NO GORGONS/NAGAS/LAMIA?!

Hey, gotta question: Anyone else think it's weird that there's no option to make a gorgon, lamia, or naga character? I've always been interested in creating a gorgon character, and I wanted to start playing DnD, so I tried to create one, but...no gorgons?

I kinda feel like it would be a really obvious choice to make gorgon charcters in DnD...

Wait a  month for the Ebberon book to drop because that has a Medusa

Sweet! Thanks for the intel.

Quote from bthec18 >>

Wait a  month for the Ebberon book to drop because that has a Medusa

What Eberron book are you referring to?

DnD gorgons must be something different than what your head canon is for them:

Gorgons

Resembling mighty bulls armored in iron plates, gorgons are lifelike automatons that seek to destroy all who enter their territories. In addition to goring foes with their deadly horns and trampling them under their iron hooves, gorgons exhale gouts of noxious gas.

EDIT: I see it's not just your head canon for gorgons. I had forgotten Medusa was one. No idea why DnD reused the name.

If you want to make something bipedal with a bull-like head then minotaurs from Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse are a playable option. [I realize now this is probably irrelevant based on the kind of gorgon you likely meant]

For a magical serpent-based PC the yuan-ti could be reflavored as naga or a traditional Greek lamia (DnD lamia are something very different) and are also in the Monsters of the Multiverse book as a playable species.

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Quote from bthec18 >>

Wait a  month for the Ebberon book to drop because that has a Medusa

What Eberron book are you referring to?

 Seems they are in Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone. 

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2195-q3-2026-partnered-content-release-schedule

Yeah it’s Frontiers of Eberron, due in August. It’s got several of the monstrous species as player options including Medusas, Gargoyles and Gnolls 

Cool! Think I'll keep my current headcanon for my character, but it's nice to know they'll have gargoyles in the future!

Quote from Allurian219 >>

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Quote from bthec18 >>

Wait a  month for the Ebberon book to drop because that has a Medusa

What Eberron book are you referring to?

 Seems they are in Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone. 

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/2195-q3-2026-partnered-content-release-schedule

Thanks!

Quote from Allurian219 >>

DnD gorgons must be something different than what your head canon is for them:

Gorgons

Resembling mighty bulls armored in iron plates, gorgons are lifelike automatons that seek to destroy all who enter their territories. In addition to goring foes with their deadly horns and trampling them under their iron hooves, gorgons exhale gouts of noxious gas.

EDIT: I see it's not just your head canon for gorgons. I had forgotten Medusa was one. No idea why DnD reused the name.

If you want to make something bipedal with a bull-like head then minotaurs from Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse are a playable option. [I realize now this is probably irrelevant based on the kind of gorgon you likely meant]

For a magical serpent-based PC the yuan-ti could be reflavored as naga or a traditional Greek lamia (DnD lamia are something very different) and are also in the Monsters of the Multiverse book as a playable species.

 

 Dark_Shadow_98 is presumably referring to gorgons from Greek mythology, which are the exact same as medusa

Yup, those are the gorgons I was referring to. 

Yeah, D&D gorgons have always been kind of inexplicable; 'Medusa' is just the proper name of one particular gorgon.

On the original question: D&D does not have a good way of handling characters with significant supernatural powers that don't come from a class, and the ability to turn people to stone is indubitably a significant supernatural power. However, if you don't care about associated supernatural powers, you can look like whatever you want without balance issues, and I doubt most DMs will care if a Yuan-Ti (stats in Monsters of the Multiverse) has a snake tail or hair.

Yuan-Ti? Interesting! I’ll look that up. Preciate it!

Quickstone does balance Medusas as player characters compared to as monsters.

Quote from Dark_Shadow_98 >>

Hey, gotta question: Anyone else think it's weird that there's no option to make a gorgon, lamia, or naga character? I've always been interested in creating a gorgon character, and I wanted to start playing DnD, so I tried to create one, but...no gorgons?

I kinda feel like it would be a really obvious choice to make gorgon charcters in DnD...

 No, it's not "weird" at all. Playable monsters are something D&D has pretty much never been able to balance correctly, so they shouldn't be seen as an expectation.

First, welcome to the community and to the game. I genuinely hope you end up loving and enjoying the game as much as I have.

Homebrew is a good option if you don't want to wait. You can homebrew whatever you want for free but it can be a little confusing out of the gate. There are some good options on the community homebrew list too, but if I remember right, you have to sub to use it. GM Binder is usually a good option too, but a quick search didn't turn up anything of note. Always good to keep in mind when wanting to search for something though.