Long story short, I need help trying to figure out what traits to give to a creepy-er plant folk race. I am basing it off of the deep, dark forests and swamps I grew up in. Most of the plant races I have found are very sunshine, peaceful types, while I am going for an old growth, ancient forest, like the deep swamps of Louisiana, the forests of central Texas. As it stands, I have the current traits-
Main race- darkvision 30 (because its real dark beneath thick foliage), ignore any plant based difficult terrain, trance, and humanoid/plant type.
Subraces: Swamp(working title, based on Mangrove and swamp plants)- Amphibious, swim speed, advantage on checks to hide underwater. I need one more minor trait
Barkwood (working title, based on massive redwoods and such)- AC can be calculated as 12+con, powerful build. need some more here
Cordwood (working title, based on vines and strangler figs)- Reach, advantage on charisma checks to convince others that they are normal humans, disguise self 1/long rest at 3rd. Don't need anything here
Poisonwood (based on the actual poisonwood tree. Might want to change to not be confused with the next one, might remove completely. It is difficult to balance. Taking the mechanical part of the touch of death dark gifts)- can do an action to make an unarmed strikes that does 1d10 damage, follows normal cantrip progression on damage (not all unarmed strikes, but more like a cantrip. a specific action does this), any creature that grapples you takes 1d8 necrotic damage
Ivywood (based on poison ivy, the manzanilla, etc)- Poison resistance and advantage on saves, once per a rest, you can make a creature who melee attacked you make a save against a DC (8+prof+Con) or be poisoned. this one is good
I have more, but I do not have time to right them right now, so I will edit this later or make a new comment
I'd suggest not giving them "trance" because that is an elf specific racial feature and having it will detract from plant creature feel/theme/vibe and people will start asking questions about elf lineages and how did this race evolve from elves or whatever. Trance has some very specific lore to it in some settings, is all, and you could avoid that confusion by calling it something else.
IMO you might even consider something more akin to the warforged's Sentry's Rest ability. Just make them have to remain motionless for 6 hours = rest. IDK, maybe that's all unnecessary nitpicking.
Swamp- neat, not sure it needs another trait imo.
Bark- Nat ac is ok, consider increasing it to a static value of 16. or 17. similar to tortles. But, the reason is because it feels more like the barkskin spell that way.
Cord- the cha checks to imitate humans is odd, absent a racial description it feels out of place. Why it impersonating humans so important to them that it is a race defining trait?
Poison- instead of that cantrip-like-unarmed-attack mechanic just give them the choice between cantrips: primal savagery or poison spray
Ivy- advantage on saves against the poisoned condition? Just make em immune to it imo.
Thematically it feels like Poison and Ivy are competing with each other for a similar vibe. Swamp feels like an aquatic stalker. Bark feels like a unbreakable tree monster type. And I don't really understand cord.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
to preface- I am a botany/ecology student, so I know far, far too many plants
Cord is based off of the strangler fig, which will grow around a tree, posing as a symbiotic relationship, eventually killing the tree and taking its place. The vibe is a similar, almost doppelganger feel.
Poison is specifically based on the poisonwood tree, kinda infamous where I lived for a while. It is so toxic that even rain drips from the leaves will cause some serious burns, and direct exposure to sap can be deadly. It also looks freaky as all get out. The sap will ooze out of dark rotting sores all over the tree. I am specifically trying to find that balance of "will literally cause necrosis" and good mechanics. It comes from a published sourcebook (van richten's guide). They also have the downside of any touch spell made would damage their ally
Trance was just as mechanics placeholder, the idea is that they dont really need to sleep. I think that Sentry's rest is better. Thanks!
For ivy, the advantage is just the normal thing to do, complete immunity would make it pretty powerful, since it also gets the poisoning trait
Here are the changes-
Swamp- Amphibious, Swim Speed, advantage to hide underwater, and the bugbear's sneak attack (it was numerically lacking when compared with other races)
Bark- 17 AC, but no armor, 1d6 natural weapons (since I am imagining a groot like creature with massive wood spikes), and powerful build
Here are the other ones I did not have the time to add-
Deepwoods Stalker (inspired by pines and hidebehinds)- Stalking step, which is Misty Step 1/rest and when you teleport, any non-friendly creature has to save or become frightened of you, stealth prof, advantage to track creatures, and Thin, which means that you can hide behind things of the same size as you as long as they are taller than you (8-9 feet)
Shotwood (based off of violets, among other plants. They use Ballistic Seed Dispersal Methods, which effectively means they shoot their seeds with substantial force)- +10 movement speed (40 ft), thunder resistance, and catapult spell 1/long rest
Gelsap (inspired by aloe and the like)- fire resistance, standard delayed magic (spare the dying, cure wounds at 3rd, lesser restoration at 5th)
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Long story short, I need help trying to figure out what traits to give to a creepy-er plant folk race. I am basing it off of the deep, dark forests and swamps I grew up in. Most of the plant races I have found are very sunshine, peaceful types, while I am going for an old growth, ancient forest, like the deep swamps of Louisiana, the forests of central Texas. As it stands, I have the current traits-
Main race- darkvision 30 (because its real dark beneath thick foliage), ignore any plant based difficult terrain, trance, and humanoid/plant type.
Subraces:
Swamp(working title, based on Mangrove and swamp plants)- Amphibious, swim speed, advantage on checks to hide underwater. I need one more minor trait
Barkwood (working title, based on massive redwoods and such)- AC can be calculated as 12+con, powerful build. need some more here
Cordwood (working title, based on vines and strangler figs)- Reach, advantage on charisma checks to convince others that they are normal humans, disguise self 1/long rest at 3rd. Don't need anything here
Poisonwood (based on the actual poisonwood tree. Might want to change to not be confused with the next one, might remove completely. It is difficult to balance. Taking the mechanical part of the touch of death dark gifts)- can do an action to make an unarmed strikes that does 1d10 damage, follows normal cantrip progression on damage (not all unarmed strikes, but more like a cantrip. a specific action does this), any creature that grapples you takes 1d8 necrotic damage
Ivywood (based on poison ivy, the manzanilla, etc)- Poison resistance and advantage on saves, once per a rest, you can make a creature who melee attacked you make a save against a DC (8+prof+Con) or be poisoned. this one is good
I have more, but I do not have time to right them right now, so I will edit this later or make a new comment
I'd suggest not giving them "trance" because that is an elf specific racial feature and having it will detract from plant creature feel/theme/vibe and people will start asking questions about elf lineages and how did this race evolve from elves or whatever. Trance has some very specific lore to it in some settings, is all, and you could avoid that confusion by calling it something else.
IMO you might even consider something more akin to the warforged's Sentry's Rest ability. Just make them have to remain motionless for 6 hours = rest. IDK, maybe that's all unnecessary nitpicking.
Thematically it feels like Poison and Ivy are competing with each other for a similar vibe. Swamp feels like an aquatic stalker. Bark feels like a unbreakable tree monster type. And I don't really understand cord.
IDK, hopefully this feedback helps somewhat.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
to preface- I am a botany/ecology student, so I know far, far too many plants
Cord is based off of the strangler fig, which will grow around a tree, posing as a symbiotic relationship, eventually killing the tree and taking its place. The vibe is a similar, almost doppelganger feel.
Poison is specifically based on the poisonwood tree, kinda infamous where I lived for a while. It is so toxic that even rain drips from the leaves will cause some serious burns, and direct exposure to sap can be deadly. It also looks freaky as all get out. The sap will ooze out of dark rotting sores all over the tree. I am specifically trying to find that balance of "will literally cause necrosis" and good mechanics. It comes from a published sourcebook (van richten's guide). They also have the downside of any touch spell made would damage their ally
Trance was just as mechanics placeholder, the idea is that they dont really need to sleep. I think that Sentry's rest is better. Thanks!
For ivy, the advantage is just the normal thing to do, complete immunity would make it pretty powerful, since it also gets the poisoning trait
Here are the changes-
Swamp- Amphibious, Swim Speed, advantage to hide underwater, and the bugbear's sneak attack (it was numerically lacking when compared with other races)
Bark- 17 AC, but no armor, 1d6 natural weapons (since I am imagining a groot like creature with massive wood spikes), and powerful build
Here are the other ones I did not have the time to add-
Deepwoods Stalker (inspired by pines and hidebehinds)- Stalking step, which is Misty Step 1/rest and when you teleport, any non-friendly creature has to save or become frightened of you, stealth prof, advantage to track creatures, and Thin, which means that you can hide behind things of the same size as you as long as they are taller than you (8-9 feet)
Shotwood (based off of violets, among other plants. They use Ballistic Seed Dispersal Methods, which effectively means they shoot their seeds with substantial force)- +10 movement speed (40 ft), thunder resistance, and catapult spell 1/long rest
Gelsap (inspired by aloe and the like)- fire resistance, standard delayed magic (spare the dying, cure wounds at 3rd, lesser restoration at 5th)