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AgenderArcee
2018-04-29, 11:41 PM
I was reading the third edition Forgotten Realms - Underdark book and found that I really enjoy that setting and its races and cultures. For my first time DMing, I've decided to start a short campaign with some friends where player characters have to be Underdark races. 5th edition already has me set for drow, duergar, svirfneblin, etc., but I really liked some of the more obscure races in the book, too, like slyths and gloamings. I don't think these adaptations are too radical, and I took some inspiration from what other people have done online, but I thought I'd share what I have and see what you more experienced people think.

Images borrowed from the Underdark book are by Vance Kovacs. The choldrith image is from Volo's Guide to Monsters.

Chitine

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The result of rampant magical modification of slaves by the drow of Ched Nasad, the chitine are so twisted that one would hardly guess they are descended from captive surface elves. Considered little more than a curiosity and something of a failure, the spiderlike chitine took advantage of their drow masters’ apathy and inattention and staged a successful rebellion in the Year of the Creeping Fang (1305 DR). Some were able to slip out into the wider Underdark and establish free settlements, but many were slaughtered without mercy.

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It has only been a few decades since this exodus, and the chitine, with no memory of their unmutilated ancestors, have only just begun to build a real culture. Knowing little else and fearing all other races, they retain strong drow influence. Chitine societies sort themselves into hierarchies based on strength, and are ruled by those known as choldriths, who make up roughly 5% of the population. Choldriths are the most spiderlike among the chitine. They are stronger, more intelligent, and are the only chitine capable of laying eggs. Choldriths preach that the chitine are the true favored of Lolth, destined to supersede the drow, and have positioned themselves as a class of ruler-priestesses. Whatever the case may be, they seem to have gained Lolth’s interest, producing many capable clerics.

While the choldriths are obsessed with status and frequently turn on each other, as Lolth demands, the average chitine is not especially religious. Highly individualistic, they are content to let the choldriths play their games and perform their rites, while average chitines are content to follow whoever can offer them the best life for their colony. Choldrith politics end up taking the form of a warped pseudo-democracy, as the favor of the chitine majority is essential for maintaining power, and a choldrith who focuses too much on herself at the expense of the colony can expect to be literally torn to pieces by unimpressed chitines.

All chitines are capable of spinning various types of webbing through spinnerets in their belly, and secreting oil that prevents them from getting stuck in their own webs. They also have hooks on their palms and feet that allow them to climb up walls and across ceilings. Thanks to these abilities, chitine colonies are able to make their homes along the upper walls of caverns, far out of reach of interlopers. The average chitine is a quiet craftperson concerned primarily with building the next web-based home, tower or fortification, or else a herdsman rearing arachnids, centipedes and other creatures for food or extra webbing. Many chitines live independently or in small colonies, but some of the more ambitious choldriths plot war on the drow who once ruled them and gather larger forces.

Further Reading: Forgotten Realms - Underdark, Dragon #223 “Ecology of the Chitine”, Volo’s Guide to Monsters.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Chitines reach maturity in their teens and live between 100 and 150 years.
Alignment. Chitines have a strong independent streak and thus tend toward chaotic alignments.
Size. A typical chitine stands just under 4 feet in height and weighs about 85 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and your base climbing speed is 20 feet.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on 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.
Spider Climb. You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Web Walker. You ignore movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Web Sense. You are able to acutely sense vibrations through web, enabling you to know the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web.
Four-Armed. You are able to hold up to four objects at a time, though this is limited to two while climbing. You have advantage on grapple checks.
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Chitine Weapon Familiarity. You may proficiency with short swords, knives and daggers.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Undercommon and Elvish (drow dialect).

Grimlock

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Once, grimlocks were much like other humanoid races, and could see the world around them. But after millennia of living in total darkness, they lost their sight and found other, blunter methods for sensing their environment. Grimlocks appreciate beauty, but not the visual beauty that other creatures can sense. A grimlock’s heightened senses allow them to appreciate forms, subtle vibrations in the earth, and poetry. Like their personalities, the sculpture, music and poetry created by grimlocks tend to seem blunt, immediate and raw, with subtleties only apparent to one who perceives the world as a grimlock does.
Grimlocks prefer to keep to themselves, peacefully tending to fields of mushrooms. Unfortunately, peace is not easy to maintain in the harsh world of the Underdark. Grimlock farms are often raided by drow, and worse, their unique way of viewing the world around them gives their brains an exotic flavor that mind flayers love. As such, they are frequent targets for enslavement and consumption by the illithids. Because of this, grimlocks are often forced into desperate situations for survival, leading to raids on upperworld settlements or attacks on unsuspecting adventurers.

The most valued relationship in a grimlock’s life is their hunt-bond, a vow of mutual respect and protection. Every grimlock forms such a bond with at least one other creature (usually another grimlock, but not always). A grimlock considers a hunt-bonded companion a close friend or lover, and protects that individual’s life as if it were their own. Grimlocks travel in small packs, often rotating between different caverns where they have planted their mushroom fields, ready to flee to the next one when danger approaches.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Grimlocks have slightly shorter average lifespans than humans, living to around 60 years.
Alignment. Grimlocks are generally neutral.
Size. You are muscular and stocky, standing between 5 and 5-and-a-half feet in height and weighing around 180 pounds.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Keen Hearing and Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Blindsight. You can ascertain all foes within 40 feet as a sighted creature would. You are immune to gaze attacks, visual effects, visual illusions and other attack forms that rely on sight. You are susceptible to sound- and scent-based attacks, and affected normally by loud noises, sonic spells and overpowering odors. Negating your senses of smell and hearing negates blindsight. Your blindsight range is reduced to 10 ft. while deafened.
Stone Camouflage. You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in rocky terrain.
Natural Armor. You have tough, scaly skin. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Grimlock Martial Weapon Proficiency. You have proficiency with clubs and battleaxes.
Languages. You can speak Undercommon and Terran.


Slyth

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Slyths view themselves as the custodians and caretakers of the Underdark. At peace with the natural world, they consider it their duty to help others interact harmoniously with the environment. Few in number but strong in influence, slyths work to ensure that the many races and species that occupy the Underdark do not defile it.

The callous drow are common targets of a slyth’s wrath. Expansion projects that would threaten an ecosystem under slyth protection will often find machines inoperable, monster attacks frequent, and foremen drowned in their own beds. While slyths may appear to be slow, gentle giants, their true form is an amorphous ooze resembling a puddle of syrup, mud or oil. What they lack in real physical strength, they make up for as stealthy saboteurs who can travel freely through the thinnest cracks. Furthermore, they are often masters of druidic magic. A single slyth can cause enormous harm, simply because they are almost impossible to get hold of. Only powerful drow mages tend to make any headway against a slyth, and so despite their stubborn pride the drow usually find themselves giving in.

As difficult as they are as enemies, slyth are highly valued as allies. When a community is willing to respect the natural world around them, slyths will offer advice on animal husbandry, food cultivation and foraging. They form amicable relationships with all races, and make lovely neighbors. They will never side with one group over another in times of war, acting only in defense of nature. The ignorant are often shocked to find out that the kindly humanoids are the same beings as the relentless oozes.

Ability Score Increase.Your Dexterity increases by 1 and your Wisdom increases by 2.
Size. Slyths stand between 5 and 7 foot tall and weigh in the region of 150 pounds. You are a Medium creature.
Speed. Your base speed is 30 feet, and when you are in amorphous form you have a swim speed of 30ft.
Age. Slyths live to over 120 years old, becoming adults at age 30.
Alignment. Slyths tend strongly toward neutrality, acting only in the name of the environment.
Amorphous Form. As an action, you are able to change into an amorphous form, and any objects, weapons, and equipment you are carrying and armour you are wearing becomes part of your new form. In this form, your AC is 10 + your Dexterity bonus. You cannot be stunned, and you cannot cast spells, manifest powers, or attack. In this form, you are nearly fluid and you can pass through narrow openings as small as 2 inches in diameter. You cannot be flanked or stunned, and cannot cast spells with a verbal, somatic, material or focus component, or use material weapons. You can assume your humanoid form as an action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
You can assume amorphous form for 10 minutes. Once that timeframe is over, you need to complete a long rest to use this feature again.
Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light 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.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water equally well.
Guardian of the Underdark. You have proficiency in the Survival skill.
Sonic Resistance. Even in solid form, your amorphous nature gives you resistance to Thunder damage.
Languages. You can speak Common, Undercommon and one other Underdark language.

Gloaming

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Gloamings are planetouched beings, born from the union of humans and shades from the Plane of Shadow. Shades were once human themselves, but merged their souls with shadowstuff, the essence of the Plane of Shadow. It is thought that thousands of years ago, a group of shades felt nostalgic for their former home, and sought to create a link between the Plane of Shadow and the Prime Material Plane. Taking advantage of the darkness and inherent magic radiation (faerzress) of the Underdark, they made their breach in a Middle Earthroot site that would come to be known as Sphur Upra. The wanderings of the shades in the Prime Material Plane are fittingly obscured in forgotten legend and rumor, but they produced a line of descendants who make the Underdark their home: the adventurous gloamings, marked by their catlike eyes, luminescent skin, and dark, furry wings that seem to be only partly substantial.

Even in the Underdark, gloamings are uncommon and obscure. They are often mistaken for some sort of tiefling or fey creature. They rarely spend long enough in one place to correct these assumptions: gloamings are compulsive travelers, inquisitive and independent. It is unusual to find more than four or five gloamings together at a time, as their curiosity and individuality often draws them toward different interests and goals. They are natural adventurers, possibly influenced by the restless spirit of their shade ancestors who straddled the barrier between worlds.

The one place gloamings congregate in large numbers is Sphur Upra, their chaotic “capital” that stands astride the Material Plane and the Plane of Shadow. Its Material District is carved from stone in an eclectic mix of architectural styles from all around the world and even other planes, in some places resembling an enormous sculpture garden more than a city. Gradually, these buildings become less material and more abstract as one moves into the Shadow District, where forms are made from hazy shadowstuff.

It is said that the city resembles an adventuring company with 19,000 members. It seems that every gloaming in town is an independent problem solver, with some plan to achieve something nobody else has ever done. The city is ruled an oligarchy whose ranks are determined by whoever can recover the most powerful magic items on their quests in the outside world. Positions are held for five years, after which a new quest must be undertaken and a new item found. Some gloamings do live in Sphur Upra permanently, seeking mutual defense or working on their crafts, but this is not the norm. Wanderers both gloaming and otherwise are free to enter and leave as they please, though outsiders should be wary that they may become involved in some gloaming’s personal project before they realize what’s happened.

Gloamings have an innate sensitivity for the location of portals which crisscross the Underdark, connecting distant locations as well as different planes, so they seem to turn up everywhere and disappear as quickly as they’d arrived. Gloaming attitudes toward other races are as individual as the gloamings themselves, but they tend to hate the drow, who supposedly captured, tortured and experimented on gloamings in order to increase their understanding of shadow magic. They are fond of other planetouched, such as tieflings and genasi, considering them kindred spirits. Interestingly, mind flayers find gloamings unpalatable as food or slaves, and tend to leave them alone unless provoked.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity, Charisma and Wisdom each increase by 1.
Age. A gloaming reaches adulthood at age 13 and can live to be over 300 years old.
Alignment. Gloamings have a contrary streak and often take on the opposite of the dominant alignment in their area. For instance, those who live among mostly neutral beings are often inclined toward extremes of behavior on both the lawful-chaotic and good-evil axes.
Size. Gloamings are generally in the area of 3 feet tall and weigh around 25 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet, and your flying speed is 40 feet. You cannot fly while wearing medium or heavy armour.
Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light 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.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on 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. Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds you for 1 round.
Luminescence. As an action, you can make your skin provide illumination equal to that produced by any light source up to and including a torch, or mute the glow. Your luminescence lasts until you choose to change it. When a gloaming dies, their luminescence fades to nothing over the course of 10 minutes.
Shadowborn. You easily blend into shadows, gliding on silent wingbeats. You have proficiency in Stealth. You have advantage on saves against illusion (shadow) spells and psionic attacks.
Portal Sensitive. You can tell whether an area contains a magical portal or the effect of a gate spell. If you study an area for 1 round, you know the sizes and locations of any such portals in the area. Once you find a portal, you can study it. (If you find more than one portal, you can study only one at a time.) Each round you study a portal, you can discover one property of the portal, in this order.

Any key or command word needed to activate the portal.
Any special circumstances governing the portal's use (such as specific times when it can be activated).
Whether the portal is one-way or two-way.
A glimpse of the area where the portal leads. You can look at the area where the portal leads for 1 round; the range of your vision is the spell's range. Analyze portal does not allow other divination spells or spell-like abilities to extend through the portal. For example, you cannot also use detect magic or detect evil to study the area where the portal leads while viewing the area with analyze portal.

For each property, make a Wisdom check. If fail, you can try again in the next round.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Undercommon and up to two other languages.

The portal sensitive ability is based on the analyze portal spell from 3.5e. The actual portal sensitive feat assigned to gloamings in the book just seemed a bit weak.

Anyway that's what I have, please let me know what you think!

Fire Tarrasque
2018-05-04, 03:45 PM
They're all more powerful than the PH and Volo's races, but they could certainly work. There's a free Subrace Handbook on DM's Guild that buffed all the races (Excepting one or two,) maybe use that if your gonna use these guys? The flavors just fine, but they are a bit too powerful.