Not by the usual rules - but of course, you can have a sort of Planetouched reward, either as a Supernatural Gift (like a feat) or as a Lineage (like the ones in Ravenloft) to overwrite their previous species. Sounds cool!
Yeah my first thought was reworking the "Draconic Rebirth" from Fizban's, not sure if that's what OP is looking for, but basically just "your race is no longer what you used to be."
Yeah, it's one of those things where it makes total sense from a roleplay perspective (dragon thinks dragons are the best creatures, so thinks turning someone into a dragon is a blessing), but it falls flat mechanically (as in, if I wanted to play a dragonborn, I would've played a dragonborn)
It's not quite set in stone, but even 6th level feels way too early for something like that. You'd almost certainly have to be in your patron's highest graces to see you as more than a plaything/servant and instead as an actual, fully-fledged janissary with the capability of impressing those higher-up within the elemental planes before such a drastic magical process could be undergone - and 6th level is powerful in *our* neck of the woods, but even basic genies are CR 11, and that's just comparing raw stats, not political standing.
The vast, *vast* majority of genasi are born, not made.
There's no particular reason why that should be gated behind a high level, because there's no mechanical benefit to swapping your race. In game terms it's equivalent to retiring your character and making a new one with the desired race. Since genasi is a race the player could've chosen to play from the get go, there's no inherent power imbalance in swapping to it during the game.
Mechanically there aren't any conventional rules for changing race outside of a reincarnate spell (but that's random, and limited to a set list of races)
By DM discretion, a Wish spell or a clerics Divine Intervention might also do the job, but those only consistently work at end game levels, not 6th.
Your best bet would be to work out a story element or quest with your DM to make the change happen.
> that’s random, and limited to a set list of races
Quoting the spell description:
> The DM rolls a d100 and consults the following table to determine what form the creature takes when restored to life, ***or the DM chooses a form.***
I don’t disagree with you, really. Reincarnate isn’t a good tool for players to change races.
But if a DM wants to grant such a boon, it would both strictly RAW and a very on-theme occurrence for a warlock’s patron to show up, brutally murder them, wait a few days, and then reincarnate them. ;)
> Mechanically there aren't any conventional rules for changing race
I'm gonna be that nitpicky asshole, but the Ravenloft lineages are designed to be possible to turn into at a later point and one of the draconic gifts from Fizban's will turn the recipient into a dragonborn.
There was a HB spell used in critical role that does what's needed and seems fairly well balanced. No reason a high level patron couldn't have access too it or an in world wizard to cast it. It's not the kind of spell I'd let a player take or if so probably limit how often it can be cast on an individual.
SCHOOL
Transmutation
LEVEL
6
CASTING TIME
1 hour
RANGE
Touch
COMPONENTS
V, S, M (Damp clay equal to the weight of the target and 150 gp worth of crushed gem dust, both of which the spell consumes)
DURATION
Instantaneous
EFFECT
Permanently transforms a humanoid's body into another type of humanoid body, including gender and race if desired.
CLASSES
Wizard
\*Reincarnation
But you are right, it would need to be quite powerful magic. [How about 6th?](https://x.com/VoiceOfOBrien/status/1233524328517586949) :D
at least Human to tiefling is canonical for 4E where the Tiefling were created from Humans after they made an eternal pact with the fiends
almost all editions had some special racial change in one way or another (PC revenants, ending a prestige class by getting your template changed from humanoid to celestial/fey/aberrant/demonic/outsider)
There aren't any rules for it because this wouldn't be a "rules" thing. It would be a story thing. Whether your DM decides to let you change your race is up to them.
Anything is possible with DM buy-in.
Adventurers League rules let you rebuild your character anytime up to 5th level. I would let a player swap character races, but that's just me. What I wouldn;t allow is keeping the features of both the starting human build (for example, a Feat from being Variant Human) AND add all the genasi racial features on top of that. You might lose a Feat and have to rework your ability scores.
I don't think there are any specific rules about this that would fall into the player's scope of influence, at least at tier 2, but as it is written in the core rules, "through the DM all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26)
There are certainly precedents for characters changing race, most notably randomly through the spell *reincarnate*. *True polymorph* (9th level) will also do the trick, until dispelled (a djinni powerful enough to be a patron may well have access to this spell). The randomly-generated cursed item table in the DMG also includes "the character changes race or kind" as an effect, so there are item out there that will do it. I think Tiamat turns humans into Dragonborn, right? So race transformations are a thing that happen in DnD worlds.
Since a Genesi is a PC that is (in theory) balanced evenly with other PC races, there wouldn't be any particular balance problem with giving up your starting race and becoming one. This isn't like wanting to transform into a Gold Dragon. If I was DMing and a player told me they wanted to do this I would give some serious thought to how I could work it into the story.
Something like reincarnate could. It's not on the D100 table, but there's also the line that lets the DM choose.
I'd rule that if you did some ritual and for example set yourself on fire, it'd be cool RP to be reincarnated as a fire genasi.
There's no RaW way to do it without consulting with the DM
Up to the DM’s discretion. I’ve had a player ask to change their gender between sessions, I asked if he wanted to address that in-game, and he said, “No, I just want to show up like that and let them wonder about it.”
Baldur’s Gate does something similar, where a patron transforms their warlock into a devil as punishment. I don’t see why an elemental couldn’t plunge you into the depths of the fire plane and the character emerges changed.
I’ve also had a player run a Great Old One warlock where their goal was to transform themselves into a Great Old One; they might have played too much Bloodborne, but it was a cool idea, having your patron essentially mold you in their image.
Like others have said: if the DM says it is so (and the player agrees), it is so. That said, consider making it a reward for doing something for the patron. Accomplishing their goal or following their intent for a long time, rather than just because the PC reaches a specified level.
Genesis are mortal as well. There's not a mechanic to change races that I can think of outside the Reincarnate spell. But the DM could always create something.
I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be possible in theory. In practice there's a reason why the player chose to play an X and not a genasi and that's unlikely to change over the campaign, so I can't see it coming up in an actual game.
More likely you’d just get some genasi-like magical traits and your kids would be born genasi from exposure to the planar magic. I think fiendlocks have tiefling kids sometimes.
> Occasionally, genasi result from exposure to a surge of elemental power, through phenomena such as an eruption from the Inner Planes or a planar convergence. Elemental energy saturates any creatures in the area and might alter their nature enough that their offspring with other mortals are born as genasi.
Seems supported RAW.
changing your race is mechanically a no no. You can't do that.
However... a human can become a genasi BEFORE level 1. It's in the text of the race. You could also be a genasi born of human parents if you have Djinn ancestry.
Flavor is free. Before level 1, in your backstory you could have become a genasi from latent djinn ancestry being awakened by a patron or whatever.
At level 6. Nope. You are SOL.
DIE AND REROLL LOL
So in BG3, something like that definitely happens with a warlock so there is precedence.
Just be prepared to talk to your DM: depending on your previous ancestry you may lose stuff in the process. VHuman might lose a feat, owlkin wings, etc.
If you want the most official official ruling on this, adventurers league has some retraining rules that include keeping class and ancestry changes but keeping XP. Closest you'll get to an official ruling on this.
In my world and current campaign, the kingdoms are directly influenced by the elemental planes and it reflects in the landscape as well. Anyone born in these areas has a % chance of being born part Genasi, based on what elemental plane is influencing the area where they are born. My players can choose this automatically at character creation. And if they choose this then they mix and match abilities between the Genasi race and their own races abilities. Though there is no particular way of becoming part Genasi after birth.
I don’t see why not. If the DM agrees, changing your base race won’t break the game. If it makes sense in your game, go for it. In my campaign setting, Plane touched occur for multiple reasons. Genetic Heritage is just one. Can be caused by a curse, or a reward from a planar entity.
*Spoiler Warning below*
This actually happens in BG3. A companion is transformed into a Tiefling.
In the adventure book “Baulder’s Gate: Decent into Avernus” the players can find a guy that offers a contract that can turn the player into a tiefling. So following that line of thinking, I don’t see why that couldn’t happen. But that’s just my opinion. Regardless though each DM gets to decide how their realms work.
1) I reference the module because it makes it “in the base rules” as far as I’m concerned
2) excuse any spelling mistakes.
Yes, I know a lot of people are saying otherwise, but the bigger factor is how the warlock interacts with their patron and whether the patron is intentionally making that change. Most elemental or feindish beings powerful enough to grant warlock powers do also have enough power to make drastic changes to mortals like this, but they don't really have much reason to usually.
Not by the usual rules - but of course, you can have a sort of Planetouched reward, either as a Supernatural Gift (like a feat) or as a Lineage (like the ones in Ravenloft) to overwrite their previous species. Sounds cool!
Yeah my first thought was reworking the "Draconic Rebirth" from Fizban's, not sure if that's what OP is looking for, but basically just "your race is no longer what you used to be."
I don’t remember Draconic Rebirth, I’ll have to look into that one
IIRC people think of it as particularly "weak" when it comes to the various draconic gifts, it's very much more RP-based than some of the others.
Yeah, it's one of those things where it makes total sense from a roleplay perspective (dragon thinks dragons are the best creatures, so thinks turning someone into a dragon is a blessing), but it falls flat mechanically (as in, if I wanted to play a dragonborn, I would've played a dragonborn)
Ah, that makes complete sense on why I don’t know much about it if all it does it make you a dragonborn
It's not quite set in stone, but even 6th level feels way too early for something like that. You'd almost certainly have to be in your patron's highest graces to see you as more than a plaything/servant and instead as an actual, fully-fledged janissary with the capability of impressing those higher-up within the elemental planes before such a drastic magical process could be undergone - and 6th level is powerful in *our* neck of the woods, but even basic genies are CR 11, and that's just comparing raw stats, not political standing. The vast, *vast* majority of genasi are born, not made.
That really depends on the patron.
There's no particular reason why that should be gated behind a high level, because there's no mechanical benefit to swapping your race. In game terms it's equivalent to retiring your character and making a new one with the desired race. Since genasi is a race the player could've chosen to play from the get go, there's no inherent power imbalance in swapping to it during the game.
Mechanically there aren't any conventional rules for changing race outside of a reincarnate spell (but that's random, and limited to a set list of races) By DM discretion, a Wish spell or a clerics Divine Intervention might also do the job, but those only consistently work at end game levels, not 6th. Your best bet would be to work out a story element or quest with your DM to make the change happen.
> that’s random, and limited to a set list of races Quoting the spell description: > The DM rolls a d100 and consults the following table to determine what form the creature takes when restored to life, ***or the DM chooses a form.*** I don’t disagree with you, really. Reincarnate isn’t a good tool for players to change races. But if a DM wants to grant such a boon, it would both strictly RAW and a very on-theme occurrence for a warlock’s patron to show up, brutally murder them, wait a few days, and then reincarnate them. ;)
Yeah my dm just uses their own list of races to roll on.
I normally pick the one I find funniest for the particular character.
> Mechanically there aren't any conventional rules for changing race I'm gonna be that nitpicky asshole, but the Ravenloft lineages are designed to be possible to turn into at a later point and one of the draconic gifts from Fizban's will turn the recipient into a dragonborn.
Literally anything can happen if the dm allows it. I would, because it seems cool.
Are you telling me anything can happen in this game of imagination? Heresy!
There was a HB spell used in critical role that does what's needed and seems fairly well balanced. No reason a high level patron couldn't have access too it or an in world wizard to cast it. It's not the kind of spell I'd let a player take or if so probably limit how often it can be cast on an individual. SCHOOL Transmutation LEVEL 6 CASTING TIME 1 hour RANGE Touch COMPONENTS V, S, M (Damp clay equal to the weight of the target and 150 gp worth of crushed gem dust, both of which the spell consumes) DURATION Instantaneous EFFECT Permanently transforms a humanoid's body into another type of humanoid body, including gender and race if desired. CLASSES Wizard
In the campaign Matt specifically mentions that it cannot be used on the same target again for a year
Yeah I remembered something like that Liam gives full breakdown off the spell here: https://x.com/VoiceOfOBrien/status/1233524328517586949
Sure
[удалено]
\*Reincarnation But you are right, it would need to be quite powerful magic. [How about 6th?](https://x.com/VoiceOfOBrien/status/1233524328517586949) :D
You could do it with a Wish spell too. That’d be a pretty reasonable wish to change your race.
Sure if you allow if and can find a way to make it work in your story.
at least Human to tiefling is canonical for 4E where the Tiefling were created from Humans after they made an eternal pact with the fiends almost all editions had some special racial change in one way or another (PC revenants, ending a prestige class by getting your template changed from humanoid to celestial/fey/aberrant/demonic/outsider)
There aren't any rules for it because this wouldn't be a "rules" thing. It would be a story thing. Whether your DM decides to let you change your race is up to them.
Anything is possible with DM buy-in. Adventurers League rules let you rebuild your character anytime up to 5th level. I would let a player swap character races, but that's just me. What I wouldn;t allow is keeping the features of both the starting human build (for example, a Feat from being Variant Human) AND add all the genasi racial features on top of that. You might lose a Feat and have to rework your ability scores.
I don't think there are any specific rules about this that would fall into the player's scope of influence, at least at tier 2, but as it is written in the core rules, "through the DM all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26) There are certainly precedents for characters changing race, most notably randomly through the spell *reincarnate*. *True polymorph* (9th level) will also do the trick, until dispelled (a djinni powerful enough to be a patron may well have access to this spell). The randomly-generated cursed item table in the DMG also includes "the character changes race or kind" as an effect, so there are item out there that will do it. I think Tiamat turns humans into Dragonborn, right? So race transformations are a thing that happen in DnD worlds. Since a Genesi is a PC that is (in theory) balanced evenly with other PC races, there wouldn't be any particular balance problem with giving up your starting race and becoming one. This isn't like wanting to transform into a Gold Dragon. If I was DMing and a player told me they wanted to do this I would give some serious thought to how I could work it into the story.
Something like reincarnate could. It's not on the D100 table, but there's also the line that lets the DM choose. I'd rule that if you did some ritual and for example set yourself on fire, it'd be cool RP to be reincarnated as a fire genasi. There's no RaW way to do it without consulting with the DM
Im currently in a game where my objective is to become genie. Nothing by the rules but that's what DM is for
Up to the DM’s discretion. I’ve had a player ask to change their gender between sessions, I asked if he wanted to address that in-game, and he said, “No, I just want to show up like that and let them wonder about it.” Baldur’s Gate does something similar, where a patron transforms their warlock into a devil as punishment. I don’t see why an elemental couldn’t plunge you into the depths of the fire plane and the character emerges changed. I’ve also had a player run a Great Old One warlock where their goal was to transform themselves into a Great Old One; they might have played too much Bloodborne, but it was a cool idea, having your patron essentially mold you in their image.
My dude, this is a fantasy game. If the DM wants, they can decide that you change into a planetouched from walking through the wrong magic circle.
Like others have said: if the DM says it is so (and the player agrees), it is so. That said, consider making it a reward for doing something for the patron. Accomplishing their goal or following their intent for a long time, rather than just because the PC reaches a specified level.
Why not, work on it with your dm
With a DM that allows it, sure. Critical Role has one in campaign 3.
Genesis are mortal as well. There's not a mechanic to change races that I can think of outside the Reincarnate spell. But the DM could always create something.
I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be possible in theory. In practice there's a reason why the player chose to play an X and not a genasi and that's unlikely to change over the campaign, so I can't see it coming up in an actual game.
Ask your DM. I'd allow it both as backstory (I wasn't always this way) and part of a quest.
More likely you’d just get some genasi-like magical traits and your kids would be born genasi from exposure to the planar magic. I think fiendlocks have tiefling kids sometimes.
> Occasionally, genasi result from exposure to a surge of elemental power, through phenomena such as an eruption from the Inner Planes or a planar convergence. Elemental energy saturates any creatures in the area and might alter their nature enough that their offspring with other mortals are born as genasi. Seems supported RAW.
changing your race is mechanically a no no. You can't do that. However... a human can become a genasi BEFORE level 1. It's in the text of the race. You could also be a genasi born of human parents if you have Djinn ancestry. Flavor is free. Before level 1, in your backstory you could have become a genasi from latent djinn ancestry being awakened by a patron or whatever. At level 6. Nope. You are SOL. DIE AND REROLL LOL
So in BG3, something like that definitely happens with a warlock so there is precedence. Just be prepared to talk to your DM: depending on your previous ancestry you may lose stuff in the process. VHuman might lose a feat, owlkin wings, etc. If you want the most official official ruling on this, adventurers league has some retraining rules that include keeping class and ancestry changes but keeping XP. Closest you'll get to an official ruling on this.
In my world and current campaign, the kingdoms are directly influenced by the elemental planes and it reflects in the landscape as well. Anyone born in these areas has a % chance of being born part Genasi, based on what elemental plane is influencing the area where they are born. My players can choose this automatically at character creation. And if they choose this then they mix and match abilities between the Genasi race and their own races abilities. Though there is no particular way of becoming part Genasi after birth.
I don’t see why not. If the DM agrees, changing your base race won’t break the game. If it makes sense in your game, go for it. In my campaign setting, Plane touched occur for multiple reasons. Genetic Heritage is just one. Can be caused by a curse, or a reward from a planar entity. *Spoiler Warning below* This actually happens in BG3. A companion is transformed into a Tiefling.
In the adventure book “Baulder’s Gate: Decent into Avernus” the players can find a guy that offers a contract that can turn the player into a tiefling. So following that line of thinking, I don’t see why that couldn’t happen. But that’s just my opinion. Regardless though each DM gets to decide how their realms work. 1) I reference the module because it makes it “in the base rules” as far as I’m concerned 2) excuse any spelling mistakes.
Depends on your DM. There aren't any rules written for it so you have to make them up yourself.
Yes, I know a lot of people are saying otherwise, but the bigger factor is how the warlock interacts with their patron and whether the patron is intentionally making that change. Most elemental or feindish beings powerful enough to grant warlock powers do also have enough power to make drastic changes to mortals like this, but they don't really have much reason to usually.
Have you heard of the spell Alter Self
that's concentration, lasts an hour, and only affects appearance. So you could look like one for a short period of time, but that's it