Analysing Species That Haven't Been Updated For D&D 2024 (5.5e) Yet

Diving into which species desperately need updating to the new rules and those we’re likely to see in the future.

With D&D 5.5e’s release a year and a half ago, we got a bunch of updated species. Most of these have managed to streamline designs, especially for older species in 5e like the Elf and Dwarf that both required a much needed spruce up.

While 5e species remain compatible with 5.5e, we can definitely look forward to some shiny, updated character options to play with. So for this article, I’m going to look at the absence of 5.5e species in a couple of ways; the likely suspects for a revamp and those that need updating the most.

Which species have already been updated?

We’ve had a few book releases for D&D 2024 with many of them updating old species. This includes:

Player’s Handbook

Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

Astarion’s Book of Hungers

Dhampir

I should also point out that the recently announced Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book has shown that we’ll be getting an updated hexblood and reborn as well as a new species, the lupin.

Which staple species do we expect an update for?

There remains a bunch of species that are staples of the D&D universe, but haven’t been updated yet. No I’m not talking about obscure aliens from far-flung corners of the Astral Sea here. This section is for classic species that are quite likely to be in line for an update at some point soon. I think these include:

Genasi

That’s all the different types of these elemental humanoids.

Goblinoids

I’m going to bundle goblins, bugbears and hobgoblins all together here. All of them are mainstays of the D&D universe, and playable Goblins have even featured in Critical Role.

Firbolgs

Which also leads me on to the humble firbolg. Another species popularised a bit by Critical Role’s actual play series.

Other Elves

Yes, we already have 4 subspecies of Elf (including the Khoravar who are basically half elves), but there are quite a lot of others. Eladrin and Shadar-Kai are probably the ones I’d expect to be updated the most.

Aarakocra

Where’s Jarnathan? We all need a Jarnathan for our hair-brained plan to work because when isn’t a flying species helpful? And while Honor Among Thieves may have given Aarakocra a bit of the spotlight, they were already carving their own niche as a flying species that could bypass many a DM’s carefully plotted plans.

Gith

The only species in Baldur’s Gate 3 to not be updated in D&D 2024. For everyone that ones to play their own version of Laezel, we wouldn’t mind a Gith update. And inclusion in Baldur’s Gate practically means they’re mainstream at this point.

Kobold

These little dragon kin are cunning and resourceful and another of the smaller, monstrous folk deserving of an update.

Tabaxi

My final entry on this list. There are plenty of cat people out there who just want to play a cat person. Let’s give the people what they want.

Which species need updating the most?

It’s not just about popularity and the mainstream though. We can all play any of the species named above by grabbing the relevant 5e book. However, some species do really need a spruce up, either because the design philosophy has shifted or because they don’t feel that satisfying to play.

That’s what this next list is about. Those species that are looking a bit old and tattered.

Fire Genasi

Fire Genasi have fire resistance and darkvision, which are both decent. However, their main attraction is their innate spellcasting. Burning hands is decent and produce flame is fine, but their heavy-hitting option is the 2nd level spell flame blade.

Unfortunately, flame blade is rubbish! Martials will deal less damage using it and spellcasters won’t usually want to get into melee and even if they did, other spells (including cantrips) can be equal or better to it at range. Fire Genasi just desperately need something better than flame blade to work with. Scorching ray or dragons breath would fit the bill.

Grung

Grungs are fairly unique among D&D species, but with that comes some fairly quirky features. The biggest problem is the fact that they need a daily bath, which isn’t always convenient when traversing dungeons. On top of that, they get a pair of immunities which tends to be steered away from as it stifles the capabilities of others too much.

Finally, they have some poison abilities that fail to scale their DC as you gain levels making them increasingly less useful. Also, coming into direct contact with skin can be a bit of a loose matter mechanically. For example, I might describe my attack as grazing their skin with my arm, does that count?

Locathah

The locathah is kind of uneven. Its features are really good, with the sacrifice of having to be submerged every 4hrs. This is more problematic than it is for a Grung and the only reasonable way to play them is to handwave this. They also have an AC boost that’s basically pointless as it’s the same as wearing studded leather which is so cheap this trait doesn’t matter.

You also have both a strength and dexterity boost which often don’t go well together (though you can ignore this with D&D 2024). But then leviathan will is a huge number of boosts to condition saving throws (6 to be precise), including very common options like charmed, frightened and poisoned.

Minotaur

Minotaurs are not great despite being updated in Monsters of the Multiverse (which had half an eye on the D&D 2024 design philosophy when it was written).

Hammering horns requires a bonus action to attempt a push when this comes as part of attacks with weapon mastery. This competes with goring rush which requires taking the dash action which is rare for classes other than rogues and monks, both of whom rely on their bonus action for other things and dexterity (while the minotaur leans heavily into strength). Horns then has very limited use cases as unarmed warriors usually have better unarmed attacks anyway (like monks) or you can easily enhance this with the unarmed fighting style (and even more than horns will provide). It just doesn’t really fit any class well.

Tabaxi

I don’t have a big problem with the Tabaxi like I do with the last few species. However, I find natural weapons are always a tricky sell because the classes that might benefit from them, generally already have access to better unarmed attacks (either because they’re a monk or can grab the unarmed fighting style).

Tabaxi suffer more here because they’re also geared around dexterity and strength which don’t normally get optimised far together. The only optimal class for a Tabaxi then, is a barbarian. That’s not to say that other classes gain nothing from a Tabaxi, but you kind of want to be using all your species has and not missing core traits because they don’t fit well together.

Verdan

Verdan aren’t in desperate need of an update, but I’d like to see some quality of life improvements. For instance, limited telepathy has the very vague mechanic that you can only receive simple communication back from a creature you have telepathy with, which is difficult to rule on precisely what can be conveyed. I also feel black blood healing is maybe too limited as that improved healing probably won’t be a huge deal, especially if a group isn’t playing long adventuring days.

All species that haven’t been updated for D&D 2024

Maybe you’re just wondering which species haven’t made it over to D&D 2024 yet. Well here’s a handy list of everyone missing from action. I’ve not included the species from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within in this list as it’ll soon become outdated:

Summary

Looking back over all the species, the good news is many species aren’t in desperate need of updating. Monsters of the Multiverse brought many species up to a decent standard and most of the species that did need a spruce up, were those already handled in the Player’s Handbook.

For the most part, that leaves us with a few species that are quite obscure and likely won’t get updated (like the Grung or Locathah). But I do think that’s OK and we should mostly be fine with the current drip feed of updated species options.

Analysing Species That Haven’t Been Updated for D&D 2024 (5.5e) yet

Which species have already been updated?