Sleep Demon (5e Race)
Sleep Demons
Beings who live on the fear of those around them...
Physical Description
Sleep Demons, while in a humanoid form, can blend into most medium sized races, elves, tieflings, and humans being the most common. They're normally the race that has the largest number of people in the current city they’re in. Sleep Demons may have some tie to their deep beastial form, like horns, tails, or even unusable wings. The true way to see the true form of a sleep demon is while they’re hunting for food, late at night. Living off of the fear of those around them, the main way to do this is by slipping into inns or places with a a lot of resting poele, and rating apon one, putting them into sleep paralysis, this is when their monstrous demon form exists, many eyes, or multiple lines of death. They look like the beings of one's nightmares.
History
Sleep demons go back far into history, their names different from what culture you’re looking into, sleep paralysis demons, though, it is the common way of talking about them. They hide in the population, and only show themselves in two ways, while eating, or looking into a reflection, silver mirrors, will show their true form to the public.
Society
Sleep demons don’t have much of a society, they tend to be born of one's nightmares, and the dreamscape. Yet they can be created from scratch, of that of a powerful warlock, or wizard. It’s even said that a normal human can turn into one... A sleep demon in the presence of another may cause conflict between the two, as they're somewhat territorial.
Sleep Demon Names
Sleep Demons have a way of naming themselves, based off of dreams, the dreamscape, nightmares, or just items they find.
Male: -Akumu. Mare, Feast, Bridge, Moon, West.
Female: -Night, Luna, Yami, Dice, Suimin, Sleep, Dust.
Sleep Demon Traits
Sleep Demons feast on fear, but that doesn't make them dark creatures, they just need to find their place.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. Sleep Demons are formed fully matured if they’re formed by a nightmare, but two can create a child, that takes it 18 years to mature, they both live for around two centuries before fading away into the darkness like how they were created.
Alignment. Sleep Demons lean heavy into the chaotic area, for causing fear with those around them, but it doesn't mean they can't be good, or evil..
Size. Sleep demons' range from what humanoid creature they are currently mimicking. Your size is medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
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.
From the Darkness. From your shadowy creation you have proficiency in the Stealth skill while in dim light, and darkness.
Sleeping Feast. The main way you eat is by consuming the fear off of sleeping creatures. You can cast the sleep spell once with this trait, requiring no material components and you regain the ability to cast it this way when you finish a short or long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this spell. But you can decide while approaching a sleeping creature to perform a feast, while 10 feet from them they will “awaken” in a paralysed form, from which they must roll to be frightened of your presence, the dc is 10+charisma+prof. The main part of being in sleep paralysis is that the creature cannot move, or speak, you must feast on their fear for 2 minutes before being satisfied. You cannot consume the fear of creatures who do not sleep, aka trance, but if the creature does not dream, it doesn't affect your feast.
Trance. You don’t need to sleep. Instead, you meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. While meditating, you can dream after a fashion; such dreams are actually mental exercises that have become reflexive through years of practice. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Change Appearance. As an action, you can change your appearance and your voice. You determine the specifics of the changes, including your coloration, hair length, and sex. You can also adjust your height and weight, but not so much that your size changes. You can make yourself appear as a member of another race, though none of your game statistics change.
You stay in the new form until you use an action to revert to your true form or until you die.
True Form. Your true form is a large creature that strikes fear into those around you. This form may be bipedal or quadruped, it’s size stays medium, and it isn't used for attacking, just to impose fear, so that you may feast. This form has a frightening presence, and makes hiding in the dark easier, you gain advantage on stealth checks while in this form in darkness. Other than changing into this form, the other way for people to see this
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Infernal.
Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Races