One D&D Character Races (Part 1)

I’ve been seeing a lot about the new Unearthed Arcana and the associated announcement of One D&D and want to explore what changes are being made.

One D&D

My understanding of what they are trying to do with the fantasy races is make sure that any crunch associated with each race is something that a member of that race would have even if they were raised by a different race and/or outside of the culture typically associated with that fantasy race.

This lets them do a few things:

• Under the theme of One D&D, a halfling in Forgotten Realms shares the overwhelming majority if not all of the same traits as a halfling in Eberron or Dark Sun. It’s less to remember as one shifts between settings, which is potentially even easier now with The Radiant Citadel and Spelljammer.
• It moves further away from some of the problematic elements of fantasy races, the ones that felt more like eugenics and racist/sexist psuedoscience than objective descriptions of fantasy races. Applying ability score changes based on fantasy race often reminded me of the attempts to measure skull shapes and the like between real world human races.
• Allows for so much more variation in characters and makes one’s background at least as important, if not more so, to character creation. The delineation appears to be if it’s something innate, it’s in the fantasy race description, and if it’s something that one learns, it’s based on your background, what you did and the culture you were around. This incorporates the reality that there is often more differences within a group than the differences between groups.
• With character race no longer defining ability scores, multi-race characters can be simplified. Just decide which parent race’s traits most defines you instead of trying to create full fantasy races for each pairing. We no longer have to pick between half elves being reviled or great at diplomacy and we can sidestep the traditional history connected to half orcs.

A few more things I noticed as I compared the Players Handbook version of each fantasy race with the Unearthed Arcana one:

• Not sure if because it’s not important in this round, but they removed the age of maturity in the switch from “Age” to “Life Span.” This could make sense as age of maturity is a cultural thing; not something innate.
• They also removed weight from “Size.” There can just be so much variation within each group, including weight never made much sense to me.
• They simplified speed. Instead of being tied to size, the base rate is 30 feet for all characters in this document. Now this could be a change that was actually made in one of the books after the Players Handbook, I haven’t kept up with the minutia of each book.

With all that, let’s look at what the changes actually entail. For this article, we’ll look at the key fantasy races of Dwarf, Halfling, Elf, and Human. We’ll look at Dragonborn, Gnome, Orc, and Tiefling in the next article.

Dwarf

Players Handbook	Unearthed Arcana
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.	—
Age. Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they’re considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.	Life Span: 350 years on average
Size. Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.	Size: Medium (about 4–5 feet tall)
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.	Speed: 30 feet
Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.	Darkvision. You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
Dwarven Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage (explained in chapter 9, “Combat”).	Dwarven Resilience. You have Resistance to Poison Damage. You also have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Poisoned Condition on yourself.
Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer.	—
Tool Proficiency. You gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools.	Forge Wise. Your divine creator gave you an uncanny affinity for working with stone or metal. You gain Tool Proficiency* with two of the following options of your choice: Jeweler’s Tools, Mason’s Tools, Smith’s Tools, or Tinker’s Tools.
Stonecunning. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus	Stonecunning. As a Bonus Action, you gain Tremorsense* with a range of 60 feet for 10 minutes. You must be on a stone surface or touching such a surface to use this Tremorsense. The stone can be natural or worked. You can use this Bonus Action a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.*
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.	—
— (Originally part of just hill dwarf)	Dwarven Toughness. Your Hit Point Maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level.

Key changes for Dwarves:

• The new version of the race has a couple of items that feel like they could be part of background/culture such as Forge Wise (which gives a tool proficiency) and Stonecunning (now the granting of tremorsense), but the description of Forge Wise lays the groundwork for it being innate. In this case, the character’s divine creator gifted the Dwarf race “an uncanny affinity for working with stone or metal.” Thus a narrative justification for it being innate and making a statement about the nature of dwarves.
• There are no separate classifications of Dwarf such as Hill and Mountain as in the Players Handbook. This could signify a go forward change or it could be that they want more time to figure out what makes those sub races key. The reason I say that is both Mountain Dwarf abilities are tied to things that should likely be part of culture/background (a strength ability score increase and the armor training) and one of the two items for Hill Dwarf was incorporated into the main race description (with the other being the ability score bump).
• May just be me, but Tremorsense is way cooler than a history check as something iconic to a Dwarf. It helps with the “dwarfiest dwarf” goal.

Elf

Players Handbook	Unearthed Arcana
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.	—
Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.	Life Span: 750 years on average
Size. Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.	Size: Medium (about 5–6 feet tall)
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.	Speed: 30 feet
Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.	Darkvision. You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.	Keen Senses. You have Proficiency in the Perception Skill.
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.	Fey Ancestry. You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Charmed Condition on yourself.
Trance. Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.	Trance. You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep. You can finish a Long Rest* in 4 hours if you spend those hours in a trancelike meditation, during which you retain consciousness.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.	—

Subraces

Drow

Players Handbook	Unearthed Arcana
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 1.	—
Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.	The range of your Darkvision increases to 120 feet.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.	—
Drow Magic. You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the faerie fire spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.	ou also know the Dancing Lights cantrip 3rd level: Faerie Fire 5th level: Darkness
Drow Weapon Training. You have proficiency with rapiers, shortswords, and hand crossbows.	—

High Elf

Players Handbook	Unearthed Arcana
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.	—
Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.	—
Cantrip. You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.	You know the Prestidigitation cantrip. Whenever you finish a Long Rest,* you can replace that cantrip with a different cantrip from the Arcane Spell List.* 3rd Level: Detect Magic 5th Level: Misty Step
Extra Language. You can speak, read, and write one extra language of your choice.	—

Wood Elf

Players Handbook	Unearthed Arcana
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.	—
Fleet of Foot. Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.	Your Speed increases to 35 feet.
Mask of the Wild. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.	You also know the Druidcraft cantrip. 3rd Level: Longstrider 5th Level:Pass without Trace

Key Changes:

• Most of the changes to the base fantasy race are to remove things that belong in backgrounds now and to restructure some details (such as moving “magic cannot put you to sleep” from “Fey Ancestry” to “Trance”
• The key changes are in the lineages, streamlining them so each lineage gets a minor trait and a first level cantrip and then spells at 3rd and 5th level.

Halfling

Lucky. When you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Players Handbook	Unearthed Arcana
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.	—
Age. A halfling reaches adulthood at the age of 20 and generally lives into the middle of his or her second century.	Life Span: 150 years on average
Size. Halflings average about 3 feet tall and weigh about 40 pounds. Your size is Small.	Size: Small (about 2–3 feet tall)
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.	Speed: 30 feet
Luck. When you roll a 1 on the d20 of a d20 Test,* you can reroll the die, and you must use the new roll.
Brave. You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.	Brave. You have Advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the Frightened Condition on yourself.
Halfling Nimbleness. You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.	Halfling Nimbleness. You can move through the space of any creature that is of a Size larger than yours, but you can’t stop there.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Halfling. The Halfling language isn’t secret, but halflings are loath to share it with others. They write very little, so they don’t have a rich body of literature. Their oral tradition, however, is very strong. Almost all halflings speak Common to converse with the people in whose lands they dwell or through which they are traveling.	—
—	Naturally Stealthy. You have Proficiency in the Stealth Skill.

Key Changes

• As with the Dwarves, the subraces of halfling have been removed and one of the traits of one of the subraces became part of the main fantasy race, in this case “Naturally Stealthy” from the “Lightfoot” sub race.
• Here is the first use in this document of a new term, “d20 Test.” This term defines certain d20 die rolls where inspiration points and luck may be used.

Human

Players Handbook	Unearthed Arcana
Ability Score Increase. Your ability scores each increase by 1.	—
Age. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.	80 years on average
Size. Humans vary widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Regardless of your position in that range, your size is Medium.	Size: Medium (about 4–7 feet tall) or Small (about 2–4 feet tall), chosen when you select this Race
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.	Speed: 30 feet
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. Humans typically learn the languages of other peoples they deal with, including obscure dialects. They are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elvish musical expressions, Dwarvish military phrases, and so on.	—
—	Resourceful. You gain Inspiration* whenever you finish a Long Rest.*
— (Matches variant rules in PHB)	Skillful. You gain Proficiency in one Skill of your choice.
— (Matches variant rules in PHB)	Versatile. You gain the Skilled Feat or another 1st-level Feat of your choice

Key Changes

• Giving an average life span for humans of 80 years is interesting. It keeps the maximum lifespan a mystery which could be nice for some characters (in our real world, we have humans who live past 110 years for instance). It also counteracts a lot of the assumptions about the world where folks want to apply a medieval life span of something like 40 years.
• I believe the ability to pick a different size than medium has been around for a bit now but again, makes total sense to include as we have real life humans who are under 4 feet tall. I’m wondering if this is part of the reason for the change to a base speed of 30 for most fantasy races, rather than having it based on size.
• Adding a link to inspiration as part of a human trait might signal trying to incorporate it more in the game. It’s been a while but I feel like inspiration was often seen as a bolt on system that folks might or might not use.
• Adding the two variant traits to the base race is really nice because it signifies more clearly the versatility and skillfulness of humans, rather than just bumping ability scores which might not have much if any affect, at least for early levels.

Thoughts so Far

I’m enjoying this restructuring of the core fantasy races and the intentionality around separating what is innate about a character versus what is more about life experience. I like that the non-human races all have a bit of magic to them. This should also help the races seem more distinct.

I also get why they can’t just get rid of races entirely. They were core to the start of D&D and are something that most players are expecting when they play.