Deranged Overpowered Species List

[icy kayak]

Thanks for quite a few chuckles Love some of the ability names and your flavour text

[viral urchin]

Thanks, this is all part of a potential rework of my disgustingly long homebrew dnd document, which you can find here https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-NpYUeDllVJvpDQe7Tmb

[fallen furnace]

These are neat
Starchild seems really strong, it gets:

• 60 feet of devil's sight
• Damage res + damage immunity
• Immunity to extreme cold and heat
• No need to eat, drink, or breath
• Advantage on one of the most OP skills
• And saving the best for last, a whopping eight spells, including two very strong strixhaven ones and a couple of other decent options. Please, give them standard delayed spellcasting.

[viral urchin]

All very true, but allow me to offer some context.

1. Darkness is not hyper prevalent in my games.

2. Force damage is not prevalent in my games, and poison is rarely the most threatening damage type in any given encounter.

3. Extreme cold, heat, hunger, thirst, are almost all meaningless ribbon features in my campaigns.

4. Stealth is indeed good. but they do have disadv on saves, so, big risks for being caught.

5. whopping 8 spells. Your analysis is apt, but again, these mfs are fragile. Will they even make it to level 5 to use all this nonsense? Who can say

But yes, your concerns are valid

[fallen furnace]

1. You're creating the problem by giving them the darkness spell
2. Poison damage is statistically the 1st or 2nd most common damage type in the game, and many monster rely on it
3. Cold and heat are situational but still useful buffs, eat/drink is similar and adds to that, breath makes you immune to suffocation or drowning, which are again potentially very useful.
4. Not really, they have normal hit points, AC, and movement
5. Not a valid excuse as said above. The spellcasting should be nerfed.

[viral urchin]

1. Darkness is once per day, so it's not the end of the world, but I acknowledge your point.

2. Poison is indeed common amongst standard monsters, and you are 100 percent giving good advice for that. But, in my campaigns, the prospect of being immune to poison is often more rewarding to players emotionally than an actual long-term combat boon

3. I have never even once asked my players if they had enough food to eat lmao. The trials and tribulations of suffocating, drowning-extreme cold, have only been slightly less rare in my entire history as a DM.

4. True. they originally had other mitigating factors to make them weaker. May have to add them back in to reaffirm the fragile theme.

5. It does seem I should nerf it. As far as valid excuses go, you won't find any here, this is all built on pure brainrot anti-logic.

[fallen furnace]

For 4., I wouldn't do that. 5e is against giving players negatives, including permanent passive ones. Instead, nerf it in other area.
For 5., it truly is the best source of inspiration

[viral urchin]

Haha, yeah, 5e is against permanent negatives. I, however, am unhinged enough to disregard this. I think if the negative plays into a player's enjoyment of a character's theme, then it can be good. In my current campaign, my starchild player has built her character's personality around the species' negatives- a player playing the lion-like kings has really committed to being averse to water, even though in the version they're playing, there is no mechanical penalty for kings being proximal to water.

But yeah, thanks for the notes on the starkidz, i will def give them another editing pass. good to get advice from someone not locked in my dnd asylum