Questions for a Non-Human Game

[RingofThorns]

So I am looking to run a homebrew campaign for 5th edition where the only big restriction for the players is that they must play a monster or non-human race. So I am here looking for some recomendations on what races I might want to try and avoid letting players have due to being just too powerful and what books might be the most useful to have for running this particular idea.

[ReaperChaos]

By non- Human, I assume you mean anything with Human lineage. If that is the case, Half Elf and Half Orc should also be out, both strong choices for a character. Half Elf in particular is one of the best in the PHB. As far as other races related to Humans are concerned, there are actually a few. Tieflings are humans with an infernal lineage. Aasimar are the opposite, with a celestial descent. Yuan ti purebloods come from a race of reptilians who made expreriments and breeded with humans. As far as optimization goes, all of these races are good choices depending on the class you pick. I don't recall one of these being a universally mediocre race as far as optimization is concerned.


As far as books are concerned, do you mean campaign books to give you ideas or books with information on races, monsters and the like? If it is the second, Volo's guide to Monsters, Monster Manual and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes are very good.


Hope this helped a bit.

[RingofThorns]

By non- Human, I assume you mean anything with Human lineage. If that is the case, Half Elf and Half Orc should also be out, both strong choices for a character. Half Elf in particular is one of the best in the PHB. As far as other races related to Humans are concerned, there are actually a few. Tieflings are humans with an infernal lineage. Aasimar are the opposite, with a celestial descent. Yuan ti purebloods come from a race of reptilians who made expreriments and breeded with humans. As far as optimization goes, all of these races are good choices depending on the class you pick. I don't recall one of these being a universally mediocre race as far as optimization is concerned.


As far as books are concerned, do you mean campaign books to give you ideas or books with information on races, monsters and the like? If it is the second, Volo's guide to Monsters, Monster Manual and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes are very good.


Hope this helped a bit.

It actually helped a lot and for the idea, I had in mind, literally, anything that is not pure human is seen as a lesser race and the bad guys will try to enslave or kill it.

For a bit of explanation.

In an old 3.5 edition book there was a human deity named Zarus that basically the whole belief with him was that he was the most perfect being ever created even among the gods. The gods of the "lesser" races were basically jealous so they got together and poisoned him. Those that follow Zarus believe humans should be at the top of every kingdom and land because they are the best and most perfect race. Not entirely word for word but you get the point.

My idea is that a nation I was going to call The Zarusian Theocracy was a kingdom of basically nothing but humans and what few of the cities other races there were [i.e. elves, gnomes, and the like] are second class citizens at best if not flat downtrodden. The more monster like races are basically killed or enslaved on the spot, another kingdom near by but separated by mountain roads, passes, and valley's is inhabited by pretty much nothing but the other races and the monster races. I was going to have the party if they are all from different races or tribes be kind of a party put together and do some scouting to figure out who has been attacking villages and like along the borders.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Either give most enemies ranged attacks/flight or ban races that can fly at level 1. You will have that one player that really wants a winged tiefling/aarakokra. Either prepare for it or rap their knuckles with a ruler.

Yuan-Ti are kinda cheesy. Like, Kraft orange dust cheezy. Unless the player is going to seriously roleplay them, I wouldn't allow it. I'll make exceptions for players I think are going to do a good job playing a fun, sinister double-agent. I won't for anyone that just wants easy magic resistance and poison immunity.

If you're banning half-orcs for being part human, I might replace the orc statistics with those of a half-orc, or at least make that an option. They're strong, sure, but I wouldn't say overpowered. Orcs, meanwhile, are just... ehhhh…

I wouldn't have the same consideration for half-elves. Since you've removed humans and thus variant humans, you're a simple step away from removing all the AAA races (assuming you ditched the fliers, too). I'd do it on principle.

[RingofThorns]

Either give most enemies ranged attacks/flight or ban races that can fly at level 1. You will have that one player that really wants a winged tiefling/aarakokra. Either prepare for it or rap their knuckles with a ruler.

Yuan-Ti are kinda cheesy. Like, Kraft orange dust cheezy. Unless the player is going to seriously roleplay them, I wouldn't allow it. I'll make exceptions for players I think are going to do a good job playing a fun, sinister double-agent. I won't for anyone that just wants easy magic resistance and poison immunity.

If you're banning half-orcs for being part human, I might replace the orc statistics with those of a half-orc, or at least make that an option. They're strong, sure, but I wouldn't say overpowered. Orcs, meanwhile, are just... ehhhh…

I wouldn't have the same consideration for half-elves. Since you've removed humans and thus variant humans, you're a simple step away from removing all the AAA races (assuming you ditched the fliers, too). I'd do it on principle.

Basically when it comes to what is considered human, for the sake of the lore in the world anything that is not pure blood one hundred percent human is considered abberant and beneath them. Being half human still means you are half of something else, is that makes any sense. I mean lore wise I have even made it so the human nation looks down on things like sorcerers because normally they come from a blood line that is tainted.

[Vogie]

If you have a player that is 100% set on flying, but you don't want to die a little inside, allow Air Genasi from Elemental Evil. They get once-per-long-rest Levitate, which will scratch that itch without immediately destroying everything forever.

[MagneticKitty]

I'm playing in a campaign like this. Humans vs everything else. But same continent.
We've actually got some humans on our side (maybe in your world they don't follow the god) that don't think non human races are lesser. So up to you but certain humans may not be all bad.
Also check the planeshifts (free pdfs) for some ok races as well as ua for centaur and minotaur.

As far as homebrew, kobold press southland heroes have gnolls, minotaur, and an insect race that are fun

[Waterdeep Merch]

Basically when it comes to what is considered human, for the sake of the lore in the world anything that is not pure blood one hundred percent human is considered abberant and beneath them. Being half human still means you are half of something else, is that makes any sense. I mean lore wise I have even made it so the human nation looks down on things like sorcerers because normally they come from a blood line that is tainted.
That's fine. You'll probably get a half-elf player, but frankly, despite being overpowered, they're not as overpowered as variant humans. And variant humans aren't so overpowered that they see all that much banning.

I'd still totally axe flying players at level 1. If they really want it bad- let them have wings, but they don't fully function yet. At level 1, they essentially give unlimited feather fall. At level 5, they can fly in short bursts (1 minute per short rest). After level 11, they're strong enough to fly properly. By then you'll have a good enough selection of possible foes that flight won't be as crazy.