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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Grant us eyes, grant us eyes! [Beholder-kin Race & Sorcerous Origin]



Mechanix
2016-11-30, 12:21 AM
I love the Beholders. Freaky little things with their eyestalks that shoot beams of magic power and float around all casual-like. I love them so much, I decided I wanted to play one.

Witness (Character Race)

You were born of a dream. A dream of ambition, a dream of adventure, a dream of discovery. And the dreamer hated you, because you represented everything it could not be, everything it could not do: a hope of wandering out of its immense caves and sterile trophy collections, a dream of greeting the world and being part of it. So the dreamer chased you away, and you did not mind. For in your aberrant heart you dreamed of shining armors and slaying dragons, of piles of shining gold and the acclaim of the innocents you saved.

You are Beholder-kin. Your face is round and out of it one surprisingly human eye stares curiously at the world, rarely blinking. Two tentacles emerge from beneath your orb to grasp at the world, although you often find telekinesis more convenient for daily tasks. Four thin eyestalks whip around, their eyes still myopic in your young age. Power buzzes within you, begging to be put to some reckless adventurous use.

Witness Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity increases by 1. Your choice of Intelligence or Charisma increases by 2.
Age. Witnesses are mature upon emerging from a Beholder's dream, and are biologically immortal. Their compulsive search for an adventuring life rarely leaves them to live longer than a human would, however.
Alignment. Most Witnesses are Neutral, seeking adventure for its own sake rather than for profit or by pure altruism. Good or Evil Witnesses tend to embrace their alignments to theatrical extremes, deliberately emulating storybook villains and heroes of myth. Most, even those who seek to dutifuly follow the law in heroic fashion, tend to be effectively Chaotic due to their erratic behavior.
Size. A Witness's central orb is three to four feet in diameter, although its appendages add a bit more to its size. Your size is Small.
Speed. Witnesses hover a few feet off the ground, but are incapable of rising very high. Your base walking speed is 0 feet. Your base flying speed is 25 feet and you can hover, but to rise higher than six feet you must jump as a walking character would and fall back to normal height afterwards as they would. If an effect should be based on, or affect in some way, your walking speed, it applies to your flying speed instead.
Darkvision. You were born in the Underdark, and can easily accomodate its darkness. You can see in dim Iight within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Aberrant Anatomy. Your skin is naturally harder than leather, but your body dimensions are unlike anything seen by most armorers. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13+your Dexterity modifier. You cannot wear ordinary armor; at your DM's discretion you may be able to wear custom-made armor.
Creature of Magic. Your eyes may be weaker than those of other Beholder-kin, but they can still channel magical energies. As long as you are not blinded, you are considered to be holding an arcane focus.
Eye Rays. You begin your life with minor telekinetic abilities. As you grow in power, your nascent eyestalk develop their own magic. You know the mage hand cantrip. Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the ray of sickness spell once per day as a 2nd-levei spell. Once you reach 5th level, you can also cast the ray of enfeeblement spell once per day. Your spellcasting ability for these spells is Intelligence or Charisma, chosen at character creation.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Common and Deep Speech.

New Sorcerous Origin: Beholderkin

There have always been mad, reckless mages toying with the boundaries of life, of species, of realms. Fleshwarpers blend the powers of the greatest aberrations into humanoid bodies, that most malleable of clays. Twisted monstrosities made out of a human being fused with eyes and the flesh of Beholders are known as Seeing Ones, and they take many forms - from rambling mad mounds of flesh sprouting a hundred eyestalks, to seductive humanoidss whose eyes are on the inside contemplating secret truths. Sometimes such creatures are human enough to intermarry with other humanoids, and their aberrant blood finds its way down the geological tree. Sometimes an echo of that blood awakens in a descendant a nascent magical power, and they become a sorcerer guided by visions of ephemereal eyes.

Or perhaps you are a Witness, beholderkin by bloodright, seeking to awaken to the full power of your progenitor. This is a dangerous path to tread, for you risk embracing the madness of the cruel, xenophobic Beholders; but it can be a rewarding one, one that will make you a hero for the ages.

Aberrant Soul

The magic that surges within you comes from the deepest Underdark. You can speak, read and write Deep Speech. In addition, you gain the following spells at the listed sorcerer level. These spells do not count against the number of sorcerer spells you know.

Beholderkin Sorcerer Bonus Spells
1st - Ray of sickness, charm person
3rd - Scorching ray, ray of enfeeblement
5th - Slow, fear
7th - Arcane eye, Evard's black tentacles
9th - Telekinesis, Hold Monster

Phantasmal Eyes

Your magic emulates that of the Beholder, innate, protean and dreamlike - and also obsessed with eyes and fueled by an anger that makes every curse personal. Beginning at 1st level, whenever you cast a spell which has an area of effect, you may choose instead to have the spell affects only a single target within its range. If the spell can be defended against by a saving throw the target has disadvantage on the first save made against it. If the spell affects the environment, such as darkness or Evard's black tentacles, then only the selected target is affected by this environment. Others see phantom tentacles pass through them and other such disturbing, but harmless effects. When you use this effect, an otherwordly eye manifests around you, firing the effect like a ray.

Hatred Orbs

Beginning at 6th level, you learn to hone targeted spells and infuse them with cold fury. When you cast a spell which inflicts damage and requires a ranged spell attack against its target, this spell inflicts additional damage equal to your Charisma modifier. If the spell would create several attacks at once, such as scorching ray or a Twinned spells, this additional damage is inflicted once to each different target, never several times against the same target.

Inner Eye

Also at 6th level, you begin to internalize the Beholders' connection to the Far Realm, gaining alien insights - better hope you can also shut out its demented voices. You gain the ability to cast augury as a ritual. At 9th level, you can cast divination without spending a spell slot; however, when you do so you are afflicted with long-term madness (DMG, p.259-260). You must have a long rest before you use that feature again.

Hovering Tyrant

Beginning at 14th level, arcane power suffuses your body to such an extent that you find gravity to be more of a polite suggestion than a law. As a bonus action, you may rise into the air, gaining a flying speed equal to half your current speed. While you fly, you also hover and are immune to being knocked prone. You need not be conscious to sustain this effect and can comfortably sleep in the air. You may end this effect freely to return to the ground.

If you already have a higher flying speed but cannot hover, your flying speed is unchanged but you do acquire the ability to hover and immunity to being knocked prone. If you have a flying speed with the ability to hover but a special limit on how high you rise, such as from the Witness's racial traits , this feature instead increases your flying speed by 10 feet and removes this special ceiling, as well as making you immune to being knocked prone.

Eye of the Beholder

At 18th level, your emulation of the Beholder's powers is complete and supplemented by your own arcane power. With a sign of your hand ands you can evoke the glimmering lens of a Beholder's central eye and radiate from it an aura that supresses all magic before it. As an action, you may spend 5 Sorcery Points and produce a 90-foot cone of antimagic, as the antimagic field spell. This cone affects whichever direction you're facing, and you may change its direction each turn. Sustaining the cone costs 1 Sorcery Point every turn. Your magic is affected by the field as normal.

Amechra
2016-11-30, 01:28 AM
http://pre08.deviantart.net/5df4/th/pre/f/2016/028/b/9/bloodborne__mcromalds_by_menaslg-d9pmc4f.jpg

More seriously, I love Creature of Magic, Phantasmal Eyes, and Hatred Orbs. I have a feeling, though, that Phantasmal Eyes might be too good for a first-level feature - it's going to be all upside if you're fighting a single monster, and it's still really good otherwise.

Sariel Vailo
2016-12-01, 07:07 AM
nice homebrew

Tempest Critic
2016-12-23, 10:05 AM
The Witness race is kinda cool.

The beholder kin origin though - that's some awesome homebrew.

Phantasmal Eyes is a really cool way of altering spells and giving players an option without coming up with dozens of homebrew spells. ALTHOUGH; with damage based spells like fireball, the disadvantage is fine; but with heavy control AOE spells, disadvantage might be too strong. Although there obviously has to be some benefit for losing the AOE portion of the spell.

Hatred orbs is a great little damage boost.

Hovering Tyrant is more of an rp ability, with some situational uses in combat, its pretty clean, i like it.

Eye of the Beholder is crazy good; probably abusable, but its 18th level and 5e classes are already OP. I think its a cool implementation of the beholders abilities into a caster. In many ways i wish there was a lower level variant that was less powerful, just so a sorcerer could get it earlier.

I'm not sure about the sorcery cost though; never really played a sorceror before, so have no idea what the magic economy is like.

Overall i'm pretty impressed with the ideas and overall composure of the homebrew; the Origin especialy. Wish i had played a sorceror before so i could compare it with the stock options for origins.