For my  Catamaran campaign I developed several new races. Some were the sorts of things you expect for a sea campaign; sea elves, sea dwarves, otter people, whale people.  Sea races.  I’ll probably get to posting those eventually, but I figured I would start with some of the more conceptually weird races from that  campaign.

Demigod

Catamaran is set on a large cluster of islands that are said to be the fragments of the world’s Creator God that fell into the ocean when that god was slain long ago. Each of these islands has its own local god that lives on it.  These gods are not very powerful compared to standard D&D gods as they can  only empower one cleric, but they could still perform godly deeds.  The God the Isle of the North Wind can call up fearsome gales and storms that reach far from his island. Some of these gods are humanoids capable of locomotion in the same fashion as humans; others are beasts, and others  still are things like strangely shaped stone outcrops or bottomless pits.  Some have minds that worked like mortals and others were utterly alien and incapable of understanding mortal desires or logic.  

On rare occasions these more humanoid and comprehensible gods would decide to leave their islands .  This is usually due to boredom (not all the islands are inhabited), ennui, or wanderlust, but revenge  and love are options as well.  Once these beings travel beyond the breakers of their island they  lose most of their godly power, becoming demigods. In these new forms they do not age and have some small part of their divine  abilities  still, but they are far less.  In this reduced form they can travel the world as they desire. If they return to their island they can resume their godly power, assuming no druid had taken it over in their absence.

Demigods have no set physical features aside from being generally humanoid.  They can have just about any color skin and hair, and their height and weight run the gamut from dwarven to goliath. They tend to mimic the appearance of the mortals who live closest to their island, so a demigod whose island is inhabited by elves is likely to look elven. They always look like adults at the height of their health unless magically aged.

Thus demigods are not a race with a culture and a homeland but a handful of beings with a shared origin among the peoples of the island that birthed them.  Thus they tend to be mimics, fitting into whatever culture was present on their island or neighboring islands. Demigods do not have shared beliefs aside from a rather removed, long term way of looking at the world where they think on a scale of time that even elves think is long.   Despite this long point of view demigods are surprisingly impetuous when their emotions are worked.  They already gave up literal godlike power to see the world, find their lover, get revenge, etc. so they’ve already demonstrated some emotion based decision making capacity. 

Demigods can have children but they are usually human, aasimar, tiefing, or genasi depending on the nature of the demigod’s power.   

Demigod Names

Demigods always choose a new name on leaving tier island as they are no longer the same being anymore. Demigods usually take on names that reference their divine origin such as a demigod  of storms taking the name Gale or Sirocco.   Demigods usually do not take surnames unless they are adopted into a family or other unit that gives them a surname.  

Demigod Traits

• Ability Score Increase.  Increase one ability score by 2, and increase a different one by 1.
• Age. You are effectively immortal to normal aging, but any magical aging effects will age you as if you were a normal human.  This means normally you will never stop being a mature adult, but if you are aged fifty years by a magical effect you will then be stuck as an elderly person forever.  
• Alignment. Demigods come in all alignments, but their alignment is usually something in line with their former domain.
• Size. Demigods run the gamut from short to tall, but they always fall in the normal realm for humans.  Your size is Medium.
• Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. 
• Divine Legacy. Choose a clerical domain that was part of your portfolio as a god, and a cantrip that goes along with the theme of that portfolio.  You know that cantrip and can cast it at will.  When you reach 3rd level you can cast one of the 1st level cleric spells from the domain spell list with this trait.  You cast it using a 2nd level spell slot and regain this ability when you finish a long rest.  When you reach 5th level, you can cast one of the 2nd level cleric spells from the domain spell list with this trait.  You cast it using a 2nd  level spell slot and regain this ability when you finish a long rest.  Constitution is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 
• Choose one of the following features to represent your divine heritage that is suitable to your former domain:
  • Darkvision. Thanks to your divine heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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 can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
  • Divine Protection: You are more resistant to injury than normal mortals. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
  • Divine Knowledge: You are proficient in two skills or with two tools related to your former domain.
  • Divine Fortitude: You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage 
• Divine Resistance. You have resistance to one form of damage as appropriate to your divine nature.  For example, being a former volcano god would mean you are likely resistant to fire.  
• Immortal Nature: You have advantage on death saving throws.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character.

Starborn

Wizards in Catamaran get their power from twenty five fragments of the Creator God that did not become islands and instead became stars.  Each of these provides power in the form of a mage spark to one wizard. These stars are semi sentient and watch their sponsored wizards from above, but don’t really understand mortals very well. Their point of view is very removed from mortal experience.    

In my campaign the wizard PC was killed, disintegrated. He was restored to life at a cost by his star, but it made his wizard a new body with no understanding of the internal organs of a human.  It instead made a human shaped body out of star stuff.  Thus the first starborn was created.  Starborn look like humans but their skin is a black with pinpricks of white like stars in the night sky. With a cloak or other covering starborn can pass for humans, but the interior of their bodies is entirely alien.  They do not have blood or a digestive track, instead feeding on starlight.  The things that injure other mortals injure starborn, it just looks very different when it happens.  They do not bleed but leak light from their wounds.   

There are only a handful of starborn and they do not have a culture to speak of, but do have a very strong predilection for the arcane arts. Most starborn are preexisting minds put into these bodies so they still hold their old memories.  Completely new starborn would have minds created by the stars themselves, which would likely result in very limited knowledge of the world and a very strange world view. They would be completely ignorant of basic social interactions but deeply versed in arcane lore.   Starborn are generally created as adults as the stars see no point in wasting years waiting for their starborn to grow up.

Starborn Names

Starborn with pre-existing minds usually continue using their old name in their new  body.

Designers note: Starborn are not well suited for dungeon focused games or games deep in interior spaces. The Catamaran  campaign took place largely on boats and rarely involved being underground or away from the night sky for very long so it worked just fine.  In other games it probably would not; something to keep in mind.   

Starborn Traits

• Ability Score Increase. Increase one ability score by 2, and increase a different one by 1.
• Age. Starborn do not age. They are functionally immortal and are immune to age altering effects.  
• Alignment. New starborn tend to be neutral due to their lack of experience in the world.  If they have a pre-existing mind they retain their old alignment.
• Size. Your size is Medium.  
• Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.  
• Fed by Starlight: You do not eat, drink, or breathe. You do not sleep, but instead rest by meditating under starlight for 6 hours, during which time you are completely alert. For each long rest you take where you are not under at least some starlight (a cloudy sky is fine, but not a room with no windows) you gain a level of exhaustion. 
• Darkvision. Used to living under dim starlight,, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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 can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
• Driven by the Stars: You can always determine your location and the cardinal directions if you can see the sky. You are proficient in navigator’s tools, but require no actual tools to use  that proficiency.  
• Forged in Gravity: You have resistance to force damage. 
• Overcome: When you fail a saving throw against a spell, you can use your reaction to succeed at that saving throw at the cost of gaining a level of exhaustion. 
• Star Magic: You know the light cantrip.  When you reach 3rd level you can cast detect magic with this trait and regain this ability when you finish a long rest.  When you reach 5th level, you can cast enhance ability with this trait and regain this ability when you finish a long rest.  Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells. 
• Starlight: You naturally radiate dim light in a 20 foot radius, but can extinguish it as a bonus action. Restarting your glow requires another bonus action.  Each level of exhaustion you have reduces the radius by 5 feet.. 
• Innately Magical: The unraveler transformation will kill you and extinguish your source star, returning it to a mage spark.  
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character.