Character Crunch: Under Dwarves

The under dwarves are the oldest noble houses of dwarfkind and, while many "lesser" mountain and hill dwarves claim nobility in their kingdoms, the under dwarves consider themselves the true nobility as their claim is to the oldest kingdoms of their race.

Under dwarves are suspicious of outsiders and it is rare for a non-dwarf to ever see the lowest levels of dwarf cities where under dwarves live. They also rarely leave their palaces and temples. Many have never been to the surface world and are sensitive to sunlight. Their reward for the stubborn pride is that, by studying ancient runes passed down the royal family line for thousands of years, under dwarves develop rune-like marking on their skin that ward off magic.

Ability Score Increase. You increase your Intelligence score by 1.
Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Magic Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spell and other magical effects.

Making a Character for Sublanarya: The TLDR Edition

WELCOME TO SUBLANARYA,

WELCOME TO THE TYTANYAN AGE,

WELCOME TO THE AGE OF EMPIRES

Welcome to the 5th Age

The 5th Age began almost two hundred years ago when an alliance was formed between Queen Tytanya of the iaurdin (high elves) of Saesun and the chromatic dragon tyrant Typhon the Red. This alliance, called the Tytanyan Pact, was formed to end a civil war between human kingdoms in Saesun. The metallic dragons were driven to extinction, the dwarves were displaced from their homeland (again), and western Thule was conquered by the pact. The region conquered by the pact is an imperial colony called Albyon. The pact ended its expansionist assault a few decades ago but that doesn't mean this is a period of peace. War seems inevitable.

In response to the rise of this super power, the "thousand kingdoms of Thule" have consolidated into larger nation states and joined together as a pro-human confederacy united against any future invasions by the elves.

Meanwhile, the other empires and civilizations seek to survive and/or use this conflict to further their own goals.

As a player character, you are an exceptional person. Usually campaigns are focused on heroes who are allied to a faction but they can just be mercenaries seeking fortune and glory.

It is up to you, your fellow players and the game master to determine what sort of game this is going to be. And it is up to your game master to present you with opportunities and you to decide which ones to take.

Creator's Note: My design style has been described as "throwing everything in, including the kitchen sink" but I consider it a smörgåsbord of flavors, themes and topics to explore. Please enjoy. 

So, Who Are You?

Character Crunch: Warforged Errata

Warforged:

Mechanical servants who became self-aware.

Warforged in Sublanarya are found in only one place: Mithrak the City of Progress

Warforged are artificial automatons, mostly made of metal and wood and built to resemble humans, created by commission, based on ancient dwarven designs of soldiers from a Wyrd War army, as a collaboration between artificers and other magic users. They require a tiny spark of the divine to create, usually combined from the creators souls, and all have instructions placed inside their heads when created. They are all born as slaves.

Warforged are owned by the various corporations that rule Mithrak. They, generally speaking, are simple minded. They are created to do specific tasks, such as working part of an assembly line or cleaning floors or building structures. They are not meant to have individuality. But that doesn't stop many warforged from becoming self-aware individuals. While some companies inhumanely destroy these evolved warforged when they pop up, others have taken a more civil approach and instead take advantage of the advanced warforged's new faculties by putting them to more appropriate tasks and/or treating them as employees, complete with a salary, that is completely loyal to their master corporation.

Other warforged become free, either by buying themselves or by the mercy of others. All awakened warforged seek to form their own identity and seek cohabitation with other conscious life-forms even if they face fear and discrimination from the ignorant.

Currently, it is illegal to design warforged capable of hurting other humanoids but it seems inevitable that warforged will once again match their names. Importantly, self-aware warforged ignore this basic programming.

Warforged are a great race to play out the sci-fi fantasy concept of artificial intelligence but you should ask your GM before picking to play a warforged.

Ability Score Increase. Increase your Constitution by 2 and your Strength by 1.
Age. Warforged are born fully mature, never age and are practically immortal.
Alignment. Warforged tend to have lawful alignments, as their minds tend to be more logically designed than the average mortal with a tendency towards order, and lean towards good or neutral morality since, before they become self-aware, they are generally designed to do no harm to people.
Size. Warforged are built to work and operate in buildings designed for human workers and are usually exactly six feet tall. You are medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Artificial Armor. You have a tough body made of wood and steel. When you aren't wearing armor, your AC is 18. You can use your artificial armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your artificial armor. You have disadvantage on all Stealth skill checks while moving.
Mechanical Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
Living Construct. Even though you were constructed, you are a living creature. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish.
Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state; you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.
Built for Labor. Warforged are built for a purpose, whether building things or cleaning them, and therefore are specialized. You gain proficiency in one skill and one tool set of your choice.
Languages. Warforged speak common and one other language of your choice. 

Character Crunch: Merfolk

In every port tavern in Sublanarya, there is a salty sailor who will tell anyone willing to listen about their encounter with the mysterious, secretive and almost legendary merfolk. They talk of humanoids with skin, hair and eyes as colorful as the tropical fish of the sea. They are humanoid from the pelvis up and usually have a fish's tail, pointed fin-like ears, webbed fingers, and gills. Some tell stories of being rescued from shipwrecks by sympathetic maids with glimmering tails and others claim to have been held prisoner in underwater dungeons for days. There are stories of domed underwater cities and mobile fortresses built on the backs of great sea leviathans. These would all seem to be tall tales but, every now and then, evidence points to the contrary.

The truth is that merfolk prefer to keep to themselves. Land dwellers have their problems and sea dwellers have their own problems. In the opinion of the merfolk, it is better this way. Too often has the greed and ambition of land dwellers threatened their civilizations and so, they remain elusive, enigmatic and ever just out of sight. If the mortals could see the wonders that the merfolk have built, they would be enchanted.

Merfolk build great cities at the bottom of the sea, often magically sealed like great bubbles of glass, as far and secure from threats from above as possible, and built to defend themselves against their enemies such as the sahaguin. They also guard themselves and the rest of the world against ancient horrors that, if they weren't kept at bay, could destroy the world. This is why they are cautious to allow strangers into their cities. They fear subterfuge, whether intentional or accidental, from those who wouldn't understand the costs of their actions.

As individuals, merfolk are curious about the world above, even if they're generally forbidden to interact with it. Those that do are often reprimanded or even punished by being exiled from the great cities. Still, some merfolk can't help but want to know more. The sea floor is littered with the shipwrecks. The merfolk salvage these ships for valuables, especially coveting magical items and machinery, but also cultural items like clothing, which is odd as most merfolk wear little clothing except as accessories, and books, which contain the knowledge that many merfolk crave as entertainment, are particularly popular on the "treasure market".

As for merfolk adventurers, they tend to be chosen by the gods of the sea, especially Delfina, to receive the gift to transform between their flippered and bipedal forms. These chosen emissaries are seen as blessed by some merfolk civilizations and cursed by others. Those are the merfolks that players can choose to play in Sublanarya. They tend to be spellcasters, from druids and clerics to witches and wizards, as well as martial classes like rogues and rangers.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity, Intelligence and Wisdom scores each increase by 1.
Age. Merfolk reach maturity by age 20 and can live up to 200 years.
Alignment. A merfolk's alignment, like the sea, tends to be not governed by the tides. They tend towards neutrality but merfolk nobility tends toward lawful alignments and merfolk that live apart from their underwater city tend towards chaotic alignments.
Size. Merfolk are medium sized humanoids.
Speed. Merfolk have a base walking speed of 30 feet in their land form and have a swim speed that is 2/3 of your base walking speed (min. 20 feet).
Amphibious. Merfolk can breathe air and water.
Dark Vision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.
Sea-Borne. You have a deep understanding of sea-life. You can communicate simple ideas with beasts that live in the sea or breathe water. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return. You also have advantage on identifying sea-life with Intelligence (Nature) checks and dealing with sea-life with Wisdom (Animal Handling) checks).
Of the Depths. You have a resistance to cold damage and you ignore any of the drawbacks caused by a deep, underwater environment.

Emissary of the Sea. You have the ability to polymorph between a land form and an aquatic form as a bonus action. When you shift into the aquatic form, you can only move yourself on land while prone and your walking speed becomes 1/3 of your base walking speed in your land form. Your swim speed becomes 10 feet faster than your base walking speed in your land form.

The gear on your lower body magically melds or changes to fit your aquatic or land forms. 

Bounty of the Sea. Merfolk have learned many skills by observing human civilization and studying their shipwrecks. You gain proficiency in two skills and/or sets of tool proficiencies of your choice.

Extra Languages. In addition to common, you can also speak, understand, write, read in Aquan and one additional language.

Character Crunch: Vanara (Monkey-Folk)

In southern Raj-Hamut, deep in the Dandaka Forest and between the Ondon Mountains, hidden in mist and legend, is Kishkindha, the kingdom of the vanara: the "forest people". The vanara of Kishkindha resemble monkey-like humanoids. They are mostly known to be clever, curious and playful creatures that might irritate less patient creatures with their constant questioning and almost naive honesty. While vanara often admire the accomplishments of human society, they find human's comparably uptight customs and rules amusing. They prefer to play tricks upon people rather than resorting to violence to expel them from the sacred sites, such as temples and burial grounds, they often make their homes. That doesn't mean they won't defend themselves.

The vanaran patron deity Hamuman the Mighty is famous for the feat of lifting an entire mountain with one hand and leading armies of vanara to assist the 7th Avatar of Sahasranama. They are known for being impressive warriors who use their unmatched agility and bestial ferocity to overcome their foes. And their foes are, usually, evil, which vanara oppose universally. Vanaran heroes prefer martial arts whether they be masters of force like barbarians or fighters or instead prefer the subtlety of rangers or thieves or choose to find a balance with a monk.

The heroism, loyalty and bravery of vanara warriors is legendary.

Vanara are rarely found outside of Kishkindha but they are not unheard of among veteran adventurers who have ventures to the south-eastern continent of Raj-Hamut. They are usually drawn into a life adventure by curiosity and loyalty; many a human adventurer has found themselves Kishkindha on a divine quest and befriended a vanara. Perhaps the human save the vanara's life or better yet their tribe and so, out of devotion, obligation and/but mostly out of the desire to join them on their quest, they join the hero on their adventure and become adventurers in their own right.

Vanara come in two distinct varieties on a spectrum of more monkey-like to more human-like in appearance. They both often intermingle and are more alike than either are with monkeys or humans. There are mountain and valley vanara.

Preferring to live in hills and crags of the Ondon Mountains, the mountain vanara could almost pass for humans or elves at a glance.

They usually are built similarly to elves-- tall with slender builds-- with similar facial structures and even have point ears. Unlike elves, their pointed ears tend to be much more pronounced and bestial. The biggest give away to their vanaran nature are their prehensile simian tails, long fingers and toes, and pronounced canines. They often have lighter hair from blond to brown to red hair that matches the fur on their tail and some even have thick fur-like hair on their bodies as well.They have the same range of eye colors as humans that flash to red when angry or in battle.

Mountain vanara are known to be a little more reserved than their valley kin and tend to build small villages, usually around a sacred tree or spring or in or around an ancient temple, where they can live simply and carefree lives. They tend to be the most pious and most vanaran priests for both the mountain and the valley vanara. This doesn't mean they are not known for their trickery and playfulness but they do tend to be more responsible when it comes to duties.

Valley vanara are noticeably more ape-like than their mountain cousins.

Valley vanara, covered in a coat of white, grey, black, brown or orange fur, with elongated muzzles, large lip-less mouths, big, round ears and facial fur, more closely resemble the "monkey-folk" that are described in popular legends. Some have non-prehensile tails and other have either extremely short or no tails. They tend to have slightly longer limbs than their mountain cousins and their eyes are usually only black or brown in hue that also flash red when enraged.

Valley vanara are hunter-gatherers who live in small family groups usually sharing territory around a central point of interest. They have a more laissez-faire lifestyle, doing as they please, and relaxing away most of their days. Due to their more wild environment, they do have to contend with predators and evil creatures more frequently than mountain vanara. For this reason they have more of a reputation as warriors and hunters than their cousins.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity increases by 2.
Age. Vanara have lifespans equivalent to humans.
Alignment. Vanara
 Size. Vanara are similar in size and stature to humans, standing between 5 and 6 feet, with slender builds. Your size if medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Tree Climber. Because of your monkey-like hands and feet, you are almost as well acclimated to climbing as walking. You have climbing speed of 3/4 your walking speed rounded down (minimum 20 feet).
Primal Pounce: You may use Dexterity when determining your jump distance.

Extra Language. You can read, write, speak and understand common, Vanaran, and one extra language.

Subraces. There are two subraces of vanara; the mountain vanara and the valley vanara.

Mountain Vanara
Ability Increase. Your Wisdom increases by 1.
Skill Proficiency. You have proficiency in the Acrobatics skill.
Prehensile Tail: Can pick up and carry small objects but not use as weapons. Can use Sleight of Hand with tail.

Valley Vanara
Ability Increase. Your Strength increases by 1.
Skill Proficiency. You have proficiency in the Athletics skill.

Bite. Your jaw is a strong natural weapon, which can be used to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.

I wanna note, Vanara are found elsewhere and there is more than one "monkey king". I hope you guys enjoy my take on this classic race from hindu mythology and Oriental Adventures.