D&D 5E Making tortles interesting

[Casimir Liber]

Coming across tortles, they struck me as lamely vanilla...however, @Shroompunk Warlord 's idea of combining them with Kappas (loved reading about Kappa stories as a kid and glad they got a guernsey in some editions of D&D) as a race was inspired. So making them have some dish-shaped headspace with a liquid that preserves their strength and making that playable is really cool. And gives the race some depth and colour right from the get-go.

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[Enevhar Aldarion]

There is a whole pdf on dm's guild for Tortle PCs, in case you have not seen that yet:

Tortle Package (5e) - Wizards of the Coast | Dungeon Masters Guild

Tortle Package (5e) - The Snout of Omgar is a geographical region described briefly in Tomb of Annihilation. Not much is revealed about the l

www.dmsguild.com

 

[Casimir Liber]

There is a whole pdf on dm's guild for Tortle PCs, in case you have not seen that yet:

Tortle Package (5e) - Wizards of the Coast | Dungeon Masters Guild

Tortle Package (5e) - The Snout of Omgar is a geographical region described briefly in Tomb of Annihilation. Not much is revealed about the l

www.dmsguild.com

aha, some good reviews...which is promising. But still looks like vanilla chelonians with a funky island setting. But promising...might get it. Anyone else got it?

 

[Vaalingrade]

I would personally start with making them awesome turtle people.

And that would be enough for me. Colored bandanas, saids, katana, bo staves and nunchucku optional.

 

[iserith]

The PCs in one of my games has a tortle sidekick named Boticelli who is tortally righteous.

 

[Charlaquin]

Shell Defense being an action to activate and a bonus action to end feels really bad. I can count the number of times I’ve seen a PC take the Dodge action on two hands, I think if you had to use a bonus action to do anything other than dodge, no one would ever use it. I propose making it a reaction to activate and an action to end. That way it’s a strong defensive panic button move that costs you some future action economy, instead of a defensive stance that you have to predict the need for and use preemptively.

 

[Mecheon]

I have kappa as their own thing, but just, lead into general turtle nonsense with Tortles.

You're a turtle person. So, take from actual turtles. Big ol' gnarly snapping turtle ones who'll bite a dude in half. Desert survivalists who get food from the most unexpected sources, like clay or the like. Ocean-goers who can lazily spend most of their life out at sea. Seemingly slow because they go through life chill but the moment you annoy them they will ruin your stuff.

I also pointedly ignore that whole 'they have short lifespans' thing because, c'mon, they're turtles

 

[DammitVictor]

Coming across tortles, they struck me as lamely vanilla...however, @Shroompunk Warlord 's idea of combining them with Kappas (loved reading about Kappa stories as a kid and glad they got a guernsey in some editions of D&D) as a race was inspired. So making them have some dish-shaped headspace with a liquid that preserves their strength and making that playable is really cool. And gives the race some depth and colour right from the get-go.

I'm really only using the name-- I can't call them koopas, and I can't call them tortles, and I refuse to call them turtlefolk. Kappa is a public domain name for turtle people that nobody can stop me from using. In Shroompunk, befitting their roots, they're a kith of honor-bound knights and pact-bound dragon sorcerers... like a cross between dragonborn and tortles, and between paladins and sorcerers.

Which is one way of making them unique. Use it with my blessing, because I'm only selling my work to make it worth stealing.

But yeah, make them actual kappa with head-bowls and cucumbers, small-size super-grapplers. Extremely long-lived ninja/druids trying to preserve the balance of power between shorter-lived factions? Oracles of the Great Beyond, bearing the figurative weight of the entire world on their shells?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’ve never used tortles- my anthropomorphic turtles are River Folk, based on snapping turtles. So they have a vicious bite.

They inhabit the areas in and around most of the freshwater and brackish rivers, ponds, bogs and swamps, where most work as merchants, ferrymen, crew, longshoremen, and other trades…along with the odd gambler or marine.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm really only using the name-- I can't call them koopas, and I can't call them tortles, and I refuse to call them turtlefolk. Kappa is a public domain name for turtle people that nobody can stop me from using. In Shroompunk, befitting their roots, they're a kith of honor-bound knights and pact-bound dragon sorcerers... like a cross between dragonborn and tortles, and between paladins and sorcerers.

Which is one way of making them unique. Use it with my blessing, because I'm only selling my work to make it worth stealing.

But yeah, make them actual kappa with head-bowls and cucumbers, small-size super-grapplers. Extremely long-lived ninja/druids trying to preserve the balance of power between shorter-lived factions? Oracles of the Great Beyond, bearing the figurative weight of the entire world on their shells?

Love the idea, so do you include hammer throwing Kappa and a boom-boom subspecies?
What about wings?