Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Raucous Satyr with Racial Feats
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted get bawdy and revel in what the satyr offers as a playable race for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Satyrs are longtime D&D monsters across all the editions and make their debut as a character race option in Mythic Odysseys of Theros. The new race boasts some powerful traits and in the context of MOoT begins play even more powerful with the addition of Supernatural Gifts. This is an important distinction because the default assumption for campaigns in the Theros setting includes a curated selection of playable races. All that said, what I’m interested in doing here is expanding the breadth of satyr adventurer life through creating some special satyr racial feats for 5E D&D characters. So let’s get into it.
Prestige of racial feats in 5E D&D
Introduced in Elemental Evil Player’s Companion and more prominently later in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything racial feats exemplify what it means to be a quintessential member of a particular race. Racial feats highlight the strengths and special traits associated with a race. As a reminder feats are an optional rule allowing you can forgo taking an ability score improvement to take a feat of your choice instead. You can take each feat only once, unless the feat’s description says otherwise. The Dungeon Master decides whether feats are used and if so perhaps restricting some and not others. It’s up to a DM and the players in the game to decide on these options.
“A racial feat represents either a deepening connection to your race’s culture or a physical transformation that brings you closer to an aspect of your race’s lineage. The cause of a particular transformation is up to you and your DM. A transformational feat can symbolize a latent quality that has emerged as you age, or a transformation might be the result of an event in the campaign, such as exposure to powerful magic or visiting a place of ancient significance to your race. Transformations are a fundamental motif of fantasy literature and folklore. Figuring out why your character has changed can be a rich addition to your campaign’s story.” — from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
So far in official 5E D&D content no single race has more than two racial feats, and this feels like plenty of opportunity to create some special satyr feats for players who really want to play a satyr character who relishes in being satyr. With the impressive racial traits they start with and the aforementioned Supernatural Gifts satyr adventurers bring a lot to the table already. But between myths, legends, folklore and iterations of satyrs across different editions of D&D there’s a wealth of inspiration.
Sometimes satyrs are conflated with Pan due to physical characteristics and other similarities and I’m absolutely going to take advantage of this connection to come up with a couple of racial feats for players who really want to dial up the raucous nature of a satyr.
Satyr Racial Feats
Reveler
Prerequisite: Satyr
You are an excellent shepherd, seducer and musician, able to capture the magic of the gods in your revels.
As an action you can play a magical melody or weave enchanted words into your honeyed speech and create one of the following effects:
- Charm. A creature within 60 feet that can hear you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or be charmed by you for 1 minute. If you or any of your companions harms the creature, the effect on it ends immediately. An affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to your Reveler effects for the next 24 hours.
- Fright. A creature within 60 feet that can hear you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or be frightened by you for 1 minute. An affected creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to your Reveler effects for the next 24 hours.
- Lullaby. A creature within 60 feet that can hear you falls asleep and is unconscious for 1 minute. The effect ends if the creature takes damage or if someone takes an action to shake the creature awake.
Once you use this ability, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.
Mythical Mindfulness
Prerequisite: Satyr
You wholly embrace your people’s tradition of living wholly in the present moment, keeping your senses sharp for everything around you.
When you make an ability check, an attack roll, or a saving throw and have disadvantage on the roll, you can cancel the disadvantage for that roll. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
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