Homebrew Yggdraw Species Details
The Yggdraw are almost always made rather than bred, as an exact science isn't recorded for their reproduction, while there are methods to creating them artificially. It requires a talented hand and some extra chaos, and Yggdraw often maintain a respect and commitment to the creator. Yggdraws are often made for selfish purposes rather than the love of life, as their very unique shapeshifting properties allow them to become amazing assets to whoever they are loyal to. Loyalty from them can be earned as well, as they will respect beings that they deem worthy and keep bonds to those which remain useful. It requires a lot of will and concentration to maintain these abilities.
Yggdraw Traits
Yggdraw do not come with many abilities, but the ones they have are powerful enough to compensate.Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 3, and 1 other ability score of your choice decreases by 1.
Age
Yggdraw mature at approximately 1 week after creation, fully gaining their racial abilities and neutral physical form. There is no recorded instance of an Yggdraw dying of old age, and the science behind them support the inability to die from age, so the common sentiment is that they are functionally immortal.
Alignment
Yggdraw have the innate senses to be Neutral Evil, doing whatever it takes to survive through selfishness. This isn't usually the case, however, as their formative week with their creator determines their alignment, general sentiments, and bonds.
Size
Yggdraw are generally Medium in size, standing at approximately 5 feet and weighing about 120 pounds. They can be created at different sized depending on the methods of creation, though, varying from Small to Large.
Speed
An Yggdraw's base walking speed is 30 feet in their neutral state. Shapeshifting changes this to the target's speed.
Shapeshifting
Yggdraw have the innate ability to shapeshift into creatures and objects from size class Large to Tiny. Neither their neutral state nor shapeshifted state are seen as magical. Yggdraw become the creature/object down to the last detail, excluding mental stats. They act, talk, flicker, or hum exactly as the creature/object would indistinguishable from the original. The hit points of the new form are determined by the percentage of hit points they had before transforming, and losing hitpoints transfers between neutral state and shapeshifted state in a similar fashion, for example starting with 10/20 hp and shifing into an 80 hp entity would leave you with 40/80 hp.
Entering and leaving this state requires a full action, but leaving may also be achieved through losing all hit points of the shapeshifted form. They may use this feature any number of times they want. If an Yggdraw were to be taken out of their shapeshift unwillingly through any means, most commonly through HP loss, they gain a level of exhaustion.
All physical abilities of the target are available for use, with any applicable cooldowns coming with them. Mental and Magical abilities from the target are unavailable, while Mental and Magical abilities from the neutral Yggdraw are still usable as long as they are castable from the chosen shapeshift (no mouth, no verbal components).
Memory Bank
The knowledge required to shapeshift into a being comes either from touching the thing and absorbing the knowledge of it for long enough, or the more advanced technique of using other's memories.
Touching a creature or object to learn it means that it is usable forever and can be used indefinitely, however you may only store a number of things this way equal to your player level + 1.
Drawing from someone's mind requires either a willing participant or a DC 16 Wisdom save for them to block you out. Shapeshifting using this method is only available once per source.
Languages
Yggdraw are able to understand their creator, regardless of their spoken language, but do not innately know any language. Yggdraws learn their first language very quickly, mastering it within days. Creators will almost always teach an Yggdraw a language upon creation. Subsequent languages are far less easy, but still relatively simple to learn, giving a large versatility and adaptiveness.