Homebrew Coralkin Species Details

Coralkin originated somewhere in the vast oceans between the plane of water and all other planes of existence.

Coralkin are a hivemind of polyps making up their body. They operate as a singular entity. Their bodies can range in shape and size, some resembling a bipedal humanoid form, and some being much smaller and more akin to a small animal or feral beast. They are able to maneuver easily in water and can breathe in water or air.

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 such as the coralkin in this section, 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 in this chapter 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. coralkin, however, have a life span of about half a century to almost two centuries depending on how much time they spend out of water.

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.

Coralkin Traits

As a coralkin, you have the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are a Fey.

Size

Coralkin are very unique in their appearances from one another. They can be small, lithe, skinny, tall, and even heavy set. You choose Small or Medium on creation.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet and your swim speed matches your walking speed.

Darkvision

The part of your body that grants you vision adapted from being able to see in the depths of sunless ocean waters. You can see in the dark up to 60 ft. in shades of grey.

Sharp Body

Your body is made up of a connected hivemind of polyps making you an amalgamation known as coralkin. The protruding pieces are rough and sharp and built to tear whatever comes into contact with you. You have a natural AC bonus of +2 and any time a melee attack does not connect with you the attacked takes 1d4 + your proficiency modifier as slashing damage. This damage happens even on a hit if the attacker is using any part of their body to strike you.