Hi there! I recently got into DMing and want to start a Warcraft campaign with my group. I own the Warcraft Roleplaying Game from 3.5 edition and wanted to try my hand at adapting the races over to 5e. I focused on making them mainly based on the existing classes, but I added some extra aspects to them to fit them in with the Warcraft universe more. I'm anxious for feedback mainly on balance—you don't necessarily need to know the lore of Warcraft.
I only quickly looked over it and it seems alright for the most part. Just a little stacked in proficiencies weapon and tool ones in particular. I'll take a proper look at it later.
That's fair. I may have stuck too close to the proficiencies of the races in the games. It might be too much for D&D. Thanks in advance for taking a look!
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Okay I went over all of them and looked at the PC races both in the PH and Volvo's to compare. The amount isn't as different as I first thought it is however a lot more passive benefits compared to a lot of races having something they can use daily or that happens in combat. Helish Rebunk of Tieflings or Lucky of the Halflings are good examples. Your races on the other hand often get just flat proficiency ( in the case of most in game races). My suggestions to change a few things ( and I am not all knowing so by all means make this a discussion) would be:
Ironforge Dwarfs: Not really much to say you just used Dwarfs for them. I would consider giving them maybe one more thing as they are missing what Mountain or Hill Dwarfs would get ( consider that that they are supposed to be Mountain Dwarfs)
Wildhammer: Depending on the setting the Gryphon Rider trait might be useless. Even if set in a WoW world as a DM you want to be careful about giving a player a flying mount. It might be unfit for a tabletop game. Throwing Prowess should probably specify when you get your weapon back. End of your turn, start of next turn and what happen if an enemy tries to grab it. I'd drob Stormborn and give them some small spell to use daily. It is less specific and more fun to use.
Night Elf: Just make shadowmeld be +1 to stealth checks in the environments you specified. You can always attempt to hide, if it is gonna work is the question. The +1 reflects that they have a little easier time. Also I'd give them normal darkvision as they shouldn't get close to what drows get with no draw back. Arcane Enmity is nonsense and should either be dropped or changed to " Makes other Nightelves very suspicious of you. They might even act hostile" It isn't a trait and not something the Race is unable to do. In a WoW setting you might want to keep limits on what players pick, but even that it doesn't suit DnD. Remember the player races in game are the most common ones that have well established trainers in the city. There has been Monks and Demon Hunters before that and things like Shadow hunters are a thing. Remember Fel Magic ain't a thing in DnD. I'd give them a bonus to animal handling or small nature spell .
Blood Elves/High Elves: They are one and the same and different only in name. The fact that blood elves draw on demons for power has been phased out to at the end of BC . This echos also through with the alignment on Blood elves. They aren't evil or not more evil then any other race. Power hungry yes, but not all of them. I'd remake them into one race that has the something akin to mana trap ( cantrip to restore a level 1 spell slots maybe scales with level ), Cantrips should be from Sorc, War and Mage.
Half Elf: Tbh just use the PHB version. Someone wanting to play something from WoW won't pick them.
Gnomes: Nothing to ad really butt tbh WoW gnomes are Rock gnomes there isn't to much need to redo them.
Goblins: Haggler isn't good, that can lead to a lot of rerolling if weid stuff happens. I'd say make it work like Lucky. Reroll Charisma checks with other people if it is a 1. The second roll must be used.
Humans: an option would be to just take the Human variant rule and add a weapon proficiency. Brave I dunno it seems okay could be a little much and Nobility is a little odd considering that Humans come from everywhere and all places. Not sure how I'd change it.
Tauren: Make it go up at fixed levels. Less of a headache and it won't over scale. A level 12 Fighter should not be able to cast a 6th level earth tremor. That is a bit crazy. Rest seems fine.
Trolls: As a bonus action spending hit die is a to strong as a trait if it has no limit. Puts the DM into a dumb spot where he has to use a lot of fire and acid damage. I'd make it x times every short rest scaling with level. Limbs should recover a bit slower then one short rest. A whole leg should grow back after a week or so.
Orcs/Half-Orcs: I would only keep one. Savage Attack with a weapon proficiency is ti much. That thing is strong that is why Half-Orcs in the PHB get so little other things as there traits are really good.
Thanks a ton for taking the time to read it over and give feedback. I guess I should clarify a few things though:
I'm not using WoW as a reference for these races in terms of their lore, only Warcraft 3. That's where the Warcraft Roleplaying Game for 3.5 started off, and it's much more open to adventures than WoW. DMs are free to use WoW elements as they please, but my aim was to make the game more versatile and open to interpretation, hence the difference between blood elves and high elves.
Most of my reference for these races are from the actual Warcraft Roleplaying Game; hence, the existence of half-elves and half-orcs, the difference between blood elves and high elves, etc. I didn't make any of them up. They are essentially converted from 3.5 to 5e.
The Shadowmeld ability is copied word-for-word (minus the name) from the 5e PHB for the wood elf subclass ability Mask of the Wild. Are you saying that the official ability itself is useless? I may just change it to be more like the Cloak of Shadows ability Way of the Shadow monks have? Or is that overpowered?
Dwarves are proficient in firearms. Does that count as enough of an ability to justify them not having a subrace ability?
Having said that, here are the things I definitely agree with:
Despite half elves and half orcs being a thing in the Warcraft Roleplaying Game, they're not really in the games, so I agree that they're redundant. If a player wants to be one of them, they can merely look different while keeping traits of one race or the other, depending on where they were born. So I think I'll just take them out. They're also really boring compared to the other ones.
The Haggler ability change makes sense. I'll do that.
There are a few too many passive "You have proficiency in X" abilities, as I said before, so I'll rethink them a bit.
I agree about the Arcane Enmity thing. That was something straight from the WRPG, but you're right, demon hunters used arcane magic and remained night elves. So I'll take that off and maybe just cause those classes to take a -2 to Charisma checks with other night elves if they're an arcane class? What do you think?
Here are some of your suggestions I think may defeat the purpose of these races' variety or I otherwise disagree with:
Are the blood elves and high elves balanced races? I'm not so concerned about the lore aspects of the game. In the setting I'm creating for Warcraft, I want them to be separate. Alignments, etc. aside, is it balanced to have them work the way they do in their specific abilities?
A cantrip to restore spell slots would be overpowered, since cantrips have no limit. No limit on restoring spell slots = no limit on spells. Also, this would be useless for high elf/blood elf fighters.
Fel magic is indeed a thing in the WRPG Manual of Monsters, as it is a damage dealt by demons from the Burning Legion, so it'll be easy to include in the game.
I'm not sure what the problem with the Wildhammers' Absorb Elements spell is. Also, your advice is a bit confusing, since you mentioned "give them some small spell to use daily," but that is a small spell to use daily. It's a level 1 spell. I could make it fixed levels to make it easier to calculate, but otherwise I'm not entirely sure what the problem is. I thought it reflected their connection to Stormhammers in a fun way.
And here are a few questions:
I really want to figure out a way for that Troll regeneration to work. Would it be less overpowered if it was changed to simply "You can use your Hit Dice to heal as a bonus action" without them restoring to full after a short rest? This just gives them an option to heal in combat, but they can still run out of Hit Dice just like everyone else.
How would I make the Tauren ability go up at fixed levels? Do you mean at level X the spell level is Y, etc.? (Basically just taking out the dividing by 2) I mainly just didn't know how to do this because other racial spells don't have the "At Higher Levels" option attached to them.
I agree that Gryphon Rider may be limitingly useless in some cases (minus the Animal Handling proficiency), so maybe I'll just change it to proficiency. Would something like a resistance to fall damage or something balance that out? Or should I just give them the poison resistance from the Ironforge Dwarves to balance it out?
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Which version did you use? The Warcraft RPG or the World of Warcraft RPG? Also do you want to run this in a world similar to how the books set it up or homebrew your own Warcraft world ( update it to fit maybe the older lore better or 5e better) .
Yeah I am not a fan on how mask of the wild works and changed it to what I suggested. It is a personal opinion. Like I said I think every character can make an attempt at hiding in those environments it is not something you need to be proficient with to even attempt. Though someone can be better at it hence the +1 to it in those cases.
It really depends how you gonna run that game. Are firearms common? Are firearms good? Is there any other way to get that proficiency ( no base class has it ) etc. If there is basically non in your game, it is not gonna help the character and not feel like something they have. So that one is up to you.
Blood and High Elves seem fine balance wise. Not sure how much Fel Corruption will impact the game. It is again really specific to what game you run. Say you run a "Northrend" campaign. It might never happen, in a "Burning Legion" campaign on the other hand it will happen all the time. Again the races don't really need to be different stat wise as much to feel different in RP.
Like most cantrips you get from a race trait you would only be able to use it once a day. I should have made that specific.
You can roll with Absorb Elements for the Wildhammers, but instead of giving them a ****** version that is weird to use and possibly confusing. Giving them a cantrip ( e.g. Shocking Grasp, possibly even Thunderwave if you don't mind them having something a bit more powerful) instead that is used once a day to call upon the lighting like the race would do. Imho it would fit better then absorbing it .
Trolls are hard to pin down. You could go for hit die as bonus action or give them and flat bonus on hit die during short rests to show they heal faster then others. It be a little strong, but not game breaking. It be a nice thing making them stand apart with out really making a big difference as there are feat and other things that allow that.
Well you could do it like most class features or cantrips work at certain levels you gain a higher level/more damage dice. It probably would be easiest to just "homebrew" a version of the spell that you give one damage die that goes up with the levels.
I'm using the Warcraft Roleplaying Game, not the WoW one. Mainly because I don't like a lot of the additions to the Warcraft universe that WoW introduced. Hence, like the Warcraft RPG, the timeline takes place after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne but before WoW.
I am a bit intrigued as to how I could add Worgen and Draenai though... at a glance, probably just give Worgen the ability to turn into wolf form (+1 natural armor AC, 1d6 unarmed strikes, a howl that makes enemies Frightened, etc.). And Draenai would have healing word as a racial spell they could cast once per day. Not sure.
How are these changes?
Wildhammer Dwarf ability: Stormborn. You are resistant to lightning damage. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the witch bolt spell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this spell. (And I think I'll just change the Gryphon Rider ability to "You are proficient in the Animal Handling skill.")
Night Elf ability: Shadowmeld. You can attempt to Hide even when you are lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomenon. Also, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks at night.
Blood Elf trait: You are resistant to fel damage and fire damage dealt by fiends. (This will make it a bit more universal)
Removed the Animal Handling proficiency from Tauren (they have enough already), and orcs, night elves, and dwarves (instead of bring proficient in orcish claws, moonglaives, and firearms respectively) consider the weapons as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons (presumably you can learn to use them with training in the game—I know there normally aren't exotic weapons in 5e, but I thought these fit)
Also, cantrips can always be used at will, racial or otherwise. Not once per day.
And how does this sound as that extra dwarf ability you were talking about?
Stone Flesh. When you are hit by a source of piercing, bludgeoning, or slashing damage, as a reaction you can gain resistance to it. You regain the ability to use this trait after a long rest.
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Those changes sound good. Make the classes stack well against each other.
I think I make the Worgen be in there Werwolf form for combat and all the ability to turn human the rest of the time. Like in the game. There passives from the game don't translate well into D&D. Running wild would be broken. So I think a good idea would to give them something on there unarmed attacks ( maybe make them slashing), advantage on Nature checks that have to do with skinning or gathering food, keen smell ( adv on perception checks using smell), dark vision, maybe one a long or short rest they can take a dash action as a bonus action.. It is good, but not broken and useful on all classes.
Drenai, hm... lay on hands as a spell they can use once a day, advantage on saves against devils and demons(maybe limit it to only saving throws against conditions), maybe proficiency with maces and hammers to round it out.
I am really happy to see this, but, you seem to have left out a fairly key race; The Forsaken. I am sure playing an undead character would present some issues to the system but I am sure they can just be treated the same as any other race in Azeroth; they are, after all, not mindless.
Here's the specific entry on the Forsaken if you're interested:
Forsaken
Death offered no escape for the scores of humans killed during the Lich King’s campaign to scour the living from Lordaeron. Instead, the kingdom’s fallen were risen into undeath as Scourge minions and forced to wage an unholy war against everything… and everyone… that they once held dear.
Forsaken Traits
As an undead of the Forsaken, you share certain traits with others of your race.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. Age. As part of their undead curse, the Forsaken do not age. Alignment. Forsaken tend toward evil alignments. Cannibalize. You can spend 10 minutes devouring the flesh off of a humanoid corpse. After doing so, you can expend any number of your Hit Dice to regain lost hit points as if on a short rest. Hit Dice regained in this way have their value maximized. You cannot cannibalize the same corpse more than once. Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray. Shadow Resistance. You have resistance to necrotic damage. Size. Your size is Medium. Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Touch of the Grave. You do not need to breathe. Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Orcish, and thieves’ cant. Will of the Forsaken. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and frightened, and you are immune to magical sleep.
Hi there! I recently got into DMing and want to start a Warcraft campaign with my group. I own the Warcraft Roleplaying Game from 3.5 edition and wanted to try my hand at adapting the races over to 5e. I focused on making them mainly based on the existing classes, but I added some extra aspects to them to fit them in with the Warcraft universe more. I'm anxious for feedback mainly on balance—you don't necessarily need to know the lore of Warcraft.
Hope to hear back! Let me know what you think.
Click here to view the PDF
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
I only quickly looked over it and it seems alright for the most part. Just a little stacked in proficiencies weapon and tool ones in particular. I'll take a proper look at it later.
That's fair. I may have stuck too close to the proficiencies of the races in the games. It might be too much for D&D. Thanks in advance for taking a look!
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
Okay I went over all of them and looked at the PC races both in the PH and Volvo's to compare. The amount isn't as different as I first thought it is however a lot more passive benefits compared to a lot of races having something they can use daily or that happens in combat. Helish Rebunk of Tieflings or Lucky of the Halflings are good examples. Your races on the other hand often get just flat proficiency ( in the case of most in game races). My suggestions to change a few things ( and I am not all knowing so by all means make this a discussion) would be:
Ironforge Dwarfs: Not really much to say you just used Dwarfs for them. I would consider giving them maybe one more thing as they are missing what Mountain or Hill Dwarfs would get ( consider that that they are supposed to be Mountain Dwarfs)
Wildhammer: Depending on the setting the Gryphon Rider trait might be useless. Even if set in a WoW world as a DM you want to be careful about giving a player a flying mount. It might be unfit for a tabletop game. Throwing Prowess should probably specify when you get your weapon back. End of your turn, start of next turn and what happen if an enemy tries to grab it. I'd drob Stormborn and give them some small spell to use daily. It is less specific and more fun to use.
Night Elf: Just make shadowmeld be +1 to stealth checks in the environments you specified. You can always attempt to hide, if it is gonna work is the question. The +1 reflects that they have a little easier time. Also I'd give them normal darkvision as they shouldn't get close to what drows get with no draw back. Arcane Enmity is nonsense and should either be dropped or changed to " Makes other Nightelves very suspicious of you. They might even act hostile" It isn't a trait and not something the Race is unable to do. In a WoW setting you might want to keep limits on what players pick, but even that it doesn't suit DnD. Remember the player races in game are the most common ones that have well established trainers in the city. There has been Monks and Demon Hunters before that and things like Shadow hunters are a thing. Remember Fel Magic ain't a thing in DnD. I'd give them a bonus to animal handling or small nature spell .
Blood Elves/High Elves: They are one and the same and different only in name. The fact that blood elves draw on demons for power has been phased out to at the end of BC . This echos also through with the alignment on Blood elves. They aren't evil or not more evil then any other race. Power hungry yes, but not all of them. I'd remake them into one race that has the something akin to mana trap ( cantrip to restore a level 1 spell slots maybe scales with level ), Cantrips should be from Sorc, War and Mage.
Half Elf: Tbh just use the PHB version. Someone wanting to play something from WoW won't pick them.
Gnomes: Nothing to ad really butt tbh WoW gnomes are Rock gnomes there isn't to much need to redo them.
Goblins: Haggler isn't good, that can lead to a lot of rerolling if weid stuff happens. I'd say make it work like Lucky. Reroll Charisma checks with other people if it is a 1. The second roll must be used.
Humans: an option would be to just take the Human variant rule and add a weapon proficiency. Brave I dunno it seems okay could be a little much and Nobility is a little odd considering that Humans come from everywhere and all places. Not sure how I'd change it.
Tauren: Make it go up at fixed levels. Less of a headache and it won't over scale. A level 12 Fighter should not be able to cast a 6th level earth tremor. That is a bit crazy. Rest seems fine.
Trolls: As a bonus action spending hit die is a to strong as a trait if it has no limit. Puts the DM into a dumb spot where he has to use a lot of fire and acid damage. I'd make it x times every short rest scaling with level. Limbs should recover a bit slower then one short rest. A whole leg should grow back after a week or so.
Orcs/Half-Orcs: I would only keep one. Savage Attack with a weapon proficiency is ti much. That thing is strong that is why Half-Orcs in the PHB get so little other things as there traits are really good.
Thanks a ton for taking the time to read it over and give feedback. I guess I should clarify a few things though:
Having said that, here are the things I definitely agree with:
Here are some of your suggestions I think may defeat the purpose of these races' variety or I otherwise disagree with:
And here are a few questions:
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
Which version did you use? The Warcraft RPG or the World of Warcraft RPG? Also do you want to run this in a world similar to how the books set it up or homebrew your own Warcraft world ( update it to fit maybe the older lore better or 5e better) .
Yeah I am not a fan on how mask of the wild works and changed it to what I suggested. It is a personal opinion. Like I said I think every character can make an attempt at hiding in those environments it is not something you need to be proficient with to even attempt. Though someone can be better at it hence the +1 to it in those cases.
It really depends how you gonna run that game. Are firearms common? Are firearms good? Is there any other way to get that proficiency ( no base class has it ) etc. If there is basically non in your game, it is not gonna help the character and not feel like something they have. So that one is up to you.
Blood and High Elves seem fine balance wise. Not sure how much Fel Corruption will impact the game. It is again really specific to what game you run. Say you run a "Northrend" campaign. It might never happen, in a "Burning Legion" campaign on the other hand it will happen all the time. Again the races don't really need to be different stat wise as much to feel different in RP.
Like most cantrips you get from a race trait you would only be able to use it once a day. I should have made that specific.
You can roll with Absorb Elements for the Wildhammers, but instead of giving them a ****** version that is weird to use and possibly confusing. Giving them a cantrip ( e.g. Shocking Grasp, possibly even Thunderwave if you don't mind them having something a bit more powerful) instead that is used once a day to call upon the lighting like the race would do. Imho it would fit better then absorbing it .
Trolls are hard to pin down. You could go for hit die as bonus action or give them and flat bonus on hit die during short rests to show they heal faster then others. It be a little strong, but not game breaking. It be a nice thing making them stand apart with out really making a big difference as there are feat and other things that allow that.
Well you could do it like most class features or cantrips work at certain levels you gain a higher level/more damage dice. It probably would be easiest to just "homebrew" a version of the spell that you give one damage die that goes up with the levels.
I'm using the Warcraft Roleplaying Game, not the WoW one. Mainly because I don't like a lot of the additions to the Warcraft universe that WoW introduced. Hence, like the Warcraft RPG, the timeline takes place after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne but before WoW.
I am a bit intrigued as to how I could add Worgen and Draenai though... at a glance, probably just give Worgen the ability to turn into wolf form (+1 natural armor AC, 1d6 unarmed strikes, a howl that makes enemies Frightened, etc.). And Draenai would have healing word as a racial spell they could cast once per day. Not sure.
How are these changes?
(And I think I'll just change the Gryphon Rider ability to "You are proficient in the Animal Handling skill.")
Also, cantrips can always be used at will, racial or otherwise. Not once per day.
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
And how does this sound as that extra dwarf ability you were talking about?
Stone Flesh. When you are hit by a source of piercing, bludgeoning, or slashing damage, as a reaction you can gain resistance to it. You regain the ability to use this trait after a long rest.
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
Those changes sound good. Make the classes stack well against each other.
I think I make the Worgen be in there Werwolf form for combat and all the ability to turn human the rest of the time. Like in the game. There passives from the game don't translate well into D&D. Running wild would be broken. So I think a good idea would to give them something on there unarmed attacks ( maybe make them slashing), advantage on Nature checks that have to do with skinning or gathering food, keen smell ( adv on perception checks using smell), dark vision, maybe one a long or short rest they can take a dash action as a bonus action.. It is good, but not broken and useful on all classes.
Drenai, hm... lay on hands as a spell they can use once a day, advantage on saves against devils and demons(maybe limit it to only saving throws against conditions), maybe proficiency with maces and hammers to round it out.
Cool! Thanks for the feedback.
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
I am really happy to see this, but, you seem to have left out a fairly key race; The Forsaken. I am sure playing an undead character would present some issues to the system but I am sure they can just be treated the same as any other race in Azeroth; they are, after all, not mindless.
Yeah, this document's looking pretty outdated to me. I mainly based those races on the ones in the 3.5e Warcraft RPG. But here's a new document I made specifically focusing on the races and allied races in World of Warcraft (including the Forsaken!): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dbu1a7r2Cj2gTTXyWXjo-ME6McxxYs3nTq14EK8ighA/edit?usp=sharing
Here's the specific entry on the Forsaken if you're interested:
Forsaken
Death offered no escape for the scores of humans killed during the Lich King’s campaign to scour the living from Lordaeron. Instead, the kingdom’s fallen were risen into undeath as Scourge minions and forced to wage an unholy war against everything… and everyone… that they once held dear.
Forsaken Traits
As an undead of the Forsaken, you share certain traits with others of your race.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. As part of their undead curse, the Forsaken do not age.
Alignment. Forsaken tend toward evil alignments.
Cannibalize. You can spend 10 minutes devouring the flesh off of a humanoid corpse. After doing so, you can expend any number of your Hit Dice to regain lost hit points as if on a short rest. Hit Dice regained in this way have their value maximized. You cannot cannibalize the same corpse more than once.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Shadow Resistance. You have resistance to necrotic damage.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Touch of the Grave. You do not need to breathe.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Orcish, and thieves’ cant.
Will of the Forsaken. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and frightened, and you are immune to magical sleep.
Check out my blog for homebrew D&D stuff and other projects!
I wanted to play a troll in dnd. This is the first thing on the list. Everything looks good so far.
Thank you for this!