Simple custom races

[Greywander]

I don't know how many of you still play Age of Empires 2, but not that long ago an AoE2 Youtuber by the name of Spirit of the Law recently made a few videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd-MEP2p5iY) about making (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFamLoYmHFw) OP custom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU7uY_pboBE) civilizations using some fairly simple rules. I was thinking about this, and it occurred to me that something similar could possibly be done with races in D&D 5e, allowing you to build your own.

Of course, we have to abandon any hope of coming up with a system that is balanced. Making a balanced system would require assigning each racial trait a score and then giving you a budget of points to build a race with, which is a lot more work that what most people want to do, and even if you did then not everyone would agree with the scores given. So we're going to pretend that all racial traits have the same value, and leave it up to the players and DM to sort out which combinations should or shouldn't be allowed.

It makes sense to start with Tasha's custom lineage as a base for this. Since almost every race gets +2/+1, we'll give that here, too, and we'll also replace the feat with a number of racial traits. That number should depend on how many racial traits a race tends to have. This means digging through the books to see how many traits each race has. In the PHB:

Dwarves have 6: darkvision, Dwarven Resilience, Dwarven Combat Training, Tool Proficiency, Stonecunning, and one subrace trait.
Elves have 7 (though I'm not going to list them all anymore).
Halflings have 4.
I'm skipping humans, because they're aren't designed like other races.
Dragonborn technically have 3, but it's really more like 2.
Gnomes have 4.
Half-elves have 3.
Half-orcs have 4.
Tieflings have 3.

Average is 4.125 traits per race (skipping humans and counting dragonborn as 2). This is, however, including darkvision, which only the halfling and dragonborn lack. If we use the rule from Tasha's custom lineage where you can choose between darkvision or a skill proficiency, then that implies that the simple custom race should have three additional racial traits. We can also expand the option between a skill or darkvision to include some other weaker options that might work better for some concepts than either a skill or darkvision.

Thus, our simple custom race should look something like this:


Simple Custom Race Traits

At the DM's discretion, adjustments can be made beyond those listed here, such as changing your creature type or size. The DM also has final say over whether a particular combination of racial traits are allowed, or if simple custom races are permitted at all.

Creature Type. You are a humanoid. You determine your appearance and whether you resemble any of your kin.

Size. You are Small or Medium (your choice).

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Ability Score Increase. One ability score of your choice increases by 2, and a different ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Minor Trait. You gain one of the following options of your choice:

Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
Proficiency in one skill of your choice.
A cantrip of your choice; your spellcasting ability score for this spell is determined by which spell list you choose it from (see the Magic Initiate feat).
Proficiency with four weapons of your choice.
A natural weapon that deals 1d6 damage. Choose whether the natural weapon deals bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.
Proficiency with light armor.

Three Racial Traits. You gain three traits of your choice chosen from any race or subrace. These are named traits such as Fey Ancestry, Stonecunning, or Halfling Nimbleness. These traits can come from the same race or subrace or from different ones. You are not allowed to choose traits that increase ability scores or grant feats. You may rename these traits to something that better fits your custom race, so long as the effect of the trait remains the same.

You can also choose custom innate spellcasting as one of your racial traits. With custom innate spellcasting, you know one cantrip of your choice. When you reach 3rd level, you may choose one 1st level spell which you can cast once with this trait, and regain the ability to do so after you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you may choose one 2nd level spell which you can cast once with this trait, and regain the ability to do so after you finish a long rest. Choose whether to use Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Custom Racial Feats. You may ignore race restrictions on feats. However, you are limited to taking a maximum of two such feats. Some racial feats won't work without certain racial traits; for example, Bountiful Luck has no effect without the Lucky trait, and Dragon Fear requires a Breath Weapon. Generally, a racial feat that refers directly to one of that race's traits, by name, requires that trait in order to function.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

How does this sound as an option? My gut reaction is that it's quite a bit stronger than a variant human or custom lineage, though a lot depends on which traits you choose. Perhaps my gut is wrong. In theory, this should roughly balance with existing races, as long as you're not deliberately picking the most overpowered traits for no other reason than because they're so strong. This can also allow you to combine two racial traits you would never normally be able to get on the same character.

(Also, this implies that one half feat = three racial traits, which actually sounds about right depending on the specific traits chosen. This lines up with other half feats, which generally give a stat bump along with two or three other minor traits. We could split the difference and either go full feat = three traits or half feat = two traits.)

What are some OP, interesting, or thematic combos you can make with this? What kind of new builds might this open up? Would you allow this at your table, or play one yourself? Are there any racial traits that you would always/never choose?

[sayaijin]

My immediate funny idea was the light foot halfling trait, but they actually worded it such that it scales here:

Naturally Stealthy. You can attempt to hide even when you are only obscured by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.

I always assumed it specifically referred to medium creatures.

[kaervaak]

Radiant Soul from Aasimar for flight and bonus damage
Magic Resistance from Yuan-ti or Satyr
Pack tactics from Kobold

Honorable mention:
Constructed Resilience from Warforged
Natural Armor from Tortle

[thoroughlyS]

I'm not a super creative person, so my instinct is to use this to port in races from v3.5 and 4E. Off the top of my head, one race I've been dying to have added are the Thri-Kreen.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Size. Thri-Kreen are taller than humans, with some reaching a height of 7 feet. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. 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 color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Secondary Arms. You can grasp things with your secondary arms. They have a reach of 5 feet, and they can lift a number of pounds equal to five times your Strength score. You can use them to do the following simple tasks: lift, drop, hold, push, or pull an object or a creature; open or close a door or a container; grapple someone; or make an unarmed strike. Your DM might allow other simple tasks to be added to that list of options.
Your secondary arms can't wield weapons or shields or do anything that requires manual precision, such as using tools or magic items or performing the somatic components of a spell. (Loxodon)
Standing Leap. Your long jump is up to 25 feet and your high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start. (Grung)
Thri-Kreen Psionics. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the blur spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the invisibility spell on yourself once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest.
Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells. When you cast them with this trait, they don't require components. (Duergar)

All-in-all, I'd call this a solid adaptation. If I could, I'd add in their natural armor, but even without it I would still consider playing this.

[Greywander]

My immediate funny idea was the light foot halfling trait, but they actually worded it such that it scales here:

Naturally Stealthy. You can attempt to hide even when you are only obscured by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.

I always assumed it specifically referred to medium creatures.
That could have been pretty funny, but it's probably best they wrote it to scale with size. They probably did that because Enlarge/Reduce exists, and now it's possible for halflings to become Huge with the Rune Knight (instead of increasing your size by one step, Giant's Might simply sets your size to Large, and later, Huge). Can you imagine a huge halfling hiding behind medium sized party members?


Radiant Soul from Aasimar for flight and bonus damage
Magic Resistance from Yuan-ti or Satyr
Pack tactics from Kobold

Honorable mention:
Constructed Resilience from Warforged
Natural Armor from Tortle
Those first three would definitely make for a very strong race. I might consider swapping Radiant Soul for permanent flight, either from the tiefling or the aarakocra, but the damage boost from Radiant Soul is pretty nuts, too.

A lot of this would depend on the table. Some tables might be fine with one person playing an OP race (honestly, race has a pretty small impact compared to your class), or maybe everyone wants to play an OP race. If that's what they want, then that should be fine. For other tables, they might not care as much about being powerful, and instead use the customization options to help them realize a tricky character concept, or just to make something interesting and thematic.


I'm not a super creative person, so my instinct is to use this to port in races from v3.5 and 4E. Off the top of my head, one race I've been dying to have added are the Thri-Kreen.
[...]
All-in-all, I'd call this a solid adaptation. If I could, I'd add in their natural armor, but even without it I would still consider playing this.
This actually sounds like a solid way to use this custom race concept. If you're just porting races over, rather than building a character to play, you'll probably be less concerned with making something powerful and more concerned with replicating that race's abilities as accurately as possible. In fact, you could use this to design entirely new races as well.

What about using the Dragon Hide feat to get that natural armor? Seems they also have natural weapons, so you'd get that as well.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, that Minor Trait allowing anyone to get Shillelagh and use any ability score they choose with it is hands-down the best thing anyone could ask for.


A few are just so good that you want them on any type of character:

Pack Tactics from Kobold is an absolute must-have, nothing can really even compare. You don't even need to be close to the opponents, you just need an ally to be near them to benefit from this.

Magic Resistance from Satyr or Yuan-Ti Pureblood gets an honorable mention, as it's good on any character.

Animal Enhancement from Simic Hybrid is basically the only trait they get besides Darkvision, but it's two traits in one.

Constructed Resilience from Warforged is absurdly good, make up an excuse for why a humanoid has it (you're an Elan and are sustained by psionic power, you're some kind of Deathless who's come back to complete your purpose, etc.).


How about a best case scenario for a typically squishy spellcaster:

Flight from an Aarakocra is significantly faster than what a Tiefling gets, but can't be used in medium armor. That won't be a problem, see below.

Nimble Escape from Goblin is absolutely amazing for any non-Rogue that doesn't like to be in melee.

Natural Armor from a Tortle gives you a 17 AC that can benefit from using a shield, you can still fly, and you don't even need to put anything in Dex.

This means your minor trait can either be Darkvision, or four weapon proficiencies any number of which can be swapped for a tool proficiency instead. If you instead choose to be lightly armored and spend your minor trait on that (or make a Bard or Warlock or Artificer), you don't need the Natural Armor and can instead get something else.

Dwarven Toughness from Hill Dwarf is excellent on a small-HD character, and is likely what I would take in place of Natural Armor.


How about a melee character:

Aggressive from an Orc is really good for closing the gap.

Pack Tactics from Kobold because your primary schtick is making attacks.

For the last one pick between Winged (Tiefling) if wearing medium but not heavy armor, Flight from an Aarakocra if lightly armored or unarmored, Animal Enhancement from Simic Hybrid if any of them will benefit you, or Magic Resistance from Satyr or Yuan-Ti Pureblood otherwise.


What about a ranged martial character:

Pack Tactics from Kobold because your primary schtick is making attacks.

Nimble Escape from Goblin if you're not a Rogue, otherwise Mask of the Wild from Wood Elf or Naturally Stealthy from Lightfoot Halfling depending on circumstances.

You can't really beat Flight from Aarakocra since ranged characters generally max out Dex.

[thoroughlyS]

First of all, that Minor Trait allowing anyone to get Shillelagh and use any ability score they choose with it is hands-down the best thing anyone could ask for.
I agree that making every character SAD would get pretty boring, so I recommend tying the spellcasting ability score to the class list it comes from, like the High Elf.

[Greywander]

That's actually a really good point, I'd forgotten about Shillelagh. I've updated the OP to make the cantrip use the ability score that corresponds to the spell list it's taken from. You can still get Shillelagh using your choice of ability score by taking the custom innate spellcasting, but that eats one of your three racial trait choices.

I'm considering adding a natural armor trait to the list of minor traits, but I'm unsure what AC value to give it. 11 + DEX mod seems next to useless (it's better than nothing, but every class has "something"). 12 + DEX seems more reasonable, acting like free studded leather but falling behind magic armor. 13 + DEX mod is basically free Mage Armor, and seems like the lowest value that would actually carry you through to endgame, but might be too strong for a "minor" trait.

[8wGremlin]

That's actually a really good point, I'd forgotten about Shillelagh. I've updated the OP to make the cantrip use the ability score that corresponds to the spell list it's taken from. You can still get Shillelagh using your choice of ability score by taking the custom innate spellcasting, but that eats one of your three racial trait choices.

I'm considering adding a natural armor trait to the list of minor traits, but I'm unsure what AC value to give it. 11 + DEX mod seems next to useless (it's better than nothing, but every class has "something"). 12 + DEX seems more reasonable, acting like free studded leather but falling behind magic armor. 13 + DEX mod is basically free Mage Armor, and seems like the lowest value that would actually carry you through to endgame, but might be too strong for a "minor" trait.

Don't forget that all the Natural Armour options, can't be enhanced with magic, you get no cool magic armour to wear, it's set for life. Plus some classes AC is derived from the players stats, barbarian and monk, i'm looking at you, as well as some classes subclasses.

So I think having it a a trait, is fine.

Also as these are all minor traits, can we just drop the word minor?

[thoroughlyS]

I would do 13 + DEX. It is nice, but not good.

[8wGremlin]

You may have to have a points system for traits, instead of just single choices.
If you pick natural armour, 1 pt gets you 13+ dex mod, 2pts get you tortle armour etc.
As not all racial traits are considered equal.

See Spells of the Mark (Dragon marked races; Eberron) with High elf Cantrip

I think for a majority of my character, Flight (Aarakocra), Natural Armour (Tortle) and Spells of the Mark (halfling mark of healing?) with Darkvision would be seriously good on any spell caster.

[PrinceOfMadness]

You may have to have a points system for traits, instead of just single choices.
The OP is pretty explicit in saying this is not an option on the table for this discussion. Second paragraph.

I wouldn't personally allow this system at my table, because the most frequent outcome will be players choosing racial traits based on how good they are for their build rather than for how much sense they make for their race. I'd rather go to the work of homebrewing individual races as the need arises than try to completely homogenize races with a one-size-fits-all approach. I feel like different races should feel different.

[thoroughlyS]

I think the point of this thread is gauging whether or not this rule would work at a table. I think that as long as the player's are all on the same page as far as what they want their game to be about, this is workable. If everyone at the table uses this to make exceptional and diverse characters with fun powers then it's all good. If everyone wants to make flying, magic resistant, demigods and bend encounters over their knee, that's also fine. The only time this is a problem is when the player's don't agree on the game they want to play, which is something that should be discussed in session 0 anyway.

I think that the rule presented here can allow for a robust list of traits for any character.

[Greywander]

I think the point of this thread is gauging whether or not this rule would work at a table. I think that as long as the player's are all on the same page as far as what they want their game to be about, this is workable. If everyone at the table uses this to make exceptional and diverse characters with fun powers then it's all good. If everyone wants to make flying, magic resistant, demigods and bend encounters over their knee, that's also fine. The only time this is a problem is when the player's don't agree on the game they want to play, which is something that should be discussed in session 0 anyway.

I think that the rule presented here can allow for a robust list of traits for any character.
This sums it up pretty well. As stated in the OP, this definitely isn't balanced because it treats all racial traits as being of equal value when they clearly aren't. At the same time, trying to add further restrictions to which racial traits you can choose only makes things more complicated without necessarily getting you the balance you're trying to achieve, while also restricting those who aren't even trying to build something overpowered. That's why this is a "simple" custom race; the rules for customization are fairly minimal, making it easy to build just about anything, including over- and underpowered combinations. The onus is on the people at the table to build custom races that will work for that table; if you want a more complex system that enforces balanced customization, you'll need to look elsewhere or write it up yourself.

As with anything, there's also always some flexibility to tweak the design. Someone (you, actually!) was trying to build Thri-Kreen earlier, but couldn't fit in a natural armor trait. Well, you could just add one in anyway, giving them an extra racial trait. Considering that elves have as many as 7, a custom race with 5 traits could be fine, and the traits you chose aren't all that strong anyway. The write up in the OP seems like a good basis for designing a new/custom race, and if you're not quite happy with the result then you can tweak it by adding an extra trait or writing up an original trait just for this custom race, or even taking a trait from a monster instead. In a way, this isn't that different from something like Detect Balance or James Musicus' race guide. Both provide guidelines for building your own races, and the results aren't always balanced, either. What any of these systems does is give you a place to start and let you know when you might be outside the bounds of what an acceptable race design looks like. Giving a race only one trait, or giving them 10 traits, or being outside of the suggested score value for Detect Balance, all are signs you might need to do some more work on that race.

(Side note: One of the reasons why I've generally found the Musicus guide to be more useful than Detect Balance, despite being less "accurate", is its simplicity. Since the scale is rougher, many traits are given the same score when they're not quite the same value. But this actually makes it easier to compare things, quicker to tally up the score, and helps you to figure out where to bend the rules and step outside the suggested score ranges. I also find it easier to assign scores to custom traits.)

What I've learned from this is that a race should have between 2 to 6 traits, with 4 being the ideal. This helps keep a homebrew race from getting too busy with loads of custom traits. You can combine this with Detect Balance or the James Musicus guide to keep the score between the suggested values while keeping the number of traits between 2 and 6.

(I also started working a while back on my own Detect Balance-style race guide, assigning point values to each racial trait, including hypothetical ones that don't currently exist. I haven't touched it in a while, though, and I remember having a lot of trouble figuring out the best way to score things like move speed modifiers, e.g. -5 speed has a greater impact the lower your speed already is. At the moment, I consider this abandoned, though I may come back and finish it at some point. I just don't know that it would be substantially different from things like Detect Balance, at least, enough to justify the effort.)

[thoroughlyS]

I posted my own take on that a while back. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?625780-Detect-Greater-Balance-%96-A-Critical-Review-of-5e-Race-Design) But I can still appreciate the goal of this thread.

EDIT: You were actually the first person to reply to that thread. Small forum...

[Kane0]

This looks like a neat and tidy way of handling it, certainly more fun than Tasha's approach.

Up-in-your-face: Aggressive (Orc) + Hammering Horns (Minotaur) + Long-Limbed (Bugbear). Swap in Pack Tactics if you're feeling nasty.
Stack on the damage: Surprise Attack + Fury of the Small + Savage Attacks
Really casty: Tiefling Infernal legacy (or variant) + Drow Magic + Githyanki/Githzerai Psionics. You could pull the same trick tripling up on the RftLW Spells of the Mark features
Really stubborn: Gnome Cunning + Dwarven/Stout/Constructed Resilience + Dwarven Toughness. You could do the same with Yuan-ti traits but that just feels dirty.
Really resistant: Dragonborn/Goliath DR + Tiefling DR + Aasimar DR for 4 damage resistances. Take the Tiefling racial feat for two more because why not.
Really useful: Powerful build + Mimicry or Telepathy + Trance or Change Appearance
Really annoying: Lucky + Saving Face + Stone's Endurance (or Shifting)
Really mobile: Flight + Nimble Escape + Feline Agility
Really skilled: Pick three of Kenku Training, Changeling Instincts, Half-Elf Skill Versatility, Orc Primal Intuition or Cat's Talent for 6 skill profs, plus the minor trait for a 7th if you want

None of these really jump out at me as stupidly OP, but you run the risk of making yourself overspecialised or a one-trick-pony at the cost of flavor and ribbons.

[CTurbo]

Flight 50ft speed
Magic Resistance
Free cantrip
Lucky(Halfling)



Or I could have some fun and go

Size: Small
Speed: 35ft
Natural Weapons: 1d6+Dex damage
Long Limbed: Melee attacks reach an extra 5ft greater than normal.
Nimble Escape: Bonus Action hide or disengage


or a good old fashioned min-maxing hehe

Integrated Protection: +1 AC
Dwarven Toughness: +1 HP per level
Relentless Endurance: Once a day, don't die when drop to 0hp
Stone's Endurance: Once per short rest, subtract d12+Con when damaged
Magic Resistance: Advantage against all thing magic

[verbatim]

One that's legal with the existing custom origin system is:

Creature type: humanoid
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet.
Ability Score Increase. One ability score of your choice increases by 2. (Dex)
Feat. Eldritch Adept (Devil's Sight)
Variable Trait: Stealth Proficiency
Languages: Common + 1

with the additional options provided in this thread adding natural spellcasting that includes Darkness and Elven Accuracy would be really interesting on a Shadow Sorcerer or Shadow Monk build.

[thoroughlyS]

The rules presented here do not add on to the custom lineage in Tasha's. If you build a race using this, you don't add a feat to it.

[SeasideDruid]

I don't post on this site often but my friend recommended this thread and I want to try making a custom race out of the Cactacae, a race of cactus folk from DnD 3.5 which pulled from the books by China Miéville.

I'm open to suggestions.

Cactacae
- Humanoid
- 7-8 ft tall
- Avg. 400 lbs
- CON+2, STR+1

Natural Weapons: Your spines deal 1d6 piercing damage with an unarmed strike.

Sentry's Rest: When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn’t render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal. (Warforged)

Natural Armor: Due to your spines and the round shape of your body, you are ill-suited to wearing armor. Your vegetable skin provides ample protection, however; it gives you a base AC of 17 (your Dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number). You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you can apply the shield's bonus as normal. (Tortle)

Powerful Build: You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. (Firbolg)

[Greywander]

The rules presented here do not add on to the custom lineage in Tasha's. If you build a race using this, you don't add a feat to it.
Correct. Although I am a supporter of giving out a free feat at 1st level, so that would allow you to pull off such a build. However, this shouldn't be assumed in general, as it will depend on your DM. These are two separate houserules.


I don't post on this site often but my friend recommended this thread and I want to try making a custom race out of the Cactacae, a race of cactus folk from DnD 3.5 which pulled from the books by China Miéville.

I'm open to suggestions.

Cactacae
- Humanoid
- 7-8 ft tall
- Avg. 400 lbs
- CON+2, STR+1

Natural Weapons: Your spines deal 1d6 piercing damage with an unarmed strike.

Sentry's Rest: When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn’t render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal. (Warforged)

Natural Armor: Due to your spines and the round shape of your body, you are ill-suited to wearing armor. Your vegetable skin provides ample protection, however; it gives you a base AC of 17 (your Dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number). You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you can apply the shield's bonus as normal. (Tortle)

Powerful Build: You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. (Firbolg)
Looks good. My first thought is to use this to make a tanky caster, possibly one leaning toward being a gish. The natural armor can help you make a SAD monk or barbarian. STR builds can carry a lot of items, both because of Powerful Build but also because you don't need to carry your own armor (plate is quite heavy), though the natural armor seems to push towards builds that dump STR and DEX, allowing you to have good AC while focusing on just your spellcasting stat.

[SeasideDruid]

Correct. Although I am a supporter of giving out a free feat at 1st level, so that would allow you to pull off such a build. However, this shouldn't be assumed in general, as it will depend on your DM. These are two separate houserules.


Looks good. My first thought is to use this to make a tanky caster, possibly one leaning toward being a gish. The natural armor can help you make a SAD monk or barbarian. STR builds can carry a lot of items, both because of Powerful Build but also because you don't need to carry your own armor (plate is quite heavy), though the natural armor seems to push towards builds that dump STR and DEX, allowing you to have good AC while focusing on just your spellcasting stat.

Thanks for the feedback. I tried my best to lean into the Cactacae's original depictions and abilities while putting a fresh take on them. I'm currently jotting down my own lore about the race based on old resources I mentioned.

That being said I was mainly trying to lean them towards a race incline to melee tanks given they previously haven't been known to be inclined to magic (though I could certainly see a druid Cactacae being a thing). I was conflicted whether to give the them the Hill Dwarf's extra HP per level rather than the Tortle's Natural AC. Their lore tells they are quite resilient and have unusual bodies so I debated what traits could best represent this.

[Greywander]

I'd go with the extra HP in that case. A martial can get similar or even better AC from wearing armor, whereas most casters cannot. So the AC is basically wasted on a martial build. But extra HP is always welcome on anyone, including martials.

If you were to homebrew a trait, then maybe something like dealing 1d4 piercing damage to anyone who hits them with a melee attack (maybe only if they're within 5 feet, so reach weapons can bypass it). Seems very cactus-ish. Not too strong, but nice to have on a melee character.

I'm not familiar with this race, so I don't know what their traits are. Maybe you can reach deep into the lore and pull something out that makes them unique, more than just being cactus-people.

[SeasideDruid]

I'd go with the extra HP in that case. A martial can get similar or even better AC from wearing armor, whereas most casters cannot. So the AC is basically wasted on a martial build. But extra HP is always welcome on anyone, including martials.

If you were to homebrew a trait, then maybe something like dealing 1d4 piercing damage to anyone who hits them with a melee attack (maybe only if they're within 5 feet, so reach weapons can bypass it). Seems very cactus-ish. Not too strong, but nice to have on a melee character.

I'm not familiar with this race, so I don't know what their traits are. Maybe you can reach deep into the lore and pull something out that makes them unique, more than just being cactus-people.

I entertained the idea of a "damage on touch" ability like that but I tried to stay within the rules of the creation method. Besides most sentient races would more than likely be fighting with weapons rather than bare fists (they wouldn't be touching the spines directly is my point) so to me the logic wasn't sound. The reason I originally landed on the Natural AC was because of the spines but also their flavor text goes out of their way to point out how unusual their bodies are (like for one they have no necks).

But I agree that crafting/finding a trait that utilizes the spines would make a hell of a lot of sense. I couldn't stop thinking about the Battle Rager barbarian and its ability to cause piercing damage on a successful grapple.

[thoroughlyS]

I'd like to suggest the following format for the custom lineage, as well as the following additional options:

CUSTOM LINEAGE
Creature Type. You are a humanoid. You determine your appearance and whether you resemble any of your kin.
Ability Score Increase. One ability score of your choice increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.
Size. You are Small or Medium (your choice).
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Racial Traits. You gain three racial traits of your choice chosen from any other race, subrace, or racial variant. These traits can come from the same source, or different ones. You can't choose a trait that changes ability scores or grants a feat. You can change the name or flavor of the trait to better fit your lineage.
You can also choose custom innate spellcasting as one of your racial traits. With custom innate spellcasting, you know one cantrip of your choice. When you reach 3rd level, you may choose one 1st level spell which you can cast once with this trait, and regain the ability to do so after you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you may choose one 2nd level spell which you can cast once with this trait, and regain the ability to do so after you finish a long rest. Choose whether to use Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Variable Trait. You gain one of the following options of your choice:
a base walking speed of 35 feet
a climbing speed of 30 feet
a swimming speed of 30 feet and you can breath air and water
darkvision with a range of 60 feet
proficiency with light armor and 3 simple or martial weapons of your choice
proficiency in one skill of your choice
resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder damage
one cantrip of your choice from any spell list. Your spellcasting ability is the same as that class (your choice, if it is on multiple lists)
when you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor
a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage (your choice) equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

I left your wording for the custom spellcasting as is for now, but I'd like to revisit it later today.

[Greywander]

I finally did a formal write up of this homebrew. ThoroughlyS, I incorporated most of your suggestions into the final version. Here's the link to the thread on the Homebrew forums: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?636942-Simple-Custom-Race&p=25210841

Since I'm going to guess this thread will be locked, please take any further discussion over there.