Step 3: Choose Your Ancestry
Your ancestry determines a lot about your inherent biological characteristics--the size of your body, type of vision you have, your natural resistances. These characteristics are only a starting place for who your character is, though how much they influence your character development is up to you. The ancestries available to you are determined by the GM, though most games allow the core ancestries listed below.
- Dwarf - Dwarves are short, stalky folk with keen sight in darker places. They tend to be sturdy in body and mind, though some find them to be rough around the edges.
- Elf - Elves are gifted with ageless bodies. They do not sleep or die of natural causes. Many elves are born with a natural lithe dexterity and keen minds.
- Gnome - Those with gnomish ancestry can trace their lineage back to the land of faerie, though it may have been many generations since that time. As such, gnomes often have an inherited knack for the arcane, though plenty have come to enjoy tinkering with constructs of the prime plane as well. Smaller than most other humanoids, gnomes aren't always the strongest adventurers, though they often make up for this with their wits.
- Half-elf - Struck between two worlds, half-elves share both human and elvish ancestry. This dual ancestry can be a gift to some and a curse to others.
- Halfling - Halflings are smaller folk, though what they lack in strength they usually make up for in agility.
- Half-orc - Like half-elves, half-orcs often find themselves struck between two worlds. The inheritors of two racial ancestries, half-orcs often struggle with the bestial side of their inheritance, as well as a stigma encountered in human populations.
- Human - Humans are the most flexible of ancestries, finding themselves less constrained by their ancestral inheritance and more able to forge their own destinies.
Each ancestry has a natural predisposition to certain attributes. The initial ability scores you rolled will increase or decrease by the amounted listed below depending on your ancestry. The size of your character is also determined by their ancestry. Medium creatures are about human-sized. Small creatures tend to be half that in height. Likewise, the speed your character moves is ancestry-dependent. The speed listed below represents the number of feet you can move in a combat round and still have time to act (see Combat). Finally, your ancestry determines the type of vision you are born with. Humans see in standard vision. Others have darkvision allows, which allows your character to see 60' in the dark without a light source. Low-Light vision means your character can see twice as far as a human could in low-light conditions.
| Core Ancestries |
|---|
| Ancestry | Size | Speed | Vision | Natural Armor | Adult Age | Height Range | Avg. Weight |
|---|
| Dwarf | Medium | 20 ft. | Darkvision | -- | 50 years | 4 to 5 ft. | 150 lbs. |
| Elf | Medium | 30 ft. | Low-Light | -- | 110 years | 5 to 7 ft. | 150 lbs. |
| Gnome | Small | 20 ft. | Low-Light | -- | 40 years | 3 to 4 ft. | 40 lbs. |
| Half-elf | Medium | 30 ft. | Low-Light | -- | 20 years | 5 to 6 ft. | 150 lbs. |
| Halfling | Small | 20 ft. | Low-Light | -- | 33 years | 3 ft. | 40 lbs. |
| Half-orc | Medium | 30 ft. | Darkvision | -- | 14 years | 5 to 7 ft. | 190 lbs. |
| Human | Medium | 30 ft. | Standard | -- | 18 years | 5 to 7 ft. | 170 lbs. |
In addition to the stats above, each ancestry has the following traits listed below. These ancestral traits are designed to give you a quick and easy character build. If you want a full list of ancestral traits as well as descriptions of other ancestral backgrounds beyond the core list, see the full Ancestry rules.
Dwarf
- Poison Resistant: Your natural heartiness makes it easier for you to shake off poisons. You gain advantage on saves against poison.
- Steady: Your body is accustomed to carrying heavy burdens and your travel speed is never affected by encumbrance.
- Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Con
Elf
- Sleepless: Elves do not sleep, though they often meditate during a long rest instead. Likewise, elves are immune to any spell that causes a sleep effect.
- Resistant to Enchantment: Elves are naturally resistant to any enchantment effect. You gain advantage on saves made to prevent these types of spells.
- Slender: Elves sometimes appear unnaturally thin by some outsiders' standards. Elves with this trait gain advantage on checks made to escape grapples or to escape bonds.
- Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Dex
Gnome
- Illusionist: Due to your fey ancestry, you have some innate magical ability. Choose three of the following cantrips, which you can use whenever you want: alter appearance, amplify voice, clean, flavor, minor illusion, or rumble.
- Illusion Resistance: You have advantage on saves against illusion spells
- Resilient: Your connection to fey makes you more resistant to fear-inducing effects. You have advantage on saves to prevent fear from magical or supernatural sources.
- Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Wis, +2 Cha, -2 Strength
Half-elf
- Sleepless: Elves do not sleep, though they often meditate during a long rest instead. Likewise, elves are immune to any spell that causes a sleep effect.
- Resistant to Enchantment: Elves are naturally resistant to any enchantment effect. You gain advantage on saves made to prevent these types of spells.
- Diverse: You get two cultural traits instead of 1.
- Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Any
Halfling
- Fearless: Halflings sometimes have an innate reservoir of courage that even they aren't aware of. You get advantage against saving throws against fear effects.
- Sure-Footed: Many halflings are naturally sure-footed. You get advantage on checks made to balance and climb.
- Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Wis, +2 Dex, -2 Str
Half-orc
- Die Hard: Once per long rest, when your hit points drop to 0, you remain conscious but staggered even through you are dying. You still sustain Con damage as usual until you are stable. The next time your hit points drop to 0 or destabilize, you fall unconscious, as usual.
- Intimidating: You've inherited an intimidating visage from your orc ancestors. You gain four bonus ranks in your Intimidation skill. The maximum number of ranks you can have in that skill (usually equal to your character level) also increases by four.
- Diverse: you get two cultural traits instead of 1.
Human
- Skilled: Humans get one extra bonus skill rank at each level.
- Trained: At first level, humans start with two technique slots.
- Diverse: you get two cultural traits instead of 1.
<< Step 2: Class <<
>> Step 4: Background >>
