D&D 5E Race as Class in 5E

[LuisCarlos17f]

The 3.5 Ed sourcebook "Unearthed Arcana" showed a lot of different options, and one of these was the racial parangon class. I guess you can find it in the SRD.

 

[Stalker0]

The 3.5 Ed sourcebook "Unearthed Arcana" showed a lot of different options, and one of these was the racial parangon class. I guess you can find it in the SRD.

This was further expanded upon in Monte's Cook "Arcana Evolved" book. In that book, every race had "racial levels" you could take, which effectively grew you into the paragon of that race. So you could take regular levels or racial ones.

 

[Mephista]

I would suggest just using the racial-themed classes. Like, bladesinger is the high elf-swordplay+magic bit. We have infernal warlocks for tieflings, dragon sorcerers and monks for dragon born, forge cleric and battlerager dwarves. Stereotypical half orc is a berserker barbarian.
Its everything that race-as-classes do, imho.

 

[Reynard]

I would suggest just using the racial-themed classes. Like, bladesinger is the high elf-swordplay+magic bit.

If I made it the elf would probably look a lot like the Eldritch knight

We have infernal warlocks for tieflings, dragon sorcerers and monks for dragon born, forge cleric and battlerager dwarves. Stereotypical half orc is a berserker barbarian.
Its everything that race-as-classes do, imho.

Thankfully, a "BECMI 5E" wouldn't need any of that!

 

[Minigiant]

I did a chart on the concept for another thread..

Race	Classes	Houserule
Dragonborn	Fighter/Sorcerer (Dragon) Gestalt	Get Extra Attack at Fight3/Sorc2
Dwarf (Hill)	Fighter	Add Wis mod to crossbow and thrown axes and hammer attacks
Dwarf (Mountain)	Fighter	d12 HD, Only has axes, hammers and crossbows as weapon proficiency
Elf (High)	Fighter/Wizard Gesalt	Get Extra Attack at Fight3/Wiz2
Elf (Wood)	Fighter/Cleric (Nature) Gesalt	Get Extra Attack at Fight3/Cler2
Gnome (Forest)	Fighter/Wizard Gesalt	Fighter levels count to spell slots. Can only learn Illusion spells
Gnome (Rock)	Fighter/Artificer Gesalt	2 bonus cantrips
Halfling (Lightfoot)	Rogue	Add Cha mod to sneak attacks
Halfling (Stout)	Fighter/Rogue Gesalt	Get Extra Attack at Fight3/Rog2, can sneak attack with longswwords and battleaxes
Half Orc	Fighter/Barbarian Gesalt	Get Extra Attack at Fight3/Barb2
Tielfling	Rogue/Warlock Gesalt	d10 HD for both classes

Made a quick chart if I were to do it.

I could possibly take it up to 11 and buff the strengths in order to apply weaknesses.

 

[overgeeked]

In a word: players.

The thing I've found about 5E players is that they actually like 5E. Which is to say, the more house rules you try to use, the less they'll like the game. It's weird how there are so many 5E players though, that even if you house rule 5E to be an identical match to B/X or OSE...you'll likely still have far more players for that mangled 5E game than you would for straight B/X or OSE.

Such a weird world. Is this what a "post-system" RPG industry would look like? 5E is such a dominant system that all others have effectively vanished. There is no system but 5E...so we're effectively post-system.

 

[Reynard]

The thing I've found about 5E players is that they actually like 5E. Which is to say, the more house rules you try to use, the less they'll like the game. It's weird how there are so many 5E players though, that even if you house rule 5E to be an identical match to B/X or OSE...you'll likely still have far more players for that mangled 5E game than you would for straight B/X or OSE.

Such a weird world. Is this what a "post-system" RPG industry would look like? 5E is such a dominant system that all others have effectively vanished. There is no system but 5E...so we're effectively post-system.

The one that blows my mind consistently is how much of an absolute deal breaker descending AC is. More than anything else, that is what stops people from signing on to classic editions IME.

 

[overgeeked]

The one that blows my mind consistently is how much of an absolute deal breaker descending AC is. More than anything else, that is what stops people from signing on to classic editions IME.

Here you go:

DAC = Descending AC.
AAC = Ascending AC.

OD&D, B/X, BECMI, RC DAC to AAC. 19 - DAC = AAC.
OD&D, B/X, BECMI, RC THAC0 to Attack Bonus. 19 - THAC0 = Attack Bonus.
This is because AC in these games starts at 9 and goes down.

AD&D1E, AD&D2E DAC to AAC. 20 - DAC = AAC.
AD&D1E, AD&D2E THAC0 to Attack Bonus. 20 - THAC0 = Attack Bonus.
This is because AC in these games starts at 10 and goes down.

Use Ascending AC and attack bonus. It's dead simple to convert. If they're hung up on using one version, use it. There's a lot of great stuff about those older editions. It would be a shame for players to miss out on that because of a simple math trick.

 

[GreyLord]

5e old school and Oriental Adventures

Has Race as Class as an option

 

[DND_Reborn]

Has anyone done the work to design races as classes (aka the Elf class) in 5E. I am thinking about putting together a 5E game heavily inspired by BECMI/RC and before I set to designing the Elf, Dwarf and Halfling classes, I wanted to see if anyone else had already done it.

Thanks.

I've thought about it... So, if anyone really has and posts it I would be interested in seeing it.

I was thinking about the different subraces as subclasses in some ways, but maybe going the route of the old MC combos as subclasses....