Homebrew Beastman Species Details

Note: This was created to match the racial changes and balances of Monsters of the Multiverse. This does contain features that are different than the beastman race from 2nd Edition.

Beastmen resemble short, slender humans, except for the fine layer of dark green or olive colored fur that covers their bodies. Underneath this is an inner coat of coarse black fur. As a beastman moves about, his body instinctively causes portions of the black fur to become erect, like the hair on a cats back when it is frightened. By so doing, the beastman creates a pattern of stripes or spots that enables him to blend in with the hues and shadows of the forest around him.

The beastman language is very intricate, involving spoken elements, hand and body gestures, and changes in the patterns on the speaker’s fur. While other races can learn the spoken and gestural portions of the language, they are unable to reproduce the color changes. Thus outsiders can speak in only the simplest terms.

 

Creating Your Character

At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You can follow those suggestions or ignore them, but you can’t raise any of your scores above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including each player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race tells you what your character’s creature type is.

Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the cure wounds spell doesn’t work on a Construct or an Undead.

Life Span

The typical life span of a player character in the D&D multiverse is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end 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 description.

Height and Weight

Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.

Beastman Traits

As a beastman, you have the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Magic Resistance

You have advantage on saving throws against spells.

Poison Resilience

You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the poisoned condition on yourself. You also have resistance to poison damage.

Forest Survivalist

You have proficiency in the Stealth skill and Poisoner's Kit.

Hidden In Plain Sight

You can take the Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.