Colossus (5e Race)

Colossus

"Relationship is like a rope... if you cut it and tie it back together, it brings both ends of the rope closer to each other."

Physiology

[1]

Said to be living castles, colossi are sizable sculptures of stone or brick given life for the purpose of protecting or seizing entire cities. Though the exact means of giving colossi life depends on who you ask, there is a popular urban legend. According to it, some cult-like band of clerics took afterlife-destined souls of valiant warriors who died in service of their kingdom, and bound these souls to fallen castle walls. There is perhaps a grain of truth to this, as the several known kingdoms who created colossi seem to keep the methods of their creation secret. Perhaps this is just so colossi do not fall into the hands of rival kingdoms. Despite being constructs and resembling stone castles, colossi behave more like living creatures, especially humanoids.

History & Society

There are records of colossi even in arcane scrolls millenia ago, but these people do not seem to have a bound history of their own. Rather, each is created in service to an existing kingdom—enlisted from birth with lawful machine-like intelligence, often to the service monarchs of humans and dwarves. What few free colossi exist are often those who outlived their creators.

Only in recent times have even thought of colossi as "people," despite showing intelligence and free will not normally expected of constructs. Not even a decade has passed since the Treaty of Throne-Hold declared colossi to be free creatures that are "truly alive," not unlike warforged. They've had little time to find their way since then, but largely colossi feel a strong kinship with others of their kind, as none else could empathize so deeply with their mysterious origins and half-functional stone bodies. Born as soldiers, they tend to respect rank, and prefer to follow military-like command structures when possible. This is, of course, only limited to what few colossus-creators actually obeyed the treaty.

Despite being free souls created to protect as often as destroy, many common folk see colossi as weapons of war. Their friends among humanoids are most likely to be curious wizards and artificers, alongside warforged and soldiers who respect their strength and plight. Even when colossi are tolerated, it's more often out of fear than respect.

Colossus Names

Most living colossi were created to be units of war thought to be mindless, and as such were given numbers as often as names. Respected colossi and those who've since chosen their own names often choose to be named after political ideals such as Unity, Liberty, or Justice—but some taken on the names of war heroes, among many other possibilities.

Colossus Traits

"Living castles" created to defend and destroy, who unexpectedly have sentience and a soul.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. While colossi are created with adult-like intelligence and do not age in the most conventional sense, with time their bodies crumble more and more easily, and after a few centuries can no longer hold together.
Alignment. Though colossi have gained a free will, they were created as and possibly even from dutiful soldiers. There's a significant leaning towards law, and a smaller learning towards good.
Size. Colossus vary widely in height and build, but were literally built to be defend, and thus tend to be quite tall—sometimes well over 8 feet. Your size is Medium. If your campaign has Large player-characters, you can choose to be Large instead. Being made of solid stone, you weigh thousands of pounds.
Type. Your creature types are humanoid and construct. If something affects either of your creature types, it affects you.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. You cannot fly by spells, items, feats, boons, or class features—but you can still be carried by flying vehicles. Unable to swim, you walk along the bottom of any water you enter, moving at half speed.
Stone Skin. You can add your Constitution modifier to your AC instead of Dexterity. You can't do so with an effect that already adds your Constitution modifier to your AC, such as with a barbarian's Unarmored Defense.
Partial Construct Nature. You cannot eat, drink, or breathe—which means you can't benefit from potions or similar effects. You must still sleep, but you can complete a long rest in half the usual time.
Siege Sentinel. Objects of Large size and greater (including vehicles without an Intelligence score) are vulnerable to damage you cause.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.
Subrace. A colossus has different abilities depending on the original purpose of its design. Choose one from artillery, bastion, or ram.

Artillery

You were created to be a platform to launch attacks against Gargantuan threats such as dragons and vehicles.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Arm Cannon. One of your arms is either a cannon (if your campaign has firearms) or a ballista (if it doesn't), a weapon with which you are proficient. This hand cannot be used for anything else. As a ranged weapon attack, you can use this arm to make an attack with a range of 150/600 feet. You add your Strength or Dexterity to the attack and damage rolls of this weapon, whichever is higher. A hit deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage (for a cannon) or piercing damage (for a ballista). The damage of this weapon increases to 1d10 when you reach 5th level, and 1d12 when you reach 11th level. If you use this weapon to Ready an attack, and that attack is made against a target that is flying or of Gargantuan size, the attack roll has advantage.
Vantage Angle. Your speed isn't reduced by climbing, and you are acclimated to high altitudes.

Bastion

You were created as "living bulwark" to defend a city from siege.

Ability Score Increase. Increase your Wisdom score by 1.
Magic Deflection. You always have at least half cover against ranged spell attack rolls.
Ultimate Defense. When you take the Dodge action within a turn you don't move or take any other actions (including bonus actions), your half cover extends to all attacks and effects, not just ranged spell attack rolls.

Ram

You were created to be on the front line, smashing through castle walls.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Ramming Speed. Once per turn if you move at least 30 feet in a straight line, you can then immediately move up to an additional 15 feet in the same direction without expending speed.
Unflinching. If a Medium or smaller creature would knock you prone, or shove you a distance of 5 feet or less, you can use your reaction to prevent this.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
6′ 4''	+1d20	1000 lb.	× (100) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

4.20

(5 votes)

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Races