In preparation for turning Cimmeria into a published setting, I’d like all of my subraces (I guess they’re called lineages and species now) to have stats associated with them. Since I pulled my lineages/subraces list mostly from D&D 3rd edition content, many of those subraces exist in D&D 5e. Not all of them are in 5e and many more were never ported to the 5.5e at all. Lots of room for expansions!
Dwarves
Dwarves had 4 subraces in 3rd edition and got downgraded to 3 subraces in D&D 5e. 5.5e doesn’t give dwarves any lineages! Time to fix that.
Hill Dwarf – This is the standard dwarf, so no changes are made to the base dwarf presented in the 5.5e PHB. The Dwarven Toughness trait returns to being a lineage trait for Hill Dwarves like it was in the 5e rules.
Dwarven Toughness. Your Hit Point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level.
Mountain Dwarf – Mountain Dwarves have a connection to giants in Cimmeria’s lore. So Mountain Dwarves obviously have to share an ability with Goliaths, the giant species.
Powerful Build. You have Advantage on any ability check you make to end the Grappled condition. You also count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity.
Deep Dwarf – Deep Dwarves are like Hill Dwarves, but even more dwarfy.
Immovable. You have Advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to resist being moved or knocked Prone. Additionally, difficult terrain composed of earth or stone doesn’t cost you extra movement.
Duergar – Duergar are the magic race, so it figures that they should have a lineage similar to elves, with magic spell access. And going back to 3rd edition the spell choices are fairly obvious.
Demonic Casting. You gain supernatural abilities as part of your lineage. You know the Chill Touch cantrip.
When you reach character level 5, you learn Enlarge/Reduce (only Enlarge on yourself) and Invisibility. You always have these spells prepared. You can cast each once without a spell slot, and you regain the ability to cast them that way when you finish a Long Rest. You can also cast the spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.
Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for the spells you cast with this trait (choose the ability when you select the lineage).
Elves
The High Elves, Dark Elves, and Wood Elves already have lineage rules in both 5e and 5.5e D&D. The only missing lineage is…
Wild Elf – You have proficiency in the Stealth skill. At 1st level you know the Thaumaturgy cantrip. At level 3 you learn Animal Friendship and at level 5 you learn Phantasmal Force.
Leave a Reply