D&D 5E List of All 33 Races in Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse contains 33 races compiled from previous Dungeons & Dragons books.

• Aarackocra
• Assimar
• Bugbear
• Centaur
• Changeling
• Deep Gnome
• Duergar
• Eladrin
• Fairy
• Firbolg
• Genasi, Air
• Genasi, Earth
• Genasi, Fire
• Gennasi, Water
• Githyanki
• Githzerai
• Goblin
• Goliath
• Harengon
• Hobgoblin
• Kenku
• Kobold
• Lizardfolk
• Minotaur
• Orc
• Satyr
• Sea Elf
• Shadar Kai
• Shifter
• Tabaxi
• Turtle
• Triton
• Yuan-ti

D&D 5E - Full List of Monsters in Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse contains revamped stat blocks for 260 monsters previously published in previous Dungeons & Dragons 5E books. The list was compiled by YouTuber Bob Worldbuilder based on some blurry screenshots originally shared by Nerd Immersion (see the video...

www.enworld.org

While reprinted, these races have all been updated to the current standard used by WotC for D&D races used in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, including a free choice of ability score increases (increase one by 2 points and another by 1 point; or increase three by 1 point), and small races not suffering a movement speed penalty.

The video below from Nerd Immersion delves into the races in more detail.

 

[Faolyn]

If your race has no effect on your effectiveness at any given profession, what does it do for you? Physical appearance and one or two tricks?

Assuming that by "tricks" you mean racial traits... well, yes. Also culture, if the DM or setting has create an interesting culture for that race.

I mean, my last few characters... For one game, which the DM described as starting out as sort of an AU of the Balder's Gate video game, I wanted to play a combat-oriented rogue, I really like the planetouched races, so tiefling swashbuckler. For another game, an Eberron game starting in Sharn, I had a hankering to play a fighter and I wanted to play an Eberron race, so I have a kalashtar psi knight. More recently, for Icewind Dale, I wanted to play a big character and I wanted to play a warlock, so after waffling between a goliath and a firbolg, I have a firbolg genielock.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with playing a race who benefits your class, which is why I'm all for floating ASIs. But as I said, you're playing an individual, not an entire race, so what your race is good or bad at shouldn't have an effect on what you play. If you go with that, you might as well decide to simply ban certain races from being certain classes, like in AD&D.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Assuming that by "tricks" you mean racial traits... well, yes. Also culture, if the DM or setting has create an interesting culture for that race.

I mean, my last few characters... For one game, which the DM described as starting out as sort of an AU of the Balder's Gate video game, I wanted to play a combat-oriented rogue, I really like the planetouched races, so tiefling swashbuckler. For another game, an Eberron game starting in Sharn, I had a hankering to play a fighter and I wanted to play an Eberron race, so I have a kalashtar psi knight. More recently, for Icewind Dale, I wanted to play a big character and I wanted to play a warlock, so after waffling between a goliath and a firbolg, I have a firbolg genielock.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with playing a race who benefits your class, which is why I'm all for floating ASIs. But as I said, you're playing an individual, not an entire race, so what your race is good or bad at shouldn't have an effect on what you play. If you go with that, you might as well decide to simply ban certain races from being certain classes, like in AD&D.

First of all, being mildly less effective than a member of another race at being a wizard (or whatever) is not the same thing as banning that race from playing wizards, no matter what people think.

Second, culture no longer has any mechanical widgets associated with it in WotC D&D, making it entirely the province of roleplaying and imagination. Both great things, but I'd still like some mechanical heft.

Third, I'm not sure why I'm even complaining about this. I should get back to converting D&D races to Level Up, a far superior origin system to anything mainstream D&D has ever come up with.

 

[Parmandur]

Yep. I think we've established it has a lot of advantages for those who sell. Because I usually side with those who buy, I am on the losing end.

It has plenty of advantages for people who buy...just not you or I. Millions of customers have differing needs.

 

[Nikosandros]

It's not for literally anyone who posts here

Guess I'll have to cancel my pre-order, then...

 

[Parmandur]

Guess I'll have to cancel my pre-order, then...

I meant literally figuratively...but forumites are probably not the core audience, in aggregate. I have no plans to get it right now, because I own Xanathar's, Tasha's, Volo's and Mordenkainen's.

 

[Nikosandros]

I meant literally figuratively...but forumites are probably not the core audience, in aggregate. I have no plans to get it right now, because I own Xanathar's, Tasha's, Volo's and Mordenkainen's.

I know, I just couldn't resist...

 

[Faolyn]

Again if you have an option in the DMG or wherever that says "your DM can let you play a character of race X but use the stats of race Y", or even a more granular "your DM can let you cherrypick racial features according to this point-buy table" then everyone stops complaining because any real or imaginary mechanical limitation is gone, without removing what makes default races distinct from each other for those who don't feel limited by them.

Sure, you can have that option, although I likely would find it unsatisfying. Let's go with an elf barbarian. If I'm understanding you correctly, you would have be play an elf using, say, an orc's stats. But that means I'm missing out on elf things, like Trance and Fey Heritage. I don't want to play an orc; I want to play an elf who rages. And then I can choose the ASI to match my idea, whatever it is. Maybe my elf who rages is actually more Dex-based than Strength-based, after all.

I'm sure there are people who would want to play an elf who has the abilities of an orc instead of the abilities of an elf, but I'm not one of them.

And sure, you can do a point-buy table, but I think that would annoy a lot of people since this is D&D, not GURPS or some other point-buy game. Maybe, in some future edition, races will be a bit more like in Level Up. Here are the biological racial traits that all members of the race has. Then maybe there will be lists of traits appropriate for biome/class type/background/culture/whatever, and you can pick some from those lists as well.

 

[HammerMan]

Sure, you can have that option, although I likely would find it unsatisfying. Let's go with an elf barbarian. If I'm understanding you correctly, you would have be play an elf using, say, an orc's stats. But that means I'm missing out on elf things, like Trance and Fey Heritage. I don't want to play an orc; I want to play an elf who rages. And then I can choose the ASI to match my idea, whatever it is. Maybe my elf who rages is actually more Dex-based than Strength-based, after all.

now this is interesting, because it is the trouble my group has A LOT!!!

I can refluff something (in your example orc for elf) but it totally falls apart if part of what you want is elf mechanics. And since rage gives advantaage on str checks and only give extra damage (raw) to str based attacks, that dex based rager isn't as good as it should be.

Now we house rule the heck out of this system, so I see no reason to not allow rage to go to finesse attacks and that CAN work (if you want to play a fast rager) but if your idea is to be a big strong hulking elf, that doesn't work well either. giving the +2 any and +1 any other helps... I would say removeing the stat mods helps MORE

 

[Malmuria]

The post below says using ASIs is "racist essentialism". Is that close enough? I wouldn't be surprised if there are posts in that or similar threads where someone defending them is personally being implied or said to be a racist after a back and forth that may have pulled in other things. I'm not going back through some of the threads to find them (googling ASI essentialism enworld would give a start). I'm not sure it's worth working that hard to get this thread locked.

D&D 5E - Ability Score Increases (I've changed my mind.)

It's time for me to eat some crow. I've been against separating ability score increases from race in D&D for some time now. My main opposition to removing it was because I felt as though it made choosing what race to play matter even less than it matters now.* But my character died tonight...

www.enworld.org

Just as a matter of definition, various races/species having inherent and universal qualities is essentialist. Especially in fantasy; dnd doesn't account for dragonborn having breath weapons on account of their biological evolution or social training, but because it's just part of their essential nature.

The discomfort comes in when the tropes that are used to describe those races match real world racist tropes used in the past. It's uncomfortable whether or not it's intentional, and whether or not it is intended as a joke (see the Orcs of Thar thread). It's not meant to reflect on individual players or even game writers/designers in any particular way.

 

[HammerMan]

The discomfort comes in when the tropes that are used to describe those races match real world racist tropes used in the past. It's uncomfortable whether or not it's intentional, and whether or not it is intended as a joke

the problem is that sooner or later when you want a group (race, alliance, guild, tribe, what ever) to have negative traits it is VERY hard to find any group of negative traits that no one has ever used against real world countries/religons/skintones

"I want my bad guys to be greedy an manipulative" doesn't mean I want to use the exact same FALSE and EVIL lies used against people in the real world.
"I want my bad guys to be strong short tempered and aggressive" but NOT that I want ANY association with real world people that have had that thrown at them.

I mean if I REALLY try I MIGHT be able to make a grouping of ones that real world people never got branded with exactly that combo... but then you can accuse me of just making a mix of X and Y real world peoples....

and right now we are at low hanging fruit. Race to Race, but how long before "cult of the beholder is just using the ____ stereo type"