Homebrew Inanis (Giant Isopod) Species Details

Inanis folk crawl out of the ocean's depths to stare in awe at the light of the sun--or terrify hapless fisherfolk who snag one in a net. Down upon the gloomy sea floor, these clicking horrors form alien societies dedicated to the great old entities whose dreaming frequencies spill out in those watery fathoms; it's a harsh life in a realm with little to eat and the constant ripples of a slumbering, nightmare mind. Most Inanis folk see little reason to change anything; those who end up on the surface usually do so as a result of misadventure rather than a specific desire to escape the warlock-elders of the deep cities. That exposure to the world above, though, leads to massive culture shock followed by rapid adaptation; faced with a land of relatively plenty and, for once, calm dreams, Inanis folk will rarely return home to the hadal reaches.

The surface is still dangerous, of course. Inanis folk look like aberrant monstrosities to most surfacers, what with being humanoid Inanis, and they bear the warping marks of the great old ones in whose name they labour upon the sea floor. It's a tall order for most surface-dwellers to get over the instinctive sense of repulsion they feel at the sight of a v person, and this often results in outright persecution. Inanis folk are hardy sorts, but they satisfy their needs for social contact and fulfillment through working as a group with others on a project--the culturally-instilled communal mores of their servitude to dreaming, alien entities--and so they do desire the companionship of others. As such, Inanis folk feel the desire to seek out the very communities where they will likely be met with disgust, hoping to find someone willing to work with them on something, anything, to give greater meaning and purpose to their new existence.

Most Inanis folk are warlocks, fighters, or rangers. Warlocks draw their power from their bonds to the great old ones that lie beneath, or perhaps dimensionally perpendicular to, the silt-slick ocean floor; while giant Inanis warlocks may not want to return to those stygian depths, they usually do not view their alien patrons as sinister, evil, or oppressive, and indeed the great old one in question might be happy--inasmuch as such a being can feel an emotion equivalent to happiness--at the prospect of a useful pawn upon the surface world. A few giant Inanis folk, overwhelmed by their exposure to the giant glowing ball of fire that is the sun, seek to become clerics of whatever deity of the sun may exist, and are unusually fanatical and devoted in their praise of the light-giver--a particularly bizarre juxtaposition of faith and Inanis.

(original creator of this race is Acrozatarim on Reddit)

Inanis (Giant Isopod) Traits

Your horrible form and adaptation to your native benthic conditions give your kind a variety of traits

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength or Constitution score increases by 2. Your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age

Giant isopod folk do not suffer greatly from the ravages of time; indeed, rather than weakening, they slowly grow ever-larger as the centuries pass. Eventually, after around eight hundred years or so, the energy required to molt their shell and grow larger is too much for the giant isopod person to survive. Young isopod folk mature rapidly, becoming fully functioning adults—albeit rather small—within a year of hatching.

Alignment

Giant isopod folk have evolved in an environment where the necessities of survival require a certain ruthless dedication to getting hold of one’s next meal. Furthermore, proximity to the dreaming frequencies of certain elder forces, possibly the very forces responsible for the giant isopod folk achieving sentience in the first place, have shaped the cultural consciousness of their kind via shared and ancestral trauma. As a result, giant isopod folk in their benthic homeland tend towards neutral and evil alignments. Once removed from those stygian depths, however, and acclimatized to a less hostile environment where scarcity and crushing pressure are no longer the norm, giant isopod folk can develop towards any alignment; they do tend to retain a certain inclination for efficiency, and often have a gluttonous streak stemming from that inculcated fear that they can’t be sure where the next meal will be coming from.

Size

 Adult isopod folk rapidly achieve a height of around five feet, growing slowly over the following centuries; older giant isopod folk can be seven feet or even taller, and rumours persist of benthic elders who are truly giant even relative to surface folk—ghastly colossi of squirming legs and rattling plates, larger than a house.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30ft.

Benthic Adaptation

You can breath underwater, and you do not suffer damage or penalties from pressure in the deeps. You gain no particular skill in swimming, however; your people keep to the oozing muck and tumbled ruins upon the ocean’s floor.

Carapace

You have a thick natural carapace. When you aren’t wearing armour, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armour to determine your AC if the armour you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armour.

Crush-Proof

You’re hardy enough to resist the crushing weight of untold fathoms, let alone some surfacer’s weapon. As a reaction, when you would suffer a critical hit or be knocked prone by an attack, you can halve the damage from the attack and remain standing. You can’t use this trait again until you complete a long rest.

Darkvision

Acclimatized to the black depths, 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 colour in darkness, only shades of grey.

Frankly Repulsive

You gain proficiency with the Intimidate skill.

Language of the Depths

Can speak common and primordial.