I was wondering if the lorebooks put a limit on which races can interbreed or if it was up to the DMs. Like, could there be a half-human-half-aarakocra or a half-elf-half-dragonborn? Or is it limited to the more closely linked races of humans, elves, and orcs (and occasionally humans and dragons/djinn)? Can species like aarakocra and kenku breed together?
I'm also curious to hear ideas on what kinds of stats and abilities these kinds of mixed races could have. Could a half-aarakocra or half-kenku have wings and feathers but be unable to fly, like a chicken? Would a half-dragonborn be able to use their dragon breath ability? Would a mixed race tabaxi/orc inherit the rage of their orcish ancestry and the wanderlust of their tabaxi ancestry, or would one be left behind?
I guess I'm just curious to hear opinions on this. Sorry if there's already an answer in the lore, I don't have access to most of it.
I'd say that only humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, and gnomes would be able to breed with each other(though I usually have gnomes be half dwarf half halflings). I'd also allow dragonborn and kobolds to breed with each other, but not with lizardfolk(even if they're all reptiles, dragonborn and kobolds are closely related to dragons, while lizardfolk are not. Same reason why tabaxi and humans couldn't interbreed). Aarakocra and Kenku, maybe, though it would probably be forbidden in aarakocra society, since some stories say that the kenku betrayed the wind dukes and were punished for it. While goblinoids are actually separate races in faerun, I tend to make them distantly related, with hobgoblins being half goblin and half bugbear.
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Official characters (currently) have limits on their own stat blocks of player origins, but the parentage of those origins aren't well-defined.
I know of a player playing a character with a standard PHB Human stat block who was actually born from a Goliath and a Dwarf (as was his nearly-identical half-brother NPC but is it currently unknown by the party which parent they share). For all intents and purposes of the rules, the character is a 6.3" tall, stocky Human and everyone assumes he is such (and really wants to meet his parents once they learn otherwise).
With an upcoming sourcebook, it is currently anyone's guess what can happen.
...but I keep falling back on something in Xanathar's Guide to Everything in the section titled, This is Your Life. It begins with, "ideas, not rules". My advice is to save the official rules for tournament playing and work with the campaign's DM for outside-the-box ideas you have. A winged Dwarf might not be a good fit for the campaign or maybe it's an interesting twist (like when Jen discovered girl Gelflings had wings and he didn't).
EDIT:(I use "stat block" for PCs to mean the attributes, skills, and feats currently available to the official origins [aka, races]. Just easier for me to type stat block.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I know of a player playing a character with a standard PHB Human stat block who was actually born from a Goliath and a Dwarf (as was his nearly-identical half-brother NPC but is it currently unknown by the party which parent they share). For all intents and purposes of the rules, the character is a 6.3" tall, stocky Human and everyone assumes he is such (and really wants to meet his parents once they learn otherwise).
is this the viva la dirt league guy, or someone inspired by him, as Bodger is half dwarf/half goliath and his brother (played by the same actor) is Baelin in their epic npc man sketches, and they have also done some d&d games as their npc characters
In EpicNPC DnD, Bodger uses the standard (not Variant) Human Barbarian rules regardless of his parentage: +1 to all stats. I have no idea what his NPC half-brother, Baelin, uses, but they buffed his strength on-the-fly in the current campaign. I would have assumed Human, but the additional strength might now make Baelin a different player race, the Variant Human, or just an impromptu homebrew change. I'm thinking Baelin's just standard (not Variant) Human but with a homebrew extra +1 to Strength for +2,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1 instead of straight +1s.
For all I know, it could have been the players acting like they'd stage an uprising against the DM if Baelin died which inspired the DM to +1 his strength. Unlike the other protested NPC death in their Decent Descent into Avernus preview ("Sorry 'bout yer loss. Can we go home? Sorry 'bout yer loss. Can we go home? Sorry 'bout yer loss. Can we go home?"), Baelin's an Azerim fixture and the target of that kickstarted short film. There's more at stake with his death as they've already claimed that the results of the EpicNPC DnD sessions become canon. (...but I've yet to hear about the Great Orgy of Wraith in canon.)
B.O.B. is a very atypical, unusually (and unnecessarily) violent High Elf. Origins only go so far, and then, it's up to the player to be the exceptional exception (though I always go for the character that's unexceptional before the campaign doing something exceptional in the campaign like Greg, the Garlic Farmer).
Don't lock yourselves into the rules - especially don't assume something left unstated is unallowed. Origins before birth aren't well defined at all. Write your own story.
...but I keep falling back on something in Xanathar's Guide to Everything in the section titled, This is Your Life. It begins with, "ideas, not rules".
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I would allow the closely related races. like dragonborn and kobald. or perhaps a pseudodragon and a kobald. or like human and pretty much any mammal humanoid race. but I personaly wold make my players put whatever limits on their characters inherited traits like say a tabaxi and a human( not a pair I would allow) I would make them choose between having only the climbing ability or the darkvision& speed burst to balance it out. but I suppose everything is up to the DM's since Dnd is infact a fantasy game and bending a few rules woln't hurt anything if it just helps you make a awesome character.
The big issue with mixing races is creating stats and racial abilities for them. If you want a high elf's immunity to sleep, resistance to charm, free cantrip and language, etc and a dwarf's advantage/resistance to poison, stonecunning, plus the weapon proficiencies of both then that's straight up unbalanced and overpowered. The racial abilities are things that often do have in game effects and matter, otherwise they wouldn't have any mechanical impact or rules to go with them, and you don't just tack on extra abilities to a PC willy-nilly unless you want (and your DM allows) blatantly overpowered Mary Sue special snowflake "I'm different even in a diverse fantasy setting and way cooler than everybody else LOOK WHAT I CAN DO" characters.
Any "half" races that are officially published are designed and balanced by game developers who actually do know what they're doing and (usually, at least) test them to make sure their abilities are balanced with those of other races. It is generally implied that unless there are rules published for a crossbreed race then such a mixing is not possible and no offspring would be produced by mating between those races. And if all races were reproductively compatible then any diverse population center (such as a trade hub or capital/administrative city of a ethnically diverse nation/region) would have at least some significant minority of all sorts of hybrid individuals after a few generations. One way that could be homebrewed/houseruled is the way it's done in the Not Another D&D Podcast (NADDPOD) setting of Eldermourne: it's explicitly stated that pretty much everybody in the setting are descended from the mixing of many different humanoid origin races so players just pick an existing racial stat set (human, dwarf, halfling, kenku, vedalkan, dragonborn, etc) to use mechanically and describe the character with whatever cosmetic features they want to go with that.
If you want super-customizable characters of mixed ancestry with blended racial stats and abilities and have that mechanically balanced, then you're playing the wrong game. There is no point buy type system for hand picking racial traits in official D&D 5e. You can always go to the old standard of ask your DM and see if they will allow whatever homebrew you want to suggest/negotiate under DM fiat.
I agree with Flushmaster on watching out for power gamers. For example, there is a rules-based reason there are no Large-sized PCs. If you allow that then you have a PC with an enormous reach creating many attacks of opportunity or the ability to completely block off a passageway. Yes, even a minotaur is Medium if a PC. The DM should allow pretty much everything (IMHO) if it is related to role play. If you want an Aasimar that has black skin because of some drow ancestry, that sounds like great RP for the character to explain to others and act accordingly. If they then want all the powers of the drow and the Aasimar, then you have someone just trying to get an advantage over the adventure. DMs need to examine non-standard stuff closely and not be afraid to change their minds if they later realize the PC is out of balance. Never accept the player saying "but you agreed..."
I was wondering if the lorebooks put a limit on which races can interbreed...
Orcs can intermix with almost all other races (because Gruumsh and his wife made it so, so that Orcs could multiply and conquer) EXCEPT WITH ELVES. Orcs hate elves, Gruumsh hates elves. So he made it impossible for Orc x Elf pairings to produce anything.
Generally speaking humans can crossbreed with anything that can reproduce with other creatures.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU
Buying the physical books does not entitle you to free digital versions.
I was wondering if the lorebooks put a limit on which races can interbreed...
Orcs can intermix with almost all other races (because Gruumsh and his wife made it so, so that Orcs could multiply and conquer) EXCEPT WITH ELVES. Orcs hate elves, Gruumsh hates elves. So he made it impossible for Orc x Elf pairings to produce anything.
Generally speaking humans can crossbreed with anything that can reproduce with other creatures.
Is this based on any official publication or is it your personal homebrew lore? Because I don't recall reading or hearing anything remotely like it, particularly the orcs part. Half orcs in official D&D content are explicitly half human.
Is this based on any official publication or is it your personal homebrew lore? Because I don't recall reading or hearing anything remotely like it, particularly the orcs part. Half orcs in official D&D content are explicitly half human.
I presumed me quoting the "official lorebooks" part would suffice, but I guess not.
However this info was gained from a DnD loretuber, so I guess take it with a grain of salt since I didn't dig through a bunch of dusty tomes off of ebay myself.
But yes, Orcs can breed with most any race except elves. Ogrillons are half orge half orc. Boogins are orc x quaggoths. Those are some examples I've just found on the forgotten realms wiki. Usually when something is half-x and half human, they get called half-x. But when it's half-x and half-y they get a fancy, unique name.
I want to know if it's possible for a half-aarackocra and half-elf breed for a character of mine
I would think that he would still be able to fly but Slowly and takes a lot of effort. With magic, They would still be able to do magic but the easy spells would be harder to learn (4 examples: a lvl 2 spell can't be learned until lvl 3 or 4 and lvl 4 spells can't be learned until lvl 6 and so on)
There is a book by the dungeon masters guild called an orc and an elf had a little baby. Don’t know how official it is but it does allow you to decide what you mix of races your players are and your background is.
i made up a race called the half-half. baiscally its half human and half halfling and has a butt ton of bravado and ambition
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"Come with me, and you'll be. in a world of pure imagination. Take a look, and you'll see, into your imagination. we'll begin, with a spin. traveling in a world of my creation. what we'll see will defy explanation!" ~Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
their is no light without dark. no calm without storm. no heroes without villains. I, unfortunately am the dark. I am the storm. I. Am. The. Villain (not really considering I'm a forever player and never get the chance to DM)
It does seem that cultural changes have really moved things around in D&D over the years. When I first started in AD&D and finally 2E, we would try to figure out how to overpower existing characters by crossing then with other races, but when it came time to agree at the table, we always went back to the standard spelled out races because most hybrids ended up in long arguments that took away from the game time. Over the years I have noticed them adding any animal hybrid and pokemon hybrid. I did like how they progressed dragonmen into dragonborn with some actual lore and balancing.
In the end it really comes down to keeping peace at your individual tables. Keeping well balanced players in game and happy, while keeping as many options open as possible. If you are really wanting some crazy hybrids, just develop a reason for it's existence. Keep the players abilities balanced to the other player characters and it becomes an easier idea to sell off to the rest of the people at your table. I would encourage DM's to consider social implications of various hybrids, and keep that at the forefront. And make sure as a player you understand how a unique race would interact and be treated in various settings.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
I like interspecies romances and don’t want to think too hard about how it’d affect population, so I’d probably just default to “in a world with giant floating eyeballs and where space makes you immortal, weird stuff happens sometimes.”
I do not like the limits, then you can have fun creatures such as centaurs or minotaurs. Mythology never went for biological accuracy because gods and magic, so I do not see any reason why fantasy should be limited in this regard. As long as you can imagine it, you can make it work:)
One D&D UA allows everything. While appearance isn't defined by 1dndua rules, gameplay traits come from one parent only, not mixing traits from both parents.
If the parents are Centaur and Halfling in 1dndau, but the player wants the Small trait, everything else must also be Halfling traits in gameplay even if the appearance is a small Centaur.
I'm okay with that just for keeping game balance—which is already complicated—from getting more complicated while allowing role-playing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
In my world, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Orcs can all breed with Humans and Hin (Halflings), but not with each other. Ogres can breed with Humans, Orcs, and Bugbears (and technically Hin too, they just don’t on accounta the logistics). Bugbears can also breed with both Orcs and Hobgoblins as well. There’s an in-world reason for the restrictions.
Back in the day, before there were any Humans or Hin (or Bugbears) on my world, there were Elves, Hobgoblins, Dwarves, Orcs, Gnomes, and Goblins, and Ogres. The gods of all of these various races species were happy with their people, and all was as it should be, or at least that was the gods’ opinion. Then those species started to “fraternize” with one another. When they did, and offspring were produced, the gods started bickering over which pantheons would claim which git, and conflict broke out among the pantheons. Soon, the half breeds began mating with one another and before the gods knew it two new species started to emerge. In the Orcish tongue they were called “umies,” which meant “mongrels,” and “in’umies” which meant “tiny mongrels.”
When the umies (or “humies” as pronounced by the Elves) and the in’umies (or “hin’humies” to the Elves) came to be their own peoples separate from any of their progenitors, then they began to beget their own gods and the older gods decided enough was enough. That was when they decided to pool their powers and laid a powerful geas across the world, from that day forward, “blood would only call to blood.” So from that day forward, the people of the various species would only ever mate with people who already shared blood with them. Since umies (or “humans” as they called themselves by then) and in’umies (or “hin” as they call themselves) shared blood with all of those other species, those species can breed with them. That means in my world there are Half-Elves and Half-Orcs, but also Half-Gnomes, Half-Goblinoids, and Half-Dwarves. Since Bugbears are a mix of Hobgoblins, Orcs, and Ogres, they can breed with those three races, but if Bugbears breed with Orcs or Hobgoblins the git are all Bugbears, and if they breed with Ogres the offspring are Ogrillon.
And since Dragonborn are related to Kobolds in my world, thanks to inspiration from this thread they’ll be able to breed together too now in my world. So thanks TheHumbug!!
That’s how I did it back in high school at any rate, and have kept it the same ever since.
I was wondering if the lorebooks put a limit on which races can interbreed or if it was up to the DMs. Like, could there be a half-human-half-aarakocra or a half-elf-half-dragonborn? Or is it limited to the more closely linked races of humans, elves, and orcs (and occasionally humans and dragons/djinn)? Can species like aarakocra and kenku breed together?
I'm also curious to hear ideas on what kinds of stats and abilities these kinds of mixed races could have. Could a half-aarakocra or half-kenku have wings and feathers but be unable to fly, like a chicken? Would a half-dragonborn be able to use their dragon breath ability? Would a mixed race tabaxi/orc inherit the rage of their orcish ancestry and the wanderlust of their tabaxi ancestry, or would one be left behind?
I guess I'm just curious to hear opinions on this. Sorry if there's already an answer in the lore, I don't have access to most of it.
I'd say that only humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, and gnomes would be able to breed with each other(though I usually have gnomes be half dwarf half halflings). I'd also allow dragonborn and kobolds to breed with each other, but not with lizardfolk(even if they're all reptiles, dragonborn and kobolds are closely related to dragons, while lizardfolk are not. Same reason why tabaxi and humans couldn't interbreed). Aarakocra and Kenku, maybe, though it would probably be forbidden in aarakocra society, since some stories say that the kenku betrayed the wind dukes and were punished for it. While goblinoids are actually separate races in faerun, I tend to make them distantly related, with hobgoblins being half goblin and half bugbear.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
Official characters (currently) have limits on their own stat blocks of player origins, but the parentage of those origins aren't well-defined.
I know of a player playing a character with a standard PHB Human stat block who was actually born from a Goliath and a Dwarf (as was his nearly-identical half-brother NPC but is it currently unknown by the party which parent they share). For all intents and purposes of the rules, the character is a 6.3" tall, stocky Human and everyone assumes he is such (and really wants to meet his parents once they learn otherwise).
With an upcoming sourcebook, it is currently anyone's guess what can happen.
...but I keep falling back on something in Xanathar's Guide to Everything in the section titled, This is Your Life. It begins with, "ideas, not rules". My advice is to save the official rules for tournament playing and work with the campaign's DM for outside-the-box ideas you have. A winged Dwarf might not be a good fit for the campaign or maybe it's an interesting twist (like when Jen discovered girl Gelflings had wings and he didn't).
EDIT:(I use "stat block" for PCs to mean the attributes, skills, and feats currently available to the official origins [aka, races]. Just easier for me to type stat block.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
is this the viva la dirt league guy, or someone inspired by him, as Bodger is half dwarf/half goliath and his brother (played by the same actor) is Baelin in their epic npc man sketches, and they have also done some d&d games as their npc characters
In EpicNPC DnD, Bodger uses the standard (not Variant) Human Barbarian rules regardless of his parentage: +1 to all stats. I have no idea what his NPC half-brother, Baelin, uses, but they buffed his strength on-the-fly in the current campaign. I would have assumed Human, but the additional strength might now make Baelin a different player race, the Variant Human, or just an impromptu homebrew change. I'm thinking Baelin's just standard (not Variant) Human but with a homebrew extra +1 to Strength for +2,+1,+1,+1,+1,+1 instead of straight +1s.
For all I know, it could have been the players acting like they'd stage an uprising against the DM if Baelin died which inspired the DM to +1 his strength. Unlike the other protested NPC death in their
DecentDescent into Avernus preview ("Sorry 'bout yer loss. Can we go home? Sorry 'bout yer loss. Can we go home? Sorry 'bout yer loss. Can we go home?"), Baelin's an Azerim fixture and the target of that kickstarted short film. There's more at stake with his death as they've already claimed that the results of the EpicNPC DnD sessions become canon. (...but I've yet to hear about the Great Orgy of Wraith in canon.)B.O.B. is a very atypical, unusually (and unnecessarily) violent High Elf. Origins only go so far, and then, it's up to the player to be the exceptional exception (though I always go for the character that's unexceptional before the campaign doing something exceptional in the campaign like Greg, the Garlic Farmer).
Don't lock yourselves into the rules - especially don't assume something left unstated is unallowed. Origins before birth aren't well defined at all. Write your own story.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I would allow the closely related races. like dragonborn and kobald. or perhaps a pseudodragon and a kobald. or like human and pretty much any mammal humanoid race. but I personaly wold make my players put whatever limits on their characters inherited traits like say a tabaxi and a human( not a pair I would allow) I would make them choose between having only the climbing ability or the darkvision& speed burst to balance it out. but I suppose everything is up to the DM's since Dnd is infact a fantasy game and bending a few rules woln't hurt anything if it just helps you make a awesome character.
The big issue with mixing races is creating stats and racial abilities for them. If you want a high elf's immunity to sleep, resistance to charm, free cantrip and language, etc and a dwarf's advantage/resistance to poison, stonecunning, plus the weapon proficiencies of both then that's straight up unbalanced and overpowered. The racial abilities are things that often do have in game effects and matter, otherwise they wouldn't have any mechanical impact or rules to go with them, and you don't just tack on extra abilities to a PC willy-nilly unless you want (and your DM allows) blatantly overpowered Mary Sue special snowflake "I'm different even in a diverse fantasy setting and way cooler than everybody else LOOK WHAT I CAN DO" characters.
Any "half" races that are officially published are designed and balanced by game developers who actually do know what they're doing and (usually, at least) test them to make sure their abilities are balanced with those of other races. It is generally implied that unless there are rules published for a crossbreed race then such a mixing is not possible and no offspring would be produced by mating between those races. And if all races were reproductively compatible then any diverse population center (such as a trade hub or capital/administrative city of a ethnically diverse nation/region) would have at least some significant minority of all sorts of hybrid individuals after a few generations. One way that could be homebrewed/houseruled is the way it's done in the Not Another D&D Podcast (NADDPOD) setting of Eldermourne: it's explicitly stated that pretty much everybody in the setting are descended from the mixing of many different humanoid origin races so players just pick an existing racial stat set (human, dwarf, halfling, kenku, vedalkan, dragonborn, etc) to use mechanically and describe the character with whatever cosmetic features they want to go with that.
If you want super-customizable characters of mixed ancestry with blended racial stats and abilities and have that mechanically balanced, then you're playing the wrong game. There is no point buy type system for hand picking racial traits in official D&D 5e. You can always go to the old standard of ask your DM and see if they will allow whatever homebrew you want to suggest/negotiate under DM fiat.
I agree with Flushmaster on watching out for power gamers. For example, there is a rules-based reason there are no Large-sized PCs. If you allow that then you have a PC with an enormous reach creating many attacks of opportunity or the ability to completely block off a passageway. Yes, even a minotaur is Medium if a PC. The DM should allow pretty much everything (IMHO) if it is related to role play. If you want an Aasimar that has black skin because of some drow ancestry, that sounds like great RP for the character to explain to others and act accordingly. If they then want all the powers of the drow and the Aasimar, then you have someone just trying to get an advantage over the adventure. DMs need to examine non-standard stuff closely and not be afraid to change their minds if they later realize the PC is out of balance. Never accept the player saying "but you agreed..."
Orcs can intermix with almost all other races (because Gruumsh and his wife made it so, so that Orcs could multiply and conquer) EXCEPT WITH ELVES. Orcs hate elves, Gruumsh hates elves. So he made it impossible for Orc x Elf pairings to produce anything.
Generally speaking humans can crossbreed with anything that can reproduce with other creatures.
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU
Buying the physical books does not entitle you to free digital versions.
I usually go with one of two options...
1: Certain races "breed true". Example: If a tiefling and a human have a child, their child will always be a tielfing.
2: Either, Or. Example: If an Elf and Half-Orc have a child, their child is either an Elf or a Half-Orc.
Homebrew like Half-Dragonborn or Part Gnome is a bit too much to properly include in my games.
Is this based on any official publication or is it your personal homebrew lore? Because I don't recall reading or hearing anything remotely like it, particularly the orcs part. Half orcs in official D&D content are explicitly half human.
I presumed me quoting the "official lorebooks" part would suffice, but I guess not.
However this info was gained from a DnD loretuber, so I guess take it with a grain of salt since I didn't dig through a bunch of dusty tomes off of ebay myself.
But yes, Orcs can breed with most any race except elves. Ogrillons are half orge half orc. Boogins are orc x quaggoths. Those are some examples I've just found on the forgotten realms wiki. Usually when something is half-x and half human, they get called half-x. But when it's half-x and half-y they get a fancy, unique name.
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU
Buying the physical books does not entitle you to free digital versions.
I want to know if it's possible for a half-aarackocra and half-elf breed for a character of mine
I would think that he would still be able to fly but Slowly and takes a lot of effort. With magic, They would still be able to do magic but the easy spells would be harder to learn (4 examples: a lvl 2 spell can't be learned until lvl 3 or 4 and lvl 4 spells can't be learned until lvl 6 and so on)
There is a book by the dungeon masters guild called an orc and an elf had a little baby. Don’t know how official it is but it does allow you to decide what you mix of races your players are and your background is.
i made up a race called the half-half. baiscally its half human and half halfling and has a butt ton of bravado and ambition
"Come with me, and you'll be. in a world of pure imagination. Take a look, and you'll see, into your imagination. we'll begin, with a spin. traveling in a world of my creation. what we'll see will defy explanation!" ~Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
their is no light without dark. no calm without storm. no heroes without villains. I, unfortunately am the dark. I am the storm. I. Am. The. Villain (not really considering I'm a forever player and never get the chance to DM)
Extended Signature
It does seem that cultural changes have really moved things around in D&D over the years. When I first started in AD&D and finally 2E, we would try to figure out how to overpower existing characters by crossing then with other races, but when it came time to agree at the table, we always went back to the standard spelled out races because most hybrids ended up in long arguments that took away from the game time. Over the years I have noticed them adding any animal hybrid and pokemon hybrid. I did like how they progressed dragonmen into dragonborn with some actual lore and balancing.
In the end it really comes down to keeping peace at your individual tables. Keeping well balanced players in game and happy, while keeping as many options open as possible. If you are really wanting some crazy hybrids, just develop a reason for it's existence. Keep the players abilities balanced to the other player characters and it becomes an easier idea to sell off to the rest of the people at your table. I would encourage DM's to consider social implications of various hybrids, and keep that at the forefront. And make sure as a player you understand how a unique race would interact and be treated in various settings.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
I like interspecies romances and don’t want to think too hard about how it’d affect population, so I’d probably just default to “in a world with giant floating eyeballs and where space makes you immortal, weird stuff happens sometimes.”
I do not like the limits, then you can have fun creatures such as centaurs or minotaurs. Mythology never went for biological accuracy because gods and magic, so I do not see any reason why fantasy should be limited in this regard. As long as you can imagine it, you can make it work:)
One D&D UA allows everything. While appearance isn't defined by 1dndua rules, gameplay traits come from one parent only, not mixing traits from both parents.
If the parents are Centaur and Halfling in 1dndau, but the player wants the Small trait, everything else must also be Halfling traits in gameplay even if the appearance is a small Centaur.
I'm okay with that just for keeping game balance—which is already complicated—from getting more complicated while allowing role-playing.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
In my world, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Orcs can all breed with Humans and Hin (Halflings), but not with each other. Ogres can breed with Humans, Orcs, and Bugbears (and technically Hin too, they just don’t on accounta the logistics). Bugbears can also breed with both Orcs and Hobgoblins as well. There’s an in-world reason for the restrictions.
Back in the day, before there were any Humans or Hin (or Bugbears) on my world, there were Elves, Hobgoblins, Dwarves, Orcs, Gnomes, and Goblins, and Ogres. The gods of all of these various
racesspecies were happy with their people, and all was as it should be, or at least that was the gods’ opinion. Then those species started to “fraternize” with one another. When they did, and offspring were produced, the gods started bickering over which pantheons would claim which git, and conflict broke out among the pantheons. Soon, the half breeds began mating with one another and before the gods knew it two new species started to emerge. In the Orcish tongue they were called “umies,” which meant “mongrels,” and “in’umies” which meant “tiny mongrels.”When the umies (or “humies” as pronounced by the Elves) and the in’umies (or “hin’humies” to the Elves) came to be their own peoples separate from any of their progenitors, then they began to beget their own gods and the older gods decided enough was enough. That was when they decided to pool their powers and laid a powerful geas across the world, from that day forward, “blood would only call to blood.” So from that day forward, the people of the various species would only ever mate with people who already shared blood with them. Since umies (or “humans” as they called themselves by then) and in’umies (or “hin” as they call themselves) shared blood with all of those other species, those species can breed with them. That means in my world there are Half-Elves and Half-Orcs, but also Half-Gnomes, Half-Goblinoids, and Half-Dwarves. Since Bugbears are a mix of Hobgoblins, Orcs, and Ogres, they can breed with those three races, but if Bugbears breed with Orcs or Hobgoblins the git are all Bugbears, and if they breed with Ogres the offspring are Ogrillon.
And since Dragonborn are related to Kobolds in my world, thanks to inspiration from this thread they’ll be able to breed together too now in my world. So thanks TheHumbug!!
That’s how I did it back in high school at any rate, and have kept it the same ever since.
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