Homebrew Awakened Flesh Golem Race Details

You were not born — you were created. 

You were made, you were flesh infused with a newborn soul. An accident of magic, inexplicable yet alive and awoken into consciousness. An adult body with an innocent mind — but then innocence is fragile, and so easily tarnished in a life with such troubling beginnings.

However you awoke into life, you began as a [monster[Flesh Golem[/monster], a grim amalgamation of body parts stitched together with some sickening surgery — but where most golems are animated by a stolen spirit from the elemental Plane of Earth, you were instead infused with this soul, new and pure and unknowing of the world. Whether this was a freak accident, a grisly experiment or something else, you have found yourself alive as one of the infamous 'Awakened'. 

Forged of Flesh

Life and awareness could have found a flesh golem in many ways. Perhaps it staggered forth, the golem's first waking sight an eldritch ritual circle, of which it found itself in the center. Hunched figures towered over it from all sides and their words stirred its will, the golem serving at their command — it was nothing but a tapestry of the fallen, a construct of crudely-knitted flesh; servant and slave — until its conscience and free will manifested, awoken into life. It left its unsuspecting masters in a bloody heap, with its sewn hands stained in crimson hues.

A flesh golem most often lurches lost and hateful into the world, staring out through unlearned eyes, thirsting desperately for understanding and acceptance. What little shelter it can find comes at a high cost, or arduous, dubious work. Eventually screams seem to inevitably echo in an awakened flesh golem's wake; they see the hideous scars and label it a monster, an abomination, and they drive it off with their pitchforks and torches.

Whatever an awakened flesh golem's origin, the world is its to discover — for better or worse.

Monster, or Misunderstood?

Most of the rare few Awakened in the world are the results of strange magic or horrid rituals. Rarer still are the Awakened brought to consciousness and life through other, less insidious means. As a misfit and outcast to the wider world, your very appearance strikes fear or suspicion into the hearts of most mortals. Once your consciousness and mind is awoken you begin to need air, food, drink and sleep along with all the other requirements for living that the race you were mostly made from has, such as warmth. 

The homebrew background, 'Awakened Flesh Golem' is recommended to add and use for this race, which contains more extensive details on unnatural origins and personality features. However, the race is designed so that you may also choose any other background.

Awakened Flesh Golem Names

Many awakened flesh golems struggle to accept the concept of having a name, having begun life as a gruesome, animated object. Individuality is often slow to arise, and the common folk are all too happy to fill the void a name with insults and outrage.

However, others claim names with a voracious, possessive passion, picking a traditional name from the culture of whatever race they were predominantly created from and treasuring it.

Others are known by the name of their creator — or the name of the dead person's face they wear, should they know it.

Awakened Flesh Golem Traits

The awakened all have traits common to their flesh golem origin.

Ability Skill Increase

Your Strength and Constitution ability scores each increase by 2.

Age

Flesh golems age at the speed of the race they were created from, and begin at an age equivalent to the average age of the parts they were made out of.

Alignment

Awakened flesh golems can be of any alignment, though few tend towards good, with society's cruel judgement pushing them toward more self-centered or even spiteful mentalities. Their strange origin sees them lean toward lawfulness, with an instinctive need for structure that harkens back to their time as a fleshy machine.

Size

Awakened flesh golems differ vastly in their height and build, following the same guidelines as the race they were built from, but potentially being up to a foot shorter or taller. Awakened flesh golems are heavier than their natural counterparts, and your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Berserk Slam

Your very existence in the world is unjust, and you vent your rage in devastating effect. When reaching 3rd level, as an action you may call upon tremendous, unnatural strength and slam the ground around you. Each creature in a 15-foot cube originating from you must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d8 bludgeoning damage and is pushed 10 feet away from you. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed. In addition, unsecured objects that are completely within the area of effect are automatically pushed 10 feet away from you. The DC for this trait is 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency.  The damage increases to 3d8 at 6th level, 4d8 at 11th level, and 5d8 at 16th level. You may use this trait once, and regain the ability to use it after a long rest.

Constructed

Although now alive, some part of your constructed origin lingers on in you — you can endure more than born mortals. You are immune to disease, have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you can double your constitution modifier when calculating how long you can hold your breath.

Lightning Resistance

You have resistance to Lightning damage.

Fire Aversion

You have a weakness to fire-based damage. Whenever you take any fire damage, no matter the amount, roll a d6 and add the result as additional fire damage. Gaining any form of resistance to fire temporarily overrides this trait until you lose the fire resistance.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice. This is usually either the language of your creator, or a language the brain in your body knew in life before it was used in your creation.