Homebrew Oni Species Details

Oni are a type of ogre from the far east. They have hulking, well-muscled bodies and typically have one or more horns growing out of their heads. Their eyes are as black as the abyss with the exception of their irises, which can be almost any color, although white is the most common. Their skin is normally red or blue or green, and their hair is always either white or black. They are proud of their strength, and enjoy showing off their muscular forms. Because of this, they despise wearing excessive clothing, favoring loincloths and simple bandages for modesty's sake. While oni are far more intelligent than the ogres and trolls of western lands, and can therefore be reasoned with, most of them are still cruel at heart. They delight in crushing weak humanoids in their terrible grip, and pulverizing them with their favored weapon, which takes the form of an iron greatclub known as a kanabo.

Mistaken Identity

Oni are commonly mistaken for spirits due to their inclinations toward spellcasting, and are referred to more accurately as "ogre mages" by westerners who have had the misfortune of encountering them. Oni love inspiring fear in weaker creatures, and the spells that they prefer to cast work very well towards that goal. Young and inexperienced oni only take advantage of a fraction of the magical prowess they could harness, casting simple spells like darkness on occasion. However, older, more seasoned oni who have taken the time to learn a variety of spells make for terrifying opponents, using invisibility, flight, sleeping enchantments, and the power to create gusts of freezing wind to cripple and overwhelm their enemies. Even when an oni finds itself in a tight spot, older veterans will turn into mist in order to mount an escape.

Magical Obsession

While oni certainly revel in the power granted by their spells, the allure of arcane might is nigh irresistible to an oni. Oni will go to great lengths to acquire magical items and scrolls, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles away from their lairs on just the rumor of a powerful magical item surfacing somewhere.  Sometimes, if an oni is confident enough in its superiority, it will simply attack wandering groups of adventurers in an attempt to overwhelm them and steal their magical items. It is, however, more common for oni to stick to the shadows and stalk a party of adventurers, waiting until they are weak or tired before picking them apart with stealth attacks, and ambush strikes. Wandering oni who prefer a life of adventure will take on almost any job aside from a completely suicidal endeavor on the promise of a sufficiently powerful magical item as a reward, frequently pledging themselves in service of liches, dragons, or other demons who possess a wealth of magical items.

Lifestyle of Debauchery

Nearly all oni are prime examples of pride, cruelty, brutishness, and self-gratification. Though their reputations paint them as crafty, conniving, and single-minded in their desire to kill and steal, that is only part of a larger truth perpetuated by the lucky few who manage to survive an oni encounter. Oni will take any chance they can get to enjoy worldly pleasures, pilfering fine linens, freshly cooked food, and alcohol, for which they have a deep thirst. They especially love rice wine, known in the east as sake. While oni are typically solitary creatures, rarely living in groups of more than two or three, they are known to occasionally gather for raucous parties known as "omatsuri" or "ogre festivals." When word spreads to an oni about the coming of an omatsuri, they will happily travel hundreds of miles to join in the festivities. There seems to be no specific date on which these parties occur, but they are most frequently reported in early spring.

An omatsuri can sometimes consist of hundreds of oni, who sing, dance, drink themselves stupid, and feast to their hearts content on stolen cattle, game animals, and any humanoids unlucky enough to be discovered in the secluded mountain locations that the festivals usually occur in. Violence between oni during an omatsuri is strictly forbidden, and any oni who instigate violence or attacks another oni during the festival have their horns sawed off and are exiled in shame. Humanoids are especially wary the night after an omatsuri, as the entire area will be swarming with hungover and cranky oni who would love nothing more than to ease their headaches by dining on an unsuspecting humanoid.

 

 

Oni Traits

Your oni character has the following traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 4, but your Dexterity and Wisdom scores are decreased by 2.

Age

Oni reach adulthood at the age of 18, and can live up to 800 years.

Alignment

Oni are proud, brutish and cunning creatures who enjoy tormenting those they consider weak. As such, they are almost universally evil, with very few exceptions. Whether they are lawful, neutral, or chaotic evil is a matter of circumstance based on an oni's personal priorities.

Size

Oni can be any anywhere from 10 to 13 feet tall, and usually weigh between 1400 and 2000 lbs. Your size is Large.

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.

Fearsome Visage

Once per day as a free action, you can transform your face into a that of a true demon. Your eyes become black pits with a single burning point of light in each, curved tusks sprout from your upper and lower mouth as your lips peel away to reveal two rows of wicked fangs, and the defining lines of your face become more jagged and pronounced. Transforming your face allows you to treat a single roll you make for the purposes of an intimidation check to be treated as a 20. If the roll you make for your intimidation check is a 20 when you use this ability, that target also becomes afraid of you for 1 minute after you decide you are finished interacting with it, and you gain advantage on future intimidation checks you make against that target for the next 24 hours. This transformation lasts for 1 minute, or until you choose to return your face to its normal appearance. Reverting your face to its normal appearance does not cause an intimidation check you succeeded on through use of this ability to retroactively fail, nor does it end the fear affect on a target to end prematurely if you succeeded by rolling a 20.

Greatclub Master

No self-respecting oni goes into battle with a sword, axe, or bow. When it comes to fighting, oni love nothing more than to smash their foes, crushing bone and sinew beneath the might of their studded iron greatclubs. These greatclubs are called kanabo, or tetsubo if they are studded with iron but crafted mainly from wood. As an oni, you have proficiency with the greatclub, and you do an additional 1d8 damage with any greatclub you use. However, weapon attacks you make with any other melee weapon are made with disadvantage.

Wicked Claws

When fighting without their kanabo or tetsubo, and oni would sooner use their claws than rely on a sword, axe or bow. Your claw attack does damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier.

Natural Invisibility

While there are extensive rumors of oni being inherently capable of using a variety of spells, in truth oni only have one natural spell that they can cast. Beginning at 1st level, you can become invisible as per the Greater Invisibility spell. You may use this ability once per day, and regain the use of this ability each day at dawn.

Languages

As an oni, you speak common, giant, and one language of your choice.