Greetings and salutations everyone! Welcome back to another Trailblazer Thursday! This week we’ll discuss some of the races that were not included in Trailblazer as they were replaced by the Half-Breed.
The first race is the Mongrelfolk, from 1st edition’s Monster Manual 2, a forefather of our current Half-Breed race. The Mongrelfolk are not an appealing race of humanoids, usually described as brutish and ugly. This is due to the Mongrelfolk being a mixture of all the common races in Dungeons and Dragons. They get a decent mix of racial traits, but the stat penalties are incredibly harsh, and the race doesn’t have much to claim for themselves. Monrelfolk was a good step in the right direction for customizable races in D&D, but because there was little done with them over the years they were left to wallow through the editions.
Next is the Rastipede, from Spelljammer, which is a race of centaur-like centipedes. It is an interesting concept for a race, as the Rastipedes have the lower body of a centipede, or rather, they have a low lower body with eight insect legs, and a vaguely humanoid upper body, with antenna, compound eyes, and two arm-like appendages with their entire body covered in chitin. The Rastipedes are traders in Spelljammer but they can more than hold their own in a fight. Despite all of these boons, the Rastipedes are just bug-centaurs and can be made with a combination of Zoanthrope and Centaur.
The Bariaur, from 2nd edition’s Player’s Guide to Planescape, are centaurs with the lower body and horns of a ram. Bariaur are, to put it simply, satyrs with an extra pair of legs. Much of their lore is positive and talks about how they wander to find beauty all around. The only other difference is that the Bariaur do allow for females unlike typical Satyr, with the females not having horns but instead other bonuses to make up for the lack of a natural weapon. Needless to say, the Bariaurs were not included with Trailblazer. A Half-Breed of a Centaur with either a Faun or Zoanthrope easily make up the statistical bonuses.
The Wemic, originally created back in 1st edition’s Monster Manual II and made into a playable race in 3rd edition’s Races of Faerun, are lion centaurs. There isn’t much to say about the race beyond that. Much of their lore reflects a typical ‘king of the jungle’ motif along with the respect and protection of nature. Their racial bonuses are insanely powerful and it’s understandable why this race is never discussed or played, even though their level adjustment is only +3. However, almost everything they can do the can be replicated with the Half-Breed combo of Centaur and Zoanthrope, so the Wemic was not made into its own race.
The last race we’ll talk about is the Dracotaur, from 3.5’s Monster Manual III, which is a race that is basically a combination of a lizardfolk (or dragonborn) and a centaur. Dracotaurs do not have much lore to talk about, maybe having a half page overall. Dracotaurs, for having a level adjustment of +5, are rather basic. Other than their massive stat boosts and their ability to spit fire at people, they are just a scaly centaur. With that, the Dracotaur were not included into Trailblazer.
And with that, we conclude this installment of Lost Races for Trailblazer Thursday! Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook on what you think of these races and please let us know if you have your own race you’d like to have us talk about. We look forward to hearing from you and we’ll see you on the next Trailblazer Thursday!
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