D&D 5E Custom races and tasha’s

[Warpiglet-7]

I wondered if anyone has any hard info about custom races and racial feats.

specifically, can custom races take elven accuracy, for example?

additionally, can/do custom races ever represent standard races, or are they representative of only new groups?

My question is due to some online discussion lauding the total decoupling of race and abilities.

thanks in advance for any info.

 

[Oofta]

There are only a couple of paragraphs on this in Tasha's. It's not exactly a "build your own race" like some other games have. You can swap around ability score increases and languages however you want, or swap a proficiency.

Proficiency	Replacement Proficiency
Skill	Skill
Armor	Simple/martial weapon or tool
Simple weapon	Simple weapon or tool
Martial weapon	Simple/martial weapon or tool
Tool	Tool or simple weapon

If creating a custom lineage you get variable trait.

Variable Trait. You gain one of the following options of your choice: (a) darkvision with a range of 60 feet or (b) proficiency in one skill of your choice.​

​

Outside of Tasha's I'd point you to the Dungeon Master's Workshop chapter in the DMG which basically boils down to "do what you want, just try to keep it in balance with the other races".

 

[Al2O3]

The variant features should not influence feats at all.

The custom lineages are entirely up to a discussion with the DM. I would default to "only new races", but I don't remember how clear the phrasing is.

 

[Necrozius]

I'm running a Humans only campaign using the Tasha's "build a race" option. To represent cool ancestries, I'm including the racial Feats. So a character could have vaguely Elvish ancestry in a land where elves are gone. Pretty cool.

 

[Azzy]

I wondered if anyone has any hard info about custom races and racial feats.

specifically, can custom races take elven accuracy, for example?

additionally, can/do custom races ever represent standard races, or are they representative of only new groups?

The book is very vague on much of this. The rules for custom lineages consist of a single sidebar. Here is the most relevant bits (the rest is just the options you can choose):

Custom Lineage
Instead of choosing one of the game's races for your character at 1st level, you can use the following traits to represent your character's lineage, giving you full control over how your character's origin shaped them:

• Creature Type. You are a humanoid. You determine your appearance and whether you resemble any of your kin.

So, maybe they can represent a standard race—with DM approval (the entire thing requires DM approval, anyways). If so, they should be able to use that race's racial feats. If not, then no.

IMO, the rules for custom lineages are extremely underwhelming.

Keep in mind that customized versions of existing races (where the ASIs are are asigned to nonstandard ability scores and/or proficiencies got swapped) would still count as that race for any purpose that is reliant on a specific race (such as racial feats).

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I really really like playing around with feats and thus end up human.

was thinking about a custom background which clearly would still let me play with feats. Was thinking about say a half orc which is maybe only 1/4 orc or perhaps going with a variant tiefling with a feat.

of course I could merely do variant human again. Many of my characters are not optimal for their purpose so I use feats to make them more viable.

I play blade pact warlocks a lot and dislike hexblade so moderately armored is nice.

but if I go with smites I am starved for invocations. The feat for eldritch invocations is tempting.

I really like the shadow magic feat and fey magic feats along with undying servant invocation. It helps with a panic button and extra spells for a warlock.

thr way I see it is if I want to play the style I want, and extra feat is almost mandatory....

I never go with eldritch blast and warlock as the main attack due for the sake of novelty for me. The custom race which I originally opposed would make me more likely to take a half orc or tiefling sort given the availability of the feat.

I have gone the mountain dwarf route of course and know I can multiclass but prefer not...

 

[Swarmkeeper]

As a general point of order, I'd say a custom race is not an elf and therefore could not take Elven Accuracy as a feat - or any other race-specific feat for that matter. That said, in a campaign where we said custom races were on the table, I wouldn't necessarily be averse to it if a player had a strong character background reasons for why "Elven" Accuracy should apply. Then again, I don't see myself including optional custom races in our campaigns any time soon.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

The full custom lineage rules for reference

 

[Warpiglet-7]

As a general point of order, I'd say a custom race is not an elf and therefore could not take Elven Accuracy as a feat - or any other race-specific feat for that matter. That said, in a campaign where we said custom races were on the table, I wouldn't necessarily be averse to it if a player had a strong character background reasons for why "Elven" Accuracy should apply. Then again, I don't see myself including optional custom races in our campaigns any time soon.

Yeah. I think that is reasonable. I really like variant human but was thinking something at least visually a bit different. I think if you are different enough to not take the original race you probably should not benefit from racial feats.

however I had previously wondered what you might be if your parents were half elf and half orc respectively.

I worked up a Paladin like that and simply said half orc though the custom race might be the way in this case.

I was pretty interested in the scag tiefling appearance and variety. The custom might help with expanding such options...I dunno.

but for my odd builds I usually need the extra feat at one. I like taking armored characters without multiclass if etc so one is sunk at the start...

 

[DND_Reborn]

The book is very vague on much of this.

WHAT!?!

In 5E? Perish the thought!