Homebrew Xvart Species Details

Xvarts are a race of small, blue-skinned, black-haired, orange-eyed, goblin-like and wholly redundant humanoids who snuck into the canon by way of the Fiend Folio's backdoor. They started in White Dwarf #9's Fiend Factory as the "Svarf" until (probably) Peyo's lawyers told them "try again". Greyhawk plunked them into the Bandit Kingdoms region, the rubbish tip of the Flanaess. They can more or less be described as "goblins, but smarter, cleaner, and not as evil" - despite the fact they're supposed to be Chaotic Evil and, in fact, they're no more related to goblinoids than kobolds are.

Tribal by nature, xvarts have little interest in fighting humanoids, who they consider bigger and scarier than they are, and will normally avoid conflict with humanoids unless starvation or the depredations of adventurers gives them a cause to make raids on human settlements, or something bigger and nastier has come along and forced them to do its bidding. They do look down on kobolds and like to kick them around to feel bigger, however. Dwelling in deep, remote forests or underground caves, xvarts will fight to protect their own against other humanoids, but aren't known to war with themselves, unlike goblins. Furthermore, their lairs tend to be well-patrolled and surprisingly clean - especially compared to the typical goblin's squalor.

Xvarts worship Raxivort, a fiendish demipower who created them and who claims dominion over rats and bats. As a result, they have the ability to speak to these animals and so their lairs tend to feature them as allies, especially giant or dire variants thereof. They consider the rat and bat strains of lycanthropy to be holy blessings, and so are often allies for wererats and werebats that happen to share their territories.

Xvarts appear in one mountainous area around Baldur's Gate

Xvart Traits

Your goblin character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age

Goblins reach adulthood at age 8 and live up to 60 years.

Alignment

Goblins are typically neutral evil, as they care only for their own needs. A few goblins might tend toward good or neutrality, but only rarely.

Size

Goblins are between 3 and 4 feet tall and weigh between 40 and 80 pounds. Your size is Small.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

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.

Fury of the Small

When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell and the creature’s size is larger than yours, you can cause the attack or spell to deal extra damage to the creature. The extra damage equals your level. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Nimble Escape

You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Goblin.