Kandra (5e Race)
Kandra[edit]
There is a race of creatures that people whisper of. Sinister and unseen. They say not to travel alone at night for these creatures will catch you and steal your face. They walk among us wearing the faces of those we know and love. How would you feel to know the friendly baker down the street was actually a faceless creature of nightmares?
What these legends really speak of is the race of the kandras. Kandras are something like Ooze given sentience. They take the bones of other creatures and form bodies around said bones. Creating muscle, ligament, and organs from their Ooze like bodies. In order to accurately replicate a form a kandra typically must eat the corpse attached to the bones. Despite popular belief, Kandras do not usually kill people themselves. They are a scavenger race and the bones they use are typically collected from already dead corpses or animals.
Given the kandras' abilities, they are often employed as spies or insurgents. But never assassins. The Kandras all follow an almost religious adherence to The First Contract. The First Contract forbids Kandras from killing humanoid creatures and breaking the contract for any reason is often a compulsion to return to the Kandra Homeland and report for execution.
Physical Description[edit]
The kandras themselves are shapeless Oozes. When they ingest a cadaver, they assume its physical appearance and gain its speed, Strength, Dexterity and vision.
History[edit]
While the First Generation were created directly by the event known as “The Calamity”, the First Generation created all subsequent generations of kandras through "Blessings", pairs of magical metal rods created using various enchantments.
About 1000 years ago during “The Calamity”, several oozes gained consciousness. Those newly formed kandras was comparably weak and unstable, and many of them relapsed back into mindless oozes. Over the next 50 years or so, most of the surviving kandras learned how to assume the shapes from the corpses they fed upon. Eventually, the kandras found their way into society and attempted to blend in. Their lack of understanding of other creatures’ behaviors, and their tendency to treat other races as a possible snack, caused societies to pursue the kandras toward extinction. With many of them relapsing back into mindless oozes, and many more killed by the humanoids, the remaining kandras grouped together in a hidden land. There they created themselves a safe haven for kandra kind. Over the years they created themselves their own society, dedicated to finding a cure to the relapsing phenomenon wasting away their already dwindled race toward final extinction.
About 800 years ago the kandras finally discovered the answer, a pair of enchanted metal rods puncturing through their organs, later known as "Blessings", gave them the stability they sought for so desperately. They managed to create four different types of Blessings, and after several years realized that they could use them to create new kandras from previously mindless oozes. The First Generation created the Second Generation and taught them all they knew. In time they have decided to create a third-generation, for that individuals from the Second Generation had to venture through the lands acquiring the required ingredients to create new Blessings. Knowing the risks involving in the encounter with the humanoids, they constructed The First Contract, a binding of rules and traditions intended to keep the kandra race safe from the wrath of the humanoids, containing the ban on killing humanoids.
Society[edit]
The kandra are known to be secretive, keeping to themselves and mistrusting of all others, including each other. Kandra keep religiously to a social mandate they call the "Contract", which is the system by which they offer their services to humanoids in exchange for enchanted metal.
There are other jobs for kandra to perform in the Homeland, such as the teaching and instruction of young kandra, which is considered a prestigious job among kandra.
The First Generation typically only communicates with the Second Generation. All subsequent generations are then created by the Firsts, every hundred years. During the approximate thousand years of kandras existence, there have been eleven Generations. In general, all decisions about law and order are communicated to the lower generations by the Second Generation, acting as something like government officials.
Most kandra have an intense loathing for the humanoid races as they are afraid of being destroyed by them. Bound by the Contract, a kandra will do its master's bidding without question. Many noblemen hire kandra (using the Contract) to be spies for their respective houses. Kandra are, however, treated poorly in general, intensifying their deeply-rooted hatred. Fulfilling Contracts is their way of "paying for their freedom" to prevent humanoids from seeking ways to enslave them in other ways and finding out about their weaknesses.
On top of that, the fulfilling of Contracts also has another purpose. All the enchanted metal they earn is brought to their Homeland where it is being reshaped to Blessings.
Kandra Names[edit]
Kandras are sexless in nature, they tend to use the names of the identities they assume. As of themselves they usually use a two-syllable names.
Examples: TenSoon, OreSeur, KanPaar, Haddek, MeLaan, Paalm, FhorKood, VenDell, TarKavv, ReLuur, VarSell, HunFoor
Kandra Traits[edit]
Awakened Oozes. The Kandras are shape shifters who need to consume a corpse in order to assume an identity. They are based on the "Mistborn" book series.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1. When in your base form, your Strength and Dexterity scores are 6.
Age. Kandra do not seem to age though they are considered young until at least 50 years post Awakening.
Alignment. Kandra are a lawful race given their almost religious adherence to the rules of their people. And due to their lives as contractors, they lean toward neutral.
Size. In their natural state kandra are an ooze of medium size.
Speed. Your base walking speed (with no bones) is 20 feet. You also inherit the digested creature’s base speed.
vision. Your base vision is blindsight 30 ft. When digest a creature reduce blindsight to 15 ft. and inherit the digested creature’s sight.
Awakened Ooze. As a descendant to Oozes kandras breathe and require sustenance in the form of a small creature once every three days, but you do not sleep.
Organs arranging. You can arrange your organs as you wish, keeping you from being a subject to crit damage.
Pseudopod. You can use your action to eject a small piece of yourself. When you use your pseudopod, make a melee weapon attack against a creature within a range of 10 ft. from you. The modifier on this attack equals to your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a successful hit, the creature takes 2d6 acid damage. The damage increases to 3d6 at 5th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level. Using your pseudopod weapon means ejecting a small piece of yourself reducing your HP by twice the amount of dice thrown on a hit. For example, if your pseudopod deals 2d6 acid damage on a hit, in order to use it, you must expend 4 hit points. In addition, a creature biting you receives the pseudopod damage automatically, without the need to expend additional hit points and roll for an attack.
Insidious Impostor. Kandras are masters of deceit and subterfuge. You gain proficiency in the Deception skill as well as an advantage on Charisma(Deception) and Charisma(Performance) checks when trying to pass yourself off as a different person. In addition, 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 10 minutes.
Stolen Form. As a kandra your body has no structure. Instead, you can "borrow" the structure of other creatures. You may spend a long rest digesting and replicating a beast or humanoid corpse of small or medium size. The body formed has most of your ability scores but completely resembles the person it was. You have the base speeds of whatever you are imitating (this includes all flying, swimming, and burrow speeds that form should have). You take the Strength and Dexterity ability scores from the cadaver. If you are using bones you have used before you may instead recreate the body over a short rest. If you are using a skeleton without flesh you take the shape appropriate to the creature from which the skeleton came but their body remains transparent with the skeleton visible within. You cannot create hair and therefor a hairless cadaver leads to a bold form, and an extra hairy one, costs more time to digest in order to put each hair in its appropriate position.
Damage reduction and weaknesses. Immunity to poison. Resistance to non-magical physical damage, and any such damage is considered non-lethal to you. Weakness to psychic and acid damage.
Condition immunities. You have immunity to sleep & stun effects and polymorph has no effect on you.
Fractured bones. Whenever a kandra receives a bludgeoning damage equals to twice his level or more he then suffers from a fracture. A broken bone must be replaced in order to undo its penalty. There are four types of fractures, when dealt a new fracture roll a d8:
1: Head fracture – max fractures before the part is destroyed is 1. Cause disadvantage to all Charisma checks.
2r,3l: Hand fracture – max fractures before the part is destroyed is 2,2. Cause disadvantage to all Strength checks and Attack rolls, in addition to an accumulative -1 to Strength.
4r,5l: Leg fracture – max fractures before the part is destroyed is 2,2. Cause disadvantage to all Dexterity checks, in addition to an accumulative -1 to Dexterity and a reduction to movement by 5 ft.
6,7,8: Torso fracture – max fractures before the part is destroyed is 4. Cause an accumulative -1 penalty to all Dexterity and Strength saving throws.
Bone replacing. As an action you can choose to release some of your bones (arm, leg, or a rib), losing their bonuses and stability, as well as their penalties. For example, if you have 3 or more fractures on your legs it might be more beneficial for you to lose the leg structure and move in your ooze speed. You can also re-engulf a cleaned bone to replace a freshly vacant space tacking ten minutes to adjust the bone to its place. If the part is surrounded by flesh you will have to digest it over a short rest.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and two other languages of your choice.
Blessings[edit]
When each Kandra is Awakened they are bestowed a Blessing in the form of two metal spikes piercing their organs. There are four known types of Blessings Awareness, Potency, Presence, and Stability. Due to their unique natures, each Blessing is made with different magic runes on the enchanted metal rods.
A Kandra can survive with only one spike, but they lose some of their sanity, personality, and memories while doing so. A Kandra with one spike has an advantage against humanoid targeted spells.
There are more possible Blessings than the four already known.
Blessing of Awareness[edit]
A pair of tin spikes that grant a Kandra increased senses.
Those among the Kandra who've been Blessed with Awareness make for the best spies even among the Kandra. The Blessing of Awareness heightens the senses allowing the Kandra to keep a vigilant watch from outside normal perception.
Alert. You can’t be surprised while you are conscious, and other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you.
Sharpened Sense. You gain Double Proficiency in the Perception skill.
Constant Alertness. You have an advantage on Perception or Investigation rolls to discover hidden doors and traps.
Blessing of Potency[edit]
A pair of iron spikes that give a Kandra more strength.
The Blessing of Potency Blessings the strength of the Kandra people. Those gifted the Blessing of Potency are used as the warriors of the Kandra. Their limbs are stronger regardless of what form they take and their bodies faster.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Strength score by 1. You keep these improvements when you change form.
Quick Limbed. Increase Base Walking speed of whatever form you take by 5. Any flying speed is unaffected.
Strong of Heart. You have an advantage on Death Saving Throws.
Blessing of Presence[edit]
A pair of copper spikes that grant increased mental capability.
The Kandra as a people experience much in their long lives. But none can recall with more clarity than those with the Blessing of Presence. The Blessing of Presence grants great mental clarity and fortitude.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Intelligence score by 1. You keep these improvements when you change form.
Remarkable Recollection. You gain Double proficiency in the History skill and your choice of Arcana, Nature, or Religion.
Marvellous Memory. You can accurately recall anything you've seen or heard within the past month.
Blessing of Stability[edit]
A pair of zinc spikes that endows its receiver with emotional fortitude.
Rarely used, the Blessing of Stability endows its receiver with emotional fortitude, rendering them much more resistant to control by emotional spells.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Wisdom score by 1. You keep these improvements when you change form.
Strong of will. You gain proficiency on Wisdom saving throws.
uncontrollable mind. Once a day when failing on a Wisdom saving throw you can instead choose to succeed.
Racial Feats[edit]
Quick metabolism. Gain the ability to digest a creature over a short rest instead of a long one. When tacking this feat, you gain the ability to take a form much quicker than you would have normally. The time to take a standard new form is reduced to a short rest. The time to take a form you’ve already used in the past is reduced to ten minutes. You can release a bone (arm, leg, or a rib) as a bonus action and re-engulf a cleaned bone to replace a freshly vacant space as an action. If the part is surrounded by flesh you will have to spend ten minutes to digest.
Sculptor of flesh. Gain the ability to deduce the appearance of a cadaver’s missing tissue and fill in the gapes. This feat allows you to estimate the proper appearance for a skeleton you haven’t seen the owner of, and result in a believable form of a creature that the bones belongs to. Also, if the origin of the bones is familiar to you (Observed for at least two hours) or well known to you (Observed for at least two days) you can try to imitate him on a successful Intelligence check with or without disadvantage accordingly. The imitation process will take twice the amount of time taken by a normal replicating form. Over a short rest, you can attempt to repair a broken bone (arm, leg, or a rib) using tinkering tools, requiring two working hands and consuming clay and bolts. NOTE: Using a skeleton will not give you sustenance and you will need to feed as well separately.
Constructor of Bones. Gain the ability to use unnatural skeleton builds. This feat allows you to engulf bone-like objects to create a skeleton of your own design. This may include a collection of bones from different creatures, or a hand made skeletal construction, as long as you retain a basic form including one head, one torso, between zero to four legs and between zero to four hands. you may add one tail, adding three fracture slots with penalties to all tail related activity. PREREQUISITE: Sculptor of flesh.
Creator of forms. Gain the ability to create a personal skeletal design. This feat allows you to master nonstandard skeleton designs as you wish. PREREQUISITE: Constructor of Bones.
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