Homebrew Ant-Folk Species Details

An Ant-Folk held a longsword with two hand on one side and a bow on the other side. He faced a hobgoblin and got ready to attack, the hobgoblin charged at him. The hobgoblin slammed a longsword onto the Ant-Folks chest, it bounced off his thick exoskeleton as if the exoskeleton was made of metal. The Ant-Folk knocked the hobgoblins sword with out of his hand with ease and then swiftly yet calmly shot him square in between his eyes. The Ant-Folk looked at the rest of the hobgoblins with a gleam in his eyes and said " Who's next".

Introduction to Ant-Folk

Ant-Folk are very loyal to there queens. They have two legs, four arms, a set of mandibles, and two antennae with one on each side. There mandibles have a chance to poison there enemy's temporarily, they are composed of three main parts being there head, middle section, and bottom section. The middle section has two arms coming out of each side, there bottom section is where the legs stick out. There legs and arms are relatively thin. They can hold a weapon in each hand but it takes both of the arms on one side to hold a shield, spear, Warhammer or other large weapon. Let your DM decide these restrictions based off of your strength stat. You can use your mandibles to attack instead of an unarmed strike, although you can still use your unarmed strike the mandibles are just a unique alternative. You have tough skin but cannot wear armor, also because of your body shape you cannot mount creatures like horses. You as a Ant-Folk can have weapon holsters like a quiver but not armor. Also it requires two arms to shoot a bow and arrow. You have darkvision from living in the underdark and because of your antennae you have advantage on perception checks.

Ant-Folk Society

The Ant-Folk live to serve their queen, they live in large, cavernous tunnel systems that can be miles under the surface. They are often have long, winding tunnel systems that lead to chambers that contain food or larvae. The larvae are Ant-Folk that are inside a white cocoon and that are transforming into adults. Because the Ant-Folk get born inside larvae and develop for a few months, bye the time they break out of the larvae they are adults. Ant-Folk colonies often stay away from other colonies seeing them as potential threats to the queen, although if two or more colonies are both being threatened they may work together to eliminate the threat. An example of this is if a horde of orcs is nearby and two colonies both are threatened they might work together to defeat said orc horde.

Ant-Folk Life Span

Because the Ant-Folk are made to protect their queen they often only live about 40-60 years. Some may live to the age of 80 though, their age barely affects them. An example of this is that a 50 year-old Ant-Folk is just as strong and smart as a 20 year-old Ant-Folk. Because of their short life span Ant-Folk do their best to enjoy every second of their life and have a very strong survival instinct. This strong urge to survive has helped them adapt to eat things most humanoids can't, like raw meat or fungi. In fact some colonies live of off fungi that they find in their tunnels.

Leaving the Colony

It is very rare for an Ant-Folk to leave the colony and do something else with its life. In most cases the Ant-Folk will stay with the colony but on a rare occasion the Queen Ant-Folk of the colony will allow one of her children to leave the colony and pursuit a different life style. Most of the time the few ants that do get to leave the colony have a hard time fitting in in society. Your character may find him or herself bullied or beaten for being an Ant-Folk. Or your character might find themselves as a feared or honored person, this is for you to decide and fit into your backstory.

Homeland

The Ant-Folk rarely live anywhere but underground, they dig large tunnel systems to live in and to protect their queen. They often need to fight other underground races like the Drow for territory, they have adapted to living underground so well that they are able to scale walls, burrow, and have darkvision. They often use their tunnel systems to connect large chambers that are either filled with larvae, food, or on a rare occasion a powerful artifact. The most important chamber in the tunnels is the queens chamber, this is the chamber where the queen lives. The queen rarely leaves here chamber and her chamber is heavily protected.

Ant-Folk Names

Very few Ant-Folk have names because they live to serve their queen and rarely anything else. The only way an Ant-Folk may obtain a name is if he or her has earned it. For example if you protect the colony from danger by killing a pack of wolves you may be given the name beast-slayer. Although these titles are not quite names it is how the Ant-Folk have always done it and those Ant-Folk you do not follow that rule are shamed and considered traitorous to other Ant-Folk. This way of naming is a unique trait the Ant-Folk have and can lead to many unique and interesting names like slime-slayer or demon-slayer. Also the names almost always end in slayer because it signifies that the Ant-Folk in question protected the colony from a great danger. 

Ant-Folk War

The Ant-Folk colonies will sometimes wage war on each other. These wars normally last decades because queens can reproduce more larvae which grow into soldiers. These conflicts can ravage and destroy towns and cities that stand in their way. When the first Ant-Folk colonies were formed they would wage war on each other in an attempt to grow their own power and these wars would last for centuries. These first major wars which destroyed cities that stood in its way began a thought track that Ant-Folk still posses, that war is needed to gain territory and power. This thought track makes colonies determined to never give up in a war until there is one clear winner, this can lead to casualties in the thousands for both sides and most of the time both of the colonies end up destroying each other before the war stops.

Ant-Folk Traits

Mandibles, Natrual armor, Indimidating, etc.

Natrual armor

Because of the Ant-Folks thick chitin skin there armor class is 13 plus their constitution modifier. You gain this trait at first level.

Mandibles

Using the mandibles you can do 1d4 piercing damage +1 poison damage, or you can attempt to grapple them and your opponent has to succeed on a dexterity save of 13 or they will be grappled by you. For both the biting and the grappling attack you need to be within 5 feet of your target.

Intimidation

There naturally occurring mandibles and antennae give them a natural proficiency in intimidation.

Ability score increase

Your constitution is increased by 2, and your strength increases by 1.(You will need to override modifiers to do this because I am unable to make a modifier to boost stats).

Walking Speed

Your walking speed is 30

Languages

You can speak, read, and write common.

Size

Ant-Folks size is medium. They are normally about six to seven feet tall.

Alingment

Ant-Folk normally will tend toward neutral while some are Chaotic Neutral or another similar alignment.

Burrowing

During your turn you can dig out a 5 by 5 foot cube of dirt that is within 5 feet of your character. The burrowing does use your action.

Darkvision

Because Ant-Folk live in the underdark they have darkvision of up to 60 feet. They can only see shades of grey using their darkvision.