FIVEY: Changelings, Scalespawn, and Watchers

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Three more character origins! The scalespawn take after the dragonborn and the watchers after the aasimar, but I'm trying to play more with mythic backstories as opposed to the pseudo-anthropological approach of D&D. The watchers also take some inspiration from Enochic tradition and, because I can't help myself, Minecraft YouTube fancanon (if you know, you know). The changelings were just because I remembered how my friends a while ago who played doppleganger twins in the first game I ran, and we irritated each other because at the time I didn't know what a D&D doppleganger was and assumed they were just lookalike twins like Hikaru and Kaoru from Ouran Host Club. Live and let live.

If you're interested, please do check out the big FIVEY page where I'm keeping everything together! I've also just put together an updated character sheet, so you can see how everything works.

Origin: Changeling

It happens that a fairy falls into too great a debt and pays their due by abducting a human infant and selling it on the astral black market. Changelings are fairy infants, relatively worthless, with which the fairy debtor replaces the human baby. They may look like a human, but their minds are unusually aloof and even lost. They do not really know where they are or who they are, and neither does anyone else. The worst part is that by the time a changeling realizes what is wrong, it is too late to return whence they came (and their counterpart is who knows where). Most opt to make do with the strange human world of which they could never fully be a part.

Changelings have the Weird skill, and they start either with a fairy picture book (tier 1 spell) or a locket which contains a portrait with their true parents. Once a day, the changeling may consult the locker for motherly or fatherly wisdom, although their mileage may vary with regards to their grasp on the situation or their desire to accept their child as their own.

Changelings also have the Metamorphosis feat, by which they may transform their human appearance once daily to reflect the appearance of someone they have once met face to face. Changing back into a previous form requires the changeling to wait until the next day.

Origin: Scalespawn

Scalespawn are thought to have originated during the age of heroes, when a dragon was slain and its scales (or teeth, as some would have it) were sown by the victor in virgin soil. Thenceforth sprung fully formed beings, having the appearance of human-sized, upright dragons with neither wings nor tails, but with scales like armor and claws like daggers. The spawn began to slay each other until only a handful remained, whom the hero then recruited to settle the dragon’s land. The city born of strife would never know peace, and the scalespawn were eventually exiled as evidence of the founder’s shame. Some view them as victims of circumstance, while others see only ashes in their wake. Either way, human beings regard them with fear and awe.

Scalespawn have the Chemistry skill, and they either start with a ceremonial dragon-tooth dagger (deals d6 piercing or elemental damage as desired by the user, with the latter element type corresponding to the user’s particular ancestry) or with a purse of poisonous herbs—enough to kill a dragon.

Scalespawn also have the Dragon-Born feat: once per day, they can spend 2 ◆ to breathe like a dragon in order to deal 2d6 elemental damage to all creatures in a line up to 6 paces away, or just d6 damage if the target(s) pass a DEX contest versus the user’s STR (or a DC equal to 10 plus the user’s STR). The elemental type of the attack depends on the user’s draconic progenitor; for example, the descendant of a red dragon may breathe fire.

Origin: Watcher

Watchers are self-inflicted refugees of the divine realms, casting themselves from Heaven to take on the form and desires of flesh. Some poems sing of angels falling in love with human beings, exchanging immortality for indulgence, but more often than that the watcher desires something more holistic: to live life fully with the expectation that they will one day die, to enjoy love knowing that it will not last. Some watchers, despite their newfound mortality, yet align themselves with the cause of Heaven, going rogue to recruit humans in pursuit of the Good. Others, of course, are less altruistic.

Watchers have the Perception skill, and they start with either an auto-relic (tier 1 spell)—that is, a remnant of their divine origin with some leftover miraculous power, such as a feather from their lost wings or a crystal eye—or a memento of a mortal individual beloved by the watcher, with which the watcher can spry to know where they are.

Watchers also have the Communion feat, which allows them to spend 1 rest action to speak with a representative of their patron deity. The representative will answer one yes-no question on the deity’s behalf, and they will do so to the best of their knowledge.

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