Editing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (section)

===Core===
* [[Aasimar]]
Added as the sample "create a race" to demonstrate the rules therefore in the DMG, the aasimar is built as a celestial counterpart to the tiefling; +1 Wisdom, +2 Charisma, Darkvision, resistance to necrotic and radiant damages, and the spell-like abilities ''Light'' (level 1), ''Lesser Restoration'' (1/day at level 3) and ''Daylight'' (1/day at level 5). It got an alternative write-up in ''Volo's Guide to Monsters'' that shares some, but not most, of the base race's traits.

* [[Dragonborn]]
Essentially, they are their 4e counterparts with vaguer backgrounds, [[dragonborn]] are still pretty close to what they were. +2 Strength, +1 Charisma, and choose one Chromatic or Metallic Dragon; they get a breath weapon shape, breath weapon damage, and damage resistance based on what they chose (cold for Silver Dragonborn, acid for Black, etc). Not terrible, even if laughably outclassed in almost every way by other races with similar stat bonuses.

* [[Dwarf]]
Your standard issue dwarf. Short and stout, grumpy but loyal, love digging, and tough as a hammer sammich. They get a +2 bonus to Constitution, have Darkvision, protection against poison, training with axe and hammer weapons, training with several kinds of artisan's tools, the usual dwarven armored movement and stone knowledge. They get two subraces; Hill and Mountain.

:: Hill dwarves are wiser (+1 Wisdom) and even tougher than regular dwarves, giving them extra maximum hit points equal to their character level.

:: Mountain dwarves are more warlike, getting +2 Strength and free proficiency with light armor and medium armor. The *only* subrace to offer two +2 bonuses now, balanced by the fact that the armor training will almost certainly be completely redundant to any class that would realistically make use of those stats. However, it's a good choice for a [[squishy]] character who wants melee a bit, like a blade-pact warlock.

:: [[Duergar]], or "Gray Dwarves", appear in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. In addition to the base dwarf stuff, they get a boost to Strength, Superior Darkvision (so Darkvision 120 feet), Duergar Resilience (Advantage on saving throws against Charm, Illusion and Paralysis effects), and the spell-like abilities of Enlarge/Reduce (3rd level) and Invisibility (5th level), both usable once per long rest.  They also get Sunlight Sensitivity, though tweaked slightly; in addition to taking disadvantage to attack rolls and Perception checks when they or their target is in direct sunlight, they can't use their spell-like abilities if they're in direct sunlight.

* [[Elf]]
Still pretty standard; graceful, eerie, beautiful, mary-sueish bastards. Grace translates to a +2 bonus to Dexterity, keen senses give them Darkvision and proficiency in Perception, they are resistant to charming and immune to sleep, and they trance instead of sleeping. They get three subraces; high, wood and dark.

:: High elves are the magically adept elite. They get +1 Intelligence, proficiency with long & short swords and bows, an extra language, and the ability to cast one wizard cantrip of the player's choice.

:: Wood elves are the iconic forest-dwelling primal elves. +1 to Wisdom, same weapon proficiency as High Elves, even quicker (they have base speed 35 feet, making them the fastest of the default races), and they're extra adept at using natural phenomena for hiding.

:: [[Drow|Dark elves]] have innate magic (''Dancing Lights'' cantrip at level 1, ''Faerie Fire'' 1/day at level 3, ''Darkness'' 1/day at level 5), Superior Darkvision (Darkvision to 120 feet), +1 Charisma, proficiency with rapiers, shortswords and hand crossbows, and are the only (sub)race in the corebook with any kind of racial penalty; they take disadvantage to attack rolls and Perception checks when they or their target is in direct sunlight.

:: The DMG-added [[Eladrin]] get the elf weapon proficiency (as per High/Wood Elves), +1 Intelligence, and ''Misty Step'', like "Fey Step" from 4E.

Strangely, although the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide contains rules for Half-Elves of Aquatic Elf ancestry, there are no rules for a pure-blooded Aquatic Elf, but it's only logical that it'll come out in a following supplement or Unearthed Arcana. If it does, we at least know, from the way the ''other'' half-elf subraces worked, that it'll include a 30-ft swim speed.

And those expectations turned out to be right with the November 2017 Elf Subraces Unearthed Arcana. 
:: The Sea Elf comes with the above mentioned 30-ft swim speed as well as the ability to breathe under water as part of the "Child of the Sea" racial feature. "Friend of the Sea" gives you the ability to talk to beasts with a swimming speed, so you are basically Aquaman. Your Constitution score increases by 1, you know Aquan, and you have proficiency with the trident (as if you weren't already like Aquaman), the spear (pretty much a stand-in for a harpoon), light crossbow (like a harpoon gun), and the net (going with the fisherman theme). 

:: Avariel are the winged elves of the Forgotten Realms, nearly driven to extinction by dragons. You have a flying speed of 30 feet while not wearing heavy or medium armor, and know Auran. And that's about it. Unless you are in it for the flavor, there is really no reason to pick them, seeing how there are plenty of better races with flight out there. 

:: The Grugach of the Greyhawk setting are xenophobic, isolationist forest dwellers, known to massacre anyone unfortunate enough to stumble into their realm. They get a Strength score increase of 1, a proficiency with the spear, shortbow, longbow, and net (going with their savage theme). They can choose a single cantrip from the druid spell list, using Wisdom as their spellcasting ability. Their xenophobic nature also manifests itself by having their ability to speak Common replaced by Sylvan, so you better use a background feature to learn it.  

:: [[Shadar-kai]] have returned as an elf dub-race, being now a hybrid between their 3rd edition lore of being fae dwelling on the Plane of Shadow, and their 4th edition lore that presented them as humanoids from Shadowfell. Ironically, the fact that they are now basically insane BDSM eleves from a different plane makes them seem allot like a [[Dark_Eldar|certain other type]] [[Dark_Elves_(Warhammer_Fantasy)|of Dark Elf]]. They get a Charisma score increase of 1, and the choice between chill touch, spare the dying, or thaumaturgy, with Charisma as their spellcasting ability. Once per short rest, they can also teleport up to 15 feet to an unoccupied space they can see, and gain resistance to all damage until the start of their next turn.

* [[Gnome]]
Crazy, hyper-energetic and insatiably curious, [[gnome]]s are also the only uncommon race in the corebook with full subraces, assuming the dragonborn's choice of dragon doesn't count. +2 Intelligence, small-sized, Darkvision, and advantage to any saving throw against magic that relies on Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma.

:: Forest Gnomes are the more mystical, nature-affiliated gnomes, gaining +1 Dexterity, having the ''minor illusion'' cantrip as a racial ability, and being able to speak with any natural animal that is Small or smaller. With ''[[Dragonlance]]'' supported, but the [[Kender]] race (thankfully) missing after playtest, these seem to hold up as the Kender replacement.

:: Rock Gnomes are the iconic tinker gnomes, gaining +1 Constitution, being more adept at puzzling out magic items, alchemical objects and technological devices, and starting the game with a set of tinker's tools that let them cobble together small, harmless gizmos like clockwork toys, fire starters and music boxes. In the corebook, it's explicitly stated that these should be used for playing Tinker Gnomes if you're running a ''[[Dragonlance]]'' game.

:: Deep Gnomes got added by the ''Elemental Evil Player's Guide'' web-feature from the WotC website. There was a printed reveal in the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide'', but the versions are absolutely identical. These are the "[[svirfneblin]]", the Underdark-dwelling gnomes mentioned but mostly ignored in editions past. They get +1 Dexterity, Superior Darkvision (so they see in the dark 120ft instead of 60ft), and Stone Camouflage (advantage on Dexterity [Stealth] checks made in rocky terrain). If Feats are allowed, they have a racial one called Svirfneblin Magic that lets them cast ''Nondetection'' (self-only) at will and ''Blindness/Deafness'', ''Blur'' and ''Disguise Self'' once per long rest.

* [[Half-Elf]]
Half-Elves gain +2 Charisma, making them natural diplomats, but also get +1 to two other ability scores of their choice, are automatically proficient in two skills of their choice, as well as retaining the darkvision and resistances to charming and sleep of their elven ancestors. They can also grow beards, something that may have been in previous editions, but is directly addressed in this one. The best PHB race for any Cha-based class, due to their tremendous versatility, and easily has the most raw power. 

Look at it like this: imagine if, as a variant human, you got to pick a feat that gave you +2 charisma, an extra skill, darkvision, and charm resistance plus sleep immunity.  It might not be the ''optimal'' feat for your build, no, but can you easily deny that it beats out any other feat in the game for raw power?  Well, a half-elf is essentially a variant human who gets a feat like that.  

:: The ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide'' includes rules for half-elf racial variants, allowing them to have sub-races like several other races. Basically, they can trade out their bonus skill proficiencies for the other elf races' bonuses. Any kind of half-elf can trade for an upgrade to darkvision and proficiency in perception, half-high elves can gain a wizard cantrip, half-wood elves can gain a five-foot speed boost or an improved ability to hide in the wild, and both of the above can gain elf weapon training. Meanwhile, half-Drow gain Drow Magic, while half-Aquatic Elves have a 30-ft swim speed. (Whew!)

* [[Half-Orc]]
Big scary bruisers, [[half-orc]]s get +2 strength and +1 constitution, have darkvision, are automatically proficient in the Intimidation skill, are harder to kill than other races, and deal much nastier criticals with melee weapons. This effectively makes them the best [[barbarian|barbarians]] in the game and gives barbarian-lite abilities to any other classes. This new design eliminates the culturally awkward standard of male orcs forcing themselves on human women, to the point of actually raising the idea that the race could be used for playing a half-dwarf, half-orc.

* [[Halfling]]
Small, cheerful, practical creatures, [[halflings]] try to make friends with anybody. They usually don't have any greater goal beyond a simple, pleasant life. They get +2 Dexterity, they're Small sized, their Lucky trait lets them reroll various results of 1, they're resistant to fear effects and they can move through spaces occupied by creatures that are Medium-sized or bigger. Their two subraces are Lightfoot and Stout.

:: Lightfoot halflings are sneaky even by Halfling standards, able to use Medium-sized or bigger creatures to hide behind and gaining +1 Charisma.

:: Stout halflings are rumored to have dwarf blood, and so they get +1 Constitution and identical poison protection.

:: The ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide'' includes the Ghostwise halfling subrace, which gets +1 to Wisdom and the ability to telepathically communicate with one creature nearby creature at a time.

The playtest release featured the [[rage|infamous]] [[Kender]] of [[Dragonlance]] as yet another halfling subrace. However, it failed to make it into the official book, perhaps because kender have never really differed that much from regular halflings beyond resistance/immunity to fear, a "taunt" ability, and sometimes mechanical enforcement of their "entire race of sickeningly cutesy [[Chaotic Stupid]] [[Rogue]]s" fluff. Of course, if an official Dragonlance playbook ever comes out (doubtful, at this point, given the lackluster success of it in 3.5), you can sadly make a sure bet that Kender will be in it.

* [[Human]]
Humans are the versatile race once again. Either they get a +1 bonus to all ability scores (which is better than any previous edition of the game has trained you to believe, but still kinda bland), or they get +1 to any two ability scores they want, a free skill proficiency, and a free feat (which, as usual, rocks).  The feat option, given how strong feats are in 5th, can actually make it very hard to choose any other race, even ones that specialize in a specific area, over humans for a build given the sheer rapidity of power the variant human allows.

* [[Tiefling]]
Following in the footsteps of 4e, with a unified (if still very variable) appearance and a [[tiefling]] racial backlore as "descendants of a cursed empire" rather than "spawn of a human and a fiend". +1 Intelligence, +2 Charisma, resistant to fire, darkvision and "Infernal Legacy", which gives them three warlock spells as racial abilities; the ''Thaumaturgy'' cantrip (level 1), ''Hellish Rebuke'' (1/day at level 3) and ''Darkness'' (1/day at level 5).

::Like half-elves, they got upgraded with subrace options in the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide''. Specifically, aside from an official list of alternate physical traits (complete with 2e-esque "roll 1d4+1 and take that many traits"), they get an alternative ability score modifier set option (+1 Int, +2 Dex, for the ones that ''didn't'' get any [[monstergirl]] genes), and a series of tweaks to their racial magic. Hellfire simply replaces their Hellish Rebuke spell-like ability with Burning Hands, the Devil's Tongue option alters their list completely, trading in all their spells for mind-affecting choices, and choosing Winged means giving up ''all'' spells in exchange for a 30-ft fly speed, which is kickass.

::Adding to that, the Unearthed Arcana "That Old Black Magic" offers suggestions for defining [[Baatezu|diabolic]] tieflings vs. [[Tanar'ri|demonic]] ones. The corebook tiefling is used for the diabolic breed, but demonic tieflings get +1 Con instead of +1 Int, increase their hitpoints by half their character level (so a level 20 one gets an extra +10 HP), and randomly generate their spell-like abilities at the end of each long rest.

::The October 2017 UA (Reprinted in Mordekainen's Tome of Foes) also gave Tieflings a bevy of subrace options based on who their patron god is. Each gives differing racial spell-like abilities as well as +1 to a differing stat instead of Intelligence.