Astomoi
Gentle Shadows
The Astomoi were a race featured in Bestiary 5 of Pathfinder 1e. While they had very little lore, I instantly fell in love with them. In this document, I plan to transfer them to D&D 5e to the best of my ability, balancing them accordingly.
Astomoi appear as pure black humanoid silhouettes. Sometimes the magically inclined ones will have patterns on them, such as glowing tattoos or looking like a hole into the night sky, but the inky void that is their body is still constant. Asomoi have no mouths, and eat by "smelling" the nutrients out of food. They also have no eyes, and thus cannot see. Their solution to this is by having a modicum of psychic ability, allowing them to view their immediate surroundings and telepathically speak to those nearby. And for things outside of thier "vision", they still have the senses of hearing and smell to help warn them of danger. Strangely, Astomoi have the ability to see stars, despite them being obviously out of their vision range, and stranger still they can see them at any time of day. Some people theorize this has to do with their creation, but since nobody is sure where they came from, this cannot be confirmed.
Astomoi tend to live ascetic lives, often wearing nothing but rags if anything at all. They can get away with this because they don't appear to have genitalia, despite them having masculine and feminine silhouettes. No astomoi has ever divulged how they reproduce to an outsider, just that it requires two of them. Based off of outside observation, the "gender" of the astomoi is irrelevant to reproduction, and is theorized to purely be how they present themselves socially.
Astomoi Traits
Astomoi gain the following features.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom increases by 2 and your Intelligence increases by 1.
Age. Astomoi mature at 30 years, and can live up to an impressive 900 years.
Alignment. Astomoi are often neutral, but will lean towards lawful-good depending on the situation.
Size. Astomoi can be of all shapes and sizes, varying from as small as 4 feet tall to as large as 7 feet tall. Despite this, they usually weigh around 30 to 80 pounds, as they don't seem to have much actual mass. You are considered medium.
Speed. Your base speed is 30 feet.
Scent. You have proficiency in Survival and Perception. Additionally, whenever you use either skill to do something involving smells, double your proficiency bonus.
Telepathic Senses. You cannot speak or see, but can telepathically sense everything within 30 feet of you, as well as communicate within that range. You have 30 feet of blindsight, seeing anything within that radius, but are totally blind on anything outside of that range. You also have 30 feet of telepathy, however you require to share a language with the target(s) to understand each other. You can also use this telepathy in place of verbal components for spells, allowing you to cast silently.
Star Sight Astomoi have the ability to always see the stars. While this lets them see the stars during the day and through clouds, this special sight can be blocked by by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Sensitive Breath. You have a -2 penalty on Saving Throws for inhaled poisons or diseases.
Mouthless. You don't eat or drink by conventional means, instead absorbing the essence of food or drinks. This consumes the nutrients of the meal as though it had been eaten, rendering the food useless to others. You consume potions and other ingested materials in the same fashion. Since you never actually ingest anything, you can’t normally be exposed to ingested poisons.
Languages. You can understand common and one other language of your choice. You can also learn how to read braille (or any other touch-based reading) at a faster rate, possibly even starting with it for any language you already know (personal choice).
Credits
Made by u/Nkromancer
Original concept by Paizo, inc
Made using Detect Balance