Perennial poisoners! Learn to optimise a Grung with our guide
What are the Grung?
Grungs are frog-like humanoids that inhabit forests and tropical jungles. Despite their small size (about 2.5-3.5ft tall), they’re highly aggressive and fiercely territorial, rarely allowing other races to enter their territory; unless it’s as a slave.
The Grung are intelligent creatures and when not being hostile, can co-operate with other species, particularly when they’ve left their territory. They are also a playable character in D&D 5e having been introduced in One Grung Above (which you can buy from DM’s Guild). Our guide will show you how to optimise these diminutive little fellows. Just remember, while a Wizards of the Coast release, it’s not technically an official playable race so check with your DM before you create a Grung character.
Is a Grung the right race 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 a Grung you might consider the following:
Choose a Grung if you like…
- Being tough against poison
- Dealing lots of extra poison damage
- Climbing
- Breathing underwater
- Love frogs
A Grung might not be for you if…
- You care little for extra resilience
- Like to keep your feet on the ground
- Don’t want to put up with the awkwardness of getting in water everyday
If you think a Grung 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 climbing race, you could consider a Tabaxi or a Hadozee.
Grung racial traits
| Ability Scores | +2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Small |
| Speed | 25ft (walking and climbing) |
| Languages | Grung |
| Traits | Amphibious, Poison Immunity, Poisonous Skin, Standing Leap, Water Dependency |
| Proficiencies | Perception |
| Resistances | Poison and poisoned (immunity) |
| Darkvision | No |
| Innate Spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | One Grung Above |
Tactics
Grung are a tad unusual in that they do need to stay near water everyday or suffer from exhaustion. Beyond that though, they get some powerful abilities that make them tougher, deal more damage and give them versatility when climbing and going underwater.
Amphibious: Grung are one of a handful of races that can breath underwater. A handy ability for sea-based campaigns allowing you to avoid suffocation and cast spells underwater. It’s a fairly circumstantial ability but talk to your DM to see if there might be opportunities to make use of it.
Dextrous: Grung get a boost to their dexterity and constitution making them ideal for dexterity based classes. Think about how you use dexterity to complement your other abilities. For instance, you’re.proficient in perception which complements stealth well (which is a dexterity based skill) so consider going for a stealthy character. Look at building around dexterity based weapons too (more on that in the next section).
Piercing and poison: You can apply poison damage to your attacks adding an extra 2d4 to the damage, as long as you use a piercing weapon. This is hugely powerful for martial classes that tend to use weapons, especially those with extra attacks (there doesn’t seem to be a restriction on how often this ability is used). Make sure you grab piercing weapons like a longbow, rapier or short sword. As a Dex based race though, you’ll want to make sure these are ranged or finesse weapons so you can use your enhanced dexterity with these weapons.
Which class should I choose?
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Grung based on how well the ability scores and 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 a Grung
Dexterity based weapons wielders that will benefit from a bit of extra resilience are your best options. Classes with extra attacks will work well for your extra poison damage per attack too. This makes fighters your best options with rangers making a close 2nd. Paladins can work in this way as can monks, just remember that monks will make their extra attacks as unarmed strikes which won’t benefit from extra poison damage.
Worst classes for a Grung
Basically any classes that won’t be making weapon attacks with piercing weapons or making use of dexterity much. Mainly, this is going to be dedicated Spellcasters like wizards, sorcerers, clerics and warlocks.
About the Grung
Appearance
Grung are short humanoids that have the appearance of bipedal frogs. They’re only about 2.5-3.5ft tall making them smaller than most other playable races. They have skin that secretes poisonous substances and is dangerous for any race other than a Grung to touch. They also have a pair of powerful legs enabling them to jump a considerable distance.
The Grung are amphibious creatures and don’t just need water to drink like most other races, they also need to immerse themselves in it regularly. A Grung that doesn’t immerse itself in water for at least 1 hour a day will become exhausted (unlike a Human which will just become smelly).
Society
The Grung follow a strict caste hierarchy within their tribes with the colour of their skin reflecting their position in the caste system and the roles available for them to take on. All Grung are born a grey colour, but their skin colour is transformed to associate them with their given caste as they grow into adulthood. From lowest to highest, the following colours form the caste to which a Grung belongs:
- Green – Warriors, hunters and labourers
- Blue – Artisans and domestic workers
- Purple – Administrators and commanders
- Red – Scholars and magic users
- Orange – Elite warriors
- Gold – Leaders including the sovereign of the tribe
Normally, a Grung remains in their caste for life, but under exceptional circumstances, a Grung can be accepted into a higher caste through excellent service. That Grung is transformed in colour through a ceremony involving herbal tonics and magic rituals. From this point onwards, that Grung and their progeny are members of their new caste.
Grungs support their caste system through the capture of slaves that they use for all kinds of menial tasks. While you might expect the small Grung to struggle to keep captive some of the larger races, they’re able to use mildly poisonous concoctions to keep their slaves lethargic. Unfortunately, doing this for a prolonged period of time will result in mental deterioration that can only be cured through magic.
How to roleplay as a Grung
Most Grung don’t mix well with other races and tend to stick to their tribe, however, those that choose to leave their tribe are likely outliers within Grung society. Perhaps they dislike their lot in the caste system, abhor the treatment of slaves or some other reason.
With this being the case, you likely aren’t a lot like other Grung. having said that, your biology and culture will likely shape aspects of who you are. The following should be considered when making a Grung character:
- Moral views – Most Grung view slavery as acceptable (as long as they’re the ones doing the enslaving). Not all Grung share this view, but you may want to consider your character’s views on the issue. While characters taking part in slavery is against D&D rules, your character may be indifferent towards the practice which can be common in the universe of D&D. Grung social structure also prevents the upward mobility that other societies have, pigeon-holing caste members into certain roles. Do you share these views and how does it affect your behaviour?
- Frog out of water – You need to be in water regularly for survival. How do you accommodate this need? And how do you react when away from water for an extended period of time? In this regard, the Grung are awkward to accommodate on an adventure and is something to consider when choosing this race.
- Lawful evil? – Most Grung are lawful evil. Their strict caste system teaches them obedience to their laws, but their unjust systems also lean towards tendencies of selfishness and greed. Do you share these attitudes? And if not, then why not?
