Long story short, I love the sheer variety of bizarre and alien races that D&D has put out over its lifespan. We've had everything from playable sphinxes and fairies in Basic to revenants and dhampyrs in 4e. So, I like putting my money where my mouth is and trying to convert races from past editions, or even Veeky Forums relevant media like Warcraft and Zelda, to 5e.
Challenge me with any race you like, and I'll give it a shot. Draenei? Moogle? Zora? Sphinx? I'll give it my best shot, if you got the courage to ask for it.
Have a crack at the Warforged and Changeling from Eberron. The UA didn't do them justice; the Warforged is OK but the Changeling is either boring or boring and broken depending on how you read the term "polymorph" and neither version has anything to offer you if you don't use the disguise power, which doesn't fit the theme of most of these guys just being folk rather than all of them being superspies.
Joseph Rogers
Shifters were also weak as fuck >+1 to one stat and transformation that at best gives you 1 attack that deals 1d6+Str as an ACTION
Jace Anderson
Raw Magic Elemental.
Samuel Green
Fun fact; Keith Baker put his own spin on the Warforged out there on his blog. I can certainly give them a shot, though... been wondering how to pull off the shapeshifting aspect myself in order to 5eify the Irda...
Anyway, I've a version of the Warforged I made for my own setting, but I figured you wouldn't want the extra 3 subtypes.
Warforged, Core: Ability Score Modifier: +1 Constitution Living Construct: A Warforged is immune to disease, has Advantage on saving throws vs. Poison, is Resistant to Poison Damage, and does not need to eat or breathe, although it can still consume organic matter if needed. Unsleeping Sentinel: A warforged needs only 4 hours of sleep per day instead of 8 to remain healthy. Additionally, whilst in its resting trance, a warforged remains fully aware of its surroundings. Integrated Armor: As part of a short rest, a warforged can integrate a suit of armor into it body. This prevents the armor from being removed until it spends another short rest doing so. Integrating a suit of armor allows a warforged to benefit from its protection without any drawbacks, even if it does not have proficiency with that armor type. Subrace: Choose between the Scout and Trooper subraces.
Warforged, Scout Ability Score Modifier: +2 Dexterity Size: Small Movement: 35 feet Vision: Darkvision Recording Engrams: A Scout can remember anything it has seen or heard with perfect clarity, unless magic is used to modify its memory. Stealth Unit: A Scout has Proficiency with Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Warforged, Trooper Ability Score Modifier: +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity Size: Medium Movement: 30 feet Vision: Normal Built for War: A Soldier has proficiency with Medium Armor and two Martial weapons of your choice. Hardened Systems: A Soldier is treated as being Acclimatized to extreme heat, extreme cold and high altitude, and does not suffer a penalty to Perception checks as a result of environmental factors like strong wind or heavy precipitation.
Bentley Russell
Warforged wasn't great, lower ASI for a +1 to AC.
Living construct is almost completely flavor since most people ignore provisions anyway, and I've never seen anyone who uses diseases.
>Integrated Armor mmm interesting you could be a monk with armor without penalties Though I liked better the old +1 to AC better, both options (old UA and these one) are very meh
Zachary Hill
>Better Technically. It's still garbage though.
Carson Morris
Regarding this, what's the closest thing to an average "value" balance of among the printed races that can be used as a baseline for homebrewing? Does it vary too wildly? How does that affect judging a customized race?
Xavier Flores
Alright... changelings weren't my favored race in 3.5, and I don't have my 4e books to hand, but here's a rough shot inspired by the changeling philosophies detailed in Races of Eberron:
Alternate Changeling Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Charisma Size: Medium Speed: 30 feet Vision: Darkvision 60 feet Slippery Mind: You have Advantage on saving throws against Sleep and Charm effects. Polymorphic: As a bonus action, you can physically alter your appearance to resemble another humanoid creature of the same size category as yourself. This grants you double your Proficiency bonus on Stealth or Deception checks based on disguising yourself as another creature. Your equipment is unaffected by your transformation. Creedo: You belong to either the Becomer, Passer, or Reality Seeker philosophy, which determines your remaining racial traits.
Becomer: Ability Score Increase: +1 to one ability score of your choice Identity Dabbler: You have Proficiency in one skill or tool of your choice. Duplicitious: You have Advantage on Deception checks.
Passer: Ability Score Increase: +1 to one ability score determined by your chosen race; this should be the ability score that is strongest in your chosen race (+2 value) if possible. Racial Mimic: Choose one race other than Changeling. You have only a single alternate form for your Polymorphic ability, which turns you into a distinct individual of the chosen race. When in your alternate form, you gain access to the racial features of that race, whilst retaining your Slippery Mind racial ability.
Reality Seeker: Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom Perfection of Form: You have Advantage on saving throws against effects that would petrify or otherwise physically transform you.
Brayden Morgan
>Integrating a suit of armor allows a warforged to benefit from its protection without any drawbacks, even if it does not have proficiency with that armor type. So, Wizard in full plate in exchange for race with no INT bonus. Interesting deal.
Jordan Reyes
This is fantastic. Well done.
Evan Turner
I'll be honest, I mostly did Integrated Armor for sheer nostalgia value, and I would definitely agree it's the trait most readily removed from the race.
Glad you like it! As I said, I struggled with this one, so I was really worried about it.
Have to step out and take care of some stuff now, anons, but I'll be back shortly. I'll tackle any requests left in the interim.
John Phillips
Wow, it's essentially Dwarves, but better.
Thomas Reyes
Stat 3 kinds of ponies. One type is magically adept and has a single horn, one type has wings and flies, the last is an earth pony with necessarily greater physical strength and constitution.
This is the best resource for homebrewing ANYTHING in 5e.
Kevin Gutierrez
So what's the downside to playing Warforged?
My main problem with all these added races is that they're nothing but straight upgrades to stats at character creation.
Alexander Cooper
Uh, how familiar are you with 5e mechanics? Because racial penalties haven't been a thing since 3rd edition, and good fucking riddance.
Carter Lee
>he hasn't seen the orc and kobold
Asher Peterson
I've seen them, and I want to punch the teeth down the throat out of whatever fuckwit thought they were a good idea. They're the shittiest races to actually see print, and make the Eberron Update races look like masterpieces of racial construction.
Luis Sanchez
How would you fix them?
Adam Taylor
Pureblood orc? Not sure; they made the Half-Orc so beefy in this edition it's hard to not see why you wouldn't just use its statblock as the full-blown orc statblock and call it a day.
Kobold? Well, there's two ways to go about that; go for a gloriously mutable kobold who can have different racial traits to represent draconic ancestry and tribal focuses, or just a simple kobold who doesn't combine two negative racial traits with a racial ability penalty and a racial trait that demands you play them as a snivelling coward to be mechanically effective.
For the latter...
Kobold Rework: Ability Score Modifier: +2 Dexterity, +1 Intelligence Size: Small Speed: 30 feet Vision: Darkvision 120 feet Pack Tactics: A kobold can use the Help option as a Reaction if it is within 5 feet of an ally. Sunlight Sensitivity: A kobold suffers Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks based on sight if it or its target is in direct sunlight. Trapmaster: A kobold with this trait has Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to detect traps, and on Intelligence checks made to disable traps. Additionally, once short rest, if a kobold triggers a trap, it can use its Reaction to transfer half of the damage it takes from that trap to an adjacent enemy. Cunning Tinkerer: As per the Rock Gnome's Tinker trait (see PHB pg 37).
Adrian Walker
Its going to be hard to make a rafe that isn't X but getter. We've hit most bases.
Gabriel Hill
How about mole/armadillo/pangolin folk?
Bentley Nelson
>Armadillo folk >+2 Str, +2 Con >15ft Burrow speed >Adds 30ft to Dash actions >Claws 1d6 >Darkvision
Robert Peterson
Just curious, give the Espers from Final Fantasy 6 a try. Specifically the more humanoid ones.
Christian Fisher
could I get some gorrila like men and shark niggas?
Levi Davis
Looks good, but I have some concerns. Doesn't Integrated Armor invalidate armor proficiency compleatly? As well as class-armor limits? Why not just have everyone have full plate all the time? You may as well give the benefit of unarmored 19 AC with stealth disadvantage, except that it's also "without any drawbacks". Monk using martial arts in heavy armor? Raging in full plate? Wizard casting no problem while dressed as a tin can? All allowed. Even within the race it doesn't work: Trooper gets medium armor proficiency, which is made irrelevant by the core feature. Perhaps limit this ability to armors in which one is proficient, and add the following rider to subraces: >Scout does not receive disadvantage on stealth checks from integrated armor >Trooper gets +1 AC with integrated armor (more as a callback than anything else)
Lastly, Trooper seems weaker. Scout gets >+2 to a great stat >Being small (could go either way, but the dex boost likely won't favor heavy weapons anyway) >+5 movement (despite being small) >Darkvision >Skill proficiency >Memory fluff While Trooper gets >+1 to two stats which are rarely used simultaneously (+2 Str, or +1 Str/+1Con would be better, IMHO) >Armor proficiency (invalidated by core feature) >2 martial weapons (actually very useful, but less so to anyone who uses only physical stats) >Environmental fluff Dropping out things that are rough equivalent (2 ASI's, Proficiency, and fluff) that leaves only the size difference, with Scout getting Darkvision and Speed as a clear advantage.
Sorry, I didn't mean to shit on it, but I fell this should be addressed.
Jaxson Gonzalez
Okay, first up, Integrated Armor was a legacy trait more than anything; it seemed a possible way to reference the whole "build armor, weapons and other contraptions right into your warforged" rules from older editions, so I'm not particularly happy with it myself.
Your version of Integrated Armor also looks a lot better.
As for Trooper, yeah, I kind of drew a blank for them becausse the Trooper subrace is supposed to be the generic "soldier model" Warforged, which gave it less cool stuff to draw on than things like the small, speedy, perceptive Scout or the big smashy Jaegar.
Aiden Reyes
Okay, suggestions:
Reduce Scout's speed to 25, or get rid of Darkvision to balance it out. Or, just give the Trooper more things. I'll compare the final product to other races.
Trooper >+1 Con, and +1 Str or Dex >Integrated armor allows ignoring speed loss in heavy armor > Prof in light and medium armor, and 2 martial weapons >Move the "Sentinel" part to trooper, leave the 4hr long rest for the core. >Something about marching? Reduce exhaustion? Ignore difficult terrain? The weather fluff seems a bit too much when comparing it to other races, which generally only get 1 environment. Probably not a big deal, though.
What about a 3rd class? Juggernaut: >+2 Str >Powerful Build >Integrated armor allows for +1 AC >Advantage on Athletics checks to move through another creature's space >If you move 20ft in a straight line towards a target before making an attack or shove, you gain advantage on that roll. >Double damage against inanimate objects (smashy smashy) >Living Weapon: 1d6+Str bludgeoning unarmed attack
