Character Races - Rules

This page refers to content copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast.
Not all of the races and classes listed in the Dungeons and Dragons books are compatible with the Lasair setting. The following information will help you create a character in the setting (or, if you're a GM, will help you decide what sorts of NPCs to include).
This page covers character races; for character classes please see Character Classes - Rules.

Races

From the 5th Edition Player's Handbook

• Humans are fully present, and are the dominant race in the City-States Region.
  

  There are no complications for a human player character.



• Dragonborn are not present in any noticeable numbers; the were bred alongside full-blooded dragons as warriors and servants. Dragonborn will primarily exist as foot troops if Dragons return to the world. Considered kill-on-sight in any human lands.
  

  Players may not choose to play as a Dragonborn.

  
  
• Dwarfs as a "race" are rarely seen, living in primarily in an isolated community - The Sink. They will sometimes venture out into the larger world, seeking out adventure, fortune, or markets for trading.

Dwarf PCs face no specific drawbacks or limitations, except for the occasional short joke.

• Elves (of all varieties including High Elf, Wood Elf, Drow/Dark Elf) retreated to distant forests some time after the Dragonscourge, and are almost never seen outside of their lands. The presence of an elf of any kind in human lands is generally considered an ominous sign for the near future. Even well before the Dragonscourge the elves tended towards a caste or clan system, with different bloodlines expected to fulfill to specific roles within society. In the time since, several distinct subcultures arose amongst the isolated elven lands, almost all of which were inhabited by a single bloodline, and the bloodlines' formerly minor physical differences would grow to appear more pronounced.
  

  Elf player characters will generally be very rare, and if one exists it should have a specific purpose for journeying outside of its homelands. Among common humans, elves are distrusted by most and actively feared by many, and a player character elf would come across many difficulties because of this.



• Gnomes - see Halfling, below


• Half-Elves - Procreation between elves and humans (see Elves for information on this) is unheard of in the current time. However, elven blood tends to linger for many, many generations and elf-human relations were once possible before the Dragonscourge. Any human with a small fraction of elven blood in their ancestry can potentially have a half-elf child, though the chances are increased with a greater percentage. Children of two half-elves have a roughly 50% chance of being a half-elf. About 1% of the population at any given time can be considered a half-elf.
  

  Half-elf player characters do not face any particular disadvantages in human lands. They may occasionally find themselves catching longer looks than normal in the backwater, but these looks generally pass once the onlooker is certain that they're not a pure elf. Pure elves generally consider half-elves to be a distasteful reminder of a reckless past and generally do not welcome them into their lands.



• Half-orcs exist within Lasair, and like in other settings find themselves on the fringes of human society, viewed as odd outcasts. Unlike half-elves, dwarfs, or tieflings, a half-orc's parentage is completely clear: the trait does not "hide in the blood", and half-orcs are only born to a human-orc coupling (or to a coupling in which at least one parent is a half-orc as well). While they are often looked upon with disdain by humans, the orc society within the Savage Lands welcomes them in with open arms, accepting them as fully honorable descendants of their ancestors.
  

  Half-orc player characters would face extreme difficulties in a campaign set within human lands but would be interesting if set purely in the wilds.



• Halflings exist as a distinct race, primarily living in agrarian communities and staying out of the way of the more civilized world. The bulk of halflings in Lasair live in a string of settlements along the North Fork in the Fertile Lands. Gnomes are considered to be a variety of halflings in Lasair, perhaps of a more lively stock that is struck by the wanderlust a little harder, but considered halflings nonetheless. A player creating a “halfling” character may choose to create them using either the halfling or gnome racial traits.
  

  Halfling adventurers are fairly uncommon, but the race as a whole does tend to suffer from a degree of wanderlust. In most cases an individual will simply head up or down the river to a different town for a few years (a fellow halfling is always welcomed into a settlement as long as they help with the farming which practically all halflings are quite interested in doing) but the rare specimen will occasionally set out to explore human lands or, in even rarer cases, the pure wilderness. They're generally seen as a curiosity in the City-States Region, while the residents of other towns in the Fertile Land view them like any other outsider (that is to say with polite distrust until the stranger proves themselves trustworthy).



• Tieflings are born to normal humans with some small amount of otherworldly blood in their ancestry. What the source of such blood might be is not known (or even theorized about), as the existence of tieflings predates even the Dragonscourge by many centuries. After the Dragonscourge tieflings are generally viewed (by commoners) with distrust or outright hostility, as their appearance can often be quite similar to the cultural memory of half-dragons and other such cross-breeds. Tieflings on the whole are extremely rare as the blood has grown quite thin over time, and those with more visible traits often become outcasts from a fearful society. In extreme cases, ill-informed parents have been known to kill newborns exhibiting Tiefling traits out of fear for their own lives: the presence of Draconic blood has been used to justify the exterminations of entire lines, and a Tiefling newborn may look very much like what a peasant may imagine a half-dragon would look like. A large proportion of Tieflings tend towards the use of magic, so discrimination against them is practically nonexistent amongst mages as most have interacted with at least one during their lives. Tieflings make up no more than 1/10 of 1% of the population.
  

  Players may choose to create a tiefling character, but must be prepared to suffer discrimination and fearful reactions.

From Volo's Guide to Monsters

• Aasimar as they are described in D&D do not exist but their racial stats will fit very well for a Virtueborn character.
• Firbolg are not currently part of Lasair
• Goliaths are not currently part of Lasair but may be incorporated as an isolated mountain race - possibly as an elven subrace
• Kenku are likely to be incorporated as one of the species making up the Korth'an Conclave
• Lizardfolk populate many swamps and wetlands throughout Lasair. The largest population maintains several large villages on the coast near the Nublar Jungle. They rarely interact with outsiders though they may occasionally venture out into the wider world on a hunt.
  
  Players may choose to play a Lizardfolk but definitely consult with one's GM regarding getting it to fit in the world.
• Tabaxi are not currently part of Lasair
• The Tritons' statblock and appearance will likely be incorporated as an elven subrade - most likely the one populating the Thousand Shards in The Desolation. See the Elves entry above for player character possibilities
• Bugbears and Hobgoblins are not currently part of Lasair
• Goblins and Kobolds are not currently part of Lasair, however their stat blocks are used to represent Ratlings in the world. Ratlings are highly adversarial with other sentient species and are not likely to play well with others
  
  Players may only play as Ratlings as part of an all-ratling party grouping.
• Orcs are the primary species populating the Savage Lands, north of the Titan Wall. They are a nomadic and spiritual people, following the migrating herds of Hornbeasts. They rarely venture outside of their homeland, though rare exceptions do occur for purposes of scouting, trade, or exile.
  
  Players may play an Orc character, but must be prepared to be looked at with distrust within human lands. Outright hostility is possible - their presence south of the Wall is technically illegal. Orcs traveling to other regions will face less trouble though getting there is less likely.
• Yuan-Ti are not present in Lasair as of yet. They may be incorporated in jungle regions as those are populated.