- This D&D character is a centaur. This D&D character is a tiefling. It's the same D&D character. We're talking mixed races, folks. Let's go! (shimmering bells) This video is sponsored by
the Dungeon Master's Guild. You've probably heard of it, DM's Guild is a community
content program partnered with Wizards of the Coast where creators can legally
use official D&D material to create and share their
own content for use with D@D. You can find anything
from one-off adventures and collections of magic items or maps to complete campaign guides
for approved settings. There are literally thousands
of wildly inventive PDFs, each one created to solve a problem or open new doors in your game. You can use the code ginnyguild to save 15% on any DM's
Guild content purchase of $15 or more. I'll put the link and the code
in the description for you. The best kind of sponsorship is when I get paid to talk
about something I already like. In this case, it's a book called "An Elf
and an Orc Had a Little Baby," cannot think of a better title for a book, by V.J. Harris and Adam Hancock. I originally bought it in 2020, when it first came out. This is a hundred and
thirteen-page rules supplement that entirely replaces chapter two of the Player's Handbook,
the chapter on race. Instead of choosing one race, you choose the races of your
parents and an upbringing. All three of these things
influence your ability scores and traits, as well as offering
up a ton of backstory seeds. It's a platinum bestseller on DM's Guild and even has a sequel out now, same name, with a two at the end. And after finally getting a chance to create a character using these rules, I can see why it's so popular. (air whooshing) - The story of how my parents
met is like a fairy tale, but not the happily ever after kind. I mean the scary kind that you tell children
to keep them in line. - If you're using the Player's Handbook, you choose a race and that
defines your characteristics. In "An Elf and an Orc Had a Little Baby," this is split into two steps,
parentage and upbringing. Parentage is pretty simple, you pick two races for the two parents. The first book includes 35 parent races, not just the core ones, like elf and orc, but less common ones like
loxodon, grung, tortle. The second book includes a bunch more. You can pick any two
races, no restrictions. You wanna play a Gnome Firbolg? Do it. You wanna play an Orc Kenku? Live your dreams. You wanna play a Merfolk Tabaxi? Oh god, now I wanna play a Merfolk Tabaxi. She's a con artist who
scams wealthy nobles, into sending her courtship
gifts using portraits of other maidens. She's a catfish. Each section includes a
basic description of the race and some brief information
on what mixed creatures with this kind of lineage might look like. For example, any creature
mixed with a centaur is gonna have a centaur bottom half, while the humanoid half will
reflect the other parent. Sort of like how any
dog mixed with a corgi, has the corgi shape and
the other dog's coloring. It's so cute. There's even some fun lore
around some mixed races, like how mixed Kobolds
are hatched out of eggs if the mother is the Kobold parent or how mixed halflings are
sometimes jokingly called quarterlings or "quarts." For my character, I picked Infernal and Centaur
as her parents' races, because of course I did. Once you've picked your parentage, each race has its own
features you can choose from. There are two options for centaur parents and two options for infernal parents. This allows me to choose between, in the case of infernal parents,
a character with darkvision and hellish resistance,
or a character with wings. Wings seemed like a little much when combined with an equine body, so I went with the first option. (air whooshing) - My father, Gulzu. An Incubus, and no, this
isn't going where you think. He wasn't really practicing
anymore when he met my mother, he was a teacher. There's a school in Maladomini, the seventh layer of hell. Devils go there to learn
to manipulate and bargain and there's no better
instructor than my father. But teaching these promising young fiends, inspired something in him, the desire to pass on his
knowledge to a child of his own. (air whooshing) - As for the centaur options, I could pick a character
whose centaur parentage, makes her strong, giving
her the charge attack and increasing her carrying capacity or nimble, giving her significantly
increased walking speed, and letting her attack with her hooves, as slightly more powerful unarmed strikes. I chose the latter. (air whooshing) - My mother, Cilestra, was left
behind by her centaur tribe and raised in the feywild. If anyone could give devils
a run for their money when it comes to striking
deals, it would be the fey, but no one ever really believed a centaur could truly master those skills. Spite was a powerful motivator for her. She was still young when some
of the other fey dared her to summon a devil and
best him in a bargain to prove her skills. Young, and foolish enough to accept. (air whooshing) - Each parent also contributes
to your lifespan, size and walking speed. In this case, she can expect
to live to be around 105, There are also a few traits
that one parent defines. For example, being mixed centaur means
that she's not a humanoid, her type is fey, no matter
what her other half is. The mix and match appendix and the second book give
you even more flexibility with parentage traits by
using a point buy system. You get a pool of 16 points, meant to represent 8 from each parent, and you can spend on specific traits that cost anywhere from one
to as high as 10 points. These traits include things
like darkvision, resistances, natural armor and weapons and even inherent spellcasting abilities. This system is a little more complicated, but way more customizable, plus it allows you to basically have your
character take after one parent more than another if you want. Once you've picked your parents, it's up to you to explain how they came to bring your
character into the world. I have to say, this is where my fanfiction background really came into play. I love figuring out how to
put together an unlikely pair. (air whooshing) - The other fey helped with the summoning. Gulzu immediately saw an
opportunity to make a deal and get what he wanted, so he set his price as
Cilestra's firstborn child. Their negotiations were fierce. She was far more difficult
to confuse or trick than your average mortal. They went back and forth
for days, then weeks, and slowly, each found
themselves enjoying the sparring and each other's company. In the end, they reached a bargain
they could both agree on: marriage and a shared firstborn child. That's me. - The second half of the
equation is upbringing. This is "An Elf and an Orc
Had a Little Baby's" response to bioessentialism. In short, someone with Orcish blood
might not be inherently strong, if they were, say, raised as
a noble in the lap of luxury. They may instead be highly educated and get a bonus to intelligence. These are very similar to backgrounds, but they specifically address the sorts of ability scores that are usually tied to race. Some upbringings address training, like the Acrobatic Upbringing, which gives you bonuses
to charisma and dexterity, an increased jump distance and proficiency in
performance and persuasion. Others address the geographic
location you were raised in, like the Sylvan Upbringing, which gives you bonuses
to wisdom and strength and limited communication abilities with beasts and plants. And some of them are way
more vague and flexible, so that you can suit
whatever kind of story you wanna tell, like
the Laborer Upbringing, which increases constitution
and another trait you can pick, and gives you a skill and a tool proficiency of your choosing. I went back and forth on upbringings for my tiefling centaur. Between the two books, there's an upbringing specific to every individual
level of the Nine Hells. And of course, there are also upbringings that lend themselves to
being raised in the Feywild. But in the end, I chose an upbringing that I thought would best suit the skills that she was raised with. (air whooshing) I'm Lilix, short for Malixus, which is a bit of an infernal mouthful, but it's a family name on
my father's side, of course. His work kept him busy and mom never really took to the hells, so I spent my younger years
in the Feywild with her, learning all the ins and
outs of fey trickery. When I was old enough, I started attending school
with my father in Maladomini to learn how the devils deceive. - I chose the Incognito upbringing. This one gives the character
a bonus to charisma and one other ability of my choice, I picked intelligence. It also gives them two
proficiencies in deception, insight, intimidation, or persuasion, I picked deception and persuasion, as well as common and another
language of your choice, in this case infernal. If none of these upbringings, quite suit what you're looking for, you can use a point buy system
just like the one you can use for race to put together
your own upbringing with custom features. For example, if I wanted to customize
Lilix's upbringing to the backstory that I wrote
for her more specifically, I would have 16 points to spend. I could take the "Legacy
of Maladomini" feature, which would give her the
ability to cast thaumaturgy and later ray of sickness for 4 points, in reference to her infernal training in the seventh layer of hell. Each plus one ability score
increase costs 4 points, so a small increase to
charisma and intelligence, or a plus two to charisma, leaves me with 4 more points to spend. "Good with People" costs 3 points and gives me that proficiency
in deception and persuasion that fits so well with her. Language proficiency with common
and infernal costs 1 point, which means I'm outta spending money. I could also swap some
of these features out for things that are more
targeted at her Fey side, like "Wild Intuition," which lets me add a d4 to animal
handling and nature checks. As you can see, there are a lot of ways you
can customize an upbringing to really suit your intended backstory or to maximize your abilities and complement your chosen class. (air whooshing) - If there's a better way to
build the perfect swindler, I don't know it. I am my parents' greatest artifice yet. I've never actually been to
the prime material plane, but how much different can it be? I'm ready to put all this
training into practice and I don't anticipate any
obstacles that I can't hurdle. (air whooshing) - Lilix is just one example of how you can take all the options in "An Elf and an Orc Had a Little Baby" and turn them into a
completely unique character, unlike anything you could build straight from the Player's Handbook. With 62 different parentage
options across both books, that's literally over
1800 racial combinations without even thinking
about the Upbringings. If you're looking for an interesting way to rethink your character builds and inspire some
out-of-the-box backstory ideas, you really need to pick up this book. There's a link to both the
first book and the sequel in the description. And don't forget to
use the code ginnyguild to take 15% off your order of $15 or more. And if you want to keep up
with the latest releases and deals at the Dungeon Master's Guild, follow them on Twitter at @DMs_Guild. By the way, if you're looking for
more DM's Guild products to enhance your games, I also did a video about
a book full of rules that help you bring domestic
elements into your game, from home ownership to
marriage to running a business. Weirdly, I also created a con artist
character for that video. This may be something I
need to examine in myself. Check that video out right here. - But also kind of the
happily ever after kind, 'cause they really love each other
