D&D (2024) 5e Aasimar are in the Players Handbook − what should the flavor be?

[Kurotowa]

I'm glad aasimar are in (makes sense if tieflings are), but I'm honestly surprised that goblins aren't in the PHB- though maybe they're afraid of being accused of ripping off PF2e.

Crawford dropped that their target is two player races covering a given niche, to give players a choice. His example was orcs and goliaths as the two "big and strong" races that get Powerful Build.

Generalizing from that, we might see tiefling and aasimar as the two planetouched races. And we can definitely tag gnomes and halflings as the two "small build" races. Adding goblins would be a third, and that's probably overkill. To promote goblins to a PHB you'd probably have to demote gnomes, like 4e did.

Personally, I'm content with the goblinoid trio being the poster children for what a supplement book should cover. Not quite PHB material, but first in line for the expanded roster.

 

[Argyle King]

dark chocolate truffle, maybe with a hint of peanut butter

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Crawford dropped that their target is two player races covering a given niche, to give players a choice. His example was orcs and goliaths as the two "big and strong" races that get Powerful Build.

Generalizing from that, we might see tiefling and aasimar as the two planetouched races. And we can definitely tag gnomes and halflings as the two "small build" races. Adding goblins would be a third, and that's probably overkill. To promote goblins to a PHB you'd probably have to demote gnomes, like 4e did.

Personally, I'm content with the goblinoid trio being the poster children for what a supplement book should cover. Not quite PHB material, but first in line for the expanded roster.

That's entirely fair, but having run multiple games for first-time players and people who are new to D&D, I'd say I've had someone wanting to play a goblin at my table like 75% of the time and I've never seen someone want to make an aasimar.

Symmetry is nice, but I'm very much of the "give the people what they want" philosophy.

 

[Mephista]

Crawford dropped that their target is two player races covering a given niche, to give players a choice. His example was orcs and goliaths as the two "big and strong" races that get Powerful Build.

Generalizing from that, we might see tiefling and aasimar as the two planetouched races.

I would imagine that tiefs and dragos go together as two sides of the
elementalist archeetypee. One magey one physical.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm glad aasimar are in (makes sense if tieflings are), but I'm honestly surprised that goblins aren't in the PHB- though maybe they're afraid of being accused of ripping off PF2e.

Maybe they will be, we don't know if the current list is complete, I think a Gobliniod species with Goblin, Hobgoblin, and Bugbear Lineages would be interesting.

 

[Kurotowa]

That's entirely fair, but having run multiple games for first-time players and people who are new to D&D, I'd say I've had someone wanting to play a goblin at my table like 75% of the time and I've never seen someone want to make an aasimar.

Well, that's the topic of the thread, ain't it? How do you make aasimar more appealing. Goblins have a lot of media presence that gives them a ready made audience, even if the D&D version isn't the same as the more popular image. (They're not even green!) So goblins have a head start. But tieflings show that D&D can create an audience for a player race if you do it right.

Would I object to replacing gnomes with goblins? Not at all. Would I love to see aasimar reimagined so they can stand shoulder to shoulder with their tiefling cousins? Absolutely. No reason to pick just one.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Appearances of Aasimar should be almost as varied as the appearances of Tieflings were in 2e. So taking into consideration many of the celestials types in 2e and 5e:

• Some would look very close to Humans/Orcs/Elves/Goblins/Whatever they're mortal ancestry is, with some small differences such as glowing eyes.
• Emerald skin (Planetar)
• Shiny metallic skin colours (Deva and Rilmani).
• Some could in fact have animal heads or just animal ears or even subtly animal-like (Guardinals and some Archons).
• Feathers for hair (Avoral Guardinals or Lillendi)
• Fiery hair, or a nimbus of flames (Firre Eladrin, Quesar or Asuras)
• Satyr-like, such as hooves or ram horns (Cerdival Guardinals)
• Wings that are vestigial (at least at the beginning) whether it be feathery (many Angels, Avorals, Lillendi), fiery (Asuras) or butterfly-like (Corre Eladrin).
• Exactly like the Deva PC species from 4e
• Really metallic with a mask-like face or with floating limbs connected to the body by energy (Rilmani)
• A single Unicorn like horn
• Somewhat scaly
• Glowing and somewhat translucent

As for how some Aasimar are like in the world, I think of them as being a possible look into the idea of "model minority" as opposed to the "marginalized minority" that Tieflings often are.

 

[Mephista]

So, matching pairs in the 1dnd phb:

Humans (no match)
Elf, Dwarf (the classics)
Gnome, Halfling (smol)
Goliath, Orc (swol)
Tiefling, Dragonborn (elemental)

Notice how the ones on the left are more magically themed than the ones on the right, who tend to be more physical oriented. Goliaths are still a bit on the physical side, while dragonborn are slightly more magical but not caster-ish.

If we're going to slip Aasimar back in, it probably should slip in beside human. A kind of match to human that we don't really have anymore, after all the human+ options no longer exist.

Or make them a winged race to put alongside a furry race, but that's just me.

Would I object to replacing gnomes with goblins? Not at all.

If we're going to go with what's dominant in popular fantasy, then we should be swapping out gnomes and halflings for goblins and fairies. They fit the kinda-castery, kinda-rogue-lite aspects of the g & h too.

Sadly, however, its never going to happen. People threw a massive fit when they tried removing gnomes in 4e and they'll never stand for the bad publicity of trying it again after the OGL fiasco. It'd be worse with halflings too.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Sadly, however, its never going to happen. People threw a massive fit when they tried removing gnomes in 4e and they'll never stand for the bad publicity of trying it again after the OGL fiasco. It'd be worse with halflings too.

The back cover of the PHB depicts a Gnome, they're in the PHB. The Wizard that everyone keeps on arguing about, though might be an Aasimar.

 

[Mephista]

The back cover of the PHB depicts a Gnome, they're in the PHB. The Wizard that everyone keeps on arguing about, though might be an Aasimar.

Of course the gnomes are. I'd rather see them replaced personally, but I know and I said that its not going to happen and I accept that.