Gift from the Deep

The depths at which Pelagics live lead to both defects and blessings given by the sea. Roll a d20 on the chart to determine what your Pelagic was born with.

## *1* // **Blind**

You’ve either been born into a family that doesn’t rely on eyesight, or simply spent too long in pure darkness. You cannot see, instead relying on your powerful blindsight. You get a natural +1 bonus to the DC of any Abjuration or Divination spells you cast, and automatically know the *Mage Hand* cantrip.

## *2* // **Bioluminescence**

To see deep within the ocean, your species of Pelagic has grown to become bioluminescent. You can control the brightness of your body, but can’t make it completely dark. At maximum you create a bright light with a 30ft. radius around you; at minimum, a dim light with radius 15ft.

## *3-5* // **Toothy**

You are an underwater hunter with a powerful, long-toothed jaw. You can make powerful bite attacks on your foes that crit on 19 and 20, an unarmed attack in which you are naturally proficient. This is a melee attack which utilizes your Strength modifier, dealing a total of 1d8 + STRMOD damage on a hit. Regardless of how many attacks you can make in a round, you can only have one of those attacks be a Bite attack.

If the DM allows it, you may expend one of your feat/ability score improvement slots to instead upgrade your Bite's damage by 1 damage die, capping out at a maximum of 4d8.

## *6-9* // **Thick Skin**

To adjust to the cold temperature of the deep sea, you have developed thick skin that protects you from the dangers of cold. You have resistance to frost damage and get +1 to your natural AC.

## *10* // **Blobfish**

You’ve developed an… “interesting” way to adapt. Your body is gelatinous like the infamously ugly blobfish, which means you can live at the very bottom of the ocean floor with no repercussions. You have immunity to force damage. However, on land you’re absolutely hideous, and get a -5 to all Charisma checks. You are also one of the few species of merfolk that cannot breathe air.

## *11* // **Flattened**

The flat-finned Pelagics hunt by burying their bodies in the soil and leaping out at unsuspecting prey. You get a +2 bonus to Stealth checks, and can move at normal speed when sneaking without incurring a penalty.

## *12* // **Poison Spikes**

To defend against predators, your breed of merfolk has grown a spine of toxic spikes. You secrete poison along long spines on your back, tail, arms, and cheeks- if any creature makes physical contact with you they take 1d4 poison damage and must make a DC (Spellcasting modifier) Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until they pass the given check. They may attempt to pass the check again at the end of their turn each round.

If you are not a spellcasting class, use the ability score you increased by 1 more (either INT or WIS) when you created your character to determine the DC.

## *13* // **Beak**

In place of a mouth, you’ve grown a sharp beak. Depending on the depth at which you live, it could be shorter or longer- longer beaks can dig into caverns and crevices, while shorter ones are usually hooked to help with catching smaller fish. You can use your beak for a Peck attack, which is an unarmed attack in which you are specifically proficient with and crits on a 20. For the sake of attacking your beak counts as a Finesse weapon. The beak deals 1d6 + (STRMOD or DEXMOD) damage on a hit. You may decide when you create your character if this damage is bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage based on the shape of your beak, though you cannot change it after the decision has been made.

If the DM allows it, you may expend one of your feat/ability score improvement slots to instead upgrade your Peck's damage by 1 damage die, capping out at a maximum of 4d6.

## *14-15* // **Lure**

Your breed of merfolk live very deep within the sea. You’ve grown an anglerfish-like antenna on your head, with a glowing light at the end used to lure fish. However, with the addition of your magical abilities you can also use it as a focus for enchantment and divination spells- this gives you +2 to spell checks of those types, as well as on Persuasion checks against easily distracted creatures (DM discretion). Unfortunately living that deep causes repercussions on your body, as well- your spine has grown crooked, giving you a -1 penalty to your overall Strength score, and you cannot breathe air.

## *16* // **Two-Tailed**

For some unknown reason, your species of merfolk has developed two thinner tails instead of one larger, stronger one. It does not give you any particular physical advantages, but you are able to transmute your fins into slender, slippery legs, and they’ll function like them too. You have a lot less trouble adapting to life on land because of this, ironically. Transforming your fins to legs or back is a standard action, and when in leg form you have a movement speed of 25 ft.

## *17* // **Color Change**

Like the majestic cuttlefish, you have the ability to change the color and texture of your skin to blend in with your surroundings or ward off predators. As a swift action, you can change the color/texture of all or part of your body to anything that you please. If used to blend into your surroundings, you get a +10 to any Stealth checks you make. If used to startle enemies, you automatically succeed in an Intimidation check against creatures with an Intelligence of 6 or less, and get +5 to the check against more intelligent beasts. However, your skin is also very sensitive when exposed to the air. You must contain your entire body within your land bubble, and any part that’s exposed for more than 30 minutes causes you to take 1d4 “air” damage per 15 minute interval exposed. You can also compulsively change color if you experience extreme emotions, which may incur penalties to various checks depending on the situation.

## *18-19* // **Pufferfish**

Your body’s skin is very flexible, enabling you to inhale large amounts of water at once to “puff” yourself up. Once per day, you may rapidly puff yourself up as a full-round action, increasing your size to Large and dealing 3d8 piercing damage to all adjacent creatures caught in the "blast" and 1d8 piercing to creatures that touch you in subsequent turns. You effectively "inhale" your bubble in doing so, meaning there is no longer water around you if you activate this ability on land. Your movement speed becomes 0 ft on land and 10 ft in water. You remain "puffed up" for 1d4 hours after activating this ability, and upon deflating you obtain one level of exhaustion.

## *20* // **Octo-folk**

Instead of having a fish-like tail, you have eight long tentacles. You can only swim 30 ft per turn, as opposed to 50, but can grapple your opponents with advantage and they have disadvantage when trying to escape. You’re also more nimble and can use these tentacles as extra arms to hold weapons and items, though you can only make a number of attacks or use a number of items per round as given by your class.

Like octopi, you can also squirt ink as a defense mechanism three times a day. This emits a 30 ft cone of ink in water, and a 30 ft line on land. Those in the blast radius must make a (DC Spellcasting modifier) Dexterity saving throw or else get hit by the ink, becoming Blinded until they use an action to actively remove the ink from their body. Do note that inking is usually seen as incredibly lewd and disgraceful.

If you are not a spellcasting class, use the ability score you increased by 1 more (either INT or WIS) when you created your character to determine the DC.