Dungeons & Dragons has released a new set of six playable races, four of which are most associated with the long-awaited Spelljammer campaign setting. The new “Travelers of the Multiverse” Unearthed Arcana features a total of six playable races, including the Astral Elf, Autognome, Giff, Hadozee, Plasmoid, and Thri-Kreen. The autognome, Giff, Hadozee, and Plasmoid races all appeared in Spelljammer material. The Thri-Kreen are most associated with the Dark Sun campaign setting. The Astral Elves live on the Astral Plane, a plane that has been explored in multiple settings including Planescape. However, the Astral Elves are distinctly different from the githzerai and githyanki, two other playable races descended from elves who also live in the Astral Plane.
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All six of the new races use the updated guidance on playable races, which discards set Character Stat bonuses. Each also have a variety of different abilities. The Astral Elf has a Radiant Soul ability that allows them to regain hit points when they successfully make a death saving throw once per long rest and can swap weapon and tool proficiencies whenever they take a long rest. The Autognome has a natural Armor Class and can use their Built for Success trait to add a d4 to an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus. Additionally, the Autognome can also expend a hit dice whenever mending is cast on them.
The giff, an alien race that look like bipedal hippos, can re-roll damage dice if they roll a 1 on it and has advantage on all Strength ability throws and saving throws. The Hadozee, a simian-like race with membranes under their limbs that allow them to glide, can reduce their fall damage to 0 using their reaction. The plasmoid, a race of amorphous amoeba-like creatures, has resistance to acid and poison damage and can create a 10-foot long pseudopod that can manipulate objects. Finally, the insectoid thri-kreen have limited telepathy, a natural armor class, the ability to change their carapace to match their surroundings to give them advantage on Stealth checks, and have a set of secondary arms.
The implications of this new Unearthed Arcana playtest are staggering and almost certainly confirms that some sort of new Spelljammer content is on the way. It’s possible that a new Manual of the Planes-like book could be released (given the name of the Unearthed Arcana) or that we could see some sort of brand new revised campaign setting that blends together aspects of Planescape, Spelljammer, and Dark Sun together in some ways. You can check out the full playtest here.
Stay tuned, Dungeons & Dragons fans. 2022 is obviously going to be out of this world.
