The true appearance of your other touched is entirely at your discretion, and you are recommended to have your dominant persona resemble a race from The Player's Handbook. You shoud also discuss with your DM the circumstances which made you an Other-Touched. Are you the first in your family to show these traits? Are they supportive, or have they chased you away in fear? Was your nature awoken alongside a magical ability, or granted to you as a gift from an otherworldly entitiy? What was the event that drove your metamorphosis?

After their metamorphosis, most Other-Touched will adopt a new persona, attempting to make themselves appear as normal as possible. Despite being able to live comfortably in most climates, an Other-Touched will often tend towards seaside towns, assuming jobs as dockworkers or sailors to be as close to the sea as they can. Other-Touched will bond closely to their assumed identity, and some even attempt to wipe the memory of their other form using magic. When an Other-Touched's disguise fails, they will suffer the consequences, with settlements rising up to destroy the monster in their midst.

All Other-Touched are also capable of drastic alteration to their organs, allowing them to mutate hideously, granting them strange abilites. Some Other-Touched honeycomb their bodies, making themselves natural hosts to all sorts of insect and arthropod life. Others pay homage to their origins, changing themselves to suit a life underwater. Some grow defensive, emitting foul slimes and scents from a toughened skin to repel those who would attack them. Others will arm themselves, growing weaponry to fight off attackers, while others find still more uses for their forms. However, most Other-Touched will keep their nature secret, only using their mutations in times of great need.

Other-Touched are powerful shapeshifters, whose power is kept hidden and latent for many generations. In times of great stress or danger, their powers will be awoken during an uncanny hallucination. Other-Touched dream of sinking to the bottom of a great abyss, surrounded by strange entities unlike anything known. Afterwards, they will find their bodies transformed, shaped to resemble that of the creatures they saw. Strange psuedopdods, sightless eyes and more will be found on their bodies. Thankfully, they will not be kept to their new form for long, as they are now powerful shapeshifterss, and can change their appearance on a whim.

For as long as people have been travelling the oceans, stories have arisen of people who are irrevoacably changed by contact with something from below the waves. The truth of these tales lies scattered across the world, as they hide their monstrous forms from all but the most unfortunate.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always

It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,

Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning.

Other-Touched Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score and Charisma score both increase by one.

Age. Other-Touched live for about two-hundred years after their transformation.

Alignment. Other-Touched normally retain the alignment they had prior to their metamorphosis.

Size. Other-Touched in their true form stand between 5 and 6 feet tall, with an average build. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your movement speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. Your eyes are adapted to the light of the deep seas. You can see in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if were dim light. You cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey.

From Beyond. You are considered a shapechanger for the purpose of spells such as polymorph.

Change Appearance. As an action, you can transform your appearance or revert to your natural form. You can’t duplicate the appearance of a creature you’ve never seen, and you revert to your natural form if you die. You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, the sound of your voice, coloration, hair length, sex, and any other distinguishing characteristics. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change. You also can’t appear as a creature of a different size than you, and your basic shape stays the same; if you’re bipedal, you can’t use this trait to become quadrupedal, for instance, Your clothing and other equipment don’t change in appearance, size, or shape to match your new form, requiring you to keep a few extra outfits on hand to make the most compelling disguise possible. Even to the most astute observers, your ruse is usually indiscernible. If a creature becomes supicious of you, you must make a Charisma (Deception) check contested by the creature's Intelligence (Investigation). If the creature succeeds, they become aware that you are a shapeshifter. If you have a mutation active, creatures automatically become suspicious, and if they succeed the contest, they become aware of your monstrous nature.

Mutable Biology. Other-Touched are capable of horrific transformations over long periods of time, thanks to their ability as shapeshifters.

When you first create an Other-Touched, select TWO of the following mutations. When you complete a long rest, you can choose to gain one of the mutations you selected.

While either of your mutations are active, the change is apparent no matter how you alter your form, granting you disadvantage on Charisma (Deception) checks relating to your Change Appearance feature.





Hivebody. Your body becomes a nesting place for small insects and pests, and you constantly buzz and hum with the sound of their movement. You know the infestation cantrip. At 5th level, you can cast the spell spider climb once with this feature without expending a spell slot. You regain the ability to cast the spell using this feature after taking a long rest. Charisma is your spell casting modifier for these spells.





Call From the Deep. Your skin deepens to a light blue, you gain webbing between your appendages, and you sprout gills. While you are under the effects of this benefit, you can breathe water as well as air, and gain a swimspeed of 30 feet.





Roaming Eyes Many eyes appear on your body. These eyes are capable of free movement to any position on your body, and will often appear wherever you have bare skin exposed. While under the effects of this benefit, you gain advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks related to sight.





Horrid Armory. You begin to bristle with the armaments of creatures who live far below the waves. You gain crooked fangs, barbed claws, or lashing tentacles, which you can retract for short periods. These weapons deal 1d4 slashing or piercing damage, are considered to have the light property when using them for two weapon fighting, and have the reach property during your turn.





Coat of the Harried. Your skin becomes leathery and cracked, and has a tendency to ooze strange slimes and stranger scents, granting you an unarmoured AC of 13 + your Dexterity modifier. Additionaly, when you use your Shape Appearance feature with this benefit active, you can shape the driest parts of your skin to loosely resemble clothing, such as a wide brimmed hat and robes. You can freely choose the colouration of this clothing.





Key And the Gate. Hidden knowledge is brought to the forefront of your mind by a being from beyond. Your appearance is subtly distorted at all times, as your flesh constantly ripples and twists while your mind attempts to process the full extent of the information granted to it. While this benefit is active, you can telepathically communicate with any creature within 30 feet with whom you share a language, or who is also telepathic.





Shoggoth's Kiss. You abandon all pretense of a solid and consistent form, becoming a roughly humanoid ameobic form which sprouts mouths or appendages as needed. When needed, you can focus to more closely resemble solid matter. While under the effects of this benefit you gain a climbing speed of twenty feet, and when you are not wearing armour, you can fit through spaces as small as one inch without squeezing.





Languages. As an Other-Touched, you can speak Common, Deep Speech, and one other language of your choice.

Credits Created by u/whisperstatic



Art: The Death of Wilbur Whately by eitherangel



A huge thanks to my friend Lucas for help with formatting, and to my wonderful girlfriend Amelia for putting up with my constant blather about this race. Additional thanks to u/Wampasully and u/RevenTheLight for much needed feedback and balancing help.