Quickling (5e Race)

Quickling

They race themselves to death, and scheme as fast as they run. -Elminster, Volo's Guide to Monsters

Physical Description

Quickling as seen in the Dungeon's and Dragons, 5th edition, Volo's Guide to Monsters

Quicklings rocket through haunting, twisted forests where the Unseelie fey hold sway, both in the Feywild and in the world. Racing faster than the eye can track, each appears as little more than a blurry wavering in the air. A quickling is a small, slender fey, similar to a miniature elf with sharp, feral features. Its cold, cruel eyes gleam like jewels.

History

Quicklings owe their existence, and their plight, to the Queen of Air and Darkness, the dread ruler of the Gloaming Court. Once a race of lazy and egotistical fey, the creatures that would become the quicklings were late in answering the queen's summons one time too many. To hasten their pace and teach them to mind her will, the queen shrank their stature and sped up their internal clocks. The Queen's curse gave quicklings their amazing speed but also accelerated their passage through life. No quickling lives longer than fifteen years.

Too Fast for Words

The mortal realm is a ponderous place to a quickling's eye: a hurricane creeps gradually across the sky, a torrent of rain drifts earthward like lazy snowflakes, lightning crawls in a meandering path from cloud to cloud. The slow and boring world seems to be populated by torpid creatures whose deep, mooing speech lacks meaning. To other creatures, a quickling seems blindingly fast, vanishing into an indistinct blur as it moves. Its cruel laughter is a burst of rapid staccato sounds, its speech a shrill squeal. Only when a quickling deliberately slows down, which it prefers not to do, can other beings properly see, hear, and comprehend it. Never truly at rest, a "stationary" quickling constantly paces and shifts in place, as though it can't wait to be off again.

Mischief, Not Murder

Quicklings have a capricious nature that goes well with their energy level: they think as fast as they run, and they are always up to something. A quickling spends most of its time perpetrating acts of mischief on slower creatures. One rarely passes up an opportunity to tie a person's bootlaces together, move the stool a creature is about to sit on or unbuckle a saddle while no one's looking. Tricks of that sort are hardly the limit of their artful malice, however. They don't commit outright murder, but quicklings can ruin lives in plenty of other ways: stealing an important letter, swiping coins collected for the poor, planting a stolen item in someone's bag. Quicklings enjoy causing suffering that transcends mere mischief, especially when the blame for their actions falls on other creatures and creates discord.

Quickling Traits

Design Note: It is highly recommended you use the Tiny Player Characters (5e Variant Rule) to ensure balance while using this race.

Tiny fey that are as fast as they are mischievous.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Age. A quickling matures in the later months of their first year and never live beyond the age of 15.
Alignment. Quicklings have a capricious nature that goes well with their energy level. Similar to most fey, they have a strong tendency towards chaotic natures and due to their direct connection to the Unseelie Fey, they lean towards evil.
Size. A quickling is about a foot tall and weigh a bit more than a creature of their size would be expected to weigh. Your size is Tiny.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Blurred Movement. If you use your action to Dash, all attack rolls against you have disadvantage until the start of your next turn. You do not gain this benefit if you Dash as a bonus action, or Dash due to a magic effect like the haste spell.
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.
Dexterous Skillset. You are proficient in one of the following skills: Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, or Stealth.
Extreme Speed. When you move 30 feet without breaking up your movement, your base walking speed becomes 120 feet until the end of your turn. However, if you take damage, your speed is reduced to 0 until the start of your next turn and your fall prone.
Fey. Your creature type is both humanoid and fey. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and magic cannot put you to sleep.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Common and Sylvan.

Random Height and Weight

Even as tiny creatures, the quickling must have a reliable way to break through the air to maintain their high speeds. As such quicklings have been recorded to considerably heavily then they seem.

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
0′ 8''	+2d4	28 lb.	× (3d4) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

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