Race and species changes in D&D 2024

Everything that’s changing for races and species in the revised Player’s Handbook

What’s changing for species in D&D 2024?

A fair bit, and these feel like good quality of life improvements too:

• Races are now called species to better distinguish that these are different creatures rather than a variation of a single creature type (which race implies)
• Ability scores are no longer tied to your species. Instead, they’re tied to your background (more on how that works later)
• Half species no longer get a separate species entry and are tackled differently (more on that later too)
• Small races no longer get a movement speed of 25ft, it’s now 30ft
• In fact, other disadvantages have been removed too, like a Drow’s sunlight sensitivity
• Innate spellcasting can use an ability score of your choice rather than one specified by the species
• More flexibility has been baked into the features allowing you to choose certain options whenever you use a feature instead of having to pick just one option at character creation
• Features have mostly been altered and improved to make them more useful and more in line with the flavour of that species
• Brand new artwork showcases each species in better ways (I’ve included a bunch of it in this article)

What we’re left with is a set of species that are more flexible than they were before. Older races in D&D 2014 felt pigeon holed towards certain classes, mainly due to their ability score improvements; this is no longer the case. Any class is much more viable with any species now, which makes sense as species can be hugely varied and every class should be an option for every race.

That doesn’t mean that certain species won’t fit certain classes better. For example, Goliath’s are now fast and tough which still suits a barbarian nicely, but that flavour now comes through the features, not the ability score improvements.

How will ability score increases work with backgrounds?

Backgrounds in D&D 2014 felt largely irrelevant. Yes you might get a couple of proficiencies out of them, but everything else was either incredibly minor, or largely just flavour. Now you get ability score improvements based on your background instead of your species.

This makes it easier to play the species you want to play and still be able to tailor your ability score increases to your chosen class.

How this works is a little different from how it worked for races in the past too. Each background will have 3 ability scores associated with it and you can choose to spread your 3 ability score points between these. You can either place 2 points in one ability score and 1 point in another, or you can place 1 point in each ability score.

If the background you want is not featured in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, but appears in a previous publications, you can still use it. There will be some rules to explain how to adapt these backgrounds to the 2024 method of applying ability score improvements.

What’s changing for each species?

There will be 10 species featured in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. All the species found in the 2014 Player’s Handbook are still there other than the half species plus we get the addition of the Aasimar, Orc and Goliath. These species are not new to D&D 5e, but they are new to the Player’s Handbook, indicating them as more common species within the planes of D&D.

Aasimar

Aasimars largely remain untouched since their iteration in Monsters of the Multiverse. However, celestial revelation has been tweaked and improved slightly. Instead of choosing one of the 3 ways your celestial revelation manifests itself when you hit level 3, you now have all these options available to you at all times and you can choose which transformation you take according to the situation.

This means greater flexibility and means martials (who would usually pick the frightening necrotic shroud or damage dealing radiant consumption) now aren’t left without flight options. And vice versa for spellcasters with occasions when a sorcerer might need to terrify the enemies that have suddenly surrounded them.

This does shift the flavour of the species away from different variants of Aasimar even more (with old versions of the race tying abilities to whether you were a protector, scourge or fallen Aasimar). Instead, the flavour is around how your features are made manifest from your mood or even your needs with all these options innately available to an Aasimar.

Dragonborn

Dragonborn can now use their breath weapon more like they can in the updated version in Treasury of Dragons. Instead of requiring your entire action (which was suboptimal for martials who were the most likely to use this anyway), it now only takes up a single attack from your attack action. For the likes of fighters and monks, this becomes hugely useful as you level up as now you have an AoE attack without sacrificing your other attacks.

On top of this, you can now choose whether this is shot in a line or a cone. Previously this was determined by your subspecies, but usually cones were better meaning the Chromatic Dragonborn was at a disadvantage. But sometimes, your enemies line up for you down a corridor and you just want to shoot that line of breath, so now you get to choose.

Finally, at level 5, it seems all Dragonborn get access to the Gem Dragonborn’s spectral wings that can be sprouted for temporary flight. Temporary flight is a hugely useful feature and now, between deadly breath, elemental resistance and flight, your Dragonborn properly embodies the majesty of their dragon-kin.

Dwarves

All Dwarves now get Dwarven toughness, which gives you an extra HP per level, which was definitely one of their most useful features. Darkvision is now 120ft rather than 60ft because, let’s be honest, with all that mining and living underground, Dwarves should really be great at seeing in the dark. You also get 30ft of movement rather than 25ft.

Finally, stonecunning has been replaced as it was incredibly niche and generally un-useful (how often do you ever check the origin of stonework)!? Instead, they now get tremorsense, allowing them to sense the movements of another creature or something else moving on the same surface as you. It’s a somewhat more useful tracking ability but generally, survival skills go a bit underutilised in D&D. I can see that happening here too, but at least I can see this being somewhat useful on a semi-regular basis.

Elves

Elves can now choose their skill proficiency for keen senses from one of insight, perception or survival. Perception is already generally useful, but more options is always better and insight is another broadly great skill. Survival gets used less but makes sense for the mechanics of an Elf.

Each Elf subspecies also gets a spell known at levels 3 and 5 that is unique to that species. For example, Wood Elves get longstrider at level 3 and pass without trace at level 5.

Some other changes come in for the subspecies too:

• Drow: No longer get sunlight sensitivity (this made Drow practically unusable in campaigns not set primarily underground).
• High Elf: Don’t have to choose a permanent cantrip and can instead change this after every long rest. Their default starting cantrip is prestidigitation. This means you can adjust your cantrip as you level up and your character changes while also altering the spell based on the needs of the next day.
• Wood Elf: Mask of the wild has been swapped for knowledge of the druidcraft cantrip. This doesn’t feel like an upgrade as druidcraft is largely just flavour. Mask of the Wild was a little awkward as what constitutes being lightly obscured was very much up for interpretation, but at least had a practical role in making it easier to hide. However, pass without trace may be considered a replacement for this which would constitute an improvement.

Gnomes

Gnomes are no longer slow and get 30ft of movement like most other species.

Forest Gnomes have had speak with small beasts replaced by the spell speak with animals which can be cast a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. While it’s usable less often, this is far better as you’re not limited by animal type (and how often do you really need to speak with animals anyway)!

Rock Gnomes now get the mending and prestidigitation spells while their tinker devices seem to have their effects based on what prestidigitation can accomplish rather than a separate set of functions.

Goliaths

Goliaths get some of the biggest changes with a stronger link to their giant lineage. They now get:

• Increased movement speed: 35ft movement speed
• Large form: Can use a bonus action to turn themselves large which grants them an additional 10ft to their movement speed and gives advantage on strength checks. Note how this seems to stack with class features such as a barbarian’s increased movement speed and more powerful strength checks which you could now add advantage to as well.
• Little giant has been replaced by powerful build: You no longer get proficiency in athletics. Instead, you have advantage on saving throws to end the grappled condition and have an increased carrying capacity. I’m not convinced this is an improvement as these have more niche application, but perhaps this is to balance the improvements to other features.
• Giant ancestry: You can choose a type of giant to be descended from and gain improvements based on that giant type to aid you. For example, fire giant ancestry will grant you an extra 1d10 fire damage to an attack, while a stone giant ancestry will allow you to reduce damage taken by 1d12 + your constitution modifier. Presumably, this replaces stone’s endurance which has a similar impact to the stone giant ancestry. We don’t know the details of all the giant ancestry options, but they can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus each day.

Halflings

All Halflings now have the brave, Halfling nimbleness, luck and naturally stealthy traits. This was mainly the case already, but naturally stealthy was previously limited to Lightfoot Halflings In reality, all Halflings should be great at hiding so this is useful.

All Halflings now have a movement speed of 30ft too. Thankfully it’s less disadvantageous to be small now, especially as Halflings have always been considered nimble, being slower than everyone else always felt a bit frustrating.

Humans

Humans remain the versatile explorers established in the 2014 Player’s Handbook. They now get the following traits to exemplify this:

• Resourceful: Gain a single use of heroic inspiration every time they take a long rest (a guaranteed reroll each day is very useful).
• Skillful: Gain proficiency in any one skill you want.
• Versatile: Get an extra origin feat on top of the one you already gain at 1st level making Humans the masters of feats.

Orc

Orcs can now regain uses of adrenaline rush after a short or long rest (previously it was just after a long rest) allowing you to dash more and get temporary hit points more. Darkvision now has an improved range from 60ft to 120ft. However, they no longer have the powerful build feature (which wasn’t that useful anyway).

Tieflings

It seems that Tieflings no longer choose their subspecies based on an Archdevil or other aspect (for which there were many) but instead, this has been streamlined. Now, their fiendish legacy is based on one of the 3 lower planes; Infernal (devils), Abyssal (demons) and Chthonic (this doesn’t seem to be overly explained in D&D lore but Chthon is a fiendish tormentor of souls who perhaps doesn’t fit into either the infernal or abyssal delineations that currently exist, and perhaps we’ll see a new lore around chthon appear soon).

Each fiendish legacy has an associated resistance and spells known that come in at levels 3 and 5. For example, the Chthonic Tiefling gets false life and ray of enfeeblement. They also get 2 cantrips from level 1; thaumaturgy and a unique cantrip associated with their infernal legacy.

What’s happened to half species?

You may have noticed that Half-Elves and Half-Orcs are missing from the list of 2024 species. This is because half species are being tackled differently in D&D 2024.

Because Half species could be half of any species (not just Humans and Orcs or Humans and Elves) limiting these Half species felt reductive. Instead, you can pair any set of species you like. Want a half Goliath, half Halfling character (a Golfling?), go for it (the practicalities of producing offspring seems inconvenient here, but this is fantasy after all)! Or maybe you want a half Tiefling, half Aasimar (an Aasling, or a Tiefimar?) combo for the ultimate in meshed infernal/celestial attributes. Well that’s an option too!

The way this works is you simply choose which species is most prevalent in your character and choose their features. Sadly, mixing and matching features was too challenging (which is unsurprising) but allows you to have the flavour of any half species with balanced abilities.

That’s everything we know about what’s changing to races/species in D&D 2024. Mainly, they feel like good quality of life improvements without having vast changes to how species work beyond what we’d already seen in Monsters of the Multiverse.

What do you think of the changes to races? Let me know in the comments below.

Spotlight on the D&D 2024 revision

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