Homebrew Mollusca Species Details

Strange and Slimy

With their jagged teeth and disproportionately large eyes, mollusca usually look strange to most other races. They are usually incredibly short, ranging from 2 1/2 feet to just over 3 feet. It is still possible to find very tall mollusca with some reaching up to and above 10 feet tall due to their eating habits.They are usually incredibly skinny and scrawny with swollen joints that give them almost skeletal limbs in relation to their pot-bellies. Males and females are about the same height and weight weighing around 30-40 lbs.

Mollusca pigmentation can very to such massive degrees that you can probably find a mollusca to match the pigment of any of the vibrant mushroom species that they live around. Most don't have hair aside from a set of bushy eyebrows that usually are a grey or brown with a small tint of whatever their skin color is. Any that do have hair usually only having a couple wiry strands atop their heads. They also usually only express eye colors like that of humans. It's rare to find an elegantly dressed mollusca and due to their strange proportions, finding any clothes that aren't made by others is incredibly difficult so it's not uncommon to find them in very simplistic baggy outfits like a set of overalls or robes.

Beings of Change

Mollusca live a life of metamorphosis starting off more slug than humanoid. They begin to sprout legs and their eyes and teeth grow as they hit puberty. They don't live much longer than humans and often have a higher mortality rate due to getting in over their head in a grift. Mollusca begin to be able to reproduce after puberty and posses both parts required to reproduce. A mollusca can only have one organ activated at a time and so they usually decide what sex and gender they identify as after puberty and change whenever they feel like it.

A mollusca's most notable trait is their ability to eat their earnings. Eating gold increases muscle mass and size which can sometimes even let them reach statures of that of Firbolgs and Goliath's after consuming massive quantities over their lifetimes. They can also eat a large amount at once to activate a large burst in stature very quickly. This life of metamorphosis and change makes mollusca usually very flexible but also can make some who grow tired of the mundane seek rapid change like a sort of midlife crisis.

Born in the Fungal Caverns

Most mollusca live underground in small villages built in small damp caves. Their favorite food is usually mushrooms (and gold) which makes this climate ideal for them. A mollusca village is rarely going to look the same after any number of generations. It's rare for a mollusca to re-enter a mollusca village before deciding to have a child and even more rare for them to stay after they raise them. Most mollusca will go their entire lives without seeing a mollusca older than 50 until they grow that old themselves.

Most mollusca villages are located in very calm places with few monsters or beasts so they can protect the children that grow up there who have no defence of their own. This serenity also makes it so that any mollusca who has a child will try to find the nearest mollusca village and raise their child there. This makes it so no mollusca village stays the same for long and most of them look similar to others in the region due to a sort of cross-polination of cultures.

Lifelong bonds

Anyone present for a defining moment in a mollusca's life or a major change in their world will surely be seen as one of the most important people in that mollusca's life. Often during times of war, emotional growth, divorce, pregnancy, etc. the mollusca will seek others to share their change with. Anyone gracious enough to help them or to experience the events with them will be seen to that mollusca as a friend. It's not uncommon for mollusca to leave home with the first friends they ever make and become business partners with them. It's rare to see a mollusca not traveling in a pair or trio and it is assumed that a mollusca running a shop single-handedly has experienced a tragic loss. If a mollusca joins an adventuring party they will be inseparable to the point that they may be more important to the mollusca than gold.

Mollusca don't form the same kind of romantic relationships that most other races do. Usually a romantic partner wouldn't compare to the connection that they would have with their close friends, so many mollusca will have children with their business partners and friends as a sign of respect. The line between platonic and romantic is blurred for a mollusca who don't form the same kind of passion for another person as would a human or maybe even an elf.

Mollusca Names

Mollusca naming rituals vary greatly between villages with some giving the child two names that they can choose from, some just one, some don't have a last or a middle name. What's consistent though is that all of them have nicknames, sometimes they are adopted by the mollusca as a professional name for their store, guild, or otherwise.

In mollusca society it's considered extremely disrespectful to call a mollusca by a name they don't want to be called. If a mollusca doesn't want you to call them by their nickname. Don't do it.

First Names: Altrimos, Breelisk, Cladioulis, Glaminao, Lavliobe, Okloslum, Rixlim, Ulbeo, Zygollup

Nicknames: Abiba, Bolmo, Dila, Elimi, Foomy, Hila, Laula, Quil, Ronni, Slugly, Wubbri

 

Mollusca Traits

Your mollusca character has many different innate abilties from generations of living underground and many to help them thrive as merchants

Ability Score Improvement

Your Charisma score increases by 2. You will gain additional ability score improvements as you eat more gold. You will gain an additional +1 to Constitution when you grow the first time. You will gain and additional +1 to Strength when you grow the second time.

Age

Mollusca reach puberty around 15 years old and are considered adults at around 20. They live between 60-100 depending on their village and their gold intake

Alignment

Most Mollusca tend towards neutral alignments due to their business habits and can lie anywhere on the good to evil spectrum depending on what they use their cunning for. Most mollusca who have found small groups tend towards good or neutral.

Size

Mollusca stand between 2 1/2 ft. and 10 ft. depending on gold intake. Most don't grow past 3 ft.. Your size fluxuates but starts as small

Speed

Your speed is 25 ft. You Also have a burrow speed of 15 ft. as long as you are burrowing through soft ground

Superior Darkvision

Accustomed to life in the mushroom caverns, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Enlarge

You may spend an action to eat 5 gp to cast enlarge/reduce (enlarge only) on yourself with no components. You can instead eat 50 gp to increase the duration to 1 hour. You must wait 1 minute after the spell ends to be able to cast it again. You can maintain concentration with another spell while this is active but you will still need to make concentration checks while enlarge is active or the effect will drop. 

Gold Eater

After you've eaten 500 gp you increase in size, your stature becomes that of a dwarf or human, Your size becomes medium and your speed becomes 30 ft. You also gain a +1 to your Constitution score.

After you've eaten 5000 gp you increase in size again and become the stature of a goliath or a firbolg. You still are medium sized but your carrying capacity and lift capacity become that of a large size creature (huge when enlarged). Your burrowing speed becomes 20 ft. (you can now burrow through more solid materials at 10 ft. speed) and you gain a +1 to your Strength score. Your hit point maximum also increases by one times your level and you will add an addition 1 hit point to your maximum at every level up.

Mushroom Connoisseur

You gain proficiency with cook's utensils and whenever you make an Intelligence (Nature) check related to information on fungus, you are considered proficient in the Nature skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Mollusca, and Gnomish. Mollusca is a strange language that uses unusual sounds like clicking and has a very round and bubbly sound to it..