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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Krinth (Forgotten Realms)



M Placeholder
2016-01-01, 01:55 PM
Here is my take on the krinth, crossbreeds between shadow demons and either orcs, dwarves or humans. They were detailed in the Forgotten Realms sourcebook Champions of Ruin.

Krinth

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090827015633/forgottenrealms/images/4/48/Krinth.jpg

When the ruling mage of one of the great flying cites of the empire of Netheril experimented with moving his city between Toril and the Plane of Shadow, this spared his city from the forces that laid waste to the Netheril empire. Relizing that his city was no match for the forces that could be marshalled by the phaerims, the noble took the city into the Shadowfell and vowed that one day, the city would return to Toril and rebuild what was lost.

In order to facilitate the upkeep of the city, countless slaves were taken from the Realms to the Plane of Shadow and these slaves occasionally were chosen as consorts by shadow demons. Often the result was the crossbreed known as a krinth. At first, they were infertile, but about one thousand years ago, they became a race in their own right that now breeds true, due to the machinations of Shar. The goddess decided she needed a race that would serve her and act as a bridge between the Shadowfell and the Realms.

Since the return of the City of Shade to Toril, the krinth have been growing increasingly restless, and more and more of them have been leaving the City of Shade and trying to make their way in the Realms.

Krinth generally look like either dwarves, orcs or humans (the most common slave races in the City of Shade), but have ebon hair, totally black eyes and gray skin. The majority of krinth are slaves in the City of Shade, but they occupy a higher strata than the other slaves, mainly due to fear that mistreatment would make enemies of the shadow demons that roam the Shadowfell.

As a krinth, you have the following aspects –

Ability Score Increase – Your Consititution increases by 2 and your Wisdom by 1.
Size – Krinth tip the scales at between 150 and 250 pounds and stand between 5ft for those of dwarven bloodlines and 7ft for those that have orcish backgrounds. Your size is medium
Age – Krinth reach adulthood at around age 20 and can live to over 120 years of age.
Speed – You have a base walking speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision – Out to a range of 60 feet, you can see in dim light as if it were bright light, and darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern colour in the darkness – you see everything in shades of grey.
Umbral Cloaked – You are proficient in stealth, and you can add half your proficiency bonus rounded down to checks to hide in shadowy areas.
Brave – you have advantage on saving throws against fear.
Languages – You can speak Netherese, Abyssal and Common.

Dwarves, Humans and Orcs are the most common slaves in the city of shade, and there are traits found in krinth that are born from different bloodlines. Choose one of the following -

Dwarven -

Shadow Resistance - You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.

Orcish -

Relentless Endurance - when you drop to 0 hit points but are not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature until you complete a long rest.

Human -

Bonus Proficiency - You are proficient in one extra skill of your choice.

thoroughlyS
2016-01-03, 02:47 PM
+2 Constitution, –2 Charisma: Krinth are hardy and resistant to illness and damage, but they often lack self-determination and a sense of purpose outside that given to them by others.
Medium: As Medium creatures, krinth have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Krinth base land speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision out to 60 feet.
+1 racial bonus on all Will saves. Krinth are resilient in mind as well as body.
+1 bonus on all saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities with the shadow descriptor.
+2 racial bonus on Hide checks in shadowy conditions.
+4 racial bonus on saving throws against fear. As the spawn of demons, the krinth were born of fear and malice. Krinth cannot become shaken, and they ignore the effects of the shaken condition; they can still become frightened or panicked, though in most cases their innate resistance to fear keeps them from it.
Automatic Languages: Common and Netherese. Bonus Languages:
Abyssal, Chondathan, Damaran, Undercommon.
Favored Class: Fighter. A multiclass krinth’s fighter class does
not count when determining whether he takes an experience
point penalty.
Level Adjustment +0.

Umbral Cloaked – You are proficient in stealth, and you can add half your proficiency bonus rounded down to checks to hide in shadowy areas.
I would just make this akin to the Dwarf's Stonecunning, also a slight name change.
Umbral Cloak:Whenever you make a Dexterity(Stealth) check while in an area of dim light or darkness you add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply.

Shadow Resistance - You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
Where is this coming from? I'd just lose it.

Languages – You can speak Netherese, Abyssal and Common.

Maybe just say that Netherese and Abyssal are the same language?

And you're leaving out their key racial feature, the immunity to the shaken condition. I would make it like the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance.
Born of Terror: When you are subjected to the Frightened condition, you may end it immediately. You cannot use this feature again until you complete a short or long rest.

M Placeholder
2016-01-03, 04:03 PM
There is no shaken condition in 5th edition, so I just made it advantage on saving throws against fear. The Shadow Resistance is from the Shadow Demon from 5th edition, and Netherese is a distinct language from Abyssal in the Realms.

thoroughlyS
2016-01-04, 08:23 PM
The Shadow Resistance is from the Shadow Demon from 5th edition,

For the past two thousand years, the City of Shade has existed on the Plane of Shadow, kept in good condition by slaves captured from that plane as well as from Faerϋn. The Netherese wizards who rule the city also trafficked with demonic creatures made of the same tenebrous substance as the plane itself. On occasion, these demons would force themselves on the slaves; the offspring from these couplings are a unique race known as the krinth.

...

The powerful Netherese arcanists of the floating city regularly held congress with the shadowy fiends of the plane, and often the demons demanded to know the secrets of human pleasure. From these unions came a race of half-demon beings that came to be called the krinth.
The krinth are descendant from creatures native to the Plane of Shadow. Though they are called "shadow demons" in the description, they are not actually the Shadow Demon from either the Book of Vile Darkness, or its D&D NEXT counterpart found in the Monster Manual.

Shadow demons are denizens of the Abyss without corporeal forms, formed from the very essence of evil on that plane. They skitter and flit about with great speed and a supernatural nimbleness, often mistaken for undead shadows. They resemble gaunt, angular, shadowy humanoids with bat-like wings.

When a demon's body is destroyed but the fiend is prevented from reforming in the Abyss, its essence sometimes takes on a vague physical form. These shadow demons exist outside the normal abyssal hierarchy, since their creation results most often from mortal magic, not from transformation or promotion.

...

Bright light harries this fiend and shows its distinct shape, resolving it from a blur of darkness to a winged humanoid creature whose lower body trails off into nothing, and whose claws rend a victim's mind.
I don't know what krinth are descended from, but it's not the actual creature called a Shadow Demon. Even forgetting that, poison immunity is a trait shared by all demons (and all devils), so why give it to krinth if tieflings don't get it?

M Placeholder
2016-01-04, 09:23 PM
The krinth are descendant from creatures native to the Plane of Shadow. Though they are called "shadow demons" in the description, they are not actually the Shadow Demon from either the Book of Vile Darkness, or its D&D NEXT counterpart found in the Monster Manual

I don't know what krinth are descended from, but it's not the actual creature called a Shadow Demon. Even forgetting that, poison immunity is a trait shared by all demons (and all devils), so why give it to krinth if tieflings don't get it?

It describes them in another passage that they are the descendants of Shadow Demons, so I took it as that they are descended from shadow demons as described in 5e. In the descripition of the Shadow Demon in 5e, it doesn't actually state what the physical form is made of, just that it takes a physical form, so I take it as the shadow demon being made of the same substance of the plane itself and that they are made from shadow form. In 2e, shadow fiends (http://www.lomion.de/cmm/shadfien.php) were comprised of darkness.

Note to self - Homebrew Shadow Fiend sometime :)

The Poison Resistance came from when I was planning to split them up into three subraces - Human, Orcish and Dwarven descended, and that was the feature of the dwarven subrace. I might resplit them up.

thoroughlyS
2016-01-04, 10:36 PM
In the descripition of the Shadow Demon in 5e, it doesn't actually state what the physical form is made of, just that it takes a physical form, so I take it as the shadow demon being made of the same substance of the plane itself and that they are made from shadow form.

Spawn of Chaos. The Abyss creates demons as extensions of itself, spontaneously forming fiends out of filth and carnage. Some are unique monstrosities, while others represent uniform strains virtually identical to each other. Other demons (such as manes) are created from mortal souls shunned or cursed by the gods, or which are otherwise trapped in the Abyss.

SHADOW DEMON
When a demon's body is destroyed but the fiend is prevented from reforming in the Abyss, its essence sometimes takes on a vague physical form.Demons are made out of the Abyss itself (usually). When a demon dies, its essence returns to the Abyss to reform into a new demon. If the essence can't it just fizzles out (usually). Sometimes though, it forms a Shadow Demon. This means Shadow Demons are still made of the Abyss, just slightly used Abyss.

That is the fluff for 3.5/Pathfinder Shadow Demons, which was carried over into D&D NEXT.

M Placeholder
2016-01-04, 11:08 PM
It says that its essense takes on a vague physical form. I take that as the essense coalesces in the Plane of Shadow and it becomes a shadow form, and I consider shadow demons and the ones that spawned the krinth one and the same.

Edit - Looking at Champions of Ruin, it could have been a mistake in the description of the Shadow Demons as being made of the same substance as the plane itself. Considering that they are referred to as shadow demons in the text on a number of occasions and that they are referred to as native to the plane, its likely that is a mistake and the writers forgot about the lore of the shadow demon.

thoroughlyS
2016-01-04, 11:46 PM
Considering that they are referred to as shadow demons in the text on a number of occasions and that they are referred to as native to the plane, its likely that is a mistake and the writers forgot about the lore of the shadow demon.Entirely possible and pretty likely. This does not change that poison resistance is a poor fit for this race.

M Placeholder
2016-01-05, 12:36 AM
Entirely possible and pretty likely. This does not change that poison resistance is a poor fit for this race.

Considering just how common dwarven slaves are in the City of Shade, its a good fit for the race.