Greywander
2021-09-26, 09:16 PM
I made a formal write-up of this homebrew. Honestly, I think this might be the best homebrew I've created so far. It's elegant in its simplicity and easy to use. Makes me think something like this should have existed in the official rules from the beginning. I keep finding myself using it in builds to help make a concept work, and I generally don't do that with homebrew since it will require DM approval. But it just works so well for that. Really, this is what the Custom Lineage should have been.
Linky: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15YWgujyRat5RWUKgZFDTuVn3189NNlfbtrEIv1jgHiM/edit?usp=sharing
TL;DR version:
Medium or small humanoid, 30 foot speed
+2 to one stat, +1 to another
3 racial traits of your choice
1 variable trait (darkvision and some other, generally weaker options)
Ignore race restrictions on feats
Common and one other language
Original thread in 5e forum: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?629700-Simple-custom-races
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?(The version under the spoiler is slightly different from the final version, I just posted that there for the people who wanted more context on the origins of this homebrew.)
Linky: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15YWgujyRat5RWUKgZFDTuVn3189NNlfbtrEIv1jgHiM/edit?usp=sharing
TL;DR version:
Medium or small humanoid, 30 foot speed
+2 to one stat, +1 to another
3 racial traits of your choice
1 variable trait (darkvision and some other, generally weaker options)
Ignore race restrictions on feats
Common and one other language
Original thread in 5e forum: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?629700-Simple-custom-races
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?(The version under the spoiler is slightly different from the final version, I just posted that there for the people who wanted more context on the origins of this homebrew.)