Selkie (5e Race)

Selkie

Selkies are fey creatures native to the ocean, and other salt water areas. They are comfortable in the deep sea and on the ground. While not necessarily beautiful, they are charismatic, strong, and agile, and are able to shift into their seal form with the use of their sealskin.

Physical Description

An artist's illustration of what is and is not a selkie. Source

Selkies are seal-people; they resemble humans when not in their sealskin. They always have hair and eye colors that correspond with their seal form. For example, a Harbor Seal selkie would have tan to dark brown skin, darker brown or grey hair, and many freckles or beauty marks on their body. Most, if not all Selkies have dark eyes, which again corresponds to their Seal form. Since selkies do mate with humans, however, there can be hints of the human parentage or ancestry in their physical appearance, like red hair or lighter-colored eyes. Male and female selkies alike are usually lean, as it is hard for this race to put on a lot of muscle mass.

Personality

Selkies are usually calm, unless they are required to fight. Female selkies are often more capable of controlling their emotions, making them natural leaders of the tribes. Male selkies are able to channel their rage in battle, making them great fighters and the like. Selkie men and women are free-spirited and open minded, but they value honor and “pod” greatly. (Pod can usually be translated as pack or family.)

Selkies do not see a lot of difference between male and female, aside from physical.

Land

Selkies are mostly present on the shore of tropical islands and coastal regions. Many of them can be found underwater as well. They are almost always nomadic and thus have very little tie to the land in the way that other species might.

Society

Selkies are welcomed by most other water creatures, and maintain friendly relation with them. They have deep caution towards Cyclopes, Goliath Pandas, Gnolls, Minotaurs, Tigerfolks and Wolffolks, as these are the natural predators of selkies in their seal form. They get along in the wild and most often wild-oriented races. They treat humans with caution as well, for the fact that humans often stole sealskins from unsuspecting selkies, making them unable to go back into the ocean.

Selkie Names

Wild Selkies often give their child a short, simple name, if they give them a name at all. Selkies raised on the land usually have names that deal with water, or aquatic life in general.

Wild: Sey, Sho, Illi, Mae, Koo

Land: Storm, River, Coral, Seafoam

Selkie Traits

Aquatic creatures that shapeshift between human and seal.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1, and your Charisma score increases by 2.
Age. Selkies reach adulthood at 14 and can live up to be 70 years old.
Alignment. Selkies usually tend toward neutrality in both good and evil, and also in law and chaos. However, there are outliers – some selkies prefer to be tricksters, leaning toward chaos, and some selkies like the idea of following rules, showing the lawful perspective. This is usually decided on where they were raised – selkies mostly raised on land act more like their human counterparts.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Aquatic Species. You have advantage on Athletics and Acrobatics checks made in water and you can take the Dash action as a bonus action while swimming.
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 color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Hold Breath. You can hold your breath for 30 minutes.
Seal Anatomy. Adapted to a cooler climate, you have disadvantage on Constitution saving throws to resist hot climates, and you require twice as much hydration than most races. However you gain advantage on Constitution saving throws to resist cold environment.
Seal Skin. As an action, you can polymorph into the form of a seal which has the statistics of a dolphin as per the polymorph spell. If you are reduced to 0 hit points while a seal you cannot use this trait again until you complete a long rest.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Common and Aquan.

Random Height and Weight

Table: Selkie Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
4′10″	+2d8	100 lb.	× (2d4) lb.

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Races