Homebrew Bat [Beast World] Species Details

Bats are anomalies, outsiders, and asterisks in the cosmic ledger. They come from the Astral Sea, previously understood to be little more than space between worlds. In its blue expanse, they weave matter from thin air and flit about their own world without a care. In the Astral, they enjoy a life of infinite space and limitless resources. What will they do, now that they’ve found the Beast World? Most bats stand between 4’7” and 5’7” tall.

New Discovery, Unsolved Mystery

One year ago next month—practically the other day—bats beat the odds of finding another species. Before that, no record of meeting them existed in any world. Their discovery raised a thousand questions about the nature of the universe. First, beasts thought they were the only willful species other than dragons. Then the humans arrived, then the kobolds began to wake themselves up.

But bats are another thing altogether. There are no quiet-minded bats in the Astral, so how did they come to be? They don’t know about Pirhoua or other Beast World gods, nor do they have any of their own. They are a gap in the model of existence held true by dragons, jackals, and every other esteemed scholar. The fervor to understand
their nature is overflowing from every academic institution.

Unfortunately, the bats just can’t seem to sit still to be examined.

Astralborn

Bats are the only known willful species who call the Astral Sea their home (for more information on the Astral Sea, see page 188). Its unlimited space is teeming with their free-floating towns, yet their relatively tiny footprint on the place hid them from the Beast World until now. They have their own society separate from the Beast World, the Broken World, the Ancestral Homeland, or any other.

In the Astral, bats are natural masters of astralcraft. By exerting one’s will on the murky astra that drifts all around the Astral Sea, one can shape any tangible objects they can imagine. Everything tangible there is either brought in from elsewhere or made of astra. Bats are born surrounded by it and live among it. Astra sustains a bat (though they can also digest Beast World food, with a few days of initial bellyaches). For a bat, willing an object into existence is second nature.

Bat Towns

Bat homes are clustered together in a loose arrangement of bizarre astralcraft constructions. Their homes serve more as ongoing art installations; the Astral Sea has no weather to protect oneself from. Bats build sprawling mansions, gigantic representations of tiny objects, and anything else they can dream of. They spend their lives inventing new ways to stretch and shape their own world.

Many of the homes and other constructs created by bats are reminiscent of objects and places in the Beast World. Just as shadows of the Astral Sea drift through parts of the Beast World, the bats caught glimpses of places in other worlds as well. Until last year, these were thought to illusions—images and shapes conjured by nature. Bats called them “color storms.” Now a bat can walk among every color storm they’ve ever seen.

Art for Art’s Sake

Self-expression is the beginning and end of bat culture. Almost everything they do is out of immediate curiosity and fleeting impulse. Bats are often swept up by a sudden artistic inspiration, which consumes them until they can see it realized from their own minds. In the Astral, one’s paintbrush or block of marble is always on-hand. Bats living in the Beast World are often frustrated by the scarcity of stuff.

The Cheiropocket

Bats keep part of the Astral with them when they travel to the Beast World. Every bat has an extraplanar space called a cheiropocket within their body. Its existence was unknown to them before arriving in a world other than the Astral, and it’s part of why bats are eager to visit the Beast World often.

The cheiropocket sits in the inside of a bat’s wings, summoned with a thought. When the portal is open, their wings glow with the same eerie, blue light as their home. Both wings are a gate to a bat’s personal, self-contained portion of the Astral Sea.

No Such Thing as History

Bat culture has no notion of the ideas of history, legacy, or memory beyond one’s own lifetime. Bats know and love their own families, they make friends, and they create art for those around them. They learn everything they need from the lessons of their parents and peers. Everything beyond these things is irrelevant.

Bat towns have floated in the infinite blue of the Astral Sea for as long as any of them can remember. Their lack of historical record makes it impossible to determine anything about their origins or creation. Even their general number is unknown; scholars guess that there are over a million bats in the Astral, but there’s no way to know for sure. Bats are unbothered by this ignorance of the past. They value firsthand experience more than any secondhand account. Needless to say, this has vexed curious scholars and arcanists since their appearance in the Beast World.

Bats in the Beast World

As a species from a place without solid ground or gravity, bats are eager to explore the alien Beast World for new inspiration and friends. Their place in the larger machinations of the world has yet to be determined, but their scarce number makes them popular most everywhere they go.

As of now, only a few bats have attempted to settle permanently on the material plane. Most travel back and forth between the Astral Sea and the Beast World by their own magical means or through a facet of The Junction, a teleportation hub located in the Allemagnian city of Patrie. The first bat delvers have joined crews only in the last three months, eager to see what’s within the Dungeon that has everyone so fascinated.

Bat [Beast World] Traits

Racial Traits

Ability Score Increase

Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.

Cheiropocket

Every bat carries a connection to the Astral Sea while in another world. This cheiropocket is an extraplanar space accessible through the inner membrane of their wings. As a bonus action, you can touch the inside of your wing to open your cheiropocket or close it again. While it’s open, your wings emanate the glow of the Astral Sea, and you can stow or retrieve an
item as an action.

Your cheiropocket can hold cubic feet of nonliving material up to 12 x your Intelligence modifier (minimum 12 cubic feet). If you attempt to stow living material, or an item that’s too large, it passes through your wing and falls to the ground behind you. You take any damage that the pocket’s contents deal to its interior. If you fall to 0 hit points or die, the pocket’s contents spill forth, unharmed.

The space of your cheiropocket cannot exist in the Astral Sea when your body is also present there. Traveling to the Astral collapses your cheiropocket and leaves its contents behind in your space the moment you cross over.

Wings

While a bat’s wings don’t allow for flight outside of the Astral Sea, they can still make an otherwise deadly descent into a breezy float downward. While your arms are free and you are not wearing heavy armor, you can extend your wings to fall at a speed of 30 feet per round. For every foot you descend, you can also move a foot horizontally (this costs movement as normal).

While in the Astral Sea, bats have a flying speed of 40 feet regardless of armor worn, and can hover.

Astral Echoes

A bat’s voice resonates on two worlds at once, and they can speak in Astral tones to listen for what echoes back. As a bonus action, you can emit a sound that’s silent in the Beast World, but a loud shriek in the Astral Sea. Anything in the part of the Astral Sea that crosses within 120 feet of you (such as a creature using the etherealness spell) becomes visible to you until the end of your next turn. While in the Astral Sea, this ability gives you blindsense out to a range of 120 feet instead. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Practiced Astralcrafter (Astral Sea Only)

The pale blue astra that fills every corner of the Astral Sea is the indefinite stuff that holds every thing in every world. All willful creatures have some rudimentary power to manipulate astra, but bats raised in its light are the true masters of the craft. You can add your proficiency bonus to Intelligence checks to perform astralcrafting. Additionally, you know the Charles’ chunk* cantrip. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for this spell.