Summary
With the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, the impact of species on a player’s build has gone down significantly inDungeons & Dragons. However, if you’re an expert or a high-level player, that doesn’t mean you may’t still pick certain options to help really break your character build, especially for a challenging campaign.
That’s why we’ve created this list. For this list, we’re going to break down some of the best options for species for high-level players in D&D. All of these options have special abilities or features that can help optimize your build and ensure that you may handle anything your DM throws at you.
For this list, we are not looking at legacy versions of species, but their most updated stat block. Because of this, some species on this list have Ability Score improvements, while others do not.
Key Feature
Celestial Revelation
Aasimar are an all-around great species that have a lot of different abilities and features that you can customize for your character build. First, you get resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, as well as darkvision. You also get access to atouch-based healing abilitycalled Healing Hands, which is great for non-healing classes.
Perhaps most interestingly, aasimar can abe tailored to the player’s build thanks to their Celestial Revelation feature, which allows them to transform in one of three ways. They can either gain wings and fly, shed bright light, or become dark and necrotic, frightening nearby enemies. These abilities can prove impactful, particularly when it comes to selecting the flight option.
Flight, Wind Caller
Aarakocra have had many incarnations throughout the history of Dungeons & Dragons. Most importantly, these creatures were among the first introduced in DND who had flight speeds, and were playable. Overall, aarakocra make great rogues and monks.
They also have access to talon attacks and an ability known as Wind Caller. Starting at third level, aarakocra can cast the Gust of Wind spell without requiring a material component. They can only do this once per day, but for melee-based combatants, this can make a big difference on the field of battle.
Shapechanger
Changelings are a really interesting species, though some Dungeon Masters don’t allow them at their table because of their key shapechanger feature. In essence, this species can alter their appearance and voice, even adjusting their size between medium and small. This can prove really impactful in roleplay encounters.
The reason some DMs don’t allow this species is because there’s no limit on the number of times a changeling can use this ability, which can make the feature kind of broken. However, you can work with your DM to impose limits on it so that you can still reap the benefits of this species while still keeping things balanced.
Bonus to Initiative Rolls, Rabbit Hop
Harengons are rabbit-like humanoids that comefrom the Fey realm. These creatures are incredibly fast, have proficieny in the perception skill, and can ocassionaly use their reaction to add a d4 to potentially save from a failed Dexterity saving throw.
They also get bonsues to their initative rolls, which is fantastic, and most importantly, a Rabbit Hop feature. This ability allows them to jump a number of feet equal to tive times their proficiency bonus without provoking opporutnity attacks. Consider combining this species with a monk to get twice as many opportunities to avoid opportunity attacks.
Feline Agility, Unarmed Strikes
Tabaxi are cat-like humanoids with incredible agility and reflexes. In some versions of Dungeons & Dragons, they also get bonuses to their Dexterity scores. However, in Mordenkainen’s their main abilities come in the form of their agility and climbing.
As a tabaxi, you get a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. Additionally, you can make unarmed strikes with your claws. Lastly, tabaxi have a feature known as Feline Agility, which allows them to move double their speed on their turn without taking the dash action. However, once you use this feature, you can’t do so again unless you move zero feet on a subsequent turn in combat.
3 Points, up to 3 Ability Scores of your choice
+d4 for Attack Rolls, Ability Checks, and Saving Throws
Autugnomes come from the far reaches of Wildspace. They are, in essence, mechanical beings built by rock gnomes, which can sometimes malfunction. However, beyond this quirk, they also have several key boons that are great for expert players.
First, you can add a d4 to many of your rolls a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. Second, you can use the mending spell to regain hit points thanks to your mechanical nature, and you have resistance to poison damage and immunity to disease. These features may seem passive, but they can save your life on the field of combat.
Vampiric Bite & Spider Climb
Dhampirs are a highly interesting species that you can find inthe Domains of Dread. Dhampirs are, essentially, half-human, half-vampire. In actuality, dhampirs can be half-vampire, and half of any other species in the realm of Dungeons & Dragons. However, when you select this species, or lineage as it’s called in Van Richtne’s Guide to Ravenloft, you must only use the abilities for this lineage, not your previous species.
What’s most fun about this species is that, given the direction of your campaign, you can actually become a dhampir halfway through a campaign. Talk to your DM about interesting ways to roleplay this if you want to forsake your old species in favor of a new lineage.
Thri-kreen Telepathy
Thri-keen are insect-like creatures that come from the outer reaches of Wildspace. These creatures have multiple sets of arms, and can be either medium or small, which is relatively unique to this species.
The most interesting element of this species choice is far and away the thri-keen’s access to telepathy. With this feature, you can speak any language you know telepathically to any willing creatures within 120 feet of yourself. This basically means you don’t have to take many spells like Message to communicate stealthily and silently with your allies.
Flight, Stealth Proficiency
Owlins are very similar to aarakocra in that they also have a flight speed, allowing them to soar through the air at incredible heights. However, owlins are also great for expert players as they have automatic proficiency in the stealth skill thanks to their Silent Feathers feature.
This means, if you’re planning on playing a rogue or other sneaky character, you don’t have to waste one of your class proficiencies on stealth, and can instead maximize your abilities in other areas. Owlins are also, frankly, adorable, and make a great addition to any campaign set at Strixhaven or the world of Magic: The Gathering.
Control Air And Water, Amphibious
Tritons are humanoid creatures that call the oceans home. They can breathe both air and water, and have a swim speed of 30 feet, as one might expect. This species is basically the one to play if you want to pretend to be Aquaman.
The other best element of this species is that you’re able to cast Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind, and Wall of Water at various levels naturally. You can only do so once per long rest, but, in theory, you could cast all three of these once a day if you wanted to, which can make a really big difference in a tricky combat scenario.
