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Monster Player Races (5e)

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If you miss the options of creating characters using races from the Monster Manual, this publication is for you. Whether you want more options for your evil campaign or just to give your characters and party more flavor, you will find a myriad of options to help you do that. Within these pages are over 70 selected monsters that have been modified from the D&D Monster Manual for 5th edition in an attempt to create usable character races that are balanced, or nearly balanced, with the standard races, while keeping the core of what makes each of these creatures interesting.

The races have not all been thoroughly play tested, due to the sheer number of them. In light of that, feel free to comment on aspects that might unbalance certain races and watch for updates as time goes on.

Last Update 2/27/2017

Complete formating overhall. Created groups by race characteristics. Modified abilities for consitency throughout. Added Dragon breath weapon recharge ability. Fixed typos and grammer errors.

Other titles from this author can be found here.

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Luc C May 10, 2017 6:34 am UTC
PURCHASER
There are tons of races that just can't be made into races. Marrilith for exemple would be an evolving races.
first of all being large sized means you do literally 1d4 more damage on every attacks (Read spell Enlarge/reduce) the monster manual literally add another die of damage to the sizes of the monsters. meaning because she is large she does 2d8 instead of 1d8. so giving that to a player is just not right at low level. nobody will want to play a medium creature anymore.

my second problem is all the resistances you give out, even if its non-magical only means at lower level, the character will litrally be unkillable. and some characters are already hard to kill as it is. aka Druids.

the best exemple of a marillith that becomes way too unkillable at low levels is the ability to just pump out dexterity based fighter and have it be fully armored with a whooping plate(18)+shield(2)+dexterity(5) and the ability to do that parry dexterity boost up to 5 times a round which is to say,...See more
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Matthew S May 10, 2017 4:08 pm UTC
CREATOR
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Matthew S May 10, 2017 11:09 pm UTC
CREATOR
It appears that my comment has gone blank for some reason, probably because it was made using my phone (mobile compatibility is something they are still working on), so let me try again.
I appreciate your comment. You bring up several good points, but you also seem to make a few based either on home rules or on a misunderstanding of the standard rules. I will take your points in order:
Your first point seems to imply that you think that there needs to be additional size adjustment for large characters that was not specified (either by applying the wording of the enlarge spell or from some unwritten rule you get from the monster manual). This is not the case. This version of D&D has very specifically removed size adjustments from the rules to make things simpler, otherwise you would also be adjusting gnomes for their small size, which you don’t. If it were this way it would be clearly noted.
The resistances point is something I have been looking at to try to bring that further into balance,...See more
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Luc C May 19, 2017 12:32 am UTC
PURCHASER
if you can't even reverse engineer a monster then why are you even trying to implement stuff ?
look at all monsters that are medium sized... all only have 1 dice of the weapon damage die. look at all creature with large size, they all have 2 dices, look at huge monsters, they all have 3 dices. look at gargantuan monsters they all do 4 damage dice. this is basic reverse engineering. now why did i refer to the enlarge spell. because thats exactly what the enlarge spell does. it gives you more damage as your weapon enlarges. the only difference is that they make it a full damage dice since they are monsters instead of the players. so instead of havinbg it be a d4 added to it they made it into a full damage dice.

now think about it, you give your players literally double enlarge spell right from beginning, and then allow them to be enlarged again by casting the spell ? so thats literally a lot of damage. what you actually wanted was to say that large, huge, gargantuan creature doesn't mean squat...See more
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Matthew S May 20, 2017 12:12 pm UTC
CREATOR
I'm sorry you feel that you need to add this extra rule, but doing so goes directly against the goal of this document. It is not the purpose to make the races as powerful as they are in the monster manual.
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Luc C June 12, 2017 12:32 pm UTC
PURCHASER
its not extra rules man, its called reverse engineering. but as i said if you can't understand that much then fine by me.
how else do you explain the fact that monsters gains high dice per rounds without any extra abilities saying it ?
say for exemple... the deva as angelic weapons which does add damage and it is specified... but a tarrasque... it deals 4 dice of damage and no ability explains why ?
many people say, random numbers they gave for the sake of it... answer from wizxard themselves... there is no random number add, they all have reasons to be there. so let's reverse engineer the god damn thing. and you realise that dices seems to go up when sizes changes. easy to do reverse engineering.

they also have class features, thats even explained int he monster manual itself. Extra attack is literally a class feature.
so by giving it to a race. it means that race will get nothing from the class at the level it should get it. because it can't be stacking, also explained in...See more
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Matthew S June 12, 2017 4:37 pm UTC
CREATOR
Again, I'm sorry you feel that that is something that must be included, in spite of exceptions like the physical attacks of dragons. I realize you are angry and want something to argue about, but I don't intend to do so with you.
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Luc C June 14, 2017 11:26 am UTC
PURCHASER
if i was angry you'd see only a bunch of insults every lines, here i'm not even insulting you at all. and im sorry if thats what you understand. its true that reading intent is totally impossible when reading stuff unless it is explicitly written as is. all i'm saying is that you add class features to the races and those class features shouldn'T be added at all. but somehow you seem to think class features do not exists in the books. you also seem to think WotC when creating stuff didn't follow a strict guide as to how to create such monsters or races. while the DMG totally explains the way they created monsters and races.

the one thing i hate the most is people passing their false knowledge of company creating stuff up without having any templates or any programs to create stuff.
all the companies have stuff created just for the sake of helping them creating stuff later on. the DMG explains those rules they had in creation, yet most of the races you created, while not entirely gamebreaking,...See more
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Matthew S June 15, 2017 4:39 pm UTC
CREATOR
I am planning on making a number of changes, including some based on the earlier comments you made. I'm just not going to make changes based on unwritten rules you feel must apply, especially for a player race when the rules seem to apply to creatures in the monster manual specifically, not player races.
Just so you know, your most recent comment just shows you haven't really read any of it. At this point, and in every previous iteration, the marilith as a race does not get 6 attacks, no matter how you slice it. All other extra attacks given to other races are really just letting them use one specific natural weapon for a slightly enhanced version of two weapon fighting.
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Luc C July 10, 2017 5:54 am UTC
PURCHASER
again you say i dont read the book or even looked at it, which is wrong, i looked at your book, and read and reread the monster manual and DMG a ton because i just love making monsters or players homebrew stuff. i even read the sage advice column which has a ton of insight into how they develop those things. and all i've said up to this point is entirely in those things i just menitonned and those things are all official rulings. when it comes to cmonsters jeremy crawford said it himself, there are class features in there, those whould be left out when reversing monster levels (CR) Extra attack is a class feature. so again it should never be given to a race. as it simply discard other classes features. like fighter, barbarian, paladins and monks. even the classes that gets it in archetypes all gets it higher then level 4. 5 or 6. the only class that gets it before that is cleric of war. because they gain it first level there is tons of restrictions on it. limited in use and uses bonus actions. as for creatures...See more
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Matthew S July 10, 2017 4:47 pm UTC
CREATOR
I was referring to the iterations of this document, not D&D editions.
With your extra damage point, you are still missing the part were that is specifically tied to a creature's CR rating, which has nothing to do with a player race. Two different things. (Again you can simply look at dragons in the Monster Manual to see that the number of dice does not always follow the creature's size, though there almost always is a correlation between size and CR rating).
Your wolfman example, doesn't really make any sense, because aside from the merilith all other 'extra attacks' use a bonus action and thus your example would either require the use of two full actions or two bonus actions, both of which only one is allowed in a round.
As a case in point, in Volo's Guide to Monsters, the Lizardfolk race can make an extra attack with a Hungry Jaws attack. Racial features often are very similar to class features, they will just come with major limitations compared to the the class version (such as reduced...See more
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Shredder . April 20, 2017 3:04 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Does the bonus attack trait let you add your ability modifier or does it follow the two weapon fighting rules?
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Matthew S April 20, 2017 3:46 pm UTC
CREATOR
That is a very good question that required me to look back at how the rules for two weapon fighting are written. I also should have been explicit about in the description as to whether it followed those rules or not. Originally I would have thought it would have used the modifier for a XXX attack as a bonus action, because it isn't your off hand. However, I found that no such language as main hand or off hand are used in the rules, so I would say the bonus action would need to follow the rules of two weapon fighting and not gain the modifier, unless it is negative. I will be sure to include such language in the next update to ensure it is clear that a bonus attack follows the two weapon fighting rules.
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Matthew S April 20, 2017 3:49 pm UTC
CREATOR
Apparently b.i.t.e is censored. This is what the XXX should read.
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Shredder . April 20, 2017 4:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
yeah i figured, I've run into the same thing with that word. I think you should make it so that bonus attack does use the modifier. Otherwise there would be no reason to use it over other natural weapons if you have any, as the beginning of the book states that natural weapons have the light property and they usually do more damage. Also some creatures with sunlight sensitivity like the dridder and kuo-toa only have 60 ft of darkvision when in the monster manual they have 120 ft darkvision. Finally there's a race called Muconid is that supposed to be Myconid?
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Matthew S April 20, 2017 9:15 pm UTC
CREATOR
That is a very fair argument in favor of using the modifiers in the bonus attacks. I do think I like the idea of using them, but I'll have to look further into it before deciding completely on that.
The darkvision limit is the result of one of standard limits I had decided on to aid in bringing these races toward balance with the standard races. I understand that having light sensitivity would mean that they would rely more on darkvision, but I will have to look at individual creatures to decide if the added range would bring things too far out of balance.
Thanks for pointing out the typo, yes it should be Myconid.
Customer avatar
Shredder . April 19, 2017 1:01 am UTC
PURCHASER
do the weapons use ability modifiers? if they do the modifier used should be listed.
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Matthew S April 19, 2017 2:52 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks for the question. Yes, they would use your ability modifiers in exactly the same way as normal weapon attacks.
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January 29, 2017 5:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you for creating this great resource! As a DM, this is invaluable for my purposes. I love having/providing options beyond the usual fair. This no doubt will aid in breaking the mold from the usual same old so even more epic stories can be told and played out. Thank you for your dedication. It's most appreciated! You've helped me further achieve the goal of providing a dynamic gaming atmosphere for my players with this expanded compendium of racial options, as well as creating even more exciting npcs!
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Matthew S January 30, 2017 3:27 pm UTC
CREATOR
I'm glad to hear you like it. Stay tuned, I'm working on a major reformatting update that will condense races into sections of similar creatures that will hopefully make it easier to use, though it may still be a while out yet.
You may also be interested in looking at the other products I've put out, but they all focus more on DM tools so far, rather than direct content like this one.
Customer avatar
Aaron D November 20, 2016 7:27 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Without even previewing the content, and only reading the review and your post here, Matthew, I would like to discuss. If a purchaser of this content does not have access to general information in a book or other resource, relating the the "fluff" of a race, I can understand the desire to have it. However, considering the size of the document as it is, and the layout restrictions and other concerns, I would not think that it should be added for each race on each page. I would only, as a last resort to appease the few who don't have any access to race information, put a single page near the beginning, offering a few sentences, at most 5, about a few of the broader categories that most of the races fall under. Such as Humanoid, and maybe 5 or so subtypes. Or Aquatic, Amphibian, or the like, and a few subtypes. The basic categories can then be described generally. Or a table listing comparisons and contrasts of these different categories, and a listing of each race that belongs to that category. That would...See more
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Matthew S November 21, 2016 4:22 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the comment and especially the positive remarks.
There are a number of helpful suggestions you have given me to think about. In particular I think categorizing the races will help condense things quite a bit, but will unfortunately require a bit of work on my part (so that update might take a while to show up). It will likely make the document a bit more user friendly as well by preventing a lot of work from looking back and forth in the document to compare races, when a general type of race is desired.
Adding references to the source books also sounds like a good idea, that would not be hard to implement. I also like the Appendix/glossary idea, but I will have to put some thought into what specifically should be included and how best to organize it.
Again thank you for your helpful comment and I hope you enjoy what I have done and will likely do with this product in the future.
Customer avatar
Matthew S October 28, 2016 3:54 pm UTC
CREATOR
In light of a recent review, I would like to ask people's opinion about the concerns that were brought up. The reviewer seems to confuse the purpose of this product, implying that it would be intended as a printed, marketable product on par with the books produced by Wizards of the Coast.
Specifically let me know what you think about:
- Should 'fluff information' be added to the descriptions of each race? Would that be helpful or just make for a longer document?
- Is there anything I should be including that would be necessary for newer players, assuming that they at least own a players handbook to reference the basic rules and concepts? Does the product just need better descriptions of the races to help new players know what the creatures actually are or is there more that needs to be added?

In answering these questions, please keep in mind that this publication was never meant to be a published, official product. Instead it was intended to be something that players could use to...See more
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Brian W August 24, 2016 9:29 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Am I understanding the tiny body flaw right. All abilities are halved? I can see str,con, but this would mean the highest starting score can only be 9.
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Matthew S August 24, 2016 11:41 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hey Bryan,
It should only be strength that is halved. All other ability values are normal. I'll have to take a look at it to see where this confusion is coming from and see if I can make it clearer.
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Matthew S August 25, 2016 2:16 pm UTC
CREATOR
I do see why you thought that. The first line should have specified STR stat value, but somehow the STR got omitted while making changes from a previous version. The next update will have the correction.
Customer avatar
Arthur W July 24, 2016 5:33 pm UTC
I like the idea, however just a quick look using the full size preview I see some major balance issues. Bullywug; multiattack is not something any character should have, maybe have their XXX attack be a bonus action? Bugbear; this is a min/max dream, everyone will be a bugbear because of the extra die of damage. Maybe make it so that when they crit they do an extra die? Or maybe they can add an extra die X amount of times a day based on a stat bonus or something. But all the time this is too crazy good. Anyway just a couple of quick ideas.
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Arthur W July 24, 2016 5:34 pm UTC
XXX above is supposed to be XXX, I dont know why it keeps changing it to XXX...
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Arthur W July 24, 2016 5:35 pm UTC
UGH! Why does this keep changing my word "XXX" into XXX?
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Arthur W July 24, 2016 5:35 pm UTC
Ok this is silly, the bullywug has multiattack, make their attack with their mouth be a bonus action?
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Matthew S July 25, 2016 4:06 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thanks for your comment Arthur. Those are some things I have been looking at and your suggestions have been helpful in my ponderings. You've also given me some ideas for some of the other races I've been reevaluating as well, so again thank you.
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Customer avatar
David S November 21, 2018 6:41 am UTC
I am confused about all of the comments about bad adjustments and all that. I get that people SHOULD point that out, but... it's a SUPPLEMENT, not an actual WOtC official document, and you can get it for free, not to mention that there are other ways to get things like this if they don't appreciate it.

And now I am mad at myself for writing an angry comment on someone else's comment.
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File Last Updated:
August 07, 2017
This title was added to our catalog on July 19, 2016.