Homebrew Leonine Race Details

"With hills of black, and lakes of grey,
Where absent of the light of day,
Neither material, nor plain,
Where the living find no gain,

Of where do I speak, adventurer?"

— Fezia Khali-Ki, gynosphinx leonine

Informally known as sphinxfolk, leonine are a race of proud lion-people with a majestic presence and vast reserves of knowledge. They have two forms, one appearing as an exotic human, and the other a furred humanoid with a lion's head—their lion-headed form is their true form, but many leonine spend years in mostly human form, blending in with society in order to locate worthy aspirants, and lead them to the sphinx that created them to face its tests.

Powerful Felines

Leonine have two forms which they may shift between at will. Their true form is reminiscent of a lion standing upright, with an athletic humanoid body-shape and the head of a lion, all covered in short, sand-colored fur. They have slim tails, short claws on both their hands and feet, and a luscious mane of the same sandy hue as the rest of their fur. Although their patterns always differ, each leonine has a series of mystical markings on their face that shine in the same luminescent sky blue as their eyes. In this form, they stand a little taller than humans, ranging from 5 and a half feet to nearly 7 feet tall. 

Their human form is mostly identical to a regular human. Leonine in the world of Faerûn resemble humans from the Calishite or Rashemi cultures, with some otherworldly features. They usually have dusky skin, and share the size of a human, standing anywhere from 5 feet to over 6 feet tall. What sets them apart is their sandy blond hair, striking blue eyes, and a series of mystical tattoos of a sky blue color—these tattoos cover their human forms, from head to toe, and their design generally resembles the markings on the face of a leonine's true form.

Leonine are divided into two subraces, based on which gender of human they were created from. Males become androsphinx leonine, whilst females become gynosphinx leonine.

Some people believe their appearance inspired the word 'leonine' as an adjective in the language of Common.

Divine Service

Leonine are created from humans are transformed by powerful sphinxes. This can occur for many reasons, but one common reason is an androsphinx showing mercy on an adventurer who failed one of their tests, offering them the choice of aiding them rather than perishing. Another option may be an adventurer beating the riddle of a gynosphinx, and upon being granted great knowledge or a wondrous item, undergoes an epiphany and pledges themselves to help safeguard these treasures. A sphinx will only ever convert a human into a leonine if they see some worth in them, and the human's alignment is neutral or good.

The exception to this rule are fallen sphinxes, who gather themselves minions in the form of evil leonine, which they send out into the world as their ruthless agents to steal or destroy knowledge, or artifacts.

Regardless of the reason, the process is painless, and takes place over three days of trance-like sleep when a human willingly accepts the transformation. The leonine retains their human personality, but has the sphinx's alignment (typically lawful neutral) strongly imprinted upon it, as well as having its pre-transformation memories and bonds partially fade, preventing a newly-changed leonine from pining for their past life. This power is drawn from the deity that first placed the sphinx and gave it its sacred duty.

A leonine is most often asked to either repair the tomb or temple in which the sphinx fulfills its divine command of safeguarding something, or venture out in the world. Those sent out into the world are tasked with the finding knowledge or items and bringing them back to the sphinx to protect, destroying dangerous knowledge and items, or finding worthy challengers to attempt the sphinx's trials—these are the leonine most likely to become adventurers.

Becoming a Leonine

In most worlds, only a human can become a leonine. If the process is performed on an existing player character, that character loses all their existing racial traits and instead replaces them with those described for this race.

Male humans always become androsphinx leonine, whilst female humans always become gynosphinx leonine.

Both an androsphinx or a gynosphinx can create a leonine. Each type of sphinx can create both subraces of leonine, with neither having a preference between them. The more powerful a sphinx, the more leonine it may have created. Most sphinx do not have any, yet the most powerful may have upwards of 20 in service at any one time.

When a sphinx encounters a human candidate it feels is worthy, it offers the transformation, clearly explaining that they will be bound by sacred command to aid them, and the nature of the tasks it has in mind.

If the human is willing, the sphinx can perform an hour-long ritual. The human falls unconscious at its completion, and remains in a trance for 3 days, during which they are unaware of anything happening around them, and experience peculiar, sphinx and/or lion-themed dreams

A human can only be woken from the magical trance by taking over half their maximum hit points in damage, or through magic. This includes Dispel Magic, Antimagic Field, and other similar effects.

If someone is woken within 1 day of the transformation beginning, they remain human and suffer no consequences. If someone is woken after 24 hours have passed, the character must roll a death saving throw. On a success, the creature wakes up as a newly transformed leonine. On a failure, the character dies. If left for the entire 3 days, the character wakes painlessly into their new leonine form. 

Leonine Names

Leonine possess a variety of different names, with each given a new name at their time of transformation. Most commonly these come from the human cultures of Calishite and Rashemi, with examples found in the human race details section.

Exceptional candidates who become leonine may keep their original human name, and be granted greater freedoms and authority over the sphinx's domain.

Leonine Traits

Leonine have a variety of largely mind-based traits, granted by the divine power that formed them.

Ability Score Increase

 Your Strength and Charisma ability scores each increase by 1.

Age

Leonine are formed as adults and imbued with knowledge, but spend 10-15 years developing their own personality. They can live just over two centuries.

Alignment

Leonine lean toward lawful neutral as an alignment, with a strong sense of duty and purpose instilled in them at their formation. Leonine in service to a sphinx placed by a benign deity may eventually become good, whilst those in service to a fallen sphinx may become evil. Occasionally a strong-willed leonine will shake off their divine command, finding their way to any alignment, even chaotic—although this is extremely rare.

Size

Leonine follow human size guidelines in their humanoid form, varying from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Their true, lionesque form is slightly broader and taller. Your size for both forms is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Sphinx. Sphinx is a complex language with numerous intricate subtleties, and is written in hieroglyphs.

Shapechanger

You can use an action to polymorph into your humanoid form, or back into your true form. Your humanoid form resembles a human with tan skin, sand-blond hair, luminescent blue eyes, and you are covered in luminescent blue tattoo-like markings. Your true form is also humanoid, but you are slightly larger, covered in fur the color of sand, possess short claws on your fingers, and have a lion's head with luminescent blue eyes and facial markings. Your statistics are the same in each form, and each form maintains its own set appearance. Any equipment you're wearing or carrying isn't transformed. You revert to your true form if you die.

Inscrutable Riddler

You are immune to any effect that would sense your emotions or read your thoughts, but not other divination spells. In addition, you are proficient in Deception.

Sacred Mind

You have resistance to psychic damage.