Homebrew CW Bennus Species Details

Closed Water Bennus

Where the Open Water Bennus drifts in harmony with the tides, its relative, the Closed Water Bennus, is a harsher and more hostile reflection. Born in places where water is scarce or cut off from its natural flow—brackish swamps, sunken caverns, or dried riverbeds—the Closed Water Bennus embodies deprivation and desperation.

Its form appears parched and rigid, as though its essence strains against the absence of sustaining waters. The fluid grace of its kin is replaced with jagged movements and a perpetual tension, its body sometimes cracked like dry earth, leaking faint traces of brine. Its eyes gleam with a sharp hunger, not of need for food, but for release, for the currents it has been denied.

This deprivation twists its temperament. Where Open Water Bennus are cautious but not unkind, the Closed Water Bennus views outsiders with suspicion and hostility. It lashes out with the fury of a drought-stricken storm, striking to drive others away from its dwindling resources. Its hostility is not mindless malice but a deep, instinctive reaction—an elemental spirit gnawed by scarcity.

Travelers who encounter a Closed Water Bennus often find it unrelenting, attacking with surges of brackish energy and seeking to drown intruders in waters pulled unnaturally from the air and earth. To parley with one is rare, for only by offering it some form of release—restoring flow, balance, or sacrifice—can its rage be calmed.

CW Bennus Traits

Darkvision 40ft

Panic Paddle

By using its fins this species can tell when danger is approaching whilst in water. This causes it to panic, doubling its swim speed from 40 to 80. 

Water Manipulation

This allows it to manipulate the water without the use of shape water cantrip. Same rules as shape water.