...Where is everyone? Is there anyone out there?
So, the Calibans: original rendition can be found
here.
Calibans are a race introduced in White Wolf's depiction of the Ravenloft campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5; using the Half-Orc stats as a basis, the race was given the fluff of, essentially, "occultic mutants". Those poor souls whose parents were cursed by magic, bedeviled by the presence of a fiend or hag, or who committed some horrible crime that found expression in the flesh of their children. The result was a deformed monster of a child; fangs or horns, hunchbacked or with feet on backwards, hairy or scaly, with limbs bloated or withered or missing entirely. Cursed and hated, they were shunned for their freakish appearances and rejected from society for no fault but their appearance.
The fluff was deep, but, the crunch was somewhat lacking. Thus, a Ravenloft fan named Uri Barak, known by the username "Shadowking", submitted an article to the Ravenloft fan-zine Quoth the Raven in issue #8 called, simply, "Brutes and Banshees" that sought to address this mechanically.
He created a new generic Caliban race, and a diverse array of different deformities, all with their own unique penalties and drawbacks. Eyes of Shadow which turned darkness into light and light into darkness. Clawed fingers, extra arms, metallic bones, gigantism, dwarfism, shaggy fur, a hunchback, gills, poisonous blood, a vestigial twin, or even being so twisted as to have its type change from Humanoid to Aberration. The list was vast.
But, he also created five distinct "breeds" of calibans - calibans who shared common natures and thusly had defined ability score penalties and specific lists of thematically appropriate mutations. The generic caliban could be used for truly one-off mutations, or even as a foundation to build new breeds, but these five breeds - Banshee, Bestial, Brute, Caliban and Witchspawn - gave defined archetypes for players to use.
As you can tell by my previous efforts, although I would like to recreate the "build your own caliban" option in 5e, especially after experimenting in that direction with the Kobold, I don't know if that's possible, and right now, that's a secondary concern. I want to focus on doing the five canon breeds using the subrace mechanics, then I can worry about getting fancy.
My issue is that I don't know if the current rendition of the Breeds is all that good. Brutes and Bestials, in particular, feel... underpowered and underfluffed in particular. So, what I was hoping is that folks would be willing to discuss the breeds and talk about what would be good abilities to give them. Incidentally, "penalty ribbons" are okay for me, ala Daylight Sensitivity, but I want to avoid ability score penalties at all costs. I hate that mechanic and I intend to never let it see the light of day.
I'm unsure if I can legally repost the Caliban's fluff here and, honestly, I don't want to; you can find Issue 8 of Quoth the Raven in the Library at
www.fraternityofshadows.com and so it's easy enough to see how the breeds were handled in 3.5. I can provide lists of breed deformities and/or a summary of what individual deformities do, but I still point you towards the issue first. So, instead, I'll just talk about the breeds and my impressions of how they might work in 5e.
Banshee:
Fluff Notes: Also known as Wailing Women and Ice Queens, banshees are one of the two "mystical" established breeds, strongly associated with necromancy, grief, death, sorrow and loss. Their deformities are subtle and tend towards an "eerily beautiful" motif, with trappings of the grave; unnaturally pale skin, jet black or bone white hair & eyes, unearthly voices, frosting up instead of sweating, and the like being innate to them instead of more conventionally horrific mutations. Banshees are born when pregnancies are tainted by grief or the grave; when the father was a necromancer, or the mother survived the touch of necrotic energy, a child fathered by a man who was killed in battle before she was born or whose mother was possessed or a necrophiliac may be born as one of these macabre yet seductive calibans. Their common moniker stems from their enchanted voices; not only are vocal deformities almost ubiquitous amongst them, but banshees are natural songstresses, if inclined towards macabre, haunting or sorrowful melodies.
Crunch Musings: In 3.5, Banshees were defined by being hauntingly beautiful but frail and unearthly; +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution, and deformities that were fairly subtle like Large Ears (manifesting as elf-like ears), Pale, Twisted Organs, Backwards Feet and Eyes of Shadow. They also had a strong affinity for both bardic magic and for necromancy, to the point that Bard and Wizard (Necromancer) were not only their favored classes, but spell-like abilities from those classes were possible mutations.
For the ability score, +2 Charisma and +1 Intelligence is the most obvious, natural-fitting combo I can come up with. This neatly meshes with their stats from 3.5 and their favored classes in that edition, making them great Bards (and also Shadow Sorcerers or any "undeath-themed" sorcerers that WoTC comes up with) and better-than-average Necromancers.
...I can't decide if they should be Resistant to Cold and/or Necrotic damage, or if they should be Vulnerable to one/both instead. In addition to seeing the arguments for and against Resistance, there's also the fact that no race has Damage Vulnerability in 5e, thus far at least. It's not as pigeon-holing as racial ability score penalties, which is why I disapprove of those, but at the same time, it's a fair bit more potent than Small or Daylight Sensitivity so... I don't know, opinions?
I really like my first version's Deathly Pallor trait, as whilst it is a debuff, it's not cripplingly so (diseases can be cured by potions, the spells or abilities of fellow party members or even rendered moot by taking the right classes) an d it's also thematic, as Banshees were noted for being vulnerable to sickness in 3.5 and are clearly tapping into the "consumption-born waifish beauty" of Gothic Fantasy.
With their nickname, really, you'd expect them to have some kind of terrifying voice, wouldn't you? And I'd rather not give them spell-like abilities, in order to make them more distinct from the Witchspawn. But... I don't know if I haven't made their current Ghostly Keening power too potent. Again, opinions, please?
For another racial "ribbon" ability, I was thinking about their propensity towards the Large Ears mutation, which A: made them look more like elves, and B: gave them a bonus to Listen checks at the cost of Vulnerability to Sonic Damage. With that in mind, perhaps this following trait would work?
Songstress' Ear: A Banshee has Advantage on checks that involve hearing or a knowledge of sounds, such as Wisdom (Perception) to detect sounds or a Wisdom (Insight) check to identify someone by their voice.
Other than that... I can't really think of anything for this race. Any comments, opinions, ideas?
Bestial:
Fluff Notes: One of the most common of the caliban breeds, bestials are those unfortunates who have been twisted into some mockery of both the human and the animal form. This breed encompasses all forms of manbeast; gator-girls, seal-boys, frog-folk, pig-faced-ladies, wolf-women, man-apes, bull-men, bearkin and more besides. A Bestial's form is a chimeric mishmash of human and one or more animals, more at home in the wilderness than amongst civilization.
Crunch Musings: The problem I'm having with adopting this race to 5e is that it's the most widely open "theme" of caliban to build from, with an incredibly diverse array of viable mutations. I can easily build some amphibious horror, a human spider, a satyr, a man-ape or more besides in 3.5, and that means that the 5e version I have suffers because of what I feel is an inferior attempt to try and accomodate that.
To do the Bestial Caliban justice, I think I'm going to need to give it some variable racial traits, or at least ones that can genuinely be flavored in whatever way you want. And for that, I'm really going to need help from you guys.
Ability score-wise... I'm thinking +2 Strength and +1 Wisdom. In 3.5, they were known for being as strong as Brutes (+2 Strength), and whilst their mind & social graces suffered (-2 Int and Cha), they had a strong connection to the wilderness, even having the Magical Affinity (Druid) mutation, which let them cast druidic spell-like abilities. So, +2 Str/+1 Wis makes sense to me from a fluff perspective.
They had a lot of movement-based mutations in 3.5, from Hooves and Frog's Legs to Quadruped and Wings. For this reason, I really think a "Walk With Beasts" trait, where they can choose to have either increased land speed or an alternate movement option (Fly, Swim or Climb, maybe even Burrow) at some kind of cost (Swim speed lowers your land speed, for example) is a really good idea.
Natural attacks were also pretty big, too; claws, fangs, vomiting acid, webbing attacks, a snaring frog's tongues or suckers on the fingers. I don't know how to begin adapting this.
Likewise, they had so many sense-boosting mutations (Great Nose, Large Ears, Bulbous Eyes) that I think a flat "Senses of the Beast: You have Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks" trait is just the most sensible thing to do, yeah?
Beyond that... I don't know. I could just really use somebody to talk to about these guys.
Brute:
Fluff Notes: The iconic caliban, Brutes are towering behemoths - even those with twisted spines stand taller than any unbowed man, bodies bulging with deformed and ill-shaped muscles. Often some of the most hideous of their kind, with common mutations including oversized, withered or extraneous limbs, distorted facial features, ulcerated flesh, malformed and/or protruding bone, a profusion of warts, twisted spines and vestigial twins, Brutes are wrathful and spiteful, eager to use their superior strength to avenge themselves on the humans who so readily shun, mock, jeer and bully them.
Crunch Musings: Closest to the original "reflavored half-orc" Caliban in nature, the Brute is the Big Dumb Muscle of the caliban breeds, noted for being ugly, strong, tough, dimwitted and angry. You'd think that this would make them easy to do, but since we already have several "big bruiser" races that I'm aware of - Orc (pure/half), Goliath and Minotaur, off the top of my head... well, it makes it hard to think of something to make them unique.
I think the current rendition is on a good track; Brute calibans are, thematically, drawing upon the lumbering, savage-tempered, deformed freak that corrupt families keep locked up in the basement or attic. A dim-witted but hideously strong and tough abomination that can rend men apart with its bare hands - powers relating to being more lethal with unarmed combat or allowing for better synch with the barbarian are a good "hook" to give it, do folks agree?
I just wish I could think of better "ribbon" abilities to give it.
Cannibal:
Fluff Notes: Also known as Living Ghouls, the Cannibal breed are perhaps some the vilest and most disgusting of all calibans, plagued by unearthly appetites - especially for raw meat or the flesh of sapient beings - and depraved hungers, quick and agile, stealthy, deceptive, and vicious.
Crunch Musings: My problem with the Cannibals is that, really, I'm torn. The current rendition of them I made actually meshes up pretty well with their fluff and the 3.5 crunch, in terms of representing their ungodly appetites and their skills at murderous predation... but, on the other hand, maybe it should be striving to make them more "literally" ghoulish; the current version works off of ghoul as "unpleasant and evil, a lurking horror", but not in the sense of a carnivorous undead monster. So... I don't know; maybe the original fluff/stats and my first version really need side-by-side comparisons to work?
Witchspawn:
Fluff Notes: Rarest of all calibans, witchspawn are corrupted by exposure to black magic, which courses through their veins and writhes in their soul. Many of their mutations either represent traits of the folkloric witch or devil - hooves for feet, clawed fingers, an extra finger on each hand, a third nipple that secretes foul ichors, a tail, horns, a vestigial twin, forked tongue or arcane birthmark - or else embody this distortion, twisting their organs or rendering them into aberrations. But their affinity for magic cannot be denied, and they are born to the arts of witchcraft.
Crunch Musings: These were the "caster breed" in 3.5, with +2 Int and Cha contrasting -2 Str and Con, the various "magical" or "witchy" mutations, and a favored class of Sorcerer (or Warlock, or even Wizard). I want to represent that in 5e, but I'm not sure how.
As with the Banshee, I think they warrant a negative ribbon ability - honestly, maybe all of the Calibans should have such a thing, but I've no idea what to give the Bestial, Brute or Cannibal. For Witchspawn, perhaps a Disadvantage on Strength checks and/or being treated as one size smaller for carrying/pushing/pulling capacity, to represent their physical weakness, is appropriate?
I definitely think they should have either +2 Int/+1 Cha or the reverse (or maybe let PCs choose which version?) as their ability score modifier.
Likewise, I think a spell-like ability ribbon is fair; these are literally born warlocks, you'd expect them to have inherent spells.
But what other racial features to represent that inner magic? That's where I'm drawing a blank, and where I really want to talk to you guys.
