Air Genasi Playable Race Guide for D&D 5e

Wind and wizardry, learn how to play as the magical Air Genasi with our detailed optimisation guide

What are the Air Genasi?

The Genasi are descendants of genies that have reproduced with a mortal. Not all Genasi have a genie as a parent, some will have been born from 2 Genasi parents, others will have dormant genie genes (which is quite a mouthful) from some ancestor that has only materialised with their birth. Whatever the circumstances though, the Genasi are part mortal and part genie creatures.

But just as there are different types of genies, there are also different types of genasi depending on their lineage. In the case of the Air Genasi, they are descended from the djinn. With this comes a resilience and an affinity with the element of air; powers they can harness to their own benefit.

Is an Air Genasi the right character for me?

Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for an Air Genasi you might consider the following:

Choose an Air Genasi if you like…

Characters who lean towards spellcasting
A race with extra quick movement speed
A levitating race
A sea-faring race that can hold their breath

An Air Genasi might not be for you if…

You don’t need to be quick
Aren’t interested in casting spells
Prefer something a bit more substantial

If you think a Air Genasi isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative quick race, you could consider a Wood Elf or a Centaur.

Racial traits

Ability Scores	+2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores
Creature Type	Humanoid
Size	Medium or Small
Speed	35ft
Languages	Common and 1 other
Traits	Darkvision, Unending Breath, Lightning Resistance, Mingle with the Wind
Proficiencies	None
Resistances	Lightning
Darkvision	Yes
Innate Spellcasting	Shocking Grasp, Feather Fall and Levitate
Book found in	Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

Tactics

As an Air Genasi, you’ll want to lean into your innate spellcasting and utility elements of the class. While slightly useful, Lightning resistance is only the 7th most used damage type in the game so don’t expect to use it a huge amount. I’d suggest using the following tactics when playing an Air Genasi:

Maximise on innate spellcasting: You get a decent set of spells as an Air Genasi, but with only a single casting per long rest of Feather Fall and Levitate, getting repeat castings by playing a spellcasting class is the best way to maximise on these abilities. On top of this, spellcasters inherently have a good spellcasting ability making your Shocking Grasp more powerful and Levitate better against enemies.

Provide some utility: You’re quick, can hold your breath indefinitely and have darkvision, this makes Air Genasi decent at utility roles in the party. On top of this, Levitate is very useful outside of combat for scaling heights (or descending them) so lean into those utility elements of the race.

Decent sailors: Although Air Genasi don’t get a swim speed, they can hold their breath underwater indefinitely making them a solid choice for sea-faring campaigns.

Which classes are good for Air Genasi?

With Monsters of the Multiverse allowing playable races to choose any ability score to improve, the benefits of playing an Air Genasi come down to its traits. Extra movement speed is always handy, but especially for classes that need to be quite mobile like monks, rogues and barbarians. Lightning resistance is OK and Darkvision is often useful but the main benefit of the Air Genasi is their innate spellcasting.

All the spells for the Air Genasi are pretty good. Shocking grasp, levitate and feather fall are all great spells and have fairly universal appeal though some classes will still gain more from them than others.

Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Air Genasi based on how well the racial traits work with each class:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐

Monk ⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for Air Genasi

Primarily, we’re looking at classes that are already spellcasters, but especially those that need some manoeuvrability and that like to provide utility support.

The best option for this is a bard who will find a lot of use in all of an Air Genasi’s traits. While lighter on the utility options, Clerics, Druids and Warlocks stand to gain a lot out of an Air Genasi’s traits too, especially as all 3 can find themselves needing to get around the battlefield quickly as well as benefitting from some usually unavailable spells.

Worst classes for Air Genasi

Barbarians gain very little from races that rely on innate spellcasting due to how little they can cast spells as they’re usually raging in combat. Feather fall and levitate do have some uses for them but they are limited. Monks gain less too despite being thematically a good fit. Feather fall is pointless when you already have slow fall anyway. Shocking grasp is also unlikely to be more effective than the attacks you’re already using too.

About the Air Genasi

Appearance

With their mixed lineage, the Air Genasi are born with aspects relating to both their lineages. From their djinn aspects, they gain attributes of the elements of the air such as blue skin or the accompaniment of a constant cool breeze.

From their mortal parents, an Air Genasi may acquire all sorts of features depending on what kind of mortal the djinn mated with. The Genasi child of a an elf might have pointed ears while the child of a halfling might appear shorter. While not common creatures, the Genasi that do exist tend to be hugely varied in appearance for this reason.

As you might expect, Air genasi tend to be proportionally lighter than most other mortals. An Air Genasi also gains powers related to their djinn lineage such as the ability to hold their breath, to levitate and a resilience to the powers of the elemental plane of air.

Society

Like many half-breeds, the Air Genasi often live their lives as outcasts having no true home and with the djinn generally uninterested in raising their own children. Often, they find themselves living on the edges of society, particularly those with more unusual appearances. There are however, throughout the planes, those that revere creatures of elemental powers and some genasi can find themselves in high regard in such societies. Others do go to their djinn parents to live in the elemental plane of air to serve within a djinn household, though this tends to be rare.

Despite the usual habitations of the Air Genasi, some do find there way into communities of genasi while others live within the large cities where many with an unusual nature are largely not eschewed due to the more cosmopolitan nature of such cities.

Roleplaying as an Air Genasi

As with any race, the Air Genasi have a wide variety of personalities and attributes meaning you can play an Air Genasi however you like. However, most Air Genasi are shaped both by their biology, family and how society treats them. As such you could consider some of the below ways to roleplay your character:

Conflicted heritage – As with most half-races, you don’t really have a true home to call your own. The Djinn rarely care much for their mortal progeny while mortals consider you an outsider. You seek to find a place in a world that does not accept you for who you are. Fortunately, many such misfits are called to the road of adventure for precisely this reason.
Innately magical – You are gifted with innate magical abilities that have manifest within you since you were young. These have provided you with an advantage against others, whether that’s shocking a Goblin raiding party or saving yourself from a deadly fall. You yearn to harness these powers further seeking learning in magic and perhaps even from your own kind.
The wind’s call – The wind calls to you, it’s part of you, and so you accept its call, setting sale to distant lands aboard a ship where the wind billows in the sails. Here you are at home, traversing the seas. It helps too that you don’t need to breath underwater.