Homebrew Beholderfolk Species Details

"I stumbled on a colony of them once when I was lost in the old Ironstamp mines. My first instinct was to get out of there, and I can hardly say I can be blamed. But while I was assessing the likelihood of my survival if I were to ask them for directions, I found myself mighty impressed with how well they'd done for themselves. It's a wonder they don't collapse under the weight of those big brains of theirs."

-Thrin Ironstamp, My Experiences Under Rurik Mountain

Alien Humanoids

A subterranean race found in rare, isolated colonies deep in the Underdark, beholder folk are a bizarre and reclusive people who retain many traits from their beholder ancestors. They are humanoid, but they have large, bulbous heads resembling beholders in themselves, with one giant central eye, a large mouth, and no nose. Their skin can be virtually any texture or color and they have no hair. Instead, they have ten eyestalks, much as beholders do. Their bodies may have a few tiny tentacles on them that can be easily hidden with clothes. 

Seekers of Power

 They are fascinated by arcane knowledge and are constantly striving to be as powerful and intelligent as possible. They are usually arrogant and often see themselves as superior to other races, but some beholderfolk break that mold and decide to live above ground in order to better their understanding of the world and seek out new experiences. However, when encountered in their colonies, they are usually very fearful and xenophobic, partially due to their similarities to beholders. Another contributor to this is the fact that most adventurers who find a colony of beholderfolk see it as evil and either run from it or try to weaken or destroy it, even though beholderfolk are not inherently evil. 

Unseen Virtue

Beholderfolk are a truly exotic race, almost never seen by surface dwellers, and when they are, their resemblance to beholders and general grotesque appearance often elicits discrimination. However, on the rare occasion that a beholderfolk is welcomed into an adventuring party, that party gains an indispensable and versatile ally. 

Beholderfolk Names

Beholderfolk primarily use similar names to beholders or mind flayers.

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Note: This race was heavily inspired by a homebrew monster created by @XenWithAPen. I thought the idea was really cool and I wanted to make it into a playable race. I took away some of the more overpowered actions and replaced them with ones from other beholders in the game.

Beholderfolk Traits

Your beholderfolk character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Intelligence score increases by 2 and your Charisma score decreases by 1.

Age

Beholderfolk reach physical "maturity" at around age 50 and they can live up to 300 years.

Alignment

Most beholderfolk are neutral. They are almost never evil, but their slight xenophobia pushes them toward only serving those they know to be allies or friends.

Size

Beholderfolk are about as tall as humans, averaging at 5'6''. Their heads make up a relatively large portion of this height, being about 18 inches in diameter.

Eye Ray

Beholderfolk, like their beholder ancestors, can shoot rays at their enemies from their large central eye. Twice per long rest, you can take an action to target one creature you can see and shoot a damaging ray at it from your central eye. This creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw with DC equal to 10 + your proficiency bonus. On a failure, it suffers one of the following effects(as chosen by the player):

Be blinded for the duration of its next 2 turns. (This increases to 5 turns at level 11.)

Be frightened for the duration of its next 2 turns. (This increases to 5 turns at level 11.)

Move up to 15 feet in a direction randomly determined with a d4. (This increases to 30 feet at level 12.)

Take 1d10 force damage. (This increases to 2d10 at level 7 and 3d10 at level 15.)

Constant Lookout

Your many eyes can see almost anyone approaching you, which makes you very hard to surprise. You increase your Passive Perception score by 2.

Languages

You can speak Common and Deep Speech.