Homebrew Oni (Ogre Mage) Race Details

The old man we had met at the tavern had proven to be a useful guide. He knew the woods like the back of his hand and possessed an almost superhuman intuition, finding paths that I couldn't have spotted in the broadest of daylight. Me and my friend Welby Tealeaf offered him payment upfront, but he just smiled and turned his gaze towards Welby, saying that his payment would come soon enough. When night fell we were so deep in the woods that it would have been useless to turn back, so we decided to camp for the night. Our elderly acquaintance graciously volunteered to take first watch, and I soon found myself fast asleep. At some point in the night, I was awoken by a faint rustling sound. I looked to my right and noticed that Welby's bedroll was empty. Suddenly alert, I heard more rustling outside. I cautiously crept forward, poking my head out from the tent. There stood a huge hulking figure by the fire, cradling a sleeping Welby in its arms like a babe. The creature raised its head in my direction, revealing piercing white eyes and a smiling mouth filled with teeth like obsidian knives. Slowly it lifted a finger to its lips, shushing me, then it quickly disappeared into the night, taking the halfling with it. The old man was nowhere to be found.  

— Ander Lackman, Witness To An Oni Abduction

Shadow giants, night stalkers, child snatchers, the bogeymen. The oni have many names. They are the monsters that children are told will get them if they misbehave. They are the horrors spoken of in stories around the campfire. The oni are spread far and wide, rarely seeing another one of their species except for when they mate or rear a child. They avoid the outside world, keeping to the shadows and hardly ever revealing themselves. The only time they do come out into the open is when they wander the streets of a city in an unsuspecting form, scoping out potential victims for when night comes.

Menacing and Tricky

The oni's physical appearance strikes fear into the heart of any man. Their skin color ranges from green to blue and their claws and teeth are as black as night. An oni has dark eyes with white pupils gleaming in the center, long dark hair, and a pair of short horns protruding from its skull. An average oni stands between 8 and 9 feet tall, and typically weighs between 650 and 720 pounds. They are able to fly at will and have the ability to shapeshift into different forms, making finding an oni quite a difficult task (not that anyone would want to do so in the first place).

An oni's natural features are almost never apparent when it takes on another form. It's a foolish mistake that is sure to scare off potential prey. However, an oni will occasionally show off one of their traits to a passerby. It's a kind of game they play to see if the pedestrian even notices. There have been several reports of people passing a stranger who winks at them with white eyes or smiles to show black fangs.

Reputation of an Ogre Mage

 The oni are sometimes known as "ogre mages," as they are distant relatives of true ogres and always have magic to use to their advantage. However, the oni have a well kept secret: They are not inherently magical. For a species so distinctly solitary the oni take an unusually large amount of pride in their reputation, and their "innate" magical ability is one of the things that makes them so feared. After all, everyone knows that an oni can become invisible at will and can call upon darkness to make its approach imperceptible. In truth, when an oni comes of age its parent has it undergo a special ritual that grants the magical powers that oni are renowned for (not much is known about this ritual, but it is rumored to involve the sacrifice of a human baby). This is why an oni covets magical items and will serve a master temporarily in exchange for them, for they add to an oni's magical arsenal.

When an oni completes its ritual the parent oni takes its offspring on its first "stalk," where the parent observes as the young adult gains the trust of a humanoid, only to come back at night to devour them. Afterwards the parent presents them with their first magical item, and sends them off into the night. If the ritual does not work on an oni, that oni is deemed a "dud' by its parent, and is cast out. If an oni is unable to go through with its first stalk, it is cast out as well.

Creatures of Solitude

Oni tend to live on the outskirts of towns and cities, though an oni raising a child will usually retreat to the mountains until the child reaches adulthood. They generally keep to themselves and don't interact with others unless they intend to make a meal of them later that night. Occasionally an oni will have multiple interactions with a humanoid and might actually come to consider them a friend. There have even been a few accounts of a romantic relationship between an oni and another being. The issue is that almost all the oni in these situations did not reveal their true nature, and the majority of those who did were met with horror and rejection. It takes an oni a long time to become attached to another being. It takes even longer for the person in question to accept them if they know their true identity, if they even accept them at all.

Oni Names

Personal names have little use for an oni. They are labels that are supposed to be used by friends and family, things that the solitary life of an oni rarely possess. However, an oni will temporarily don a name that goes with a specific form it takes     such as Bruenor for a dwarf or Luthor for a human     and may use on of these names when having prolonged interaction with other beings. Some oni that are more social then their brethren and that wish to stand out will invent their own names, though they are often long and fantastical with the purpose of drawing attention.

Oni (Ogre Mage) Traits

Your oni character has a series of natural traits that do not orginate from its ritual.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age

Oni are much more long lived than their ogre cousins, reaching adulthood around age 16 and living up to 200 years.

Alignment

Oni are normally cruel and calculating, pushing them towards a lawful evil alignment. However, an oni cast out by its parent might take up a good alignment.

Size

Oni are giant-kin, and their size reflects that. They range from 8 to 9 feet in height. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a flying speed of 30 feet.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Claws (Oni Form Only)

You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.

Long-Limbed (Oni Form Only)

When you make a melee attack on your tum, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Change Shape (1/Day)

As an action you can polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid, or back into your true form. Other than your size, your statistics are the same in each form. If you die, you revert to your true form.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.