Lamia - Player Race

Not to be confused with the sphinx-like creatures of the same name, The Lamia are a humanoid race with the upper body of a woman and a lower body of a long, powerful, snake-like tail. While most commonly born of a Lamia mother and human male, other father races are by no means unheard of, and Lamia with elven, dwarven, halfling, tiefling, and countless other humanoid bodies are known to exist.

A Communal Life

Lamia live in clans ranging from a dozen to hundreds of individuals, in which the eldest and wisest take the titles of clan elders. As all Lamia are female, they require male individuals of other humanoid species to reproduce, and do so just as a mammalian female, with a live birth. The male "stud" is shared throughout the clan, although elders typically possess first rights to copulation. Children born to a Lamia will always be Lamia, although their humanoid upper bodies usually bear features reminiscent of their fathers. Lamia rarely leave their clans, with those found outside usually being either exiles or survivors of some great calamity that stuck the clan. Traditionally, those exiled or in search of a new clan must find a suitable male to bring with them as a gift in order to be allowed entry into the community or have their exile rescinded.

Lamia Traits

Your mixture of humanoid and serpentine features grants you the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution and Wisdom scores both increase by 1. In addition, one ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Age. Lamia mature at a similar rate to their father's species, and may live for upwards of two hundred years, although few ever reach their third century.

Alignment. Lamia tend toward neutral alignments owing to their habit of living secluded amongst their own kind, although those that do leave the commune often adopt the alignment of their new homes.

Size. Lamia are slightly taller than humans, measuring 6 to 8 feet in height. Your size is medium. The unique anatomy of the Lamia however necessitates an extra 5 feet of slithering space behind you at all times for your long, muscular tail, which may stretch anywhere from 15 to 25 feet in length. You may at any time rear up on your tail to gain an extra 5 feet of vertical reach, but lose any walking speed while doing so.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30. You also have a swimming and climbing speed equal to your walking speed. On your turn, you may expend half of your movement-speed to coil up, removing the need for tail space behind you. Moving from this position or being forcefully moved reverts you to an uncoiled form.

Thermal Darkvision. 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. While in darkness, you perceive your surroundings in a thermal spectrum,

with living creatures and warm surfaces unhidden by magic or thermal camouflage appearing as heat signatures due to your pit organs, but you cannot otherwise discern color in darkness.

Serpent's Senses. Your forked tongue and pit organs are fine-tuned to living creatures, granting you the superior hunting abilities of a serpent. You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival), Wisdom (Perception), and Intelligence (Investigation) checks to track, spot or otherwise locate living creatures unobscured by thermal camoflauge or magic, and to follow their trails. Additionally, you have proficiency in the Survival skill.

Prehensile Tail. Your tail is a natural weapon which you are proficient with, which can be used to make unarmed attacks. If you hit with it, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier. Alternatively, your tail may be used to make an attack action to grapple a creature, following normal rules regarding grappling. If successful, the creature is left constricted by your coiled tail until they succeed on a contested grapple check to escape. A creature that ends its turn this way takes 1d6 + your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage, if you wish to harm it. You may not make unarmed attacks or initiate another grapple with your tail while it is being used to grapple.

Mesothermal. Owing to your limited ability to regulate your body temperature, you have disadvantage on saving throws against spells and effects that deal Cold damage, and have disadvantage on Constitution saving throws made to withstand environments of extreme cold.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Draconic, and one other language of your choice. This is usually Common, but Lamia from lands populated by other races may speak another tongue, such as Elvish, Dwarven, Orcish, etc.

Art Credit: In Chun Park