My Attempt at Homebrew Races

[Bear_Jew67]

Hello everyone. I'm here to provide a few homebrewed races I've cooked up, or ripped and molded into something completely my own. I was hoping to get some constructive feedback on them, as I am currently a relatively new DM in a written campaign and have uninspired players who don't really lend me any feedback on my creations whatsoever. Here's me hoping I can get something great out of this community. I'll be editing this post with a link to the first few of them, and I greatly appreciate at least a comment on what this means to you.

Aasimar:
- Ability Score Increase: Your Charisma and Wisdom scores increase by 1 each.

- Age: Aasimar mature at the same rate as humans but they appear to stop aging in their mid 20's. They live a few years after humans.

- Alignment: Due to their celestial heritage, Aasimar are often good. However, some Aasimar do fall into evil, rejecting their heritage.

- Size: Aasimars are built like humans. While their human side allows for a veneration in physical appearances, their celestial heritage ensures that Aasimar always appear in top physical condition. Your size is Medium.

- Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

- Darkvision: Due to your celestial heritage, you have superior vision in the dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

- Celestial Resistance: You have resistance to Radiant and Necrotic damage.

- Celestial Legacy: You know the Light cantrip. Once you reach 3rd level you can cast Lesser Restoration, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Once you reach 5th level you can cast the Daylight spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

- Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Celestial.



Subraces:
There are three types of known Aasimar. Although not physically different in any way, these do have different specializations. They are known as Holy, Spiritual, and Winged.


Holy Aasimar:
- Ability Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by 1.

- Holy Warrior: Beginning at 3rd level, you gain +1 on damage and attack rolls with melee and ranged weapon attacks against creatures of evil alignments.



Spiritual Aasimar:
- Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 1.

- Holy Healer: Beginning at 3rd level, all healing spells restore an additional 1d4 hit points on top of what the spell would normally do whenever you cast a healing spell. You can also cast Healing Word a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of one). You regain all expended uses after a long rest.



Winged Aasimar:
- Feathery Wings: You have a pair of large, feathery wings growing from your shoulder blades. They have a wingspan twice your height, and you will need as much space on either side of you to lift off. They provide the following benefits
Glide: When/if you fall, if you are not grappled, restrained, stunned, or incapacitated, you can use your reaction to land safely.
Armor must be specially made for you because of the presence of your wings. Any armor bought will incur a 50% increase in value.
Flight: You can fly using the following rules:
Your speed while flying is 40 feet.
You cannot wear medium or heavy armor, or armor with which you are not proficient in, or carry more than half your carrying capacity (Strength Score x 15 in lbs.) while airborne.
If you take damage while flying, you must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is higher, or fall.

- Winged at Will: As an action, you can retract your wings into yourself or allow them to grow from the same area. You are unable to use this ability while wearing armor, unless the armor is especially made with enough space for your wings to grow.

EDIT: Removed links and placed only one race to see the response as I haven't seen anything yet.

 

[Bear_Jew67]

Here's another one.

Avariel:
- Ability Score Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by 1.

- Avariel Weapon Training: With intense training in the war camp, you are proficient with Javelins and Khopesh.


- Hollow Bones: Because of your nature as an avian creature, your bones are hollow. You have a vulnerability to Bludgeoning damage.

- Aerial Maneuvers: When attacked with a ranged weapon attack while in flight, you may make a Dexterity saving throw against the attack roll. If you succeed, the attack misses. You may use this ability a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses after a long rest.

- Feathery Wings: You have a pair of large, feathery wings growing from your back. They have a wingspan twice your height, and you will need as much space on either side of you to lift off. They provide the following benefits:

Glide: When/if you fall, if you are not grappled, restrained, stunned, or incapacitated, you can use your reaction to land safely.

Armor must be specially made for you because of the presence of your wings. Any armor bought will incur a 50% increase in value.


Flight: You can fly using the following rules:

Your speed while flying is 50 feet.

You cannot wear medium or heavy armor or armor with which you are not proficient in, or carry more than half your carrying capacity(Strength Score x 15 in lbs.) while airborne.

If you take damage while flying, you must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is higher, or fall.

 

[aco175]

They seem rather powerful and a few of the abilities skew the game balance. At 3rd level some asimar get +1 to hit and damage is powerful as well as flight on the Avariel, but this one is balanced by have vulnerability to bludgeoning damage. This vulnerability is hard to play since every encounter needs to be checked on type of damage and players may not want to play the race if this is in.

 

[Bear_Jew67]

They seem rather powerful and a few of the abilities skew the game balance.

What is it that skews the game balance? I've been playtesting both the Winged Aasimar and the Avariel within the confines of my campaign, and both players seem very satisfied with the results.

At 3rd level some asimar get +1 to hit and damage is powerful...

Granted, this does seem very powerful for a 3Rd level feature. What are your suggestions for balancing this. I do still want to leave the +1 to attack and damage rolls, but maybe limiting the scope to fiends and demons instead of ALL Evil aligned creatures will help balance it out.

...as well as flight on the Avariel, but this one is balanced by have vulnerability to bludgeoning damage. This vulnerability is hard to play since every encounter needs to be checked on type of damage and players may not want to play the race if this is in.

That's a fair point about the bludgeoning vulnerability regarding encounter set-up. On the one hand, I added this feature to balance out Aerial Maneuvers, which helps the race with certain ranged attacks. I also added it because every inherent flying race is like a bird, where they are adapted with hollow bones so as not to overexert themselves with flying, at least that's my point of view. In the early levels, this will definitely be a problem due to hit point constraints. But later on the only thing to worry about is from tough monsters themselves, and environmental bludgeoning damage becomes less of a concern. Granted, there's always the possibility of the player "playing it safe", but then I'm not a good DM if I don't challenge them a bit.

 

[aco175]

The aerial maneuvers ability of the Avariel uses a Dex save to avoid damage a number of times per day. I would make it grant disadvantage to the attack instead to avoid having to figure out the save DC and making it harder or random.

To make the Aasimar less powerful you should make the +1 hit and damage advantage on attacks a number of times per rest or per day based on Con modifier. Since they are already getting +1 to strength and resistance to two types of damage, granted weaker ones out of all the types. You could limit it to fiends only, but will limit the usefullness to what you DM and send at them. If you change it to advantage, you give the player control of when to use it and make it useful each day without making it too powerful.

The Spiritual Aasimar will likely be only used for a healer like the Holy one being used for melee types. An extra 1d4 per heal is great at lower levels and wears down at higher levels to be not so good. I would look at changing this to grant healing spells the max hp restored a number of times per day or per rest. You can always add caster level if this is weak.