Homebrew Acanthian Species Details

“My domain is full of tricks, your life is a game of chance when you're with me.”

The strange figure danced over to the nearby Gnome and clasped its hands on the gnome's shoulders, the bells of the figure's hat dinging as it moved.

“The left path is full of pain” he chimed. “But the right may just be the same!”

— Into The Halls of Madness

 

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 similar to humans, but slightly taller and have reptilian legs with one toe on each foot ending in a sickle-like claw. Their skin has a rough pebble like texture and is usually an ashen white in colour.  Acanthian have vertical slits for eyes with mostly black coal like eyes nestled beneath the eyelids. Their mouths are small, but filled with a massive amount of small razor sharp fangs used to tear and rip into flesh. They generally 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 grow new bone like growths out of their bodies.

Acanthians are also terribly mischievous and love riddles and playing pranks on those unfortunate travelers that end up in Pandemonium. The most well known Acanthian, Delriniath dresses up as a Jester and loves luring those unfortunate souls into his labyrinth deep within Pandemonium and messing with them and causing them to go crazy before devouring them. 

Acanthian Names

Acanthian names are pretty simply chosen and are generally named after the well known devils and fiends of the world. However, some Acanthians tend to take names that would drive someone mad trying to spell or pronounce, or even names that make no sense just to drive people mad and reflect the somewhat comedic nature of these strange fiends.

Male Names: Bonespur, Relethelegos, Ixixlix, Moloch, Zuglugghan

Female Names: Phalanthia, Radialis, Poxiklikx, Sendras

A GAME OF CHANCE

People tend to be driven mad fairly easily from the antics of the Acanthian. Mainly due to the fact that most of their riddles, puzzles and games are impossible to solve and are meant more to cause the "challenger" to become so mentally exhausted that they pass out and allows the Acanthian to devour them quite easily. That said, not all Acanthians play games and use riddles to weaken their prey, some just enjoy doing it and there are reports of Acanthians in the Prime Material Plane working at fairs and carnivals and preferring a less murderous and mad lifestyle.

 

Art by 0mup

Acanthian Traits

As one of the Acanthian, you gain the following traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Dexterity score increases by 1.

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.

Alignment

Acanthians might not be entirely evil in nature but many of them usually and quite happily live an evil lifestyle. However, Acanthian are almost always chaotic in nature.

Size

Acanthians are about a foot taller than the tallest human, and max out at around 7 feet tall, but no less than 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Superior 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.

Masters of Chance

Due to your lifestyle and being brought up playing constant riddles and mind games, you have advantage when making Wisdom Saving Throws. You also gain proficiency in the Dice set and Playing card set.

Cannibalistic

As a Bonus 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. Upon consuming the flesh you also gain a +2 bonus to your AC as temporary bone like growths protrude from your skin. You can only use this feature once per Long Rest.

Crazed Mind

Due to your crazed and wild mind due to being native to the plane of Pandemonium 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

You can speak, read, and write Common and Abyssal.