Homebrew Koloss Species Details

The koloss are a bestial race of creatures on Scadrial, created by the Lord Ruler through the use of Hemalurgy. During the time of the Lord Ruler, koloss serve as a powerful, fiercely loyal army to him. The koloss are physically very large and very powerful. Koloss have blue skin and red eyes. A full sized koloss could grow to be as tall as twelve feet.

A young koloss has as much skin as it would come to have in its later life. Because of this, the younger a koloss is, the fatter they appear, due to having too much baggy skin covering themselves. The skin itself doesn't hold terribly firmly to the koloss' body. As the koloss grow taller, their skin tears and fits tightly to them. A koloss ancient will have little to no skin at all, being covered instead in leather wrappings. When a koloss reaches about twelve feet, their hearts can no longer sustain their bodies, and they die shortly thereafter.

Hemalurgic Constructs

Like Steel Inquisitors and kandra, koloss are created through a brutal Hemalurgic process. To create a koloss, four humans are stabbed with individual iron spikes through their heart, and these spikes are then placed strategically on to a fifth person. Once placed, the spikes turn the recipient into a koloss very quickly.

The addition of four spikes containing the strength and a portion of the spiritweb of four other people causes them to grow in physical strength far beyond human limits as well as making it possible for them to continue growing in size until they can no longer physically support their own bodies and their hearts give out. The four spikes also have the effect of reducing their intelligence to almost that of a basic animal. These spikes can be reused, however they are subject to Hemalurgic decay, meaning that the power in the spikes diminishes with each re-use, which allows for more of the koloss' humanity to remain.

When a koloss dies, other koloss in the vicinity attempt to collect and reuse the spikes from the dead one. This results in the koloss being able to reproduce in a manner of speaking, provided that they have someone to receive the spikes.

Koloss Abilities

The only real powers in a koloss' arsenal are superhuman strength, and increased size. However, this comes at a price. Koloss in the Final Empire are nowhere near as intelligent as they were as humans. However, they still retain the faint ability to reason, and the ability to communicate, and the re-use of spikes from dead koloss to create more resulted in koloss that retained more of their former humanity.

Allomancers who are transformed into koloss will retain their Allomantic abilities, though they may not necessarily retain the knowledge to use those abilities.

Koloss Culture

Because of their diminished intelligence, the Final Empire-era koloss live in barbaric tribes. Usually, social standing is determined by age, because as the koloss ages, they get larger and more powerful.

Koloss are said to have two emotional states: boredom and rage. Because of this, their day to day lives are filled with milling about and fighting. When there is nothing else to fight near them, the koloss turn to in-fighting. Their blades are distributed as a means of population control, as well as weaponry. If a koloss doesn't have a sword, they will have to kill another koloss and take theirs. If there is an extra, they can make a human into a koloss.

Most of the killing within a tribe is done solely on a whim, usually to get something the other koloss owns, or because some random glance or act has enraged one of the koloss.

Koloss Names 

Because koloss have minimal intelligence and are created from humans, they typically do not use names but retain their human names to the extent that they are intelligent enough to remember a means of identification. Most humans in the area have names stemming from French or German origins.

Koloss Traits

Koloss share a number of similar traits.

Hemalurgic Fury

When making a melee attack, if you or your target is missing any hit points, you may take 1d6 psychic damage to deal 1d6 additional damage on a hit. This damage is of the same type your melee attack would already deal.

Age

Koloss grow swiftly and usually do not live more than a few decades after being spiked, as their hearts cannot support their massive size as they grow.

Alignment

Koloss are often not sophisticated enough for concepts of morality, but tend towards chaos due to their combative nature.

Size

Adult koloss are between 8 and 12 feet tall and weigh 300 to 400 pounds. Your size is Large.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak broken Common. You can't read or write.

Ability Score Changes

You get +4 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +3 Constitution, -4 Intelligence, and -3 Wisdom.

Leathery Hide

You add your constitution modifier to your armor class.

Terrifying Visage

Whenever you deal damage to a creature with a melee weapon attack, that creature is frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Once this effect wears off, that creature cannot be frightened of you for the rest of this encounter.