5th Edition Playable Races
This article is about Kobold, 5e playable race. For other uses of Kobold, see Kobold (disambiguation). 5th edition Pointer A pointer is a short summary that points to published material. This material is posted under the fair use clause of copyright law. The Unofficial Description and any notes are licensed cc-by-sa.
5th Edition Playable Races
So I was thinking about how the 5th edition would handle half races of their common races (dwarf, elf, halfling, human) based on the way they are presented in the 3 books.Imagine if there was a setting with just these four playable races and their gods allowed them to interbreed with no societal bans against it. How would 5th edition handle it.DwarvesPhysically, 5th puts emphasis on them being short and stout. Mixing them with human or elf would maintain medium size but halfling blood should shrink them. Half human-half elves didn't lose darkvision so I'd imagine a half dwarf would not either.
They'd keep their resilience too.Mentally, dwarves in 5th edition are funny. For their possible three and a half century lifespan, dwarves don't get a base mental boost and the hill dwarves get theirs from 'senses, intuition, and resilience'. 5th edition say them 'slow to trust' and having a 'long memory'. It makes me wonder if dwarves just have traditional cultures or if they are mentally wired to no explore new ideas unless told to be clan, deity, or king. A half dwarf would probably be equally stubborn and hard of head unless the other side unlocks it (aka human). And even that may not be enough.ElvesWith the half elf statted out, there is more info use. Interestingly, the NPC half elf in the DMG puts the 2 attribute choices of the half elf in Dexterity and Intelligence.
So a nonheroic half elf retains elven grace and giving a human double life span boosts time to learn.Here's a funny discovery. 5th edition says elves live for centuries and learn new skills and arts with relentless focus. However their get no bonus skills proficiencies due to knowledge and their weapon proficiencies are from tradition.But make the other half human and boom.
Two skills and another language. It most mean elves love learning elven cultural arts and 'useless stuff.' A couple drops of human blood focuses that elven fever with human ambition and your half elf get skills.Therefore the way 5th would handle a half elf half dwarf would be scary.
Dwarven conservatism and stubbornness with elven refinement and focus. A dwarf-elf would be just obsessive about his favorite thing and have the grace, power, and toughness to pursue what ever it is.Halfling blood would probably shrink an elf to small and lock them out of bigger elf weapons. It might make them more inclined to act but they wouldn't that into skills.Halflings5th edition really just pushes halflings as short, communal, and practical. Physically they'd just be small versions of the base race.As for mentally, 5th puts halflings as kind, curious, brave, practical. So a being with half halfling blood would probably be the same and many cultures would push them that way.
But it would be easy to combine halfling curiosity and bravery with the mentality of another race (human) say 90% of them are low key but the last 10% (the PC version) are attributed to the 'Napoleon Complex' myth and are aggressive fearless overachievers. So much so that is a sterotype.So what are your thoughts? Expect to see them in a UA document? Anything I missed?
Eberron Shifter is your best betThe Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron has a new race,. Their 'Similar and Diverse' description gives great flexibility to their appearance:Shifters are similar to humans in height and build but are more naturally lithe and flexible. Their facial features have a bestial cast, with large eyes, flat noses, and pointed ears; most shifters also have prominent canine teeth. They grow fur-like hair on nearly every part of their bodies.The traits of the beast within affect a shifter’s appearance as well. While a shifter’s appearance might remind an onlooker of an animal, they remain clearly identifiable as shifters even when at their most feral.In particular, the Longtooth subrace:Longtooth shifters are fierce and aggressive, but they form deep bonds with their friends.
Many longtooth shifters have canine traits that become more pronounced as they shift, but they might instead draw on tigers, hyenas, or other predators.or the Wildhunt subrace:Wildhunt shifters are sharp and insightful. Some are constantly alert, ever wary for possible threats. Others focus on their intuition, searching within. Wildhunt shifters are excellent hunters, and they also tend to become the spiritual leaders of shifter communities.would likely be most appropriate for someone wishing to play a fox (or a fox like) race.
Dd 5th Edition Playable Races
RAW (Rules As Written):The Kitsune and Nekomata are yōkai from Japanese folklore. The WotC have incorporated very few yōkai into the D&D 5th edition multiverse.
5th Edition Races List
One exception is the Oni (roughly the yōkai equivalent of the Western troll or ogre). Based on this observation, it's (maybe) possible that WotC will include more yōkai at some later date. However, there are currently neither Kitsune nor Nekomata races in official WotC 5th Edition D&D literature.As @nitsua60 commented on your question, you should consult in 5th edition D&D first when determining whether the race you are looking for is playable or not.The closest you can find to the Nekomata are the Tabaxi, as @nitsua60 has already outlined in his answer. Homebrew:If you and the prospective DM of your group are on the same page (and the DM is willing to add a home-brewed race into the campaign), consider this:Kitsune:There's a Tumblr community called 'DnD 5e Homebrew' that has some home-brew classes/races inspired by popular fiction.
One such race is:If you follow the link, you'll find a three page playable race description, stylized to match official WotC 5th edition D&D literature, for the Kitsune. As far as I could tell, it matches the folklore. It's up to you to determine whether this home-brew class fits what you imagined the Kitsune race as or not.NOTE: For any home-brew race, don't assume they won't break your game. Before making a final decision, play-test them thoroughly. Make sure the group (especially the DM) is willing to deal adding that race into the campaign. Perhaps this will be less of an issue if your group isn't dedicated to the RAW.Nekomata:After a lot of Internet research, I could not find any well-designed playable race descriptions for the Nekomata. I even looked for the Bakeneko, since they are fairly similar yōkai (they don't share the transformative abilities of the Nekomata).
Tabaxi could be a good starting pointWhilst not foxes, the Tabaxi player race from Volo’s Guide to Monsters on pages 113 - 115 would be close to what you want. You can simply describe your character as being an Inumimi if you wanted to and state they are fox-like rather than cat-like.Here are the basic traits for the race. I have replaced all references of “cat” to “fox” for easy of copying, if you wanted to use stats based on the Tabaxi that is:Your tabaxi character has the following racial traits.Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.Age.
Tabaxi have lifespans equivalent to humans.Alignment. Tabaxi tend toward chaotic alignments, as they let impulse and fancy guide their decisions. They are rarely evil, with most of them driven by curiosity rather than greed or other dark impulses.Size. Tabaxi are taller on average than humans and relatively slender. Your size is Medium.Speed.
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.Darkvision. You have a fox's keen senses, especially in the dark. 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 colour in darkness, only shades of grey. Sure!You will need to talk to your DM first, though, because it's not available by default. Here are two ways you can play such a character:.Pick your favorite race, ignore the description, and call it a Kitsune (or nekomata).
So, build a character using the elf race statistics (or whatever other race you like), but ignore all of the description, and just describe your character however you like. You'll want to talk to your DM ahead of time, but this is really the easiest option. You preserve all of the balance, there's no risk of accidentally unbalancing the game, and the DM doesn't have to expend any extra thought (that's a good thing!). Changing story characteristics without changing any game-mechanical characteristics like this is called 're-fluffing,' and it's almost always the best option when you just want your character to look different.Import a custom race. The other answers have a few good sources, or you and your DM can work together to create something entirely new. This is harder, requires much more system-mastery, and requires a lot of DM attention.
If you only want a cosmetic change, custom content is usually an inferior option. When I created the Nyxad or Night Nymph, I reskinned the Half-Drow but gave them the option of choosing to have the drow darkvision/light sensitivity package instead of the elven darkvision package, chosen at char gen.You could arguably reskin a similar race for a Nekomata or Kitsune, though I'd imagine half-elf is a flexible starting point for either. I swear, for most kemonomimi and most cutesy seelie or unseelie fey, I recommend reskinning the half-elf of some flavor and representing your youkai type through your racial skill choices, class and background choices, and feat choice.Though I swear Half-Elves are the new 'reskin this race for a cutesy anime girl' race based on what I have seen, and it saves a lot of time spent homebrewing.