PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Flayerspawn (Player Race) PEACH



Sir_Popard
2019-10-03, 11:36 AM
Yes, it's me again, back with another questionable, monster-inspired player race. I'll start with the Elder Brain in the room: Yes, I know Illithids don't reproduce in the traditional sense. This race is meant to represent descendants of humanoids who've either undergone experimentation by illithids or barely escaped ceremorphosis (or were magically restored from the experience) but hadn't fully shaken off the illithid taint. I feel mostly okay with where I've wound up with this race, my largest concern is the wording of the Mind Siphon attack in their racial feat. I could use some help making it feel... right.

Edit: 10/3: I'm really tempted to just give them the fuller version of telepathy Eberron's Kalashtar are capable of.
Edit: 10/5: Altered their creature type to echo the Unearthed Arcana Centaurs; they're both aberration and humanoid. Limited their aberrant brain to "vs magical effects."

FLAYERSPAWN TRAITS
Your flayerspawn character has the following traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2. In addition, either your Charisma or Wisdom increases by 1.
Age. Flayerspawn develop physically at the same rate as humans do and have similar lifespans.
Alignment. Flayerspawn might not have an innate tendency toward evil, but many of them end up there.
Size. Flayerspawn are similar in build to humans, though they are typically a few inches taller. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. 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.
Aberrant Brain. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.
Minor Mind Blast. As an action, you emit psychic energy at a creature you can sense within 30 ft. The target must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or take 2d8 Psychic damage and be stunned until the end of your next turn. The damage increases to 3d8 at 6th level, 4d8 at 11th level, and 5d8 at 16th level. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus.
You can use this ability twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or Long Rest.
Silent Speech. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 30 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Hybrid Nature. You have two creature types: humanoid and aberration. You can be affected by a game effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Deep Speech.

ILLITHID APPETITE [RACIAL FEAT]
Prerequisite: Flayerspawn
You can gain the psionic hunger and can manifest the mouth tentacles of your alien progenitors. You gain the following benefits:

Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Tentacles. Your mouth-tentacles are natural melee weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4 + your Intelligence modifier, and the target is grappled (escape DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and you can’t constrict another target.
Mind Siphon. If you begin your turn grappling an incapacitated humanoid, you can take an Attack action to deal 2d8 psychic damage to them and regain a use of Minor Mind Blast, to a maximum of two.
This attack’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (3d8), 11th level (4d8), and 17th level (5d8).

BerzerkerUnit
2019-10-03, 02:50 PM
Making their type Aberration makes them immune to all the X person spells forcing casters to us X monster spells instead (usually 4-5 levels higher).

BerzerkerUnit
2019-10-03, 02:52 PM
I’d replace recovering the mind blast with dealing a d4 Int damage instead with the knowledge this eats the brain of it reduces them to 0.

Add the tentacles as permanent and “people think you’re a mindflayer” as a drawback (easily settled by magic).

Sir_Popard
2019-10-04, 11:14 AM
Making their type Aberration makes them immune to all the X person spells forcing casters to us X monster spells instead (usually 4-5 levels higher).

I’d replace recovering the mind blast with dealing a d4 Int damage instead with the knowledge this eats the brain of it reduces them to 0.

Add the tentacles as permanent and “people think you’re a mindflayer” as a drawback (easily settled by magic).

Making their creature type Aberration also make them susceptible to a few low-level protection spells.

I recognize the irony of saying this as I'm trying to make a monstrous PC race but it does seem like ability damage is usually reserved for the DM's toolbox as opposed to players'. I also didn't want to make the ability completely monstrous - the character is draining mental energy not physically extracting the brain.

The rules of 3.5 were fiddly enough that you could implement the character's resemblance to a mind flayer without handicapping them overmuch, but in 5e I worry that might be a debilitating drawback.

Thank you for the feedback. You've given me some things to think about.

MagneticKitty
2019-10-04, 12:58 PM
FLAYERSPAWN TRAITS
Your flayerspawn character has the following traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2. In addition, either your Charisma or Wisdom increases by 1.
Age. Flayerspawn develop physically at the same rate as humans do and have similar lifespans.
Alignment. Flayerspawn might not have an innate tendency toward evil, but many of them end up there.
Size. Flayerspawn are similar in build to humans, though they are typically a few inches taller. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Aberrant. Your creature type is aberration, rather than humanoid.
Darkvision. 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.
Aberrant Brain. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws.
Minor Mind Blast. As an action, you emit psychic energy at a creature you can sense within 30 ft. The target must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or take 2d8 Psychic damage and be stunned until the end of your next turn. The damage increases to 3d8 at 6th level, 4d8 at 11th level, and 5d8 at 16th level. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus.
You can use this ability twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or Long Rest.
Silent Speech. You can speak telepathically to any creature within 30 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and deep speech

Rated using https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vq1kz6PRAbw5LHy6amH-bNb4OuB8DBXL1RsZROt03Sc/htmlview#

8 points Standard asi +2

4 points Choice of asi, but limited and not very synergizing. (Rated as if there wasnt a choice)

2 points Creature type other than human

3 points darkvision

10 points Adv vs 3 common saves close to gnome cunning (7 points) which only applies to spells, this is ALL saves of this type... full yuan ti magic resistance is 19 points ... I'd put it at 10 points personally

8 points mind blast 2xday stun is very very powerful, so much so that the damage hardly matters. Also not on the list so again I have to guess at the points. Closest might be standard lv 2 spell once a day x 2 which is 4x2 = 8 points. The effect also targets a rare save.

6 points Silent speech 30 ft w language barrier

Putting our total at 41... waaay overtuned.

I tend to aim for 24 - 28 range

BerzerkerUnit
2019-10-05, 08:57 AM
While I respect the widget above and it’s application for balancing purposes, I wouldn’t take its assessment as sacrosanct.

Looking at the race as described, number of abilities isn’t really a big deal because you’re still limited to using one of them at a time and they honestly don’t seem that versatile. Giving a creature a bunch of ways to deal damage seems very strong, but less so when V Human Sharpshooter Fighter is right next to it.

The stun at level 1 is a bit much, you could drop it to half speed or incapacitated at level 1 and have it jump to full stun at level 5.

My main concern was the typing, which you could keep, maintaining that vulnerability you mentioned and add a trait like “Tinged with humanity” that makes them susceptible to the ____ Person Spells.

Good luck!