Myconid playable race:
-
Ability score increases:
Your Wisdom score increases by 2 and your strength increases by 1. -
Age:
A Myconid reaches maturity at the age of 6 and generally lives about 24 years. -
Alignment:
The majority of myconids have a strong sense of loyalty to their colony, making them typically lawful in nature. -
Size:
Myconids range from 4 to 6 feet tall and weigh from 70 to 120 pounds. Your size is Medium. -
Speed:
Your base walking speed is 25 feet. -
Darkvision:
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 gray. -
Poison touch:
Your unarmed strikes deal an extra 1d4 poison damage. -
Natural armour:
When not wearing armour, your AC is 12 plus your dexterity plus any other modifiers. A shield can still add to your AC. -
Languages:
You can speak Common and Undercommon
Feel free to adapt these features to fit your campaigns! I will continue to post homebrew as often as possible (hopefully weekly) to try and help keep this community active! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Well met my Fungal Friend.
Alternatively, here is a crazy idea.
Myconid
Ability Scores: Choose one of: (a) Choose any +2; choose any other +1 (b) Choose three different +1
Size: Small or Medium
Speed: 30 ft.
Size: You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.
Sunlight Sensitivity: You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Sight: Myconids permanently have the blinded condition. This condition cannot be cured.
Spore Vision: Myconids constantly exude a near invisible cloud of spores through which they sense the world. You have blindsight with a range of 30 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn’t behind total cover, even if you’re blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.
Poison Resilience: You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the poisoned condition on yourself. You also have resistance to poison damage.
Silent Speech: You can speak telepathically to any creature within 30 feet of you. The creature understands you only if the two of you share a language. You can speak telepathically in this way to one creature at a time.
Fey Ancestry. Myconids originate from the FeyWylde. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write the spore based Myconid language. The Myconid spore based language is non-auditory and silent but can be used for the verbal requirements of spell casting or magic item activation. You can read, write and understand Common and Undercommon but can only speak them telepathically. Myconids lack vocal cords. They are permanently incapable of speaking any language other than Myconid. This condition cannot be cured. No other race is capable of learning or using the Myconid language except through magical means.
Nature Sense: You have proficiency in the Nature skill.
Homebrew Balance Calc: Stat +12, Speed +0, Sunlight Sensitivity -3, Blindsite Beyond +4, Resistance and Adv 5, Telepathy with language 6, Fey +2, Language 0, Nature +2= 28
It makes for a strange character who needs to rely on other players for basic things but is very powerful in other ways. They tend to have agoraphobia, the fear of open places. Myconids like dark damp confined places like underdark caverns, thick fetid swamps, and warrens of inner city slums.
@toolate Some good ideas in there, but a few problems as well.
- Firstly, normal myconids aren’t blind, so it would be a bit weird to make the player version break that trend.
- Secondly, the complete inability to speak verbally is very harmful to non-spellcasting characters since they would be unable to access the telepathy that would be needed to communicate.
- Finally, although fey ancestry makes sense in some campaign settings, the Myconid people are usually portrayed (as far as I am aware) as being from the Underdark, not the Feywild
All that being said, most of this criticism really only applies to officially published materials, meaning that everything I just said goes out the window if you plan on using this in a custom or modified campaign setting.
My bad, I was too brief. The Myconid silent speech ability would allow any Myconid to communicate telepathically. Not just spellcasters.
I homebrew a lot so it fits my world. NPC Myconids also cannot “see.” Major Fey are allergic to cold iron and cannot lie. That much homebrew is not for everyone.
My take is that every species/race should play different. In 5e, the difference between races is 3 abilities/skills and some flavor text. That’s pretty weak.
In my world, everything is earth normal unless influenced by magic or another plane. Maybe Fey isn’t right for Myconids. Maybe they should be associated with the negative plane instead. Decay, death… yes that works better.
