How to Play As Your Favorite Animal In DND
Part of what makes Dungeons & Dragons so fun is the ability to create and play your very own character. Will you be a tinkering artificer, creating clockwork companions and battle-ready flamethrowers? Or will you be a nature-loving druid, summoning plants and transforming into animals? All of these are a character’s “class,” but Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) also allows you to choose a character’s “race” (this is what they call a character's genetics or ancestry). Most of D&D takes place in a world of high fantasy and focuses on races like dwarves, stout and hardy warriors known for their skills in metalworking, or elves, graceful and beautiful beings known for their skills in magic and love of nature.
But your options go way beyond that; your character can have ancestors who were angels, demons, or elementals, be creatures of folklore like fairies, tritons, or changelings, or share prominent features with real-world animals like crows, cats, and turtles. This article will go over your options for the latter, giving you plenty of ideas to create your own D&D character inspired by your favorite animals!
Beautiful Birds: Aarakocra, Kenku, and Owlin
If you love birdwatching or wish you yourself could one day spread your wings and soar through the skies, you might enjoy playing as an aarakocra, a race resembling large birds such as eagles, a kenku, a race resembling corvids such as crows, or an owlin, a race that, as it sounds, resembles owls.
Bulky Bulwarks: Giff and Loxodon
If you’re looking to play a character inspired by the strong and hardy creatures of the world, you might enjoy playing as a giff, a race resembling hippos, or a loxodon, a race resembling elephants. Both races are quite large (standing between 7 and 8 feet tall), have high Constitution, and can carry heavy weights far greater than humans.
Hoofing It: Centaur and Satyr
If you love riding horses or spending time in stables, you may enjoy playing as a centaur or satyr; both of these creatures have the top half of an elf, but the bottom halves of horses (for centaurs) and goats (for satyrs - plus a pair of horns on their elven head)! Both come from the Feywild, like the owlin, but this origin is embodied in different ways.
Paws-itively Perfect: Harengon and Tabaxi
If you have adorable pets in your home and want to play a character inspired by them, you may enjoy playing as a harengon, a race resembling rabbits, or a tabaxi, a race resembling cats.
Scales and Tails: Lizardfolk and Yuan-Ti
If you’re more a fan of creatures who sneak and slither, you may enjoy playing as a lizardfolk, a race resembling lizards, or the yuan-ti, a race that’s a mix of humans and snakes.
Under the Sea: Grung, Locathah, and Tortle
If you can spend hours at an aquarium or find yourself at home in the water, you may enjoy playing as a grung, a race resembling frogs, a locathah, a race resembling fish, or a tortle, a race resembling turtles.
None of the Above: Playing a Shifter
If you don’t see your favorite animal in this list, you can always play as a shifter, a human-like race with some kind of animal aspect they can shift into. The concept is similar to a werewolf, only with other animals, like rats, tigers, or dogs. At any time, a shifter can transform into their beast form and gain the benefit of their chosen animal: natural defenses from scales or hide, extra speed from animal legs, attacks from fangs or claws, or other abilities.
If you’d like to play a character who looks like an animal all of the time, you can also talk to your Dungeon Master and ask them to reskin another race. One of my players wanted to be a fox, so we reworked the catlike tabaxi as a fox, which worked perfectly for their sneaky rogue.
Ready for an Animal Adventure? Join Us for D&D.
If you’ve got a great idea for an animal-inspired Dungeons & Dragons character, but you don’t have anywhere to play them, why not join one of our games at Young Dragonslayers™? I and the other awesome Dungeon Masters here can work with you to create exactly the character you want (whether you’ve been playing for years or never touched the game), and you can bring that character in a world of exciting fantasy adventure with other tweens or teens.
Click the button below (or this link right here) to learn more about how to enroll in our upcoming games. Our ten-week campaigns allow players to get to know each other and tell a satisfying story—no need to wrangle your friends or find a skilled DM, just show up and play!