Summary
Dungeons and Dragonshas a wealth of options spread across all of its books and online material, providing boundlesscharacter creation choices players need to take into considerationwhen they are preparing to get started in a campaign. While most might stick with the humanoid options presented in the player’s handbook, others might want to broaden their horizons a little, such as choosing a monster race.
Most monsters tend to be restricted for DM use only, but there are those available for players across multiple sourcebooks. Playing one of these races can add the challenge of people not trusting them because of their nature, but it offers some bonus racial traits to aid in the play ofD&D.
Description
Natural Resilience
You have resistance to acid and poison damage, and you have an advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.
Shape Self
As an action, you’re able to reshape your body to give yourself a head, one or two arms, one or two legs, and makeshift hands and feet, or you can revert to a limbless blob. While you have a humanlike shape, you can wear clothing and armor made for a Humanoid of your size. As a bonus action, you can extrude a pseudopod that is up to 6 inches wide and 10 feet long or reabsorb it into your body. As part of the same bonus action, you can use this pseudopod to manipulate an object, open or close a door or container, or pick up or set down a Tiny object. The pseudopod contains no sensory organs and can’t attack, activate magic items, or lift more than 10 pounds.
Oozes and slimes are creatures thatalready exist inDungeons and Dragons, such as the infamous gelatinous ooze that slowly digests anyone unfortunate enough to get caught inside it. And now, thanks to Spelljammer, players themselves can opt to play as a Plasmoid, which is pretty much a sentient ooze, which not only opens the doors for unique RP but also gives the player some nice bonuses.
As a Plasmoid, they have resistance to certain points of damage, and because of the nature of their body, they can change shape or form to give themselves extra limbs or rid themselves of limbs entirely. While this may only have uses in specific circumstances, it could simply be fun to role-play.
Chameleon Carapace
While you aren’t wearing armor, your carapace gives you a base Armor Class of 13 + your Dexterity modifier. As an action, you can change the color of your carapace to match the color and texture of your surroundings, giving you an advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in those surroundings.
Secondary Arms
You have two slightly smaller secondary arms below your primary pair of arms. The secondary arms can manipulate an object, open or close a door or container, pick up or set down a Tiny object, or wield a weapon that has the light property.
Sleepless
You do not require sleep and can choose to remain conscious during a long rest, though you must still refrain from strenuous activity to gain the benefit of the rest.
Thri-kreen Telepathy
Without the assistance of magic, you’re able to’t speak the non-thri-kreen languages you know. Instead, you use telepathy to convey your thoughts. You have the magical ability to transmit your thoughts mentally to willing creatures within 120 feet of yourself. A contacted creature doesn’t need to share a language with you to understand your thoughts, but it must be able to understand at least one language. Your telepathic link to a creature is broken if you and the creature move more than 120 feet apart, if either of you is incapacitated, or if either of you mentally breaks the contact (no action required).
The Spelljammer book has given players and DMs quite a few new shiny toys to play with, such as the human-insect hybrid creatures called Thri-kreen, which have also appeared in Eberron. Though insects are surely not everyone’s favorite creatures in the world, playing as one of these critters isn’t without merit.
They have a carapace which can act as armor, shielding them from harm, extra limbs allowing them to multitask, they don’t require sleep as other species do, and they can telepathically convey their thoughts to friends and allies, which can be handy when sharing information they don’t want widely known to the rest of the party, or plotting in front of an enemy.
You don’t need to breathe.
Spider Climb
You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. In addition, at 3rd level, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free.
Vampiric Bite
Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have an advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite.
When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:
You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Surprise Attack
If you hit a creature with an attack roll, the creature takes an extra 2d6 damage if it hasn’t taken a turn yet in the current combat.
Van Richten’s introduced lineages, which players could add on to their base race, but replace the benefits with those given by the lineage, making it pretty much a race in its own right. As popular monsters within the worlds ofDungeons and Dragons, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility to imagine that players might want to don a set of fangs themselves.
Though there is as of yet no official race for a full-fledged vampire, players could still choose to be a dhampir, gaining traits such as not needing to breathe, being able to spider climb up surfaces, and a vampiric bite that injures the bite victim while healing the biter. All these traits will make a player feel as though they are playing a vampire anyway.
Long-Limbed
When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
Powerful Build
You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Sneaky
You are proficient in the Stealth skill. In addition, without squeezing, you can move through and stop in a space large enough for a Small creature.
Teaming up with goblins more often than not, Bugbears are the bigger, more powerful type of goblinoids, and often take up leadership roles among the group, exerting their strength and size over the smaller, more diminutive goblins. Not known for their friendliness, that can change in the hands of the right player, as now there are official character creation rules for Bugbears.
As one might expect, most of the traits for Bugbears revolvemore around strength than smarts. Bugbears have an extended reach over most other species, are able to carry more, can surprisingly sneak through small spaces, and can get the jump on their foes with a crushing blow against an unprepared enemy.
Construct Anatomy
Even though you were constructed, you are a living creature. You are immune to nonmagical diseases. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal. You can still be placed into a torpor by sleep-inducing magic.
Innocuous
Geppettin are generally indistinguishable from non-living dolls of the same type. Because of that, they can be very stealthy when required. You have advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks you make to appear as a mundane toy.
Valda’s Spire of Secrets injectssome much-needed whimsy, as not all monsters need to be frightening or gross. With the Gepettin species, players can choose to become a living construct rather than be cute and charming, but verge into the uncanny valley for many people.
As they are creations, they can’t catch diseases, don’t need to rest as most others would need to, and can try and disguise themselves as a toy. If players wanted to inject more of a monstrous nature into the Gepettin, they could always make themselves eerie, such as a two-headed bear plush with rows of actual sharp teeth, or an old and cracked antique doll whose antics lead most to thinking it is possessed.
Draconic Cry
As a bonus action, you let out a cry at your enemies within 10 feet of you. Until the start of your next turn, you and your allies have advantage on attack rolls against any of those enemies who could hear you. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Kobold Legacy
Kobolds’ connection to dragons can manifest in unpredictable ways in an individual kobold. Choose one of the following legacy options for your kobold:
Kobolds areone of the most belovedDungeons and Dragonsmonstersof all time, often being strangely endearing even when trying to tear the limbs off of players. Not being very strong monsters from the DM’s perspective, players won’t really get to see them much apart from the beginning of the campaign, when they are still a party of newbie adventurers. But for those who feel they are missing Kobolds, they can always choose to play one.
Thanks to some official sourcebooks, players are now free to choose to play one of these reptilian creatures, which has the additional bonus of bolstering allies in combat, and their draconic lineage manifests in a way of their choice, be it talent in more skills, boundless bravery, or even some magical persuasions. Not only that, are likely to be loved by the rest of the party.
Fury of the Small
When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell and the creature’s size is larger than yours, you can cause the attack or spell to deal extra damage to the creature. The extra damage equals your level. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Nimble Escape
you’re able to take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
Goblins have been a mainstayD&Dmonster for many years now, presenting a solid and reliable challenge for low-level players, being one of the most common and popular types of fantasy creatures. But now, they aren’t just for DMs to play with, as a player can now find them inmultiple source books, such as Monsters of the Multiverse and Volo’s Guide. Volo’s provides a much more solid playable race, ensuring players can take on even the tallest challenge in their small stature.
As stated in their flavor text, their small stature actually comes with a few unique bonuses, as they can cause extra damage to foes larger than them once per day, and on each of their turn they can evade danger by disengaging or hiding, as their smaller size allows them to slip away with ease. This makes them ideal for sneakier classes such as rogue, but creative players can make these traits work for any class.
You can breathe air and water.
Nematocyst
You have a long, barbed appendage, a natural weapon which you’re able to use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with this finesse weapon, you can deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice), instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Neurotoxin
As a bonus action, you can secrete a toxin and apply it to one weapon or piece of ammunition, which lasts for 1 hour. The first time you hit a creature with this weapon or ammunition, the creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus) or be paralysed until the start of its next turn. Alternatively, you can use a bonus action to inject the toxin when you hit a creature with your nematocyst. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.(Nematocyst only)
Toxic Adaptation
You have an advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage. (Nematocyst only)
Shimmerskin
As a bonus action, you can cause your skin to shimmer in a pleasing array of colors for 10 minutes. For the duration, you have an advantage on all Charisma checks. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
Hypnotic Phosphorescence
You know the minor illusion cantrip. Starting at the 3rd level, you can cast the Charm Person spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Starting at the 5th level, you can cast the suggestion spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. You can also cast these spells using any spell slots you have. (Shimmerskin only)
The Cnidaran is an interesting and unique species that has certainly looked towards the ocean for inspiration, as these creatures closely resemble jellyfish in terms of aesthetics and function. Broken down into two separate subraces, players have the choice of the Nematocyst and Shimmerskin, which both function in very different ways.
The Nematocyst is definitely for those looking to apply some hurt with their barbed appendage that can also stick their opponents with a toxin that can cause paralysis, a very dangerous condition to have in battle. The Shimmerskin is more for those whoprefer to charm their opponents, hypnotizing them with their skin or through magic.
