When you determine your ability scores, increase one of those scores by 2 and Charisma score by 1, or increase two different scores by 1 and Charisma by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy.

Your character can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Sylvan.

You are Fey and Elf.

Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identify the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race option presented here tells you what your character’s creature type is.

Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the text of the cure wounds spell specifies that the spell doesn’t work on a creature that has the Construct type.

Design Note

The “Creating Your Character” section provides special character-creation rules for the race options in this article. The races that use these rules can coexist seamlessly with races that use other rules. For example, the race options in the Player’s Handbook have built-in ability score increases, while the races in this article don’t. Race options from both sources can adventure together.

If you’d like a race that doesn’t appear in this article, such as an elf or a dwarf, to have similar ability score flexibility, the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything provides a rule, called Customizing Your Origin, that gives you that flexibility. That book also gives you the option of building your own race, rather than choosing an existing one. That option is called the Custom Lineage. No matter which option you choose for your character—a race in this article, a Player’s Handbook race, a race modified by the Customizing Your Origin rule, or a Custom Lineage—you can adventure with characters who are built with a different option.

This sidebar builds on the design note in our previous Unearthed Arcana, “Gothic Lineages.”

You are Small.

Your walking speed is 15 feet.  If swimming, the speed is 10 feet along with a required short or long rest for wings to dry before being able to fly again.

You have a pair of light, transparent wings that grant you a fly speed of 30-feet allowing you a certain degree of flight. However, these wings can only fly up to a height of 30 feet, any higher and they fail until you are 30 feet above the ground again. You lose your flying speed until you complete a short or long rest if they are directly exposed to water.

You know the Druidcraft and Faerie Fire spells.  You can cast Faerie Fire once per battle without expending a spell slot, and Druidcraft without expending a spell slot, but you must finish a long rest before you can cast it in this way again.  You can also cast these spells using any spell slots you have. Your spellcasting ability for these spells is your choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.  These spells do not count against your Spell Knowledge counts allotted by levels.

You can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide.