Homebrew Mant'ana Lizardfolk Species Details

Long before Dragonlords dominated the world, before the Elves were formed by the first brush of the Fey-realm against the boundaries of a newly born Mant’ana, before the Dwarves first emerged from their sheltered valleys, before Humanity first emerged from their jungle homes and the Goblins were extracted from their underground lairs, there were Lizardfolk. Grand empires that stretched across the land, looking to the stars for prophecy and a meaning to their existence, great roads that criss-crossed the land and allowed caravans of towering thunder-lizards to carry mountains of trade-goods and people from sprawling cities made of living trees and stone guided and nurtured into shape to gleaming temples of polished crystal and precious metals. Lizardfolk ruins tell legends of mighty champions pushing back the dark creatures that threatened Mant’ana and sealing the worst of them away in inescapable vaults deep at the bottom of the ocean or in the darkest depths of the world, of the Lizardfolk finding and guiding the first Humans, Elves and Dwarves to civilisation, and for thousands of years there was peace …

All of it ended when the world began to grow colder when a strange conjunction of the Elemental Planes of Air, Water and Mant’ana itself threw the world into an unnatural ice age, as the seas shrank and withdrew into continent-sized masses of ice and snow at the poles of the world and the Lizardfolk found both their species and their society waning in the face of this bizarre turn of events.

To make things worse, the new races that the Lizardfolk had uplifted from barbarous tribal societies, Humanity and Dwarves in particular, decided now was the time to take control of the Empire and staged bloody coups that severed whole provinces from each other, leaving the Lizardfolk reeling and in shock, for their defences had ever been turned outwards, against the Aboleth, the Sahaugin, the aberrations and mockeries of the natural world that had crawled up and out of the ocean depths and from corrupted realms deep under the earth. In desperation, the Lizardfolk abandoned their cities and withdrew deep into the volcanic marshes and tropical jungles, using their grasp of shamanism to close their lands off to the soft-skins, who rapidly turned on each other once their grasp of the Lizardfolks’ former Empire was secure and the question of who would rule who came to the fore.

For thousands of years, the Lizardfolk kept to their redoubts, desperately keeping their traditions and knowledge alive as best they could, inscribed in stone and whispered to plant, animal and spirit alike to preserve their legacy for future generations to redeem, defending their borders against all comers as the ever-ravenous tide of Humanity roiled with greed and ambition, ever seeking new resources, new lands, new slaves to fuel its endless growth and expansion. In the relentless struggle to hold their borders against this ravenous enemy, many outposts of Lizardfolk fell to barbarism and worse as the crusade to safeguard their grand history was lost to the basic needs of survival, some slinking deep underground to become twisted mockeries of their former selves and serving the very evil their ancestors had once sacrificed everything to keep contained, while others became little more than beasts, their minds regressing to an atavistic state and their bodies soon following suit.

Yet, the colonies that endured retained their ancient knowledge and still dwelled in cities sculpted from living trees and carved rock, waiting for their time to come again, reading the stars for omens and communing with the spirits for guidance. For a time, it seemed like the Lizardfolks’ Empire might yet be reborn, no longer a single monolithic entity but rather scattered across the world, so that an assault on one outpost would not spell the doom for the others, and the Lizardfolk began to reach out again to the soft-skins that they trusted, hoping to rebuild the bonds of trust that had once existed between their kind and the other races.

And then the Dragonlords came. First came the Chromatics, evil, malevolent and scheming, though the Dragonlords worked diligently to make their arrival seem like a boon to the Lizardfolk, the Blacks and Greens in particular, before their ambitions were laid bare and the Lizardfolk were almost driven to extinction once again as armies of Human, Dwarven and Goblin cultists surged into the Lizardfolks’ territories under the wings of the Chromatic Dragons. Living cities sculpted into places of wonder and plenty were plundered by the Cultists of Tiamat and the Elemental Evils, turned into the lairs of wallowing behemoths or the brood-colonies of Dragonborn to expand Tiamat’s armies, a legacy that taints the Lizardfolks’ perception of the non-indigenous Dragons and the Dragonborn race to this day. Even Bahamut’s children, when they finally arrived, treated the Lizardfolk little better, often an afterthought to their beloved Humans and Elves, and seemed shocked to find the Lizardfolk were as cultured and civilised as any soft-skin or warm-blood.

It was only during the closing days of the war as it became more and more evident that only with the aid of the other races would Bahamut’s chosen ones be able to turn back the tide of Tiamat’s evil that the Metallic Dragons finally began to treat the other races of Kheva with the same level of respect that they had given to the Humans. Too little, too late, but the fate of Mant’ana superseded all such petty rivalries, or at least the Lizardfolk assumed this was to be the case. Unfortunately, internal disputes amongst the Metallic Dragons and bitter feuds between their mortal allies bubbled to the surface and crippled the offensive against the Cults’ stronghold with bickering and duels, and the War of the Dragon Lords raged for centuries.

And then came the Flood, and their beloved Mant’ana teetered on the brink of destruction once more.

Continents sank under a torrent of brine from the Elemental Plane of Water, new mountains and continents thrust up from the ocean floor, bringing with them the strange monsters that the Lizardfolks’ ancestral war had banished to the bottom of the deepest trenches and warped cave-systems deep under the earth. The Lizardfolks’ homes drowned and their only link to their once-glorious past once again resided in the memories and stories of their elders and shamans, who to this day struggle continuously to ensure their traditions and history are once again enshrined and protected in a world gone mad and changed beyond all recognition.

The great temple-city of Shavak’ana, raised in a great ritual by many of the Lizardfolks’ greatest Shamans from a tiny tropical atoll that now stands as a sprawling, tangled mass of mangrove trees the size of a large island, the millions of roots pulling rock, earth and soil together to support itself stands as the last great stronghold of their kind and the place where the Lizardfolk Tribes, regardless of their personal disputes, come together to safeguard and preserve their history and lay their clutches in relative safety.

Unlike the races that once usurped their position as the dominant race of Kheva, the Lizardfolk adapted swiftly to their new environment, though the Lizardfolk who managed to survive the cataclysmic Flood split into several factions, with some seeing the disaster and the subsequent forced ‘co-habitation’ with the Soft-Skins as a sign from their Spirits that they were to abandon their isolationist ways and re-educate their wayward brothers and sisters in the ways of the natural world once again, to forgive the transgressions of the past and guide the ravaged and despairing soft-skins back to the old ways of Shamanism and living in harmony with their world. Others saw it as an omen that the time had come to take back their world from the arrogant new-comers whom had pushed the Lizardfolk out of their lands time and time again and whose blasphemous abuses of magic had angered the Spirits so much that they tried to drown the world. The clash of ideals has seen whole tribes tear apart and become bitter rivals, while other Lizardfolk simply seek to secure their own future with strength of arms and the aid of trusted allies rather than continue to place their faith in ambiguous prophecies and devious spirit-wranglers.

Of all the races, perhaps those closest to the Lizardfolk are the Yuan-Ti of Yuhn’kaan the Bright Lord, a sect of Humanity who remained loyal to the Lizardfolk and were transformed by a mighty Couatl who had come to rest on Mant’ana into a race of serpent-folk to combat the machinations of Dendar the Night Serpent, and the Elves of Kheva, who have ever shared a love of and respect for the natural world. Lizardfolk generally regard Dwarves, Humans and other races who constantly seek to bring nature under their heel with concern and trepidation, either considering them blind children, heedless of the harm they will leave for future generations to deal with, or simply a new wave of barbarians howling at the gates and waiting for the Lizardfolk to lower their guard one more time …

Mant'ana Lizardfolk Traits

Constitution +2, Wisdom +1, Darkvision, Natural Armor (12), Natural Attack (Bite 1d4), Hold Breath (15 minutes), Environmental Adaptation (Extreme Heat), Vulnerability (Cold), Skill Proficiency (Athletics), Skill Proficiency (History or Nature or Religion or Survival)

+2 Constitution

+2 to their Constitution.

+1 Wisdom

+1 to Wisdom.

Darkvision

Darkvision: You can see in Dim Light within 60 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.

Hold Breath

Hold Breath: You can hold your breath for 15 minutes, or 150 rounds of combat.

Environmental Adaptation: Extreme Heat.

You are considered to be adapted to hot climates when the DM applies the effects of Extreme Heat, but you do not possess actual resistance to Fire damage.

When the temperature is at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a creature exposed to the heat and without access to drinkable water must succeed on a Constitution saving throw at the end of each hour or gain one level of exhaustion. The DC is 5 for the first hour and increases by 1 for each additional hour. Creatures wearing medium or heavy armor, or who are clad in heavy clothing, have disadvantage on the saving throw. Creatures with resistance or immunity to fire damage automatically succeed on the saving throw, as do creatures naturally adapted to hot climates.

Vulnerability (Cold)

You possess Vulnerability to Cold damage.

Natural Armor

When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.

Natural Attack

Your jaws are filled with sharp teeth which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4+ your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

Skill Proficiencies

Skill Proficiency: Lizardfolk are proficient in Athletics. Lizardfolk are also proficient in one of the following Skills: History, Nature, Religion or Survival. Lizardfolk are naturally physically adept, and many of them are skilled in knowledge of how to survive in the untamed wilderness that now dominates the world, while entire Tribes are dedicated to the preservation and reclamation of their history and heritage.