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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
 Posted - 25 Jul 2018 : 04:39:34
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Long story short, I discovered this homebrew race today, the owlborn.
quote:
This feathered humanoid has the wide eyes and tufted ears of an owl.
Wardens of the deepwoods, owlborn are avian humanoids with a strong connection to the natural world. According to their lore, the owlborn were once mundane owls, but were given sapience and a humanoid form as a reward by fey lords for their role in averting a catastrophic aberrant incursion. As thanks for this blessing, most owlborn continue to live in harmony with their forests, protecting them against aberrations and evil outsiders that would destroy or warp pristine landscapes. They sometimes come into conflict with human loggers and hunters in their woods, but typically have good relations with elves and those who live as part of nature instead of separately from it.
Owlborn can be of any alignment, but tend towards neutral alignments. Like their owl ancestors, they are carnivores with a preference for small game. Most owlborn live in small forest encampments built in and among the treesan owlborn village is frequently arranged in three dimensions and features multi-layered lodges made of wicker and wood. Owlborn are highly spiritual people, with clerics and druids being common among them. Arcane magic is relatively rare, but those owlborn closely tied to elven culture may follow the path of wizardry.
An owlborn stands about five feet tall and weighs a little under 100 pounds. Their lifespans are comparable to those of humans.
Maybe it's just because of the art, but I like this race. I was wondering what others thought of them, and how they could fit into the Realms.
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3736 Posts |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11690 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jul 2018 : 15:20:05
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Yeah, I'm sticking a lot of bird races in Katashaka (ravenfolk <Kenku>, parrot folk <pa'ratxi>, toucan folk <Tucati>, Crane folk <Ibideans>, vulture folk <which for these, I may do something where a Nagpa from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes was able to reproduce using uncovered aearee secrets with a bird folk and created a new race>). Then I was going to have a collection of small islands of aquatic bird folk off the southeastern coast of Katashaka with duck folk, pelican folk, stork folk, gull folk, penguin folk (stealing that from Seethyr and moving them way south), swan and geese folk, etc... who fly between their islands and haven't developed boat technologies, so they're isolated except that slavers have started showing up and taking captives.
That being said, I like these owlborn too. Given that the Aearee came from the seemingly the northwestern area of Anchorome and the island off its coast, it would make sense to me to have this owlborn race be a race which lives in the far north instead to spread out the bird folk races. I'd really like to play up the non-human aspects in a lot of these other areas of Toril since humans have dominated so much of Faerun/Zakhara/Kara-Tur, and given that the Aeaeree were one of the creator races, it makes sense to me to put several bird races surviving. I like the idea of there being aarakocra (as they look now) up in northern Anchorome, but with a look more like goshawks (more white in their feathering). But in addition to those two, a race based on snow geese would fit as a less predatory race (i.e. not having the sharp bill). Also, a few races of "finch" like bird folk with a mixture of black and yellow or black and red or black and blue colorings would fit. I kind of picture some animosity between these bird folk and the Poscadari elves as they compete for resources, and I don't see the Poscadari as squeamish about killing one of these bird folk and cooking them (they are different from other elves, and might view the wasting of the meat of something that you killed as dishonoring its spirit). In return these bird folk may also not have a problem eating Poscadari elves.
But back to owl folk... one of the big thing about owls is that they have an almost non-existent sense of smell. Thus, they are one of the chief predators hunting skunks. It might be interesting to have a sizable troglodyte population beneath Anchorome that maybe come out at night, and these owl folk specifically hunt, kill, and eat them. BTW, the concept that northern Anchorome is a cannibal culture is not something I'm promoting, but these birdfolk may not consider mammalian humanoids or serpent humanoids, etc... as options to be taken off the table (literally) anymore than a cow or pig or giant lizard. For that matter, I also see these bird folk as preying on the insect folk in Anchorome as well. In fact, I really do like the concept that they believe in not wasting what you kill, and thus they may use tanned hides, exoskeletons, emptied skulls, etc.. to build things. I need to make it a more acceptable concept for modern sensibilities though.
This at DM's Guild might be of interest, but I'll admit to have only just downloaded it (I just went on a spree of looking for people already having done the work for developing subraces of beastfolk types)
http://www.dmsguild.com/product/237938/Striggan-5e-Owlfolk-Race
BTW, just to add some other imagery in your head, for the more "intellectual" owlborn, look at this picture (scroll down on the page)
http://lrpc.wikidot.com/aarakocra
And if you've never look on DM's Guild at the Owlcat, its not a breakthrough stat wise, but the concept is that you can have tiny, medium, and large versions (so, a tressym like version, a hunting partner, and a mount). In essence though, its just another kind of griffin, but I loved the imagery.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/177638/Owlcat? |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 28 Jul 2018 : 19:55:58
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| I grabbed the owlcat pdf a while ago... Mainly because I wanted to compare it to my falcats, which are basically housecat-sized griffons. |
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Owlborn -- Thoughts?
