PHB II Races

Rumor also has it that the PHB II will introduce the Primal power source (analogous to the Martial, Divine, and Arcane power sources in the first PHB), meaning that we’ll most likely see the Druid and Barbarian in the PHB II.

And now we find rumors suggestions that the races in the second player’s handbook will consist of races that begin with: S, H, G, G, D.

Let us SPECULATE.

My money’s on “S” being Shifter. I picked up the MM III fairly recently, and that seems dead on for a Primal type. As well, half-orc seems like a pretty safe bet for “H.”

Some people are betting Gnomes are one of the “G”s. I’m thinking not. Sure, there’s a Gnome in the daily art preview. But would they really want to invalidate the whole “I’m a monster! Rarr!!” bit?

I thought maybe one of the “G”s would be Githzerai, if it’s true that psionics will also be introduced in PHB II. (Maybe at some point I’ll complain about psionics, though it seems like I won’t have a problem with them in 4e as long as they follow the pattern established so far.)

Likewise, I thought “D” would of course be Drow. I don’t really care for Drow, but I figure they’re gonna show up sooner rather than later.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got.

The multiple “player’s handbook” idea is one of my concerns about the long-term balance of the game. I figure the first few PHBs will be pretty well balanced. But as the game matures and more material comes out, the number of mechanics, races, powers, and classes that the designers have to pay attention to increases. So of course someone designs something and forgets this class feature here, or that power there, and now you have figure out a house rule that fixes the problem without crippling the combination.

Previously, you could say “we’re only playing core” but now that there’s effectively more to the core, the DM mightn’t have quite as much of a leg to stand on when he has to say “only in books X and Y but not Z.”