Choosing a "race" - General Discussion - D&D Beyond General - D&D Beyond Forums (2024)

I'll just ask. I can't find the answer using a search.I got stuck months ago on step one of one, just trying to build a character. There seems to be a short list of sorts of people you can choose from. All bipedal people. The word I found for a description was humanoid I think. I can't get past that point. Trying to dig deeper, I actually found a lot of other creatures from the real world and fantasy of all different sorts. There seems to be much more to the character building as well, but I noticed most of those choices are also leading directly back to being a person.

I think I'm missing some fundamental point to the game, rules, or maybe even high fantasy itself. Are you required to play as a human specifically with a background in western culture to even access the game? If so, why is it required that you acknowledge the break in fantasy by choosing, so to speak, a race? What's the difference? But maybe there is a way past that without forcing human, or humanoid as it were, characteristics. Why not just skip the option altogether if it is required anyway?

Can this be done? I can't have been the only person to ask if I could be something other than human, or asked why further progress cannot be made without specifically acknowledging the character must be a bipedal hairless primate.

I hope that isn't too confusing. Like I said, I can't quite wrap my head around that part either. I'll never get clarification if I don't ask, and I'm bound to misunderstand some other part if I just fake it. What am I missing?

As I was. Found it. It has something to do with a subscription, and I guess by coincidence something about that part of character creation being down whenever I try? I don't know. It's definitely there. You can even make a custom character. This is a technical issue that might resolve itself.

I appreciate that. I was starting to wonder. It looks like this has to do with the account. I must have messed something else up. When I get a chance, I'll see if I can just reset the account to move forward.

I kept stumbling on articles on character creation today, and I remembered this site. Some were really amazingly creative. I just can't access them at the moment, and the site seems fine according to others. This is only a technical issue on my end. But that's helpful as well, seeing there has to be some cooperation with others on what characters can work. I hadn't considered that either.

Do I need to know anything else? Thanks again for the information.

Quote from Pterippus >>

I appreciate that. I was starting to wonder. It looks like this has to do with the account. I must have messed something else up. When I get a chance, I'll see if I can just reset the account to move forward.

I kept stumbling on articles on character creation today, and I remembered this site. Some were really amazingly creative. I just can't access them at the moment, and the site seems fine according to others. This is only a technical issue on my end. But that's helpful as well, seeing there has to be some cooperation with others on what characters can work. I hadn't considered that either.

Do I need to know anything else? Thanks again for the information.

See Also

Shrek's Dungeons & Dragons Class Isn't What You'd ExpectD&D Reveals the Most Popular Races, Classes, and Character NamesThe Five Best Races and Lineages in D&D 5eTOP 10 Weirdest Races from Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition!

The character creation is glitchy af at the moment.

Only thing I can suggest is deleting your cookies and trying again.

Humans are just one of many options. There are elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, dragonborn, tieflings, half-elves, and half-orcs in the Player's Handbook alone. There are many supplements that add additional species, such as changelings, goblins, eladrin, and tabaxi, too.

As Yurei said, the game kind of messes up when you play as a non-humanoid creature. A friend recently asked to homebrew the Avali into 5e, a weird, kinda-humanoid-but-mostly-bird-thing species. The main reason why we couldn't figure it out was because of the species' weird frame.

Options that aren't "hairless" = Aarakocra, Bugbear, Centaur, Firbolg, Hadozee, Harengon, Kenku, Leonin, Minotaur, Owlin, Satyr, Shifter, and Tabaxi. Also if scales/carapace count as "hair" I can add Dragonborn, Kobolds, Lizardfolk, Locathah, Simic Hybrid, Thri-Kreen, Tortle, Triton, and Yuan-Ti to the list.

Most playable races are bidpedal simply because it makes the DM's life (and the designers') easier. But if you really want that and don't want to be a Centaur, work wtih your DM - I could see them allowing a tauric Warforged (e.g. something that looks close to the Warforged Charger from 3.5) / Autognome, or a Simic Hybrid with arthropodic legs.

And if all else fails and you want to be something truly exotic, that's what Custom Lineage is for.

I'm seeing the issue I think. I can't access the suggested options. The account profile is just messed up. It isn't the game, and I'm grateful for the clarification, both that it isn't so limited, and that there really is a limitation once I can reset this.

It's not the game. It's some computer issue. I definitely see the race I wanted to buy, and some books.

Found it. If it happens to anyone else, changing the operating system on the computer makes it possible to make choices, but you'll need to go back and make sure your account is verified. It wasn't verifying the account. I played it safe, and made the most generic character I could think of. Works 4.0.

The other issue also came up, and I found it in the handbook..

"CHOOSE A RACE
Every character belongs to a race, one of the many intelligent humanoid species in the D&D world. The most common player character races are dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans. Some races also have subraces, such as mountain dwarf or wood elf. Chapter 2 provides more information about these races, as well as the less widespread races of dragonborn, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings.
The race you choose contributes to your character’s identity in an important way, by establishing a general appearance and the natural talents gained from culture and ancestry."

Yes. According to the fifth edition handbook, you absolutely must create a Eurocentric humanoid character to play. Their words, not mine. Further restrictions exist for each humanoid race. Since it was brought up, I looked it up. But it looks like there is definitely a way around it with Homebrew. I didn't dig into it that much. I've got other issues.

There it is. Mystery solved, if anyone else finds they can reach each page, but not select.

Quote from Pterippus >>

Yes. According to the fifth edition handbook, you absolutely must create a Eurocentric humanoid character to play. Their words, not mine. Further restrictions exist for each humanoid race. Since it was brought up, I looked it up. But it looks like there is definitely a way around it with Homebrew. I didn't dig into it that much. I've got other issues.

Well, if you want to play as an animal, ask your DM. The game assumes you're going to be playing as a humanoid. Note, however, that "humanoid" and "human" are two different things.

Again, the game messes up if you play as something other than a bipedal, 4-6 limbed creature, without heavy homebrew.

Just out of curiosity, why do you specifically want to play as a non-humanoid creature? What's wrong with playing as one of the many, many options presented already?

Quote from deadPan_c >>

A friend recently asked to homebrew the Avali into 5e, a weird, kinda-humanoid-but-mostly-bird-thing species. The main reason why we couldn't figure it out was because of the species' weird frame.

Why not use the playable races ofAarakocra or Owlin as a basis to work off of?

EDIT: Or even Kenku.

There's three bird species that are playable right there.

Quote from SirTawmis >>

Quote from deadPan_c >>

A friend recently asked to homebrew the Avali into 5e, a weird, kinda-humanoid-but-mostly-bird-thing species. The main reason why we couldn't figure it out was because of the species' weird frame.

Why not use the playable races ofAarakocra or Owlin as a basis to work off of?

EDIT: Or even Kenku.

There's three bird species that are playable right there.

Yeah, tbh I didn't think of that. The main reasons it didn't work, though, is that they have super bad eyesight (but good hearing; couldn't come up with anything that the player in question liked), and the species' weird, vaguely-humanoid shape. Think a velociraptor mixed with a bird, but standing upright and with slightly more humanoid proportions. And with opposable thumbs.

Quote from Pterippus >>

Yes. According to the fifth edition handbook, you absolutely must create a Eurocentric humanoid character to play. Their words, not mine. Further restrictions exist for each humanoid race. Since it was brought up, I looked it up. But it looks like there is definitely a way around it with Homebrew. I didn't dig into it that much. I've got other issues.

No. It says those are the most common, not the only. Now, when the PHB was published, they were pretty much the only options, but that was almost 10 years ago. Since then, there's been dozens of other races printed. As people above note, there's like three different kinds of bird-people, and a host of other animal people (cat (and lion), hippo, rabbit, praying mantis, etc). There's things that are more-or-less robots. Hybrids that are created through genetic magical manipulation. Things for the vampire-curious. You can be a sentient ooze, for crying out loud. And, there's rules for how to build a custom lineage, basically create your own species. I mean, at some point to make a character, you need to have a body.

There's been lots of books, and new races in practically all of them. What, exactly, are you looking for? Maybe people here can help you.

Regarding the “Eurocentric-ness” of the races, I do agree that even with the expanded roster it skews that way, but part of that is because they’re working to avoid being accused of cultural appropriation /stereotyping, etc. It’s something that various TTRPG producers have struggled with in the past, particularly if the folklore they’re looking to for inspiration is closely tied to an active belief system. White Wolf/World of Darkness took a big hit for that in the late 90’s/early 2000’s with their “Kindred of the East” supplement. The concept was to incorporate East Asian/Pacific Island vampire myths into their main vampire line, but the final product was a really unfortunate mishmash of various bits of folklore and religious/spiritual concepts from the regions, and it really didn’t go over well.

Thus D&D 5e opened with some traditional and safe fantasy races that don’t have the same potential for coming off as very racist/insensitive. Which is not to say there weren’t other issues, but I’m not looking to pull us off into that can of worms here.