Homebrew Merfolk Species Details

Merfolk tribes and kingdoms span the world, and their people are as varied in color, culture, and outlook as the human races of the surface. Land folk and merfolk rarely meet except by chance, though starry-eyed mariners tell tales of romance with these creatures along the shoals of faraway islands.

Merfolk lack the materials and practical means to forge weapons beneath the waves, to write books and keep lore, or to shape stone to raise buildings and cities. As a result, most live in small hunter-gatherer tribes, each of which holds unique values and creeds. Only occasionally do merfolk unite under the rule of a single leader. They do so to face a common threat or to complete a conquest. Such unifications can be the beginning of undersea kingdoms with dynasties lasting hundreds of years.

Merfolk Settlements.

Merfolk build their settlements in vast undersea caverns, mazes of coral, the ruins of sunken cities, or structures they carve from the rocky seabed. They live in water shallow enough that the passage of time can be marked by the gleam and fade of sunlight through the water. In the reefs and trenches near their settlements, merfolk harvest coral and farm the seabed, shepherding schools of fish as land-based farmers tend sheep. Only rarely do merfolk venture into the darkest depths of the ocean. In such depths and in their undersea caverns, merfolk rely on the light of bioluminescent flora and fauna, such as jellyfish, whose slow pulsing movements lend merfolk settlements an otherworldly aesthetic.

Merfolk defend their communities with spears crafted from whatever materials they can salvage from shipwrecks, beaches, and dead undersea creatures.

Merfolk Traits

Your merfolk character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength, Constitution, Dexterity and Charisma scores each increase by 1.

Age

Merfolk reach maturity around age 15 and can live up to 200 years.

Alignment

Merfolk tend toward neutral. As tribes living on their own, they rarely care about the outer world.

Size

Merfolk are the same size humans, except for their long fishtail. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 10 feet, and you have a swimming speed of 40 feet. Whenever you are on land you are always prone

Amphibious

You can breathe air and water.

Merfolk weapon training

As child of the sea, you are proficient with Tridents and Spears.

Natural Armor

You have tough, scaly fish skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 13 + 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.

Darvision

Accustomed to the lack of light underwater, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Aquan (Primordial).