is the Iplay4e preview.



These options are not limited to the whole package, of course. you could simply make a hybrid class that merges two ranged classes. Maybe a bugbear that wields some other HUGE weapon.


If you have a question, comment, or suggestion, I would love to hear it! If you liked my idea, would like to expand on it, have a similar idea, or want to suggest something else for me to explore and post about, leave a comment!

4e Player Vs. Player Concept

Something that I have been wanting to try for a while, to be able to pit my character ideas against someone else's.

Be they machines of destruction, some off the wall half-baked ideas, or an invincible tank.

But the problem with this is getting it to work... and not just have it be "Whoever dumps the most dailies first and hits wins." as Wyatt Salazar put it, but have it so that characters might have a chance against just about any other same level characters.

After a small discussion on twitter, it was theorized that 3 on 3 matches with one player per team would probably work out the best. The 3 character limit would force the player to pick their character's roles carefully.

I would have liked to have a 1 on 1 match, but maybe we can save that for later.


now, the next step is to find a means to do this online. There has been a lot of talk lately about RPGs on google wave. I have yet to try it but will soon. Suggestions also included fantasy grounds/skype or maptools/skype, (thanks to Gamerfiend)

After that I will figure out the maps and anything else that I can think of.


So, discussion time!
Leave a comment if you have an answer for
A) Is the 3 on 3 a good idea?
B) What would be the best way to attempt this online?
C) Should there be anything more complicated than a plain featureless map?
D) Do you want to try it?

World Building: Wizard Swears

Ack! Its been a long time since I posted! But I have the perfect topic for it:

Unique swear words, insults, and exclamations!


Belgium!

Gorram!

Merlin's beard!

By the egg!

Cotton-headed ninny-muggins!



A good way to add detail to a world is to give it its own swears, insults and exclamations! Good terms include slang and silly words, as well as religious, historical, and cultural references.

Some examples include:
[person of significance]'s [something belonging to person, usually of note]
God's Thumbs!

[any silly sounding word]
Holy Shnikies!

[a curse word in another language]
Ilka-tuk-tak!

[something considered disgusting or uncouth]
Dragon droppings!

[something of some importance, religious, cultural, etc.]
Sacrebleu!



The sky is the limit.

Of course, the best purpose of making up swear words is to be have your characters swear without offending anyone, a good trick for a writer.

What do you think of this idea? Post a comment!

Dreamplane conjuration and mutability

My first experience with dreamplanes was a movie, that I don't remember the name of, where a guy with psychic abilities gets recruited into a program where they use a machine to allow psychics into other people's dreams. At first they this is done to help people with problem dreams, then he develops the ability to enter dreams without the machine and has to save the president from one of his coworkers.

Besides the plot, the interesting thing about the movie was that while in a person's dreamplane, they had the ability to create any item they needed and they were even able to change their form.


This seems like a good adventure or side adventure concept, where they can get anything they need, but there is quite a good chance that anything could turn on them, becoming a nightmare. A character that they believed to be another visitor to the dreamplane could turn out to be a part of the dream, and upon leaving they find that this person that they have bonded with is nothing but a dream.


Or maybe...

The person you took out of the dream with you is still a dream-being but by releasing it into world you unleash the chaos of dreams. Which then reminds me of an anime movie called paprika, where people use technology to view and record a person's dream. Eventually it releases a crazy person's dream and an evil person's dream into the world. Long story short, it took a giant naked ghost lady with multiple personalities to fix things.

...

where was I?

Oh, right! While in the dreamplane, you can conjure any item you need and even manipulate the surrounding area. Maybe to add to the mess, you have to worry about your sanity if you go into a crazy person's dream, or maybe nightmares have some sort of corrupting effect on people.

I may just write a campaign based on the ideas here... except that the people I play with are readers... >.<

Well, maybe they will forget...

Anyway, does this rant inspire you? Does it make sense? Does it seem pointless to you? Comment!

Psychoplanes, Dreamplanes, and Getting Back Into my Posting Schedule

Well, I have not been keeping up with my posting schedule as well as I would have hoped, and lets hope that I get back into it easily. More APSC soon, really.


But for now, I want to bring up a topic that has interested me for some time.

Planes.

Its always a wonderful concept when you can leave your universe and travel to a completely different world, but what if instead of going away from your world, you went deeper into it. Into another world, the world of the mind of another person?


I admit, this is by no means an original concept, but it has so much potential for a RPG.

Perhaps there is some mental instability with your friend and the only way to resolve the problem is to hook your brain up to a machine that can project your consciousness into the world that is his mind.

What wonders would you see? How much would these worlds differentiate? Are they infinite or finite? Does a person's intelligence determine how large the psychoplane is? Are psychoplanes limited to sentient beings? How would an animal's psychoplane differ?

I could really go on all day.


And don't even get me started on Dreamplanes.

Now I want to do several posts on this topic. I probably will.

Monster Builder in Beta!

Blarg...

I keep missing posts due to school related business, but I have good news!


The Monster Builder is out in beta!

Go check it out!

A New Twist on the Peasant Railgun (4e)

Ghaa! I missed two days of posting, but to make up for it I have an awesome post:


Just about every one has heard of the peasant railgun. A mechanics experiment that requires a large number of peasants to ready an action to pass a spear (or any other item) to the next peasant when it is handed to them, causing the spear to travel a large distance in 6 seconds, effectively making it a far more deadly weapon than it was before.


Now, for the twist:
I plan to attempt this with a player character.

At level 1.


Its really simple, actually. All you need is the Fighter's Bloodrager vigor talent and the rogue's Speedy Response feat. As a human, this is possible at first level either as a fighter multiclassing into rogue or a hybrid fighter/rogue using hybrid talent to get bloodrager vigor. You want a score of 15 in dexterity, and as much as you can into constitution. For armor, you want nonmagical cloth of no armor, you want to get hit!

Ok, get your army of peasants (closest thing in the MMs would be the human rabble on page 162 in the first MM) in two rows 5 ft (one square) in between them, and tell them to attack you with an opportunity attack if you get close. Then, run down the middle.


For each 5ft you move, two peasants will get opportunity attacks against you. Two things happen if they hit you: after damage is settled, you gain temporary HP equal to your constitution modifier, and you gain a +1 bonus to speed for the move.

Now for some math!
If you have no armor or cloth armor, your AC will be 12 (due to having 15 in dex, giving a +2 to AC) and the peasants have a +6 to their attack. This means that they have a 14 in 20 chance of hitting you, that's a 70% chance.

If you have 1000 peasants (two rows of 500) then approximately 700 will hit you, causing you to move about 700 squares plus your speed (i assume 6) in 6 seconds, that's 3530 ft per 6 sec or...

Times 10 seconds = 35300 ft/minute
Times 60 minutes = 2118000ft/hr
Divided by 5280 ft = 401.1363636... Mph

That's about an additional 0.4 mph per peasant you have, assuming 70% of them hit you.

And the best part is, after all of this is over you have full health (down 4 hp with 4 temp hp) to help you survive whatever it is that you crash into!


Just over 400 MPH at level one! Sure, it needed 1000 peasants, but using rules as they were (sort of) intended I only got to just over 200 MPH, and this could even be scaled up more.

A million peasants could get you to around 401136 MPH, if my math if correct.


What makes this better is that this build could actually be useful in a battle! Though you might want to get some decent armor. If you want to get through the minions to get to the Big Bad or want to cheat at a race (and have an excuse as to that you weren't cheating).

and here is a thrown together version, named Spear:




I hope you liked it! Any questions, comments, etc? Leave a comment!

Making 4e More Like WoW: PVP And Raids!

There have been many people who have complained that 4e is too much like World of Warcraft. I say, take a few more ideas from it.

PVP
I can see many options for this, one on one, free-for-alls. team battles, and multi-team battles. See who can build the best character and play it best, see which team works together the best, or just get a buch of people together to kill each other.


Raids
Why would a 6 person team be able to take down a mighty dragon?
It would definitely be tricky to pull off, but to have a large group play through a dungeon might be fun. The dungeon, and possibly the enemies, would have to be modified to make it accessible to a larger group.

It might work where there is one DM in charge of a certain amount of players and they each group take their turns at the same time, when everyone is done with a round, then the GMs start working on the monsters.


Well, I don't know if they would work, but I think it would be interesting to try. I'm going to try to convince my gaming group to try some PVP (shouldn't be hard) and depending on how it turns out, I'll try to post about it.

WotC Finally Give Psionics Sufficient Fluff and It's WHAT?

WotC released their design and development article for the psionics power source and from reading it I think I got a glimpse of how exactly it is said to be.


Now before I get into what I think they said, let me point a few things out:

A) Psionics usually do not get sufficient fluffing. Instead the psionics usually tend to be a great deal of new mechanics, but lack decent explanation of how it fits into D&D's fantasy setting.
B) Psionics, by their nature, tend to be powered by one's own mind power, as martial classes tend to be powered by their own physical strength or dexterity.
C) One of the (many) complaints about psionics is that they are too similar to wizards. I don't exactly know how, but its something that is mentioned in the article.


Here is a summary of the new psionics back story:

Recently, as the Far Realm's incursion into the world has grown more aggressive, psionic energy has become more common, stronger, and easier to control. Previously, only monks could tap into it with their rigorous discipline and self-control. Now others can utilize it, from psions who study and unlock its secrets to others who acquire psionic powers seemingly at the universe's whim.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this sounds like it's a power that leaks from the Far Realm that those with the ability can tap into. How is that separating it from the wizard? If I make a psionic character, I want it to have power oozing out his ears because it comes from his brain! I don't want my mentally powered character to pull mental energy from some source leaking from the far realm.


Though now that I think about it... It somehow starts to fit into one of my growing theories...

divine power comes from the astral sea, primal and martial come from the material plane (primal also a little from the feywild), psionic now from the far realm, elemental will probably come from the elemental chaos, and shadow will probably be from the shadowfel.

As interesting as a power source from the far realms seems, I much more like the idea of psionics and the martial power source being parts of a ying-yang of the intelligent creatures of the D&D universe. if you train your body hard enough, your body becomes a weapon, it seems more fitting to me that if you can train your mind enough it too can become a weapon as well. Its possible that the far realm is somehow causing radiation that makes more people able to use psionic powers easier, but only time (and the PHB3) will tell.


Agree with me?
Disagree with me?
Comment!

Race Origin Stories: All Decended From Humans

Some fantasy settings describe humans as being "a young race" compared to the elves and dwarves that have been in existence for ages upon ages. But, what if the humans are the old race, struggling to remain on top, while the world becomes filled with new races trying to make a place for themselves?


Perhaps, long ago, humans left the material plane to colonize other worlds. The people who would later become the elves left for the feywild, and those who did not come back long ago became the eladrin, and those who went instead to the shadowfell became drow. The ancestors of the dwarves went to a plane of elemental earth with high gravity. Halflings and gnomes have a similar ancestry and the gnomes also spent some time in the feywild.

Make sense?


Orcs and goblins, on the other hand, make me wonder where they could have come from. Perhaps they went to some far plane and became twisted by the lack of resources, some struggle that they had to endure, or maybe the plane's evil aura. The orcs went to some savage plant filled world and at some point began to become plant-like, gaining their green hue.

Dragonborn's ancestors went to some world with frisky, shapechanging dragons. TMI there.


Of course, its not required that planar travel be required, with the above stories it kinda implies that this is a future version of our world. If you want it to be from a fantasy setting, maybe the human peoples are seperated long enough for them to gain further different traits, or maybe it was just random or magical mutation.


How about a story?
The dragonborn were once half-dragons, spread across the world, separate from each other. One day one of them helped a great king who offered him anything that he desired. He requested for a small portion of the kingdom to create a place for his kind and for the king to send messages around the world to let all the half-dragons know they had a place to call home. Their descendants later rose to take over that kingdom, but that's another story.


Kinda a random post, haphazardly thrown together (more than usual), but how do you like it?
Comment!

Psion: How to multiclass?

I was really excited yesterday to find that the D&DI was releasing a new class with the character builder update: the Psion! I was quite surprised to see that the psion uses a new system for their powers, I think it should work well, but I noticed something.

The way it works is that it eliminates encounter powers, but you not only get to gain new at-will attacks, but you can augment them with power points (which you start with two of, and gain more every few levels). The problem is that if you try to multiclass into another class (or try to multiclass into psion) you don't have any encounter powers to trade for powers from your new class.


I suppose you could lose your new at-will and the added power points in exchange for your multiclass encounter powers, but it seems like it would be weakening your character or at the very least, making things very complicated.

APSC: Arcane Paladin Problem, Part II

Alright, I think I figured it out the solution to my problem.

I'm going to associate certain weapon types with an element, and upon character creation, you pick a weapon type. That weapon type will be what you can use as an implement, and the associated element will be the damage type.

I think this both solves the problems with damage type of the attacks and what implements to use. This also gives me some options for some new feats specifically for the arcane paladin. A feat for a new weapon type as an implement (and therefore a new damage type when you use that weapon type) or even just the ability to use a different damage type with the weapon type you have.

Now that I think about it, I have not done any new feats for the APSC project. Expect a post with feats soon... Either to make them fit in with their new power source or to adjust their current feats to fit the new power source... or something like that.


So, What do you think of my new plan? Any questions, comments, or blindingly obvious errors in my thinking? Leave a comment!

APSC: Arcane Paladin Problem

I began working on the arcane paladin for the APSC project, and I kinda ran into a problem. Several of the paladin's powers are radiant typed, and there are a few ways that I could handle it to make it fit the arcane power source.


I could simply fluff if so that they originated from the Divine paladins and were able to channel arcane power into radiant attacks. But that seemed like a bit of a cop out. I searched on.

I could give the choice of what damage type to replace all of the radiant attacks with, but that may give too much flexibility or would give some options for feats or just to give your character an elemental theme or focus.

Or I could go through each and every power and meticulously pick an element and add fluff for every single power. Um... That's a bit much for my tastes.


There are probably more options that I am missing, which is why I am writing a post about it. That and that I had nothing else prepared. So, any ideas? Like one of the options I have above? Think my attempt at the APSC project is a joke? Leave a comment.

One Page Dungeon: Zoo of Death

Well, by the time that this post goes up, the one page dungeon contest should have it's winners announced. So, I feel its about time that I posted my entry, The Zoo of death.


It can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16988246/Zoo-of-Death


It is a reference to a part of the story that was removed from the movie, and one of many reasons why you should read the book.

Please Fill Out This Important Survey!

A fellow RPG blogger and I are working on a series of PDFs inspired by the D&D 3.0 book Savage Species. In these PDFs we will have the monsters from the 4e monster manuals as playable races. It would help us greatly if you would fill out this survey to help us get an idea of how we should do things.


Click here for the survey!


Thank you for your time, and watch for our products!

Fear the Iron Boot!

4e Hybrid Classes: Alternate Armor Proficiency System

With the update for the hybrid classes, they changed the way that classes got their armor proficiencies, making it so that hybrid classes may be nerfed in the armor department. I thought this was a little disappointing, so I created my own system for determining a hybrid character's armor proficiency. The way it currently works is that you use whatever both classes have, unless you spend a feat that could be used to get another class feature. The way this sytem works, you could end up with a Fighter/wizard that can only use cloth. I think it could be better.

The basic premise is: If they simply cut starting HP, leveling HP, and number of healing surges in half, why not do it for armor proficiency? Each armor type is given a number, and whatever the highest available to the base class, you half that number and add it to the other base class (round down, if necessary) , giving you the hybrid class's proficiency.

1- Cloth armor (half: .5)
2- Leather armor (half: 1)
3- Hide armor (half: 1.5)
4- Chainmail armor (half: 2)
5- Scale armor (half: 2.5)
6- Plate armor (half: 3)


With this system, a paladin/fighter hybrid would have the same proficiencies as the regular system, but a paladin/wizard would have up to hide armor instead of just cloth. A fighter/ranger would have chainmail instead of just hide.

This system could also work with shields:

0- No shield (half: 0)
1- Light shield (half: .5)
2- Heavy shield (half: 1)


This way, if you have a class that normally has a heavy shield then you still are able to use light shields. Other than that, it doesn't have much of an effect.


Well, it's a slight improvement from the current system... Right? leave a comment if you like this idea, if you see some sort of flaw in it, or if you just have something to say about it.

4e Monster Movement: Why Running Away Wont Help

When I started this idea to write about monster vision and movement it seemed like an easy idea. It was, at first. Until I started working on the movement part. There is a lot of it, so we should get started.

For simplicity's sake, I am going to skip running, shifting, crawling, and squeezing. Those should be in the PHB, go look it up if you like.


Walk (0-10, 12, none)
Normal movement speed.

Fly (3-10, 12, 14)
The monster takes flight and must move at least two squares each round to remain airborne, and is unable to shift or make opportunity attacks. If knocked prone, the monster crashes.

Clumsy (walk 1, 2, Fly 3-8, 10, 12)
While using a clumsy movement mode, a creature is -4 to attack rolls and all defenses.
Overland flight

Hover (fly 3, 4, 6-9, 10, 12, 14)
If a Monster can hover, it can fly without moving on its turn, as well as shift and make opportunity attacks while airborne.

Max altitude (1,2)
If a monster with an altitude limit flies too high, it crashes at the end of its next turn.

Overland flight (10, 12, 15, 18)
An overland flight speed works like a Fly speed except that it can only be used when only move actions and free actions on that round.

Swim (4-10, 12, 16)
A swim speed allows a monster to move through water without an athletics check.

Teleport (2-8, 10)
When a monster teleports, it moves instantaneously to a place within range and line of sight. The monster doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, and is able to go past obstacles and terain, as long as it does not hinder line of sight. Immobilized or restrained monsters can still teleport, if it is in a physical retraint, another creature's grasp, or an immobilizing effect located in a specific place, then it is no longer immobilized or restrained Otherwise, they are still are immobilized or restrained.

Burrow (2-4, 6, 8)
A monster that can burrow moves through Loose soil at their burrow speed, or through solid stone at half speed. Monsters cannot shift or charge while burrowing.

Tunneling (2-4, 6)
Monsters that tunnel while they burrow leave a tunnel behind them. This creature or creatures smaller than it can use these tunnels without penalty, while creatures of the same size have to squeeze, and larger creatures can't make it through at all.

Climb (2-8, 12)
Climb up a vertical surface without a athletics check, ignores difficult terrain and does not grant combat advantage from climbing.

Spider climb (2-6, 8, 12)
Allows monsters to climb on horizontal surfaces (such as a ceiling)

Terrain walk (Earth 4, 6, Forest 4-6, 8, Ice 6-9, Swamp 4-8)
Ignore certain types of difficult terrain, according to the type of terrain walk they have:
Earth - Rubble, uneven stone, or an earthen construction.
Forest - Part of a tree, underbrush, or some other forest growth.
Ice - Ice or snow.
Swamp - Mud or shallow water.

Phase
Monster Ignores difficult terrain, can move through obstacles and other creatures, but must end its movement in an unoccupied square.

Cannot Shift
Some creatures just can't shift.


Phew, finally got through it. Hope you find it helpful!

If you like this post, leave a comment and I'll be more likely to do some more like it!

4e Monster Vision: Why The Monsters Will See You First.

4th Edition may be a year old, but people may still not know everything there is about the monsters. For this reason, I am writing this post to help people with small things to help them in case they run into something they might not have come across before. I hope you enjoy.


Monsters are able, in many cases to see better than the player races, but that doesn't mean they all do, so I shall start with the vision that even player races have.


Normal Vision
Normal vision is, as the name implies, nothing special. In dim light, any creatures in the area have concealment against you, putting you at a disadvantage. You cannot see at all in complete darkness.

Low-Light Vision
This level of vision is basically the same as normal vision, but without the penalty in dim light, but you still can't see in complete darkness.

Darkvision
It is unexplained how, exactly, darkvision works. It allows the charcter to see in dim light and complete darkness without any penalty.


Well, that covers the playable race's visions, but we are just getting started with the monster's vision types.

Blind
well, its more of a monster type, but still, I think it fits in this post. Blind creatures cannot see, they rely on special senses (below) to detect things within their range. Anything beyond that range is invisible to them.The book even goes on to specify that they not only can't be blinded (as the status effect), but they are also immune to gaze attacks and other effects that rely on sight.

Blindsight (Ranges 6, 8, 10, 12, 20)
Monsters with blindsight are able to see anything within range and line of effect, even if they are invisible or obscured. Beyond their range, the monster must rely on their normal vision.

Tremorsence (Ranges 5, 10, 20)
Monsters with tremorsence can see things within range even if they are obscured, invisible, or out of line of effect, but the creature must be on the ground or touching the same surface (water or a web). If out of range (or not touching ground or same surface) monster relies on his normal vision.

Truesight (Ranges 6, 10, 20)
Monsters with true sight can see things that are invisible, as long as it is in line of sight.

All-Around Vision
Monsters that can see in all directions at once have all-around vision, keeping them from granting a bonus to flankers.



Well, there you have it. You can run, but you cant hide.
Actually, you can't even run! Check back on Wednesday to see why...
Questions, comments, etc. are always gladly accepted

Monster Manual Races That Should Have Been

I've had this post in the works for a while, but never finished it. Aaron from Allgeektout is doing a series of posts updating the old 3.x book 'Savage Species' to 4e, and that has inspired me to finish this post and make plans to convert some of them into playable races. So, here it is: Monster manual races that should have been.


Races they should have had playable in the MM2
Archon- Different options, possibly overpowered, but I think its doable.
Azer- Dwarves, on fire. 'Nuff said.
Banshrae- Buglike fey. Fast, but would totally work. (look for my version of them soon)
Cambion- Even more badass versions of tieflings.
Dryad- I really don't see why these plant people would not be playable.
Harpies- They gave these grumpy bird women arms and clothes in this edition, why not a race?
Kuo-Toa- Frog (or in this editon, fish) people.
Lizardfolk- Just as the name implies, these are lizard people.
Sahuagin- Shark-like fish people, Go into a frenzy when they smell blood. >: D
Satyr- I think these guys really should have been a race, they must have lost a bet with the gnomes...
Troglodyte- Cave dwellers, other than being evil I see no reason to not make them into a race.


Races they could have had playable in the MM2
Choker- The natural weapons of their 'tentacle claw' probably scared away WotC from making this a race.
Chuul- I'm not even sure that these are intelligent, but they'd be fun to play!
Galeb duhr- Living rocks, probably not playable because of their burrow speed.
Gargoyle- Made of stone, and they fly. Riiiiiiiight.
Grimlock- They are blind... just a challenge to a good roleplayer.
Mindflayers- Brain-eating, squid faced 'humanoids,' if one swore to never eat a brain again, I don't see why they can't be a race.
Rakshasa- Backwards handed, immortal, cat people. Notoriously evil.
Slaad- Creatures of Pure chaos. Has a lot of potential as a very veritable race.
Sorrowsworn- Monstrous shadow humanoids tasked with hunting down powerful mortals that escaped death.
Swordwing- armored, armed, and winged, what more could you want? Obsessive collecting? Got that too!
Yuan-ti- Snake people, could be a race, but I think that their cultists would be more interesting.


Races I would have liked in the MM2, but I'll let slide this time...
Angel- Too overpowered...
Beholder- Floating eyeball of death, too overpowered...
Berbalang- Kinda creepy... and the duplicates thing makes it over powered.
Gibbering beasts- He he he...
Lycanthropes- Too overpowered.
Marut- Flying, teleporting immortals, Yeah, I can see why they didn't make these into a race. But it would still be cool.
Medusa- The females are too over powered with their petrification, but the males would be perfectly playable.
Owlbear- Not intelligent creatures, but would be fun to play as anyway.
Quickling- With a speed 12, its way too fast for a PC, would be very fun though. Like a halfling on crack.


Did I get everything? Do you disagree with my opinion? Post a comment!