Homebrew Chimpanzee Species Details

After the state we found Silgumli in, I had never expected to come out of that place alive. I've crushed more Kobolds than I've got hairs in my beard, and there wasn't a single one, let alone a dozen, that had the guts or strength to take on a man in armor. I dread to consider what'd happen if someone taught them to make a handle for their hammers or sharpen a spear.

That being said, I also owe one of these things my life after that fall, helping me back to camp the way they did. All it wanted for half-carrying me a quarter of a mile was, of all the damn things, the yellow shirt I kept in my pack. For how vicious chimps can be they're pleased by the stupidest, most simple shit.

-Jatmat Hammertank, Adventurer-Historian

 

Considered by many to be a more primitive relative to humanity, chimpanzees are a race very early in their development. Early enough, in fact, that they lack written language and more permanent structures that are considered the hallmarks of civilization.

Smart but not Learned

Without long-term records, the accumulated knowledge of chimpanzees relies upon word of mouth to spread and continue. Unfortunately, this leaves the race's collective knowledge to easily be disrupted by the loss or separation of generations that frequently comes with disasters and the intrusions of others. Even so, the capacity of chimps to learn and acquire new information is on-par, if not potentially superior, to that of other races. Chimps will frequently share what they know to their children or peers in the hope that the knew information will be useful or improve the collective lives of the group.

Due to their small repository of knowledge, chimpanzees lack a magical tradition, and those that do use magic most often learned it from an outside source or had it in their blood already.

A Simplistic Life

Though the idea of bartering isn't entirely foreign to them as social creatures, chimps don't have or use certain concepts common to other races like money, taxes, or specific ownership. The focus of one's life tends to be more fundamental than that- what to eat, where to sleep, and who to spend your time with. Though a chimpanzee's life is hardly without conflict or strife, the fact that certain worries or societal problems don't exist can make other people envious of their lifestyle. Additionally, this simplistic lifestyle dramatically increases the likelyhood that things like medical problems go unnoticed or untreated, which shortens a chimp's lifespan dramatically.

Beginning of Industry

Chimpanzees don't make permanent settlements, instead opting to follow sources of food and remain on the move inside a wider territory. Each has a high degree of personal freedom, and within a larger troop groups frequently form and break to perform different activities. Chimpanzees often plan to use sticks, rocks, and other things around them as tools to make their lives easier, and will show the discovery or technique to their peers.

Chimpanzee Traits

Though chimpanzees live simply, they posses a great many abilities for their survival.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Dexterity or Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age

Chimpanzees tend to live to their mid to late thirties, but a few manage to survive until their sixties.

Simian Speed

Adapted for life in the treetops, chimpanzees are better at climbing and swinging than they are walking. You have a walking speed of 30 feet and a climbing speed of 30 feet.

Prehensile Feet

A Chimpanzee's big toe is opposable and its others are longer, allowing them to grasp and manipulate objects with their feet as if they were using their hands. However, a chimpanzee has to still be able to balance to accomplish most tasks and can't effectively wield a shield with their feet.

Expert Climber

Being a natural to treetops and jungle canopies, chimpanzees have a natural proficiency in acrobatics and advantage on saving throws to maintain balance.

Early tools

Though not as flashy as other races' technology, chimpanzees have devoted themselves to the art of using the environment around them to make their lives easier. Few self-respecting chimpanzees forgo learning from an elder or peer how to effectively select and handle rocks and sticks to open, crush, scoop, and do other activities.

Languages

You understand spoken common and chimpanzee. The language of your people is made of facial expressions, hoots, whoops, barks, and other sounds.