Dungeon Delver’s Guide: The Mycelial and the Ratling
Dungeon Delver's Guide (coming to Kickstarter later this year) is a handbook for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E) Narrators and original 5E (O5E) GMs who want to run dungeon adventures. It contains dungeon creation techniques, new subterranean monsters, oodles of traps, and so on.
That's just the half of it though.
It's also a sourcebook for characters from these subterranean realms. Dungeon Delver's Guide has new class archetypes and backgrounds, dungeon-themed spells, and weapons and armor that will help your characters battle the dungeon's denizens, such as shadow elf dark armor, oils that wreathe a weapon in necrotic flame, and the living, wrist-mounted parasite launchers of the aboleth.
And of course, it has new heritages and races, so you can play as a dungeon denizen yourself. These are the options I want to showcase today.
Dungeon Delver's Guide is fully compatible with both 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E. One of the biggest differences between these two systems is in how they handle your character's species: in 5E you assign your character a race and sometimes a subrace, while Level Up offers more flexibility by splitting race into heritage and culture, each of which can be chosen separately. Since this book is so useful to players of both 5E and A5E, we provide two versions of each of our dungeon crawling critters. For each, you can use an A5E-style heritage and then select from a big grab bag of A5E cultures, or use a 5E version of the race with cultural features built in.
Dungeon Delver's Guide introduces six new heritages/races. Various other books have already introduced you to playable underground humanoids like shadow elves, kobolds, and deep gnomes, so we had the freedom to dig deeper and get weirder. We've descended down to Underland, the dreamlike, mythic realm below the earth.
As a mycelial, a humanoid fungus, you'll form a life bond with your allies; as a rockborn, an elemental statue whose lifespan is measured in eons, you'll roll into foes like a bowling ball; as a mongrelfolk, whose mismatched animal features grant them strange gifts, you'll run with blinding speed on cheetah legs or use your tail to pickpocket unsuspecting marks; as an oozefolk, the mutated scion of a gelatinous cube or other ooze, you'll squeeze through tiny spaces, try to keep that one eyeball from drifting too far down your face, and investigate the arcane mystery of your creation. When you play as one of these creatures, your subterranean adventures will not be explorations of the unknown but a return home.
Many of the species that dwell in the winding caverns below the earth are little known on the surface world. Ratlings and doppelgangers, on the other hand, are familiar to, though rarely welcomed by, aboveground communities. As a ratling, you'll scamper through sewers, eat massive volumes of food, and stand on each others’ shoulders inside a trenchcoat. As a doppelganger, you'll face hostility and distrust - if you're unmasked.
I'd like to share a few of these new character options for you to try! If you're a Level Up player, I have a mycelial heritage for you; if you're a 5E player, you can try the ratling race. Remember that the book contains both 5E and A5E versions of all six heritages. Give them a try and let us know how it goes.
Level Up Heritage: Mycelial
This is the Level Up version of the mycelial! The 5E version will also appear in Dungeon Delver’s Guide.
Mycelials are a small, curious fungus-folk, resembling capped mushrooms with thick legs and dark, pupiless eyes. They eat rock and ore, breaking minerals down with powerful natural acids and collecting hard, inedible crystals and gemstones for trade. They speak in reedy whispers by pushing air through their gills, allowing them to sing beautiful, quiet songs.
Many Underland creatures regard mycelials as prey. As a result, mycelials tend to be cautious, observing newcomers from a distance before approaching. They use their spore clouds on strangers whose intentions are unknown.
Mycelial Traits
Characters with the mycelial heritage share a variety of traits in common with one another.
Age. Mycelials grow from spores and mature quickly. In mycelial communities, a sporeling is considered an adult by the age of 3. They usually live about 30 years, although mycelials who form bonds with longer-lived creatures have been known to live as long as the creatures they’re bonded with.
Size. Mycelial bodies are diverse, ranging from squat to slender. They stand between 2 and 5 feet tall and are dense for their size, weighing 60 pounds on average. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your Speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. 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 gray.
Plant. You are a plant in addition to a humanoid. So long as rocks and soil are available, you can sustain yourself without other sources of food, although you still require water. While exploring, you consume 1 Supply every other day before suffering fatigue.
Spore Cloud. Mycelials naturally produce poisonous spores, which they can use to attack or defend themselves.
You can use an action to release a puff of poisonous spores in a 5-foot-radius area centered on you. The spores lightly obscure the area and linger in air or water for 1 minute or until dispersed by a strong wind or current. Non-plant creatures that enter the area for the first time on a turn or start their turn there must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes 1d6 poison damage and is poisoned until the end of its next turn. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier. The poison damage increases to 2d6 at 4th level, 3d6 at 9th level, 4d6 at 14th level, and 5d6 at 19th level.
Once a creature has been affected by the spores, it is immune to this effect for 24 hours. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Mycelial Gifts
Mycelials fungus biology and underground adaptations offer a diversity of talents. Choose one of the following heritage gifts.
Soft Bodied
You can squeeze or contort through spaces as if you were one size category smaller than you are.
Digger
You have a burrowing speed of 10 feet and can move through nonmagical earth and stone, but not solid rock. You don’t leave a tunnel behind unless you spend time and effort to shore up the tunnel, reducing your burrow speed to 5 feet every 15 minutes.
Overactive Enzymes
You can release a splash of digestive enzymes to harm your foes. You gain the acid splash cantrip, which you can cast without requiring components. Your spellcasting ability for this cantrip is your choice of Charisma, Constitution, Intelligence, or Wisdom.
Mycelial Paragon
When you reach 10th level, you are an exemplar of mycelial-kind. You gain one of the following paragon gifts.
Adaptability
You can change your body to survive various environments. You gain resistance to poison damage. In addition, whenever you finish a long rest, you can choose one of the following forms:
Amphibious. You can breathe underwater and gain a swim speed equal to your walking speed.
Arboreal. You gain a climb speed equal to your walking speed. When you fall, you can use your reaction to float gently to the ground, taking no damage from the fall.
Cold Adapted. You gain resistance to cold damage.
Heat Adapted. You gain resistance to fire damage.
You remain in your new form until you use this ability again. You can benefit from only one form at a time.
Specialized Spores
Creatures affected by your Spore Cloud no longer become immune to it. Additionally, when you create the cloud you can choose one of the following conditions:
Charmed
Confused
Frightened
While poisoned by your spore cloud, a creature is also affected by the chosen condition.
Mycelial Culture
Mycelials live moment to moment, enjoying the sensations of their environment. They value community and love sharing stories and songs.
Mycelials are short-lived and don’t reproduce in large numbers, allowing them to maintain a stable or slowly growing population. Because they reproduce by spores, sometimes a meld of mycelials will spring up long after their ancestors have died or abandoned the area.
Mycelials form strong friendships and familial bonds, even with people from other heritages. They adapt themselves to the societies around them, finding niches where they can live their peaceful lives. Most mycelials don’t feel a strong connection to any specific location, viewing the whole world as their home.
Suggested Cultures
While you can choose any culture for your mycelial character, the following cultures, which appear in Dungeon Delver’s Guide, are linked closely with this heritage: meld-member, Underharvester, Underlander.
5E Race: Ratling
This is the 5E version of the ratling! The Level Up version of the ratling will also appear in Dungeon Delver’s Guide.
Ratlings are intelligent, rodent-like humanoids with gray, black, brown, or white fur and naked pink tails. They walk upright and from a distance could even be mistaken for halflings—if one overlooks their narrow snouts, long whiskers, and sharp, protruding teeth. Often disrespected by larger folk, ratlings make sure to take the food and the space they feel is due to them.
Ratling Traits
As a ratling, you have the following traits:
Creature Type. You are a humanoid.
Size. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. 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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Keen Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Sudden Retreat. When a creature makes an opportunity attack against you, it does so with disadvantage.
Table for One. If you are Small, you can make a Deception check or use a disguise kit to appear to be Medium while standing on another Small humanoid’s shoulders.
Additionally, you may choose one of the following:
Bottomless Appetite. You can eat and digest huge quantities of food in seconds. If you have sufficient food for one day, you can eat it as an action. When you do so, you gain temporary hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus. If the food is of exceptional quality (worth at least 50 gp), you also regain 1d4 hit points. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum once). You regain any expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Rat Swarm. You can make an attack with advantage if another creature has attacked the same target since your last turn. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you’ve taken a short or long rest.
- Paul Hughes