Homebrew Aetherborn Species Details

Aetherborn Race Details

"If you have just a few years to live your entire life, what would you do with it?" This is a dilemma every Aetherborn must face from the moment they are born. Given just a few short years to live, each Aetherborn views time as exceedingly precious. As a result, Aetherborn tend to live each moment to its fullest; some find meaning in striving to have excessive wealth or power, others just want to explore the world and see everything it has to offer.

The Aetherborn of Kaladesh come into being spontaneously as part of the plane's Aether refinement process. Their bodies and minds are apparently formed out of some interaction between the volatile elements of Aether that are removed during refinement and the psychic impressions created by the people involved in the process. But each Aetherborn is a unique individual, not a mere copy of some other person’s mind and shape. This race is little understood, and few Aetherborn are willing to waste any of their short lives allowing the plane's Vedalken scholars to study their biological and psychological characteristics.

With that said, Aetherborn could be applied to any campaign setting, given there's a location in the world with an influx of magical energy. Aetherborn are a race from Magic the Gathering, which uses the Aether as the means to cast spells and perform magical effects, while D&D uses the Weave. Many consider the Weave and the Aether to be very similar and maybe even the same thing. Maybe Weaveborn might be a more fitting name for some, but the concept for the race is universal. 

Living and Gender

Aetherborn are a strange living by-product of the process of Aether refinement, cast in humanoid form but lacking any of the biological qualities of other races. They don’t eat or sleep, and they don’t reproduce—nor do they have any physical sexual characteristics. Language that categorizes people into male or female categories thus breaks down when it comes to Aetherborn. Most Aetherborn prefer that others use the pronoun “they” to refer to them, since it doesn’t attribute a gender that they don’t possess. Only a relative few prefer “he” or “she,” having chosen to adopt a gender.

Aetherborn Tendencies

Due to the short amount of time Aetherborn have to live, they tend to find themselves pressured into finding meaning in life almost immediately. Some seek to explore the world or invent something great to help the future; but since the Aetherborn don't sleep, many find themselves in the world of crime to pursuing fortune and power. Either way most seek to, one way or another, build themselves a legacy. One that will endure longer than any life they could live.

Aetherborn Traits

Innate Prowess You gain proficiency in a skill of your choice. Darkvision Accustomed to life at night, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Live Fast

 

• You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
• You are immune to disease.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or sleep.

Die Young

From the moment you enter into the world, you begin to fade away and die. Through your entire life a smokey dust exfoliates from your skin, a constant reminder of your body withering away. As you age older, your body dissipates at a faster rate until you finally disintegrate away in a cloud of smokey dust.

After being about a year old, your body gives off so much smoke that it begins to have a negative effect on your ability to hide and be stealthy. You have disadvantage on Stealth ability checks that rely on sight.

After being about one and a half to two years old, you start to feel the effects of your body withering away. At the end of each week, you must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC 12. On a failed save, your Constitution score is reduced by 1d2 permanently.

Gifted Aetherborn

When you reach 15th level, you have unlocked a way to sustain your own existence and potentially live forever, something Aetherborn could only hope for in their wildest dreams, but it comes at the cost of another.

As an action, you may touch a willing or unwilling creature to attempt to extract some of its essence to sustain yourself. If the target is unwilling, they must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC 12 and if they are unconscious, they make the saving throw with disadvantage. On a failed save, the target's Constitution score is reduced by 1d2 permanently and you are unaffected by your Die Young racial trait for the next week (the Constitution already lost from the Die Young racial trait does not return).

Born of Aether

You have resistance to necrotic damage