Cactalfolk (5e Race)

Cactalfolk

“	You want a taste of my patented spike punches, punk?!	”
—Typical echine taunt

Physical Description

By Ivan Sanchez

Cactalfolk are cacti with sapience and the ability to move. Their body shape isn't that different from a real cactus, but their texture is not so squishy or soft like a normal succulent. Instead, their bodily fibers have hardened enough to mimic muscle, allowing them to move fluidly like animals and humans do. Their tallest point is their head, where their face is. Their eyes appear to be gouged, dark holes with glowing irises above a mouth. They do not have noses. Fully grown cactalfolk have four arms and sturdy spines all over their green-skinned bodies. Cactalfolk are able to meander around on land on account of their sturdy root feet.

History

Due to an unrecorded conflict within the original cactalfolk clan, they split into two tribes that make up the subraces, Echine and Opunti. Supposedly, before this schism, the cactalfolk lived as a collective of nomads among the deserts they call home. A bygone pantheon of desert gods had supposedly granted special cacti sapience, making them the cactalfolk. After splitting, the two clans fought frequently and eventually drove each other to opposite ends of the world's deserts. The Echine largely dominate the old deserts their ancestors roamed, but the Opunti were more open-minded and thus wandered to other parts of the world.

Society

Cactalfolk are highly tribal in nature, but the degree varies between the Opunti and Echine variety. The Opunti are able to settle among other races as farmers and artisans. They also are established spellcasters and more receptive to the customs other than their own. In contrast, the Echine maintain a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They pride their tribesman as warriors and fierce guardians of the sands. Neither tribes are very religious, but they are often spiritual. As their creators are long forgotten, even in their oral tradition, the cactalfolk instead focus on traditions passed down from their ancestors, like rain dances and art. There are rare cases of cactalfolk adopting the religions of other races, like worship of a sun god or Psilofyr, the god of myconids.

Cactalfolk Names

Cactalfolk names are simply there to quickly know what someone's role in the tribe is, however they sometimes adopt names given to them by other humanoids and add them to their names. Other than this role, there is a small nickname bit at the end to differentiate two members within the same role. These names are not gendered.

Cactalfolk Names: Cropraiser Prickles, Mudshaper Igon, Raincaller Balasar, Sunriser Rigor

Cactalfolk Traits

Cactus people who split into two feuding tribes
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. Cactalfolk reach maturity after around 30 years and live up to 200 years.
Alignment. Opunti cactalfolk are rarely evil and Echine cactalfolk are more likely to be chaotic.
Size. Cactalfolk vary in height between the two subraces. Opunti cactalfolk typically don't grow over 5 feet tall. Echine cactalfolk typically grow to over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Desert Resilience. A cactus, being a succulent, can store water for further use. You are unaffected by Extreme Heat, as detailed in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. You also only need to fulfill your water requirement once every ten days to avoid incurring exhaustion.
Spiked Flesh. If a creature hits you with a weapon or unarmed attack (i.e bites, claws, kicks, etc), they take 1 piercing damage. If a creature successfully grapples you or you grapple a creature, they take 1d6 piercing damage, and do again at the start of their next turn while they're still grappling you. Additionally, since your body is covered in spines, armor must be made to fit you, else you cannot benefit from this feature. Armor made to do so costs twice as much, as it must have several dozens of extra holes in the armor while still maintaining armor quality.
Plant Being. Your creature type is Plant instead of Humanoid. As such, you are immune to spells like crown of madness or dominate person because they specifically target Humanoids. You also can attempt to Hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena. However, when you take fire damage, you are frightened until the end of your next turn.
Cactus Arms. You have four arms instead of two; these additional limbs can hold objects and wield weapons as normal. Your arms get in each other's way at times; while wielding a two-handed weapon, you cannot benefit from a shield or wield a second two-handed weapon.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.
Subrace. Choose either the Opunti or Echine subrace.

Opunti

Opunti are shorter cactalfolk who typically prefer peace over warfare. They are friendly to outside races who come to their tribes and many become protectors of the deserts that they live in. Physically, they are shorter and more rotund than the Echine cactalfolk. They also only have one pair of root feet.

Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Speech of Beast and Leaf. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with beasts and plants. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You have advantage on all Charisma checks you make to influence them.
Innate Spellcasting. You know one cantrip of your choice from the druid spell list. Additionally, when you reach 3rd level, you learn one 1st-level spell of your choice from the same spell list, which you can cast once and regain use after you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting modifier for these spells.

Echine

Echine are taller cactalfolk who typically prefer war over peace. They tolerate outsiders to their clan on the account that they can provide trade on weapons and armors. Echine physically have very sturdy arms in comparison to the Opunti and four root feet.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Spiked Combatant. Your spined fists are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier.
Warrior's Spirit. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, frightened, and stunned

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
4′ 8''	+2d6	170 lb.	× (1d6) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

5.00

(one vote)

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