Homebrew Jerboa Species Details

Jerboa are skittish, shy creatures that usually stay in the burrows during the heat of the day and come out to forage under the cool sky of night. Like their animalistic ancestors, jerboa enjoy the bipedal locomotion of hopping, skipping, and running gaits. It is associated with rapid and frequent, difficult-to-predict changes in speed and direction, facilitating predator evasion relative to quadrupedal locomotion. This may explain why the evolution of bipedal locomotion is favored in desert dwelling rodents that forage in open habitats.

Their long ears make them excellently aware of their surroundings, making them quite able to hear incoming predators near them or their kin.

Born of Desert Nights

Jerboas are crepuscular, meaning that they are most active at twilight. During the heat of the day, their community takes shelter in burrows. At night, the foragers leave their burrows due to the cooler temperature of their environment. They dig the entrances to their burrow near plant life and settle down their communities with access to nearby water.

Embracing Their Kin

Unlike their animal counterparts, Jerboa are not solitary anymore. Once they reach adulthood, they usually go on their tribe's Rite of Passage where they must fend for food and water on their own for a fortnight before they are allowed to return to their colony to prove that they are worthy members of their society and will help it thrive.

Shamanistic Visions

Every generation, a jerboa is chosen to become the tribe's future shaman that would reign over its rites and traditions. The jerboa is given hallucinogenic plants and sent on a vision quest and are not permitted to return until they commune with Pelor himself. There is an unfortunate number of jerboa that never return from these quests and many speculate this as the reason for the race's dwindling numbers.

Natural Martial Artists

With their unique body-type and mannerisms, the jerboa people have developed special fighting techniques much akin to the monasteries of monks through the lands. All jerboa have some prowess over their tails and able to wield them as a natural implement of destruction often compared to that of a whip.

Jerboa Mannerisms

d8	Characteristic
1	I find myself praying to every shrine I come across to appease the spirits.
2	There isn’t an obstacle not worth jumping over.
3	I will hone my people's ancient fighting forms and pass them down to our future generations.
4	I enjoy a personal herbal blend that grants me visions from my ancestors. No really.
5	The world seems a bit brighter with a chime tied to my tail.
6	Sometimes all I want is to just crawl into my cozy burrow and forget the world exists.
7	The shaman says meditation is important, but I just can't seem to sit still.
8	I am NOT a day person...

Lophophora Diffusa

Lophophora Diffusa, or the more commonly known name Peyote, is treasured by the jerboa people. They believe the plant holds not only its hallucinogenic properties, but spiritual ones as well, allowing them to reach into the Ethereal Plane and sometimes beyond. The jerboa have an innate tolerance to this plant that allows them to gain mystical properties from it and some have even been able to use it as a catalyst to traverse the Material Plane altogether.

When a jerboa doesn't return from their vision quest, it is said that this is what has occurred and that they are with their ascended-kin. Though the truth of the matter is more likely that they were hunted down, captured, and killed by another denizen of the unforgiving desert.

 

Jerboa Traits

Your jerboa character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age

Jerboa mature around age 8 and live 40-50 years.

Alignment

Jerboa delight in living a life free to run and hop among the tall desert grass. They gravitate toward being good, but some have devious streaks and enjoy playing tricks.

Size

Jerboa range from just under 2.5 feet to about 3 feet in height, with generally slender builds with long digitigrade legs. Your size is Small.

Here’s how to determine your height and weight randomly, starting with rolling a size modifier:

Size modifier = 2d4

Height = 2 feet + 3 inches + your size modifier in inches

Weight in pounds = 15 + (2d4 + your size modifier)

Speed

Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Darkvision

Accustomed to twilit forests and the night sky, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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.

Fury of the Small

When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell and the creature’s size is larger than yours, you can cause the attack or spell to deal extra damage to the creature. The extra damage equals your level. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Tail

You can use your tail to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Dexterity modifier.

Boundful Leap

Whenever you make a long or high jump, you can roll a d8 and add the number rolled to the number of feet you cover, even when making a standing jump. This extra distance costs movement as normal. You can also take the Disengage action as a bonus action on each of your turns.

Keen Senses

You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.