Soulfire Race
A silently twisting flame peaks out from underneath the helm. It is a deep purple, and contradictorily seems to give off an entrancing light, while doing nothing to illuminate the dark room. The cold, piercing eyes watching from the shadows of the helm never blink. The Soulfire warrior removes her helm, revealing the unsettling mane of fire upon her head and flashes a wicked smile at her prisoner. No better interrogator, than those that see into the very souls of those around them.
Soulfires are considered a twisted, half-living people to those not from the Shadowfell. It is true that they have been changed by the necrotic energy and restless souls of the Plane of Shadow, but they live and breathe like most other humanoids. They often have ashen grey or charcoal black skin, or some color in between. Their eyes are often a bright, vibrant shade of cool colors. Their most defining feature though, is the soulfire that burns upon their head. Rather than hair, the Soulfires have a crown of flames that emit neither light nor heat. From their birth to their death, it burns, only ceasing when they emit their final breath. Male Soulfires typically have a green toned flame, while female Soulfires tend to have a purple toned flame. There are rumours, however, of odd colorations appearing from time to time.
Soulfires have an intrinsic understanding of anyone with a soul bound to their form, and have a culturally imposed obligation and knowledge of the undead and the woes they bring. As such, they often choose to take it upon themselves to route out evil and death where they find it. Their greatest weapon is their ability to burn the very souls of their enemies, wrenching them with the pain of the relentless dead.
Soulfire Traits
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 2. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age
Soulfires mature at the same rate as humans, reaching maturity in their late teens, but their lifespans are much longer. It is unknown how long a Soulfire can truly live, as most choose to seek danger in the form of hunting spirits or undead. As they become older, they often take more and more risks. Many have lived hundreds of years before meeting their ends.
Alignment
Despite their unsettling appearances, Soulfire tend to put others before themselves, leaning toward a good alignment. They have a strong sense of the law, believing it is what separates themselves from the chaotic nature of their undead foes.
Size
Soulfires tower over many humanoids, growing between 7 and 8 feet tall at the top of their heads (their flames adding another 6 inches or more) and weighing between 230 and 290 pounds. Your size is Medium.
| Base Height | Base Weight | Height Modifier | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6'2" | 150lbs | + 2d10 | x (2d6) lbs |
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Languages
You learn to speak, read and write Common.
Soul Sight
You gain proficiency in the Insight skill.
Necrotic Resistance
You have resistance to necrotic damage.
Darkvision
You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Soul Burn
When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with a withering glare at a creature within 30 feet of you.
The target creature must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus), or suffer as their soul begins to burn. On a failed save, the creature takes 2d6 necrotic damage and you can choose to burn their soul for up to 1 minute. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and their soul does not burn. Burning a soul requires concentration as if you were concentrating on a spell. A creature with a burning soul takes 1d4 necrotic damage at the start of their turns and cannot regain hit points. The creature attempts the saving throw again at the end of their turn, ending the effect on a success. Constructs and creatures without souls are immune to Soul Burn. Soul Burn bypasses necrotic immunity or resistance for creatures that are spirits (such as specters, ghosts, or wraiths.) The initial damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (3d6), 11th level (4d6), and 17th level (5d6).
You can use your Soul Burn a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Feats
Withering Blast
Prerequisite: Soulfire
You learn to project your Soul Burn ability in a way to torment many souls at once. You may choose to expend a use of your Soul Burn ability, projecting the ability as a 15ft cone. Creatures of your choice within the cone must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Soul Burn DC. On a failure, the creatures take your Soul Burn damage as necrotic damage, taking half as much on a successful save. When used in this way, choose one creature that fails the saving throw to burn their soul, concentrating as normal.
Soul Magic
Prerequisite: Soulfire
You know the ghost touch cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the grip of the dead spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can also cast the unholy wave spell once per day. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Spells
Ghost Touch
Necromancy cantrip
- Classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 120 feet
- Components: V, S
- Duration: 1 round
- Replaces: Chill Touch
You create an intangible, cadaverous hand that latches onto a creature within range, assailing its life force. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 necrotic damage, and it can't regain hit points until the start of your next turn.
If you hit an undead target, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against you until the end of your next turn.
This spell's damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).
Grip of the Dead
1st-level necromancy
- Classes: Occultist
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Touch
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You channel unholy strength into you hand, and reach out to grab a creature. The creature must make a Strength saving throw or become restrained by your deathly iron grasp. As an action on its turn, the creature can attempt to escape using a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against your Spell Save DC.
At the start of the creatures turn while you maintain the grip and the spell, it takes 1d8 necrotic damage as you drain the life from it, and regain hit points equal to half the damage dealt.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 1st.
Unholy Wave
2nd-level necromancy (divine)
- Classes: Cleric, Paladin
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self (30 foot cone)
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute.
A wave of necrotic energy crashes out from your outstretch hand in a 30-foot-cone. Creatures in the area must make a Constitution saving throw, or be burned by unholy fire. On a failed saving throw, they take 4d6 necrotic damage, and wreathed in consuming unholy fire for the duration of the spell. Once per turn, if they are hit by an attack while wreathed the unholy fire their wounds are consumed by the flames, and they take an additional 1d6 necrotic damage. On a successful save, they take half as much damage and are not wreathed in radiant fire.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.
Soulfire Quirks
The following are some optional quirks for a player to choose from.
| d6 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | Your skin is icy-cold to the touch, reaching a feverish height when you are upset or emotional. |
| 2 | You see faint auras around everyone you meet. You aren't sure of their meanings yet, but they grow stronger as you grow closer to someone. |
| 3 | The color of your soulfire changes with your mood. |
| 4 | Your eyes flicker and shimmer like a candle caught in a slow breeze. |
| 5 | When you use your soul burn, a low wail sounds around you. |
| 6 | Each time you destroy an undead creature your flame grows brighter and a little taller. |
Variant Rules
These rules add some flexibility to your heritage, and might fit certain table play styles. This may increase the power of these heritage options.
Alternate Ability Scores
You take this option instead of the Ability Score Increase listed under your heritage.
Alternate Casting Stats
You may choose to use your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifiers when casting any spells provided by a racial feature. You may cast these spells with any spell slots you have (as well as once per day without expending a spell slot.)
Credits
Soulfire: A Tiny Living Room
Art: Hannah Davidson (To Come)
Spells That Don't Suck by Omega Ankh and somanyrobots, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
- Spells included: ghost touch
Kibbles' Casting Compendium 2.0 by KibblesTasty Homebrew LLC, which is licensed CC-BY and available here.
- Spells included: grip of the dead and unholy wave
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ legalcode.
Thanks!!
Thank you for checking out this race, I would love feedback if you have any. You can comment or message me on our Patreon.
A special thanks to:
Hannah Davidson
For her adorable art for this race (to come)!
Shard Tabletop
I also made a Shard package for this content, which you can access here. Let me know if you have any comments on it on their Discord server (@CoolHandLuke140).
Change Log
V0.5
Removed the DB Values, and they have been placed below for reference.
Soulfire Traits (DB 29)
- Ability Score Increase (DB 12)
- Pretty standard
- Soul Sight (DB 2)
- Necrotic Resistance (DB 3)
- Darkvision (DB 3)
- Soul Burn (DB 9)
- Modeled after Dragonborn breath weapon so it is pretty similar. It only targets one person, so that weakens it a bit. I added the secondary effect to make it more even.
V0.4
Added quirks, fixed some spell and grammar.
V0.3
Format changes, and added a couple of feats for the race. Added some spells and credits for them for one of the feats. Next version will probably see the DB values moved to Change Log in preparation for a ready release, as well as adding some quirks.
V0.2
Same sitting, so barely a new version, but Soul Burn has been edited enough to warrant a new section, plus new flavor text. Soul Burn now also bypasses immunity and resistance for spirits like ghosts or specters. I may make a larger list for GMs to reference and put it somewhere on here. For now, the ones that immediately come to mind are: will o' wisps, specters, ghosts, phantoms, and wraiths. Other things along those lines would also make sense.
Removed fire resistance and added Insight proficiency.
V0.1
Rough draft. I am workshoping flavor, name, and the Soul Burn ability still. Soul Burn was supposed to be balanced around the dragonborn breath, but I realized by ability targets one creature instead of multiple (assuming at least 2 targets this is a big drop in power). So I changed the dice, added a secondary effect on a failed save and I am assuming the math is mostly fine. I'll think about it more.