Tortoid
Racial Traits
Your tortoid has the following traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. Young tortles crawl for a few weeks after birth before learning to walk on two legs. They reach adulthood by the age of 15 and live an average of 200 years.
Size. Tortle adult stand 5 to 6 feet tall and average 450 pounds. Their shells account for roughly one-third of their weight. Your size is Medium. To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier:
- Size modifier = 2d8
- Height = 4 feet + 10 inches + your size modifier in inches
- Weight in pounds = 425 + (2d4 x your size modifier)
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Claws. Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Hold Breath. You can hold your breath for up to 1 hour at a time. Tortles aren't natural swimmers, but they can remain underwater for some time before needing to come up for air.
Natural Armor. Due to your shell and the shape of your body, you are ill-suited to wearing armor. Your shell provides ample protection, however; it gives you a base AC of 17 (your Dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number). You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you can apply the shield's bonus as normal.
Shell Defense. You can withdraw into your shell as an action. Until you emerge, you gain a +4 bonus to AC, and you have advantage on Strength and Constitution saving throws. While in your shell, you are prone, your speed is 0 and can't increase, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, you can't take reactions, and the only action you can take is a bonus action to emerge from your shell.
Survival Instinct. You gain proficiency in the Survival skill. Tortles have finely honed survival instincts.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Aquan.
Tortoids
"My shell... can take the brunt... of your rifles... your lazers... and especially... this sad attempt of a stabbing." was what Kargorax the Still said while holding the blade of a would-be assassin.
Tortoids (Tortles) in Biolance
The Tortoids of Biolance originate from any form of aquatic world, though rarer species exist on more desolate or earthen/sandy harsh worlds. Like all reptilian-genome creatures, it could be said that their birth homeworld is Draask II, the Reptilian Homeworld otherwise called Tyranthar or Dragon-Roost.
Tortoids are atypically the descendants of dragon-turtles, but mostly are the descendants of dinosaurs or other similar reptilian/elemental creatures. Similar to other historical texts regarding how reptilians spanned across the limitless worlds fall under many religious or scientific purviews.
Like how Tiamat the Dragon Goddess or Athrau the God-King-Dragon sent meteors onto endless worlds which hatched like eggs into primordial dragons, or how the ancient Star-Titans kept reptilians of all kinds caged on their ancient star vessels, and were released in the fall of their Empire. As for tortoids, the story is merely the same, but more or less accounting for their hardiness and incredible tenaciousness and survival instincts.
Tortoids settle into communities or tribes called Shellgons. Their residencies or settlements are heavily fortified and impressively structured from local materia, like hefty wooden logs or impressively masoned stonework. In the futuristic age, tortoids use bio-matter to replicate lodging similar to making houses from sturdy bonework, then employing metal or hardy material to reinforce such structures. The luckiest amongst Tortoids live on reincarnated vessels of ancient mythical proportion, ancient space-turtles called the A'Tuin, which once flew across the galaxy carrying flat worlds on their backs which fly in varying fleets of said star-turtles. Often lead by a great tortoid star-seeker or dragon-shaman, the most prominent and named amongst them is the biomancer Kooral who leads Fleet Goorbeshkal, a prominent standing member and warrior-affiliate with the Freelancer Guilds.
Star Tortoids [Tuin Tortoids]
The tortoids who live on the back of the A'Tuin, the great spacefaring turtles live easy wandering lives, potentially their entire lives on the backs of these behemoths. For to live on the backs of these ancestral cosmic beings is about the greatest bliss imaginable, which allows them to see hundreds of worlds and thousands of cultures and lands. Star Tortoids protect these turtles with their lives, and fashion for it their home fortifications and a multitude of defenses.
The reincarnated space-turtles, the A'Tuin were born during the age of the Man-Krauthak Wars, in which gene-tailoring and DNA sciences sky-rocketed to impressive capabilities, even bringing back such creatures of myth and legend, who aided greatly in defeating the alien menace.
Star-Tortoids are much larger, lankier, and reptilian-tall in comparison to their hunched gravity-weighted brethren. If you make a Tuin tortoid, give some thought as to why your character left the back of their ancestral guardian/homestead. Perhaps you were recruited by Mercenary Guilds or served as a warrior or scout for one of the many Galactic Wars. Maybe your ancestral A'Tuin was killed, and your people scattered to the stars, so you continue to seek them out. You also might be guided or under the command of Tortoid Leaders or even the influence of a greater Reptilian like a Dragon or similar, sending you to collect information which leads you on your adventures.
