This was an awesome design but, alas, despite having this to fall back on, the Fraternity chose a more boring and pigeonholing "region of origin as subrace" mechanic for their unofficial Ravenloft 5e update. Secondly, the introduction of the deformities an array of mutations that gave both a positive and a negative trait for the caliban as a result.
RAVENLOFT RACES FULL
And you're given full reign to invent whole new breeds besides. Witchspawn sport iconic fiendish or witch-mark mutations and have a natural affinity for magic. Cannibals are living ghouls, skulking predators with a taste for all manner of unspeakable foodstuffs. Brutes are the iconic Half-Orc or Half-Ogre expy, big and ugly and powerful. Beasts are calibans who resemble a melding of humans with one or more animals. Banshees are eerily lovely female (or trap) calibans with hauntingly beautiful voices and an affinity for the grave. This article, titled Brutes and Banshees, expanded the caliban race in two ways.įirstly, it created five distinct "breeds" of caliban, specific sub-species with recognized traits, tendencies and origins. He wrote an article for issue #8 of the Ravenloft fan-zine, " Quoth the Raven", and submitted it to Fraternity of Shadows website. So, one dedicated fan decided to do something about that.
RAVENLOFT RACES PC
Remember, the 3e half-orc was considered one of the worst PC races of its time. Of course, whilst this fluff was awesome and really adaptable for dark fantasy or post-apocalyptic homebrew settings, mechanically it was pretty boring.
Calibans are cursed individuals, uniquely deformed mutants born of incest, curses, evil magic, twisted alchemy, and other foulness that their parents may or may not have been responsible for. So, they replaced them with Calibans, who were statistically identical to half-orcs, but came from much different origins. But, the half-orc's role as the Big Bruiser race couldn't be filled by the Half-Vistani, which'd been invented for the setting back in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. After all, as a Gothic Horror Fantasy, there was no place for Orcs.
In the 3rd edition of Ravenloft, when White Wolf took over the setting through their Swords & Sorcery imprint, they came to the decision that the iconic core-race of Half-Orcs didn't fit the setting. Marked by curse, sin or cruel fate, calibans are humanity's unwanted children.