Ranking Every Race In D&D 5e

we are ranking every race in d d we've already covered the ones in modern Cadence Monsters of the Multiverse so now we're doing the rest from s tier incredibly powerful down to C tier underpowered or just outclassed if you just want to know what race you should play this video will summarize them all as well as tell you the best and the worst in the game and every race was also voted on by the people on patreon so I'll show those as we go okay let's do this astral elf there are so many elves in this game but these ones live in space astrals get the usual Elven 30-foot walking speed dark vision and advantage against being Charmed they also get a bonus action teleport like the allergen and Proficiency in perception the best skill in the game finally they get Proficiency in any one skill and weapon when they finish a long rest great for giving guns to monks look teleportation is always good space elves go in Atia autonome Robo gnomes are mechanical beings take the war forged and make them small their main features are armored casing giving you a base AC of 13 plus your dexterity and built for Success letting you add a D4 to any attack roll ability check or saving throw a couple of times per long rest they are also constructs not humanoids which lets you dodge some nasty spells like whole person then they resist poison damage and have advantage on saves against being paralyzed or poisoned because they're robots the coolest feature is healing machine letting you heal with a hit die if The Mending cantrip is cast on you that spell takes a minute to cast but it's still a cantrip that heals something that doesn't exist anywhere else in DND 5e clankers are cool especially on spellcasters who can bring their own mending I'm putting them in 18. custom lineage custom lineage is for when you want to build your own race it's kind of like a template you can be a medium or small humanoid 30-foot walking speed and either dark vision or Proficiency in any skill of your choice you also only increase one ability score by two which is unusual like most races increase one ability score by two and another ability score by one so you are just weaker than most people but that doesn't matter because you get a free feat starting the game with a powerful feat like polar Master fade touched or Sharpshooter is just crazy most optimized builds will be custom lineage they go in s tier dampier legally distinct vampires are here so dampier are a lineage not a race so you can either start the game as one or change into one by events that happen in your game either way you're a humanoid 35 foot walking speed and you have dark vision you also don't need to breathe have a climb speed equal to your walking speed and a vampiric bite attack it deals one D4 piercing on a hit and lets you regain hit points equal to the damage you deal or get a bonus to your next attack roll equal to the damage you deal that's all good but the really busted part is that all lineages have the ancestral Legacy trait which lets you keep any movement speeds and skills from your original Race So if you were an owl in before becoming a dampier you can slam on a 30-foot flying speed and Proficiency in stealth to everything we already talked about s tier lineages are fundamentally a little bit broken and dampier lean very well into Fighters and barbarians that let you attack at close range to get in your bites hello officers I'm drunk drunk it's the Barbarian yeah hey did you fall from Heaven because you look I'm not drunk for no reason okay I've been using the awesome Larson's Ledger of treasures and trinkets enriching my world with bar themed subclasses adorable familias and hundreds of gorgeously Illustrated craftable magic items that level up with players also I helped design an item a helmet with a beard that you can use in your games it lets you mess with a dice after it's been rolled cheating one roll per day they've also got finger gun gloves praying mantis arms moth cloaks and tons more plus these epic Dice and a mimic mug everything you need to kick your games up a notch Larson's Ledger of treasure and trinkets out now on Kickstarter link below Dragonborn base version so there's been a few versions of Dragonborn over the years which is good because the originals aren't great you are medium-sized have a 30 foot walking speed and a breath weapon attack that you can use your color dictates the damage type of that weapon but they all deal 2d6 damage on a failed con or deck save the damage does go up as you increase in levels but it is never really high damage you also get resistance to your breath weapon damage type and that's it you pretty much just breathe fire and hope for the best they sadly go in seat here because they are so outclassed by fizzband's Dragonborn there are three types of Dragonborn in fizbans but they're mostly the same chromatic Gem and metallic in all cases your breath weapon is upgraded so it only costs an attack not a full action so if you're a class with multi-attack you can use one of those attacks to breathe fire and then charge through and hit someone with your sword that's huge chromatics get the ability to become immune to the damage of their breath weapon for 10 minutes gem dragons get 30 feet of telepathy and can Sprout wings and fly for one minute a day metallic dragons get a second breath weapon attack which can either incapacitate enemies or knock them back 20 feet and fall prone but they can only do it once per long rest if you're gonna play a Dragonborn just play one of these all of them are great for classes that get multi-attack eightier wild Mount Dragonborn these dragons are basically the same as the base versions except they all get dark vision and a minor buff ravenite Dragonborn get to use a reaction to make a weapon attack against a creature that deals damage to them which is pretty good but you can only do it once per short rest draken blood gets to make one intimidation or persuasion check at Advantage once per long rest that's pretty bad but you know better than nothing these guys are worse than fizbans Dragonborn but they are strict upgrades on the bass version they can go in low B tier Hill wolves dwarves are an interesting race all of them get advantage on saves against being poisoned resistance to poison damage dark vision and proficiency with some weapons and tools with the customizable origin feature you can swap those proficiencies around which makes dwarves among the most customizable races in the game there is a downside they only have a 25 foot walking speed but it's not the end of the world Hill dwarves are the first variation they get an additional hit points for each level they have that instantly makes them the tankiest builds in the game a hildorf barbarian is just about as thick as you can get it's also just an easy race for beginners as it's powerful but simple they go in High beat here but Mountain dwarves are a different Beast to start they are one of only two races in the game that start with a plus four to their stats yes through some glitch or mistake or blatant Dwarven nepotism Mountain dwarves get plus two in two different ability scores that is massive for classes like monks and paladins that want multiple ability scores to be really high but even more importantly Mountain dwarves get instant proficiency with light and medium armor and this completely breaks the class system in d d Wizards and Sorcerers are kind of designed to be squishy they can't wear armor at all except Mountain dwarf spellcasters can you can rock up in half plate and throw around Fireballs like a goddamn Gundam with a flamethrower with all the other benefits of being a dwarf on top of that mountain dwarves go at the absolute peak of s tier even stronger than flying races and in the right build even stronger than getting a free feat good things come in small packages right elves the other stereotypical fantasy race elves are also great they get 30-foot walking speed advantage against being Charmed and dark vision they can also take a long rest in 4 hours and get Proficiency in perception the best skill in the game drow elves round that off with Superior dark vision out to 120 feet and drow magic they get the cantrip dancing lights which is a bit meh but they also get fairy fire and darkness which are awesome spells downside is they have sunlight sensitivity which gives you disadvantage on attack rolls and perception checks if you or your targets are in direct sunlight this is a really big downside and unless your DM is cool with letting you bypass it with a pair of sunglasses they're just not worth it they go in seat here High Elves bring magic to the table as well you get any wizard can trip of your choice with intelligence as your spellcasting modifier even if you dump intelligence you can still pick up a great spell that doesn't need a modifier like guidance or minor illusion there just isn't a class in the game who wouldn't appreciate a free cantrip solid b-tier what elves gets some weapon proficiencies and have a 35 foot walking speed which is always nice their flashy feature is mask of the wild which lets you attempts to hide even if you're only slightly obscured by natural phenomena like Falling Leaves if your DM is cool with Shenanigans and you can pull off this hide often maybe as a bonus action if you're a rogue they're pretty good if your DM is super strict this ability could be pretty much worthless still they go and beat here they make good Rogues pallid elves are the ones that everyone forgets unfairly they get advantage on all investigation and insight checks both of which are in the top 5 skills of the game they also get three great spells light sleep and invisibility once per long rest I mean okay light's not great but still a very worthy Elven subclass they can go in low 80s here GIF hippos with guns Triple S tier seriously though you're a hippo with Proficiency in guns and basically half of the Sharpshooter feet for free it's very cool but unless your DM demands that you play GIF to get gun proficiency pretty much any fighter or Ranger with a gun will take the sharp you defeat eventually even if they are a gift so it's kind of just flavor still powerful build and advantage on all strength saves and strength checks ain't nothing they're high beat here and an interesting option if you want to build the fabled gun monk gnomes gnomes are awesome and criminally underappreciated they are small 25 foot walking speeds 60 feet of dark vision and advantage on all wisdom intelligence and Charisma saving throws but only against magic that is amazing most spells and magic effects Target those saves anyway Forrest gnome was round that out with the awesome minor illusion cantrip and the feature speak with small beasts which lets you kind of communicate with beasts that are less than medium size they go in a tier don't sleep on those saving throws or on minor illusion the other gnomes are rock gnomes [ __ ] yeah they get expertise in history checks related to magical technological or alchemical items which technically is an upside I guess I mean those checks do happen sometimes more importantly though they get the Tinker traits at the cost of five gold you can construct a tiny object which can basically replicate one of the effects of press the digitation is it amazing flavor-wise hell yeah is it basically just worse than the Pressed in digitation can trip probably Rock gnomes are still beatier though the saving throws alone get them that far how does he the most controversial race in modern d d history how does he were the kings of all Races for two beautiful weeks until I found and popularized an exploit that let them Dash 300 feet per turn unfortunately Wizards the coast nerfed them in response because it was kind of broken and they also had racist lore now the hadasy are shells of their former self they have a Glide speed which is basically just a free featherfall just for you and dexterous Feats that lets you manipulate an object as a bonus action this can't be used to activate magic items because that's its own specific action so this is kind of flavor only they can climb at least and they do have a damage reduction ability but they're very meh now there are plenty of other races that have a climb speed so I'm putting them down in seatyr from the best race in the game to hopelessly outclast rest in peace you wave dashing Maniacs half elf elfs are like Mountain dwarfs the only other race to start with a plus four to their ability scores at character creation that's already incredible they also get dark vision Proficiency in any two skills and advantage on saves against being Charmed unlike dwarves they also get a full 30-foot walking speed too there are a bunch of half elf variations that swap out their skill versatility for a feature borrowed from one of the main elf sub races 35 foot walking speed or 30 foot swimming speed or even a free can trip that kind of thing none of these are as good as the mountain dwarves armor proficiency but healths are still just a great package for any class that wants multiple stats to be good for them to be good no matter your build or play style they are always a good choice top of eight here half orc half Forks are basically what Orcs became in Monsters of the Multiverse they get dark vision advantage on intimidation checks and they hit extra hard when they get a crit the signature feature of the orc races is Relentless endurance where if you'd be knocked to zero hit points you fall to one hit point instead but you can only use it once per long rest the Proficiency in intimidation and insurance against death is actually amazing for squishy Charisma based spellcasters like Sorcerers and warlocks rather than the more stereotypical Fighters and barbarians Honestly though full Orcs are pretty much just better with their Adrenaline Rush traits which kind of leaves half Orcs without a niche besides [ __ ] fishing they go in low B tier halfling filthy little hobbitses are most famous for being small all unlucky anytime you roll a Nat one you can re-roll that die that reduces your odds of a true Nat one from 1 in 20 to 1 in 400. it's cool if not insanely powerful they can also move through the spaces of creatures that are one size larger than them and they have resistance against the frightened condition that one's pretty good the fighting condition is everywhere in d d all the halfling variations are pretty much okay Stout gives you poison resistance ghost wise gives you 30 foot of telepathy and Lightfoot lets you take the hide action if you're obscured by someone bigger than you which is funny and pretty good on Rogues they all go in B tier The Only Exception is lotus Den halflings they can move through difficult terrain created by plants without difficulty but more importantly they get three spells Druid craft map and Tangle pretty good and Spike growth awesome Spike growth alone is worth the price of admission these guys just sneak into 80th hex blood hex blood words are sort of like witches and like the dampier they are a lineage meaning that if your base race can fly they're instantly kind of broken you are Fae have dark vision and can cast disguise self and hex once each for free per long rest both awesome spells the really exciting feature is Eerie token which lets you remove one of your teeth or a lock of hair or a nail as a bonus action that token is magical until you finish a long rest and you can give it to someone else and while they hold it you can communicate with them telepathically very useful alternatively you can leave it somewhere and as long as you're within 10 miles you can use an action to see and hear through it as if you are in the position that it is this is great if you have a familiar you can give it to them and let them stash it somewhere letting you spy on people hex Bloods are estia again an owl in HEX blood gets all of that stuff plus 30 foot fly speed and Proficiency in stealth Madness bass human look humans suck okay humans have a 30 foot walking speed and can speak two languages and that's it you also increase every ability score by one which is technically a plus five but because you probably don't care about at least two of those ability scores it's not really better than a plus three which pretty much every race gets anyway I'm sorry but we go in seat here variant human look humans are amazing okay variant humans have a 30 foot walking speed and can speak two languages but they also get Proficiency in any skill of their choice and get access to any feat just like custom lineage this is insane the main difference between variant humans and custom lineage is that custom lineage get plus two to one ability score and variant humans get plus one two two ability scores they also don't get dark vision they're pretty much equal aside from that which makes them pretty much busted estia kalashtar kalashtar are a compound race you are a human bonded with a spirit so I kind of Imagine It Like You it's time to duel they're also just great advantage on all wisdom saves resistance to psychic damage it's like this race was custom made to make the perfect totem Barbarian they also get telepathy they can only speak to one person telepathically at a time but unusually the person you speak to can speak back usually telepathy is only one way that's a fifth level spell telepathic bond for free at level one eightier they are the best race in the game for some types of Barbarians and wisdom save Advantage is great for everybody Kenda Kenda are a lot like halflings they're small and have advantage against being frightened however they go even further once per long rest if you fail a save against being frightened you can just choose to succeed as well that's nice you also get Proficiency in any skill from this list which is a pretty nice list but the real ability here is taunt as a bonus action you can insult a creature within 60 feet of you who can understand you they need to make a wisdom say or have disadvantage on all attack rolls against anyone other than you until your next turn that is an amazing defensive tactic basically forcing enemies to attack you so they can't Target your weaker allies plus it's just fun to call a red dragon a flabby jowl's trash salamander even if you will die immediately afterwards for the role play potential alone they can go in Atia leonin leonin are yet another race of cat people no not that one no not that one yeah that one they get 35 foot walking speed Dart vision and unarmed strikes that deal 1d4 plus your strength modifier fun fact most races have been updated so they now deal one D6 damage with their Superior unarmed strikes which means it is now Canon that leonin just have dollar claws than other races they also get a free skill proficiency from this list pick perception it's the best skill in the game and they get daunting raw as a bonus action you can scream and creatures of your choice within 10 feet have to make a wisdom save or become frightened of you until your next turn you can do some Shenanigans with this like attacking with a reach weapon and then bonus action roaring so they get frightened and they can't approach you to attack you back it is only once per short rest though so you can't really make an entire build around this one mechanic leonin are sadly worse than they used to be since modern kanan's upgraded to baxi and kobolds to do similar stuff to them but better still they're not bad they can go in beat here loxadon loxodon are elephant people and canonically the race with the second largest penis after plasmoids they can be up to eight feet tall and weigh 400 pounds but still only count as medium sized this game man they have powerful builds for extra pulling and lifting power and advantage on saves against being Charmed or frightened both of which are incredibly common they also get natural armor which gives them an AC of 12 plus their constitution modifier which is great for builds that wish they could drop dexterity like Sorcerers finally you have a trunk that can be used to do stuff like push or pull objects or even make unarmed strikes it can't wield weapons or a shield but it's still a nice option to have maybe for holding on to a magic item you're attuned to while keeping your hands free elephants are cool they go in High beat here owl in we've talked about them a bit already owl another race that most breaks the lineage options in d d but there's still a powerful race on their own 30-foot fly speed Proficiency in stealth and 120 feet of dark vision you will be sniping down enemies in the night sky and they won't have a clue that you are there Allen make great Rangers and Fighters they are perfect ambushers and they are arguably the strongest flying race in the game there is one option which might be stronger but we'll get to them in a second they go in low estia plasmoid goo people are here and they are terrifying plasmoids are amorphous they can squeeze through spaces as small as one inch wide provided you aren't wearing anything or care anything that is a mechanical Canon reason you have to be a sexy goo person it's just optimal guys it's strictly optimal I don't make the rules they also have dark vision and I think they are the only race that resists two types of damage poison and acid finally you can shape yourself into basically whatever you like you can have one leg or two legs or one or two arms or just be a blob your form can't give you a mechanical Edge though you can't have eight arms and carry eight Shields unfortunately you can also extend a pseudopod tentacle type thing from your body to manipulate or pick up an object it's mostly for flavor but I'm sure there's something someone could do with that most of the plasmoid abilities are just good without pushing them towards one type of build or another but monk plasmoids seem to stand out as a race that can get away with being naked all the time sexy goo blobs go in 80. Reborn the final lineage reborn are the Zombie Race and yes choosing a flying form as your your base race goes very hard but even then the base reborn is fantastic you have advantage on saves against being poisoned and resist poison damage you have advantage on death saves you don't need to eat sleep drink or breathe and you can finish a long rest in four hours during which time you are conscious in an inactive motionless State great for keeping watch finally you get Knowledge from a past life when you make a skill check you can roll a D6 and add that number to the roll a couple of times per long rest that's just some great consistency especially on builds that make lots of skill checks like grappling barbarians estia simic hybrid simic hybrid is the Build-A-Bear race or in this case build a monstrosity as you level up you choose different adaptations which give you specific abilities at level 1 you can either glide through the air with fins climb with claws or Swim and breathe underwater at fifth level you choose another adaptation you can either grapple as a bonus action with crab claws get a thick shell for plus one AC or spit acid for a ranged attack option oh and they also have dark vision the adaptability of simic hybrids is unmatched except maybe by custom lineage builds they can work well for anything depending on your campaign and your specific goals eightier tiefling there are so many tiefling subclasses depending on the devil your ancestors struck a pact with all tieflings resist fire damage have dark vision and have a 30-foot walking speed most of the variations give you a couple of spells and they're all pretty good you can choose the variation that gives you the spells that you personally find interesting then there's the tiefling variations which give you different spells again but they're all pretty much equal in power all tieflings go in B tier except one variation the winged tiefling this baby is crazy for one simple reason medium armor flight every flying race Indian D can't actually fly if they're wearing medium or heavy armor except this one this means if you're rocking any medium armor build like a barbarian or Ranger or a hex blade or a cleric this is the only race that can do that and fly they go in s tier some people say flying is broken it's not but this is undoubtedly the best flying ability in the game vadalkin vanaken are tall bald and have advantage on all saving throws that our wisdom intelligence or Charisma based just like gnomes that's amazing they also get Proficiency in a skill from this list and with any tool but when you make a check with that skill or tool you also get to add on a D4 so it's kind of like free guidance they can also breathe underwater for an hour each day it's unlikely to come up but but you know it's nice to have I'm blue dabba dabba Atia Verdan I've got a soft spot for the Verdan a criminally underappreciated race their gimmick is that they grow in size from levels one to four you are small and when you reach level five you have a growth spurt up to medium overnight which honestly sounds like the most traumatizing and painful experience ever just growing two feet in 12 hours they get Proficiency in Persuasion the second best skill in the game and advantage on all wisdom and Charisma saves wisdom saves can be brutal and Charisma saves aren't pretty either so a little insurance is really good finally they get slightly better healing from their hit dice which never really comes up but there it is and you can also communicate simple ideas telepathically to creatures within 30 feet of you in terms of power verdana really carried by their saving throws but the other stuff is great role play it's up to you to make the most of it Verdan go in Beat It War forged warforged are the original robot race of d d and they came in packing heat for a start they never die you can't suffer from old age and you have advantage on savings against being poisoned and resist poison damage they also don't need to eat drink or breathe are immune to disease and don't need to sleep they can finish a long rest in six hours of inactivity which again is great for keeping watch but they're really exciting ability is integrated protection they get a blanket plus one to their AC people love AC some people love war forged finally you also get Proficiency in any skill and Tool of your choice warforged really are one of those races that get a ton of small good abilities that pile up to become something pretty insane there wasn't a build in the game who wouldn't love plus one AC and War forged are the optimal choice for high AC builds like artifices blade singers and Fighters they just sneak into estia and there it is every race ranked here is the full tier list with the modern kanans racist included as well damn the only race is missing from this list are the mark of the blank races which are weird variations on the core races giving them a bunch of spells they're often banned or not included but I might make a video covering them one day anyway in my professional opinion the best race in the game is Mountain dwarf free armor proficiency is just inherently more broken than a fly speed or a free feat and they get plus four to their stats and a bunch of free proficiencies the worst race in the game humans we suck we we just suck so bad but obviously any race can be amazing it's how you choose to play them that counts and if you want more awesome races check out the DM secret weapon on patreon for over 200 pages of awesome races subclasses Maps Adventures spells Feats and so much more for just 10 bucks it also supports the channel remember to like And subscribe check out other videos on the channel and yeah I think that's all I got see ya

Channel: DnD Shorts

Views: 528,994

Keywords:

Id: tqecmjVenD0

Length: 28min 14sec (1694 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 28 2023