Is there a way to add a race to a D&D Beyond character sheet?  I'm playing a half-drow, but I wanted to give her traits from her dark-elf father, and her hobgoblin mother.

You can create a homebrew race/subrace.

If your interested there are already variant half-elves in SCAG, but that only gives them the parent elf subrace trait. There aren't any rules for mixing traits from 2 races in 5e (that apparently caused balance issues in older editions).

Thanks, that's what I was worried about, the backstory took so long to come up with, I was hoping there were some quick ways to get over the issues of multi-race characters.

Honestly, I would just reflavor/reskin existing races/traits. Like as half elf take skills and languages to represent hob ancestry and have red skin.

If you want to make a homebrew hybrid race, I think the usual template is to take any traits the parent races have in common and 1 additional trait from each race. That shouldn't be too overpowered.

Note that you can also flavor any of your class features or powers as traits from your heritage. Are you truly just trying to fit your backstory or are you trying to do something like make a race with Saving Face, all the drow goodies, and no Sunlight Sensitivity? Cause the first one doesn't really require homebrew and the second one isn't legal for a reason.

I am trying to fit the backstory.  Her parents were slaves, she grew up in a slave camp, her father was able to get the child to his sister's coven.  I have been playing since the mid 80's (AD&D 1e), so definitely not trying to cheat, but was really just looking for how to designate the traits in the DDB character sheet.

I once had an idea, though I haven’t tested it. What if you took the elven traits from a half-elf and combined them with the orcish traits from a half-orc?

The reason why I think this MIGHT work is the fact that half elf and half orcs are already half races, you just have to dump the human stats.

Again, this idea has not been tested. There may be something fundamentally wrong with it, but the concept is there if anyone wants to try it.

Quote from 54MU31 >>

I once had an idea, though I haven’t tested it. What if you took the elven traits from a half-elf and combined them with the orcish traits from a half-orc?

The reason why I think this MIGHT work is the fact that half elf and half orcs are already half races, you just have to dump the human stats.

Again, this idea has not been tested. There may be something fundamentally wrong with it, but the concept is there if anyone wants to try it.

 Well if we look at the traits half elves have in common with elves and humans we get:

• Elf: Darkvision, Fey ancestry, Elvish
• Human: 2 +1 any, 1 any skill, 1 any language
• Neither/unique: +2 CHA, second any skill.

Had to combine regular and variant human in order to have that much in common... Half elves get all of what the 2 PHB humans have to offer (minus feat, obviously), get darkvision and 1 unique elf trait, then gets extra. They are Human++.

It is worse for half-orcs that have nothing in common with humans, and only get ASIs, darkvision, and language from orcs. They are literally a completely different race.

Point is, identifying let alone removing the human influence from half-orc is hard, and removing human from half-elf leaves you with 1 trait (not counting darkvision, which orc would add anyway).

Didn't see anyone suggest this for some reason, but Tasha's literally has an option for just creating a new race for your character. If you feel like you should be getting more features than that... tough. Or, just reskin another existing race (half-elf + hobgoblin = Githyanki?). Or, just quit expecting every facet of your RP to have a mechanical impact on your character sheet.

Custom lineage is literally just variant human that can be small, combines its +1s, and can take darkvision as a skill. It is not a great option (literally only as good as the feat it chooses...), but an option none the less.

Reskinning an existing race is the second thing I suggested, and the option I recommend the most.

Quote from DxJxC >>

Quote from 54MU31 >>

I once had an idea, though I haven’t tested it. What if you took the elven traits from a half-elf and combined them with the orcish traits from a half-orc?

The reason why I think this MIGHT work is the fact that half elf and half orcs are already half races, you just have to dump the human stats.

Again, this idea has not been tested. There may be something fundamentally wrong with it, but the concept is there if anyone wants to try it.

 Well if we look at the traits half elves have in common with elves and humans we get:

• Elf: Darkvision, Fey ancestry, Elvish
• Human: 2 +1 any, 1 any skill, 1 any language
• Neither/unique: +2 CHA, second any skill.

Had to combine regular and variant human in order to have that much in common... Half elves get all of what the 2 PHB humans have to offer (minus feat, obviously), get darkvision and 1 unique elf trait, then gets extra. They are Human++.

It is worse for half-orcs that have nothing in common with humans, and only get ASIs, darkvision, and language from orcs. They are literally a completely different race.

Point is, identifying let alone removing the human influence from half-orc is hard, and removing human from half-elf leaves you with 1 trait (not counting darkvision, which orc would add anyway).

 Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn’t put too much thought into the concept, I just thought someone might enjoy it. But I agree, it wouldn’t necessarily work.

I have a half-lizardfolk that can morph (inspired by chameleons) in three forms: Human like, Hybrid, Lizardfolk like. But he always maintain the lizarfolk features, the forms are just esthetic.

If you look at 1D&D background rules it speaks to this and allows only the characteristics of the “dominant species”