Homebrew "Alien Ant" Xyz'kan (by Baskerevil) Species Details

Background

Xyz'kan originated in a world which is no more. It was a planet ruled by three powerful elementals who were slowly amassing power, creating various deals with forlorn realms, and threatening the cosmic balance, so a group of gods split the planet apart and scattered it throughout the Astral Sea. Some of these fragments ended up landing into other worlds, some are still floating through the endless silvery void.
On scattered shards of their former planet, Xyz'kan were quietly sleeping and awaiting their revival. Their race had to evolve under constant struggle and threat of extinction, so even if one of them survives - their kind can still remain alive. 

 

Biology

Xyz'kans are adapted to survive under constant stress and threat. Their natural camouflage and tendency to run away once injured played a huge role in their survival on a planet ravaged by elemental overlords who kept battling each other and reshaping the surface of their world every few weeks.
Most remarkable traits of Xyz'kans are: light bending natural armor, potent genes, and ability to quickly adapt to a great range of environmental factors.
Xyz'kan has natural armor of hardened skin infused with material similar to human's fingernails, however, it also has a peculiar ability to refract and bend light hitting Xyz'kan's body. This causes them to become hard to perceive and allows them to naturally blend with any environment. In fact, they are so good at hiding that most times any Xyz'kan's nest has an unknown amount of inhabitants, because nobody can really count how many individuals are there. A sole Xyz'kan can become "lost" for days, months or years while still living several meters away from those who lost them. Therefore, typically, whenever a Xyz'kan wants to be noticed, they release a low pitch hum to alert each other about their presence. Though, the most interesting part of this camouflage ability isn't how it affects their way of life, but that it is completely biological and doesn't involve any use of magic. Even when a Xyz'kan is killed, their skin still retains the ability to bend light for several weeks, and with proper preservation this quality could be preserved for up to a year.
When it comes to reproduction, Xyz'kans could even surpass orcs. They can reproduce with almost any other biological species they could encounter, and any "hybrid" retains almost 100% of Xyz'kan's genes. Even after many generations of blood-mixing, the descendants would still be mostly the same as the original Xyz'kans. Though, when the other parent is much better adapted to their current environment, then there is a chance that the offspring will inherit less Xyz'kan's genes. The same also applies when the other parents are much more powerful, like a dragon. The whore Xyz'kan's reproduction process is very bizarre and has a selection bias towards environmental adaptation, inherent powers and Xyz'kan's genes.
Even if Xyz'kans do not mix with other races, they still have the ability to change their biology extremely rapidly. In less than 10 generations they can adapt to most environmental factors. For example, if they would end up in a mostly frozen world, then with each generation they would become more hairy, with greater internal body heat and better ability to regulate it. After 10 generations of living on such a planet - they would be almost completely covered with light-bending fur. 

 

Culture, History and Everything else

Xyz'kan evolved out of insects in a planet dominated by powerful elemental overlords. Their way of life circles around living unnoticed, avoiding danger, and always being prepared to move out from their current nest and build a new one. Even though they lived like nomads for hundreds of thousands of years, Xyz'kans still managed to develop a culture of sorts. Their culture is based on cooperation, free trade and respect towards each other, and they do not have any central figures of authority in their nests. Technically, each individual Xyz'kan lives their own life in conditional isolation and a voluntary society, where anyone is free to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't affect others. They freely form groups based around performing certain tasks and upon completion of those tasks they disband, maybe from other groups. Outside of scavenging for food, they spend a lot of time pursuing arts and philosophy, though, in their home world most of their art pieces were constantly being destroyed by rampaging elementals.
Xyz'kan scholars trace their history for about 8600 years before their world got sundered. Time in the Astral Sea flows differently, so separated colonies have no idea how long other colonies have lasted in different worlds, not that they would know how to contact each other. Xyz'kan by themselves do not possess any talent towards magic and typically do not pursue greater science than to construct themselves tools for survival, so any individual Xyz'kan with any of such talents would most likely have ancestors of some other species. And with that being in mind, Xyz'kans themselves do not care about blood-mixing with other species. They do not view their own species as special, unique or "pure". Their genetic drive to survive is not based on simply maintaining numbers. It has some other reason, a greater purpose, as if Xyz'kans themselves were created by someone with a specific goal in mind.
Right now there could be various strains/variants of this race throughout the cosmos. Some could be tens of thousands of years old, others could be emerging just now with a history of less than a thousand years. Some of them may have turned into malevolent monsters, while others may have devolved into smaller and more primitive forms...

 

"Alien Ant" Xyz'kan (by Baskerevil) Traits

As a Xyz'kan, you have these special traits.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and a different one by 1, or increase three scores by 1. None of these increases can raise a score above 20.

 

Age

Typical life expectancy of members of your race is between 400 and 500 years.
Members of your race do not grow weaker with age. You remain in your best physical and mental condition till the end of your life.

 

Creature type

You are a Beast creature. Moreover, you are also considered a humanoid for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be a humanoid type creature.

 

Languages

You can read, write, and understand common and primordial.

 

Extra Limbs

You have four strong arms. Due to this, you:

• Can wield up to 4 items, however, you cannot wield two heavy weapons and you cannot engage in two-weapon fighting while wielding a heavy weapon;
• Can crawl on walls and ceiling using only two of your arms and both of your legs. Your climbing speed is equal to your walking spee;
• Can attempt to Grapple as a bonus action as long as two or more of your arms are free.

 

Natural Camouflage

Your body is shielded with light bending insectoid armor. When you aren't wearing armor, your base AC is (13 + Dexterity modifier). You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Moreover, you are always hard to perceive and you are passive stealthy. You have passive Stealth of 14. Whenever you make a Stealth Check and result is below your passive Stealth, then you can use your passive Stealth instead of the result of the roll.

 

Cowards Survive

When you Disengage on your turn, you also get your movement speed increased by 10 feet until end of your turn.
While at or below half of your maximum hit points, you can take Disengage action as a bonus action.