There's so much material here I think I'll need to do a second pass later. But here's some of my initial thoughts:
(And as always, it should go without saying that take or leave anything you like/dislike here!)
Some alternative name ideas: The Created, Craftborne, Wroughtsoul, Forgesoul
I think I like Wroughtsoul the best. It sounds sufficiently D&Dish and definitely communicates the idea that these are living beings and not soulless automatons. Thanks!
Basic Traits: The only one that made me stop was "Ties to the Creator", which might go against the grain of some one who wants to create a kind of lost-soul, abandoned machine character, or an ancient construct. I'm not sure what could go in it's place or if it can be worded a little differently to accommodate such ideas.
Good point, and that's an easy change to make:
In general, a wroughtsoul awakens to full life within a matter of minutes, hours, or rarely days after its body is complete and its heart installed. While most of the time, the new wroughtsoul's creator is there, ready and waiting to meet their creation, something may prevent this from occurring. When making a wroughtsoul, decide if you know you created you or not. If you knew your creator, decide who they are, why they created you, and what your current relationship to them is like. If you didn't, why? Were they simply not there when you woke up and you wandered away out of confusion or curiosity? Did someone else find you incomplete, and put your heart in your body? Were you never intended to be a wroughtsoul and were only awoken because a spirit possessed your body?
All the Different Types: I was really excited to see how many different kinds of Fashioned you featured! Everything from scarecrows to junk-bots were possible.
I was influenced from so many things. Various junk golems iand junkbots, the Bottle Woman from the Order of Tales webcomic, Scarecrow and Tinman, and other constructs from Wizard of Oz, the various robots from the Freefall webcomic, the clanks from the Girl Genius webcomic, those clockwork robots from that one Doctor Who...
It made me wonder if they should all have some element they are also weak against, maybe not as strong as a true vulnerability but something like Cloth has Disadvantage to save against ongoing (now a new term in the combat playtest!) fire damage and Glass saves with Disadvantage against Thunder. But I'm probably overthinking it, and of course, they would need something positive to bolster it (though maybe just advantage to save against Necrotic damage, since they aren't alive).
I've seriously thought about giving them a vulnerability to something, but so far no other heritage has that sort of issue. OTOH, they're kind of powerful, since even without the bonuses from their material they already aren't subject to biological issues (and even if it turns out they're
not OP, it wouldn't be hard to give them another ability to even things out). So giving them a weakness of some sort probably wouldn't be a game-changer.
Cloth: either disad on saves against fire damage, or whenever they take ongoing fire damage, they damage die size increases by one type.
Clockwork: perhaps they have disad on Stealth rolls, because they're always ticking.
Glass: disad on saves against thunder damage. At the least, it would prevent arguments as to whether or not
shatter affects them differently.
Junk: Not sure about this, other than maybe that you have disad on covering your tracks and other creatures have advantage on tracking you, because you're always dropping bits of yourself around.
Metal: disad on saves against lightning damage.
Wood: Hmm, a toughy. Either just like cloth, or against necrotic damage, to represent rot (and because spells like
blight and
horrid wilting do extra damage against plants).
A few thoughts on specific ones :
- Glass: How about renaming it to Crystal, that way it could also accommodate gemstone or salt constructs (why would anyone make a salt golem? That's for your DM to figure out!)
There are actually salt golems in Dark Sun. Because it's D&D and there's golems for
everything.
I'm not sure that I want to make the glass wroughtsoul into a crystal wroughtsoul--but I can definitely see creating a crystal wroughtsoul in addition to glass! Maybe they awaken by themselves a lot on the Plane of Earth.
In this case, I'll move
color spray to the crystal wroughtsoul and give the glass ones the
shattering barrage spell at 3rd level.
Crystal. You may have been carved from a crystalline substance, like quartz or salt or mineral rock. You might be sculpted out of delicate metal frame set with hundreds of shimming flakes of mica. You may even have been grown in a chemical bath. In any case, you likely shimmer brilliantly. As a crystal-made wroughtsoul, you have the following traits:
• You can use a bonus action to shed bright light in a 5- to 20-foot radius sphere, and dim light for an additional number of feet equal to the chosen radius. You can alter the light or extinguish it as a bonus action.
• You can break off a piece of yourself, inflicting 1d8 damage to yourself and reducing your hit point maximum by that amount. This piece contains a crystal (or chunk of salt) that can be sold for 5 gp per point of damage taken. The reduction lasts until you complete a long rest, and you die if this damage brings you down to 0 hp. You may choose to do this a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier each week, and then can't do it until you complete a long rest, although if you do this more than once in a day, you also take one level of fatigue for each time you do this after the first. The crystal you pull from yourself can't be used as a spellcasting focus.
(I worry that this is up for abuse: "We're at a haven, so I spend my downtime making money!" I like the image, though--like some of the trolls from Discworld who knock their own diamond teeth out when they need cash.)
• You can cast
color spray once per day, requiring no material components. At 3rd level, you can cast
spike growth once per day, requiring no material components. Your spellcasting attribute is Charisma.
• You can grow crystalline claws from the tips of your fingers. Extending or retracting the claws requires no action. The claws are natural weapons in which you are proficient, and if you hit with them, they inflict slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal damage for an unarmed strike.
• You are proficient in jeweler's tools.
• You have disadvantage on saving throws against acid damage.
- Junk: Most of the construct types got a spell or cantrip, so I thought maybe at Level 3 a Junky construct could cast Spike Growth once per day, in their case, flavored that they are scattering broken bits of themselves around like caltrops.
Not a spell (I kind of like the junk wroughtsouls not having spells), but how about this:
• You can use your action to rummage through the junk inside you and pull out one of the following objects: a bag of ball bearings, a block and tackle, 10 feet of string, a crowbar, a tinderbox, a bag of caltrops, a set of manacles, an empty jar, flask, tankard, or glass bottle, an iron spike, a trinket of some kind, or some other sort of simple, nonmagical item that weighs 6 pounds or less and costs 2 gp or less. You can do so a number of times each day equal to your proficiency modifier.
I will, however, steal the
spike growth for the crystal wroughtsouls, since that makes sense. for them.
- Iron: I like the heat absorption idea, but maybe to streamline it, could it be Absorb Elements, perhaps able to cast once between short rests? Now the iron-born character could, for example, also absorb and store lightning (a battery!) or cold (an icebox!).
Heh, cute
. I'm not sure I want to go with
absorb elements--I can't see them absorbing acid or thunder damage. I think I'll rephrase the way I wrote the ability to be more in line with the way
absorb works.
- Wood: Instead of goodberry, which I think a lot of other races get already, what about Barkskin?
Purpose:
I didn't see much here I would really change, but it seemed like
Laborer needed 1 small boost to bring it in line. Maybe they gain expertise or advantage with Athletics checks related to grunt work?
Both good! I changed 'em.
I am not qualified to comment here, but this was very thoughtful to include!
You most definitely are qualified! You've given me a lot of useful advice here for some fun changes. I refuse to believe I'm so good at this that I can create a perfect heritage right off the bat, so I really appreciate your input.
