Monstrous PCs and Races of the Dragon

One of the interesting things about D&D is that in the very early days, players were encouraged to play anything! To quote Gygax in the original D&D game, "There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e. a player wishing to be a Dragon would have to begin as, let us say, a "young" one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee."

By the publication of the AD&D DMG, Gygax was actively discouraging anything outside the norm. With 3E, the idea of playing monsters (or non Tolkienesque humanoid races) really started to get opened up again, and thoughts were given to keeping things balanced. 3E wasn't really designed to allow that, however; that's one reason why 3.5E mucked around so much with monster creation rules: so that players could use them as PCs more easily.

As explained on the ECL/LA thread, even 3.5E doesn't quite work for existing monsters as PCs. Although the concept of the balance required is much better understood, the tools are too gross for them to quite work.

However, it is possible to design new monster-type races as PC races, and we're seeing that in the Races books, and in some of the environ books. The Raptorans exist because they're much better balanced as a flying race than what came before.

The move away from non-Tolkienesque fantasy isn't limited to D&D, of course. My fantasy novel collection continues to grow, and the strange races and creatures described there are a long way from our mythological traditions. As a race, we like telling stories and creating new things; D&D would be remiss if it didn't keep up with the rest of the world.

New Draconic-themed races are both new and old, tapping in to our mythological roots while giving it a new spin. I'm sure there are people out there who think it's really fun to play draconic-themed races, regardless of the power levels involved. Of course, there are also those who look to how powerful they are.

With this edition, the designers and (especially) the developers are paying attention to how new races integrate with the existing ones. So, with any luck, choosing a dragonkin race won't be "I've got the most powerful PC", but instead just "I have a really cool PC who is fun to play!"

Incidentally, in my ongoing Living Greyhawk game, one of the players now has a low-level Centaur PC alongside other 1st and 2nd level characters. She's been working well with the group - being effective, but not overwhelming the other PCs. That's something that Races of the Wild opened up to her, and she's enjoying the experience.