Frankenstein/Flesh Golem race (PEACH)

[Crisis21]

I've always found the concept of a 'Frankenstein' race to be compelling. However, almost none of them address the fact that, in D&D, the end product could very well be made with the parts of multiple races, giving a creature racial abilities not normally found together. Not to mention that many such individuals would have greatly differing abilities to each other. So, here's my attempt to create a mish-mash 'Frankenstein' race for 5e.

As always, Please Evaluate And Comment Honestly.


Frankenstein (Flesh Golem race)

You were created in a lab, made from body parts culled from the corpses of several individuals and reanimated by lightning. Whoever else you - or your parts - might have been in a previous life has been wiped away in the process, leaving you reborn as a blank slate. A newborn in an adult body. You may have been kept by your creator for further study, or you may have escaped one night and roamed the edges of civilization before you found someone who was not too terrified of your appearance to take you in. Either way, your life has not been anything resembling normal in comparison to others.

Ability Score Increase: Increase Constitution by 1, and decrease Charisma by 2.
Age: Frankensteins/Flesh Golems are commonly adults at the moment of their creation and tend to age very slowly. Some have lived for centuries, but so few die of natural causes that it is uncertain what their natural lifespan might be.
Size: Depending on the body parts you were created from, your size could be medium or small.
Movement: You have a walking speed of 30 ft.
Horrifying Scars: You have advantage on Intimidation checks.
Reborn by Lightning: You are resistant to Lightning (Electric) and Thunder damage and cannot be paralyzed.
Monstrous Vitality: You have advantage on Constitution saving throws versus disease and Death saving throws.
Subrace: Choose one type of golem materials that were used in your creation and roll 3d20 on the Patchwork Creature chart.

Golem Materials:
- The Strongest Muscles: Increase your Strength score by 2.
- The Most Flexible Body: Increase your Dexterity score by 2.
- The Hardiest Frame: Increase your Constitution by an additional 1 and increase another ability score other than Charisma by 1.
- The Finest Brain: Increase your Intelligence score by 2.
- The Sharpest Senses: Increase your Wisdom score by 2.

Patchwork Creature: Due to being a patchwork of multiple bodies, not necessarily all of the same race, you may roll 3d20 and gain the relevant traits from the following list (reroll duplicate results):
1: Darkvision - You can see in dim light for 60 feet as if it were bright light and darkness as if it were dim light. You still can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
2: Mighty Resilience - You have advantage on saving throws vs poison and are resistant to poison damage.
3: Tough - Your hit point maximum increases by 1 for every level you have or gain.
4: Mystic Fortitude - You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and cannot be put to sleep with magic.
5: Swift - Your base walking speed increases by 5 feet.
6: Fearless - You have advantage on all saving throws against being frightened.
7: Breath Weapon - Once per short or long rest, you can breath a 15-foot cone of destructive energy of one of the following types: Fire, Cold, Poison, Acid, or Lightning. You may not change your selected energy type later.
8: Relentless - When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You cannot use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
9: Savage - When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you may roll one of your weapon's damage dice again and add the result to the extra damage of the critical hit.
10: Natural Caster - You may select one cantrip from the wizard, druid, or sorceror spell lists. You know this cantrip.
11: Surprisingly Agile - You can move with surprising speed and agility. When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. You cannot use this feature again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.
12: Wings - You have a fly speed of 30 feet.
13: Amphibious - You can breathe air and water.
14: Nimble - You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
15: Claws - You have a climb speed of 20 feet and your unarmed strike does 1d4 slashing damage on a successful attack.
16: Jaws - Your jaws are a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit, it does 1d6 + your strength modifier piercing damage.
17: Damage Resistance - You have resistance to one damage type from the following list: Fire, Cold, Acid, Psychic, Thunder, Bludgeoning, Slashing, Piercing.
18: Powerful Build - You count as one size larger when determining carrying capacity as well as what you can push, drag, or lift.
19: Innate Skill - You have proficiency in one skill of your choice, though you're not entirely sure where it came from as you don't remember learning it when you were alive and yet you've had it for as long as you've been undead.
20: Half Feat - Select one Feat that includes an Ability Score increase. You may ignore any racial requirements and gain all benefits except the increased ability score.

Optional: If the DM allows it, when electing to take a Feat instead of an Ability Score Increase, you may ignore racial restrictions on the Feats you can choose from.

[Lalliman]

Looks pretty good, I like the ideas here.

It'll be around the same power level as the other races most of the time, though since the patchwork features are random, there's definitely a chance of getting notably better or worse results. One person might get, say, Mystic Fortitude, Fearless and Amphibious, while another gets Tough, Nimble and Resistance to slashing. It goes without saying that the second is much more universally useful. It's still fun to roll randomly, but for this reason I would definitely let the player roll a few times and choose whichever they like best.

What you could maybe do is split the Patchwork Features into two types, major and minor, then let the player roll for them separately. Perhaps once on the major features and twice on the minor. That would give more accurate control over the race's power level. It might be hard to choose a definitive line between the two though.

One final problem is the Wings feature. That really shouldn't be in there. I, at least, tend to avoid racial flying speeds like the plague. But even if you're more lenient than me, flight shouldn't be on the same level as these other abilities. It should at least have a note saying that if you roll this, it takes up two of your Patchwork Features, or maybe even all three.

Alternatively, you could replace it with a limited flight ability similar to the Eagle Totem Barbarian. That's my go-to replacement for racial flying speeds. It also makes sense, I think: you might have been built with the wings of an Aarakocra, but not with their hollow-boned body, thus rendering you too heavy for true flight.

[brian 333]

Disabilities:

Assuming the Major and Minor bonuses suggested above, I recommend a random Disability table be included. In this way any unbalanced powers can balance. I would allow the player to roll one Major and one Minor ability, plus one Disability. Fluff for this would go something like: As the creation of a mortal each golem has flaws generated by using substandard parts or errors of judgement on the part of the creator. Some flaws originate from what seemed to be a good idea at the time, others from lack of materials at the time of construction, but most occur simply because the parts used to create the character just don't work well together.

1. Weak Knees. The legs used are too thin for the mass they support resulting in -3 modifier to avoid Knockdown effects.
2. Two Left Feet. The legs are mismatched in some way which makes running difficult. Run speed reduced by 25%.
3. Swivel Hips. The legs attach loosely to the torso, causing the character to sway when standing still. -2 to ranged attacks.
4. Irratable Bowels. The innards process food poorly, requiring double rations and frequent calls of nature.
5. Mismatched Arms. One arm is strong, (+1 Str, -1 Dex,) and the other weak, (-1Str, +1Dex.) Two-handed tasks -1 Dex.
6. All Thumbs. The hands lack coordination preventing manipulation of small items. -2 Pick Pockets, Open Locks, etc.
7. Slow Reflexes. The nerves are badly joined, imposing a delay between observing and doing. -1 to Attacks of Opportunities and to Evasion rolls.
8. Stiff Neck. The character has trouble turning his head. Increase rear flank to 180 degrees.
9. Glass Jaw. Any successful attack has a 5% chance to knock out the character, reduced to 1% when a full helm is worn.
10. Command Word. The creator installed a safety override allowing a command word or phrase to 'turn off' the character for 1d3 rounds when spoken directly to the character as a command. Randomly speaking the word in conversation will not impose the effect.
11. Mismatched Eyes. These eyes don't work well together resulting in poor depth perception. -2 to ranged attacks.
12. Broken Nose. This character cannot smell, and thus cannot resist the effects of clouds and vapors.

Anyway, the idea can be expanded to a massive list of disabilities. I would allow a reroll in case a disability negates an ability, but you may choose, especially in the case of situational disabilities, to simply allow both.

If you have access to the old Gamma World book there are huge lists of mutations which might inspire your list generation.

[Balyano]

Disabilities:

Assuming the Major and Minor bonuses suggested above, I recommend a random Disability table be included. In this way any unbalanced powers can balance. I would allow the player to roll one Major and one Minor ability, plus one Disability. Fluff for this would go something like: As the creation of a mortal each golem has flaws generated by using substandard parts or errors of judgement on the part of the creator. Some flaws originate from what seemed to be a good idea at the time, others from lack of materials at the time of construction, but most occur simply because the parts used to create the character just don't work well together.

1. Weak Knees. The legs used are too thin for the mass they support resulting in -3 modifier to avoid Knockdown effects.
2. Two Left Feet. The legs are mismatched in some way which makes running difficult. Run speed reduced by 25%.
3. Swivel Hips. The legs attach loosely to the torso, causing the character to sway when standing still. -2 to ranged attacks.
4. Irratable Bowels. The innards process food poorly, requiring double rations and frequent calls of nature.
5. Mismatched Arms. One arm is strong, (+1 Str, -1 Dex,) and the other weak, (-1Str, +1Dex.) Two-handed tasks -1 Dex.
6. All Thumbs. The hands lack coordination preventing manipulation of small items. -2 Pick Pockets, Open Locks, etc.
7. Slow Reflexes. The nerves are badly joined, imposing a delay between observing and doing. -1 to Attacks of Opportunities and to Evasion rolls.
8. Stiff Neck. The character has trouble turning his head. Increase rear flank to 180 degrees.
9. Glass Jaw. Any successful attack has a 5% chance to knock out the character, reduced to 1% when a full helm is worn.
10. Command Word. The creator installed a safety override allowing a command word or phrase to 'turn off' the character for 1d3 rounds when spoken directly to the character as a command. Randomly speaking the word in conversation will not impose the effect.
11. Mismatched Eyes. These eyes don't work well together resulting in poor depth perception. -2 to ranged attacks.
12. Broken Nose. This character cannot smell, and thus cannot resist the effects of clouds and vapors.

Anyway, the idea can be expanded to a massive list of disabilities. I would allow a reroll in case a disability negates an ability, but you may choose, especially in the case of situational disabilities, to simply allow both.

If you have access to the old Gamma World book there are huge lists of mutations which might inspire your list generation.

I don't think +1s and -3s or 1% chances really fit the 5e style.

For instance the -3 to avoid knockdown should just be disadvantage on strength saves to avoid knockdown.
The reduce speed by 25% should just be -5ft. to your speed, basically your base speed becomes 25ft.

[Lalliman]

I don't think +1s and -3s or 1% chances really fit the 5e style.

For instance the -3 to avoid knockdown should just be disadvantage on strength saves to avoid knockdown.
The reduce speed by 25% should just be -5ft. to your speed, basically your base speed becomes 25ft.
I'm guessing that Brian copied these directly from Gamma World, especially since there's mention of a Rear Flank. But there's some good ideas in there that can be adapted.

With these, you could also incorporate flight and other overpowered options in a more reasonable way, by attaching an additional roll on the detriment table to them.

[Crisis21]

This is all good input. I may not be able to do a serious revision until tomorrow, but you all have given me a lot to think about already.

So, basic stuff here: For Patchwork Creature, toll once on a major trait list (d10, depending on how many I can come up with), twice on a minor trait list (d20 as above, will need revising), and at least once on a deformity list (again, d20).


Also, here's the flight revision as it stands now for the major trait list:

Wings - You have a fly speed equal to your walking speed. Roll 1d4 to determine flight restrictions.
1) Can only fly for short bursts. If you end your turn in the air, you fall.
2) You can only take off if you use the dash action to get a running start, and you fall if you do not move at least your full walking speed while in the air.
3) Every turn you end while in the air, you must make a DC 15 Constitution save. If you fail, you fall to the ground and gain a level of exhaustion. In addition, you automatically gain a level of exhaustion if you remain in the air for a number of turns greater than your Constitution modifier.
4) You can fly normally, but your bone structure is hollow and brittle. You weigh 25% less than you normally would and you are vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.


Other possible major traits:

Four Arms (Extra Attack? Improved Grapple?)
Extrasensory Perception (ability to cast at least one 'Detect' spell once per short or long rest without using a spell slot)
Supernatural Senses (Superior Darkvision and Blindsense)
Dense Body (+50% to your weight, gain resistance to nonmagical slashing, piercing, bludgeoning damage)
Digitigrade Legs (+10 or +15 to walking speed?)


New minor trait (to replace wings):
Hooves (Kicks deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage)


Possible deformities:

Heterochromia (Each eye has different vision capabilities, like one is a drow eye with darkvision 120 and the other is human with no darkvision)
Two Left Feet (minus 5ft walking speed, Disadvantage over difficult terrain)
Damaged Vocal Chords (can't speak right. Disadvantage on any roll requiring speech)


DM's NPC Opponent Option: Roll one extra time on each table.

[Lalliman]

Wings - You have a fly speed equal to your walking speed. Roll 1d4 to determine flight restrictions.
1) Can only fly for short bursts. If you end your turn in the air, you fall.
2) You can only take off if you use the dash action to get a running start, and you fall if you do not move at least your full walking speed while in the air.
3) Every turn you end while in the air, you must make a DC 15 Constitution save. If you fail, you fall to the ground and gain a level of exhaustion. In addition, you automatically gain a level of exhaustion if you remain in the air for a number of turns greater than your Constitution modifier.
4) You can fly normally, but your bone structure is hollow and brittle. You weigh 25% less than you normally would and you are vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.
Having multiple possible restrictions is a great idea. Number 2 is still pretty much a non-issue for a ranged attacker though, so I don't know if I would include that one. I like this one as an alternative:
- Your wings are built into your arms, rather than being a separate set of limbs. You can't use your arms for anything while flying.


Four Arms (Extra Attack? Improved Grapple?)
Tying in extra attacks with extra limbs can get out of hand quickly, both in terms of power and in terms of slowing the game down with extra rolls. What I would do is give one extra limb (you're an abomination already, might as well look like one), but don't add any rules for triple-wielding or such. (After all, you're not a Marilith, your brain isn't made to accurately coordinate more than two arms.) The extra arm comes with plenty of innate benefits already: you can wield any weapon combination in your two normal arms, and still have one arm left to grapple with, wield a shield, or hold a magical focus.


Dense Body (+50% to your weight, gain resistance to nonmagical slashing, piercing, bludgeoning damage)
This is pretty crazy. Maybe your play experience is different, but the basic assumption of 5e is that almost no one has magical weapons even at high level. So the nonmagical part is hardly a balancing factor. I would split them into separate benefits:
- Strong Bones: Resistance to bludgeoning
- Thick Blood: Resistance to slashing
- Expendable Organs: Resistance to piercing


Heterochromia (Each eye has different vision capabilities, like one is a drow eye with darkvision 120 and the other is human with no darkvision)
I don't know how you would rule this one. But since you bring up darkvision, I've been wanting to comment on that. It's pretty odd that you currently only have a 15% chance of getting darkvision, even though most non-human races have it. Maybe you could put it on there twice or something?

[brian 333]

Yeah, I never graduated to 5e. 3.5e was my last campaign update, and it was focused only on my Seven Quests campaign, my Badlands campaign, and my Humanoid Adventures campaign, which left about 60% in 2e and the remainder of my campaign world still in 1e. My brother and nephews still play the un-updated 1e version from time to time.

I didn't copy from Gamma World because I lost everything below the middle shelf of my book case to the floods. (Most of my campaign stuff was in plastic totes, and survived.) As the floods rendered me homeless, I had to trim down what I wanted to save, and damaged books take time and effort to salvage, and I had no place to keep them even if I did try to salvage them.

But the concept certainly was ripped right out of Gamma World, which I recommend if you can get a copy. It's a fun game in it's own right. Plus, my favorite character carried an Interstate 20 sign as a shield.


Back on topic:

How useful is flight, and does it offer combat advantages? Ranged attacks from above might be nice, but there's no cover and anyone can shoot back. A rogue in a bush has a better chance of survival.

I'd opine that the disabilities of flight should come from non-combat penalties. For example, the better adapted birds are to flight, the worse they are at walking. You never see Ducks run, do you? And watch the king of long range flight, the Albatross, try to walk. They don't call them Goonie Birds for nothing! And try getting a set of wings capable of lifting 100 kilos to fit through a door! The largest biological fliers ever, the pterosaurs, were about half that mass with wingspans comparable to small airplanes. Even folded, such wings should be about three meters, with an extended span over 12 meters, (40 feet.) More efficient wings would be larger, of course.

Short, narrow wings are excellent for maneuverability, but come with high energy costs. (Hummingbird, Sparrow)
Short, broad wings are excellent for sustained flight in tight quarters. (Crow, Parrot)
Long, broad wings are suitable for sustained gliding. (Hawk, Buzzard)
Long broad wings coupled with large breasts are suitable for rapid launch. (Turkey, Pigeon)
Long, narrow wings are excellent for high speed flight over long distances. (Albatross, Falcon)

Of course, these generalities merge and crisscross. Falcons, for example, excell in combat maneuverability as well as high speed and long distance flight due to their variable wing geometry, while hummingbirds are capable of high altitude long distance flight at a cost of incredible energy consumption. But, an albatross would be wholly unsuited to flight in a forest while a kestrel is very poorly designed for a trans oceanic voyage, (which Peregrines accomplish occasionally from a very similar design.)

So, your character wants wings? Great! He can sit outside in the rain because his wings won't fit in the tent. You know what? Forget the tent; wing-boy can cover the entire party overnight, and only he has to worry about the rain.

[Lalliman]

How useful is flight, and does it offer combat advantages? Ranged attacks from above might be nice, but there's no cover and anyone can shoot back. A rogue in a bush has a better chance of survival.
Combat advantages are myriad.

1. Not all creatures have ranged attacks to begin with, and for those that do they're usually weaker than their melee attacks.

2. Ranged characters can't be grappled or otherwise trapped in melee range while flying.

3. Dedicated ranged characters can out-range most NPCs. A longbow has a normal range of 150 feet, which is more than the normal range of any other ranged weapon, and more than the maximum range of any thrown weapon. Thus, a character with a longbow flying at about ~130 feet altitude can attack freely while most of their opponents are either completely unable to retaliate, or can at best retaliate with disadvantage.

This is not even mentioning characters with Spell Sniper (240 ft range with Fire Bolt), Eldritch Spear (300 ft) or Sharpshooter (600 ft with longbow). All of these can be obtained at low level.

There's a lot more general utility to be had, in and out of combat, but those are the big issues. All of these are fairly easily solvable through DM fiat, admittedly: just make sure that all fights happening outdoors involve only creatures with flight or very long range attacks. But I would qualify that in and of itself as a problem. If the DM has to modify all their encounters specifically to prevent a single character feature from dominating, that's the purest indication you can have that that feature is overpowered.


And try getting a set of wings capable of lifting 100 kilos to fit through a door! The largest biological fliers ever, the pterosaurs, were about half that mass with wingspans comparable to small airplanes. Even folded, such wings should be about three meters, with an extended span over 12 meters, (40 feet.) More efficient wings would be larger, of course.
While this is technically true, it's already established that D&D does not adhere to this real life logic. Aarakocra are a flying player race with an established wingspan of about 20 feet. I'm sure there are monsters that adhere to similarly unrealistic proportions. So there is a precedent for not following this too closely, should Crisis not feel like it.

That said, I do encourage some kind of wingspan rule. This is strangely enough not part of the core Aarakocra, but I believe it's a fairly common fix to prohibit them from flying when they don't have 20 feet of space to spread their wings. It only makes sense to apply the same here.

[Crisis21]

The main reason no one has a rule for wingspans: Because having to make a roll to fit through each and every doorway is a can of worms nobody wants to open. That said, evil DMs can and should think of all sorts of ways that player advantages can suddenly become inconveniences, and so I leave it to them on how to deal with PC wings.

Edit: Actually, I can propose a quick fix. Your full wingspan is at least three times your height, and even folded up they are fairly unwieldy in tight spaces. Narrow corridors and tunnels are considered difficult terrain for you.

[brian 333]

Combat advantages are myriad.

1. Not all creatures have ranged attacks to begin with, and for those that do they're usually weaker than their melee attacks.

2. Ranged characters can't be grappled or otherwise trapped in melee range while flying.

3. Dedicated ranged characters can out-range most NPCs. A longbow has a normal range of 150 feet, which is more than the normal range of any other ranged weapon, and more than the maximum range of any thrown weapon. Thus, a character with a longbow flying at about ~130 feet altitude can attack freely while most of their opponents are either completely unable to retaliate, or can at best retaliate with disadvantage.

This is not even mentioning characters with Spell Sniper (240 ft range with Fire Bolt), Eldritch Spear (300 ft) or Sharpshooter (600 ft with longbow). All of these can be obtained at low level.

There's a lot more general utility to be had, in and out of combat, but those are the big issues. All of these are fairly easily solvable through DM fiat, admittedly: just make sure that all fights happening outdoors involve only creatures with flight or very long range attacks. But I would qualify that in and of itself as a problem. If the DM has to modify all their encounters specifically to prevent a single character feature from dominating, that's the purest indication you can have that that feature is overpowered.


While this is technically true, it's already established that D&D does not adhere to this real life logic. Aarakocra are a flying player race with an established wingspan of about 20 feet. I'm sure there are monsters that adhere to similarly unrealistic proportions. So there is a precedent for not following this too closely, should Crisis not feel like it.

That said, I do encourage some kind of wingspan rule. This is strangely enough not part of the core Aarakocra, but I believe it's a fairly common fix to prohibit them from flying when they don't have 20 feet of space to spread their wings. It only makes sense to apply the same here.

They weigh about half that of a human of similar height, which puts them at about the mass and wingspan of a very large pterosaur. Currently, our heaviest flier clocks in at under 15 kilos, (30 pounds, the bustard) and the longest wingspan is under 4 meters, (12 feet, the albatross.)

I would disallow longbows while flying for the same reason they are unsuited to cavalry. Imagine how stable your flight will be with your elbow in your wing's way. Even so, your bow from a height beyond the range of return fire will be getting massive range penalties. Also, the trajectory of ballistic weapons fired from a height is very different.

Heavy crossbows fired from the ground at a flying target would hit anything within longbow range from above. But to draw any two handed crossbow while flying would be a challenge. I need two hands and a foot to draw a crossbow.

As a compromise, I'd recommend the character be penalized for using ranged weapons from the air. The attack penalty could be negated by a flying combat feat similar to the mounted combat feat.

Further, only Light crossbows could be reloaded in flight, and only shortbows could be used while flying.

Finally, can your flying character hover? Otherwise he's only going to be flying past the battlefield every second or third round as he executes a turn without losing his forward momentum. 1st ed. had a flying speed and maneuverability section in the DMG which allowed the DM to calculate minimum turn radius and time away from the battlefield for flying beings incapable of hovering.

Flight does not grant benefits without penalties, and self-balances against non-flying creatures who have the advantage of cover, which a flying combatant rarely has. Plus, muscle powered flight is not possible when encumbered, and a very little bit of added weight renders the flier encumbered. Armor, backpack, that sack of potions, heck, almost all adventuring gear will quickly add up to more weight than a flier can lift off the ground.

So, if nothing else, AC 10+Dex bonus is a penatly to offset the advantages of flight.

[Crisis21]

What do you think about these as a possible added downside racial features?


Atypical Body: Your body is not proportioned normally. Even if your body isn't extremely strange, your limbs might not be the same size as each other, or your muscles might bulge in odd places. Clothes and armor are difficult to fit for you and anything more refined than common clothing, especially armor, must be custom fitted to your frame. All clothing and armor apart from common clothes cost you three times as much as normal and takes 3d3 days to fashion.

Memorable Appearance: You are a hard sight to forget, no matter how much people might try. Anyone who has seen you in the past year has advantage to recall who you are, where they saw you, and what you were doing at the time and will never have disadvantage on such memory checks no matter how much time has passed barring a memory-affecting disease or amnesia. You have disadvantage on Hide checks made to blend in with a crowd. Negating this trait until your next long rest requires three hours and a Disguise Kit check made at DC 20.