Which 2014 Races Have Improved With The D&D 2024 (5.5e) Revision?

Digging into how the new 5e rules might help 2014 races.

With the introduction of D&D 2024 comes a bunch of rule tweaks, new mechanics and changes to spells, feats and many other things.

This revised ruleset remains compatible with 2014 races, specifically those that haven’t been replaced in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. As I’ve been trawling through the rules, I’ve realised that some of these races actually get better thanks to changes to how the rules and mechanics work. In this article, I’ve put the spotlight on some of these races.

So maybe it’s time to dust off Monsters of the Multiverse and use some of those legacy races.

Races with bonus damage from unarmed strikes

Circle of stars druid — Centaur: Wizards of the Coast

This includes; Centaurs, Leonin, Lizardfolk, Minotaurs, Satyrs, Shifters (Longtooth), Simic Hybrids, Tabaxi and Tortles.

Unarmed strikes got buffed a little in D&D 2024. Now you can use them to make grapples and shoves. But more particularly, the tavern brawler and grappler feats let you make a shove or grapple as part of the unarmed strike.

Some races in D&D 2014 have bonus damage to their unarmed strikes (which is usually set to 1 + your strength modifier). Tavern brawler will make this 1d4 + your strength modifier but most of the above races get 1d6 + your strength modifier. While not as good as a monk, this is better than anything else when it comes to unarmed strikes, and simultaneously grappling is a pretty strong option. You couldn’t combine these effects in the same attack in D&D 2014.

Minotaurs are particularly good here as they get the damage boost but can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action and also push their target 10ft which can be combined with shove to send your target 20ft if you like!

The Simic Hybrid also deserves a special mention. With their grappling appendages, they can make unarmed strikes and with the grappler feat, attempt a grapple, and attempt another grapple as a bonus action if they fail.

I also love the idea of a Centaur kicking with it’s hooves and somehow grappling at the same time! At least shoving makes sense here.

Bugbears with long reach

Bugbears get an extra 5ft of reach for their melee attacks. While generally very useful, it gains extra uses when you take the cleave weapon mastery property. This allows you to strike an additional creature within 5ft of the original target as long as it’s within reach. This means you can target creatures behind the original target making it easier to use this feature. To make this even better, grab a halberd, which has the cleave property for a 15ft reach.

Alternatively, combine this with the warrior of the elements monk which gains an extra 10ft of reach giving you a total of 20ft reach!

Sadly, Bugbears also lose out a little as well with the new surprised rules. This means surprised creatures get disadvantage on their initiative rolls rather than a round were they can’t take a turn.

This impacts the bugbear’s surprise attacks which gives them extra damage against enemies that haven’t already taken a turn in combat.

Autognomes and Warforged with their tool proficiencies

Autognomes and Warforged get extra tool proficiencies (2 for an Autognome). D&D 2024 brought with it some major improvements to crafting making tool proficiencies more important. It’s a small buff, but a potentially handy one if you intend to do a lot of crafting.

Earth Genasi with improved blade ward

A lot of spells were improved with the rules revision and blade ward was one of those. Earth Genasi get this spell as an innate spell.

In D&D 2014, this spell was pretty useless. Now it reduces the attack rolls against the target by 1d4 for a minute. It’s a much improved spell and decent enough if you’ve got nothing else to concentrate on.

Kobolds who can choose any cantrip with draconic sorcery

Along a similar vein, kobolds are able to make their choice of any cantrip with draconic sorcery. As mentioned above, many spells were improved in D&D 2024, including blade ward, but also true strike which can make a wrong option for single attack classes like rogues.

Shifters preventing advantage on attacks rolls

I’ve already highlighted shifters and their longtooth form. If you opt instead for the wildhunt form, you can prevent enemies making attacks with advantage against you if they’re within 30ft.

This one (for now) is perhaps a little speculative, but the new character options give a lot more ways that characters can gain advantage on attacks (like the topple weapon mastery property for example). I suspect that the new Monster Manual will also bring changes to monsters giving them similar features to gain the upper hand in combat too. If true, this would make the wildhunt form more useful.

Have you spotted any improvements to 2014 races with the new rules? Let me know in the comments below.