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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Dark Sun 5e - Races of Athas



Draedra
2019-02-21, 12:34 AM
I have been slowly but steadily working on a homebrew carryover of 2nd, 3.5's (and to a lesser extent, 4th's) Dark Sun setting to 5th. I'll be working on the different aspects of the brew in the order that they are relevant to character creation, as I think that will be the best way to set the foundation for the next logical step.

Starting with the races, I wanted to highlight just how these various races have adapted to the harsh environment they call home. One of the biggest challenges of adventuring on Athas isn't the monsters, but rather having to face the environment. Encounters moreso serve the role of pushing the players into the desperate situation of having to worry about the desert. The races all have their own ways of dealing with the various dangers of desert living and travel, but none of them are really foolproof.

We'll begin with the fully homebrewed races, and move on to the base game races that have been modified.

Note: Having flight from level 1 seems a bit busted. The Claustrophobic trait is hoping to balance this factor a little.
- +2 Wis, +1 Dex
- Medium Size.
- 20ft walking speed, 50ft flying speed.
~ Can fly for a number of hours equal to Con mod (min 1) before you must make a saving throw as though against a forced march. While flying this way, you cannot end your turn in the air if you have any levels of exhaustion.
- Mountainborn: Acclimated to high altitudes. Naturally adapted to colder climates.
- Keen Eyes: Proficient in Perception. Advantage on Perception checks made in broad daylight.
- Talons: Can choose to deal 1d4 slashing damage when you make an unarmed strike.
- Claustrophobic. When in an enclosed space of 15 feet or less on both sides, you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
- You can speak Common, and one regional language of your choice.

Note: I couldn't find any way to balance the multiple limbs in a meaningful way, so as a trait it is scrapped. They still have four arms, but they don't serve any purpose outside of fluff.
- +2 Dex, +1 Con
- Medium Size
- 35ft walking speed.
- Darkvision out to 60ft.
- Standing Leap: You have a +20 bonus to your Strength score for the purposes of determining your jumping distance. Furthermore, so long as you are on your feet, you are always considered to have a running start to perform either a long jump or a high jump.
- Insectile Carapace: So long as you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can still use a shield and benefit from this feature.
- Sleepless: You do not need to sleep, and you can’t be forced to sleep by any means. To gain the benefits of a long rest, you can spend all 8 hours doing light activity.
- Arid Adaptation: Your daily water needs are half of what they normally would be. However, each hour you are in a humid area, you must make a Constitution saving throw (DC = 10 + how many hours you have been there), or gain a level of exhaustion. This exhaustion level does not go away until you take a long rest in a dry environment.
- You can speak Kreen, and one other language of your choice.

These are the races which are adaptations on the races in the base game.

Note: This is essentially the Goliath, with one major difference.
- +2 Str, +1 Con
- Medium Size
- 30ft walking speed.
- Darkvision out to 60ft.
- Dwarven Blood: For all purposes related to race, you are considered to be a Dwarf.
- Natural Athlete: Proficient in Athletics.
- Tireless: You need only sleep once every 72 hours rather than 24. You also have advantage on Constitution saves against effects that would give you a level of exhaustion. This trait replaces the Powerful Build and Mountainborn traits of the Goliath.
- Stone’s Endurance: Whenever you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll 1d12 and add your Constitution modifier. You reduce the damage by that amount. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or a long rest.
- You can speak Common, and your choice of a regional language, or Dwarven.

Note: This is somewhere I am very shaky on the power level. Some heritages seem much better than others, and I am open to suggestions. I want to step away from the base Dragonborn just having a resistance and a breath.
- +2 Str, +1 Cha
- Medium Size
- 30ft walking speed.
- Drake Ancestry: Choose one of the drake types from the options below. Your choice determines your other racial traits. If you have a breath weapon option, use the rules from the Dragonborn race in the Player’s Handbook.
~ Air: You have resistance to damage taken from falling. You have a breath weapon, which is a blast of howling wind in a 30ft line, dealing thunder damage (Dex). Creatures struck by this breath weapon which failed their saving throws are also pushed up to 10ft away from you.
~ Water: You do not need to drink water, and have a swimming speed of 30ft. You have a breath weapon, which is a cloud of caustic steam in a 15ft cone, dealing acid damage (Dex).
~ Earth: If an effect would force you to move, you may choose to halve that distance. Once per long rest, you can automatically end the stunned condition on yourself by ending your turn.
~ Fire: You have resistance to fire damage. You have a breath weapon, which is a sudden exhalation of shimmering, scalding air in a 15ft cone, dealing your choice of fire or necrotic damage (Con).
~ Rain: You have resistance to cold, lightning, and thunder damage. You have advantage on Survival checks made to predict the weather.
~ Magma: You have resistance to fire damage. If you are hit with a melee attack, you may use your reaction to force the attacker to make a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + your Con mod + your proficiency bonus), dealing fire damage equal to your level to them on a failed save.
~ Sun: You have resistance to radiant damage. You have a breath weapon, which is a searing bolt of light in a 30ft line, dealing radiant damage (Dex). Creatures which fail their saving throw must also make a Constitution save against the same DC, or be blinded until the end of your next turn.
~ Silt: You have resistance to poison damage, damage from sandstorms, and gain darkvision out to 60ft. You automatically succeed on saving throws against sand or silt suffocating you, and sandstorms or similar weather do not hamper your vision.
- You can speak Common, and your choice of Draconic or Primordial.

Use the statistics of the Dwarf in the Player’s Handbook, with the following changes:
- Dwarven Focus: When you finish a long rest, you choose one type of tools that you are proficient with, or the History skill. You double your proficiency bonus with all checks that involve the use of those tools or that skill until you take another long rest. This replaces the Stonecunning racial trait in the Player’s Handbook.

Use the statistics of the Elf in the Player’s Handbook, with the following changes:
- You cannot choose the Drow subrace.
- Temperature Resistance: You have advantage on saving throws against extreme heat or cold. This replaces the Fey Ancestry racial trait in the Player’s Handbook.
- Elf Run (Wood Elf): You have advantage on Constitution saves against taking a forced march. When taking a forced march, you can ignore your food, water, and sleep needs. When you end your forced march and chose to ignore any of those three, make another Constitution save against your last DC, or gain an additional level of exhaustion. This replaces the Mask of the Wild racial trait in the Player’s Handbook.
- Psionics (High Elf): You know the message cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the detect thoughts spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the fear spell once per day. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells. This replaces the Cantrip racial trait in the Player’s Handbook.

Halflings are considered to be a 'bad guy' race in the Dark Sun setting. They are not generally playable. If you do play a Halfling, use the traits as described in the Player’s Handbook, with the following changes:
- You cannot choose the Lightfoot subrace.
- The Stout subrace gets a +1 to Wisdom rather than Constitution.
- Halfling Senses: You are proficient in the Perception and Survival skills. This replaces the Brave racial trait in the Player’s Handbook.
- Mask of the Wild: You can attempt to hide even when only obscured by natural phenomena. This replaces the Lucky racial trait in the Player’s Handbook.
- Halfling Stomach: You can eat the meat of intelligent races and not suffer any adverse effects. You have advantage on Constitution saves made against getting sick from eating raw meat.

Use the statistics of the Half Elf in the Player’s Handbook with the following changes:
- +2 Dexterity, +1 to two abilities of your choice. This replaces the standard ability score increases of the Half Elf in the Player’s Handbook.
- Elven Blood: For all purposes related to race, you are considered to be an elf.
- Racial Ambiguity: You have advantage on Deception checks to appear as either a human or an elf. This replaces the Fey Ancestry racial trait described in the Player’s Handbook.

Lastly, does anyone have any ideas for Tieflings? I'm wanting some idea which divorces them from being extraplanar in nature, and rather being an 'elemental' kind of race. My initial concept was to have them be 'silt-swimmers', but looking back on it, I'm not especially a fan.

daemonaetea
2019-02-21, 10:13 PM
Overall I like it all. I just have one observation, and one idea.

The observation is there's a lot of options you've made that negate environmental problems inherent to the setting. I'd be cautious about that, as if too many people in the party take those options it could limit some of the creative space you might have been hoping to explore. Like survival aspects might be limited if it's too simple for the party to survive.

The idea was for the Thri-Kreen. To represent the arms, how about just letting them use all of them in general? Like, they can hold four weapons, but they still only have the basic attack rules. So the only person that'd ever be able to use all of them on a single turn would be a high level fighter. The only think I can think of to be concerned about would be two handing a weapon with two of them, and holding a shield with a third. Which... I think is fine, for something like a longsword, but might be a step too far for a greatsword. So maybe a limitation - given their many limbs, each limb is individually weaker than a normal creature of their size. Thus they can only use a Heavy weapon if that's all their carrying. Otherwise they can carry whatever they want in each of their four hands - as long as they follow the normal rules for using them. For maximal fun as a player, I'd just draw a different weapon every round (again, following standard 5E rules for drawing weapons) so that by the end of the combat I'm holding a longsword for up close in one hand, a polearm for reach in a couple of others, and a hand crossbow in the fourth for taking potshots at foes in between melees.

The Cats
2019-02-21, 11:12 PM
Fly speed: OP in open spaces
Claustrophobia: Garbage everywhere else

The fly speed doesn't need to be 'balanced' like this. It needs to be nerfed. All this does is change it from a character who might overshadow the party and annoy the DM half the time, to one who still does that but also sucks horribly the other half of the time.

Draedra
2019-02-23, 12:29 AM
Fly speed: OP in open spaces
Claustrophobia: Garbage everywhere else

The fly speed doesn't need to be 'balanced' like this. It needs to be nerfed. All this does is change it from a character who might overshadow the party and annoy the DM half the time, to one who still does that but also sucks horribly the other half of the time.
It's possible to lock flight behind a level requirement. Maybe 5, seeing as that is when players would have access to the fly spell anyway. Until that point, the Aarakocra would be either unable to end their turn in the air, or perhaps would only be able to glide.
Another possibility is to make it so that if an Aarakocra (or any other flying creature for that matter) takes damage, they would need to make a Con save or fall, not unlike maintaining concentration on a spell.
If you have any other ideas, feel free to offer! I'm not entirely confident on how to iron out the mechanics. Perhaps the Claustrophobia trait should be reduced to just fluff, and not mechanically important.