Homebrew Fungal Plasmoid Species Details

Fungal Plasmoid

“Flesh decays. Bones crumble. But beneath the soil, life remembers.”

Fungal Plasmoids are extraordinary organisms born from the unlikely union of plasmoid physiology and myconid biology. Neither wholly fungus nor entirely ooze, these sentient colonies exist as a constantly shifting mass of living tissue, fungal filaments, and translucent protoplasm. Their bodies are not singular organisms in the traditional sense, but interconnected biological networks acting with a unified consciousness.

To encounter a Fungal Plasmoid is to witness life without the familiar boundaries of flesh and bone.

A Body Without Boundaries

Fungal Plasmoids possess no fixed anatomy. Their gelatinous bodies contain intricate networks of mycelial strands, suspended spores, and specialized organic structures that continuously reorganize themselves. They can assume vaguely humanoid shapes, form temporary limbs, or collapse into shapeless masses capable of passing through impossibly narrow openings.

Their appearance varies considerably. Some resemble translucent figures filled with softly glowing fungal networks, while others appear as dark, moss-covered masses adorned with mushrooms, tendrils, and shifting patches of bioluminescence.

Without eyes or mouths, they lack the facial expressions and vocal communication familiar to most humanoids. Instead, they interact with the world through psychic impressions, subtle bodily movements, and an extraordinary sensitivity to vibrations.

Perception Beyond Sight

Fungal Plasmoids do not see the world as other creatures do.

They perceive movement through vibrations traveling across solid surfaces, sensing footsteps, shifting earth, and the movements of nearby creatures. Their awareness forms a strange sensory landscape of pressure, motion, and proximity rather than light and color.

Communication occurs through limited telepathic connections, allowing them to transmit thoughts, emotions, and impressions directly into the minds of other creatures.

Some Fungal Plasmoids develop a peculiar affinity for creatures animated by necromantic magic. Their fungal consciousness may extend through specially cultivated mycelial connections, allowing them to experience distant surroundings through bodies that serve as extensions of their awareness. Such connections are uncommon and require specialized magical development.

The Endless Hunger

Unlike conventional humanoids, Fungal Plasmoids sustain themselves by absorbing organic matter directly into their bodies.

Dead vegetation, decaying wood, fallen leaves, animal remains, and other biological materials can be drawn into their gelatinous forms and gradually broken down by powerful digestive enzymes.

This process is both nourishment and renewal. As organic matter dissolves, its nutrients are incorporated into the colony, replenishing damaged tissues and sustaining the organism's constantly changing structure.

However, consumption is not instantaneous, and the ability to digest a substance does not necessarily make it safe or nutritious.

For many Fungal Plasmoids, decomposition is not associated with death or revulsion. It is simply another stage in the endless transformation of living matter.

Fragile Cohesion

Despite their remarkable flexibility, Fungal Plasmoids possess significant physiological vulnerabilities.

Their bodies rely upon a delicate balance of moisture, fungal growth, and biological cohesion. Prolonged exposure to intense sunlight can disrupt their sensory networks and stress their living tissues, making bright environments uncomfortable and disorienting.

Fire presents an even greater threat. Extreme heat can destroy delicate mycelial structures, rapidly damaging portions of the colony and interrupting the biological processes that maintain its form.

Deep water is similarly dangerous. Although their bodies contain considerable moisture, their unusual density prevents them from floating naturally. Prolonged submersion destabilizes their internal structures, reducing their strength, coordination, and ability to maintain a coherent shape.

Severe physical trauma may cause portions of their biomass to separate from the central colony. Recovering from such injuries can require rest, nourishment, and the gradual reconstruction of damaged tissues.

A Different Understanding of Life

Fungal Plasmoids often possess an unusual relationship with identity, mortality, and individuality.

Where other species recognize a sharp distinction between life and death, these organisms perceive existence as a continuous exchange of matter. A fallen tree nourishes the forest. A corpse feeds the soil. What appears to be an ending may simply be the beginning of another form.

Their relationships with other creatures can be equally unusual. A Fungal Plasmoid might struggle to understand personal boundaries, physical appearance, or the emotional significance of burial rites. Others become deeply fascinated by humanoid customs, carefully imitating gestures, clothing, and social behaviors in an effort to belong.

Some regard their consciousness as an individual identity. Others believe themselves to be temporary expressions of a much greater fungal network, separated from a collective existence they instinctively seek to restore.

Fungal Plasmoids in Dekara

In the aftermath of the Catechism, Dekara became a world where the boundaries of natural life were sometimes rewritten by unstable magic.

Fungal Plasmoids may be among the strangest expressions of this transformation.

Whether created through ancient magical experimentation, the influence of wild magic storms, or the gradual evolution of organisms exposed to arcane corruption, their true origins remain uncertain.

Their existence raises troubling questions among scholars, druids, and practitioners of necromancy alike. Are they a new form of life adapting to a wounded world, or remnants of something that existed before the Catechism?

Whatever their origin, Fungal Plasmoids represent a singular truth about Dekara: even when magic breaks the natural order, life finds unfamiliar ways to endure.

Playing a Fungal Plasmoid

A Fungal Plasmoid character offers opportunities to explore a truly alien perspective. Its unusual senses, fluid anatomy, unconventional feeding habits, and biological vulnerabilities encourage creative solutions and memorable roleplaying.

Whether an inquisitive wanderer, a solitary survivor, a devoted guardian, or a necromancer seeking to expand its consciousness through the dead, a Fungal Plasmoid experiences the world through a perspective unlike that of any ordinary humanoid.

For such a creature, the greatest mystery may not be death.

It may be understanding what it means to be alive.

Fungal Plasmoid Traits

Fungal Plasmoid Traits Your Fungal Plasmoid character possesses a unique combination of amorphous physiology, fungal intelligence, and biological adaptability. Unlike conventional creatures, your body is a living colony of shifting biomass and interconnected mycelial networks, capable of reshaping itself, absorbing organic matter, and regenerating damaged tissues through nourishment. Lacking conventional eyes, ears, and a mouth, you perceive your surroundings through vibrations and heightened biological awareness, communicating with others through telepathic connections rather than spoken words. Your unusual physiology grants remarkable flexibility and resilience, but these adaptations come with inherent vulnerabilities. Bright sunlight disrupts your senses, intense heat threatens your delicate fungal structures, and prolonged submersion compromises your body's cohesion. The following traits represent the extraordinary capabilities and biological limitations of your species, reflecting a creature whos

Amorphous Physiology

Your body consists of a constantly shifting mass of living protoplasm, fungal filaments, and interconnected organic structures. Without a rigid skeleton or permanent internal anatomy, you can compress, stretch, and redistribute your biomass in ways impossible for most creatures.

You can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide, provided you are wearing and carrying nothing. You have Advantage on ability checks you make to initiate or escape a Grapple.

While squeezing through an opening narrower than your normal size, your body temporarily loses its recognizable shape, flowing through the available space before reassembling on the other side.

This trait does not allow you to pass through solid barriers, transport equipment through openings too small to accommodate it, or avoid damage from environmental hazards.

Shape Self

You possess conscious control over the distribution and structure of your biomass, allowing you to reshape your physical form to accommodate your surroundings.

As a Magic action, you can reshape your body to produce a head, one or two arms, one or two legs, and makeshift hands and feet, or you can revert to a limbless, amorphous mass. While maintaining a humanoid shape, you can wear clothing and armor designed for a Humanoid of your size.

As a Bonus Action, you can extrude a pseudopod up to 6 inches wide and 10 feet long, or reabsorb it into your body. As part of that Bonus Action, you can use the pseudopod to manipulate an object, open or close an unlocked door or container, or pick up or set down a Tiny object.

Your pseudopod cannot attack, activate magic items, lift more than 10 pounds, or perform tasks requiring fine manipulation beyond its stated capabilities.

Reshaping your body does not change your size category, statistics, or total mass. Your physical appearance may change dramatically, but your biological composition remains unmistakably fungal and amorphous.

Organic Consumption

You can consume nonliving organic matter, including plants, fungi, wood, natural fibers, and animal remains. You can also choose when to begin digesting organic material enclosed within your body.

You can consume an amount of suitable organic matter equivalent to a normal day's food requirements without needing conventional meals. The Dungeon Master determines how long unusually large, dense, or resistant materials take to digest.

This ability does not allow you to damage creatures, destroy worn or carried equipment, dissolve objects during combat, or bypass the normal rules for damaging objects.

Consuming organic matter provides nourishment but does not restore Hit Points unless another feature specifically allows it.

For roleplaying purposes, your feeding habits may appear deeply unsettling to other creatures. You might absorb fallen leaves while traveling, consume decaying wood from an abandoned structure, or quietly dissolve the remains of an animal rather than preparing a conventional meal.

Eyeless Sight

You have the Blinded condition beyond the range of your Blindsight, and you cannot gain ordinary vision through nonmagical means.

You have Blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within this range, you can perceive your surroundings without relying on sight.

Additionally, you have Tremorsense with a range of 30 feet. While you and another creature or object are in contact with the same solid surface, you can detect its location through vibrations, provided it is moving or otherwise producing detectable vibrations.

Your Tremorsense does not allow you to perceive colors, written text, facial expressions, or other purely visual details. It also cannot detect creatures that are flying or otherwise not in contact with the surface through which you sense vibrations.

Your awareness of the world consists of movement, proximity, texture, and pressure rather than images. You might recognize a companion by the rhythm of their footsteps or notice a hidden creature through faint movements beneath the floor.

Mycelial Telepathy

You can communicate telepathically with a creature you can perceive within 30 feet of yourself. You do not need to share a language with the creature for it to understand simple thoughts, emotions, or mental impressions, but communicating complex ideas requires a language you both understand.

This communication is one-way. A creature cannot respond telepathically unless it possesses a feature that allows it to do so.

Your telepathic communication does not allow you to read thoughts, detect creatures you cannot otherwise perceive, or force another creature to communicate with you.

Because you lack a conventional mouth or vocal apparatus, telepathy is your primary method of communication. You cannot speak aloud naturally, although magical effects or specialized devices may provide alternative means of producing speech.

Your thoughts may manifest as words, sensations, emotional impressions, or strange combinations of all three. Some Fungal Plasmoids communicate through images of growth and decay, while others develop precise, almost clinical mental voices.

Suspended Respiration

You can hold your breath for up to 1 hour.

During this time, your metabolism slows, conserving available oxygen while maintaining the essential functions of your consciousness and biological cohesion.

This ability does not prevent the harmful effects of being submerged in water, exposed to extreme pressure, or subjected to environmental conditions that directly damage your body.

Although you can survive without breathing for extended periods, you must eventually resume normal gas exchange to remain alive.