D&D 5E Races in my Own Campaign World

[Whithers]

I have read the DMG and PHB in 5E. I have been looking online for days. Two things, which are somewhat related, have me baffled. The first is Feats - which I can't really get a grip on at all. There is nothing in the charts, instructions, etc. that definitely states how many feats a character gets during advancement. In Pathfinder 3.5, which is what I am used to using for the last few years, the chart on character advancement states when one gets feats. In 5E, if I understand it correctly, one has to give up ability point advancement for a feat - and then hope the best feat to get gives back the ability point one would advance. So, in Pathfinder, if I want to create a race there are specified feats and specified abilities according to the CR of what you are creating in order to maintain balanced play. I can't figure that out, find the right source, or there is nothing definitive enough for 5E. Below is my first attempt at a player character race. I used Pathfinder 3.5 and then attempted to convert it. I would like to find something for 5E. (Not including the full write up on this race in case I have a player reading here.)

ReptillianRace ATraits​

​	Males​	Females​
Ability Score Increase​	+2 Con​	+2 Con​
Starting Age​	7+1d6​	7+1d6​
Alignment​	CN​	CN​
Size​	Medium​	Medium​
Height​	50" + 1d10"​	48"+1d8"​
Weight​	150+5(3d4) or 165 to 210 lbs.​	130+5(2d4) or 140 to 170 lbs.​
Speed Base (Upright)​	25​	25​
Speed Base (All Fours)​	35​	35​
Respiration​	Deep Breathing​	Deep Breathing​
Vision​	Dark Vision​	Dark Vision​
Olfaction​	Scent​	Scent​
Scales​	Natural Armor +2​	Natural Armor +2​
Wrestling Training​	+2 CMD while Standing, +4 CMD while on All Fours​	+2 CMD while Standing, +4 CMD while on All Fours​
Bite​	1d6​	1d6​
Claws​	1d4/1d4​	1d4/1d4​
Languages​	Racial Language, +1 Local Language​	Racial Language, +1 Local Language​

Respiration: Deep Breathing, or the ability to breath deeply, is anecessity of speaking their language. Because the sentences are longslow exhalations, voiced or unvoiced, they are able to hold theirbreath 4x(Con Mod)+1 in rounds.
Vision: Dark Vision is the ability to see 60' in the dark.
Olfaction: Scent allows the character to do perception checks for thingswithin 30' with advantage if they are upwind and disadvantage if theyare down wind. It also allows the use of Survival to track based onodoriferous evidence.
Languages: Reptillian Race A adventurers normally know Racial Language and one Local National language. Draconic is also popular as a culturally revered language.

 

[KahlessNestor]

There are race creation rules in the DMG. I suggest not creating it in Pathfinder and converting, but rather using the existing system rules. They are very different games, and 5e is much easier. Races don't get feats. Player Characters do.

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[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[plisnithus8]

It looks like you are using Pathfinder vocabulary (low-light vision, bullrush, trip) instead of 5e which can be confusing.

If you are wanting repillians, Volo's guide has Lizardfolk PCs.

 

[Whithers]

The reason I am doing the 3.5 conversion is because the 5E rules - well, don't seem to be rules. I have read the DMG and the PHB and they tell me nothing I find usable. That is why I posted here. I would like some real rules or frankly some rules. My campaign is set on a world revolving around a sun which is the younger of two red giants in a binary system. I literally have an outline/overview of 10 billion years of history from which my races developed. I have conlanged foundations for about a dozen races and the cultures and histories of those races. This includes both draconian and lizard which are based in clicks and tones with very few standard consonants. (They are linguistically sound, I just can't always pronounce them - hence most humanoids don't try to learn their languages.) I have my own demonic and natural monsters in my own bestiary drawn from the cultures I loosely barrowed from to create my world (Akkadian, Candomble, Celtic, Greco-Roman, Hawaiian, Korean, and Zoroastrian).

And don't get me wrong. I love the looseness of 5E that allows play closer to what I started with some 40 years ago. That is great about potential player actions. But in order for players to have more choices, the base of rules for which their choices are contradictions or expressions need to be less nebulous - if only to keep the DM sane. So, I am looking for rules. If I understand correctly - there really aren't any.

 

[Istbor]

You are correct. To get a feat in 5e (aside from being a variant Human) you need to choose between a feat or an ability score improvement.

The upshot? Feats are typically 2-3 of 3x or pathfinder feats combined. Not only this, but ability scores cap out (naturally, this does not include magical enhancement) at 20. Ideally, you can cap your main stat and still be able to take feats, maybe even capping another. It makes for more meaningful choices in my opinion.

I don't like to nay-say, but really, use the rules for building races 5e provides. As others have pointed out, these two systems are pretty different, even though there are a fair amount of similarities.

 

[Istbor]

The reason I am doing the 3.5 conversion is because the 5E rules - well, don't seem to be rules. I have read the DMG and the PHB and they tell me nothing I find usable. That is why I posted here. I would like some real rules or frankly some rules. My campaign is set on a world revolving around a sun which is the younger of two red giants in a binary system. I literally have an outline/overview of 10 billion years of history from which my races developed. I have conlanged foundations for about a dozen races and the cultures and histories of those races. This includes both draconian and lizard which are based in clicks and tones with very few standard consonants. (They are linguistically sound, I just can't always pronounce them - hence most humanoids don't try to learn their languages.) I have my own demonic and natural monsters in my own bestiary drawn from the cultures I loosely barrowed from to create my world (Akkadian, Candomble, Celtic, Greco-Roman, Hawaiian, Korean, and Zoroastrian).

And don't get me wrong. I love the looseness of 5E that allows play closer to what I started with some 40 years ago. That is great about potential player actions. But in order for players to have more choices, the base of rules for which their choices are contradictions or expressions need to be less nebulous - if only to keep the DM sane. So, I am looking for rules. If I understand correctly - there really aren't any.

Give us an example of a rule you believe doesn't exist in this edition, and perhaps we can begin to understand what you mean. Because, I don't currently. There are rules in 5e, but a lot of the fiddly bits of 3x/pathfinder were replaced by DM rulings. I think it makes it easier to DM as I don't have to stop, and look something up or remember far too much corner case information.

 

[Whithers]

The Delete Button doesn't appear to exist.

 

[Whithers]

Give us an example of a rule you believe doesn't exist in this edition, and perhaps we can begin to understand what you mean. Because, I don't currently. There are rules in 5e, but a lot of the fiddly bits of 3x/pathfinder were replaced by DM rulings. I think it makes it easier to DM as I don't have to stop, and look something up or remember far too much corner case information.

Well, pretty much everything here at the Pathfinder SRD is an example of rules that are not there. Everything which calculates the CR effect from Race Points (RP) so that the DM can attempt to maintain game balance. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemasterin...ting-new-races

All I see in the DMG and PHB are nebulous descriptive non-functionary words. There is nothing solid with which to work. If I want to go touchy feel-ly and have no foundation for the story I am telling, no die rolls, just make it up and let the players think I am using rules - well then there is no reason to attempt to use the game. I could skip having any books or even dice and do that. I have read the books and there are no rules with which to work. I don't have a problem doing creative writing. What I need are rules to actually use in representing what I write.

 

[Whithers]

It looks like you are using Pathfinder vocabulary (low-light vision, bullrush, trip) instead of 5e which can be confusing.

If you are wanting repillians, Volo's guide has Lizardfolk PCs.

I have seen the Lizardfolk stats and they don't meet my race description. 5E doesn't appear to have any vocabulary, structure, rules, charts, method to assist in this.

I went up and edited my OP to dark vision and CMD. But if there were actual rules for race creation I wouldn't have had that problem. I would have had something to look at that would give me the correct options to pick instead of having to pretend elsewhere. And, frankly, I still think in terms of infravision and ultravision from 1E. If I were using the terms that mean what I mean then I would be saying they have ultravision.