D&D Hombrewery Guide - Races

Building a race is never as simple as it looks, or as simple as you expect it to be. Races are important and complex game elements, despite their limited mechanics, because they have a permanent and significant effect on a character, and their inclusion in a game presupposes their existence in the game setting.

It is always easier to remove a race from the game than it is to incorporate a new one. Also, racial traits can synergize unexpectedly with class features, causing unintended consequences, which means a race demands at least some degree of play-testing in order to even be halfway functional.

= Walkthrough = The following is a section-by-section guide to the D&D Wiki 5e Race preload. It will explain what each section is for, give some general tips on how to get the most out of it, and explain some basics of the design philosophy in each section. Before you begin, you need to understand that you're going to be writing a LOT of Fluff. The fluff of a piece of content, while often diminished by the derogatory nature of that term, can have a significant impact on how your content is used by players. Go read that definition for a more thorough understanding of why this matters so much.

Race Concept
The most important start to a race is conceptualising it. Is it a beast given sentience by the powers of nature? Is it a humanoid created by the gods? Or did something in the Monster Manual simply look like it would be a cool playable race? It's important to understand what you are trying to bring when creating a player race.

If your race is conceptually or mechanically identical to an existing race in some way, chances are your concept doesn't fit as a new race entry!
 * If your idea is just a re-imagining, re-skin, or re-paint of an official race, then be sure to make it clear that's what you are doing.
 * It's important to bear in mind that if you do this, it may not be compatible with all settings for any number of reasons.
 * If your idea is only a slight change to an existing race, like a new ethnicity, or an elemental variant, or some such, then it would likely work best as a Sub-Race.
 * If your idea is a significant change to an existing race or a variant of a race which lacks the subrace trait, then it may work better as a Racial Variant.
 * If your idea is more about where you came from and who you are than what you are, then it will likely work better as a Background.
 * If your idea is more about what you do than what you are, it may possibly work better as a class.

Physical Description
The physical description of a race is more than just what it looks like - it dictates many things about how it interacts with the world. For example: A serpentine race with for arms and two heads is going to interact with the world differently to a creature that represents a 6-foot-tall humanoid Panda.

Physical descriptions can break games. Having four arms that can all wield weapons and shields is not fair. Having a physical trait that would make them immune to a particular damage type (like stone skin making it immune to fire damage) is not fair.

When creating the physical description of a race, always remember the implications of how your race will interact with the world because of said description.
 * Humanoids and Racial Anatomy
 * Classes and backgrounds assume that the PC is humanoid in shape. Wizards need to write in their spellbooks. Spellcasters need a free hand for Somatic components and need to access spell component pouches or hold a focus. Monks catch arrows in an empty hand, rogues use thieves' tools, paladins and fighters need to don and remove their armor, bards play musical instruments. A PC's primary attacks are a function of a class, and things become awkward when a race's anatomy overrides this. An excellent example is the spell burning hands[1], which states in its description that a caster must press their thumbs together as the somatic component. Any race lacking thumbs will likely be unable to cast this spell under many DMs. Monks can run across water, but how do you represent this effect for a race which lacks legs?

History
I already know what you're thinking.

"History? What the heck does that mean? Doesn't the DM just make that stuff up themselves? I don't know how to write a history of my race that would fit into every single campaign setting ever! And what if they have different independent cultures among themselves like humans? What if my race is just a crossbreed or something- how can they have a history?"

And you're right. That's a good question.

Think of a race's history as being more similar to a character background than a literal historical record. The purpose of a race's history is to describe the circumstances which caused them to develop the societies they live in. It could be the root of their entire species from the dawn of time or even a description of how they individually come into existence and how that has impacted them as a group. For example, the history of Humans is one of fragmentation and infighting, the history of Tieflings is one of an ancient evil ritual, and the history of Half-Orcs is one of many instances of immense cruelty or forbidden love and the lingering feelings its progeny perpetuate.

None of the core races tells you about specific Human nations rising or falling, the date or time period the first Tieflings were born in, or gives names of specific Half-Orcs. Nevertheless, they feel real, they have a sense of permanence in their world, because they have historical meaning, even if it is abstract, mysterious, or generic. This is what you want to produce with your race's history.

Having a well-written history section makes it much easier for a Dungeon Master to incorporate a race into their setting because it gives them some sort of context to justify their society. With that context available, it makes it easier to tweak their detailed history during worldbuilding to suit the new setting, because it states clearly what makes their race tick. It also gives the Dungeon Master a clear picture of how such a race would impact and alter their world. The races do not exist in a bubble, they interact with each other. This section can be a big clue as to what those various interactions might look like in any given setting, with any given combination of other races.

Players can also make use of the history section. A character of a given race likely has some understanding of their history. How much do they understand? How accurate is their historical knowledge? How do they feel about their history- are they proud or ashamed of their ancestors? What does their history mean for their future? How do they personally fit into that history? These kinds of questions and more can be used by a player to write more rich, complex, meaningful characters and stories.

In addition, the History section is a great place to show how a race achieved, gained or developed particular mechanical effects that their race is known for. For example, a dwarves smithing ability, a drow's superior darkvision, a tiefling's fire resistance, etc. It is also good to consider the following:

"So why is your race innately better at doing that thing than all other races that are known for being good at that thing?"

"Idk man they just are!"

This isn't a good answer, instead detailing a story of perhaps how a particular member or your race as a whole received such a gift from a divine being of that thing, or writing of the unique environmental circumstances that allowed your race to develop that thing. Of course while still abiding by the standard detailed above.

Society
This is a good way to describe how your race interacts with each other and can be used to see how your race might interact with others. For example, if your race is timid and tends to live alone when you go into a public place you may be very shy and stay away from crowds. Put some thought into this category and don't just skim over it and ignore it, I use this all the time when I play D&D! It really helps me when I don't know how my character would react to a situation and is just plain fun!

Racial Names
You may feel that people will never use your racial names and instead name their character whatever they want. You probably feel this way because that's what you do. As such, you probably feel that creating a large selection of names is a waste of breath. If this is the case, you are wrong. A character's name, especially in a medieval setting where naming traditions can be elaborate and interesting, can be a powerful story-writing tool!

A name can be a sentimental keepsake from your family like the title of a legendary ancestor, or the name of your dead father. A name can be a sign of the culture you came from or can indicate something interesting about your identity. A name can be part of a prophecy or a curse. Your name can even represent your marital status or relationship history.

One last note - There is a chance that you do not value names because you do not value your own name. If that is the case, that is a shame, and I feel deeply sorry for you. By under-appreciating your own name, you are ignorant of the grand legacy of human history that is your very existence, the massive achievement of your ancestors that is your heritage.

The Exception
Some races are not a people. Some races represent a thing which can not have had a cultural upbringing unique to its physical being. Good examples are, as seen in the Player's Handbook, half-breeds. Other good examples include enlightened animals, monsters, or constructs. In these cases, precedent says it is OK to handwave naming to the surrounding cultures. Even so, given the benefits of having a naming section for a race, it is encouraged that you at least try to include something. Even just examples of the kinds of names they commonly invent for themselves is more useful than having nothing at all.

Research
Maybe you feel unsure about where to start. What do you know about the naming conventions of other languages and cultures? Maybe you didn't even realize those were a thing! Well, fear not, for we are on the internet, my friend! If it can be known, it is known out here! Even better, some very nice people have gone to the trouble of compiling most of what needs to be known in one place!

Linguistics
Language and naming conventions are intrinsically entwined as one. A naming convention spawns and grows forth from its linguistic roots. Take a look at the naming of characters in The Lord of the Rings in detail, and you'll discover that many of the characters names are more than just historically noteworthy or a piece of foreshadowing. Many of them have unique and complex linguistic roots! That's unsurprising, given the author, but this can be true of pretty much any language.

If your race has their own language, it is likely that they have unique and interesting naming traditions to reflect the nature and structure of that language. As a crafty and inventive person, this is a great place to start if you actually want to start creating a language! Start making naming traditions and names, and from there start working out how those names and traditions came into existence. Those roots are the roots of language and can be expanded upon to create a historical foundation for building a language that just "sounds right" when characters start talking to each other.

 Traits
Now we get into the hard part - the mechanics of the thing.

Summary
A note on the summary line: It is the first listed trait. It appears on the 5e Races list, to give people an at-a-glance understanding of what your race is all about. The summary can be as vague or detailed as you like, but it should nevertheless be on-topic and brief. Lengthy summaries break the table, and entries with no summary tend to disappear in the crowd.

Ability Score Increase
Races typically only grant ability score increases (ASI), as is implied by the phrasing of racial traits in the Player's Handbook, and by the precedent set by the officially published races. If you must include an ability penalty, it is acceptable to include it here as shorthand. We will not demand you make a separate racial trait just for that. The precedent is for a race with sub-races to grant +2 from the core race, and +1 from each sub-race, while races which lack the sub-race trait typically have more unusual layouts for ability adjustments.

The highest official ASI is the Human, with a total of +6 distributed across all 6 ability scores. The correct structure for your ASI should be something like this: "Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score by 1."

Age
This is just fluff. It can have some significant impact on games where implications have impact. For example, Elves, being able to live a millennium, can potentially be very dangerous in the hands of a creative player, as he could choose to be a very old Elf, and then insinuate himself into the history of the campaign.

A short lifespan can have equally unforeseen consequences. For example, a 20-year-old character with a 40 year lifespan could find his Dungeon Master saying "you die of old age" after spending enough total play time and downtime to meet that 20 year deadline!

It depends a lot on whether your Dungeon Master and group actually recognize and utilize age.

Alternatively you could think of races as being tied to their connection with the nature world, races with a high attunement to the natural world like Elves, Dwarfs and Gnomes have naturally longer life spans then races like Humans, Halflings and Half-Orcs. Going by this general rule of thumb you can approximate the average life span of most races.

Alignment
Don't get too bent out of shape over the whole alignment thing. It's only there to show if your race has an innate tendency toward a certain alignment. It's only a restriction if you explicitly make it so. You can always just say "They don't tend towards any particular alignment," like the Player's Handbook does with Humans!

Size
So far, all officially published races are medium or small. Even the Goliath, let's face it, is kind of stretching the boundaries between size classes. In essence, while being bigger than medium comes with a suite of explicit advantages and only nuisance disadvantages, being tiny comes with a suite of nuisance disadvantages and no meaningful advantages.

Why Not Large?

The biggest reason is threat area, which is not an official 5e mechanic, but is still a very real effect. If a character's unarmed strikes reach out to 5ft (an area of 25 ft) and an enemy cannot end their turn within the square a creature occupies, (threatening an area of 225 ft) then a large PC "controls" an area of 400 ft, in which enemies are at a risk of being attacked, and have their movement options at least slightly diminished. Give that creature a weapon with reach, and they now threaten an area of 900ft, which coincidentally covers a straight 30ft path, the most common movement speed. In 3D combat, that becomes 20ft high, which is enough to cover most rooms. This would make such a Player Character extremely difficult to avoid and get away from. For any melee character, this is a bonus due to the area they can control, particularly for tanks aiming for crowd control.

Normally, you can't move through the space of a hostile creature unless there is difference of 2 sizes between you. As such, your small allies can move through you just fine, and you can easily move through them, letting them move to safety as you approach. (Note that it's still difficult terrain but doable). So you act as a pathway for them should they ever get in trouble. It also means that small creatures (which can also be high Challenge Rating) can't stop your movement in any way except by slowing you down a little bit. It also means that a Huge creature, which can normally move through Player Characters, can't move past you, again offering greater control.

Then there's the madness when you add Feats. Let's start with Sentinel. Suddenly that area of control really becomes yours, and enemies really struggle there. Merely occupying more squares makes it easier for your allies to be adjacent to you, so you can easily protect them. And the extra reach means enemies simply moving around in that area have trouble. Polearm Master can be added for even more control.

Next we come to the benefits to grappling. Grappling is an amazing battle tactic. Grapple a target with one hand, then shove prone. Speed is 0 when grappled, so they can't stand up. While prone, they have disadvantage on all attacks, and all incoming attacks within 5 ft are at advantage. As aforementioned, occupying more squares means you can easily be adjacent to more creatures, and allows you to grapple and knock prone two creatures either side of you (i.e. 15 ft away from each other) with ease. Keep in mind, each grapple and shove is an attack, but any creature with extra attacks becomes very quick with this maneuver. Though it is important to note that attacks further than 5 ft on prone creatures are at disadvantage, so it doesn't work as well with reach weapons unless you move closer.

When grappling, you can only grapple things up to 1 size larger. As a Large creature, you become able to grapple Huge creatures when others can't. So when the party faces a literal Big bad, you can grapple and knock prone that big bad to shut them down, and the party can then focus fire easily.

If you read the encumbrance rules, you see that your carry and lift capacity is doubled for each size larger than medium. This means you can carry far more than others can. Encumbrance (even the basic version) is an important part of game to encourage the use of strength. But for combat, it means that a grappler can drag and lift heavier opponents around. Being able to forcefully move Huge creatures into better positions is also great, such as away from the party and ready for a fireball to the face, or into a cloud of daggers, or through a wall of fire repeatedly. And, of course, outside of combat, the increased encumbrance limits have massive advantages. Players don't need to worry about getting a horse to pull the wagon - the large Player Character can do it themself! A large creature with high enough strength can also leverage this information to perform incredible acts of environment manipulation, uprooting small trees, knocking down old wooden walls, among other interesting tricks that can be used to build traps or prepare a battlefield.

Large creatures can use large-sized weapons, which deal double damage dice. If the Dungeon Master assumes weapons scale to a creature in the same way armor is typically treated, this is an automatic damage bonus.

Being inherently large can then be combined with magic; the Enlarge/reduce spell or a potion of growth could make you a Huge creature. This means an even greater area of control (25ft square or 35ft square with a reach weapon), even greater drag capacity, and the ability to grapple and knock prone Gargantuan creatures. Huge and Gargantuan creatures use their size to their advantage, or more precisely, the difference in size. Removing that makes them significantly easier to deal with. Though it is possible to become Large with magic, that is a limited duration, costs resources (spell slots) to do, and usually concentration. These benefits require deep knowledge of the rules to use but are still potent, so cannot be excused.

Finally, a large Player Character could voluntarily act as another Player Character's mounted animal, which introduces some unusual game mechanics quirks that new Dungeon Masters are ill-equipped to handle. If a Player Character race is to be large, it should be detailed in a racial trait, and it will take quite a bit of counterbalancing to make it stable in play.

There are of course downsides to being Large. You can't move through small gaps, and moving through medium gaps requires you to squeeze. This is indeed a problem should you enter 5 ft corridors and going through normal doors, but once you enter a room or go outside you have no hindrances. So these problems only occur if the Dungeon Master presents them. And even then, they can be worked around. Additionally, large creatures have four times the food and drink needs of a medium creature, though this only becomes an issue if your Dungeon Master actually bothers to track the Player Characters' diets and impose exhaustion when they reach their starvation point. One final weakness regards cover and stealth. It is much, much harder for a large creature to gain sufficient cover to become and remain hidden or to gain a meaningful cover-based AC bonus when fighting at range.

In order for a large race to function, the designer will have to be very harsh. Many of the things that make large Player Characters desirable are dysfunctional in the hands of a Player Character. To balance a large race, they first can not have any bonuses except for their size. Second, the dysfunctional elements of being large must be negated by equivalent penalties which either explicitly remove those qualities, or reduce the effectiveness of multiple qualities. This must not interfere with the race's capacity to function as a hero. For instance, trying to disempower a large creature by preventing them from using the squeeze rules to play up their cumbersome size actually makes the race more problematic, because now they can either prevent the party from advancing or face being left behind half the time. One effective solution is to reduce their exploration advantages and then laterally shift some of the combat power into exploration and social power to even it out. This reduces their battlefield dominance while making the race more round and fulfilling to play in all aspects of the game. There is a variant rule available for Large player characters though.

Why Not Tiny?

So why are no official Player Character races tiny, or even approaching it? Because tiny creatures are basically non-functional as heroes. Their greatest advantages are being able to squeeze through 1'3" gaps and needing only half the food and water of another creature. Of course, they can do fun things like ride in someone else's inventory, or hide behind a large brass carafe on the bar room table, but other than these few moments of fun, a tiny race that cannot fly is in for a lot of difficulties. For example, where most Player Characters can simply ascend stairs, a tiny creature may have to actually climb each step. A tiny PC will likely have to swim in water of a depth greater than 3 ft. Tiny Player Characters typically have very low weights, which means pretty much anyone who grapples them can toss them around like a rag doll. They have half carry capacity, which means they can't carry as much gear or treasure on an adventure, reducing their equipment options and value to the group. There is no official tiny weapons counterpart to the oversized weapons optional rule, so tiny creatures must use weapons sized for medium creatures.

To balance a tiny race, you need to pair their inherent weaknesses with a system of bonuses which mitigate the problems of being < 3 ft tall. Flight is a simple solution to the most glaring issues; those which interfere with basic exploration. However, giving them other unique modes of movement might equally work, such as granting them spider climb, or stating that they travel by leaping up to 10 ft in the air, rather than walking. These kinds of mobility traits not only fix the exploration problem, but are also typically so good, they also qualify as a regular bonus trait. This makes tiny races a prime opportunity to use empowering movement types. Outside of a unique movement type, it can be very hard to balance a tiny race to be fun in all areas of play beyond socialization without going overboard. That is the key though, the entire process of balancing a tiny race revolves around trying to find all of the different ways it sucks the fun out of a game (Introducing new challenges doesn't suck the fun out of the game. Getting left behind or having nothing to say or do for hours of play does.) and trying to find workarounds. There is a variant rules available for races that are Tiny.

Speed.

Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Almost every official race has a speed of 30 ft. Remember, speed is a resource - it is consumed as you move, so it operates more like a speed-limit than an actual measurement of distance over time. An important point to note: speed is measured in 5 ft intervals. This is to allow characters of this race to be compatible with grid-based tabletop tactics, which typically use 5 or 10 foot scale squares. Also note that the shorter races, (Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes) have 25 ft movement speed, and that the highest land speed is 35 ft for the Wood Elf. This also applies to most humanoids, which means speed is determined almost entirely by anatomy. The highest official race speed is for Aarakocra, at a 50-foot flying speed, which seems like a lot, but was done to allow the Aarakocra to travel overland with the rest of the party by flying, without having to ride a horse with the rest of the group - that would look truly silly.

When applying special movement speeds, you need to consider not only their combat implications, but also their implicit effects on the rest of the game, otherwise you'll wind up building fridge-logic into the game. (Again, perfect example: a nerfed Aarakocra has to ride a horse to travel with his companions, despite being a bird-man from the elemental plane of air.)

Languages.

Languages are patterns of speech, not modes of speech. Things like bio-luminescence, interpretive dance, or telepathy, if being used to communicate, are communication modes. The exact details of how ideas are expressed through that mode are a language. Special communication modes are unique racial traits and should be listed as such.

Sub-race.

If your race has sub-races, you should list them here. Sub-races are a racial trait in this game, not independent content elements. The way we structure the wiki, giving new sub-races for core races their own pages, can be misleading.

OK, so let's talk racial traits. These problems keep popping up, so we'll just nip all of these off in the bud right now.

Large or Tiny Size

If they are not medium or small, the unusual size must be described as an independent racial trait, and the exact ramifications should be described in that trait.

Vision

All creatures have some method of sight, whether it's darkvision, normal vision, superior darkvision, truesight, or tremorsense. Please take this into consideration when creating a race. Some DMs may not choose a method of vision for you, you will probably get blindness.

Resistance

Resistance halves damage from a specific damage type. As such, you can only have resistance to a damage type the character may ostensibly receive. Resistance to things like "bleed", "disease", or "pain", do not make any sense, and are not valid in play because the character cannot possibly take damage of those types. There are no monsters that deal those damage types. You can not have resistance to a condition.

Immunity

You can have immunity to a damage type OR a condition. These are insanely powerful traits, and there are people who would argue that even if a race had -6 ASA and no other traits, an immunity is still too overpowered for a Player Character. This mainly comes from very creative players doing things like, "Oh, I'm immune to fire? I set myself on fire to light the way in this dungeon so I can carry my sword and shield and don't need a torch." More importantly, though, an immunity is anticlimactic and boring.

Gameplay wise, it's a dead-end. It closes doors, rather than opening them. It sucks the life and energy out of the game when it's on a Player Character because all it does is reduce the number of tactical situations the Dungeon Master would even bother putting the character up against. They want to challenge the Player Characters while letting them occasionally shine; not throw endless mooks into the meat-grinder that is the party.

Firearm Proficiency

Firearms are optional and campaign-dependent, so you need to explain what campaign this is for, or otherwise what firearms are available, (or drop this trait). As a general rule, firearms proficiency should be avoided as it is meddles too much with a rather large optional mechanic.

Character Restrictions

You should not limit character option choices. Any race/class/background combo should be viable. 5e was based on the flexibility of build options to produce a much more balanced style of play. A restriction is a very 1st edition attitude and doesn't mesh well with the contemporary game. The exception here is race/class/background exclusive combos.

For example, a dragon race which must use the dragon class and vice-versa. This is not justified by precedent but has been found to be a highly effective way of representing monsters as player characters.

Universal Advantages

Advantage is a circumstantial benefit, you should not have it on all checks of a given type, saves of a given type, or all attacks. Any trait which provides advantage should have a fairly specific conditional requirement. It should also probably be beneficial outside of combat. The best version would be a trait which could be turned into combat use through extremely creative roleplay only, as that encourages a deeper, richer, more engaging experience.

Granting Items or Gold as Traits

Access to gold and items besides those granted by backgrounds and class, should entirely be left up to the Dungeon Master, as it is not fair to other players or to the Dungeon Master for you to gain additional gold or items beyond those regularly granted. It also doesn't make sense for you to automatically be granted gold or items. Where do the items and gold come from? How would all individuals of a certain race have a longsword for example?

Negative Ability Score Adjustments
Why no penalties?

Every edition up to 3rd had races with ability score penalties; this was dropped in the 4th and 5th editions. This was a wise design change. A minus score to some ability makes that ability the "Dump Stat". You would put your 10 in Strength (or whatever), take the -2 penalty and have 8 Str, 6 Str, it doesn't matter, you'll be a wizard and some other Player Character will do the heavy lifting. A negative modifier is not a fair way of allowing some bonus elsewhere, because it pigeon-holes a race into specific class roles and reduces character variety, making character generation harder to do right for new players.

But the Non-Player Character racial adjustments have negative scores!

Non-Player Characters are not Player Characters. Non-Player Character traits do not have to be balanced relative Player Character allies, only balanced as threats against characters of a given level. In addition, a humanoid race might have a trait that's fine for a monster but would need adjusting for a Player Character. Player Characters are protagonists and have every aspect of their effectiveness challenged; Non-Player Characters are temporary and typically do whatever it is the Dungeon Master needs them to do.

But I want consistency / I just want to...

This is outside normal 5e Player Character design, but it's actually OK to have a negative ability score modifier. We can take a lesson from 3rd edition Unearthed Arcana's character traits. The penalty can be used to offset a benefit that is directly associated. For example, a -2 Dexterity modifier would principally effect Dexterity saving throws, skills and ability checks. If the race does something interesting with those (e.g. add double your proficiency bonus to Dexterity checks made to craft dice) this is a fair offset and flavorful.

Random Height and Weight
When you create a race, you take your base height and roll the dice in the height modifier section and add that to your base height to get your total race height. Random weight is calculated by multiplying the number rolled by your height modifier by the number rolled by your weight modifier and adding that to your base weight. See the Player's Handbook pp. 121.

Suggested Characteristics
This is a brilliant addition to the wiki, that was not present in the published books. It's entirely optional, so if you don't want to utilize this feature of the preload, feel free to delete it. Basically, this section allows your race to be used as a supplement to your background, giving you a whole new set of personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws to use, randomize, or just draw from as inspiration!