Ratitaur (5e Race)

Ratitaur

"I once had a bad fall and broke my arm while I was nearby a ratitaur village. When the guards saw me stumble by, they litterally rushed at me, carried me to the inn and tended to my arm, all the while grumbling about me getting wounded. This is when I understood what people mean when they say that ratitaurs are kind but not nice."

-An old traveler

Physical Description

Ratitaurs have the upper half of a human and the lower half of a flightless bird, with the human upper part stemming from where the bird lower part's neck would be. This makes them tall enough to tower above most other humanoid races. Their human half can be as varied as any human, while the bird half tends to vary with the size of the individual. As so, smaller ratitaurs will typically have jet black feathers whereas bigger ones will have brown, grey, or white feathers. Their legs are either black or a grayish pink. Occasionally, a ratitaur will have traits such as blue patches of skin, or talons instead of nails. They favor clothing which matches their feathers in color, and use resilient fabrics and leather.

A ratitaur guard (Drawn by Hotkoin) [[1]]

History

The very existence of the ratitaurs takes its roots in a 500 years old experiment. A powerful wizard was fascinated by aarakocras, and wanted to blend humans and birds into one single race to match them. This did not work as planned, for he ended up creating beings with the upper half of a human and the lower half of a flightless bird: the first ratitaurs. Enraged by his failure, the wizard made them into his pawns, experimenting on them and torturing them on a whim. However, this did not last, for one fateful day the wizard had to face the revolt of all of his so-called slaves, who mercilessly shredded him apart. The ratitaurs then went on their way, bearing many a scar that would not properly heal before long.

Society

The ratitaur society has been shapen by the many hardships they went through. As such, they most often choose to settle in forests, where they can be self sufficient. They then either build small towns and hamlets or go on and build a house to live in on their own. Ratitaurs like to keep to themselves, which has led some of their towns to be downright isolationist at times. However, they will strive to help anyone in need that they come across. This has given them the reputation of being altruistic recluses. Their education is centered around being able to get by as soon as possible. That being said, they treat each member of their community as family no matter what happens. This means that in most towns where you can find ratitaurs, they'll be very much clan-like in behavior. Due to their upbringing, ratitaurs tend to be mistrustful towards magic, especially the arcanic kind. This means that ratitaur spellcasters are rare, and most of those are clerics, paladins or druids.

Ratitaur Names

Ratitaurs tend to adopt names common within the communities that they coexist with. When on their own, they will often use names that were used in the cultures their ancestors originated from before getting experimented on. They tend to only use a given name and no family name or such.

Male: Ezekiel, Llewellyn, Keith, Bartholomew, Manfred

Female: Sylfie, Gwendolyn, Orlanta, Dagna, Mallory

Ratitaur Traits

Half human half flightless bird hybrids scarred by their past and highly defiant towards arcana.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. Ratitaurs commonly live up to 110 years, though unlike humans they stay vigorous all the way through. They reach adulthood at 20.
Alignment. Due to their past, ratitaurs tend to be reclusive, yet altruistic. They lean most towards Lawful Good. Ratitaurs that live within other communities lean towards Neutral Good.
Size. Ratitaurs tend to be between 5'7" and 8 feet tall. Your size class is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 feet, and your base swimming speed is 20 feet.
Limited Dark Vision. You can see in dim light within 30 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.
Powerful Legs. You have powerful bird legs. You are proficient in the Athletics skill.
Deadly Talons. Your legs are natural weapons that you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, they deal slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.
Arcanic Resistance. Due to your race's past, you have advantage on saving throws against any magical effect that alters your mind or stuns you, and magic cannot put you to sleep.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language amongst the following: Giant, Halfling, or Gnome.
Subrace. Due to their arcanic roots, ratitaurs do not have much variations in terms of body types, but some have a heavier build and are more enduring than the average ratitaur, belonging to a variant called aepyornid.

Aepyornid Ratitaur

Design Note: This variant of the ratitaur race replaces the Ability Score Increase, Powerful Legs, and Arcanic Resistance traits.

The aepyornid ratitaurs are heavily set, and while they do not have legs as deft as other ratitaurs, they have much higher stamina. While aepyornids are not as common as regular ratitaurs, they are much better known by the other races, as a lot of them are traveling merchants, not caring much about their people's reclusive tendencies. Their travels having widened their perspectives means that most arcanic spellcasters amongst ratitaurs are aepyornids, which makes some fear that this may have dulled their vigilance towards the dangers of arcana that ratitaurs know all too well.

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1.
High Stamina. You take no movement penalties from armor. You also count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Merchant's Insight. You have an acute understanding of social interactions. You are proficient in the Persuasion and Insight skills.
Blunt Talons. Your talons are more fit for long travels than for shredding things apart. As so, they deal bludgeoning damage instead of slashing.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
5'′ 7"''	+2d8	286,601 lb.	× (5d10) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

Suggested Characteristics

When creating a ratitaur 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.

d8	Personality Trait
1	Time is better spent amongst your friends and relatives.
2	I'm quite curious about the world.
3	I cannot stand it when people are left defenseless.
4	I wish we'd stop being so reclusive.
5	Our past shouldn't limit what we can be or do.
6	Things are the way they are for a reason.
7	Changes should be welcomed carefully.
8	I want to help others, like I've been helped myself

d6	Ideal
1	Aspiration: If people cannot help themselves then it's my duty to help them. (Good)
2	Independence: I need to be able to fend for myself in order to make a difference. (Neutral)
3	People: My friends and family are what is dearest to me. I'll protect them no matter what. (Lawful)
4	Adventure: I'll show my family that the world is a better place than what it seems. (Good)
5	Community: We as a community need to stay close to one another, so as to be ready for anything. (Lawful)
6	Honor: Our ancestors were used and tortured. We need to remember that, and never loose ourselves in violence. (Good)

d6	Bond
1	I want us ratitaurs to go beyond the scars of our past, build something of our own.
2	I come from a place where people are scared of what's outside. I want to see what there is for myself.
3	Despite what my elders say, I've a deep interest in arcana.
4	Due to the way I was raised, I consider all of my friends family.
5	I'm skeptical towards anything divine.
6	Anyone who wants to manipulate me is an enemy, no matter if their objective ends up being good.

d6	Flaw
1	It's very hard to earn my trust.
2	I tend to forget about myself and only help others.
3	I hate changes and will try to have things stay the same.
4	I have a bad temper and can be very brash at times.
5	I don't trust magic of any kind, there's always a risk of something going wrong.
6	I can get so focused on my goal that my mind closes off from any questions or objections.

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