5e Half Breed System

[Erniemist]

Half Breeds for D&D 5e

I noticed that in 5th edition there was no way to create half breeds of any two races, and that the half breeds given in the PHB were not completely derived from the parent races. For instance, the half-elf gets a bonus to charisma, where high elves do not. This system removes both the half-elf and the half-orc, and adds a way to generate a half breed of any two races. Essentially, you take the major traits of one race, and combine them with another.

Here is my list of major and minor traits by race, and some examples of possible half breeds.

Aarakocra
Major: +2 Dex, Flight, Speed 25
Minor: +1 Wis, Talons
Languages: Aarakocran, Auran

Svirfneblin
Major: Stone Camouflage
Minor: +1 Dex, Superior Darkvision
Languages: Undercommon

Genasi
Major: +2 Con
Minor: None; Genasi are defined primarily by their elemental ties
Languages: Primordial

Air Genasi
Major: Mingle with the Wind
Minor: +1 Dex, Unending Breath

Earth Genasi
Major: Merge with Stone
Minor: +1 Dex, Earth Walk

Fire Genasi
Major: Reach to the Blaze
Minor: +1 Int, Fire Resistance, Darkvision

Water Genasi
Major: Call to the Wave, Swim
Minor: +1 Wis, Amphibious, Acid Resistance

Goliath
Major: +2 Str, Stone's Endurance
Minor: +1 Con, Mountain Born, Powerful Build
Languages: Giant

Duergar - Dwarf Subrace
Major: Duergar Magic, Sunlight Sensitivity
Minor: +1 Str, Duergar Resilience, Superior Darkvision, Extra Language
Languages: Undercommon

Ghostwise Halfling - Subrace
Major: Silent Speech
Minor: +1 Wis

Variant Tiefling
Major: +2 Dex, one of Winged, Hellfire, or Devilish Tongue
Minor: +1 Int
Languages: Infernal

Shardmind
Major: +1 Cha and Con, Shard Maelstrom, Gemstone Construct
Minor: +1 Int, Crystalline Memories, Psychic Resistance, Thoughtspeech, Mental Realignment
Languages: Deep Speech

Minotaur
Major: Conqueror's Virtue, Horns, Goring Rush, Hammering Horns
Minor: +1 Strength, Labyrinthine Recall, Sea Reaver

Dragonborn:
Major: +2 Str, Breath Weapon
Minor: +1 Cha, Damage Resistance
Language: Draconic

Dwarf:
Major: +2 Con, Dwarven Resilience, Tool Proficiency, Speed 25
Minor: Darkvision, Stonecunning, Dwarf Weapon Training
Language: Dwarvish

Hill Dwarf:
Major: Dwarven Toughness
Minor: +1 Wis

Mountain Dwarf:
Major: +2 Str
Minor: Dwarven Armour Training

Elf:
Major: +2 Dex, Keen Senses, Fey Ancestry
Minor: Trance, Darkvision
Language: Elvish

High Elf:
Major: 1 Language, 1 Cantrip (uses Int)
Minor: +1 int, Elf Weapon Training

Wood Elf:
Major: Fleet of Foot, Mask of the Wild
Minor: +1 Wis, Elf Weapon Training

Dark Elf:
Major: Drow Magic, Sunlight Sensitivity
Minor: +1 Cha, Drow Weapon Training, Superior Darkvision

Gnome:
Major: +2 Int, Gnome Cunning
Minor: Darkvision
Language: Gnomish

Forest Gnome:
Major: Natural Illusionist
Minor: +1 Dex, Speak With Small Beasts

Rock Gnome:
Major: Tinker
Minor: +1 Con, Artificer’s Lore

Halfling:
Major: +2 Dex, Halfling Nimbleness, Speed 25
Minor: Brave, Lucky

Lightfoot:
Major: Naturally Stealthy
Minor: +1 Cha

Stout:
Major: Stout Resilience
Minor: +1 Con

Human:
Major: +1 to 4 Abilities
Minor: +1 to 2 Abilities

Human (Variant):
Major: +1 Feat, +1 Skill
Minor: +1 to 2 Abilities

Ogre:
Major: +3 Str (stacks with minor trait), +2 Con, -2 Int, Speed 40
Minor: +1 Str (stacks with major trait), -1 Wis, -1 Cha, Darkvision, Ogre Toughness (like dwarf toughness)
Language: Giant

Orc:
Major: +2 Str, Relentless Endurance, Savage Attacks
Minor: +1 Con, Darkvision, Menacing
Language: Orc

Tiefling:
Major: +2 Cha, Infernal Legacy
Minor: +1 Int, Darkvision, Hellish Resistance
Language: Infernal

Take the major traits from one race, and the minor traits from another race. Your DM decides from which races you can take traits, for instance most DMs will not allow ogres. Your DM also decides if you may only take major or minor traits from a given race, or if a certain pairing is unsuitable. You may not take two races where one is more than one size larger than the other. You may pick a subrace when you pick a race, and gain its major or minor traits in addition to the major or minor traits of the main race. You may not pick the major traits from the race and the minor traits from its subrace or vice versa. You may not make a halfbreed from two subraces of the same race.

Constructive criticism would be welcomed, as would any suggestions of major and minor traits for races not included in this document.

[Drakvor]

First of all, I found this very helpful, since I wanted to play a half-drow in my campaign. This system works well, but can you clarify how you split racial traits into major or minor? I want to know how to apply this system to homebrew races, or races you haven't covered.

For example, you assigned Human (Variant) major trait as their extra feat and skill while making their ability score bonuses a minor trait. Is there a specific algorithm you follow to devise these?

Thanks,

[Erniemist]

I haven't used an actual algorithm for assigning racial traits, but I do have some rules. You can only get +1 to a stat from your minor trait, darkvision is always minor, and major traits are usually better than minor traits. For instance, if I were to do Aasimar, I would assign the +2 charisma as a major trait, and the +1 wisdom as a minor trait. Then I would make darkvision minor, and make Celestial Legacy major. Finally I would make Celestial resistance a minor trait, as it is usually less important than Celestial Legacy.

The finished product looks like this:
Aasimar
Major: +2 Cha, Celestial Legacy
Minor: +1 Wis, Celestial Resistance, Darkvision

[infinitum3d]

This is great for buffing but what about penalties? Any negative outcome for cross breeding?

[Oramac]

This is great for buffing but what about penalties? Any negative outcome for cross breeding?

Since no race in the 5e PHB, including the official half-breeds, has a penalty, I would venture that none of these should have a penalty either.

[JBPuffin]

I would argue that half-elves and half-orcs are more than just half-halfs because that's VERY boring. Half-elves are more than just part human part elves; they're a distinctive race all their own.
With that said, constructive criticism:

• Orc and Ogre are the DMG version, I assume? Those are not designed for players; I'd suggest using the half-orc's traits for the Orc, since they're quite desirable and DMG Orc has too many, and either scrap the ogre or make it fall in line with the other 5e races.
• You don't have anything regarding languages - I'd suggest saying that each race has a pool of languages, and that upon character creation you know Common and one of the languages from your racial pools. Also, I feel like humans should have extra language as a minor trait.
• Just to clarify, you get the subrace's traits as well as the main race's, right? If not, things get really confusing...
• No character should ever, EVER have more than +2 to a single stat. As someone who has several games under this belt at this point, believe me, it's not a good thing for the math for this to change.
• My takes on some of the other races:
  
  Spoiler: The Other Races

  Show

  Aarakocra
  Major: +2 Dex, Flight, Speed 25
  Minor: +1 Wis, Talons
  Languages: Aarakocran, Auran
  
  Svirfneblin
  Major: Stone Camouflage
  Minor: +1 Dex, Superior Darkvision
  Languages: Undercommon
  
  Genasi
  Major: +2 Con
  Minor: None; Genasi are defined primarily by their elemental ties
  Languages: Primordial
  
  Air Genasi
  Major: Mingle with the Wind
  Minor: +1 Dex, Unending Breath
  
  Earth Genasi
  Major: Merge with Stone
  Minor: +1 Dex, Earth Walk
  
  Fire Genasi
  Major: Reach to the Blaze
  Minor: +1 Int, Fire Resistance, Darkvision
  
  Water Genasi
  Major: Call to the Wave, Swim
  Minor: +1 Wis, Amphibious, Acid Resistance
  
  Goliath
  Major: +2 Str, Stone's Endurance
  Minor: +1 Con, Mountain Born, Powerful Build
  Languages: Giant
  
  Duergar - Dwarf Subrace
  Major: Duergar Magic, Sunlight Sensitivity
  Minor: +1 Str, Duergar Resilience, Superior Darkvision, Extra Language
  Languages: Undercommon
  
  Ghostwise Halfling - Subrace
  Major: Silent Speech
  Minor: +1 Wis
  
  Variant Tiefling
  Major: +2 Dex, one of Winged, Hellfire, or Devilish Tongue
  Minor: +1 Int
  Languages: Infernal
  
  Shardmind
  Major: +1 Cha and Con, Shard Maelstrom, Gemstone Construct
  Minor: +1 Int, Crystalline Memories, Psychic Resistance, Thoughtspeech, Mental Realignment
  Languages: Deep Speech
  
  Minotaur
  Major: Conqueror's Virtue, Horns, Goring Rush, Hammering Horns
  Minor: +1 Strength, Labyrinthine Recall, Sea Reaver
  

[Erniemist]

I've been away for a few days, so I haven't had a chance to reply recently.

To address everyone's points in turn:

1. There won't be any penalties for cross breeding specifically, but things like a halfling's 25 speed can carry over.

2. I didn't really like how half-elves and half-orcs worked mechanically, because they weren't standardised (and half-elves were op), and it seemed odd to be able to play half-orcs but not orcs. A DM could rule that these races work differently mechanically but giving them a distinct culture is easy to do without changing their stats.

3. Orc was pulled from a site on the internet, as DMG stats are usually deadly for PCs. I'll edit the page to give it half-orc traits instead.

4. Ogre is not balanced, nor was it intended to be. I liked the idea of half(minor) ogres, and strongly suggest limiting PCs to minor traits or banning ogres entirely. I wanted the feel of a half ogre, like Rexxar, but didn't want to put just minor traits up.

5. I was planning to only keep the major race's languages, but this seems like a more sensible solution. Editing page.

6. That's right, but I couldn't think of the best way to express that.

7. Your right, I totally missed things like picking lightfoot-forest gnome to get +3 dex. I can't think of a way to balance this, so I'll keep it as it is until someone suggests something better or I think of a solution. In the meantime I'll trust to 5e's stat caps.

8. Adding more races.
Thank you for the critiscism, it's been very helpful.

[Thrythlind]

I would keep Half-Elves and Half-Orcs as their own thing. Both species have their own self-sufficient communities in several campaign settings. As such, they've possibly developed their own cultures independent of the orc, elven and human cultures.

Also, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide has suggestions for doing variant half-elves, but I see you already implemented those.

I've considered doing something like this myself.

In my prior 3.X campaign I had 14 races which were along the same idea as humans, elves, and so on but were distinct in some mechanical ways. For half-breeds I had feats representing the father's race (children always came out as the mother's race but with some touch of their father's blood via the feat).

Fantasy AGE works similarly where a character who is a half-race rolls once on their primary race's bonus chart and once on their secondary race's bonus chart to get their character's racial bonuses.

I know my brother is currently playing where each race gets to start with one of a selection of Feats (yes, in 5e). In that system, granting access to another race's Feats would work.

My current thought on how to do half-breeds across the board is via the subrace system.

Give every species a primary modifer set and a set of subraces...then for half-breeds just choose the subrace of another species.

This is partly what you are doing though to a limited degree.

[Kirv drachalbor]

Hey I have a acid dragonborn that is a warlock/ artificer multiclass but I was wondering would it be possible to convert my acid dragonborn into a cross breed that is half acid dragonborn half fire dragonborn but I don't know how to go about it coz my character has already been built up and I don't know how the breath attacks and things like that work with two ansestris Plz could someone explain it to me coz my dm is also struggling coz I don't want to do homebrew because I don't like homebrew

[Erniemist]

Kirv, why do you want to be a half breed acid/fire dragonborn as opposed to just one of these types? How do you imagine this character existing and looking? These are important questions to work out a solution for your problem.

[Kirv drachalbor]

It will look like the acid dragonborn I currently am but as like a hidden atack he can use a fire breath as well as his acid but he could only use one or the other at once and I was thinking over having both coz I am always looking for new ways to try and reinvent my character and coz I can't find a helpful blog anywhere else and I have been following this website and the diffrent blogs for a while and I thought that coz everyone looks really helpful on here that I could try and find what I am looking for if possible

[Kirv drachalbor]

He is a level 5 warlock and a level 1 artificer so I could say that with him also being a mad scientist that one of his experiments was successful and he gained the fire breathing ability of a fire dragonborn

[Amdy_vill]

the only problem i see is being able to get a +3 in one stat but that is not too big. other races get better bonuses.

[Kirv drachalbor]

And with my guy being a dragonborn I have decided against the cross breed but would it be possible to fully unlock his ansestry and make his dragon half more powerful and possibly turn him into an acid dragonic

[Thundersteel]

Might I suggest a change in nomenclature from "half-breed" to "mixed ancestry"?
I dunno about you, but if my dad was a dwarf and my mom was an orc, I would probably take a fair amount of umbrage toward anyone who called me a 'half-breed.' It just sounds sort of... pejorative.

I sort of feel this way about the terms "half-elf" and "half-orc". I just started a campaign where I'm playing a half-elven swashbuckler who has a big chip on his shoulder about the term "half-elf."

[Kirv drachalbor]

My guy dose have a mixed ancestry on his mother's side they are pureblooded dragonborn his farthers said a pureblooded dragonic which is why I asked it it possible for me to unlock his dragonic side

[Sola Haze]

But what determines whether you get major or minor traits from a race?

[Tothas]

Liked these so much that I made a spreadsheet for them and making random hybrids. Then I went overboard made a stat roller as well.

Just have to get my post count up to share it here. Be back soon.

[Tothas]

I have returned. So here is the link to the copy of the spreadsheet I made to share with everyone.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

It has 3 sheets: Character Randomizer, Hybrid Randomizer, and Races

The Races sheet I filled out with the Major and Minor Traits as well as Languages for each race. These can be added to and will show up in the randomizer without any other alterations needed.

The Hybrid Randomizer has 2 checkboxes that generate a random major or minor parent race when clicked. There is also a section below to choose a specific racial cross.

The Character Randomizer has 3 racial sections: Random, Choose, and Hybrid. These are for reference when rolling up a new character. The Choose section has a dropdown menu that is auto-populated from the Reces sheet. The Random and Hybrid sections also have checkboxes to randomize them. Below them is the Stat Rolling section. Here you choose your stat rolling method. Select the number of dice to be rolled, size of dice (6 for d6s, for example), then check whether to Drop Lowest, Reroll 1s, or Reroll2s. You then click the checkbox next to Stats to randomize you stat array.

I would like to add to this, perhaps with another sheet with the full description of racial traits and have that feed to a final character sheet. Could even add in classes and spells, this rabbit hole goes deep.

[vikingsrock77]

Tothas, I have used this and love it. The only negative is the limited information but it definitely has all the basics down to make a decision on a fair build. I’m really happy with it. I was wanting to do a Dragonborn and an elf mix and this is a perfect way to get started.

Thanks

I have returned. So here is the link to the copy of the spreadsheet I made to share with everyone.

It has 3 sheets: Character Randomizer, Hybrid Randomizer, and Races

The Races sheet I filled out with the Major and Minor Traits as well as Languages for each race. These can be added to and will show up in the randomizer without any other alterations needed.

The Hybrid Randomizer has 2 checkboxes that generate a random major or minor parent race when clicked. There is also a section below to choose a specific racial cross.

The Character Randomizer has 3 racial sections: Random, Choose, and Hybrid. These are for reference when rolling up a new character. The Choose section has a dropdown menu that is auto-populated from the Reces sheet. The Random and Hybrid sections also have checkboxes to randomize them. Below them is the Stat Rolling section. Here you choose your stat rolling method. Select the number of dice to be rolled, size of dice (6 for d6s, for example), then check whether to Drop Lowest, Reroll 1s, or Reroll2s. You then click the checkbox next to Stats to randomize you stat array.

I would like to add to this, perhaps with another sheet with the full description of racial traits and have that feed to a final character sheet. Could even add in classes and spells, this rabbit hole goes deep.

[SaNe_anD_cHilL]

What would the minor/major stats be for a Triton? (I apologize if it's already been posted here.)

[Damon_Tor]

I would use the subrace system for this: for example, your race might be Dwarf, but you'd pick as your subrace "Wood Elf". Or you could use Elf as your race and pick "Mountain Dwarf" as your subrace. You'd have to set up some ground rules like "If your race/subrace combination would give you more than +2 to any one attribute, it gives you +2 to that attribute and +1 to another attribute of your choice instead" and "To determine your height, weight and expected lifespan, use the average the values of the two parent races."

This wouldn't be useful for races without subclasses, obviously. Half-humans have a long tradition of traits unique to them, and thus getting their own writeup (We've already got half-elves and half-orcs and we know Mul are coming soon)

[PopeLinus1]

Oh it's beautiful...

[ler.gan964]

It has 3 sheets: Character Randomizer, Hybrid Randomizer, and Races

The Races sheet I filled out with the Major and Minor Traits as well as Languages for each race. These can be added to and will show up in the randomizer without any other alterations needed.

The Hybrid Randomizer has 2 checkboxes that generate a random major or minor parent race when clicked. There is also a section below to choose a specific racial cross.

The Character Randomizer has 3 racial sections: Random, Choose, and Hybrid. These are for reference when rolling up a new character. The Choose section has a dropdown menu that is auto-populated from the Reces sheet. The Random and Hybrid sections also have checkboxes to randomize them. Below them is the Stat Rolling section. Here you choose your stat rolling method. Select the number of dice to be rolled, size of dice (6 for d6s, for example), then check whether to Drop Lowest, Reroll 1s, or Reroll2s. You then click the checkbox next to Stats to randomize you stat array.

I would like to add to this, perhaps with another sheet with the full description of racial traits and have that feed to a final character sheet. Could even add in classes and spells, this rabbit hole goes deep.

nice job!!! i really loved it!!

[Psithurariis]

Love this! I've been wondering why there are only half elves and half orcs in the PBH for a long time now. This seems like a great starting point.