Two Dnd 5e Homebrew Races of mine

[Loorlgh]

Hello everyone!

I'm working on a setting of my own and have created two new races to inhabit it, and am wondering what you guys think of the flavor and abilities. Without further ado, here they are:

Banecursed
A race of vegetative bodies piloted by a sentient curse.

Spoiler: The Banecursed

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Created for Ruin
There was once a war between two powerful kingdoms. One kingdom, wishing for a swift and cruel end to their rival, conjured an infernal, infectious curse that would affect only the enemy race. It wrested control of the victim’s body and senses, turning them into agents of destruction. However, it would also spread like a plague, eventually leading to the rival’s complete defeat despite their best efforts. The hex masters were satisfied and left the cursed population to wander, no longer transmitting any orders. The rival nation’s history and culture were lost to the ages, leaving the enthralled bodies without higher aims than instinctive survival.

Sentient Curse
While the civilisation fell, the bodies still reproduced, and the curse proliferated. Over many generations something changed. The magical effect found sentience without its master’s leash, and from that a new form of life arose. The banecursed now have their own independent goals.

Detached Perspective
Though the banecursed have bodies, they view them as “houses” more than part of themselves. Some show great respect to their carrier and remorse for their nature, while others treat it as a tool. While there have been attempts to cure or separate the dominated body and sentient curse, none have been successful.

Banecursed Traits
Ability Score Increase
Your Intellect score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age
Banecursed are raised in utero and grow to physical maturity within a few years. They live to be around 30 years of age.

Alignment
Their natural abilities for manipulation make many banecursed tend towards evil. While they have gained free will from their original mission, they still enjoy anarchy and ruin which inclines them towards chaos.

Size
Banecursed are slightly taller and stockier than humans, reaching between 6 and 7 feet and averaging almost 160 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision
The magical nature of your existence drives away the veil of darkness. 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 color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Dominating Nature
Existing as a magical effect controlling a body, you are less receptive to many forms of manipulation and mental attacks. You have resistance to psychic damage. You also have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and on charisma saving throws.

Influential Aura
You know the Friends cantrip.

Curse Speech
You can send speech telepathically to a single creature you can see within 30 ft. They cannot respond via this link. Other banecursed can overhear this communication as long as they are within 30 ft of the speaker.


Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common.

Morph
A race of ooze creatures having developed a greater ego and intelligence in ancient experiments performed on their more primal ancestors.

Spoiler: The Morphs

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Asexual Reproduction
After a morph reaches maturity around 8 years old, it can create an offspring spawn. Before spawning, a morph spends weeks gorging and building up mass, after which they seclude themselves to split. The process takes several days of arduous work, separating mass of itself and imbuing it with new sentience. The offspring starts off looking only vaguely like a humanoid and has only fleeting intelligence, but develops over the course over a few months. It gains a form of its own as well as a personality.

Jelly-based Forms
Morphs have many different colors and take on humanoid, slimy shapes. As they grow up their mutability decreases. They look similar to humans in shape, though they have fewer sharp corners and very homogeneous surface.

Passive Communities
As a people, morphs tend to not have much ambition or curiosity. They live in the places their ancestors have lived in for generations and stay there, not seeing much point to explore unless absolutely necessary. Individuals might catch wanderlust, but their very instinctual passiveness is hard to shake. Morph enclaves can be found in many places, but they tend not to move from that area.

Morph Names
Morphs have one name based on their color, used much like a family name. As their personality develops they chose a second name based on a sound they like, usually something liquid. Some pick more solid sounds but are seen as rebellious. Due their asexual nature their names are unisexual.

Color name
Amber, Black, Blue, Bone, Brown, Clear, Crystal, Cyan, Gray, Green, Maroon, Ochre, Olive, Red, Rose, White, Yellow.

Chosen name
Bloop, Blip, Dack, Golp, Pip, Schulp, Thunk, Tick, Tock, Woosh, Wap, Wup.

Morph Traits
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Intellect score decreases by -2.

Age
Morphs are born as fully functional adults, split off from their parent. They live to be around 40 years of age before their cohesion starts to fail. A dying morph turns into inanimate slime.

Alignment
Morphs tend to have a simple outlook on life. Most morphs are unaligned, but those that aren’t tend towards chaotic alignments.

Size
Morphs have about the same build as humans, standing between 5 and 6 feet and averaging almost 140 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed
Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Darkvision
While not possessing the full sensory abilities of monstrous oozes, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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 color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Amorphous
Your can move through openings as small as 1 inch without squeezing, though this does not apply to equipment you carry. While moving in this way the only actions you can make are Dash, Hide, Disengage, or Search. This trait also allows them to don or doff any type of armor with a single action, and you have advantage when defending against grapples.

Ooze Resistances
You can make your body less receptive to harm. You have resistance to acid damage. As a bonus action, you can gain resistance to one type of damage except for radiant or necrotic. This effect lasts for one minute. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common. You can also communicate telepathically with other morphs and oozes within 30 feet, transmitting feelings and urges more than actual words.

[Trandir]

Well they look ok.

The morph is maybe a bit weak.

Also tge ability score is called intelligence not intellect you might want to change that

[Damon_Tor]

The Banecursed are fine.

The Morph are real weak:

• -2 racial penalty to intelligence
• no second racial bonus to any stat
• walk speed of 25

Bonuses:

• Limited 1-inch squeeze ability (cannot bring gear with you). Effectively a ribbon.
• Acid Resistance (one elemental resistance is a fairly common racial ability, nothing unusual here)
• Versatile resistance 1/day, lasts 1 minute. (Very nice, but will not save this race as written.)
• Limited race-specific telepathy (borders on ribbon territory)

The most damning problem is the lack of a second ability bonus. Suggestion: Reduce their static con boost to +1. Then give them the ability to give themselves +2 to str or dex as an action (cannot exceed 20). The bonus lasts until they use the ability again. This fixes the second ability problem while reinforcing their identity as adaptive shapeshifters.

To expand on the squeezing ability and make it less of a ribbon, give them the ability to ignore difficult terrain: their feet and legs can literally change shape to fit perfectly in between craggy rocks and dense vines, so this makes perfect sense. This also helps to compensate for their 25 foot movement speed.

Finally, it's difficult to reconcile this race's shapeshifting ability and the lack of a climbing speed: their hands and feet should be able to change shape to fit any tiny crevice or handhold, or even develop lizard-like folds to increase surface area, making them excellent climbers. And again, this would help to compensate for the 25 foot movement speed.

[Loorlgh]

Thank for the in-depth analysis! I'm hesitant to give the morphs an alternating ability bonus, feels too finicky and paper worky. I'm more inclined to giving them +1 to Strength as well, instead. I'm also hesitant to give them a possible bonus to Dex, since they're ooze-like.

The other two suggestions are great! Immunity to difficult terrain and a climb speed equal to ground speed aren't unfitting for an ooze, and combo's internally with the squeezing. I'll definitely think about implementing those two.