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  ©2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC 
  1 
  UNEARTHED ARCANA 2021 
  Gothic Lineages 
  By F. Wesley Schneider, Ben Petrisor, and Jeremy Crawford, with input from the rest of the D&D design team 
  This Is Playtest Material 
  The material in this article is presented for playtesting 
  and to spark your imagination. These game mechanics 
  are in draft form, usable in your campaign but not 
  refined by full game design and editing. They aren’t 
  officially part of the game and aren’t permitted in D&D 
  Adventurers League events. 
   The best way for you to give us feedback is in the 
  survey we’ll release on the D&D website soon. If we 
  decide to make this material official, it will be refined 
  based on your feedback, and then it will appear in a 
  D&D book. 
   The character options you read here might be more 
  or less powerful than options in the Player’s Handbook. 
  If a design survives playtesting, we adjust its power to 
  the desirable level before official publication. This 
  means an option could be more or less powerful in its 
  final form. 
  This document features three new race options 
  to playtest for player characters in D&D: 
  • Dhampir 
  • Hexblood 
  • Reborn 
  These options are special; you can choose one at 
  character creation or at an appropriate time 
  later in a campaign, transforming your character. 
  Creating Your Character  
  At 1st level, you choose whether your character 
  is a member of the human race or of one of the 
  game’s fantastical races. Alternatively, you can 
  choose one of the following lineages. If you 
  choose a lineage, you might have once been a 
  member of another race, but you aren’t any 
  longer. You now possess only your lineage’s 
  racial traits.  
   When you create a character using a lineage 
  option here, follow these additional rules during 
  character creation. 
  Ability Score Increases  
  When you determine your ability scores, 
  increase one of those scores by 2, and increase a 
  different one by 1. These increases can’t raise a 
  score above 20. You follow this rule regardless of 
  the method you use to determine the scores, 
  such as rolling or point buy. If you are replacing 
  your race with a lineage, replace any Ability 
  Score Increases you previously had with these.  
  Languages  
  Your character can speak, read, and write 
  Common and one other language that you and 
  your DM agree is appropriate for the character. 
  The Player’s Handbook offers a list of widespread 
  languages to choose from. The DM is free to add 
  or remove languages from that list for a 
  particular campaign. If you are replacing your 
  race with a lineage, you retain any languages you 
  had and gain no new languages. 
  Creature Type  
  Every creature in D&D, including every player 
  character, has a special tag in the rules that 
  identifies the type of creature they are. Most 
  player characters are of the Humanoid type. A 
  race option presented here tells you what your 
  character’s creature type is.  
   List of Types. Here’s a list of the game’s 
  creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, 
  Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, 
  Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, 
  Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules 
  themselves, but some rules in the game affect 
  creatures of certain types in different ways. For 
  example, the text of the cure wounds spell 
  specifies that the spell doesn’t work on a 
  creature that has the Construct or Undead type.  
   Having More Than One Type. Some creatures 
  are of more than one creature type. If an effect 
  works on at least one of a creature’s types, that 
  effect can work on that creature. For example, if 
  you are both a Humanoid and an Undead, cure 
  wounds works on you, since the spell works on a 
  Humanoid. 
  
   
   
  ©2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC 
  2 
  Design Note: Changes to Racial Traits 
  In 2020, the book Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything 
  introduced the option to customize several of your 
  character’s racial traits, specifically the Ability Score 
  Increase trait, the Language trait, and traits that give 
  skill, armor, weapon, or tool proficiencies. 
   Following in that book’s footsteps, the race options in 
  this article and in future D&D books lack the Ability 
  Score Increase trait, the Language trait, the Alignment 
  trait, and any other trait that is purely cultural. Racial 
  traits henceforth reflect only the physical or magical 
  realities of being a player character who’s a member of 
  a particular lineage. Such traits include things like 
  darkvision, a breath weapon (as in the dragonborn), or 
  innate magical ability (as in the forest gnome). Such 
  traits don’t include cultural characteristics, like language 
  or training with a weapon or a tool, and the traits also 
  don’t include an alignment suggestion, since alignment 
  is a choice for each individual, not a characteristic 
  shared by a lineage. 
   Finally, going forward, the term “race” in D&D refers 
  only to the suite of game features used by player 
  characters. Said features don’t have any bearing on 
  monsters and NPCs who are members of the same 
  species or lineage, since monsters and NPCs in D&D 
  don’t rely on race or class to function. Moreover, DMs 
  are empowered to customize the features of the 
  creatures in their game as they wish. 
  Dhampir 
  Poised between the worlds of the living and the 
  dead, dhampirs retain their grip on life yet are 
  endlessly tested by vicious hungers. Their ties to 
  the undead grant dhampirs a taste of a vampire’s 
  deathless prowess in the form of increased 
  speed, darkvision, and a life-draining bite. With 
  unique insights into the nature of the undead, 
  many dhampirs turn to the lives of adventurers 
  and monster hunters. Their reasons are often 
  deeply personal. Some seek danger, imagining 
  monsters as personifications of their own 
  hungers. Others pursue revenge against 
  whatever turned them into a dhampir. And still 
  others embrace the solitude of the hunt, striving 
  to distance themselves from those who’d tempt 
  their hunger. 
  Dhampir Hungers 
  Every dhampir knows a thirst slaked only by the 
  living. This desire is a whisper in the mind, a 
  tinge to the sight, a reflex constantly needing to 
  be suppressed. Those who overindulge their 
  thirst risk losing control and forever viewing 
  others as prey. Those who resist might find 
  exceptional ways of controlling their urges or 
  suppress it through constant, molar-grinding 
  restraint. In any case, temptation haunts 
  dhampirs, and circumstances conspire to give 
  them endless reasons to indulge.   
   While many dhampirs thirst for blood, your 
  character might otherwise gain sustenance from 
  the living. Roll on or choose an option from the 
  Dhampir Hungers table to determine what 
  tempts your character to feed. 
  Dhampir Hungers 
  d8 
  Hunger 
  1 
  Blood 
  2 
  Flesh or raw meat 
  3 
  Cerebral spinal fluid 
  4 
  Esoteric humors 
  5 
  Psychic energy 
  6 
  A color from one’s appearance 
  7 
  Dreams 
  8 
  Life energy 
   
  Dhampir Origins 
  Dhampirs often arise from encounters with 
  vampires, but all manner of macabre bargains, 
  necromantic influences, and encounters with 
  mysterious immortals might have transformed 
  your character. The Dhampir Origins table 
  provides suggestions for how your character 
  gained their lineage. 
  Dhampir Origins 
  d8 
  Origin 
  1 
  You are the reincarnation of an ancestor who 
  was a vampiric tyrant. 
  2 
  Your pact with a predatory deity, fiend, fey, or 
  spirit causes you to share their hunger. 
  3 
  You survived being attacked by a vampire but 
  were forever changed. 
  4 
  A parasite inhabits your body. You indulge 
  your hunger to sate it. 
  5 
  You loved an immortal and were willing to be 
  transformed into a vampire to join them, but 
  tragedy interrupted the transformation.  
  6 
  You are a diminished manifestation of an 
  otherworldly being. Slaking your hunger 
  hastens your renewal.  
  7 
  You don’t know your origins, but you were 
  raised by vampires or other monsters. 
  8 
  A radical experiment changed your body, 
  making you reliant on others for vital fluids. 
   
  
   
   
  ©2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC 
  3 
  Dhampir Traits 
  Type: Humanoid and Undead 
  Size: Medium or Small (choose when you gain 
  this lineage) 
  Speed: 35 feet 
   Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 
  feet of you as if it were bright light and in 
  darkness as if it were dim light. 
   Spider Climb. You have a climbing speed equal 
  to your walking speed. In addition, at 3rd level, 
  you can move up, down, and across vertical 
  surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while 
  leaving your hands free. 
   Vampiric Bite. Your fanged bite is a natural 
  weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon 
  with which you are proficient. You add your 
  Constitution modifier to the attack and damage 
  rolls when you attack with your bite. Your bite 
  deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you 
  are missing half or more of your hit points, you 
  have advantage on attack rolls you make with 
  this bite. 
   When you use your bite and hit a creature that 
  isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower 
  yourself in one of the following ways of your 
  choice: 
  • regain hit points equal to the damage dealt by 
  the bite 
  • gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack 
  roll you make; the bonus equals the damage 
  dealt by the bite 
   You can empower yourself with your bite a 
  number of times equal to your proficiency 
  bonus, and you regain all expended uses when 
  you finish a long rest. 
  Hexblood 
  Where wishing fails, ancient magic can offer a 
  heart’s desire—at least, for a time. Hexbloods 
  are individuals infused with eldritch magic, fey 
  energy, or mysterious witchcraft. Some who 
  enter into bargains with hags gain their deepest 
  wishes but eventually find themselves 
  transformed. These changes evidence a hag’s 
  influence: ears that split in forked points, skin in 
  wild shades, lengthy hair that regrows if cut, and 
  an irremovable living crown. Along with these 
  marks, hexbloods manifest hag-like traits, such 
  as long life, darkvision, and a variety of magical 
  methods to beguile the senses and avoid the 
  same.  
   While many hexbloods gain their lineage after 
  making a deal with a hag, others reveal their 
  nature as they age—particularly if a hag 
  influenced them early in life or even before their 
  birth. Many hexbloods turn to lives of adventure, 
  seeking to discover the mysteries of their magic, 
  to forge a connection with their fey natures, or to 
  avoid a hag that obsesses over them.  
  Heir of Hags 
  One way hags create more of their kind is 
  through the creation of hexbloods. Every 
  hexblood exhibits features suggestive of the hag 
  whose magic inspires their powers. This 
  includes an unusual crown, often called a 
  “eldercross” or “witch’s turn.” This living, 
  garland-like part of a hexblood’s body extends 
  from their temples and wraps behind the head, 
  serving as a visible mark of the bargain between 
  hag and hexblood, a debt owed, or a change to 
  come. 
  Becoming a Hag 
  Hags can undertake a ritual to irreversibly transform a 
  hexblood they created into a new hag, either one of 
  their own kind or that embodies the hexblood’s nature. 
  This requires that both the hag and hexblood be in the 
  same place and consent to the lengthy ritual—
  circumstances most hexbloods shun but might come to 
  accept over the course of centuries. Once a hexblood 
  undergoes this irreversible ritual, they emerge as a hag 
  NPC no longer under the control of the hexblood’s 
  player, unless the DM rules otherwise. 
  Hexblood Origins 
  A bargain with a hag or other eerie forces 
  transformed your character into a magical being. 
  Roll on or choose an option from the Hexblood 
  Origins table to determine how your character 
  gained their lineage. 
  Hexblood Origins 
  d8 
  Origin 
  1 
  Seeking a child, your parent made a bargain 
  with a hag. You are the result of that 
  arrangement. 
  2 
  Fey kidnappers swapped you and your 
  parents’ child. 
  3 
  A coven of hags lost one of their members. 
  You were created to replace the lost hag. 
  
   
   
  ©2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC 
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  4 
  You were cursed as a child. A deal with the 
  spirits of the forest transformed you into a 
  hexblood, now free of the curse. 
  5 
  You began life as a fey creature, but an 
  accident or crime changed you and forced you 
  from your home. 
  6 
  A slighted druid transformed you and bound 
  you to live only so long as a sacred tree bears 
  fruit. 
  7 
  You made a deal with a hag, but they twisted 
  your words and transformed you. 
  8 
  You are a child of the wilds. Animals and 
  mysterious whispers were the only family you 
  ever knew. 
   
  Hexblood Traits 
  Type: Fey and Humanoid 
  Size: Medium or Small (choose when you gain 
  this lineage) 
  Speed: 30 feet 
   Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 
  feet of you as if it were bright light and in 
  darkness as if it were dim light. 
   Fey Resilience. You have advantage on saving 
  throws you make to avoid or end the charmed 
  condition on yourself. 
   Hex Magic. You can cast the disguise self and 
  hex spells with this trait. Intelligence, Wisdom, or 
  Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these 
  spells (choose when you gain this lineage). Once 
  you cast either of these spells with this trait, you 
  can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish 
  a long rest. You can also cast these spells using 
  any spells slots you have. 
   Magic Token. As an action, you can harmlessly 
  pull out one of your nails, a tooth, or a lock of 
  hair. This token is imbued with magic until you 
  finish a long rest. While the token is imbued in 
  this way, you can use an action to send a 
  telepathic message to the creature holding or 
  carrying the token, as long as you are on the 
  same plane of existence and are within 10 miles 
  of it. The message can contain up to twenty-five 
  words. 
   In addition, while you are within 10 miles of 
  the token, you can use an action to enter a trance 
  for 1 minute, during which you can see and hear 
  from the token as if you were located where it is. 
  While you are using your senses at the token’s 
  location, you are blinded and deafened in regard 
  to your own surroundings. Afterward, the token 
  is harmlessly destroyed. 
   Once you create a token using this feature, you 
  can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, at 
  which point your missing part regrows. 
  Reborn 
  Death isn’t always the end. The reborn exemplify 
  this, being individuals who have died yet, 
  somehow, still live. Some reborn exhibit the 
  scars of fatal fates, their ashen flesh, missing 
  limbs, or bloodless veins making it clear that 
  they’ve been touched by death. Other reborn are 
  marvels of magic or science, being stitched 
  together from disparate beings or bearing 
  mysterious minds in manufactured bodies. 
  Whatever their origins, reborn know a new life 
  and seek experiences and answers all their own. 
  Faded Memories 
  Reborn suffer from some manner of 
  discontinuity, an interruption of their lives or 
  physical state that their minds are ill equipped to 
  deal with. Their memories of events before this 
  interruption are often vague or absent. 
  Occasionally, the most unexpected experiences 
  might cause sensations or visions of the past to 
  come rushing back. 
   Rather than sleeping, reborn regularly sit and 
  dwell on the past, hoping for some revelation of 
  what came before. Most of the time, these are 
  dark, silent stretches. Occasionally, though, in a 
  moment of peace, stress, or excitement, a reborn 
  gains a glimpse of what came before. When you 
  desire to have such a dreamlike vision, roll on 
  the Lost Memories table to inspire its details. 
  Lost Memories 
  d8 
  Memory 
  1 
  You recall a physically painful moment. What 
  mark or scar on your body does it relate to? 
  2 
  A memory causes you to shed a tear. Is it a 
  bitter or cheerful memory? Does recalling it 
  make you feel the same way? 
  3 
  You recall a childhood memory. What about 
  that event or who you were still influences 
  you? 
  4 
  A memory brings with it the voice of someone 
  once close to you. How do they advise you? 
  5 
  You recall enjoying something that you can’t 
  stand doing now. What is it? Why don’t you 
  like it now? 
  
   
   
  ©2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC 
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  6 
  A memory carries a vivid smell or sensation. 
  What are you going to do to recreate that 
  experience? 
  7 
  You faintly remember a place that couldn’t 
  possibly exist. What is this vision? How does it 
  make you feel? 
  8 
  You experience a memory you’re certain isn’t 
  your own. How does it seem unnatural? Could 
  it be a glimpse of a past nightmare or 
  something worse? 
   
  Reborn Origins 
  Reborn might originate from circumstances 
  similar to those of various undead or constructs. 
  Roll on or choose an option from the Reborn 
  Origins table to determine how your character 
  gained their lineage. 
  Reborn Origins 
  d8 
  Origins 
  1 
  You were magically resurrected but something 
  went wrong. 
  2 
  Stitches bind your body’s mismatched pieces, 
  and your memories come from multiple 
  different lives.  
  3 
  After clawing free from your grave, you 
  realized you have no memories except for a 
  single name. 
  4 
  You were a necromancer’s undead servant for 
  years. One day, your consciousness returned. 
  5 
  You awoke in an abandoned laboratory 
  alongside complex designs for clockwork 
  organs.  
  6 
  You were released after being petrified for 
  generations. Your memories have faded, 
  though, and your body is not what it once 
  was. 
  7 
  Your body hosts a possessing spirit that shares 
  its memories and replaces your missing 
  appendages with phantasmal limbs. 
  8 
  In public, you pass as an unremarkable 
  individual, but you can feel the itchy straw 
  stuffing inside you. 
   
  Reborn Traits 
  Type: Humanoid, as well as Construct or Undead 
  (choose when you gain this lineage) 
  Size: Medium or Small (choose when you gain 
  this lineage) 
  Speed: 30 feet 
   Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 
  feet of you as if it were bright light and in 
  darkness as if it were dim light. 
   Deathless Nature. You have escaped death, a 
  fact represented by the following benefits: 
  • You have advantage on saving throws against 
  disease and being poisoned, and you have 
  resistance to poison damage. 
  • You have advantage on death saving throws. 
  • You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe. 
  • You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put 
  you to sleep. You can finish a long rest in 4 
  hours if you spend those hours in an inactive, 
  motionless state, during which you retain 
  consciousness. 
   Knowledge from a Past Life. You temporarily 
  remember sporadic glimpses of the past, 
  perhaps faded memories from ages ago or a 
  previous life. When you make an ability check 
  that uses a skill, you can roll a d6 and add the 
  number rolled to the check. You can use this 
  feature a number of times equal to your 
  proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended 
  uses when you finish a long rest. 
   
  
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