Dodging and diving; learn to play as this agile, simian race with our optimisation guide.
What are the Hadozee?
The Hadozee are simian humanoids that have travelled across wildspace in Spelljammer ships. While not common throughout the D&D universe, they can be found in many places.
They are native to the world of Yazir and once lived peaceful lives in the trees there. That is until a wizard and his apprentices arrived. They fed the Hadozee ancestors an elixir that altered their appearance and intellect making them larger, stronger and more self-aware. This wizard though, intended to sell the Hadozee as slaves. Learning of this plot, the Hadozee rose up against the wizard with the aid of his apprentices and overthrew him.
From their evolution centuries ago, they have made their way to the stars. While they have no technology to build spelljammer ships of their own, they’re often keen to be hired as mercenaries and deckhands on other spelljammer ships. They often work co-cooperatively with the elves of wildspace in this manner.
Is a Hadozee right 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 Hadozee you might consider the following:
Choose a Hadozee if you like…
- Being tough
- Being safe climbing to high up places
- Monkeys!
A Hadozee might not be for you if…
- You intend to stay away from danger
- Would rather just fly than glide
- Hate monkeys!
If you think a Hadozee 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 tough race, you could consider a Goliath or an Orc.
Hadozee 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 | 30ft (climbing and walking) |
| Languages | Common and one other language |
| Traits | Dextrous Feet, Glide, Hadozee Resilience |
| Proficiencies | None |
| Resistances | None |
| Darkvision | No |
| Innate Spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Spelljammer: Adventures in Space |
Tactics
In some ways, the Hadozee merge great traits from a couple of races and make them slightly worse; but having both options makes them solid. Hadozee resilience is a weaker version of a Goliath’s damage reduction while glide is inferior to actual flight which several races (like Fairies, Aarakocra and Owlins have).
Specialism can be great, but as can having a broader skillset and a Hadozee is for those that don’t just want to be one thing or another. You can try some of the following tactics for you Hadozee character:
Height is your friend: Heights can be deadly (both in life and D&D) but the Hadozee are mostly safe from this hazard as you can use your reaction to glide to safety. You’re also the safe pair of hands for any acrobatics up high. Of course, flight is better, but not many races have this option either.
Surviving a beating: Although Hadozee Resilience doesn’t stack up with Goliath endurance (they get d12 + constitution modifier off of some damage), it’s still a powerful tool. It’s certainly weaker than a Goliath’s ability at lower levels, but as your proficiency bonus increases at higher levels, it can stack up against this ability too. Either way, you take less damage so melee fighters can tacke a bit more of a beating.
While the old version of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space allowed for some weird and wonderful ways to increase your movement speed with some running, jumping and gliding, that’s essentially been removed from the republished version. The handy thing to note is if you do fall, you use your reaction to glide and it allows you some additional movement (up to your walking speed) as part of this reaction. This means if you do fall, you can also niftily move yourself around the battlefield. This is a rare occurrence in combat though so not a tactic to rely on.
Which class should I choose?
Glide is universally useful as long as you’re going to be in high up places a lot. If not, it’s very difficult to recommend so really, we want to build around your extra toughness.
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Hadozee 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 a Hadozee
Really, we’re looking at maximising the fact that Hadozee are more durable than other races. Any other traits are just too niche in their application to build around. This means we’re looking at melee classes and particularly tanks (who need to soak up a lot of damage) and the squishier melee classes like battle smith artificers, and hexblade warlocks.
I’d suggest the following as the best options for a Hadozee:
For all of these classes, the main tactic is just let your Hadozee resilience soak up a bit of extra damage. For artificers, this is most effective if you’re playing a battle smith or armorer. Special mentions go to the hexblade warlock and the college of swords and valor bards who might also want to get into the fray and will need the extra protection of Hadozee resilience.
Worst classes for a Hadozee
Extra toughness is generally good and all classes take damage in combat. You may find you get less out of Hadozee resilience if you’re a ranged character though and often, these same characters are less likely to glide as they’re less likely to be scouting at the front of the party or throwing themselves in danger’s way.
While not bad options, I’d say you’ll get less out of a Hadozee if you’re playing a Wizard, Warlock, Sorcerer or Bard (other than the subclasses mentioned previously).
On top of this, rogues, with their uncanny dodge, will only enjoy the extra resilience of a Hadozee till level 5. Uncanny dodge is just superior and an ability for 4 levels isn’t useful enough.
Monks on the other hand, are less prone to fall damage making glide less useful. Despite the fact that they’ll enjoy the extra resilience, if this is all you get from a Hadozee, you might as well play a Goliath.
About the Hadozee
Appearance
The Hadozee share many features in common with monkeys such as prehensile feet with opposable thumbs, a furry body and a snout. They differ in appearance from their simian cousins through the lack of a tail and their taller, skinnier frame which, although muscular and stooped, stands about 5.5-6ft tall. They also have skin stretching from their arms to their legs that they can use to glide from lofty positions.
Roleplaying as a Hadozee
There are many ways you can play as a Hadozee but below are a few ideas you could use for your character:
- Deckhand – You work on a Spelljammer ship. You’ve always dreamed of being the captain or some great adventurer, but life’s never given you the opportunity… until now. Perhaps space pirates attacked and you helped fend them off or all the crew died leaving you to sail this ship. Perhaps a local hero has picked you to be their apprentice. Whatever the opportunity, you’ve grasped it with both hands (and feet) and haven’t looked back.
- Freedom fighter – Your family or tribe were captured and you now fight against those aggressors that kidnap and perform other unspeakable acts.
- Sword for hire – You use your natural agility and resilience to fight and protect (or even attack). The right price will persuade you to take on any job, no matter how reprehensible.
Other playable races
Not sure a Hadozee is the right race for you? Not a problem, there are loads of other playable races in D&D 5e. Check out our guides for them all below:
