Ancestries

Dragonborn

Your people come from Baklunish, an ancient and sovereign land far away from the bustling streets of the cities of Men. Despite that, the Dragonborn of that country have become the pillars of trade through the lands. The dragonborn guilds and trade companies hold a strong presence in all markets, from the ancient Imperial heartlands in Ahlissa to even the more xenophobic fort-cities of Furyondy.

None can say how they came into existence, but some dragonfolk claim that their people are descended from dragons. Others say that they were crafted by dragons themselves. Regardless, you share a kinship with a specific lineage of dragons. You share its breath weapon and natural immunities. Dragons may be rare in this world, but you are not.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age. Young dragonborn grow quickly. They walk hours after hatching, attain the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 3, and reach adulthood by 15. They live to be around 80.

Alignment. Dragonborn tend to extremes, making a conscious choice for one side or the other in the cosmic war between good and evil. Most dragonborn are good, but those who side with evil can be terrible villains.

Size. Dragonborn are taller and heavier than humans, standing well over 6 feet tall and averaging almost 250 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Draconic Ancestry

Dragon	Damage Type	Breath Weapon
Black	Acid	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Blue	Lightning	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Brass	Fire	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Bronze	Lightning	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Copper	Acid	5 by 30 ft. line (Dex. save)
Gold	Fire	15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Green	Poison	15 ft. cone (Con. save)
Red	Fire	15 ft. cone (Dex. save)
Silver	Cold	15 ft. cone (Con. save)
White	Cold	15 ft. cone (Con. save)

Draconic Ancestry. You have draconic ancestry. Choose one type of dragon from the Draconic Ancestry table. Your breath weapon and damage resistance are determined by the dragon type, as shown in the table.

Breath Weapon. You can use your action to exhale destructive energy. Your draconic ancestry determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation. When you use your breath weapon, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw, the type of which is determined by your draconic ancestry. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. A creature takes 2d6 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level. After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or long rest.

Damage Resistance. You have resistance to the damage type associated with your draconic ancestry.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic. Draconic is thought to be one of the oldest languages and is often used in the study of magic. The language sounds harsh to most other creatures and includes numerous hard consonants and sibilants.

Dromaar

Your people are the Dromaar — smaller distant cousins to the savage Eurok, or Orcs. While your relatives live a savage life in the cold north or the wild forests, you have adapted to life among men. Thus, many call you Half-Orcs. It is said that when Lord Iuz consolidated the tribes of north, those who refused him were pushed south into human lands. Your people found new homes in the villages, hearths, and cities of the south. Some of your elders discount this, holding that your people were always here in the southlands. When men came, your larger, unlike the more bestial relatives who inhabit lands of snow and jungle, that you made peace with them.

The Dromaar are a fey-touched beastfolk, with kinship to bears, and are found through the civilized lands of Earthmyst. You stand between 6 and 7 feet tall, and usually weigh between 200 and 250 pounds. Your ursine heritage grants you a natural strength and toughness, and your eyes are acclimated to seeing in the dark of night, thanks to your predator ancestors.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age. Dromaar mature a little faster than humans, reaching adulthood around age 14. They age noticeably faster and rarely live longer than 75 years.

Alignment. Dromaar inherit a tendency toward chaos from their orc parents and are not strongly inclined toward good. Half-orcs raised among orcs and willing to live out their lives among them are usually evil.

Size. Dromaar are somewhat larger and bulkier than humans, and they range from 5 to well over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. Thanks to your orc blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Menacing. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Relentless Endurance. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Savage Attacks. When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Orc, or Euroz. Orc is a harsh, grating language with hard consonants. It has no script of its own but is written in the Dwarvish script.
Dwarves
The Dwarves call the tradelands and clanholds of Ulek home. West of Greyhawk, in the Sheldomar Valley, the dwarves have lived and mined the Lortmil mountains since before the arrival of Man a millenium ago. They are longer-lived than humans, their grudges can often outlive dynasties. Once, the dwarven halls of Gyrax, the pride of the dwur rang with the sound of pickaxes night and day. Many dwarves, worried about the thinning flow of rare metals and crystals from the old mountain holds, have taken to other ventures.

The weakening economy of Ulek’s once bountiful tradelands worries many dwarves. Stringent quotas are announced by thanes and council leaders, and enforced brutally, but have not stemmed rumours that the ancient dwarven mines have run fallow. Seeking the wider world for their fortune, dwarves often find work as guides through deadly mountain passes or as a sell-hammer to one human lord or another. Dwarves have a hardy constitution, and eyesight well-adapted for the dark of the mines.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.

Age. Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they’re considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.

Alignment. Most dwarves are lawful, believing firmly in the benefits of a well-ordered society. They tend toward good as well, with a strong sense of fair play and a belief that everyone deserves to share in the benefits of a just order.

Size. Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.

Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Dwarven Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.

Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer.

Tool Proficiency. You gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools.

Stonecunning. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.
A clan exists among the dwarves who live among the necropoli and deadlands east of Greyhawk City, in a region called the Cairn Hills. These dwarves live apart from their kin, shunning the ways of the cities in preference for mist shrouded tombs. The rites they perform are said to be important not just for the dead, but for the living. Without them, the prophets of the Hill Dwarves ominously whisper about ancient evils who hunger for the living of the lands above.

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Dwarven Toughness. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.
Elves

Your people have watched the movements of the stars and have recorded their wanderings dutifully since as long as your people can remember. Outsiders know the home of the elves as the impenetrable Welkwood, but few know that a thriving society of elf sorcerer-scholars and a quiet country of observatory-settlements thrives within Celene’s Realm. Some elves believe themselves to be children of Celene, herself, one of the world’s two moons. Others dispute this, considering themselves more akin to a favorite child.

Elves are rare in the world, and known for their quick reflexes, long lives, and ethereal presence. Elves do not sleep like other folk, but instead enter a trance, preferably in the moonlight. Many different types of kinships exist within elven society, but few are common enough to be well known. Elven names often sound as if made by a lyricist, such as Springmeadow or Barrowbranch, but they insist that there is a greater meaning in the Elven tongue.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.

Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

Alignment. Elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not. The drow are an exception; their exile has made them vicious and dangerous. Drow are more often evil than not.

Size. Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Trance. Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires.

As a high elf, you are fair of hair, sharp of mind and regal in your bearing. Your long life gives you the benefit to take your time to mull over the deep questions of the universe, sometimes for decades. As a high elf, your kith, or clan, claims some relation to Queen Yolande, emissary of Celene. You share some of her magic, simple spellcraft charms come naturally to you. You grew up in the close the royal court in Nethalas, and have learned an extra language from the foreigners that visit there.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.

Cantrip. You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.

Extra Language. You can speak, read, and write one extra language of your choice.
Gnomes
While considered an elder race by the historians, gnomes are often referred to as the Little Folk by many. Living in the remnants of the greatwoods that once spread across the land. Gnomes live close to the heartbeat of nature, treating with spirits and guarding ancient shrines. It is said their proximity to these magics are the reason they take on the features of the creatures of the wood. Your people are most often sighted in the ever changing interior of the Misty Swamps.

For adventurers, this has lead to extremely uncomfortable scenarios. Rumours and bounties of dark shapes in the woods, animal sacrifices, and witches will often lead to a settlement of the Little Folk. They are usually peaceable, amenable, but will defend their claims by ancient rite and duty. Their amenable presence and stature has convinced many adventurer who now lays beneath the ground that their spears were not as sharp, or bloodstained, as they looked.
As a gnome of Greyhawk, you have an animal-like appearance and are kin to one of these families of forest fauna:

Red Panda

Red Fox

Badger
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2.

Age. Gnomes mature at the same rate humans do, and most are expected to settle down into an adult life by around age 40. They can live 350 to almost 500 years.

Alignment. Gnomes are most often good. Those who tend toward law are sages, engineers, researchers, scholars, investigators, or inventors. Those who tend toward chaos are minstrels, tricksters, wanderers, or fanciful jewelers. Gnomes are good-hearted, and even the tricksters among them are more playful than vicious.

Size. Gnomes are between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 40 pounds. Your size is Small.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Gnome Cunning. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Gnomish. The Gnomish language, which uses the Dwarvish script, is renowned for its technical treatises and its catalogs of knowledge about the natural world.
Commonly known as the Rock Gnomes, it is said that these gnomes were driven from the forest long ago for their affinity with the forges of the dwarves and the hearths of men. As fey creatures, gnomes are shaped by the environment around them, and the journey, or exile, into the larger world saw them become their own tribe. You are welcome in most human settlements, as the friendship between the your people and humanity is long standing.

You share kinship and the appearance of one of the following families of mountain creature:

Pangolin

Mountain Weasel

Marmot

Pika

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.

Artificer’s Lore. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to magic items, alchemical objects, or technological devices, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply.

Tinker. You have proficiency with artisan’s tools (tinker’s tools). Using those tools, you can spend 1 hour and 10 gp worth of materials to construct a Tiny clockwork device (AC 5, 1 hp). The device ceases to function after 24 hours (unless you spend 1 hour repairing it to keep the device functioning), or when you use your action to dismantle it; at that time, you can reclaim the materials used to create it. You can have up to three such devices active at a time. When you create a device, choose one of the following options:

Music Box. When opened, this music box plays a single song at a moderate volume. The box stops playing when it reaches the song’s end or when it is closed.

Clockwork Toy. This toy is a clockwork animal, monster, or person, such as a frog, mouse, bird, dragon, or soldier. When placed on the ground, the toy moves 5 feet across the ground on each of your turns in a random direction. It makes noises as appropriate to the creature it represents.

Fire Starter. The device produces a miniature flame, which you can use to light a candle, torch, or campfire. Using the device requires your action.
Half-Elves

The Aiuvar, or Half-Elves, are the descendants of the Valley Elves who intermarried with humans. Generations later, your fey blood has thinned but it has left an otherworldy mark on you. In most places where elves once dwelled, a substantial amount of the population today carries some amount of this fey ancestry. This legacy manifests as small thing that marks you different; cat ears, or a delicate pair of deer antlers, or something else just as subtle and just as impossible to hide. Humans find it charming or unsettling in roughly equal measure.

You are often found in service as messengers or in diplomatic entourages, you live in more worlds than many. Your fey ancestry makes you resilient to certain kinds of magic, and you share the elven trait for darksight. You have learn more languages than most, and people find your presence settling and likable.

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and two other ability scores of your choice increase by 1.

Age. Half-elves mature at the same rate humans do and reach adulthood around the age of 20. They live much longer than humans, however, often exceeding 180 years.

Alignment. Half-elves share the chaotic bent of their elven heritage. They value both personal freedom and creative expression, demonstrating neither love of leaders nor desire for followers. They chafe at rules, resent others’ demands, and sometimes prove unreliable, or at least unpredictable.

Size. Half-elves are about the same size as humans, ranging from 5 to 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. Thanks to your elf blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Skill Versatility. You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and one extra language of your choice.
Halflings

Open-hearted, curious, and frequently underestimated — a combination that serves them well. Halflings call themselves the Hin, and many mistake their childlike features for innocence and naiveté. This is their problem to correct and, occasionally, their advantage to exploit.

Halfings can be found in all corners of the realms, whether travelling the land as minstrels or as a gleeful river pirate aboard a Rhenee landing-skiff brandishing a cutlass. Often underestimated, unscrupulous halflings find success in organized crime, smuggling, and worse. The halflings sings songs around their roadside fires of the fair fields of their homeland, Yondalla, they one day hope to find again.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.

Age. A halfling reaches adulthood at the age of 20 and generally lives into the middle of his or her second century.

Alignment. Most halflings are lawful good. As a rule, they are good-hearted and kind, hate to see others in pain, and have no tolerance for oppression. They are also very orderly and traditional, leaning heavily on the support of their community and the comfort of their old ways.

Size. Halflings average about 3 feet tall and weigh about 40 pounds. Your size is Small.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Lucky. When you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Brave. You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Halfling Nimbleness. You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Halfling. The Halfling language isn’t secret, but halflings are loath to share it with others. They write very little, so they don’t have a rich body of literature. Their oral tradition, however, is very strong. Almost all halflings speak Common to converse with the people in whose lands they dwell or through which they are traveling.

You are a Lightfoot, a scout and far-walker, even among your people. You hear the call of Yondalla, the sacred homeland of the halflings, louder than your kinfolk. It whispers wanderlust to you of a place that is never exactly where you are, and warns you of dangers before they happen. This otherworldy blessing manifests as twitchiness and jumpiness, and rabbit-like features.

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 1.

Naturally Stealthy. You can attempt to hide even when you are obscured only by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.
Humans

You are human, and your ancestors were members of the great migrations that brought men to the lands of the Elder Races of the elves and dwarves. Humanity is the most populous of the races of the settled lands, responsible for building the cities of Greyhawk, Rel Mord, and the Empire, itself. In the thousand years since their arrival, the

You were born in one of theses cities, most likely Greyhawk City, or in one of the settlements that is under its protection. Humans come in many shapes and forms, ranging from the lighter-skinned and almond-eyed Imperials, to the darker complexioned Suel.

Ability Score Increase. Your ability scores each increase by 1.

Age. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.

Alignment. Humans tend toward no particular alignment. The best and the worst are found among them.

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 base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. Humans typically learn the languages of other peoples they deal with, including obscure dialects. They are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elvish musical expressions, Dwarvish military phrases, and so on.
Tieflings

To tell it true, few claim to know exactly where Tiefs originate. They have plied the rivers and open waters of the Western Nyr Dyv for as long as anyone can remember. Among them are barge-folk, traders, brawlers, and storytellers — rowdy by reputation, honorable by code and most notable for a peculiar set of horns. Others swear, in more superstitious locales, of the sightings of devils and hooded figures at foul work in the woods, foul omens, and the birth of a fiend from human parents.

Tieflings share a natural connection to the spirits. Unfortunately, those spirits tend to be more infernal in origin. The denizens of the Nine Hells do not make for good company, though they do lend you a small bit of magic in compensation. People react differently to your company, but you are most normally found among the men of the riverlands.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1, and your Charisma score increases by 2.

Age. Tieflings mature at the same rate as humans but live a few years longer.

Alignment. Tieflings might not have an innate tendency toward evil, but many of them end up there. Evil or not, an independent nature inclines many tieflings toward a chaotic alignment.

Size. Tieflings are about the same size and build as humans. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. Thanks to your infernal heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Hellish Resistance. You have resistance to fire damage.

Infernal Legacy. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the hellish rebuke spell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Infernal.