Lizardfolk (Uncommon)

About Uncommon Ancestries

While humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, goblins, and halflings can be found in most locales, some ancestries are still unusual sights outside of specific environments. As a result, although these peoples may be well known or even dominant in various regions of the world, they are not commonly found in all parts region. This ancestry is therefore uncommon for adventurers. This rarity trait applies specifically to the rules to play a member of this ancestry, and it is separate from the monster rarity that determines how obscure information about a creature is.

While this ancestry is uncommon in the same way a magic item, a feat, or a spell is, an ancestry is something you choose at the beginning of the campaign. Specific campaigns might provide a list of uncommon ancestries that are particularly appropriate for that setting, such as hobgoblins in a campaign set near Oprak, or lizardfolk for a campaign in the Mwangi Expanse, and grant access to those ancestries. In other games, these ancestries are as available as your group desires them to be.

These primordial reptiles have held themselves apart from the mammalian masses for eons, secure in their customs as self-sufficient hunters, naturalists, and warriors. But as younger civilizations have encroached ever deeper upon the lizardfolk’s ancestral lands, isolation has ceased to be an option for this pragmatic society. Now, for the first time in centuries, a younger generation of lizardfolk is venturing outward to trade, study, adventure, and do what their people do best: endure.

Lizardfolk are consummate survivors, heirs to empires considered ancient even by the elves.

Lizardfolk move through the societies of other humanoids with the steely reserve of born predators. They have a well-deserved reputation as outstanding rangers and unsentimental fighters. Though lizardfolk have adapted to many different environments, many of them still prefer to remain near bodies of water, using their ability to hold their breath to their advantage. As a result, lizardfolk usually prefer equipment that is not easily damaged by moisture, eschewing leather and metal for gear made of stone, ivory, glass, and bone.

Physical Description

Lizardfolk vary depending on their environment, but share toothy snouts and long and powerful tails. Those from temperate or desert regions tend toward gray, green, or brown scales that aid in camouflage, while those from tropical climes are brightly colored. Many sport dorsal spikes or garish neck frills that hint at their clan lineage. Lizardfolk reach physical adulthood at age 15 and live up to 120 years. The average lizardfolk stands 6 to 7 feet tall, but grows throughout their lifetime, gaining strength and size with age.

You Might…

• Demonstrate extreme patience, even when pressured to act.
• Hold your people’s history in high regard and look to the past for solutions to present problems.
• Strive to adapt perfectly to your environment while also keeping your culture and traditions intact.

Others Probably…

• Assume you are beholden to tradition and have ancient knowledge.
• See you as cold-blooded and callous due to your subdued physical reactions.
• Respect your impressive strength and your knowledge of natural areas.

Society

Lizardfolk are raised communally from the moment they break from their shells.

They have an oral tradition stretching back thousands of years, brought to life through epic poems, evocative carvings, and ancestral rites performed among fields of fossilized bone.

Lizardfolk are passionate astrologers with one eye on the future. If they seem slow to act, it is because their long history has taught them the value of patience.

The simple villages most outsiders associate with them are the homes of migrants in outlying regions. True lizardfolk settlements are often overlooked, as they are partially or mostly submerged in water. These glass and stone complexes bear the mark of every generation of lizardfolk that lived within them, and lizardfolk bones often adorn the walls, as many lizardfolk believe these remains can be animated by ancestral spirits when the residents are in danger.

Lizardfolk Astrology

Lizardfolk civilizations were among the first to master telling time and navigating via the stars, and their shamans and sages ardently pursued the art of astrological prognostication, often studying side by side with green dragons and naga diviners. Today, astrology is integrated into the fabric of life, and lizardfolk hesitate to make major decisions without performing auguries first.

Alignment and Religion

Most lizardfolk are unconcerned with heavy questions of morality and are therefore usually neutral in alignment. Adventuring lizardfolk who leave their people to travel might have any number of reasons for doing so and can be of any alignment. Lizardfolk religion plays a large role in their culture, but it is heavily practical, blending animism and ancestor worship with druidic rites. Lizardfolk may call upon powers devoted to ancient wyrms, astrology, nature, rivers, and might of arms.

Adventurers

Some background options are particularly suitable for lizardfolk.

Wilderness or martial backgrounds like the animal whisperer, hunter, scout, or warrior are ideal. Living at the margins of human civilization means an lizardfolk might have grown up as a hardy street urchin, traveled as a nomad or sailor, or found work as a laborer or gladiator.

Lizardfolk’s ties to the wilderness make them excellent rangers or druids. Their outstanding strength serves them well if they select the barbarian, fighter, or monk classes, though they can also strike from stealth as a rogue. Lizardfolk also have a strong oral tradition kept alive by lizardfolk bards and sorcerers.

Names

Lizardfolk names come from their ancient language and tend to be traditional.

Names are typically chosen by the clan’s astrologer in accordance to omens and which star signs are ascendant when an egg hatches, though occasionally an lizardfolk’s parents may name a hatchling for an ancestor or a beloved historical hero.

Sample Names Arasheg, Barashk, Essaru, Enshuk, Gishkim, Hazi, Inishish, Kutak, Nasha, Shulkuru, Tizkar, Utakish, Zelkekek

Lizardfolk Heritages

While most lizardfolk prefer wetlands, eons of evolution and cultural adaptation enable them to live in more challenging environments. Choose one of the following lizardfolk heritages at 1st level.

Cliffscale Lizardfolk

Source PLOCG

Your toes are adapted for gripping and climbing. You gain the Combat Climber feat as a bonus feat, and as long as you aren’t wearing footwear, you can use the sticky pads on your feet to climb, leaving your hands free. Additionally, if you roll a success on an Athletics check to climb, you get a critical success instead.

Frilled Lizardfolk

Source PLOCG

You can flare your neck frill and flex your dorsal spines, Demoralizing your foes.

When you do, Demoralize loses the auditory trait and gains the visual trait, and you don’t take a penalty when you attempt to Demoralize a creature that doesn’t understand your language. You also gain the Threatening Approach action.

Threatening Approach [two-actions]

You Stride to be adjacent to a foe and Demoralize that foe. If you succeed, the foe is frightened 2 instead of frightened 1.

Sandstrider Lizardfolk

Source PLOCG

Your thick scales help you retain water and combat the sun’s glare. You gain fire resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1). Environmental heat effects are one step less extreme for you, and you can go 10 times as long as normal before you are affected by starvation or thirst. However, unless you wear protective gear or take shelter, environmental cold effects are one step more extreme for you.

Unseen Lizardfolk

Source PLOCG

You can change your skin color to blend in with your surroundings, making minor shifts with a single action and dramatic changes over the course of an hour. When you’re in an area where your coloration is roughly similar to the environment (for instance, forest green in a forest), you can use the minor, single-action application of this ability to make localized changes that help you blend into your surroundings, gaining a +2 circumstance bonus to Stealth checks until your surroundings change in coloration or pattern.

Wetlander Lizardfolk

Source PLOCG

Your family is descended from the most common lizardfolk heritage, and you are accustomed to aquatic environments. You gain a 15-foot swim Speed.

Ancestry Feats

At 1st level, you gain one ancestry feat, and you gain an additional ancestry feat every 4 levels thereafter (at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels). As a lizardfolk, you choose from among the following ancestry feats.

1st Level

Lizardfolk Lore Feat 1

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

You listened carefully to the tales passed down among your community. You gain the trained proficiency rank in Nature and Survival. If you would automatically become trained in one of those skills (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. You also become trained in Lizardfolk Lore.

Marsh Runner Feat 1

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Prerequisite(s): You have a swim Speed.

You are adept at moving through marshy terrain. When you use the Step action, you can ignore difficult terrain caused by flooding, swamps, or quicksand. In addition, when you use the Acrobatics skill to Balance on narrow surfaces or uneven marshy ground, you aren’t flat-footed, and if you roll a success on the Acrobatics check, you get a critical success instead.

Parthenogenic Hatchling Feat 1

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

You were hatched from an unfertilized egg during hard times for your people, and you are a biological copy of your mother. You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to saving throws against diseases. Each of your successful saving throws against a disease reduces its stage by 2, or by 1 for a virulent disease. Each critical success against an ongoing disease reduces its stage by 3, or by 2 for a virulent disease. You take damage only every 2 hours from thirst and every 2 days from starvation, rather than every hour and every day.

Special: You can take this feat only at 1st level.

Razor Claws Feat 1

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Your have honed your claws to be deadly. Your claw attack deals 1d6 slashing damage instead of 1d4 and gains the versatile (piercing) trait.

Reptile Speaker Feat 1

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

You hear the sounds of reptiles as language. You can ask questions of, receive answers from, and use the Diplomacy skill with animals that are reptiles (the GM determines which animals count as reptiles).

Sharp Fangs Feat 1

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Your teeth are formidable weapons. You gain a fangs unarmed attack that deals 1d8 piercing damage.

Tail Whip Feat 1

Source PLOCG

5th Level

Envenom Fangs [one-action] Feat 5

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Prerequisite(s): Sharp Fangs

Frequency a number of times per day equal to your level

You envenom your fangs. If the next fangs Strike you make before the end of your next turn hits and deals damage, the Strike deals an additional 1d6 poison damage.

On a critical failure, the poison is wasted as normal.

Gecko’s Grip Feat 5

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Prerequisite(s): Cliffscale lizardfolk

You stick to walls with a preternatural grip. You gain a climb speed of 15 feet.

Unarmed Cunning Feat 5

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

You make the most of your unarmed attacks. Whenever you score a critical hit with a claw or an unarmed attack you gained from a lizardfolk ancestry feat, you apply the unarmed attack’s critical specialization effect.

Shed Tail [reaction] Feat 5

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Prerequisite(s): Tail Whip

Trigger You become grabbed.

Requirements You have a fully grown tail.

You can shed your tail to escape. You cease being grabbed, then Stride without triggering any reactions from the creature that grabbed you. It takes 1 week for your tail to fully grow back. Until it does, you can’t use your tail unarmed attack, and you take a –2 circumstance penalty on checks to Balance.

Swift Swimmer Feat 5

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Prerequisite(s): wetlander lizardfolk

You swim faster than most. Your swim speed increases to 25 feet.

9th Level

Terrain Advantage Feat 9

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

You can take advantage of the terrain to bypass foes’ defenses.

Non-lizardfolk creatures in difficult terrain are flat?footed to you. If you have a swim Speed, non-lizardfolk creatures that are in water and lack a swim speed are also flat-footed to you.

13th Level

Unarmed Expertise Feat 13

Source PLOCG

Lizardfolk

Prerequisite(s): Unarmed Cunning

Your unarmed attacks blend tradition and training.

Whenever you gain a class feature that grants you expert or greater proficiency in certain weapons, you also gain that proficiency in the claw and unarmed attacks you gained from lizardfolk ancestry feats.