Adventurers in the realms of Dungeons & Dragons come in many shapes and sizes and from as many backgrounds as you can imagine. A character's class is only half of the equation; their race plays an equal part in determining that character's history, how they view the world, and how the world views them.

Dungeons & Dragons has a Massive Race Selection to choose from, with over a hundred playable races and subraces introduced across its editions. For the sake of clarity and relevancy, this page will focus on the races playable in the game's current edition, i.e. 5th Edition. Most races playable in past editions appear on the main creature index.

Note that a race's world of Origin is not necessarily the only place where they can be found. The aarakocra are usually considered to have originated on Toril, but have a presence on Athas, for example.

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Core Races

These races represent the archetypical player character options in D&D, being the ones found in the basic Player's Handbook. They largely overlap with the Standard Fantasy Races.

Dragonborn

^{Dragonborn of Bahamut (3e)}

Humanoids with a draconic appearance, and some measure of their namesake's power. Some dragonborn strongly resemble a breed of true dragon, while others have more unique forms, just as some dragonborn willingly serve their draconic forebearers while others make their own destiny.

Alien Hair: They tend to have horns and scutes on their heads arranged in a way that resembles human hair. The men also sometimes have scaly tendrils on their faces and chins that resemble beards and mustaches.
Breath Weapon:
- A 3rd Edition dragonborn who chooses heart as the draconic aspect they embody gains access to a breath weapon that resembles a shining beam of light, which deals acid, cold, electricity or fire damage, chosen each time it's used.
- This is the defining attribute of 4th and 5th Edition dragonborn, who can exhale destructive gouts of flame, frost, venom, acid or lightning. In 4th Edition they have multiple racial feats that modify their breath weapon, from being able to turn it into a fireball-style explosive projectile to inflicting multiple types of damage simultaneously.
Damage Reduction: A variant; dragonborn in 5th Edition gain a passive ability to resist one form of elemental damage, which is always the same type that they use for their breath weapon, i.e fire fire-breathing dragonborn are always resistant to fire damage. Chromatic dragonborn can temporarily upgrade this damage resistance to immunity once they reach 5th level.
Draconic Humanoid: Dragonborn aren't the first playable draconic race, the dragonkin of the Forgotten Realms, draconians of Dragonlance, half-dragons of Council of Wyrms and dray of Dark Sun all predate them. However, the dragonborn are the first draconic humanoids designed to be playable from 1st level.
God Is Displeased: No dragonborn child of Bahamut may do evil in his service. The Platinum Dragon is forgiving toward his adopted children, but if they repeatedly use immoral methods against the servants of Tiamat, they can expect warnings from the Aspects of their father. If they still fail to atone, Bahamut will strip them of all his powers and blessings, causing their scales to slough off, reverting them to their original race.
Long-Lived: The dragonborn of Bahamut can live up to hundreds of years, although many often die young as a result of battling Tiamat and her followers.
Magic Knight: In the Nentir Vale, dragonborn are actually considered prominent practitioners of both the Swordmage class and the Bladesinger class. The human nation of Rethmil, which protects itself with an elite army made up of Swordmages and Bladesingers, actually learned these arts from its time as a vassal-state of the dragonborn of Arkhosia. Ironically, they're not mechanically optimal for it, as their racial bonuses are to Strength and Charisma, while those classes emphasize Strength and Intelligence. On the other hand, 4E dragonborn make for good Paladins and Hexblades, and have strong cultural connections to them as well.
Min Maxers Delight: The 3.5e Dragonborn of Bahamut gain +2 Constitution and -2 Dexterity on top of their original race's ability modifiers, and can continue to use feats and Prestige Classes restricted to members of their original race, while not suffering the Character Level increase incurred by more powerful templates. While there are still trade-offs, this makes the Rite of Rebirth a very accessible way of making a character a little harder to kill, as well as one of the easiest ways of gaining wings and/or the (dragonblood) subtype - the latter of which unlocks a large number of interesting and/or powerful Dragon Knight themed character options.
Multiple-Choice Past: As was standard for many of the "non-core" races in 4th edition, the Dragonborn of the Nentir Vale had many possible origins presented for their race prior to the rise and fall of Arkhosia, but nothing definitive.
Naytheist: In the Forgotten Realms, a dragonborn's views on religion tends to come in one of two flavors — staunchly devout, or refusal to worship the gods at all. Religion reminds a few dragonborn too much of slavery, and so they choose not to engage in it (even if they tacitly admit that gods exist).
Non-Damaging Status Infliction Attack: The metallic dragonborn of 5th edition gain a secondary breath weapon at 5th level. This breath weapon inflicts no damage, but it can be used to briefly incapacitate the dragonborn's foes, or to push them away and knock them prone.
Nonindicative Name: Varies by edition. The original 3E dragonborn are an artificial race created from humanoids who undergo a willing transformation. In 4th Edition, dragonborn aren't directly related to dragons either, and their three most common creation myths are that they were created from lesser versions of the same spirits that Io used to create the first dragons, that they spontaneously manifested from the blood spilled when Io was slain, or that they were Io's original creations and dragons were Living Weapons created in their image in the Dawn War. 5th Edition muddles the issue by explicitly naming one of the dragonborn's racial traits "Draconic Ancestry" and tying their breath weapon directly to one of the iconic chromatic or metallic dragons, in essence allowing dragonborn to serve as "legal" half-dragon PCs.
Power Gives You Wings: Once gem dragonborn reach 5th level, they can sprout a temporary pair of wings once per long rest.
Racial Transformation: 3E dragonborn are humanoids of various races who have sworn themselves to the service of Bahamut the Platinum Dragon in his war against his evil sister Tiamat. They undergo the Rite of Rebirth, spending a day fasting and contemplating on what they will give up when they begin their new life, before crawling into an egg-like structure they craft for the occasion. When they awaken from their egg the next dawn, they are transformed into dragonborn, losing their previous racial traits and gaining new draconic powers.
Religious Bruiser: Dragonborn have a strong tendency to be devoutly religious; the 3E dragonborn were literally created from worshipers of Bahamut and so were usually clerics or paladins, whilst in 4E they were naturally devout by inclination and with strong traditions of worshiping Bahamut and Tiamat. Their combination of Strength and Charisma bonuses also made 4E dragonborn mechanically optimized for the paladin class, encouraging this portrayal.
Retcon: Their background has varied significantly by edition and setting.
- The dragonborn introduced in the 3E Races of the Dragon supplement are specifically dragonborn of Bahamut, an artificial race whose members underwent a magical ritual of rebirth that permanently transformed them into a sterile Draconic Humanoid version of themselves, so they could better fight evil dragonkind on behalf of their divine patron.
- From 4th Edition on, dragonborn are a truebreeding race of their own. In the Nentir Vale, they are the creation of the fallen dragon god Io, who once dwelled in a mighty empire called Arkhosia, which was ruled over by clans of both metallic and chromatic dragons. Arkhosia was annihilated in a devastating war with the tiefling empire of Bael Turath, and the dragonborn have been nomads ever since — in no small part because some nations, such as the human empire of Nerath, forbid them from gathering in numbers for fear of their strength. In the Forgotten Realms, dragonborn were a slave race created by the dragons of Abeir, who turned against their masters and managed to survive in heavily defended cloisters; some of these strongholds were transposed to Toril during the Spellplague, leaving the stranded dragonborn to find a new way of life — presumably, at least some of these were left behind following the Second Sundering that broke the two worlds apart again. And in Eberron, dragonborn are simply a vassal race of the dragons of Argonnessen.
- Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, a Fifth Edition supplement does have a special entry on Dragonborn of Bahamut, although the artificial race aspect is not mentioned. it also states that Dragonborn of Bahamut are also called Platinum Knights—a Third Edition prestige class with a connection to the Platinum Dragon. The book also has an entry on Dragonborn of Tiamat (likewise giving them the Appellation "Talon of Tiamat" after a Third Edition prestige class), and Dragonborn of Sardior.
Sexy Dimorphism: Female dragonborn are lithe and have breasts. Justified in-universe as the dragonborn being monotreme-like creatures; it's true that real-life monotremes don't have breasts, but at the same time, they're not sapient humanoids either.
Slave Race:
- In the Forgotten Realms, dragonborn hail from Abeir, not Toril, where they toiled as slaves to the dragons that lived there.
- From 5E's Wildemount, Ravenite dragonborn were once slaves to the Draconblood dragonborn. They eventually rebelled.
Super-Scream: In 4th Edition, two racial paragon paths imbue the dragonborn with the ability to produce thunder damage Breath Weapon attacks, which mechanically represents powerful shock waves and deafening sounds.
Super-Toughness: One dragonborn-exclusive feat makes their scales hard enough that they don't need to wear armor, especially with a high enough Dexterity.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: Dragonborn with the Dragon Fear racial trait can emit auras of supernatural terror, much like true dragons. In 4th Edition, this is a variant racial trait that replaces the Breath Weapon ability; in 5th Edition, it's an unlockable racial power that requires buying the Dragon Fear racial feat.
Telepathy: The gem dragonborn of 5th Edition can communicate telepathically with nearby creatures.
The Chosen Many: In 3rd Edition, Bahamut politely asks many non-draconic people throughout their lives if they want to become remade in his image to fight the forces of Tiamat. Those who accept and understand what they are surrendering, are divinely transformed into Draconic Humanoid form bearing resemblance to the Platinum Dragon deity.
Then Let Me Be Evil: This can happen to dragonborn with chromatic scales, as chromatic dragons always possess an evil alignment. A chromatic dragonborn snapping like this can even lead to their dragon parent finally recognizing them as their offspring, which is usually very bad news for the dragonborn's tormentors.
Winged Humanoid: In 3rd Edition, dragonborn who choose wings as the draconic aspect they embody gains a pair of membranous wings which assist them in jumping and gliding. Once they surpass six hit dice of health, they can also use them for true flight.
Wolverine Claws: While dragonborn naturally have talons, the Dragon Hide feat gives them retractable claws that they can use in combat.

Dwarf

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4e_dwarves_2.jpg

Short, stocky and stalwart, dwarves make for doughty warriors, but are also renowned for their work ethic and craftsmanship, producing beautiful jewelry and masterful metalwork. They favor mountain strongholds and underground settlements, and have a long animosity with orcs, goblinoids and evil giantkind.

Absurdly Low Level Cap: Original Edition and AD&D First Edition put a damper on how high of a level dwarves could have in their allowed classes, save for the Thief class, which they didn't have a level cap in.
Arranged Marriage: While some dwarves may attempt to Marry for Love, ultimately their clan chief has the final say whether two dwarves may marry, and arranged marriages are common, especially with interclan marriages. 5th Edition sources explain that few dwarves develop romantic feelings for their spouses as other races might understand, but instead value their partners as "collaborators and co-creators" who help them bring new children into the world to cherish.
The Clan: Dwarves live in clans, some only a hundred dwarves strong and confined to a single city, others large enough to boast a clanhall in every major dwarven settlement on a continent. Clans provide lodging, protection, and support in the form of apprenticeships, health care and childcare to their members, and it is a dwarf's place in their clan's hierarchy that determines their social status, not their wealth. While not all members of a clan are directly related by blood, they consider each other extended family and are highly protective of one another. A dwarf will trust a member of their clan with their lives, even if they've never met before, but will in turn be slow to trust anyone beyond their clan. Consequently, clanless dwarves — orphans, refugees, and outcasts — make up the bottom rung of dwarf society, living in the poorest section of their cities and working as menial laborers. Many clanless dwarves end up seeking their fortunes as adventurers, which in turn leads adventuring dwarves to be viewed with suspicion by clanholds.
Creation Myth: One dwarven story states that Moradin the All-Father forged the world from primordial fire and stone, but found it a cold, lifeless thing, until his wife Mya advised him to create creatures for it. Moradin proceeded to craft all manner of creatures to inhabit his world, but was always dissatisfied with the result, casting these imperfect races onto the world's surface to live as best they could. Again Mya gave him counsel, telling him to look within his own heart to find what he was seeking. Finally, Moradin created the dwarves in his own likeness, and was so pleased with them that he put his favored children in the heart of the world he'd forged, so they could care for it properly and be its very soul.
Dying Race: Depends heavily on the setting and the edition. For example, in the Forgotten Realms circa AD&D, dwarves are dying out due to a combination of pronounced fertility issues (55% of the total population is effectively infertile unless breeding outside of their species) and too few females, but in 3rd Edition, both of these elements were retconned away as part of a miracle healing (the "Thunder Blessing") gifted to the dwarves by their patron gods.
Elves Versus Dwarves: Downplayed; there is a definite culture clash between elves and dwarves, since the former prioritize individual freedom while the latter emphasize the collective good. Still, the two races rarely go to war, as despite their contrasting Lawful and Chaotic alignments, both are also usually Good, allowing them to put their differences aside enough to respect each other and keep the peace beyond private jabs and grumbling.
Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: Dwarves are associated with hammers and axes, to the extent that some rules give dwarf characters automatic proficiency with such weapons. They've even developed some exotic variants of those weapons such as throwing hammers, a battleaxe equivalent of the bastard sword, and an axe-spear known as the dwarven urgosh.
Gender Rarity Value: Old lore for dwarves portrays females as very rare — for example, in the Forgotten Realms, female dwarves made up only 3 out of every 10 dwarves, and as such they tended to be benignly closeted in the dwarfholds. Like the idea that female dwarves have facial hair, this idea didn't last, and female dwarves stopped being officially rare around 3rd Edition.
Girls with Moustaches: Back in AD&D 1st Edition, certain sources echoed the common fan-theory about Tolkien's female dwarves by claiming that that at least some breeds of dwarf have women who can grow beards and mustaches like their menfolk, although whether or not they actually do this or shave themselves clean is more of a personal cultural choice. This was officially dropped after WotC took over, and the 4th Edition preview sourcebook, Races and Monsters, made it explicitly clear that female dwarves in the Nentir Vale setting do NOT have facial hair.
Good Old Ways: Most dwarves are staunch traditionalists and fairly conservative, as their culture emphasizes following rules and their psychology favors stability and repetition. It's also hard to buck tradition when your grandparents and great-grandparents are still alive, living in the same clanhall as you, and higher on the social hierarchy than you.
Intergenerational Friendship: Due to the difference in lifespans, dwarves complain that by the time they really get to know a human, that human's on their deathbed. Thus, if a dwarf is friends with a human, odds are good they were friends with the human's predecessors.
Interspecies Romance: In AD&D lore, it's actually noted that dwarves can and do interbreed with humans, gnomes and halflings, although it's stated that such unions produce offspring that are functionally identical to dwarves. Some settings play with the idea; Dark Sun and Nentir Vale are both home to Muls (human/dwarf hybrids), whilst Midnight (2003) is home to both dwarrow (dwarf/gnomes) and dworcs (dwarf/orcs).
Mirroring Factions: As of 5th Edition, orcs. Both dwarves and orcs are born and raised in cultures that preach fanatical adherence to their gods and devote themselves to mastery of their respective art (battle for orcs, artisanship for dwarves).
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Zigzagged. D&D dwarves owe their foundation to Tolkien's take, and so the common subraces — the isolationist and militant "mountain dwarves" and the more personable "hill dwarves" — are secondary Trope Codifiers for the "generic dwarf" archetype. However, many of the more obscure dwarf subraces play with the archetype to some extent:
- Duergar, described in more detail below, are grim, malevolent, workaholic slave-taking dwarves native to the Underdark, essentially the dwarven equivalent of drow. In 4th edition, they gained the extra trait of being diabolists; worshipping, consorting with and even interbreeding with devils. They have certain innate magical powers, mostly the ability to turn invisible or grow into giants.
- In some editions, derro are evil, murderously crazy dwarves of a particularly degenerate stock, who also inhabit the Underdark. They're the most magically adept of all the dwarven subraces.
- Wild dwarves, introduced in the Forgotten Realms, are essentially jungle-dwelling, headhunting, Stone Age tribals who cake themselves in mud for armor and eschew clothes in favor of their hairy bodies, which may be why they don't get mentioned much. 5th Edition brought them back as a less-inadvertently offensive race of primitive albino dwarves native to Chult in the adventure "Tomb of Annihilation".
- The Innugaakalikurit are Arctic Dwarves; pale-skinned, white-haired tundra-dwellers who have no stoneworking or metalsmithing skills, favor spears over axes, are expert hunters, and are impervious to the cold. Unlike most dwarves, they love sunlight, and sunbathe whenever they can.
- On Krynn, the various Clans embody different dwarven standards. The Daergar clan are blatant expies of the Duergar, although they lack the duergar's magical ability. The Theiwar and Klar clans are based on different aspects of the Derro, with the Theiwar getting the sorcerous talents and the Klar getting the bloodlust and insanity. Finally, there are two dwarf clans unique to Krynn; the Zakhar, outcasts who suffer from a curse that leaves them hairless and disease-ridden, and the Aghar — the infamous "gully dwarves" — who are slovenly, cowardly, unintelligent dwarves who are actually lower than goblins on the totem pole of civilized races, and are believed to stem from ancient dwarf/gnome interbreeding.
- The dwarves of Athas have lost all of their traditional skill with stone and metal-work but have an even greater stamina and work ethic. Physically, they are notably hairless and were a lot stockier and square-shaped (and taller!) than the original second edition dwarves: Not only did they have a cranial structure that was notably different than that of humans (unlike their standard counterparts), they also qualified as medium-sized creatures. With the third edition however, the new baseline dwarf copied most physical features (size, build, cranial form) of the Athasian dwarves except their hairlessness.
- The ancient Kogolor of Mystara are actually the prototypes for both common dwarves and gnomes; cheerful, jovial, friendly agrarian humanoids who dwell in mountain forests and live simple lives as foresters, herders and trappers. They have no great skill in craftsmanship, save the brewing of liquor, and are almost embarrassingly Swiss, complete with a great passion for yodeling. They are extinct on the surface, but survive in the Hollow World.
- Korobokuru, or "Oriental Dwarves", are surface-dwellers characterized by a generally hairy frame (with rather ratty beards/mustaches) who mostly pursue a peaceful existence as farmers or hunters in forested areas. They're thematically closer to halflings than dwarves in many respects, and can be looked down upon as backwards and uncouth by neighboring human cultures.
- Dwarves are, interestingly, the least changed race in Eberron (Keith Baker has indicated this is partially because he loved the way they were portrayed in The Hobbit). The only major change is that their materialism translates to a desire for neatness, causing most dwarves to grow shorter beards that are easier to groom.
- "Dream dwarves" are a population of contemplative mystics who can tap into the "earth dream," the collective subconscious of the world around them. This makes them natural druids, empowers their divination and earth magic, and allows them to see ethereal creatures.
Proud Warrior Race: Dwarven society heavily values martial skill, and every dwarf is trained to defend his stronghold from birth. As a result, they are given weapon and armor proficiencies and have features revolving around fulfilling old grudges.
Reincarnation: Much as metal may be melted down and recast into a new form, so do dwarves believe that their departed souls will be reforged by Moradin the All-Father to return to the world. Old and infirm dwarves may even look forward to the opportunity to be made new in Moradin's forge.
The Stoic: Dwarves have a reputation for being taciturn, or even dour, but this is a result of a lifestyle in which a great many people have to live in close quarters, sacrificing physical privacy. Consequently, dwarves value mental privacy, and consider emotions highly personal things, only to be revealed to family and trusted friends. On the surface and among other races, dwarves may be more comfortable expressing their emotions.
True Craftsman: Dwarves have an almost religious reverence for high-quality craftsmanship instilled into them by their creator god Moradin, and their artisans produce some of the highest quality goods available anywhere in the realms. 3rd Edition has rules for "dwarvencraft" items that are much sturdier than even masterwork equipment, gaining some additional hit points and hardness, as well as a bonus on saving throws to avoid destruction.
Underground City: Dwarves are famous for their fortified subterranean settlements, whether a single clan's stronghold, or a multi-level metropolis that takes up most of a mountain's interior and is home to multiple clans. These strongholds are tempting targets for both orcs and dragons, the former because of the war booty to be found within, and the latter because a conquered dwarven stronghold is both a suitable lair and a ready-made hoard.

Elf

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elves_1.jpg

Long-lived, beautiful, graceful and innately magical, elves are a fey people who live in the world without entirely being part of it. Their great lifespans grant them a unique perspective that can make them aloof and unfazed by events, but gives them time to pursue their individual interests and make memories that will last their long lives.

Absurdly Low Level Cap: Original Edition and AD&D First Edition put a hamper on how high of a level elves could have in their allowed classes, save for the Thief class, which they didn't have a level cap in.
Can't Argue with Elves: D&D has a very long tradition of its elves being beloved and cherished by the creators, to the point that the AD&D elven sourcebook, The Complete Book of Elves, is an Old Shame to its creator.
Creation Myth:
- One story related in a 3rd Edition sourcebook describes Corellon Larethian's desperate battle with Gruumsh at the dawn of creation, and how in the aftermath, Corellon took the soil soaked with both the elven deity's blood and the tears of the goddess Sehanine Moonbow, and used it to craft the first elves in the image of the Seldarine. The other gods scrambled to do the same, but each of these races was a flawed imitation of the magnificent elves, though the elves were still kind to those races with good hearts.
- The elves' 5th Edition creation myth is more tragic, describing how originally the primal elves were changeable and audacious fey creatures much like their patron Corellon, who tarried with them in the splendid realm of Arvandor. But then the goddess Lolth convinced the elves to assume static forms in imitation of other races, sacrificing some of their freedom for a chance to master the worlds of the multiverse. This revolted Corellon and led to a schism within the Seldarine and the primordial elves, with some favoring Corellon and others Lolth, until Lolth treacherously attacked Corellon. The deity then cast out Lolth, her followers, and even the elves who had remained loyal, leaving them to spread across the multiverse in their fixed forms, never able to fully return to an eternal existence in Arvandor. But the graceful, long-lived bodies the elves inhabit, as well as the respites their souls are allowed in Arvandor between reincarnations, are proof of Corellon's enduring love for them.
Elves Versus Dwarves: Downplayed, as mentioned above. Elves can view dwarves as dour and inflexible people who subjugate the individual for the sake of the group, but they can respect dwarves' valor and craftsmanship, and their shared Good alignments can bridge the gap between their Lawful and Chaotic bents.
Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: Elves favor the use of bows, longswords, and rapiers, and in the latter case have developed a number of exotic thin-bladed weapons ranging in size from daggers to longswords.
Flash Sideways: Elves are considered elderly when they begin experiencing new memories during trancing, not of their primal souls or current life, but errant memories from other lives and times. These are considered blessings from the Seldarine that can be examined for lessons during an elf's waking life, but as such other-life memories become more common, older elves often desire to return home and surround themselves with memories of their current life.
Hypocrite: One of the most common cases is that elven "harmony" is recurrently portrayed as featuring the use of magic to essentially subjugate the land such as by compelling plants to grow in unnatural directions to create living treehouses and that they assist in taming animals, which means that elven forests are, at least around the cities, no less domesticated than the settled lands of other races. It's at least made clear that they don't clear and plow land, or in other words, farm.
In Harmony with Nature: This is a common depiction of elves, particularly the forest-dwelling wood elves, who in 5E get a racial trait that helps them blend in with natural surroundings. Though even city-dwelling elves will take care that their settlement complements a site's natural beauty rather than subjugating it for the sake of an urban plan like a human city.
Interspecies Romance: Elves have a history of romance with humans (see the "Half-Elf" folder), and oddly enough find it easier to commit to a long-term relationship with a human than their fellow elves. The elf gets to enjoy a roughly 50-year interlude with a human partner, the same time they'd spend mastering a new art form, and despite the bittersweet ending will emerge with a greater undersanding of shorter-lived races. Meanwhile, the human enjoys a lifelong partner who is hauntingly beautiful and to their eyes never ages.
Jack of All Trades: It isn't reflected in gameplay, but elves' drive for self-sufficiency, combined with their long lifespans, allows them to spend years, even decades, developing a wide variety of skills and hobbies. An elf who wants a new house, for example, won't hire a builder and work crew, but will consult other elves who have built homes, learn the basics of architectural design, train in carpentry, study the trees and land around the construction site, personally gather the building materials, and then spend however long is necessary to complete the project. While an elf's natural talent and interests will lead some to specialize in one or more roles, most elves develop at least a basic proficiency in most skills.
Land of Faerie: In keeping with their mythological inspirations, D&D's elves have a connection to the Feywild that has only grown more pronounced in recent editions, so that in 4th and 5th Edition the race originated on the plane, and in 5E an elven racial trait is called "Fey Ancestry."
Magic Knight: Elves were the original "gish" class in the first editions of D&D, having the unique ability to use either Warrior or Magic-User skills at the cost of not being able to develop as high in either class as a human. Later editions explored this idea in different ways, such as AD&D allowing elves to advance simultaneously as both Fighters and Wizards.
- In the Forgotten Realms, elves are the inventors of a unique form of Supernatural Martial Arts called "Bladesinging", which combines one-handed melee weapon styles with wizardly spellcasting.
- In the Nentir Vale, eladrin are widely recognized for their skill in the Swordmage class, which they tend to favor over martial classes. Eladrin wizards also often train in the art of swordplay, to the extent that they can use their swords as focuses for their spells, and have also developed the art of Bladesinging.
Mark of the Supernatural: Elves age much more gracefully than humans, but there is one sure sign that their lives are nearing their end — when they develop, during trance, cataracts in the shape of downward-pointing crescents over their pupils. This is known as Transcendence, and is a sign from the goddess Sehanine Moonbow that the elf's soul will soon be traveling to Arvandor, meaning it's time for them to get their affairs in order.
Our Elves Are Different: There are quite a few different varieties of elves throughout the D&D multiverse.
- "Wood elves," sometimes called "sylvan elves," "wild elves" or "grugach," are primitive elves who truly respect nature and try to live as close to it as possible. Unlike their city-building cousins, they rarely form anything more civilized than a loose confederacy of tribes or clans, and they definitely don't build traditional structures.
- "High elves" are generally portrayed as the more "civilized" elves, building settlements other races would recognize as cities. They still appreciate nature's beauty, but they focus more overtly on arcane magic and use it as a tool to build cities and empires. As a result, they are usually the least xenophobic of the elven races. They are sometimes depicted as having a greater affinity for arcane magic than other elves.
- "Dark elves," or "drow," are an evil subterranean offshoot of elvenkind, described below.
- Sea elves are an aquatic elven subrace described below.
- The eladrin, as of 4th Edition, are the original elven form, fey creatures described in more detail below. They were introduced to replace the "high elf" archetype, as the game's develpers admitted the difference between "wood" and "high" elf was becoming nebulous.
- "Gray elves," from older editions, were essentially more elitist and xenophobic high elves, and known for their militant isolationism. They were folded into the "high elf" archetype by 3rd Edition.
- Avariel and ee'aar, native to Faerun and Mystara respectively, are characterized mostly by being winged elves. Young avariel in particular are known for using their wings and their elven beauty to trick gullible mortals into believing that they are angels, although their elders strictly discourage this behavior.
- Lythari are faerie-blooded elven lycanthropes who can freely switch between the form of a silvery-white elf or a giant silvery-white wolf as they see fit.
- The elves of Eberron are all quite distinctive; the Aerenal are ancestor-worshippers who guard their own continent and practice a non-evil form of necromancy, the Valenar are ancestor-worshipping, warlike horse-riding mercenaries, the Khorvaire elves have adapted due to generations of living amongst humans, and the drow are non-evil, dark-skinned elves who inhabit the ancient elven homeland and still live by primordial, primitive traditions.
- Rockseer elves are a mysterious race of elves with a mystical connection to earth and stone, native to Faerun. Peaceful but fatalistic, they have potent earth-related magics, such as the ability to innately pass through stone as if it were thin air.
- Athasian elves probably have the least in common with their otherworldly cousins: They're extremely tall (7+ feet), comparably short-lived (only about 30 years or so longer than humans), have no high culture of their own and instead spend their lives as raiders and nomads who are constantly on the run. They're more chaotic than other elves, volatile, unreliable and considered to be notoriously untrustworthy.
- Their 5th Edition background both lampshades and justifies elves' tendency to develop subraces: even though today's elves are more static than their primordial, ever-changing forms, the race is still mutable and reactive to the environment in which they live, whether it's a plane of existence or just a type of terrain.
Our Liches Are Different: Baelnorns are good liches made from elves who wish to continue guarding their family or an important site.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: Lythari are elven lycanthropes who only have elf and wolf forms and who are not evil, unlike normal werewolves.
Past-Life Memories: When young elves trance, they experience flashes of memory from their primal souls, and are considered to have entered adulthood when these memories begin to be replaced with ones from their current lives.
Reincarnation: As of 5th Edition, elves reincarnate when they die, spending a time with the Seldarine in Arvandor before being reborn into a new elven body somewhere in the multiverse.
Sex Shifter: Also in 5th Edition, some elves are born as the "blessed of Corellon," appearing as genderfluid as their patron deity. These elves can change their biological sex at will with a long rest, and among surface-dwelling elves, such blessed often become clergy of Corellon. This blessing can also manifest among the drow, though given their rigidly-gendered society, such drow typically keep this trait a secret or else flee to the surface.
The Sleepless: Elves don't normally sleep the way that other humanoids do, instead they can choose to go into a meditative trance that gives them the same benefits that other humanoids get from a full night's sleep, only in half the time. Adult elves can also use their trance to relive memories from their lives, choosing those that complement their current activity or give them solace during a difficult time. This means that in the rare event an elf does sleep, they usually find dreams to be disorienting and alarming things, since they are the uncontrolled products of their subconscious mind rather than echoes of past events. One useful side-effect of all this is that an elf cannot be put to sleep through magical means.

Gnome

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A short but sturdy people, gnomes possess an insatiable curiosity and love for knowledge. Whether their interest lies in the natural world or intricate machinery, the pursuit of truth or the crafting of vivid illusions, gnomes delight in discovery and take even spectacular setbacks with good humor.

The Apprentice: Young gnomes are often apprenticed to various "maesters" as their natural talents dictate, spending at least a decade learning and assisting their mentor, until they pass enough tests to become a journeyman or "lesser maester." At this point the gnome usually goes off to start their career, often among other races, and may eventually settle down, start their own workshop or studio, and become a maester themself.
Arboreal Abode: Forest gnomes often make their homes in hidden burrows amidst a tree's roots, using the branches and trunk above as chimneys to ensure any tell-tale smoke emerges well overhead to quickly dissipate.
Bungling Inventor: Gnomish engineers are depicted as this in some settings, such as the tinker gnomes from Dragonlance. They are also depicted as being unbothered by it, as they value the teachings of failure.
Creation Myth: Averted; gnomes lack any sort of creation myth for their race, which is consistent with their view of existence as something that has no beginning or end. Garl Glittergold, true to form, has not provided a straight answer as to where his people came from either.
Friend to All Living Things: Gnomes are described as extremely friendly and good natured towards other races and creatures. Forest gnomes in particular are known to keep close friendships with small woodland animals like squirrels, birds and badgers, and start out with the ability to communicate with them.
Gadgeteer Genius: Most settings have gnomes be expert engineers and tinkerers, when they're not Bungling Inventors (and even sometimes when they are). Depending on the world, their inventions range from "slightly more advanced than medieval technology", to outright Schizo Tech, usually justified by Magitek (seeing as gnomes are also depicted as very competent arcane magicians). In 5th Edition, rock gnomes get an innate ability to create small, functioning clockwork trinkets like music boxes and walking toys, and are considered lore and mechanics-wise as ideal Artificers, the resident magical inventor class.
Gag Nose: Some of their illustrations in earlier versions of the game depicted them with long, pointy noses similar to that of Cyrano de Bergerac. This was Depending on the Artist and phased out in later editions.
Heroic Willpower: They all get "Gnome Cunning", an ability that gives them an advantage to resist spells that target the mind.
Master of Illusion: This is the iconic magical style for gnomes, and in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons they actually couldn't study any other kind of magic. Beyond hiding their homes from interlopers, gnomes use illusions as decorations or to express their creativity and artistic sides.
Motor Mouth: This is a standard trait for Krynnish tinker gnomes, who are said to have the remarkable ability to speak and listen at the same time. They can go for ages without stopping. It's sometimes considered a more general gnomish trait as well.
The Nose Knows: Downplayed; gnomes don't have the Scent ability by any means, but they have better senses of smell than most other races, enough for a gnome alchemist to track the progress of a chemical reaction by the subtle odors it gives off. The kobolds have exploited this by devising the spell gnome blight, which conjures a cloud of arcane pollen to debilitate victims — targets with sensitive noses, like the kobolds' mortal foes, take a penalty on their saving throw against the spell.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: D&D gnomes are actually based on mythological dwarves from Germanic, Swedish and other European myths, hence their fundamentally dwarf-like appearance being contrasted by a friendly, peasant-like attitude and a knack for magic.
Our Gnomes Are Weirder: Gnomes in D&D are sort of a blend of other races — they're dwarflike in some respects but have an elven flair for magic, individuality and self-expression, and similarly cherish nature. Like halflings they are a bucolic and friendly people who mostly enjoy a quiet life, but they're much more intellectually-inclined and comfortable with machinery. There are also many, many different subraces of gnome, each of which puts their own spin on the gnome archetype, or emphasizes one aspect over another:
- The common "rock gnome" is essentially a hybrid of dwarf and elf; skilled crafters with a knack for machinery, they're also naturally adept at magic, and are particularly gifted in the arts of illusions. Friendly and cheerful, they love to work hard and play hard, and are especially infamous for their love of practical jokes.
- "Forest gnomes" are rarer than rock gnomes and more reclusive, living in hidden woodland villages that can go unnoticed by strangers passing right through them. They're closer to nature and have a natural affinity for druidic magic as a result of that.
- "Deep gnomes," or "svirfneblin," are a subterranean subrace described below.
- "River gnomes," from a single issue of Dragon Magazine, are essentially the waterway-dwelling equivalents to Forest Gnomes.
- "Arcane gnomes," hailing from the same issue, are a rock gnome offshoot who have forsaken their traditional lifestyle to focus on mastering the arts of magic as a whole. They're an urbanized species and live in cities, trading their traditional abilities to speak to animals for a greater affinity for magic items and cantrips.
- The Krynnish "tinker gnomes," or "Minoi", are essentially rock gnomes with no magical talent, a fixation on science, and divinely cursed to be Bungling Inventors with a Goldbergian design fetish. Their more obscure relatives, the Gnomoi, are gnomes who have broken this curse and can create sane, functional, minimalistic devices — which causes their cursed kin to look down on them and pity them, even as the Gnomoi in return think of the Minoi as dullards who need to be carefully managed for their own good. Gnomoi are either known as "thinker gnomes" or "mad gnomes", depending on whether you ask a Minoi or anyone else.
- Mystara is home to both rock gnomes, which are locally called "earth gnomes," and "sky gnomes," which are essentially a crossbreed between arcane gnomes and thinker gnomes. Sky gnomes are masters of magitek, to the point that their homeland is a flying city they built themselves, complete with magic-powered anti-aircraft guns and biplanes to defend it, all using magic wand-based analogs to guns.
- The gnomes of Eberron are merchants, newshounds, crafters of elemental-powered vehicles, and just happen to have the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world. Oh, and they're believed to have evolved from rodents.
- "Chaos gnomes," or "imago" as they call themselves, are flamboyant and charismatic gnomes who make for natural sorcerers, especially when wielding spells with the "chaos" descriptor. They also possess improbable luck, allowing them to reroll a single dice roll once per day.
- "Whisper gnomes," in contrast, are quiet and reclusive gnomes who are naturally stealthy, and can innately cast magic like silence to help them evade notice.
- 4th Edition redesigns gnomes as fey humanoids who wander between the material world and Feywild, using illusion to hide themselves and humor to mask their true thoughts.
Proud Merchant Race: According to 3rd Edition, the gnomish economic system is one of the most advanced in the world, and gnomes are such masters of currency exchange that some become wealthy from it alone, while others make a tidy living selling both gnomish goods and the products of other races. Urbanized gnomes have merchant lords as unofficial nobility, who control most of the gnomish population's wealth and interact with other races' diplomats and statesmen, but who also take an active part in their community's welfare, supporting a middle class and providing patronage to artists and artisans.
The Smart Guy: In 5th Edition, gnomes are the only Player's Handbook race to get a +2 bonus to Intelligence, making them iconic Wizards and Artificers.
The Stateless: Most gnomish settlements are small towns or villages, and even urban gnomes tend to form enclaves in other races' cities rather than build their own. Combined with gnomes' disregard for centralized government and you have a people that have a society, but not a country that other races would recognize.
Mordenkainen: Elminster calls gnomes the Forgotten Folk — an apt name for them in most worlds. I've walked many realms, and nary a one has even a hint of a gnome nation.

Half-Elf

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The result of interbreeding between humans and elves, half-elves mostly favor their human side, with their elven heritage shining through in slightly pointed ears, the occasional inhuman hair or eye color, a heightened affinity for magic or increased charisma, and increased longevity compared to their human parents, although inferior to that of their elven parents. While they can be said to embody some of the best aspects of both races, half-elves often have difficulty fitting in with either of their parents' people.

Child by Rape: It's not the presumed default origin for them, but it's certainly possible, most famously in the case of Tanis Half-Elven of Krynn. However, half-drow are usually assumed to be the result of a non-consensual encounter between a male drow and a female slave, as no female drow would risk giving birth to a half-breed child and facing possible disgrace for miscegenation.
Child of Two Worlds: While they don't have it nearly as bad as half-orcs, half-elves tend to have difficult childhoods due to their biology — if they're raised among humans, the half-elf will develop slower than their peers, while among elves, a half-elf will quickly leave their playmates behind. If they decide to stay among one of their parents' people, they'll usually adopt a foreigner mentality, doing their best to speak the local language and follow their host community's customs, while at the same time choosing a name and living in a way that emphasizes the other half of their heritage, rather than trying and failing to pass for the people around them.
Half-Breed Discrimination: Half-elves among humans can be seen as haughty as elves, while elves can view half-elves as clumsy, boorish and slow. Half-drow have it even worse, as drow despise them for their "inferior" blood, while surface races tend to view them as no better than a full-blooded dark elf.
Jack of All Trades: Half-elves' greater lifespans (compared to humans) let them try out a variety of hobbies and trades, which mechanically is reflected in racial traits like Skill Diversity, letting them pick up proficiency in two extra skills of their choice.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: While half-elves are assumed to be half-human, their stats in 5th Edition can be used independetly of who the other parent is. The only traits that are not from their elven half is their Skill Versatiliy (proficiency in two chosen skills) and their ability score improvement (+1 to one chosen stat), which can be chosen depending on their non-elven ancestry (such as Survival and Athletics, and a +1 in Strength if the other parent is an orc). Half-elves even get to chose one additional language, which they may have learned from their other parent.
Ret-Gone: Downplayed, but in 2023, it was announced that in future Player's Handbooks, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs were being discontinued as distinct races, instead providing more broad rules for hybrid characters. Ostensibly, Half-Elves still exist and players can still play as them, but rather than having their own skills, players are encouraged to choose the abilities of either parent, then simply describe them with physical traits from both parents.
The Social Expert: Half-elves are excellent diplomats, due to both their natural qualities and out of necessity, since they have to learn to straddle two different cultures. Humans can think of elves as flighty or arrogant, while elves can view humans as boorish or immature, but half-elves retain their parent races' positive qualities while lacking their worst traits, making them generally well-liked by everyone. They can nearly always defuse tension, the exception being conflict between elves and humans, as both sides accuse the half-elf of favoring the other. Mechanically, this manifests in bonuses to their diplomatic skills.
True-Breeding Hybrid: If two half-elves mate, the result is another half-elf. In most settings this is a rare occurrence, but in Eberron, there's a large enough half-elf population that most half-elves are born to other half-elves, and they're considered a distinct race in their own right, with two Dragonmarked Houses composed of half-elves.

Half-Orc

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As their name suggests, these are the product of unions between humans and orcs. Half-orcs inherit their human parent's determination and adaptability, while their orcish blood gives them powerful emotions and physical might, so that even if a culture doesn't fully accept them, half-orcs will find a way to survive.

Child by Rape: Traditionally, given the savagery and ugliness of orcs, who have also been depicted as an extremely brutish and patriarchal race, this was seen as the default backstory for half-orcs, to the point that both the fandom and eventually official material started pushing back against it. Eberron, whose orcs are more heroic than standard, has the Shadow Marches as a land in which orcs and humans live together, producing plenty of half-orcs. 4th Edition greatly toned down the "child by rape" angle, and 5th Edition doesn't mention it at all, instead speaking of marital alliances between orc and human tribes.
Critical Hit Class: 5th Edition half-orcs get the Savage Attacks feature, which lets them roll an extra damage die on critical hits with melee weapons.
Half-Breed Discrimination: Half-orcs have traditionally suffered from this — among orcs, half-orcs are considered weakened by their human blood, which forces them to be tough and merciless to survive, while among humans, half-orcs must endure taunts and slurs, and are generally viewed as stupid thugs no better than full-blooded orcs.
In the Blood: Their 5th Edition write-up asserts that half-orcs are not evil by nature, but even those who turn away from their orcish heritage still hear whispers from Gruumsh in their dreams, or feel his call in combat, urging them to unleash their rage upon their foes.
Last Chance Hit Point: 5th Edition half-orcs can use their Relentless Endurance feature to remain standing with 1 hit point after taking damage that would normally reduce them to 0, once per long rest.
Multiple-Choice Past: In 4th Edition, to try and shake up the lack of appeal for the race that the writers felt stemmed from their standard origin being Child by Rape, half-orcs were presented as both a fully-fledged race in their own right and with multiple possible origins. These include widespread, consensual unions between human and orc tribes, a superior race created by Gruumsh from orcish or human stock intended to supplant the old orcs, humans mutated by Gruumsh's blood, being created by Kord as a dedicated worshipper race, and being magically engineered as a Slave Race by the hobgoblins.
Ret-Gone: Downplayed, but in 2023, it was announced that in future Player's Handbooks, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs were being discontinued as distinct races, instead providing more broad rules for hybrid characters. Ostensibly, Half-Orcs still exist and players can still play as them, but rather than having their own skills, players are encouraged to choose the abilities of either parent, then simply describe them with physical traits from both parents. While the reasoning for both is to move away from the outdated language and potential offence towards real-world biracial heritages, with Half-Orcs his is also in-part due to plans for full-blooded Orcs to be promoted to a core race.
The Sneaky Guy: Prior to 3rd Edition, which characterized half-orcs as Dumb Muscle, their early presentation was as sneaky thieves and assassins. Some half-orcs who live among full-blooded orcs still end up playing this role, especially if their appearance favors their human heritage — they're sent by their tribes to infiltrate a human settlement to search for weaknesses before an attack.
Superior Successor: While some half-orcs are derided by full-blooded orcs as weaklings, in other cases, half-orcs end up rising to positions of leadership in their tribes. While they aren't quite as strong as full orcs, half-orcs inherit enough human cunning and ambition to make up for it, and are comfortable in daylight.
Token Evil Teammate: Their defining hat among the iconic races; in the first three editions, before full-fledged support for Monster Adventurers were given out, half-orcs provided an option for "monstrous" player characters, and even afterward, half-orcs remained a more accessible choice for being playable at 1st level. 4th and 5th Edition shook up this paradigm, with the former featuring tieflings and dragonborn in the half-orc's place and the latter providing drow, tieflings, and dragonborn alongside half-orcs.

Halfling

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A small and nimble people, halflings are a gentle and peace-loving folk who relish their creature comforts and tend to live in hidden pastoral communities. But some of them display a surprising affinity for adventure, where their courage and natural good luck can serve them well.

Absurdly Low Level Cap: Original Edition and AD&D First Edition put a hamper on how high of a level halflings could have in their allowed classes, save for the Thief class, which they didn't have a level cap in.
Born Lucky: Their racial variant of the Lucky feat can be used an unlimited number of times (but only once per roll).
Creation Myth: The story goes that when the world was young, the various gods began filling it with mortal races, but Yondalla decided to study her fellow deities' work before starting her own project. She saw something to admire in each race — the elves' grace, the dwarves' commitment to family, the humans' cleverness and adaptability, and even the orcs' boldness — and so decided to borrow a bit of those races' essences, infusing them in a pixie she used as a starting point. This resulted in the first halfling, but Yondalla's actions had a negative impact on the other races, so that the elves became a bit clumsier, some dwarves chose to leave their clanholds, the humans slowed their rapid spread, while the orcs sometimes routed in battle. The other gods were displeased, and though Yondalla managed to flatter them by praising their work, they insisted that Yondalla purge herself of her larcenous streak, and decreed that the halflings would have no lands of their own.
Depending on the Artist: Different images of Halflings across all editions have varied wildly on their proportions, from basically miniature humans to rather bulbous with oversized heads and everything in between. Pointy Ears are also a feature that comes and goes.
The Fair Folk: In AD&D, it's suggested that halflings were actually a branch of the brownie family who had chosen to openly live amongst mortals, which caused them to lose most of their fairy magic.
Hobbits: They were explicitly called such in their earliest appearance, until a complaint by Tolkien Enterprises led them to be renamed to "halflings" (which incidentally is another word Tolkien invented, but nobody had trademarked it). The original halflings were quite similar to their inspiration, hairy feet and all, but subsequent editions have made them more unique.
- In AD&D, halflings consist of three subraces: hairfoots, stouts and tallfellows, which were the literal translations of Tolkien's three hobbit breeds: harfoots, stoors and fallohides. Hairfoots are "classic" hobbits, being docile, pastoral, laid-back and prone to being rather rotund. Stouts are said to be the result of interbreeding between halflings and dwarves, making them stronger, hardier, more assertive and better equipped to navigate underground. Tallfellows are "suspiciously elven" halflings, with elf-like stealth and keen senses.
- Athasian halflings diverge drastically from hobbits — instead of being chubby, stocky and round-faced, they're fragile and slender, with human-like but very young-looking faces. Also, they're cannibalistic savages. Like with the dwarves, D&D 3rd Edition made the halflings' Athasian appearance the new standard for the race.
- Dragonlance has the infamous kender — fearless, curious kleptomaniacs prone to picking up and taking whatever they find interesting.
- Ghostwise halflings are isolationist forest-dwellers native to the Forgotten Realms, unique for both their power of telepathy and their affinity for taming animals. Faerun also has the "strongheart" halflings, which fulfill the "closer to home" idea. They also generally trend towards Jack of All Stats.
- The obscure Furchin are a halfling breed native to a polar planet, and were introduced in Spelljammer.
- Mystara offers one of the earliest twists on the halfling archetype. Whilst their homeland of the Five Shires is a peaceful, pastoral homeland, young halflings experience an intense period of wanderlust and thrill-seeking known as yalarum, and are sent off into the wider world to become adventurers and get it out of their system, meaning that every settled adult in the Shires has at least a few class levels. Some either never get it out of their system or are just too mean to get on in polite society, and these defend the Shires' coast as a privateer navy. Mystaran halflings, or hin as they call themselves, also have access to a unique Anti-Magic ability when in their homeland, and also produce fonts of mystical Blackfire that they use to produce magic items. For added protection, the Shires also tends to be a popular retreat for older wizards.
- 3E renames the default halfling subrace the "lightfoots," adding a kender-ish love for adventure and collecting things. The tallfellow subrace is retained, while the stouts are renamed "deep halflings." 3rd Edition also moves away from halflings' Tolkien inspiration by casting them as a nomadic people, traveling in caravans that sell goods during the day and engage in a bit of petty thievery by night. 4th Edition's Nentir Vale setting does much the same, though its halflings prefer to travel by boat through rivers and wetlands.
- Eberron has two separate cultures of lightfoot halflings, who are heavily involved in the medical and culinary institutions of their world; the "civilized" clans, and those who maintain their people's traditional lifestyle as nomadic dinosaur-riding barbarians.
- 5th Edition brought back the hairfoot under the lightfoot's name, and also revived the stout subrace. However, their roles have been swapped; the lightfoot halflings are the adventurous ones, while the stout halflings prefer to stay close to home.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Stouts are explicitly half-halfling and half-dwarf. Whether or not tallfellows are likewise part-elven is never explicitly mentioned.
That Man Is Dead: Halfling tradition states that if a funeral is held for someone who later turns up alive, that halfling must take up a new name because their original identity has been laid to rest. No matter how many people recognize them, this halfling must begin again as a new member of their caravan and clan.
Wandering Culture: Their portrayal in 3rd Edition is as a nomadic people, moving about in caravans of sturdy house-wagons escorted by mounted outriders. Some halflings do buy land (usually from other races who owe them a favor) and build residences, but these have a high turnover rate as homeowners sell the places after a few years to go back on the road, and the only permanent residents are elderly halflings unable to endure the rigors of travel. Still, such halfling towns make for natural rest stops for the caravans, as well as places to bank money... and fence stolen goods.

Human

Compared to the likes of elves and dwarves, humans are a short-lived and mundane race, with no clear strengths or special abilities. Nevertheless, their adaptability and ambition — as well as their aggression — have allowed humanity to become the dominant race on most worlds of the multiverse.

Absurdly High Level Cap: In early editions, the only unique trait of humans was that they could keep leveling up forever. In most games, the party would never even reach the point where this would come in handy.
Creation Myth:
- One popular fable is the "Tale of Clay," which relates how when the gods met and discussed the mortal races they planned on making to inhabit the world, they demonstrated their designs by shaping a lump of clay in the likeness of those races. After the gods left, the forgotten clay, imbued with life from the touch of so many deities, rose and gave itself a permanent form, deciding to blend those races' features together. The gods were so impressed that they created a mate for this first man, giving rise to humanity.
- Another tale is "The Broken Mold," which states that humanity was the first race created by the gods, who worked together when casting the first human, but then squabbled over who would make the second, and in doing so broke the mold. The deities blamed each other for the mishap and dispersed to make more mortals, but none could remember the original design — Corellon Larethian made it too thin, Moradin too broad, and so forth. The first human, meanwhile, labored for centuries to rebuild the mold and make proper copies, so that humans were both the first of the gods' creations but the last race to enter the world.
- Even nonhumans have creation myths about humanity. The dwarves have a story about a dwarf who toppled over backward while trudging up a rise in a cold rain, creating an elongated depression that filled with water that then froze, resulting in a too-tall and too-thin icy replica that came to life as the first human. Meanwhile, the halflings have a story about a lusty halfling woman named Oratea who married an elf and a dwarf, only for her husbands to grow jealous of each other and demand she choose one spouse. When Oratea became pregnant and decided that the look of the child would decide who she stayed with, the gods punished her by having her give birth to twins who blended all three races' features together. Both of her husbands left her, and Oratea died of a broken heart, while her children became the first humans.
The Everyman: Humanity's traditional "hat" in D&D is being generic, either having no special traits in their genes or culture, or humans being so diverse that any kind of person could pop up in their ranks.
Explosive Breeder: Compared to just about every other major humanoid race, humans reach maturity quickly and are considerably more fertile. The result is that they're consistently the most numerous civilized race.
Half-Human Hybrid: Humans compete with dragons for being the most cross-fertile race in D&D, so that it's a common joke that the real human hat is being willing to sleep with anything.
Humans Are Average: Humans usually have average stat bonuses, making them able to excel at any class.
Humans Are Flawed: The developers behind 4th Edition noted that 3rd Edition's description of humanity seemed too positive, and so focused on another angle: humans are corruptible. While many humans start their journeys with good intentions, they have a greater tendency to stray from that path than other races, and even the best examples of humanity have made bad choices. While humans have built great empires, more often than not, those empires fell not to outside invaders, but rotted from within. "Humanity is both its own staunchest ally and most dangerous enemy."
Humans Are Special: 5th Edition's variant humans, representing how a human can choose to specialize in something they really put their mind to. By only taking +1 to two stats, the PC can learn a feat (serving as an expertise) at level 1. Some feats even have a +1 to its related stat, making variant humans the only race that can have +2 to wisdom at level 1. You also get a proficiency bonus, which is just icing on the cake. Lore-wise, humans are often looked upon jealously by other races because, despite their short lifespans in comparison to longer-lived folks, they can advance more in a few years than most races even try to in a century or more.
Humans Are Warriors: It's noted that humans are much more aggressive than the likes of dwarves and elves, in part because the longer-lived races have more to lose when they put their lives at risk, while humans' short lifespan drives them to make the most of opportunities while they can, if not for themselves than for their children's future. This aspect is not limited to military conflict, as human merchants, for example, are no less aggressive for working to enrich themselves and bankrupt their rivals.
Immortality Seeker: The first major life goal of many human wizards is to acquire longevity so they can practice their research well beyond the natural lifespan of a human. Some of the longest-lived individual characters are, in fact, human mages of some fashion.
Jack of All Stats: Most humans have equal stats all around, and the non-variant human gets a +1 to every ability score in 5E.
Master of All: About half of the time, they have abilities that are pretty much universally handy for any class and often further any build you might be working towards (usually extra skills and feats).
Master of None: The other half of the time, they have either no unique abilities or abilities that are so well-rounded they don't excel at anything.

Tiefling

Origin: Planescape

A type of "planetouched" humanoid with a fiendish heritage, which manifests in both physical deformities and supernatural traits. Tieflings are perhaps the most widespread of the planetouched races, as fiends are the most likely of outsiders to produce children with mortals or otherwise taint a bloodline. Despite their origins, tieflings are not necessarily evil, but the way others treat them as such can give them little incentive to be anything else.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Though the standard tiefling in recent editions' game art is red-skinned, blue and purple are also popular amongst tiefling players. In fact, this is at least in-part of the popularity of the race in recent years, given the greater freedom in character customisation it offers.
Art Evolution: Through 3rd Edition, tieflings were described as superficially human, but with one or more traits hinting at their fiendish heritage, such as small horns, cloven hooves, pointed ears, patches of scales, or just a diabolical glint in their eyes. Since 4th Edition, they've had a more standardized look — rosy or red skin, prominent horns on their brows, and serpentine tails. The Brimstone Angels book series provides a justification for this, describing how a tiefling group known as the "Toril Thirteen" made a deal with Asmodeus that resulted in all new tieflings being born as his progeny, regardless of their bloodline's actual origin.
Big Red Devil: The standard tiefling appearance invokes this, with red skin, large horns, and tails.
Breakout Character: Originally a minor side race, they've become a core race since 4e due to their popularity.
Casting a Shadow: 3rd and 5th Edition tieflings can innately cast the darkness spell.
Cute Little Fangs: Commonly, Tieflings are depicted with pronounced canines; not to a vampire's extent but enough to be noticeable. While it may serve to make them more threatening, its often used to evoke this image.
Cute Monster Girl: Generally, art will emphasize how attractive Tieflings are, especially Tiefling women. Tiefling men are still commonly depicted as either ruggedly handsome or Pretty Boy types, but Tiefling women in particular often have their beauty emphasized, to the point they're often presented as Ms. Fanservice (and even when not, are presented as endearingly cute).
Damage Reduction: Tieflings innately resist certain damage types. Which ones depend on the edition: 2E tieflings have bonuses to saves against electricity, fire, and poison damage, and take half damage from cold; 3E tieflings have a mild resistance to cold, electricity, and fire; and 4th and 5th edition tieflings greatly resist fire damage.
Dark Is Not Evil: Tieflings do tend to be evil, but a lot of that is due to people pushing them to evil rather than something hereditary. Many tieflings are perfectly decent people, and the Nentir Vale tieflings, in particular, have no particular stigma against them.
Deal with the Devil: In 4th Edition, the tieflings of the Nentir Vale are the descendants of the nobility of Bael Turath, a human empire that turned to diabolism in an attempt to reverse its decline. The dark pacts they swore mutated the nobility and their children forever after into bearing a devilish appearance.
Divine Parentage: A common, but not universal, origin — subsequent game editions have emphasized that tieflings can have entirely non-sexual origins, including being the result of one parent making a deal with a fiend, or being cursed, or practicing Black Magic, or conceiving them in an area tainted by the presence of a long-dead fiend... 5th Edition presents an array of tiefling subtypes tied to specific archdevils, allowing characters to "inherit" specific power sets while also acknowledging that this can be a metaphorical inheritance. Levistus for example imbues his tiefling with Stygian ice magic, Zariel's tieflings can enhance their melee attacks with fire or radiant damage, Dispater, Fierna and Glasya all grant their tieflings magic to hide themselves and bend others to their will, and so forth.
Evil Is Cool: Much like the drow, tieflings are popular amongst those players who like playing characters with a bit of a darker edge. So much so, that from 4th Edition onward they've become playable from the first player's handbook. Of course, with Tieflings in particular the appeal is less that Evil Is Cool, but rather Resisting Evil Is Cool; generally, Tieflings are presented as being not inherently evil by nature, but merely being assumed as such because of their ancestry, and while many may be encouraged to go down the evil route as a result of the mistreatment they're given, they're equally encouraged to reject their ancestry and embrace being heroes.
Fantastic Racism: They're often on the receiving end of this, as many people fear and distrust them due to their demonic appearance and heritage. Even metropolitan Sigil has sayings like "If there's blame, find a tiefling" and "If a tiefling didn't do it, he was just pressed for time."
Fiery Sensuality: Tieflings have an innate link to fire thanks to their infernal heritage, granting them a natural ability to cast some fire-based spells. They are also generally depicted as being attractive and seductive thanks to having a racial bonus to Charisma.
Horned Humanoid: As of 4th edition, this is probably their most distinct physical trait, and generally Tieflings who try to hide their nature do so by finding ways to cover their horns. Their otherworldly skin and pointed ears can be simply mistaken as traits of an exotic elf subrace, but the horns are what signal them specifically as a tiefling.
Hot as Hell: With their racial bonus to Charisma and official artwork tending to emphasize the attractiveness of tiefling females, combined with allusions to succubus and incubus ancestry, it's not uncommon for fans to portray tieflings as very sexually active, if not using their "fiendish allure" to be sexually provocative.
Mass Transformation: In 4th edition they're descended from the nobility of Bael Turath, who were mutated by the pacts they made with fiends.
Monochromatic Eyes: Often depicted with these, and its a physical trait that's specifically described in the Player's Handbook, usually described as glowing pupilless orbs.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Tieflings by default are presumed to be of human origin, but there are tiefling analogues with a different heritage. Tanarukks are the orcish equivalent of tieflings, descended from a demon-led Super Breeding Program with orc slaves. Fey'ri are the elvish equivalent to tieflings, descended from a corrupt elven house that turned to demonology and began extensively interbreeding with summoned demons. And so on with maeluths (dwarves), "wisplings" (halflings), mur-zhagal (trolls), "baphitaurs" (minotaurs)...
One Head Taller: Depending on the Artist, tieflings can be on either side of this, being depicted as notably shorter than humans on average or notable taller. A lot of it ties into Tiefling's status as the Hot as Hell Cute Monster Girl race, and the preferences of the artist/player; if one is more attracted to taller statures, Tieflings are commonly a Statuesuqe Stunner that lean on the tall side, while those who find shorter statures more attractive, they'll often be below 5'5.
Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: Several races/species can have their extraplanar heritage manifest in an unusual hair colour (for example, tieflings can have purple hair, with a normal human skin colour, although this is often ignored in favour of whatever the player wants).
Playing with Fire: 4th and 5th Edition tieflings are naturally resistant to fire damage, and can retaliate against an attacker by blasting them with hellfire.
Prefers Raw Meat: Their AD&D entry states that tieflings are strict carnivores who prefer their meat raw, though if necessary they can survive on ashes, coal and other mineral matter for a time.
Prehensile Tail: 4th Edition tieflings can take a feat to this effect.
Then Let Me Be Evil: It's commonly noted that tieflings tend to turn to evil because people assume their ancestry makes them evil and mistreat them until they ultimately snap.
True-Breeding Hybrid: In some editions — chiefly 3rd and earlier — tieflings originated from the direct interbreeding of humans and various types of fiends, but they became a self-sustaining, if somewhat uncommon, race long in the past, and are exclusively born to tiefling parents in the modern day. This is averted in later editions, where they're usually descended from humans who became affected by fiendish influences in other ways.
Winged Humanoid: One variant of tieflings, as depicted in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, swaps the normal inborn magical abilities for a set of wings and a 30-foot flying speed.

Exotic Races

These races, introduced in additional supplements, have otherworldly natures or physical features that set them apart from even the likes of dragonborn and tieflings. D&D's Monster Adventurers can also be found here.

Aarakocra

^3e

Origin: Forgotten Realms

Avian humanoids native to high mountain peaks, who have a long alliance with the goodly powers of the Elemental Plane of Air.

Art Evolution: Originally they looked parrot-like, with males sporting colorful feathers to match, and only had four limbs, with functional hands on their wings that they couldn't use while flying. 5th Edition redesigned them with separate arms and wings, and gave them the heads and coloration of eagles.
Bird People: They've been far more on the bird side than the humanoid side, though 5th Edition shifts things the other way.
Blow You Away: Their ancient pact with the Wind Dukes of Aaqa gives them an affinity for wind magic, so that in 5th Edition, aarakocra PCs can cast gust of wind at 3rd level.
Claustrophobia: Traditionally, aarakocra have a racial claustrophobia, hating being on the ground or indoors.
Death from Above: Past editions let aarakocra make dive-bombing attacks that end with a hurled javelin, dealing double damage.
Handy Feet: In earlier editions, aarakocra feet are as dexterous and useful as their hands, and a flock's females are known to lie on their backs and use all four limbs to weave pennants or craft javelins while the men are out hunting.
Matriarchy: The aarakocra of Coliar, one of the other planets in Toril's solar system, live in a matriarchal democracy where women are traditionally chosen as rulers under the reasoning that they're more emotionally stable than men. Male aarakocra can theoretically be chosen as leaders, but this hasn't happened in 1,000 years.
My Instincts Are Showing: Aarakocra have traditionally had a bird-like fascination with shiny objects, so that individuals have hired themselves out as scouts and guides in exchange for shiny gems or coins.
Short-Lived Organism: In 5th edition, Aarakocra mature at the age of three, and live for thirty years. When re-introduced in Monsters of the Multiverse, the age information was absent, implying they live for a normal human lifespan.
Summon Magic: A group of five aarakocra can summon an air elemental by chanting and flying through an aerial dance for three minutes.
Vile Vulture: Athasian aarakocra have the heads of vultures, and while not all of their tribes are evil, even the good ones are known to take hostages from passing caravans that refuse to pay a toll to cross their territory, and will help themselves to a lost traveler's valuables before leading them out of the desert.
We Are as Mayflies: The first version of Aarakocra in 5e only lived to 30 years old on average, making them a major Subversion. Monsters of the Multiverse Retconed this and reverted them back to the usual average aging.

Aasimar

Origin: Planescape

Another "planetouched" kindred, these individuals have an ancestor from the Upper Planes, blessing them with angelic good looks and some of the light of heaven. Many aasimar embrace their heritage and devote themselves to the cause of good, but others chafe at the expectations that come with their ancestry, and some reject the heavens and use their powers for evil.

Damage Reduction: Like their tiefling cousins, aasimar are innately resistant to certain damage types. In 3rd Edition they have a mild resistance to acid, cold, and electric damage, while in 5th Edition they greatly resist necrotic and radiant damage.
Dark Is Not Evil: "Fallen" aasimar have skeletal wings and Black Eyes of Evil in their transformed state, in which they can imbue their attacks with flesh-rotting necrotic energies. Despite this menacing appearance and sinister power, such aasimar are no more likely to be evil than any other playable race.
Fantastic Racism: Aasimar and tieflings share a mutual rivalry, with the aasimar tending to assume to the worst about tieflings, while the tieflings resent the aasimar for being "coddled half-breeds" who don't suffer from the sort of discrimination tieflings can endure.
Good Counterpart: They're an In-Universe case of this relative to tieflings, being planetouched descended from celestials rather than fiends.
Good is Not Nice: Even a good aasimar is not necessarily a sweetheart. Celestials include proud warriors and lethal soldiers as well as healers and guardians.
Guardian Angel: 5th Edition, in an effort to make them more than "good planetouched," made aasimar's figurative parents much more hands-on than tieflings'. Each non-evil aasimar has an angelic guide who sends them dreams, visions and feelings, though said guides are far from omniscient, and their detached viewpoint and focus on the big picture can lead them to disagree with the aasimar over how best to do good.
Healing Hands: In 5th Edition, all aasimar can use their touch to restore a small amount of health to a single creature once per long rest.
Heroic RRoD: When a scourge aasimar unleashes the divine power within themselves, it produces a searing internal light that slowly burns away at them from within. Mechanically, this makes the aasimar (and other nearby creatures) take radiant damage on each of the aasimar's turns for the effect's duration. The aasimar's innate resistance to radiant damage helps mitigate this somewhat, but it can still potentially knock them out if used at a bad time or if things go south.
Holy Hand Grenade: The protector and scourge aasimar of 5th edition can sear their foes with holy light. Mechanically this allows both subraces to deal extra radiant damage to an enemy that they hit once per turn, and also makes the scourge aasimar burn nearby creatures (including themselves) at the end of its turn.
Light 'em Up: Aasimar often have the innate magical power to produce light. In 3.5 they can cast the daylight spell once per day, while in 5th edition they can cast the light cantrip at will.
Light Is Not Good: Though aasimar are commonly good-aligned, they are just as capable of being evil as tieflings are of being good. Some non-good aasimar will even take advantage of their kind's reputation when preying upon others — "when an aasimar bobs some sod, he's likely to get away with it since most people'll take his word over his victim's."
Mark of the Supernatural: Much like tieflings, aasimar can range from quite humanlike to obviously supernatural, but even the humanlike ones generally have at least one identifying mark that belies their nature. An aasimar descended from a solar will likely have vestigial feather patches at the shoulder blades, for instance, while one descended from a celestial serving a deity may have a birthmark in the shape of that god's holy symbol.
Power Gives You Wings: Both protector and fallen aasimar can sprout temporary wings when tapping into the divine power within themselves. The wings are fully functional for protector aasimar, but for fallen aasimar, they only serve to make them look scary.
Super Mode: Their defining gimmick in 5th edition. Each aasimar subrace gains the ability to temporarily "unleash the divine energy within" at 3rd level, a transformation that grants the aasimar various benefits, most notably the ability to inflict extra radiant or necrotic damage with their attacks.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: The sight of a fallen aasimar transforming is disturbing enough to frighten nearby creatures for a short time.
True-Breeding Hybrid: Aasimar descend from the direct interbreeding of humans and celestials, but they became a self-sustaining, if somewhat uncommon, race long in the past, and are exclusively born to aasimar parents in the modern day.

Astral Elf

Origin: Spelljammer

An offshoot of elvenkind who left the Feywild for the Astral Sea, in order to be closer to their gods. The millennia spent in the Silver Void has given these elves unique powers, as well as an unsual perspective on time.

Cool Mask: When dealing with outsiders, astral elves customarily cover their faces with ornate visors or masks, becoming faceless extensions of their gods.
Ghost Memory: When astral elves trance, they can draw upon both the racial memories of their kin as well as the knowledge and experiences of entities on the Astral Plane. In gameplay terms, this lets an astral elf character pick a bonus skill, tool and weapon proficiency each time they finish a long rest.
Light 'em Up: NPC astral elves can attack with beams or rains of radiant astral energy, while astral elf characters automatically know dancing lights, light or sacred flame as a cantrip.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Astral elves' eyes have black sclera and golden irises.
Teleportation: Player astral elves can make a "Starlight Step," a 30-foot teleport, a few times per day.
Time Abyss: Elves are Long-Lived to begin with, but since nothing ages on the Astral Plane, astral elves can be tens of thousands of years old. This makes some prone to melancholy, and others borderline emotionless, or searching for creative ways to occupy their time.

Autognome

Origin: Spelljammer

Clanking contraptions created by mechanically-minded gnomes for various tasks, such as work in hazardous environments. Prone to malfunction, some autognomes go rogue and strike out on their own, while others are granted their autonomy by their creators.

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: When functioning properly, autognomes are obedient, but damage or design flaws can cause them to malfunction and do everything but what they were designed to do.
Critical Failure: NPC autognomes come with their own "Malfunction" table, which they have to roll on after taking a heavy hit in combat. Results range from the autognome's head or arm temporarily falling off, to it mistaking a PC for a gnome or baby, to its self-destruct sequence triggering.
Exact Words: Their Spelljammer entry assures us that autognomes work "just as well as any other gnomish invention."
Magitek: They're mechanical constructs with a magical intellignece.
Mechanical Lifeforms: Player autognomes were designed to benefit from spells like cure wounds that don't normally affect Constructs, but can also heal themselvs with the mending spell as well. Autognomes are also immune to disease, resistant to poison, and don't need to eat, sleep or breathe.
Shock and Awe: 5th Edition autognome NPCs attack with jolts of lightning.
Shout-Out: In combat, autognomes rant things like "Crush! Kill! Destroy! Exterminate, exterminate!"
Three Laws-Compliant: Autognomes are built to follow three directives: defend gnomes under attack by non-gnomes, defend themselves from attack, and protect infants and youngsters from harm. Unfortunately, the last order doesn't take into account the races or context involved, so an autognome who sees adventurers battling an evil dragon wyrmling will join the fight on the wyrmling's side.

Bugbear

The largest of the common goblinoids are also feared for their surprising stealth, a talent bugbear gangs use to waylay and murder. Fortunately for other races, bugbears are lazy bullies by nature, which limits the threat they pose without hobgoblin supervision.

Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Bugbears live by this in relation to other goblinoids. If they're conscripted into a goblinoid host, the bugbears assume that Hruggek and Grankhul have similarly been roped into another divine battle by Maglubiyet, and will follow the hobgoblins' orders out of divine obligation and for whatever food they can get. If that warhost suffers defeat and falls into infighting, the bugbears will take it as a sign that Maglubiyet's attention has waned, make a few trophies from their hobgoblin leaders, and slip away.
Beast Man: They are the most visually bestial and feral of the main goblinoid species; they tend to be particularly apelike, but, depending on the edition and the bugbear in question, more ursine traits can creep in as well.
The Brute: Hobgoblins use the least subtle bugbears as shock troops and melee fighters that punch holes in the enemy line.
Carry a Big Stick: Bugbears have a penchant for wielding morningstars, largely due to the fact that it's the favored weapon of Hruggek, their chief deity.
Creepy Souvenir: They have a religious reverence for decorating their lairs with severed heads on stakes and cords, and their gods' blessing may cause those heads to provide magical assistance such as the alarm or speak with dead spells. This can also be exploited: Elminster advises using illusion magic to make such severed heads speak to spook bugbears into doing the caster's bidding.
Elite Mook: They're much tougher then regular goblins, and the benefits they offer as warriors, assassins and even spies means that hobgoblins will grudgingly put up with their expensive appetites and spotty work ethic if it means having the advantage a bugbear gives to an army.
Genius Bruiser: Despite being built like gorillas, they tend to have above-average intelligence and are actually quite stealthy and agile.
Lazy Bum: As 5th Edition explains, bugbears are ambush predators who typically alternate long periods of low activity with bursts of savage violence. Even after joining a goblinoid host, bugbears have to be roused from naps and given bribes to perform their duties.
Noodle People: Bugbears are noted for their lanky build, with particularly long arms that give them longer reach than other similarly sized races, and they can fit into Small spaces without squeezing.
Our Goblins Are Different: Bugbears are the largest of the goblinoids and the strongest, savage and brutal creatures that are also natural Stealth Experts.
Psycho for Hire: Even moreso than ordinary goblins, as hobgoblins have to bribe/pay them with food or skulls to get them to work.
Stealthy Colossus: Perhaps their defining trait is being hulking brutes that are still incredibly stealthy, making them natural skulkers and assassins. Volo's Guide to Monsters states that their ability to appear as if from nowhere is the source of "boogeymen" horror stories, while their Monsters of the Multiverse racial traits let them deal extra damage to foes who haven't taken an action yet, enjoy automatic proficiency in Stealth, as well as fit into a space for a Small creature without squeezing.

Centaur

Reclusive woodland beings with the upper bodies of humanoids and the lower bodies of horses.

Can't Hold His Liquor: Centaurs are generally well-behaved, but under the influence of alcohol can become rowdy, boorish and aggressive.
Dash Attack: Depending on their rules set, centaurs can make charge attacks with pikes that hit just as hard as a mounted knight's, or stomp and trample foes with their hooves.
Horse Archer: If you'll pardon the expression. Centaurs are talented archers, and typically fight like historical horse archers, retreating from danger while peppering foes with arrows, only to circle around and outflank enemies.
I Will Only Slow You Down: Centaur tribes are constantly moving along ancient migratory paths, and so have adopted a cultural practice of leaving behind those too old or sick to keep up with the rest of the tribe. In a worst-case scenario this means the unlucky centaur vanishes into the wilderness, but some take up new lives in other races' settlements.
Logical Weakness: Their equine builds make them sturdy and swift, but also mean that centaurs struggle with ladders or ropes.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: AD&D mentions "centaur-kin" that aren't traditional human/horse combinations: "dorvesh" (dwarf/donkey), "ha'ponies" (halfling/pony), and "gnoats" (gnome/mountain goat).
Our Centaurs Are Different: They're much more benign than the traditional Greek centaur, unless beer is involved.
Zebras Are Just Striped Horses: One centaur variant from 2nd Edition is the "zebranaur," with the upper body of a dark-skinned human and a striped equine half.

Changeling

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/636677974156125260.png

A female-presenting changeling

Origin: Eberron

In their natural forms, changelings are pale, nearly featureless humanoids, but they can freely alter their appearance to that of any similarly shaped creature.

Ambiguous Situation: Their relationship to doppelgangers. Some theories suggest that changelings are true-breeding human-doppelganger hybrids, others insist that changelings are an offshoot of doppelgangers (or vice-versa), and still others wonder whether there's any meaningful difference between the two.
Collective Identity: Some changeling communities will pass down specific personas along generations, or trade them so that anyone on-duty as the local healer assumes the persona of Tek the physician, for example.
Either/Or Offspring: There are no half-changelings; a changeling mating with another humanoid will produce children with 50-50 odds of being another changeling or member of the other parent's race. The exception is if the changeling has the Racial Emulation feat and uses it during conception to match their partner's race, which will produce a full-blooded member of that race.
Fantastic Racism: The obvious criminal applications of their powers can make changelings mistrusted and feared by other races as an innately deceitful species.
Humanshifting: Their primary shtick; changelings can change their appearance and voice at will (but not what they're wearing or carrying), even mimicking a specific Medium or Small individual the changeling has seen before, and can remain in that form indefinitely until slain. A temporary appearance can be called a "mask," and may be used briefly to simply express an emotion, but other forms can become "personas" that develop their own histories and identities. Eberron's changelings have a number of philosophies relating to their natural shapeshifting. "Passers" pick a form, whether their original or an assumed shape, and stick with it all their lives, "becomers" tend to change shape regularly, either for a purpose or for their own amusement, and "reality seekers" strive to find a shape that they consider perfect.
Master of Your Domain: Changelings with psychic powers are very attracted to the psychometabolism discipline, allowing even greater control over their own body. Changeling Psions often choose the Egoist subclass, which specialize in psychometabolism, and can take substitution levels granting them more powers than standard Egoists of their level.
Psychic Static: Changelings with the Persona Immersion feat can fool low-level telepathic powers or divination spells if they make their saving throws, feeding the mind-reader with whatever false information they want. It's generally used to generate fake thoughts fitting better with their current disguise.
Sex Shifter: Changelings do develop a specific gender identity during childhood, but starting from adolescence they can switch physical sex at will (or even take a sexless or hermaphroditic form), and are fertile in any form.
Shapeshifter Default Form: Changelings in their true form are white-skinned, nearly featureless humanoids.
Shapeshifter Mode Lock: For obvious reasons, a changeling that becomes pregnant is still able to shift between female forms, but can't shift to a non-female form until "she" gives birth.
Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: The "minor change shape" power of changelings only concerns their physical bodies. As it is limited to humanoid forms, it is generally not too much of a problem if the new form stays close in size and shape. Although a changeling may need a change of clothes if using it for disguise purposes.
Sneaky Spy Species: Their shapeshifting powers and skill with people make changelings natural spies and assassins. In 3rd edition, their favored class is rogue.
The Social Expert: 5th edition changelings get a bonus to their Charisma and free proficiency in two of the game's four social skills (Deception, Insight, Intimidation, and Persuasion), while their 3rd edition equivalents get a small racial bonus to the equivalents of these skills instead. Combine that with their ability to look and sound like anyone they want, and you get a perfect candidate for the party's "face".
This Was His True Form: Upon death, changelings will revert to their true form.
Uncatty Resemblance: Changeling wizards with a Familiar will often pick the "Morphic Familiar" power through a substitution level, thus making it just as much of a shapeshifter as its master (able to take the form of any animal commonly used as familiar).

Deep Gnome

Properly svirfneblin, these gnomes dwell in hidden enclaves within the Underdark, and spend most of their time focused on surviving such a hostile realm. But unlike the drow, duergar, or worse subterranean races, the deep gnomes are content to keep to themselves, using their stealth and innate magic to evade their enemies.

Anti-True Sight: In their older rules, svirfneblin are under a constant natural nondetection effect, while as of 5th Edition they all learn to cast it as they gain levels.
Evil Counterpart: Averted compared to the drow and duegar. While they are similarly a subterranean, ashen skinned version of a playable race like the other two they are not an evil culture, just a bit grim and overly serious by the standards of other gnomes.
Lie to the Beholder: Another innate svirfneblin spell is disguise self.
Loves Only Gold: While they mine all sorts of precious metals, deep gnomes favor gemstones, and particularly prize rubies.
"A thin smile emerges from the stone-like features of a deep gnome who finds a truly remarkable gem, and such a discovery lightens the mood in the enclave for a time."
Matriarchy: Svirfneblin society is heavily gendered, with women managing food production and running the city, while men patrol for threats or venture out to mine for gems and metals. As such, while each city has both a king and a queen, they have distinct spheres of influence and the queen is the one running the actual settlement.
Stealth Expert: Deep gnomes are adept at moving quietly, even in armor, and are noted to be able to freeze in place for long periods, making them easier to overlook.
Underground City: Svirfneblin settlements are well-hidden and heavily-fortified, featuring mazes of twisting tunnels, traps and armed guards. But past all that, the deep gnomes' homes are surprisingly beautiful, as they tend to accentuate the natural stonework of a cavern with smooth, curving shapes, in stark contrast to the blunt redoubts and sharp corners of duergar fortresses, or the sinister architecture of drow cities.

Drow

An estranged elven subrace that dwells in the Underdark, drow society is dominated by the cruel goddess Lolth, who encourages her children to scheme against each other and enact wicked vengeance against the surface-dwelling elves who cast them out.

Always Chaotic Evil: Depending on the Writer. Originally, it was played entirely straight, with the drow depicted as one of the most evil races, but later material subverts this with examples of heroic individuals who turn away from their evil culture.
- Drow society is generally thought of as Chaotic Evil, the same as their goddess' alignment, yet the drow's actual alignment tends towards Neutral Evil — as much as the Spider Queen enjoys her children viciously competing with each other for her favor, she does rein them in so their society doesn't collapse entirely into anarchy.
- A number of non-evil drow subcultures are also known to exist. 2nd Edition introduced Eilistraee, a Chaotic Good drow deity whose followers seek to reform their kind's society and lead it away from Lolth's influence. 5E later established that there are other cultures of drow who don't follow Lolth and aren't evil, but surface-dwellers tend not to know about them since they have to hide themselves from other drow.
Animal Motifs: The drow are very strongly associated with spiders — the spider is the sacred animal of their goddess, and they're known to, for reasons that change between editions, turn each other into spider-bodied driders. Eberron's drow are associated with scorpions instead.
Art Evolution: invoked Drow have traditionally been depicted with literally black skin, but 5E's Monsters of the Multiverse instead portrays their flesh as shades of gray, the result of a conscious effort by D&D's publishers to avoid the interpretation of "dark skin = evil."
Beneath the Earth: They almost always live in the deep, sprawling cave systems of the Underdark far beneath the earth, or in whichever underworld replaces it in a given setting.
Creation Myth: The drow have several:
- The primary story is that Lolth, as the wisest of the Seladrine, wished to teach the elves how to dominate the other races and become masters of the world, but was dismissed by the other elven gods. When Lolth secretly taught her followers the fine arts of warfare, magic and deception, Corellon Larethian feared that her influence among the elves would surpass his. The god thus turned the skin of the drow dark to identify them as enemies, and his faithful overwhelmed the superior skill of Lolth's followers, forcing them underground. There are some plot holes with this tale, but it does justify the drow's hatred of their kin.
- Another story deviates from the first by Lolth being the one to mark her followers' skin, and rather than being driven underground, the drow willingly leave their weak kin to forge a great civilization beneath the surface. Many drow prefer this tale for satisfying their sense of pride, while surface-dwelling elves insist that the drow were defeated and expelled by Corellon's followers.
- A third story insists that the drow were the first among elves, who originally all lived underground and had dark skin, but Lolth banished the weakest elves to the surface and cursed them with pale flesh. The priestesses of Lolth suppress this story as it all but robs the drow of any motivation to wage war on surface elves... but some conspiracy-minded scholars suspect that surface-dwelling elves have also been suppressing the myth, suggesting that there might be some element of truth to it.
Dark Is Evil: The drow are black-skinned evil elves who live in the darkness of the underworld, have racial magical abilities based on darkness and shadow, and worship the dark gods.
Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: The drow's eyesight is very sensitive, an adaptation to the gloom of their subterranean homes and the dim lighting of their cities. As a result, they're very vulnerable to bright light — sunlight, especially, they find blinding and painful.
Evil Counterpart Race: Traditionally, they've been this to surface-dwelling elves, replacing their benevolence with cruelty, originating as outcast elves who turned to evil and still maintaining a deep hatred of surface elves.
Evil Is Cool: Drow have always been incredibly popular amongst the D&D fanbase, and have been a playable race in every edition, starting with 1985's Unearthed Arcana for AD&D 1st edition through to being an elven subrace in the 5th Edition Player's Handbook.
Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: They favor the use of rapiers, shortswords, and hand crossbows.
Klingon Promotion: For drow, treachery is an acceptable means of advancement, provided that the assassin doesn't get caught. This doesn't just apply to individuals, but entire noble houses — if one noble family becomes extinct, every lower-ranking house moves up in the hierarchy. The twist, however, is that any noble who survives can report the murders, which usually leads to every other house teaming up against the offenders to punish their "crimes" (and protect their own skins). As a result, attacks on the castles of noble families rarely leave any survivors. But drow are opportunistic bastards, so in the days and weeks following the "mysterious disappearance" of an entire house, there are frequently some Cousin Olivers appearing at "random" in other families.
Lady Land: Because of Lolth's theocracy, most drow societies are quite stunningly misandric, to the point that every third living son born to a drow mother is traditionally offered up as a Human Sacrifice, and male drow can be killed by females on a whim. There are a few subcultures that are exceptions to this, including cities ruled by male wizards.
No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Drow are much more technologically inclined than surface elves, since their natural magic resistance has taught them not to rely on spells over tools, and their ambition and tendency towards conflict drives them to innovate as much as humans. Unfortunately, a society defined by scheming, infighting and paranoia means that few drow innovators risk writing things down or sharing their breakthroughs. As a result, their inventors have come up with clockwork timepieces, moveable type, blackpowder, even steam-powered pistons, only for the technology to be lost when its creator is killed, then rediscovered by someone else some time later.
Our Elves Are Different: They are the archetypal dark elves — gray- or charcoal-skinned, white-haired, underground-dwelling, twice as arrogant as their surface relatives, and part of a profoundly evil and corrupt society.
Religion of Evil: Drow primarily worship Lolth, the Chaotic Evil goddess of darkness, spiders and strife, who encourages treachery and murder amongst her followers and who demands Human Sacrifices in her honor. Whilst she has absolute authority over drow society, the drow may also pay homage to a host of other evil deities, the "Dark Seladrine" described here.
Stripperiffic: Drow are notorious for this, but their culture justifies skimpy attire. For one thing, drow of either sex are perfectly willing to use seduction to get what they want, and to the drow, the more you cover up, the more you're assumed to be hiding your flaws and weaknesses. As a result, stripperiffic clothes are a way to assert dominance and confidence and suggest that your spellcasting ability more than makes up for your lack of physical defenses.
Stupid Evil: Actually enforced, due to Lolth. She has Chronic Backstabbing Disorder as a religious commandment and will punish the drow for too much camaraderie. This is exactly as bad an idea for a civilization as it sounds (especially one that lives in the Underdark), and it's explicit that the only reason they haven't backstabbed themselves to death is that Lolth will also make them tone it down whenever they're in actual danger of extinction. This keeps the drow both strong enough for Lolth's Social Darwinist tastes and weak enough that they're completely dependent on her, minimizing the possibility of the drow deciding to find a better god than the crazy demon queen.

Duergar

An embittered and cruel dwarven subrace that builds impregnable strongholds in the Underdark, where they toil in workshops, train for war, and plot revenge against their kin.

Adaptational Nice Guy: They have always had the backstory of being made slaves to illithids, but 5th edition alters it slightly to make them much more sympathetic. In past editions, them being captured happened because they were greedy jerks, and the other dwarves only hate them for being evil. 5th edition instead makes their enslavement entirely a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and their evil is more due to bitterness at how the other dwarven clans treated them horribly afterward.
Bald of Evil: Most duergar have no hair on their heads, even the women.
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Their 5E backstory has this on a racial level — the duergar were once normal dwarves who were enslaved by the illithids, endured generations of cruelty and twisted experiments before escaping, and emerged from the ordeal a joyless, vengeful people with nothing but hatred for other races, including their former kin.
Can't Hold His Liquor: Unlike normal dwarves, duergar avoid overindulging on alcohol, as drinking too much runs the risk of awakening their deep racial memories of the illithids' cruelty, which can send a duergar into a frenzied rage or screaming panic.
Deity of Human Origin: The duergar's two deities were former mortals who helped liberate their people. Deep Duerra stole the power of psionics from the mind flayers, and her priests continue to teach duergar how to unlock their mental abilities, while Laduguer made a deal with Asmodeus himself to gain the power necessary to free his people.
Faith–Heel Turn: The duergar hate the entire dwarven pantheon for not saving them from the mind flayers' cruelty. The other dwarves in turn blame the duergar for turning away from Moradin and allowing themselves to fall under the illithids' influence.
Freudian Excuse: The 5th edition version of the Duergar backstory is a straight up tragedy in which they were enslaved for generations by the illithids, through no fault of their own. Once they finally gained freedom, their dwarven brethren told them directly to their faces that the suffering they endured was their own fault for not being pious enough. It's hard to blame them for being mad at Moradin.
Made a Slave: Duergar have a long history of enslaving other races for hard labor, but in recent years have been moving away from this in favor of psionically-powered constructs. This isn't due to any crisis of conscience, the duergar have simply reasoned that constructs are more durable, more efficient, and less hassle than slaves.
Magitek: Duergar xarron are specialists who combine alchemy and psionics to create weapons like fire lances.
Man in the Machine: Duergar whose work ethic wavers may be punished by being strapped into mining and combat constructs powered by the pain of those within them.
Our Dwarves Are Different: They are the Evil Counterpart Race to the rest of dwarfkind, a sinister branch that lives deep underground.
Psychic Powers: The duergar gained psionic powers as a result of the mind flayers' experiments, and even their basic warriors can use abilities such as enlarge or invisibility. Some develop their psionic talents even further.
The Stoic: Duergar society forbids showing any sign of weakness, which includes displays of happiness, contentment and trust.
True Craftsman: Twisted; duergar are just as industrious and skilled craftsmen as normal dwarves, but they focus on quantity and utilitarianism over embellishing masterworks, and take no joy or satisfaction from the process of creation.

Eladrin

Autumn eladrin (5e)

Elves from the Feywild, who have absorbed that plane's intensity and fickleness. The emotions of eladrin can change their physical form, aligning with one of the four seasons to grant them different abilities.

Charm Person: The powers of spring and autumn allow eladrin to charm other creatures
Counter-Attack: Winter eladrin can respond to enemy attacks by blasting them with cold damage.
Decadent Court: Eladrin aren't evil, but their culture is older and even more decadent than the most ancient Material Plane elven civilization, and their nobles can be dangerously capricious, rendering harsh judgments one moment then being whimsically merciful another, only to change their minds again without explanation.
Emotion Bomb: The sorrowful power of winter can make enemies give up on attacking an eladrin and suffer penalties to their other rolls.
I Choose to Stay: While their ancestors may have moved to the Feywild to experience some of the sylvan glory of Arvandor, many Eladrin have since lost interest in returning to the primordial elves' home plane, and instead wish to remain on the Feywild until they're reborn as a member of the Seelie or Unseelie Courts, or even as an archfey.
Our Elves Are Different: Eladrin are related to elves, and share their love of beauty and the value they place on personal freedom. Unlike other elves, eladrin are ruled by emotion, and magically undergo physical changes to match their changes in temperament. Having spent centuries in the Feywild, most eladrin have become fey creatures as a result.
Personality Powers: Their changes in temperament change which season they're associated with, and consequently their racial powers.
Mordenkainen: To be not just ruled by emotions, but physically changed by them? Better to have no emotions at all.
The Proud Elite: The fact that the eladrin come the closest to meeting the form and ability of the original, primal elves means that the worst of them can be arrogant and haughty around other elves. Kinder eladrin prefer to guide other elves into the Feywild so they can experience its wonders.
Retcon: Prior to 4th Edition "Eladrin" was the name of a type of Celestial representing Chaotic Good.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: The fearsome power of summer can frighten other creatures that approach an eladrin.
Teleportation: NPC eladrin can make a 30-foot teleport as a bonus action, while PC eladrin can do so once per rest.

Fairy

A race of small, winged humanoids from the Feywild, who can naturally wield some of that plane's magic.

The Fair Folk: Fairies are unsurprisingly classified as Fey, know the druidcraft cantrip at 1st level, and eventually learn to cast faerie fire and enlarge/reduce.
The Generic Guy: They're this compared to their sprite and pixie cousins, lacking their innate invisibility, potent magic, or sleep-inducing arrows. On the bright side, this makes fairies suitable for 1st-level characters.
Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: The Fey Wanderer ranger subclass is a ranger who's been exposed to the Feywild and has some fae traits, which can manifest in unusual hair colour.
Winged Humanoid: In most cases these are insectile wings, though some fairies possess bird wings instead.

Firbolg

^3e

Reclusive giant-kin with a deep respect for nature, who live far from the races of other civilized folk, keeping watch over their humble forest dwellings. Firbolgs distrust outsiders and prefer to use their magic to avoid interacting with them, but are dangerous and cunning foes when antagonized.

Art Evolution: Firbolgs got a big makeover in 5th Edition, going from Large humans with bushy beards to a smaller, fae-looking race with subtle bovine features. This stems in part from their illustration in Volo's Guide to Monsters being of a fae-touched firbolg, not a normal one, and from Critical Role's Caduceus having a somewhat bovine appearance. Since WotC never did anything to dissuade this design choice, it has since stuck.
Gentle Giant: Big, tall and peaceful... as long as you don't make them mad.
Good Is Not Soft: Firbolgs despise violence and use it strictly as a last resort, and prefer to use their magic and other subtle means to encourage unwanted guests to leave. But push them too far...
Gimble: We spent three months tracking the green dragon before locating the forest in which it sought refuge. On our second day in that place, we woke to find the dragon's head placed in the center of our camp. Soveliss told me that firbolgs must have claimed the forest, and they wanted to show us we had no further business there. If we lingered, he assured me, our heads would be next.
Lie to the Beholder: They employ magic like disguise self to alter their appearance, which firbolgs use as a precaution when interacting with outsiders. Though past editions mention that firbolgs will also use their magic to prank others, or relieve them of treasure.
Nature Hero: Firbolgs are shepherds of the forests, living away from civilization and dedicating their lives to protecting their home from greedy outsiders. Those who break from this mold tend to be outcasts.
Our Giants Are Bigger: They are the most powerful of the giant-kin thanks to their strength and intelligence, but firbolgs have rejected the Ordning in favor of their own Code of conduct. As a result, they'll avoid true giants (save for storm giants), but aggressively drive other giant-kin like verbeegs and fomorians from their territory.
Our Minotaurs Are Different: Downplayed; 5E firbolgs look vaguely bovine, but not to the degree of minotaurs.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Their racial trait "Speech of Beast and Leaf" allows them to communicate in a limited manner with beasts and plants, as well as giving them advantage on all Charisma checks they make to influence them.

Genasi

Earth, Water, Fire, Air (5e)

Origin: Planescape

The last and least common of the three major "planetouched" strains, genasi are the descendants of mortals and elemental creatures such as genies. This leaves a drastic mark on their physical appearance, and lets genasi wield the power of the Inner Planes.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Strange skin tones, hair colors or eye colors are common markers for genasi of different lineages. Even genasi of the same elemental lineage might be very different colors — an iconic example is twin water genasi where one has sea-green skin and the other has bright blue skin.
Canon Immigrant: Genasi debuted in The Planeswalker's Handbook alongside the aasimar, a Planescape supplement. Ironically, since then they've only ever been released in conjunction with Forgotten Realms material, though 4E included some Dark Sun options.
Elemental Embodiment: Genasi are humanoids with elemental heritage, similar to the tieflings' demonic ancestry or the aasimars' angelic blood.
Elemental Hair Colors: Genasi hair tends to match their elemental type, such as red, fiery hair for fire genasi.
Elemental Personalities: It's common for genasi to share personality traits with their elemental ancestor. Air genasi are Mood Swingers; earth genasi are grounded and deliberate; fire genasi are volatile and quick-witted; and water genasi are free-spirited and independent.
Elemental Shapeshifter: 4th edition genasi aren't as clearly delineated into distinct lineages as those of other editions. Instead, by taking the racial feat "Extra Manifestation", a genasi can learn to shapeshift between two or more elemental lineages at will, or even learn to manifest two lineages simultaneously.
Flaming Hair: Fire genasi or their relatives may sometimes have flames for hair.
Hair Substitute Feature: Wind and Stormsoul Genasi have crystals in place of hair.
Loads and Loads of Races: Since genasi are more a collective of races with a common background, there is a lot more emphasis on different lineages within genasi as opposed to tieflings or aasimar.
- The iconic quartet of genasi are always the four Western elements: Air, Earth, Fire and Water.
- Para-Genasi, originally a fan-invention before being canonized in an issue of Dragon for 3rd edition, are connected to the one of the hybrid paraelemental or quasielemental planes: Dust, Ice, Magma, Ooze, Smoke and Steam. Some para-genasi are directly connected to these hybrid elemental planes, others are the result of crossbreeding between different strains of genasi or genasi and other elemental creatures.
- The fan-made Dread Genasi have been warped by The Corruption of Ravenloft, just like Dread Elementals. This results in Blood (corrupted Water), Grave (corrupted Earth), Mist (corrupted Air) and Pyre (corrupted Fire).
- In the World Axis cosmology, in addition to a fifth "main" lineage of Storm Genasi, there are also Abyssal Genasi, who have been corrupted by the entropic energies of the Abyss; Void, Cinder, Caustics and Plague.
- In 4th edition, Dark Sun is said to be home to its own unique genasi races as well; Magma, Sand, Sun and Ember, a result of the elemental degradation and corruption of the planet.
Our Genies Are Different: Although genasi can be descended from many kinds of elemental creatures, genies tend to be the most common progenitors.
Token Aquatic Race: Thanks to being related to the Elemental Embodiments of water, water genasi naturally have a swimming speed and Super Not-Drowning Skills.
True-Breeding Hybrid: The origins of the genasi eventually lie in the direct interbreeding of humans with genies and other types of elemental, but they became a self-sustaining, if somewhat uncommon, race long in the past. In the various settings' modern day, genasi are typically the children of other genasi. Unlike other planetouched races, the genasi carry this ancestry over into 4E.
Volcanic Veins: In 4th Edition and beyond, they have vein-like markings on their bodies that glow with elemental power, called szuldar.

Giff

Origin: Spelljammer

Bombastic humanoid hippos who serve as mercenaries, the giff are scattered across the furthest reaches of Wildspace. None know where their homeworld is, and a persistent rumor is that they accidentally blew it up. Whilst their love of ostentatious military costumes and medals may seem comical, giff are tremendously strong and durable, and have a pronounced love of gunpowder.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Giff in their initial 2e incarnation could have skin "ranging from black to gray to a rich gold", but more modern sources tend to limit them to hippopotamus skin tones found in nature.
Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Giff are obedient soldiers, and love sparring with each other for any or no reason, but will never battle another giff in war; if ordered to do so, the giff regiments will usually just spend some time chatting and catching up, and then mutually abandon their former leaders. 2e even had an included 10% chance that one side would join up with the other due to their innate solidarity, meaning that a superior officer could command his giff to go attack the enemy and see them instead come back as a unit double their former size.
Beast Man: Humanoid hippopotomi.
Beware the Silly Ones: A bipedal hippo swaggering about in a flashy military costume may look comical, but keep in mind it's still a hippo; like the animals they're based on, giff are ridiculously strong and tough. Additionally, while they'll enjoy a friendly brawl whatever the occasion, the instant a proper weapon is brought into play, they treat the situation as a life-or-death struggle and fight accordingly.
The Big Guy: Giff are massive in every sense of the word, with incredible strength and durability to back up their stature.
Bling of War: They often wear colorful, 19th century-style military uniforms, complete with epaulets, medals and assorted details.
Boisterous Bruiser: Giff are generally extroverted, jovial, and fond of a good brawl.
Death of the Old Gods: According to 5th edition, as a consequence of the giff homeworld being lost to time and the rituals of worship forgotten, the giff pantheon floats dormant and "unrecognizable" on the Astral Sea. They have only enough power left to grant their creation a small, innate "spark" of their own, which the giff channel, uncomprehending, into firearms.
Does Not Know His Own Strength: Giff sometimes forget that other races are smaller, softer and squisher than they are, which can be a problem given their love of roughhousing.
Does Not Like Magic: Giff have very little skill with magic, and most of them find it rather disturbing.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: 5th Edition adds the cultural quirk that giff themselves are split on whether to say their race's name with a hard or soft 'g', mirroring Internet disputes on how to pronounce "GIF"; though it can lead to heated exchanges, physical brawls, and, of course, head-butting contests, the inconsequential matter is never resolved and neither giff ever walks away with their opinion changed.
Dumb Muscle: Giff are unimaginative and just generally not very bright, and this even manifests itself as penalties to Intelligence (2e, 3e) and Wisdom (3e). 5th edition drops the stat penalties and minimizes the inference of this trope.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: They're essentially a parody of British army troopers from the Age of Sail, especially with their childish fixation upon ridiculously ostentatious military garb, proper maintenance of said garb, and complicated military hierarchies.
Gun Nut: Giff are absolutely obsessed with firearms of all sorts, to the point that they'll accept payment in the form of gunpowder. In 5E, they're automatically proficient with all firearms regardless of their character class, ignore the Loading property of firearms, and also ignore the penalty for shooting targets that are at long range. These are not trained skills, but innate abilities imbued in the giff by their forgotten, gun-loving deities.
Just Following Orders: The giff "religion," such as it is, basically asserts that the purpose of the giff in the multiverse is to obey orders. This is partly why they're a culture of mercenaries.
Made of Iron: Giff are tough. In general, a giff is considered to be an adult amongst its kind when it can shrug off having an arquebus explode in its hands.
Perilous Old Fool: Giff do not age gracefully. Because of the exclusively militaristic bent of their society, giff have a general abhorrence to admitting they cannot fight, which means that as a giff ages and starts slowing down, it tends to push itself harder and act even brasher than normal in an effort to convince itself and others that it can still keep up with the younger generation. Invariably, few giff survive their full 70+ year lifespan, and most are cut down violently around their 40s to 50s.
Private Military Contractors: Giff are in high demand as hired guns, renowned for their martial training and their love of explosives.
Stout Strength: Giff are massively strong, easily comparing to ogres or small giants.
Stuff Blowing Up: Giff love explosions almost as much as they love guns. They tend to make heavy use of black-powder grenades, gunpowder kegs, and any other explosives they can get their hands on.
Too Dumb to Live: The giff obsession with firearms can lead to very dim decisions. For starters, they've been known to try and use their firearms in the Phlogiston... where the air is flammable. For another, the iconic (if not only) giff-designed spelljammer is the Great Bombard, which can more accurately be described as an enormous cannon mounted on a ship that is just big enough to carry it. It's slow, it's clumsy, and it has almost as much a chance to explode and kill everybody aboard when it fires a shot as it does of doing the same thing if somebody else hits it — especially in the Phlogiston.
Use Your Head: A giff's head is heavily reinforced with bone and muscle, so it makes a formidable weapon in a pinch, a practice aided by the fact that a headbutt is the traditional giff method of exerting authority. A giff can very easily kill a man even by accident if they get carried away and try this on humans.
You Can't Go Home Again: None of the giff know where their homeworld is, and a persistent rumor is that they accidentally blew it up. Another disparaging story is that the giff sold their planet to the arcane/mercane in exchange for spelljammer helms that the magically-inept giff couldn't use.

Gith

A humanoid race once enslaved by the illithids as laborers and food, until they developed psionic powers and rose against their masters under the rebel leader Gith. This bloody revolt brought the mind flayers' empire to the brink of collapse, but before total victory could be achieved, Gith's leadership was challenged by the hero Zerthimon, who accused her of building a tyrannical regime no better than the one they'd just overthrown. The resulting civil war split the race into the githyanki and githzerai, who now despise each other only slightly less than they hate illithids.

Arch-Enemy: The gith's greatest foe remains the illithids, followed closely by each other.
Brown Note: In 5th edition, the melee attacks of NPC gith inflict psychic damage.
Enemy Mine: Despite the loathing the githyanki and githzerai have for each other, they will work together to combat illithid threats.
Human Subspecies: Some sources suggest the gith are actually descended from human beings, mutated by a combination of ancient illithid flesh-crafting and their generations spent beyond the Material Plane.
Meaningful Name: Githyanki means "children of Gith," while githzerai means "those who spurn Gith."
Psychic Powers: All gith possess potent psionic abilities, a result of the mutations they underwent while enslaved by the illithids.
Reconcile the Bitter Foes: The Sha'sal Khou is a secret society amongst both the githyanki and the githzerai, dedicated to reconciling their races.
Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Gith have yellow skin, elf-like ears, and somewhat skeletal faces, with sunken eyes and flattened noses that are more nasal slits than anything.
Slave Race: Their ancestors were this to the illithids, and arguably the githyanki have ended up as slaves to their Lich-Queen.
Space Pirates: The "pirates of Gith" decided not to follow their kin to the Astral Plane or Limbo, but instead remain in wildspace, preying upon other star-sailors.
Whale Egg: They are of mammalian ancestry — human, specifically — and appearance, but gith canonically reproduce by laying eggs.
Won the War, Lost the Peace: They had the illithids on the ropes, but before the gith could finish them off, the ideological split between Gith and Zerthimon provided enough of a distraction for the mind flayers to scatter and go to ground, to the point that the gith may never be able to wipe them out. The githyanki blame the githzerai for this.

Githyanki

The followers of Gith have made their home on the Astral Plane, using it as a launching point for their raids against the rest of the cosmos. Their militant bandit-kingdom is ruled by the lich-queen Vlaakith, descended from Gith's second-in-command.

Bad Boss: Vlaakith CLVII consumes the souls of any githyanki who gets too strong (i.e. reaches a certain character level), out of paranoia that a sufficiently strong githyanki may lead a rebellion against her. She's indoctrinated her people to not protest against this, though sources differ on whether they know she's eating souls and believe it to be an honor anyway, or if she hides the true fate of those who "ascend" to a paradise realm where Gith awaits them.
Dragon Ascendant: The githyanki have been ruled for untold millennia by the Vlaakith dynasty, descended from Vlaakith I, Gith's second-in-command, who was the only one who returned when the two went to parlay with Tiamat. There are hints that Vlaakith may have betrayed her leader to seize power, but nothing concrete.
Dragon Rider: Thanks to Gith's ancient pact with Tiamat, the githyanki have a long-lasting and deeply respectful partnership with red dragons, with young dragons serving as the iconic mounts of the most esteemed githyanki knights.
Elites Are More Glamorous: The most powerful githyanki warriors are all called "knights", and their position is cemented by the fact that they develop powers analogous to a blackguard/antipaladin.
Giant Corpse World: The githyanki capital of Tu'narath is a fortified metropolis built on and into one of the petrified corpses of gods that drift on the Astral Plane.
God Save Us from the Queen!: Vlaakith CLVII, the last of the Vlaakith dynasty, who chose to become a powerful lich-queen rather than die and pass on the throne to her daughter. She rules over her people as a veritable iron-fisted goddess, plots to betray the most ancient githyanki customs, and eats the souls of her strongest warriors to consolidate all her power.
Godhood Seeker: Socially, Vlaakith CLVII is pretty much already the goddess of the githyanki, but she still aspires to become a full-fledged deity. This aspect became particularly prominent in 3rd Edition, with "The Lich-Queen's Beloved" adventure devoted to her attempt to complete a divine ascension, which the players have to stop.
Hypocrite:
- The githyanki abhor slavery, yet can only survive in the Astral by preying on other people and essentially reducing small settlements to slavery, forcing them to give up everything but the bare minimum to survive and then leaving them to recover before plundering them again. Their fascistic culture also means that the githyanki fundamentally are slaves to their own lich-queen, though it's unwise to try to point this out.
- Despite their disdain for religion, the githyanki treat Vlaakith CLVII with an almost god-like reverence. This is taken even further in "The Lich-Queen's Beloved," with gives Vlaakith a cadre of warlocks who draw power from her, the Ch'r'ai, and also makes it explicit that she intends for them to become her priesthood when she ascends to full godhood.
Hypocrisy Nod: "The Lich-Queen's Beloved" notes that many githyanki are unsettled by the Ch'r'ai, who seem a bit too priest-like for the githyanki's tastes.
Magic Knight: Githyanki fighter-mages are so iconic to the race as a whole that their in-universe name for them, gish, has become a memetic term for this trope in the D&D fandom as a whole.
Nay-Theist: The githyanki notably refuse to worship gods, because they view the strictures of faith as being a particularly insidious form of slavery. Clerics are seen as, essentially, "trustees" — quislings who have been granted power to oppress the rest of their people in exchange for loyalty to their masters.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Duthka'giths, detailed in the "Gith" folder on the main creature index, are hybrids of githyanki and red dragon (with a dash of demon) whose creation was mandated by Vlaakith CLVII as a race of Super Soldiers.
Promoted to Playable: Githyanki first became playable in the 2nd Edition sourcebook The Guide to the Astral Plane. They appeared in multiple sourcebooks as a playable race in 3rd Edition, had player mechanics in the back of the first monster manual in 4th Edition, and finally received their player mechanics at the same time as the githzerai in 5th Edition.
Proud Warrior Race: The Githyanki definitely have this in spades, given the militant nature of their society as a whole. All Githyanki are rigorously and brutally trained from an early age to become warriors.
Rite of Passage: As a final trial from the above mentioned training, young Githyanki warriors are expected to kill an Illithid and present its head to the Lich Queen herself in order to prove themselves worthy to formally join Githyanki society as an adult.
Silver Has Mystic Powers: Githyanki knights' signature silver swords are enchanted greatswords capable of severing the cord of an astrally-projecting foe, killing them instantly. A githyanki will fight to the death to defend their silver sword, and any non-githyanki who steals one can expect attacks from squads of githyanki knights until the weapon is recovered.
The Undead: "The Lich-Queen's Beloved" identifies two unique strains of githyanki undead that Vlaakith CLVII creates from those whose souls she consumes: githyanki knights become tl'a'ikith, ghostly warriors wielding spectral swords, and githyanki warlocks and gish become kr'y'izoth, beings of black flame wrapped in tattered wrappings.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: The Astral Plane is timeless in regards to aging and requiring food and drink, giving the githyanki an infinite amount of free time. When they aren't raiding some unsuspecting world or preparing for their next attack, their lich-queen tries to keep her people busy with various tasks and studies, and the githyanki pick up new forms of art and start projects as their whims lead them, but they quickly abandon their latest hobby as soon as the novelty wears off. Their capital is thus littered with half-finished works, discarded treasure, and captives who have been abandoned and forgotten by their former masters.
Mordenkainen: I have been to Tu'narath. A haven for the githyanki it is not. Their apathy and frustration manifest as a visible fog, which clears only when the githyanki ready for war.

Githzerai

The followers of Zerth, who relocated to the Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo after his death in the gith civil war. There the githzerai lead lives of austerity and mental discipline, seeking personal enlightenment within fortress-monasteries that drift through the elemental maelstrom.

Art Evolution: In early editions, the githzerai looked much more human than the githyanki, until 3rd Edition redesigned them to better resemble their cousins.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Their culture resonates strongly with the precepts of the Monk class, and githzerai are considered to make iconic D&D monks, much like halfling rogues, elf wizards, dwarf fighters and orc barbarians. Ironically, they only gained this trait in 3rd edition; in AD&D, they were more associated with the Magic Knight class.
Combat Clairvoyance: The Monastery of Zerth'Ad'lun teaches githzerai monks a Supernatural Martial Art called "zerthi" that allows seeing the immediate future to anticipate an opponent's moves in combat. In 3rd edition, non-githzerai can learn zerthi through the Planar Touchstone feat, although they must first prove their prowess in a barehanded duel against one of the monks, and then abide by their grueling schedule training for a week.
Domain Holder: Githzerai anarchs have unmatched control over the chaos-stuff of Limbo. Within that plane, they can create and maintain sprawling adamantine fortresses, control gravity, create matter and energy from nothing, and generally reshape the environment around them as they please.
Early-Installment Weirdness:
- When initially introduced into the game, githzerai were a very Chaos-aligned race, with strong anarchistic leanings and a drive for independence and freedom above all else. After the popularity of the very Lawful natured Dak'kon in Planescape: Torment, and the increased association of the Monk class with the Lawful alignment, the race was reflavored to be more strictly Lawful in nature.
- They also originally had their own tyrannical wizard-king and self-proclaimed god, a nameless mirror to Vlaakith CLVII, while Zerthimon was a legendary figure prophesized to return and lead the githzerai to a new paradise. This was retconned into Zertimon being the githzerai's historical leader, and the nameless wizard-king was replaced with "the Great Githzerai", Menyar-Ag, who led Zerthimon's followers into Limbo and continues to guide his people.
Good Counterpart: To the githyanki; the githzerai chose to seek a spiritual awakening to recover from their experiences as a Slave Race, whilst the githyanki chose to declare war on all other races so none would ever be strong enough to enslave them again.
Hunter of Monsters: Githzerai occasionally form illithid-hunting parties called rrakma. Such parties don't return to their monasteries until they've slain at least as many mind flayers as party members.
Magic Knight: Much like their githyanki kin, githzerai have a strong tradition of multiclassed fighter/wizards, which they refer to as zerths.
Naytheist: A variation on the trope. The githzerai acknowledge the deities as valid powers, but do not worship them, instead preferring to seek a more philosophical/secular form of freedom. It's not as intense as the githyanki's loathing of the gods as oppressors, but there are definite similarities.
Reimagining the Artifact: Their homeland remains Limbo, even after they stopped being Chaotic. This was changed to them being there because they see it as the ultimate test to their tradition — and it doesn't hurt that the place is pretty much impregnable.
Strong Empire, Shriveled Emperor: Menyar-Ag's mental and magical power have vastly extended his lifespan, but the years have left him a near-corpse barely able to move a finger or open his eyes. Still, his mental powers are such that he can contact githzerai across the planes, and he relays constant commands to his attendants.
Time Master: In 5th edition, a githzerai enlightened can use its Temporal Strike attack to shunt one foe several seconds into the future.

Goblin

^3e

The most common and least of the goblinoids, goblins are runty, vicious, cowardly and sneaky, and thus most dangerous in numbers.

See the main creature index's "Goblin" folder for goblin subtypes that aren't currently playable.

Animal Motifs: Goblins are strongly associated with wolves. They ride the regular kind as steeds, and often ally with packs of the intelligent and evil worgs.
Art Evolution: Their earlier depictions are as flat-faced humanoids with orange or red skin, then 4th Edition gave them the green flesh expected of goblins in other fantasy settings. The 5th Edition Monster Manual depicts goblins with yellow skin and sizeable noses, but the Monsters of the Multiverse supplement instead uses a flat-faced, green-skinned goblin for its racial art.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Leadership in goblin tribes tends to go to their toughest and meanest members, usually after beating all other challengers into submission. Combined with the fact that goblins aren't exactly the most physically impressive species around, this tends to result in bigger monsters — usually barghests or bugbears, but sometimes ogres or trolls — taking over goblin tribes with relative ease.
Butt-Monkey: They're cannon fodder and everyone knows it, most of all the goblins themselves. Their whole pantheon was killed except for their god of slavery and oppression, and the only way to not be oppressed and enslaved by other goblins is to be the enslavers themselves... and thus be in turn oppressed by the bigger goblinoids. Even their heaven in Acheron is just more of the same.
Combat Pragmatist: Goblins are well aware of their physical limitations, and thus never fight fair.
David Versus Goliath: In 5th Edition, one of their racial traits is "Fury of the Small," a special attack that gives a goblin a slight damage bonus against a larger foe.
Dirty Coward: One of their defining traits is their willingness to flee from fights where they are alone or do not have an advantage over their opponents. This is because they are really weak and more afraid of dying than other races, since they dread the afterlife that awaits them.
Explosive Breeder: Their ability to replenish their casualties and overpopulate their surroundings is what's kept them alive as a species.
Fantastic Caste System: Goblins in 5th Edition have crude caste system consisting of four groups based on their skills. Families maintain their social status by not teaching outsider goblins their tricks of the trade. Listed in order of highest to lowest social status, they are:
- Lashers, the closest thing goblins have to nobility. Lashers have specialized skills, such as animal taming, craftwork, mining, and strategy. All goblins capable of using some form of magic are part of this caste.
- Hunters are goblins who know how to use weapons, but don't have the more specialized skills of the Lashers. They're normal hunters in times of peace and make up the bulk of goblin armies in wars.
- Gatherers are non-combatant goblins who gather food, check traps, farm, and cook for the tribe.
- Pariahs are goblins with no useful skills whatsoever, and are barely above slaves. They do all the unpleasant grunt work of a goblin tribe.
Hell of a Heaven: Unlike the other goblinoids, goblins see joining Maglubiyet's army on Acheron as a Fate Worse than Death because they would face an eternity as cannon fodder.
Horse of a Different Color: They typically ride wolves, and are sometimes allowed to ride on the back of allied worgs.
Low-Tech Spears: Goblins are regularly depicted as using spears since unlike more martial humanoid races like orcs or hobgoblins, goblins are more prone to living as scavengers and have only the crudest metal-working ability, so spears are much easier for them to fashion.
Our Goblins Are Different: The most "classic" of goblinoids, the goblins are small, sneaky and cowardly humanoids who grow bold and vicious when in sufficient numbers.
Stalnam Klim, Slave Lord: If you want soldiers or thugs, hire hobgoblins. If you want someone clubbed to death in their sleep, hire bugbears. If you want mean little fools, hire goblins.
Psycho for Hire: Becoming a footsoldier in a hobgoblin legion is a far better status than a gatherer or pariah in a goblin tribe, so they are quick to join. It means they can enslave and torture far more people.
Sadist: Goblins are known for their cruel treatment of captives and slaves, in part because of the mistreatment goblins suffer at the hands of larger races.
Slave Mooks: Being small, weak, and terrified of dying, they are often bullied into working for bigger and stronger creatures, typically other goblinoids.
- The goblins of Sharn in Eberron avert this. While they're still an oppressed underclass in the city, they've been allowed to run their own affairs for generations, and don't like it when bigger monstrous races visit the city and assume they can waltz into the goblin district and start giving orders. Many hobgoblins and bugbears have gone to bed in Sharn and not woken up...
Zerg Rush: Goblins are not strong, smart, or well-armed. But in great numbers, sheer bloodlust can allow them to swamp foes and drag them down to a vicious death.

Goliath

^3e

Large, powerfully-built tribal humanoids who favor the rugged mountainous regions of the world, goliaths are known for their physical might, almost foolhardy daring, and competitive natures.

Barbarian Hero: They're big, brawny, at home in harsh lands, and fairly primitive, to the extent that using the Dwarven alphabet to transcribe their language of Gol-Kaa is still a novel concept. Goliaths are also often perplexed by civilization, and those who visit the lowlands will openly wonder why serfs aren't allowed to prove themselves as knights, or why anyone follows a king who lacks leadership and wisdom.
The Big Guy: Goliaths are essentially a Good Counterpart to the common ogre race, being notably bigger, stronger and tougher than almost any other standard player character race in the game.
Creation Myth: Theirs is straightforward — their chief deity Kavaki the Ram Lord crafted goliaths from gems he found growing from a bush on the highest mountain peak.
Distinguishing Mark: In 3rd Edition, goliaths' gray skin is speckled in hard, pebbly growths known as "lithoderms," and mottled with darker and lighter patches, which combined help distinguish individuals and, according to shamans, hint at that goliath's fate. As such, goliaths prefer to display their markings by wearing as little clothing as possible, and few would willingly get a tattoo, seeing it as tantamount to trying to rewrite one's destiny.
Druid: Goliath religion has favored druidism and nature worship, though in recent years proper clerics have appeared, worshipping their traditional deities as a pantheon. True to form, goliath druids and clerics now compete over the spiritual lives of their tribes.
Honor Before Reason: Downplayed. Goliaths' competitiveness and sense of fair play extend to warfare, so they view taking hostages, attacking civilians, or finishing off helpless foes as "cheating." Similarly, they see combat as an opportunity to display their prowess, so winning through sheer numbers or attrition is distasteful, and if a goliath is winning too easily, they might handicap themselves to make the fight more fair, such as by holding some of their forces back, or tossing their own weapon aside after disarming a foe. But goliaths aren't stupid, and will only go through such displays of chivalry if they're confident they'll win anyway, or sure the fight's loser will be spared. They're also happy to use guerilla tactics, since setting up and launching a successful ambush is no easy feat.
I Will Only Slow You Down: Enforced by a tribe's Lamenter, who not only mourns goliaths who fall in battle, but identifies goliaths who are too old or infirm to be productive members of the tribe. After receiving permission from the chief, the Lamenter leads a dirge that recounts the underperforming goliath's past accomplishments, after which said goliath walks away from the camp, never to return.
Our Giants Are Bigger: Goliaths are distant relations to true giants, and at 7 to 8 feet tall they tower over most humanoids, making them one of the largest races available to player characters. This let them stand in for Athasian half-giants in 4th Edition's adaptation of the Dark Sun setting.
Perilous Old Fool: This is the dark side of the goliaths' competitive nature. An aging goliath feels compelled to somehow top the accomplishments of their youth, leading them to eventually get in over their heads. Similarly, goliaths have very little sympathy for the weak and others who can't pull their weight in their harsh homeland, so goliaths crippled by injury know that if they can't keep up, they'll be left behind. Consequently, goliaths have an extremely high mortality rate, and few die of old age.
Progressively Prettier: When introduced in 3rd Edition, goliaths were depicted as something like blocky, knobby neanderthals, with pronounced brows and frames that looked crudely carved from rock. Since 4th Edition, they've been more human-looking and conventionally attractive.
Rejection Ritual: Between exile and physical punishment is the goliaths' use of shunning. Volok-kanu is used to punish lesser crimes, so that the criminal is picked last by team captains, given the worst work assignments, and given leftovers to eat. Volok-thea is a full shunning, in which the tribe pretends the criminal doesn't exist, so they aren't picked for sports teams and have to find their own food and shelter. Goliaths are remarkably adept at coordinating shunning, using subtle body language to work out how long and to what severity they're going to ignore a wrongdoer.
Spirited Competitor: Goliaths are fiercely competitive, each naturally keeping score with their peers and comparing their own performance to their past achievements. Sports and games like climbing races, wrestling matches and "goat-ball" are central to goliath life, a way to test their might and display their skill. A good sense of sportsmanship comes with this, so goliaths take losing as an incentive to do better next time, hold that "today's rival is tomorrow's teammate," abhor cheaters, and believe strongy in "fair play" (the specifics of which can vary from tribe to tribe).
Super-Toughness: Goliaths are naturally sturdy, and their "Stone's Endurance" racial trait lets them simply shrug off a bit of damage.

Grung

Origin: Greyhawk

One of several races of frog-people in D&D, grung have appeared in both 2nd and 5th edition with some rather different interpretations between the two. 2nd edition grung are native to 'Greyhawk and are brutish toad-people, essentially a nastier version of bullywugs. 5th edition grung are native to the Forgotten Realms'' and are more like an Evil Counterpart to the grippli, being brightly colored humanoid tree-frogs. Both are evil, and both are poisonous.

Charm Person: The venom of a gold grung enslaves the mind of a victim, imbuing them with an innate understanding of the grung language and a compulsion to obey grung orders. This is why they serve as the rulers of Faerunian grung society, as it makes them essential to maintaining the tribe's humanoid slaves.
Fantastic Caste System: Faerunian grung society is a caste system based on color, with each caste also having a unique form of venom. Juvenile grungs join their caste upon emergence from the hatchery, and take on said caste's colour as they mature. A grung normally remains in its caste for life, except for individuals that accomplish great deeds and earn an invitation to a higher caste, a trait which passes on to their children. The castes are, in ascending order: Green (warrior/hunter/laborer), Blue (artisan/domestic services), Purple (administrator/commander), Red (scholars/mages), Orange (elite warriors) and Gold (leaders).
Frog Men: Grungs are either humanoid toads who inhabit swamps and moors, or froglike humanoids found in rainforests and tropical jungles, depending on which version.
Man Bites Man: Oerthian grung bear long, sharp teeth, and favor biting enemies in battle, because the same mucus on their skin also coats their fangs. It's slightly diluted... but this just translates to a +2 bonus to the victim's save vs. poison and lets them cling to life for an extra two rounds before they die, so it's still a deadly effective weapon.
Matriarchy: Oerthian grung are matriarchal, if only because they believe in Might Makes Right and the females are the larger, stronger sex. An Oerthian grung tribe's chieftain and shaman are both always females.
Monstrous Cannibalism: Oerthian grung will eat anything they can catch, including humanoids, monsters, and even grung from different tribes.
Poisoned Weapons: Grungs often coat their weapons with their own poisonous mucous.
Poisonous Person: Their bodies secrete a venomous mucous, making it difficult for a non-grung to touch one without getting poisoned. The exact kind of venom differs between the versions.
- Oerthian grung produce a deadly toxin — save vs. poison or drop dead in 4 rounds deadly.
- Faerunian grung produce a variety of psychotropic toxins that don't inflict damage, but instead cause debilitating illusions, with the precise effect depending on the grung's color (and thus caste). Green grung slime induces an uncontrollable urge to either climb the nearest high place, or hop around like a giant frog. Blue grung slime compels the afflicted to shout, scream, or otherwise make the loudest noise that they can. Purple grung slime induces a maddening sensation of being boiled in one's own skin, compelling the victim to find cool water or mud to soak themselves in to alleviate the psychological heat. Red grung slime induces an insatiable hunger. The slime of an orange grung overwhelms a victim with paranoid delusions, whilst golden grung slime enthralls the victim, compelling them to obey the golden grung's orders and even magically enables them to understand the grung's language.
Retcon: Whilst the core idea of "toxin-secreting evil amphibian Beast Man" remains consistent between the two incarnations of the grung, each puts their own spin on it.
Walking Wasteland: Downplayed. The presence of Oerthian grung contaminates the water they live in with their deadly mucus, slowly making it toxic to drink, killing nearby plants and driving away animals. The more grung present, the worse the effect becomes and the further it reaches. An unchallenged grung presence will eventually turn a swamp into a noxious watery wasteland of dead or dying vegetation and lifeless, slimy water where nothing lives apart from the grung themselves and the hardiest life. For this reason, swamp-dwelling peoples universally despise grung and try to drive them away.

Hadozee

Origin: Spelljammer

Sometimes disparagingly called "deck apes", these simian humanoids are natural sailors and explorers, whether they're charting new waters or voyaging through Wildspace. Hadozee are a race of humanoid apes with patagia — rudimentary wings made from folds of skin that link their limbs together into natural gliding surfaces. The combination of ape-like climbing skills and the ability to glide makes them highly desirable as spelljammer crew. The Hadozee were actually recycled from an earlier TSR game called Star Frontiers, having appeared there as the Yazirians. In Spelljammer canon, hadozee hail from a now-lost world, where they suffered greatly from raids by spacefaring goblinoids. When the Elven Imperial Navy launched the First Unhuman War, they accidentally saved the hadozee homeworld, and the grateful apes allied themselves with the elves to bolster their military forces. The elves kept quiet about the fact that they had originally thought the hadozee were a previously unseen goblinoid species and they had been preparing to exterminate them too before diplomatic contact was made. Serving in the First Unhuman War gave the hadozee a collective fascination with space travel, and they spread across the known spheres so profusely that they don't even remember where their homeworld was anymore — nor do they care, because they love sailing so much. They later reappeared in the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition sourcebook Stormwrack, which reinterpreted them as a groundling race who were still culturally associated with sailing ships. 5th edition brought them back, albeit with considerable lore rewrites.

Boisterous Bruiser: Hadozee aren't warlike, but they do enjoy "a good scrap and a friendly brawl," and will jump into one with gusto. They still prefer nonlethal fights to bloodbaths, and won't hold a grudge afterward.
Born Under the Sail: Zigzagged. Hadozee love traveling by ship, whether sea-ship or spaceship, and are known for making excellent crewmembers. But they have no natural knack for making spelljammers, in part because they have no affinity for arcane magic use in 2nd edition, so they instead hire onto the ships being captained by other races.
Canon Immigrant: The hadozee, as Yazirians, debuted in TSR's Star Frontiers setting five years before being ported to Spelljammer.
Handy Feet: Like less sapient apes, hadozee's feet have prehensile toes, which aid in climbing and can even use items.
Hands-Off Parenting: In their 3rd edition lore, it's noted that hadozee culture is spread across various port towns, which maintain specialized buildings where hadozee women leave their children once they've been weaned so they can go back to sailing the seas. Thus, a young hadozee is typically reared alongside a gaggle of other, non-related hadozee youngsters by elder hadozee who probably have no biological relation to them, and will likely only see their mothers rarely (if ever) and their fathers even less. This is a notable contrast to their 2nd edition lore, which notes that hadozee only breed when they've aged out of being able to sail effectively, allowing them to focus on staying home and rearing their kids until they are of age to go sailing for themselves.
Hot-Blooded: Hadozee are known for their intense and exuberant personalities, whooping excitedly when enjoying themselves, baring their fangs and snarling when angered, etc.
Killer Space Monkey: Humanoid chimpanzees. With patagia. But despite being literal apes from space, they're generally friendly and upbeat guys. They're notorious grumblers and their love for profanity could make an orc blush, but they're widely regarded as loyal, dependable, and amongst the best crewmates you can get, whether on the seas or in space.
Luke Nounverber: Hadozee take pride in serving aboard ships, and will incorporate the vessel's name into their own. So, a hadozee who serves aboard The Lady of the Pearl might go by Kalla Pearldaughter, another who sails with The Sword in the Storm may be known as Bansh Swordstorm, and so on.
Mythology Gag:
- Their third edition lore notes them as being very friendly with elves, an homage to the ties the races shared in the original Spelljammer lore.
- Their fifth edition lore described them as having originated on the planet Yazir, an homage to their Star Frontiers origins.
Not Quite Flight: Hadozee have patagia, allowing them to glide horizontally a set distance each round and avoid falling damage, but not ascend. It's not uncommon for a hadozee in a ship's rigging to just glide back down to the deck.
Odd Friendship: Hadozee collectively love elves, and are one of the only non-elf races that will happily sign up to work on an elf-majority vessel, despite the notorious elfin arrogance and the contrast between the aloof, stoic, highbrow elves and the coarse-mouthed, common-as-muck attitude of the typical hadozee. The hadozee consider serving alongside elves to be the highest honor, whilst elves privately still consider hadozee an inferior race, despite acknowledging their skills and loyalty.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Hadozee are infamous for their love of using profane language in their Spelljammer lore, though 3rd edition and 5th edition both tone this trait down.
Slave Race: In their 5th edition lore, the hadozee were initially uplifted by a wizard hoping to use them as slaves. However, errata has written that aspect of their lore out due to the Unfortunate Implications of a race of ape-like people being slaves.
Uplifted Animal: In their fifth edition rewrite lore. Originally, the Hadozee were non-sapient creatures. Then a wizard came with his apprentices to the Hadozee's home planet and had the latter capture as many creatures as possible, whom he fed an experimental elixir of his invention that boosted their intelligence to human-like standards. He had intended to use the Hadozee as his private army, but the apprentices became fond of them and fought the wizard along with the uplifted Hadozee, who then escaped with all that remained of the elixir to give to their non-uplifted brethren, while those born from uplifted Hadozee were also intelligent. Within a few decades, all living Hadozee were of the uplifted variant. All that said, errata has written that aspect of their lore out.
Wandering Culture: The one thing that has remained consistent in hadozee lore throughout the editions is that they love to travel, and they are happiest joining sailing ship and spelljammer crews so they can travel far and wide, founding new enclaves in the cities of any race willing to host them — especially elf cities.

Harengon

A race of leoprine humanoids who originated in the Feywild, but have since spread to other worlds. Harengons are an exuberant and energetic folk, quick to react and blessed with natural good fortune.

Beast Man: They're rabbit-folk.
Going Native: While they were presumably Fey creatures at one point, harengons have spent enough time on other worlds to be considered Humanoids.
In a Single Bound: They're expectedly good jumpers, and can use a bonus action to make a "Rabbit Hop" that goes further as the harengon grows in level.
Lucky Rabbit's Foot: Harengon's "Lucky Footwork" racial trait lets them use a reaction to add a small bonus to a Dexterity saving throw, potentially turning a failure into a success.
Punny Name: Quoth Mordenkainen, "Here and gone. Fey puns are a menace!"

Hengeyokai

Origin: Kara-tur

Making their debut in the sourcebook "Oriental Adventures" for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition, the Hengeyokai are one of the three iconic "Oriental" races of D&D, alongside the Korobokuru and the Spirit Folk. Hengeyokai have appeared in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th edition so far, and with Oriental Adventures becoming the foundation of Kara-tur, they have become highly associated with the Forgotten Realms, with their 4th edition lore noting that they are migrating into the Sword Coast region in increasing numbers.
Taking their name from an obscure alternative term for the Japanese "obake" category of youkai, the hengeyokai are a collective of races based on a simple precept: they are fully sapient animals who are able to shapeshift into partially and wholly humanoid forms, which they often use to interact with human society, for good or for ill. Sadly, there is often very little lore given to them outside of this basic and generic overarching meta-culture.

Always Chaotic Evil: In 1st and 2nd edition, most hengeyokai were alignment restricted — many to "Any Evil", but also some to "Any Good".
- Any Evil: Fox, Rat, Tanuki, Badger, Lynx, Octopus, Weasel.
- Any Good: Carp, Crane, Dog, Hare, Sparrow, Dolphin, Falcon, Owl, Panda.
- Cat and Otter hengeyokai were restricted to an alignment of "Any Chaotic".
Asian Fox Spirit: The Fox hengeyokai is clearly based on the Japanese kitsune (and, to a lesser extent, the Chinese huli jing). It was characterized as one of the Always Chaotic Evil branches of the race in AD&D, but lost this trait in later editions.
Beast Man: The 'hybrid' form of hengeyokai looks like an animal that has learned to stand upright and acquired humanoid limbs.
Dragon Magazine: The hengeyokai have repeatedly appeared in the pages of Dragon. Issue #266 saw the debut of eleven new hengeyokai variants — Badger, Dolphin, Falcon, Frog, Lizard, Lynx, Octopus, Owl, Panda, Turtle and Weasel — who ironically had more individual fluff per race than the original hengeyokai got as a collective. Issue #318 updated them from the 3.0 rules in the 3e version of Oriental Adventures to 3.5, removing their +1 level adjustment penalty and changing their type to Humanoid (Shapechanger). Lastly, it was in issue #404 that they made their only appearance in 4th edition.
Elemental Powers: Hengeyokai wu jen or elementalist wizards tend to favor the element most closely associated with their animal form, which overlaps this trope with Personality Powers.
Dumb Muscle: In 3rd edition, hengeyokai get a +2 bonus to a physical stat (either Strength, Dexterity or Constitution), depending on their subrace, but suffer a -2 penalty to their Wisdom stat, due to their tendency to be driven by instinct over intellect.
Genius Bruiser: In 1st edition, a player needed to generate a minimum of 12 in every stat other than Dexterity (which only needed a 9) before they could be allowed to play a hengeyokai. As the human average in 1st edition is 8-10, that meant even the weakest, frailest, dumbest hengeyokai is still stronger, tougher and smarter than the average human. Their only ability impediment was that their Charisma was capped at 17, rather than the usual maximum of 18. They were also the only nonhuman race who could take levels in the Shukenja ("Oriental Cleric") class, admittedly with an 8th level cap, and the only nonhuman race aside from the Korobokuru who could be Wu Jen ("Oriental Wizards") — and whilst they did have a 9th level cap there, that was still two levels higher than the Korobokuru. They could also be Bushi of unlimited level or Kensai of 6th level. All of this remained consistent in their 2nd edition update.
- Dragon #266 establishes that in lieu of the shukenja, kensai, bushi or wu jen, hengeyokai can opt to be clerics, druids, mythos-specific priests, fighters, rangers, thieves, mages and specialist wizards.
In a Single Bound: Frog hengeyokai are, naturally, capable of tremendous leaps.
Loads and Loads of Races: The precise lineup of hengeyokai differs depending on edition, but there's quite a few of them:
- 1st Edition: Carp, Cat, Crab, Crane, Dog, Drake, Fox, Hare, Monkey, Raccoon Dog, Rat and Sparrow.
- 2nd Edition: All 1st Edition races, plus Badger, Dolphin, Falcon, Frog, Lizard, Lynx, Octopus, Owl, Panda, Turtle and Weasel.
- 3rd Edition: Badger, Carp, Cat, Crab, Crane, Dog, Fox, Hare, Monkey, Raccoon Dog, Rat, Sparrow and Weasel.
- 4th Edition: Badger, Carp, Cat, Crab, Crane, Dog, Fox, Hare, Monkey, Raccoon Dog, Rat and Sparrow.
Morphic Resonance: Even in their human forms, hengeyokai always have physical traits that are reminiscent of their true animal nature — not an overt Glamour Failure, but something that will make the connection fairly obvious in hindsight.
Poisonous Person: Downplayed. Frog hengeyokai secrete a very mild toxin in their skin that makes them taste disgusting, but isn't strong enough to harm anybody.
Tanuki: Referred to as the Raccoon Dog, due to the relative obscurity of the word "Tanuki" in the English-speaking sphere at the time of their debut. Like the fox hengeyokai, they were originally characterized as Always Chaotic Evil.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mechanically, regardless of edition, the hengeyokai's identity revolves around their ability to transform from human to Beast Man to animal.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: They're sapient animals who can transform into human and half-human forms, beginning their lives as regular animals and then learning the art of shapeshifting once they reach a certain age. Unlike true D&D "lycanthropes", they have no inherent magical resistances or powers. Their writeup in 1st edition's Oriental Adventures even states outright that hengeyokai are a very different thing to true lycanthropes.
Youkai: They're liberally drawn from the classic Japanese and Chinese myths of transforming animals, rolling them all together into a single homogenous collective.

Hobgoblin

^3e

They break before our shields,
They fall beneath our blades;
Their homes are ours to conquer,
Their children are our slaves.
Acheron! Acheron! Victory is ours!

— Hobgoblin war chant.

These human-sized goblinoids are distinguished from their kin by their militaristic organization, intense discipline, and considerably greater threat they pose individually and as groups. When a goblinoid host marches to war, it is the hobgoblin legions that form its backbone, after conscripting goblin tribes and subsuming bugbear bands as supporting forces.

Affably Evil: Hobgoblins, despite their inherent brutality and militarism, are surprisingly polite and civil, both to one another and during diplomacy with other races. This is due to their cultural belief of "suffer nor give insult," and when a hobgoblin's respect isn't reciprocated, the result can be violent.
Art Evolution: Originally hobgoblins were depicted as Medium-sized goblins, with flat faces and red-orange flesh. But since 4th Edition, goblins have been depicted with green or yellow flesh while hobgoblins' has grown a deeper shade of red, and 5th Edition redesigns their faces with almost leonine features.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: A warlord is always mightier than a captain and a captain more than a foot soldier. This is because only the strongest among them get to become leaders in the first place.
Ax-Crazy: Mostly high-functioning. In spite of their discipline and self-restraint, they are known to be no less brutal, violent, ruthless, and aggressive than orcs or other monster races.
Blood Knight: Their whole society is structured to wage war, what culture they have is built around glorifying war, and many hobgoblins are eager to prove themselves on the battlefield.
Bread and Circuses: They rule over the people they conquer like this, leaving the existing government mostly intact so long as they accept the hobgoblins' harsher rule. They provide relative comfort for the rich and powerful, and stability and order for the poor. The big exception comes to religion — hobgoblins' subjects must submit to Maglubiyet or be killed.
Culture Chop Suey: Their appearance gives off a Mongolian, Feudal Japanese and/or Feudal Chinese vibe, while their whole culture being based around war is eerily similar to Sparta.
Divergent Character Evolution: Early hobgoblins had a lot of thematic overlap with their rival orcs, especially in the AD&D days when both were Lawful Evil. But subsequent editions have given them both quite different appearances, cultures and narrative roles.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: The priests of Nomog-Geaya serve in organizing and training younger hobgoblins in a fashion appropriate to hobgoblins (i.e. brutally), among other things.
Elite Mook: They can be considered such to ordinary goblins, being stronger, braver and better-disciplined.
Enemy Civil War: The various hobgoblin legions are constantly jockeying for supremacy, which can take the form of politicking and scheming when the host is doing well. But if an army can't achieve victories, its legions will fall into infighting over who should be warlord, while the non-hobgoblin components break off.
Epic Flail: The priests of Bargrivyek wield a flail dipped in white paint, the weapon and symbol of their god.
Evil Overlord: Their leaders often fit the ruthless and tyrannical model given their culture of strict discipline and the example given by their gods.
Evil Versus Evil: Since the early editions of the game, the greatest enemy of the hobgoblins has been the orcs, the Chaotic warriors to the hobgoblins' Lawful soldiers. This Forever War extends to the afterlife, with the plane of Acheron (or Dominion of Chernoggar, in the World Axis) being wracked by battles between the goblinoid and orcish pantheons, and their hordes of petitioners.
The Fair Folk: The 5th Edition Monsters of the Multiverse book gives a drastically different incarnation of hobgoblin, as a former Feywild race that is exceptionally good at working together. Such hobgoblins can add a "Fey Gift" when using the Help action, granting themself and an ally a bit of temporary HP, a boost to speed, or bonus damage to attacks.
Fantastic Racism:
- They hate elves, to the point that their main god, Nomog-Geaya, commands them to kill elves whenever they can, even if it means making a tactical error. The elves fully return the feeling.
- They also look down upon the other goblinoid races, seeing bugbears as common thugs, and normal goblins as weak, cowardly and only good as expendable Cannon Fodder — even the lowliest hobgoblin soldier can give an order to a goblin chieftain. In point of fact, their patron god demands that they hunt and kill regular goblins (or at least the ones that don't join their legions) in the same breath as he commands them to hunt and kill elves.
Genius Bruiser: Given their military discipline, their wit is as sharp as their swords.
The Horde: They are more organized and disciplined than your average horde, but despite marching in organized legions instead of barbaric mobs, obeying strict chains of command and making far more use of tactics, infrastructure and non-armed labor than typical examples, hobgoblin armies are still vast tides of cruel, wicked soldiers seeking to crush every nation in their path, loot their ruins and enslave their surviving inhabitants (except for elves, who are summarily executed).
Human Sacrifice: Hobgoblins traditionally offer sacrifices to their god, Nomog-Geaya, by burning prisoners alive in his honor.
I Meant to Do That: In 5th Edition, playable hobgoblins have a trait called "Saving Face" which lets them add a bonus to a failed roll once per rest. The bonus equals the number of friendly creatures the hobgoblin can see within 30 feet, capping out at +5.
McNinja: The Iron Shadows are hobgoblin ninjas (well, martial artists who use Supernatural Martial Arts that grants them unearthly stealth powers, but same differences) that also serve as Secret Police. Official art even shows them in all black, like a traditional ninja, though it's appropriate given their Culture Chop Suey includes Feudal Japan.
Military Mage: The hobgoblin Devastators who act as living artillery. While they're skilled enough to avoid harming their allies with area-of-effect spells, unlike other races' magic users, the Devastators know nothing of the theory behind magic. They just know that if they wave their hands like this and say these words they'll throw out a fireball. As they see it, a soldier doesn't have to know the inner workings of metalwork in order to fight — why can't a magic user be the same?
Moving the Goalposts: Destroying a conquered culture's temples is part of a hobgoblin takeover (the logic being that if their gods were worthy, they would have prevented their targets from being conquered, and all other gods are inferior to their own), but the hobgoblins do allow people to defend said temple in single combat... but even if the cleric defeats a hobgoblin devotee of Maglubiyet, another will step forward, and then another, until the defender finally goes down through sheer weight of numbers and exhaustion. The hobgoblins take this as a sign of the superiority of their own gods.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: The oft-forgotten thoul, an obscure beast that appeared in Mystara (and which was revived for the Nentir Vale), is a Heinz Hybrid of hobgoblin, troll and ghoul. Thouls can regenerate like trolls and have paralytic claws like ghouls, whilst also possessing hobgoblin-level intelligence, which allows them a natural affinity for magic. Fortunately, they don't breed as quickly as hobgoblins, possibly a side-effect of their partially undead status. Since an individual thoul is more than a match for a hobgoblin, the latter use merciless group beatings to break thouls' resistance and keep them compliant — in the Nentir Vale, this results in many thouls abandoning hobgoblins and integrating into orc tribes, where they are better received.
Order Is Not Good: Hobgoblins are naturally inclined to be organized, disciplined, controlled and structured, which leads to them not only creating tyrannical social structures for themselves, but actively expanding to conquer others and "bring them order" by forcing them to live under the same tyranny as the hobgoblins themselves.
Our Goblins Are Different: Human-sized, disciplined, driven and militaristic, hobgoblins are the most civilized and, in many ways, the most dangerous of all the Goblinoids. From 3rd Edition onward, their discipline and strict, militaristic culture served to better define them when compared to the more anarchist horde-structure of the orcs.
Proud Warrior Race: More like Proud Soldier Race. Their Hat is military training and discipline, in contrast to the general love of battle that so characterizes orcs.
Sociopathic Soldier: Technically, they're type I, the soldier motivated by jingoism, fanaticism and prejudice. Their culture encourages, if not demands, that they be as ruthless as possible while still maintaining a sense of discipline and self-restraint.
The Spartan Way: They live, breathe, eat, and dream war.
State Sec: The Iron Shadow and the priests of Bargrivyek, the god of duty, unity and discipline, ferret out spies and lawbreakers.
The Strategist: In addition to the regular officers, the priests of Nomog-Geaya also fill the role of long-term planning.
Straight Edge Evil: Hobgoblins are said to have little time for earthly pleasures, be it hedonism or even simple leisure, especially when a warhost is on the march. It's even taboo for members of a hobgoblin host to copulate during a campaign, an infraction punishable by summary execution.

Kalashtar

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/b2fb494fc0191ad574093f60bb04339b.png

Origin: Eberron

A kind of planetouched unique to Eberron, kalashtar look human, but are irrevocably bound to a quori spirit, whom they commune with rather than dream.

Ascended Demon: Quori are usually evil, but kalashtar are bound to the minority good ones.
Cannot Dream: Kalashtar can't dream because their subconscious is bound up inside the consciousness of a quori. Instead, when they sleep, their conscious minds immerse themselves into the consciousness of their ancestral quori. This also has the added benefit of making them immune to dream spells, the night hags' "Nightmare Haunting," or similar effects.
Gender Equals Breed: If a kalashtar have children with non-kalashtar and the child is a kalashtar, their gender will be the same as their kalashtar parent. This is because each of the kalashtar-aligned quori is pacted to a specific gender, based on the individual with whom they formed the initial pact. When two kalashtar mate, a similar thing happens; sons are bound to the same quori as their father, and daughters to the quori of the mother.
Human Subspecies: Kalashtar are descended from humans who made deals with quori. Even more-so with their Inspired kin, who are specifically bred to be the best hosts for their quori spirits.
Psychic Powers: Kalashtar have innate psionic potential, letting them communicate with other creatures and resist psychic damage.
Super Breeding Program: The evil quori have spent centuries breeding Inspired to be the best hosts for the quori possible. Unusually, they are not made to be powerful on their own, but rather to be a psionically-gifted Empty Shell that the quori can easily possess.
Telepathy: Kalashtar have telepathic powers which let them communicate with other creatures, regardless of language.
Touched by Vorlons: Kalashtar are humans touched by quori dream-spirits.
True-Breeding Hybrid: Children of kalashtar will also be kalashtar if their gender matches their kalashtar parent.

Kender

Origin: Dragonlance

A race of small, elf-like humanoids native to Krynn, kender are similar in some ways to the halflings of other worlds, and yet in others are very different.

Beauty Equals Goodness: Well, "Cuteness Equals Goodness", but the same principle applies. The fact that kender are so childlike and cute is pointed out as part of their fundamental goodness and why they are an important part of the world around them.
Berserk Button: Don't call a kender a thief. It's one of the few things that makes them mad.
Curious as a Monkey: So curious that they examine the contents of other people's pockets.
Cute Critters Act Childlike: They're small people, and tend to be playful, curious, and lacking in self-preservation. The novels and gamebooks are adamant that this is supposed to be perceived as endearing.
Chaotic Stupid: This is how they're perceived both In-Universe and out; a near-total lack of fear, combined with intense curiosity, a short attention span, and a low tolerance for boredom, means kenders are very prone to doing dangerous things just because they can or because it amused them. There's a reason there's a Krynnish saying that amounts to "the most terrifying sound in the world is a Kender saying 'oops'."
Fearless Fool: The entire race is almost incapable of feeling fear, due to their childlike innocence and playful mirth... at least until Malystryx burned Kenderhome to cinders. A lot of the survivors became "Afflicted", which made them morose, nervous and paranoid. It's not entirely clear whether being Afflicted is purely psychological or partly magical.
Fragile Speedster: They are small, childlike, dexterous rogues, so naturally they can't take a lot of punishment.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- Kender were literally created by the Hickmans asking themselves "okay, halflings in D&D 1e are all thieves; why is that? And if that's the case, how can they still be a good race and so hang out with heroic adventurers?" The result was the kender as they are now; a race of fearless, sticky-fingered eternal children who don't mean to be thieves, but who still act like thieves out of their incessant curiosity.
- In a reversal of the usual use of this trope, fans of Dungeons & Dragons have been known to create house rules to reflect their propensity to pull random crap out of their pockets and pouches. Also, literally their only rule difference to normal halflings relates to their unique abilities, such as taunting and fear resistance.
Hobbits: They were designed to fill the same niche as D&D's halflings, but bear little resemblance to Tolkien's hobbits apart from size.
Hypocrite: As mentioned above, kender hate thievery and thieves, but are incapable of keeping out of peoples' homes and pockets. They protest that they always intend to return the things they steal, but that doesn't change the fact that they steal them in the first place.
Interspecies Romance: Would you believe they can have children with humans? Because it's true.
Kleptomaniac Hero: Kender players are encouraged to act like this, simply because kender always grab whatever looks interesting and then stick it in their pocket.
The Loonie: The game designers' intention for the kender is for them to be harmless versions of this trope. By canon, kender are supposed to steal interesting knicknacks, like shiny pebbles, chunks of glass, and other bits and bobs that look neat but aren't actually worth anything. Naturally, there are players who seized upon their kleptomanical fluff to both pilfer everything that might be valuable, and to harass the party by stealing anything and everything belonging to other members of the party. Additionally, they are supposed be a race designed for comedic mischief and a good way to keep the game interesting, but could instead wind up as disruptive and annoying for other players.
Sticky Fingers: This is pretty much their most defining trait, to the point the "typical kender greeting" from other races is to curse at the kender and protectively grab their pockets or pouches.

Kenku

^2e

A race of secretive, flightless avian humanoids, known for their unparalleled mimicry abilities.

Art Evolution: The earliest kenku were six-limbed humanoid hawks with separate arms and wings, compared to the aarakocra who had arms and wings merged into singular limbs, and were very proud of their racial ability to fly. Since 3rd Edition, kenku have been flightless, raven-headed bird folk.
Bird People: They resemble humanoid crows, but have no wings and cannot fly — according to legend, it's the result of a curse for some past crime (the specifics of which vary by story). Their 5th Edition lore notes that kenku are obsessed with regaining their ability to fly, seeking out magic items that let them do so and preferring to dwell in tall structures.
Clever Crows: They're subtle, skilled at replicating both sounds and official documents, and blessed with excellent memories.
Creative Sterility: In their early 5th Edition lore, the same curse that robbed kenku of their flight also made them incapable of truly creating anything new, including original speech. However they can flawlessly recreate any object, work of art or sounds they see or hear, provided that they have the means to do so.
The Echoer: In their early 5E background, kenku have no voices of their own and can only communicate by repeating snippets of other people's speech or duplicating sounds.
Sneaky Spy Species: They have a reputation for being capable spies, assassins and generally being good at skulduggery. Kenku are often proficient in skills such as acrobatics, deception, stealth and sleight of hand. Their skills at mimicry extend beyond replicating sounds, allowing them to create excellent forgeries of documents if given an original to copy.
The Speechless: Varies by edition, or even within an edition. Their AD&D entry notes that the bird-like squawks they make are gibberish, and suspects that kenku communicate via telepathy. Kenku can talk normally in 3rd and 4th Edition, but their early 5th Edition material forced them to use their mimicry ability to communicate verbally, until the updated kenku entry in Monsters of the Multiverse relaxed that rule.
Tengu: Kenku appear to be partially based on the tengu of Japanese Mythology, though they have their own unique quirks, and the tengu proper have appeared concurrently with kenku and are recognized as a distinct species.

Kobold

^3e

^2e

Small, reptilian humanoids who make up with ingenuity and tenaciousness what they lack in physical strength. No matter the hardships they face, kobolds take heart in their kinship to the mighty dragons, and willingly serve such creatures.

Arch-Enemy: Kobolds hate gnomes, a rivalry that goes back to myths about the gnome deity Garl Glittergold collapsing Kurtulmak's magnificient lair out of what the kobolds insist was petty jealousy. The two races have committed atrocities against each other ever since.
Art Evolution: Originally kobolds looked like goblins with dog-like features, and in AD&D were some mash-up of reptile, canine and rat. Then 3rd Edition redesigned them as fully reptilian humanoids, a look that has since stuck, though 5th Edition gives its kobolds distinctly dog-like noses, perhaps as a throwback to their original design.
Combat Pragmatist: Like goblins, kobolds are aware of their physical limitations, but are much more clever in compensating for them. They design their lairs with twisting, narrow tunnels that even Small creatures must move through on all fours, well-protected with devious traps and guardian beasts, while in warfare, kobolds make extensive use of favorable terrain and hit-and-run tactics.
Cower Power: Their original 5th Edition racial ability was to "Grovel, Cower and Beg" to dissuade enemies from attacking them, though this was switched to the more dignified "Draconic Cry" and "Kobold Legacy" in Monsters of the Multiverse.
Creation Myth: According to legend, when Io created the first dragons, he offered them the power to create more life, while warning that this would sacrifice their divinity. The dragons agreed, and each severed a limb, which not only grew back immediately, but the severed limbs became the dragons' mates. The shed blood from this event became the first kobolds, the first and greatest of which was the future deity Kurtulmak.
Draconic Humanoid: Since 3rd Edition, kobolds have been cast as distant relatives to dragons, clinging to their kinship as a source of pride and strength in a world that otherwise belittles and humiliates them. Their updated 5th Edition racial traits let them inspire themselves and allies with a "Draconic Cry," and they can manifest their draconic legacy with an additional skill proficiency, bonus on saving throws against fear effects, or sorcerous cantrip.
The dragon scale toughens our skin. The dragon bone adorns our skull. The dragon heart flames our sorcery. We are the dragon, and for the dragon we live. Long live the dragon.
Evil Counterpart: They're ironically such to gnomes, as kobolds can be considered the Gadgeteer Genius of the "monstrous" races, favoring deadly traps rather than clockwork contraptions.
Explosive Breeder: Kobolds have among the highest birthrates of the humanoid races, as their instinct to expand the tribe leads them to mate regularly and shamelessly, producing clutches of eggs whose hatchlings grow to adulthood in six years. Even a pair of kobolds who declare one another their "chosen one" are rarely monogamous, but since emotion plays little role in kobold sexuality, this isn't an issue.
Happiness in Slavery: From 3rd Edition onward, kobolds revere dragons so much that they happily serve them with near-religious fervor — while Kurtulmak is their patron deity, dragons represent a tangible glory for kobolds to venerate. 4th Edition ramps this up to the point that kobolds will literally throw themselves into the mouth of a hungry dragon should it give into its instincts and try to consume some of its servitors.
Heroic Sacrifice: Kobolds have a strong sense of duty and self-sacrifice, so when all seems lost, they'll resort to a Zerg Rush to overwhelm a threat, or to buy time for a tribe's females to escape a besieged lair with the tribe's eggs. Possibly Downplayed or Inverted on the Heroic part if they do so in service to a rather evil master.
Intrepid Merchant: The most independent and ambitious kobolds are sent to the surface (usually under disguise) to do business with other races. In the process, these kobold merchants tend to spot suitable locations for a new mine, and often "go rogue" by taking a portion of their home tribe's population with them to the new site when overcrowding becomes an issue... which is usually what the tribe's leaders intended when they picked that kobold entrepreneur for the role.
Lizard Folk: Unlike true dragons, kobolds are cold-blooded, which sustains them in warm climates but means they have to consume much more food than normal to survive in cold lands.
Long-Lived: Perhaps as a sign of their draconic heritage, Kobolds can live for up to 120 years. Few do, however, since they are also extremely fragile and usually die in battle or accidents long before that.
Our Kobolds Are Different: They've departed from their source myths by becoming increasingly draconic rather than goblin-like, but kobolds remain exceptional miners, and their lethal traps can definitely play some "cruel tricks" on intruders. However, 5th Edition mentions that some human communities hire kobolds to build their sewer systems, and if treated well, kobolds may set up a permanent warren beneath a human community, becoming "city kobolds" who expand the original sewer network as the settlement above them grows, living beneath a society that's oblivious to their presence, thus bringing kobolds back to their "otherworldly creatures living among humans" roots.
Reincarnation: Kobolds believe that a kobold who dies in the service of the tribe has their soul immediately sent back by Kurtulmak, so if a kobold of prominence dies, the next egg laid in the hatchery receives special attention, and the resulting hatchling is groomed for an important role, and often given a variant of the deceased's name. If a tribe is wiped out, Kurtulmak distribues their souls among other tribes. If a kobold dies while putting their own needs over their tribe's, they're reincarnated as a dire weasel (which the kobolds ride) to learn the meaning of service, while traitors are reborn as giant stag beetles (which are hunted for their chitin). Conversely, a kobold who sacrifices themself for their tribe gets to work in Kurtulmak's mine in the afterlife, and the best of such souls may eventually be reincarnated as a chromatic dragon.
Sex Shifter: 5th Edition states that kobolds react to a sudden gender imbalance by having members of the too-prolific gender randomly shift to the under-presented gender until they've equalized, to maintain a breeding population no matter what disasters befall a tribe.
Stronger with Age: Kobolds with the Dragonwrought racial feat are considered true dragons for effects and traits that affect creature type. This means that they get to ignore physical penalties due to age, only gaining in Wisdom.
Trap Master: Kobolds are renowned for their devious and deadly traps, something that's been mentioned in their entries since 2nd Edition, but the story of "Tucker's Kobolds" has helped make trap-making one of kobolds' defining traits. Trap-makers are the only specialists in a kobold tribe who receive special attention for their efforts, as every ingenious trap helps protect the tribe without open conflict, saving kobold lives.
Winged Humanoid: Urds are kobolds who hatch with wings, and are sometimes viewed with resentment by ordinary kobolds. Some "dragonwrought" kobolds who manifest their draconic heritage may develop wings as well.

Leonin

Origin: Mythic Odysseys of Theros

A lion-like race of nomads, leonin are self-sufficient, distrusting of strangers, and even less trusting of the gods. Though quick to quarrel, they generally don't carry grudges.

Absurdly Sharp Claws: Leonin have a set of claws that they can use as a natural weapon.
Canon Immigrant: Like loxodon, vedalken and Simic hybrids, they originate in Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast's other best-selling IP.
Cat Folk: Leonin are a lion-based race.
Mighty Roar: Leonin can make a powerful roar, which can terrify their foes.
Nay-Theist: Due to their history, leonin in general don't really like the gods, seeing many as tyrants, or unworthy of serving. Some will even kill those who serve the gods.
Proud Warrior Race: Leonin enjoy a good fight, be it verbal or physical.

Lizardfolk

Savage and primeval, the lizardfolk are swamp-dwelling reptilian humanoids, often portrayed as primitive even compared to orcs and goblins. Large, thick-skinned and powerful, they are not necessarily hostile, but are territorial and often have a rather alien morality.

Artistic License – Biology: In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, lizardfolk are described as inhabiting swamps and wetlands because they needed to moisten their skin on a regular basis, or fatally dry out and die. Whilst there are lizards that live in those environments, such a vulnerability to dehydration is characteristic of amphibians, not reptiles. Even crocodiles, which lizardfolk have increasingly grown to resemble, don't need to moisten themselves to survive.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Lizard Kings and Queens get into power by enforcing their will over prospective subjects.
Barbarian Tribe: They're less aggressive than the likes of orcs or gnolls, but even more primitive. Lizardfolk live in scattered, shamanistic tribes and clans in the wild, have a barter-based economy that only values things with practical uses,
Brains Evil, Brawn Good:
- Invoked in the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition "Ecology of the Lizardfolk" article in Dragon. To cut a long story short, the lizardfolk creation myth is that originally there were two hermaphroditic divine lizard-beasts; Semuanya (their god/dess) and Kecuala. However, whilst Semuanya was nothing more than a beast, concerning itself only with feeding, sleeping and breeding, Kecuala was a thinking creature that constantly contemplated the world around it, until one day it thought so much it split itself into two creatures; the first male and female lizardfolk. Intelligence is thusly demonized on a religious basis, with Semuanya's cult preaching that only by shedding the unnatural practices of thought and returning to primal savagery will the lizardfolk spiritually purify themselves and be remade as Kecuala.
- Zigzagged in the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition rendition of the myth. In the Nentir Vale world, the early lizardfolk worshipped Kecuala as a martyr-god, and raised a highly advanced civilization dedicated to academia and intellect in honor of Kecuala's sacrifice. However, this empire was destroyed by a populist uprising from amongst the ranks of the lower classes, which was spurred on by the cult of Semuanya — once it had destroyed the empire and assumed control, it demonized Kecuala's worship and has kept them in their primitive state ever since.
The Caligula: The Lizard Kings and Queens, due to their demonic ancestry, are sadistic, ruthless, and arbitrarily cruel. They're also voracious eaters with a hankering for the flesh of sapient creatures; if not fed with humanoid victims, they will devour their own people, up to the point they will eat their own tribes to extinction if not sated.
Carnivorous Healing Factor: 5th edition lizardfolk player characters get the "Hungry Jaws" ability, making them able to take a bite from a living enemy and gain temporary hit points equal to their constitution modifier.
Crafted from Animals: Their early 5th Edition rules let lizardfolk characters spend a short rest making some simple weapons or a shield from the bones and hide of a slain monster (though not the remains of humanoids or undead).
Dumb Muscle: Blackscale lizardfolk are a Large subrace that's much stronger than their kin, but also less intelligent.
Emotionless Reptile: 5th Edition in particular has emphasized this aspect of the lizardfolk mindset, which can come across as Blue-and-Orange Morality to other races. Lizardfolk don't really do emotions — they'll flee from a threat, not out of fear, but because they recognize the danger they're in. They're unsentimental about the dead, and no matter their relationship to the deceased, will see their corpse as some meat to be eaten and bones to be used for crafts. Lizardfolk who travel with warmbloods will eventually pick up habits like politeness or respect for the fallen, but only because they recognize that humoring such beliefs helps with group cohesion and avoids conflict. In short, lizardfolk are cold-bloodedly pragmatic survivalists who view things in a simple "aids survival/is irrelevant to survival/harmful" trichotomy. The upside of this is that lizardfolk won't harass other races without serious provocation; raids risk the lives of their warriors and invite retribution, and they have no desire for power for its own sake.
A Merchant: In all my dealings with the lizardfolk, I was never able to tell what they were thinking. Their reptilian eyes belied no hint of their intentions. I gave them supplies. They gave me the willies.
Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Subverted; the hermaphroditic lizardfolk are regarded as holy, being made in Semuanya's image, but their intelligence alienates them from their mono-gendered kinsfolk, who regard intelligence as an unnatural and undesirable trait. Furthermore, they're sterile, so they can't have children anyway.
Fire-Forged Friends: In the rare event where members of other humanoid races come to the aid of lizardfolk, a lizardfolk shaman will craft a large, enchanted bronze amulet and present it as a gift. This amulet is recognized by all lizardfolk and signifies the wearer as a trusted friend. This protects the wearer from being attacked by lizardfolk (unless forced), and its complex enchantment is attuned to the intended wearer, making it impossible to copy and useless if sold, gifted, or stolen.
Foil: Lizardfolk, like gnolls, are portrayed as having a god with an animal-like personality, which makes it extremely disinterested in the affairs of its mortal worshippers and too unintelligent to realize the potential dangers of this. However, whereas gnolls have almost entirely been usurped from their near-dead god, Gorellik, by the demon prince Yeenoghu, the lizardfolk haven't yet been swayed away from their god, Semuanya, although the presence of Lizard Kings and Queens suggests that they could suffer the same fate in the future.
Giant Animal Worship: While they aren't as big into this as kobolds are, lizardfolk tribes who interact with dragons come to worship the great beasts. Some tribes have also been known to revere other giant reptilian creatures and monsters, such as dinosaurs, in a similar way.
Hermaphrodite:
- The lizardfolk racial god, Semuanya, has been portrayed as this since it first appeared in "Monster Mythology" for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, being worshipped as the female Breeder and as the male Watcher & Seeker simultaneously.
- According to the Third Edition "Ecology of the Lizardfolk" article in Dragon, lizardfolk are occasionally hatched who have both female and male sexual traits. This is rare, because lizardfolk gender is controlled by the temperature their eggs are incubated at (like a crocodile's), and the precise temperature fluctuations needed to cause such a birth tend to kill the unborn hatchlings. These lizardfolk are invariably smarter than their single-gendered kinsfolk, and are regarded as being touched by divinity, so they tend to become shamans. That said, they are outsiders for their intelligence at the same time as they are revered.
Lizard Folk: The Trope Codifier, in fact — D&D's lizardfolk are one of the earliest widespread examples of this trope, and their portrayal as reclusive, territorial swamp-dwelling barbarians heavily influenced depictions of lizardfolk in other works. Interestingly, lizardfolk have evolved over editions to be more crocodilian-inspired if anything. There have been attempts at more specific lizardfolk subraces — an article in Dragon for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition introduced the agrutha (alligator), crocodilian, geckonid (and its evil counterpart race, the tokay), iguanid and varanid (monitor lizards) subraces — but none have really caught on.
Punch-Clock Villain: Unlike other "monster" races, they're usually Neutral. If you go up against hostile lizardfolk, chances are that a Lizard King/Queen (who are demonically tainted by Sess'innek) is behind it, and the lizardfolk are only fighting because, if the Lizard Kings aren't kept well fed with sapient flesh, they will happily eat at least two tribe members per day. By themselves, the lizardfolk are just isolationists, and if given the opportunity (like if the Lizard King is killed), they will promptly go back to bothering no-one.
Shorter Means Smarter: Poison dusk lizardfolk are a Small subrace known for their chameleon scales, use of poison, and heightened intelligence — they're canny ambushers quite willing to use other races' weapons in battle.
Super Not-Drowning Skills: Downplayed. Throughout the editions, lizardfolk get the "Swimming" and "Hold Breath" racial traits, making them very adept at moving underwater for an extended period of time.
Super-Toughness: The durability of lizardfolk scales often gives them a natural resilience, to the point of making a naked lizardfolk about as well-protected as a human in light armor.
To Serve Man: Lizardfolk have no problems eating the flesh of sapients, as in their culture, "meat is meat." In 5th Edition, lizardfolk have both a natural bite attack and a "Hungry Jaws" special attack that grants them some temporary HP after biting off and eating a chunk of their opponent. The demon-tainted Lizard Kings and Queen even prefer to eat sapient creatures, and will drive their tribes to acquire such as food, lest the monarch eat lizardfolk instead.
Tordek: If you're considering taking a scaled one along on an adventure, remember this important fact: the strange, inhuman glint in its eyes as it looks you over is the same look you might give a freshly-grilled steak.
Worthless Yellow Rocks: Their Stone Age society has no interest in money or jewels. You can't eat gold, and it's too soft to work with, so what good is it?

Locathah

^3e

Nomadic fish folk who favor warm waters where they hunt crustaceans. Though not deranged like the kuo-toa nor vicious like the sahuagin, locathahs are wary of surface-dwellers due to the number of their kin who end up caught in fishing nets.

Art Evolution: Their 2nd Edition art is basically that of a less portly kuo-toa, while 3rd Edition gave them a much more distinct look, like bipedal angler fish, only for 5th edition to make them rounded and smoother.
Fish Person: What kind of fish they resemble changes with each edition, but they remain bipedal piscine humanoids. Notable is that while they have legs, they are not explicitly amphibious like the kuo-toa, and can only survive out of water for a few hours at a time.
Made a Slave: They have a history of being enslaved by evil undersea races, contributing to their caution towards outsiders.
Token Aquatic Race: One of a small number of playable races that are naturally suited to aquatic environments.

Loxodon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/738a053a41d905920953d9224a4209c0.jpg

Origin: Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica

Elephant-like folk who are loyal to and protective of their "herd," and dislke those who betray their trust. Though normally calm, loxodons can make their enemies regret provoking them.

Alternate Company Equivalent: D&D already had elephant-folk, the twin-trunked loxo of the Forgotten Realms, well before Magic's Ravnica block introduced the loxodons. However, the loxo haven't been playable since 3rd Edition.
Combat Tentacles: Loxodons can use their trunk to grapple or make unarmed strikes, though not to hold weapons or shields
Canon Immigrant: They originate in Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast's other best-selling IP.
Gentle Giant: For the most part, loxodons tend to be friendly, but their powerful builds give them the carrying capacity of a Large creature.
Honorable Elephant: Generally, loxodons tend to be law-biding folk, and help out those they care for.
The Nose Knows: Thanks to their trunks, loxodons have advantage on Perception, Survival, and Investigation checks that use their sense of smell.
Super-Toughness: Their thick skin gives them a bit of natural armor.

Minotaur

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/636252765009181721.jpeg

^3e

Hulking humanoids who resemble a bipedal blend of man and bull. Despite their bestial appearance, minotaurs are cunning and possess an exceptional sense of direction.

Art Evolution: Their ratio of bull to human has varied by edition. Minotaurs were depicted as otherwise-human save for their bull heads in AD&D, then 3rd Edition gave them a more uniformly savage, fur-covered appearance, which 4th Edition mostly kept until 5th Edition toned down their wildness considerably.
Beast in the Maze: As per their mythological origins, evil NPC minotaurs tend to lurk in maze-like stretches of caverns, dungeons or forests, hunting anything that gets lost in their lair.
The Big Guy: Their original 5E rules give minotaurs racial bonuses to Strength and Constitution, as well as an "Imposing Presence" that grants proficiency with Intimidation or Persuasion — which, funnily enough, lets minotaurs serve as the party's "face."
Defector from Decadence: In the Nentir Vale, this trope is zigzagged. The minotaurs were originally created by the Primordial Baphomet as soldiers to try and wrest control of the wild from the Goddess Melora. When the Dawn War was lost, Baphomet fled to the Abyss, abandoning his creations, who were then taken in and raised to be a civilized people by the combined efforts of Erathis and Moradin. When Baphomet became a Demon Prince, he was able to reach out to his children and corrupt many of them, forcing the gods Melora and Kord to destroy the minotaur empire of Ruul, scattering both the fallen minotaurs and those who either repented or had resisted to form their own clans.
Enemy Within: Nentir Vale minotaurs all struggle with the demonic savagery that lurks in their hearts, courtesy of their spiritual link to their creator, Baphomet. The common minotaurs you fight as a player character represents one of those who lost the struggle.
Fantastic Caste System: The minotaurs of the Nentir Vale divide their society into four distinct castes; Priest, Warrior, Commoner and Slave. However, there are innumerable gradients, subdivisions and refinements of each caste that make their society truly labyrinthine.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The minotaurs of Krynn are based upon the Roman Empire, complete with being surprisingly adept at sailing and naval battles.
Horn Attack: Minotaurs can use their horns as natural weapons, which is especially dangerous when they charge.
Laser-Guided Karma: The Krynnish minotaurs were originally slaves to the ogres during the Age of the First Dragonwars, the time of Huma. But, even before then, they had been slavers themselves. After Takhisis was defeated and they freed themselves, they went right back to slaving... and were then enslaved again by the ogres after the gods returned.
The Maze: Minotaurs are heavily associated with labyrinths, and described as avid builders of maze-like structures. For the minotaurs of the Nentir Vale, not only do maze designs serve as clan sigils, but they put them everywhere. They wear them on their clothes and banners, put them on amulets and pendants, paint them on shields and armor, etch them into weapons, they even tattoo them into their flesh! They revere the maze so much because they actually use it as a spiritual symbol, embodying the struggle between the savage instincts cursing them from their creator, Baphomet, and their rational, thinking minds.
The Navigator: Minotaurs have an excellent sense of recall, making them superb trackers and navigators. In some editions, they can never become lost, and are naturally immune to the maze spell.
One-Gender Race: Originally, standard AD&D minotaurs were stated to be all-male, and to reproduce with captured human women. D&D moved away from this idea quickly; female minotaurs became canonical first in the Dragonlance setting, and then were canonized in the Dragon article "Ecology of the Minotaur" in issue #116. By 3rd edition, female minotaurs were fully normal.
Our Minotaurs Are Different: Minotaurs resemble hulking mixtures of human and bovine, generally with bovid heads and legs against an otherwise humanoid frame. Originally considered the result of a curse punishing "crimes against the natural order," later editions have cast minotaurs as a race in their own right.
Rage Against the Heavens: In the Nentir Vale, many minotaurs and minotaur clans hold a deep and abiding hatred for the gods as a result of the destruction of Ruul. More subtly, even goodly minotaurs generally refuse to worship Melora and Kord, for their role in destroying Ruul in the first place.
Religious Bruiser: Nentir Vale minotaurs are usually highly religious, with evil ones worshipping their creator, Baphomet, whilst benevolent ones worship Erathis, Moradin, Bahamut and Pelor. Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realize that, even without their grudge against Melora and Kord, as the Unaligned gods of wilderness and battle, the two are probably too close to the temptations of Baphomet for non-evil minotaurs to feel comfortable worshiping them: Pelor and Bahamut's tenets of focusing on honor and using strength for goodness serve to reinforce their will against their Enemy Within, whilst accepting their "inner beast" or reveling in strength for its own sake is a deceptively narrow step away from Baphomet's malevolent creed.

Orc

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/orc_5e.jpg

^2e

Savage, barbaric humanoids who live in nomadic tribes on the frontier of civilization, roaming as they exhaust the resources of the land around them. Orcs aggressively raid neighboring races, though are rarely more than local threats, but on occasion a particularly powerful leader can lash multiple tribes into a single, unified horde — and when this happens, empires tremble.

Albinos Are Freaks: Albino orcs are considered marked by the foul god Yurtrus (in gameplay terms, they have the "unholy scion" template), and are both feared and respected by the rest of the tribe. They grow into "plague speakers" who do Yurtrus' work, and while they're given food and loot by other orcs, these albinos stand alone on the battlefield, and live apart from the rest of the tribe, with only their doting mothers for company.
Arch-Enemy: Orcs despise elves and dwarves, who orcish dogma accuse of cheating the orcs out of the best places to live, forcing the orcs into caves and badlands. Elves in particular are hated because their patron Corellon shot out one of Gruumsh's eyes in what orcs insist was a cowardly attack.
Art Evolution: Orcs started out as slouching, green-skinned Pig Men, which helped popularize the "porc" design in Japan, but 3rd Edition depicted them as more upright and less porcine, and stressed that their skin was actually gray, which has stuck in subsequent editions. Their tusks have evolved as well, going from oversized lower canines in past editions to horizontal-jutting tusks in 5E's Monsters of the Multiverse.
The Artifact: Their afterlife is still considered to be Acheron, a Lawful-leaning plane, even after they switched from Lawful to Chaotic — it's explained that the orcish pantheon is contesting the plane with the goblinoid pantheon.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Whoever's the toughest, that's who's in charge.
Barbarian Tribe: They live in a nomadic hunter-gatherer society, squatting in caves or other races' ruins, raiding their neighbors, and are generally "wilder" than other races, for better or worse.
The Berserker: Orcs are not known to have much of a sense of self-preservation when fighting, and tend to fight in a blind rage. Their tribes' dedicated berserkers are even worse.
Dumb Muscle: Traditionally, orcs have had bonuses to physical ability scores at the expense of Intelligence, though not to the extent of ogres or hill giants. As of their updated 5th Edition rules, player orcs don't suffer from this.
Early-Installment Weirdness: In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, they were considered to be Lawful Evil, due to their tendency to willingly fall in line with any Evil Overlord figure that proved suitably strong, and battled for dominion of the Lawful Evil plane of Acheron with the hobgoblins. Since 3rd Edition, orcs have been firmly established as a Chaotic Evil race.
Elite Mooks: Orogs, who are both stronger and smarter than ordinary orcs. Originally they were orc-ogre hybrids born to ogre mothers, but as of 5th Edition they're born to orc parents blessed by Luthic. Orc chiefs tend to distrust orogs as rivals, but orogs are usually loyal and focused more on defending the tribe (especially Luthic's followers within it) than seizing power, even if they make for superior leaders.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Farsighted orc mothers do what they can to aid their male children without making them incompetent or dependent, making their sons fiercely loyal to their mothers and willing to heed their advice. As of 5th Edtiion, this extends to orcish religion, as the second-most important deity after Gruumsh is Luthic, the orc goddess of motherhood, fertility and child-rearing. Like the ancient Spartans, orcs believe that mothers ought to be respected; after all, without them, you don't have those precious warriors.
Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: In 5th Edition, many orc tribes end up willingly intermarrying with human tribes who share their same Rape, Pillage, and Burn mentality.
Explosive Breeder: Orcs' high mortality rate is offset by a strong reproductive urge, and they reach physical maturity at 13. On the downside, they're considered old at 37.
Eye Scream: The so-called "eyes of Gruumsh" emulate their deity by plucking out one of their eyes, gaining supernatural powers in return.
Genuine Human Hide: The priests of Yurtrus wear pale gloves made from the skin of other humanoids, particularly elves, in reflection of their deity's white hands.
Genius Bruiser: Some of their leaders have been known to be surprisingly clever.
Genocide Dilemma: In AD&D, orcs (among other "monstrous" races) had both a detailed writeup describing the typical number of children to be had in one of their villages and a status as Always Chaotic Evil, which has led to this trope being known as the "Orc Baby Dilemma" in D&D circles. One solution is described below.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: In 5E, Luthic and her priestesses are described as the only reason the orcs are anything more than a few scattered tribes. In fact, the flavor text in Volo's Guide to Monsters speculates that when the war between the orcish and goblin pantheons finally ends, she will be the last deity standing, not Gruumsh.
The Horde: This is the defining aspect of orcish society; an enormous, chaotic sprawl of violent barbarians barely held together by marginally smarter leaders who can enforce dominance through fear and brutality.
Hot-Blooded: Most orcs are emotionally driven due to their savage nature, in contrast to the more cold, calculating and disciplined hobgoblins.
Mama Bear: Luthic, as the goddess of motherhood, is said to be protective of orc children. Orc chiefs hesitate to murder newly born orogs out of fear of provoking her wrath. Her priestesses even grow their nails into Wolverine Claws to emulate one of her favored forms, a female bear, and are often the last (and perhaps fiercest) line of defense should invaders breach a tribe's stronghold.
Might Makes Right: Orcs value strength and follow those who are strong enough to impose their will upon others. Those who display weakness or ineptitude are culled by cultists of Shargaas, dragged into the lightless depths of the orcs' lair to be ritualistically killed and devoured.
Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Older D&D lore portrays orcs as resoundingly interfertile with a wide variety of species, from humans (see "Half-Orc" above) to ogres (resulting in either "orogs" or "ogrillons" depending on which species the mother was) to quaggoths (producing shaggy "boogins") to baboons (resulting in the "losel," and hopefully A Wizard Did It).
No Woman's Land: Earlier editions of the game present orcs as extremely patriarchal, with males taking as many mates as they can support and women having little role beyond child-rearing. But as time changed, orc society became more accepting of women, with 3rd Edition noting that while orcs have a Stay in the Kitchen mentality in general, females are only strictly barred from becoming clerics of Gruumsh, so a female orc can carve out a place for herself if she's strong enough to defeat the men who'd subjugate her. 5th Edition turns this on its head by having Luthic be the second most revered Orc goddess, and in many ways more important to their culture than Gruumsh, with her priests being the tribe's rulers in all but name.
Our Orcs Are Different: D&D orcs have undergone significant changes over the various editions, going from natural lackeys to a more aggressive, horde-like culture fighting to appease their warlike gods.
- The Forgotten Realms actually plays around with the standard "orcs as savage monsters" depiction. In the Zakhara region, orcs are actually a peaceful and civilized people. Likewise, the remnants of an abandoned army of Thayan orcs have similarly integrated into the population of Thesk after they saved the locals from being overrun by the Tuigan Horde. During 4th Edition, there was also the orcish Kingdom of Many-Arrows in the Frozen North, which was the first orc-founded kingdom and ran as a surprisingly civilized place, though not without both internal division and external hostility — sadly, it was destroyed during the change from 4th Edition to 5th.
- Ondonti are an orcish subrace also native to Faerun, descending from orc children who were rescued and adopted by priests of a Goddess of Peace. They're a pacifistic race who dwell in sheltered valleys and practice an agrarian lifestyle. They also have some innate priestly magic, are resistant to poison, and are naturally protected from Charm Person type spells.
- In Eberron, orcs are a peaceful race who live In Harmony with Nature — in fact, they pioneered the religious and mystical traditions of druidism that other races practice today. They're also a Vestigial Empire reduced to swamp-dwelling clans of Barbarian Heroes after they exhausted their former glory battling against aberrations in the ancient past, and have no great hostility towards humans. In fact, half-orcs in Eberron have a presumed standard of being consensually conceived.
- The sharakim are an obscure race introduced in the 3rd Edition Races of Destiny book; in addition to having small, oni-like horns, they were a highly civilized, gregarious and non-evil race. This is because they were descended from a tribe of humans cursed for killing and eating a sacred stag, which left them trapped in a orc-like form and desperate to not be mistaken for orcs. 4th Edition dropped a nod to them in the flavor text for a half-orc exclusive Swordmage paragon path.
- Tanarukks are planetouched orcs and the result of a Super Breeding Program between orcs and demons (tanar'ri). Larger and more powerful than normal orcs, they are feared and despised by orc rulers since they usually end up taking over the tribe, while normal orcs dislike them for their fiendish heritage.
Proud Warrior Race: In their most sympathetic portrayals. Orc culture revolves around their chief god, Gruumsh, who takes the souls of the dead to Acheron to fight in his endless wars. Orc lives are therefore traditionally built around proving themselves worthy of serving Gruumsh, with each act of pillage and plunder demonstrating their worthiness in the eyes of the One-Eyed God.
Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Orcs do a lot of pillaging and burning, but surprisingly little rape. The burning is simply part of their culture, as battle and ravaging proves that they are savage enough to serve Gruumsh, while the valuables they pillage and place in a special "war wagon" serves as a status symbol, as well as just being useful for a culture that don't really grow their own food. Raping on the other hand has been mentioned in the lore, but more often than not it's stated that orcs find most other races as unappealing as they find them — 5th Edition states that orcs only mate with non-orcs when they think such pairings will strengthen the tribe.
- In earlier editions, orcs were implied to do a lot of rape. It was stated that orcs were fond of slavery and torture, and that they were indiscriminate breeders that could reproduce with almost any humanoid or demi-human race save elves. That 90% of progeny produced from these mixed pairing are said to be indistinguishable from common orcs meant that they could effectively assimilate any population they conquered.
Religious Bruiser: Their 5th Edition portrayal emphasizes this, calling orcs "the godsworn," savage but superstitious warriors fighting to appease their bloodthirsty deities.
Volo: Lord Dagult Neverember once told me, during a drunken tirade, that orcs are fearful of their gods and, if one plays one's cards right, they can be controlled through that fear and made to dance to any tune.
Soldier vs. Warrior: Heavily on the Warrior side, which is one of the biggest differences between them and hogoblins. Orcs love battle, often for its own sake, and are far less regimented.

Owlin

Origin: Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

A race of humanoid owls, with silent wings and keen vision even in the dark.

Bird People: They resemble owls, whether "wide-winged and majestic" or "petite and fluffy."
Canon Immigrant: They originate in Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast's other best-selling IP.
The Night Owl: Players are free to decide whether their owlin is nocturnal by nature or just a late-riser by habit.
Stealth Expert: Owlins' "Silent Feathers" trait makes all of them proficient in Stealth, "making it easy for them to sneak up on you in the library."
Super-Senses: They have superior darkvision, extending out to 120 feet.

Plasmoid

Origin: Spelljammer

Intelligent, amoeba-like beings who can alter their body configuration at will, assuming roughly-humanoid forms or more amorphous shapes. Both curious and ambitious, plasmoids are drawn to the endless possibilities of Wildspace.

Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Plasmoids are noted to almost never directly combat one another, which some sages speculate is because all plasmoids are pseudo-clones of the originator of their species.
Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Plasmoids reproduce by joining with another of their species to exchange DNA, then separating. At any point afterward, either plasmoid can then divide itself, producing a near-duplicate possessing what base knowledge its parent could spare.
Blob Monster: They're more intelligent and less monstrous than most.
Compact Infiltrator: Being amoeba-like beings with no skeletons and no set shape, can pour themselves through spaces as narrow as one inch wide; as such, certain articles suggest applications in escape artistry or breaking and entering. The only downside is that most Plasmoids can't mimic clothing, so any Plasmoid PCs will need to strip off all armor and weapons before getting sneaky.
Extreme Omnivore: Plasmoids can't taste or smell, are hard to poison or sicken, and their digestive acids are strong enough to eat through anything but stone, metal and glass. They can thus consume just about anything they absorb, expelling what proves indigestible, and have a bad habit of absorbing things at random, sometimes even things of importance — their first attempt at exploring Wildspace failed after the plasmoid crew absent-mindedly snacked on their own wooden ship out of boredom.
Large and in Charge: Some plasmoids balloon in size upon reaching adulthood, becoming "bosses" that can easily rise to leadership positions, with the note that they require charm and wit to remain in power as much as they rely on their size and strength.
Shapeshifter Longevity: The exact lifespan of the average Plasmoid varies in both official and homebrewed content, ranging from a hundred and thirty years to borderline immortality, but general consensus is that they're quite long-lived.
Super-Senses: Their AD&D entry explains that plasmoids can partially or fully expose their sensory ganglia, which might allow them to hear the wingbeat of a butterfly 100 yards away, but could also leave them deafened by ordinary speech while those ganglia were exposed. 5th Edition simplifies things by giving them darkvision.
Undying Loyalty: They're legendary for their loyalty, hence the saying "If you want a friend to stick with you into the void, choose a plasmoid."
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Plasmoids can freely alter their body shape, sprouting a head and limbs, or reverting back to a formless blob to squeeze through an inch-wide gap. Some plasmoid subspecies like the deGleash and delNorics can additionally give themselves some natural armor, while the gargantuan, predatory ontalak plasmoids are skilled enough shapechangers to disguise themselves as derelict starships to lure in prey.
Weak to Fire: 2nd Edition plasmoids are quite vulnerable to fire attacks, which rapidly dry their ooze-like bodies.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Plasmoids' acidic innards mean they have no natural enemies save one, the ooze-slurping burbur, which they greatly fear.

Satyr

Horned and hoofed humanoids who live in the wilderness and love to party.

Fauns and Satyrs: "Faun" and "satyr" are synonymous terms for the same type of ram-horned, goat-legged fey who live in forests and enjoy dancing, alcohol, music and revelry. They get along well with (i.e. chase) nymphs and dryads, as well as other woodland creatures like centaurs.
The Hedonist: Their only interest is in the pleasure of fine wine, exhilarating dance, delectable spices, and passionate romance. They're known to venture into civilization to partake of its delights, and satyrs feel starved when they can't indulge themselves. Satyrs are happy to bring other people along during their revelries, but are oblivious to the consequences of their hedonism.
Magic Music: NPC Satyrs can play various magical tunes on their pipes, which they can use to frighten away intruders, put people to sleep (usually so the satyr can rob them), or charm their pants off (sometimes literally).
One-Gender Race: Their AD&D entry notes that satyrs are all male, speculated to be the male counterpart to dryads, with whom they reproduce. Later editions don't specify that satyrs are all male, but tend to depict them as such.
Unusable Enemy Equipment: In the hands of others, their panpipes have no special powers.
Use Your Head: When pressed into combat, satyrs can deliver a powerful headbutt.

Sea Elf

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d&d_aquatic_elf_3e.jpg

An aquatic offshoot of elvenkind who dwell within kelp forests and undersea cities in the shallower parts of the ocean. They can be even more insular and standoffish than the most elitist elves of the surface world, but sea elves are staunch foes of evil oceanic races, particularly the hated sahuagin.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Sea elves come in striking tones, with skin ranging from light blue to dark green, and hair ranging from emerald green to deep blue.
Arch-Enemy: Aquatic elves hate sahuagin, with a passion that surprises even themselves. They'll attack the sea devils without hesitation unless they're outnumbered, and a sahuagin presence is one of the things that can shake an aquatic elf community out of its isolation and mobilize it for war. This hostility is often extended to sharks as well.
Combat Pragmatist: Aquatic elves are "ruthless and clever" when they fight, employing conventional or magical traps to guard their territory, attacking enemies from below (especially effective against surface-dwelling foes), and driving aquatic creatures onto land.
Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: They favor piercing weapons such as tridents and spears (as other weapon types can't be effectively used underwater), and also employ nets to entangle foes. The sea elves have also developed reinforced longbows that can be used underwater, but they suffer from limited range.
Heroic Dolphin: Dolphins and porpoises often willingly ally themselves with sea elf communities, serving as comrades and companions, but definitely not as pets, beasts of burden, or cannon fodder. One of the signs a hidden aquatic elf village is nearby can be the presence of a dolphin pod on patrol.
Hidden Elf Village: Some sea elf communities are carved into the sea floor beneath beds of seaweed or kelp forests, practically invisible to non-elven eyes. In general, the aquatic elves are isolationists who can tolerate other good aquatic races like the aventi, merfolk and tritons, but prefer not to involve themselves in other people's problems. "It is part of the elven philosophy to let others go about their business with a minimum of interruption; aquatic elves would prefer it if others returned the favor."
Our Mermaids Are Different: Sea elves are a downplayed example, as other than their gills and webbed digits they look like colorful elves. How long they can survive out of water depends on edition — in 5E they are fully amphibious, in 3E they can survive for a number of hours based on their Constitution score, while in AD&D they can only remain on the surface for a matter of minutes.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Downplayed; in 5th Edition, they can communicate simple ideas with undersea animals, but have no innate ability to understand said animals in turn.
Token Aquatic Race: A water-dwelling variation of regular elves.
Underwater City: Sea elven cities are wonders crafted from living coral, gleaming with mother-of-pearl and scoured sea shells.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Krynn has two unique variants of sea elf, the Dargonesti ("deep elves") and Dimernesti ("shoal elves"). They mirror the land elves' "high elf/wood elf" split, complete with Dargonesti having innate spells that the Dimernesti lack, but they're most known for being able to transform into sea creatures — the Dargonesti can turn into dolphins, and the Dimernesti into giant otters.

Shadar-Kai

^4e

^3e

A somber race of humanoids inextricably tied to the Plane of Shadow, granting them power over darkness.

Casting a Shadow: Consistent to all versions of shadar-kai is an elemental affinity for darkness, though the precise powers vary somewhat between editions. 3E shadar-kai also have a fondness for classes based around using shadow magic.
Chain Pain: The spiked chain, which is a length of metal chain covered in barbs and blades, is the iconic weapon associated with the shadar-kai.
Combat Sadomasochist: Because shadar-kai of all editions need stimulation, they often revel in taking injury as much as they do inflicting it. Indeed, the 3E shadar-kai have a signature item called the gal-ralan, a spiked Cold Iron armband that viciously impales the forearm of its wearer; the pain this inflicts helps keep the shadow-curse at bay. 4E shadar-kai don't normally go to that same extreme, but are huge fans of tattooing, piercings and scarification as a result of their own shadow-curse.
Dark Is Evil: 3E shadar-kai are cruel, vicious creatures who prey upon humanoids and kill any other fey they meet.
Dark Is Not Evil: Shadar-kai from 4th and 5th Edition are more morally and culturally diverse, and evil shadar-kai are not the norm.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Consistent throughout the editions is the shadar-kai's color scheme; black hair, black eyes, and pale gray skin along with their connection to the spooky Shadowfell.
Emo: With their "edgy" appearance and living in the plane of despair, a common joke among fans is that shadar-kai round out the trifecta of elven cliques, along with goth drow and prep high elves.
Human Subspecies: In 4E, they were originally humans who went to the Shadowfell.
Lie to the Beholder: On other planes, 5E shadar-kai appear as deathly pale elves, but on their home plane, their true form is revealed: withered elves with wrinkled skin and swollen joints, making them appear corpse-like. While on the Shadowfell, shadar-kai go about in dark cloaks and veils, and avoid mirrors or other things that remind them of their true age.
Not Afraid to Die: 4th and 5th Edition shadar-kai don't fear death, as they trust that the Raven Queen will protect their souls — and in 5E shadar-kai's case, they know that their death is temporary, and they'll be resurrected to serve their queen once more.
Our Elves Are Different: 5E shadar-kai are an elven subrace, born of the designers' decision to try and marry elements of their past two incarnations together.
Perky Goth: 4E shadar-kai are dark and gothicpunk-looking figures, with their propensity for garish colors, vicious-looking ornaments and extreme body modification. Personality-wise, they're a vibrant, active and passionate people with a "live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse" philosophy and a culture that considers bragging a sport. It's justified; acting with typical goth apathy or despair will actually kill Nentir Vale shadar-kai faster, so acting more "alive" does the inverse, which leads to an odd juxtaposition of gothicpunk appearances and jockish culture.
Resurrective Immortality: When a shadar-kai dies, their soul is whisked away to the Raven Queen's Fortress of Memories in the Shadowfell. Should this shadar-kai be one of the Raven Queen's servants, a new body is crafted for them, and they're allowed to come back to life. There is no limit as to how many times this can happen, effectively making the shadar-kai immortal, since Death Is a Slap on the Wrist at worst. It helps to explain why this is a race that is Not Afraid to Die.
Retcon: The shadar-kai's backstory, and even what race they are, has changed with every edition.
- 3rd Edition presents them as a race of fey skilled in shadow magic, who tried to bring an age of eternal twilight to the Material Plane in which they could reign supreme. Unfortunately for them, they instead cursed themselves to lose their souls to the depths of the Plane of Shadow, leaving them a grim and embittered people who lash out at other races.
- 4th Edition casts them as a race of once-humans who, through a combination of a pact with the Raven Queen and mass migration to the Shadowfell, achieved immortality at a cost.
- 5th Edition has them as former elves who devoted themselves to the future Raven Queen, following her as she schemed to ascend to godhood and broker a peace between Corellon and Lolth. After that effort was foiled by treachery and the Raven Queen and her people were cast to the Shadowfell, the loyal shadar-kai continue to serve the goddess as she seeks particular souls or knowledge.
Shadow Walker: In 4th and 5th Edition, some shadar-kai can meld into shadows and use them to reappear almost instantly at another point on the battlefield.
Shout-Out: They're consistently depicted in a manner very reminiscent of a more PG-rated version of the Cenobites from Hellraiser.
Your Days Are Numbered:
- 3E shadar-kai feel the constant pull of the Plane of Shadow on their souls, a pain that has made them vicious and cruel as they struggle against their inevitable doom.
- 4E shadar-kai know that death is inevitable; if not killed by violence, then they will inevitably die of ennui, fading away into nothing as the shadow energy consumes them from the inside out. But they accept this as the price they pay for their longevity, and strive to live life to the fullest whilst they can.

Shifter

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/636678092611992260.png

Origin: Eberron

Sometimes called "weretouched," these humanoids can "shift" into a more bestial state, gaining animalistic traits that vary by their subspecies.

Beast Man: Shifters are essentially "werebeasts lite."
Cat Girl: Razorclaw shifters can be described like this, and even have the mannerisms... assuming the table is okay with it.
Fantastic Racism: Shifters can suffer a negative reputation, due to their close relation to werebeasts. This is especially true on Eberron, which has 13 moons, resulting in werebeasts going nuts from a full moon every few days or so... and shifters can be cursed with lycanthropy like any other humanoid.
Man Bites Man: Longtooth shifters grow long, sharp fangs while transformed, letting them take nasty bites out of their enemies.
Nitro Boost: Swiftstride shifters gain a bonus to their walking speed while shifting, and can scamper away when enemies try and close with them.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: Shifters are closely related to werebeasts, but are still humanoid in their shifted state, despite their bestial traits. How they are related to werebeasts varies by edition, but they are either descended from lycanthropes who had children in human form, or it's the other way around, and lycanthropes are mutant shifters.
Partial Transformation: Their signature ability is to take on animalistic traits a few times per day, something less than a true lycanthrope's "hybrid" form, but enough to grant the shifter various bonuses.
Super-Senses: All shifters have excellent night vision, while wildhunt shifters also gain a keen sense of smell that can let them track scents like a bloodhound.
Super-Toughness: Beasthide shifters are the toughest of their ilk, gaining improved Armor Class and some temporary HP while shifted.

Simic Hybrid

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Origin: Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica

Creations of the Simic Combine of Ravnica, thse former humans, elves and vedalken have been infused with the traits of marine animals to gain various powers.

Bio-Augmentation: The Simic Combine use magic to grant traits from various animals, grafting on tentacles or fins or suckers that allow the hybrid to climb sheer surfaces, or breathe underwater and swim easily. Later, a Simic hybrid mutates futher, gaining another 1st-level option or additional grappling appendages, a shell-like carapace for extra defense, or the ability to spit acid.
Canon Immigrant: They originate in Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast's other best-selling IP.
Super-Soldier: They were intended to be as such, and it can be difficult for hybrids to find any other purpose, since rival guilds tend to distrust them as potential Simic spies.
Token Aquatic Race: Due to the influence of the merfolk over the Simic Combine, the body parts spliced into them are often those of sea creatures.
Transhuman: They were modified by magic to become something more than they started as.

Tabaxi

Origin: Forgotten Realms

Most of these feline humanoids are content to remain in their jungle homeland, but some tabaxi are driven by curiosity to explore the wider world. They seek out and collect interesting artifacts and behold the world's wonders, before returning home in their elder years to share their stories with their kin.

Cat Folk: They're human-sized bipedal felines, traditionally resembling leopards and jaguars, though Monsters of the Multiverse suggests some tabaxi might resemble tigers, oversized housecats, or even be hairless.
Cat Ninja: They make excellent Rogues and Monks with their bonus to Dexterity, climbing speed, and proficiency in Stealth, while their claws ensure they'll never be caught unarmed.
Constantly Curious: The defining trait of adventuring tabaxi is that they're imbued by the Cat Lord with a feline curiosity, compelling them to leave their homes and explore.
My Instincts Are Showing: Some suggested tabaxi quirks for 5th Edition include a phobia for water, purring when happy, giving away emotions by a swishing tail, and keeping a small ball of yarn to fidget with.
Super-Senses: They have darkvision and proficiency in Perception.
Super-Speed: 5th Edition tabaxi can use their Feline Agility trait to double their movement speed in short bursts.
Victory Is Boring: To tabaxi, objects are interesting only so long as they have secrets remaining. A tabaxi thief might spend months planning a grand heist to steal some gemstone, then afterward carefully memorize every facet of its appearance and take notes on its properties, only to then trade the thing away without a second thought.

Thri-Kreen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/88268_620_121.jpg

Origin: Monster Manual II (ADD& 1st Edition)

Ferocious, pack-hunting humanoid mantises, thri-kreen roam warm plains and deserts on an eternal search for food. Their mindset makes them inscrutable, while their latent psionic power makes them formidable.

All There in the Manual: The AD&D 2nd Edition sourcebook Thri-Kreen of Athas was and remains the biggest devoted source of material they have. That said, much of the things established in that sourcebook have never been used again, such as the kreen subraces.
Art Evolution: The kreen's appearance has become increasingly more humanoid over the editions, going from a giant mantis with humanoid limbs to a multi-armed biped with insectile aspects.
Big Creepy-Crawlies: Man-sized mantids, with perhaps a dash of grasshopper in the body-structure.
Breakout Character: Thri-kreen debuted way back in the 1st Edition Monster Manual II, but their depiction in the Dark Sun setting made them the most famous and memorable of the races of Athas, which in turn led them to make more appearances in other settings.
Chameleon Camouflage: Thri-kreen can change their coloration to blend in with their surroundings, which depending on game edition is either a natural ability or a psionic power.
Fantastic Naming Convention: In Thri-Kreen of Athas, we learn that "kreen" is the actual racial name of the mantis-folk; "thri" and "tohr" are cultural prefixes that indicate whether they are nomadic or settled in nature. Also, kreen subraces that have full-fledged nations always have names starting with a "j" (Jeral, J'ez, J'hol), whilst those who have no nations of their own have names starting with a "t" (To'ksa, T'keech, Tondi).
Gender Is No Object: Thri-kreen society treats males and females exactly alike, and they are pretty much impossible to tell apart for non-kreen. Only if a female is carrying eggs is she worth of any kind of special protection from her brethren.
Genetic Memory: Thri-kreen pass on considerable amounts of knowledge about hunting, communication and proper behavior through pure instinct, so even a thri-kreen that hatched and grew to maturity in total isolation could integrate seamlessly into thri-kreen society.
In a Single Bound: Thri-kreen have always had tremendous leaping abilities.
Insectoid Aliens: Spelljammer lore reveals that there are actually multiple planets where thri-kreen are found, and they even have their own spelljamming empire. Their possible connection to the Xixchil is unknown.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Adult thri-kreen have four arms and can fight with multiple weapons, or with four clawed hands.
Nerf: 3rd Edition seriously nerfed the thri-kreen's venomous bite compared to the previous ones. The paralysis can take a full minute to set in, and a thri-kreen character can only use it once per day.
One-Gender Race: The kreen subrace called the Tondi are an all-female species that reproduces by parthenogenesis. They can still successfully mate and produce hybrid offspring with males from other kreen subraces, but kreen have a cultural aversion to this.
The Paralyzer: In older rules, thri-kreen have a venomous bite that injects a paralyzing poison (which other thri-kreen are immune to), the effects of which depend on the bitten creature's size. Some kreen subraces have weaker or stronger venom than the standard To'ksa and Jerals.
Pink Means Feminine: The aforementioned Tondi are pink with purple highlights. Subverted in that the J'hol subrace have males and females, and are still depicted as quite pink.
Precision-Guided Boomerang: In 2nd Edition, the thri-kreen wield combat boomerangs called chatkchas. A chatkcha always returns to its thrower if it hits its target, but it won't return if it misses — this is quite possibly an error, but subsequent sourcebooks have run with it.
Promoted to Playable: The thri-kreen originated as monsters in the Shining South region of the Forgotten Realms before they were upgraded to a major playable race in the Dark Sun setting.
Psychic Powers: They're usually depicted as latent psionicists.
Punctuation Shaker: Many names and words in the kreen language are transliterated with apostrophes (To'ksa, T'keech, J'ez, J'hol, Zik-trin'ta, Zik-trin'ak...) to reflect clicking sounds made with mandibles.
Retcon:
- When they first appeared in the Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix I, Tohr-Kreen were described as an all-around superior species to Thri-Kreen, being physically and mentally superior in every single way. Then Thri-kreen of Athas retconned that original version of tohr-kreen into actually being biologically and mentally modified drones created by the Zik-chil to serve as spies on the humanoid races of the Tyr Regions and missionaries to try and civilize the thri-kreen, with their proper names being "Zik-trin'ta".
- The kreen subraces are an unusual example; they've never been explicitly retconned, they've just never been mentioned outside of the single AD&D-era Dark Sun sourcebook where they were introduced.
Short-Lived Organism: When introduced as player characters in the Dark Sun setting, thri-kreen are revealed to be adults at six and considered venerable at twenty-five (although they suffer far less penalties from aging than other races). They have an average lifespan of thirty years, although considering how harsh life on Athas is, only a rare few die of old age.
Slaying Mantis: The original thri-kreen were close to this look except for having four arms instead of a pair of pincers (and two legs instead of four), although Art Evolution over the editions had made them more and more humanoids. Thri-Kreen of Athas describes their youngsters as even closer to this upon hatching, being still quadrupedal with pincers for upper arms, before turning into prehensile hands as they grow up (along with the front pair of legs). Their Athasian primitive cousins, the Trin, are indistinguishable from giant mantises (although not winged).
The Sleepless: Thri-kreen may grow exhausted and require a period of downtime, but their minds never switch off — they cannot sleep naturally, and are immune to most sleep-inducing magic and psionics (though in some editions they can be put to sleep with specific magic, which is a traumatic experience for them). The word for "sleep" in the kreen language is quite close to the word for "death". They refer to humans and other races that need to sleep as drajna/drasna, meaning "those who sleep," and find it very difficult to relate to their bad habit of "lazily lying on the ground".
Super-Soldier: Along with the "Zik-trin'ta" scouts, who are already no slouch in a fight, the Zik-chil also have developed the "Zik-trin'ak" warriors, giant drones covered in spikes who are absolute terrors in combat.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: The one advantage that the T'keech are known to have over their kinsfolk: they're a jungle-adapted species, meaning they don't suffer from the chitin-rot and respiratory infections that plague other kreen subspecies in regions that are too humid. Of course, as they live on Athas, the only place that meets that description is the lost rainforests of the Ringing Mountains.
To Serve Man: Thri-kreen are perfectly willing to eat sapient races, and particularly relish elf flesh.
Underground Monkey: There are six different kreen subraces on Athas. There are also the non-related Trin (savage and barely sapient mantis-folk) and Zik-chil (biological engineers who may or may not be the same thing as the Xixchil of Spelljammer). As for the kreen subraces...
- The sandy yellow-tan To'ksa and Jerals are extremely similar, with only abdomen size and shape, hand structure, antennae length, neck length and the positioning of breathing holes indicating which are which. The to'ksa are hardy but more savage and feral, the "iconic thri-kreen", whilst Jerals are comparatively frailer but smarter and more civilized, the "iconic tohr-kreen". They are the only subraces with official stats.
- J'ez are intelligent but warlike and aggressive black-colored kreen with extremely distinctive circular mouthparts full of fangs. They serve the tohr-kreen nations as philosophers and generals with equal aplomb.
- J'hol are adapted for life in mountains and rocky badlands, and have the most humanoid appearance of any kreen subrace.
- T'keech are green kreen adapted for life in comparatively lush environments, which restricts them in the present day to oases.
- Tondi are an all-female kreen subrace based on Orchid Mantids, whose elaborately spiky physiology lets them imitate ohi flowers or outcroppings of rock crystal.
Women Are Wiser: The all-female Tondi are known to have a deep, instinctive appreciation for nature, leading many to become herbalists or even full-fledged druids.

Tortle

Origin: Mystara

Turtle-like humanoids who wander the world to partake in its wonders, well-protected by their sturdy natural armor.

Absurdly Sharp Claws: Tortles have a set of claws that they can use as a natural weapon.
Defend Command: A tortle can withdraw into their shell to gain an even higher Armor Class and a bonus to saving throws, but while doing so they're immobilized, prone, and can take no other action but emerge from their shell.
Evil Counterpart: While most tortles are good, their primitive marine relatives, known as "snappers," are ill-tempered beings who attack other creatures they encounter with their vicious beaks.
Necessary Drawback: Their sturdy shells give them a natural Armor Class that's equivalent to splint mail, but ensures that tortles can't wear any sort of armor.
Portmanteau: Tortle is a mashup of tortoise and turtle.
Virgin Power: Most tortles mate once in their lives, after which they invariably die within a year. But the ones who don't mate can live to be extremely old, with little loss of vitality.
We Are as Mayflies: Unlike real-life turtles and tortoises, most tortles have very short lifespans, averaging 50 years.
Wise Old Turtle: Tortles are known as thinkers, who might ponder a question for longer than most before answering.

Triton

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Aquatic humanoids who are proud to defend the ocean depths from evil.

Amazing Technicolor Population: They rarely have normal human flesh tones, being a pale silvery-blue in 2E, then fully blue-skinned and green-haired in 5E.
Art Evolution: In 2E they're depicted as otherwise human, save for their flipper feet, while 3rd Edition extends their scaly, finned bits up to their torsos, making each of a triton's legs resemble a merfolk's tail (and giving them a miserable 5-foot land speed). Their 5E design is as Apparently Human Merfolk with webbed digits and fins on their calves as the only signs of their aquatic heritage.
Blow You Away: They can cast Gust of Wind once they reach level 3.
Dimensional Traveler: They're originally from the Elemental Plane of Water, where they drove many evil sea creatures into the Darkened Depths. Eventually the tritons realized their old enemies were escaping into the waters of the Material Plane, and so their sense of honor demanded that they follow and destroy those foes before they threatened others.
Enemy Summoner: Tritons can call in marine animals as reinforcements. In AD&D this is explicitly non-magical, the animals arriving a few turns after a triton blows a conch shell, while 3rd Edition just gives tritons the summon nature's ally spell.
Good is Not Nice: While tritons are staunch opponents of evil sea creatures, they're often haughty about their role as the oceans' defenders, and assume that surface-dwellers recognize their debt to the tritons.
Captain Brego Stoneheart: Ah, the tritons. Imagine if the elves spent a few centuries far beneath the sea, where their arrogance and pretension could grow undisturbed. At least the tritons spent that time fighting sahuagin and worse, so you know you can count on them in a fight.
Heavy Worlder: Accustomed as they are to the crushing pressure of the deep sea, they get racial bonuses to Strength and resistance to cold damage.
Making a Splash: They learn several water-based spells as racial abilities.
Our Mermaids Are Different: They're cousins to the "normal" merfolk, though their 5th Edition incarnation is far better suited for adventuring out of the water.
Prongs of Poseidon: Unsurprisingly, they favor tridents in combat.
Small Name, Big Ego: They're legitimate defenders of the depths from sahuagin and kraken and other horrible things with fins, but because it happens so far down surface races have no idea they exist, and so they're thought of as blowhards above water.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Downplayed; tritons can communicate simple ideas with sea creatures, though they have no innate ability to understand them in turn.
Token Aquatic Race: They're one of the best-suited aquatic races for adventures beyond the water, as they're fully amphibious and don't need to regularly return to the sea to sustain themselves.

Vedalken

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/390911519d750db9f3abaf9750fa413d.jpg

Origin: Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica

A partially-amphibious race of humanoids, vedalken are reserved, coolly rational, and careful as they pursue perfection.

Amazing Technicolor Population: Vedalken have blue skin.
Canon Immigrant: They originate in Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast's other best-selling IP.
Perfection Is Impossible: A core tenet of vedalken philosophy. Vedalken know that nothing can be perfect, but revel in that, because it means that they can continue the search for perfection forever.
The Smart Guy: Vedalken are curious, rational beings who believe in the importance of education, giving them a racial bonus to Intelligence, as well as an extra skill and tool proficiency.
The Stoic: Though not dispassionate, they are an emotionally guarded people who keep their personal lives private, prefer to engage with ideas rather than people, and favor a logical approach to any crisis. This also gives vedalken advantage on "mental" saving throws.
Super Not-Drowning Skills: Downplayed; vedalken are partially amphibious, and can breathe underwater for up to an hour each day.

Verdan

Origin: Acquisitions Incorporated

A very young goblinoid subrace, verdan are touched by the power of entropy and constantly mutate over their lives. They are defenders of diversity and freedom who travel the world in search of new experiences.

Blank Slate: Their transformation by That-Which-Endures cost the verdan their memory of their past lives, so the verdan don't have a racial history or culture. While this can lead some people to view verdan as trustworthy and humble, others see them as innocent or gullible.
Our Goblins Are Different: They were originally goblins and hobgoblins, until That-Which-Endures turned them into something new.
Perpetually Protean: Downplayed; as they age, verdan undergo random physical changes, from the size and shape to their ears to their skin tone to their biological sex. The only constant is that at some point during adulthood, a verdan shoots up in size from a goblin to hobgoblin in a matter of days.
Telepathy: Theirs is limited, communicating simple ideas with another creature at short range.
Wandering Culture: Lacking their own culture, verdan constantly travel to experience other societies, adopting local customs and even names, then sharing what they've learned with other verdan.

Warforged

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Origin: Eberron

Living constructs created to be soldiers, the warforged unexpectedly developed sapience and free will, allowing them to seek meaning in their lives beyond fighting others' battles.

24-Hour Armor: Warforged can't wear armor like other races, instead they can spend an hour incorporating it into their own frames, after which the armor can't be removed against the warforged's will.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Zig-zagged. Most warforged want to lead a peaceful, constructive, fulfilling life alongside their organic fellows, and are no more prone to evil than a human or elf is, though Eberron's Lord of Blades and his followers are a Reconstruction, being based more on Hitler than Skynet.
Breakout Character: The warforged are the most famous and iconic of Eberron's unique races, and shortly after the setting's debut, they (along with the changelings and shifters) were reprinted in the generic Monster Manual III, and later reappeared in 4th Edition Monster Manuals.
Creating Life Is Unforeseen: In their home setting, the warforged spontaneously developed sapience after one of their creators' breakthroughs. Said creators, the artificer House Cannith, were a bit dismayed that their creations developed free will and gained citizens' rights.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Now that they have the option to actually exercise their free will, the warforged seek a way to make their lives significant. Naturally, this makes them ideal adventurers.
Dumb Muscle: Warforged chargers are a Large, gorilla-like predecessor of standard warforged, and are much stronger but less intelligent and adaptable than their successors.
Magitek: Their entire race is the product of industrial-scale magic to create artificial soldiers.
Mechanical Lifeform: Warforged are beings of steel, soft wooden "muscle," and stone "bones," who were introduced as "living constructs," giving them a blend of humanoid and construct traits. Unlike constructs, they can benefit from healing magic, resting and medicine, but unlike living creatures, they don't need to eat, breathe or sleep, are immune to disease and resistant to poison. They still need to rest, however, entering an inactive state for six hours, during which they are inert but still conscious. Finally, warforged explicitly have souls, and can be resurrected like any other humanoid.
No Biological Sex: Most warforged have sexless body shapes, and while some have adopted a gender identity, others ignore the concept entirely.
Religious Robot: Warforged can worship the same gods as any other race, and there’s nothing stopping one from becoming a Cleric or Paladin. One cult in their home setting, the followers of The Becoming God, are even building their own patron deity.
Robot Wizard: Similarly, they can learn to master arcane magic as a Sorcerer, Wizard or Warlock.
Sneaky Spy Species: Warforged scouts are a Small warforged variant that was explicitly designed for recon and spy work, though they remain uncommon as they actually provide few benefits over conventional humanoid scouts.

Yuan-ti Pureblood

The most human-looking of the yuan-ti and thus the lowest caste, purebloods serve as expendable minions in their temple-cities, but their appearance makes them valuable infiltrators and go-betweens for their more serpentine superiors. Since most tropes relevant to them are common to the yuan-ti as a whole, see the "Yuan-ti" creature entry for more details.

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