Homebrew Starlight Apparition Species Details
The transparent projections of unfortunate souls who perished in Wildspace or in the Astral Sea are known as starlight apparitions. Each one has a luminous, incorporeal appearance that resembles its former self, but with eyes that glow.
A starlight apparition is different from a ghost.
While a ghost is doomed to haunt the place where it died until some promise or goal it couldn't achieve in life is fulfilled, the goal of a starlight apparition is to help someone else avoid or overcome a perilous obstacle or accomplish a difficult task. A starlight apparition comes into being when the soul of a deceased individual, from its resting place in the af-terlife, projects a spectral copy of itself across a vast distance with the help of a deity or another powerful celestial entity. The apparition lasts only as long as its services are needed to complete the task at hand; then it fades away, never to return.
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.
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 Player’s 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 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.
Starlight Apparition Traits
All Starlight Apparitions share the following traitsCreature Type
You are a Celestial. You are also considered the race you were in your past life for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be that race.
Size
You are Small or Medium (your choice).
Incorporeal Movement.
Your walking speed is 0ft, your fly speed is 30ft.
You can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. If you end your turn inside an object you take 5 (1d10) force damage.
Unusual Nature.
You don't require air, drink, food, or sleep, and are immune to poison.
While you have at least 1 hit point, you shed a bright light in a 20-foot radius and a dim light for an additional 20 feet
You can exist only on the Astral Plane. If you're sent to a location not on the Astral Plane, you can last a number of minutes equal to 1 + your constitution modifier before taking 5d10 force damage damage per every minute spent outside the Astral Plane.
Darkvision
You can see in dim light within 60 ft. of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light, only discerning colors in that darkness as shades of gray.
Astral Ability
At 3rd level choose between Radiant Eruption or Possession as your ability.
Radiant Eruption
You can make a Melee or Ranged Spell Attack on one target. On it a hit it deals 4d6 radiant damage, if the target is a creature, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be blinded for 1 minute. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per short rest.
Possession
Pick a Humanoid that you can see within 5 feet of yourself, it must succeed on a Charisma Saving throw equal to 10 + your Charisma saving throw, or become possessed. A possessed creature keeps their awareness but looses control of their body, while you are possessing a body you can't be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect.
A possessed creature stays possessed for up to an hour, until the body drops to 0 hit points, you end it as a bonus action, the body leaves the Astral Plane, or you are forced out by an effect like the dispel evil and good spell. When the possession ends, you reappear in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the body. The target is immune to this apparition's Possession for 24 hours after succeeding on the saving throw or after the possession ends. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest
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