1. Githyanki
--i just find them interesting in general. I like the idea of creches and an astral home as the center of their empire. As with all races, I only like them when they're handled with a certain nuance. Too many folks see them as a "one personality fits all" kind of race, and I don't care for that.
--Their history and their psionics and their astral knowledge ability is fascinating. I don't find it overly powerful in the game, but as a piece of flavor, it captures my imagination.
2. Half-elves
--Just enough human to relate to, and just enough mystical to be interesting.
--I don't care at all for the militia proficiency stuff, though.
3. Drow
--Specifically, the Lloth Sworn, I suppose. I like the idea of this culture of evil and beautiful, nightmarish creatures that live underground in their own civilization. They slink through the shadows with thin, sharp blades, and master magic, conjure evil beings, deal in treachery and intrigue.
--I would prefer if they were more powerful, and if they had natural bonuses to intimidation, perhaps even advantage in most situations.
--The Seldarine drow would be much lower on my list. I think they undermine the whole concept of the drow.
4. Half-orcs
--I generally don't appreciate the way folks are often keen on "twisting" the typical view of the half-orc, trying to make them smart or super civilized or whatever. I think that's a very weak approach.
--I prefer the half-orc as a creature with monstrous inclinations that can be indulged, or perhaps more rarely, fought against.
--A near bestial human with a savage nature.
5. Human
--Shrug. They're human, you know.
--I like humans, in general, for storytelling purposes, but I'm not fond of what they've become in the game. I think the militia proficiency stuff is a terrible idea, not in regards to mechanic, but in regards to flavor.
6. Tiefling
--I would like them more if they weren't always portrayed as so misunderstood and with hearts of gold if only one could look past the horns.
--In my opinion, this would be an excellent race if folks could accept them as having tainted blood with infernal roots that severely impacted them. They have things like Hellish Rebuke. These are true devilish powers, and I'd like to see them basking in that strength and giving common folks something to actually fear. Instead, people tend to trip over themselves to present them as the Brady Bunch.
7. Elves
--Just bland bland bland. No sense of culture, nothing. They feel like they skate by on memories of Tolkien. They don't come across as mysterious or mystical or special in any way. They don't even seem to have a different mindset due to their vast lifespans. Just humans with pointing ears doing their laundry or serving tables or whatever other menial job needs doing in the city. I find the presentation of elves to be exceptionally disappointing.
8. Dragonborn
--What are these things? Their culture just isn't there, at least in the game. Something that looks this distinctly different should be treated as such. Instead, there's this annoying effort to make them blend into the populace at large, as if these massive differences don't matter. It's poor story telling/world building.
--They look great in BG3, for what it's worth. The designers did an amazing job. But I don't know if I want to play something with a maw for a mouth.
9. Halfling
--I don't tend to favor the shorter races.
--But I can see some interest in this race if there's agreement on what the race is like. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that agreement exists. If they're treated as homebodies, like hobbits, then great. But all too often, they're just whatever. Some halfling barbarian roars in from out of nowhere.
10. Gnome
--Meh. It's another race that reminds me of how poor the overall worldbuilding is in Faerun. We have tons of humanocentric city states and kingdoms and nations and this and that, but all these other races kind of get squeezed in.
--I don't have much appreciation for inventors in fantasy settings. And this generally overshadows their illusion specialty heritage, which was never developed enough, in my opinion.
--The deep gnomes are somewhat interesting, I guess.
11. Dwarf
--I appreciate that they at least have some culture behind them, but they're not for me.
