Homebrew Borahnox (v3) Species Details

Of the four great races of Alaveer, the Borahnox are by far the strangest. Despite their bizarre colonial bodies and even weirder sense of self (or lack thereof), they have flourished across Alaveer, founding countless great civilizations and leading the charge in art, culture, in science.  

Colonial Life

Any discussion of the Borahnox must start with their truly bizarre biology. As colonial organisms, each Borahnox "body" is merely a cluster of colonial worms operating a custom-grown wooden skeleton. Each individual, in turn, originates from a "Seedmind", a massive colony of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of worms living in a single gigantic tree, which will create new bodies and assign worms to them as serves its purposes. Each Borahnox body can be seen as less of an individual and more of an appendage, a pseudopod created by the Seedmind and sent out into the world to serve its purpose, only to be reintegrated once it has served its task.

This strange liquid sense of self has led some other races to assume Borahnox have a "hivemind", and that each Borahnox is psychically linked to every other Borahnox. This isn't the case, though from the outside it may seem as such. While each Borahnox body is created by the Seedmind for a specific task, it only receives new information from the Seedmind upon physically linking back with the Seedmind or with another Borahnox. In larger cities this may occur daily, but for Borahnox sent farther afield they might go weeks or even years without synchronizing. Occasionally a Borahnox might decide to never resynchronize, and go off to become a "Splinter Morph", a body that has willingly broke away from the will of its Seedmind to live out its own life. Some of these Splinter Morphs may even go on to start their own colonies, becoming Seedminds themselves.

The final piece of the Borahnox puzzle is their strange affinity with plants. Borahnox are thought to have originated as parasitic worms, that could cause plants to grow into forms that more easily allowed them to reproduce. This evolutionary quirk has carried over to the current day, in which Borahnox worms can spend time with any plant to cause it to grow into a new skeleton, a wooden frame that the colony of worms might puppet. While most Seedminds have their own preferences for all-purpose skeletons (thus leading most Borahnox originating in the same colony to look identical), individuals who spend more time afield may have countless custom-made additions to their skeletons, as they grow everything from new arms to entire second brains. 

 

Borahnox Names

The lack of self in larger colonies means that most Borahnox don't even bother giving themselves names. After all, if most of your consciousness is going to be in a different body tomorrow then why bother assigning anything to yourself? As such, most Borahnox will simply take any names that are given to them, as they find being given a nickname is easier than trying to explain the intricacies of their psychology. In rare cases though, some Splinter Morphs may choose to give themselves a name (a "splinter name"), followed by the accomplishment they feel was worthy of breaking away from the Seedmind in the first place (a "justification"). Most of these names tend to be very long and grandiose, so even Splinter Morphs frequently find themselves being given nicknames by members of other races. 

Splinter Name: Robakix, Slimakiz, Gwiazdax, Zlockz, Smuutekz, Lowcasks, Verenix, Wilka, Dysonix, Orzel, Woldra.

Justification: who realized there was more to life, who built a better mousetrap, who saw beyond the veil of sleep and time, who unlocked the secrets of fire and steel, who heard the roar of beasts, who played the first note of the song of the spheres, who was called to serve by those beyond, who is just tired of being told what to do you know?, who only wants money and power, who was born for something greater.

Borahnox (v3) Traits

Your Borahnox has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2, and either Wisdom or Intelligence increases by 1.

Age

Borahnox are functionally immortal as long as they keep resynchronizing with their Seedmind. The individual worms however have shorter lifespans, and a Borahnox that does not start self-reproducing will live only 10 years at most.

Alignment

Most Borahnox share the same alignment as their Seedminds, which tend towards cold neutrality and lawfulness. Splinter morphs however can tend towards any alignment, and frequently skew more chaotic.

Size

Most Borahnox stand between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 400 and 600 pounds. Your size is medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Primordial

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. You can carry an additional amount of supply equal to your constitution or strength modifier, whichever one is higher.

Modular Skeleton

Your skeleton is malleable, and may be rebuilt at will. During a long rest, as long as you have access to a large tree, large shrub, or other suitably woody plant, you may parasitize it and cause it to grow one of the following augmentations. You may only have one augmentation at a time.

• Pheremone Emitters - You have a gland that produces sweet scents with mild psychoactive effects. You have advantage on Persuasion and Deception checks. This does not affect creatures that cannot be charmed or creatures that cannot smell.
• Hexapod Limbs - Four additional legs grant you a climbing speed equal to half your walking speed and your walking speed increases by 10 feet.
• Bifurcated Mind - You grow a second head, and with it a second brain. When you are concentrating on a spell, you may attempt to cast another spell that requires concentration. If you do, make an intelligence saving throw against your own Spell Save DC. If you succeed, you can concentrate on both spells at once. If you fail, you lose concentration on the first spell and the second spell fails to be cast.
• Grappling Appendages - You have two additional appendages growing alongside your arms. As an action, you can use one of them to try to grapple a creature. Each one is also a natural weapon, which you can use to make an unarmed strike. If you hit with it, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. Immediately after hitting, you can try to grapple the target as a bonus action. These appendages can’t precisely manipulate anything and can’t wield weapons, magic items, or other specialized equipment.
• Carapace - Your skin in places is covered by a thick shell. You gain a +1 bonus to AC when you’re not wearing heavy armor.
• Crypsis - Your skeleton is covered with small hooks that allow you to affix small bits of detritus. You may spend ten minutes affixing bits of refuse and detritus to yourself. As long as you remain in the same environment as where you first affixed the detritus, you have advantage on stealth checks. In addition, while you remain motionless, you become indistinguishable from a large bush, small boulder, pile of trash, or another inanimate object appropriate to the environment.

Botanical Affinity

You have proficiency in the Nature skill.

Biological Immortality

Borahnox are notorious for being extremely hard to kill as long as they can be returned to a seedmind and at least one worm survives. When you die, as long as at least one of your worms remains in good condition, another creature can remove that worm. If that worm can be returned to a seedmind, and as long as that seedmind is willing, then you are returned to life with full hit points in a brand new body. The process is not flawless though. You lose one level upon being resurrected this way, as well as any memories or personality traits as chosen by the DM. In addition, for each week that passes since you died you lose an additional level. If enough weeks pass that you would be reduced to level 0 or lower upon being resurrected, then the worm dies and you cannot be resurrected in this manner.