Homebrew Dasypian Species Details

Dasypians are armadillo-like humanoid creatures. Found in warm grasslands and forests, the nocturnal race builds complex underground communities. Their close family bonds bring them comfort, as these armadillo folk are quite shy and nervous. Most Dasypians spend their whole lives in one place as they develop strong connections to their environment and the community that surrounds them. There are no records or proven theories for how this race came to be.

Dasypians have short legs and a stocky compact build. The curve of their shell gives a natural hunched appearance, and shells have between 3 and 6 bands.  When threatened, Dasypians have the unique ability to curl around themselves into an armored ball. There are rare instances where a child will be born with 9 bands. These children lose the ability to curve into a ball, and instead must lay flat to take advantage of their natural armor. While small, the natural armor and thick claws that this race possesses makes them formidable when threatened.

Dasypians are most commonly found in rusty browns to blend in with their environment, with albinism being exceptionally rare.

Creating Your Character

At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your characters ability scores, increase Constitution by 1, and then increase one other skill by 2 or two scores by 1.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including each player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race tells you what your character’s creature type is.

Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the cure wounds spell doesn’t work on a Construct or an Undead.

Life Span

Most Dasypians live for around 40 years, but some have been know to live longer.

Height and Weight

 There is a wide variety of heights and weights among Dasypians. Some are slight, reaching only 3 feet off the ground and weighting 50-60 lbs. Others can be nearly 5 feet weighing from 90-110 lbs

Dasypian Traits

As a Dasypian, you have these special traits.

Claws

You have claws that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with them, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier slashing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.