Homebrew Cephalon Species Details
Most comfortable in the darkest watery depths, the cephalons are a largely apathetic race when it comes to the plights of others, even those of their own kind. They feel their often times superior intellects set them above other sapient races. This, pared with their molluskoid appearance, earns them confusion with Ithilids on worlds where the monsters are present, drawing great ire from the much less dastardly cephalons.
Born From Depths
The cephalons' homeworld is a subject they rarely discuss, but they will say that it boasts vast oceans full of danger and wonder. Living in a world of such depths and darkness has given them some interesting adaptations. Their thin bodies and multiple limbs make them excellent swimmers with the innate ability to breathe underwater and see in extreme darkness. However, when they venture to the surface world, some of these abilities prove hindrances. Their gangly limbs may allow them the ability to adhere to surfaces such as walls and ceilings, but require much more coordination and motion to move at comparable speeds to bipeds. Furthermore, the brightness of daylight makes it difficult to perceive the world with their natural eyes.
Mind Over Matter
Most important to the cephalons is their great intelligence. They view themselves as inventors searching for problems to which they can apply their minds, and explorers searching for new problems and puzzles for which to solve. This need to always be right is easily found annoying by many races, but it is difficult to argue with some of their results. Cephalons make great researchers, code breakers, and masters of the arcane arts.
Furthermore, all cephalons possess some natural ability for psionics. Underwater, they have a spoken language, but their bodies are ill equipped for conversing in open air. Instead, they are quite capable of conversing with telepathy, taking considerations to be courteous and only probe as far as they need to. It isn't difficult to ward of a cephalon, however, making them not the best at delving into the inner thoughts of others without special training. Minor telekinesis is another facet of their psychic abilities, allowing them to levitate multiple small objects at once.
The paramount of the Cephalon Collective's machinations are portals or gateways that allow them further exploration into new and unknown worlds.
Visitors Of Other Worlds
Undaunted, by the prospect of being the only one of their kind on a strange world, cephalons are allowed the opportunity to travel to other worlds and planes of existence when they reach adulthood. For many, this is a one-way trip, with the process of returning home long and arduous. This is apparently a rare desire, as many find the worlds they travel to relatively primitive and prime to let their minds run wild. Many seek to increase their psionic powers, ultimately leading some to be cruel tyrants or strong leaders, while others merely learn all they can in the roughly half-millennium they can be expected to live. Most Cephalon names are unpronounceable to other races, much less those that breathe air, so instead, they take on the names of whatever society they integrate themselves into.
Cephalon Traits
Your Cephalon as the following traits:Ability Score Increase
Your Intelligence score increases by 2, your Wisdom score by 1, and your Constitution score by -1.
Age
Cephalons grow very rapidly, reaching adulthood after fifteen years, where they are usually allowed to travel to a new world. Should no harm befall them, they can easily live for about 500 years.
Alignment
Cephalons tend towards neutrality, and generally follow the laws of wherever they end up as long as it doesn't impact their ability to learn and grow their knowledge.
Adaptive Size
A cephalon's size normally ranges from 4-8 ft tall depending on how they stand on their tendrils, but their lack of an internal skeleton allows them to bend their body in numerous ways, allowing them to fit through gaps normally only accessible to small creatures.
Multi-limbed
Cephalons posses 8 limbs, and while they are usually only dominant with two specialized limbs ending in what resemble human hands, they can use up to two of their other limbs to grasp simple objects, relying on only four for standing and moving when they have to. These non-hand tentacles aren't dexterous enough to manipulate objects beyond just simply holding things, but they may come in handy for simple tasks such as holding a lantern or torch, but lack the coordination for purposes of combat or picking locks and the like.
Amphibious
Born in dark ocean depths, cephalons can breath water and air, and also posses 60 ft of dark vision with disadvantage on perception checks relying on sight while in bright daylight.
Light Build
You count as one size smaller when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Psionic Disciple
Their inborn psionic potential manifests itself differently from one Cephalon to the next. At first level, choose (or roll a d4) one of the following manifestations of your psychic powers to use at will:
- Lesser Telekinesis- Levitate up to 4 objects weighing less than 10 lbs up to 30 ft away. You cannot use this ability to perform actions such as using a weapon or picking a lock, etc
- Psionic senses- Detect your surroundings even in absolute darkness up to 15 feet away. You detect the mind any sentient creatures in this range that is not behind total cover. A creature you detect is this way is also aware of your presence, but not your location
- Psionic burst- Channel your mental prowess into a mental attack against one creature you can sense within 30 ft of you. The target must make an intelligence save against your a DC equal to 8 + your INT modifier + your proficiency bonus or take 1d6 psychic damage
- Mindweaver- As an action, create a harmless, sensory illusion that can fit within a 5 ft cube. The illusion lasts for a number of minutes up to your INT modifier but will vanish if it moves more than 30 ft from you.
Practicing with your powers allows you to push yourself beyond your normal limits; unleashing powerful feats of psychic power. When your character reaches tenth level, you choose one of the following abilities to develop:
- Once per long rest, you concentrate your psionic power, granting you the effects of the telekinesis spell.
- Once per long rest, you can reach out the minds of others, granting you the effects of the telepathic bond spell.
At the apex of cultivating your abilities, you can use an action to gain the effects of the telepathy spell once per day.
Painted Skin
As an action, you can change the coloration and patterns on your skin. You can't alter your overall body structure, merely the appearance of your skin. Using this, you gain proficiency with stealth checks.
Languages
You can speak and write aquan, and communicate with creatures telepathically up to 30 ft away.
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