Falkin

Falkin are slender, graceful humanoids, with sleek, feathered bodies and eagle- or hawk-like heads. Their arms stretch into large birdlike wings, making them excellent fliers, and their talons are dagger-sharp.

Onlookers from the ground sometimes call them birdfolk, though falkin themselves dislike the term; their name translates to "people of the sky" in their native tongue. They stand upright, typically around 5 feet tall, with delicate frames and thin bones. They are covered in feathers all over, most often brown or grey, but with variations based on subspecies.

Falkin Traits

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity and Wisdom scores both increase by 1.

Age

Falkin reach maturity by age twelve, though they rarely live longer than forty years.

Alignment

Falkin alignments vary widely, with some clans focused on peaceful, almost monastic existence, while others are aggressive and fearsome warriors.

Size

Falkin are Medium creatures, usually around 5 feet tall and 80-100 pounds.

Speed

You body is poorly built for walking — your base walking speed is 25 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common, Falkin, and Auran.

Falkin Flight

Your arms stretch out into a pair of majestic wings, allowing you to glide on the winds. You have a flying speed of thirty feet, though you cannot fly while wearing medium or heavy armor. Since your wings are attached to your arms, you can't fly while wielding weapons with the two-handed or heavy properties.

Talons

Your feet end in wicked talons. Your feet are natural weapons which count as simple melee weapons and with which you can make unarmed strikes. They deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.

Eagle Eyes

Your keen eyesight gives you advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to make out faraway objects or creatures.

Falkin Heritage

Falkin have spread out over much of the known world, and developed distinct customs and biology based on the environments in which they live.

Select one option for your Falkin Heritage. Your GM may restrict the available options based on cultures and subspecies present in your game.

Coastal Falkin

The falkin of the shores, coastal falkin live on sea cliffs and remote, rocky islands. They hunt and fish in the waters near their homes, and maintain cordial but wary relations with passing ships. They are the most likely to leave for other societies - some become pirates or sailors, while others are simply inspired by seafarers' tales to find a life of adventure.

Coastal falkin are smaller and slighter than their cousins, but are known for brilliant plumage. They often come in shades of blue, green, and white, camouflaged against the water and sky to aquatic prey below.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity or Charisma score increases by 1.

Seafaring Culture

You gain proficiency in Navigator's Tools and Water Vehicles, and in one of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Athletics, and Survival.

Trained Diver

You can hold your breath for up to 15 minutes at a time.

Mountain

Some falkin clans dwell on high and rugged mountain peaks, remote from other societies. Often, they organize in monastic villages, clinging to the highest peaks, meditating amidst the wind and clouds. They fly down to the foothills for hunting, but rarely interact with passers-by, and have a reputation for aloofness.

Mountain falkin are the largest of the sky people, though still small compared to most humans. Their plumage tends to be brown, red, and black, with occasional flashes of grey or white.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution or Wisdom score increases by 1.

Peak Dweller

You can can speak, read, and write Giant. You gain proficiency with one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Nature, and Survival.

Purity of Spirit

You are trained in your people's meditative practices, able to achieve a state of serenity and focus by becoming one with the winds. After you take a long or short rest under the open sky, you gain advantage on the first ability check you make.

Arctic Falkin

Arctic falkin long ago left populous lands for frigid peaks and icy tundra. They are adapted to their cold climates,

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution or Intelligence score increases by 1.

Snow Dweller

Soaring over the icy tundra, you are particularly adapted to wintry conditions. You gain proficiency with the Nature skill and resistance to cold damage.

In addition, your eyes are particularly adapted to the brightness of the barren arctic. You have advantage on saving throws to avoid being blinded.

Earthbound Falkin

You come from a clan of falkin that long ago lost their ability for full flight. Perhaps your people adapted to terrestrial (or subterranean) life, perhaps you were cursed by the gods, or maybe some other cause stole your flight.

Ability Score Increase

You Strength or Constitution score increases by 1.

Heavy Frame

Earthbound falkin have sturdier bones and heavier bodies, and their flight has devolved to mere gliding. You can fly while wearing medium or heavy armor, but you cannot stay aloft at the end of your turns.

Powerful Talons

To survive the rigors of landbound life, your body is adapted more for power than for grace. Your talons deal 1d6 slashing damage instead of 1d4, and you have a 40 foot walking speed.

Wing Buffet

While your wings are unable to lift your sturdy frame for long, they can still generate powerful gusts. As a bonus action, you can buffet one creature within 15 feet with a powerful gust of wind. It must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC equals 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus) or be knocked back up to 10 feet. Large creatures have advantage on this saving throw, and Huge or larger creatures automatically succeed.

Feats

The following are suitable feats for Falkin characters.

Practiced Flier

Prerequisite: Falkin, any heritage except Earthbound

You have trained extensively to improve your flying ability. Your flying speed increases to 50 feet, and you can fly while wearing medium armor. If you dive at least 30 feet, your next weapon attack on the same turn deals an extra die of damage on a hit.

Wind Shaman

Through mentorship and training with your people's druids, you have mastered a little bit of elemental magic. You gain the following benefits:

You can increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You imediately learn manipulate wind^K,SDS and two storm spells of your choice, one 1st- and one 2nd-level. You can cast the two leveled spells each one time without expending a spell slot. Once you do so, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest. Your spellcasting ability for these spells is the ability increased by this feat.
When you cast a storm spell, your flying speed is increased by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.

See Appendix 1 for a list of storm spells.

Falcon's Feet

You have received dedicated martial training with your feet, and know how to use them excellently in combat. You gain the following benefits:

You can increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
While flying, you can use your feet as if they were hands. They can be used to wield weapons, cast spells, interact with objects, or perform any other task a hand could. You can wield two-handed or heavy weapons with your feet while flying.

Variant Rules

If you like Tasha's-style ASIs, you can just remove the ability score increases and use those instead.

Personally, the author's recommended method is to allow shifting 1 point of racial ASIs freely, with a hard maximum of 17 in any score. This allows any species to start with a 16 in their primary stat, but still preserves the species flavor and general trends.

What's the Deal With My Arms?

Falkin are inspired by D&D's Aarakocra species, a classic that's been in the game for decades and playable since at least 2nd edition. In every appearance, aarakocra are depicted with arm-wings, making heavy use of spears and javelins held in the feet, similar to the image featured on this page.

Starting with 5th edition, aarakocra gained separate arms, with their wings moved back to their shoulder blades. No explanation was given for this change.

Falkin use the older, four-limbed body style (though most of the art, for now, depicts the six-limbed; there's just a lot more art available for that.) I think it's a more evocative fantasy and a little more mechanically interesting.

Appendix 1: Storm Spells

The Wind Shaman feat is limited to storm spells. In general, most spells that deal lightning damage or that invoke wind effects can be classified as storm spells, including but not limited to the spells below.

Cantrips (0 Level)

Manipulate Wind^K
Electric Arc^K
Lightning Leash^SDS
Shocking Grasp

1st Level

Electrify^K
Fog Cloud
Gale Bolt^K
Lightning Tendril^K
Violent Updraft^K

2nd Level

Become Wind^K
Crackle^K
Gust of Wind
Vacuum Pull^K

3rd Level

Electrocute^K
Call Lightning
Lightning Bolt
Static Field^K
Sleet Storm
Vortex Blast^K
Wind Wall

4th Level

Aero Barrage^K
Jumping Jolt^K
Stormcloud^SDS

5th Level

Shape Winds^SDS
Sky Burst^K
Stormwall^S
Tornado^K

6th Level

Chain Lightning
Form of Wind^K
Wind Walk

7th Level

Twister^SDS

8th Level

Control Weather

9th Level

Tempest^SDS

Spells marked with ^S were created by somanyrobots. Spells marked with ^SDS were created as part of the Spells That Don't Suck project. Spells marked with ^K were created by KibblesTasty and used with permission. All are linked in the Spell Sources appendix.

Changelog

v0.2

Added Falcon's Feet Feat
Fixed a couple typos

v0.1

Initial Release

Credits & References:

Falkin species created by somanyrobots
Discord | Patreon

Art

Steelplume Marshal, by Cristi Balanescu, © Wizards of the Coast

Arctic Aven, by Igor Kieryluk, © Wizards of the Coast

Aarakocra (3.5e, Races of Faerun) by Raven Mimura, © Wizards of the Coast

Background Image Stains

Jared Ondricek

Licensing

All rules & spell text in this document is licensed as CC-BY, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY). Broadly, it can be republished freely or incorporated into commercial works as long as credit is given to the original creators.

Includes spells from Spells That Don't Suck by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.

Includes spells from So Many Spells by somanyrobots, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.

Includes spells from Kibbles' Casting Compendium 2.0 by KibblesTasty Homebrew LLC, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.

Fan Content Policy

This work is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

5E SRD Content

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available here.

The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available here.