Christian Oesch’s DM Heroes page throws together a handful of racial/lineage options with descriptions that are not centered on combat. Additionally there are suggestions on how to connect them to each other.
Veklani Skandalor
Female Dwarf Cobbler – If it doesn’t kill you…
Veklani’s suggested traits are;
Features
70 years old (young adult) 4′2″ (128cm) Normal voice Speaks about themself in 3rd person.
Traits
Never changes their facial expression. Hates the government. Is happy because of a recent dream.
Story
Asks the party to help their become a cult leader. Wants to kill Erag Ambershard
Other
Prays to Dugmaren Brightmantle, god of discovery (CG)
If you don’t have time to custom craft a handful of minor NPCs just in case, this tool does wonders. It also can be a handy tool to get quick art for your PC, though you’ll need to spend time tuning the various sliders and such. Reroll, Hero Forge and others might be better for that.
Quick art for your characters, whether player or DM controlled, helps with immersion and inspiration. Find those tools that help you and your group enjoy the game most.
After many, many months of the covid-19 pandemic more people are playing D&D than ever. Much of this is online. Long-time players and D&D rookies both are discovering the challenges of gaming via video.
Ginny Di put together a strong 12-minute video that hits on the common challenges and solutions that come up at virtual tables. Even if your virtual table play is going well this is a good reminder. If you haven’t played virtually before the package is an excellent starting point.
When I watched this it reminded me of one my habits as Awf — I can dominate the channel rather than share the spot light. When I play as Thoumas, the group interplay is different. We split the party frequently, something that is harder to handle on a VTT, in my experience. Coordination requires a bit more care.
Her best piece of advice, at least for my groups (hi guys), is to use the text chat for out-of-character stuff. That clears space for the DM to manage the game. My second favorite is to schedule a little bit of the time pre & post game to communicate about non-gaming things. Be friendly and social with each other, because being social during the pandemic is hard enough.
Out in the lands of Mehmd mammals and avians are rare. Many of the ecological and domestic niches are instead filled by lizards, amphibians and dinosaur-like creatures. The Taien Sahul are small saurs based on the Velociraptor by Sam Stockdale at ENWorld.
In Mehmd they tend to roam the wilderness, though certain tribes of Unkempt in the South and the Isles use them as companions. When free they roam in packs of 9 or so (3d6). Their Pounce needs quite a distance in order to be used, but when the commit they tend to rush prey quickly. Taien Sahul can survive in deserts, having advantage on CON checks to deal with dehydration.
Taien Sahul – the ripper lizard Small beast, unaligned
Armor Class 13 (natural) Hit Points 3 (1d6) Speed 45 ft., climb 10 ft.
STR 7 (–2) DEX 15 (+2) CON 10 (+0) INT 3 (–4) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 7 (–2)
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4 Senses passive Perception 14 Languages — Challenge: ½ CR 50 xp
Keen Sight: The raptor has advantage on sight-based Perception (WIS) checks. Pounce: If the raptor moves at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hits with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 10 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If a target is prone, the raptor can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action. Pack Tactics: The raptor has advantage on an attack roll against a target if at least one of the raptor’s allies is within 5 feet of the target and isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS Multiattack: The raptor makes two melee attacks, usually using both claws unless they’ve pounced. Bite:Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4+2 piercing damage. Claws:Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4+2 slashing damage.
There’s a doc open on my computer almost every day. I’m crafting an original D&D adventure for a charity game come spring time. For that adventure I’m researching various tree-monsters. These are common in the fiction which is inspired by and that inspired Dungeons & Dragons. There’s Treants/Ents from Lord of the Rings and the Flying Forest and Sentient Trees of The Magicians.
Within the game there are Awakened Shrubs and Awakened Trees in the Basic Rules. Kobold Press introduces us to a Dragonleaf Tree, in Tome of Beasts for 5e.
But trees can help us with more than just monsters. They can inspire creative decisions. Look at this stand across the river.
There’s some scarring from disease, or something, several dozen feet up. Take a closer look at that.
Put your “not in the real world” hat on. What if that scaring was from a massive beast? What if the Giant Elk of this realm were so huge that their antlers (looking it up, yes elk have antlers) rubbed off that bark that’s a full 30 feet or so above the river.
What happens when a herd of them walk the river during logging season with their massive legs crushing through or between the barges? Or are these Elk the friends of your woodland dwelling elves, gnomes, goblins, or other races? Are they ridden like elephants?
The answers are up to you.
Trees are also our mighty connection to history.
Did you know the Mountaineer Tree on Five Mile Drive is about as old as William Shakespeare? He was born in 1564, that's over 450 years ago! pic.twitter.com/4vnpx0JH2z
Tolkien recognized that. The age of trees is why the Ents knew so much and also why they’d become peaceful and rooted. When you see so much life pass before you are the little lives so precious?
In the World of the Everflow, the Dragonleaf Trees are ancient, from the era before legends, when Dragons and the other Ken were part of the world of Kin. But they are also dying. A breed that is honored while also being forgotten. They do not seed. They do not spread. There are only twenty or so of these ancient trees left, with almost all of them in the Tree District of Qin.
When a tree is a millennia old what does that signal in your world? Are they like the trees of Solace in Krynn, with homes and workplaces scattered within the branches? Or is it a single tree from the time before time the sits alone in a desert, with roots that stretch hundreds of feet down and branches in the sky that reach to the clouds, a trade post surrounding this tree so big that it creates its own climate?
Every journey you take. Every book you read. Every show or movie you watch. Every song you here. Every social media post you scan.
They’re all inspiration for your world, your character, your dreams. Share them with your table.
When a new Unearthed Arcana drops much of the focus is on the mechanics. They are mechanical tests after all. In some cases the development team removes story mentions to not taint the survey results. This UA drop is focused on playing as Undead or Fey. The purpose is to test Dhampir (emergent vampires, kinda), Hexblood (emergent hags, kinda), Reborn (those that hover between living and dead, mostly).
The mechanics are intriguing. The Dhampir has a bite attack that uses Constitution for its damage stat, which makes sense. The Hexblood has a superior version of Message and Arcane Eye combo. Reborn are sleepless, with a kind of elvish trance available.
More important than the new racial options and mechanics is the sidebar titled Design Note: Changes to Racial Traits. Thanks to Justice Arman for calling this out on Twitter and forcing me to look deeper into the change.
Let’s take it piece by piece.
The first paragraph further emphasizes the small changes in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It’s a solid reminder of the product and the small steps already taken.
In 2020, the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything introduced the option to customize several of your character’s racial traits, specifically the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, and traits that give skill, armor, weapon, or tool proficiencies.
Paragraph two is a reminder that the work is not done. Forward all D&D books are removing those elements from races that are purely cultural, as well as the Ability Score increase. This will obviously, and *necessarily*, impact the current races (a change that will be simpler via DnDBeyond and other digital systems than those with physical books. There will still be physical and magical differences for the characters with certain races.
Following in that book’s footsteps, the race options in this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical realities of being a player character who’s a member of a particular lineage. Such traits include things like darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic shared by a lineage.
The final paragraph is a strong reminder that a character is not the normal part of any culture, species, lineage, or race. The player-character occupies a unique space within a D&D world. They are heroes or anti-heroes, not paragons of a racial group.
Finally, going forward, the term “race” in D&D refers only to the suite of game features used by player characters. Said features don’t have any bearing on monsters and NPCs who are members of the same species or lineage, since monsters and NPCs in D&D don’t rely on race or class to function. Moreover, DMs are empowered to customize the features of the creatures in their game as they wish.
The multi-year critique directed at D&D in regards to its history and legacy of racism and racial-tinged rules is having an impact — a slow one. This are necessary changes. Some of them are small. Some of them are big.
To borrow from Jemma Simmons, Agents of SHIELD, “The steps you take don’t need to be big. They just need to take you in the right direction.”
These are steps in the right direction. This is progress. The path forward is exciting.
