Welcome back to my ongoing series of capsule reviews of "Unearthed Arcana" with an eye for how to use them with the Freeport setting. This column covers UA articles from October 2020 to October 2021. (None had been released in 2022 at the date of this post.)
The book which I alluded to in my last UA & Freeport post (a year and a half ago!) turned out to be Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which I have since acquired and reviewed (Part 1; Part 2). That book incorporated nearly all of the playtest material that I reviewed in UA & Freeport, Parts 10-15, except for "Subclasses, Part 4," which appears to have missed the cut-off date for inclusion.
Note that all of the new races (or lineages) presented in UA since Tasha's was released have referred the player to the "Customizing Your Origin" rules in that book rather than dictating ability score increases, languages, and tool proficiencies.
Subclasses, Part 5 (10/26/2020): This installment introduces just two new subclasses, both with a dragon theme. The Way of the Ascendant Dragon allows monks to do energy damage with their unarmed strikes, and also bestows a breath weapon. Higher levels gives additional draconic abilities. The Drakewarden ranger gains the ability to summon a small drake companion. The stat block for this drake includes the ranger's proficiency bonus for its AC, good saves, and attack rolls, using the same "+PB" notation used for summoned creatures in Tasha's.
The Way of the Ascendant Dragon is very appropriate for monks from the Eastern Empire. The drakewarden is most likely from the wilds of the Continent, though the Serpent's Teeth is also home to many reptilian monsters.
Gothic Lineages (1/26/2021): This article presents three new races with Gothic horror origins. Each lineage has two creatures types to reflect its in-between status. The text points out that if an effect would affect one of their types, it affects the character normally (so a dhampir--humanoid and undead--would be healed by cure wounds).
The dhampir is part humanoid, part undead, with a vampiric bite and a hunger for blood (or some other manifestation of life force). The hexblood has ties to hags, making them part fey, with some innate magic and advantage against charm effects. The reborn represents a variety of characters unnaturally suspended between life and death, either through surgery or implanted machinery (making them a construct) or necromantic magic (undead). In both cases, being reborn helps the character resist disease, poison, and dying.
Freeport is a horror setting, so all three lineages are appropriate there, though all remain rare. The Pathfinder RPG has rules for dhampirs and hag-descended changelings, so the dhampir and hexblood would be useful for converting those races' abilities to 5E. (Offhand, I don't recall any examples of either in Freeport canon, but they are popular with some players.)
Folk of the Feywild (3/11/2021): This article presents four races whose origins lie within the Feywild. Fairies are a small race similar to pixies or sprites, but larger. They can fly (even without wings), and cast a couple of innate spells. The version of hobgoblins presented here gives an alternative to the race traits given in Volo's Guide of Monsters, which reflected a more militaristic world-view. Owlfolk are humanoid owls with winged flight, the ability to sense magic, and the night vision and silent feathers of their owl kin; they may be Small or Medium. Rabbitfolk are humanoids with hare-like senses and reflexes, and may also be Small or Medium. The choice of size has no effect on either race's traits, but will affect things such as the ability to use heavy weapons.
(The official versions of three of these races have already been released: The owlin in Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos, and the fairy and harengon in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.)
One of the defining characteristics of the Freeport setting is that the native fey of the Serpent's Teeth are almost universally reptilian in nature rather than the elf-like creatures found elsewhere. That means that these four fey races would be very rare in the City of Adventure, and they would be highly unlikely to have come here directly from the Feywild. Freeport does have an enclave of hobgoblins, but these are transplants from the Continent, and most fit that race's stereotype of regimented military training (making the traits in Volo's more appropriate).
Draconic Options (4/14/2021): This article presents several new character options manifesting draconic magic, and was obviously meant as a companion piece to "Subclasses, Part 5," above. These include three variant dragonborn races (chromatic, metallic, and gem) that provide a more direct connection between the dragonborn and the dragon type matching their scale color. The chromatic and metallic races are only superficially different from the standard PH dragonborn, but the gem dragonborn gives access to more unusual breath weapon damage types, has innate psionic telepathy, and can briefly manifest spectral gem-like wings once a day.
A new version of the kobold race is also included, which lacks the racial Strength penalty given in Volo's (a rarity among 5E races to begin with, and entirely dispensed with if you use the "Customizing Your Origin" rules in Tasha's). This variant leans into their draconic ancestry, rather than being the cowardly pack creature presented in the MM and Volo's.
Three new feats provide some abilities of chromatic dragons (energy-infused attacks and limited resistance), metallic dragons (cure wounds and protective wings), and gem dragons (a mental stat increase and a telekinetic counterattack). Finally, the article details seven new spells. The most noteworthy of these are probably draconic transformation (giving draconic senses, flight, and a force damage breath weapon), Raulothim's psychic lance (which adds a new psionic-themed spell to the handful in Tasha's), and summon draconic spirit (which follows the format of the new summoning spells in Tasha's).
All of these options could be used in a Freeport campaign. The new version of the kobold is particularly attractive as a more heroic interpretation of that race, and dragon-themed spells will appeal to a wide variety of casters.
Mages of Strixhaven (6/8/2021): This article presents five subclasses appropriate to the Strixhaven plane from the Magic: The Gathering multiverse. These subclasses are probably most noteworthy for the fact that each was designed to work with two or three different spellcasting classes. Because classes gain their subclass features at different levels (and give different numbers of features), these subclasses' features have a minimum level required to choose them, rather than a set level. (To my knowledge, these subclasses were not used in the final Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos book, probably largely due to this more complicated implementation.)
A Mage of Lorehold is a historian who bonds with an ancient companion spirit inhabiting an animated statue. A Mage of Prismari infuses their own movements with elemental energy, and specializes with a chosen energy type at later levels. A Mage of Quandrix is a mathematician who can manipulate probability. A Mage of Silverquill channels their magic through their words, demoralizing foes and bolstering allies. A Mage of Witherbloom taps into the endless cycle of life and death.
Both the Magic-specific context of these subclasses and their unusual implementation make them difficult to adapt to a Freeport campaign. A GM who wishes to make use of them would probably want to rename or reflavor the background somewhat to match a magical college in their setting. The only such organization that receives much attention in the Freeport product line is the Wizard's Guild, which has a much more secretive, even sinister, reputation than Strixhaven's more genuinely collegiate atmosphere. A school on the Continent (like the Arcane Blade Academy I mentioned in connection with bladesingers in Part 1 of "Tasha's Cauldron and Freeport") is likely a better choice, despite the lack of details.
Travelers of the Multiverse (10/8/2021): This installment presents six new races for 5E, all of which fit a planar traveler theme. Astral elves are descended from elves who left the Feywild to be closer to the homes of their gods. Autognomes are constructs built in their rock gnome creators' image. Giffs are tall, powerfully built humanoids with hippo-like heads. Hadozees are simians with feet that are as dexterous as hands, and gliding flaps between their limbs. Plasmoids are intelligent oozes who can mimic a humanoid form well enough to use other races' equipment. Thri-kreen are insectoids with telepathic and chameleon abilities.
Most of these races have appeared in past editions of the D&D game, though not necessarily as playable PC races. The hadozee and giff (and possibly autognomes?) originated in the Spelljammer setting, which has caused quite a bit of speculation about whether Wizards is planning a full setting book for this edition. Thri-kreen have been part of D&D at least since the the AD&D 2E Monster Manual II, and featured prominently in the Dark Sun setting. Three of the races have also reminded me of TSR's Star Frontiers game: the hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen could easily be used to convert that game's yazirians, dralasites, and vrusk to D&D 5E.
Determining how many of these races are appropriate for a Freeport campaign depends in part how much travel between worlds and planes the GM feels is appropriate for their game. The 3E book Stormwrack presented the hadozee as a race most commonly found aboard ships, with all references to the Spelljammer setting removed. (It was this version that I allowed for one of the PCs in my last Freeport campaign, so I'm very pleased to see 5E stats for them.) The thri-kreen could be native to another continent--perhaps the forests of Rolland or the arid lands of Hamunaptra. The astral elf, giff, and plasmoid would probably be rare in a world without spelljamming ships or frequent planar travel. On the other hand, the giff have always been associated with firearms, and often find work as mercenaries, both of which provide reasons for encountering them as exotic troops passing through Freeport.
According to fellow Piazza member Tim Baker, "The fey hobgoblin found in Folk of the Feywild now appears in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse."
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