Homebrew Avisaar Species Details

 

From below, avisaar look much like their aarakocra cousins do, like a large bird. Only when they descend to roost on a branch or walk across the ground does their humanoid appearance reveal itself. Although they are light-boned, with knees that bend opposite to a humanoid's, avisaar walk upright and from a distance their shadow looks distinctly human if you ignore their long, pointed wings. Standing upright, avisaar at their tallest might reach 6 feet, and they have long, narrow legs that taper to sharp talons. They have a feathered tail that can reach up to four feet in length, depending on age. 

Feathers cover their bodies. Their plumage is visibly different for males and females. Males are brightly colored, with feathers encompassing many shades of scarlet and gold. Females have more subdued colors such as blue or grey. A northern variant of avisaar has feathers that are glossy white and black. Their heads complete the avian appearance, being something like a hawk or eagle with distinct feathered points like an owl's. 

Flight

Nowhere are the avisaar more comfortable than in the sky. They can spend hours in the air, many going as long as days, locking their wings in place and letting the wind hold them aloft. In battle, they prove dynamic and acrobatic fliers, moving with remarkable speed and grace, diving to strike opponents with weapons or talons before whipping around and flying away.

Once an avisaar experiences its first flight, it leaves the sky with reluctance. On their native plane, they can fly for days or months, landing only to lay their eggs and feed their young before launching themselves back into the air. Those that make it to the Material Plane find it a strange place. They forget or ignore vertical distances and often have a hard time remembering that their adventuring companions can't fly like they can. They pity the earthbound people forced to toil on the ground.

Mannerisms

The resemblance of avisaar to birds isn’t limited to physical features. Avisaar display many of the same mannerisms as ordinary birds. They frequently tend their feathers, cleaning and scratching away any dust or soot they might have picked up. When they reluctantly descend from the sky, they often do so near pools where they can bathe. 

Many avisaar punctuate their speech with chirps, sounds they convey meanings with much as a human might through facial expressions and gestures. They often have difficulty remembering to speak in a way that other peoples would understand. An avisaar might become frustrated with people who fail to pick up on the nuances; an avisaar's sarcasm might be taken as a compliment and vice versa.

Shiny, glittering objects catch their eyes, and as the Material Plane has many of these and the Elemental Plane of Air has barely any, they find it hard not to pluck up the treasure and bring it back to their settlement to decorate it. An avisaar can learn to squash these impulses once it has spent enough time around other races. 

Confinement terrifies the avisaar. To be grounded, trapped underground, or imprisoned by the cold, unyielding earth is a torment few avisaar can withstand. Even when perched on a high branch or at rest in their mountaintop homes, they appear alert, with eyes moving and bodies ready to take flight.

Homelands

Most avisaar live on the Elemental Plane of Air. They occasionally live with and interbreed with aarakocra. Avisaar can be drawn into the Material Plane, sometimes to pursue enemies or thwart their foe's plans there. An accident might also send a nest of avisaar tumbling into a world on that plane. A few find their way to such a world through portals on their own plane and establish nests in high mountains or in the canopies of old forests.

Once tribes of avisaar settle in an area, they share a hunting territory that extends across an area up to 400 miles on a side, with each tribe hunting in the lands nearest to their colony, ranging farther should prey become scarce.

A typical colony consists of about fifty or so nests, led by one central queen. 

AVISAAR IN THE FORGOTTEN REALMS

Never well established in the Forgotten Realms, avisaar don't usually live there. The one tribe of avisaar, in the Star Mounts, is more interbred with aarakocra than most avisaar tribes. Ever a secretive and guarded people, avisaar are only ever spotted during their flights over the High Forest, in which they live. 

Their only remaining settlement lies on the slopes of the Star Mounts’ southernmost mountains. At the headwaters of the Unicorn Run, the Last Aerie is home to several dozen avisaar. Unlike the avisaar of other worlds on the Material Plane, the avisaar of the Realms rarely travel to the Elemental Plane of Air.

Great Purpose

Avisaar enjoy peace and solitude. Most of them have little interest in dealing with other peoples and even less interest in spending time on the ground. For this reason, it takes an exceptional circumstance for an avisaar to leave his or her tribe and undertake the adventurer’s life. Neither treasure nor glory is enough to lure them from their tribes; a dire threat to their people, a mission of vengeance, or a catastrophe typically lies at the heart of the avisaar adventurer’s chosen path.

There is only one other reason that an avisaar might become an adventurer. Avisaar have a powerful tie to an artifact called the Staff of Air. Long ago used to fight an ancient enemy that is lost in the memories of most avisaar, the staff broke into nine pieces that were scattered across the realms. Retrieving these pieces is said to give the avisaar great power to fight their enemies. An avisaar might set out to rebuild the Staff of Air and bring power to their tribe. 

Avisaar Names

Most avisaar names include clicks, trills, and whistles and can only be pronounced in an obscure dialect which most other races cannot speak. Typically, a name has two to four syllables with the sounds acting as connectors. When interacting with other races, avisaar will probably use nicknames gained from people they meet or shortened forms of their full names.

An avisaar of any gender may have one of these short names: Ayra, Aiyal, Auri, Dyk, Eyrie, Hel, Ikki, Klyeck, Ooryr, Ouus, Quary, Quierk, Salyr, Urrye, or Ze. 

AARAKOCRA BACKGROUNDS

Backgrounds that are most appropriate for aarakocra include the outlander, the hermit, the soldier, and the urchin. Custom backgrounds like an exile background are also applicable. 

The small colonies of avisaar are insular and remote, and few avisaar live in their first roosts, as they tend to roam. In the Star Mounts of the High Forest in the Forgotten Realms, no more than a few dozen avisaar live away from the nests of their families. Those that do are usually rangers or fighters, constantly patrolling for outside threats.

Avisaar Traits

As an avisaar, you have traits that are familiar to all among your species: feathered skin, large wings that attach to your shoulder blades and give you a fast flying speed, sharp eyes that can spot minute details from the air, and back talons with 4-inch claws. As a result, avisaar are extremely dangerous, and you should think carefully before deciding to play one.

Beak

You may use your beak as a weapon, and your unarmed strikes deal 1d4+2 slashing damage. 

Proficiencies

You have proficiency when using longbows, shortbows, rapiers, darts, longswords, and shortswords, as well as when using one type of gaming set and when wearing light armor. 

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.

Age

Avisaar reach maturity by age 10. They are able to fly by age 3. Compared to humans, avisaar usually live about the same number of years, maybe a few years longer. 

Alignment

Most avisaar tend to be neutral and rarely choose sides when it comes to law and chaos. Queens and warriors might be lawful, while explorers and adventurers tend toward chaotic.

Size

Avisaar are usually between 5 and 6 feet tall. They have thin, lightweight bodies that weigh between 80 and 100 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Flight

You have a flying speed of 50 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor.

Talons

Your talons are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Aarakocra, Avisaar, and Auran.