D&D-Folk
A race of Roleplayers for the World's
Greatest Roleplaying Game
Somewhere, hours after the sun has set, a basement is still filled with life. A couple of merry friends have gathered here, around a large oaken table with a hastely drawn map spread out in its center. Everyone has a quill and a sheet of parchment filled with numbers in front of them. And the sound of clicking and clacking dice echoes through the halls as miniature warriors and mages carved from wood and bones are moved around the map and the friends describe spells being cast and swords being swung. And finally, one of them, holding a big tome, says "The dragon dies. How do you want to do this?" - and the friends sigh in relief.
This is a group of D&D-Folk. A group of humans who have dedicated themselves to the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game. This is how they live, how they spend all their free time - together, in a basment, playing their game. But sometimes, a D&D-Folk wants to experience what they so far only have imagined, in real life - and thus they set out to become a real adventurer of flesh and blood exploring the real world instead of just pretending to be one represented by a wooden figurine on a hastily drawn, fictional map.
Great Skills and Gorgeous Dice
Thanks to their unparalleled dedication to roleplaying games, D&D-Folk have developed a special skillset as well as a love for acting, imagination and roleplaying in general. They are typically charismatic people, excellent at talking and at passing themselves off as someone else. However, D&D-
Folks also are known for their strong, almost unhealthy obsession with all kinds of dice. As they like to say, the dice giveth and the dice taketh away - after all, the dice represent fate in their imaginary worlds, they decide how the story goes and whether their characters succeed at slaying the dragon or die a horrible death. Many D&D-Folks have amassed a respectable collection of dice and know exactly which ones are their luckiest ones, their high rollers. And god forbid, nothing is worse for a D&D-Folk than someone touching their precious dice without permission...
Creating your Character
When you create your D&D character, you decide whether your character is a member of the human race or one of the game’s fantastical races, which include the race presented in this article. If you create a character using a race option presented here, follow these additional rules during character creation.
Abiltiy Score Increases
When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one of those scores by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to
increase. You’re free to follow those suggestions or to ignore them. Whichever scores you decide to increase, none of the scores can be raised above 20.
Languages
Your character can typically speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of widespread languages to choose from. The DM is free to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign.
Creature Type
Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race option presented here tells you what your character’s creature type is. Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the text of the cure wounds spell specifies that the spell doesn’t work on a creature that has the Construct type.
Life Span
The typical life span of a player character in the D&D multiverse is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure. Members of some races, such as dwarves and elves, can live for centuries—a fact noted in the description of the race.
Height and Weight
Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.
D&D-Folk Traits
When you choose the D&D-Folk as your race, you gain the following traits:
Creature Type. You are a humanoid.
Size. Humans vary widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Regardless of your position in that range, your size is Medium.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Roleplayer's Training You have proficiency in the Performance and Deception skills. You also have proficiency with the dice set and the disguise kit.
I have that new character concept... You have advantage on any Performance or Deception check you make when trying to pass yourself off as a different person.
These are my lucky dice... Your lucky dice never fail you. When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll. In addition, when you make an ability check using the dice set, treat a roll of 7 or lower on the d20 as an 8.
I can still play... Used to only eating a few snacks while staying for hours in a basement to play roleplaying games, you only need half as much food and water as normal to sustain yourself.
D&D is my life... You do not need to sleep and magic cannot put you to sleep. To take a long rest, you must spend 6 hours in a trance, during which you remain conscious. While in this trance you dream of your past imaginary adventures, of your fictional heroes and of all these character concepts you hope to eventually be able to play at your table.
I can never have enough dice... These shiny click-clack math rocks... so gorgeous! Whenever you see dice for sale, you must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by them for 1 minute. While charmed in this way, you are compelled to buy them at any cost. On a success, you have resisted the urge to buy new dice successfully and do not need to make the saving throw again until you finish your next long rest.
Racial Feats
As a D&D-Folk you have access to the following racial feats, which represent archetypes you might find at a typical D&D table.
The Creative
The Creative is dedicated to the story, the world and of course to their character. They are great at portraying their characters at the game table, come always up with creative backstories, funny sayings, unique ideas and like to cooperate.
- You gain proficiency with one type of artisan's tools or with one type of musical instrument.
- You learn the cantrip minor illusion and the 1st-level spell silent image, which you can cast once per long rest without using a spell slot. In addition, you can cast this spell with any spell slots you have.
- You gain one Bardic Inspiration die, which you can only use to roll on the Tales from Beyond table (College of Spirits). That die increases with your character level: to a d8 at 5th level, to a d10 at 10th level and to a d12 at 14th level. You regain this die when you finish a short or long rest.
The Min-Maxer
The Min-Maxer is dedicated to building the most optimal, most powerful character possible. They know the game's mechanics by their heart and have a talent for finding exploits, whether it is unclear wording or unintended interactions.
- Reduce your lowest ability score by 2 to a minimum of 1 and increase another ability score of your choice by 2 to a maximum of 20.
- As a bonus action, you can gain the benefits of the 1st level in one other class of your choice you haven't taken any levels in so far, excluding spells and hit points. These benefits last for 10 minutes. Once you have used this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
The Rules Lawyer
The Rules Lawyer might be the Dungeon Master himself or just a player - but regardless, they have a vast amount of knowledge about monsters and rules and easily recognize what exactly they are fighting, even if it tries to disguise itself as something else. Despite these monsters being fictional, this knowledge might come in helpful in real adventures, as fictional monsters might have been inspired by real ones.
- Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
- You gain proficiency in either the Arcana, History or Nature skill, and your proficiency bonus for any check using that skill is doubled.
- You can use a bonus action on your turn to make an Arcana, History or Nature check to recall information about a creature within 30 feet of you, such as its special abilities it might have or its damage resistances, immunities or vulnerabilities.
The Edgelord
The Edgelord is brooding in the darkest corner and loves tragic backstories, dark secrets, vengeance - and edgy characters. They rarely play a character with their parents still alive and love thievery and assassinations - and sometimes they give the art of necromancy a try.
- Accustomed to dark corners, you gain Darkvision out to a range of 60 feet.
- You gain proficiency in either the Sleight of Hand, Stealth or Intimidation skill and your proficiency bonus for any check using that skill is doubled.
- You learn the cantrip chill touch and the 1st-level spell wrathful smite, which you can cast once per long rest without using a spell slot. In addition, you can cast this spell with any spell slots you have.
The Dungeon Master
The Dungeon Master keeps the game running. They create the world itself with all of its cities, villages and dungeons, play non-player characters and of course monsters the players may come across.
- As a Dungeon Master, you have power over the dice. When you finish a long rest, roll a d20 and record the numbers rolled. You can fudge any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see by replacing it with this roll. You can choose to do so after you see the roll. Once you have used this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
- You know how dungeons are built and where their secrets lie. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to detect the presence of secret doors or traps.
- Your players have sufferend more than enough ambushes in the depths of your dungeons, you know where they happen and how to not fall for them. While you are conscious, you cannot be surprised.
Artwork: My party's characters playing D&D! by chanley012 / Stain: Xanathar stains - Imgur by unknown.