D&D 5E NPC Features races as PC races

[JEB]

For those who don't know, page 282 of the DMG has this neat table with ability modifiers and features for several Monster Manual races. The idea is that you apply those features to NPC stat blocks to make them a member of said race.

What I'm wondering is, how many of these are viable for player use? Several feel too strong (deep gnomes) or too weak (goblins, kobolds, merfolk), but if some of them are already pretty balanced with the existing PC races, it would save DMs the trouble of making them from scratch.

(FYI, I asked Jeremy Crawford about this on Twitter, but no reply.)

 

[Fanaelialae]

Gnoll might work as is. I'd say the rest fall either into the too weak or too strong category, and need to be rebalanced.

I wouldn't underestimate kobolds though. Pack tactics is enough that I'd say they're in the too strong category.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I wouldn't underestimate kobolds though.

I bet hundreds if not thousands of players wish that they had said this years ago.

 

[The Grand User]

Why not run a couple simple adventures/dungeon crawls and see how they are, and if they're fine for your group just have fun using them in a longer campaign?