Fur and Eggs; Monotreme Races (PEACH)

[sandmote]

I've been reading up on Australian Pleistocene fauna, and wanted to set up some unique races for a continent where I can add some of it.

The basic idea is two races; one in wetter areas, one in drier ones. I don't really like unique racial languages, so I have these two sharing a language, given that they are on a continent of their own.

The Platapari are based on the platypus. They've got some abilities for being underwater, and (naturally) poison spurs.
Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom increase by 1.

Size
Platapari have a rather short stature, with most being about three feet tall. Your size is small. Your weight is between 30 and 35 pounds.

Hold Breath
You can hold your breath underwater for up to 15 minutes.

Webbed Feet
Your base walking speed is 25 feet and you have a swim speed of 30 feet.

Leg Spur
Platapari have large spurs on the ends of their feet. You can attack with your spur, dealing Your Spur counts as a natural weapon, and deals 1d4 + you strength modifier piercing damage on a hit.

Venomous Spur
When you hit an enemy with one of your your leg spurs, you can force the target to make a Constitution saving throw against a save DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier. On a failed save, the target is poisoned for one minute. At the end of each of its turns, the target can make another Constitution saving throw. On a success, the effect ends on the target. Once you have used this ability, you must wait until you finish a long rest before you can use them it again.

Tribal Training
Born survivors, Platapari learn many skills to survive in the wild. You are proficient in survival (Wisdom) and one set of artisans tools of your choice.

Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Monotreme.

Age
Platapari reach maturity by age 10 and live about 120 years.

Muscle Sight
While underwater, you can sense creatures out to a radius of five feet, as if you had blindsight.
The Platapari also have an associated feat, boosting their ability with poison.
Prerequisite: Platipari

You are gifted with particularly long and venomous spurs. You gain the following benefits:


You spurs now deal 1d8 + your strength modifier damage.
Once you have used your venomous spurs, you must wait until you finish a short or long rest before you can use them again.
You gain resistance to poison damage.
You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.


Meanwhile, the Echidae are based on the Echidna.
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution increases by 2 and your Wisdom increases by 1.

Speed
Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Aquatic Ancestry
You have a swim speed of 15 feet.

Home Underground
You have a burrow speed of 5 feet, which allows you to burrow through dirt and mud, and tremorsense out to a range of 15 feet.

Blaze Resistance
Your home environment regularly has vicious wildfires. You have resistance to fire damage.

Size
Echidae have a rather short stature, with most being just under four feet tall. Your size is small. Your weight is between 35 and 40 pounds.

Spines
You have protruding spines, and can attack with them, dealing 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. At the start of each of your turns, you deal 1d4 piercing damage to any creature grappling you or any creature grappled by you. Additionally, when you use the dodge action, you can prepare ready your spines for a counterattack. When you are prepared in this manner, and When you are hit by an enemy within 5 feet of you, you can attack with your spines as a reaction.

Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Monotreme.

Age
Echidae reach maturity by age 10 and live about 120 years.

Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Monotreme.

Torpor
At the end of a short or long rest, you can enter a state of Torpor for up the 3 weeks. During this time you not need to eat or drink. During Torpor you cannot move, and can only see using your tremorsense. You can start waking from your torpor at any time, but it takes 1 minute to regain the ability to use your other senses or take actions.
I'm not entirely sure about torpor, which would really only come up in really weird edge cases. I'm considering replacing it with an effect that allows the player to only sleep 4 hours during a long rest in extreme temperatures.

[The Cats]

I might look more in to these later, though custom races aren't really my french-words-for-things-I'm-interested-in, but I just wanted to say: There's a good chance someone is going to tell you Echidae spines being damage-on-grapple is more thematic, but what you have is much more unique and fun.

[MagneticKitty]

I like it from a flavor perspective!
Aren't female platypus not poisonus?
The torpor does seem hard to use... maybe since this is dnd they can use meld into stone once a day or something more useful? Would be cool seeing them always sleep in stone haha. Anyway, damage to grapplers rather than retaliate is more fitting imo
State wether spurs and spines are unarmed strikes or natural weapons. Unarmed is more powerful and desired than natural weapons. Assuming natural weapon for my critique

Graded with this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vq1kz6PRAbw5LHy6amH-bNb4OuB8DBXL1RsZROt03Sc/htmlview#

From a balance perspective:
Platapus
Normal asi / 12 points
Speed 25 / -2 points
Swim 30 / 2 points
Hold breath 15 / 1 point
1d4 hands free natural weapon / 2 points
Poison spurs compare to grung poison skin... poison skin is multi use this is not. Poison skin gets a save every turn, this does not. Better save than poison skin's dc 12 usually. I'd say they're about even in power, 18 points, needs nerfed. Poison is a strong condition.
Tool proficiency / 1 point
Skill prof / 2 point
Situational 5 foot blindsight. Ignore close range invisibility and illusions, but rarely active. Not on the list, but I'd rate it at 3 or 4 points. We'll say 3.
Total: 39. Needs scales down a bit. Mostly the poison ability.. will do enchida later..

At surface level I think enchida will be at about 18-22 on a cursory glance. Will do more in depth later

Edit: enchida
Normal asi / 12 points
Speed 25 / -2 points
15 ft swim / 1 point (not very useful since it's only about half walk speed anyway. Will save you checks to swim to avoid drowning I suppose.)
Burrow 5 only usable with soft soil or sand / about as useful as mould earth, little less 1 point
15 ft tremor sense an ok replacement for darkvision. Not on the list, I'd give it a 3 or 4. Not great for ranged builds, but not effected by magical darkness. I'll say 3 points
1 common resistance fire / 4 points
1d4 hands free natural weapon / 2 points
Retaliate (basically an extra attack most of the time, not on the list) I'd give it 6 points
Torpor... 1 point.. maybe? Not very useful, could be the death of you as you basically cannot move for a whole minute prone at least and probably restrained.. Not great. 0 points if I could hahah
Total 28 points. Which is about what you want. This one seems more balanced

[sandmote]

I might look more in to these later, though custom races aren't really my french-words-for-things-I'm-interested-in, but I just wanted to say: There's a good chance someone is going to tell you Echidae spines being damage-on-grapple is more thematic, but what you have is much more unique and fun.
I'm considering dropping torpor and having both effects.


I like it from a flavor perspective!
Aren't female platypus not poisonus?
Females aren't but I'm not making that distinction for a fantasy race.


The torpor does seem hard to use... maybe since this is dnd they can use meld into stone once a day or something more useful? Would be cool seeing them always sleep in stone haha. Anyway, damage to grapplers rather than retaliate is more fitting imo
State wether spurs and spines are unarmed strikes or natural weapons. Unarmed is more powerful and desired than natural weapons. Assuming natural weapon for my critique
I'll make the spurs a natural weapon then.

If Torpor is too bizarre, 1/day Meld into Stone would probably be more reasonable. Drop the digging speed, and grant Move Earth at 1st, alarm at 3rd level, and Meld Into Stone at 5th?


Graded with this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vq1kz6PRAbw5LHy6amH-bNb4OuB8DBXL1RsZROt03Sc/htmlview#
I've been looking for that. Thanks.


From a balance perspective:
Platapus
Normal asi / 12 points
Speed 25 / -2 points
Swim 30 / 2 points
Hold breath 15 / 1 point
1d4 hands free natural weapon / 2 points
Poison spurs compare to grung poison skin... poison skin is multi use this is not. Poison skin gets a save every turn, this does not. Better save than poison skin's dc 12 usually. I'd say they're about even in power, 18 points, needs nerfed. Poison is a strong condition.
Tool proficiency / 1 point
Skill prof / 2 point
Situational 5 foot blindsight. Ignore close range invisibility and illusions, but rarely active. Not on the list, but I'd rate it at 3 or 4 points. We'll say 3.
Total: 39. Needs scales down a bit. Mostly the poison ability.. will do enchida later..
"A bit," sure.
How much would saves every turn (up to a minute) reduce the poison's power?
And I might drop Muscle Sight. Wasn't expecting it to be that strong. I do guess melee is when blindsight typically comes up though, which makes the reduced range less relevant.


At surface level I think enchida will be at about 18-22 on a cursory glance. Will do more in depth later
That's much closer to where I was aiming. And thank you for taking the time to respond about the Platapari.

[MagneticKitty]

I'm considering dropping torpor and having both effects.

Females aren't but I'm not making that distinction for a fantasy race.

I'll make the spurs a natural weapon then.

If Torpor is too bizarre, 1/day Meld into Stone would probably be more reasonable. Drop the digging speed, and grant Move Earth at 1st, alarm at 3rd level, and Meld Into Stone at 5th?

I've been looking for that. Thanks.

"A bit," sure.
How much would saves every turn (up to a minute) reduce the poison's power?
And I might drop Muscle Sight. Wasn't expecting it to be that strong. I do guess melee is when blindsight typically comes up though, which makes the reduced range less relevant.

That's much closer to where I was aiming. And thank you for taking the time to respond about the Platapari.

That spell set would be about 7 points.

As for the poison it's about like poison skin, but one use and a stronger dc. I honestly can't doc it many points except that they get a new save. Maybe is there a spell that inflicts poison. Lemme read into that.. ray of sickness a lv 1 spell gives one turn of poison. If you find a spell that does poison I'd rate this at that spell lv..

I dunno why but I see a lot of people undervalueing inflicting poison condition as well as inflicting exhaustion by pcs

[sandmote]

That spell set would be about 7 points.

As for the poison it's about like poison skin, but one use and a stronger dc. I honestly can't doc it many points except that they get a new save. Maybe is there a spell that inflicts poison. Lemme read into that.. ray of sickness a lv 1 spell gives one turn of poison. If you find a spell that does poison I'd rate this at that spell lv..

I dunno why but I see a lot of people undervalueing inflicting poison condition as well as inflicting exhaustion by pcs

I actually based it off the Dagger of Venom. It requires an additional action to activate and deals 2d10 poison damage on a failed save, in addition to poisoning the target for the same amount of time. This is weighed equally to increasing the dagger's enchantment bonus by 1.

I guess poisoning an enemy would count about the same as advantage on the table?

Skills:
Attack Rolls: 8
In combat Perception: 4;
In combat Animal Handling, Stealth, & Medicine: 2 each.
Acrobatics & Athletics: 2 each, -1 for synergy
Other 12 saves: 1 each.
That's 33 before the save.

Yeah, okay. I'll add con saves every turn and cross out Muscle Sight.

Also, I think poison get undervalued because of how rarely most skills come up while the NPC enemy is poisoned. It's a base effect of 8, +3 with a grappler, +2 each with a party member/ the poisoned creature hiding mid combat, +2 with animals it makes checks to control, +2 if it tries to stabilize an ally, and the rest of the skills might as well not be there. So at some ridiculous percentage of tables, the practical value is reduced to a few points over 10 before accounting for the saving throw.

Edit: I did not initially see the count for the echidae.

The "retaliate" effect is only supposed to apply when you've used the dodge action. I'll clarify the language.

[MagneticKitty]

I actually based it off the Dagger of Venom. It requires an additional action to activate and deals 2d10 poison damage on a failed save, in addition to poisoning the target for the same amount of time. This is weighed equally to increasing the dagger's enchantment bonus by 1.

I guess poisoning an enemy would count about the same as advantage on the table?

Skills:
Attack Rolls: 8
In combat Perception: 4;
In combat Animal Handling, Stealth, & Medicine: 2 each.
Acrobatics & Athletics: 2 each, -1 for synergy
Other 12 saves: 1 each.
That's 33 before the save.

Yeah, okay. I'll add con saves every turn and cross out Muscle Sight.

Also, I think poison get undervalued because of how rarely most skills come up while the NPC enemy is poisoned. It's a base effect of 8, +3 with a grappler, +2 each with a party member/ the poisoned creature hiding mid combat, +2 with animals it makes checks to control, +2 if it tries to stabilize an ally, and the rest of the skills might as well not be there. So at some ridiculous percentage of tables, the practical value is reduced to a few points over 10 before accounting for the saving throw.

Edit: I did not initially see the count for the echidae.

The "retaliate" effect is only supposed to apply when you've used the dodge action. I'll clarify the language.

Poison gives disadvantage on attack rolls. A lot of monsters use multi attack. And this also effects grappling. That's why it's powerful. Comparing it to a magic item doesn't alleviate the worries, heheh

[sandmote]

Poison gives disadvantage on attack rolls. A lot of monsters use multi attack. And this also effects grappling. That's why it's powerful. Comparing it to a magic item doesn't alleviate the worries, heheh
I apologize, but don't understand what you are saying.

I was comparing the magic item to the racial ability, and included attack rolls and grappling when I estimated how strong poisoning an enemy it.

For actually fixing Venomous Spur, how long does the Grung's poison actually last? When trying to find it, it looks like 1 minute, in which case I'm not entirely sure how Venomous spur isn't weaker; it takes an attack and is only usable once per long rest, instead of being constantly available when touched.

[MagneticKitty]

I apologize, but don't understand what you are saying.

I was comparing the magic item to the racial ability, and included attack rolls and grappling when I estimated how strong poisoning an enemy it.

For actually fixing Venomous Spur, how long does the Grung's poison actually last? When trying to find it, it looks like 1 minute, in which case I'm not entirely sure how Venomous spur isn't weaker; it takes an attack and is only usable once per long rest, instead of being constantly available when touched.

It was stronger on that they don't get a new save each round and the dc is higher for yours.

So multiple activations, save every turn, 12 dc, worry of friendly fire
Vs
One activation, only one save, higher dc, does not effect allies unless desired

That's why I said it was still pretty potent,

[sandmote]

It was stronger on that they don't get a new save each round and the dc is higher for yours.

So multiple activations, save every turn, 12 dc, worry of friendly fire
Vs
One activation, only one save, higher dc, does not effect allies unless desired

That's why I said it was still pretty potent,
Also, no action required, vs. making an attack.

Overall, I think the grung's poison is disproportionately stronger. A lot of non-humanoids attacking the grung have to make save after save, and I think most DMs will let friendly fire slide with clothing.

I've added a save every turn. Should I also say the poison is lost if you miss or something?