Shardminds
Shardminds are crystalline creatures consisting of hundreds of small shards of translucent green, white, red, or amber crystal assembled into humanoid form and animated by a force of pure psionic energy. Shardminds choose their forms to mimic the shapes of humanoids; some take on forms that seem more masculine, while others appear more feminine. A shardmind’s animating force glows dimly from within each of its component shards, emanating most brightly from where the eyes of a natural humanoid would be. This inner light sheds dim light in a shardmind’s space, but a shardmind individual can squelch the light with in an instant — in order to hide in the dark, for example.
The crystalline fragments making up a shardmind’s body are in constant, silent motion, almost like the circulation of blood. When a shardmind is stunned or unconscious, it might lose control of the tight mental reins that keep its body in humanoid form, a few shards slipping free into orbits around its body until the shardmind regains control.
Shardminds are living creatures only in the loosest sense. Their crystalline bodies require no sustenance, and they don’t breathe. They don’t need sleep, though they must still rest for six hours to gain the benefits of a long rest. They don’t have gender and don’t reproduce, but the shardminds alive today aren’t the same ones that sprang to life during the Dawn War. Shardminds say that the Living Gate shattered into countless fragments, and each time an awakened shardmind is killed, another one somewhere in the universe stirs to consciousness.
- Player's Handbook 3, 4th edition
Shardmind Traits
Your shardmind character has the following racial traits.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma score each increase by 1.
Age. Shardminds do not age. When they stir to conscious, they are fully matured. You are immune to magical aging effects.
Alignment. Shardminds tend towards lawful alignments as they themselves are created by law and order of the shards that make up their body. Certain sharminds may try to reject this rigid order, and their body reflects that and grows in chaotic ways.
Size. Your size is Medium. To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier:
Size modifier = 2d12
Height = 5 feet + 5 inches + your size modifier in inches
Weight in pounds = 200 + (2 x your size modifier)
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Internal Light. You glow with an internal, soft light that emits out in dim light in a 10 foot radius. As an action, you can increase it so that you glow with bright light in a 10 foot radius and dim light in a 10 feet radius beyond that, or you can use an action to stop yourself from emitting light altogether.
Living Construct. Your creature type is construct and humanoid. You are a living construct and gain the following benefits.
- You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
- You don't need to eat, drink, or breathe.
- You are immune to disease.
- You don't need to sleep, and don’t suffer the effects of exhaustion due to lack of rest, and magic can’t put you to sleep.
Mindful Recovery. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in a meditative state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you are conscious and aware of your surroundings normally.
Shard Storm. As a reaction when you are hit with an attack, you can loosen your mental grip on your physical form, turning into a swarm of shards. You have resistance to all damage while in this form, and you can immediately move up to half your base walking speed, reforming into your solid body at the start of your next turn. You can use this feature once per long rest.
