Homebrew Dullahan Species Details

Reaper of Soul

A dullahan's sole purpose in this realm is cleanse it of lost and restless souls. This prompts many of them to wander, looking for the undead and those that create them. Once they reach adulthood, they rarely wander back to their home village, only visiting it once every few years until they are ready to retire there permanently, be it from infirmity or age.  

Being a reaper of souls, most other creatures fear the site of dullahan. Due to this, a dullahan is typically alone when away from their village except for their faithful smoke steed.  This makes them very hesitant to make connections, but they are steadfast with the connections that they do form. Dullahan are known to occasionally form connections with other ostracized and fearless creatures, such as tieflings, fey, and halflings.

Lifespan of the Departed

Cleansing the realm of lost and restless souls also provides dullahans a form of longevity. While they have been known to help many souls to seek peace, they also will consume souls that are too far gone from sanity, or those that would spoil the lifestream, and if such a corrupt soul is still living, especially if it is enslaving other souls, a dullahan will pursue its death through whatever means it can. 

When a dullahan consumes a soul, it gains some of the essence of this soul, providing the dullahan both health and longevity, but as they age they tend to wander less and eventually settle in a village of other Dullahan. Dullahan villages find the older generation, typically over a century, raising and educating the young.  Dullahan elders are typically revered as founts of wisdom, and many younger dullahan will show respect to any creature that has live a long life.

The Head rules the Heart

While a dullahan may appear as a fearful visage, they are generally well reasoned and will not attack without provocation. The one exception to this rule is if one's head is stolen. Without their head, a dullahan enters a rage-like state, where it loses all reason and will pursue its head to the end of the earth. Once it regains possession of its head, if they have been separated for more than a day, the dullahan must undergo a short rest to restore itself to normal. 

Dullahan Names

Dullahan take on the naming conventions of whatever culture they are around, which are typically human names, although villages have been found that have naming conventions of dwarves and giants.

Male Names: Anghus, Baern, Cedric, Douglas...

Female Names: Arela, Brigid, Celty, Deirdre...

Dullahan Appearance

A Dullahan's body looks like a large human that is missing their head. Males are generally muscular, while females are more lithe. Both males and females tent to be very tall, with heights ranging from 5 foot 5 inches to 6 foot 7 inches not counting their heads. A dullahan will never let their head out of reach. While on their shadow steed, a dullahan's head is typically mounted in a special place on their saddle, but when off their mount, the head will typically be carried, either in a mesh sack or by it's hair. For this reason many dullahan, both male and female keep their hair long, just in case something happens to the mesh sack. They will typically have their hair in a braid that can be looped into a handle or onto a belt. 

A dullahan's skin tone is generally extremely pale, almost to the point of albinoism. Their eyes and hair come in as many colors as that of a human. While they keep their hair long, they are unable to grow any facial hair, including eyebrows and lashes. This gives them a slightly ghastly appearance. When they breath and speak, their mouth lets out streams of a fog-like smoke. This leads many dullahan to speak little outside of company that they are familiar with. This same fog-like smoke is also exuded from the top of their necks.  

Dullahan Traits

Being of fey ancestry, dullahan have a variety of inborn traits .

Ability Score Increase

Due to being raised by clan elders, your Wisdom score increases by 2 and your Strength score increases by 1.

Age

Dullahans mature at the same rate as humans, but live far longer. They become adults when they are roughly 19 and can live close to 200 years

Alignment

Dullahan are typically neutral good, due to their purpose in keeping the lifestream pure, although a few have been known to end up enslaved to evil masters. 

Size

A fully grown dullahan is typically from 5 foot 5 inches to 6 foot 7 inches tall, not including their heads which range from 8 to 12 inches (proportional with your height). Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.

Fey Ancestry

Dullahans are a type of fairy from the Fey Wild. This gives you immunity against being charmed and magic can not put you to sleep.

Headless Sight

Although your sight is better with it, you do not need your head to see. Due to this, you have a blindsight of 15 feet.

 As long as you have your head and enough light to see by, your normal sight takes precedence and is the same as a normal human's.

Reaper's Scythe

With a bonus action you can create a smoke scythe which you are proficient with. You are unable to use the smoke to blind your enemy until level 5. 

The scythe has a reach of 10ft. It causes 1d10 two handed (slashing damage). At level 5, your power grows and the damage from your scythe becomes magical. 

 The scythe stays until dismissed with another bonus action.

Headless Horseman

When a dullahan reaches adulthood, they permanently bond to a Shadow Steed. This steed appears when they are most in need or at dusk on the night of their 19th birthday, and will be the dullahan's constant companion from that point forward.

 You can summon your Shadow Steed at any time using an action as long as there is enough open space for it. When its hit points are reduced to zero, it disappears to the fey wilds to heal and is unable to be summoned for 3 days.

Devourer of Souls

When you kill an undead or destroy an artifact that controls the undead, you can take 1 minute to feed your head its soul/power. This will restore 2d8+2 hit points.

You can instead use this ability to heal a party member other than yourself for 1d8, without the need for them to attune it first.

If your head is stolen, the bearer must attune themselves to your head by mentally focusing on binding the head to his/her life-force for an hour. They cannot do anything else during this time period, and it does not count towards a short or long rest. They will also trigger your Headless Wrath if you notice them stealing your head or once you notice that it is gone. (See Below)

You gain 1 use of this trait per long rest at level 3 and an additional use at every 3 levels.

Headless Wrath

Your head is stolen you enter into a blind rage. This rage lasts until you regain your head or for an hour, whichever is shorter. You re-enter the rage whenever you encounter the creature that took your head, even if you have regained your head since:

    • You gain advantage on all STR checks and STR saves, but gain disadvantage on all WIS or INT, including being able to cast or maintain any spell. You summon your steed and scythe (if you do not already have them) and chase down the perpetrator, cutting down anything that gets in your way. 

    • At level 7, you can not be charmed or frightened while enraged.

    • At level 12, you automatically frighten any one person or thing standing between you and your head (range 20 feet) for one turn. They must succeed in a WIS saving through (DC=8+CAR) or be Frightened.

    • At level 16, you gain the ability to add a frenzy to your rage, able to make a single melee attack as a bonus action each turn for one minute of battle. When your frenzy ends, you suffer one level of exhaustion. You can only use this ability once, and only when in battle with the person in possession of your head.

Headless Dullahan

The Headless Dullahan lost their head long ago, either through theft or destruction. As such, they are no longer able to keep a level head and are quick to anger.

They also lose a few of their racial abilities, but gain some new ones in return. 

Frightful Presence.

Each creature of the dullahan's choice that is within 120 feet of the dullahan and aware of it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the dullahan's Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours. The DC becomes 16 at level 6, 17 at level 11, and 18 at level 15.

Frightful Presence can be cast twice per short rest. 

Ability Score Increase

Do to living in a constant state of rage you tend to get in fights regularly. Because of this you gain +2 to your strength and +1 to your Constitution.

Headless Sight

Due to living without your head, you have heightened your blindsight. You can now use it out to 45 feet

Life of the Dying

A headless dullahan can absorb some of the life of a creature that it kills. If a dullahan deals a killing strike to a creature with its smoke scythe, it can can absorb 1/2 of the damage as temporary hit points. 

Dullahan Traits

Being of fey ancestry, dullahan have a variety of inborn traits .

Ability Score Increase

Due to being raised by clan elders, your Wisdom score increases by 2 and your Strength score increases by 1.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.

Fey Ancestry

Dullahans are a type of fairy from the Fey Wild. This gives you immunity against being charmed and magic can not put you to sleep.

Headless Sight

Although your sight is better with it, you do not need your head to see. Due to this, you have a blindsight of 15 feet.

Spine Whip

Legends tell of those who have attempted to observe a dullahan collecting the souls of the dead only to have the dullahan lash out their eyes with a whip made out of a human spine. You have proficiency with whips. When you hit a creature with a whip, you may choose to use this trait. If you do, your whip transforms into that of a human spine and you attempt to whip your target's eyes. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier. On a failure, the target takes 1d8 slashing damage and is blinded until the end of your next turn. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all uses when you complete a long rest.