Homebrew Acanthian Demon Species Details
“Shall we play a game lost one?”
Those black eyes, cold and empty as a bottomless pit, stared into hers without blinking. His long clawed hands were held behind his back as he leaned towards her. She shivered.
“What do you say?” the demon asked. “If you win, I'll lead you out of this place."
“And if I loose?” she asked. “What happens then?”
If he was able to, she was certain he would have grinned
"Why, youll be free from this torment" The pale fiend said "and I will have a meal. It is a fare wager, dont you think? Either way, one of us will be free from their suffering. What say you?"
"Its not like I have much choice, is it" She glared up at the looming white monster. "Fine, what 'game' do you propose we play."
The demon chuckled deep in his throat, an unsettling and gutteral sound
"A game of riddles my dear. Whoever fails to answer the other first looses, and you may go first."
Fiends hailing from the deepest reaches of Pandemonium, the Acanthian are a tricky bunch who love to entrap their humanoid prey into games of riddles and chance, and after their prey is tired and worn out from the constant bombardment of these mind breaking challenges, they feast to their heart's content.
Fiends of Pandemonium
The Acanthian are fiends hailing from Pandemonium and nowhere else in the world. They appear as long-limbed humanoids, ranging from slightly taller than a human or as tall a goliath and have powerful digitigrade legs for leaping. Their skin has a rough pebble-like texture and is usually an ashen white in colour. Acanthians have vertical slits for eyes with mostly solid black pits beneath. Their mouths are small, but filled with a massive amount of small razor-sharp fangs used to tear and rip into flesh. They do not have hair and instead are distinguished apart from one another by the appearance of the strange bone-like growths that cover their body which change and adapt to how much of their own kind they consume. These bone-like growths can appear as horns, or spikes over their bodies. With some of these growths even appearing as natural armor.
Cannibalistic & Mischevious
Acanthian live in small settlements nestled within the tunnels of Pandemonium, and take pleasure in the howling winds that drive people mad within the depths. They live in a cannibalistic society where the ones that die are consumed by other members of the Spur (the name for a small clan of Acanthians) and upon ingesting one of their own, the Acanthian will generate new bone-like growths out of their bodies. Acanthians are also terribly cruel and enjoy games of riddles, tormenting unfortunate travelers that end up in Pandemonium until they have gone mad or died from exhaustion before eating them.
Acanthian Demon Traits
As one of the Acanthian, you gain the following traits.Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 3.
Age
Acanthians mature much slower than other humanoid creatures. They enter adulthood at around the age of 200 and can live for thousands of years. The exact limit is unknown.
Alignment
Acanthians are usually cruel, evil, and chaotic in nature, enjoying torture and fear. Even the few that don't find pleasure in torment are still likely to have few qualms with killing whatever they want.
Size
Acanthians can range from a little less than 6ft tall at the minimum to a little over 8ft at the max. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision
Thanks to you making your home in the depths of Pandemonium, 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.
Master of Riddles
Due to your homeland and being brought up playing maddening riddles and mind games, you have advantage when making Wisdom Saving Throws.
Cannibalism
As an Action you can consume the flesh of a slain fiend creature and upon doing so you can roll one of your hit dice and add the rolled amount plus your Constitution modifier as temporary hit points. You also gain a +2 bonus to your AC for as long as those hitpoints remain, as temporary bone-like growths protrude from your skin. You can only use this feature once per Long Rest.
Crazed Mind
Due to being native to the plane of Pandemonium, where the howling winds drive most to madness, you are immune to the Charmed condition.
Standing Leap
Due to your more reptilian-like legs, your long jump is up to 20 feet and your high jump is up to 10 feet, with or without a running start.
Languages
As fiends that are neither Demons or Devils but something in between, you can speak the languages of both and the common tongue of the humanoids your kind torment and consume.
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