The first thing to establish about half-orcs is that they’re certified meat-shields. If you’re more of a fighter, choose a mountain dwarf, as they get added strength and proficiency in both light and medium armour.

If you’re after more resilience, pick a hill dwarf, as you’ll get an increase to your maximum hit points, as well as an increase to your wisdom.

Advantage on saving throws against poison.

Additionally, because of their innate combat training, they’re a fantastic choice if you’re looking to play a character who’s a dab hand with weaponry, such as a monk, fighter or barbarian. They’re generally a good shout when it comes to creating heavy-set characters, because their speed isn’t reduced by the armour they’re wearing. Dwarves get a nice selection of general traits, such as darkvision (can see in dim light for up to 60 feet, which is always handy to have) and, of course, tool proficiency (can choose a toolkit to use). They’re pretty much what you expect from a classic dwarf: short, stout and good with a set of tools. However, with that in mind, we’re going to provide our own brief, but hopefully informative, look at what each race is really about – and help you decide what your own roleplaying avatar will be. Whilst the nitty-gritty elements of the Player’s Handbook are a chore to read - which is why we’ve broken it down nicely in our guide to how to get started with Dungeons & Dragons - the little bits of flavour text are actually quite good and can help you get a better understanding of how each race fits into the D&D world as you create your character. The character creation section of the Dungeons & Dragons 5E Player's Handbook provides a decent selection of major races, and their sub-section of races, each one bringing their own unique set of traits, sometimes both positive and negative.

However, as we advise in our guide to Dungeons & Dragons 5E character creation (which you really should have read already), jumping straight into the wacky world of the wider D&D universe and homebrew content for your very first character is a tad ambitious. Theoretically, you can create a character with any race featured in the Dungeons & Dragons universe (including typical enemy races, such as bugbears).

Racial bonuses dnd 5e