Homebrew Dhampir Centaur Species Details

In the sprawling city of Ravnica, where “open road” seems like a contradiction and “open plain” is sheer nonsense, centaurs nevertheless retain a love of wide spaces and the freedom to travel. As much as they can, centaurs run — in wide plazas, spacious parks, and expanses of rubble and ruin. They race the wind, hooves thundering and tails streaming behind them, until the next wall looms in their path and brings them to a stop.

Nature’s Cavalry

Centaurs have the upper bodies, down to the waist, of muscular humans, displaying all the human variety of skin tones and features. Their ears are slightly pointed, but their faces are wider and squarer than those of elves. Below the waist, they have the bodies of small horses, with a similar range of coloration — from various shades of chestnut or bay to dappled or even zebra-like striped patterns. Most centaurs style their hair and their tails in a similar way. Selesnya centaurs favor long, flowing hair. Gruul centaurs cut their hair in rough, spiky styles.

The upper bodies of centaurs are comparable to human torsos in size, and their lower equine bodies average about 4 feet tall at the withers. Though they are smaller than a human rider mounted on a horse, they fill similar roles as cavalry warriors, messengers, outriders, and scouts.

Affinity for Nature

Centaurs have an affinity for the natural world. Among the guilds that share that affinity, centaurs favor the rubblebelts of the Gruul Clans and the wide plazas of the Selesnya Conclave over the undercity tunnels of the Golgari and the laboratories of the Simic.

Centaurs celebrate life and growth, and the birth of a foal is always cause for festivities. At the same time, they revere the traditions of the past, and among both the Gruul and the Selesnya they are voices of memory and history, preserving old ways and keeping alive the legends of ancestral heroes. They feel a close kinship with wild animals, perhaps because of their own horse-like bodies, and delight in the feeling of running alongside herds and packs of other beasts.

Dhampir Traits

• Ability Score Increase. Increase Strength score by 2 and increase Wisdom one by 1.

• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. If you are replacing your race with this lineage, you retain any languages you had and gain no new languages.

• Creature Type. You are a Fey.

• Size. You are Medium.

• Speed. Your walking speed is 40 feet.

• Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it.
  • If you don't keep any of those elements or you choose this lineage at character creation, you gain proficency in two skills of your choice.

• Darkvision. 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 discern colors in that darkness as shades of gray.

• Deathless Nature. You don't need to breathe.

• Vampiric Bite. Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite.
  • When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:
    • You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
    • You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
  • You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Dhampir Origins

Dhampirs often arise from encounters with vampires, but all manner of macabre bargains, necromantic influences, and encounters with mysterious immortals might have transformed your character. The Dhampir Origins table provides suggestions for how your character gained their lineage.

Dhampir Origins
d8	Origin
1	You are the reincarnation of an ancestor who was a vampiric tyrant.
2	Your pact with a predatory deity, fiend, fey, or spirit causes you to share their hunger.
3	You survived being attacked by a vampire but were forever changed.
4	A parasite lives inside you. You indulge its hunger.
5	Tragedy interrupted your transformation into an immortal.
6	You are a diminished form of an otherworldly being. Slaking your hunger hastens your renewal.
7	One of your parents was a vampire.
8	A radical experiment changed your body, making you reliant on others for vital fluids.

 

 

Dhampir Hungers

Every dhampir knows a thirst slaked only by the living. Those who overindulge their thirst risk losing control and forever viewing others as prey. Those who resist might find exceptional ways of controlling their urges or suppress them through constant, molar-grinding restraint. In any case, temptation haunts dhampirs, and circumstances conspire to give them endless reasons to indulge.

While many dhampirs thirst for blood, your character might otherwise gain sustenance from the living. Roll on or choose an option from the Dhampir Hungers table to determine what tempts your character to feed.

Dhampir Hungers
d6	Hunger
1	Blood
2	Flesh or raw meat
3	Cerebral spinal fluid
4	Psychic energy
5	Dreams
6	Life energy

 

Dhampir Centaur Traits

Your centaur character has the following racial traits. These traits are also suitable for the centaurs of other worlds where there are centaurs of fey origin. These centaurs are smaller than the non-fey centaurs that roam in some realms.

Darkvision

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 discern colors in that darkness as shades of gray.

Vampiric Bite

Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite.

• When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:
  • You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
  • You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
• You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Ability Score Increase

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

Age

Centaurs mature and age at about the same rate as humans. As a Dhampir you can live for centuries though.

Alignment

Centaurs are inclined toward neutrality. Those who join the Selesnya are more often neutral good, while those who join the Gruul are typically chaotic neutral.

Size

Centaurs stand between 6 and 7 feet tall, with their equine bodies reaching about 4 feet at the withers. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 40 feet.

Fey

Your creature type is fey, rather than humanoid.

Charge

If you move at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hit it with a melee weapon attack on the same turn, you can immediately follow that attack with a bonus action, making one attack against the target with your hooves.

Hooves

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

Equine Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push or drag.

In addition, any climb that requires hands and feet is especially difficult for you because of your equine legs. When you make such a climb, each foot of movement costs you 4 extra feet, instead of the normal 1 extra foot.

Survivor

You have proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, or Survival.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan. Sylvan is widely spoken in the Selesnya Conclave, for it is rich in vocabulary to describe natural phenomena and spiritual forces.