Race: Swanmay

[P. G. Macer]

According to my research, the Swanmay first appeared in AD&D, first as a monster and then as a playable race, and also showed up as a Prestige Class in 3.5e. Gygax based them off the swanmays from Poul Anderson’s novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, which in turn were most likely derived from the various myths and folktales of women shapeshifting to and from swans from all over the world.

My main inspiration for my 5e conversion of this race is the AD&D version, in which I tried to preserve the mood and aesthetics while adapting the mechanics to 5e norms. Two things that went out the window right away were the magic resistance and immunity to nonmagical weapons, as IMHO neither should appear on a 5e race.


Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma scores each increase by 1.
Age. Swanmays live around twice as long as humans; they only show signs of old age in their last decade of life.
Alignment. Swanmays are almost always neutral good. Most exceptions are lawful good.
Size. In their humanoid form, swanmays look like youthful human women. Your Size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Swan-Feathered Token. Every swanmay has a feathered token. As a bonus action, you can assume the form of a giant swan for one minute by activating your token or return to humanoid form. Starting at 5th level, you can stay in swan form indefinitely. When in swan form, your game statistics are entirely replaced by those of a giant swan (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight pg. 38), with the following changes:
• You retain your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores unless the swan’s scores are higher.
• You retain all your skill and saving throw proficiencies, as well as your proficiency bonus. If the swan has the same proficiency as you and the bonus in its stat block is higher than yours, use the swan’s bonus instead of yours.
• You can’t cast spells except those lacking somatic and material components
• You retain the benefits of your class(es) and can use them if your swan form is physically capable of doing so. However, you can’t use any of your special senses, such as darkvision or blindsight.
• Any equipment you are wearing in humanoid form either falls to the ground unharmed or melds into your swan form (your choice). You cannot transform while wearing heavy armor.
If reduced to 0 hit points while in swan form, you revert to your humanoid form, any excess damage carries over to your normal hit points, and you can’t turn back into your swan form until you finish a long rest.
Swan Skills. You have proficiency in the Animal Handling and Survival skills.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Auran, and Sylvan.

[Sorinth]

According to my research, the Swanmay first appeared in AD&D, first as a monster and then as a playable race, and also showed up as a Prestige Class in 3.5e. Gygax based them off the swanmays from Poul Anderson’s novel Three Hearts and Three Lions, which in turn were most likely derived from the various myths and folktales of women shapeshifting to and from swans from all over the world.

My main inspiration for my 5e conversion of this race is the AD&D version, in which I tried to preserve the mood and aesthetics while adapting the mechanics to 5e norms. Two things that went out the window right away were the magic resistance and immunity to nonmagical weapons, as IMHO neither should appear on a 5e race.


Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma scores each increase by 1.
Age. Swanmays live around twice as long as humans; they only show signs of old age in their last decade of life.
Alignment. Swanmays are almost always neutral good. Most exceptions are lawful good.
Size. In their humanoid form, swanmays look like youthful human women. Your Size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Swan-Feathered Token. Every swanmay has a feathered token. As a bonus action, you can assume the form of a giant swan for one minute by activating your token or return to humanoid form. Starting at 5th level, you can stay in swan form indefinitely. When in swan form, your game statistics are entirely replaced by those of a giant swan (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight pg. 38), with the following changes:
• You retain your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores unless the swan’s scores are higher.
• You retain all your skill and saving throw proficiencies, as well as your proficiency bonus. If the swan has the same proficiency as you and the bonus in its stat block is higher than yours, use the swan’s bonus instead of yours.
• You can’t cast spells except those lacking somatic and material components
• You retain the benefits of your class(es) and can use them if your swan form is physically capable of doing so. However, you can’t use any of your special senses, such as darkvision or blindsight.
• Any equipment you are wearing in humanoid form either falls to the ground unharmed or melds into your swan form (your choice). You cannot transform while wearing heavy armor.
If reduced to 0 hit points while in swan form, you revert to your humanoid form, any excess damage carries over to your normal hit points, and you can’t turn back into your swan form until you finish a long rest.
Swan Skills. You have proficiency in the Animal Handling and Survival skills.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Auran, and Sylvan.


I think you'll want to limit how often you can turn into a Giant Swan. I don't have the game stats at hand, but being able to BA to gain what is essentially a bunch of temp HP is very powerful. I know you try to limit it with the whole if dropped to 0 HP thing, but that can be gamed by dropping form after taking damage but before you hit 0 and then changing back.

You'll also want to clarify what happens if they lose their token, can a new one be made and if so what does it cost in time/gold. I'd be tempted to make it so the swan token doesn't transform, since the classic Swanmay encounter is a Swanmay who lost their token and is stuck in Swan form until the PCs return the token.

Overall I like it though, I'm all in favour of bringing them back.

[P. G. Macer]

I think you'll want to limit how often you can turn into a Giant Swan. I don't have the game stats at hand, but being able to BA to gain what is essentially a bunch of temp HP is very powerful. I know you try to limit it with the whole if dropped to 0 HP thing, but that can be gamed by dropping form after taking damage but before you hit 0 and then changing back.

You'll also want to clarify what happens if they lose their token, can a new one be made and if so what does it cost in time/gold. I'd be tempted to make it so the swan token doesn't transform, since the classic Swanmay encounter is a Swanmay who lost their token and is stuck in Swan form until the PCs return the token.

Overall I like it though, I'm all in favour of bringing them back.

Thank you so much! This is very helpful!

Regarding the HP issue, that is very much a “whoops!” moment on my part! I originally based the Token transformation ability based on a Selkie homebrew I did years ago, but forgot that my Swanmay would use an actual Beast statblock, while my selkie’s transformation was more cosmetic, relatively speaking. I think limiting it to Proficiency Bonus/Long Rest is the way to go here, given the number of campaigns where short rests are nearly nonexistent.

I definitely meant to include the consequences of losing the token, but forgot to include it here, so that’s another “whoops!” on me, and actually did include it in another version of the brew.

Anyway, I’m glad you like it. Here is the revised version of the race (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/uohIuaORl3CE), with a bit of lore and fluff added (best viewed in Chrome).

[Segev]

Thank you so much! This is very helpful!

Regarding the HP issue, that is very much a “whoops!” moment on my part! I originally based the Token transformation ability based on a Selkie homebrew I did years ago, but forgot that my Swanmay would use an actual Beast statblock, while my selkie’s transformation was more cosmetic, relatively speaking. I think limiting it to Proficiency Bonus/Long Rest is the way to go here, given the number of campaigns where short rests are nearly nonexistent.

I definitely meant to include the consequences of losing the token, but forgot to include it here, so that’s another “whoops!” on me, and actually did include it in another version of the brew.

Anyway, I’m glad you like it. Here is the revised version of the race (https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/uohIuaORl3CE), with a bit of lore and fluff added (best viewed in Chrome).

If you want at-will transformation, you could simply have the hp be retained between either form. That eliminates the one thing that makes the at-will transformation become a big problem.

Alternatively, if you like the "when you hit 0 hp, you revert to your normal form with the hp it had before," you could simply have the swanmay form retain the hp it has from transformation to transformation. Maybe the token is, itself, damaged as the swanmay form is, and requires spending time (and HD) during a short rest, or some time during a long rest, to restore hp. (Long rest restores all hp to both forms; short rest lets you choose to spend HD rolled for hp on the swanmay form or on yourself.)