Homebrew Dragon-scarred Armour Species Details

 

Dragon-scarred 

Dragon-scarred armours are a variant of animated armours. They tend to be dragonslayers or full-plated knights whose bodies were incinerated from Dragonfire. However, due to the intense magical energy coming from the Dragonfire. Their soul was 'cauterized' to the armour that they were wearing at the time. 

Living Metal

Animated armours are full sets of armour that can sometimes move and speak on their own, their various pieces of plating seemingly unburdened by gravity. While they have no physical presence inside them, they function just like a person in a full suit of armour. They can be moulded or cast to fit a certain race, being anything from small enough to comfortably fit a gnome to large enough to completely cover an orc. Their weight and size, as well as their design and material, are up to their creator. While metal is most often used, armours composed entirely of stone or animal skins are not uncommon. Magic is often used to bring the armour to life and keep it from falling apart.

Though they may not have any sensory organs whatsoever, magic ensures that they can perceive what is around them. They can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste just as well as a human can. They can speak as well, magic guiding their artificial consciousness. Their armour acts as their skin, and any damage inflicted upon their plating is taken as damage to what would be their physical form. Should they sustain enough damage, the spell holding their parts together will dissipate, leaving them to fall apart completely.

Amazingly, healing potions and spells can bring them back together, even if it's only one piece at a time. At low health, animated armours often find that whole limbs will disconnect from their bodies. Fortunately, the gaps between plating have no physical presence; if a certain armour is designed with a horizontal gap separating its torso from its waist, slashing through it without touching the plating will cause no damage whatsoever. Only striking the armour will cause physical harm to an animated armour.

To hide the fact that they are living suits of armour as opposed to a warrior wearing a suit of armour, armours will use cloaks, scarves, or bandages to cover the gaps between their plating. Some are fortunate enough to have been created with arcane lights that are fixed in the space inside their helmets. These projections are meant to resemble eyes and shift and move according to what expression the armour is making. Though they serve no function other than making it look like they have eyes, these lights are often enough to keep the average joe from getting too suspicious.

Dormancy

Normal suits of armour usually last as long as their material does, the elements hazing it until it eventually rusts over and crumbles to pieces. With animated armours, however, the game changes. If magic is used to bring a suit of armour to life, another spell is usually cast on the armour to make it more durable. The stronger the spell, the longer the armour lasts. A typical armour can lie dormant for 700 years before losing its magic. The maximum lifespan of an animated armour is unknown, as a powerful enough spell could potentially keep one alive forever, but none have been known to keep their magic for more than 1,500 years.

Unlike other creatures blessed with long life, armours don't actively pursue goals outside of what they were created to do; if a particularly animated armour was created to protect a castle, it will stay in the castle, silently waiting for an intruder. That said, they can leave their posts or occupations if they wish, but most are not given a good enough reason to, remaining dormant until someone finds them. Unless they are doing their job constantly, they will become as still as a statue, waking only when a certain stimulus triggers a response.

When they do awake, animated armours often find that they are in a world far different from the one they know. To them, time passed by without them, leaving them lost in a strange and mysterious future. A time gap as small as fifty years can be enough to confuse an armour, but if they are intelligent enough, they will catch on to present-time customs fairly quickly, Still, some refuse to change their ways, speaking in forgotten tongues or using overly wordy and poetic speech.

Reawakening and Rebirth

Armours usually fall dormant at the post given to them by their creator, waiting for something to bring them back into consciousness. If their creator happens to die before or after they enter this state, their purpose will no longer be explicitly defined. When they regain consciousness, most armours stick to their prior orders, carrying out their tasks without complaint. But some, rather than do a task that is now impossible, pointless or both, defy their creator's magical programming and seek out a new purpose. Others forget their purpose altogether, wandering around aimlessly until someone decides to claim them. Many times, an adventurer will stumble upon a long-forgotten animated armour and convince it to join them on their travels. Others are reactivated only to find that the thing they were meant to protect has been destroyed somehow, and seek vengeance. In this way, armours can be anything from loyal companions and protectors to destructive avengers and mercenaries.

Ghosts in Armor

Generally, people see animated armours as threats. The thought of a walking, talking suit of armour terrifies them, though not to the same capacity as a tiefling. They are often likened to ghosts in armour, and many villages have their own tales of menacing suits of armour that move of their own volition. Because of this, armours that waltz into unsuspecting towns are usually avoided completely, the only words spoken of them being whispers. Those who know better than this see wandering armours as potential companions, workers, or servants. Some are ambitious or crazy enough to try and capture them by force, often to no avail. Taverns and whorehouses usually look the other way, since being intangible except for one's armour don't give the ladies or the barkeeps much to work with.

That said, an animated armour will usually try to avoid being discovered unless a quirk in their personality programming says otherwise. They'll use cloaks, scarves, and bandages to cover the gaps in their armour and blend in. They'll stay away from crowded places, speaking only when spoken to and never causing too much of a scene. Some spend their time in taverns, never ordering any food or drink, hoping that the patrons will be too drunk to notice how empty they are on the inside. On the rare occasion that an animated armour is welcomed or even worshipped by the people of a village, some merely serve the community as a guard or sentry, while others take a more commanding role, like a war chief or even a deity.

Dragon-scarred Armour Traits

Your animated armor character has the following traits. A few of the traits give you a choice; consider how your choice reflects the purpose for which your character was built.

False Appearance

While you remain motionless, you are indistinguishable from a normal suit of armor.

Antimagic Susceptibility

You are incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against the caster's spell save DC or fall unconscious for 1 minute.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Cauterised Soul

Your soul was cauterised to the suit of armor that you were slain in. This has led to unusual side effects, represented by the following benefits:

• You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to fire damage.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
• You are immune to disease.
• You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Sentry’s Rest

When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn’t render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.

Living Armour

Your body has built-in defensive layers, which can be enhanced with armour:

• You gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
• You can only upgrade to armour with which you have proficiency. To upgrade your armour other than a shield, you must incorporate the upgrade into your body. The other person has to expend the gold/material cost that would otherwise go into crafting a suit of armour on you, over the course of a long rest in an appropriate environment like a forge.
• While you live, the armour incorporated as your body can’t be removed against your will.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.