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Broodmother

character snippet a
character snippet b
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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.



Rework: Independent action. Cost to maintain brood; broodstock should include active brood. Maturation (remove reagent costs! probably broodstock cost). Rework brood scaling.

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 equal to your proficiency bonus. 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.
• Unless noted otherwise, a Child eats the normal amount of food for a creature of its size, but only a broodmother's milk can fully nourish it, and a Child expires in one day if not nourished with such milk. A Child that expires this way provides very minimal nutrition if salvaged for food.

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 have the ability 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.

Milk Production:
As a ritual, you may produce nutritious milk (or fruit or similar, should you wish) from your own body, creating a number of servings at one time equal to your constitution modifier (minimum 1). This milk provides different benefits based on what creature drinks it. Drinking the milk is the same action as drinking a potion, and it remains fresh for 12 hours.

• If one of your brood drinks this milk, it gains enough nutrition to sustain it for 24 hours, and it immediately heals hit point damage equal to 1d4 + your proficiency bonus. This healing is increased by +1d4 if it is already Nourished.
• If a creature other than your brood or yourself drinks this milk, it is nourished as a light meal, and it immediately heals hit point damage equal to 1 + your proficiency bonus.
• You gain no benefits from drinking your own milk.

You may use the Milk Production ritual a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, recovering all expended uses after you complete a long rest while well nourished; as an additional cost of milk production, you require twice as much food as normal for your species for all tiers of rationing.

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 use a non-focus action without requiring any action on your part.
• When you take the Attack action, you may instead have up to two of your active Childs make an attack for you. At 11th level, you may have up to three active Childs attack in your place, and at 17th level, you may have up to four active Childs attack in your place. These attacks may not be focus abilities, even if you have focus on one of the attacking Childs.
• 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. Your maximum focus point spending limit is reduced by -1 when doing so.
• 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.

7th Level
Matured Brood: You may improve a Child that meets its minimum requirements to mature, by spending a short rest and the listed reagents to do so. At 12th level, you may further enhance a Child that meets the requirements.

17th Level
Greater Independent Actions: Your brood and you move even more in sync. You gain the following.

• As a swift action, you may command up to two of your active Childs to use a non-focus action.
• As a standard action, you may command up to two of your active Childs to use a focus action even if you do not have active focus. Your maximum focus point spending limit is halved when doing so.
• A child you have Focus on no longer takes any of your actions to command.

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).

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 Breast Your calling is one of healing. Your body is exceptionally healthy and resilient, allowing you to sacrifice yourself further. You may use the produce milk ritual two additional times before completing a long rest.
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.
• Milky Brood: The Child gains milk production as a broodmother, but it can only use it once per maturation tier before requiring a long rest. If its only source of sustenance is you, then you cannot gain sustenance from its milk, but if it has alternative means of gaining full nourishment (such as improved digestive tract or banigna's compost ability), then you can gain nourishment from this milk as another creature might from yours. A milky brood still only requires the normal servings of milk, but does require twice as much food from other sources.
• 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.
• Improved Digestive Tract: The Child no longer needs your milk to be fully nourished and survive on its own.
• 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 gains improved digestive tract and 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.)

Banigna

[Fluff Stuff here] (Utility) 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.
Banigna, Base
Medium Monstrosity

Maturation: Age: 1 week. 50gp.
An adolescent banigna increases its AC by +2, it gains the Sustaining Milk modification (without counting against its other modifications), and the damage die of spike growth increases by one step (d4 > d6).

Greater Maturation: Age: 2 months. 80gp.
An adult banigna increases its AC by +2 and its physical ability scores by +4. It produces twice as many fruits with its goodberry ability, and may sustain other childs with them. While not rooted, it increases its speed by +10ft, and it gains a constrict attack at 1d8, adding its constitution modifier to the damage dealt.

Clawdia

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

Clawdia, Base
Small Monstrosity

Maturation: Age: 1 week. 20gp.
An adolescent clawdia increases its dexterity score by +4, and it gains the Bloodletting trait.

Greater Maturation: Age: 1 month. 50gp.
An adult clawdia is medium sized and uses d10s for its hit dice. Its dexterity and constitution increase by +2 each. The damage die for its attacks increase by one step (d4 > d6 > d8 > d10), and its bloodletting trait increases from 1 to 1d4.

Drillgore

Drillgore, Base
Small Monstrosity

Maturation: Age: 1 week. 100gp.
An adolescent drillgore becomes medium sized, and increases its strength and constitution scores by +2 each. It gains the Focused Assault ability.

Greater Maturation: Age: 1 month. 350gp.
An adult drillgore increases its strength score by +6. All of the damage dice of its axial claws increase by one step (d4 > d6).

Fidew

[Fluff] A defensive oriented Child, who's specialty is locking down enemies and protecting nearby allies.

Fidew, Base
Small Monstrosity

Maturation: Age: 1 week. 40gp.
An adolescent fidew is medium sized and uses d10s for its hit dice. Its physical ability scores increase by +2 each. The damage die for sticky tentacles and slime snare increases by one step (d4 > d6 > d8). The amount of incoming damage Interception reduces is improved to 3d8 + your proficiency bonus.

Greater Maturation: Age: 1 month. 50gp.
An adult fidew increases its strength by +4 and its constitution by +2. Its reach with all of its attacks also increase by +5ft, and the damage die for sticky tentacles and slime snare increases by one step (d6 > d8 > d10). The amount of incoming damage Interception reduces is improved to 4d8 + your proficiency bonus.

Gebroon

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.

Gebroon
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.
• Healing Burst – Creatures within range of this gebroon's self destruct take no damage, and instead are covered in a healing goop. While covered in this goop, a creature heals for 2 hit points at the start of each of its turns for 1 minute (10 rounds), but must make a DC12 constitution saving throw when first covered to avoid being poisoned for the duration. Spending 2 FP on this self destruct grants an initial burst of 2d6+2 points of healing, and every additional +2 FP spent increases this initial healing by +5.
• 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.

Looksey

(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.

Looksey, base
Small Monstrosity

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

(Healing, Utility); 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.

Naho, Base
Medium Monstrosity

Maturation: Age: 1 month. 500gp.
An adolescent Naho increases your maximum broodstock by +1, so long as it is the one gestating it; this increase is doubled (to +2) for producing biomass. Its strength and constitution scores increase by +2 each. 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.

Greater Maturation: Age: 6 months. 500gp.
An adult Naho increases your maximum broodstock by an additional +1 over the adolescent version, so long as it is the one gestating it; this increase is doubled (to +4) for producing biomass. Its physical ability scores increase by +2 each. The maximum amount of damage that can be transferred with Transfusion is doubled (to 10 points per FP spent).

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).

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.