Lineage

Lineage Features

When creating your character, you have the option to choose a lineage, which grants your character unique abilities or traits that will aid them in their adventures. However, your character's appearance and lineage are flexible aspects of character creation, and you can approach defining them in a way that suits your preferences and creative direction.

Here are two common approaches to creating your character's appearance and selecting a lineage:

Define Appearance First: In this approach, you begin by imagining and detailing how your character looks. This includes aspects such as their race, physical features, clothing, and any accessories they may have. Once you have a clear visual image of your character's appearance, you can then choose a lineage decide how it complements or enhances their overall look. For example, if you've created an orc character with green skin and tusks, you might select the Celestial lineage to add unique features like golden eyes or a faint halo that harmonizes with your character's existing appearance.
Choose Lineage First: Alternatively, you can start by selecting a lineage that captures your interest or aligns with the character concept you have in mind. Once you've chosen a lineage, you can then build your character's appearance around it. For instance, if you opt for the Undead lineage, you can craft a character with a skeletal, anthropomorphic rabbit appearance, incorporating details such as exposed bones and eerie features to reflect their lineage.

It's crucial to note that regardless of the approach you take, your character's lineage and appearance do not directly define their lore or background. The specific details of your character's backstory, personality, motivations, and how they fit into the game world will be developed collaboratively between you and your Dungeon Master. This collaborative process allows for a rich and immersive storytelling experience within the game's setting, where your character's unique attributes and visual elements contribute to a larger narrative.

Note: Your character's height falls within the range of 1 meter to 2.5 meters (100 cm to 250 cm), and their weight varies accordingly based on their build and species.

Lineage List

Adaptable

Your ancestors have had the fortune to live in relatively safe and well-established environments, fostering a peaceful way of life. This has provided your people with numerous opportunities for learning and growth, resulting in a well-rounded and adaptable nature. Your kind is capable of performing a variety of tasks with ease.

Features

Your character gains a +1 bonus to three stats of your choice.

Primal

You come from a tribal or nomadic descent, and your people have endured hardships that have put their bodies to the test and forced them to adapt to survive. This has resulted in your lineage having a more muscular and imposing appearance than normal. The physical strength and endurance your race possesses is a source of pride and honor for your people.

Features

Your character gains a +2 bonus to Strength, making them physically stronger and more resilient than most other races.

Dexterous

Survival for your people has hinged upon their adaptability and versatility. Whether it's navigating dense jungles, traversing treacherous caves, or thriving in ever-changing environments, your people have developed the ability to adapt to their surroundings.

Features

As a result of your character's adaptive nature, they gain a +2 bonus to Agility.

Scholarly

Your ancestors culturally favored those with sharp minds or a command of the arcane, giving rise to a lineage that values knowledge and intelligence above all else. Your lineage might have descended from a mageocracy or a society of scholars and thinkers.

Features

Your character gains a +2 bonus to Intellect, reflecting your natural aptitude for learning and problem-solving.

Quick Witted

Your ancestors have made information and discernment their trade, favouring those with a keen eye and a sturdy mind. Your lineage might descend from a clan of spies, or even merchants who use their discerning eye to appraise value, gather knowledge, or uncover secrets.

Features

Due to your character's sharp nature, they gain a +2 bonus to Wits.

Elemental

Your ancestors have established a deep connection with an elemental force of this world, which has altered their appearance based on the element:

Fire: tend to have ashen skin, red eyes, and fiery hair.
Water: tend to have blue skin, blue eyes, and hair made of ice or flowing water.
Earth: tend to have green or brown skin, gemstone eyes, and hair resembling crystal growth.
Air: tend to have white skin, white eyes, and grey or blonde hair.

Features

Your elemental connection grants you resistance based on the element:

Fire damage for Fire.
Cold damage for Water.
Sharp damage for Earth.
Blunt damage for Air.

Additionally, you can learn one novice spell from the associated element spell list.

Novice Spell

Celestial

At some point in your bloodline, your ancestors had contact with celestial beings, forever altering their descendants. This has caused your kin to have celestial features of your choice prominently visible. This can include glowing eyes, radiant skin, a halo, or other features that suggest a celestial influence.

Features

Your celestial lineage provides you with a unique ability. Spending 2 Action Points enables you to summon a pair of bird wings, granting you the power of flight with a movement speed equal to your ground speed for up to 1 hour. You cannot use this feature again until you take a long rest.

Furthermore, you learn one novice spell of your choice from the Celestial spell list.

Novice Spell

Infernal

At some point in the past, your bloodline had contact with demons or other infernal beings, which forever altered the genetic makeup of your ancestors. As a result, you bear demonic features that are prominently visible, such as horns, tails, demonic eyes, unusual skin color, or other distinguishing traits. These features can vary greatly depending on your ancestry and the type of infernal being that your bloodline was influenced by.

Features

Your infernal lineage provides you with a unique ability. Spending 2 Action Points enables you to summon a pair of bat wings, granting you the power of flight with a movement speed equal to your ground speed for up to 1 hour. You cannot use this feature again until you take a long rest.

Furthermore, you learn one novice spell of your choice from the Infernal spell list.

Novice Spell

Arcane

Your kin has evolved in an area with an abundance of magic, making them more attuned to its flow. This exposure has changed them, giving them brightly colored eyes and hair. Their skin is adorned with faintly glowing markings in shades of purple or blue, which reflect their magical sensitivity.

Features

As a result of your magical heritage, you gain 5 additional Willpower points, allowing you to better control and channel magic.

Draconic

According to legend, your species is the result of a bard's obsession with dragons. The blood of dragons runs through your veins, adorning your skin with scales and giving you a pair of draconic wings. Your appearance may also feature additional dragon-like traits of your choice.

Features

While your wings may not be strong enough to support full flight, they enable you to perform impressive leaps, allowing you to cover great distances. By spending 2 Action Points, you can leap up to four times your movement speed in any direction.

Furthermore, your impressive wings and scales, inherited from your draconic heritage, provide you with a +1 bonus to your Defense.

Additionally, you gain resistance to a damage type of your choice, which is reflected in the color of your scales.

Undead

Regardless of your lineage's origins, it has been cursed with undeath, bestowing upon you remarkable resilience but at the expense of a slow metabolism. This curse has left its mark on your appearance, which can range from pale skin and a malnourished look to a skeletal visage. The curse of undeath has made you unnaturally hard to kill but has also altered your physical appearance significantly.

Features

Your maximum health is doubled, but this curse comes with deadly trade-offs:

If your health ever reaches 0, you instantly die.
Long rests only regenerate a quarter of your maximum health, and short rests do not replenish any health.

Additionally, you can spend 6 action points to feed on the flesh of any fresh corpse, regaining a number of hit points equal to a quarter of your maximum health. After using this ability, you must complete a short rest before you can use it again.

Fey

Due to their prolonged exposure to the fey realm, your ancestors have undergone significant changes. They are notably smaller in size, about half the size of an average individual of their species. Additionally, they possess a pair of delicate wings on their back, resembling either butterfly or dragonfly wings.

Features

The wings on their back grant them the ability to fly with a permanent flying speed equal to their movement speed.

However, their stature has diminished, and their health is increased by 5 time their level instead of 10.

Beastial

Your unique lineage boasts animalistic features that provide you with unique advantages. These features can result from your ancestors evolving to sentience from a different animal species, whether avian, mammalian, or amphibian in nature. Alternatively, they can be the consequence of science or magic.

Beastial lineages encompass a wide range of possibilities, from lizardfolk to birdfolk, covering the full spectrum of the animal kingdom. It's up to you to decide how the beastial trait you choose shapes the appearance.

Examples:

Shell and Amphibian Traits: Your character resembles a turtle person, with a tough, scaly shell covering their body. They are equally comfortable on land and underwater, with webbed hands and feet for efficient swimming.
Digitigrade Legs and Sharp Senses: Your character has the appearance of an anthropomorphic feline or canine, with powerful, digitigrade legs that give them exceptional agility. Their sharp senses make them excellent hunters and trackers.

These examples illustrate how combining different traits can lead to unique and diverse character designs. Ultimately, your character's appearance are a collaborative creation between you and your Dungeon Master, allowing for endless possibilities.

Features

Choose two of these traits to combine and create a unique Beastial ancestry for your character, reflecting both their appearance and abilities.

Chitinous Skin, Scales, heavy fur or Shell: Your character's skin provides natural protection, increasing their Defense by +2.
Amphibian: Your character gains aquatic abilities, including the ability to breathe underwater and move at their full speed while swimming. Additionally, they become resistant to cold damage.
Wings: Though not strong enough for full flight, your character possesses vestigial wings that allow them to leap great distances. By spending 2 Action Points, you can leap up to four times your movement speed in any direction.
Unguligrade or Digitigrade Legs: Your character's legs are specialized for mobility, whether they resemble the hooves of deers or the legs of digitigrade creatures like felines. This trait increases their base movement speed from 1 to 4.
Poisonous Secretions: Your character can excrete a toxic substance from their skin, claws, or fangs. They can freely coat it on weapons that deal sharp or blunt damage to inflict an additional 1d4 decay damage on a successful hit.
Camouflage: You have the natural ability to blend into your surroundings by changing the color or pattern of your fur, scales, or skin. This grants you a permanent advantage on stealth checks.
Sharp Senses: Your senses are heightened, allowing you to perceive better than others. You have an advantage on any skill checks that rely on hearing, smell, or vision. Additionally, your sharpened senses make you less susceptible to surprise, allowing you to add your level to your initiative roll.
Shaped Evolution: Your environment has played a significant role in guiding the evolution of your lineage, resulting in specific adaptations. You gain a +1 bonus to an attribute of your choice.
Setae, Suction Cups, or Slimy Body: Due to fine, imperceptible hairs, suction cups, or a slimy body, your character can move across walls and ceilings at their normal speed.

Printout

You will find a printable background card in the standard playing card sleeve format using the link below.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dqgh4SUeMZwrodZx860fUdWhsBiVqpPj?usp=sharing

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