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

[Wrathamon]

Comparing and play-testing are the two best answers / guidelines to race and class creation.

If you feel something is potentially broken, but not sure. Don't be lazy, play test it. Don't theorize that it might be and complain you dont have good guidelines. This isnt a point buy system and trying to create a balance ruleset to use will just create unbalanced home brew or 3rd party material. "well I used to point buy so it should be balanced" situations.

If you want an OP race then you should probably OP the existing races ... "compare to the other races in your world."

For the 1/2 giant, if making it Larger and stronger is the best way of representing a halfgiant in your world and you find after playtesting that race is a lot stronger then the other races, you have two options.

Weaken the race to balance it with the core or strengthen the core to be balanced with your vision of a half giant.
I guess there is a 3rd, dont worry that it isnt balanced.

 

[AmerginLiath]

I imagine that there will be more details on how to judge the "value" of abilities after this page (since we see the comparison of how Misty Step compares to Elven Abilities and how Aasimar Resistances compare to Tiefling Resistances, it makes sense to not duplicate that discussion in two places in the place when it can be in one section on the next page).

Looking at this, I'm guessing that the original idea may have been to have two examples in each category (since Kender would be a Halfling subrace and Warforged would be a new race) but that each – Warforged especially – would require more room than they had to go into, especially in regards to entertaining discussion of creating racial variations for use in non-custom settings, hence why that material is being pulled out for its own release.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I'm very happy with eladrin making a come back... I loved them. I also liked the idea. I will totally make a bunch of races once we get a full look...

 

[Jester David]

To be clear, I am absolutely NOT advocating for a a-la cart point buy system like PF's Advanced Race Guide.

Let me expand on the half-giant (from Dark Sun, for those who may not know) example to give you an idea of what I'm thinking.

Here we have a few potential issues.

1) Large size. What effect does that have that I might not have foreseen?
2) A larger than +2 bonus to strength (stronger than a mountain dwarf) seems reasonable. Are there inherent problems from that given bounded accuracy, for instance?
3) Similarly, what happens if I allow them to break the max-20 ability cap for strength? Just to 22 or so, perhaps.
4) Some suggestions for negative racial traits might also be viable. But how to rule-of-thumb it so that the negatives are reasonable and create a race that can play at the same table as a human?

That's all I'm advocating for: guidelines that are slightly more helpful than "compare it to the ones in the book."

You could fill an entire chapter on the subject. There's simply too many topics that require too much information.
WotC has to balance the needs of discussing the topic at all, with the needs of having other content in the damn book.

Possible subjects include the effects of:
Bonuses to each ability score (as not all are equally good)
Which ability scores synergize with which class
Higher ability scores (+3 bonuses or more)
Ability score penalties (the pros/cons of penalties)
Non-ability penalties (daylight sensitivity, etc)
Size (large, tiny, should small races have better other powers)
Skill bonuses (as not all are equally useful)
Bonuses vs advantage (advantage on a check vs double prof. bonus)
Natural armour
Natural attacks
Unusual anatomy (more arms, fewer magic item slots, more slots, getting armour, etc)
Unusual biological needs (not sleeping, not eating, not breathing, drinking blood)
Resisting energy (fire commonly used, thunder less used)
Spellcasting (level, usage, offensive vs utility)
Monstrous abilities (regeneration, reading minds, turning to stone)
Breaking rules (exceeding ability cap, multiple concentration effects)

Plus a wealth of advice on what makes a good power and what makes a bad power.

Now, keep in mind that the warforged and kender aren't in the DMG any more. So they likely had planned for them to be other sample races and then cut them for space.
So to get all of the above into the book, what would you have cut? A few magic items? Artifacts? A fifth of the art in the books? Extra combat options?

Yeah, the topic could be much more expansive. But I'd rather have *some* advice rather than *no* advice.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I like it a lot. Compare your idea to what's in PHB and use your best judgment. Cool beans. I think this is the best approach. And I hope the making magic items, making spells, etc are in a similar vein.

 

[The Grand User]

I like it a lot. Compare your idea to what's in PHB and use your best judgment. Cool beans. I think this is the best approach. And I hope the making magic items, making spells, etc are in a similar vein.

Not compare to the PHB, it's better than that: "Compare your idea to what's in the world"

Now that majority of the time what's playable in the world will be what's in the PHB, it doesn't have to be the case all the time. This opens it up a bit more to powering up or down the playable races to be appropriate for what you want to play

 

[Klaus]

To be clear, I am absolutely NOT advocating for a a-la cart point buy system like PF's Advanced Race Guide.

Let me expand on the half-giant (from Dark Sun, for those who may not know) example to give you an idea of what I'm thinking.

Here we have a few potential issues.

1) Large size. What effect does that have that I might not have foreseen?
2) A larger than +2 bonus to strength (stronger than a mountain dwarf) seems reasonable. Are there inherent problems from that given bounded accuracy, for instance?
3) Similarly, what happens if I allow them to break the max-20 ability cap for strength? Just to 22 or so, perhaps.
4) Some suggestions for negative racial traits might also be viable. But how to rule-of-thumb it so that the negatives are reasonable and create a race that can play at the same table as a human?

That's all I'm advocating for: guidelines that are slightly more helpful than "compare it to the ones in the book."

Off the top of my head:

1) +2 Str, +1 to Constitution. These stay as is.
2) Size: Large. This doubles the half-giant's carrying capacity and allows it to reach higher stuff. That alone makes it "feel" stronger than the half-orc, without needing a greater Str bonus.
3) Uncultured: Disadvantage on Intelligence-based checks.
4) Wide sweep: When it scores a critical hit with a melee attack, the half-giant also shoves a Huge or smaller target back 10 feet. Also helps give off the "large" feel.
5) Gullible: Disadvantage on saving throws against charm effects.

 

[Sonny]

Not compare to the PHB, it's better than that: "Compare your idea to what's in the world"

Now that majority of the time what's playable in the world will be what's in the PHB, it doesn't have to be the case all the time. This opens it up a bit more to powering up or down the playable races to be appropriate for what you want to play

I think compare to what's "in the world" is important for another reason: In the PHB it would be a very bad idea to balance race stats with role-playing penalties like "your race is often attacked on sight by most civilized races - you'll often have to hide your face to go anywhere or you will be attacked".

It's perfectly acceptable for a personal campaign world to do this though, if players and the DM want to balance a race with role-playing, they should feel free to do so.

 

[Joe Liker]

Good thing you're not in a snarky mood, huh?

But seriously, I don't think giving myself the best shot at making something cool that's neither over- nor under-powered makes me a bad DM.

That wasn't directed at you personally. I don't think you're honestly flummoxed by the balance issues, and I have every confidence that you can follow the examples.

Maybe I should start using the more formal pronoun "one."

 

[The_Gneech]

First, we don't know what is actually written. The note about balancing the eladrin's 2nd-level spell ability implies that there was more detail about tradeoffs before this excerpt.

Exactly. We're seeing the end of a section, "an example in use" so to speak, not the section itself. There's probably more to it than this.

-The Gneech