I mentioned this in a comment on the recent Homebrew Race article, but I thought it might be a good idea to try and describe it in the form of a proper guide.
Why Not Use Homebrew Sub-Races?
Currently in D&D Beyond race homebrew, while sub-races are supported they don't work as many people expect; if you publish a homebrew race with sub-races and later decide you want to update the parent race, then the sub-races will not be copied into your new version, meaning you need re-create all of them every single time, and end up with a bunch of sub-race copies you can't get rid of in your Homebrew Creations section. This makes it an unfortunately really painful to manage way to implement variations on your own homebrew race, despite the fact that this is the "proper" way to do it.
Another drawback of "proper" sub-races is that they do not sort properly in the race selection section of the Character Builder, meaning homebrewers often have to resort to naming conventions to get something approaching a sensible order. For example, for my Brute Troll used in the examples below I might have had to name my sub-races as Troll (Cave), Troll (Fire) etc. so that they all appeared together.
So instead I've switched over to implementing my sub-races as options within a racial trait; while this means that I can no longer update just a single sub-race, it keeps my versions and Homebrew Creations section a lot tidier, and makes updating the parent race much simpler. It also means that my parent race appears as a single entry in the race selection, with sub-races offered once that parent race is selected.
Using a Racial Trait With Options Instead
Structuring your sub-race as options instead is actually quite simple, and with very few drawbacks, all you really need are two traits; one will define the options and how they are displayed in the character builder, the other will handle how they are displayed on your details page.
Creating the Options
First thing you'll want to do is create the trait under which you'll store your actual sub-races as separate options; this is no different to creating any other racial trait with options, but with a few things to keep in mind:
Name your trait "Sub Race" (or something more appropriate if your "sub-races" represent something different such as cultures, enhancements etc.).
Keep your Description short to avoid cluttering the character builder.
Choose a Display Order. You can put this trait earlier in the character builder if you like, but for myself I put it at the end.
Make sure to check Hide on Details Page as we'll use another trait for that page.
If none of your sub-races will have any Snippet text or Actions (to describe unsupported features on the character sheet) then you can check Hide In Sheet if you wish. However if any of your sub-races will have snippet(s) and/or action(s) then you must leave this unchecked, otherwise they will not appear.
Set Character Levels Where Options Known to 1 so that players can choose one (and only one) sub-race at 1st level.
Once you've saved this trait, you'll be able to go back into it and add your sub-races as options. Here's what one of mine (for the Fire Troll sub-race) looks like:
Creating this is no different to creating any other racial trait option; for a sub-race this means you'll be adding all of your modifiers, actions etc. to a single option, so you'll want to give the option a good informative description. For mine I used the Header 4 style for my headings and structured the details as you'd expect for a sub-race, but I limited myself to only the key gameplay features, leaving flavour text etc. for the details page trait we'll be creating next.
Creating the Details Page trait
By keeping the options trait minimal we have avoided cluttering up the character builder, however the downside is that our details page has nothing to show (even if we leave Hide On Details Page unchecked) as racial traits do not show the descriptions for their options (unlike class features). However, if we put our full description in the options trait, it could end up cluttering the Character Builder instead.
To get around this I use a second trait for displaying my sub-race details on the Details Page. To do the same, keep the following in mind:
Give this trait the same Name as your trait with the options (for consistency).
Ensure that both Hide In Builder and Hide In Sheet are checked. We want this trait to only appear on the Details Page.
Ensure the Display Order puts this trait right at the end of the Details Page with a nice high number.
Put full details of your sub-races into your Description, this is the place to include flavour text, names and other details you don't give in the character builder, as well as a summary of the features (same as in the options trait above).
Add a line to start of your Description mentioning that your race has sub-races and that the player can choose one. This avoids "double heading" (trait heading immediately followed by a sub-race name, which looks messy).
Use Header 3 for the text style of your sub-race names (shown in red below). This way your sub-races will appear just like "proper" sub-races on your Details Page, the only difference is that they're grouped under a trait.
Conclusion
And that's it! You should now have a homebrew race with sub-races, without having to actually deal with creating and managing "proper" sub-races. I find this a much cleaner way to handle it given the current drawbacks of using "proper" sub-races, namely the difficulties in editing parent races and how they appear in the Character Builder.
There are only really three minor drawbacks to using this options method instead:
All-or-Nothing: You can no longer update just a sub-race, you need to update the entire race every time (though this is also a benefit, as updating the parent race is now easier).
Extra Snippet: If only some of your sub-races require Hide In Sheet to be disabled on the options trait, then for other sub-races players will end up with a Sub Race entry under Features & Traits on their character sheet that doesn't really serve any purpose. For example, on my Brute Troll race, if you choose Cave Troll for your sub-race then you'll get this entry even though all of its features are fully implemented via modifiers (no snippets or actions required).
Redundancy: If you put the same sub-race details both in your sub-race options, and in the trait used for the details page, then you'll find you need to keep them both up to date. If any of your features are actions then this may mean copy/pasting the same text three times to keep everything consistent.
Overall I think none of these is a major issue compared to the hassle involved in updating a parent race with "proper" sub-races (and the clutter it causes), so I now massively prefer this method for creating my homebrew sub-races.
Within the racial trait options ,while making a character, only one of the "sub races" is showing. Do you have a fix/troubleshoot?
I've not encountered this problem? I'd need to know more about how you've configured the "sub-race" trait and the options beneath it.
You haven't set any levels on the options have you? Since race gets chosen before class in the D&D Beyond Character Builder you don't actually have a character level yet so some racial features don't function as expected if you set a character level of 1, it's best to leave the character level fields blank for anything that's an initial choice (as a sub-race is).
It's okay to use a 1 in the "Character Levels Where Options Known" field as I described in the guide, but setting a character level restriction anywhere else usually isn't necessary unless you actually want something to be available at a later level.
It may also depend upon whether you've been testing the sub-races as you created them? The character builder caches a lot of homebrew data which leads to various annoyances. Sometimes just closing the page and coming back to it 20 minutes or so later will cause it to re-load things that weren't appearing or updating as expected. You can sometimes short circuit this by changing the race to something else then changing it back, but that usually works better with sub-classes than races, at least in my experience.
So I'm importing a Gnoll race for my upcoming campaign, using the one from GMBinder by Monko (great work!)
There are 4 subraces and I've added them all as described above, but only 2 of the 4 are showing up on the details page, even though all of the info is in the text box.
So I'm importing a Gnoll race for my upcoming campaign, using the one from GMBinder by Monko (great work!)
There are 4 subraces and I've added them all as described above, but only 2 of the 4 are showing up on the details page, even though all of the info is in the text box.
If you're using the twin trait setup I described in the guide then the trait that appears on the details page is just text in a description box; there should be no reason any of the text won't appear unless there's some weird HTML creeping in somewhere?
If you're savvy with HTML (or would like to learn) you can use the </> button on the text box toolbar to view the HTML and see if there's anything weird in there. Usually you're looking for structural tags like <divs> that you usually don't want, or class attributes that might be introducing styling related problems.
If you'd prefer not to mess with that then one alternative is to copy the text in the box into a plain-text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (macOS, document needs to be set back to plain text mode) then copy it back into the box on the homebrew and reform your headings etc. It's an annoying way to do it though.
Alternatively you could post the text in a reply here (use the ! mark button to put it in spoiler tags, though if there's anything weird it might break out) or send it to me in a direct message, and I can give it a look and see if there's anything strange.
So using the first Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, I've added the different options and those are showing up in the dropdown when you're building the character, so that part is working fine.
On the second Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, where we write down any of the details for the subraces, only the first two are showing up. Looking at the HTML, found an extra line in the 3rd entry that isn't on the first two and on the 4th there is a whole lot of huh added to it, so these might be the issues.
Update: The extra lines added in were the culprits.
Now if I can figure out a way to not have the Ability Score Increase show up in both the Race and Abilities section, I'll finally calm the OCD.
Update: The extra lines added in were the culprits.
Glad you found the culprit! The WYSIWYG editors on D&D Beyond can be a pain in the ass sometimes as they don't strip out stuff that they really should!
Now if I can figure out a way to not have the Ability Score Increase show up in both the Race and Abilities section, I'll finally calm the OCD.
Is having the ability score increase show up in both race and abilities a problem? This is consistent with a lot of the newer races so seems "correct" to me?
Otherwise the only way I could think to do it would be to use a racial trait for each bonus with options under for each ability score you're allowing, with each option having a fixed bonus (rather than using one of the "Choose" modifiers); basically you'd have a trait for "Ability Score (+1)" and under that "Strength", "Dexterity" etc., with the correct fixed modifier for each.
That would be quite a labour intensive way to do it though, and having it appear in the builder as two traits might just end up annoying you even more!
So using the first Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, I've added the different options and those are showing up in the dropdown when you're building the character, so that part is working fine.
On the second Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, where we write down any of the details for the subraces, only the first two are showing up. Looking at the HTML, found an extra line in the 3rd entry that isn't on the first two and on the 4th there is a whole lot of huh added to it, so these might be the issues.
Update: The extra lines added in were the culprits.
Now if I can figure out a way to not have the Ability Score Increase show up in both the Race and Abilities section, I'll finally calm the OCD.
Thanks guys!
I’m glad you got it sorted out!!
Yeah, there’s o way to prevent the ASIs from showing in both places, the system does that purpose. It is what it is.
So using the first Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, I've added the different options and those are showing up in the dropdown when you're building the character, so that part is working fine.
On the second Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, where we write down any of the details for the subraces, only the first two are showing up. Looking at the HTML, found an extra line in the 3rd entry that isn't on the first two and on the 4th there is a whole lot of huh added to it, so these might be the issues.
Update: The extra lines added in were the culprits.
Now if I can figure out a way to not have the Ability Score Increase show up in both the Race and Abilities section, I'll finally calm the OCD.
Thanks guys!
I’m glad you got it sorted out!!
Yeah, there’s o way to prevent the ASIs from showing in both places, the system does that purpose. It is what it is.
It won't double up at least right? Like if they do the options in the race section, they're not going to get to do it again?
I mentioned this in a comment on the recent Homebrew Race article, but I thought it might be a good idea to try and describe it in the form of a proper guide.
Why Not Use Homebrew Sub-Races?
Currently in D&D Beyond race homebrew, while sub-races are supported they don't work as many people expect; if you publish a homebrew race with sub-races and later decide you want to update the parent race, then the sub-races will not be copied into your new version, meaning you need re-create all of them every single time, and end up with a bunch of sub-race copies you can't get rid of in your Homebrew Creations section. This makes it an unfortunately really painful to manage way to implement variations on your own homebrew race, despite the fact that this is the "proper" way to do it.
Another drawback of "proper" sub-races is that they do not sort properly in the race selection section of the Character Builder, meaning homebrewers often have to resort to naming conventions to get something approaching a sensible order. For example, for my Brute Troll used in the examples below I might have had to name my sub-races as Troll (Cave), Troll (Fire) etc. so that they all appeared together.
So instead I've switched over to implementing my sub-races as options within a racial trait; while this means that I can no longer update just a single sub-race, it keeps my versions and Homebrew Creations section a lot tidier, and makes updating the parent race much simpler. It also means that my parent race appears as a single entry in the race selection, with sub-races offered once that parent race is selected.
Using a Racial Trait With Options Instead
Structuring your sub-race as options instead is actually quite simple, and with very few drawbacks, all you really need are two traits; one will define the options and how they are displayed in the character builder, the other will handle how they are displayed on your details page.
Creating the Options
First thing you'll want to do is create the trait under which you'll store your actual sub-races as separate options; this is no different to creating any other racial trait with options, but with a few things to keep in mind:
Once you've saved this trait, you'll be able to go back into it and add your sub-races as options. Here's what one of mine (for the Fire Troll sub-race) looks like:
Creating this is no different to creating any other racial trait option; for a sub-race this means you'll be adding all of your modifiers, actions etc. to a single option, so you'll want to give the option a good informative description. For mine I used the Header 4 style for my headings and structured the details as you'd expect for a sub-race, but I limited myself to only the key gameplay features, leaving flavour text etc. for the details page trait we'll be creating next.
Creating the Details Page trait
By keeping the options trait minimal we have avoided cluttering up the character builder, however the downside is that our details page has nothing to show (even if we leave Hide On Details Page unchecked) as racial traits do not show the descriptions for their options (unlike class features). However, if we put our full description in the options trait, it could end up cluttering the Character Builder instead.
To get around this I use a second trait for displaying my sub-race details on the Details Page. To do the same, keep the following in mind:
Conclusion
And that's it! You should now have a homebrew race with sub-races, without having to actually deal with creating and managing "proper" sub-races. I find this a much cleaner way to handle it given the current drawbacks of using "proper" sub-races, namely the difficulties in editing parent races and how they appear in the Character Builder.
There are only really three minor drawbacks to using this options method instead:
Overall I think none of these is a major issue compared to the hassle involved in updating a parent race with "proper" sub-races (and the clutter it causes), so I now massively prefer this method for creating my homebrew sub-races.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
I've not encountered this problem? I'd need to know more about how you've configured the "sub-race" trait and the options beneath it.
You haven't set any levels on the options have you? Since race gets chosen before class in the D&D Beyond Character Builder you don't actually have a character level yet so some racial features don't function as expected if you set a character level of 1, it's best to leave the character level fields blank for anything that's an initial choice (as a sub-race is).
It's okay to use a 1 in the "Character Levels Where Options Known" field as I described in the guide, but setting a character level restriction anywhere else usually isn't necessary unless you actually want something to be available at a later level.
It may also depend upon whether you've been testing the sub-races as you created them? The character builder caches a lot of homebrew data which leads to various annoyances. Sometimes just closing the page and coming back to it 20 minutes or so later will cause it to re-load things that weren't appearing or updating as expected. You can sometimes short circuit this by changing the race to something else then changing it back, but that usually works better with sub-classes than races, at least in my experience.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
You must have an incorrect setting on those other Options, likely the “Is Granted” checkbox. There’s a full walkthrough on how to properly set up options in the Homebrew Subclasses & Species FAQ #1: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/131411-a-homebrewers-how-to-faq).
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Hardcovers, DDB & You
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Epic Boons on DDB
So I'm importing a Gnoll race for my upcoming campaign, using the one from GMBinder by Monko (great work!)
There are 4 subraces and I've added them all as described above, but only 2 of the 4 are showing up on the details page, even though all of the info is in the text box.
Did you remember to re-save the whole race?
If so, then double check the settings for those Options that aren’t appearing, make sure those two are set up correctly. Then re-save the whole race.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
If you're using the twin trait setup I described in the guide then the trait that appears on the details page is just text in a description box; there should be no reason any of the text won't appear unless there's some weird HTML creeping in somewhere?
If you're savvy with HTML (or would like to learn) you can use the </> button on the text box toolbar to view the HTML and see if there's anything weird in there. Usually you're looking for structural tags like <divs> that you usually don't want, or class attributes that might be introducing styling related problems.
If you'd prefer not to mess with that then one alternative is to copy the text in the box into a plain-text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (macOS, document needs to be set back to plain text mode) then copy it back into the box on the homebrew and reform your headings etc. It's an annoying way to do it though.
Alternatively you could post the text in a reply here (use the ! mark button to put it in spoiler tags, though if there's anything weird it might break out) or send it to me in a direct message, and I can give it a look and see if there's anything strange.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
So using the first Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, I've added the different options and those are showing up in the dropdown when you're building the character, so that part is working fine.
On the second Subrace trait you mentioned in the guide, where we write down any of the details for the subraces, only the first two are showing up. Looking at the HTML, found an extra line in the 3rd entry that isn't on the first two and on the 4th there is a whole lot of huh added to it, so these might be the issues.
Update: The extra lines added in were the culprits.
Now if I can figure out a way to not have the Ability Score Increase show up in both the Race and Abilities section, I'll finally calm the OCD.
Thanks guys!
Glad you found the culprit! The WYSIWYG editors on D&D Beyond can be a pain in the ass sometimes as they don't strip out stuff that they really should!
Is having the ability score increase show up in both race and abilities a problem? This is consistent with a lot of the newer races so seems "correct" to me?
Otherwise the only way I could think to do it would be to use a racial trait for each bonus with options under for each ability score you're allowing, with each option having a fixed bonus (rather than using one of the "Choose" modifiers); basically you'd have a trait for "Ability Score (+1)" and under that "Strength", "Dexterity" etc., with the correct fixed modifier for each.
That would be quite a labour intensive way to do it though, and having it appear in the builder as two traits might just end up annoying you even more!
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
I’m glad you got it sorted out!!
Yeah, there’s o way to prevent the ASIs from showing in both places, the system does that purpose. It is what it is.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
It won't double up at least right? Like if they do the options in the race section, they're not going to get to do it again?
No, they won’t double up. It just displays the same thing in both places.
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB