Homebrew variant changeling Species Details

Changelings are commonly known to be friendly and welcoming in their societies, but some changelings that moved in from the outside might be afraid or hold a grudge against members of the common folk, based on personal experiences in their lives. Outsiders who are not used to changeling society might be afraid based on what they have heard, due to the prejudices held against the changelings, or hold a grudge, based on their experiences and are likely to mistake friendliness as false safety. Changelings also tend to ask a bit too personal questions, because they like to share with each other what kind of transformations, looks or behaviors they prefer to use and what transformations and behaviors they have tried out before.

Members of races that are not capable of shape-changing but still live in changeling communities long term are mostly called "permanents" due to their tendency to stick to doing the same job, living in the same place, and having slowly changing personalities. In regards to food, changelings' cooking tends to be a very common topic of exchange. In general, changelings preferer cooked meat to enhance the taste of it, followed by cooked veggies, as these fit many changelings taste buds while also being easier to digest. Due to this, their society has developed a number of different meat centred recipes on how to cook and spice it along with what dishes go the best with it.

Changelings are one of the few races that can have offspring with other compatible humanoid races, and in such cases, the changeling blood will be dominant and a changeling with uncommon traits will be born. Strangely, however, changelings tend to be less interested in the raising of their own young and develop a strong interest in taking care of the newborns of other races. If such an urge becomes overwhelming, a changeling mother might give in to the temptation and swap out her own child with that of a mother of another race. When such a swap occurs, the changeling baby instinctually takes on the form of the child of the other race. This transformation tends to be so strong that, besides reaching maturity, only death can revert it. Because many races view such an act as evil, changelings have a hard time finding work outside of their close-knit groups, sometimes forcing them to resort to mercenary work or other questionable methods of income.

Often the replacement with the changeling baby won't be noticed until they reach the 15th year of age when the young changeling's ability to shapeshift switches from instinctive to conscious control in a matter of minutes. As a consequence of this, and not being used to keep the transformation up by them selfs, the changeling child reverts to their true form. This moment is usually referred to as the "turnout" and is associated with a young changeling's discovery of shapeshifting and becoming a true changeling. But because changelings are very social beings and don't seek to leave their family or friends, it is understandable that in most cases, turnouts result in a very traumatic experience for them, and for the whole family in general. Often this leads to the young changeling being outcasted by their former family, if nothing worse.

Not knowing where to go, and what to seek for to learn about their origin, these outcasted children tend to go to and join changeling societies, where they are first considered outsiders until they learn more about themselves. However, sometimes these changelings don't turn to changeling societies and instead decide to remain in the place they were raised, despite the contempt they might now receive in their environment after their turnout. There are also cases known where the real child of a family returns home, and willingly or not, exposes the false child as being a changeling. After such an event happens, the changeling child would again be kicked out of the house, but rarely the parents choose to raise both children as their own.

Due to all the uncertainties changeling youth faces, it is not uncommon to find at least one young changeling in an orphanage. However, the changeling, as a race, are aware that this behavior of child-swapping can't stay a part of their culture forever, but fighting against your own nature is infinitely harder than most other things in life. Because of this, most changeling societies have set up some form of childcare system, where instinct-driven mothers can hand over their children to be raised by others until they are ready to take them back again if the instinctual drive weakens later. Progress has been slow, but the advent of such childcare systems has made it so that the cases of child swapping or child thievery by changelings are slowly going down with each passing year.

variant changeling Traits

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Ability Score Increase.

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

age

Changelings reach maturity within the 15th year of life and can reach ages of 70 to 90 years under good circumstances.

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.

Shapechanger.

As an action, you can polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid you have seen before, or back into your true form. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race and decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, the sound of your voice, coloration, hair length and any other distinguishing characteristics. Transforming into someone else doesn't grant you their wisdom, knowledge or manners. Your statistics, other than your size, are the same in each form. Any equipment you are wearing or carrying isn't transformed. your basic shape stays the same. If you rouse suspicion, or if a wary creature suspects something is amiss, you have advantage on any Charisma (Deception) check you make to avoid detection. You revert to your true form if you die or lose consciousness by any means

Body Augments

When you use your Shapeshifter trait to transform you can augment your transformation in one of the following ways:
• You web your hands and feet gaining a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.
• You strengthen and harden a part of your form to turn it into a natural weapon such as claws, fangs, horns or other similar features. Unarmed strikes with this feature deal piercing, slashing or bludgeoning damage, appropriate to the feature, equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.
• You create a membrane between your arms and body that gives you the effects of the feather fall spell

born liar

due to your natural tendency to lie you gain proficiency in the deception skill

Languages.

you can read write and speak common and 2 other languages of your choice based on your personas