LUPINS

 A D&D 5e player race

Official D&D Fifth Edition currently allows player characters to choose from two types of cat people, three types of bird people, four types of reptilian, plus fish, elephants, insects etc etc. But no canine races! Where's the love for man's best friend? There are Shifters, but they're more "people with a doggy theme" than proper dog people. 

Second Edition had a canine race called the Lupin, originating from the Mystara setting, so here's my version of them for 5e. 

From the Mystara Monstrous Compendium: 

Lupins are canine humanoids who, despite looking much like werewolves, despise these true lycanthropes. Despite this fearsome appearance, lupins generally act friendly towards humans and other races. 

A fine coat of fur, typically ranging from black to light tan, covers a lupin's body and its canine face. The extremely rare pure white lupins usually possess gifts of extraordinary powers (spells, psionics etc). A lupin has a nonprehensile tail.

Lupins builds villages made of wooden lodges, constructed of bark attached to wooden frames. The lodges centre around a fire called the bg'tyr, which serves as the tribe's socialising and meeting place. Most lodges house a single pack, while some large ones hold up to three or four packs. Nomadic lupins prefer comfortable caves and build bg'tyrs to mark their locations. Lupins avoid human cities, which seem too big and too dirty for their taste. 

An instinctive hatred of werewolves runs strong in lupins. They normally employ weapons such as lances with silver heads, silver swords, and silver-tipped flight arrows against these foes. Some lupin packs consider the week of the full moon the most important time of the month. When the full moon shines brightest these packs form hunting parties known as Ah'flir, with the specific purpose of tracking down and killing werewolves.

All lupins start with the following traits:

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age. Lupins reach maturity around age 10 and rarely live past the age of 50. As they grow older, the hair on top of their head grows longer and whiter.

Size. Lupins are usually a similar size to humans, ranging from 5 to 6 ft in height, though some bloodlines are of a smaller stature. You size is Medium or Small.

Speed. You have a base walking speed of 30 feet.

Bite. You have a fanged maw that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with it, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier in piercing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Call of the Wild. As a bonus action while in combat, you let loose a howl that strengthens your pack's resolve. Any allies within 5 ft of you when you use this ability gain Advantage on attack rolls until the start of your next turn. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

You cannot use this ability if you are unable to speak, for example under the effects of a Silence spell, and your allies cannot benefit from it if they have the deafened condition at the time you use it.

Keen Smell. Thanks to your sensitive nose, you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception), Wisdom (Survival), and Intelligence (Investigation) checks that involve smell.

Loyal. If a magical effect causing the charmed condition or a spell such as Command would make you do something to directly harm one of your allies, you can immediately make a new saving throw to dispel it. You can only do this once for each time you are charmed or controlled. It does not interfere with any normal saving throws you would make on your turn to end the effect.

Lycanphobe. Your innate antipathy for werewolves allows you to sense lycanthropy in people around you, by the way they make your hackles rise. As an action, you can make a Wisdom (Perception) roll to study all visible creatures within 30 ft of you with the following results.

• DC 5 You can sense a werewolf in its animal or hybrid form.
• DC 10 You can sense a werewolf in humanoid form.
• DC 15 You can sense any other type of lycanthrope in its animal or hybrid form.
• DC 20 You can sense any other type of lycanthrope in humanoid form.

The DM should automatically apply this to your Passive Perception score for any visible creatures within 10 ft of you.

When you use your sense of smell for a Wisdom (Investigation) check, a result of 10 or higher will tell you if any werewolves have been in the area you are investigating in the last 24 hours.

You are immune to the curse of lycanthropy, and cannot become a lycanthrope as a result of being wounded by one.

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

Random 5e character for Levels 1-3

I started playing around with the random generator site perchance.org recently and was taken with the idea of making a generator for starter D&D 5e characters. This turned out to be quite a lot fiddlier than I imagined it would, but I did it!

https://perchance.org/5echaracter

With a click of a button it gives you a character suitable for levels 1-3, complete with (what should be) a correct set of stats, proficiencies, languages, starting gear, and a summary of class and race abilities. All options taken from the official WotC books.

The fiddliest part was making it so that profiencies etc didn't repeat when coming from different areas (background, class, subclass etc). And while the whole point of this is to lean into the randomness, I still wanted things like gear to make sense for the character (for example, if a character has Great Weapon Fighting then they should start with a two-handed weapon).

Some elements of the randomness left me a little unsure. A big one was alignment. As it stands, you have an equal chance of getting any alignment. So you're as likely to roll an evil character as a good one. That doesn't actually feel accurate to me in terms of what most people actually play. At the same time I don't want to put my thumb on the scale. I decided in the end to just keep it equally random, as obviously anyone using the generator could choose to just change the alignment if they wanted anyway.

I tried to stick with "official" names for the various races. For a lot of them that was easy, there's entire name lists in some of the books plus lots of example NPCs to draw from. For others it was trickier, I was forced to look back at products from earlier editions or D&D-adjacent stuff. For example for some of the races who originate in settins based on Magic the Gathering, I used examples taken from MtG cards. Some of the newer races forced to get a bit more... creative. For example with plasmoids, I didn't find many examples of names even in old Spelljammer stuff. But I did find out that plasmoids were based on an alien race called the dralasites from TSR's old scifi game Star Frontiers. So I just yoinked a list of dralasite names instead. Harengon were a problem as they're new, barely appear in any books and aren't given a name list. I ended up using a list of character names from Watership Down!

Anyway if anyone does happen to stumble upon this and use it, I'd love to hear what you think.

https://perchance.org/5echaracter

LERNAEANS

A D&D 5e player race

Lernaeans are a race of reptilian humanoids originating from swamps, mangroves and other places where the land and water merge. They are natural swimmers and their settlements usually combine buildings both above and below the surface of the water. A tribe stays in a particular area for generations and they rarely range far outside their territory, but are known to be extremely protective of that region against any outside threats. Lernaean tribes will fight to the last person against any would-be invaders, rather than give up their land.

Physically they resemble their cousins the lizardfolk, with scaly skin and long slim tails, but have a more snake-like appearance. Their race's most unique trait though is an amazing ability to recover from injury. Lernaeans heal much faster than most humanoids, and their healing is more thorough. A Lernaean who recovers from a cut will never scar, their bones always set correctly without aid. Even severed limbs will grow back.

What makes this ability even more extraordinary is that regenerating Lernaeans will often grow additional temporary body parts as they heal, as if in response to the danger of further attacks. Lernaeans treat this as perfectly normal, but other races are often disconcerted at the sight of a Lernaean with two heads holding a casual conversation with itself.

Most Lernaean tribes venerate a pantheon of powerful nature spirits that represent the elements of their territory, weather patterns and the animals they hunt. Above them all is the figure of Mother Hydra, a mercurial multi-headed draconic being who Lernaeans seek to placate with ritual offerings. Outsiders who observe that Mother Hydra seems remarkably similar to Tiamat are told that such details are merely coincidental.

All Lernaeans start with the following traits:

Ability Score Increase. A Lernaean character's Constitution score increases by 2 and their Dexterity increases by 1.

Age. Lernaeans reach maturity around age 14 and despite their regenerative abilities rarely live longer than 60 years.

Size. Lernaeans average a little taller than humans, but they have lithe, wiry frames. Their size is Medium.

Speed. Lernaeans have a base walking speed of 30 feet, and a swimming speed of 30 feet.

Bite. The Lernaean's fanged maw is a natural weapon, which they can use to make unarmed strikes. If they hit with it, they deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + their Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Venom Sacs. When a Lernaean successfully hits with a bite attack, they can choose to inject their target with venom which does an additional 1d4 poison damage. They are able to do this up to three times per long rest.

Hold Breath. Learnaeans can hold their breath for up to 30 minutes at a time.

Venomous Nature. All Lernaeans are resistant to poison damage.

Accelerated Healing. As an action, a Lernaean character can spend some of their Hit Dice to recover Hit Points as if they were taking a short rest. They can spend as many of their Hit Dice as they wish, but as with a short rest those Hit Dice are not recovered until the Lernaean takes a long rest.

Watery Rest. Lernaean characters taking a long rest recover all of their Hit Dice, rather than half of their total amount, provided they spend at least half of the rest time partially submerged in water.

Hydral Regeneration. When an injured Lernaean returns to their full Hit Point total, as a result of spending Hit Dice or being healed by some effect, their body often reacts by generating an additional body part. They do not generate body parts as a result of regaining Hit Points after a long rest.

Roll a D8 to see which type of body part is generated.

• 1: Head
• 2-4: Arm
• 5-6: Leg
• 7: Tail
• 8: None

 

• Lernaeans with an extra head may roll a second time on any Intelligence or Wisdom based ability checks, but must accept the second result if they do so.
• Lernaeans with an extra arm gain the ability to make an additional attack as a bonus action with that arm, using a one-handed weapon held in it or as an unarmed bludgeoning attack, with their normal damage modifier. This allows them to use a two-handed weapon in their normal two arms.
• Lernaeans with an extra leg add 5 feet to their walking speed.
• Lernaeans with an extra tail add 5 feet to their swimming speed, and gain advantage on Acrobatics skill checks.

When a Lernaean takes a long rest, these additional body parts wither away and fall off (and are often then consumed by the Lernaean as a breakfast snack). A Lernaean character may end up growing multiple body parts of the same type during the space of a day, but they do not gain additional benefits from the extra ones beyond the first of each type.

Languages. Lernaean characters can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic.

 

PENKU NAMES

Here's some tables for rolling up names for Penku characters.

 
ROYAL PENKU

1d8	Title	First half of name	Second half of name		First half of house	Second half of house
1	Baron/Baroness	Chaw-	Ark	of the	Argent	Catacombs
2	Count/Countess	Eehk-	Creel		Gleaming	Caverns
3	Duke/Duchess	Graw-	Dok		Glimmering	Grottoes
4	Earl/Chatelaine	Rik-	Eeree		Iridescent	Domes
5	Lord/Lady	Tuku-	Goot		Opaline	Sepulchers
6	Margrave/Margravine	Wahd-	Suu		Scintillating	Spires
7	Prince/Princess	Yeeg-	Renn		Shimmering	Towers
8	Viscount/Viscountess	Roll again and reverse the result	Roll again and reverse the result		Silvery	Vaults

Example: Rolling 2,5,3,7,8 would give you Countess Tuku-Dok of the Shimmering Vaults.
 

 
IMPERIAL PENKU

1d8	First half of name	Second half of name	Regnal number
1	Ark-	Chaw	Roll 2d8 and then record the number as Roman numerals, ie 7+9 = 16 = XVI
2	Creel-	Eehk
3	Dok-	Graw
4	Eeree-	Rik
5	Goot-	Tuku
6	Suu-	Wahd
7	Renn-	Yeeg
8	Roll again and reverse the result	Roll again and reverse the result

Example: Rolling 8,3,4,2,5 would give you Kod-Rik VII.
 

 
ALBINO PENKU

1d8	First part of name	Second part of name	Third part of name
1	Ath'	ael'	el
2	Azo'	eeeg'	ga
3	Gna'	ftag'	oth
4	Hed'	ooz'	tek
5	Ich'	shaa'	thuu
6	Khe'	thul'	toa
7	Ngo'	tuch'	urat
8	Roll again and reverse the result	Roll again and reverse the result	Roll again and reverse the result

Example: Rolling 5,1,8,4 would give you Ich'ael'ket.

PENKU

A D&D 5e player race

Proud and stoic, these flightless birdfolk come from the frozen edges of the world. Though some have stayed in the harsh snow fields of their ancestors, many others have set sail for more temperate lands and created colonies in areas ignored or abandoned by other races.

Penku are taught to be tough and resilient, that nature is uncaring and suffering unavoidable. Despite this bleak outlook, they are actually quite sociable and love nothing more than to gossip or hear stories when amongst their own kind. Popular Penku tales tend to be long melancholy legends about their ancient mighty kingdoms, driven to ruin and hidden under the ice centuries ago after some great cataclysm or betrayal.

The immediate family is important to Penku and they mate for life. If a younger Penku loses their partner, rather than recouple they will often leave the colony and spend the rest of their life wandering. Exile tends to also be the punishment for serious crimes.

Penku are excellent at fishing and sailing, and these are the primary ways they feed their colonies and trade with others. Their preferred weapons tend to be ones that give them reach, such as spears, harpoons, tridents and halberds. These are sometimes made from a strange greenish-black rock that Penku brought from their homeland and refuse to trade with outsiders.

All Penku start with the following traits:

Ability Score Increase. A Penku character's Constitution score increases by 2.

Age. Penku mature faster than humans, reaching full maturity by the age of 10. They can live as long as humans, though often those eking out life in the icy tundra live for barely half as long.

Size. Penku range in height depending on their subrace, but all are classed as Medium size.

Speed. Penku have a walking speed of 25 feet, and a swimming speed of 40 feet. They walk with a distinct waddle that other races tend to find comical. A good tip: do not tell a Penku that you think their walk is funny-looking.

Polar Adaptation. All Penku are resistant to cold damage.

Stand Tall. When a Penku is reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, they can drop to 1 hit point instead. They can’t use this feature again until finishing a long rest.

Life is Tough. All Penku have proficiency in the Survival skill.

Languages. Penku speak, read and write Common.

Subraces. There are three types of Penku. The adventurous Royal Penku, the haughty Imperial Penku and the enigmatic Albino Penku. Colonies usually consist of only one type, and they rarely choose to mix. However lone Penku living amongst other races are invariably happy to see another of their race, even from another subrace, and start sharing any gossip they can over a fish snack.

 

ROYAL PENKU

Shortest in stature of their race but largest in population, Royal Penku average around 4 feet tall. They are coloured a mix of black and white, with orangey-yellow markings across the chest and orange markings on the face. Royal Penku claim to be the surviving nobility of their lost kingdom, and all of them have a noble title of some kind. They insist on people referring to them by their title, though dislike the use of any honorifics (so Prince Khee-Yawl of the Silvery Grottoes would expect everyone to call him Prince Khee-Yawl but not 'your highness' or 'your grace').

To the surprise of outsiders, Royal Penku colonies are remarkably egalitarian. They rarely have any formal hierarchy or leadership in a colony, the nearest thing being a council of elders. Their explanation is that as they are all noble-born, they have no right of dominion over each other.

Royal Penku usually worship austere and aloof gods of ice and winter in a fairly cursory manner. Many believe in a messianic figure called the Coronal who will one day arrive to rule their race and return them to former glories. Royal Pengu admire both physical bravery and inventive storytelling so tend to produce fighters, rangers and bards.

Ability Score Increase. Royal Penku increase their Wisdom score by 1.

Active Lifestyle. All Royal Penku have proficiency in the Athletics skill.

Languages. In addition to any other languages, Royal Penku can speak Aquan.

 

IMPERIAL PENKU

Imperial Penku are taller and a bit broader than their Royal cousins, averaging around 5 feet in height, with yellow markings on their faces.

While Royal Penku claim to be the descendants of ancient nobility, Imperial Penku say they are a direct line from royalty itself. Their ancestors once ruled over the fabled southern empire before it was brought low by some catastrophe (in Imperial Penku stories, this downfall was usually caused by an outside force rather than any internal flaw).

Imperial Penku are often seen by others as, well, imperious. They have a tendency to be condescending to other races (and to Royal Penku, who find it annoying). However they carry themselves with a confidence and conviction that can be compelling. Imperial Penku think they are a race of natural-born leaders and to some extend that is actually true.

Imperial Penku colonies are usually rhetocracies, where community decisions are made at public debates where anyone can take the stand and try to sway the crowd. They follow a kind of ancestor worship, honouring the first of their line. Like Royal Pengu the more adventurous among them often become bards, or fighters (typically Battle Masters). They respect scholarly knowledge, and most colonies have a wizard or two among them.

Ability Score Increase. Imperial Penku increase their Charisma score by 1.

Steadfast. Imperial Penku have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Languages. In addition to any other languages, Imperial Penku can speak Aquan.

 

ALBINO PENKU

The rarest subrace of Penku are also the largest, ranging 6 to 7 feet in height. These quiet giants are a bone white colour with pale pink-grey eyes.

Most Albino Penku have stayed in their icy homelands, keeping small settlements in and around the mysterious abandoned underground cities that Penku claim were once part of their empire. Albino Penku spend most of their time underground, obsessively studying and cataloguing those ruins. Unlike their more garrulous cousins, Albino Penku enjoy silence and solitude. When they do speak, it's often in circular gnomic statements and strange metaphors. Other races tend to find Albino Penku a little unsettling - their Royal and Imperial cousins find them downright creepy.

An unusually high number of Albino Penku become warlocks or sorcerers. They don't tell outsiders much about the ancient extraplanar sanity-warping entities they gain power from, and most people prefer to keep it that way.

Ability Score Increase. Albino Penku increase their Strength score by 1.

Darkvision. Albino Penku 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.

Sunlight Sensitivity. Albino Penku have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when they, the target of their attack, or whatever they are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

Deep Thought. Albino Penku do not need to sleep, instead they can meditate deeply (remaining semiconscious) for 4 hours a day. After resting in this way, they gain the same benefit as from 8 hours of sleep.

Languages. In addition to any other languages, Albino Penku can speak Deep Speech.