I haven't played much since 3.0 came out, and I know some DMs had a problem with me choosing a certain race or type when playing 4.0. I would love to bring my first character (from 1st Edition) but unsure about if I am able to. I would like to know, as a general rule of thumb, which races/species aren't playable character types?
5e is actually very flexible with regards to what you can and can not do. It really depends on your DM and whether or not they approve (or are willing to create) a homebrew for the race you are looking for. That being said, the SRD has support for the following races and subraces:
If your character race isn't listed above there are a few things that each race needs, if you want to create a homebrew with your DM (or use one online) it should have the following Racial Traits to fit into 5e mechanics:
Ability Score Increase: Every race increases one or more of a character’s ability scores.
Age: The age entry notes the age when a member of the race is considered an adult, as well as the race’s expected lifespan. This information can help you decide how old your character is at the start of the game. You can choose any age for your character, which could provide an explanation for some of your ability scores. For example, if you play a young or very old character, your age could explain a particularly low Strength or Constitution score, while advanced age could account for a high Intelligence or Wisdom.
Alignment: Most races have tendencies toward certain alignments, described in this entry. These are not binding for player characters, but considering why your dwarf is chaotic, for example, in defiance of lawful dwarf society can help you better define your character.
Size: Characters of most races are Medium, a size category including creatures that are roughly 4 to 8 feet tall. Members of a few races are Small (between 2 and 4 feet tall), which means that certain rules of the game affect them differently. The most important of these rules is that Small characters have trouble wielding heavy weapons, as explained in “Equipment.”
Speed: Your speed determines how far you can move when traveling ( “Adventuring”) and fighting (“Combat”).
Languages: By virtue of your race, your character can speak, read, and write certain languages.
Subraces: Some races have subraces. Members of a subrace have the traits of the parent race in addition to the traits specified for their subrace. Relationships among subraces vary significantly from race to race and world to world.
For example, here are the racial traits for Dwarves according to SRD:
"Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they’re considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.
Alignment. Most dwarves are lawful, believing firmly in the benefits of a well-ordered society. They tend toward good as well, with a strong sense of fair play and a belief that everyone deserves to share in the benefits of a just order.
Size. Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.
Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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.
Dwarven Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer.
Tool Proficiency. You gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools.
Stonecunning. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.
Subrace: Hill Dwarf As a hill dwarf, you have keen senses, deep intuition, and remarkable resilience.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Dwarven Toughness. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.
I know that my DM allowed me to use a pixie as a playable character. We had to modify some of the rules to fit the pixie. This is a rule I wish we could set though. D&d 5e should state that creatures of certain sizes should have different rules for HP and strength. I would love th3 idea of having 18 str but that's not "realistic" in the sense that a pixie in stories and fairly tables cannot pick humans up.
Like wise tiny creatures are always seen as fragile but hard to hit.
I mean I would love a pixie or sprite barbarian with 18str but . . .
I means it's all about balance and what your DM or GM will allow
There are also several plane shift publications out there with additional races such as Kor, and Vampires. There's at least one Unearth Arcana race too Minotaur. This is the most complete list I've found
Its always about DM and world discretion. If the character can fit in the world or you can create a story that puts the character in the world without doing some major world-breaking stuff then I say go for it. As I DM I can't wait for the day one of my players comes to me with an idea for a character that puts me at a loss for words.
And as everyone else has pretty much said so far, it is all about making sure the race has a good balance with the rest of the races. World-breaking stuff might be fun for a while but it doesn't really allow the game to progress at all unless the DM decides to match ridiculously broken with ridiculously difficult.
I noticed that it is dragonborn now and not dragonkin. I would love to play a dragon, not for the stats, but because I love dragons. If I could play a dragon born, I would want to keep the wings and have the ability to fly over the breath weapon.
My first character from 1st Edition is a human/bird hybrid. He looked like a human except he had feathered wings, a beak, and bird feet. I don't know what I would look up for stats IF I was allowed to bring this character into 5th Edition.
I would look at the stats for Kenku in Volo's Guide to Monsters. You would need to modify them a bit as they are more like humanoid birds than human/bird hybrid, but it would give you a good starting spot. Just get rid of the mimicry feature and change some size stuff. Maybe add in a flying feature if your character could fly. Of course balancing the ability to fly at early lvls would be pretty difficult as has been mentioned above.
Nehpets you could go with an Aarakocra from Elemental Evil or as Actuall said Kenku from Volo's both are bird races. Also you could go with a dragon origin sorcerer for the wing options.
Honestly, unless it's organized play, I'd say do things the way Gary Gygax put it. He famously said that if you want to play as a dragon, okay as a dragon, as long as it starts weak, gets stronger, and is consistent with the systems of the edition! :)
@Parzival_Ren I would prefer to start out as either a hatchling or slightly older, that way my dragon could grow and learn just as I would about playing that race. I don't like starting with extremely strong characters, takes away the fun of playing.
@Parzival_Ren I would prefer to start out as either a hatchling or slightly older, that way my dragon could grow and learn just as I would about playing that race. I don't like starting with extremely strong characters, takes away the fun of playing.
That's what I mean haha :D and I think what Gary meant as well! Play the game any way you want as long as long as it's within the boundaries of the system and still enjoyable for your table, conducive to the narrative, etc.
I know that my DM allowed me to use a pixie as a playable character. We had to modify some of the rules to fit the pixie. This is a rule I wish we could set though. D&d 5e should state that creatures of certain sizes should have different rules for HP and strength. I would love th3 idea of having 18 str but that's not "realistic" in the sense that a pixie in stories and fairly tables cannot pick humans up.
Like wise tiny creatures are always seen as fragile but hard to hit.
I mean I would love a pixie or sprite barbarian with 18str but . . .
I means it's all about balance and what your DM or GM will allow
Well, don't forget that Tiny creatures halve their carrying capacity, meaning you're only really as strong as a human with Str 9. And besides, who's to say your pixie ISN'T strong enough to pick up a human?
I haven't played much since 3.0 came out, and I know some DMs had a problem with me choosing a certain race or type when playing 4.0. I would love to bring my first character (from 1st Edition) but unsure about if I am able to. I would like to know, as a general rule of thumb, which races/species aren't playable character types?
AS in Network Systems Administration
5e is actually very flexible with regards to what you can and can not do. It really depends on your DM and whether or not they approve (or are willing to create) a homebrew for the race you are looking for. That being said, the SRD has support for the following races and subraces:
If your character race isn't listed above there are a few things that each race needs, if you want to create a homebrew with your DM (or use one online) it should have the following Racial Traits to fit into 5e mechanics:
Subraces: Some races have subraces. Members of a subrace have the traits of the parent race in addition to the traits specified for their subrace. Relationships among subraces vary significantly from race to race and world to world.
For example, here are the racial traits for Dwarves according to SRD:
Beyond the SRD Volo's Guide to Monsters includes:
It also included stats for Bugbear, goblins, hobgoblins, kobold, orc and Yuan-ti Pureblood.
I know that my DM allowed me to use a pixie as a playable character. We had to modify some of the rules to fit the pixie. This is a rule I wish we could set though. D&d 5e should state that creatures of certain sizes should have different rules for HP and strength. I would love th3 idea of having 18 str but that's not "realistic" in the sense that a pixie in stories and fairly tables cannot pick humans up.
Like wise tiny creatures are always seen as fragile but hard to hit.
I mean I would love a pixie or sprite barbarian with 18str but . . .
I means it's all about balance and what your DM or GM will allow
<(*_*)> Giffard
There are also several plane shift publications out there with additional races such as Kor, and Vampires. There's at least one Unearth Arcana race too Minotaur. This is the most complete list I've found
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzptumctKD_HUmJ3NnFHTFNJQ0k/view
Its always about DM and world discretion. If the character can fit in the world or you can create a story that puts the character in the world without doing some major world-breaking stuff then I say go for it. As I DM I can't wait for the day one of my players comes to me with an idea for a character that puts me at a loss for words.
And as everyone else has pretty much said so far, it is all about making sure the race has a good balance with the rest of the races. World-breaking stuff might be fun for a while but it doesn't really allow the game to progress at all unless the DM decides to match ridiculously broken with ridiculously difficult.
I have played 4.0 with a minotaur that used two-handed weapons single-handedly because of his size.
AS in Network Systems Administration
I noticed that it is dragonborn now and not dragonkin. I would love to play a dragon, not for the stats, but because I love dragons. If I could play a dragon born, I would want to keep the wings and have the ability to fly over the breath weapon.
AS in Network Systems Administration
@Nephits_Nosliw Perhaps use a Winged Tiefling refluffed as a Dragonborn
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My first character from 1st Edition is a human/bird hybrid. He looked like a human except he had feathered wings, a beak, and bird feet. I don't know what I would look up for stats IF I was allowed to bring this character into 5th Edition.
AS in Network Systems Administration
I would look at the stats for Kenku in Volo's Guide to Monsters. You would need to modify them a bit as they are more like humanoid birds than human/bird hybrid, but it would give you a good starting spot. Just get rid of the mimicry feature and change some size stuff. Maybe add in a flying feature if your character could fly. Of course balancing the ability to fly at early lvls would be pretty difficult as has been mentioned above.
Nehpets you could go with an Aarakocra from Elemental Evil or as Actuall said Kenku from Volo's both are bird races. Also you could go with a dragon origin sorcerer for the wing options.
Honestly, unless it's organized play, I'd say do things the way Gary Gygax put it. He famously said that if you want to play as a dragon, okay as a dragon, as long as it starts weak, gets stronger, and is consistent with the systems of the edition! :)
@Parzival_Ren I would prefer to start out as either a hatchling or slightly older, that way my dragon could grow and learn just as I would about playing that race. I don't like starting with extremely strong characters, takes away the fun of playing.
AS in Network Systems Administration
In case companions guide Elemental Evil it has a few more races in it!
https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf
Current Character~ Anastael Lasselom, Druid of the Moon Lvl 3
Dimitris of Waterdeep, Champion Fighter Lvl 3