[UPDATED] MIDGARD HEROES For 5E - Preview The All-New Trollkin PC Race!

Kobold Press (those architects of Tyranny of Dragons) is about to release a new D&D 5th Edition product. This will be a 30-page PDF by Dan Dillon, called Midgard Heroes, which details a bunch of new races and backgrounds for 5E player characters, and should be hitting virtual store shelves tomorrow (I'll update with a link when it does). They've sent along a preview of the book - a full writeup of a new race, the Trollkin!

UPDATE: Now available!

What else does the book have? There's 11 races, and 7 backgrounds. The races are Alseid deer centaur, Midgard centaur, Dragonkin, Midgard elf or elfmarked, Gearforged, Darakhul ghoul, Midgard kobold, Midgard minotaur, Ravenfolk, Shadow fey, and Trollkin. The backgrounds are the corsair, darkling, fey-touched, guild merchant, master craftsman, nomad, and raider.

Kobold Press has done a bunch of 5E stuff. As well as Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat for WotC, they've also released The Raven's Call (an adventure for 3rd level PCs) and Southland Heroes (which contains more 5E races, archetypes, and backgrounds).

But anyway! On with the preview!

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[ceiling90]

Hmm. Everyone is automatically proficient with unarmed strike - per new errata. I feel that the Stonehide is going to be the Go-to for Fighters in any campaign using this race. Otherwise it looks pretty good. I just hope it's $5 like the Southland Heroes.

 

[Jester David]

Thanks. Making a mental note to consider this for review.

 

[ccooke]

That looks very promising. Nice art, in a broadly similar style to the 5e books and with some useful setting flavour.

Hmm. Everyone is automatically proficient with unarmed strike - per new errata. I feel that the Stonehide is going to be the Go-to for Fighters in any campaign using this race. Otherwise it looks pretty good. I just hope it's $5 like the Southland Heroes.

+1 to AC gave me a bit of a pause, too, but consider the comparison with the Mountain Dwarf - Sure, proficiency with medium armour does nothing for a Fighter, but +2 CON and +2 STR compares very well with +2 CON, +1 STR and +1 AC.

I like how they've done the regeneration. I feel like there needs to be more done with hit dice as a resource.

The regeneration effect is very nicely balanced, I think - scales enough to stay useful without being overpowered and it's got great flavour. It's not such an easy thing to get right (at least on paper), so this is definitely a sign of promise. I think I'll have to grab the book, if it's all this good.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

Arent these the basic races from the Advanced Races Compendium that Kobold Press Kickstarted for Pathfinder? I wish they would have included this in their pledge levels, though it is considerably shorter, as the Pathfinder version is 300+ pages.

 

[Cristian Andreu]

I like it!

Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep an eye out for this stuff.

 

[Jack Daniel]

So they're basically Elder Scrolls/World of Warcraft orcs.

I approve.

 

[Bera]

Arent these the basic races from the Advanced Races Compendium that Kobold Press Kickstarted for Pathfinder? I wish they would have included this in their pledge levels, though it is considerably shorter, as the Pathfinder version is 300+ pages.

The Southlands backers got the (presumably similar) Southlands pdf of the 5e races for free, so I wouldn't be shocked if they also might give this one away to some of their backers for other projects.

 

[st33d]

Ah no names, what an ommission! I always get players last minute picking a name - it's a resource on races that's vastly underrated. I think Wizards have also dropped the "per day" text in favour of just saying "long rest" - so the editing on this publication might be slightly off.

Looks like a nicely balanced race though. The claw damage doesn't scale so it looks overpowered at first, but turns out to be just flavour - nice touch. Hit dice healing a fun new ability. Pleased to see an inventive new brawler race.

 

[ceiling90]

Yay! It's also $5 right now. Though, I'm not particularly sure if it ever was to be $15. I haven't seen Southland go up in price either.