Why do my genasis never get any love? I feel like these guys are made to be tumblr tier OC bullshit that would at least get me something cool in 5e.
>>97620627The problem is that genasi don't exist in enough numbers anywhere to form any kind of coherent society. At least not on the Prime Material Plane.Presumably they're much more common in the Inner Planes. Bearing that in mind. you can have these entries from my elemental monster manuals.Air...
>>97620627Genasi are not a core species so it less likely that someone would have the opportunity to play one.Tieflings are a core race and they can also have a colorful appearance filling that niche.
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>>97620724
>>97620727
>>97620717its why I just home brewed bio Genasis, Where after a 5 or so generations of breeding We have a somewhat stable population of earth genasi. >>97620722its seems like that alone would make more "i need to be special" people would pick them. also fuck tieflings
>>97620627Make your own lore. You don't need corposlop lore. You don't use corposlop settings... right?
>>97620732Not if the DM doesn't allow them or no one has the info needed to run them.And agree, fuck Tieflings
>>97620739I don't, I fucking can't stand dnd wizard lore slop, My DM is pretty good at making his own world feel unique and his own, but most of the party seems to rely on established lore in the books for most races, and me trying to be a good sport i play along, my earth genasi seems to not have anything really that interesting and also feels like some rules are bullshit, but maybe im just being petty.
>>97620823Then your GM isn't trying hard enough. A good GM will put out a primer with setting information before the game so the players can make characters that fit the setting.If I'm running a game with species options, you're getting between 1-2 paragraphs of information on them in the primer along with a list of what is allowed and/or banned.
>>97620627Why didn't you purchase Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerûn directly from WotC and promote its Calimshan content online?
>>97620627the inner planes are anti-lore, they're substance over fluff, there's nothing narratively special about rocks or fire that would make rock person or fire person have a special narrative themethe outer planes are all about lore, they're fluff over substance, so aasimar and tieflings and similar are inherently saddled with narrative themes
>>97620627My water genasi character was pulled up in a fishing net nine months after his father fell overboard and into the wet embrace of a mermaid :3
>>97620627What they need is cooler art.
>>97620627Visually, they fall too readily into the "just funny-colored humans" box; mechanically, they tend to just have a few minor magical effects that you'd already have access to if you were building a character themed around their element.Tieflings, by contrast, have horns, tails, and (sometimes) hooves. While they're not actually much more interesting mechanically, the theme of "devil person" is broad enough that their effects aren't ones you were necessarily already getting.Moreover, we already have a model for "person is perceived as evil due to how they look, but appearances do not define us" as a basic character archetype. There isn't as strong or immediate an assumption to be made of someone who looks like they're from water world, nor is there as obvious a reason for a player to feel the need to subvert it.Without any strong appeal from appearance, mechanics, or character archetype, genasi really only exist to be played by people who have an autistic hyperfixation on the four elements. And, frankly, even then, they're kind of shitty representatives for them.
as soon as people started tying emotions to genasi elements, I was done with them forever
>>97623066Given that people have been doing that since the four humors you're a bit late.
>>97623066So, the sixth century BC?
>>97620627the problem with Genasi is that Goliaths are an elemental race 10 times more interesting, even in nuD&D art because now they actually are one for each type of giant, and giants are just really big bearded elementals>>97623044>>97623066yes
>>97623726forgot the image
>>97620627>Why do my genasis never get any love?Because they're trash and planar races as PCs make no fucking sense and you may not choose them, tieflings nor aasimar.
>>97620627You make it up yourself because similar to half elves they are perpetual outsiders with few to none described ethnically homogenous settlements. They have tiefling syndrome. Which only matters if you play Forgotten Realms and care about the shitty barely there lore for that setting.A genasi character is best played as an outsider to pretty much every major society even the one they were raised in, and how good or cringe that is dependant on the player.
>>97623756gross, why do they look like leftie americans
>>97620717>At least not on the Prime Material Plane.They were running the show in Calimshan for the longest time.
>>97624782Wizards of the Coast (the company that makes D&D) is run by leftie Americans who hire other leftie Americans to draw leftie American illustrations. You kinda just have to ignore them, or play a different game or edition.
>>97624782They are construction workers.
>>97624782>why do they look like what I want them to look like?
>>97620627Yeah, if nothing else they should have roll tables full of potential traits like Tieflings and Aasimar do, but I can't find anything like that anywhere. I think /tg/ was doing some discussion along those lines a while ago, but I don't remember it ever getting completed, does someone have such a roll table or any ideas for it? The element of the Genasi in question could be one point on the list, what others might work, maybe they can have the features of an animal associated with their element?
>>97620627Elemental people are passe
>>97626395I remember that. It was a bumpfag thread, so it never went anywhere.
>>97624782they look like technicolor scandinavias what the fuck are you talking about
>>97624782>>97623756Is always that style of "I want to see myself in there", and then think they look "bad ass"
I feel like Earth Genasi are the most boring art wise.
>>97626732>Earth Genasi are the most boring art wise.My current character is a Earth genasi, and I decided to have fun with them, Instead of stone/rock esthetic, I made her skin appear like Porcelain or pearl like quality, like a china doll, have the hair be like super fine spun copper wire, and her blood more like mineral oil. Shes an Industrialist/ scientist who kinda hates nature, and loves the spicey elements (radium, uranium, thorium etc) I feel like people shoudl be going crazy with the kinda stuff you could do with them, but its always the same generic rock golem, looking people and it pisses me off that no artist gets what im getting when I ask for art commisions
>>97626661Shame. How can we get people here interested in such a roll table? Or more interested in Genasi in general, to be honest?
I don't know if it works, but I'm toying with the idea of mixing Genasi with Tieflings so Tiefling is more of an umbrella term for not just demons, but other Planetouched particularly of both lower planes and elemental elements rather than just my grandad fucked a succubus once.
>>97627568If you still haven't figured that you can't astroturf a community into giving a shit about your autistic fixations then you might be terminally retarded.
>>97627568Could you elaborate on that, literary lord?
>>97626732One of my favorite characters was a genasi sorcerer who used a great sword and was a gypsy con artist with a made up skill called Nan Lore where he rolled to see if his Nan had taught him about this and if he passed the check he had to try to convince the party + all the allied NPCs of something absolutely ridiculous.
>>97628650You know you can just ask chatgpt to generate tables of features to your autistic heart's content, right?
>>97624782they're doing actual work and not just whining about workers, that's why
>>976206271. Nobody cares about elementals2. They weren't established in any numbers, so never had a personality written for them when there were people who could3. The people who currently could write a personality for them are hacks, and there's nothing to shamelessly copy for them besides fucking classical element aligned humors, and broad stereotypes of the associated elements. I doubt a single person writing has even thought about why Genasi have to exist in the first place. So the onus is on you, to write the content you want to see. Because if you don't, the genasi will remain the most literal fucking who race of all time.
>>97620627>Jen-ah-sigh?or>Jen-ah-see?I've heard both.
>>97638600nah, he could write a novel and it would have no impact
>>97639264Gen-asi with a hard "g", like great or golden. Genasi.
>>97639264this is tie fling tier
>>97639264ɡɛnʌ:si
>>97632103Fuck off Sam.
>>97626395>>97627568You could try doing it yourself instead of spending years begging for someone else to do it. But sure, here's one. How about a result for fire genasi having hair made of fire? Do you have that one yet? Or do you want to do the bare minimum for a collaborative project and actually post the list of what's already been suggested?
>>97640055Hmm, now why did that of all things touch a nerve?
>>97625865No they literally look like leftie americans. >If I pretend it isn't real then maybe everyone will think they are crazyThis strategy has about fifty years of employ and at no point has it been effective.
>>97620627Races that can be described as "Guys who are around" tend to not get very much attention, especially if they're also not a Core RaceAlso there are other races that do what they do but better>Goliaths have elemental powers and can grow large >Dragonborns have a Breath Weapon and can fly>Both Tieflings and Assimars but especially Tieflings do the Planetouched gimmick far better than Genasi
>>97645917Goliaths suddenly becoming discount giants in 5E 2024 is weird.
>>97646614It does make them far less interesting. Since instead of being some specific mountain-dwelling culture, they're now a rainbow of different giant types, and the whole thing is just watered down.It's ironically the same sort of problem Genasi themselves have, where they're just different flavors of element, but that just comes across in the form of having one spell or ability and they're just bland and flavorless otherwise.
So in defense of Genasi!Genasi generally don't have any culture, because each of them is basically a human with some genie ancestry (up to half genie as near as I can tell, but it could be distant depending). Which means that the closest they get to being exotic is if you have some Arab culture that is the only human culture that interacts with genies, and your game is set in some type of place that isn't close to the Arab culture.But this is just inheriting a different human culture, of course.So you could address this by having places where the genasi live as themselves- perhaps these places are in the elemental planes, or in places in the elemental planes near the material, so that things are relatively more normal and suitable to normal lives. Then you can have whatever culture you want for whatever reason you want. But that sounds like a lot of work. In fact, adding cultures to worlds in general is a lot of work, and it would be wild for a race to not have at least one culture that is mostly just itself.Which leads up to my use for genasi; they are just the result of trysts with genies and humans, or descended from them. Meaning I get to have these extra four mostly-humans, without any culture of their own, as options for players who want to be human but want some small amount of extra mechanic. The other NPCs treat them as human, and the places that don't would probably treat anyone who isn't from their exact neck of the woods as some kinda alien, whatever their race. I think the genasi are a gift to tables like mine, where I'd like to have some options for races that, by default, plug in however I like, and this doesn't clash with anything in the general description. I like genasi BECAUSE of this.
>>97620627My personal Genasi lore is that they HAVE to be made by a union between a genie and a mortal. Even if two genasi of the same type reproduce, it will be a normal mortal race of their combined mortal halves (generally human, I suppose).Along with that just some odd elemental effects on their body and/or surroundings.
>>97620627What do you think of just merging Genasi with Tieflings and/or Aasimar? Also, anyone have any more Genasi art worth sharing, like picture related, please?
>>97646614Goliath's were becoming a popular race among players and since Goliath's have distant relations with Giants WotC decided to lean into that going forward with 5e24It was probably also do to Players perception of Goliath's as well, being the "Not-Giant" race and allWotC seems to be doing that for the races in 5e24, with Tieflings not just being Devil related but also Demon and Yugoloth and Dragonborns being given wings. The way they implement these new idea's are kind of shit but it's clear they do occasionally look at what fans think of certain races and then build from there
>>97646973>it would be wild for a race to not have at least one culture that is mostly just itselfCultures are generally more a question of region than of race. Humans and elves living in the same general area would have cultures more similar to each other than they would to cultures of the same species on the other side of the world.And, if we build fantasy off of mythological influences, we arrive at the same conclusion. Primary sources present djinn as fundamentally Arabic in culture, European folklore generally depicts fey and other creatures as following the cultural conventions of their region of origin, we have examples of rakshasas that are virtuous Hindus and Buddhists, and so on. Those aren't inherent qualities of the entities in question, but the result of their existence within those cultural contexts.
>>97620627Elemental planes aren't very interesting, forcing a genie type for each elemental plane isn't very interesting, and genasi aren't very interesting.City of Brass & Efreets are cool, but that's it.
>>97655101>Efreets are coolMarids are cooler.
Honestly I don't mind genasi, I just think they're kinda basic. It ultimately just results in a person with elemental hair 99% of the time. What I find interesting is the HOW or WHY your genasi came into existence. Beyond just "your mom/dad slept with a wish-granting elemental". I've only done this on Eberron though.One of the newer books brings up an PC idea of playing a genasi as an escapee from Arcanix. Sort of like "you are the first of your kind" deal. I took that at expanded it. There are a number of mage-breeding programs in Aundair, most are focused on making magical animals. But a precious few have been breeding people infused with elemental power, creating Genasi. Arcanix has successfully creating a breeding population of Genasi, a big deal.
>>97620627Make your own lore. That's the whole point.
>>97658674I mean I do, Im just more interested in why nobody has gone crazy with them, from what I created alone there a potential gold mind of content.
>>97620732Genasi doesnt scream "I have father issues and blame him for my failures" unlike Tieflings hence why Genasi isn't picked at all by the "special" people.I can confidently say this as most the people in my dnd group who have come and gone and played tiefling usually have some sort of family related issues.
>>97659184>Im just more interested in why nobody has gone crazy with themThey're just not that interesting of a concept to attract anyone with that kind of interest and ability to take them and run wild with the loreAn example would be Dragonborns. WotC fucked them up in 5e but the idea of playing a Dragon person that isn't a meek shitter like Kobolds is cool so people took the Dragonborn and homebrew'd them heavily. If the Genasi had some sauce like that you'd see more homebrewing and even added homebrew races like what Players did with Dragonborns and their Gem/Dragon Turtle variants
"Genasi" is too broad for the whole to develop any kind of real meat to it. If you want your elemental races to attract interest, they need to be fleshed out as four different races with their own quirks, traits, and story hooks. As long as they're stuck as variants of a package deal, they'll stay obscure.
>>97624834No, they were just somewhat more common there. But even then, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3e) has them rare enough that Calimshan's population statistics don't even list them - they make up less than 1% of the population.
>>97622953This, most genasi art is dog shit, OP's pic is one of the few good ones ever made and that was 3e days.I myself have found extremely few really good pieces
>>97669276Please post more of it then!
>>97674656Fuck off, LL
>>97669276>>97674656>>97665794Do you ever get tired of replying to yourself?
>>97674930He hasn't for the past 6+ years
>>97620627Which edition/book has the best take on Genasi and why?
>>97682479Can you elaborate further, assuming you play games.
