Homebrew A'tuanen Species Details

An Eternity To Learn

A’tuanen are the longest living race in Starside, and one of the longest living mortal beings. Their long lives allow them to feed a certain hunger shared by all A’tuanen, with few exceptions: hunger for knowledge, and new experiences. Though they do not all experience this hunger in the same way, A’tuanen are often compelled to enrich their lives in any way that they can. What is most often is that A’tuanen will become travelers, slowly and steadily wandering the world, transcribing memoirs of their travels that they keep in personal libraries. Those A’tuanen that are not capable of, or not possessed, to travel, collect the memoirs of their fellows, and other works of both fiction and nonfiction, through which to live vicariously. Many journals are rather plain, with single sentences marking days, and entries such as “saw a new kind of fish” or “learned a new skill (tying a windsor knot)”. 

A Wanderer Race

There are many an A’tuanen who cannot consider themselves fulfilled until they have seen all of the world that there is. They know that no creature can be a master in every skill, and humble themselves before foreign artisans for the chance to learn even the basic levels of a skill. A’tuanen do not often feel a need for planning, considering they have time to burn, and so they instead choose to go wherever the wind takes them, seeking out local masters to tutor them until they are satisfied with the knowledge they have accrued and decide to move on.

Lightning in a Bottle

The weight of a great shell combined with a naturally lethargic metabolism means that no A’tuanen is a great long distance runner. They naturally move rather slowly, and so have developed workarounds for this over the centuries. At birth, runes are inscribed into the back of an A’tuanen’s shell, more being added as they grow. These runes allow A’tuanen to channel the power of lightning into their own bodies, which briefly gives them the ability to move with great haste and energy. The ancestral homes of the A’tuanen are largely windswept valleys and rocky coasts where lightning storms are frequent; lightning rods dot popular trails, allowing A’tuanen to stop and grip the electrically charged poles to refill their energy.

A'tuanen Traits

Your great shell and amphibious physiology, as well as long lifespan, inform your natural abilities.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength, Intelligence, and Wisdom scores all increase by 1. 

Age

A'tuanen have the longest lifespans of any societal species in Starside, and can live as long as 550 years. However, it is rare they live past 500 years of age. 

Alignment

A'tuanen tend to keep to themselves. Though they may hold personal rituals or traditions, they abide by those only which they personally enjoy or benefit from.

Size

A'tuanen can way upwards of 450 pounds, though much of this comes from their shell, as within it they are not any taller than a normal human, reaching 5-6 feet tall.

Speed

A'tuanen are generally weighed down slightly by their great shells, though not so much that they are slowed significantly. They are also capable of swimming, though find it more efficient to walk on the bottom of bodies of water.

Hold Breath

Though not especially adept swimmers, A'tuanen can hold their breath for long amounts of time as they walk through lakebeds.

Natural Armor

Due to your shell and the shape of your body, you are ill-suited to wearing armor. Your shell provides ample protection, however; it gives you a base AC of 17 (your Dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number). You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you can apply the shield's bonus as normal.

Shell Defense

You can withdraw into your shell as an action. Until you emerge, you gain a +4 bonus to AC, and you have advantage on Strength and Constitution saving throws. While in your shell, you are prone, your speed is 0 and can't increase, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, you can't take reactions, and the only action you can take is a bonus action to emerge from your shell.

Shell Runes

To circumvent the lethargic nature of the A'tuanen, many inscribe runes into their shells that allow them to conduct electricity and increase their movement speed. However, too much electricity will still harm them, and so they only resist lightning and are not immune to it. After taking any amount of lightning damage, all movement speeds increase by 10 ft.

Language

A'tuanen are scholars at heart, using their long lives for the pursuit of knowledge. It is uncommon for one to not have sought out other languages to learn. They speak the A'tuanen tongue as their first language, and Common as their second, but almost always know at least one other.