Homebrew Chwinga Species Details

A chwinga is a tiny elemental spirit that lives in plants, rocks, and rivers far from civilization. Those found in cold climates also live in ice and snow. Painfully shy, chwingas prefer to move about unseen.

Chwingas resemble 6-inch-tall animated dolls with mask-like faces, spindly limbs, and wild hair. Their appearance is sometimes foreshadowed by gentle breezes, the sweet smell of flowers, dancing fireflies, or snowflakes. They don’t have names and cannot speak.

Humanoid Fascination. Chwingas find the trappings of civilization fascinating. They puzzle over creatures that wear armor, carry weapons, use tools, and cook food. When a chwinga encounters one or more humanoids, its curiosity sometimes gets the better of it, and it follows them for a short time to observe them. If it takes a liking to a humanoid, a chwinga might use its cantrips to aid the creature, or it might bestow a magical gift before departing. The aspect that attracts a chwinga to a humanoid can take any form. In some cases, a chwinga might simply like the way a humanoid walks or the way it combs its hair. Other times, it might be smitten by a humanoid’s ability to play music or to eat copious amounts of food.

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.

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 Players Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.

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 in this chapter 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. Fairies and harengons, however, have a life span of about a century.

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 Players Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.

Chwinga Traits

As a Chwinga, you have the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are an Elemental.

Size

You are Small.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Unusual Nature

The chwinga doesn’t require air, food, or drink. When it dies, it turns into a handful of flower petals, a cloud of pollen, a stone statuette resembling its former self, a tiny sphere of smooth stone, or a puddle of fresh water (your choice).

Blindsight

You have blindsight out to a range of 60 ft.

Magical Gift

As an action the Chwinga targets a humanoid it can see within 5 feet of it. The target gains a supernatural charm. This can be used once per day and recharges at dawn.

Only 1 charm can be active at a time. 

As a native spirit of Icewind Dale, you are able to bestow the following charms:

Charm of Biting Cold. This charm has 3 charges. As a bonus action, you can expend 1 of the charm’s charges to wreathe your weapon attacks with biting cold for 1 minute. Until this effect ends, you deal an extra 1d6 cold damage when you hit with a melee or ranged weapon attack. Once all its charges have been expended, this charm vanishes from you.

Charm of Bounty. This charm has 3 charges. As an action, you can expend 1 of the charm’s charges to cast the create food and water spell, requiring no components. Once all its charges have been expended, this charm vanishes from you.

Charm of Cold Resistance. This charm allows you to give yourself resistance to cold damage as an action. This benefit lasts for 24 hours, after which the charm vanishes from you.

Charm of Snowball Strike. This charm has 5 charges. As a bonus action, you can expend 1 of the charm’s charges to create a magical snowball in your hand and throw it. You must have a hand free to hold the snowball, or the charge is wasted. The snowball is a magic ranged weapon with which you are proficient. It has a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet, it deals 1d4 cold damage on a hit, and it scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. If you score a critical hit with the snowball, the target is blinded until the end of its next turn. The snowball vanishes immediately after you hit or miss with it, or at the end of your turn if you don’t throw it. Once all its charges have been expended, this charm vanishes from you.

Charm of the Ice Troll. This charm allows you to use your reaction when you take cold damage to reduce the damage to 0. You regain a number of hit points equal to half the cold damage you would have taken. Once you do so, the charm vanishes from you.

Charm of the Traveler’s Haven. This charm has 3 charges. As an action, you can expend 1 of the charm’s charges to cast the Leomund’s tiny hut spell, no components required. Once all its charges have been expended, this charm vanishes from you.