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The Bennu| A mark 1 phoenix-touched race of men.
🕑 Added 2021-07-25 05:36:37 +0000 UTCHeya everyone! I know this is a late post for me (if you're in EST), but I got some late nigth inspiration to work on some stuff and got this ready to post the very early version of it.
Here are the bennu! They are going to be a semi-nomadic Egyptian inspired phoenix race to compliment the previous sphinx race, the xinph.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_MB0K5V4S7iytm_xmjOrCKfTXjZVc5h3/view?usp=sharing
Design Notes:
SO! There is a decent bit to talk about here. The big thing is the Fiery Rebirth mechanic. It's a bit...difficult to accurately replicate the rebirth of the phoenix in 5e. In the end, I decided to make a sort of hybrid of the half-orc's relentless endurance and the dragonborn breath weapon with some key differences.
First difference, you don't get a choice. You just explode when the trigger is met.
Second difference, you don't have a cone or line, it's a radius of fire damage.
Third difference, you need to go down to activate the breath weapon damage. Which kinda sucks, but fits thematically.
Fourth difference, you don't revive until the start of your next turn. This last one is very important mechanically since it means you can still be hit while at 0, cannot take reactions, and it can dissuade your allies from healing you. It's a powerful mechanic, but it definitely has its downsides. I think it will need playtesting to tell how bad the downsides actually are and if they need toned down.
The illuminating wings feature is very fun. It's effectively a flavored light cantrip that later evolves into flight at 5th level. Given the ability to revive yourself + breath weapon feature, I decided to wait awhile on this one. It also has a reduced movespeed and a REALLY big downside in the fact that you will be a flying beacon of light. Hard not to see that, even at night. This is a way to balance it a bit.
Dancing flame is just performance and the most uninspired feature of the race thus far. While it is nice, I don't really like pinning a race down to an art form with performance so I am going to work on a new skill for it that fits more flavorfully.
Overall, I actually think the race might be a good bit underpowered. What do you all think?
