Homebrew Berbalang Species Details
Berbalangs creep across the petrified remains of dead gods adrift on the Astral Plane. Obsessed with gathering secrets, both from the gods they inhabit and from the bones of dead creatures, they call forth the spirits of the dead and force them to divulge what they learned in life.
Speakers of the Dead. Berbalangs prefer to speak only to dead things, and specifically only to the spirits they call forth in the hope of learning secrets. They record their stories on the bones that once belonged to these creatures, thus preserving the information they gain.
Spectral Spy. The pursuit of knowledge drives everything berbalangs do. Although they mostly learn their secrets from the dead, they aren’t above spying on the living to take knowledge from them as well. A berbalang can create a spectral duplicate of itself and send the duplicate out to gather information on other planes by watching places where the gods and their servants gather. When a berbalang is perceiving its environment through its duplicate, its actual body is unconscious and can’t protect or nourish itself. Thus, a berbalang typically uses its duplicate for only a short time before returning its consciousness to its body.
Weird Oracles. The knowledge that berbalangs accumulate makes them great sources of information for powerful people traveling the planes. Berbalangs ignore petitioners, however, unless they come bearing a choice secret or the bones of a particularly interesting creature. Githyanki have found a way to coexist with berbalangs, and sometimes use the creatures to spy on their enemies and to watch over their crèches on the Material Plane.
Berbalang Traits
+2 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity, Truesight, Spectral Duplicate, Speak With Dead, Plane Shift (self only)Ability Score Increase
Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Truesight
You can, out to 120 feet, see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions and succeed on saving throws against them, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic. Furthermore, you can see into the Ethereal Plane within the same range.
Spectral Duplicate
As a bonus action, you create one spectral duplicate of yourself in an unoccupied space you can see within 60 feet of you. While the duplicate exists, you are unconscious. You can have only one duplicate at a time. The duplicate disappears when it or the you drop to 0 hit points or when you dismiss it (no action required).
The duplicate has the same statistics and knowledge as you, and everything experienced by the duplicate is known by you. All damage dealt by the duplicate’s attacks is psychic damage.
You can only do this once per Short/Long Rest.
Speak With Dead
You grant the semblance of life and intelligence to a corpse of your choice within range, allowing it to answer the questions you pose. The corpse must still have a mouth and can't be undead. The spell fails if the corpse was the target of this spell within the last 10 days.
Until the spell ends, you can ask the corpse up to five questions. The corpse knows only what it knew in life, including the languages it knew. Answers are usually brief, cryptic, or repetitive, and the corpse is under no compulsion to offer a truthful answer if you are hostile to it or it recognizes you as an enemy. This spell doesn't return the creature's soul to its body, only its animating spirit. Thus, the corpse can't learn new information, doesn't comprehend anything that has happened since it died, and can't speculate about future events.
Plane Shift
You are transported to a different plane of existence. You can specify a target destination in general terms, such as the City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire or the palace of Dispater on the second level of the Nine Hells, and you appear in or near that destination. If you are trying to reach the City of Brass, for example, you might arrive in its Street of Steel, before its Gate of Ashes, or looking at the city from across the Sea of Fire, at the GM's discretion.
Alternatively, if you know the sigil sequence of a teleportation circle on another plane of existence, this spell can take you to that circle.
You can use this spell to banish an unwilling creature to another plane. Choose a creature within your reach and make a melee spell attack against it. On a hit, the creature must make a Charisma saving throw. If the creature fails this save, it is transported to a random location on the plane of existence you specify. A creature so transported must find its own way back to your current plane of existence.