A character race is a fundamental part of the identity and nature of characters in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Each race has a distinct appearance, behavior and often range of statistics associated with it. The following races have appeared in D&D throughout its history.

Core races

In each edition, the core player character races are detailed in one of that edition's core rulebooks: Men & Monsters for "original" Dungeons & Dragons, the Basic Set and Rules Cyclopedia for "basic" Dungeons & Dragons and the Player's Handbook for all other editions.

Races from other sourcebooks

Key

References

Race is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

In sport, racing is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goal.

A race may be run continuously from start to finish or may be made of several segments called heats, stages or legs. A heat is usually run over the same course at different times. A stage is a shorter section of a much longer course or a time trial.

Early records of races are evident on pottery from ancient Greece, which depicted running men vying for first place. A chariot race is described in Homer's Iliad.

Forms of racing

Running a distance is the most basic form of racing, but races may be conducted in vehicles, such as boats, cars, cycles and aircraft; or with animals such as horses or dogs. Other forms of racing are by skis, kicksled, skates or wheelchair. In a relay race members of a team take turns in racing parts of a circuit or performing a certain racing form.