Pump-Kin (5e Race)

Pump-Kin

‘The bugbear stayed low to the ground, creeping through the underbrush with his greataxe drawn. Just a moment ago his companions had been taken in the night with nothing more than a scream. He kept sneaking forward until he stepped on something that cracked under his foot. It was the corpse of one of his allies, head separated from his shoulders in a horrified expression. He heard the snap of a twig just a few inches in front of him. As he looks up, a sudden bright light peers down on him light a fiery spotlight, and the last thing he hears before he’s taken away is a horrid scream.’

Pump-kins are mischievous tricksters with a bend towards lightheartedness or cruelty. They are very curious creatures but are also distrustful of other intelligent races.

Physical Description

Pump-kin peering down at its victim, vicxiucai0209, https://www.artstation.com/artwork/gyZnx

Pump-kins have large pumpkin heads with eyes, a nose, and a mouth carved into it that they can manipulate like a normal face. These faces are usually carved like those of a jack-o’-lantern. Pump-kins have a fire inside their pumpkin heads that they can choose to burn as bright as an inferno or snuff it out completely. They tend to be quite tall, a little above 6 foot on average, but are usually quite thin and lightweight, mostly comprised of twigs, vines, and roots, but are always in a humanoid shape. Crows and other carrion-eating birds tend to circle around pump-kins, sometimes even choosing to stay near them for life if they kill other creatures on a regular basis, which the birds eat.

Lost Souls

Pump-kins are born from children whose souls are stuck in their body when their lives were cruelly taken from them. If they are buried in the ground, 7 days later they emerge as a full-grown pumpkin, and another 7 days after that they emerge from the ground and begin their new life. They remember their lives as a child, and because of this, they tend to have a young-minded outlook on life, twisted by the events in their life when and before they were killed.

Misunderstood Tricksters

Pump-kins love to trick and scare others, some of them for fun, some of them out of sheer cruelty. Pump-kins almost cannot help themselves when they see an opportunity to scare or play a prank on someone. Unfortunately, because of their appearance, they are sometimes perceived as vile creatures, one of the first myths ever told about them is that they steal the souls of farmers in the night.

Society

Pump-kins usually remain on their own, occasionally joining groups of other humanoids like bandits or mercenaries, but pump-kins do not seek each other out to make their own civilizations or societies. Most pump-kins don't even know other ones exist until they see another, because of how hard to find they really are. Most of the time, if a pump-kin communicates beyond its pranks and tricks, its usually with lonely or mischievous children, as their youth reminds them of themselves before the change.

Pump-Kin Names

Pump-kins get their names from the ones they had as kids, but some of them choose to have titles instead of names. Pump-kins don’t keep their last names usually, mainly because their families won’t accept them or cower in fear.

Pump-Kin Titles: The Pumpkin King, The Bogeyman, The Dark Vine, The Thing, The Reaper, Death’s Lantern

Pump-Kin Traits

A tall, lanky race of terrifying, pumpkin-headed humanoids born from an unjust end.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Charisma increases by 1.
Age. Pump-kins reach adulthood by 2 years old and can live up to see around a century.
Alignment. Pump-kins are mischievous and love to scare others, tending to be chaotic.
Size. Pump-kins tend to be taller than most humans, but weigh less due to their thin frame. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Plant Hybrid. You have two creature types: humanoid and plant. You can be affected by a game effect if it works on either of your creature types.
Jack-O’-Lantern. While you can’t see in the dark, your pumpkin head can light up, illuminating the area around you! As an action, you can flare up the fire in your head to emit a 60-foot cone of bright light in a direction of your choice from your head, and an additional 60 feet of dim light beyond that. You can snuff out this light as a bonus action. This fire is considered magical for the purposes of spells and abilities. At the start of your turns, you may change the direction of the cone from one position to another, but it always remains centered on you. You do not need somatic or verbal components if you instead choose to just cast control flames.
Friend of Crows. You can speak to crows, ravens, and other carrion-eating birds and understand them in turn.
Horrific Shriek. As an action, pump-kins can let out baleful screams that shake the soul and rattle the bones of those around them. All creatures within 30 feet of the pump-kin must make a Wisdom saving throw. The DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier. On a failed save, the creature is frightened for 1 minute. If they are immune to being frightened then they are deafened instead. Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Candle Mouth. A burning flame within gives you resistant to fire.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
6′ 0''	+2d8	70 lb.	× (1d6) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

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