Homebrew Yordle Species Details

Yordles come from self-contained pockets within the spirit realm, with no direct "mirror" in the material realm of Runeterra.The origin of this race on Runeterra is unknown but can be traced back to a prehistoric time when there were no civilizations on land. Most would agree that Yordles resided on Valoran during its prehistoric times. At that time they were a nomadic race, travelling from one part of Valoran to the other. Records show they had presence in Ancient Freljord. They lived in tight neat family groups as well as near early humans. Because of their small stature, they were mostly prey for many animals. During prehistoric times they had tails and front canine teeth.

Overtime as human civilizations advanced, so did yordles' appearances and capabilities. To easily blend in human areas, yordles at one point started using an ability called "Glamour", which gave them the appearance of short humans.

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.

Yordle Traits

As a yordle, you have the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

You are Small.

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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.

Glamour

In combat you are evasive and hard to hit. When a creature you can see makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the roll.

As a bonus action, you can take the form of a human for 8 hours once per long rest becoming a medium human for the duration of this time, if you choose to change back into your Yordle form your magic cannot change you back into a human until you complete a long rest.

Yordle Powers

Yordles’ connection to magic can manifest in unpredictable ways in an individual yordle. Choose one of the following legacy options for your yordle:

Craftiness. You have proficiency in two of the following skills of your choice: Arcana, Investigation, Medicine, Sleight of Hand, or Survival.

Defiance. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the frightened while you are conscious.

Yordle Magic. You know one cantrip of your choice from the druid spell list. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for that cantrip (choose when you select this race).