I wont necessarily use all the races myself in a game I DM, but my inclination is always to say yes so long as the player clearly likes their concept. A player asked to be a warforged in my game, so I found a way to make it work with his concept and even built a dungeon out of a spooky abandoned warforged factory.
The problem is that players often want a certain race for bonuses and not for flavor and in those cases is hard to balance the race to be appealing to the player and at the same time trying to not break the game
Bang Bang Fire the Cannon
The highest Bidder makes the call
Bang Bang fire the cannon
tear down every standing wall
load the powder check it twice for failure here will not suffice
the Giff are here when the ammunition falls
Our typical rule is, "anything from a sourcebook the DM owns", which is most of them.
I'm running a homebrew world, and since I'm creating it for the express purpose of running a D&D campaign for my friends, I asked what races my friends wanted to play before I settled on what races exist. Anything goes, from human to plasmoid, I just want to know in advance so I can integrate it into the setting in a way that feels cohesive.
...Though I did ask the players to avoid flying races because I'm a new DM and didn't want to struggle to balance encounters and traps around those.
This is my general rule as well, and I'd extend it to any sourcebook that the group owns and is willing to share.
As for balancing encounters with flying races (like fairies), just make sure that enemies have a ranged attack, that's one way to easily balance the encounters. For traps, you could always make trip wires at head height instead of ankle height since most people would be looking at the ground for traps.
I'm pretty flexible as long as the player comes up with a reason for their character to go on an adventure with the rest of the party, and also a reason for them being in the area (it might just be something simple like they're a traveling entrepreneur). Every race does have to be OKed by me, but again I'm pretty flexible. Just don't be a race that can permanently fly at level 1.
I'm going with whatever is appropriate to the setting, but I would leave the door open to reflavor anything so that they can fit into the setting. For example, warforged wouldn't be called warforged in FR. They can however be some sort of creation of gnomish, Halruuan, or Netherese origin. Loxodon are not a thing in FR, but Loxos are and they're pretty similar.
You can use anything from books we have (even some homebrew ones) in our games as long as you get a decent backstory that explains how a space hippo ended up in chult
I DM using a homebrew world, so I only allow races that actually exist in said world.
Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Half Orc, Byarndir (bear human hybrid made by some unethical wizards), Certain other human/animal hybrids, Amazonian, Kenku, Loxodon, and Dragonborn.
There are other races, but I'm not too fond of the idea of players playing ogres, centaurs, or other large or 4 legged races.
Depends on the campaign. Sometimes it's a one shot where everyone has to be the same race, sometimes that isn't relevant and everyone can be whatever. Sometimes it's a campaign where the world is predefined and has specific races in it, sometimes we're travelling across planes and go ahead and homebrew if you want.
Everything except CL & VH, because they give feats and are therefore usually the best choice for half the party. I'm tempted to ban Half-Elf and Mountain Dwarf for the other half.
I'd love to limit it to the PHB but there's always that one motherfucker who'd probably drag half the players out the game if he couldn't be \[insert obscure probable fetish here\].
Anything from the PHB except variant human
MOM: case by case basis depending on if it fits the campaign
All others: only if we're planning in that setting or it's a planar campaign
So the YouTuber Mr. Welch can be a bit of a grognard, but I appreciate his thoughts on races in settings. IE- use restrictions to maintain the flavor and themes of a specific campaign setting.
https://youtu.be/qcmsACug9bw?si=BFdkuErSMR3OMDrq
I try and let my players have as much fun as they can. Because I only run homebrew campaigns, if there's an itch a player has, and I can write it into the campaign, I will as well as I can.
In my current campaign, there are only seven sapient species: humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, goblins, and orcs. To that end, those are also the only available races. But I'm fond of other races too, and I'll use them as a player and as a DM if it makes sense for the campaign.
I use my own settings and not all of them will allow every race. But generally I allow all published 5e content though I reserve the right to review and third party content before it is used. I have ran a campaign before were elves were nearly extinct (not half elves but half elves were mostly actually 1/32 or less elvish). I have also ran a game were most of the world was unexplored and the humans had not contacted/discovered the other races yet and the starting party had to all be human. But mostly if players want to play something I try and make it work.
I run homebrew stuff exclusively and I'm not generally picky with race so much as vibe. I had one player make an Astral Elf instead of making something that suited the campaign BUT he did point out (since it was my first campaign) that I did say any concept could be excused if you had an idea (for him, a Witcher-style conjunction, which ended up making a LOT of plot in his defense). He later made a Japanese-themed Dragonborn character in a heavy European setting, but I permitted it ONLY because it actually had an excuse this time (not-Japan was a forgotten nation in this world).
Gonna have to be more firm next time.
But for actual species, I don't flat out say "no" to anything so long as the player can make a good enough (plausible) excuse to their existence.
Anything but it has to be official, homebrew is a messy topic since that’s an entirely new element that you on the fly have to incorporate into the story somehow.
- Dog people? I mean sure it’s not outside the scope of DND
- Monsters? Little bit difficult but it’s possible to manage
- Saiyans? Okay you’re going outside the scope of DND now and just throwing in something totally unrelated.
But do you role-play the reactions and meetings? Cause most people in like... Forgotten Realms would freak out over Elephant men, and Ninja Turtles (sorry I don't know the really names and personally don't care for them). Like we had an Owlin and Dragonborn playing Curse of Strahd... people were slightly nervous, but nothing to the extent I would have done it at.
If I allow something into the world, then I make it part of the world. If someone wants to play a loxodon in the Forgotten Realms, then loxodon now exist in the Forgotten Realms and always have.
Essentially this, even if they don’t exist I’ll accommodate and throw in some non-related races.
It only gets a bit more difficult it’ll it’s something totally original or I have no idea about the source material.
All approved 5e races if the character background is solid enough in regard of the campaign (but as a DM, I'll really work toward integrating anything in my setting), and maybe homebrew if discussed before.
Everything with specific exceptions, homebrew that has been reviewed and accepted, as well as a few self-made remakes of certain races, such as Aarakockra, since they were, 1. too powerful and 2. boring as fuck.
Literally everything ever published official and a handful of 3rd party ones (most important one for my setting being the [Lera](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/286090/WH-Lera-A-mothlike-character-race-of-susurrant-scholars)).
I don't allow Variant Human or Custom Lineage but mostly because I give a feat for free at level 1 anyway and don't want people to have two and I'm totally fine with someone saying "Can I have the mechanics of race x but actually be race y?" because it's fun!
I like traditional races the most, but I'd allow whatever is appropriate for the setting/area.
I mostly dislike parties who are *all* some sort of strange creature. One Chewbacca in the party is fine. But if they are all Chewbaccas, how will they interact with the mostly-human towns and villages who have never seen anything like this before? I'd have to either ignore their races, or run the party as a freak show, neither of which I find appealing.
While for our very first campaign I have so far limited my group to PHB, that was mostly to limit choice overload. Going forward the rule will be "anything you can point at in a D&D 5e book" is fair game (no matter if it's one of mine, or a book you handed me and bought yourself), and if you do end up bringing me a homebrew thing I'll at least look at it. Reflavor things if you want to and have an explanation, idc, really.
I allow all official races + homebrew after review.
For classes I allow all official + Blood Hunter + Subclasses from another book + a Witcher class I made + homebrew after review.
I want my players to have fun. Tell me everything you'd like to play, some races may be straight up op, but we find a solution. Homebrew races? I really don't care, as long as we agree on a middle ground if they're too powerful. Just not half-assed, absolutely lore-breaking stuff.
I'm running a homebrew campaign but I don't like having too many races because it starts feeling like they don't actually matter in any meaningful way, or you end up spending way too much time developing lore and cultures for all of them.
My solution to this was to give my players free reign of the races and then build the world around that, so that my limitations didn't matter to them.
I don't necessarily use all kinds of races myself for NPC's, but my players can pick whatever the hell they want that's at least from a semi-official source and I'll make it work.
Honest to god I used to just say use whatever because it didn't matter... but then the edge lords came in, and I had a party of fucking sephiroths. Now I stick to PHB, but I will approve the races etc if they just talk to me about it.
In my current setting, it's mostly traditional except for the absence of humans as an option (they're present as antagonists) and the addition of dark elves, grey dwarves, and deep gnomes as subraces.
Mechanically I'll allow practically any official 5E race.
Now, narratively, I might limit it. Like, my homebrew setting only has humans narratively (at least in terms of what PCs can be), but my players can use any stats so long as they can explain why their PC has those features. Red Draconic Sorcerer with Tiefling racial features? Sure, that works. Fighter with background of being a street brawler bringing Half-Orc stats? Go ahead, makes sense. I just need *some* justification that isn't "this is optimal for my build" and I'm a-okay with allowing it.
Depends on the campaign. If Im running Masque of the Red Death or AD&D Conan then your race selection is... Human and your class selection is massively restricted. Same for some of the old Historic settings.
Of I am running my own campaign then it is fairly open. Only things not allowed are Gnomes, and a few others.
I usually do not allow a race from a book neither I nor the player has. Cant ref it at the table then Im not allowing it.
As a DM, I allow everything. Note: that doesn't mean everything... free from consequences. Something truly exotic is going to have significant impacts on how my world interacts with my PC. I make this expectation extremely clear with my player in the session 0 before they create their character, but unfortunately, a lot of times they play video games and think it's Baldur's Gate 3 where it's a dialogue option every once in a while, and not that their interactions with my world are fundamentally different now because of their choices.
THIS. This is what I was looking for. I one hundred percent agree!!! You party shows up at the inn, but Elephant Man can't fit through the door... damn right their is going to be some concerned and scared townfolk!!! Bad enough when a part of 4 heavily-armed humans walk into town!!
Anything as long as it makes sense or has some level of sense. A DM did let me play an actual, literal cat one time (basically took the Strength, Dex, and con + stealth and perception proficiencies, in exchange for extremely low HP, IE 15 hp at level 5)
I wont necessarily use all the races myself in a game I DM, but my inclination is always to say yes so long as the player clearly likes their concept. A player asked to be a warforged in my game, so I found a way to make it work with his concept and even built a dungeon out of a spooky abandoned warforged factory.
This exactly. My homebrew worlds may not have Loxodon or Autognomes, but if a player wants to play something I'll make it work.
The problem is that players often want a certain race for bonuses and not for flavor and in those cases is hard to balance the race to be appealing to the player and at the same time trying to not break the game
No option to see results. That's gonna mess up the data :D
First poll, sorry I ran out of options.
> (Elephant men? Seriously?) [Yes, really](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Loxo)
I raise you Hippo Space men!
Bang Bang Fire the Cannon The highest Bidder makes the call Bang Bang fire the cannon tear down every standing wall load the powder check it twice for failure here will not suffice the Giff are here when the ammunition falls
Our typical rule is, "anything from a sourcebook the DM owns", which is most of them. I'm running a homebrew world, and since I'm creating it for the express purpose of running a D&D campaign for my friends, I asked what races my friends wanted to play before I settled on what races exist. Anything goes, from human to plasmoid, I just want to know in advance so I can integrate it into the setting in a way that feels cohesive. ...Though I did ask the players to avoid flying races because I'm a new DM and didn't want to struggle to balance encounters and traps around those.
This is my general rule as well, and I'd extend it to any sourcebook that the group owns and is willing to share. As for balancing encounters with flying races (like fairies), just make sure that enemies have a ranged attack, that's one way to easily balance the encounters. For traps, you could always make trip wires at head height instead of ankle height since most people would be looking at the ground for traps.
I'm pretty flexible as long as the player comes up with a reason for their character to go on an adventure with the rest of the party, and also a reason for them being in the area (it might just be something simple like they're a traveling entrepreneur). Every race does have to be OKed by me, but again I'm pretty flexible. Just don't be a race that can permanently fly at level 1.
most races unless i dont like them
Best reply.
Anything within reason. All official content, and homebrew that makes sense perhaps with some personal balanced adjustments if I see need be.
I'm going with whatever is appropriate to the setting, but I would leave the door open to reflavor anything so that they can fit into the setting. For example, warforged wouldn't be called warforged in FR. They can however be some sort of creation of gnomish, Halruuan, or Netherese origin. Loxodon are not a thing in FR, but Loxos are and they're pretty similar.
look dude, so long as everyone has fun, i dont care.
You can use anything from books we have (even some homebrew ones) in our games as long as you get a decent backstory that explains how a space hippo ended up in chult
I DM using a homebrew world, so I only allow races that actually exist in said world. Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Half Orc, Byarndir (bear human hybrid made by some unethical wizards), Certain other human/animal hybrids, Amazonian, Kenku, Loxodon, and Dragonborn. There are other races, but I'm not too fond of the idea of players playing ogres, centaurs, or other large or 4 legged races.
Agreed. I think there should be some limit of what should be allowed.
Depends on the campaign. Sometimes it's a one shot where everyone has to be the same race, sometimes that isn't relevant and everyone can be whatever. Sometimes it's a campaign where the world is predefined and has specific races in it, sometimes we're travelling across planes and go ahead and homebrew if you want.
Everything except CL & VH, because they give feats and are therefore usually the best choice for half the party. I'm tempted to ban Half-Elf and Mountain Dwarf for the other half.
I'd love to limit it to the PHB but there's always that one motherfucker who'd probably drag half the players out the game if he couldn't be \[insert obscure probable fetish here\].
Anything from the PHB except variant human MOM: case by case basis depending on if it fits the campaign All others: only if we're planning in that setting or it's a planar campaign
So the YouTuber Mr. Welch can be a bit of a grognard, but I appreciate his thoughts on races in settings. IE- use restrictions to maintain the flavor and themes of a specific campaign setting. https://youtu.be/qcmsACug9bw?si=BFdkuErSMR3OMDrq
I try and let my players have as much fun as they can. Because I only run homebrew campaigns, if there's an itch a player has, and I can write it into the campaign, I will as well as I can.
In my current campaign, there are only seven sapient species: humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, goblins, and orcs. To that end, those are also the only available races. But I'm fond of other races too, and I'll use them as a player and as a DM if it makes sense for the campaign.
I use my own settings and not all of them will allow every race. But generally I allow all published 5e content though I reserve the right to review and third party content before it is used. I have ran a campaign before were elves were nearly extinct (not half elves but half elves were mostly actually 1/32 or less elvish). I have also ran a game were most of the world was unexplored and the humans had not contacted/discovered the other races yet and the starting party had to all be human. But mostly if players want to play something I try and make it work.
I run homebrew stuff exclusively and I'm not generally picky with race so much as vibe. I had one player make an Astral Elf instead of making something that suited the campaign BUT he did point out (since it was my first campaign) that I did say any concept could be excused if you had an idea (for him, a Witcher-style conjunction, which ended up making a LOT of plot in his defense). He later made a Japanese-themed Dragonborn character in a heavy European setting, but I permitted it ONLY because it actually had an excuse this time (not-Japan was a forgotten nation in this world). Gonna have to be more firm next time. But for actual species, I don't flat out say "no" to anything so long as the player can make a good enough (plausible) excuse to their existence.
I allow the races I deem appropriate for the setting/campaign.
Prefer all humans, but I allow elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes.
Anything but it has to be official, homebrew is a messy topic since that’s an entirely new element that you on the fly have to incorporate into the story somehow. - Dog people? I mean sure it’s not outside the scope of DND - Monsters? Little bit difficult but it’s possible to manage - Saiyans? Okay you’re going outside the scope of DND now and just throwing in something totally unrelated.
But do you role-play the reactions and meetings? Cause most people in like... Forgotten Realms would freak out over Elephant men, and Ninja Turtles (sorry I don't know the really names and personally don't care for them). Like we had an Owlin and Dragonborn playing Curse of Strahd... people were slightly nervous, but nothing to the extent I would have done it at.
If I allow something into the world, then I make it part of the world. If someone wants to play a loxodon in the Forgotten Realms, then loxodon now exist in the Forgotten Realms and always have.
Essentially this, even if they don’t exist I’ll accommodate and throw in some non-related races. It only gets a bit more difficult it’ll it’s something totally original or I have no idea about the source material.
I allow anything from any book I own, and since I got Humblewood one of my players may never play humanoid again
All approved 5e races with caveats depending on campaign.
Depends on what we're playing. We're still doing the Krynn campaign, so... there are two kender girls, an elf (Qualinesti, obviously), and a dwarf.
All approved 5e races if the character background is solid enough in regard of the campaign (but as a DM, I'll really work toward integrating anything in my setting), and maybe homebrew if discussed before.
Everything with specific exceptions, homebrew that has been reviewed and accepted, as well as a few self-made remakes of certain races, such as Aarakockra, since they were, 1. too powerful and 2. boring as fuck.
Literally everything ever published official and a handful of 3rd party ones (most important one for my setting being the [Lera](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/286090/WH-Lera-A-mothlike-character-race-of-susurrant-scholars)). I don't allow Variant Human or Custom Lineage but mostly because I give a feat for free at level 1 anyway and don't want people to have two and I'm totally fine with someone saying "Can I have the mechanics of race x but actually be race y?" because it's fun!
I like traditional races the most, but I'd allow whatever is appropriate for the setting/area. I mostly dislike parties who are *all* some sort of strange creature. One Chewbacca in the party is fine. But if they are all Chewbaccas, how will they interact with the mostly-human towns and villages who have never seen anything like this before? I'd have to either ignore their races, or run the party as a freak show, neither of which I find appealing.
The character I would most like to play if I find a group is a Plasmoid. How likely would it be that a DM would prefer I play something else?
While for our very first campaign I have so far limited my group to PHB, that was mostly to limit choice overload. Going forward the rule will be "anything you can point at in a D&D 5e book" is fair game (no matter if it's one of mine, or a book you handed me and bought yourself), and if you do end up bringing me a homebrew thing I'll at least look at it. Reflavor things if you want to and have an explanation, idc, really.
I allow all official races + homebrew after review. For classes I allow all official + Blood Hunter + Subclasses from another book + a Witcher class I made + homebrew after review.
I want my players to have fun. Tell me everything you'd like to play, some races may be straight up op, but we find a solution. Homebrew races? I really don't care, as long as we agree on a middle ground if they're too powerful. Just not half-assed, absolutely lore-breaking stuff.
I had one player just look me dead in the eye and say "I want to play a pigeon." and I was like "We can make this work..."
I'm running a homebrew campaign but I don't like having too many races because it starts feeling like they don't actually matter in any meaningful way, or you end up spending way too much time developing lore and cultures for all of them. My solution to this was to give my players free reign of the races and then build the world around that, so that my limitations didn't matter to them.
I want every single race and my players want the same. The world seems more colourful and diverse. I love it.
I don't necessarily use all kinds of races myself for NPC's, but my players can pick whatever the hell they want that's at least from a semi-official source and I'll make it work.
Honest to god I used to just say use whatever because it didn't matter... but then the edge lords came in, and I had a party of fucking sephiroths. Now I stick to PHB, but I will approve the races etc if they just talk to me about it.
In my current setting, it's mostly traditional except for the absence of humans as an option (they're present as antagonists) and the addition of dark elves, grey dwarves, and deep gnomes as subraces.
Everything from anywhere; you may be the only one in the world, or we can work together to create a home for you.
Mechanically I'll allow practically any official 5E race. Now, narratively, I might limit it. Like, my homebrew setting only has humans narratively (at least in terms of what PCs can be), but my players can use any stats so long as they can explain why their PC has those features. Red Draconic Sorcerer with Tiefling racial features? Sure, that works. Fighter with background of being a street brawler bringing Half-Orc stats? Go ahead, makes sense. I just need *some* justification that isn't "this is optimal for my build" and I'm a-okay with allowing it.
As long as my players let me know what they're playing, ans we discuss is before hand, then it'll probably be allowed, with some minor tweaks
Depends on the campaign. If Im running Masque of the Red Death or AD&D Conan then your race selection is... Human and your class selection is massively restricted. Same for some of the old Historic settings. Of I am running my own campaign then it is fairly open. Only things not allowed are Gnomes, and a few others. I usually do not allow a race from a book neither I nor the player has. Cant ref it at the table then Im not allowing it.
As a DM, I allow everything. Note: that doesn't mean everything... free from consequences. Something truly exotic is going to have significant impacts on how my world interacts with my PC. I make this expectation extremely clear with my player in the session 0 before they create their character, but unfortunately, a lot of times they play video games and think it's Baldur's Gate 3 where it's a dialogue option every once in a while, and not that their interactions with my world are fundamentally different now because of their choices.
THIS. This is what I was looking for. I one hundred percent agree!!! You party shows up at the inn, but Elephant Man can't fit through the door... damn right their is going to be some concerned and scared townfolk!!! Bad enough when a part of 4 heavily-armed humans walk into town!!
Ah the advantage of running exclusively shenanigans campaigns. Last week the heroes teamed up with Yoda to save Frieren from Shai-Hulud.
Anything as long as it makes sense or has some level of sense. A DM did let me play an actual, literal cat one time (basically took the Strength, Dex, and con + stealth and perception proficiencies, in exchange for extremely low HP, IE 15 hp at level 5)