Homebrew Dila Species Details

"I realized humans close resemblance to walnuts the day our captain decided to fight the chieftain dila of the dila tribe that settled just outside our city walls. The chieftain, towering at least 2 feet above the captain, didn't seem to feel the longsword piercing its side, and calmly bent his head, placed his jaws around the captains head, and chrushed it with a loud, sickening crack. Seeing that put me off ever eating walnuts again. And fighting dilas."

-Gardoin Sartell, (fomer) cityguard

 Dilas are highly protective, and will viciously protect their territory, their tribe, their family, them selves... Well anything really. Dilas live to protect, and in lack of anything meaningful to protect may search far and wide for objects, places or creatures worthy of their guarding expertise.

Any one managing to approach a dila settlement without being perceived as a potential threat, will find surprisingly friendly creatures. They might live in heavily secured, remote and well hidden settlements, but they do enjoy tales of the world, and especially value information about animals, beasts and monsters.  

Just as scary as the dilas themselves are their habit of attracting monsters to the areas where they settle. The dilas are expert animal handlers, and easily establish a symbiotic relationship to nearby creatures, effectively keeping unwanted visitors at bay. Any areas renowned for high density of particularly nasty or dangerous creatures are not unlikely a result of a dila settlement nearby. 

Appearance

Dilas vary greatly in size, a dila low in the hierarchy may never pass more than 5 feet in height. The higher up the hierarchy the larger the dila, the biggest ones growing up to 9-10 feet in height, boasting 2 feet long jaws capable of crushing the skull of a large ox in one single bite. Muscular tails about as long as their height serves as another powerful weapon, though mainly used as defense against being attacked from behind. A whipping dila tail will easily knock over an attacker sneaking up from behind. 
They reach maturity at about 15, but will continue to grow for years after. the largest ones reach full size first at 40-50 years of age, and can live past 100. Dilas have thick, scaled skin, patterned in various amounts of grayish green, brown and black. Average size are within the range of 5-7 feet, weighing from 200 to 400 pounds. 

Loyal tribesfolk

Dilas does not enjoy travelling alone, and prefer the company of a tribe, no matter how small. Tribes within tribes are not unheard of, either due to tribes deciding to join forces, or one tribe overpowering another and later assimilating any survivors of the loosing tribe. 
They put great effort in naming their tribe, and create elaborate patterns to represent their tribe and its history. Tattooing or flat out carving these patterns and symbols into the skin is common. Semi-nomadic, they move to pursue better hunting grounds, larger monsters to help protect a growing tribe, or sometimes they migth agree to settle near cities, temples or villages to protect its residents. 
Most dilas outside dila community have a sense of "world protection", leaving the tribe and its kin to rid the world of dangers. Younger dilas not as high ranking as they would want may also leave, knowing they in most other communities will be regarded as outstanding guards and dangerous fighters (as opposed to being bullied by bigger dilas within their own tribe). 

Intimidating bass choir

Dilas are a vocal kind, and very fond of song and music. Their own singing is both a beautiful and intimidating experience. Dila song sounds somewhat like tunes made by a didgeridoo, and they will sing hitting frequencies so low its out of hearing range for most creatures. Their tunes are still perceivable, as rythmic vibrations searing through the listeners body.
As they attack, Dilas will bellow their lowest frequency calls, frightening anyone close enough to feel the vibrations of their call. A shield in a straight line from the dilas battlecall will if the conditions are right make a humming noise due to the powerful vibrations. 

 

 

Dila Traits

Dilas not only rely on brute force to win an encounter, they also on their general knowledge of different species and how to handle them.

Ability score Increase

Your Strength score increase by 2, and your Wisdom score increase by 1.

Symbiotic relationship

You instinctively understand how to handle tamed and to some extent wild animals, and you remember anything told you about any creature or animal. 
This gains you proficiency in Nature and Animal Handling, and advantage on all Animal Handling checks.

Jaw Snap

You open your wide jaws around your enemys head, arm, leg or other, and snap them violently together, causing one d8 bludgeoning damage. Unless your victim can succesfully roll a DEX check against your STR score, they are also grappled by your jaws. 

Healing hum

During a short rest, you sit down to hum a soothing tune for 15 minutes. As you vocal your deep, trembling hum, your body vibrates in dissonance. These vibrations stimulate wounds to heal, and grants you one extra d4 per hit dice you expend. Any creature being in skin to skin contact with you for the duration of the humming session will gain half the amount of extra healing points you gained using the additional d4(s).

Intimidating Bass

Once a day you can vocalize a battlecry, frightening any creature hostile to you within a radius of 40 feet. A creature immune to being frightened or intimidated, or bigger than medium in size will not be affected. 
Taking a heavy toll on your vocal cords, your voice is hoarse for the rest of the day, and you need a long rest before using this ability again. 

Tail whip

If anything moves within 5 feet behind you or attacks you from behind, you attempt to whip your tail to knock the assailant over. Make an ability check with your WIS (Perception) contesting the moving creatures DEX (Acrobatics) check. If the creature doesn't succeed it is knocked prone. 

Strings unattached

Your stocky build and big jaw makes the use of all kinds of bows difficult. Shortbow, longbow, crossbow and other similar weapons all have disadvantage on attack rolls, even if your class grants proficiency. Thrown weapons like javelins are more to your liking.