Homebrew Lythari Elf Species Details

Transformations

The three types of transformations for Lythari are Elf, Wolf, and Werewolf.

Lythari Elf Discription

The reclusive lythari, known among the wood elves as silver shadows, are true lycanthropes: good-aligned elves capable of changing into lupine form.

In wolf form, lythari are beautiful, with pale gray or silver fur and intelligent, blue or brown eyes. Wolf form lythari leave no impression of danger or ferocity, but rather seem friendly and companionable. An adult is the size of a small pony and might carry a man-sized ally if the need is great.

In elf form, the lythari are beautiful and otherworldly, even for elves. They dress in furs, hides, and other natural garb decorating themselves with feathers, bone jewelry, and similar objects in a fashion more ancient than the oldest wood elf tribes. Tall and pale skinned, they have light blue or green eyes and silver hair.

In wolf form, lythari communicate in the manner of wolves. In elf form, lythari speak elvish; some can speak Common, also.

In Werewolf form your stats are the same as in wolf form. (Due to no hybrid form).

Elves are a magical people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it. They live in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires glittering with faerie light, where soft music drifts through the air and gentle fragrances waft on the breeze. Elves love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world.

A nomadic clan of lythari called the Vil Adanrath also inhabits the Endless Wastes.

Slender and Graceful

With their unearthly grace and fine features, elves appear hauntingly beautiful to humans and members of many other races. They are slightly shorter than humans on average, ranging from well under 5 feet tall to just over 6 feet. They are more slender than humans, weighing only 100 to 145 pounds. Males and females are about the same height, and males are only marginally heavier than females.

Elves’ coloration encompasses the normal human range and also includes skin in shades of copper, bronze, and almost bluish-white, hair of green or blue, and eyes like pools of liquid gold or silver. Elves have no facial and little body hair. They favor elegant clothing in bright colors, and they enjoy simple yet lovely jewelry.

A Timeless Perspective

Elves can live well over 700 years, giving them a broad perspective on events that might trouble the shorter-lived races more deeply. They are more often amused than excited, and more likely to be curious than greedy. They tend to remain aloof and unfazed by petty happenstance. When pursuing a goal, however, whether adventuring on a mission or learning a new skill or art, elves can be focused and relentless. They are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. They reply to petty insults with disdain and to serious insults with vengeance.

Although elves reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encompass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

Like the branches of a young tree, elves are flexible in the face of danger. They trust in diplomacy and compromise to resolve differences before they escalate to violence. They have been known to retreat from intrusions into their woodland homes, confident that they can simply wait the invaders out. But when the need arises, elves reveal a stern martial side, demonstrating skill with sword, bow, and strategy.

 

Exploration and Adventure

Elves take up adventuring out of wanderlust. Since they are so long-lived, they can enjoy centuries of exploration and discovery. They dislike the pace of human society, which is regimented from day to day but constantly changing over decades, so they find careers that let them travel freely and set their own pace. Elves also enjoy exercising their martial prowess or gaining greater magical power, and adventuring allows them to do so. Some might join with rebels fighting against oppression, and others might become champions of moral causes.

Combat: Lythari dislike combat and prefer to flee rather than fight. If they aid in warfare at all, they serve as scouts and messengers, for physical combat is abhorrent to them. If cornered or defending their kin, they will fight with great skill. In elven form, lythari fight with normal elven weapons. In wolf form, their preferred form for fighting, lythari attack by biting.

Habitat/Society: Unlike ordinary werewolves, the lythari are a gentle, benevolent species and, although they hunt and kill in the same manner as ordinary wolves, they neither inflict wanton violence nor attack intelligent species.

The typical encounter with lythari is with a single hunter or pack. The larger tribal community might be as large as 30, with up to a dozen or so members too young to hunt. Most lythari live between worlds, not dwelling on the Prime Material plane, but living in forested places that can be reached only through special gates known only to themselves. They are a shy race, preferring to remain in the forest, far from civilization, and even from their own elven relatives. Their small bands are anarchic, communal societies, with no real leaders, and complete equality for all members.

The lythari do not produce metal objects of any sort. They build nothing more elaborate than brush shelters. Spellcasters are rare, mostly priests of woodland deities. Lythari revere Rillifane Rallathil and other wilderness Seldarine deities, but worship Oberon and Titania of the Seelie Court with the most devotion.

Lythari are inter-fertile and reproduce among themselves. They may also create new lythari from among normal elves in a special ritual of bonding that leaves a permanent scar resembling a wolf bite. Lythari status may only be conferred upon another elf if both the lythari and the elf agree to the transformation.

If lythari run with normal wolves in wolf form, they are accepted as pack members and treated with deference, while remaining outside the normal wolf pack hierarchy. Evil wolves and like creatures, such as worgs and werewolves (and most antherions, such as wolfweres) sense their difference and will try to drive them off or slay them.

 Ecology: Small, independent bands of lythari live in the forests of Evermeet and a few still may linger in Faerûn. Most lythari, however, live in magical faerielands that touch only lightly upon the Prime Material plane.

In both their elven and lupine forms, lythari are hunters, but their relatively small numbers prevent them from having any real impact on prey populations. They prefer to hunt mammals such as deer, rabbit, and wild boar. They are as rarely seen by wood elves as wood elves are by humans. Only twice in the history of Faerûn have lythari taken part in greater events.

 

 

Lythari Elf Traits

Your elf character has a variety of natural abilities, the result of thousands of years of elven refinement.

Natural Armor

 While in wolf form, you have a +1 bonus to AC, +10 movement speed, and you gains a Strength of 15 if your score isn't already higher.

Damage Reduction

Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from nonmagical weapons that aren't silvered is reduced by 1.

Darkvision

see in dark 120 but is in gray

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Shapechanger.

Shapechanger. You can use your action to polymorph into a wolf or werewolf. You can revert to your true form, that of an elf, by using a bonus action on your turn. Your statistics, other than listed below, are the same in each form. You choose whether your equipment falls to the ground in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for a wolf to wear a piece of equipment, based on its shape and size. Your equipment doesn't change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can't wear must either fall to the ground or merge with it. Equipment that merges with the new form has no effect until you leave the form. You reverts to your true form if you die.

 

Alignment

Elves love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not. The drow are an exception; their exile into the Underdark has made them vicious and dangerous. Drow are more often evil than not.

Size/Age

Elves range from under 5 to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium. In wolf form an adult is the size of a small pony and might carry a man-sized ally if the need is great. Lythari can live to be about 450 years old. 

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

lowlight vision

A Lythari can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar condition of poor illumination up to 120. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions. 

Keen Senses

While in Elf form you have proficiency in the Perception skill. While in wolf form, you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell. 

Fey Ancestry

You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Trance

Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Elvish. Elvish is fluid, with subtle intonations and intricate grammar. Elven literature is rich and varied, and their songs and poems are famous among other races. Many bards learn their language so they can add Elvish ballads to their repertoires. 

Some Lythari may also speak common, with a high enough intelligence.

You can speak and understand Canine in addition to your other languages, in either form. The Canine language, a strange combination of growls, howls, and body language, allows lythari to communicate with wolves and dogs of all forms. Lythari are born with the knowledge of this language. Any other languages you know cannot be spoken while in wolf form.