Homebrew Pillarmen Species Details

Pillarmen are immensely muscular, nearly immortal humanoids whose mastery over their own biology allows them to reshape their flesh, heighten individual senses, and absorb living creatures through direct contact.

Their extraordinary physical perfection, intellect, and longevity often foster an equally extraordinary superiority complex. Many Pillarmen consider ordinary humanoids little more than livestock, raw material, or an inconveniently talkative source of nourishment.

Pillarmen Traits

Your Pillarman character has the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

Your size is Medium.

Peak Human Form

Your physical and mental capabilities stand at the absolute pinnacle of humanoid potential.

First and foremost among the traits that distinguish you from the supposedly inferior creatures around you is your undiluted, incontestable intellect. Your mind processes information with exceptional speed and precision, while your body possesses strength, agility, and coordination beyond those of an ordinary humanoid.

Your Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence scores each increase by 1.

Your walking speed is 35 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

“Pillarmen” for a Reason

You age so slowly that you are functionally immortal. After reaching physical maturity, you cease aging and cannot die of old age.

You are immune to nonmagical mental or physical impairments caused solely by natural aging, including age-related memory loss, dementia, and the gradual loss of bodily control.

This trait provides no protection against disease, infection, poison, injury, deliberate biological intervention, magic, or another external effect, even if that effect produces symptoms resembling age-related decline.

Absorption

Ordinary food may still provide flavor and enjoyment, but it provides you no nourishment. You must sustain yourself by absorbing the innards of living creatures.

For the purposes of this trait, a creature’s innards include its organs, muscles, blood, and other soft tissues beneath the skin, but not its bones.

To begin absorbing a creature, it must be alive, have the Unconscious condition, and remain within your reach. A Construct or Undead cannot provide nourishment.

You can absorb only one creature at a time.

While you remain in physical contact with an unconscious creature, you force its body to release euphoric enzymes that suppress its awareness and resistance. The creature has Disadvantage on Wisdom checks and Wisdom saving throws made to awaken or resist the absorption process.

Completely absorbing a creature requires 5 uninterrupted minutes of continuous physical contact.

The process immediately ends if you lose physical contact with the target, you have the Incapacitated condition, the target regains consciousness, either you or the target is moved from its space, or you take an action, Bonus Action, or Reaction.

If the process ends before the 5 minutes have elapsed, the target does not die, and the incomplete absorption provides you with no nourishment.

At the end of the uninterrupted 5 minutes, the creature dies, and its innards are liquefied and absorbed into your body.

The innards of one Medium Humanoid provide enough nourishment to sustain you for 24 hours. The DM determines the nourishment provided by creatures of other sizes or anatomies.

Awakening During Absorption

If the target is unconscious because it is naturally or magically asleep, it can attempt to awaken after every 3 minutes it spends undergoing absorption outside Initiative.

During Initiative, the sleeping creature can instead attempt to awaken at the start of each of its turns.

The creature makes a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Constitution modifier. It makes this saving throw with Disadvantage because of the euphoric enzymes coursing through its body.

On a successful save, the creature awakens, and the absorption process immediately ends.

This trait does not provide additional opportunities to awaken from unconsciousness caused by having 0 Hit Points, poison, or another effect that already determines how the creature regains consciousness.

Hunger Debt

You must consume at least one day’s nourishment during every 24-hour period.

At the end of a 24-hour period in which you have not consumed your daily nourishment, you gain 1 level of Exhaustion and accumulate 1 level of Hunger Debt.

This trait uses the 2014 rules for Exhaustion. If you accumulate 6 levels of Exhaustion, you die.

Exhaustion gained from this trait cannot be removed by finishing a Long Rest or by any means other than repaying your Hunger Debt.

During each subsequent 24-hour period, you must consume enough nourishment to satisfy your current daily requirement in addition to any accumulated Hunger Debt. Each additional day’s nourishment you consume beyond your current daily requirement removes 1 level of Hunger Debt.

When your Hunger Debt is reduced to 0, every level of Exhaustion caused by this trait immediately ends.

For example, if you fail to feed for one day, you accumulate 1 level of Hunger Debt. During the following day, you must consume two days’ worth of nourishment: one for that day’s requirement and one to repay the previous day’s debt.

Self-Domination

You possess complete control over the shape and structure of your body.

As a Bonus Action, you can transform one major part of your body, choosing your head, torso, one arm, or one leg. The chosen body part becomes a Tiny or Small nonmagical object or bodily extension of your design.

The result might resemble a hooked spike, an oversized meat tenderizer, a serrated cleaver, or a disturbingly organic leash, depending on precisely how strange your intentions are.

The transformed part remains attached to your body. The transformation does not change your size, number of limbs, Speed, or normal reach unless another feature states otherwise.

Your transformed anatomy continues performing the vital functions required to keep you alive. Transforming your head or torso does not inherently prevent you from seeing, hearing, breathing, or speaking unless you deliberately choose a form that would prevent one of those functions.

The transformation lasts for 1 minute. You can end it at any time without taking an action. It requires no Concentration and ends early if you have the Unconscious condition.

You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier, to a minimum of once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Unfamiliar Forms

The first time you attempt to assume a particular form, you must make an Intelligence check. The DM determines the DC based on the form’s complexity, typically DC 10 for a simple shape or DC 15 for an intricate functional object.

On a successful check, the transformation occurs, and you can assume that form normally during all subsequent uses of this trait.

On a failed check, the transformation does not occur, the use is not expended, and you must use another Bonus Action to try again.

Biological Weapon

You are proficient with attacks made directly using your transformed body part.

If such an attack does not already specify the ability used for its attack and damage rolls, you use your Strength modifier. You add your Proficiency Bonus to the attack roll as normal.

When you hit a creature with an Unarmed Strike or another attack in which the transformed body part itself strikes the target, the attack deals an additional 1d4 Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage. You choose the additional damage type when you assume the form, based on its shape and structure.

The transformed body part must make direct physical contact with the target. Holding or operating a separate weapon with a transformed hand or arm does not grant the additional damage unless the transformed body part also strikes the target as part of the attack.

Improvised Biology

You can transform a body part into a simple tool suited to manipulating a physical mechanism, such as a lockpick, hook, wedge, crank, or appropriately shaped key.

When you make an ability check using the transformed body part for its intended physical purpose, you have Advantage on the check.

Self-Domination cannot reproduce a magical item, consumable object, alchemical substance, complex independent machine, or object containing material that does not naturally exist within your body.

Grafting

When you are missing an arm, hand, leg, foot, or similar extremity, you can transplant a replacement taken from another creature.

The replacement must be an intact and healthy extremity of the appropriate general type. It must have been detached from a living creature within the previous hour and cannot have been taken from a Construct or Undead.

While holding the replacement against the corresponding part of your body, you can spend 1 uninterrupted minute grafting it onto yourself.

The grafting process immediately ends if you release the extremity, have the Incapacitated condition, move from your space, or take an action, Bonus Action, or Reaction. If the process is interrupted, the graft fails, and no use of Self-Domination is expended.

When the process is completed, you expend one use of Self-Domination. The transplanted extremity permanently fuses with your body and reshapes itself into the exact form of the original extremity you lost. It thereafter functions as a natural part of your body.

Completing the graft restores the missing extremity but restores none of your Hit Points.

The grafted extremity grants none of the donor’s traits, attacks, senses, movement modes, proficiencies, or other abilities. This feature can replace a missing extremity but cannot create an additional one or replace a body part that is still present.

Huntdown

You can suppress four of your five natural senses and concentrate the full capacity of your nervous system into the remaining one.

As an action, choose one of the following senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste, or touch. You then choose one specific creature, object, substance, or other physical target you are attempting to locate.

Until the end of your turn, you cannot perceive anything through the four senses you suppressed. You have the Blinded condition if you suppressed sight and the Deafened condition if you suppressed hearing.

Make three Wisdom (Survival) checks and use the highest of the three results. The DM determines the DC based on how well the target is concealed and how readily it can be perceived through the chosen sense.

On a successful check, you determine the target’s exact location if it is within 60 feet of you and can be detected through the chosen sense. You also determine if the target is not present within that radius.

The chosen sense must be capable of reaching the target through the surrounding environment. For example, touch can follow vibrations through a continuous surface, while taste can detect particles carried through air, water, or another medium.

This trait can pinpoint a Hidden or Invisible target, but it cannot detect a target through a barrier or environmental condition that completely blocks the chosen sense. The DM determines whether the selected sense can reasonably detect the target.

You can use Huntdown a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, to a minimum of once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

A Horn of Honor

Roll 1d4 when you create your character. The result determines the number of horns that naturally protrude from your skull.

You determine each horn’s shape, color, and exact dimensions, but each horn must be Tiny. Your horns are decorative and provide no inherent mechanical benefit unless another feature specifically interacts with them.

Delicate Skin

Despite the genetic superiority that leaves most humanoids firmly in your shadow, your body possesses a lethal vulnerability to sunlight.

While exposed to direct sunlight, you take 1d10 Fire damage at the start of each of your turns. Outside Initiative, you take this damage once for every 6 seconds you remain exposed.

If you are exposed to magical light that explicitly creates sunlight, such as the light produced by the sunbeam spell, you instead take 2d10 Fire damage at the start of each of your turns. This damage is in addition to any damage or other effect caused by the source of the magical sunlight.

Stone Form

Once per 100 Years

Pillarmen can transform their bodies into stone and merge with their surroundings, entering a state of hibernation that can last for decades or even centuries.

While touching a nonmagical stone surface or structure large enough to contain your body, you can spend 1 uninterrupted minute transforming into stone and merging with it. The transformation fails if you cease touching the stone or take damage before the minute ends.

Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until 100 years have passed.

While in Stone Form, you are indistinguishable from the surrounding stone except to an effect capable of detecting living creatures or discerning transformations.

You are immune to all damage and cannot be subjected to conditions by outside effects. You have the Incapacitated condition for the duration.

You are also immune to sunlight, magical sunlight, ultraviolet light, the Ripple, Hamon, and similar effects that specifically exploit a Pillarman’s biological vulnerabilities.

You do not age and require no air, food, drink, or sleep. Your Speed is 0, and you cannot take actions, Bonus Actions, or Reactions. You cannot speak, manipulate objects, cast spells, or use your other traits except as described below.

You remain dimly aware of physical contact with your stone body and the surrounding stone within 30 feet of the point where you entered it. You otherwise cannot perceive your surroundings.

Hibernating Absorption

Your Absorption trait continues to function while you are in Stone Form.

You can absorb only one creature at a time.

A living creature with the Unconscious condition that remains in contact with your stone body or a continuous stone surface within 30 feet of the point where you entered the stone is considered to be within your reach for the purposes of Absorption.

You can begin and complete the absorption without taking actions and without awakening. The process otherwise follows the normal rules of your Absorption trait, including its duration, interruption conditions, and the target’s opportunities to awaken.

When you enter Stone Form, you can form dormant grooves, cavities, tendrils, or similarly simple biological traps within the connected stone surface, provided every part of the trap is within 30 feet of your body.

These formations remain part of your body. When an eligible unconscious creature touches one of them, you can automatically begin absorbing that creature if you are not already absorbing another creature.

The traps cannot move independently, make attacks, or forcibly capture a conscious creature. Their exact forms and usefulness depend on the surrounding terrain and are determined by the DM.

Awakening

Stone Form lasts until you choose to end it. You can make this choice at any time, even while Incapacitated, and it requires no action.

The transformation also immediately ends if your stone body or the surface with which you are merged is contacted by an effect specifically capable of disrupting Pillarman biology or awakening a hibernating Pillarman, such as Hamon or the Ripple.

You are immune to the damage and conditions caused by the effect that triggers your awakening. Once you have emerged, any continuing area or environmental effect can affect you normally.

When Stone Form ends, you emerge into the nearest unoccupied space large enough to contain you. If no such space exists, you remain in Stone Form until a suitable space becomes available.

Any creature currently being absorbed is released into the nearest unoccupied space and falls Prone.

Pillarmen Traits

Pillarmen are immortal apex humanoids who reshape and graft their flesh, absorb living creatures, isolate their senses to hunt prey, and hibernate for centuries as nearly invulnerable stone.