D&D 5E DMG Excerpt: Creating a New Race

Jester David · Nov 11, 2014

A teasing example of the creating a race section is provided.

From: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/excerpt-creating-new-race

CREATING NEW CHARACTER OPTIONS
If the options for player characters in the Player’s Handbook don’t meet all the needs of your campaign, you can consult Chapter 9 of the DMG: Dungeon Master’s Workshop for advice on creating new race, class, and background options.

CREATING A RACE OR SUBRACE
This section teaches you how to modify existing races, as well as create new ones. The most important step in customizing or designing races for your campaign is to start with the story behind the race or subrace you wish to create. Having a firm idea of a race’s story in your campaign will help you make decisions during the creation process. Ask yourself several questions:

Why does my campaign need the race to be playable?

What does the race look like?

How would I describe the race’s culture?

Where do the members of this race live?

Are there interesting conflicts built into the race’s history and culture that make the race compelling from a storytelling standpoint?

What is the race’s relationship to the other playable races?

What classes and backgrounds are well suited to members of the race?

What are the race’s signature traits?

In the case of a new subrace, what sets it apart from the other subraces of the parent race?

When creating a race from scratch, begin with the story and proceed from there. Compare your creation to the other races of your world, and borrow freely from the traits of other races. As an example, consider the aasimar, a race similar to the tiefling but with a celestial heritage.

The PDF is here:
http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/DMG_286.pdf

And includes as a new sample subrace.... the freakin' eladrin. And for the example of a new race, it shows the start of the aasimar.

Fion · Nov 11, 2014

Awesome I'm glad to see the 4-e style Eladrin and 3x style Aasimar make a return. Though I wish they had fit the other stats for Aasimar on the same page, I guess I'll have to wait 3 odd weeks. Still, awesome of them to fit 2 fan favorites that didn't quite make the cut in the PHB into the DMG race-creation rules.

So far I'm loving every single excerpt I've seen!

Boarstorm · Nov 11, 2014

Interesting. But their example of creating a new race makes it feel a lot like "wing it" is the official procedure.

That's fine for something similar to an existing race. It's less good if you're going to introduce a very different or alien race.

Tormyr · Nov 11, 2014

This will be good for my Half-Gnoll Paladin. He comes from a tribe of Gnoll Aasimar. His traits as a Gnoll have been somewhat lacking (only Rampage), so I can see bringing in 1 or 2 of the Aasimar traits to round out his abilities a bit.

EDIT: Now if only Wil Wheaton could be convinced to drop by an Acquisitions Incorporated game again. "My name is Aeofel!"

steeldragons · Nov 11, 2014

Boarstorm said:
Interesting. But their example of creating a new race makes it feel a lot like "wing it" is the official procedure.

That's fine for something similar to an existing race. It's less good if you're going to introduce a very different or alien race.

And this is bad why?

You are "creating a new race" how else besides "winging it" were they supposed to do it? "A new race gets 3 special abilities" ? How powerful are those abilities supposed to be? Does every race automatically get an ability bonus? Weapon profs? 1 cantrip per day, 1 power equivalent to a 2nd level spell...4th level? Who/how is "making up fantasy creatures" supposed to be gaged in anything more concrete?

"Winging it" is the only guideline 1) anyone should need, 2) they could possibly put in printed form as covering all conceivable corner cases is ridiculous to even suggest, and perhaps most importantly/reassuring 3) the avenue they want to encourage.

I am very pleased with what I see here...though am sickened by their continuing attempts to ram elfier-elves down out throats and make them seem kewl. Better than using warforged or kenders as examples though, by far. So, it's a matter of degrees.

The good def outweighs the "ugh."

The Grand User · Nov 11, 2014

In addition to "winging it" I notice that they say to compare it to the other races in your world, rather than the races in the PHB. This is also a good sign to me as potential for more powerful races. I think I will try winging out a dragon race and subraces, and a few other races to match.

Boarstorm · Nov 11, 2014

steeldragons said:
And this is bad why?

You are "creating a new race" how else besides "winging it" were they supposed to do it? "A new race gets 3 special abilities" ? How powerful are those abilities supposed to be? Does every race automatically get an ability bonus? Weapon profs? 1 cantrip per day, 1 power equivalent to a 2nd level spell...4th level? Who/how is "making up fantasy creatures" supposed to be gaged in anything more concrete?

"Winging it" is the only guideline 1) anyone should need, 2) they could possibly put in printed form as covering all conceivable corner cases is ridiculous to even suggest, and perhaps most importantly/reassuring 3) the avenue they want to encourage.

I'm going to respectfully disagree.

While I'm not a proponent of the school of thought that everything needs to be balanced to a perfect degree, having some basic guidelines for how strong a player race is supposed to be is clearly needed.

If you give your race the equivalent of a 4th level spell, usable at will, that could create a problem. Your race that can maintain concentration on two spells at once? Could be a problem. Tell us how to give flavorful abilities without making it the must-play race. A new rules system always has places where the law of unforeseen consequences can rear its head. Point out some common pitfalls to be aware of.

Some of the guidelines are pretty obvious, albeit unwritten, but some people are bound to miss those unwritten guidelines. What harm in making them written?

There's a reason that 3.X included ECL, flawed though it was.

TerraDave · Nov 11, 2014

My younger self would have wanted a crunchier almost point buy approach to this...my older self, while still curious about that crunchy approach, knows its limits and appreciates the story first approach taken here.

stinkomandx · Nov 11, 2014

Opening the floodgates to homebrew content as a DM inherently risks having game-breaking added elements to it. A DM that allows options like 4th level spell-casting or infinite concentration is going so clearly off-book that they're either:

1. Inexperienced (in which case a more codified system would solve this balance problem, but there are bound to be others)

2. Fine with gonzo unbalance in their world (in which case...I guess more power to them/I'm glad I'm not at their table)

My experience with tables that included even moderately sized ECL races was that the unbalance inherent in the race cropped up in almost every other aspect of gameplay too.

Ketser · Nov 11, 2014

Jester Canuck said:
And includes as a new sample subrace.... the freakin' eladrin.

Its still a better "subrace example" than a kender would be.

Eladrin and aasimar are good choices because both of them are well liked races from their respective races and in that sense good picks, since they can use them as guidelines for creating new races of subraces, but at the same time give their stats to players and DMs who want to use them.

D&D 5E DMG Excerpt: Creating a New Race

Jester David

Hero

Fion

Explorer

Boarstorm

First Post

Tormyr

Hero

steeldragons

Steeliest of the dragons

The Grand User

Explorer

Boarstorm

First Post

TerraDave

5ever, or until 2024

stinkomandx

First Post

Ketser

First Post

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