Homebrew Zotali Species Details

The Zotali are an ancient race from a small  village located deep beneath the earths surface. Here the Zotali practice honing their great weapon fighting skills as well as work on enhancing their spirituality. Masters of the great sword and spiritual fortitude, they live devoted to lives of discipline and the art of forging great weapons. Due to the strong spiritual focus that the Zotali generate and the location of their village, this combination served as a catalyst toward causing a super natural flux. As a result, awakening something the Zotali call Black Matter. Black Matter is a spiritually charged mineral which can only be found beneath Zoatu. This mineral is similar to metal, deep black in color and with great spiritual discipline, can be brought to life and bonded with; as you would with a pet familiar. The Zotali, embracing this new discovery, integrated the black matter into their culture as a gauge of spiritual growth and a token of initiation into their coming of age. They found that once a tribe member bonded with the black matter, they would benefit from increased life force and have the ability to manipulate the sand like shards of Black Matter to form weapons, barriers around them selves and with further practice, project barriers onto others.

Tragically Zoatu came under attack by a small fleet of Githyanki who were merely passing through their dimension. This encounter took the Zotali completely by surprise and they suffered heavy losses. The Zotali elite dove deep and through sacrificing their will, were able to channel their Black Matter into forming independent, black knights who fought off the Githyanki invaders. This caused the Zotali to further their research into unlocking the powers of the black matter and  a small number of their tribe to venture out, to seek the Githyanki and defend against such events.

Zotali Traits

Zotali are medium sized humanoids with fur manes and a long fury tail with a hand at its end.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2 and you Strength and Dexterity increase by 1

Age

Zotali mature a little faster than humans, reaching maturity at 11. Although they have a much longer lifespan than humans, usually living to be 943.

Alignment

Zotali dedicate their lives to physical and spiritual disciplines, this leads them towards Good alignments. Lawful Good characters tend to be leaders in the spiritual beliefs of the tribe, whilst those who fall into the Chaotic Good category tend to be more free thinking warriors who either become recognized as great fighters and train the other tribe members or venture off from the tribe.

Size

Zotali are about the same size as humans, ranging from 5 to 6 feet tall. Your size is medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Dark vision

Growing up in the dimly lit conditions of Zoatu you developed keen dark vision. You can see 60 feet in dim light as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in the dark, only shades of grey

Zotali Defence

Through vigorous  physical training, your hide becomes dense like a natural armor. Beginning at 1st level whilst not wearing any armor or wielding a shield, your AC equals 14 + your Dexterity modifier.

Great weapon master

The Zotali devote their lives to the mastery of great weapon fighting and forging. You've learned to put the weight of a weapon to your advantage, letting its momentum empower your strikes. You gain the following benefits:

• On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.
• Before you make a melee attack with a heavy weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hit, you add +10 to the attack damage.

Tail Strike

The Zotali aren't shy when it comes to using their tail hand. Upon landing a successful hit, you may choose to also make 1 unarmed strike against your opponent.