Dungeonborn
Dungeonborn look like humanoids with stony skin. Their limbs and heads are hollow and often square or rectangular, connected by hallways to their body. Dungeonborn are born with at least one room in their body. As they grow up, they develop more rooms. Sometimes to make more space for rooms, the dungeonborn's body produces extra limbs or buddings of stony flesh.
Dungeonborn have intricate ecologies within their bodies. Their rooms are often occupied by tiny monsters, guarded by traps, or hold puzzles or treasure. Sometimes a Dungeonborn suffers from an infestation of diminutive adventurers. A Dungeonborn falls ill when emptied of its occupants, and may die if it is not supplied with new monsters, traps, or treasure.
Dungeonborn feel an innate connection with dungeons and underground spaces. They often treat dungeons as living things. Exploring a dungeon is a form of communication: every lock picked, trap sprung, or monster slain reveals the story, personality, and history of the dungeon itself. Some Dungeonborn even experience dungeon delving as a kind of religious or meditative process.
When a Dungeonborn reproduces, a room disconnects from its body and starts a life of its own. This process is known as sidequesting.
Dungeonborn may live for centuries without growing much larger than any other humanoid. At around 500 years, a Dungeonborn transforms. They feel a strong desire to dig down into the ground and expand. A Dungeonborn who goes through this process slowly, over the course of years, becomes a dungeon. Sometimes whole colonies of Dungeonborn transition together, forming huge, multi-level dungeons that to an adventurer may make little sense, but hold the inhabitants and memories of dozens of long-lived Dungeonborn.
Dungeonborn Features:
Ability Score Bonus:
Choose two descriptions from below. You gain +2 to one ability score chosen, and a +1 to the other.
Megadungeon: Strength
Trap-Filled: Dexterity
Reinforced: Constitution
Puzzling: Intelligence
Labyrinthine: Wisdom
Inhabited: Charisma
Dungeonborn Languages:
You speak Common, as well as one of the following languages:
Draconic
Dwarvish
Goblin
Minotaur
Orcish
Undercommon
Dungeon Empathy:
Your ancestral connection with dungeons grants you proficiency in two of the following skills or tools. Alternately, you may switch out one skill for a language proficiency, representing the tiny occupants who live inside your rooms.
Acrobatics
Athletics
Investigation
Perception
Mason's Tools
Thieves' Tools
Open the Dungeon Door
As an action, the Dungeonborn opens one of its dungeon doors and releases something from its many rooms. The Dungeonborn may not open its door again until after a short or long rest.
Monster: The Dungeonborn summons a creature into an unoccupied space within 15 feet. The creature must be a dragon, humanoid, monstrosity, or undead with a CR no greater than listed on the chart below. The monster follows the Dungeonborn's commands, and acts directly after the Dungeonborn's turn in combat. The creature vanishes after one hour, or if it is reduced to 0 hit points.
Dungeonborn Level: Creature CR
1: CR 1/4
3: CR 1/2
5: CR 1
10: CR 2
Trap: The Dungeonborn summons a trap into an unoccupied space within 15 feet of it. This may be a pit trap, a swinging blade, a hidden spear, or any other trap. The trap takes up a 10-foot square of space on the ground. To spot the trap, a creature must make a Wisdom (Perception) check equal to (8 + proficiency bonus + Dexterity or Intelligence bonus). When sprung, the victim must make a Dexterity Saving Throw equal to (8 + proficiency bonus + Dexterity or Intelligence bonus) or take 1d10 bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or poison damage. The victim takes half damage on a successful save. This damage increases to 2d10 at 5th level, 3d10 at 11th level, and 4d10 at 17th level. The trap lasts for one hour, then returns to the Dungeonborn's body.
Treasure: The Dungeonborn may cast minor illusion, but may only create the illusion of treasure. When doing so, the spell also creates the illusion of sound and even feels like real treasure. However, a creature may take an action to investigate the illusion, revealing it is fake (as revealed through weight, taste, or other tests). The Dungeonborn may create the illusion of treasure worth a number of gold pieces equal to 100 times its proficiency bonus.
