D&D (2024) Character Design Foundations With Bigger Budgeted Species (+)

[NotAYakk]

I had thoughts along these lines a while back, but I went in a slightly different direction: the base idea was "what if your race was worth a whole class level?" which led me to relate each race to one or more classes:

Dwarves were initially fighter-types (more focus on defense), though barbarian wild dwarves and monkish dwarves also showed up. Elves were half- casters but what kind of magic was set by subclass (wood elf = druid, high elf = wizard, blood elf = warlock, etc.) Halflings were roguish, gnomes were either artificers or something more fey-like, dragonborn were sorcerers and/or beast barbarians (but dragony), and planestouched were warlocks.

For humans, I ended up making them the cleric race, both because they needed a niche beyond "versatile", and because I hadn't found a cleric-y race yet. I liked the answer as it made humans a little more distinct while keeping them versatile (clerics can be a lot of things). It had some other upsides (ie justifying the human pantheon while more other races were monolatrist)

I never got around to writing out stat blocks (I was more interested in the worldbuilding implications) but it's an idea you could borrow.

The variant I rolled up was 3e style gestalt. Like, species was a class.

Elves would learn elvish magic along side whatever else they adventured as.

I then over complicated it. You had background/species, subclass and class.

Every 4 levels you got 4 class levels, 2 subclass levels, and 1 background level, 1 species level. Humans might get as their racial "2nd background" or whatever.

Multiclass PCs would swap their subclass for a 2nd class.

The problem was I find you want to establish identity for species/background/subclass early, which this mechanism didn't provide.

But the idea that high elves are all wizard hybrids was pretty neat. (and wood elves druid hybrids). The other class could be tweaked to be a roughly equivalent class but not identical (so the elf class isn't exactly the same as a wizard, just close).

High Elf: Wizard
Wood Elf: Druid
Halfling: Rogue
Dwarf: Fighter
Orc: Barbarian
Gnome: Artificer

It would generate a really strong species identity.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Gnome
Speed:35ft HP:12+1d6 Size:Small
Enhanced Senses: you have 120ft darkvision.
Gnome Cunning: you have advantage on all INT, WIS and CHA saves against magic.
Friend of Animals: you can speak to and understand animals and have advantage on all Animal Handling checks, once per long rest you can cast Find Familiar.
Nature Power: drawing on the power of your current environment you cause a specific magical effect to occur, it persists for 1 minute regardless of it's usual duration and does not require concentration or material components, you have one use per long rest, and can recover a number of additional uses, one per short rest, total to half your proficiency bonus per long rest.
Arctic - Sleet Storm
Coast - Warding Wind
Desert - Major Image
Forest - Entangle
Grassland - Expeditious Retreat
Mountian - Dust Devil
Swamp - Bane
Underground+Underdark - Darkness
Magic Camoflage: as a bonus action you can become invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack, make a damage roll or force someone to roll a saving throw.
Tricky Movement: instead of your regular move action you may instead teleport up to 25ft to a location you can see.

 

[Stormonu]

Gnome speed 35 feet?

 

[CreamCloud0]

Gnome speed 35 feet?

yep, their size isn't stopping these gnomes from being speedy little nuiscances!

the halfling has something similar. 25ft speed but can add 15ft with a bonus action mini-dash.

 

[mellored]

I would do species background and species feats.

That way you don't need to rebalance anything or worry about humans.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I would do species background and species feats.

That way you don't need to rebalance anything or worry about humans.

While I have no issues with using those methods they are not what I am currently trying to explore here, though there’s no reason they can’t be used in tandem to supplement species with their larger foundations.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Dwarf
Speed:30ft HP:15+2d4 Size:Medium
Enhanced Senses: you have 120ft darkvision, you also have 10ft tremorsense while standing on solid surfaces such as earth, stone or wood, you can increase the range to 60ft by concentrating, the range is halved when standing on semi-stable substances such as sand, mud or deep snow.
Dwarven Resistance: you have resistance against poison damage, additionally you have advantage on all CON saving throws.
Dwarven Endurance: you gain an extra +1HP at every level and when you take the defend action you can expend a hit die and recover HP equal to the amount rolled+CON.
Geokinesis: you know the Mold Earth cantrip, you can cast it as a bonus action, additionally when you take the attack action you may substitute one attack to cast Earth Tremor, when you use this ability if you have spellslots you may expend one of 2nd level or higher to upcast it, this ability recharges on a max d4 roll at the end of your turn, pick your casting stat for this spell from INT, WIS or CHA when you create your character, you may cast Earth Tremor as an action with your own spell slots if you have any.
Stable: you have advantage against being knocked prone and are not affected by difficult terrain resulting from earth or stone, this includes magical difficult terrain of those kinds.
Powerful Weilder: if you are proficient with any of the following weapons: Handaxe, Light Hammer, Battleaxe, Warhammer or War Pick you may treat it as if it has the finesse property, the thrown range of Handaxe and Light Hammer are increased to 40/90 for you, additionally you count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Defensive Master: while wearing armour or a shield that you are proficient in you gain an additional +1 AC for each.

 

[CreamCloud0]

although i still have tiefling, orc and goliath to go, to the people who are more adept at analysing the balance of these kinds of things may i ask, how you would rank and scale these reworks? are they good designs, who's at the top powerwise and who's at the bottom, is there much disparity in power in the selection, those sorts of things, as well as any personal opinions on the design choices made.

thank you in advance if anyone does this.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Goliath
Speed:35 HP:14+2d4 Size:Medium
Powerful Build: you count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift, you have advantage on all STR ability checks and saving throws you make(not attack rolls), additionally you can weild 2-handed or versatile melee weapons that don't have the heavy property in one hand.
Stone's Endurance: as a reaction when you take damage on your turn you can reduce the amount taken equal to your proficiency bonus.
Mountain Born: you have resistance to cold damage, you’re also acclimated to and ignore the negative effects of high altitudes, including elevations above 20,000 feet.
Giant's Toss: the ranges for all thrown weapons you use is increased by 50%, additionally when you take the attack action you may substitute an attack to grapple an adjacent target and if you are successful you may also choose to then subsequently throw that creature, a medium creature can be thrown up to 15ft and small or smaller creatures 25ft, if you have 18STR or more these distances increase by 10ft, if the creature is willing you do not need to grapple them to pick them up and they are not caused to become prone when they land.
Hammer Fist: your unarmed attacks deal 1d8 bludgeoning damage and you may use either the Push or Topple weapon mastery property when you hit with it.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Tiefling
Speed:30ft HP:13+2d6 Size:Medium
Enhanced Senses: you have darkvision for 60ft, you can see through magical darkness as if it were lightly obscured, you ignore light obscurement, heavily obscurement is considered light obscurement.
Infernal Magic: you know the cantrips Thaumaturgy, Produce Flame, Control Flames and Primal Savagery, you also know the spells Burning Hands, Hellish Rebuke and Arms of Hadar and can cast them without expending a spell slot at 2nd level, after you cast any of these three spells your magic must recharge by rolling a max d4 at the end of your turn before you can cast any of them again for free, you may also cast these spells normally with your own spell slots if you have any, pick INT, WIS or CHA as your casting stat for these spells when you create your character.
Hellish Resistance: you have resistance to fire damage, you reduce incoming fire, cold and poison damage by an amount equal to your CON modifier (after resistances).
Devious Tail: you may make an attack with your tail as a bonus action, when you attack a creature with your tail they must make a CON saving throw(DC=8+PB+CON) or be poisoned until the end of their next turn.
Clambering Grip: you have a climbspeed equal to your walkspeed.
Devil's Contract: magic of binding runs in your blood, if you make a verbal agreement with an individual you can enforce the terms of the agreement by as a reaction making them perform a WIS saving throw (DC=8+PB+CHA) when taking any action that directly contradicts the stated terms, if they fail they take (2+PB)d6 psychic damage, if they succeed they take half damage, you may only keep and enforce the terms of three agreements this way, you must declare to the DM when you keep the terms of an agreement at the time it is made.