• View
• Edit
• History
• Print

Broodmother

character snippet a
character snippet b
character snippet c

in-universe style class description

An Army of One

(How many use their Brood)

Chosen of the Greenmother

(role in society; healers, midwives, and protectors)

Health Die: d12

Proficiencies:

Starting Equipment:

• A battle axe and 3 hand axes, or a Shortbow with 20 arrows
• A quarterstaff, dagger, and sling with 10 bullets, or a whip and a wooden shield
• An explorer's pack and simple clothes, or scholar's pack and fine clothes, or feral traveler's pack and body paint.
• A healer's kit, midwife's supplies, a basic cleanliness kit, and 5 days rations.

Creating a Broodmother
The broodmother is a versatile utility class, able to fill different roles in a party as needed, depending on her children. While the Broodmother herself is a support-focused Defender, children can be birthed to fill other roles with a fair degree of competence. A Broodmother's subclass allow her to diversify even further, making her an attractive class choice for advanced players looking for a deep toolbox. Call of the Blood being a straightforward upgrade to her own combat abilities, Call of the Breast being both defensive and healing based to improve the survivability of herself and allies, Call of the Maw to increase her potent battlefield control, and finally Call of the Womb to further increase her adaptability by improving even her non-brood allies.

1st Level
Brood Creation
Through various means, a broodmother has learned how to create what are effectively puppets from her own flesh. Beginning the process of gestating a child requires no real action, though you choose the type of Child at the very start and cannot change this decision.

• A Child usually takes 1 week to fully gestate into its base state (some may take more time or less time, as noted in its entry) and you may gestate multiple Childs simultaneously. You may birth a fully gestated Child as a full action, but it cannot take any actions until the start of your next turn.
• A Child does not have its own intelligence, wisdom, or charisma; it itself is a mindless creature controlled by your psionic connection with rudimentary programming. A Child is immune to the charmed and frightened conditions, and has resistance against psychic damage. When attempting a saving throw using one of these scores, use your relevant ability score in its place.
• A Child has a maximum range it may move from you; past which it cannot receive direction from you and attempts to return to the best of its ability, or simply falls over inert if it cannot do so within 1d4 rounds. This range is 20ft times your proficiency bonus.
• Your maximum number of active Childs is shown above. If you would exceed this number by birthing a new Child, then you choose one to deactivate. You may also deactivate active Childs at-will (unless they have the independent brood or mental awakening tinkering abilities). You may choose to leave a corpse, or have the body melt when deactivating a Child.
• Your limit on active and reserve Childs is separate. You may have a total number of Childs gestating or reserved based on your brood stock limit as shown above, and you may have a maximum number of active brood equal to your proficiency bonus.
• Unless noted otherwise, a Child eats the normal amount of food for a creature of its size. Alternatively, you may feed a Child with your blood, suffering 2 points of HP burn to provide it nutrition as if it ate filling rations for a day.

A Child is only mildly autonomous, it will move as you command without requiring action from you but will only take the dodge or help action on its turn, unless commanded to take another action as a bonus action. You may make commands mentally or verbally; it will also obey verbal commands to move or Help from your allies if it has not received command from you otherwise. A Child has the normal amount of actions for a creature, one standard action, one swift action, one reaction, and one move action, and it cannot exceed this number of actions even if you have enough commands.

As a swift action, you may also mentally connect with a Child within your range, applying a "Focus" state to it that lasts as long as you concentrate (you only risk losing this concentration if you take damage, not if your brood does). While a Child has focus, it gains the following benefits.

• It has access to its focus actions, which you must spend the listed action and focus points to command it to use.
• It gains proficiency with all weapons with which you are proficient.
• When it takes damage, you may choose to reduce the damage it takes by any amount, sacrificing an equal amount of your focus points or your own hit points instead. You may heal this hit point damage as normal.
• You may spend a standard action to view through the Child's senses, losing your own while you do so. Ending this ability requires no action.

Focus Points
You have a pool of points known as focus points (FP) as shown on the chart above, adding your wisdom modifier at each level (similar to calculating hit points) . These focus points are used to activate the Focus abilities of your brood, as well as a few other class features. You may also expend your hit points in place of focus points (even if the ability does not specify this), reducing your maximum HP by an equal amount. This reduction to your maximum HP lasts until you complete a long rest and regain your FP as normal.
When taking a short rest, you may spend your hit dice to instead roll your focus die to recover focus points. This die is a d4, and you add your wisdom modifier to the roll to determine the amount recovered.

Knit Flesh:
You know a rudimentary version of the biomancy art mend flesh, allowing you to heal a creature with a touch using their own body's resources to close their wounds. As a standard action, you may touch a creature, allowing them to spend any number of hit dice (up to your proficiency bonus) and immediately heal the amount rolled. You add your wisdom modifier instead of the target's constitution modifier to determine the healing done. This ability counts as a black biomancy art.

Utility Brood. You gain an additional active brood slot that may only be used for maintaining a utility brood. These brood may have stripped down abilities compared to normal, or may only be used as utility brood. At 11th level, you may have one additional active utility brood.

4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th Level
Ability Score Increase: You gain the Ability Score Improvement feat, or another feat of your choice for which you qualify.

4th Level
Resilience: If you fail a saving throw, you can re-roll it with a bonus equal to your proficiency bonus. You must use the new roll, and you can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

5th Level
Independent Action: Your brood has some measure of independence, granting the following benefits.

• Once per round, you may command one of your active Childs to take a standard action that does not require focus. This must still obey the limits on number of actions each of your childs has. You may use this twice per round at 11th level, and three times per round at 17th level.
• As a standard action, you may command one of your active Childs to use one of its focus actions even if you do not have active focus on it. At 17th level, you may command up to two of your active Childs in this way.
• You may command a Child you have Focus on to use one of its focus action by spending a swift action on your turn instead of a standard action. A child you have Focus on doubles the maximum distance from you that it can remain active. At 17th level, you do not need to spend any of your actions to command a Child you have Focus on.

7th Level
Matured Brood: You may improve a currently active Child over the course of a night's rest, improving it to its adolescent stage.

At 12th level, you may improve a currently active adolescent Child to its mature stage over the course of a night's rest. A matured Child also counts against your broodstock.

19th Level
Epic Boon: You gain an Epic Boon feat or another feat of your choice for which you qualify. Boon of Fortitude, Recovery, or Speed are suggested.

20th Level
Factory of Life: You reduce the time it takes you to gestate a Child down to a single long rest (or a short rest for Childs with the Simple Creation trait). Your number of active and utility brood available increase by +2 each, and your maximum broodstock increases by +4.
Natural Body: Your ability score maximum is increased by +6, and you may increase any two of your ability scores of choice by +2 each, or one ability score of choice by +4. You may change the ability score increase from this ability after completing a week's rest.

Mother's Calling

At 3rd level, you receive your true calling, focusing on specific aspects of your nature as a broodmother.

Call of the Blood Your calling is one of war; you and your Childs are weapons first and foremost. You gain proficiency in four weapon groups of your choice, and you may use your constitution score in place of your strength score when making weapon attacks.
3rd Level

6th Level

9th Level

14th Level

Call of the Maw Your calling is one of hunger unending, allowing you to devour other creatures whole in place of nurturing new life. You gain a bite natural attack at 1d8, and you may use your constitution modifier for attack and damage rolls with this bite.
3rd Level

6th Level

9th Level

14th Level

Call of the Womb Your calling is to produce young, even above other broodmothers' ability. Your broodstock maximum increases by 2 (this does not affect your amount of active Childs).
3rd Level

6th Level

9th Level

14th Level

19th Level

Brood Tinkering

When you begin incubating a Child, you may select one ability from the following list and apply it to that Child. You also gain the Hibernation and Sacrifice Brood abilities.

Hibernation: You may return a Child to your body if you have broodstock available. It no longer needs milk to sustain it, and it is healed to full hit points if you complete a long rest while it is in hibernation (it also regrows any lost body parts and is cured of any non-magical poisons and diseases). You may birth it again at any point, though it only gains any benefit if you complete a rest. You may use Sacrifice Brood on a hibernating Child, treating its incubation time as 1 week regardless of its actual age.

Sacrifice Brood: You dissolve an incubating Child and repurpose its resources, either (a) healing yourself by rolling up to half of the sacrificed brood's hit dice (or 1 hit die if the brood is less than 50% incubated), or (b) altering it into another type of brood and applying half the incubation time to this new brood's development.

Minor Tinkering

• Armored Brood: The Child increases its unarmored AC by +1, and may apply a maximum of +3 to AC from its dexterity modifier.
• Hybrid Brood: If you have appropriate material to do so, you may grant features from another species to your brood, such as making it an entirely different species, or removing one of your species's traits and replacing it with one from the source material.
• Infused Weapons: Choose cold-iron, silver, or magic. The Child's natural weapons overcome any damage resistance or immunities based on the selected option.
• Limbless Brood: The Child has no limbs; is one size smaller, has a hampered movement speed, and cannot use traits or abilities that require limbs. You may apply two additional minor tinkering traits to a limbless brood. A limbless brood with the skilled brood (acrobatics) or (athletics) ability is capable of hopping at normal speed.
• Limb-ed Brood: The Child is granted limbs if they normally would not have them, treated as basic prosthetics (walking speed of 30 feet, regular manipulators).
• Quickened Brood: The Child fully gestates over a single long rest instead of a week, or a week instead of a month. You suffer one level of exhaustion after producing a quickened brood after a long rest.
• Skilled Brood: The Child gains proficiency in one skill or tool of your choice; you use your mental ability scores in place of its own. This ability may be taken multiple times, each time applying to a different skill. As a Child only has your knowledge, certain skills may not be appropriate for this ability.
• Squishy Brood: The Child can squeeze into a space as little as one inch, and share space with another creature one size smaller than it, or another Child with this ability.
• Tough Brood: The Child increases its maximum hit points by +3, plus additional hit points equal to twice your proficiency bonus.

8th Level
You may now apply either two minor tinkering abilities or one improved tinkering ability.
Improved Tinkering

• Agile Brood: The Child gains expertise in dexterity saving throws and increases all of its speeds by +10ft.
• Altered Brood: You may swap an ability marked (A) with that of another Child's base form. This is not applicable on all Childs.
• Flying Brood: The Child gains your choice of winged flight at its walking speed, or a non-winged flight at 20ft. A Child with winged flight must move at least 10ft each round it is flying, or it falls at the end of your turn.
• Hardy Brood: The Child gains expertise in constitution saving throws, and you gain advantage to concentration checks to maintain Focus on it.
• Independent Brood: The Child requires no significant action to command and has access to its focus actions, but you cannot spend your focus points or hit points on it (and cannot apply Focus to it at all), instead it draws from its own hit points to pay any focus point costs. It gains one additional hit die per 2 it possessed at base, but continues to use your proficiency bonus. Independent Brood requires the Child at least be Adolescent to apply, and may not be changed out except for Mental Awakening after it has been applied.
• Limb Armor: The Child's limbs become extra armored. It gains a +2 bonus to AC, as if wielding a shield.
• Networking Brood: You may determine the maximum range from yourself a Child may go from you as originating from a Child with this ability, so long as it is within range of you. If you are killed while you have a networking brood active, you may persist and command your brood as normally until the networking brood dies (either by starvation or other means).
• Potent Brood: You increase the maximum FP you can spend on the Child's Focus abilities by +2.
• Precocious Brood: The Child is born as an adolescent. This tinkering ability cannot be swapped by any means.
• Strong Brood: The Child gains expertise in strength saving throws, deals +1d4 damage with its melee attacks, and doubles its carrying capacity.

13th Level
You may now apply tinkering abilities in one of the following ways. Three minor abilities, or one minor and one improved ability, or one greater tinkering ability.
Greater Tinkering

• Augmented Brood: Choose strength, dexterity, or constitution. The Child gains a +2 increase to the selected ability score.
• Adolescent Alteration: As Altered Brood, but may grant an Alter ability from an Adolescent form.
• Greater Precocious Brood: The Child is born as an Adult. This tinkering ability cannot be swapped by any means.
• Mental Awakening: The Child gains a mind of its own and does not count against your number of active Childs nor your broodstock. Distribute 14, 10, and 8 (or roll randomly) as you wish between its intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores, and give it additional hit die until it has up to your level -2, and uses its new proficiency bonus based on its new hit dice. It can fully act on its own (with its own initiative), and has access to its Focus actions, but you cannot spend your focus points or hit points on it (nor can you apply Focus to it), instead it has four focus points per hit die and draws from its own focus points or hit points to pay any focus point costs. Upon maturing to an Adult, it becomes fully independent. This tinkering ability may not be changed out after it is applied.
• Powerful Brood – Treat your proficiency bonus as +1 higher when determining all of the Child's parameters (such as hit dice, attacks, focus point limit). It requires twice the normal milk for nourishment.

Childs

A Child gains the type and minor traits from your own lineage (or, under certain circumstances, another lineage), such as movement speeds, senses, and other traits based on physical features. They do not gain traits that grant spells or other magical abilities. The base stats for a Child assume the mother is medium; if the mother is a different size, then Child's size is adjusted by the same relative degree.

Though you use your actions to command them, a Child still has the same number of actions possible in a turn. One action, one move action, one swift action, and one reaction. Unless otherwise noted, using a Child's reaction uses your own reaction. An action marked with an (I) after the name of the ability can be performed without requiring an action to command it, but does still count against that Child's number of actions.

A Child possesses a single attunement slot and may use magic items normally if commanded to. You may donate one of your attunement slots to a Child if you desire.

A base form Child requires only one serving of milk a day, while an adolescent requires two, and an adult requires three. If you are killed, any gestating brood you have inside you are also killed, even if you are later returned to life, but any active Childs remain so, and you are capable of commanding them for up to 1 minute after your body's death. Some Childs have special abilities that supersede this (such as Mearor's extra life or the Gebroon's parting gift.)

Aromace

Defender/Debuff
[Fluff]
(uses pheromones to fascinate enemies and can buff allies to inflict charm if they are attacked. Can also spray short-range capsiacin blasts to debuff foes)

Banigna

Control/Utility Food
A Child that purifies organic material it is fed, turning it into edible substances. In combat, it can attack creatures that move through its area (increasing with maturity), though it is immobile. Due to processing material, does not require milk to sustain.
Stats
Medium Monstrosity

Abilities

• Composting – Banigna can convert spoiled, fouled, rotten, poisoned, or otherwise unwanted organic material, turning it into more useful matter for a variety of purposes. Both the original and converted product must be organic in nature, and creating rare or magical products might be difficult or impossible without proper knowledge of Banigna's mother. This conversion process requires energy, and this is usually extracted from the sacrificed material as nutrition. So long as it is fed material, Banigna is able to sustain itself without milk from its mother. (Refer to the Salvaging rules, with Banigna able to produce material that is not normally available for salvage.)
• Goodberry – Banigna produces 1d4+1 fruits each day it sustains itself naturally. It may also choose to produce these fruits as a product of its composting ability, and regardless of the source material, these fruits are safe for consumption by any creature that is capable of eating food, sustaining that creature as if it drank Banigna's mother's milk (other Childs do not gain nutrition from this ability).
• Roots (I)– As a standard action, Banigna may send roots into the ground, which is required to use its composting ability. While rooted, Banigna's speed becomes 0ft and is difficult to move otherwise; a creature attempting to do so must make a strength check against Banigna's save DC to uproot it first.

Carrionette

Utility/Defender
(implanted in a corpse or helpless creature, it then controls them at your command. HP is capped based on PB, and uses your PB instead of controlled creature)
Carrionette has no stats as a creature. It has 5 hit points, an AC of 12, and a saving throw bonus of +0. A carrionette counts as a utility brood, even if it is controlling another creature.
Abilities

Drillgore

Defender/Assault
Normally placid and calm, a drillgore is perfectly attuned to its mother's innate capacity for violence, allowing it to channel it with just the most basic of sustained mental contact.
[+Stats]
Small Monstrosity; adolescent/mature Medium Monstrosity

Abilities

• Pacifism – Drillgore cannot be commanded to attack and will not make offensive reactions unless under the effects of Berserker.
• Axial Claws – Melee weapon attack, strength, reach 5ft. Hit: 1d4+3 piercing damage, and the target gains 1 axial wound. A creature may have a maximum number of axial wounds equal to your proficiency bonus, and any axial wounds on a creature are removed if drillgore does not attack it for 1 turn (hit or miss). Axial claws deal +1d4 damage for each axial wound on a creature, and have Reliable damage equal to the number of axial wounds on the creature it is attacking.
• Shield of Claws (A) – When attacking, Drillgore gains temporary hit points equal to its strength modifier plus your proficiency bonus plus the number of axial wounds on the creature it is attacking, the creature it is attacking suffers difficulty +1 to attack Drillgore, and all other creatures gain accuracy +1 to attack Drillgore.

E

Fidew

Defender/Controller
A defensive oriented Child, who's specialty is locking down enemies and protecting nearby allies with its reflexive attacks and long reaching tentacles that secrete a sticky slime.
Stats
Small Monstrosity

Gebroon

Sacrifice Artillery
Effectively just an ambulatory explosive, Gebroons are designed to be fast and easy to create. However, this design feature comes at the cost of their innate life-support systems, as such, they cannot even partake of sustaining milk or magical foodstuffs to allow them to last for more than a day after activation. Even so, many broodmothers will keep at least one on standby for emergency situations where one needs an explosion or acid. Stats Tiny Monstrosity

Maturation: Gebroon cannot be matured, but their self-destruct may be altered in one of the following ways. Only Gebroon may have these alternate self-destruct abilities, even if self-destruct is grafted onto another Child.

• Freezing Burst – The gebroon's explosion deals cold damage instead of fire damage, and instead of dealing acid damage, affected targets must make a strength saving throw or have its movement speed halved until the chilling gel is removed. While covered in the chilling gel, the target suffers vulnerability to cold damage, unless it is immune to cold damage.
• Toxic Burst – The gebroon's explosion deals 2d10 poison damage instead of fire damage, and as long as they are covered in toxic goop, they are poisoned and take 1d10 poison damage at the start of each of their turns. A dexterity saving throw avoids being covered in goop.

Honeyose

Sacrifice Healing
[fluff]

(steal Naho's healing ability)

Naho may touch a creature as a standard action and heal it for up to 10 points of damage, taking half (rounded up) of that amount onto itself (you may use FP in place of hit point damage as normal for this transference). For every additional FP spent, the maximum amount of damage transferred increases by 5. Naho may also spend any stored biomass when performing transfusion, healing the target additional hit points equal to the roll plus Naho's constitution modifier for each die spent this way.

Adolescent: Its transfusion gains the following effect: A creature that has been healed by transfusion heals hit points equal to the FP spent at the start of each of its turns for 1 minute.

Mature: The maximum amount of damage that can be transferred with Transfusion is doubled (to 10 points per FP spent).

Ignight

Utility (Camping)/Support
(Allows watch to be kept by its mother while she sleeps. Provides warmth and light in a radius, and protects against extreme cold, darkness, damp, and sleep effects.)

J

K

Looksey

Utility Scouting
(Utility); A Child with keen senses that can go further from the broodmother than most, though is more frail due to the focus on senses and signal strength.
Stats
Small Monstrosity

Abilities

• Claws - Melee weapon attack, dexterity, reach 5ft. On hit: 1d4+2 piercing damage.
• Camouflage (A) - Looksey may attempt to hide even if only lightly obscured, and gains accuracy +2 to stealth checks.
• Independence - Looksey may go twice as long between feedings as normal, has an active range three times the normal range, and is capable of acting for 1d4+2 rounds after losing contact with its broodmother, using all of its actions to get back into contact to the best of its ability.
• Evasive Maneuvers (I) - A looksey gains a +10ft increase to its movement speeds. Looksey may use either the dash or withdraw actions once per round without requiring an action.

Maturation: Age: 1 week. 100gp.
An adolescent Looksey increases its dexterity and constitution scores by +2, gains expertise in stealth, and it may make two claw attacks as part of the same attack. Its sneak attack improves to become a number of dice equal to your proficiency bonus. It gains the Hellcat Skin focus ability.

Greater Maturation: Age: 1 month. 200gp.
An adult Looksey increases its dexterity score by +4. It may use its hellcat skin ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus before it loses its nourished status and gains a level of fatigue.

Mearor

(Special): A Child that can ferry a recently fallen creature's soul within it, allowing them to be reborn.

Mearor, Base
Small or Medium Monstrosity

Maturation: Mearor cannot be matured normally. Instead, if reagents worth 200gp are used and a process is performed over a long rest, the mearor fully incorporates the stored soul and becomes an independent being, effectively returning the original creature to life but as a member of the broodmother's species (unless Hybrid Brood is applied).

Naho

Utility Healing
A spare womb, to help share the burden of growing your brood. In fact, it is full of spare parts that can be used as needed.
Stats
Medium Monstrosity

Abilities

• Advanced Development - Naho takes 1 month to gestate rather than 1 week.
• Independence – Naho's maximum range from you is 100ft times your proficiency bonus instead of the normal limit. Your other brood may also treat Naho as you to determine the range at which they can be active, but not for issuing direct commands.
• Spare Womb - Naho may be used to gestate other Childs (using your broodstock limit), keeping them safe from effects that may harm you.
  • Produce Biomass – In place of gestating Childs, Naho may grow undifferentiated organic matter that may be used as hit dice for itself (these hit die are the same size as its own). Naho may generate 1 hit die of biomass each day, with these hit die counting against your brood stock at a rate of 2 brood stock per 3 hit dice of biomass. If Naho has biomass hit die available, it may spend a reaction when taking damage to roll one hit die worth of biomass to heal itself before or after taking that damage.
  • Transfusion - Naho may transfuse some of its biomass into a willing or unconscious creature, granting hit dice to that creature up to its usual maximum number. This process takes 1 minute, and requires Naho to spend its own hit dice to donate them. The infused creature may only spend these donated hit dice to recover health (either by resting or abilities or arts that restore health), and they use Naho's constitution modifier as well as being d12s.

O

Pitooey

 (Ranged); A Child with slow movement, but is capable of performing ranged attacks. 

Pitooey, Base
Small Monstrosity

Maturation: Age: 1 week. 80gp.
An adolescent pitooey increases its dexterity score by +2, the range of its launch barbs and marking by +20ft, and the damage die of launch barbs by 1 step (d6 > d8). Marking's bonus damage increases to +1d4 piercing damage.

Greater Maturation: Age: 1 month. 300gp.
An adult pitooey is medium sized, and increases its dexterity score by +4. The range of its launch barbs increases by +40ft, and the damage die of launch barbs increases by 1 step (d6 > d8).

Q

Retalanx

(Defense, Electricity); An active defense that punishes attackers and restricts movement of key targets.

Retalanx, Base
Small Monstrosity

Maturation: Age: 1 week. 150gp. An adolescent retalanx is medium sized, and increases its physical ability scores by +2 each. Electric Touch's damage increases by +1d4, and wire whip's HP increases by +1 for each of its hit dice.

Greater Maturation: Age: 1 month. 300gp. An adult retalanx increases its strength score by +8 and its dexterity score by +2, the reach and tether of its wire whip by 5ft, the HP of its wire whip by an additional +2 for each of its hit dice (to 5 HP per hit die), and the damage of Electric Touch increases to +1d8.

Shutinticle

(Offense): A Child that remains within the broodmother, able to attack creatures adjacent to her as a swift action, though it may not do so often. Does not require milk to sustain.

Shutinticle, Base
Tiny Monstrosity

Maturation: Shutinticle cannot be matured normally.

Toxipus

(Offense): A Child with many tentacles that expels poisonous clouds and can cling to creatures to persistently poison them. Can easily be thrown, but its own attacks are weak.

Toxipus, Base
Small Monstrosity

Toxipus, Adolescent: Maturation: Age: 1 week. 20gp.
An adolescent toxipus increases its strength score by +4. It increases the damage dice of poison stinger by 1 step (d4 > d6 > d8). It may also deal acid damage instead of poison damage for any of its abilities (chosen when the ability is used).

Toxipus, Adult: Maturation: Age: 1 month. 80gp.
An adult toxipus is medium sized, and increases its strength and constitution scores by +4. It increases the damage dice of poison stinger by 1 step (d6 > d8 > d10). It adds necrotic to the types of damage it may choose from for its abilities that normally deal poison damage. It also gains the crush ability.

U

Vampierce

(Offense): A Child with sharp tentacles meant to draw blood. Can absorb blood, converting it into magical energy to empower itself.

Vampierce
Small Monstrosity

Wearacyte

Utility

[fluff; it's a living carapace/armor]

(stats not as a creature, but as equipment)

X

Y

Z