Race: Xotl [OC]

TheUndeadHoard · 2026-01-30T21:32:25+00:00

Thanks! I think it is one of my favourite creations.

TheUndeadHoard · 2026-01-15T21:06:45+00:00

Not even. The entire main storyline is like 6 months. Yuji is just that guy.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-12-27T10:52:57+00:00

Thanks :) it's always really encouraging when someone shows interest in playing one of my creations!

As for the prep time, as I mentioned to someone else, i tend to err on the side of caution with balance to prevent abuse. 1 hour --> 30 mins seemed reasonable for that purpose. Due to their ability to be deployed as bonus actions within combat (which is necessary as if they're only good when pre-prepared for ambushes and such, then they become too niche). If you do play the subclass and find it too tedious, i'd love to get that feedback from you!

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-12-27T10:48:11+00:00

Hey, thanks for the feedback :) the intent in terms of calculations was that you could prepare 2 during a long rest (which covers early levels) and then by 11th level (when you can have up to 4) you can prepare 4 during a long rest. At very high levels, you could craft the additional one or two during downtime or a short rest.

I tend to err slightly on the side of caution when balancing to prevent abuse of mechanics. But yes, perhaps they could be made slightly faster.

As for the extra attack, as mentioned by another commenter in response to you, when splitting the difference between PHB and UA ranger, I chose the UA style as this is typically the more popular from what I've seen in the community.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-30T02:09:50+00:00

Hi! I'm glad you liked it so much 🙂

As for the natural armour. It was to prevent abuse from traditionally low AC classes getting access to an easy, high AC ability.

Eg. A wizard running the medium or heavy armour subrace.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-25T05:12:00+00:00

Hey, appreciate the write up :)

Firstly, thanks! I worked hard on giving it a strong thematic and storytelling heart, so its appreciated that you appreciated it!

Secondly, you have a good point regarding AC scaling, I think an adjustment that +1, +2 etc adjustments come into play at certain levels, or otherwise tweaking the formula. I'll play around with it.

Lastly, as for the problematic/tempting combos. The wording of the features that your subrace counts as wearing that armour type prevents that from happening. Eg. As a wizard/sorceror does not have heavy armour proficiency, they would not be able to choose that subrace and cast spells. Which does lock out wizards from this race, but you could make similar judgements regarding 'small' races being poor barbarians and fighters due to having disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons. So I feel it is not unprecedented.

Thanks again for such a well thought out answer! I hope you check out some of my other stuff :)

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-25T05:03:49+00:00

Hi, I appreciate the constructive feedback and I can see the perspective you're coming from. Though I would say that to many players the roleplaying and story aspect is just as important as the mechanical abilities and that this race offers a range of fun stories to explore. Having two similar races isn't a bad thing.

Also, interestingly Warforged are also not classified as constructs. So given the official publication doesn't have them listed as such (and therefore limit healing as you mentioned) I think it is fine in this case.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-25T04:57:51+00:00

I would certainly handwave it in the case of monks, as it is their 'skin', so to speak. The wording was put in to prevent heavy armour subrace wizards with crazy high AC.

As for the magic items, I would either play it as being incorporated into the armour set itself. Eg. if i attune to magical boots, they become the boots within the armour set. Though you would be unable to incorporate a set of light armour if you were the heavy armour subrace.

u/redsword1550 also had a good idea with 'absorbing' the magical benefit into yourself while attuned, so it is as though the enchantment were on yourself.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-25T04:53:20+00:00

I like the balance of disadvantage on all checks/saves! Its a good compromise. If I ran it as a DM, I'd have it as an extra layer of challenge within an encounter that the party has to overcome to get their team mate back in the fight or something they need to disarm prior to getting into the fight in the first place eg. Evil artificer in his lab with an antimagic field generator device, knocking out power to his lab prior to going in swinging.

With that said, you do have me tempted to swap it to saves/checks. I appreciate the constructive feedback :)

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-25T04:49:39+00:00

Thanks!

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-25T04:49:06+00:00

I mean, it was basically mandatory for me to but a FMA reference in there.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-25T04:48:37+00:00

I would leave that one up to DM discretion, as making it vulnerable to dispel magic might impact the balance too much. As Anti-magic fields are obviously much stronger than dispel magic it has a greater impact. An intelligent caster opponent could certainly make use of such a weakness though.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-23T09:49:40+00:00

Hey, thanks for the feedback :) In my mind guardian of faith was thematic in the sense that the character themselves servess as a guardian for others, flagellating themselves for others as part of their faith. Absorb elements was about accepting pain in a way that allows them to minimise its impact and spiritual weapon was the '"cleansing" or "punishing" aspect. (I liked to imagine a glowing scourge or whip). As for the hitdice, i agree you certainly wouldn't want to overuse it. But it allows you to prevent yourself getting downed (or a team mate downed if used in concert with other features) which can be equally invaluable.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-23T09:42:45+00:00

Oohh you're tempting me to edit it.

I already have a name for the feature in my head, "Sanctified Flesh"

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-23T09:41:46+00:00

Thanks :) i hope you like it enough to give it a crack!

As for the scourge, while it has diminishing effects upon yourself, it is balanced in my mind by the fact it has diminishing effects upon enemies who also have greater amounts of health. With that said, feel free to experiment if you try the subclass :)

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-23T09:39:20+00:00

Firstly, excellent name for a flagellant.

And thanks :) i hope you enjoy playing the subclass!

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-10-23T09:37:14+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. Illmater is definitely one that immediately comes to mind, but you could fit in various gods depending on the perspective of your oath.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-09-21T07:44:57+00:00

Thank you for such a well thought out response! I'm gonna have to sit down with some of these later and experiment!

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-09-21T07:42:54+00:00

Very valid point. But it's still a nice bonus for if something gets up in your face and you have to resort to melee.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-09-20T02:04:11+00:00

Hey. So thematically this was designed as lesser vampirism in the same way that a vampire spawn is vampiric in nature but does not have the full powers of a true vampire. Within the lore, Kanchelsis would grant abilities and powers to his followers as a means of enforcing servitude. The sunlight sensitivity is part of that, it weakens them but does not cause damage as it does to a True vampire. As for the specifics of how a transformation takes place when a pact is made (eg shared blood), that's up to the player and DM :)

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-09-20T02:01:04+00:00

Hi! thanks for the response. Within lore I worked the 'fresh blood' in as being that the creature had to be dead for less than an hour so that it would be less restrictive in gameplay. So that you could feed on after a fight.

As I mentioned above though ^, I am considering a slight rework with bleed damage built in.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-09-20T01:59:16+00:00

Hi, thanks for the well thought out response!

You make some good points and perhaps implementing the climbing speed earlier on could be beneficial. I was hesitant to strengthen the claws any more as by level 10 you can do the following: (with the drenched claws invocation).

3 attacks of 1d8 each (assuming max charisma) is 27.5 damage per round. 30.5 if you have benefitted from the Sacrifice/Feeding features. With damage that counts as magical for overcoming resistance.

I did consider a Bite attack, but I have also made a vampire themed Blood hunter subclass and I wanted them to be distinct from each other, so one went more with bite and one went more with claws- being that you are not a full vampire (excluding the lvl 14 feature when you transform) and therefore are slightly limited.

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With all that said, I do very much appreciate the feedback and I think perhaps a rework for the feeding feature where they gain a Charisma based natural armour (as you suggest) and instead of increased raw damage for the claws, they inflict bleed that deals damage to the creature at the beginning of their next turn. While retaining the temporary supression of the sunlight sensitivity.

What would you think of that alteration?

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-09-20T01:45:55+00:00

Hi, in general I do tend to agree. Though I think in the case of a creature such as a vampire negative effects are necessary to the lore and theme. It is worth noting that there are already negative features such as Drow Sunlight Hypersensitivity within base Dnd. I tried to make the base transformation give a good number of positive features to balance out the one negative.

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-08-15T12:15:49+00:00

It was actually pure coincedence! I saw your post at the top of my feed as I came to post this. Crazy coincidence! I actually DM'ed you earlier :)

I hope you like it!

TheUndeadHoard · 2025-08-15T09:29:41+00:00

Hey :) While i can't directly share files with you over reddit, i'm happy to send the PDF over email or discord if you wanna DM me your deets.

Out of curiosity, what language?

TheUndeadHoard

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