PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Ahjkasha (Drow Elf Offshoot)



KoyukiTei13
2016-04-19, 11:59 PM
I cooked up a offshoot sect of Drow elves that are dark-skinned and have grayscale hair and infravision (like in the Drizzt books), but revere Eilistraee instead of Lolth. This race is called the Ahjkasha (Ahj for short). They live in the Underdark, away from their ancestors, and live in fear of religious persecution. The Ahjkasha are generally opposed to dealing with their Drow ancestors, but respect their heritage in some of their beliefs and cultural aspects. They fight intermittently about the pantheon of gods and goddesses, especially over the rule of Lolth, the spider goddess, versus Eilistraee and her more Neutral/Good family. The Drow, however, tend to view their relatives as primitives and heretics, violently trying to convert or eradicate them.

As a culture, Ahj revere life and the women's ability to create life with their bodies and their cycles. Their magics are focused around life, healing and fertility. Blood magic is life-giving, and Ahj clerics are specialized in such magics. They worship through sacrificing their period spillings, sex, cutting runes into their flesh, healing and fertility magics.

Eilistraee: (CG) (Song/Beauty/Moonlight/Hunting/Dance/Swordwork)
Divine Focus: Ebony carving of a nude woman holding a silver sword.

Ahjkasha Stats:
Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age: Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood around the age of 100, and can live to be around 750 years old.
Alignment: They take after their ancestors in lawless tendency, fending for themselves and dishing out their own versions of justice. However, unlike Drow, they lean towards helping each other more than sabotaging. The overall lean is Chaotic Good / Chaotic Neutral.
Size: Elves range from 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Infravision: You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can only discern objects and creatures through heat signatures, with fire being blindingly white, humanoids being red, orange and yellow, and cold stone being black. Magical glowing objects or creatures’ light is perceived as blueish.
Keen Senses: You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic cannot put you to sleep.
Trance: Elves don't need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is 'trance.') While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does after 8 hours of sleep.
Weapon Familiarity: You are familiar and proficient with the whip, rapier, hand crossbow and flail.
Innate Spellcasting: Due to your Ahjkashan blood, you know the Deepen Shadows cantrip. Starting at 3rd level, you know the Creeping Darkness spell, and can cast it once per day without the material components. At 5th level, you also know the Nondescript spell and can cast it once per day, requiring no material components.
Sunlight Sensitivity: You have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Undercommon, Ahjkashani, Ahjkashani Sign Language. You have a slight knowledge of Common.

Deepen Shadows
Illusion cantrip
Casting Time: 1 minute
Duration: 1 hour
Range: 30 feet
Components: S
Over the course of a minute, the shadows in one 10 foot × 10 foot or smaller area grow larger, deeper, and more concealing. A room that is brightly lit becomes dimly lit. The change is so gradual that it requires a DC 16 Wisdom (Insight) check to notice it.
The size of the area that can be affected increases when you reach 5th level (20×20), 11th level (50×50), and 17th level (100×100).

Creeping Darkness
1st-level illusion (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Range: 300 feet
Components: V, S, M (a whisker from a black cat and a tiny bottle of smoke)
You create an Large, amorphous cloud of inky darkness. When you cast this spell and as a bonus action each round, you can move the cloud 20 feet. The cloud can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there, and it can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. All creatures within the cloud may make a Wisdom saving throw or are blinded and deafened for as long as they remain in it.

Nondescript
2nd level illusion
Casting Time: 1 action
Duration: Concentration - up to 10 minutes
Range: Self
Components: V, S
This spell makes you seen ordinary and nondescript to others, though it does not change your actual appearance. Creatures who saw you while you were under the influence of this spell are unable to recall you upon being asked if they had seen you or someone matching your description.
Mirrors will not reflect your magical appearance.

Example Names:
Male: Yzrus,
Female: Aszra,


Ability Score Increase: +3
Darkvision 60: +.5
Darkvision +60/Sunlight Sensitivity: 0
Perception Proficiency: +.5
Fey Ancestry: +.5
Trance: +.5
Innate Spellcasting: +1.5
Weapon Proficiency: +.5
Languages: +.5 (since they are so niche, I think they're ok)

Total: 3+.5+0+.5+.5+.5+1.5+.5+.5=7.5
(Elves and Dwarves are balanced around 7-7.5 based on the system)

Balanced using https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ViqLSEN67mmd2Lo_OJ-H5YX0fccsfI97kFaqx7V1Dmw/edit?usp=sharing (Link should work now)

JNAProductions
2016-04-20, 04:18 PM
This is both confusing (no kind of elf gains a bonus to Con-why would mixing High Elf and Dark Elf give bonus Con?) and overpowered. Nerf it, hard.

KoyukiTei13
2016-04-21, 03:40 PM
Its not really a mix of High Elf and Drow, its an offshoot of Drow that were granted their own racial makeup from their deity, Eilistraee.

Do you have any recommendations on where to start nerfing it? I used the 5e Race Creation Guide, so I think its fairly balanced.

Final Hyena
2016-04-21, 03:50 PM
That link is broken, also I don't exactly agree with some of those point values. From a first glance it looks like drow with +1 hp and better darkvision.

Edit; to provide some actual feedback now I'm less distracted.

+3 stats. You rate these as +1 each, I agree
60 dark. You rate this as 0.5, I value it at 1.5
30 infra. You rate this as 0.5, I value it at 1.5
+1 skill. You rate this as 0.5, I value it at 1
Advantage ~ charmed. You rate these as 0.25 each, I agree
Immune ~ sleep. You rate these as 0.25 each, I agree
4 hr sleep You rate this at 0.5, I roughly agree, anywhere from 0.25 to 0.5 is fine
+1 HP. You rate this at 1.5, I agree
THE LIGHT IT BURNS. You rate this as a 0, I value it at "oh dear lord why"
Seriously this feature is awful, not only does it result in constant "Is it sunny" "Is the sun coming through?" and "Does my sun look big in this?" but it is crippling. Disadvantage on the two most common rolls in the game?
When a source tells you a skill is 0.5 and you have 7.5 points then you can build a race giving 15 skill proficiencies, that should set off some sirens.
We shall call the race the Bard.

JNAProductions
2016-04-21, 03:51 PM
That link is broken, also I don't exactly agree with some of those point values. From a first glance it looks like drow with +1 hp and better darkvision.

Basically this. Racial Spellcasting isn't very good, and you've replaced it with something a LOT better.

In addition to that, it gains a universally useful stat, Constitution. It's Drow+.

KoyukiTei13
2016-05-26, 01:48 AM
Basically this. Racial Spellcasting isn't very good, and you've replaced it with something a LOT better.

In addition to that, it gains a universally useful stat, Constitution. It's Drow+.

Ok I switched the Toughness (+1 hp, +1 hp/level) for the spellcasting with some of the homebrew spells I use in my campaign. I might switch those for more niche ones, too. I don't know yet. I want to keep the +1 Con stat, because it fits. They're blood mages, trained to deal with pain and keep their bodies healthy through blood magic.

As for this:
THE LIGHT IT BURNS. You rate this as a 0, I value it at "oh dear lord why" I understand the immediate "NOPE" factor, but its only direct sunlight, and so many campaigns take place in shadowed areas: indoors/dungeons/caves/at night/forests. And I think it can be interesting to have one person a little more sensitive to sunlight. Being light-eyed myself its always something I have to deal with and my friends (being dark-eyed) don't have to deal with it as much. Its perfectly reasonable to have to take a second to adapt to the shiny things in front of you. Or, if you have a kind DM, ask to create a pair of badass sunglasses. :D

On a sidenote with vision, I want to integrate a bit of the lore regarding R.A Salvatore's Legend of Drizzt. I recently finished the first one, and liked some of the fluff in it. I think their infravision is a kind of overlay on their vision that shows them heat signs when they focus.

Also, I listed the base elf stats here for my convenience for balance and a better look at the subrace.