Magen (5e Race)

Magen

Physical Description

Magen usually take the appearance of tall yet slim, white, green, teal, or blue-skinned, hairless, humans with blank expressions, but their exact appearance could alter tremendously based on the whims of the wizard that constructs them. Usually made to look like young adults, a Magen can be built to appear as any age while never suffering any infirmities. When given hair, it is regularly silver or white in color. Their eyes are often left blank and white, but sometimes they get green, blue, or purple irises. Their blood is silver in color like mercury, a fact that can been through their skin in bright light. A Magen’s wounds never scar and are imperceptible once healed.

History

Magen are arcane constructs created by powerful wizards as unquestioning servants. With human level intellect, if not greater, Magen can be put to tasks too complex for simpler golems or homunculi yet too secretive or dangerous to risk actual people on. Combined with their immortality, Magen function both as powerful tools and accessories to show off a wizard’s mastery of higher magics as well as an asset that can be passed down across generations, through careful orders. Most Magen are mere automatas with no will of their own beyond following out orders given to them by their creator. They can’t even speak, lest they accidently betray the wizard’s trust. And yet… you can and do have the capability to make your own decisions, speak with your own voice, and venture beyond your programming. How did that happen?

d8	Liberation
1	In a moment of frustration over a failed spell, your creator ordered you to make up your own damned mind. You did.
2	You were created in a magical experiment to build a better Magen. Your creator wasn’t sure if you count as a success or failure.
3	You are currently serving as a backup phylactery for your lich maker. The combination of enchantments has had some side effects.
4	While cleaning some shelves, you tripped and knocked over various random alchemical solutions. The resulting chemical shower granted you full sentience.
5	After exposure to the Far Realms, your sanity broke. You now think your master is some game enthusiast who rolls dice to determine your actions.
6	You have no idea how it happened, but one second you were a regular Magen. The next second you were… you.
7	Your master gave you a logical paradox to solve as a joke. Long afterwards, you admitted failure and discovered you had become just as illogical.
8	Your creator tried to create a simulacrum of a lost loved one in you. They mostly succeeded, but in the process lost themselves.

And what is your current relationship with your creator?

d8	Builder
1	Once the wizard realized your uniqueness, they started preparing for a vivisection. Thus you learned what survival instincts are.
2	Your creator is still in touch with you via magic and actively wishes for you to experience your new existence to the fullest.
3	Whoever made you is long dead and forgotten as eternity buried them without touching you.
4	Even if you do have some more agency, you still owe your life to your maker and serve them, albeit in a more indirect role.
5	Many mages carry many secrets shared only with their most loyal subjects. Now that you can betray them, your fabricator wishes to silence your new voice.
6	You have no idea what happened to them, but it is conceivable that they are still alive.
7	While the wizard that made you is out of the picture, their family considers you their property and are trying to reclaim what they see as theirs.
8	You killed your master with your own hands as vengeance for years, if not decades, of abuse by their magic.

Society

As one of the, if not merely the, only sentient Magen, you have no society to speak of beyond that which your creator introduced you to. The most prolific creators of Magen were the ancient Netheril, but since their collapse the techniques have spread across the world.

Magen Names

As a such a unique experience, the closest to a name you might have had before sentience was a number among other Magen, maybe a nickname if your creator was sentimental. When choosing your own designation, you’ll probably want something that won’t tip off your artificial nature to people like Hugh Mann or Rob Bot. Choose any name or names you wish.

Magen Traits

Magical automata made with the create magen spell.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. You are immortal and will never age.
Alignment. Magen usually don’t have enough will to have an alignment.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Fiery End. If you die, your body disintegrates in a harmless burst of fire and smoke, leaving behind anything you are wearing or carrying. You can be restored to life only by means of a true resurrection or wish spell.
Hex Healer. As a creation of magic, you benefit from all spells and other magical effects that preserve life but normally don't affect Constructs such as cure wounds or healing word.
Spell Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells.
Unusual Nature. You are an artificial being, a fact represented by the following benefits:

-You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.

-You have advantage on saving throws against diseases.

-You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.

-You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep. You can finish a long rest in 4 hours if you spend those hours in an inactive, motionless state, during which you retain consciousness.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your crafter's choice. Both would have been programmed into you upon creation.
Subrace. Different Magen were created for different functions. Yours determines your subrace, even if you have chosen other means of combat. Choose one.

Demos

You were created to protect your creator with steel and brawn. Demos Magen usually serve as foot soldiers, security, and general labor.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.
Magic Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. This trait replaces Spell Resistance.
Warrior's Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. You also have advantage on saving throws against exhaustion.

Galvan

You were created to protect your creator with shock and awe. Galvan Magen usually serve as mobile strike forces and inquisitors.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Electric Generator. You know the shocking grasp cantrip. When you would make an attack of opportunity against a creature within 5ft of you, you can cast shocking grasp instead. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell. (choose when you select this race).
Grounded. You have resistance to lightning damage and advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the paralyzed condition.

Hypnos

You were created to protect your creator with words and pain. Hypnos Magen usually serve as surveillance and messengers.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Limited Telepathy. You can speak telepathically to any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. Your telepathic utterances are in a language you know, and the creature understands you only if it knows that language. Your communication doesn't give the creature the ability to respond to you telepathically. If you have or gain another form of telepathy, increase its range by 30ft.
Might of Mind. You know the mind sliver cantrip. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the command spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the suggestion spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. Once you cast command or suggestion with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast either of those spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race).

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
5′ 6''	+2d6	130 lb.	× (1d6) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

Suggested Characteristics

When creating a Magen 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.

d6	Personality Trait
1	I want to become a real person.
2	I have a great deal of sympathy for other magical creations.
3	No! I am not going to go get your dry cleaning! Do it yourself!
4	I wonder what people mean when they say they’re feeling their age.
5	I speak with very precise, technical language regardless of application.
6	After spending far too long in dank labs and libraries, I want to stay outside as often as I can.

d6	Ideal
1	Duty: Even if I have the choice to say no, I should still do what I am told by those in authority. (Lawful)
2	Ennui: Now that I am in control of my own life, I have no idea what to do with it. (Neutral)
3	Freedom: No being should be enslaved, even if that is the purpose of their creation. (Chaotic)
4	Magic: Spells can both create and destroy. Their morality is on their casters, not their results. (Neutral)
5	Novelty: I am a unique existence in the world, so my continued survival trumps yours. (Evil)
6	Preservation: Keeping rare knowledge safe and secure is more important than fleeting mortal lives. (Lawful)

d6	Bond
1	I am far older than most of my new friends. Does that make me wiser?
2	I am a non-living time capsule of a dead civilization. At least its magical elements anyways.
3	I hope to recreate whatever gave me my free will for other Magen so that I can have some peers.
4	I hate the wizard that created me. They had no right to bring me into this world.
5	I am the sole repository of an awful secret my creator entrusted to me. Now I decide whether to keep or share it.
6	I enjoy the taste of food, but getting the remains out of my abdominal cavity without a functional digestive system is annoying.

d6	Flaw
1	Whenever I’m given an order, my first instinct is to obey it. I have trouble distinguishing the good directives from the bad.
2	Morality is for the living and gods. I am a machine designed to do, not think.
3	What’s the rush? I’ve got all the time in the world.
4	I rebel against authority just for the sake of rebelling, regardless of that power’s benevolence or reasonableness.
5	I despise spellcasters, especially wizards. Each one is but a small taste of power away from madness and mass casualties.
6	I can’t trust mortals. Their worldview is just too short-sighted.

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