Leprechaun
"Kidnapping? We weren't kidnapping, we were just taking them away, weren't we? Children need to play and you weren't letting them. What? Well of course we're blackmailing you! Those kids were in need of a break! Give them a chance to play and we'll see about letting them go, alright?"
—Leprechaun Conn Ó Gadhra, to an angry mother.
Leprechauns are a curious folk, hiding in forests and abandoned farms, sometimes benevolent, sometimes friendly. You should be cautious when you run into a leprechaun.
Small and Jolly
Leprechauns are very small human-like creatures with slightly pointed ears, and more often than not have reddish, full faces, with strawberry blonde hair. Males tend to have long (relative to their size, at least) beards. Both genders naturally grow hair in a large, curly fashion, and the fey magic infusing them means that, for their size, they are exceptionally strong. They tend to dress in red, despite many pictures depicting them as wearing green. However, some young leprechauns embrace this stereotype (much to their elders' disapproval).
Tricksters and Shoemakers
Leprechaun culture mainly revolves around creating shoes and trading or selling them to whichever other creatures happen to live nearby. They also gain money through sneaking into houses and gathering tiny scrapings of gold from various items, eventually forging them into a coin. Over time, leprechauns build up a stash of gold from these two methods, which they generally store in a clay pot known as a crock. The older the leprechaun, the more gold they have in their crock - but also the wilier they become at defending it. Leprechauns rarely spend money from a crock, preferring to keep it in reserve in case it's ever needed in a pinch for bribery or trade. If they are ever captured, they may bargain their way out with directions to the crock - although their capturer needs to be careful to ascertain whether or not they are lying.
Mistrusted Folk
Due to stories of leprechauns tricking people into wild goose chases to find their crock, leprechauns have a somewhat unfair reputation as being untrustworthy, when in truth all they are trying to do is protect their crock. This in turn leads to many leprechauns being prejudiced towards the outside world, sometimes even kidnapping children, believing that they are saving them in some fashion. These children end up gaining leprechaun-like characteristics, and some even become so attuned to this new lifestyle they become a leprechaun themselves.
From the Feywild
Leprechauns are closely related to fey, and many live in areas of the feywild as well as the material plane. Even those that do live in the material plane tend to find homes close to fey crossings, as an easy getaway and a way to visit family they have there.
Leprechaun Names
Leprechauns have naming conventions based off a person's relatives. Surnames consist of Mac ("son of"), Iníon ("daughter of") or Ó ("grandchild of"; literally "from") followed by the name of one of the leprechaun's parents or grandparents.
Male Names: Cian, Cillian, Conor, Darragh, Eoin, Fionn,
Liam, Oisin, Padraig, Rian, Sean
Female Names: Aisling, Aoife, Caoimhe, Cara, Ciara,
Clodagh, Eabha, Niamh, Roisin, Saoirse
Leprechaun Traits
Your trickster spirit and fey nature manifests itself in a variety of ways.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.
Age. Leprechauns come of age at around 20. Their aging process then slows down to one more akin to their fey brethren, and many end up living for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Alignment. Leprechauns tend towards chaotic alignments. Those that remain in the Feywild tend to become more neutral, while those that live further into the Material Plane generally end up leaning towards good or evil depending on what they encounter.
Size. Leprechauns average at about two to three feet tall. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Fey-Like. You were born infused with the magic of the fey. You have two creature types: humanoid and fey. You can be affected by a spell or ability if it works on either of your creature types.
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Hoarder. You add your proficiency bonus to any check involving money or gold. If you would already add your proficiency bonus to the check, you can add double your proficiency bonus.
Cobbler of the Fair Folk. You have proficiency in cobbler's tools, and double your proficiency bonus in them when you use them to create or adapt a shoe.
When you use cobbler's tools to make a shoe, you may as an action magically resize the shoe to perfectly fit any humanoid or fey of Medium size or smaller you choose. Once you have done so, you may not resize the same shoe again.
Leprechaun Magic. You know the minor illusion cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the color spray spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Jim's glowing coin spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Choose Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma as your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Lucky. When you roll a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.
Acquisitions Unincorporated
If your group lacks the Acquisitions Incorporated book, replace the Jim's glowing coin spell in the Leprechaun Magic trait with the suggestion spell.
Background: Leprechaun-Raised
You were taken as a child, or born into a family. You have learnt the ways of shoemaking and scavenging for gold. Over time, you have built up a small crock. You were raised by a group of leprechauns. Where were you originally born? How did you come to be in the care of leprechauns? Where did they live?
Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion, Sleight of Hand
Tool Proficiencies: Cobbler's Tools
Languages: Sylvan
Equipment: A set of common clothes, a set of cobbler's
tools you grew up using, a book detailing fairy
stories (that are truer than most) that's been passed
down to you, and a crock with 10 gp inside
Reason for Leaving
Whether you were a naturally-born leprechaun or stolen away from your family, you were raised well and had a happy but secluded childhood. This leads to many leprechauns and those raised by them to become curious of the outside and develop wanderlust. Others leave home for different reasons. Why did you leave your solitary lifestyle? Roll on the table below.
| d6 | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1 | To help others enjoy their life. |
| 2 | To sell your wares as a cobbler. |
| 3 | To discover lands beyond yours. |
| 4 | Your family was killed. |
| 5 | To retrieve an item. |
| 6 | To find a way into the Feywild. |
Feature: Gold Gatherer
You have learnt the techniques behind gathering small scrapings of gold and forging them into gold coins. During a short or long rest, make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check and divide that result by 5 (rounded down), provided you have been in an urban area for a fairly large amount of time since your last rest. Provided you have access to at least one set of artisan's tools, you can forge that many gold pieces as part of the short rest, or twice as many as part of the long rest.
Suggested Characteristics
Leprechaun-raised people tend to be very jolly and optimistic, although they will come up with a plan in a flash if they're stuck in a tricky situation. Generally, you can rely on one to be a good friend - just don't hassle them for gold!
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I like to see the bright side in everything and everyone. |
| 2 | Shoemaking keeps me calm. When I'm stressed, I'll accidentally start miming shaping a boot to stop the panic. |
| 3 | I felt so at home amongst the leprechauns, and now I'm away from them I feel bewildered and awed. |
| 4 | I'll often stop to think about my family. |
| 5 | I can quote old fairy stories and maxims whenever appropriate. And whenever inappropriate. Just whenever, honestly. |
| 6 | I'm highly protective of my crock, and get annoyed if people mention it. |
| 7 | I'm still a bit unsure about fashion outside. Just go plain green or red. I'll tell that to anyone I meet, because it's true. |
| 8 | If I see a good bit of art, or a beautiful tree, or a rainbow, I just have to pause and look. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Life. Every living thing deserves a chance to survive. (Good) |
| 2 | Greed. I must build up my crock, no matter who stands in my way. (Evil) |
| 3 | Nature. Eventually, nature will overcome all. (Neutral) |
| 4 | Voyager. I roam where I please, and do as I choose. (Chaotic) |
| 5 | Order. If society were kept in line, they'd be kinder to children and they'd stop kidnapping us. (Lawful) |
| 6 | Magic. Magic links and binds us. I was taught that at a young age. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | The leprechauns who raised me mean everything to me. |
| 2 | My crock once belonged to my grandparent, who died. I keep building it up on their behalf. |
| 3 | Another group of leprechauns brought up a different child nearby, who I ended up falling in love with as we grew up. I would do anything for them. |
| 4 | My brothers and sisters the leprechauns adopted are closer to me than any supposedly "true" family. |
| 5 | I must find my original parents. |
| 6 | The book I carry tells of an ancestor of mine, who found an ancient magic item, but lost it. I will find it for them. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | Outsiders do what they can, but they can never be as good people as leprechauns. |
| 2 | I'm descended from fairies. I'm in the minds of people as they grow up. I should be treated with respect. |
| 3 | I can never shake the fact that where I grew up is not where I truly belong, and I'm secretly always angry at the leprechauns who raised me. |
| 4 | I tend to run away at the first sign of things going ugly. |
| 5 | I'll rarely spend money, and encourage everyone near me to do the same. |
| 6 | My crock is never going to fill. I don't have enough patience to save gold. |
Credits
Made in GM Binder, using the r/UnearthedArcana theme created by Eiti3.