Newest 5E D&D Unearthed Arcana Reaches for the Stars with Travelers of the Multiverse

A fresh batch of Unearthed Arcana playtest material for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons whisks nerds through the multiverse with a collection of fantastic races. I’m not the only one positively ecstatic to see these Travelers of the Multiverse as playable race options for 5E D&D since they’re drawn from a variety of beloved classic D&D settings of Spelljammer, Planescape and Dark Sun. Let’s get into it.

Multiverse race options for 5E D&D

One of the revelations from the recent D&D Celebration was a teaser shared by Chris Perkins who showed an illustration from an upcoming release in the works. If I recall correct the image-in-progress looked like the work of Hydro74 who’s done the variant cover illustrations for several 5E D&D books. The image depicted a giant space hamster, a creature synonymous with the Spelljammer setting — my personal No. 1 favorite. I don’t like to get my hopes up or develop any expectations about the future of D&D really, but after I saw the playtest playable race options in Unearthed Arcana — Travelers of the Multiverse I’m allowing myself a bit of a squee!

This playtest material reflects the expanded scope of 5E D&D character creation, which invites players to determine their own ability score increases and appropriate languages, includes creature types beyond humanoid and presents generalized guidelines for life span, height and weight. The fairy and harengon races from Wild Beyond the Witchlight follow this model too and this alternative direction is largely embraced by 5E D&D players. I’m quite fond of this new direction because it creates the paradigm of players personalizing the details of their own games more than ever before since there’s less emphasis on codified lore and minutiae.

Astral Elf

So many of the core races of D&D seem to splinter into subraces adapted to all sorts of scenarios. It’s a little weird now that I think about it and these astral elves are no exception. Because of their time in the Astral Plane these elves possess a strange relationship with time, not the least of which means they’re thousands of years old! What a fantastic perspective to explore during a campaign.

I thought it was unusual to see darkvision as a trait since it’s an elf subrace but I suppose keeping new content self-contained makes sense. Although if that’s the case I’m not sure why creatures from the radiant Silver Void developed sense to see in the dark. These elves’ spark of divine light manifests through spellcasting (dancing lights, light or sacred flame) along with standard elf traits of Fey Ascestry, Keen Senses and Trance, the last of which grants two proficiencies (weapon or tool) mystically acquired through shared memory. To top off the traits Radiant Soul restores hit points on any successful death saving throw once per long rest.

Autognome

Robots! The gnome aptitude for mechanical engineering is well documented in D&D history. This playable race option represents perhaps the pinnacle of this penchant in the form of an autonomous mechanical being. Unlike warforged, the defacto “robot” race in D&D the autognome is a true construct of individualized creation with programming and everything. I adore not only the invitation to imagine an autognome’s manufacture — “one autognome might have an actual beating heart in its chest cavity, while another might be powered by stardust or intricate clockwork gears — but also the Autohome History table. These story beats shape the inciting incident spurring an autognome to a life of adventure.

There’s a nifty similarity in theme between the autognome and Clockwork Soul sorcerer I really dig in the Built for Success trait, which helps “correct” a potential failure. Admittedly the connection is closer to one of the Divine Soul’s features but Clockwork Soul makes a more thematic pairing and I just kept the analogy going. Come at me. An autognome’s Armored Casing provides built-in AC 13 while their Mechanical Nature grants a variety of benefits. Long rests only take six hours for an autognome and they gain proficiency with two tools. Most interesting to me from a design perspective is the True Life trait, which provides a workaround for healing magic but also opens a window for using Hit Dice to heal outside of a short rest.

Giff

It doesn’t get any more Spelljammer than this. Hippopotamus people with a genteel military culture became something of a poster child for D&D’s most gonzo campaign setting. When my turn in the hot seat for our Tuesday night campaigns came around I was over the moon when Nerdarchist Dave declared he’d be playing a giff for Ingest Quest 2 and he did not disappoint. We developed our own memorable contributions to giff culture and seeing these amazing creatures show up in 5E D&D as a playable race option takes it a step closer than Volo’s Guide to Monsters and that much more possibility for Spelljammer making an official comeback.

When it comes to mechanics the giff traits are rather short and sweet. They enjoy a swimming speed and reroll once per turn they can reroll a damage die when the result is 1, plus they have advantage on Strength stuff combined with Powerful Build in the form of Hippo Build. If I’m honest these traits feel incredibly underwhelming and I’m wondering if something got clipped out on accident.

Hadozee

My only personal experience with hadozee came in 3.5 D&D when a friend played a hadozee ninja teamed up with my catfolk scout for a two player campaign. I want to say they were in the aquatic adventure sourcebook Stormwrack. These membrane-winged apelike humanoids are also reminiscent of the yazirians from the old Star Frontiers RPG. I’m extremely curious to see how this fun playable race becomes incorporated into 5E D&D. The Unearthed Arcana entry mentions their home world and how large natural predators hunted them there and I want to learn more about this place!

Giving players the option to choose Small or Medium for their character’s size is a great new touch with the expanded scope of character creation and the choice shows up here for hadozee. They’ve also got a climbing speed and a trait letting them take the Use an Object action as a bonus action, which is pretty dope considering the implication is they’re using their Dexterous Feet for this. The membrane between their arms and legs allows them to Glide as well, making falls and falling damage something they needn’t worry about.

Plasmoid

It’s no secret I’m a huge nerd when it comes to weird stuff like ooze people so I’ve got to count these amorphous beings as my No. 1 pick from Unearthed Arcana — Travelers of the Multiverse. The flavor section of the entry doesn’t even hint at any sort of lore and instead sells the sizzle for how vastly different these creatures are from, well, anything really. Playing a plasmoid character can give players a chance to truly experience a wildly different perspective and I’m totally here for this.

They have me at “you are an ooze.” Small or Medium you’ve only got a walking speed and I would happily give up their darkvision for something like spider climb so you could slurp along all over the place. Some resistance and the ability to hold their breath for an hour are situationally useful but their Shape Self is the creme-de-la-creme of features. It’s not terribly impressive mechanically but essentially it gives players carte blanche to embrace that blob of ooze life to the fullest.

Thri-Kreen

Fans of Dark Sun have almost certainly been chittering with elation since Unearthed Arcana — Travelers of the Multiverse dropped thanks to these insectoids. Similar to how the giff encapsulte the Spelljammer vibe thri-kreen are quintessential Dark Sun inhabitants. I’ve never been able to divorce my view of thri-kreen from the comic accompanying the Yars Revenge Atari game and I’m perfectly okay with this. In fact I’m already imagining the character build possibilities of this.

Thri-kreen most notably show up as a Monstrosity creature type. Exploring beyond humanoids for playable races is such a great step for 5E D&D. I’m not feeling the choice of size for this one though and since this change doesn’t seem like it’s across the board I’m curious why it’s included here. Thri-kreen are typically portrayed as quite large and intimidating as I recall. In addition to providing built-in AC 13 their Chameleon Carapace blends in with surroundings for Stealth advantage. Secondary Arms allows for some fun interactions and these insectoid monstrosities require no sleep and to top it all off they posses Thri-kreen Telepathy.

Unearthed Arcana 2021 — Travelers of the Multiverse final thoughts

The way 5E D&D moves towards embracing it’s own fantastical multiverse far removed from quasi-medieval trappings has been a joy to experience. Keep all this weirdness coming! Providing pathways for players to explore limitless corners of our imaginations has been the appeal of D&D and RPGs since the beginning so I welcome the wildness.

A big part of our professional life here at Nerdarchy is game design and in our own experiences we’ve incorporated this and a lot of other classic elements into our 5E D&D games. Despite this it’s still very cool to see whenever this kind of content shows up from the official source. You don’t need a 5E D&D rulebook to give permission for adventures in fantasy space, post-apocalyptic desert planets, multiversal hub cities or anything else but it’s still neat to see the content that’ll endure henceforth throughout D&D history.

For my most personal D&D games, which take place in my own campaign setting, I welcome players with any sort of character. Every character brings new ideas and fresh concepts to the table and I love incorporating them into the expanding world. Each time I run an adventure in the place I feel like the characters leave their own unique mark. So what if I never considered the possibility of plasmoids or hadozee? A world is a big place and a multiverse even bigger. Bring them on!

What do you think? If you haven’t yet checked out Unearthed Arcana 2021 — Travelers of the Multiverse I recommend seeing what these race options can add to your 5E D&D games and share your thoughts and perspectives. Go get to it and as always, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — Planescape, Spelljammer and Dark Sun are all classic campaign settings from the second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons era. The playable race options from Unearthed Arcana — Travelers of the Multiverse draw on these beloved settings and offer a glimpse into what we might see in the future of 5E D&D. [Composite images courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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