Homebrew Batfolk Species Details

Distant kin of a rare species of intelligent giant bat from the a realm of Shadow, Batfolk have arms and legs like other Humanoids, as well as wings that extend from their back and shoulders.

Like bats, batfolk are graced with an echolocation ability to see with their ears and a use of their voice that is inaudible to most other creatures, granting them a limited form of Blindsight.  They are also capable climbers, able to cling to cliffsides with minimal handholds.

Your batfolk character might be nocturnal, if they do not live in the Underdark. 

Creating Your Character

If you create an batfolk character, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one of those scores by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy.

The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You’re free to follow those suggestions or to ignore them. Whichever scores you decide to increase, none of the scores can be raised above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Undercommon and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of widespread languages to choose from. The DM is free to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters, including batfolk, are of the Humanoid type. Creature types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the text of the cure wounds spell specifies that the spell doesn’t work on a creature that has the Construct type.

Life Span

The typical life span of a player character in D&D is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure.

Height and Weight

Player characters, including batfolk, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.  Batfolk tend to be light relative to their height compared to nonwinged humanoids, due to their lower bone density.

Batfolk Traits

You have the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Echolocation

You have limited Blindsight within 120 ft. of yourself through the use of a vocal tone outside the range of most species' hearing and echolocation like a bat.  You can not discern color with this sense, only shapes and distances.

Flight

Thanks to your wings, you have a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You can’t use this flying speed if you’re wearing medium or heavy armor.

Cavern Crawler

You have a Climb Speed of 20 ft. and you can cling to unworked stone ceilings by your feet if your feet are bare.