Table of Contents
Optional Racial Traits
You gain racial traits based on the description of the race you choose. This section offers additional racial traits that you can gain as a member of that race.
Aarakocra
Sequestered in high mountains atop tall trees, the aarakocra, sometimes called birdfolk, evoke fear and wonder. Many aarakocra aren’t even native to the Material Plane. They hail from a world beyond—from the boundless vistas of the Elemental Plane of Air. They are immigrants, refugees, scouts, and explorers, their outposts functioning as footholds in a world both strange and alien.
Aarkocra Traits
As an aarakocra, you have certain traits in common with your people. Being able to fly at high speed starting at 1st level is exceptionally effective in certain circumstances and exceedingly dangerous in others.
Flyby Attack. Once you reach 5th level, immediately after you move at least 20 feet with your fly speed, you can make one melee attack with your talons as a bonus action and then move up to half your move speed without provoking attacks of opportunity.
Dragonborn
Born of dragons, as their name proclaims, the dragonborn walk proudly through a world that greets them with fearful incomprehension. Shaped by draconic gods or the dragons themselves, they combine the best attributes of dragons and humanoids. Some dragonborn are faithful servants to true dragons, others form the ranks of soldiers in great wars, and still others find themselves adrift, with no clear calling in life.
Dragonborn Traits
Your draconic heritage manifests in a variety of traits you share with other dragonborn.
Bite. Your bite is a natural melee weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to ld4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal damage for an unarmed strike.
Breath Weapon 2.0 (This trait replaces Breath Weapon) You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation.
When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your draconic ancestry.
The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. Roll a number of d8s equal to your proficiency bonus. On a failed save, a creature takes damage equal to the result + your Constitution modifier and half as much damage on a successful one.
After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Elves
Elves are a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it. They live in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires glittering with faerie light, where soft music drifts through the air and gentle fragrances waft on the breeze. Elves love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world.
Avariel
The avariel are winged elves. These rare creatures were more common when the worlds of the multiverse were young, but frequent conflicts with dragons much reduced the winged elves’ numbers. Still, a few colonies persist here and there in the Material Plane and on the Plane of Air.
Avariel Traits
Avariel are free spirits who would like nothing better than to simply soar on the currents high above the ground, taking in the views Faerun has to offer. They posses an irrepressible zest for life. Even in the darkest, most desperate situation, an avariel remains cheerful.
Avariel Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the spear, net, shortbow, and longbow.
High Elf
As a high elf, you have a keen mind and a mastery of at least the basics of magic. In many of the worlds of D&D, there are two kinds of high elves. One type (which includes the gray elves and valley elves of Greyhawk, the Silvanesti of Dragonlance, and the sun elves of the Forgotten Realms) is haughty and reclusive, believing themselves to be superior to non-elves and even other elves. The other type (including the high elves of Greyhawk, the Qualinesti of Dragonlance, and the moon elves of the Forgotten Realms) are more common and more friendly, and often encountered among humans and other races.
High Elf Traits
Your high elf character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of elven refinement.
High Elven Magic. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the detect magic spell once per day. Intellgence is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Shadar-Kai
Sworn to the Raven Queen's service, the mysterious shadar-kai venture into the Material Plane from the Shadowfell to advance her will. Once they were fey like the rest of their elven kin, and now they exist in a strange state between life and death. Eladrin and shadar-kai are like reflections of each other: bursting with emotion vs nearly devoid of it.
Shadar-Kai Traits
Shadar-kai have the following traits in common, in addition to the traits they share with other elves.
Shadowfell Ancestry. The Shadar-Kai's time in the Shadowfell has altered their physique. You have resistance against necrotic damage.
Wood Elf
As a wood elf, you have keen senses and intuition, and your fleet feet carry you quickly and stealthily through your native forests. This category includes the Kagonesti of Dragonlance, as well as the races called wood elves in Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms. In Faerun, wood elves (also called forest elves) are reclusive and distrusting of non-elves.
Wood Elf Traits
Your wood elf character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of elven refinement.
Camouflage. You have proficiency in the Stealth skill.
Genasi
Those who think of the other planes consider them remote, distant realms, but planar influences can be felt throughout the Material Plane as well. It sometimes manifests in beings who, through an accident of birth, carry the power of the planes in their blood. The genasi are one such people, the offspring of genies and mortals.
During a visit to the Material Plane, a mortal might catch a genie’s eye. Friendship forms, romance blooms, and sometimes children result. These children are genasi: individuals with ties to two worlds, yet belonging to neither.
Some genasi are born of mortal–genie unions, others have two genasi as parents, and a rare few have a genie further up their family tree, manifesting an elemental heritage that’s lain dormant for generations.
Occasionally, genasi result from exposure to a surge of elemental power, through phenomena such as an eruption from the Inner Planes or a planar convergence. Elemental energy saturates any creatures in the area and might alter their nature enough that their offspring with other mortals are born as genasi.
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Air Genasi
As an air genasi, you are descended from the djinn. As changeable as the weather, your moods shift from calm to wild and violent with little warning, but these storms rarely last long.
Air Genasi Traits
You have certain characteristics in common with air genasi.
Air Walk. Once you reach 5th level, you can also cast the fly spell once per day. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Elemental Legacy. The Plane of Air shows its influence through your body. You have resistance against cold damage.
Earth Genasi
As an earth genasi, you are descended from the cruel and greedy dao, though you aren’t necessarily evil. You have inherited some measure of control over earth, reveling in superior strength and solid power. You tend to avoid rash decisions, pausing long enough to consider your options before taking action.
Earth Genasi Traits
You have certain characteristics in common with earth genasi.
Merge With Stone. (This trait replaces Merge with Stone) Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the meld into stone spell once per day. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Elemental Legacy. Your harden body isn't as susceptible. You have resistance against poison damage.
Fire Genasi
As a fire genasi, you have inherited the volatile mood and keen mind of the efreet. You tend toward impatience and making snap judgments. Rather than hide your distinctive appearance, you exult in it.
Fire Genasi Traits
You have certain characteristics in common with fire genasi.
Embodiment of Flames. Once you reach 3rd level, you can engulf yourself in elemental fire as a bonus action.
Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. For the duration, you emit a 15-foot diameter of flicking fire originating from you. Any creature that enters the radius or starts its turn there must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take fire damage equal to half of your level.
Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Water Genasi
The lapping of waves, the spray of sea foam on the wind, the ocean depths—all of these things call to your heart. You wander freely and take pride in your independence, though others might consider you selfish.
Water Genasi Traits
You have certain characteristics in common with water genasi.
Control Water. Once you reach 5th level, you can also cast the wall of water spell once per day. Constitution is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Githyanki
Since winning their freedom from the mind flayers, the githyanki have become corrupt raiders and destroyers under the rulership of their dread lich-queen, Vlaakith. They dwell on the Astral Plane in the city of Tu'narath, a metropolis built on and in the corpse of a deity.
Githyanki Traits
The brutal githyanki are trained from birth as warriors.
Gith Training. You have proficiency in the Athletics skill.
Languages. (This trait replaces Languages)
You can speak, read, and write Common and Deep Speech.
Githzerai
Today, under the leadership of the Great Githzerai, Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith, the githzerai continue to stand fast against the githyanki plans for world domination, as well as taking their revenge on the mind flayers.
Githzerai Traits
In their fortresses within Limbo, the githzerai hone their minds to a razor's edge.
Gith Training. You have proficiency in the History skill.
Languages. (This trait replaces Languages)
You can speak, read, and write Common and Deep Speech.
Gnomes
A constant hum of busy activity pervades the warrens and neighborhoods where gnomes form their closeknit communities. Louder sounds punctuate the hum: a crunch of grinding gears here, a minor explosion there, a yelp of surprise or triumph, and especially bursts of laughter. Gnomes take delight in life, enjoying every moment of invention, exploration, investigation, creation, and play.
Forest Gnome
As a forest gnome, you have a natural knack for illusion and inherent quickness and stealth. In the worlds of D&D, forest gnomes are rare and secretive. They gather in hidden communities in sylvan forests, using illusions and trickery to conceal themselves from threats or to mask their escape should they be detected. Forest gnomes tend to be friendly with other good-spirited woodland folk, and they regard elves and good fey as their most important allies. These gnomes also befriend small forest animals and rely on them for information about threats that might prowl their lands.
Forest Gnome Traits
You have certain characteristics in common with forest gnomes.
Forest Trickery. Forest gnomes use illusions to conceal themselves. You know the minor illusion cantrip. Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the silent image spell once per day. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Svirfneblin
There is another subrace of gnomes rarely seen by any surface-dweller: deep gnomes, also known as svirfneblin. Guarded, and suspicious of outsiders, svirfneblin are cunning and taciturn. Unlike the duergar and the drow, svirfneblin are as good can be just as kind-hearted, loyal, and enthusiastic as their surface cousins. However, their humor and passion are dampened by their oppressive environment, and their inventive expertise is directed mostly toward stonework.
Svirfneblin Traits
You have certain characteristics in common with Svirfneblin.
Tool Proficiency. You have proficiency with cobbler’s tools and mason’s tools.
Half-elf
Walking in two worlds but truly belonging to neither, half-elves combine what some say are the best qualities of their elf and human parents: human curiosity, inventiveness, and ambition tempered by the refined senses, love of nature, and artistic tastes of the elves. Some half-elves live among humans, set apart by their emotional and physical differences, watching friends and loved ones age while time barely touches them. Others live with the elves, growing restless as they reach adulthood in the timeless elven realms, while their peers continue to live as children. Many half-elves, unable to fit into either society, choose lives of solitary wandering or join with other misfits and outcasts in the adventuring life.
Half-elf Traits
Your half-elf character has some qualities in common with elves and some that are unique to half-elves.
Dilettante. (This trait replaces Half-Elf Versatility)
Gain a feat from the following list: Eldritch Initiate, Fighting Initiate, Healer, Inspiring Leader, Lucky, Magic Initiate, Metamagic Adept, Resistance, Sentinel, Skill Expert, Skulker, Stealthy, Unarmored Defense.
Kobold
Kobolds mature quickly and can live to be "great wyrms" more than a century old. However, many kobolds perish before they reach the end of their first decade. Physically weak, they are easy prey for predators. This vulnerability forces them to band together. Their superior numbers can win battles against powerful adversaries.
Kobold Traits
Your kobold character has the following racial traits.
Live for Revenge. You can take the Disengage action as a bonus action.
Trapmaking. You gain proficiency with thieves' tools and when you use thieves' tools to set a trap, you deal additional damage equal to 1d6.
Minotaur
Minotaurs are strong in body, dedication, and courage. They are at home on the battlefield, willing to fight for their various causes. They combine a burning fury in battle with keen tactics that make them excellent commanders as well as valuable shock troops.
Minotaur Traits
Your minotaur character has the fo ll owing racial traits. These traits are also suitable for minotaurs in other D&D worlds where these people have avoided the demonic influence of Baphomet.
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 red.
Bull Rush. (This trait replaces Goring Rush)
As a bonus action, you can move up to half your speed in a straight line toward an enemy of your choice that you can see or hear. You must end this move closer to the enemy than when you started.
Horns. (This trait replaces Horns)
Your horns are a natural melee weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal damage for an unarmed strike.
Gore. (This trait replaces Hammering Horns)
If you move at least 10 feet toward a target and then hit it with a melee attack with your horns at the same turn, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d6 piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a Strength saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier or be pushed up to 10 feet away.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Powerful Build. (This trait replaces Imposing Presence) You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
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Orc
Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks. Strength and power are the greatest of orcish virtues, and orcs embrace all manner of mighty creatures in their tribes. Rejecting notions of racial purity, they proudly welcome ogres, trolls, half-orcs, and minotaurs into their ranks.
Orc Traits
Your orc character has the following racial traits.
Reckless Lunge. When you make a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can increase your reach for that attack by 5 feet. If you hit, you add your proficiency bonus to the attack’s damage roll. If you miss, this ability is not expended. Once expended, you can't use this ability again until you finish a short or long rest.
Menace. Once per turn, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier, on a failed save the creature suffers a -2 to d20 tests until the end of your next turn.
Satyr
Satyrs have a well-earned reputation for their good spirits, gregarious personalities, and love of revels. Most satyrs are driven by simple desires, to see the world and to sample its every pleasure. While their spontaneity and whimsy sometimes put them at odds with more stoic peoples, satyrs rarely let the moodiness of others hinder their own happiness. Life is a blessing from the gods, after all, and the proper response to such a gift, as far as most satyrs are concerned, is to accept it with relish.
Satyr Traits
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Light of Heart. (This trait replaces Magic Resistance)
You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened and charmed.
Panpipes. Once you reach 3rd level, as an action, you can create one of the following magical effects:
- Charming Melody. The creature is charmed by you until you or your companions do anything harmful to it.
- Frightening Strain. The creature is frightened.
- Gentle Lullaby. The creature falls asleep and is unconscious. The effect ends if the creature takes damage or if someone takes an action to shake the creature awake.
Any creature within 60 feet of you that can hear the pipes must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier or be affected for 1 minute. Other satyrs and creatures that can't be charmed are unaffected. An affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to these panpipes for the next 24 hours.
Shifter
Shifters are sometimes called the weretouched, as many believe that they are the descendants of humans and lycanthropes. They are humanoids with a bestial aspect; while they cannot fully change shape they can temporarily enhance their animalistic features—a state they call shifting. Whatever their origins, shifters have evolved into a unique race. A shifter walks on the knife’s edge between the wilds and the world around them. Do they embrace their primal instincts or the path of civilization?
Beasthide Traits
Stoic and solid, a beasthide shifter draws strength and stability from the beast within. Beasthide shifters are typically tied to the bear or the boar, but any creature known for its toughness could apply.
Hide Thickness. Your hide provides you with extra durability. At 1st level, your hit point maximum increases by 1 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level.
Bestial Endurance. You have proficiency in Constitution saving throws.
Longtooth Traits
Longtooth shifters are fierce and aggressive, but they form deep bonds with their friends. Many longtooth shifters have canine traits that become more pronounced as they shift, but they might instead draw on tigers, hyenas, or other predators
Shifting Ferocity. While using your Shifting feature, once per turn, you can gain a bonus to a damage roll equal to 1d6.
Swiftstride Traits
Swiftstride shifters are graceful and quick. Typically feline in nature, swiftstride shifters are often aloof and hard to pin down physically or socially.
Cat Stride. Once you reach 5th level, you can cast the spiderclimb spell once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Wildhunt Traits
Wildhunt shifters are sharp and insightful. Some are constantly alert, ever wary for possible threats. Others focus on their intuition, searching within. Wildhunt shifters are excellent hunters, and they also tend to become the spiritual leaders of shifter communities.
Insightful Hunter. Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the hunter's mark spell once per day. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
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Tabaxi
Hailing from a strange and distant land, wandering tabaxi are catlike humanoids driven by curiosity to collect interesting artifacts, gather tales and stories, and lay eyes on all the world's wonders. Ultimate travelers, the inquisitive tabaxi rarely stay in one place for long. Their innate nature pushes them to leave no secrets uncovered, no treasures or legends lost. Most tabaxi remain in their distant homeland, content to dwell in small, tight clans. These tabaxi hunt for food, craft goods, and largely keep to themselves.
Tabaxi Traits
Your tabaxi character has the following racial traits.
Tabaxi Gossip. Once you reach 5th level, you can cast the legend lore spell once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
Cat's Talent 2.0 (This trait replaces Cat's Talent)
Gain two skill proficiencies of your choice from the following: Perception, Persuasion or Stealth.
Tortle
What many tortles consider a simple life, others might call a life of adventure. Tortles are born near sandy coastlines, but as soon as they're able to walk on two legs, they become nomad survivalists eager to explore the wilderness, experience its many wonders, put their skills to the test, and make new acquaintances.
Tortle Traits
Your tortle character gains traits that enable it to cope with the perils of a savage world.
Age. Young tortles crawl for a few weeks after birth before learning to walk on two legs. They reach adulthood by the age of 20 and live an average of 200 years.
Warforged
The warforged were built to fight in the Last War. The first warforged were mindless automatons, but House Cannith devoted vast resources to improving these steel soldiers. An unexpected breakthrough produced fully sentient soldiers, blending organic and inorganic materials. Warforged are made from wood and metal, but they can feel pain and emotion. Built as weapons, they must now find a purpose beyond the war. A warforged can be a steadfast ally, a cold-hearted killing machine, or a visionary in search of purpose and meaning.
Juggernaut Traits
You’re an imposing war machine built for close combat and raw might. You tower over your comrades; juggernaut warforged stand between 6 and 7 feet in height and can weigh up to 450 pounds.
Integrated Weapon. You can hold a weapon within one of your arms. Before activation, the integrated weapon can be spotted with a Perception check against a DC 13. Activating the weapon or concealing it functions the same as drawing or stowing a weapon.
While wielding your integrated weapon, you gain a bonus to damage rolls on attacks with it equal to 1d3.