“Batman has more than one son,“ I say into the mic.
The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room.
“She’s right,” I hear. I look around for the owner of the voice. There in the fifth row, he stands: Bruce Wayne himself.
“What does he know about Batman” the crowd replies and resumes booing. Bruce Wayne discreetly leaves the room. In an unrelated turn of events, a voice speaks from above. “She’s right,” I hear. There crashing through the skylight: Batman.
Anonymous asked — usually mixed races arent a thing bc mechanically theyre harder to make without being overpowered or underpowered. any race that specifies its 'half' (like half orc, half elf, tiefling, and aasimar), you can usually ask your dm and get away w/ them having different physical qualities since those races assume the specific mechanics of the kid regardless. i hope this is okay to comment bc i absolutely agree w you and there is some form of work around for pcs even tho there shouldnt have to be
i think it’s fairly easy to do mechanically (at least with the base phb races)
ie if i make an orc/elf i could choose between the bonus of fey ancestry or relentless endurance. i could choose between increasing my strength by two/con by one, or dex by two/[elf variant stat] by one.
there should definitely be talk with the dm, but all good players/dms have talks about character creation.
and also npcs don’t usually use mechanics (unless, of course, they’re an enemy or a fighting ally) ? and even just describing a city like “there’s no one clear race that takes predominance here, and in fact it seems that there are many people with mixed ancestry” or w/e (that was worded badly sorry alskdj)
“i wish mixed races existed more in dnd. and not just half human/half [other race]. more like people who have some orc ancestry so their teeth are a lil bigger. half tieflings and half dwarves who, due to their resistance to fire, are some of the best smiths in the land. a child of a goliath and a halfling who is just the size of a regular ole human but their kids tend to be much shorter or much taller than them. the great-grandchild of a dragonborn who has patches of scales. genasi and aasimar canonically can take generations to show up after their ancestors got down and dirty with a powerful being, so maybe there’d be a dwarf and a halfling who had a kid and they have red skin and glowing eyes and flames for hair and beard but still have the build of a halfling/dwarf instead of the stereotypical human/elf appearance.”
- Transjester in a previous Post on the Topic.
Honestly? This is one of the topics that are, like, super important to me when it comes to character designs. I mentioned amongst friends that 95% of my characters are some-kind of mixed race or ethnically mixed peoples, and that includes my DND Characters– both my Player Characters and my NPCs in my Campaigns I DM for. (Since I’m a Hardcore Nerd, I do outline ancestry for some of them to keep track of…so if anyone’s curious as to which characters might have what, hit me up, LoL)
Most of the signs of being mixed races I do put in the physical appearances. Something in the Eyes, something in the skin tone or texture, maybe its the height, or maybe they have claws and pointed ears, like, ya know? I have a Tiefling-Drow mixed kid who has certain traits that sorta blend together (in ears, coloration, eyes, etc), and then when he’s old enough, may or may not grow nubby horns. I have a King (King Bejalk) in a campaign who is known to be Half-Human, Half Gnome, and you can see it in his physical build, eyes, and ears— but his mother might have some Elf (High Elf or Drow, Can’t tell) and halfing in her somewhere. Another King (King Hjoldir Reggron) who has some Dwarvish in there, and it shows in him. I’m so down for the whole Halfing Dwarf Genasai mixed kid coming out like a Halfing-Dwarf Genasai of FIre because that’s how it’d so totally work! It makes sense? Why would they suddenly look human-ish, ya know? (Hence, why I love Murmur’s design– you can still tell parentage).
Additionally, yeah, The stats aren’t that hard to do. In my other Campaign, part of the plot is that this Elvish Ambassador freakin’ slept around and had a lot of kids, so his Legitimate son is trying to find his siblings and form a new family together (the party members are almost all related, which they haven’t learned quiet yet they are other than the Eldest Sibling)—- and, like….we have a Half-Elf Half-Halfling character (and it physically shows) and we helped mixed and match certain features and whatnot. We have a Half-Elf and Half-Dragonborn character (and it also physically shows), and we tossed in “Protection from Magic Sleep” and stuff. You just sorta….pick in chose, like any other stat you have with multiple options or whatnot. You can pick a base stat and just….slightly modify accordingly.
I love having such Mixed-Race/Ethnically Mixed Characters in DND because, like, straight up? Growing up as a Kid who is mixed-race/ethnically mixed, it’s like….that #Needed Representation. Not only is int interesting to create certain character designs and cultural dynamics, but like…….it makes me happy?? So, like, why not?? Even if it’s hard (which, again, it’s not), DND can figure a way to work it in.
I probably Rambled a Lot on this, but like….this is genuinely an important discussion (for me at least), not just one of interesting intrigue.
