Homebrew Blurs Species Details

A minor Elvish Lord named Ernan Mellerelel, who was tired of having his warriors always coming off second best in comparison to his elvish neighbors, once contracted a powerful wild magic wizard named Garl Glitter to enhance his people. Unfortunately, the wizard he contracted with was actually Garl Glittergold, the gnomish deity of humor, gemcutting, protection, and trickery, who was answering a prayer from the neighboring colony of gnomes. It seems that while the gnomes liked Lord Mellerelel and his people in general, they had grown tired of the airs that he put on and felt he was due for a little humbling, all in good humor of course. The fact that Ernan had recently come into possession of a gnomish artifact which he refused to sell to the gnomes as he didn't think they could meet his price may also have had a hand in it. 

After suitably impressing Lord Mellerelel with his powers and promising that he could enhance his entire town, assuming the Lord had the means to pay, Garl was offered the artifact on the condition that the wizard make Ernan's people faster, tougher and able to see magic with these traits passed down to their descendants. And this Garl did, although he neglected to mention the trade offs that would ensue. On the appointed day, the entire town funneled into the great magical circle inscribed in the town square, each person signing the magical contract as they entered the circle and then sitting down in their appointed spots. When the magical fog that had covered then during the casting dissipated, they found that not only where they now tougher, with gem-like blue metallic scaled skin and gem-like eyes, but they were also much faster. They also noticed that the wizard had apparently also enhanced their town making it larger and more glorious. That is until the first, to them, ogre sized gnome entered the square and they realized they had shrunk!

The gnomes, who were friendly after all and were privately delighted with the results, comforted the elves and helped them adjust to their new status as small but tiny blurs. Of course the real reason the gnomes didn't make their appearance till an hour after the spell casting was that they were too busy, in private of course, rolling on the floor laughing at the results and thanking their god for coming thru in spades on their request.

The elves indeed were much faster and tougher and could now see magic. But this change also came with an increase in density, a reduction in lifespan, size and strength and the loss of their elvish darkvision. And when the now shrunken Lord Mellerelel first visited the elvish court to report this calamity,  some one was heard to say, "What was that blur that just went past?" and the name stuck.

Eventually the blurs adjusted to their new status, but now that gnomes were ogre size, orcs were giants and goliaths were storm giants in comparison,  they lost their desire for battle and turned instead to magic, music and the arts as well as an increased appreciation for nature around their hidden towns among the wooded mountains. Because of this as well as their small size and the way they came about, blurs may not become fighters, barbarians, rangers, paladins or sorcerers.

Blurs prefer to live near the gnomes with whom they feel an emotional affinity and appreciation for helping them out in their time of need. Some members of the race periodically get a wanderlust and travel the world to see what is there before returning home with new stories and treasures.

Blurs stand between 18 and 24 inches tall with a size of tiny and live an average of 180 years (as opposed to the 750 years of their parent stock) and mature at age 25. They have metallic blue, scaled skin and brilliantly colored gem-like eyes as well as metallic colored hair and small retractable claws on their fingers and toes. Blurs look like tiny scaled elves dressed in well fitted silk clothes and are actually quite striking in appearance.

Blurs have a love for life as well as an intense curiosity and a desire to explore.

Small but Fast

Blurs have a metabolism 4 times faster than most races leading to the ability to rocket along at 90' a turn horizontally and half that vertically as their inbuilt claws and natural agility allow them to race up surfaces and trees with little effort. Because of this blurs have an extra action per turn and are extremely hard to see clearly as they literally blur along, moving too fast for most races to focus on, hence their name.

 

Blurs Traits

Blurs are small but extremely fast

Ability Score Decrease: Strength

• Strength: -6 to strength with a racial cap of 10 unless overcome with magic.
• Weapon Damage: Blurs are limited to appropriately sized weapons which will generally do less damage.

Ability Score Increases

• Dexterity: +5 to dexterity with a racial cap of 24 and initial cap of 20. Blurs may exceed 20 Dex after reaching level 4 using ability DEX stat increases and certain feats
• Initiative: +5 to initiative. Blurs will almost always go first as most races are moving in slow motion from their point of view.

Extreme Speed

• Speed: Blurs have a base speed of 90 and can use their claws to climb at a speed of 45.
• Blurred Movement. Attack rolls against the blurs have disadvantage unless the blur is incapacitated or restrained.
• Move-By: Blurs do not provoke opportunity attacks when they move out of an enemy's reach.
• Evasion. If the blur is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
• Multiattack. The blur gets one extra action per turn due to their extreme metabolism

 

Magic Sight

• See Magic: Blurs literally see the magical aura around magical items and creatures allowing them to effectively respond to them regardless of the surrounding illumination. Thus the magic armor of a knight, the flows of magic around a wizard or the sigils of a magical trap would stand out and be obvious to them. 

 

Armor, Class, Magic and Weapon Limitations

• Armor Class
  • Blurs have a natural armor class of (13 + their dexterity bonus) due to their scaled skin, dense bone and tissue and extreme speed.
• Class
  • Class: Blurs may not be fighters, barbarians, rangers, paladins or sorcerers due to the nature of how they came about.
• Armor limitations
  • Due to their size and the speed at which their limbs move, blurs may not wear normal non-magical armor, although they may use custom made shields or those made by their people. Some magical shields may change size to fit them if the GM allows. Only magical armor of high quality which can adjusted and sized to fit the Blur may be used as the extreme speed their limbs move at would tear apart or loosen armor that is non-magical and not well fitted.
• Magic limitations 
  • Blurs may only use wearable magic items that they can reasonably carry, which usually means those items which can actually shrink to their size or which are naturally small enough like rings and amulets.
  • A side effect of this is that Blurs may use up to 5 rings by wearing them on their wrists, ankles and as necklaces, although this last will prevent them from using a separate magical necklace item around their neck at the same time. They may, however, use some amulets and necklaces as belts at the GM's discretion.
  • Non-wearable magic items like carpets of flying may be used by them as normal unless the item's nature makes the blur's size a limiting factor. 
• Weapon limitations
  • Blurs may not use any non magical melee weapons larger than a dagger and will generally use custom made weapons or those from their homeland.
  • Blurs may not use any non magical ranged weapons other than thrown weapons of dagger size or smaller, slings and special reduced size bows from their homeland. (1d4 piercing damage with range 40/160).
  • Blurs may not use staves or rods unless they shrink to match the user. They may use wands without penalty.

Languages and Limitations

• Languages: Blurs speak Common, Gnomish and Elvish
• Communication Difficulties: Blurs have -3 to their AC and initiative while talking with non-Blurs due to their need to slow down their speech and focus on the person they are talking to. Because of this blurs in a party will often set up a series of quick signs to use instead in order to coordinate party tactics in combat without sacrificing their own special advantages

 

Metabolism and Body Structure

• Tiny: Blurs stand between 18 and 24 inches tall
• Dense: Blurs have dense bones and tissue causing them to weight between 15 and 30 lbs which causes them to sink in water if not actively swimming or holding onto something that floats. Because of this blurs will avoid entering water more than 1' deep unless on a boat or being carried.
• Vulnerabilities: Their small size, dense bodies and fast metabolism makes them vulnerable to poisoning and drowning.
• Fast Healers: However they also recover a lot faster than most creatures, gaining an extra 1 + their Con bonus from healing spells and automatically stabilizing at 0 HP after 2 turns
• Fey Ancestry: You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
• Trance: Elves don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “trance.”) While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.