D&D Custom Race Guide

Table of Contents:

A Creature for Every Occasion

Dwarf, extremely low frequency, orc, halfling, variant homo, bleh, bore. Where are the octopus-people ? Why can I not be a draco slipstream that ‘s actually dragons, or a automaton with a chain saw handwriting in dungeons & dragons ? If you ’ ve longed for these playable 5e races and more, you ’ ra left making do with a nucleotide subspecies or scrounging through fan contented and even then, you may not get something well-balanced or even what you ’ re actually looking for. So why not make your own ? Start looking for inhalation because we ’ ra going to run through the design workshop with everything you need to know about making your own custom dungeons and dragons 5e races .
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Custom Race Goals 

first, before we get into it properly, we should establish what goals we ’ rhenium work towards. While you could theoretically make any kind of player character, you want to end up with home brew races that can be played alongside the existing races without causing a power asymmetry. now, that may not be what you ’ re looking for, but all the follow advice will be oriented towards helping you create a race balanced with the criterion races that anybody could drop into their campaigns without issue. If you ‘re looking to create something stronger than an official rush, you ‘re looking at atrocious races or promote races. atrocious races are playfulness but will be overpowered compared to the base races. Advanced races on the early bridge player will be potent but should n’t be game breaking as there ‘s already advance races in the game such as the yuan ti thoroughbred .
As a keep master if you ‘re wanting to create monstrous races, merely sour towards a goal of 20 “ points ” rather than 10 “ points ” when creating your monstrous races. If you ‘re looking to create an advance raceway, work towards a goal of 15 “ points ” rather than 10. More on how these points work former .

Race Breakdown

now, let ’ s take a look at the mechanics of races and take them apart, so you can put your own together late. A subspecies represents in a stern biological sense what a character IS, with merely a dash of how they were raised and their cultural identity. As one-fifth edition has progressed that cultural influence has been pulled further and further out, but for now think of a race as a quality ’ s physical form first, and with alone a touch of culture sprinkled on top. racial traits are a surprisingly minor part when it comes to how a character functions mechanically, but each race has a few essential bits, and a wide-eyed fixed of general features .

Race Essentials

There ’ re closely infinite racial traits a race could have, but there are a few essentials that every playable slipstream must have in order to function by rights in 5e .

Ability Score Increase Trait

5e is balanced to assume that each player receives ability score improvements from their subspecies during fictional character universe. You have a bite of flexibility on how you implement racial bonuses, but broadly you should be providing 3 ability grudge points but never all in the lapp score. The majority of them fall into just 2 ability grade coevals methods :

• +2 in an ability score, and +1 in a different ability score .
• +1 to three different ability scores .

rarely, you get some races that lone gain 2 ability seduce points, or that gain 4 ability score points. These should be losing or gaining more features than convention ( more on that late ) and they normally fall into the adopt convention :

• +2 in an ability score with the benefit of more features .
• +1 in an ability mark, and +1 in a different ability score with the benefit of more features .
• +2 in an ability grade, and +2 in a different ability score at the cost of fewer features .
• +2 in an ability score, +1 in another ability score, and +1 in so far another ability score at the price of fewer features .

Age Trait
slightly a relic of editions filled with age traps and age-based penalties and bonuses, every race needs a trait that just addresses the average historic period and life of your rush. These don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate in truth have any mechanical weight but you ’ ll necessitate to add one in for flavor careless .
Alignment Trait
A exchangeable keepsake from times where character conjunction mattered quite a bit more, you ’ ll need to include a trait indicating what alignments your race tends to be. Because this is a inclination preferably than a mechanical predominate, it ’ s all spirit and worldbuilding .
Size Trait
You ’ ll indigence to indicate what size class this race falls into. now, if you ’ ra sticking to 5e design entirely, this means you ’ rhenium limited to either a little creature, or a medium animal, which are mechanically about identical except for heavy weapons and some fringe spacing issues .
technically speaking, bantam and big playable races can work, but they ’ ll take a lot of work. You run into a hale swathe of logistic issues from weapon sizes to dungeons with 5-foot-wide corridors. Approach bantam and large races with caution and expect unexpected problems. For nowadays, we ’ ll assume your raceway is either small or medium .
Movement Speed
You ’ ll need a trait showing how fast your race gets about and their convention speed. 30 foot accelerate is the standard base speed, with 25 as a slower option and 35 for extra speed as park alternatives. If your rush has a fledge speed, climb accelerate, or a swim speed you ’ ll besides need to outline those alternate campaign speeds, though these will eat into your other features which we ’ ll get into in a moment .
Languages
As a baseline your race will need to be able to at least speak common, and most races will besides know their own unique racial terminology or some combination of other extra languages .
think of coarse + racial linguistic process as “ standard ” and any bonus languages in surfeit of that should eat just a piece into your features .

Race Features

We ’ ve gone through all the essentials that your slipstream needs, immediately let ’ s go into the kind of extraordinary abilities you might want for your 5e raceway. These are all the racial qualities that make your race alone and set them aside. By definition each racial trait can be truly anything, but I ’ ve found it ’ sulfur very helpful to subdivide them into categories. If all the features you ’ ve come up with fit into the same class, possibly try on and mix them up and diversify them. Your raceway credibly shouldn ’ t have like 5 unlike natural attacks .

Sense Features

This includes the basic stuff like darkvision, and anything relating to how your race perceives the world around them .

Offensive Features

This includes natural weapons like a breath weapon, claw or bites, features that provide weapon proficiencies ( particularly for martial weapon groups ), or any early racial have entirely designed for attacking or that deals with attack rolls .

Defensive Features

This includes natural armor, armor proficiencies ( though I ‘d avoid heavy armor ), features that provide a bonus to a saving throw or resistances to damage types, or any other have that revolves around keeping a creature alive and well .

Magic Features

This includes any feature that provides “ racial spellcasting ” or cantrips, any sort of spell like ability, and anything else that feels intrinsically charming .

Miscellaneous Features

This includes features that just provide a skill proficiency or cock proficiency, and anything else that good doesn ’ metric ton fit right field into another category .

Building Your Own 5e Race

now that we ’ ve taken the 5e races apart into their component build up blocks, we can start putting them together to make something newly ! We barely need to establish our blueprint so you can fit the correct office grade for the half-undead raceway or half-construct subspecies of your dreams .

5e Race Template

The numbers here are arbitrary, but by dissecting the core 5th edition races and measuring them against each early, we can get a adept approximation of the “ persuasiveness ” of a rush and use that as a blueprint for building our own. On our steer cost scale after evaluating all their features, the core races add astir to “ 10 points ”, give or take a point or two. The stronger features price more points, and things like weaknesses can even subtract points. You merely need to evaluate the features you want to include based on existing features, then mix and match them until you get something you ’ re felicitous with that adds up to 10 points ( or finale to it ) .
We start by assuming that the features that have no mechanical impingement don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate divisor into this, therefore your race ’ randomness long time, alliance, and size don ’ triiodothyronine matter for these points totals .
then there ’ s a couple of the race essentials that ’ ll gene in if you deviate from the “ standard ” versions. There ’ re infinite possibilities, but hopefully the examples presented here can give you a beneficial feel for the relative point costs .

Ability Score Increases

+2 in an ability score, and +1 in a different ability score. 0 Points
+1 to three different ability scores. 0 Points
+2 in a single ability sexual conquest only. -2 Points
+1 in an ability score, and +1 in a different ability score. -2 Points
+2 in an ability score, and +2 in a unlike ability score. 2 Points
+2 in an ability score, +1 in another ability score, and +1 in however another ability score. 2 Points

Movement Speed

Assuming that your rush starts off with good a normal 30-foot movement accelerate, reckoning up the surveil points for the follow alternate motion speeds :
30-foot swimming rush. 1 Point
30-foot climbing rush. 1 Point
30-foot flying rush. 6 Points
25-foot walking speed. -2 Points
35-foot walking accelerate. 2 Points

Features

There are so many features that a newly slipstream could potentially have and I ’ thousand sure you ’ ve got ideas about how you want your race to function that I can ’ thyroxine possibly anticipate. What I CAN do is give you some examples to scale your own features against. The follow features have been tested against the congress of racial equality races from the musician ‘s handbook, and should give you estimable metrics to design your own features :

1 Point Features

Darkvision. You have superior sight in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in dark as if it were dimmed light. You ca n’t discern color in dark, merely shades of gray. 1 Point
Keen Hearing. Your kind have a highly attune sense of hearing. You make Wisdom ( Perception ) checks relating to sound at advantage. 1 Point
Broad Claws. Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make disarm strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage peer to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, rather of the club damage normal for an unarmed hit. 1 Point
Maritime Weapon Training. Your people live and die by the sea and traditionally train with nautical weapons and tools. You have proficiency with the net and trident, and with waterborne vehicles and cartographer ’ s tools. 1 Point
Light Armor Training. Your people have lived harsh lives and have learned the value of a street fighter hide and a western fence lizard foot. You have proficiency with sparkle armor. 1 Point
Tuck and Roll. Either through an unconditioned lightness, a durable design or an acrobatic aptitude for mitigating falls, your kind don ’ triiodothyronine suffer as greatly from hard landings. You have resistance to damage taken from falling. 1 Point
Mask of Wilderness. You can attempt to hide even when you are merely lightly obscured by foliation, big rain, falling snow, obscure, and other natural phenomena. 1 Point
Dramatic Effects. You know the magic cantrip. Wisdom or Charisma ( your option ) is your spellcasting ability for it. 1 Point
Gnomish Beast Speech. You can speak, read, and write Common and Gnomish. Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate bare ideas with little or smaller beasts. Your people love animals and much keep squirrels, badgers, rabbits, moles, woodpeckers, and other creatures as beloved pets. 1 Point
Call of the Ocean. Your kind are inexorably drawn to the ocean. As an action, you can magically determine which focus points towards the closest ocean. 1 Point
Trusted by Nature. You are technical in the Animal Handling skill. 1 Point
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic ca n’t put you to sleep. 1 Point 

2 Point Features

Advanced Darkvision. You have superior imagination in night and dim conditions. You can see in dim fall within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You
ca n’t discern color in iniquity, entirely shades of grey. 2 Points
Blood Tracker. Your kind have minds hard-wired to sense the unaccented and wounded. You have advantage on all Wisdom ( Survival ) checks made to track any animal whose stream hit points are below their maximum hit points. 2 Points
Graceful Claws. Your claws are slender, astute, and retractable, you can use these instruments of death to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them you deal slashing damage adequate to 1d6 + your Dexterity changer, rather of the bludgeon damage normal for an disarm strike. 2 Points
Long Charger. If you move at least 20 feet true toward a creature and then hit it with a melee assail on the same turn, you can cause the melee attack to do extra damage to the creature and try to shove the creature as character of the attack. The extra damage equals your tied. once you use this ability, you can ’ thymine use it again until you finish a short or long respite. 2 Points

Thrive Under Pressure. You have resistance to thunder damage. 2 Points
Easily Overlooked. You find it easy to blend in amongst others. You can attempt to hide even when you are obscured alone by a creature that is at least one size larger than you. 2 Points
Bardic Cantrip. You know one Cantrip of your choice from the bard ’ sulfur enchantment list. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it . 2 Points
Magical Instincts. Your kind ’ mho minds are highly concenter machines, you have an instinct for when the natural world has been altered. You make Wisdom ( Perception ) checks to notice and see through charming illusions at advantage. 2 Points
Skyland Ken. You can speak, read, and spell Common, Auran, and Draconic. You can besides communicate in a circumscribed manner with birds and dragons .
They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no limited
ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks
you make to influence them. 2 Points
Watchful. You are technical in the Perception skill. 2 Points
Feels no Fear. Your kind are born with courage in their hearts. You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened. 2 Points

3 Point Features

Deepsight. Your kind ’ mho eyes are designed to detect evening the smallest tip of light up in the deep abyss. You can see in blur light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light, this distance increases to 300 feet while you are submerged .
You ca n’t discern color in dark, entirely shades of gray. 3 Points
Ambusher. If you surprise a creature and hit it with an attack on your first twist in fight, the attack deals an extra 2d6 damage to it. You can use this trait only once per combat. 3 Points
Being of Darkness. You have resistance to necrotic wrong. 3 Points
Minor Telekinesis. Your kind have tapped into the power of the thinker, and can focus your mental power into physical action .
As an action, you can attempt to exert your will on one object that weighs no more than 10 pounds that you can see within 30 feet .
If your aim is an token being worn or carried by a creature, make a Wisdom or Intelligence ( your option ) ability check contested by the creature ’ randomness Strength see. If you win the contest, you may move the carry object up to 10 feet in any commission .
If your prey is an unattended object, you can move that object up to 10 feet in any management .
alternatively of moving an object, you can choose to exert fine control on an object telekinetically, such as manipulating a simpleton cock, opening a door or a container, stowing, or retrieving an detail from an candid container, or pouring the contents from a phial. 3 Points
Knowledgeable. Your kind have a preference for valuable cognition. You are technical in your choice of two of the follow skills : Arcana, History, Medicine, Nature, or Religion. 3 Points
Sudden Sprint. When want be, your natural reflexes and agility allow you to a sudden fusillade of speed. When you move on your go in fight, you can double your rush until the end of the turn. once you use this trait, you ca n’t use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns. 3 Points

4 Point Features

Earth Attuned. Your kind are naturally attuned to the rock and land and can sense subtle shifts in the ground. You have tremorsense in a 60-foot range, this ability alone functions on natural earthen substrates such as rock, sand, or territory and does not function on work stone or any artificial surfaces. 4 Points
All-Consuming Light. Starting at 3rd degree, you can use your action to unleash the energy within yourself, causing a searing unhorse to radiate from you, pour out of your eyes and mouth, and threaten to char you .
This charming overflow lasts for 1 hour or until you end it as a bonus natural process. During it, you shed bright light in a 10-foot spoke and dim clean for an extra 10 feet, and at the end of each of your turns, you and each animal within 10 feet of you take beaming damage adequate to half your level ( rounded up ). In accession, once on each of your turns, you can deal supernumerary beaming damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra beaming wrong equals your level .
once you use this trait, you ca n’t use it again until you finish a long rest. 4 Points
Fireproof. You have resistance to fire damage. 4 Points
Deep Magic. The colored magic trick of thick places flows through you . You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the fairy displace spell once per day. When you reach 5th horizontal surface, you can besides cast the dark spell once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 4 Points

5 Point Features

Pounce. Your kind are sharply ace at pouncing upon your opponent and confirming the killing. If you move at least 20 feet directly toward a creature and then hit it with a melee attack on the same turn, you can attempt to knock the animal prone with a jostle as separate of the fire. If you successfully knock the creature prone you may immediately make another melee assail as a bonus action. once you use this trait, you can ’ thyroxine use it again until you finish a short or long rest. 5 Points
Puncture Resilience. You have resistance to non-magical cutting damage. 5 Points
Holy Magic. You know the guidance cantrip. Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the bless enchantment once per day as a 2nd-level spell. Once you reach 5th degree, you can besides cast aid as a 2nd horizontal surface spell once per day. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 5 Points

6 Point Features

Chainsaw Hand. Your kind have a rotate see blade at the goal of one of your arms where your hand would be. Your chain saw hand is a natural weapon, which you can use to make disarm strikes, if you hit with it, you deal slashing wrong adequate to 1d6 + your Strength modifier rather of the bludgeon damage normal for an unarmed mint .
Your chainsaw hand can be revved up as an carry through. If you do so, it will remain revved up for 1 hour or until you choose to stop it as a bonus action .
While your chain saw hand is revved up, it can be used to make unarmed strikes, if you hit with it, you deal slashing wrong equal to 1d12 + your Strength changer, alternatively of the bludgeon damage normal for an unarmed mint. If the price die rolls a natural 12, you may roll an extra 1d12 damage die and add the result to the damage full of the attack, you may continue doing this until you roll a resultant role early than a natural 12 .
once you rev up your chain saw hand, it can not be revved up again until you finish a retentive stay .
Your chainsaw hand actually replaces the hand that would be attached to that arm, meaning you may not use that arm to wield early weapons, perform bodily spell components, or use items, etc. 6 Points
Resplendent Scion. You are immune to beaming damage. 6 Points
Fire Magic. You know the firebolt cantrip. Once you reach 3rd degree, you can cast the burn hands spell once per day as a 1st level spell. Once you reach 5th degree, you can besides cast scorching beam once per day as a 2nd grade spell. intelligence or Charisma ( your choice ) is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 6 Points

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