Selachinoid (5e Race)

Selachinoid

They didn't know what was happening. A great storm had begun to grow when their ship was attacked. The first thing they hear is what sounds like the bellow of a great beast, hauntingly sound over the waves, drowning out the sound of the thunder. Then came what sounded like the shattering of metal, when suddenly a monstrous shape climbs over the side, wielding what appears to be their own anchor, before pointing towards the helm, towards their very own captain. Before they knew it, the creature launched itself toward the captain and the sound of crunching bone and the gushing of blood is all that can be heard before the creature disappears over the side with the anchor. The crew turns to their captain, only to see a truncated corpse, laying where he once stood.

Physical Description

A Selachinoid Sand Tiger Sandshark

Selachinoids have humanoid bodies with a shark head, a fin on their back, and a tail, along with gills, which are located where you would find the rib cage in a human. Unlike most sharks, their skeleton consists of mainly bone instead of cartilage. They also have spiked elbows, but not all of them have this trait. The type of shark species depends on your choice. Yes, you can use prehistoric species such as the helicoprion or hybodus, and any other shark species, even the megalodon.

History

Selachinoids were the first intelligent species created by the gods, created before Elves and Dragons were a thing. They started as a basic shark species, but their creators gave them a unique ability to store memories and genomes of other shark species, including the ones that went extinct. This has caused many variations and subraces, and height differences to sprout in this very unique shark race. Sekolah, the shark god, has favored this species and modified the species to evolve into a more humanoid form during the Late Permian Period. As time went on, they fought with any sort of creature that looked threatening to them, including dinosaurs, making them top predators inside and outside of water. As time went on they began to communicate via speech, but have adapted to speaking common as their main language. Sekolah even favored certain Selachinoids who have done very special deeds that have pleased Sekolah, such as guarding Sahuagins against intrusions. This caused Sekolah to give them an extended lifespan after death in the form of a Selachinoid Skeleton.

First time encounter with a Dragon: When they spotted a dragon for the first time, they spotted an adult Red Dragon. Due to their semi-barbaric natures at the time, their first instinct was to swarm it with a group of over 20 Selachinoids, which ended up with the Red Dragon to be slaughtered by them. They then began fighting over which part of the Dragon they'll get to eat, which also ended in another fight, although this fight ended with a lot of Selachinoids getting knocked out. This was not a one time problem, and has caused a bitter rivalry between the Dragons and Selachinoids.

Society

Selachinoids are considered allies by Merfolk and Sahuagin, but are enemies with Merrows, Sea Hags, Yuan-ti, Lizardfolk, and all species of Dragons. Selachinoids have a bitter rivalry with humans, but fights are very rare. Selachinoids are neutral towards almost every other race. The society of Selachinoids is very similar to humans, although the community is split into two different categories, the Land Society and the Aquatic Society. land Societies of Selachinoids consist of Selachinoids that prefer life on land, and trade on land, while Aquatic Societies of Selachinoids are the exact same thing as the Land Society, except everything takes place underwater. Polotical Selachinoid systems are the same as a modern-day American political systems, albeit most meetings take place underwater.

When it comes to drinks, Selachinoids prefer salt water over regular water, although somehow they don't get dehydrated by drinking salt water. Whenever it comes to food, anything with nutritional value will suffice, although their most common is dish Seared Dragon Skin.

Selachinoid Names

Any name can work.

Selachinoid Traits

Deadly, aquatic hunters and pirates.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence scores each increase by 1.
Age. Selachinoid mature at the age of 13, and live to be around 130 years old.
Alignment. Usually lawful or chaotic good/neutral, but there can be exceptions.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet and your swimming speed is also 25 feet.
Amphibious. You can breath both air and water.
Blood Scent. You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track bleeding creatures. In addition, you can smell the fresh blood of a creature as far as a mile away, provided you and that creature are within the same body of water.
Partial Blindness. You have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to perceive anything further than 90 feet away and you make ranged attacks further than 90 feet away at disadvantage. In addition, you have blindsight within 10 feet.
Predator. You are proficient in the Survival skill.
Vicious Bite. You have a vicious bite that counts as a weapon. If you hit with it, you deal piercing, damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.
Underwater Depths. Adapted to even the most extreme ocean depths, you have resistance to cold damage, and you ignore any of the drawbacks caused by a deep, underwater environment.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common. You can also communicate in a limited fashion with sharks.

Random Height and Weight

Table: Selachinoid Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
6′8″	+2d8	200 lb.	×2d8

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