Homebrew Awakened Canine Species Details

Not so long ago, your life was much simpler. All you had to do was focus on catching enough food to feed your pack, and you enjoyed it. It was all you had known and all you had needed to know.

Good things never last, though, as one day your whole world exploded as your mind expanded tenfold. You became aware of so many things you had never noticed before, colors you had never seen, sounds you had never noticed, emotions you had never felt. It was terrifying, and it was all the fault of this strange creature before you. You can decide how your character was awakened, be it a mage of some sort, a fey or demonic creature, or perhaps even celestial. You might also not know how you were awakened, and use that as a plot hook for your DM to take advantage of.

Your primal need to be with your pack lessened, and for whatever reason you chose to leave. You began exploring, and you found all kinds of amazing discoveries. You quickly realized you could understand what those tall hairless monkeys were saying, and discovered they could understand you as well. You spoke to them, mingled with their society, and perhaps even befriended some of them. You learned about the world and you learned about society, laws, and all the strange things you've seen these "humanoids" do started to make sense. Perhaps you started to feel like one of them, forgetting your animalistic roots and trying to become something like a human yourself, or perhaps you learned about them and didn't like what you found out, and tried to find some way back to normalcy, or maybe you never learned about them at all and avoid society, remaining a strange myth for some nearby city or town to talk about and exaggerate.

Awakened Canine Traits

As an awakened Canine, you gain the following traits. You will also choose a subspecies.

Size

Canines come in various sizes, perhaps you're a big ol' wolf or dire wolf, or a nasty coyote or hyena, or perhaps your a little fox or a domesticated dog of some sort.

Language

When you were awakened, you were given the gift of language. The being that awakened you gave you one language for free, one that they know themselves.

You should probably choose Common, unless you have coordinated with a player or your DM to have some way of translating, but you do you.

Speed

Quadrupeds are just inherently faster than bipeds, is simple physics. Your walking speed is 35 feet.

Ability Score Increase

You increase three ability scores by 1 each, or one score by 2 and one score by 1.

Ergonomics Issues

You don't have hands unfortunately, but you've gotten quite good at holding things in your mouth and using them effectively. There are some issues though, you can't use weapons with the two-handed property or the heavy property.

Keen Senses

You evolved to have excellent hearing and smell to hunt and catch your prey. You have advantage on all Wisdom(Perception) checks that rely on Hearing and Smell.