New Unearthed Arcana is here! This playtest material features new character options for players. You can play as an astral elf, an autognome, a giff, a hadozee, a plasmoid, or a thri-kreen. Let’s talk about them!

The general information for these options is under the Creating Your Character heading. Similar to the previous options, you can choose your Ability Score Increase and your secondary language. This section also mentions that life spans for most player characters are about a century, with some exceptions (elves, for instance).

Additionally, the Height and Weight section notes that you can use the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook to generate numbers for these character options, depending on what build you envision for them.

Astral Elf

Astral elves live in the Astral Plane, a place where time doesn’t pass. The Astral Plane can allow travelers to access many other planes connected to it. It’s also called the Silver Void.

Astral elves have the Darkvision, Fey Ancestry, and other features common to all elves. They also gain the use of the dancing lights, light, or sacred flame cantrip.

Also, when they trance, they can call on shared elven memory to gain two proficiencies with either a weapon or tool. These additional proficiencies last until the next long rest.   

The most interesting new feature for astral elves is Radiant Soul. You can use this feature once per long rest. When you succeed on a death saving throw, you can use Radiant Soul to regain some hit points. This means that once you fall unconscious, you can heal yourself the next turn and get yourself back in the fight!

Autognome

The title of this option is amazing. I just imagine a gnome-sized Transformer.

Autognomes are constructed beings in the shape of gnomes. Their creators build them for a purpose, but somewhere along the way they have ventured off on their own. There’s a table for determining how this happened to your autognome character.

Autognomes have the Construct creature type, but the True Life feature allows them to benefit from certain common healing spells as well as mending. Mending has an additional effect of allowing you to spend Hit Die to regain hit points.

They also have some features we’ve seen on other robot-like character options, such as Sentry’s Rest, Mechanical Nature, and Specialized Design.

Additionally, autognomes have Built for Success. This allows them to roll a d4 to add to a roll. They can use this feature a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus before the next long rest.

Giff

Giff are big, hippo-like people. They have a tradition of storytelling and are considered good allies to have in a fight.

Giff are medium humanoids, but with the Hippo Build feature, they gain advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. They also count as one size larger for their carrying capacity and how much they can drag, push, or lift.

Additionally, giff have a 30 ft swim speed, and their Damage Dealer feature benefits their melee attack damage rolls.

Giff appeared in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and were described as “spacefaring mercenaries” with a fondness for firearms. It’s fun to see them appear as a player character option now!

Hadozee

Like some of these other playtest options, hadozee seem to originate from the Spelljammer setting. They have simian features and membranes hanging from their appendages. These traits allow them to climb and glide adeptly.

Hadozee can be medium or small humanoids. They have a climb speed in addition to their walk speed, and their Dexterous Feet feature allows them to perform the Use an Object action as a bonus action.

Their gliding ability is very unique. The Glide feature allows them to move up to 5 feet horizontally every 1 foot of a descent, and they can use their reaction to negate falling damage. They can use this feature as long as they’re not incapacitated or wearing heavy armor.

Plasmoid

Plasmoids share many traits with amoeba—the ways they move and gain nutrients are very similar. Basically, plasmoids are ooze people. They are amorphous and can use a pseudopod to grab things.

Plasmoids have the Ooze creature type. If they aren’t wearing or carrying anything, they can squeeze through small openings as small as 1 inch wide! They also are more difficult to grapple and have advantage on grappling others. They resist poison and its effects, and they also resist acid damage.

Being an ooze, a plasmoid’s form is somewhat fluid. They can reshape themselves to create makeshift arms, hands, legs, feet, and so on. They can extrude a long pseudopod to manipulate objects as well! This option is very weird and very exciting for some of my players. I’m interested to see what people do with it!

Thri-kreen

Thri-kreen are insectoid people who communicate with other folk through telepathy. They have an extra pair of arms and a chitinous body.

Thri-kreen are medium or small creatures with the Monstrosity creature type. Their Chameleon Carapace feature gives them a boosted AC calculation, and it allows them to change color, gaining advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. They can stay conscious during their long rest, and their telepathy goes out to 120 feet.

Their secondary arms act like normal arms. The only exceptions come into play with combat equipment—they can’t hold shields or use any weapon without the light property. This means they can use weapons like daggers in their secondary arms, but not a greatsword.

These new options are super funky, and I’m excited to see what kinds of characters people make with them!