Homebrew Oakling Species Details

Oaklings are strong and clever, but their frigid personalities often alienate them from others.

— Volo

Survival is of primary concern to an oakling, and they are seldom known to be self-sacrificing or precocious. Unlike most plant and tree-like creatures, oaklings are not bound to the forest in any way. Instead of getting a feeling of comfort being close to nature, they feel crowded and uneasy. Though many find this race to be sinister and alien, oaklings are not necessarily evil and find no benefit in angering other sentient beings. They simply find it difficult to relate to the concepts of sympathy and sentiment; seeing no advantage in preserving useless historical relics, common nonsentient plants and animals, or keeping anything that cannot be put to good use.

 

Physical Description

Oaklings have long, tree-like appendages with two arms that end in three to six spindly fingers and a thumb. Their legs end in rooty clumps. The oakling’s grayish-brown, bark-covered torso is much like a tree trunk; round and uniform. From their backs and shoulders sprout branches that meander off several feet above their total height (making them appear even taller). The heads of the oaklings are simple wooden orbs. However, their faces are composed of an intricate pattern of green oakish leaves that form an impressive mane. The leaf mane hides the oakling’s thin neck and generally makes its head appear quite a bit larger than it is. An oakling’s face is a rather plastic and emotionless mockery of humanity. They also have solid dark blue expressionless eyes. Many find the face of an oakling even more unnerving than that of an obitu.

Oaklings have a male and female gender; females being slightly more slender and having muscle nodules that resemble breasts. Gender is also expressed through their leaf-faces. Male oaklings have more masculine faces and many more leaves than the females. Their apparently intentional resemblance to mammalian races is something of a mystery to sages who study them. Many feel this is because they may have dryad ancestry.

Oaklings smell of leaves and fresh cut wood, making them fairly difficult to track by scent in woodland environments. Their voices are reminiscent of sawing wood; harsh and grinding with a hint of creaking wood when they shout or yell.

Society

Oaklings are plants which lack the same internal organs common to other organisms. In fact, they lack most organs entirely, having only a crude digestive, circulatory, and nervous system— similar to those found in invertebrates. A cross section of oakling flesh reveals a sponge-like inner structure that maintains many functions at once. Oaklings have no bones, hearts, brains, lungs, or other such internal features as non-plant creatures know them. The skin of an oakling, with the exception of their faces, is a pliable grey-brown bark which is in a perpetual state of growing, drying, and peeling. Their “blood” is a sticky yellow sap that becomes brittle when exposed to air. Oaklings eat and drink much like any other creature (through their mouths), though they lack a refined palate and will consume just about any organic material, preferring food that is high in nitrates. They enjoy sunning themselves regularly and derive some nourishment from that as well.

Oaklings reproduce much like plants. The female is pollinated once in her life via facial contact with the male and begins to sprout several fruit from her shoulder branches. When ripened, these pale blue acorns are buried in fertile soil and will sprout within two weeks. Oakling sprouts look much like any other tree sapling and do not develop their distinguishing and mobile features until they are nearly an adult, about 2 decades later.

Seedlings are often and deliberately planted near civilized areas so that they may observe and learn. When they “spring to life” they often have a great deal of information about the area they were planted in—the fruit of 20 years of uninterrupted and unfiltered observation. While a bit unsure of their movements and slightly awkward in speech, the newly mobile oaklings have many years to learn, as they live for centuries. When faced with the cause of survival, oaklings are relentless— often shocking others with chillingly logical maneuvers which rarely give remorse or sympathy a second thought. They prefer open spaces; fields and small towns especially. Oaklings often view large cities the same as they view forests—over-crowded. Unlike most nature-folk, the oaklings are not conservationists. Some would call them cruel and heartless; though they seldom do anything for the sake of pleasure or sport. In actuality, they are coldly neutral, preferring to side with their own well-being over that of others. Cool logic pervades an oakling’s mind, expressing any emotion weakly compared to other races. One aspect that redeems the oakling is its clear logic and wisdom. While in it for strictly selfish reasons—something they are quite up front about—they also believe in sharing the benefits. Oaklings understand the worth of powerful allies and that even though they do not share the same sentiment, other races will feel indebted to them for the execution of good deeds. This will drive oaklings to perform many seemingly charitable services, thus improving the overall bad reputation of their race.

Relations with Other Races

Oaklings get along well with all industrious races, especially dwarves, humans, and half-orcs. Any race willing to work rationally in order to get something done will be looked upon favorably by an oakling. Conversely, they are often at odds with gnomes, elves, and halflings. The oakling disfavor with these races is mutual. Elves especially expect a plant creature to behave a certain way, and oaklings are unwilling to meet those expectations.

Roleplaying an Oakling

Oakling player characters can be bold pioneers, inventing their own paths, their own history, and their own unique traditions.

Perhaps they are an ancient race of dryads who starkly split from the wilds to pursue earthly gain. Or maybe they are simply highly evolved plants from a forgotten time, resurrected accidentally by some quirk of nature. Another possibility is that oaklings were the result of an experiment gone awry—an attempt to blend man and plant.

Whatever the case, the oakling will make a welcomed addition to any game as a representative of the plant kingdom, an unusual option for the player seeking something different, a challenge for the player who has played everything, or just a good match for those that like to cast aside humanity for a little while and see things from a different angle.

Oakling Personality Traits

d6	Personality Trait
1	I enjoy looking at examples of woodworking.
2	I've lived for centuries and marvel at how little has changed.
3	I trim my leaves into stylish shapes.
4	I equate the death of plants and creatures.
5	I carve symbols or images into my bark to intimidate my enemies.
6	I eat any organic material I can find when I'm hungry.

Oakling Ideals

d6	Ideal
1	Survival. Kill or be killed. (Neutral)
2	Progress. To live is to grow, that is the way of things. (Any)
3	Cruelty. You wish for mercy, ask someone with a heart. (Evil)
4	Cultivation. I care for those around me like flowers in a garden. (Good)
5	Evolution. The gods work too slowly, nothing should hamper the growth of my race. (Chaotic)
6	Reason. Emotions can't sway me from the logic of natural order. (Lawful)

Oakling Bonds

d6	Bond
1	I want to spend as little time as possible in large forests or large cities.
2	Every year, I travel to the spot where I was planted.
3	I care for saplings I find in my travels, any of them could be a newborn Oakling.
4	Strong allies deserve my loyalty.
5	I do good deeds so that others will feel indebted to me.
6	I save the treasure I find to help start a prosperous farm.

Oakling Flaws

d6	Flaw
1	I have great difficulty understanding emotions, even my own.
2	I disregard weak creatures as unimportant.
3	I will not risk my own survival for anything.
4	I think civilization should replace the wild and unruly places of the world.
5	I take too much pleasure in relaying the tortured screams of plants to creatures who can't understand them.
6	I'm deeply unsettled by the idea of creatures touching faces together in public, as my reproduces that way.

Oakling Names

Male Names: Brawnheart, Burlyroot, Deathshade, Doomtree, Fastleaf, Grimfoot, Hard-head, Iron-bark, Nimble-limb, Oakhammer, Stone-eyes, Strong-branch, Swiftbeam

Female Names: Deeproot, Flitterleaves, Greenbud, Keen-eyes, Mudfoot, Red-thorn, Silverleaf, Snowbark, Tangle-branch, Townsprout, Willowheart, Wise-root, Woodsong.

Oakling Traits

Your oakling character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2, your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age

Oaklings reach adulthood after spending about two decades as a planted seedling and can live for centuries afterwards.

Alignment

It is important to note that despite their frigidly rational tendencies, oaklings are not evil creatures. They do not take pleasure in killing, nor do most feel that deception and corruption are logical paths. While they lack sympathy, they also lack malice. This puts them coarsely on the neutral path. 

Size

Oaklings are usually over 7 feet tall and weigh between 280 and 340 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Photosynthesis

Oaklings do require sleep, although most sleep standing up, and require water and to ingest food but can gain limited nutrients from the sun. An oakling can gain 1 full meal of nutrition if it’s stayed at least an hour in natural sunlight. An oakling could arguably live on only sunlight and water if it’s movement is limited.

Rooted foot

Oaklings have advantage against trip, push or maneuvers that would shift their position

Plant Language

You can speak to and be understood by plants.  This ability gives no control over the plants, requiring persuasion or intimidation to influence them, and there are limits on what information they're likely to have about the world due to their radically different system of reference and values.

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language.