Homebrew Branchborn Species Details

A close relative to Awakened Trees and Treants, Branchborn are thought to be formed from fallen trees that absorbed large amounts of wild magic over their lifetime. Slow, lumbering, and peaceful, they often share a desire to see parts of the world they couldn't reach from their forest.

A Branchborn character can simply be a tree that has gained sentience, or the result of some nature-based transformation in another character. It's up to you and your DM to decide how and why your character came about.

Branchborn History

d6	Story
1	You were a beloved old tree in the center of a small town before someone or something wiped it out.
2	You woke up one day on the stump of a massive old oak tree. The trunk and its branches were nowhere in sight.
3	You are the result of a series of experiments run by an unorthodox hag.
4	You were given sentience by the guardian spirit of a forest to help it achieve some goal.
5	A defeated warrior bled out on your roots, and you inherited their form and motivation.
6	A careless young druid accidentally made you while carving runes into your bark.

Creating Your Character

When you create your D&D character, you decide whether your character is a member of the human race or one of the game’s fantastical races. If you create a character using a race option presented here, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one of those scores 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’re free to follow those suggestions or to ignore them. Whichever scores you decide to increase, none of the scores can be raised above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common, Sylvan, and one other language your DM deems appropriate.

Creature Type

Branchborn are considered Plants, and as such are susceptible to spells such as locate animals or plants, plant growth, transport via plants, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, blight, and even tree stride.

Life Span

Branchborn typically live from anywhere between 100 to 500 years, depending on the type of tree they most resemble or originated from.

Height and Weight

Branchborn are often rather large compared to most other races; standing at around six to eight feet tall, and weighing somewhere between 250 to 600 pounds. Of course, as with anything in nature, there are exceptions, so feel free to make your Branchborn character with whatever dimensions you like. 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.

Branchborn Traits

As a Branchborn player character, you have the following traits.

Deep Roots

You stand firm with the mightiest of trees. You have advantage on saving throws against being knocked prone or restrained. In addition, while you are not incapacitated, you may spend your reaction to avoid being moved by any magical or non-magical effect. 

Creature Type

You are a Plant.

Size

You are Medium.

Speed

Your walking speed is 25 feet.

Wooden Build

Your skin is a thick, rough bark. While you aren’t wearing armor, your base Armor Class is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. In addition, you may swing at foes with your branches, dealing bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your STR modifier on a hit.

Plant Magic

You know the druidcraft cantrip.

Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the barkskin spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the speak with plants spell with this trait. Once you cast barkskin or speak with plants 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.

Botanical Nature

If the plant growth spell is cast on you, you regain hit points equal to 3d8 + your constitution modifier (minimum of 1 HP) and you become large for one hour. While enlarged, your melee attacks do an extra 1d4 bludgeoning damage, and you have advantage on strength checks and saving throws.

If you lose a limb, you can grow it back within 60 days, assuming there is no magic or poison on the wound. It grows back instantly if plant growth is cast on you.