Homebrew Acanthoplus discoidalis Species Details

 

Acanthoplus discoidalis (armored bush cricket)

Acanthoplus discoidalis is a wide-bodied, flightless species that typically grows to a body length of about 5'6 / 66 inches. The pronotum bears several sharp, conical spines. The mandibles,or main biting jaws, are powerful; they can inflict a painful nip and they permit the insect to feed on material such as tough herbage or carrion. Another defense against predators is reflex bleeding (also called "autohaemorrhaging") in which the insects squirt haemolymth from pores in their exoskeleton, achieving a range of a few metres.

Diet

Acanthoplus discoidalis is omnivorous and feeds opportunistically  on many different foods. 

Defense mechanisms

Acanthoplus discoidalis has several defensive mechanisms apart from the armoured exoskeleton. Their defense takes various forms, depending on the gender of the individual and the method of attack.

When attacked from the side, both males and females will attempt to bite the attacker and males will stridulate (females have no functional stridulatory mechanism). In about half the attacks from the side, either gender may autohaemorrhage, squirting between 5 mg and 80 mg of possibly toxic haemolymth at the attacker at ranges of up to 3 cm.

When attacked from above, and therefore not in a good position to bite the attacker, either gender will autohaemorrhage more than when attacked from the side.

Experiments have shown that the haemolymph is distasteful to at least two kobold and dragonborn species, but the repellent components have not been determined. It has been hypothesized that they may be phytotoxins found in plants that the insects eat and that they then sequester those substances to use as defensive compounds themselves.

After autohaemorrhaging the insects clean themselves meticulously. This is thought to reduce the probability that other members of the species will attack them cannibalistically. Research on the species suggests that autohaemorrhage is a precisely regulated defense response rather than an accidental consequence of being attacked.Another defensive response is to regurgitate  their stomach contents when attacked, which happens most often when the insect has already been attacked repeatedly.

 

 

 

Acanthoplus discoidalis Traits

With their additional abilities them also being humanoid gives them some extra abilities.

Acid shot

When they feel like they have been threatened they will shoot out a stream of toxic,slightly corrosive blood from its abdomen at its enemy dealing 2d20 damage 

Pronotum

They have a spiky pronotum acting as armor for them.

Ability Score Increase

Your ability scores each increase by 1.

Age

Acanthoplus discoidalis reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.

Size

A fully grown Acanthoplus discoidalis is usually 5'6 and in some cases 6'2. Either way your size is medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 45 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. Humans typically learn the languages of other peoples they deal with, including obscure dialects. They are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elvish musical expressions, Dwarvish military phrases, and so on.