Homebrew Buldur Species Details
“It's the Rocks! Stay away from the Rocks! They're all alive, They have eyes and see all! They pretend to be dead, then when you look away they eat your head!”
Despite popular belief; Buldurs are not, in fact, living rocks. They have a thick calcified skin that resembles stone, and can voluntarily petrify themselves to wait for their crops to grow, or for their prey to unknowingly approach them. Patience is a natural aspect of Buldur society, and have learnt to passively allow life to carry on around them, whilst they sleep in their petrified shell.
Rotund and blocky.
The buldur exhibit a variety of body shapes, all of which are short, wide, and resemble rocks. Their Stony skin can form in lumps unevenly on their body to better mimic the stones they often hide as, and can be altered by spending many years petrified in the desired shape. Buldur fashion can incorporate clothing and jewelry if there is sufficient influences from other races, however it is more common among the buldur to express fashion through their body shape, and the texture of their stony skin; which changes to match whatever rocks or minerals the buldur sleeps on.
Patience and detachment
Naturaly, the buldur use their ability to petrify themselves to their advantage: If they need to wait for crops to grow, or game to pass them at a watering hole, or for a forest to rejuvenate, they can simply sleep in their stone shell whilst they wit for time to give them what they need. They can sleep through harsh winters, years of drought and famine, or sleep inside flooded homes whilst they wait for the water to recede. Time has less meaning to the buldur, and have adapted to simply letting it pass them by. As a consequence they form less attachments to things and people, knowing that they might go to sleep and waking to a world where that thing or person has been lost to time. Some buldur see this as a good thing: allowing them to live in the moment, go to sleep, and wake into a new and exciting world with new people to meet and new places to explore. For a buldur to voluntarily spend years of their (relatively) short lives in short stretch of time is unusual, but does happen when the particular buldur becomes attached to something with short expiration, like a loved one from another race, or a culture at an interesting point in its history.
Small communities
Buldur do not build kingdoms, they mostly live on their own, or with a handful of their own kind. they are independent and self sufficient by nature, but can form 'families' that live and rest together. A 'clan' might form around a shared gathering place, where buldur from the surrounding area gather to share tales, give birth, educate the recently matured, and form new families. As the other races grow and develop around them, some far thinking buldur might recruit their fellows into long term projects to protect their clans, or give them an advantage in dealing with these other races. This might be a mighty wall to protect their clan site, a forest to cultivate and harvest for comerce, or redirect the flow of water to create new lakes and rivers, where their clan site is ideally placed for trade or defense. Industrious buldur might accumulate treasure, with which they can hire the other races, go to sleep, and wake to enjoy the fruits of their hirelings labor, or from their hirelings descendants.
Names: Buldur will often choose their own names after maturing; selecting from something they can see in their surrounding. However buldurs see their names as impermanent as the lands around them, and might periodically chose new names.
Buldur Traits
Your buldur character has an assortment of inborn abilities, owing to your buldur nature.Stone Camouflage
You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in rocky terrain.
You take the colour of the rocks and minerals you complete a long rest on.
Stone Skin
You have tough, calcified skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Constitution 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.
Stone Shell
Your skin hardens and calcifies; as an a action, and until dispelled, you become petrified, but are aware of your surroundings with a tremor sense of 10 ft. You gain a +1 bonus to AC. This can be repeated once per turn to gain a maximum of +5 AC, at which point you are fully encased and become immune to falling damage, however anything you collide with still takes damage.
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Wisdom increases by 1.
Age
Buldur mature in a comatose state for the first few decades of life, emerging fully formed physically, if not mentally, As such many Buldur do not count this stage when considering their age, and will instead cite the time they finished maturing as their 'birth'. The lifespan of the Buldur is technically 60 years after maturation, however they do not age whilst petrified, so their effective life span can be millennia.
Alignment
Most Buldur are neutral. They are a patient race, spending much of their time in a petrified form, and have learnt to live within the entropy of life.
Size
Buldur stand between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 200 pounds, they are rotund, and can be nearly as wide as they are tall. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Darkvision
Accustomed to life underground, 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 Terran.
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