Looking at the "niches" of classic fantasy races

This is not a particularly interesting post, but it's one that's been sort of percolating in my head for a while now. 

From Delicious in Dungeon. In fact, go read that instead of this blog post

5th edition has nine core races to the 4 in Basic. OSR players will often complain that there are too many, which begs the question of "how many playable species should there be?" I think in order to answer that we have to answer the question of "what is the actual point of races, anyway?"

In a setting designed top-down we might expect the races to all fit some kind of niche- like how in Star Trek Klingons are the Warrior Guys, Vulcans are the Smart Guys, Ferengi are the Capitalist guys. But like most things in D&D, the list of playable races is largely the result of tradition and random happenstance. 

What I'm interested in is- do the races we have do enough to differentiate themselves from one another? And are there any obvious areas missing? Plus: if I make my own dumb setting, what kinds of things do I want to include? 

To do that, I'm going to look at what niches each race fills in a game/setting. I'm going to look at all the races as of 5th edition- so the classic Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, and Half-Orc, as well as Dragonborn and Tiefling, and ask: which of these actually make sense to include, and which of them are we better off casting into the void?

The AD&D character races. Even the edition that introduced them didn't care about Gnomes

Niches

Ability Scores is an obvious area to look at. Half-Orcs are Strong. Halflings and Elves are Dexterous. Dwarves are Constitution-y (Constitutional?). Gnomes are Intelligent (except in 3e when they got CON for some reason). None of the classic races are Wise or Charismatic which seems like an oversight. 5e adds Dragonborn as a second strong race, and Tiefling to fill charismatic. 

We can look at their Aesthetic- Elves are Elegant, Dwarves are Tough, Halflings are cute, Half-Orcs are cool. Gnomes are also cute, but I guess you could call them whimsical. Dragonborn are also cool. Tieflings are Dark and Mysterious (ie “edgy”). The obvious exclusion here is a weird race- although maybe including something in the core game makes it inherently not weird. 

We can look at elemental associations. Elves (well, wood-elves at least) are associates with Forests and Nature. Dwarves are associated with Mountains and Stone. Gnomes are sometimes associated with forests and nature, and sometimes associated with mountains and earth, somehow managing to step on the toes of both Elves and Dwarves without having their own distinct identity. 5e adds Tieflings, which have a strong fire association, and promotes Drow to playable, who have an association with Darkness and Underground, although it's kind of muddied by how many other races get Darkvision and the fact that there are also Dark-Gnomes and Dark-Dwarves living underground. 

I feel like there's room here to associate with other elements- Water, Air, or Light, and maybe with other types of land- Grasslands, Swamps, Desert, Jungle, Tundra, or the Sea. 

We can look at their role in society. Elves are Nobility. Dwarves are Craftsman. Halflings are Peasants. Half-Orcs are Warriors. Gnomes could arguably be, like, Scholars? Tieflings are outcasts. Other roles: Clergy, Merchants?

We can look at their D&D class. In a race and class system it's nice to have a generic class to go with each race. Dwarves are fighters, Half-Orcs are Barbarians, Halflings are Rogues. Elves are Wizards, but if you're feeling "wood-elf-y" they're Rangers or Druids. Gnomes are Illusionists in AD&D, but they're Bards in 3e, and in 5e they seem to be Artificers which isn't even a core class. Tieflings, the edgiest race, seem tailor-made to be warlocks, the edgiest class. What's missing? Bards, Clerics, Paladins, Monks, and Sorcerer are the core 5e classes without an associated race.

We can also look at their Personality Traits. Dwarves are Hard-Working and Honorable and Stubborn. Elves are detached and stoic and judgey. Gnomes are curious and enthusiastic and mischevious. Halflings are Friendly and rustic. Half-Orcs are fierce and angry. Tieflings are self-reliant and cunning. 

The races of 3rd edition, featuring weird skinny halflings

Analysis

Dwarves feel really well-defined. They have a distinct identity within each category, and all their niches work well together. Dwarves were basically perfect out of the gate, and pretty much every fantasy setting either has Dwarves or a race that's exactly like Dwarves. 

Half-Orcs are similarly good. They’re big and angry barbarians and they’re good at fighting. You can push them into being proud, skilled warriors or just a bunch of homicidal maniacs but either way they still feel like Orcs. 

Elves are well defined, with the main issue being that Wood-Elves and High-Elves actually fit completely different niches- wood-elves are forest-dwelling, agile nature-guys while high-elves are city-dwelling wise magic-dudes. In editions that don't have subraces I usually feel like the "Elf" race doesn't quite capture either of them as well as I want- you're either stuck with a wood-elf who doesn't have any actual wood-elf-themed powers or a high-elf with a dexterity bonus. 

Halflings are fine. They're dexterous, they have "smallfolk peasant" vibes, and they're friendly in a rustic small-town way. Either way they've been around forever and we're not getting rid of them. 

Of the well-established D&D races, Gnomes are kind of a mess. Mythical gnomes are associated with earth and mining, which makes them too Dwarf-y. Sometimes they have forest vibes, but then they're basically just wood-elves, and the forest definitely fits mysterious, aloof elves more than cute and cuddly gnomes. They're small and cute but Halflings are already small and cute. Class-wise they originally get associated with illusionists but once that class gets left out they sort of ping-pong around randomly. 

The most unique niche they get IMO is when they end up in sort of an inventor role- emphasizing their impulsiveness and curiosity. The main issue is that inventor isn't an actual role you can play in D&D, and often ends up feeling anachronistic (which is unfair, because D&D is super anachronistic already, but I can't help it). Also Dwarves are already the crafting race. 

 I think in general, gnomes are a race in search of a role to fill, which is probably why generic fantasy settings other than D&D (warhammer, magic the gathering) rarely include them (or thinly veiled analogues to them). Being creative and impulsive does set them aside from Elves/Dwarves/Halflings, but never feels like enough to make them unique. Gnomes are, in fact, the least popular race on every poll I could find online. 

Pictured: Gnomes?

4th edition added Tieflings, and you know what? Tieflings are great. They’re charismatic, they’re edgy, they have both fire and darkness elements associated with them, they fit a societal role as outcasts and criminals, they work well as warlocks or sorcerers, and they’re self-reliant and suspicious and withdrawn and stuff. Tieflings, to me, are a great addition to the core group. 

The other 4th edition newcomer is Dragonborn. Dragonborn are cool because they look like dragons, but other that they overlap with Orcs a lot. They're both strong and cool and ferocious and tough, yadda yadda yadda. 

What's Missing?

The obvious thing missing here is a wise, priest race, who could be clerics and paladins and have an association with light. Luckily, 2024 5e comes to the rescue by making Aasimar a core race. I've always thought Aasimar seemed kind of boring (they're basically just "tieflings but angelic instead of demonic," but the whole fun of tieflings is being outcast for being demonic so what's the fun in that?) but at least they make a case for themselves in having their own "thing." 

I think the other addition could be Merfolk- with a heavy association with both water and with Bards (via stories of sirens and such). According to the Forgotten Realms wiki they tend to be playful and curious. Plus, merfolk are a super popular race that people have heard of outside of D&D.

That still leaves merchants, a weird race, the element of air, and monks. And you know what? I think we can make this work. After all, crows and magpies have a reputation for loving shiny things, and apparently monk is the most common class for Aarakocra, 5e's resident bird-man race. Currently most of their lore is just "they love flying" but maybe we can add a love of money, and a tendency to travel in merchant caravan flocks. And their art in the first few editions was definitely weird:

Pictured: the next core race?