Slaymate Player Race (PEACH)

[Rater202]

Having asked around in the 5e section, double-checked some stuff, and checked out the Unearthed Arcana versions of the Damphir and Reborn race/lineages and some other races, and refamiliarizing myself with some 5e rules regarding creature types, I think I can do my own races.

I... Like Slaymates. I like creepy undead children as a concept in general, so... So I'm doing Slaymates.

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Slaymates are undead creatures born when a child whose death was caused by abuse or malicious neglect by a parent. Possessing childlike innocence and serving as a font of necrotic power, it's not uncommon to find a Slaymate having been "adopted" by practitioners of Necromancy or other, more powerful undead.

Slaymate Features

Abillity Score Increase: Increase one of the Slaymate's abilities by 2 and a second by 1. It's not uncommon for Slaymates to favor dexterity or charisma, while Ankle Biters specifically sometimes favor constitution.
Age: Age is a tricky subject with Slaymates, as they're physically children. A newborn Slaymate possesses the same degree of physical and mental maturity as a humanoid of the age at which they died, but a Slaymate that exists long enough may develop an almost sinister degree of emotional maturity and intelligence hidden behind a childish facade. As undead creatures, a Slamate can theoretically live indefinitely.
Alignment: As undead creatures, Slaymates are animated by foul destructive energies and are arguable inherently unnatural. The simple act of becoming such a creature, let alone the trauma of their deaths, has a way of warping an underdeveloped mind. They are predisposed toward being evil. Though Slaymates have free will and can be of any alignment.
Creature Type: A Slaymate is Undead.
Size: A Slaymate's size is determined by their orignal race and their exact age. Most are small, but older children or children of taller or faster-growing races could be medium.
Speed: 30 ft.
Darkvision: Slaymates can see in dim light within 60 feet of them as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. They cannot discern color in darkness.[B]
Undead Creature Because Slaymates are undead, they have advantage on death-saving throws and are immune to disease and the poisoned condition(though still take poison damage) and do not need to eat, breathe, drink, or sleep. They can finish a long rest in 4 hours by spending the time conscious but motionless and cannot be forced to sleep with magic.
Pale Aura: If An ally within 10 feet of you casts a necromancy spell, a slaymate may use their reaction to bolster it. Treat the spell as if cast from a spell slot one level higher than it was actually cast or prepared from(the caster must still use a spell slot of the approaite minimum level or higher.) This can be done a number of times equal to the Slaymate's proficiency bonus, and expended uses are regained at a long rest.
Child of Living Parents: No one starts as a Slaymate. Select a single feature from a humanoid race.
Languages: a Slaymate knows the languages known to whatever race they selected their Child of Living Parents feature from.

Subraces: There are three main varieties of Slaymates: Ankle Biters, Weirdos, and Bullies.

Ankle Biters have a mouth that seems a little too wide and riddled with supernatural sickness. An Anklebiter has a bite natural weapon that is treated as a simple weapon with which they are proficient and deals 1d4 piercing damage. At fifth level, a Slaymate deals 1d6 damage with their bite and anyone who takes damage from an Anklebiter's bite(or in any other way takes damage that involves the Ankle Biter's teeth) must make a Constitution saving throw against a Dc equal to 8+ either the Ankle Biter's constitution or charisma modifier(chosen at fifth level) or contract Pale Wasting. Pale Wasting is a supernatural disease with an incubation period of one day. The effects of Pale Wasting are, other than the saving throw, identical to the disease Sewer Plague.

Weirdos are born from the ''strange" or "creepy" children and have access to a single necromancy cantrip of their choice. At fifth level, a Weirdo Slaymate can take a single first or second-level Necromancy Spell, which they can cast once per Long Rest. They use Charisma as their spellcasting ability for these spells.

Bullies are particularly sadistic slaymates who take their pain and emotions out violently on anyone who ticks them off. A Bully Slaymate is proficient in Intimidation. At fifth Level, the Bully gains the ability to add their Charisma Modifier to damage on a successful melee attack a number of times per short rest equal to their proficiency bonus.

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So my design goal here was translating the 3.5 monster into a player race as accurately as possible, but now that I've gotten it all written out it feels like a bit much, so if this seems overpowered I'm open to any constructive critique that fixes that while leaving the feel of it intact.

I also wanted a bit of variety with potential builds and since modularity seems to be the current thing with player races I went with variable size, a single feature from your "parent" race and three subraces, one being a translation of the standard Bite and Disease combo from the original 3.5 monster, and then a Mage option and a Fighter Option to complement the more roguish base race.

Thoughts?

[JNAProductions]

Pale Aura, as written... Makes no sense. What do you mean "Cast with advantage"? Casting doesn't need a skill check. Do you mean every single attack roll of a necromancy spell is made with advantage? Or saves made with disadvantage?

Make the DC 8+Prof+Con or Cha mod. I don't see any reason to make it different. I also don't think I'd ever pick Ankle Biters, because the bite is meh and the disease is meaningless in most games.

I don't think they're OP, depending on how you clarify Pale Aura. That's the make or break.

[sandmote]

I'd maybe specify if the slaymate can choose what creature type they count as. Particularly given there's both effects that can only target humanoids and effects that can't target undead.

Disease have very little effect on NPCs, because those tend to have lifespans measured in rounds anyway. I'd maybe give the ankle biter a larger damage die and some other ribbon?

And I too have no clue what Pale Aura is meant to do. Maybe change it so the Slaymate and increase the effective spell slot used to cast necromancy spells?

A rough draft of my first idea for making it work within 5e rules:

Pale Aura Necromantic powers are bolstered in the presence of a slaymate. When a creature within 10 feet of you casts a necromancy spell, you can use your reaction to bolster the spell's power. The spell is then treated as having been cast using a spell slot one level higher than the creature expended to cast the spell (the creature must still expend a spell slot of equal or higher level than the spell). You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.

[Rater202]

I have no idea how the fact that spells don't have rolls slipped my mind, but...

I mean the 3.5 monsters these are based on boosted Metamagic on NEcromancy but if I went with some variant of that they'd only be good for sorcerers.

I'm going to go with sandmote's suggestion for lack of better options that come to mind.

As for the Ankle Biters: You take Ankle Biter and you're an accurate recreation of the orignal 3.5 monster... I'll consider buffing it though.

EDIT: Fixed Pale Aura and gave a small buff to ankle Biter damage, but I'm not sure what other than disease gives the same feel as the orignal monster.

Also, since the faery race, from UA is just flat out Fae I've decided that Slaymates are just flat out undead,

[Rater202]

I had some ideas for a couple of Racial Feats. Some in general and one for each specific subrace.

Conditioned By The Grave
Prerequisite Slaymate.

Some undead creatures, due to no longer being alive in the first place are resistant to the realities of living flesh or consumption of living energies. Slaymates are no exception.

Increase strength, constitution, or dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20.

The Slaymate gains resistance to poison and necrotic damage.

Sinister Mind:
Prerequisite: Slaymate

Slaymates that persist for a long time will grow in mind, if not body, being no longer limited by a physical brain. Increase Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by 1 to a maximum of 20. The Slaymate gains proficiency in two skills of their choice, or can double their proficiency bonus for two skills they're already proficient in.

Mortal Heritage:
Prerequisite: Slaymate

Some Slaymates have a stronger connection to their living self than others. The Slaymate can choose a second feature from the race they selected for Child of Living Parents, and the Slaymate counts as that race for the purposes of prerequisites and beneficial effects.

Foul Mouthed Brat
Prerequisite Slaymate(Ankle Biter)

Some Ankle Biters have a nastier mouth than others. If you succeed in dealing damage with your bite attack, you can inflict an additional 1d4 necrotic damage.

Goth Kid.
Prerequisite: Slaymate (Weirdo)

Some of the so-called Weirdos, in life, claimed to have to have some connection to Dark Forces or to understand sinister elements. Becoming Undead proved them right. Select an additional Necromancy Cantrip. In addition, the Slaymate gains the ability to cast Gentle Repose at will without expending a spell slot. If a Slaymate has chosen Gentle Repse as their spell at 5th level, they must rade it for another one. Once Per Long Rest, a Slaymate can cast Bestow Curse without spending a spell slot.

Little Brute:
Prerequisite: Slaymate(Bully)

Some Bullies seem much larger than they are. Increase your strength or constitution by one and treat your Strength score as two higher for purposes of carrying capacity, lift, drag, and push weight, and strength checks specifically to break something with pure brute force.

[sandmote]

If they're straight up undead, they should probably have a feature saying that some healing spells can still work on them. There's a lot that specifically say they don't affect undead.

Feats:
Conditioned by the grave, Sinister mind, and Mortal Heritage seem fine.

Little Brute seems flat out weaker then an ASI; this could be worth it if you were buffing a strong ability score like Dexterity, but I don't think its worth using for Strength.

Foul Mouthed Brat seems weak too; it's a maximum of 6d6 damage per long rest, spread across 6 attacks. Maybe also increase the bite to a d8?

Goth Kid seems way too strong. Off the top of my head, you can take at Revivify as your 3rd level and either False Life or Inflict Wounds as at wills. Mind, there's a reason they're only 1st level spells, but Fiendish Vigor is already consider a good early level placeholder invocation, but I don't think they're a good idea with two other spells. Maybe instead of choosing spells, you can grant Gentle Repose as an at will spell, Bestow Curse 1/long rest, and some other useful ribbon? Alternatively, knock off the Fey Teleportation feat and make Bestow Curse refresh on a shot or long rest.

[Rater202]

My first thought was that you just did extra necrotic damage on a bite but I second-guessed myself.

Maybe an extra 1d4 necrotic damage, but no more than once per round? So if you can make more than one attack and you bit twice, you only deal the necrotic on the first?

little brute I admit I wasn't sure what to do: At first I was going to copy powerful build verbatim, but then double-checking that does literally nothing if you're not a Medium-Sized Slaymate, and a Goliath Slaymate could already have it. The idea is that the stereotypical bully always seems to be bigger than the kids they're picking on, so...

As for Goth Kid... I'll consider revisions.

[Rater202]

Okay, edited: Foul Mouthed Brat is just a flat-out upgrade to the bite: 1d4 Necrotic damage on top of the standard bite damage. No limited number of times per day, not limited number of times per round, just your bite is much nastier.

Goth Kid I changed to an extra cantrip, Gentle Repose at will, and Bestow Curse once per long rest.

Little Brute I couldn't think of a fix for so I just added "increase strength or constitution by 1."

I've also got the mental image of a couple of subclasses that are nominally open to anyone but that in practice synergize very well with the Slaymate race. A monk that can use Cha in place of Wis, treat natural weapons as unarmed attacks, and something something necrotic damage. Though I'm pretty sure a lot of them would be redundant with pre-existing Undead/Necromancy based subclasses so that's something I'd need to work shop.

I'm open to suggestions.

[Segev]

I like the idea of more "undead-themed" subclasses, though the WotC implementations usually don't provide what I consider a good model, as they tend to feel like random grab-bags of features ill-connected to the class or the theme other than by tenuous word salad justifications.

If you want them to synergize particularly well with the slaymates, that's tricky to do, too, because you'd need to make them complement rather than overlap. (This is actually a big problem for Mountain Dwarves and Hobgoblins: you'd think their racial features point them towards warrior classes, but warrior classes overwrite their racial proficiencies, making them actually better for spellcasters who normally can't wear that armor.) But I am interested in the notions.

On the one hand, things that somehow interacted with the pale aura would be neat. On the other, they can't lean on it directly without granting it, making it trickier to implement. I suppose you could grant a pale aura and, if you already have one, make it bigger or something.

But that's just brainstorming, not a solid suggestion.