Homebrew Enlightened Kuo-Toa Species Details

"Is this where they got the phrase 'drinking like a fish'?" - Aurelis Bronzecog, Dwarven Cleric

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 Summary

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Enlightened Kuo-Toa are considered aberrations within Kuo-Toa societies due to their altruistic nature and desire to be amongst other races. Only a handful of such specimens have been recorded due to the need for them to maintain secrecy in public. Many citizens will attack Kuo-Toa on sight, believing them to be irredeemable monsters or have personally experienced loss caused by them. Those familiar with the Kuo-Toa's traumatic history are more likely to be sympathetic to one trying to alter the course of it's race.  

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 Physical Description

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**Enlightenment appears to occur on an individual basis and is not inherited from the parents. Therefore, below is a general description of all Kuo-Toa as they are identical in appearance. 

A Kuo-Toa superficially resembles a grotesque cross between a fish and a humanoid. Their stout, stocky bodies are covered in slippery blue or purple scales, with clawed, webbed feet and black nails. Their hands are much more human-like, ending in the blunt nails typical of most humanoid races. Where one would normally expect the neck of a humanoid to be, there is instead the head of a fish, placed as if it had been grafted on. Some Kuo-Toa will display whiskers similar to those of a catfish, others have fins at the sides or tops of their heads, and a few have a mixture of both. Their bulging eyes are always a sickly yellow colour, with a massive black pupil in the centre.

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History

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In days long past, Kuo-Toa once dwelled on the shores and islands of the surface world. The Kuo-Toa were driven deep underground by the humans and their ilk, dooming them to spend eternity in darkness. In their prison of the Underdark, the Kuo-Toa came into contact with the Illithid, and found themselves a new set of oppressors. The Illithid subjected the Kuo-Toa to slavery, condemning thousands to lives as chattel. The Kuo-Toa were a simple race and were never intended to bear through the mental strain the Illithids' psychic energy placed upon them. Nearly every Kuo-Toa was driven hopelessly mad and paranoid, and they retain their madness, even long after the mind flayers abandoned them. They invent their own gods in their madness, in a vain effort to protect themselves from the threats they face in their dangerous home.

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Society

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Kuo-Toa revere deities of their own design. Though their gods are not real, if enough Kuo-Toa fervently believe in a deity, their subconscious minds have a strange way of combining their power and manifesting that deity as a physical entity. Among the most revered Kuo-Toa gods are Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother, a female human with a crayfish head, claws, and shell covering her shoulders.

Archpriests hold among the highest positions in kuo-toa society, being surrounded by fanatical devotees of their faith. Archpriests' devotion to their deities is so fervent that they manifest divine powers similar to a cleric. Archpriests also have the power to bestow a fraction of their mystical powers to particularly loyal underlings known as whips, who fight to the death to become the archpriest's heir when the archpriest succumbs. A disloyal whip may be stripped of its powers, if not its life.

Most other humanoid societies view the Kuo-Toa' strange ways with disdain, chief among them being the Drow, who have slain the Kuo-Toa on sight as long as the two races have known each other.

These are the societal norms that enlightened Kuo-Toa have rejected. Through whatever event, they learn their history and likely get a glimpse of their people through the lens of another race. This often turns them into lone vagabonds searching for a home. Some have theorised this intense desire to seek out altruism is another trauma-response, an inverse of the Kuo-Toa madness.

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Alignment

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Enlightened Kuo-Toa will often be Lawful or Chaotic Good due to how repulsed they are by their former way of life. To what degree varies but Enlighted Kuo-Toa seem particularly vulnerable to zealotry or extremism.

Enlightened Kuo-Toa Traits

A race of slimy fish-like humanoids, their traits reflect not just their history of marine and subterranean living but also the progress this particular type has made in surface living.

Ability Score Increase

Generations of raiding and fighting for survival have left your body hardy and dependable. Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Ability Score Decrease

Due to the negative stereotypes surrounding Kuo-Toa your Charisma score decreases by 2

Size

Kuo-Toa reach around 4-5 feet tall. Your size is medium. Average weight is 120lbs.

Age

Kua-Toa age much faster than humans, reaching maturity at 12 and seldom living over 60 years of age

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a swimming speed of 30 feet.

Amphibious

You can breathe in both air and water.

Natural Armour

Kuo-Toa possess naturally scaled hides and learn to fight freely from a young age. When unarmoured your AC is 12 + your Constitution and Dexterity modifiers.

Slippery

You have advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to escape a grapple or avoid being grappled.

Piscine Physiology

Your fish ancestry has granted you a powerful immune system. Advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, paralysed, or put to sleep.

Darkvision

You are accustomed to the darkness of the Underdark, but not as you once were. Years above surface have reduced the prowess of your eyes in the dark. 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.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Kuo-Toan (A broken mix of ceremonial Aquan and Undercommon that is spoken by your native peoples), Undercommon, and Aquan.