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D&D Ideas — Races

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is races, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of races we put together a collection of five racing teams, two backgrounds and semi-sentient vehicles with guidelines for incorporating arcanotechnological vehicles along with a high-octane race straight from Nerdarchist Dave’s Under the Dome campaign. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

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Lift your gloom with the week that was! Make your ranger’s home in the darkest places more cozy, take a Dungeon Master break once in a while and learn to play the Nerdarchy Way! Plus a chat with an industry pro and our weekly topical live chat round out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

Race as a topic takes me in two different directions for Dungeons & Dragons. One is of course the D&D races like elf and dwarf. Another is a contest of speed.

The very first session of my Under the Dome campaign kicked off with a big race. We cleaned up the rules I used to run the race along with five teams of racers, two new backgrounds and the vehicles themselves, which are semi-sentient motorcycles, to create the Racing Chances module as a reward for our Patreon supporters here. Since we post all the rewards right there on the page any supporters can always go back and find all the previous rewards.

I think I’ll skip out on discussing D&D races in favor of running race scenarios in your game. More specifically I’m thinking about running combat during a race. You could do it as a skill challenge in the style of fourth edition D&D but I’m going to keep things even simpler.

• Build an encounter just like you normally would but don’t pick any slow or flying monsters.
• Set a minimum speed (I like 20 ft.)
• Pick a threat that is moving at this speed like a wall of fire, lava flow, boulder, avalanche of ice and snow, packs of snarling beasts, rapidly growing thorny vines, a veil of shadow or whatever creeping doom sounds cool to you.
• Get yourself two counters. One counter tracks how long it takes player characters to get away from the moving threat. The second measures how long PCs can continue to be subjected to the threat before it escalates.
  • The first counter is easy peasy — just pick a number of rounds (5-10 is a good number).
  • The second counter is for bad stuff happening to characters so likely damage, exhaustion (not recommended) or a debilitating effect like a shadow’s Strength Drain.
• Determine the bad stuff. This is an effect like damage or whatever you choose. I’d look at Trap Save DCs and Attack Bounses and Damage Severity by Level in chapter five of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Consider the nature of your threat, decide the damage type or effect and use those resources to determine the damage, save DCs and attack bonuses that fit your intended challenge level.

Let’s put all this together in an encounter:

The party encounters a war band of orcs on the side of a mountain during the winter or in an arctic region. The orcs attack and after round 1 the noise of battle triggers an avalanche of ice and snow coming towards the battle.

The avalanche will surely sweep over everyone if something isn’t done. It’s moving at 20 feet each round and moves on initiative count 20. It starts 20 feet away from the battle. As long as everyone keeps moving at least 20 feet around for 5 rounds they stay ahead of the avalanche of ice and snow. These orcs aren’t interested in giving up the fight so they continue the combat as running battle. The orcs move their full speed and attack characters every round.

The area covered by the avalanche is difficult terrain. The first time the avalanche reaches a creature they must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 2d10 bludgeoning damage and 2d10 cold damage on a failed save and half as much on a successful one. A creature who fails the save must also succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone. A creature who stays in contact with avalanche for three consecutive rounds begin suffocating.

“Suffocating. A creature can hold its breath for a number of minutes equal to 1 + its Constitution modifier (minimum of 30 seconds). When a creature runs out of breath or is choking, it can survive for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 round). At the start of its next turn, it drops to 0 hit points and is dying, and it can’t regain hit points or be stabilized until it can breathe again. For example, a creature with a Constitution of 14 can hold its breath for 3 minutes. If it starts suffocating, it has 2 rounds to reach air before it drops to 0 hit points. Terrain, spells, and tactics can make this even more interesting. As a DM you might add in obstacles that require athletics or acrobatics check to avoid. Players or the orcs might try to shove each other prone to make them lose precious movement. Spells that slow, impede, or otherwise hamper become a lot more effective.” — from the fifth edition D&D Basic Rules

From Ted’s Head

With all the big talk about One D&D there is lots of chatter about all the changes coming to our fabulous game of Dungeons & Dragons. In some ways people are racing to get their thoughts out about all the changes. The way I look at it there will always be things I do differently at my table than what the rules indicate. Heck, one player was shocked this past week when I told him he could down a healing potion as a bonus action in my games. Healing potions are just one of the many things that differ from table to table.

Rather than share my frustrations about how the culture of races is being altered and changed from the game I am going in another direction. I am going to talk about races as in contests of speed. After all isn’t the fun part of our weekly topics looking at them from a different perspective? My son is on the cross country team in his high school and on the day I am writing this he shaved over four minutes off of his time. Way to go, son! How would I do a race in D&D that was more than just Athletics checks and Constitution checks?

Just like a dungeon, a race can have a path with multiple options and multiple hazards. On a recent episode of Critical Role, Matt had the characters participating in what was essentially a car-like Death Race. I would do something similar but remove the vehicle option. With multiple paths and obstacles you would have to make choices, skill checks, saving throws and more just to get to the end.

Survival would help you choose the right path, Insight and Perception allowing you to see what the other racers are doing. Athletics and Acrobatics along with Strength and Dexterity saving throws all allow you to avoid hazards and obstacles of one kind or another. Constitution saving throws represent your endurance as you get further and further into the race. Characters will make multiple checks throughout the race, which I would divide up into thirds or fourths with a check after you finish the first leg and then at the start of each leg thereafter to see how your endurance holds out.

Every failed check adds time to your overall performance meaning you succeed less. This is just way you could manage a race. Consider alternatively a magical race dealing with magical issues, puzzles and more. Imagine incorporating Investigation, History and Arcana into a race. Perhaps the individuals would have to remember a certain pattern (an Intelligence check could be used to remember such a thing). The possibilities for D&D races are endless if you open the concept up across all the skills, languages and tools. All you have to do is decide what kind of race you are interested in running.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

When I introduced our live chat with Nerdarchist Dave to talk about races in D&D with a call to rev his engines I could tell by the look on his face our conversation peeled out in a different direction than he expected. In my D&D games races come up pretty often in various forms and they’re a lot of fun every time. Characters have raced on foot, up a giant tree, through the phlogiston and tons of other permutations.

When it came time to bang out this editorial I find both my bosses zoomed me by delving into races in the competitive sense themselves. And well they should since races offer tremendous excitement, tension and drama. A race can certainly run with lower stakes than life and death and still be really fun but we’re also talking D&D so heck yeah the stakes can be astronomical.

I’m making a pit stop along the racetrack because a recent binge of Mad Max content including a playthrough of the 2015 video game gives me some ideas. Whether you’re racing against a terrifying super storm or navigating a challenging obstacle course you’ll want a character prepared for such ordeals. Since we’ve got a succinct methodology laid out for us in Unearthed Arcana for what makes up D&D Character Origins from a design perspective I put together a package fit to ride eternal, shiny and chrome.

D&D race — Wastelander

Aside from class the UA explains a character comprises a race, background and language. Race represents ancestry while background the character’s most formative period. I’m quite fond of Dave’s Under the Dome setting, which gives me Mad Max vibes but with magical catastrophe causing the desolation. Chaos crystals and scrap from ancient technology (it’s old Vargarian stuff!) emits strange radiation, changing the land in the wastes and those who dwell there.

Wastelanders are such people, whether they live huddled under the protection of a warlord or solitary lives as scavengers they exist far outside the scattered pockets of civilization (or any of the few giant domes). Exposure to the chaotic forces of the Wasteland have changed these survivors and over generations they’ve adapted to their harsh reality. Wastelanders lifespans are somewhat longer than the stock from whence they came.

Incredibly resourceful, they essentially survive and sometimes even thrive through honed instincts, sheer will and a knack for craftsmanship using any and all materials they can scavenge. Wastelanders’ appearance can vary hugely. Not only are they a race of people from wildly different origins who developed together out of necessity but the energies permeating everything around them cause any number of mutations. One trait all Wastelanders exhibit are pink and purple stains on their skin, typically their hands and faces, from the Grind that’s such a part of their lives.

Wastelander Traits

Creature Type: Humanoid

Size: Medium (about 4–7 feet tall) or Small (about 2–4 feet tall), chosen when you select this Race

Speed: 30 feet

Life Span: 120 years on average

As a Wastelander, you have these special traits.

Grindface. You benefit whenever Grind is involved. You can keep a vehicle running for days on a single pinch. You have advantage on any Charisma (Deception, Intimidation or Persuasion) checks you make related to Grind. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make to pilot a Grind powered vehicle.

Scavenger. As part of a short rest, you can gather scrap from a construct, elemental, ooze or vehicle to create one of the following items: a shield, a club, a javelin or 1d4 darts. If you create a weapon it deals an additional 1d4 damage the first time you attack with it. This additional damage is acid, bludgeoning, fire, lightning, piercing or slashing (your choice). To use this trait you need tinker’s tools.

Survivor. You have Proficiency in the Survival Skill.

Are you ready to race? Creating a race for your own setting opens a window for you to look at something you might not have seen before. You might consider how traditional races like elves and dwarves are unique in your world or create your own wholly new races to best represent your imaginative ideas. Coming up with ideas for this Wastelander made me think about who these people were and how they came to be, which not only informed how I came up with their traits but perhaps more importantly generated some cool ideas for what they bring to the table in terms of adventure and story potential.

If you don’t have a copy of Racing Chances (and why not?!) I feel like you could tweak things a little to make it work mostly by changing the Grindface trait. Pick a valuable resource from your campaign as a substitution for Grind and…heck it’s D&D just pick a spell or something instead. And stay nerdy!

*Featured image — Nerdarchist Dave’s Under the Dome campaign features magical motorcycles and chaotic wastelands. It also features chinchilla people! Learn more about these Nibblers in another post on Nerdarchy the Website here.

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