Variant Tortle
The solitary Tortles wander the world away from any community, never feeling the need to truly settle down.
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Creature Type. Your creature types are Humanoid and Beast.
Age. Young tortles crawl for a few weeks after birth before learning to walk on two legs. They reach adulthood by the age of 15 and live an average of 50 years.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Natural Armor. Due to your shell and the shape of your body, you are ill-suited to wearing armor. Your shell provides ample protection, however; it gives you a base AC of 17 (your Dexterity modifier doesn't affect this number). You gain no benefit from wearing armor, but if you are using a shield, you can apply the shield's bonus as normal.
Hold Breath. You can hold your breath for up to 1 hour at a time.
Subrace. Choose one of the following subraces:
Tortle Subraces
Terra Tortle
Ancient tortles are survivors, exploring the wilderness with their home on their backs.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.
Claws. Your claws are simple weapons that you are proficient in. If you hit with them, you deal 1d4 slashing damage.
Shell Defense. You can withdraw into your shell as an action. Until you emerge, you gain a +4 bonus to AC, and you have advantage on Strength and Constitution saving throws. While in your shell, you are prone, your speed is 0 and can't increase, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, you can't take reactions, and the only action you can take is a bonus action to emerge from your shell.
Survival Instinct. You gain proficiency in the Survival skill.
Sea Tortle
Sea tortles live most of their lives in the sea, and have developed an affinity for it.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence and Dexterity scores both increase by 1.
Swimmer. You gain a swimming speed of 35 feet, and you can hold your breath for up to 10 hours.
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. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Water Jet, You can spit jets of pressurized water, which counts as a simple ranged weapon that you are proficient in. On a hit, you deal 1d8 bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Once you use this feature, you can't do so again for one minute as you regenerate your water supplies.
Ancient Tortle
These immortal and rare tortles have connections to the element of earth. Their shells resemble great boulders.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
False Appearance. As an action, you can retract into your shell. While you remain motionless inside your shell, you are indistinguishable from a normal boulder.
Tough Shell. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.
Tremor Sense You gain tremorsense within a 20 foot radius.
Rough Tortle
These tortles have rough, spiked shells that work as a natural defense. These tortles often dwell in volcanic places.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution and Strength scores both increases by 1
Spiked Shell. Your shell is spiked. Whenever a creature misses with a melee attack against you, they must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d4 piercing damage.
Heatproof Shell. You gain resistance to fire damage.
Lava Dweller. You can swim in lava with a swimming speed of 25 feet, and you take no damage from lava.
Credits
Art: Tortle by Jordan KErbow at JordanKerbow.ArtStation.com
This is part of the Emporium of the Races, an ongoing project to upgrade old D&D races and make all new ones. Stay tuned for more updates!