Mantis (5e Race)

Mantis

"I saw her on my stroll through the woods. I had never seen a creature behead something that large before in my life..."- Anaemia Vapore, The Slimefolk Ranger recalling a part of her adventures.

Physical Description

Mantis are cloaked in a carapace resembling dark green light armor, with the thorax of a mantis sticking out like a tail. Their arms are entirely black with sickles attached to their forearms. Their legs and face are pale in skin color, with their eyes usually being a piercing glare and having yellow irises. Their heads also have their carapace and four yellow objects above their eyes that resemble the mantis eyes.

History

The Mantis' history is mostly unknown as they never bothered to write any of it down. All that is known is that the males have gone extinct while the females are still around, leaving the females in search of humanoid males when their breeding season hits and the men they capture are never heard from again.

Society

Mantis are natural hunters that are emotionless and straightforward. At most they form small “villages” of roughly ten mantis at the most, and that is more for easier hunting parties. They are entirely fine with butchering someone as long as it’s towards living another day, as their entire ideology is very reminiscent of that of the Lizardmen: They aim to survive. They do not care who gets hurt in the process. Anything is or can be a valuable asset to make weapons or tools to aid in survival.

Mantis Names

Mantises do not name themselves but will go with whatever other humanoids name them if they like it, if they do not like it, they usually decapitate the humanoid and go on with their day. It's assumed that the names work for male or females if males still existed.

Male: Sickle, Bloodbath, Oakwood, etc

Female: Emerald, Scythe, Blade, etc

Mantis Traits

Humanoids predators based off the lethal mantis.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1, and your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Age. Mantis reach maturity around age 14 and rarely live longer than 60 years.
Alignment. Most mantis are neutral. They see the world as a place of predators and prey, where life and death are natural processes. They wish only to survive, and prefer to leave other creatures to their own devices.
Size. Mantis stand at 5-6 feet tall, and have an ectomorphic body shape, but while their tall and slender bodies may make them appear weak, appearances are very deceiving.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Bladed Arms. You have a pair of scythes that begin at your elbow and extend down, stopping just past your hand, these are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your Dexterity, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Piercing Glare. You are proficient in the Intimidation skill.
Tough Skinned. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Predatorial Nature. You have advantage on saving throw against the frightened condition.
Languages. You can speak, read and write, Common and one other language of your choice.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
6′ 0''	+1d12 inches	180 lb.	× (1d4) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

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