Leshy, Nature Children Variant (5e Race)
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This page is incomplete and/or lacking flavor. Reason: A race page is almost never complete when first created. For guidance, see the 5e Race Design Guide.
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Leshy[edit]
Physical Description[edit]
Leshies are as varied as the material used to create their vessels, usually appearing as a bizarre mishmash of various plants or fungi. Their bodies are vaguely humanoid in shape, with numerous characteristics of the plant or fungus from which they were made. A typical leshy is about 3 feet tall. Due to the nature of the ritual used to create a leshy, leshies begin their lives as adults. As spirits, they do not age, and a leshy could potentially remain in the same vessel forever—though leshies rarely consider this outcome to be desirable.
History[edit]
Leshies don't often impact history or leave their mark on history.
Society[edit]
Though guardian leshies often congregate, traveling leshies are not naturally drawn to others of their own kind. To most leshies, the concept of family is not a matter of birth, but rather determined by bonds of loyalty and friendship. Leshies are dedicated allies, but they have little tolerance for those who would despoil nature. As much as they are happy to accept someone who earns their trust into their family, they expect family members to look out for them and their natural wards in return. A betrayed leshy might not directly attack those who slight them, but they might withdraw support at a critical moment or leave their betrayers to get lost in the wilderness.
Leshies are grouped into categories akin to ethnicities, but these are not connected to physical features; rather, they represent broad categories of characteristics of their spirits. Certain spirits are more likely to gravitate toward particular physical bodies, though those familiar with leshies know that this predisposition is far from absolute. Leshies often take pride in their own appearances and appreciate beauty of all kinds in others, but they rarely form judgments based on physical appearance. Leshies’ genders are determined by the spirits that inhabit their bodies. Leshies tend to gravitate toward plant bodies that match their genders. Some leshies are exclusively male or female, while many consider themselves both. Others, particularly fungus leshies, tend toward far more complex expressions of gender, or eschew the concept entirely.
Leshy Names[edit]
Leshies choose and change their names multiple times throughout their lives. These names often represent a facet of their personalities or values, though another common naming convention is to use descriptions of a natural feature they admire. Some leshies even use a cycle of names that changes to align with natural phenomena, such as names based upon the season or the time of day.
Scarlet in Summer, Verdant Taleweaver, Lurking Hunter, Masterful Sun Drinker, Noon Sky Evening Song, Snowy Pine Branch, Cascading Rapids
Leshy Traits[edit]
child like plant creatures of nature
Ability Score Increase. You increase any ability score increases by 2.
Age. Leshy reach maturity at creation and they never age.
Alignment. Leshy usually start at Chaotic neutral and drift into other aligns as they get older
Size. Leshy are usually around 2 and 3 feet tall. Your size is small
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Plant Nourishment. You gain nourishment in the same way that the plants or fungi that match your body type normally do, through some combination of photosynthesis, absorbing minerals with your roots, or scavenging decaying matter. You typically do not need to pay for food. If you normally rely on photosynthesis and go without sunlight for 1 week, you begin to starve. You can derive nourishment from specially formulated bottles of sunlight instead of natural sunlight, but these bottles cost 10 times as much as standard rations.
Plant Form. As a bonus action, you can transform into a plant or fungus that size small and it is the type of your subrace. This transformation lasts for 1 minute, until you die, or until you revert to your normal form as a bonus action. When you transform, you gain temporary hit points equal to your level + your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 temporary hit point). In this form, you cannot move, speak, or preform any actions except reverting back. Your AC is 10 as you do not gain any benefits from armor or items. Once you transform, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Verdant Burst. When you die (not hitting 0 hit points), a burst of primal energy explodes from your body. The burst restoring 3d6 Hit Points to each plant creature in a 30-foot radius. This area fills with the plant or fungus that your subrace is based on, becoming difficult terrain. If the terrain is not a viable environment for the plant or fungus, they wither after 24 hours.
Kindred Language. You can speak to and understand plants or fungus that matches with the plant or fungus that your subrace is based on.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Sylvan, and one other language of your choice.
Subrace. Cactus, Fly Trap, Fruit, Fungus, Gourd, Leaf, Lichen, Lotus, Root, Seaweed, Sun Flower, and Vine.
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Cactus[edit]
Cactus leshies are usually xenophobic and taciturn, but can become fiercely loyal friends to those who show them respect and are willing to tolerate their biting sarcasm. When it rains in the desert, cactus leshies become active, cheerful, and willing to help travelers find oases.
Ability Score Increase. your Constitution score increases by 1.
Spiny Body. A cactus leshy is covered in spines. Any creature that grapples cactus leshy or when cactus leshy grapples a creature, they takes your strength modifier piercing damage.
Adapted to the Desert. A cactus leshy have advantage to resisting the harsh climate of the hot desert.
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Fly Trap[edit]
While often seen as unfriendly by non-leshys, flytrap leshys get along well with other leshys. Nonetheless, they're among the most aggressive leshys, often guarding the most vulnerable places in the natural world with their flytrap mouths and hands.
When a large threat emerges, pairs of flytrap leshys band together to create amalgams capable of driving back powerful foes. This unusual form of communal defense suffuses flytrap leshy society, and they often form relationships between multiple individuals that would confuse or even scandalize more uptight humanoids—to a flytrap leshy, though, there's nothing strange about sharing your innermost secrets with people you literally merged together with to defend your home from an enemy.
Ability Score Increase. your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Fly Trap Hands and Head. A fly trap leshy can cast primal savagery cantrip as the inside of a fly trap is very acidic. Wisdom is your spellcasting modifier.
Spittle. A fly trap leshy can cast acid splash cantrip as you can spit a big blob of acid. Wisdom is your spellcasting modifier.
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| Strawberry leshy character by Sita on twitter |
Fruit[edit]
Ability Score Increase. your Constitution score increases by 1.
Restorative Fruit. Your body continually produces small fruits imbued with primal magic. You or an ally can remove this fruit as a free action. If a living creature that can derive sustenance from fruit consumes it as an action within the next hour of picking the fruit, they regain hit points equal your level. You have one fruit per long rest.
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Fungus[edit]
Keepers of cavernous mushroom forests and rotting compost pits deep within the swamp, fungus leshys preside over subterranean growth and the rot that fertilizes new life. Among the most alien and monstrous-looking of all leshys, these tiny rot farmers’ frightening appearance has more to do with the asymmetrical eeriness intrinsic to molds and fungi than an outward expression of evil. Like all their kin, fungus leshys vary widely in form, often adopting the colors and shapes of the mushrooms and other large fungi common to the areas they tend.
Ability Score Increase. your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Spore Pod. As an action, a fungus leshy throughs a spore pod at a creature within 60 ft. The target must make a Constitution saving throw vs 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency modifier. On a failed save, the target takes 1d6 poison damage. As the spore irate the eyes of non-fungi creatures, it also has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
The spore pod’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).
Decompose. A fungus leshy can release fast growing spores into a corpse. As an action, you reach out and touch the corpse of a creature. Over the next minute, the corpse begins to rapidly decompose, sprouting fungus as it begins to degrade into compost and mulch. An odd-colored flower or two may also spring from the corpse in this time. Applicable requirements for resurrection are unaffected by this decomposition.
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Gourd[edit]
Superstition and love of rituals run deep in gourd leshys. They do their best to exactly reproduce what worked before with every trivial activity, and change seemingly random details when attempting tasks they previously failed. Gourd leshys collect random odds and ends as good luck charms, ranging from polished stones to bird feathers to tarnished coins. Credulous to a fault, gourd leshys believe nearly anything they hear from those they trust. However, their admittedly hollow heads still hold memories, and a gourd leshy betrayed rarely forgets.
Ability Score Increase. your Constitution score increases by 1.
Ensnare. When the gourd leshy damages a creature with an weapon attack, vines lash out from the leshy (or ammo) and wrap around the target’s limbs. The target must attempt a dexterity saving throw vs 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency modifier. On a failure, the target speed is reduced by 10 ft until the end of their turn.
Keepsake. A gourd leshy's head is hollow and a perfect place to store items inside. You can store one tiny object in your head. As long it is in your head, it is constantly under the effects of nondetection and mending. It is a free action to store and draw items from your head. When you leave this form, the item safely lands near you.
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Leaf[edit]
Leaf leshys tend to the well-being of trees, whether natural stands or cultivated orchards. In appearance, they have soft, pulpy-looking bodies and wear clothing made of dozens of leaves. Larger leaves cover their shoulders, often giving them the appearance of wearing cloaks, and most adorn their relatively featureless heads with helmets made from pine cones, nuts, or fruit rinds. This leafy layer of clothing functions as masterwork padded armor for a leafleshy, but not for any other creature.
Leaf leshys love to play at war. When not laboring on their trees, they wheedle any companions to engage in mock duels with their twig spears, resorting to private weapon drills when they must. In actual battle, they are much more cautious, sticking to cover and harrying their foes with hit-and-run tactics, as they have a strongly developed sense of self-preservation.
Ability Score Increase. your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Deafening Blow. When a leaf leshy hits with its weapon attack, the creature makes a constitution saving throw vs 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency modifier. On a failure, they are deafened until the end of their turn.
Glide. The leshy glides gently through the air, moving 5 feet toward the ground and up to 25 feet forward.
Additionally, for the purpose of determining damage from falls, a leaf leshy always treats falls as if they were 20 feet shorter.
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| Lichen Leshy by Jose Parodi |
Lichen[edit]
Like the curious plantlike organisms from which they’re composed, lichen leshys are rugged creatures able to survive in unforgiving climates. Unlike most leshys, lichen leshys are rarely content to stay in one place for long, instead using their survival skills to reach the grandest vistas, harshest environs, and most daring heights. There, they rest in quiet contemplation and awe, slowly breaking down inhospitable rocks into nutrient-rich soil that can sustain new plant life.
Lichen leshys almost always wear cozy rain cloaks that they use to blur their outlines and better camouflage their forms. They often secret away tiny mementos within their garb to remind them of their greatest achievements, and one can earn a lichen leshy’s ready assistance if willing to listen to its rambling tales of how it found each trophy.
Ability Score Increase. your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Expert Climbers. You gain climbing speed equal to your walking speed
Degradation. The lichen leshy’s melee attacks envelop the target in a lattice of delicate digestive growths. The effected creature can use their action to tear away any such growths. If a creature ends its turn without having removed the growths, the tendrils fall away as they release acid. It deals 2d4 acid damage to that creature unless it succeeds on a Constitution saving throw vs 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency modifier.
The acid damage increases to 2d6 at 6th level, 2d8 at 10th level, and 2d10 at 14th level.
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Lotus[edit]
Enigmatic lotus leshys are wise guardians of secluded ponds and lakes. They spend most of their time in meditation as lotus flowers, sometimes for decades at a time. Although lotus leshys spend most of their time floating in solitary reflection, they do not shun the company of other creatures, and take humanoid form whenever they wish to speak. They find discussions of religion and philosophy particularly fascinating, and delight in fresh perspectives. Although they study deities of self-perfection and contemplation extensively, they do not revere such beings.
Lotus leshys speak indirectly rather than providing specific answers. They maintain that contemplation and discussion are far more valuable than concrete answers, whose usefulness is limited to the question at hand. In addition, they believe those who receive direct answers are more likely to blindly accept the words of others rather than thinking for themselves. When confronted with impatience, lotus leshys return to their lotus form rather than engaging further. They avoid combat whenever possible, preferring to calm tempers with their tranquil auras or lull violent creatures to sleep with their soporific pollen.
Ability Score Increase. your Charisma score increases by 1.
Water Walker. You effortlessly float on the surface of water. You can walk on the surface of still water and other non-damaging liquids, moving at half your normal Speed. You can attempt to walk along the surface of flowing water as well, still moving at half Speed, but doing so requires a successful Acrobatics check to balance on top of the water with the same DC as to Swim through the water, on a failure, you fall into the water. This Acrobatics check doesn’t use an action.
Smell of Tranquility. A lotus leshy can bring tranquility to others. As an action, you release a calming, flowery smell and you cast calm emotions centered on yourself. A creature that succeeds at the save is immune to that leshy’s tranquility for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based. You can use this up to your proficiency bonus per long rest.
Root[edit]
Root leshies are a breed of leshy particularly known for their intelligence and cleverness.
Ability Score Increase. your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Tough. Whenever you transform, you gain 1d6 additional temporary hit points, and while transformed, you have a +1 bonus to your AC.
Rooted. You have advantage to preventing being shoved, prone, pushed, and pulled.
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Seaweed[edit]
Calmer than most of their other botanical brethren, seaweed leshys are a tranquil, discerning breed of leshy. They seek to mimic the ocean in their attitudes, moving with the waves of life and accepting what comes and goes while acknowledging the good and the bad.
Seaweed leshys make their homes in tidal pools surrounded by other sea creatures. They believe their freshwater counterparts to be sheltered and naive, living in their secluded ponds and babbling brooks, though this doesn't stop them from forming friendships with freshwater leshys.
Ability Score Increase. your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Deep Sea Divers. A seaweed leshy gains a swimming speed equal to their movement speed. Additionally, you can breath underwater.
Sea Water Spray. A seaweed leshy's water jet has enough salt in it to temporarily impair their target's vision. As an action, choose a creature within 30 ft, they make a constitution saving throw vs 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency modifier. On a fail, they are blinded for 1 minute. This effect ends early if they use their action to rub the salt out of their eye or succeed the saving throw at the end of their turn.
Sun Flower[edit]
Among the most social of leshys, sunflower leshys serve as the ambassadors and diplomats of leshykind.
They enjoy socializing and interacting in groups of leshys or with other creatures. Solitary sunflower leshys are rare, as their need for companionship compels them to find others with whom to interact. Leshys who lack companionship for 1 week lose their petals and heliotrope aura as a result of being depressed. Being welcomed back into a group restores the aura in a day and petals after 1 week.
Sunflower leshys are peacemakers and shun martial activities and conflict unless forced into confrontation.
To avoid altercations with unfriendly creatures, they band together and trust that the presence of their heliotrope aura protects them.
Other leshys look to them to serve as mediators and help resolve differences.
Ability Score Increase. your Charisma score increases by 1.
Heliotrope. Requirements: The sunflower leshy be in an area of bright light
When you are attacked by a creature within 30 feet of you that you can see, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll, by reflecting light from their face, before the attacker before it hits or misses. An attacker that can't be blinded is immune to this feature.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Putting Sun in Sun Flower. Once per long rest, you can cast day light centered on yourself.
Additionally, you can cast light cantrip on your self.
Vine[edit]
Compared to other leshies, vine leshies more easily relate to non-plants and are relatively curious about them and their societies. Being leshies, they have no family structure. They form strong friendships with companions who adventure with them or help them protect natural sites.
Vine leshies are likely to be nomadic (unlike the other, sedentary leshies), protect multiple wards during their lives, and are usually inclined to seek out their creators, whom they see as friends instead of parents. They love storytelling and focus on the meaning and message rather than the details, which they consider unnecessary and hard to remember. A story transmitted through multiple vine leshies usually retains only the core message, not the details.
Ability Score Increase. your Strength score increases by 1.
Climbing Vines. A vine leshy gains a climbing speed equal to their movement speed. You have advantage on athletics check to climb up. You do not need to use your hands to climb up.
Extend Vines. The vine leshy use their bonus action to extend or shorten their arms. With limbs extended, the vine leshy has a 10-foot reach. The leshy can't use weapons that already have reach in this way, because they would be unable to keep their balance.
Random Height and Weight[edit]
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Suggested Characteristics[edit]
When creating a <race name> character, you can use the following table of traits, ideals, bonds and flaws to help flesh out your character. Use these tables in addition to or in place of your background's characteristics.
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