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).

5th edition playable races