Homebrew Gem Species Details
´´There tells of beings that came from the outer reaches of space, colonizing planets by making soldiers straight from the ground they tread, leaving hollow shells of planets left as they move on to repeat the process elsewhere.´´ Sphalerite said with a smile, as she caught the eye of the young human child she was telling the story to. She pauses, and begins again. ´´These beings knew no remorse, until they reached the planet Earth. That's when things got interesting...´´
Amari hadn´t quite understood what Sphalerite had meant, but she knew something was for sure; she wanted to meet one of these mysterious beings herself, unaware she was wrapped in the arms of one.
Beings from another planet, Gems are thought to be one of the oldest and strangest races to emerge in the universe. With a highly functioning society and a caste system that is almost impossible to climb, Gem lead lives based on productivity; they´re created with a purpose and will spend their entire existence fulfilling that purpose until said purpose is complete. This almost machine-like drive is leading cause for almost all Gem activity, and it is one of the reasons that Gem society on a distance planet known as HomeWorld flourishes in the fashion that it does.
Created For Perfection
The second a Gem emerges from the ground from which they are created, they are expected to be perfect at what they were designed for. Gems are ´born´ with a purpose and task that they need to complete, and their first objective in life is to complete this task and do it with perfection. Should a Gem be created with an extreme defect, they are likely to be casted aside or have their gem shattered immediately upon emergence.
Variety In Gems
While all Gems of the same type are created to serve the same purpose, there is much diversity amongst gem-kind itself. The duties Gems are created for are incredibly varied. There are Gems whose sole purpose is to entertain and serve under Gems that are of a higher status, Gems that are designed to act as soldiers, and Gems that serve other duties such as mine, build, etc.
Along with variation is purpose, Gems are also varied in their design, however the design of a Gem´s physical appearance will be suited to best fitting the needs of their duty; if a Gem´s purpose is to be a servant, they are likelier to be smaller and more petite in stature than a Gem with the purpose of being a guard, which would be larger and more muscular.
Physical Forms
A Gem has two forms: a stationary gemstone from which their power is drawn from and a physical form, a humanoid body which almost always resembles a woman in some aspect. These physical form, which have skin pigments and hair colors that match the gemstone, are used to function as well as protect the gemstone. While Gems are able to alter their appearance, they are unable to change their color and rarely change their appearance drastically.
Gemstones
The gemstone of a Gem is it´s source of life, and as such, is protected by the Gem heavily. These gemstones can be found in various locations on a gem with the location of the gemstone not changing, even if the Gem´s appearance changes (if the gemstone is found over the right eye, it will always be over the right eye).
If a Gem´s physical form is too badly damaged, the physical form will revert back into it´s gemstone with a slight popping sound as it does so. While in this form, the Gem is essentially defenseless with only it´s gemstone being left out, however, should the gemstone take no serious damage, the gem will reemerge after a certain amount of time.
Sticking To Their Own
Being a race of beings that colonize and destroy planets, Gem´s are typically fighting wars amongst the inhabitants and thus, never truly getting to encounter other races outside of combat. This leads to a typical prejudiced against other races and an alarming amount of self-righteousness. There are very few times when Gems would get to associate with races outside of it´s own, so the reactions are often hostile and defensive until they learn that the race they´ve met mean them no harm.
While they might learn from other races, gems rarely dabble in things like eating or drinking, and even more uncommonly use things made by other races unless absolutely necessary. This includes armors, tool, and even weapons.
As rare as it is for a Gem to associate peacefully with another race, it is even more rare that a Gem would engage in relations with another race, especially considering they´d have to modify there body to allow for such a thing to happen. However, exceptionally rare and impossible are two different things, and half-gem hybrids have occured, with the mother Gem giving up her physical form to allow their child to be born.
Fusion
When two gems feel strongly about one another, they´re able to fuse their physical forms to become one being. This being isn't both gems in the same body, but rather a new gem entirely.These fusions can have personalities that share attributes of both gems, or rather have the cocktail of personality traits from both Gems merged into one Gem; if one of the Gems in the fusion were nonchalant and the other one was daring, it´s likely that the fusion of the two would be on the more reckless and carefree side.
Fusion of two different gemstone types, while seen as disgraceful on the highest tier, is far different from fusion involving two of the same gemstone types. Should two Gems with different gemstones fuse, the fusion is a completely new Gem with a completely new name, rather than if two of the same gemstones fuse, with the resulting fusion being a larger version of both Gems; if two Rubies fuse, the fusion will be a larger Ruby Gem, however if a Ruby and a Pearl were to fuse, the resulting fusion would be a completely new Gem.
Gem Names
Gems are named after the gemstone embedded into them with no other Diamond Gems existing past the Diamond Authority.
Some Gem names are: Sapphire, Ruby, Peridot, Amethyst, Opal, Pearl, Jasper, Sugilite, Sphalerite, Topaz
Gem Traits
While Gem-kind can be varied, there are some generalizations that can be made.Ability Score Increase
Gems, while not versatile, are incredibly proficient in what they do by design. You may choose to increase any two ability scores by 2.
Age
Being that Gems are created and not born, they are full ´´adults´´ upon emergence and live indefinitely.
Alignment
Gems tend towards the Lawful Neutral side of the alignment scale as they are willing to follow the commands of those that are deemed superior to themselves.
Size
Gems vary widely in height and build, from barely 3 feet to well over 7 feet tall. Regardless of your position in that range, your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 40 feet.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common, Abyssal, and Gem-ling, a language only known by other Gems.
Summon Weapon
All Gems have a weapon of choice, in which they are proficient in, that can be generated from their gem. This weapon cannot be changed.
Make an action to summon your weapon. When using this weapon:
_d6 damage equal to Gem´s level
Weapons that use ammo have infinite ammo
Proficiency in the weapon used
You may make an bonus action to summon another weapon of the same type, assuming the weapon is a one handed weapon.
There is no way to upgrade this weapon, however enchantments can be added to the Gem´s weapon. The Gem, however, would have to remain with the enchanter until the weapon has been fully enchanted.
Should the weapon be knocked out of your hand, it disperses and you will have to resummon it.
Almost Robotic
A Gem is almost mechanical in design, functionality, and their ability to not need food to sustain themselves. They gain the ability Sentry´s Rest as well as having natural armor with an AC of 10 + any modifier of their choosing.
Poofing and Shattering
Once your HP is brought to 0, your physical form reverts back into your gemstone, however you do not die unless your gemstone is smashed. Roll a 1d8 to see how many hours it takes to reemerge from your gemstone. At this time, you are also able to alter your appearance.
While poofed, your gemstone is completely vulnerable. While many who encounter Gems wouldn´t know to crack the gemstone to kill it, those that do may attack your gemstone. The attack would have to surpass two strength checks with a DC of 15. Should they do so, your gemstone is shattered and your character is killed. Should they only surpass one check, your gemstone is cracked, which removes your abilities to summon your weapon, fuse, and regenerate limbs properly. Your gemstone will heal by itself after 48 hours, however, if you succeed a medicine check with a DC of 16, you can cut the time it takes to heal your gemstone to 24 hours.
Gem Storage
Your stone acts as a Bag Of Holding. You are able to store nonliving items of a size small or less. These things cannot be removed from a Gem by any means; only the Gem themself can remove the items.
Fusion
Once two Gems have bonded with one another, they are able to fuse their bodies to become one entity. To fuse, both Gems must use their action during their turn to do a fusion dance which, at the end of their turn, result in one gem. Fusion benefits are as follows:
-HP: You add both current HPs and that is the HP of the Fusion
-AC: You add both armor classes by one another and divide by two. Round appropriately.
-Stats: You add both Str, Con, Dex, Wis, Int, and Cha to one another and divide by two. Round appropriately.
-Movement Speed: You add both speeds together and divide by 1.5. Round appropriately.
The Fusion will attack on both Initiatives of the players fused
The fusion will get a new weapon; this weapon does _d12 corresponding to the highest level character in the fusion
The Fusions height and weight will be a combination of both characters fused
The Fusion will get a total of 3 features/traits from one character and 2 features/traits from the other for a total of five traits
If the Fusion´s HP is brought to a zero, the fusion is breaks apart and the the two Gem are poofed
Should the characters fused argue too much, the fusion becomes unstable and breaks apart. Should this happen, the characters are unable to fuse for 24 hours. How much the characters have to argue is up to the DM.
Variant: Half-Gem
In the extremely rare cases where Gems and humans have relations, Half-gems are born. These half-gems, looking more like a human than an actual Gem, have the gemstone of their gem parent and the same abilities as them. While half-gems mature at the same rate as humans, they visually stop aging in their early twenties. Little is known about how long half-gems truly live as they´re so incredibly rare
Ability Score Improvement
Because half-gems have the problem of human error, they are less structured for a purpose than a true Gem. Instead of improving two ability scores by 2, you improve two ability scores by 1.
Still Human
Because Half-gems are, as the name implies, half human, they lose the the ability of Sentry´s Rest however they are able to wear armor as well as use regular weapons.
Fusion With Humans
Half-gems have the ability to not only fuse with Gems, but with humans as well. The fusion process is the same as with a gem; both characters will make an action to dance with one another and the result will be a Half-gem fusion.
-HP: You add both current HPs and that is the HP of the Fusion
-AC: You add both armor classes by one another and divide by two. Round appropriately.
-Stats: You add both Str, Con, Dex, Wis, Int, and Cha to one another and divide by two. Round appropriately.
-Movement Speed: You add both speeds together and divide by 1.5. Round appropriately.
The Fusion will attack on both Initiatives of the players fused
The fusion will have the same weapon as the Half-gem; this weapon does _d12 corresponding to the highest level character in the fusion
The Fusions height and weight will be a combination of both characters fused
The Fusion will get a total of 3 features/traits from the Gem and 3 features/traits from the other for a total of six traits
If the Fusion´s HP is brought to a zero, the fusion is breaks apart and the half-gem is poofed while the human´s health is left on 1.
Should the characters fused argue too much, the fusion becomes unstable and breaks apart. Should this happen, the characters are unable to fuse for 48 hours. How much the characters have to argue is up to the DM.
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