This Dragons Loxodon 5e Guide about the Loxodon 5e race is intended for beginners and intermediaries. However, I have added some tips that might come in handy for DMs and players that already have a couple of campaigns under their belts.
So if you are new to DnD, or you want to play with one of the more obscure races in the world of Dungeons, then I have a fun suggestion for you. The Loxodon, the mighty humanoid elephant race almost no one plays with.
What is a Loxodon?
I can’t blame you if you have never heard of them or have no idea what you a Loxodon is. They are a humanoid race with the head of an elephant. Their native region is the plains of Ravnica.
Appearance
While they are 7 foot tall and very heavy, strong creatures, it is their wisdom and pacifism that separate them from all other races. These two things are the most important attributes a Loxodon can have in their culture. This is why a Loxodon is not considered an adult until they are 60 years old.
Despite being an elephant kind race, they are bipedal. Their skin is rough and just like an elephant in our world. Unlike humans, they only have 4 digits. They have a long trunk and large ears. Most of the Loxodon in the world have tusks; however, they vary in size.
Culture
Loxodons might be pacifists, but they aren’t pushovers. When someone whom they are loyal to, they will defend them with all their might and can be an extremely fearsome ally or foe in battle. Despite their brute appearance and the strength they possess, they are very skilled in fine art and craftsmanship. Their stonework is known over the world as being one of the most refined in the world.
They are known for their diligence and strong bonds of loyalty to their friends. They very seldom resort to violence and are rather Stoic. They have a very strong community and offer wise counsel to all those who ask. Getting them mad is quite a hard task to do and one you want to avoid doing at all costs.
The average Loxodon only speaks two languages. Common and Loxodon, this means you won’t be conversing a lot with races that do not speak common, as the Loxodon language isn’t spoken by many.
The features and traits of the Loxodon race
Age – While a loxodon is only considered an adult at the age of 60, this is not so old when compared to their lifespan. They live on average about 450 years. Despite being able to get so old, they mature at the same pace as humans do. So around the age of 18 to 21, they have a physically mature body.
Alignment – Loxodons are, on average, lawful goods. They value rational discourse above violence and strive to attain peace in their life. They are mostly a force of good. This is not a strict alignment. You will easily find Loxodons who are more neutral good, or just neutral in general in terms of alignment.
Size and speed – The walking speed of this elephant humanoid is rather average at 30 feet. Their size is medium, making them quite big as far as playable races go. They weigh somewhere between 300 and 400 pounds.
Carrying capacity – Due to their powerful build, a Loxodon counts as one size larger. This has an influence on the carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag and lift. This is useful if you have a DM that plays with stricter limits on the carrying capacity. So this is great in case you are a hoarder.
Loxodon Serenity – The Loxodon Serenity is a pretty useful ability to have. It gives you an advantage against being frightened and being charmed. Chances are pretty big that you will come into contact with these kinds of status effects, so this useful advantage is great to have.
Trunk – If you read the text about the Loxodon trunk ability, it will become clear that they did not want players to use this as some kind of third arm superpower. Don’t try to use it as one; it is not allowed. If your Dungeon Master does not know this, please let him know, as this ability would be way too strong otherwise.
The trunk is useful if you are already wielding something in both hands and you want to retrieve things. It will really depend on your creativity and the story your DM has set up to determine how useful this Trunk ability is. In general, it is nice to have, but it only has some very niche uses that make it good.
Natural Armor – This is a pretty useful ability, in my opinion. Due to the effects of natural armor, you can boost your constitution up to 16, and bam–you have 17 Ac at the very start of your adventure. This high natural armor and the high constitution make sure you are pretty survivable against even the stronger monsters at the start of a campaign. Since you already have a +2 in constitution due to your race, you can also add some points to dexterity, making your build even more survivable.
Keen Smell – I personally have never really used the keen smell ability. If your Dungeon master loves little details, it might be useful.
The Loxodon race has given you some pretty useful abilities, like Powerful build and Loxodon serenity. Next to that, you also have a very nice constitution bonus and the natural armor trait, which makes you even tankier.
Building a strong and viable Loxodon built
So you have decided on giving the Loxodon a try. The second part is just as important; which class are you going to play?
Barbarian? – Your first instinct might be to play as a Barbarian Loxodon. They have the unarmored defense skill, which is a bit superior to the Natural Armor skill. However, these two do not stack, so you would be trading a very handy trait for an even better one, but you would lose out on an extra one.
The Barbarian class shines if you have a race that has a high base strength. The Loxodon has a great CON stat, but that is not enough to get the most out of the barbarian class. I would strongly recommend you to play with something other than a barbarian, as the Loxodon – despite its appearance – is not fit to make optimal use of this class.
Ranger? – Your Loxodon has both a high constitution and wisdom. So that is a pretty good sign that the ranger class would be a good idea.
A good ranger also needs the dexterity to get the most out of the weapons and finesse. When you have a very high DEX, you will likely not need natural armor anymore, as you will use actual armor instead. So the Loxodon is a pretty good ranger. However, it does seem kind of a waste to lose such a strong ability for no real benefit.
Monk? – The monk class is better than the Barbarian class for a Loxodon. The reason for this is simple—a barbarian benefits from CON and STR, the monk benefits from CON and WIS. The wisdom skill in Loxodons is better than their strength. However, there is still one major drawback. The Loxodon will lose its natural armor ability, as the monk´s unarmored defense is superior to it.
Cleric? – Cleric is one of the best classes you can pick for your Loxodon. Most of the cleric builds will have the heavy armor proficiency to keep them out of harm’s way, so this makes your natural armor a bit less useful.
The best part about using the Loxodon race is their Loxodon Serenity skill. This gives you an advantage against being frightened and charmed. Two pretty useful things to have when you are a cleric, and you want to up your survivability when focussing on healing the allies in your party.
Druid? – This is the class that fits almost perfectly with the Loxodon race. As you might know, a lot of druid builds have trouble getting their AC high enough to be able to tank some hits. Due to the Loxodon natural armor, you get a massive boost that fixes this problem straight away. You also get a decent constitution to further amend this problem. This means you can focus all your ability points on your Wisdom skill.
Paladin? – The paladin needs a lot of stats to work well. Unfortunately for Loxodon´s Wisdom is not a stat that the Paladin needs to be strong. Alternatively, you can dump dexterity and use your natural armor and spend the points you would spend on DEX on both strength and charisma.
There are some classes that just do not make any sense when playing as the Loxodon race. The most obvious one of those is the rogue. A rogue needs to be stealthy.
As most of you might know, the elephant isn’t really known to have great stealth. While it seems like a very funny idea to build a rogue that is 7 to 8 feet tall and weighs 350 to 400 kg, you might want to skip this one. The only things the Loxodon really has going for it are Loxodon Serenity and Constitution. This is not enough to make a strong rogue built, unfortunately.
Then there is the Sorcerer and the Warlock. Both classes rely heavily on Charisma to be effective. The Loxodon just does not have the stats in this ability to make it a strong pick for these classes. The same goes for the Wizard class; they need intelligence to be as effective as possible. The Loxodon is wise but not intelligent.
Keep in mind, when playing with the Loxodon, that you have the ability to take a lot of damage due to your high CON and natural armor. This can be very useful in case you want to add some tank abilities to your party or if you have one or two other players who are a glass cannon.
Frequently asked questions about Loxodons
Question: Can a Loxodon trunk wield a weapon?
Answer: You can not use the trunk to double or even triple wield a weapon. That would be way too overpowered. The trunk is a pretty often discussed part of the Loxodon race. The creators have very carefully described what it can do. In a nutshell, it is only useful to pick up certain things – or stow them away – when you have both hands full. Anything more like that is probably going to lead to a short and firm no from your DM.
Question: How much can a Loxodon Trunk lift?
Answer: Thanks to its carrying ability, the trunk of a Loxodon is quite strong. It can lift its amount of strength points times 5 pounds. So, for example, your Loxodon has 12 strength, which means it can carry 5 times 12 or 60 pounds in total. Not a lot, but not useless at all.
Question: Are Loxodon good as barbarians?
Answer: No, not really. Despite how they look, they have two disadvantages. The first one is that their strength isn’t all that impressive. The other problem is that you won’t have 2 decent abilities. Their natural armor is very good to have, but the armor a barbarian gets is better, and it does not stack with natural armor.
Conclusion: Is the Loxodon race worth playing
Playing as a Loxodon is a pretty unique experience. You are up to 8 feet tall, somewhere between 350 and 400 pounds, and you are a pacifist. Your trunk seems to be a great ability at first, but in reality, it is more of a cool thing to have as opposed to being a useful thing.
The main strength of the Loxodon is its natural armor. Combined with the great bonus in constitution and wisdom, the Loxodon is an amazing tank for any class that uses wisdom as its main ability.
The Loxodon seems to be tailor-made for the druid class. This class has a very big weakness, its low AC. Due to the boost that natural armor gives and spending a little in CON, you can bump that all the way up to 17 straight from level 1.
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