The following are rules for mixed lineage characters as part of the Reborn World campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. This work-in-progress playtest content is made to work alongside the 5E Plus overhauled Lineage options. Character creation Ability Score bonuses and Languages have been moved into Backgrounds.

Creating a Mixed Lineage Character

If you wish to create a character mixing the features of two different parent lineages, you can do so using the following guide.

Creature Type. You gain the creature types and any traits associated with them from both parent lineages.

Size. You may choose any size option available to either parent lineage.

Speed. You gain the speeds of both parent lineages as listed in their Speed trait. If both parent lineages share a speed type, you pick one of the two.

Darkvision. You gain darkvision if either parent lineage has it, as listed in their Darkvision trait. If both parent lineages have the Darkvision trait, you pick one of the two.

Additional Features and Traits. You gain all features of both parent lineages that are marked with a [ + ]. You do not gain any of the features marked with a [ * ].

Author’s Notes

This system will allow you to combine any two lineages and get a mixture of their lower power level features, without having to write out options for every possible combination. Players have been wanting ways to do something like this since the game’s inception and overhauling the character options from the ground up seemed like a great opportunity to implement it.

As the project goes on I can balance and grade each lineage’s features in terms of what traits are or aren’t too overpowered to be put onto a mixed lineage character. This should create some interesting and powerful combos, while saving the most powerful traits for the single lineage option to give players a reason to still use it.

As always, feedback and playtest data is greatly appreciated!