Homebrew Enlightened Species Details

"There are tales of the supernatural, tales of horrific monsters and twisted aberrations of lore untold. They speak of a parasite that feed upon the innocent and twists their mind into something unreckognisable. Those that stand for too long near this parasite become twisted, puppets, seemingly innocent, but malicious in their "good intent"."

-Elizabeth Webber

Enlightened are creatures that have stood near the parasite's influence for far too long. They normally look like grey skinned elves, with black eyes that fill the entire sclera, black, grey or white hair and black markings all over the skin.

Enlightened are, in their core, victims of the parasite. Their abilities and gifts are ultimately only for the parasite's gain, and the Enlightened's mental capabilities are extremely reduced to that of an infant, innocent and trusting, to those that do not pose a threat to the parasite and the Hallow Crib.

Most adventuring Enlightened do so by an invisible, instictual command of the parasite, with the goal to further it's influence or to dispose of a threat to the Hallow Crib.

Becoming an Enlightened. Not all Enlightened start out as such. Some creatures slowly fall under the influence of the Hallow Crib, and thus become Enlightened. If you or your DM uses the Hallow Crib as a settlement for the campaing and want to use the Enlightened as a variant, use the Enlightened variant:

• You can add +1 to any attribute of your choice;
• Your become an Aberration;
• You gain a vunerability to fire and resistance to necrotic and psychic damage;
• You gain darkvision of 60 ft., if you didn't have it already;
• Your alignment becomes Neutral.

A creature must fufill these requirements in order to become an Enlightened:

• They must have a humanoid shape and have a base intelligence of 6 or more;
• They must have interacted with items, creatures or food created from the Hallow Crib for at least 1d10 days;
• The transformation must be willing from the creature's part. If the character agrees to transform while being charmed, the transformation takes place succesfully.

The transformation takes 1d4 days to take place.

Enlightened Traits

Whether born, raised or forced into being an Enlightened, your connection to the parasite and the Hallow Crib grants you the following benefits.

Type

You are an Aberration.

Size

Your size is Medium.

Ability Score Improvement

You gain +2 on an attribute of your choice and +1 on another attribute of your choice.

Darkvision

You have a Darkvision of 60 ft., seeing in pure darkness as dim light and in dim light as illuminated.

Resistance

Your affinity to the parasite of the Hallow Crib grants you resistance to psychic and necrotic damage.

Vunerability

You, much like the parasite that feeds you, is very sensitive to fire. You gain vunerability to fire damage.

False Form

Enlightened that live outside of the Hallow Crib gain a gift of subversion. You gain proficiency in the skills Deception and Performance.

Additionally, you can create a false appearance at will. This false appearance works like the spell Disguise Self, but it lasts until someone manages a succesfull Investigation check or you dismiss it as a bonus action, doesn't require concentration, and you can summon it again at will as a bonus action.

Speed

You have a walking speed of 30 feet.

Languages

You know Common and one additional language of your choice.

Whispers of the Crib

The Hallow Crib grants you an innate understanding of the mind, allowing you to innately cast some enchantment spells. They don't count as part of your learned spells, and you can cast them with no need of material, somatic or verbal components once at every long rest.

At level 1, you gain the spell Dissonant Whispers. At level 3, you are able to cast Crown of Madness and, at level 7, you are able to cast Compulsion.