D&D 5E (2014) Alternative PC Races

[Anth]

In DMG, p282, there are about two dozens of NPC races. How hard is it to make these as PC races?
As the list contain common races like dwarf, elf, halfling, I compared these with the PHB: It seems that NPC racial abilities are off about 1½ feat (one ordinary feat + one feat that give you +1 in one ability, minus the ability increase).

Would it be balanced to use the NPC Races + 1½ feat* as PC races?

*The feats are of cource Racial Feats and something the DM have to decide for each individual race.

 

[damnbul]

I don't see it being unbalanced. As long as your DM see's it the same way., Have fun! I tend to rule whatever makes the game fun for the player(to a point of course). Not all DM's do that.

 

[Tormyr]

For our campaign, one of the players is a half-gnoll paladin of Heironeous. I took a look at the gnoll stats in the DMG, saw that strength was the best score followed by dexterity. I then looked at what would fit most with the other player races. In the end he received:

Ability Score Increase. Str +2, Dex +1
Size. Medium
Speed. 30 feet
Darkvision. 60 feet.
Language. Common and Gnoll
Rampage. As per the gnoll trait but a weapon attack instead of a bite.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I'm very curious what the other half of that "half-gnoll" equation was.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Would it be balanced to use the NPC Races + 1½ feat* as PC races?

*The feats are of cource Racial Feats and something the DM have to decide for each individual race.

I don't understand the question. Are you making up new feats for these races, and giving those abilities on top of the racial abilities listed in the Monster Manual? Or do players have to buy these racial feats, using the ability score increases gained from class levels?

 

[Anth]

I don't understand the question. Are you making up new feats for these races, and giving those abilities on top of the racial abilities listed in the Monster Manual? Or do players have to buy these racial feats, using the ability score increases gained from class levels?

On top of the abilities listed in the MM.

Lets take a look at the Hill Dwarf and what the PC has that the NPC hasn't:

Dwarven Combat Training: you have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, throwing hammer, war hammer.
Compare with the feat Weapon Master: +1 in one ability and proficiency in four weapons.
This is what I call a ½ feat as it has an ability increase.
This is also what I call a racial feat as all dwarf PCs are proficient with these weapons.
This is also a "flavor" ability, as a NPC dwarf would be proficient in whatever weapon you equip him with.

Tool Proficiency: gain one artisans tool proficiency.
Compare with the feat Skilled that gives three proficiencies.
So this is about a 1/3 feat, and also a "flavor" that isn't necessary for an NPC.

Dwarven Toughness: you gain 1 hp per level.
Compare with the feat Tough: gain 2 hp per level
This is a ½ feat, but also a racial feat as a dwarf also can take the tough feat at level 4.

So you could say that we take feats and redo them to racial abilities.
Also the feats would be "non-combat" feats just to get a flavor, ie things that normally doen't show up in a monster stat block.

 

[Tormyr]

I'm very curious what the other half of that "half-gnoll" equation was.

The long way to answering this question because I love this story. I should write it out somewhere so I can just paste it whenever it comes up.

Back in our previous adventure before our current Age of Worms campaign, the previous generation of heroes were travelling from Murder in Baldur's Gate to Legacy of the Crystal Shard. Our previous DM was frustrated with the sundering adventures and had us doing everything except get to Icewind Dale. We found ourselves travelling to a magical horse farm. Cale, the human druid went out into the pasture to talk with the horses to figure out what shenanigans were going on. As he stayed out there, he could tell that he was starting to change into a horse. He ran from the pasture, but not before he had an elongated snout, one long ear, and was hung like a horse.

The next week I filled in for the DM. It was only my second time doing this, and I had planned out a full session that somehow went mostly as planned. As they started, they were caught in a freak blizzard (start of The Legacy of the Crystal Shard. The party had lost their cold weather gear and were going to suffer levels of exhaustion, but the elf wizard player came up with the idea of going into their rations and smearing their bear fat all over as an insulating layer. Having done that, they pressed on and found a hut. The hut turned out to be just a cover for a stairway that led down to an underground hot springs and a village of gnoll aasimar. They were welcomed in and offered use of the baths. Cale decided to go look around and went off on his own. He ran into a female gnoll healer who was heading to the village square to help heal the party. Well, one look at how Cale was built and the aphrodisiac effects of the bear fat was all it took, and Cale found himself invited into her hut.

The party helped the village fend off an evil gnoll attack. Shortly after, I took over being DM for the group. The party made it to Icewind Dale and played the second half of Legacy of the Crystal Shard. During the wrap up exposition, the party learned that a gnoll had traveled with the first caravan after the spring thaw opened the southern pass. He told Cale that he needed to return to the village and discuss things of a personal nature with his lady friend.

So Rawrland son of Cale, the Half-Gnoll Oath of the Ancients Paladin, was the result of that. When Cale's player asked if he could play Rawrland in our new campaign, I had to say yes.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

On top of the abilities listed in the MM.
[...]
So you could say that we take feats and redo them to racial abilities.
Also the feats would be "non-combat" feats just to get a flavor, ie things that normally doen't show up in a monster stat block.

Ah, that should be fine. I was afraid that you were handing out the choice of feats, which would have been hugely unbalanced (in much the same way that the variant human is not balanced with the other races, or with the standard human).

If you're just adding three fun flavor features to the mechanics from the MM, then you should be fine as long as the mechanics in the MM are of a scale that's suitable for player characters

As a stop-gap measure, you could even just copy the Hill Dwarf - all monstrous races gain some weapon proficiencies, one tool/skill proficiency, and +1 hp per level.

 

[Redthistle]

Check out the alternative PC races developed by Remathlis before the Monster Manual came out:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?361168-D-amp-D-Conversion-Races

My advice is that you would want to use his work as a model, but make sure what you develop is compatible with RAW in the PHB and MM.

 

[Redthistle]

Tormyr, I love the imagination that went into that story twist. Gnoll aasimar? A half-gnoll offspring? I'm trying to picture that kid fitting into a typical child day-care.