Homebrew Baku Species Details

Baku are a race of intelligent beings who look remarkably like Malaysian tapirs. Standing on all four legs, Baku reach around 7 feet long, stand nearly 5 feet tall at the shoulder, and weigh in around 650lbs.

Baku can be tricky to spot for two reasons. First, their hide is broken up in black and white, breaking up their outline. Second, Their bodies are slightly blurred, their edges fuzzy. This blurring quality remains after the Baku are killed, making Baku hides very valuable and sought after by assassins and sneaks of all sorts.

Baku communicate with each other through a combination of pheromones and psychic communication. The psychic communication isn’t in direct language, but is more in impressions and symbols; they communicate in the language of dreams. Since most creatures aside from the Anusimon do not consciously register or produce complex pheromones, they have great difficulty sending communication to Baku, alarge reason they were never domesticated. In reality, the best way to communicate with Baku is by consciously daydreaming and allowing the Baku into the daydream. Though simple, most people do not think to try this method, and so assume Baku are unable to communicate.

In addition to the language barrier, another major reason for lack of domestication comes from the gods fearing the effects of the Baku’s primary diet of other beings’ dreams, or, potentially, the strength of emotional response from those dreams. This theory developed when they discovered that Baku preferred feeding upon nightmares, which tend to elicit stronger physio-emotional response. When a person’s dream/nightmare is being eaten, it fades from the subconscious of the dreamer, leaving the memory and neutralizing the physio-emotional responses. It is, in fact, the psychic-kinetic energy that form and maintain the dream on which the Baku feed. No long term effects occur to the dreamers from these feedings.
Baku can also travel into the Plane of Dreams, though doing so drains a great deal of energy. This ability to disappear is the third major reason they could not be domesticated.
Baku tend toward a more solitary existence, entering the Plane of Dreams in the springtime of each Triennial to search out a mate. Gestation is 18 months and they nurse for another 18 months.

Baku Traits

Ability Scores. Charisma +3 - Age. The Baku take about 60years to reach maturity and live on average 500 years.

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 can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Keen Smell

Baku possess a keen sense of smell, allowing them to communicate via pheromones. This sense of smell also grants them advantage on any perception or survival checks relying on scent.

Blurred Form

Due to their close ties with the Plane of Dreams, Baku are always blurred, as the Blur spell. Anyone attacking a Baku relying on regular sight does so at disadvantage.
Baku possess a keen sense of smell, allowing them to communicate via pheromones. This sense of smell also grants them advantage on any perception or survival checks relying on scent. This blurring is a natural trait of the Baku hide, marking them as prime targets for crafters of armor and clothes. They are frequently hunted for this alone…only their fearsome reputation as “brain eaters” limits the number of hunters to only the most brave or most desperate.

Dream Body

Baku are intimately connected to the Plane of Dreams and, once per long rest, can plane shift into the Plane of Dreams.

Dreamspeak and Pheromones Communication

The Baku can understand verbal languages but are unable to vocalize them. This causes many to underestimate the intelligence of their people. In fact, Baku have two channels of communication, dream speak and a complex array of pheromones. Anusinom are the only other race capable of the complexity of pheromones to communicate in this way with Baku, but anyone is capable of communicating through dream speak if they can think to try it.

It merely requires entering into a relaxed state of mind with an unfocused gaze or eyes closed, almost as if daydreaming. The Baku then can communicate in the language of Dreams through symbols and even some words and sounds.

Psychic Diet

Baku do not need to feed on physical food. Rather, they feed on emotionally charged psychic energy. Their feeding causes no harm to the person whose energy they are feeding, but simply pulls the charge out of it, calming the body, though not taking the memory of the thoughts/nightmares away.

This feeding pattern, is generally misunderstood and causes many to fear the Baku.

Ability Scores

Charisma +3

Mage Hand

Without hand or opposable thumbs, Baku use their mental capacity to manipulate objects similar to the Mage Hand Cantrip.