Races

Grungs and Illithids

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 Grung
Grungs are small anthropomorphic poison dart frogs. They
are described as slavers who control their slaves with their
natural toxins.
Caste Society
Grungs live in a society with six castes, each denoted by a dif-
ferent bright color: green, blue, purple, red, orange, and gold.
Each has a different role in society. The green grungs are a
tribe’s warriors, hunters, and laborers. The blue grungs are
artisans, and the purple grungs are administrators. Red grun-
gs are scholars and magic users, and they command great
respect, even from higher castes of grung culture. Orange
grungs are elite warriors, and gold grungs are the sovereigns
of the tribe. It is not unheard of for a grung to ascend to a
higher caste; after proving oneself to a higher caste, they par-
take in a ritual to change the color of their skin, their toxin,
and their . It’s a very major and fundamental change, and as
such, it is rare.
Natural Toxins
Each caste has a different poison that they secrete from their
skin. Green grung poison causes the poisoned creature to
jump. They can’t move except for jumping. Blue grung poi-
son causes the poor afflicted creature to shout loudly at the
beginning of each of its turns. Purple poison makes its target
long for water, much like the amphibious grungs themselves.
Red poison makes its target voracious and devour any food
within reach. Orange poison causes the affected creature
to be frightened of its allies, and gold poison charms any
affected creature (the creature also gains the ability to speak
Grung).
turity. Grungs have a lifespan based on their caste, ranging
from 5 to 40 years.
Alignment. Grungs think that they are a superior race, and
enjoy bossing people around. They are usually Lawful Evil.
Size. Grungs are about halfling sized. Your size is Small.
Speed. You have a base walking speed of 25 feet and a
climbing speed of 25 feet.
Amphibious. You can breath air and water.
Natural Toxins. Grungs are naturally toxic. Any creature in
direct contact with your character’s skin must make a consti-
tution saving throw or be poisoned and subject to the grung
poison of your caste. Also, you are immune to nonmagical
poison.
Water Dependency. Grungs require water to moisten their
slippery skin. Your character must spend at least one hour
immersed in water or suffer one level of exhaustion, which
can be recovered only by immersion in water. Going without
water for extended periods of time may kill the grung.
Languages. You speak Grung and one other language.
Alignment of a Grung
Grungs, according to Volo’s Guide to Monsters, tend to be lawful
evil, but that seems pretty lame to me. I want to play as a little
poison dart frog man! They seem really cute. My goal here is to
leave it up to the DM whether Grungs tend to be good or evil; a
good culture of Grungs might be peaceful jungle hermits. Con-
sult your DM if you want to play a Grung.

Grung Names
Grung names are longer based on class. They are mostly
made from combinations of short names. A green grung
would have one name, while a gold grung could have up-
wards of twelve!
Grung Names: Gahg, Sook, Pasht, Slur, Slark, Mog, Lurt, Hat,
Pip, Narg, Galf, Nak, Toog, Beb, Snurk, Pat, Lib, Rug, Ran, Ja,
Jig, Erg, Hen, Nin, Mahl, Zoog.

Grung Traits
Grung characters have these traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Age. Grungs are tadpoles for three months after hatching,
and take about six to nine months after that to reach ma-

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Illithid
Illithids, more commonly known as Mind Flayers, are spo-
ken of with fear. They are emotionless slavers, always with
ulterior motives. They are potent psychics, and reviled by
nearly all sentient races. The Mind Flayers don’t care about
what those races think of them, as long as their brains taste
delicious!
Underdark Dwellers
Mind Flayers live in fairly small communities controlled by
a massive Elder Brain, an amalgamation of brains harvested
from dead illithids. Elder Brains are immobile but by no
means powerless. They wield complete control over their
illithid communities, and when individual Mind Flayers die,
they dream of joining the Elder Brain.
Powerful Psychics
Mind Flayers are well known for their psychic domination.
They have telepathy and are essentially a race of slavers.
They dominate entire species, as happened with the Gith
(they revolted and still hate illithids). The entire Mind Flayer
culture is built on acquiring thralls to do their bidding.
Unique Physiology
Illithids have a strange life cycle due to their origins in the Far
Realm. They are spawned in the central pool of their com-
munity as tadpoles, then the tadpoles are inserted into living
host thralls. The tadpole devours the brain of its host and
then begins to morph the body of its host into that of a mind
flayer. Thus, no illithid has a childhood. Isn’t that sad?
Illithid Names
Mind Flayer names are impossible to convert to written or
spoken language, and are instead expressed exclusively in
thought. However, some mind flayers adopt more easily
pronounceable names when dealing with other races.
Mind Flayer Names: Aurangul, Cephalossk, Drukt, Drusiss,
Lugribossk, Quoor, Ralayan, Sardsult, S’venchen, Tharcereli,
Tobulux, Zellix
Illithid Traits
Illithid characters have these traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by
2, and your Constitution score decreases by 1.
Age. Illithids mature quickly and live for a very long time.
Longer than you think.
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Alignment. Illithids are almost all Lawful Evil. Their alien
mind is unempathetic and strictly logical.
Size. Illithids are about human sized. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Innate Psychics. Illithids are innate psychics. They can take
an action to use a mind blast. Each creature in a 30 foot cone
must make a Wisdom saving throw or be stunned. They may
repeat this save at the end of each of their turns. You may
not use this feature again until you have taken a long rest.
Darkvision. Illithids are most comfortable in the Under-
dark, and they have superior vision in dark conditions. You
can see in dim light as though it were bright light out to a
range of 60 feet, and in darkness as though it were dim light.
Very bright lights are uncomfortable.
Devour Brain. Illithids must devour brains to stay alive.
Your character can use an action to devour the brain of a will-
ing, unconscious, or incapacitated creature, instantly killing
them. You must feed this way at least once a week. If you
don’t, you suffer from one level of exhaustion and one mad-
ness for each week you have gone without feeding. These
penalties go away when you devour a brain.
Languages. Illithids generally communicate with their te-
lepathy, but when written language is necessary, they use a
series of ridges and grooves (similar to Braille) called Qualith.
Mind Flayers read Qualith by running their four tentacles
over the script. You can understand any language through
telepathy, and you can read Qualith.
Roleplaying an Illithid
Illithids tend to be lawful evil, but like all racial ste-
reotypes, some do break the mold. This doesn’t get
around the fact that Illithids require sentient brains
as food, and that is almost by definition an evil act.
Perhaps a good Illithid only eats the brains of convicted
criminals, or only of other “evil” races.
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