Scorpion-kin (5e Race)

Scorpion-kin

“	Never cross the desert alone. Not because of what you may find, but because of what might find you	”
—Merrolyndis, the desert wanderer

Born from the unholy sacrifice of a humanoid to gods of the death forgotten many eras ago, for reasons not even remembered by themselves, Scorpion-kins are the last remnants of the civilizations that are abandoned and forgotten all around the world. With a tendency to solitude, this race of judgemental hunters gatherers and expert ambushers are really difficult to see in the open and are even less prone to become allies, but when looking for prey or saving those that matter to them they will not surrender until the enemy or themselves fall.

Physical Description

Scorpion-kin have a human head and torso that continues with the body of a scorpion. Eight insect legs and 2 arms with pincers are their extremities. They also have scorpion stinger that can be used to stab and poison creatures. The pincers cannot hold weapons but are effective as weapons against other creatures and to grab them. The stinger tends to hover above the head. They cannot hold items with it.

Twice a year, scorpion-kin must shed their exoskeletons in order to grow. The chitin shed this way is often collected and sold to other species and classes for armor and weapons, specially druids, because wearing their own or another scorpion-kin old skin as armor is frowned upon. When sold and used for armor, in the hands of an experienced forger, it can replace metal in any non-hide medium or heavy armor.

Scorpion-kin differ greatly between species, clans and societal position, but mostly differ depending on the place they were born. Bark Scorpion-kin are dark yellow and brown to camouflage in the jungles; Death Stalker Scorpion-kin are either straw, or light brown colored for deserts; Red Scorpion-kin vary from medium to dark shades of red and orange, especially frequent in caves and mountains; forest scorpion-kin are jet black; emperor scorpion-kin are black, with a bright red stinger; red claw scorpion-kin are black with red claws, with tendency to live near the coasts; finally, Fat Tail Scorpion-kin are mixes of translucent black and brown, ideal to live in the savannas where they were born.

Source: https://thestrangemythworld.com/2015/09/30/scorpion-man/

Society

Scorpion-kin have been known to live in almost every habitat except water. However, most tend to live in deserts, caves, savannas, and forests, where hiding places abound. They have a tendency to solitude because of their scorpion heritage.

Villages, although very rare, are mostly if not only composed of scorpion-kin and tend to be completely underground and made out of chitin and rock. The entrance is very well hidden and usually requires to either excavate or to cross dangerous terrain. Usually, the biggest and fiercest of the scorpion-kin goes as the autoritarian leader with absolutely no limit in their power, until it is defeated in a personal challenge to the death. Trade with this villages is fairly uncommon as they reject coinage and have few to no artisans, prefering consumables over other commodities. Their main products are chitin weaponry, armors and shields; powerful poisons and antivenoms.

Although they have no proper gods, they believe that only death exists, as their birth is only possible by the death of many, living causes the death of other beings as susteinance and death of themselves is just so other beings can be born and survive. With this in mind, each scorpion-kins only necesity is to have stronger body and will than other beings, so they can attempt to evade death or even attempt to defeat it. If a leader dies before being defeated by another scorpion-kin in combat, the village is abandoned, because it is considered bad omen to live in a place where the strongest scorpion-kin was only weaker than death.

Mating season happens once every year. Male scorpion-kin start to train savagely, sometimes even forgetting to eat, to dominate or kill as many males as possible and get as many female scorpion-kin as it can. After mating, each scorpion-kin part ways, with stable families being extremely uncommon. Each female can give birth up to 15 young scorpion-kin per season, but even with all her care not more than 2 or 3 reach maturity, both for the scarcity of food and because young scorpion-kin are prone to fight bigger creatures in the open as training practice, with terrible results. In the extreme cases of race mixed partners, male scorpion-kin decendants are always the race of the mother and infertile, while female scorpion-kin only give birth to other fertile scorpion-kin. Why this happens is completely unknown.

Scorpion-kin Names

Scorpion-kins do not get a name until fully mature, because it is considered wasteful to name beings that may not even survive their infancy. Scorpion-kin have no preference for names, they have no distinction between male and female names, and most of them use the names of their first victims or tales they've heard. Some of them use names or surnames that remind them of the place they were born or some feature they want to enfatize, specially bodyparts or battles.

Names: Ammos, Bupta, Clecto, Dimlo, Estet, Farlett, Guimses

Surnames: Clawbreaker, Armorpiercer, Eyepoucher, Silent, Redpincer, Fivelegger, Sandstorm

Scorpion-kin Traits

A race of humanoid scorpions
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores each increase by 1.
Age. Scorpion-kin mature much faster than humans and live shorter lives. They reach maturity around between the ages of 5 and 8 and live to be 40–60 years old.
Alignment. Scorpion-kin tend toward neutral and want to be left alone to do their own thing. Their warriors, however, tend to be chaotic.
Size. A scorpion-kin's height ranges between 4 and 6 feet, and weight ranges from 25 lb. to 100 lb. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Chitin Armor. You cannot wear armor of any kind due to your natural chitin armor, your AC is equal to 12 + your Dexterity modifier.
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.
Natural Poisoner. You have resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.
Pincers. Two of your hands are claws. You cannot wield weapons or implements in the claw, nor hold a shield. The claw is a melee weapon with which you are proficient. It deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage.
Stinging Tail. When you are grappling a creature, you can use your bonus action to sting that creature. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC is 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. The target takes 2d6 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. You can use this ability up to times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all uses after a long rest.
Species. Choose two traits from the Species List.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, and Scorpid. Scorpid is a language that, to the untrained ear, sounds like random clicks and clacks. It can be written by using the primordial script.

Species List

• Keen Climber. You have advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks made to climb.
• Bark Scorpion. You are proficient in Stealth skill.
• Inhabitant of the Land. You can ignore difficult terrain in a favored terrain of your choice.
• Red Scorpion. You are proficient in the Intimidation skill.
• Lethal Poison. The DC is to resist the effects of your poison is instead equal to 10 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. The damage increases to 3d6 poison damage.
• Hulking Figure. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
• Crushing Claw. Your pincer instead deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier. You can use your bonus action to grapple a single target you attacked with it, with disadvantage if you missed the attack. If a creature ends its turn and is still grappled by you, it takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier.
• Blue Scorpion. You can use your tail to cast somatic components.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
4′ 0''	+2d6	140 lb.	× (1d4) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

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