Homebrew Kuo-Toa Species Details
The Kou-Toa are the most no nonsense race in existence. They enjoy their lives to be clean and defined in all ways, due to their damaged minds. While they understand the sudtle and complexity, it is abhorred by these creatures. While, their gods are strange and their ability to manipulate reality are extreme, they do not try to eat, sacrifice, or enslave every single other sentient being they come in contact with so they are pretty good.
Kuo-Toa are one of the many denizens of the Underdark. They live in deep hidden caverns and pools of water throughout the underground world, staying very separate from the Drow, Drueger, and other creatures of the Underdark. While, not inherently evil, they are as dangerous as any other group in the Underdark, just more willing to talk before fighting. Due to their ability to make gods and control reality, it is best to give them what ever shiny they want.
Slippery When Wet
Like fish, kuo-toa skin is slippery and cold to the touch. Most have skin ranging in hue from a pale gray to dark purple, though other colors and combinations of colors will occasionally appear. Because they evolved from fish, some kuo-toa are born with unique physical features, such as vestigial fins or barbel whiskers. You can use the Kuo-Toa Variations table to determine a physical variation for your character.
Kuo-Toa Variations d6 Variation
1 You have vestigial fins that stick out at odd angles on your head.
2 Your skin is colorful and patterned like a tropical fish.
3 You have a small angler fish antenna that grows from your forehead. It lights up when you have an idea.
4 You have rows of sharp teeth like a shark. These teeth tend to fall out randomly during conversation.
5 You have long, barbel whiskers like those of a catfish.
6 You have bulbous eyes and sockets that protrude from your head.
Kuo-Toa have heavy webbing on their feet, and less prominent webbing on their hands. This webbing, combined with their somewhat unconventional shape, makes them equally mobile on land and underwater. Furthermore, kuo-toa also have gills in addition to lungs, and can breathe both air and water. Most kuo-toa dress in primitive loincloths or animal
skins, but these are richly adorned with whatever eye-catching baubles or trinkets they can find. These can zange from a strangely shaped rock found in a stream to a valuable coin or gem dropped by an adventurer. For kuo-toa, it isn’t the conventional societal value but the aesthetic appeal that draws them to an object, and it would not be an uncommon to see a kuo-toa wearing bits of colorful chitin and bone next to priceless pearls.
The Mad God Makers
In sharp contrast to their clammy skin and dead fish stare, the mind of every kuo-toa burns with a fiery, unquenchable zeal. Most historians attribute the insanity of Kara-Tur’s kuo-toa to contact with demonic yokai, much like what the illithids did to the kuo-toa of Faerun. These trickster spirits tortured and warped the minds of the simple kuo-toa for centuries. In response to this prolonged, intense psychic pressure, the kuo-toa evolved an uncanny power of will, one which allows them to physically manifest the gods they believe in. These gods often take on absurd and unintelligible forms in accordance with the madness of the kuo-toa’s mind.
Kuo-Toa are not choosy in what they worship, and nearly any object can spark their radical god-making devotion. Anything - an interesting geographical formation, the ruins of an ancient race, a book, an instrument, even a thimble or a fork - can inspire a fervor in the mind of a kuo-toa strong enough to will gods into being. These gods are usually demigods or lesser deities, depending on how many kuo-toa believe in it, and they live and walk freely among their followers. It is not uncommon for adventurers to be flabbergasted or frustrated when approaching a kuo-toa settlement, as any spells meant to identify divinity will reveal dozens, if not hundreds, of celestials wandering freely.
Religious Rule
Some kuo-toa manage to gather large followings of believers to their deity. When a kuo-toa wields this type of influence, they gain the mantle of archpriest. Archpriests are the pinnacle of kuo-toa religious fervor, and their connection with their deity grants them the abilities of a powerful cleric. These archpriests rule by inspiring fear or loving devotion, but in either case, they are the true governing force among the kuo-toa. Without their leadership, kuo-toa society would amount to little more than an unintelligible mass of dissonant psychic murmurs. However, with the unifying power of an archpriest’s leadership, a kuo-toa religion has the ability to alter the shape of reality.
Archpriests usually bestow their children with some of their magical ability. These children are called whips, and when an archpriest dies or grows too old, whips are expected to take on the mantle of archpriest. When this shift occurs, the deity worshiped by the religion often changes in accordance with the new archpriest’s variation in belief. Most often they are only minor changes to the deity’s appearance, but they are sometimes more drastic alterations. For example, a deity previously accepting of believers of other races may become hostile to non-kuo-toas if the new archpriest wills it to be true. As a result, the belief in kuo-toa deities can be risky for other races.
Kuo-Toa Names
Much like the names of their gods, kuo-toa names are heavily influenced by their madness. These names often manifest themselves as a collection of random syllables.
Kuo-Toa Names: Shardiblorp, Kldungirdar, Bloopliderp, Grrflumphic, Shurglood, Umflirbkupl, Kidsadhof, Hoobipjard, Yultcerfigak, Shmirblfut, Uybhirgboonj, Fedtefumgr, Blesyllak, Achubleshoo.
Kuo-Toa Traits
Your Kuo-Toa character has the following racial traits.Ability Score Increase
Your Strength or Dexterity score (your choice) increase by 1, and your Wisdom score increases by 2
Age
Kuo-Toa age at the same rate as humans, but often aren’t considered full adults of society until they are at least 40 years old. On average, they live 300 to 400 years.
Alignment
Kuo-Toa madness is counterbalanced by the order imposed by their archpriest, and they tend, unlike their Faerunian counterparts, not to go out of their way to either help or hurt others unless demanded by an archpriest, making most of Kara-Tur’s kuo-toa true neutral
Size
Kuo-Toa are only slightly shorter than most humans, ranging from just under 5 feet to somewhere in between 5 and 6 feet. They tend to weigh about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a swimming speed of 30 feet.
Amphibious
You can breathe air and water.
Slippery
You have advantage on ability checks you make to escape a grapple, and on saving throws you make against being restrained.
Otherwordly Perception
As a bonus action, you magically enhance your senses, allowing you to see any creature within 30 feet of you that is invisible or on the Ethereal Plane until the end of your next turn. Once you use this trait, you must finish a short or long rest before you can do so again.
Superior Darkvision
You can see in dim light with in 120 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.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Undercommon.
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