Homebrew Aphorite Species Details

“I am ashamed to say that I came into my first encounter with an aphorite with no small amount of prejudice. I’ve always struggled to find common ground with the perfectionist, order-obsessed constructs of Mechanus, so I falsely believed they’d act the same way. In reality, they acted no different than any other mortal—minus the metallic skin, of course.”

— Thena Kharaxis of House Terstell, Planar Scholar.

Whether by cosmic chance or perfect calculation, rarely, a child born of any race may find themselves permeated by the orderly energies of the realm known as Mechanus. Such children would not appear noticeably different from any other child of its race, were it not for the metallic sheen to their skin and an innate aptitude for logic.

The first aphorites were created to serve as liaisons between the realm of law and frustratingly unpredictable mortal allies. Combining the lawful and logical thought processes of Mechanus with the gift of self-determination, early aphorites spread across the Material Plane as proxies of Primus’ will. Over time however, their tether to Primus has weakened, allowing contemporary aphorites to stand as their own masters.

Creating Your Character

At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score 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 can follow those suggestions or ignore them, but you can’t raise any of your scores above 20.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including each 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 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 cure wounds spell doesn’t work on a Construct or an Undead.

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. If typical members of a race can live longer than a century, that fact is mentioned in the race’s description.

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.

Aphorite Traits

Your aphorite character has the following traits:

Size

Your size is Small or Medium.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Metallic Skin

Your skin is made from metal. When you aren’t wearing armor, your base AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your metallic skin to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your metallic skin.

Scion of Order

You have advantage on saving throws made to avoid or end the charmed condition, and against effects and spells that would alter your form.

Logical Mind

You gain proficiency in the Wisdom (Insight) and Intelligence (Investigation) skills. You also gain proficiency with one set of artisan's tools of your choice.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common, as well as two other languages that you and your DM agree are appropriate for the character.