Blade (5e Race)

Among the sea of clouds walk the titans, in a world known as Alrest. There lays the World Tree. Front line and center in the middle of the world. Laying there with the legendary Elysium on top. A paradise for those who die. The Architect- The one said to create the world and all who inhabitant it. The blades were just one of those creations. Sent down upon the Earth from the Titans who make up the lands of the world. Along with two of his blessed creations, the Aegises. Two blades powerful enough to cause a struggle for power, one of dark and one of light. Known as The Aegis War, it caused manslaughter of many and even the destruction of a titan. Making the struggle for fading land more immense. The land destroyed? Torna. The titan of Torna sunk into the cloud sea, ruined by the two Aegieses' power. Yet, the light eventually prevailed. No matter the countless deaths caused in the Aegis war, the light had won. But the power of Darkness still loomed. But lest the power of light be revealed again, her wielder locked her away. So only the ones truly worthy would find her and use her for the good of the world. But for now, lets turn the page. To a new story. This one, after all, is getting old. It has been told time and time again. Let's go to a place more familiar to you.

Blades were cast out to many planes of the multiverse from The Architect. He believed after the events he saw in the Aegis war that some of his creations should be split from their original world. Hence how the discovery of blades was made. One day in the Material Plane, whilst mining, a dwarven man found himself a peculiar stone. Yet, he felt it calling to him for some reason. He taking it and holding the gem to his chest. Suddenly, vigor pulsed throughout his body. As if by magic, a man was then standing in front of him- The gem gone from the dwarf's hand and now in the chest of this new visitor. This visitor was a blade, bound to this man with a seemingly magical weapon in his hand.

Then, time and time, again reports of these blades kept coming up from multiple others. Yet only certain people are able to resonate with them. There is a certain type of person who is able to bond with blades. It's nothing genetic or anything since even feral animals can bond with blades if in contact with a blade core. It has to do with the type of heart that a person has. It's a very bipolar sort of system that allows a select few to actually wield them. Their personality depends on if they can handle the power of a blade.

It's been many a millennia since blades started showing up in the Material Plane, but there has been no major conflict with them as of now. Who knows if that might change. Only the future will tell.

Blades live in tandem with the creatures around them. They act as servants, but also as friends and family. Blades by nature have their own set demeanor and personalities- Yet, since they're not truly their own standalone person they cant.. well, survive without a driver by their side. "What's a driver?" You may be asking. Well, drivers are linked to Blades, the special lifeforms they "create" and summon by resonating with a Core Crystal. Blades endow their Driver with power and a weapon. The bond a blade and driver share is special, but these bonds are often broken. It is a fact of life that drivers will die, they're likely mortals after all. It's a sad fact, yet even more saddening is that a blade will not remember. After a blade's perishing either by dying out themselves and using too much of their energy or their driver dying. They will return to their core crystals. They'll be gray and seemingly colorless. However, after a while the color shall return to the crystal. Allowing a new driver to resonate with them. But, alas, with this revival in comes a sacrifice. Their minds. After being summoned post-death they'll lose any and all memories they had in their previous time with their driver.

Blades have been held as not only friends but life-long companions and they're treated as equals with the sentient races. In fact, there have been cases of blades getting married to their drivers. Which as odd as it may be, it is shown that these sort of relationships work out a lot of the time due to the strong bonding of blade and driver over time. Some blades even work jobs other than just helping their drivers. They can be near anything they wished to be! Such as: Military leaders, chefs, scientists, and much, much, more. They slot into society very well. Working in all sorts of conditions. There are even times when blades will leave their drivers for extended periods of time to do their own thing.

One last thing to mention. If a blade was bonded to a driver, another driver, if needed, can bond with a blade already bound to someone else. Able to wield their weapon and their power along with their original driver too. This is a common practice and ends up happening in a lot of underground organizations and militia operations.

The name of a blade is programmed into their brains. From the time they were created they had a name. They just did not know it's purpose till activated. Names that blades have are usually related to how they look like and their personality. Although, plenty of blades have relatively normal soundings human names.

Male: Dagas, Boreas, Wulfric, Dromarch, Aegaeon, Godfrey

Female: Nia, Brighid, Pandoria, Vale, Praxis, Kassandra

Weaponized life forms linked to a Driver. Able to heat up the battle in a pinch.
Ability Score Increase. An ability score of your choice can go up by two, or two ability scores can go up by one.
Age. Blades don't age. Yet, they do seem to have personalities that can reflect any age.
Alignment. Blades tend to lean towards how their driver acts. They practically can act out in every way.
Size. Blades vary a lot in height and build, from barely 3 feet to well over 9 feet tall. Depending on your height and build you can be considered one of three sizes. Small, Medium, or Large.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Elemental Core. As a blade you have a few options when it comes to the elements. Fire and Acid, Cold and Force, Lightning and Poison, and Radiant and Necrotic. You have a choice of which of these you wish to be resistant to. However, you gain a vulnerability to the element paired with the one you chose. (EX: If you choose fire resistance, you'll get an acid vulnerability.) Additionally, Your elemental typing also adds onto your bonded weapon doing an extra 1d4 [Elemental Damage type]. This increases to 1d6 at 6th level, 1d8 at 12th, and at 18th it increases 1d12. You can use this feature 5 times per day and it will restore on a long rest. However, this limit can be gone past.
Weapon Bound. You choose one weapon to bond to and you gain a proficiency with it, (If you didn't have one already of course) along with that you're able to summon your weapon to you at any time or sheathe it into thin air.
Blade Arts. You get one Blade Art that allows you to add onto your attack once every short or long rest, you have to call out your blade art before you know if the attack hits or not. Break, Topple, Launch, or Smash. Break and Topple can be used with only ranged weapon types and Launch and Smash is for Melee weapon types. Along with that, if a driver attempts to use a Blade art after the Blade itself already used it, the action will not work and will not provide any bonuses. All saving throw DCs for these attacks are 8 + your Strength or Dexterity (whichever score is higher) Modifier + your proficiency bonus. Break: Until your next turn, the first creature you hit will roll disadvantage on contested checks for being grappled or grappling others. In an attempt to not be affected by break, the opposing creature makes a flat Constitution saving throw. Topple: If an opponent is grappled, hitting them can knock them prone to the ground. They roll disadvantage on a Dexterity saving throw to avoid being toppled to the ground. Launch: If your opponent is prone, using launch will knock them into the air (as if hit by the levitation spell) until their next turn. The opposing creature rolls a disadvantage Wisdom saving throw to not be knocked upwards. Smash: If your opponent is either flying or inflicted with Launch hitting them will do critical damage and drop them 5 feet lower. The opposing creature makes a flat Constitution saving throw.
Overdrive. Using an action, if you wish to go further beyond your power and increase your capabilities, you may go into Overdrive Mode. This is a very dangerous condition for you. During this time any attacks you make are rolled with advantage, Saving throws that you force upon other creatures are forced to roll with a -5, any saving throw directed at to you is rolled with a -5, attack rolls against you are also rolled with advantage, and lastly your remaining Blade Arts and Elemental Core modifiers are able to be used up. At the end of Overdrive Mode you'll be forced to roll a disadvantaged Constitution Saving Throw (DC 15). If failed you gain 1d4 exhaustion points from overuse of your being. While inflicted with exhaustion as a Blade or Driver you're not able to use your Blade Arts or Elemental Core modifiers. If you haven't used up all your Elemental Core modifiers after deactivating Overdrive they will drop to zero uses if not used up during the duration of Overdrive Mode.
Return to the Core. Upon reaching 0 hit points and failing all three death saves or if a blade's driver dies, the blade's body turns into energy and recedes into their core crystal. The crystal turns a steely gray and is unable to be resonated with until 1d4 day(s) have passed. If this core is destroyed the blade will be gone forever. However, in the case of the driver dying- The blade will forget all of it's past memories and basically be reborn anew.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

When creating a <race name> character, you can use the following table of traits, ideals, bonds and flaws to help flesh out your character. Use these tables in addition to or in place of your background's characteristics.

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