A race with "n/a" listed in the Infancy column is self-sufficient almost immediately after birth, and does not experience a period of complete dependency on its parents. All of these races hatch from eggs, and are capable of operating independently moments after doing so. Confirmed examples include most official reptilian races--dragonborn, kobolds, and tortles. Though unconfirmed by official 5th Edition material, I felt it safe to assume that aarakocra and lizardfolk also hatch from eggs with highly developed physi-cal capability. Kenku are questionable; the 3rd Edition Monster Manual III establishes that kenku hatch from eggs, but Volo's Guide to Monsters establishes that they take 12 years to reach maturity, implying that they require a long-term period of parental care after hatching.

Note that his table involves a great deal of speculation and potentially faulty math. Though each race's entry in the table is based on the "Age" section of each race's description, the majority of these numbers are largely extrapolated from comparisons to human maturation rates. If you find a particular race's rate of aging to be questionable, feel free to notify me, or simply use your own idea of how a particular race ages in your own games.

The Aging table below compares how different playable races age in comparison to one another. Each column lists the number of years a member of a particular race must live in order to reach a particular stage of life.

Why is a 100-year-old human unspeakably ancient, while a 100-year-old elf is barely more than a child? And how does a 300-year-old dwarf compare to a 30-year-old dragonborn? The following tables and optional character-building rules should help to shed some light on these questions.

Note that this list does not account for environmental factors that would lead to a shorter average lifespan for a given race. For example, though kobolds are capable of living for up to 120 years, the roughness of their lifestyle means that they are unlikely to do so, and that an elderly kobold likely grew up in a more forgiving environment than an average member of their species. Take information like this into account when building a character in order to develop them more fully.

To find a more specific age not listed on the table, some estimation will be required. For example, if you wish to make your half-orc character the equivalent of a 55-year-old human, you would first determine that 55 is the approximate midpoint between 48 and 64, two of the ages listed in the Human row on the Compared Ages table. Then, you would determine the midpoint between the equivalent ages for the race you chose. The equivalent ages for a half-orc are 40 and 52, making your half-orc character approximately 46 years old. This is an inexact process--especially since the table is based on a lot of estimation--but it should get you the results you want.

The Compared Ages table below allows you to calculate equivalent ages for members of different races. Check the age listed in each column for a human, then reference the race you wish to make your character in order to find their equivalent age.

Nonhuman Origins

If you are using the "This Is Your Life" section of Xanathar's Guide to Everything to create a backstory for your nonhuman character, you might find that some of the tables therein are very human-centric, and require some modification to work with nonhuman characters. If you've been looking for such modifications, look no further. The following tables will assist you in creating a backstory for a member of a nonhuman race.

Siblings

Some races bear their young in litters or clutches, or simply reproduce more frequently than humans do. Others--the long-lived races in particular--reproduce rarely. As a result, your character's race is quite significant when determining their number of siblings.

Standard Families

The following races reproduce at a rate similar enough to humans that the standard Number of Siblings table in Xanathar's Guide to Everything may be used for them: Aasimar, genasi, goliaths, halflings, hobgoblins, tabaxi, tieflings, tritons, and yuan-ti purebloods.

Slow Breeders

Dwarves, elves, firbolgs, and gnomes are long-lived enough that they reproduce only rarely, while bugbears have a slow rate of reproduction that restricts their numbers. When cre-ating a character of one of these races (or a half-elf), roll on the Number of Siblings (Slow Breeding) table to determine how many siblings they have.

Number of Siblings (Slow Breeding)

d10 Siblings 1-2 None 3-4 1d2 5-6 1d3 7-8 1d4 9 1d4 + 1 10 1d6 + 2

Children of Hordes

Goblins and orcs breed quickly to make up for their short, rough lives. When creating a character of one of these races (or a half-orc), roll on the Number of Siblings (Slow Breeding) table to determine how many siblings they have.

Number of Siblings (Fast Breeding)

d10 Siblings 1 None 2 1d3 3-4 1d4 + 1 5-6 1d6 + 2 7-8 1d8 + 3 9-10 1d10 + 4

Egg Layers

Many races of reptilian or avian inclinations lay clutches of eggs, which incubate over time before hatching. Such races include aarakocra, dragonborn, kenku, kobolds, lizardfolk, and tortles.

When creating a character of one of these races, roll a d8. On a roll of 1, your character was the only member of their clutch, perhaps as a result of a freak accident or other inci-dent that destroyed the eggs of their siblings. Otherwise, your character has 2d4 + 2 siblings.

Variable Arrangements

As crossbreeds of two different species, half-elves and half-orcs might have different numbers of siblings depending on which culture they were raised in. When creating a character of one of these races, you can choose to roll either on the Number of Siblings table in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (if your character grew up with humans) or on the Number of Siblings (Slow Breeding) or Number of Siblings (Fast Breeding) table, as appropriate (if your character grew up with elves or orcs, respectively).

Life Events

All adventurers have experienced at least one defining event--a conflict, tragedy, great success, or unusual happening that affected their lives and sent them down the path to their current life. However, since some races live longer than others, while other races have much shorter lifespans, the number of life events experienced by any given adventurer will not necessarily be the same.

A member of a short-lived race, such as a goblin or a tortle, is likely to have only experienced a few live events prior to becoming an adventurer. However, a longer-lived race will not necessarily have experienced more. An elf who spends their formative century being educated and cared for by their family, and who only becomes an adventurer at age 200, will have experienced fewer life events than a 20-year-old kobold that grew up in a warren beneath the lair of a red dragon.

You can use the following table to determine the number of life events your character has experienced by referring to their current stage of life, rather than their age by number of years. If your character is a member of a race with a lifespan equivalent to a human's, the Life Events by Age table found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything may also be useful.

Life Events by Stage of Life