Homebrew Critterkin Species Details

A mysterious and whimsical folk. The Critterkin are a small race from the Feywild that only started emerging in the past 2 to 3 centuries in terms of any recorded history over the whole of the known Fey and Wildspace at large.

They are similar to Harengon, Tabaxi, and other beast-reminscent humanoids, themselves resembling an assortment of different woodland-associated beings (Racoons, Chipmunks, etc.). They are unique in the relative variety they show in terms of the assortment of critters they resemble, which does not appear to be tied to the actual family line. 

 

The Critterkin are a fancy-driven and adventurous people. Typically not staying in any one to place for long through their youth, but eventually settling wherever they may find themselves at that point in life. This being the case, the Critterkin people are spread out and typically either the lone instance of a Critterkin where they settle, or part of a small immediate family of them. 

 

There is no centralized nation or settlements of the Critterkin people, and they do not have any strong tie to ancestral identity. This is partially attributed to their more indivualistic tendancies, with strong immediate family ties in many cases, as well as no strong visual lineage traits that pass down through any specific Critterkin line.  

 

A Critterkin will pass down its nature to its children almost always, even if the other parent is not a Critterkin themselves. The type of Critterkin a parent is does not seem to have a bearing on their offspring, as there is heavy variety in each Critterkin line. This lack of apparent tie between the parent and child has been attested to be partially to blame for their lack of strong family lines, as even tracing such details more than a couple of generations is difficult. 

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. 

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.

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.

Critterkin Traits

As a Critterkin, you have the following racial traits.

Primal Sense

The bestial blood that makes Critterkins distinct appearance also has left a mark on their senses, granting them the keenness of smell enjoyed by the denizens of the forest 

Creature Type

You are a fey 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.

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the charmed condition on yourself.

Fury of the Small

When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell and the creature’s size is larger than yours, you can cause the attack or spell to deal extra damage to the creature. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus.

You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest, and you can use it no more than once per turn.

Nimble Escape

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