Wemic — Monster and Playable Race for 5E D&D
Hello fellow Nerdarchists, today I want to bring you one of my favorite races from Dungeons & Dragons past — the wemic. I fell in love with the wemic back in my early days of playing second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. When I got my hands on the Complete Book of Humanoids I played many of those races and wemic was absolutely my favorite. You have to admit the wemic is a realy cool race. So I am proud to give you my take on the wemic both as a monster and a playable race.
Fearsome wemic for 5E D&D
Wemics are natural hunters on the plains. They are nomadic tribes with just a few males and a large group of females. Tribes will occasionally join together to deal with a larger threat. If they stay together too long hostility can cause issues.
Wemics are sometimes referred to as lion centaur. They have the body of a lion and the torso of a humanoid growing out of what would be the lions neck. Golden fur covers their whole body. They are about 10 feet long and stand between 6 and 7 feet tall. As nomadic hunters they use all they take from their hunting and limit how many they kill from a single herd. This preserves the herd for hunting at a later time. Wemics tend to only use weapons that they can make and repair. Wemics are known to posses excellent tracking skills. If you catch them in a favorable mood you can occasionally persuade them to help track something or someone. Additionally, when you catch them in a bad mood you may have to pay a tribute just to cross their lands.
Wemic traits
Wemics as nomadic predators have developed some natural abilities.
Ability Score Increase
Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Dexterity Score increases by 1.
Age
Wemics age at a faster rate than humans. Wemics reach maturity around 5 years old. They can live to be around 40 years old though the harsh life style of hunters means few if any ever live to such an age.
Alignment
Wemics live in commune with the land. They try to preserve nature and its cycles. Because of this most wemics tend towards a neutral alignment. Player characters may of course be of any alignment.
Darkvision
Being a hunter both day and night, 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, only shades of gray.
Keen Sense of Smell
You can track by scent, and have advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell.
Languages
You can speak, read and write Common and Sylvan.
Monstrous
You are a frightening creature, out of the ordinary. Your creature type is monstrosity, rather than humanoid.
Naturally Athletic
Always being on the move has trained you to be physically adroit. You have proficiency in Athletics checks. Additionally, your jump distance is doubled.
Size
Wemics reach lengths of 10 to 12 feet long and can easily be 6 to 7 feet tall. They typically weigh around 500 pounds. Your size is Large.
Sharp Claws
Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 40 feet.
Trained Hunter
You have proficiency with all simple weapons and shields.
Wemic Warrior
Large monstrosity, neutral
Armor Class 15 (leather armor, shield)
Hit Points 65 (10d10 + 10)
Speed 40 feet
STR 15 (+2)
DEX 12 (+1)
CON 12 (+1)
INT 11 (+0)
WIS 11 (+0)
CHA 10 (+0)
Skills Athletics +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages Common, Sylvan
Challenge 3 (700 XP)
Actions
Multiattack. The wemic makes two claw attacks.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target . Hit: 5 (1d6+2) slashing damage.
Hunting Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 +2) piercing damage or ranged 60/240 ft., or 11 (2d8 +2) piercing damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack.
More tauric creatures
If you enjoyed Nerdarchist Ted’s take on the wemic for 5E D&D, you might be interested in Tauric Races by Oliver Bollmann over at the Dungeon Masters Guild. A tauric creature, like the wemic, is a hybrid being possessing the head, arms, and upper torso of a humanoid, and the legs and lower body of an animal, beast, or vermin. Tauric Races is a 20-page supplement with guidance on how to incorporate tauric races into your campaign world, how to play a tauric race, and complete rules for how to create centaur-like races based on nearly every animal type, including mammals, reptiles, insects, arachnids, and snakes. In addition, it includes a new background, one new feat, and three fully developed races ready for immediate play: the mighty centaur, the fierce wemic, and the agile kendrii (a foxtaur race). Check it out here.
Curtis
December 26, 2014 at 7:39 amReally nice, hoping you do some more races Ted. Keep it up.
Art Wood
April 2, 2015 at 4:45 pmI've always loved this race, in fact I played one in the old 2nd Edition as a Ranger. It was all custom of course. Good Stuff guys 🙂