Homebrew Fanil (Half Mind Flayer) Species Details

Fanil are created from humanoid bloodlines; in the broadest possible sense, they still look like their basal race. However, their extensive experimentation has left a clear imprint on their appearance. Fanil can have some physical traits of mind flayers such as; octopus-like heads, clawed hands, and tentacled hair. They can have slimy mucus-covered skin, with the slime giving off a prismatic hue. Their canine teeth are sharply pointed, and their eyes are solid colors—black, blue, red, white, silver, or purple—sometimes with no visible sclera or pupil. Their skin tones cover the full range of humanoid colorations but can also include various shades of purple and blue. Though their appearance has been altered, their minds are still their own. Some will attempt to live normal lives trying to drown out the memories of their past, while others may try to take revenge against their experimenters.

Failed Experiments

As Mind Flayer numbers began to dwindle slowly to extinction, the resulting hives began to become desperate in their prey. Children of various humanoid species were chosen as a resource to keep their civilizations afloat. Many, their intellect feasted upon but some were selected to be turned into the next generation of slaves. However, these experiments often took longer than adult subjects due to the victim's size and lack of brain development. Eventually, as the new slaves began to grow, so did their resistance to their conditions. With their newfound powers, many would often escape through a mixture of stealth, deception, or even extreme force. These children would often flee for miles away from their captors, with an unshakable feeling of constant pursuit. They would oftentimes grow in isolation, afraid of their abilities, enslavers, and of their families reaction if they were likely to find them.

Vermivore

As the reproduction process of the mind flayers ended the lives of many children, the few that survived found themselves with psionic powers from an unknown source. This strange source however was the mind flayer tadpole itself, lodged deep inside their brains. After being exposed to the mind-altering effects of the mind flayers, the children used their own psionics to suspend the animation of the tadpole. This allowed their bodies to naturally terminate the parasite ending its Ceremorphosis. This would then release the illithid's psychic powers into the host body, granting them a near-infinite amount of abilities. This failed transformation gives them the name Fanil by other illithids, meaning failed or failure.

Lost in the World

Fanil are often found on the outskirts of cities or towns, longingly looking for a sense of family in a judging world. Sometimes they live among other minority populations in enclaves to feel a sense of community. Due to their abduction, many Fanil do not remember their lives before their change. This can drive few to seek out their original families with little success.

Forced to roam the land in fear, the Fanil live a life of fear and proceeded with caution around their fellow humanoids. The few individuals who found their way past the untrusting manners of the Fanil found a friend and ally for life.

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 Size chart table in the Player's Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.

Fanil (Half Mind Flayer) Traits

Fanil share certain racial traits as a result of their Illithid experimentation.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

You choose between Medium or Small when you select this race.

Speed

Your walking speed is 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.

Tethered Minds

You can form a telepathic connection between your mind and the mind of others. Choose a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus that you can see within 30 feet of you. Your telepathic link to a creature is broken if you and the creature move more than 60 feet apart, if either of you is incapacitated, or if either of you mentally breaks the contact (no action required).

Psionic Abilities

You know the mage hand cantrip, and the hand is invisible when you cast the cantrip with this trait. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the charm person spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the levitate spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. Once you cast charm person or levitate with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.

Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race).

Psychic Resistance

You have resistance to psychic damage.