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Returning 35 results for 'secrets of races defenses variant'.
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The Archfey
Legacy
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Classes
Player’s Handbook (2014)
Your patron is a lord or lady of the fey, a creature of legend who holds secrets that were forgotten before the mortal races were born. This being’s motivations are often inscrutable, and
Monsters
The Book of Many Things
encounter.
Variant: Servants of Living Stars
Some stars in the sky are Elder Evils, alien beings of godlike power from the reality-defying Far Realm.
A living portent can be a fragment of these beings
minions to avert its own demise.
Khirad, the Star of Secrets. A blue-white star whose gifts grant insight but also reveal terrible truths.
Zhudun, the Corpse Star. A dead star that whispers of the
Species
Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
This aasimar variant originally appeared in the Dungeon Master's Guide as an example for creating your own races.
Whereas tieflings have fiendish blood in their veins, aasimar are the descendants of
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
behold, radiating heat from the shell to boil the surrounding water—and any creatures in it. And even if an enemy wears down the dragon turtle’s defenses, magical storms manifest to
characters, and use the Dragon Turtle Spellcasting table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon. (Though the Monster Manual doesn’t explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
dragon turtle’s defenses, magical storms manifest to shield the dragon turtle and strike at foes.
Creating a Dragon Turtle
Use the Dragon Turtle Personality Traits and Dragon Turtle Ideals tables
explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply those rules to these aquatic dragons.)
Dragon Turtle Personality Traits
d8
backgrounds
Tomb of Annihilation
;
Suggested Characteristics
Anthropologists leave behind the societies into which they were born to discover what life is like in other parts of the world. They seek to see how other races and civilizations
lost tribe, or the truth about an ancient empire’s downfall.
d6
Personality Trait
1
I prefer the company of those who aren’t like me, including people of other races
Criminal / Spy
Legacy
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Backgrounds
Basic Rules (2014)
; specifically, you know the local messengers, corrupt caravan masters, and seedy sailors who can deliver messages for you.
Variant Criminal: Spy
Although your capabilities are not much different
sold the secrets you uncovered to the highest bidder.
Suggested Characteristics
Criminals might seem like villains on the surface, and many of them are villainous to the core. But some have an
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron
Creating a Dragonmarked Character Dragonmarks are associated with race, depicted by a combination of variant races and subraces. For humans and half-orcs, a dragonmark is a variant race that replaces
normal traits associated with those races. For half-elves, a dragonmark is a variant race. You keep some of the standard half-elf traits and replace others with the traits associated with your mark
Species
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
have lived on the worlds of the Material Plane since the worlds’ creation. Gifted by the gods with remarkable physical defenses and a mystical connection to the natural world, lizardfolk can
on an adventure. Members of some races, such as dwarves and elves, can live for centuries. If typical members of a race can live longer than a century, that fact is mentioned in the race’s
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
section offers three variant dragonborn race options that can be used to create a character with clear connections to a specific draconic ancestry. When you’re making a new character using one of these races, use the rules under “Creating Your Character” to fill out the details.
Draconic Races It’s all too easy to prefer a certain color of dragonborn, but what’s inside is what really matters—which is to say, the sort of damage their breath can do to you.
-Fizban
The
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War
that replaces traits associated with those races. For half-elves, a dragonmark is a variant race that lets you keep some half-elf traits and replace others with the traits associated with your mark
Creating a Dragonmarked Character Dragonmarks manifest on certain members of a few species, represented in the rules by variant race options: For humans and half-orcs, a dragonmark is a variant race
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
the surrounding water—and any creatures in it. And even if an enemy wears down the dragon turtle’s defenses, magical storms manifest to shield the dragon turtle and strike at foes
table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon. (Though the Monster Manual doesn’t explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply
Backgrounds
Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica
advancing civilization, nature needs some help from biomancers and terraformers. If, along the way, you happen to create super-soldiers and mutant monsters that can bolster the combine’s defenses
offer bribes, favors, or other incentives to induce people to reveal their secrets.
Your DM might rule that the knowledge you seek is secreted away in an inaccessible place, or that it simply can
Yuan-ti Pureblood
Legacy
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Species
Volo's Guide to Monsters
keen intellect and magic to discover the secrets of making steel. Its military shattered rival tribes and developed advanced tactics for fighting in forests and open plains.
The civilization grew into a
can more easily pronounce the name in this altered form. An adopted name of this sort is recognized as a variant of the birth name, rather than a unique name unto itself. A yuan-ti might refer to
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Baldur’s Gate Gazetteer
variant feature that ties the background to a group in Baldur’s Gate, provided to give characters an additional connection to the city. Characters may choose to replace the standard feature of their
background with one of these variant features. Each background also includes a bonus feature that marks a character as a native of Baldur’s Gate who’s familiar with the city — both its streets and its
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus
variant feature that ties the background to a group in Baldur’s Gate, provided to give characters an additional connection to the city. Characters may choose to replace the standard feature of their
background with one of these variant features. Each background also includes a bonus feature that marks a character as a native of Baldur’s Gate who’s familiar with the city — both its streets and its
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
can dramatically shape adventurers’ lives. The following sections present a variety of options for creating characters with a tie to dragons: “Draconic Races” presents variant dragonborn race options to
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
githyanki and githzerai who seek to reunify the gith races. By helping the githyanki defeat a common foe, Yrlakka hopes to demonstrate the merits of a single unified gith race — not only to the evil
githyanki, but also to the younger githzerai zerths who follow him. Yrlakka is concerned because his most headstrong pupil, a githzerai named Ezria, has disappeared. He fears (correctly) that Ezria was captured by the githyanki on level 16 while trying to find weak spots in their defenses.
Backgrounds
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
always occur in shady venues.
Variant Criminal: Spy
Although your capabilities are not much different from those of a burglar or smuggler, you learned and practiced them in a very
different context: as an espionage agent. You might have been an officially sanctioned agent of the crown, or perhaps you sold the secrets you uncovered to the highest bidder.
Suggested
Bugbear
Legacy
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Species
Volo's Guide to Monsters
; Elminster
Bugbears feature in the nightmare tales of many races — great, hairy beasts that creep through the shadows as quiet as cats. If you walk alone in the woods, a bugbear will reach out
terrifying to them as bugbears are in the eyes of many other races. His name is rarely spoken, and never above a whisper. Skiggaret’s influence manifests at times when bugbears are forced to act
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron
, religion, folklore, and other aspects of these races, as well as exploring the role of other core D&D races in the setting. Secrets of Sarlona (3.5E): This sourcebook explores the continent of Sarlona
insight into the setting. The other books are largely tied to specific subjects. If you want to run a campaign in the mysterious lands of Xen’drik, Secrets of Xen’drik and City of Stormreach have a
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tomb of Annihilation
Suggested Characteristics Anthropologists leave behind the societies into which they were born to discover what life is like in other parts of the world. They seek to see how other races and
lost tribe, or the truth about an ancient empire’s downfall. d6 Personality Trait 1 I prefer the company of those who aren’t like me, including people of other races. 2 I’m a stickler when it comes
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)
The Archfey Your patron is a lord or lady of the fey, a creature of legend who holds secrets that were forgotten before the mortal races were born. This being’s motivations are often inscrutable, and
short or long rest. Beguiling Defenses Beginning at 10th level, your patron teaches you how to turn the mind-affecting magic of your enemies against them. You are immune to being charmed, and when another
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War
Welcome to Eberron In an ancient ruin beneath the Demon Wastes, a band of heroes races to claim the Reaper’s Heart. If the agents of the Emerald Claw reach it first, they’ll reignite the Last War and
, and to create both wonders and weapons. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, all classes and races. They travel the world, battling villains in instants of over-the-top action. And they unearth fabulous
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War
Rakshasa Millions of years before the rise of the humanoid races, the rakshasas of Eberron ruled a civilization that spanned Khorvaire. Masters of combat, the rakshasas of Eberron wield their weapons
with demonic fury, rushing into battle seeking vengeance against those who bound their fiendish masters. Rakshasas are described in the Monster Manual. A martial variant—the zakya rakshasa—is
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tomb of Annihilation
quarters for 2d10 captives (commoners of various races, alignments, and genders). For names for these captives, see the “Chultan Names” sidebar in the introduction. Three yuan-ti broodguards (see appendix
(Persuasion or Intimidation) check. Armed captives who come to their senses try to slaughter as many yuan-ti as they can. They know the temple’s defenses and general layout, except with regard to areas 11 and
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron
The Tyrants … include members of all races, but primarily changelings and doppelgangers. … specialize in information, forgery, blackmail, and fraud. … remain neutral in the Boromar-Daask conflict
acquire secrets. There are magewrights among the Tyrants who can permanently alter your appearance. So, the Tyrants can steal someone’s identity, but they can also provide a fugitive with a new life
Kobold
Legacy
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Species
Volo's Guide to Monsters
races have little good to say about kobolds, but they do admit that the little reptilians do respectable tunnel work using simple tools. If a band of kobolds is enslaved by more powerful creatures
, the kobolds are usually put to work enlarging their masters’ living area and protecting vital areas of the lair with traps and other defenses.
Some human communities hire kobolds to dig their
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Out of the Abyss
. Slaughtertusk is happy to let a fight drag on, feasting on its enemies’ pain before finally slaying them. If reduced to fewer than 100 hit points, it uses its Summon Demon feature (see the “Variant
if the adventurers have it at their mercy, promising to tell them the secrets of the Maze Engine or anything else they want. At the first opportunity, it teleports away, summoning demonic aid to cover its retreat if possible.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
gathering supplies and reinforcing Thornhold’s defenses. Stoneshaft dwarves can taste the wealth, bustling energy, and constant excitement of nearby Waterdeep, and want to share in it. They don’t want to be
they hope to weather the challenges to their home. They’re very careful to avoid being caught alone, fearing kidnap or torture at the hands of hired agents of the Margasters eager to learn the secrets
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mythic Odysseys of Theros
rules from chapter 6 of the Player’s Handbook, your Dungeon Master might allow you to take a feat as a variant supernatural gift. You gain one feat of your choice. This list suggests twelve feats from
my strength when I rest on it. (Durable)
The stars of Nyx are never hidden from my sight, revealing their secrets to my eyes. (Keen Mind)
I hear the echoes of the gods’ speech in every mortal
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual (2014)
, including the creatures simply called elementals. Others have biological forms infused with elemental energy. The races of genies, including djinn and efreet, form the most important civilizations on the
learn spellcasting), and a bipedal form. The most common humanoid races are the ones most suitable as player characters: humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. Almost as numerous, are the races of
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tomb of Annihilation
combat, and he values his bodyguards too much to risk their lives in a pointless battle. Unless the characters provoke a fight, he tries to find out more about them and learn any secrets they might
playing them off against each other. If his bodyguards are defeated and he is facing death, Yahru offers small bits of information for the promise of freedom. In addition to the layout and defenses of the
Goblin
Legacy
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Species
Volo's Guide to Monsters
the fringes of a society first test its defenses by stealing objects, and if these crimes go unpunished, they begin stealing people.
Enslaved creatures receive the worst treatment the goblins can dish
patience needed to learn and practice wizardry, and they fare poorly even when given access to the necessary training and knowledge. Sorcerers are less prevalent among them than in many other races, and
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War
. Aureon taught giants the secrets of wizardry, and they grew powerful. The giants built towers that touched the sky and seemingly endless cities. The mightiest among the giants was the titan Cul’sir. His
power was so great that he pulled the thirteenth moon from the sky and crushed it in a fit of anger. The giants ruled many lesser races, and eventually the elves rose up against them. Cul’sir unleashed