Homebrew Awakened Snail Species Details

There was once a snail in the forest. The snail s l o w l y inched along, trying to find some more leaves on the ground. It slowly oozed further and further, until, suddenly, it was lifted into the air. It retracted into its shell, but slowly stuck out its eyes. 

"Perfect," said a ringing voice. "You'll make an excellent servant."

 

Snails are not awakened frequently, but when they are, they can gain great power. Their wisdom and patience are nearly unmatched. In the blurb above, a humble snail was taken by a fae to be a servant. Your snail could have gained sentience over a long period of time, or simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Awakened snails tend to be very afraid of children. Although awakening has made it so that they no longer take damage from salt, they still are scared of children little boys, especially. Contrarily, your snail could simply hate children with a passion and go out of its way to inconvenience them.

Snails tend to be very wise. They have spent years observing the passing of the seasons, the humans in the forest, and the animals as well.

Awakened Snail Traits

An awakened snail has some abilities as simply a part of it's form, and the magic or patience that imbues it with sentience also grants power.

Slime Trail

As a bonus action when you take the dash action, you can leave a slimy trail behind you. Any creature that crosses it for the next two turns must roll a DC 12 dexterity check or fall prone. 

Shell

You have a shell. This gives you a base AC of 18, and you can wear armor. However, given your unusual size, it will likely need to be custom made.

Survival Instinct

You have advantage on survival checks and proficiency in wisdom and constitution saving throws.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2.

Age

Snails age extremely slowly once they have awakened. They age roughly the same as elves.

Size

Snails stand between 1 and 0.25 feet tall and average about 3 pounds. Your size is small.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 10 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.

Darkvision

Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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.

Hatred for Salt

You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage (explained in the “Combat” section).

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.