September 27, 2015

Myconids

Race
Comments from the Finger: A medical warning for this race: do not attempt to roleplay a mushroom while under the effects of mushrooms.

Myconid
"I done seen some things down there" the elderly dwarf gestured downward with his thumb to a rapt gathering of dwarven children.
     "There be cities grander than any of dwarf's make, holdin' creatures more evil than th' Pit isself. There be ungodly abominations that weren't never meant to see the light o' day. And there be..." his voice trailed off while his hand continued to stoke his ivory beard.
     The old dwarf's voice left a lull of quiet in anticipation, broken by the youngest in the audience, who exclaimed, "Whatja see gampa? Whatja see?"
    Suddenly cogent, the old dwarf resumed, "Mushrooms! An entire city of mushrooms!"
- Blim Stronghelm recounts his first myconid encounter 

Myconids are intelligent, ambulatory fungi that live in the Underdark, seek enlightenment, and deplore violence. If approached peacefully, myconids gladly provide shelter or allow safe passage through their colonies.

Circles and Melds
The largest myconid in a colony is its sovereign, which presides over one or more social groups called circles. A circle consists of twenty or more myconids that work, live, and meld together.
     A meld is a form of communal meditation that allows myconids to transcend their dull subterranean existence. The myconids' rapport spores bind the participants into a group consciousness. Hallucination spores then induce a shared dream that provides entertainment and social interaction. Myconids consider melding to be the purpose of their existence. They use it in the pursuit of higher consciousness, collective union, and spiritual apotheosis. Myconids also use their rapport spores to communicate telepathically with other sentient creatures.

Cultural Pacifism
From a very early age, myconids are taught the virtues of empathy and pacifism. Material and worldly possessions are not chiefly important to myconids, so there is very little motivation for violence.

Myconid Reproduction
Like other fungi, myconids reproduce by mundane sporing. They carefully control their spores' release to avoid overpopulation. Unlike most other humanoids, myconids take no pleasure from reproduction and feel very little connection to their offspring. Child rearing is a responsibility shared by the entire circle, and it is rare if young myconids can even identify their parents.

Myconid Names
Due to the fact that myconids have no verbal language, their names are most appropriately translated as physical descriptors of a particular individual.
     Myconid Names: Bolete, Brownback, Buttonhead, Greenfoot, Morel, Mossy, Portabelt, Puffball, Redstem, Soft-Step, Stinkhorn, Toad.

Myconid Traits
     Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2 and your Constitution score increases by 1.
     Size. Myconids grow to a wide variety of heights and builds, with the most common being stocky and around 6 feet tall, weighing around 125 pounds. Your size is Medium.
     Speed. Your speed is 30 feet.
     Age. Like other fungi, myconids reproduce by mundane sporing. They carefully control their spores' release to avoid overpopulation. Individual myconids can live to well over a century. After this time, the most elder myconids can live even longer, becoming a Soverign of one or more circles and living up to a century longer.
     Alignment. Most often, myconids believe strongly in society and law. It is extremely uncommon for a myconid to directly harm any creature that does not mean it, or its circle, harm.
     Sun Sickness. You become poisoned if you spend more than 1 minute in direct sunlight. This condition ends when you spend 1 minute in dim or dark conditions.
     Nonverbal Magic. Though you have no conventional language, you may still cast spells that require verbal components.
     Rapport Spores. All creatures within 15 feet of you with an Intelligence of 2 or higher that aren't undead, constructs, or elementals can communicate telepathically with you and with each other. You can suppress this ability at will.
     Pacifying Spores. As an action, you can ejects spores at one creature you can see within 5 feet of you. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. Undead, constructs, and elementals automatically succeed this save. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. After using this trait, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.
     Hallucination Spores. As an action, you can produce spores that effect all creatures within 30 feet of you that aren't undead, constructs, or elementals. These creatures are all affected as per the cantrip minor illusion while you concentrate on the effect. The spell save DC for this effect is 8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus.
     Meld.  When you take a long rest in the presence of two or more other myconids, you can meld with them. After melding, you regain all expended Hit Dice and gain one of the following benefits:
  • You have advantage on the next saving throw you make in the next 24 hours.
  • You can end one disease or one condition effecting you from among: blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned.
  • You gain one inspiration point.



Changelog:
9/27/15: Hallucination Spores: Spell clarified to minor illusion. Save DC added.
12/28/15: Slight change to languages

24 comments:

  1. Looks cool, but what size are PC Myconids? What is their speed?

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    Replies
    1. Nice catch. (Though Medium and 30 feet will hardly be surprising.)

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  2. Under 'age' there is the following error: "the elder most elder myconids"
    Does 'hallucination spores' have a save? What spell does it replicate, 'Minor illusion' or 'Mirror image'?

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    1. Wow, my proofreaders really let me down on this one. It's minor illusion, the cantrip, and I've included as save DC for the effect.

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    2. Google docs isn't letting me look at the PDF for some reason but on your post you have this 

      Nonverbal Magic. Though you have no conventional language, you may still cast spells without verbal components

      did you mean to say they only cast spells WITHOUT verbal components or that despite not being able to vocally communicate they can still cast spells With Verbal components required?

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    3. Great English catch! I mean to say that you can cast spells without using verbal components, or rather that you can cast spells which require verbal components, even though you lack speech.

      I'll edit one of these versions in soon. Really great catch!

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  3. This is awesome! I want Myconids to be an important part of a campaign setting/world I'm working on - I think I'd open this up to my players!

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  4. Wow, I love it!
    Also, maybe I'm crazy, but don't you regain hit dice on a long rest anyway?

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    1. Normally on a long rest, you regain half your total hit dice. This is one of my favorite 5e mechanics, as it encourages a much more cautious spending of hit dice, and forces a player to consider that of they push themselves too hard today, it will make tomorrow that much harder.

      At the same time, if your character has an exceptionally restorative event, like a myconid melding, it makes great flavorful sense to restore all hit dice.

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    2. Wow, I guess I just missed that rule, but I like it a lot too!

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  5. Would Rapport Spores eliminate the need for language? This is mind to mind communication...

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  6. There's still a typo on the web version "After this time, the elder most elder myconids can live even longer..."

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    1. Thanks for catching that. Don't know how it slipped by me

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  7. A quote from R.A.Salvatore's "Exile" (I dropped a few unrelated lines):
    "The largest of the myconids moved forward to stand before the dark elf. Drizzt made no move,understanding the importance of establishing an acceptance between himself and the new king of the fungus-man colony. The myconid spewed forth a cloud of spores. "King dead. Me king", came the myconid's thoughts through the telepathic bond inspired by the spore cloud. "You are king", Drizzt responded mentally.

    I think this (or another quote from the same book) could be a nice introduction quote.

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  8. What about dark vision? As a race that lives in the underdark, I would assume that would be a given.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Yes, darkvision seems like it needs to be here.

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  9. totally gonna make one and name it toad

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  10. I don't like the sun sickness, is there something similar, for say aboveground campaigns?

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    Replies
    1. The easiest solution is to wear heavy fabrics. The intent here is that you have to cloak yourself like a drow might.

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  11. Hmm... I cant see the languages for the Myconid? what languages do they speak.

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