10 Worst Racial Abilities in Dungeons & Dragons

10 Worst Racial Abilities in Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons races all have different and unique traits, and these are the most useful racial traits in the game.

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Dungeons & Dragons gives players a vast array of tools in order to customize their character and make them feel like one’s own. From backgrounds, to classes and subclasses, to races, no two Dungeons & Dragons characters will feel the same. However, not all options when it comes to character creation are quite equal, with some options making notable impacts on how a character is played, and other options feeling inconsequential. This is notably seen in character races, where some characters are given huge benefits, while the perks of others can be easily glossed over. So today, we’re going to examine the ten worst racial abilities in Dungeon & Dragons.

It is important to note that every race in D&D is excellent in their own right. These abilities are merely those which are the most situational and least likely to be useful at a given moment.

10 Saving Face – Hobgoblin

While the Hobgoblin ability Saving Face may be a very flavorful ability, its application is quite limited and forces a player to play a specific way in order to get any mileage out of it. As Hobgoblins want to appear powerful in front of others, if a Hobgoblin misses, fails a saving throw, or fails an ability check, they can add a bonus to their roll equal to the amount of allies near them.

While Saving Face could hypothetically help a character succeed at important rolls, his ability’s worth is significantly hindered in smaller party sizes since the added bonus is dictated by the number of present allies.

9 Long-Limbed – Bugbear

A monstrous race that appears in Volo’s Guide to Monsters, Bugbears turn their visual lankiness into an actual ability in the form of Long-Limbed. Long-Limbed increases the range of a Bug-Bear’s melee attacks by five feet.

While additional range is nice, as Bugbears are already capable of moving a distance of thirty feet each turn, nine times out of ten, Long-Limbed doesn’t grant any additional targets a Bugbear couldn’t already reach.

8 Mountain Born – Goliath

While a Goliath’s Mountain Born ability is in no means bad, a player could feasibly go an entire campaign without it ever coming into play. The ability simply states that Goliath’s are unaffected by cold climates.

While this ability can be phenomenal in adventures through high mountains or the tundra, it would provide virtually no benefit in a campaign with a consistently warmer climate.

7 Amphibious – Water Genasi and Triton

Like Mountain Born, the Amphibious ability held by Water Genasi and Tritons is an ability that is only useful depending on one’s environment. As the name would suggest, this ability allows a character to breathe water as well as they do air.

If all D&D adventures were based around oceans and lakes, this ability would be nowhere near this list. However, players can go numerous sessions or even entire campaigns without finding large bodies of water, making it quite situational.

6 Fury of the Small – Goblin

An ability unique to Goblins, Fury of the small allows Goblins to deal extra damage to a foe larger than it. While this sounds fun and useful at first glance, this ability can only be used once per long rest, and its bonus damage is equal to the Goblin’s current level.

For the first many levels of a Goblin, having an ability dedicated to dealing such a small amount of additional damage once per long rest is beyond underwhelming.

5 Guardians of the Depths – Triton

Another ability of Tritons, Guardians of the Depths allows Tritons to ignore any and all penalties of being deep underwater. This ability has the exact same situational nature as Amphibious, but to a worse degree.

While Amphibious could be useful when it came to exploring smaller bodies of water like rivers and ponds, this ability is only useful when a character is deep underwater. It should go without saying that the deepest depths of the ocean is not the most common location to appear in a campaign.

4 +1 To All Ability Scores – Human

In D&D, Humans are the most straightforward and vanilla race that a player can access. Jacks of all trades, when a player builds a Human, they are given access to an additional language and +1 in each of their ability scores.

While this may sound appealing when building a character, one would be hard pressed to find a class that seeks to improve every single one of their stats. Classes such as Druid can completely disregard their strength, while a Barbarian or Fighter may choose to abandon all care for their intelligence with little consequence.

3 Emissary of the Sea – Triton

Sorry Triton players. The third triton ability on this list, Emissary of the Sea, further cements that Tritons are one of the, if not the most situationally dependent races in D&D. Emissary of the Sea allows creatures that breathe underwater to be able to understand a Triton’s words.

Unfortunately, a Triton cannot understand their words in return. This trait’s applications are just as limited as one would expect.

2 Partially Amphibious – Vedalken

While Amphibious was already on the list for its limited applications, it’s cousin, Partially Amphibious, is strictly worse. While in situations involving a great deal of water such as sea-based travel allows Amphibious to really shine, Partially Amphibious is not as lucky.

Partially Amphibious allows a Vedalken to breathe underwater for a mere hour, then requiring a long rest to regain the ability.

1 Sunlight Sensitivity – Kobold And Dark Elf

While the majority of the other entries of this list were simply too situational to be considered consistently useful, Sunlight Sensitivity of Kobolds, Dark Elves, and creatures that live underground is a blatant drawback. As long a character with this ability is in the sunlight, they have disadvantage on attack rolls and perception checks.

As great deal of Dungeons & Dragons adventures take place outside and in the wilderness, this ability can be an annoying hindrance on one’s character. Luckily, many benevolent Dungeon Masters can aid this drawback by making sunglasses or sun-blocking goggles obtainable for characters with Sunlight Sensitivity.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/worst-racial-abilities-in-dungeons-dragons/

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