Homebrew Ephyran Species Details

Ephyran’s are mysterious beings from the deep sea. It is rumoured that their ancestors were jellyfish, imbued with magic from the mana-rich currents of the deep sea that acted as their lifeline, feeding them, and giving them strength. Their deep-sea origin grants them dark vision, and curiously, their transparent jelly-like bodies are covered in vibrant bioluminescent patterns that provide light for up to 10ft. Although most ephyran’s are a translucent magenta, white, cyan or orange, they have also been seen in many other colours.

Ephyran’s don’t have internal organs of the usual sort. Their bodies are composed of water, and clusters of nerves, surrounded by a thin yet durable outer skin. Though they have a humanoid head and upper body, an ephyran’s nerves are extremely sensitive and can be used to detect light, heat, texture, sound, pain, and vibrations. They consume food by osmosis, the way an amoeba does, and excrete waste through tiny pores. They breathe by absorbing oxygen through another set of pores, and their limbs are strong and flexible enough to grasp and manipulate weapons and tools. Their humanoid head and upper body are often overlooked by their bell (an umbrella-like appendage on their head) and frilly projections and tentacles that act as extensions of their arms, though they also begin from the bottom of their torsos, concealing their legs in a skirt of frills. Due to this 'skirt' ephyran's have curipusly developed the ability to levitate, preventing their legs getting tangled in their appendages. Hiding amongst their frilly skirts are tens to hundreds of almost invisible tentacles, each laced with thousands of barbs containing a paralysis-inducing neurotoxin.

 Though they often spend most of their life in water, they breathe through pores in their skin, so though it’s considered quite rare, some ephyran’s chose to live on land, following their gut and the pull of the universe. Ephyran’s have a strong sense of spiritual direction, which they dedicate their life to following, placing their trust in destiny and worshipping fate. When interacting with other races, ephyran’s are known to be friendly and placid, preaching their views about the universe to any that seem interested. However, they have been known to become quite aggressive when something is preventing them from following their spiritual wayfinding, though they only do what they must to overcome the obstacle they face, often simply incapacitating their opponents.

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 and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of widespread languages to choose from. The DM is free to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including every 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 option presented here 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 text of the cure wounds spell specifies that the spell doesn’t work on a creature that has the Construct type. (The autognome is a noteworthy exception because of its Healing Machine trait.)

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—a fact noted in the description of the race in question.

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.

Ephyran Traits

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

Poisonous Tentacles

Any creature that grapples you or otherwise comes into direct contact with you must succeed on a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, to avoid your tentacles, or become poisoned/paralysed for 1 minute. A poisoned/paralysed creature no longer in direct contact with you can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

 

Spiritual Wayfinder

You feel the pull of the universe leading you to something good, granting you a proficiency in insight and perception.

Mostly Water

You are made of mostly water and are therefore prone to evaporating extreme heat such as fire damage.

Levitate

As to not trip on their skirts, ephyran's developed the ability to levitate up to 1ft off of the ground.

Creature Type

You are an Ooze.

Size

You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Amorphous

You can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide, provided you are wearing and carrying nothing. You have advantage on ability checks you make to initiate or escape a grapple.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of yourself 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.

Amphibious

You can breathe air and water.

Natural Resilience

You have resistance to acid and poison damage, and you have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.