Summary

• Unofficial races have become popular in DnD 5e, offering players more options than the official races provided by Wizards of the Coast.
• Some of the unofficial races that players have created and expanded upon through third-party publishers are as interesting as official races.
• These unofficial races offer unique abilities and customization options, allowing players to roleplay as anthropomorphic animals, peaceful mushroom people, and celestial beings with bestial heads.

Over the past 50 years, Dungeons & Dragons has allowed players to escape reality by roleplaying as dozens of different races, species, and heritages. From the fantasy staples of elves, dwarves, and humans to exotic snake-people, flying owlfolk, and even amorphous blobs, thanks to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. There are enough official options for most players to be able to never play the same race twice across their entire DnD career.

However, there are massive numbers of unofficial races for DnD 5e (and other editions, too). Players have created homebrew races for everything imaginable, and third-party publishers have filled in a number of gaps with races that players clamor for and expanded on official ones in both lore and mechanics. Outside of the dungeon master, there is nothing saying that players can't bring in races to their 5e games that weren't published officially by Wizards of the Coast.

5 Lupins (Dogfolk)

A Glaring Omission From Official 5e Races

DnD's anthropomorphic animal races are always a hit in DnD. That's why the Tabaxi, the catfolk, are so popular. Many players want to act out their heroic fantasies as human-sized kitty cats. With their popularity, it's astonishing that Wizards of the Coast has not released their canine-inspired analogue.

Fortunately, the community is hard at work, as always. Dungeon Dad on YouTube has provided not only a solid video discussing the storied history of the Lupin (the name of the dogfolk race) through previous DnD editions, but has also created a solid player race for anyone who wants to use it. With enhanced senses, a decent bite attack, and a pack instinct that lets them use a reaction to make an attack on an enemy if they see one of their allies get hit, the Lupin dogfolk race may not be official, but it's solid and worth a dungeon master's consideration.

4 Bearfolk (The Book Of Ebon Tides)

Sneaky Stealth Bears

Kobold Press is one of the more prominent 5e content publishers, running multiple crowdfunding projects a year. In one called The Book of Ebon Tides, they created a bearfolk race with ties to the shadow realm and dark fey creature called the shadowborn. Like most animal-based races, the bearfolk can use their jaws to make a bite attack. They also get natural armor, so their base AC is 13 + the character's dexterity modifier. In 5e, this is a very solid boost, especially at lower levels.

The subrace in The Book of Ebon Tides is really cool because not only do they get the boost to AC, but they also have darkvision and advantage on stealth checks. Plus, they can hide as a bonus action. What this amounts to is a sneaky shadow bear that can really take a hit if the enemy happens to see them through their bonus action hide and stealth advantage.

3 Mushroomfolk (Tome Of Heroes)

Decaying Yet Peaceful Myconids

While there are mushroom people in DnD 5e called the myconid, there is not an official player race. Players discovered the myconid, what DnD calls mushroomfolk, in Baldur's Gate 3 in the Underdark, but anyone inspired roll one up themselves afterward could not do so through official means. Again, Kobold Press comes to the rescue with their Tome of Heroes.

The mushroomfolk player race in the Tome of Heroes is very fleshed out and portrayed as a peaceful, trusting, easygoing race in contrast to their vicious neighbors in the underworld. They canonically have no gender and are humanoid in shape. They also subsist on decaying vegetable and animal matter, which the Tome of Heroes describes as "ghoulish to outsiders."

Interestingly, the lore behind mushroomfolk explains they are a neutral race, skewing good, but worship death deities which are typically the focus of evil cultures. That's because they get nutrition from decaying matter, making their worship of the cycle of life and death much different than a necromancer's.

2 Ardlings (Cleric And Revised Species Unearthed Arcana)

Celestial Player Race That Is Not Angelic

Ardlings are a really cool but unofficial 5e race that was unfortunately removed from the 2024 update to the Dungeons & Dragons rules. Appearing in an Unearthed Arcanca titled "Cleric and Revised Species," the ardling was being touted as the new celestial equivalent to the infernal tieflings. The intent was for them to replace aasimar in the next Player's Handbook.

Rather than a traditional angelic celestial like aasimar, the ardlings are a race of humanoids with various bestial heads. One might look like Anubis, a human with the head of a jackal from Egyptian mythology, while another might appear with the head of a frog or horse or something even wilder like a triceratops. Depending on the animal, the playtest says the character could have fur or scales and that "ardlings are as varied as the animals they resemble."

Subraces are divided into four categories, each with different benefits and bonuses: climbers, flyers, racers, and swimmers. The document gives some example animals for each ancestry: climbers (bear, cat, lizard, squirrel), flyers (bat, eagle, owl, raven), racers (deer, dog, horse, triceratops), and swimmers (crocodile, dolphin, frog, shark). Even though ardlings didn't make the final cut for One D&D's new books in 2024, they are not only usable in their playtest state but there is also a chance they will be retested at a later date for inclusion in a different release.

1 Arachne (D&D Beyond)

Half-Spiders Not Connected To The Spider Goddess

The arachne are half-spider, half-humanoid creatures similar to driders. Unlike driders, however, the popular arachne race on D&D Beyond is not limited to a drow top half. Additionally, because "only drow can be turned into driders, and the power to create these creatures resides with Lolth alone," the arachne have their own society, culture, and subraces that are distinct from the spider goddess, Lolth.

With a number of subraces to delineate the spider-half from the typical Dungeons & Dragons driders, that wolf spiders, black widows, and others, arachne get a lot of customization options that provide unique abilities. They can cast web by nature, have access to spider climb abilities, and the tarantula subrace gets an AC of 11 + constitution modifier making them hardy enough to take on any threats that dungeon masters throw their way.

Source: Dungeon Dad/YouTube, D&D Beyond