Yddisac
2017-11-11, 09:57 PM
It's a bit late to post such spooky things, I know, but my table did a MAID game for Halloween instead of a D&D game, so I'm only getting to the spoops now. Whoops.
I've got three races here: Undead, Vampires, and Hags. Undead is an umbrella race that covers skeletons, revenants, and mummies. Vampires come in noble, feral, and turn-into-a-bat variants. Hags are... well, straight out of the Monster Manual. I intend to offer these races to my players in an upcoming spooky adventure, and I thought I may as well share them and get some feedback.
I took lots of inspiration from CubeB's Book of the (Not-So) Dead and DracoKnight's Vampire; thanks to those two for coming up with such great races. The only reason I'm not using them is because I want a campier feel. (I'd post links if I could; I found them from the Homebrew Compendium, so they shouldn't be hard to find.)
UNDEAD
The undead are dead called back to life by the most esoteric of spells. The average undead is a mindless corpse animated only by magic, forced to serve the whims of a necromancer that summoned them. That said, you're not the average undead. You have a soul (tenuously) attached to your corpse, which means you have the intelligence of a living creature, and you won't return to the netherworld the second you cross an anti-magic field. Still, you really should be dead, and it shows.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. Age is a meaningless concept for the undead, and most don't keep track of it.
Alignment. You have the same alignment you did in life.
Size. Your size is Medium, unless it's affected by the Past Life feature below.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet, regardless of your size.
Past Life. You were alive, once, and some part of you remembers the feeling. Choose a playable race. You gain the languages of that race. In addition, you are treated as a member of that race for the sake of classes, feats, items, and magical effects that require a certain race. If your chosen race is Small or Large, your size changes to match.
Undead Characteristics. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
Persistent Unlife. You are tied more closely to the mortal plane than the average corpse. You are close enough to a living creature that you are still affected by items and magical effects that help or harm the living. You are also immune to effects that turn undead.
Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
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.
Undead Resilience. You are immune to poison damage and automatically succeed on saving throws against poison. You also have resistance to necrotic damage. However, you have vulnerability to radiant damage.
Terror of the Grave. Your very existence is a memento mori. You have advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) rolls made against living humanoids with an Intelligence score of 6 or greater.
Subrace. There are many ways to raise the dead. Depending on the ritual used to raise your corpse, you might be a skeleton, a revenant, or a mummy.
SKELETON
Skeletons normally only rise when necromantic magic stirs the bones of the long-dead. They are animated by evil magic and compelled to do the deeds of the necromancer that called them. However, if the magic runs free of the necromancer that created them, a sufficiently powerful skeleton can gain a sentience of its own. These skeletons retain the skills they needed to fulfil their caller's tasks, but they also gain the intelligence of a long-forgotten past life.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Skillful. You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice.
Grim Weapon Training. The magic that animated you gave you knowledge of the killing arts. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
REVENANT
Revenants are restless corpses that have crawled up from the netherworld to settle unfinished business. Their still-fleshy bodies are filled with fell determination to complete a task they left unfinished in life. Unlike the other undead subraces, revenants remember their past lives, even if it's just the vague, contextless memory of a lost desire.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Relentless Endurance. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
MUMMY
Unlike the average undead, which is a corpse gathered ad-hoc by a necromancer after the fact, mummies were preserved on purpose — perhaps for the very reason that they might one day walk again. Embalmed and wrapped in bandage-like wrappings, it's easy to forget that there's a shrivelled corpse somewhere underneath the layers of protection.
Besides their unearthly strength, mummies can wield the power of the curse that created them, manifesting it as terrifying magic. However, as a result of the embalming process used to create them, they're awfully flammable.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength and Wisdom scores increase by 1.
Dry. All moisture was leeched from your body long ago; all that's left is a dry wrapping. You have vulnerability to fire damage.
Tomb Esoterica. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the command spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the fear spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age. Vampires will not die as long as they keep drinking blood; they are ageless beings. They remain the age they were when they became vampires.
Alignment. You have the same alignment you did in life.
Size. Your size is Medium, unless it's affected by the Past Life feature below.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet, regardless of your size.
Past Life. There was a time before you became a vampire, before you received the fateful bite. Choose a playable race. You gain the languages of that race. In addition, you are treated as a member of that race for the sake of classes, feats, items, and magical effects that require a certain race. If your chosen race is Small or Large, your size changes to match.
Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
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.
Undead Resilience. You are immune to poison damage and automatically succeed on saving throws against poison. You also have resistance to necrotic damage. However, you have vulnerability to radiant damage.
Vampire's Kiss. You can use your action to bite a victim, sucking the life from their veins. When you use your vampire's kiss, you make a melee attack against a creature within you reach. You can use either Strength or Dexterity to make this attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt. The damage increases to 3d8 at 6th level, 5d8 at 11th level, and 7d8 at 16th level.
After you use your vampire's kiss, you can't use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Eternal Hunger. Your existence depends on feeding on the blood of mortals. Each week, you must attack a living creature with your vampire's kiss. If you go seven days without doing so, you incur a level of exhaustion.
Subrace. Vampires are divided into noble vampires, feral vampires, and darkwing vampires.
NOBLE VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Portrait of Ruin. You gain proficiency in the Deception skill.
Legacy of Darkness. You know the chill touch cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the false life spell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the vampiric touch spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
FERAL VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.
Feral Fangs. You are proficient with your unarmed strike, which deal 1d6 piercing damage on a hit.
Pounce. If you move at least 15 feet straight towards a creature and then hit it with a weapon attack or unarmed strike on the same turn, that target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. The DC for this saving throw is equal to 8 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier + your proficiency bonus. If the target is prone, you can make one unarmed strike against it as a bonus action.
DARKWING VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 1.
Dusktongue. You can wordlessly communicate simple ideas with bats. You have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks when communicating with bats.
On Wings of Night. You can cast a limited version of the polymorph spell on yourself without using any verbal, somatic, or material components. You can only assume the form of a bat or swarm of bats. You can use this ability again after completing a long rest.
HAG
Hags are a reclusive race of witches that lurk in the dark corners of the world. They aren't unsociable per se; they're fond of passing along gossip, and they often form covens of three to socialize and share power. However, their way of thinking can be a bit strange to mortal minds, so they tend to stay away from mortal society. When they do arrive, it's not likely to go well for the mortals.
Hags, curiously enough, are always female. They reproduce by way of a ritual that turns female mortals into hags. Hags rarely interact with men, and they can be a bit confused about what men are.
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Alignment. You have the same alignment you did in life.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Humanoid Disguise. As an action, you can cast a limited version of the alter self spell. You transform your appearance to that of a female humanoid. After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice.
Subrace. There are three types of hag, each endemic to its own environment: the sea hag of deep water, the green hag of the swamp, and the night hag of the dark realms.
SEA HAG
Sea hags live in underwater grottoes, whence they observe and occasionally terrorize passing sailors. Their glassy, fish-like eyes can be uncanny to land-dwellers, and they have the ability to warp their faces into a truly horrifying glare.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Amphibious. You can breathe underwater, and you gain a swim speed of 40 feet.
Horrific Visage. As an action, you can contort your face into a terrifying scowl that mortals cannot bear the sight of. Choose a creature within 60 feet that you can see and that can see you. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failure, the target is frightened of you for one minute. The target can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
GREEN HAG
Green hags, who build their houses in forest and fen, are the most sociable of hags. Some of them trade potions and pastries with those brave few that come upon their cottages. Others delight in attacking and tormenting their visitors.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Trickster. You gain proficiency in the Deception skill.
Mimicry. You can mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures. You must have heard the person speaking, or heard the creature make the sound, for at least 1 minute. A successful Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked.
Spells of the Swamp. You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the silent image spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the invisibility spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
NIGHT HAG
Night hags are the most powerful and sinister of the hags, as they wield frightening dark magic that protects them from spells. Riding over the land on broomsticks, they pursue their own arcane agendas, bringing misfortune wherever they go.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Midnight Magic. You know one cantrip of your choice from the Wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.
Infernal Cunning. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.
The following hag subraces are rarer than the above three, and they have powerful abilities of their own related to the realms in which they thrive.
BLOOD HAG
Blood hags may wear a human skin, but a monstrous form burns beneath the surface. When they burst out of their skin, they can blaze over the earth as a ball of fire.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Fiery Form. As an action, you can transform into a ball of fire for 1 minute. The effect ends if you drop to 0 hit points. While in your fiery form, your only method of movement is a flying speed of 20 feet. You can enter and occupy the space of another creature. You can't fall and remain hovering in the air even when stunned or otherwise incapacitated.
While you're in your fiery form, any creature that ends its turn within 5 feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. The creature takes 1d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 2d6 at 6th level, 3d6 at 11th level, and 4d6 at 16th level.
While in your fiery form, you can't talk or manipulate objects, and any objects you were carrying or holding can't be dropped, used, or interacted with. Additionally, you can't attack or cast spells.
You can't use this ability if your physical form has been altered, such as by your humanoid disguise ability or an alter self spell. After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
PIT HAG
Marked by their horns and claws, these rare hags wield the power of devils. When they live among mortals, they carve out their lairs in burning deserts, volcanoes, and sulphur pits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Infernal Resistance. You have resistance to fire damage.
Savage Claws. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.
Touch of Affliction. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can force that target to make a Constitution saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failed save, the target deals only half damage with weapon attacks that use Strength for 1 minute. The target can repeat its saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with the effect ending on a success.
After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
WINTER HAG
Winter hags build their cabins on mountain peaks and in frozen tundra. While some are content to lead peaceful lives in the snowy silence of their cottages, some winter hags use their freezing breath to blight crops, ruining villages that don't follow their bidding.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Cold Resistance. You have resistance to cold damage.
Ice Walk. You can move across and climb icy surfaces without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, difficult terrain composed of ice or snow doesn't cost you extra movement.
Diamond Dust. You can use your action to exhale freezing mist. When you use your breath weapon, each creature in a 15 ft. cone must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failed save, a creature is blinded until the end of your next turn.
After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
On All of These: They're made to work with my usual homebrew setting, but I tried to keep the flavour as generic as possible so they could get ported easily to other settings.
On the Undead: The base race is bloated with way too many features. I'd like to cut it down some if I can, but I'm not sure how.
The Skeleton is a little weird, but I wanted to make playing a Skeleton interesting in any way. The Revenant can also function as a playable zombie.
On the Vampire: The vampire is so straightforwardly iconic that I didn't think explanatory flavour text would help, so I left it off. One note on flavour that I should mention, though, is that the Past Life feature implies that the vampire used to be mortal and got turned by a bite. If your setting can have born vampires, you can just lop off the Past Life feature and the rest of the class should function as usual.
I'd like to add a racial feat so vampires can turn people into vampires and create vampire spawn, but balancing that is a serious pain (especially since I probably won't get to playtest it), so... that's TBA.
On the Hag: The hag in this case is... technically compatible with the MM hag, but it's treated more as having storybook witches as a separate race than sticking to the hag thing. Hence, there are no requirements about being ugly (well, that, and it opens up the question of what "ugly" even means). I figure if you want all hags to be ugly in your setting, you can just tell your table that. Myself, if I have a player who wants to play a kind, beautiful hag, I'm not about to stop them. Also, the baby-eating thing is super gross and would not fly at my table, so I made the ritual by which hags reproduce rather vague. You can interpret that as a baby-eating ritual if you like.
The Green Hag's Mimicry steps on the Actor feat, but I'm honestly not sure how else to approach that.
On the Rare Hags: Hoo, boy, that blood hag. Fiery Form was too cool to pass up, but damn is that a weird race feature to balance. I left out Detonate (the ability to explode out of Fiery Form) for now, but I did do a write-up for it, so if it needs a buff, I can put Detonate back in. But... man. I also thought about adding a bit where seeing the blood hag turn to her true form made everyone around her afraid, but Fiery Form alone is such a complex feature I didn't want to overload the race with too much stuff. (My table has enough trouble remembering race features exist as it is :'u)
The pit hag is pretty straightforward and fills a different niche than all the other hags, so I really like how it turned out. I'm nervous about the winter hag's blinding breath, but I hope the fact that it only lasts one round balances it out okay.
I've got three races here: Undead, Vampires, and Hags. Undead is an umbrella race that covers skeletons, revenants, and mummies. Vampires come in noble, feral, and turn-into-a-bat variants. Hags are... well, straight out of the Monster Manual. I intend to offer these races to my players in an upcoming spooky adventure, and I thought I may as well share them and get some feedback.
I took lots of inspiration from CubeB's Book of the (Not-So) Dead and DracoKnight's Vampire; thanks to those two for coming up with such great races. The only reason I'm not using them is because I want a campier feel. (I'd post links if I could; I found them from the Homebrew Compendium, so they shouldn't be hard to find.)
UNDEAD
The undead are dead called back to life by the most esoteric of spells. The average undead is a mindless corpse animated only by magic, forced to serve the whims of a necromancer that summoned them. That said, you're not the average undead. You have a soul (tenuously) attached to your corpse, which means you have the intelligence of a living creature, and you won't return to the netherworld the second you cross an anti-magic field. Still, you really should be dead, and it shows.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. Age is a meaningless concept for the undead, and most don't keep track of it.
Alignment. You have the same alignment you did in life.
Size. Your size is Medium, unless it's affected by the Past Life feature below.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet, regardless of your size.
Past Life. You were alive, once, and some part of you remembers the feeling. Choose a playable race. You gain the languages of that race. In addition, you are treated as a member of that race for the sake of classes, feats, items, and magical effects that require a certain race. If your chosen race is Small or Large, your size changes to match.
Undead Characteristics. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
Persistent Unlife. You are tied more closely to the mortal plane than the average corpse. You are close enough to a living creature that you are still affected by items and magical effects that help or harm the living. You are also immune to effects that turn undead.
Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
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.
Undead Resilience. You are immune to poison damage and automatically succeed on saving throws against poison. You also have resistance to necrotic damage. However, you have vulnerability to radiant damage.
Terror of the Grave. Your very existence is a memento mori. You have advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) rolls made against living humanoids with an Intelligence score of 6 or greater.
Subrace. There are many ways to raise the dead. Depending on the ritual used to raise your corpse, you might be a skeleton, a revenant, or a mummy.
SKELETON
Skeletons normally only rise when necromantic magic stirs the bones of the long-dead. They are animated by evil magic and compelled to do the deeds of the necromancer that called them. However, if the magic runs free of the necromancer that created them, a sufficiently powerful skeleton can gain a sentience of its own. These skeletons retain the skills they needed to fulfil their caller's tasks, but they also gain the intelligence of a long-forgotten past life.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Skillful. You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice.
Grim Weapon Training. The magic that animated you gave you knowledge of the killing arts. You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
REVENANT
Revenants are restless corpses that have crawled up from the netherworld to settle unfinished business. Their still-fleshy bodies are filled with fell determination to complete a task they left unfinished in life. Unlike the other undead subraces, revenants remember their past lives, even if it's just the vague, contextless memory of a lost desire.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Relentless Endurance. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
MUMMY
Unlike the average undead, which is a corpse gathered ad-hoc by a necromancer after the fact, mummies were preserved on purpose — perhaps for the very reason that they might one day walk again. Embalmed and wrapped in bandage-like wrappings, it's easy to forget that there's a shrivelled corpse somewhere underneath the layers of protection.
Besides their unearthly strength, mummies can wield the power of the curse that created them, manifesting it as terrifying magic. However, as a result of the embalming process used to create them, they're awfully flammable.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength and Wisdom scores increase by 1.
Dry. All moisture was leeched from your body long ago; all that's left is a dry wrapping. You have vulnerability to fire damage.
Tomb Esoterica. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the command spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the fear spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age. Vampires will not die as long as they keep drinking blood; they are ageless beings. They remain the age they were when they became vampires.
Alignment. You have the same alignment you did in life.
Size. Your size is Medium, unless it's affected by the Past Life feature below.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet, regardless of your size.
Past Life. There was a time before you became a vampire, before you received the fateful bite. Choose a playable race. You gain the languages of that race. In addition, you are treated as a member of that race for the sake of classes, feats, items, and magical effects that require a certain race. If your chosen race is Small or Large, your size changes to match.
Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
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.
Undead Resilience. You are immune to poison damage and automatically succeed on saving throws against poison. You also have resistance to necrotic damage. However, you have vulnerability to radiant damage.
Vampire's Kiss. You can use your action to bite a victim, sucking the life from their veins. When you use your vampire's kiss, you make a melee attack against a creature within you reach. You can use either Strength or Dexterity to make this attack. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt. The damage increases to 3d8 at 6th level, 5d8 at 11th level, and 7d8 at 16th level.
After you use your vampire's kiss, you can't use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Eternal Hunger. Your existence depends on feeding on the blood of mortals. Each week, you must attack a living creature with your vampire's kiss. If you go seven days without doing so, you incur a level of exhaustion.
Subrace. Vampires are divided into noble vampires, feral vampires, and darkwing vampires.
NOBLE VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Portrait of Ruin. You gain proficiency in the Deception skill.
Legacy of Darkness. You know the chill touch cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the false life spell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the vampiric touch spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
FERAL VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.
Feral Fangs. You are proficient with your unarmed strike, which deal 1d6 piercing damage on a hit.
Pounce. If you move at least 15 feet straight towards a creature and then hit it with a weapon attack or unarmed strike on the same turn, that target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. The DC for this saving throw is equal to 8 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier + your proficiency bonus. If the target is prone, you can make one unarmed strike against it as a bonus action.
DARKWING VAMPIRE
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 1.
Dusktongue. You can wordlessly communicate simple ideas with bats. You have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks when communicating with bats.
On Wings of Night. You can cast a limited version of the polymorph spell on yourself without using any verbal, somatic, or material components. You can only assume the form of a bat or swarm of bats. You can use this ability again after completing a long rest.
HAG
Hags are a reclusive race of witches that lurk in the dark corners of the world. They aren't unsociable per se; they're fond of passing along gossip, and they often form covens of three to socialize and share power. However, their way of thinking can be a bit strange to mortal minds, so they tend to stay away from mortal society. When they do arrive, it's not likely to go well for the mortals.
Hags, curiously enough, are always female. They reproduce by way of a ritual that turns female mortals into hags. Hags rarely interact with men, and they can be a bit confused about what men are.
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Alignment. You have the same alignment you did in life.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. You have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Humanoid Disguise. As an action, you can cast a limited version of the alter self spell. You transform your appearance to that of a female humanoid. After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice.
Subrace. There are three types of hag, each endemic to its own environment: the sea hag of deep water, the green hag of the swamp, and the night hag of the dark realms.
SEA HAG
Sea hags live in underwater grottoes, whence they observe and occasionally terrorize passing sailors. Their glassy, fish-like eyes can be uncanny to land-dwellers, and they have the ability to warp their faces into a truly horrifying glare.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Amphibious. You can breathe underwater, and you gain a swim speed of 40 feet.
Horrific Visage. As an action, you can contort your face into a terrifying scowl that mortals cannot bear the sight of. Choose a creature within 60 feet that you can see and that can see you. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failure, the target is frightened of you for one minute. The target can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
GREEN HAG
Green hags, who build their houses in forest and fen, are the most sociable of hags. Some of them trade potions and pastries with those brave few that come upon their cottages. Others delight in attacking and tormenting their visitors.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Trickster. You gain proficiency in the Deception skill.
Mimicry. You can mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures. You must have heard the person speaking, or heard the creature make the sound, for at least 1 minute. A successful Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked.
Spells of the Swamp. You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the silent image spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the invisibility spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
NIGHT HAG
Night hags are the most powerful and sinister of the hags, as they wield frightening dark magic that protects them from spells. Riding over the land on broomsticks, they pursue their own arcane agendas, bringing misfortune wherever they go.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Midnight Magic. You know one cantrip of your choice from the Wizard spell list. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.
Infernal Cunning. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.
The following hag subraces are rarer than the above three, and they have powerful abilities of their own related to the realms in which they thrive.
BLOOD HAG
Blood hags may wear a human skin, but a monstrous form burns beneath the surface. When they burst out of their skin, they can blaze over the earth as a ball of fire.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Fiery Form. As an action, you can transform into a ball of fire for 1 minute. The effect ends if you drop to 0 hit points. While in your fiery form, your only method of movement is a flying speed of 20 feet. You can enter and occupy the space of another creature. You can't fall and remain hovering in the air even when stunned or otherwise incapacitated.
While you're in your fiery form, any creature that ends its turn within 5 feet of you must make a Dexterity saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. The creature takes 1d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 2d6 at 6th level, 3d6 at 11th level, and 4d6 at 16th level.
While in your fiery form, you can't talk or manipulate objects, and any objects you were carrying or holding can't be dropped, used, or interacted with. Additionally, you can't attack or cast spells.
You can't use this ability if your physical form has been altered, such as by your humanoid disguise ability or an alter self spell. After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
PIT HAG
Marked by their horns and claws, these rare hags wield the power of devils. When they live among mortals, they carve out their lairs in burning deserts, volcanoes, and sulphur pits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Infernal Resistance. You have resistance to fire damage.
Savage Claws. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.
Touch of Affliction. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can force that target to make a Constitution saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failed save, the target deals only half damage with weapon attacks that use Strength for 1 minute. The target can repeat its saving throw at the end of each of its turns, with the effect ending on a success.
After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
WINTER HAG
Winter hags build their cabins on mountain peaks and in frozen tundra. While some are content to lead peaceful lives in the snowy silence of their cottages, some winter hags use their freezing breath to blight crops, ruining villages that don't follow their bidding.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Cold Resistance. You have resistance to cold damage.
Ice Walk. You can move across and climb icy surfaces without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, difficult terrain composed of ice or snow doesn't cost you extra movement.
Diamond Dust. You can use your action to exhale freezing mist. When you use your breath weapon, each creature in a 15 ft. cone must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failed save, a creature is blinded until the end of your next turn.
After using this ability, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
On All of These: They're made to work with my usual homebrew setting, but I tried to keep the flavour as generic as possible so they could get ported easily to other settings.
On the Undead: The base race is bloated with way too many features. I'd like to cut it down some if I can, but I'm not sure how.
The Skeleton is a little weird, but I wanted to make playing a Skeleton interesting in any way. The Revenant can also function as a playable zombie.
On the Vampire: The vampire is so straightforwardly iconic that I didn't think explanatory flavour text would help, so I left it off. One note on flavour that I should mention, though, is that the Past Life feature implies that the vampire used to be mortal and got turned by a bite. If your setting can have born vampires, you can just lop off the Past Life feature and the rest of the class should function as usual.
I'd like to add a racial feat so vampires can turn people into vampires and create vampire spawn, but balancing that is a serious pain (especially since I probably won't get to playtest it), so... that's TBA.
On the Hag: The hag in this case is... technically compatible with the MM hag, but it's treated more as having storybook witches as a separate race than sticking to the hag thing. Hence, there are no requirements about being ugly (well, that, and it opens up the question of what "ugly" even means). I figure if you want all hags to be ugly in your setting, you can just tell your table that. Myself, if I have a player who wants to play a kind, beautiful hag, I'm not about to stop them. Also, the baby-eating thing is super gross and would not fly at my table, so I made the ritual by which hags reproduce rather vague. You can interpret that as a baby-eating ritual if you like.
The Green Hag's Mimicry steps on the Actor feat, but I'm honestly not sure how else to approach that.
On the Rare Hags: Hoo, boy, that blood hag. Fiery Form was too cool to pass up, but damn is that a weird race feature to balance. I left out Detonate (the ability to explode out of Fiery Form) for now, but I did do a write-up for it, so if it needs a buff, I can put Detonate back in. But... man. I also thought about adding a bit where seeing the blood hag turn to her true form made everyone around her afraid, but Fiery Form alone is such a complex feature I didn't want to overload the race with too much stuff. (My table has enough trouble remembering race features exist as it is :'u)
The pit hag is pretty straightforward and fills a different niche than all the other hags, so I really like how it turned out. I'm nervous about the winter hag's blinding breath, but I hope the fact that it only lasts one round balances it out okay.