Fantasy Race/Class/Trope Combos We Want...

[d20kaiju]

We're always looking for something to set out characters apart as writers, and the brass tacks of that don't necessarily have to do with what fantasy race they are or what magic they wield, but it's fun to think about those things. I recently read something with a dwarven archer, in which the tropes were acknowledged and several jokes were made, but ultimately the character worked. It got me thinking about combinations and possibilities...

Is there any combination that's been done to death? Done so poorly that we want to see it done right and what would that take? What are some combinations that haven't been done but which we'd like to see? Why? What is it about these things that make us react the way we do as readers and lovers of the genre? As writers?

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

Elf archers with long, blonde hair and no beards
Gruff Dwarf warriors with axes, war-hammers, and mauls
Young human wizards (darn, I miss old wizards with long beards and pointy hats)
Crazy orc males with no hair that do nothing but rampage, with no emotions, ONLY RAGE! HULK- er, I mean, ORC SMASH!
Human damsels in distress
We need more bearded elf samurai, classic wizards, orc healers, and dwarves with weaponry appropriate to their height like crossbows and spears, gosh darn it!

 

[d20kaiju]

Awesome! Thank you.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

Maybe some classic Gandalf-esque wizards, only they're orcs. They have the hat and the beard and the robe, and all that, but they also have green skin, tusks, and piggish noses.

 

[Orc Knight]

All things considered standard at this point has been to death, so not gonna get over into it.

Give a wood elf an axe, which is just as appropriate as a bow in the standard forest.
The 'low culture' sort of enemies that only cultural bits are stripped down real world ones with a heavy focus on only fighting. And usually in such ways they shouldn't even survive. Such ruthless backstabbing and constant fights being directly detrimental to their survival.
Dwarfs with the ability to have mages. And not being the only ones with magitek.
As the above on cultures, drow that are more then evil dark skinned matriarchies that backstab much.
Halflings that are more then the two directions they tend to go too, simple folk with few ambitions and content to live in holes or thieves, gluttons and randy enough to make a satyr pause and look on in disbelief.
Elves, while having a variety of sub races, still seem to mostly seem to have few emotional ranges outside of snooty, arrogant, evil, wild and better civilized then you.

Probably more.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

As the above on cultures, drow that are more then evil dark skinned matriarchies that backstab much.

My Drow are always pale, when I run D&D games

 

[A Pineapple]

Bring back short elves! Elves always seem depicted in modern stories as similar to human height, sometimes taller. Historically though, they tend to be on par with dwarves.

 

[WooHooMan]

This is more for rpg than literature but thieves and rogues tend to come in two flavors:
1. Morally ambiguous, hooded gruff guys with stubble who grew up on the mean streets.
2. Slightly less morally ambiguous but still tough as nails hooded young women who grew up on the mean streets.
They are almost always human but could also be a dark elf or goblin. Either way; they’d be thin, often at least somewhat attractive and have a sarcastic but subtle sense of humor.

I noticed this a while ago so the last rogue/thief I played was a chipper and flamboyant halfling aristocrat whose personality was modeled off of a used car salesman.

 

[The Dark One]

Handicapped elves?

Gay dwarfs?

Pacifist orcs who are really into feng shui and hate getting blood on the carpet...

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

I noticed this a while ago so the last rogue/thief I played was a chipper and flamboyant halfling aristocrat whose personality was modeled off of a used car salesman.

That is amazing.

with stubble

Yep. But never beards! Come on, we need more beards!

Handicapped elves?

Gay dwarfs?

Pacifist orcs who are really into feng shui and hate getting blood on the carpet...

I like all of these ideas.

 

[d20kaiju]

Loving some of these concepts!

 

[Electric Bone Flute]

Fundamentalist anti-magic paladin who turns out to be right but whose methods are so obnoxious he is ignored
Fish-people merchants/messengers who act as liaisons between land-dwellers and sea-dwellers

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

Fundamentalist anti-magic paladin who turns out to be right

Er... not sure how I feel about the "anti-magic" part, although I suppose it would make more sense in some fantasy worlds...

 

[Electric Bone Flute]

Er... not sure how I feel about the "anti-magic" part, although I suppose it would make more sense in some fantasy worlds...

Paladin doesn’t always have to mean knight + holy magic user. I’m thinking of that lawyer who discovered that this one company that made pans was poisoning a city’s water with their toxic waste, blew the whistle, and was victim to years of legal persecution as the company tried to cover it up, but crazy, obnoxious, and in a fantasy setting
Don’t know. Maybe magic is carcinogenic, but for your soul. Soul cancer.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

Paladin doesn’t always have to mean knight + holy magic user. I’m thinking of that lawyer who discovered that this one company that made pans was poisoning a city’s water with their toxic waste, blew the whistle, and was victim to years of legal persecution as the company tried to cover it up, but crazy, obnoxious, and in a fantasy setting
Don’t know. Maybe magic is carcinogenic, but for your soul. Soul cancer.

I am not talking about paladin magic. I'm just talking about the sentence basically saying "he's right that magic is evil" even though in most fantasy worlds magic is part of physics. I suppose some worlds have only bad magic though.

 

[WooHooMan]

Fundamentalist anti-magic paladin who turns out to be right but whose methods are so obnoxious he is ignored
Fish-people merchants/messengers who act as liaisons between land-dwellers and sea-dwellers

I feel like the self-righteous no-fun-allowed paladin who is ignored despite being right and the anti-magic “paladin” with harmful methods are two different archetypes.

By “paladin” in the second example, I mean any kind of rules-obsessed turbo-lawful knight and not necessarily a character in the paladin class which refers to a warrior who uses divine-based magic.

 

[The Dark One]

Pacifist orcs who are really into feng shui and hate getting blood on the carpet...

You can imagine this orc running with the rest into the Chamber of Mazarbul and muttering: "For heaven's sake! Can't we just be nice for once!"