D&D General If you could be any D&D species in real life…

[deganawida]

To the OP, some basic questions: are you the only non-human in this world, or is it common? Did it happen suddenly or has it always been the case? Does everyone know the abilities of the other species? And so on.

Basically, all of a sudden everyone on the planet has a chance to change into a D&D species which has lore or stereotype closest to their own personality, and everyone becomes suddenly aware of the general abilities of each species.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Dwarf, easily. My beard would be even more majestic. And I really could use that +2 bonus to Constitution, which assuredly ended up being my dump stat in real life!

 

[Kobold Stew]

Variant Human. Free feat!

(and the feat would be Lucky or Magic Initiate)

 

[LordEntrails]

Human. Because humans treat each other pretty poorly on the whole. Imagine how bad they would treat an elf, bugbear or changeling!

 

[J.Quondam]

Probably something like half-plasmmoid/half-thrikreen, because I'm lucky that way.

 

[LordEntrails]

Probably something like half-plasmmoid/half-thrikreen, because I'm lucky that way.

A dralusk?

 

[Seramus]

Warforged
I'm already pretty transhumanist, so going full terminator sounds like a plus to me! Unknown age limit, advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, resistance to poison damage, you don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe, you are immune to disease, you don't need to sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep.

 

[Zaukrie]

Warforged
I'm already pretty transhumanist, so going full terminator sounds like a plus to me! Unknown age limit, advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, resistance to poison damage, you don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe, you are immune to disease, you don't need to sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep.

I mean, this seems like the obvious choice......either this or elf for me.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

…what would you be, and why?

Dragonborn. Hands down, no question, no hesitation, no apology.

"Always be yourself. Unless you can be a dragon. Then always be a dragon."

Edit: Okay, to actually explain that more than just "omg I get to be a dragon person and dragons are goddamn cool," dragonborn are both one of the races surprisingly similar to humans in behavior (they don't have the negative associations of many "savage" races, but they also don't have the high-and-mighty implications of many of the graceful/magical races), and yet perhaps the one most distinct from humans simply because of being covered in scales and such.

They live about as long as humans, but have better healing (at least in 4e), so I'd be more likely to live a decent life but not a "watch all my friends die" life. I don't want to live forever, just a reasonable amount of time, so I can go to meet my Maker in due course. Their proportions are generally similar to tall, muscular humans, other than their feet and hands. Canonically, they don't have tails, so I wouldn't need fancy tailored clothes just to avoid being naked (though, again, shoes would be a potential concern...depends on how durable dragonborn scales are, I suppose.)

More or less, whether this was a sudden spontaneous change of the world, or a "what if you could just have been an X all along and that's just the way the world always had been," dragonborn are distinct enough to feel like a real difference, similar enough to actually get along in human society, and cool as hell because DRAGONS.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Based on personality..probably halfling.

If I was choosing..maybe gnome.

Like, aspirationally, I really appreciate industrious creativity..But realistically, I'm more of a connoisseur of snacking idly.