Triton
by Prince Phantom
Often wrongly referred to as merfolk, the Tritons are an extremely proud and pompous race who believe all other races owe them a debt for keeping them safe from the horrors of the depths. The only problem with this philosophy is of course that the acts of defense they perform are done in the depths where no other races actually notice them, leading to the Tritons claims of glory holding little weight in the ears of land dwellers. Eh, at least their mechanics are pretty strong.
Triton Features
Darkvision: Very helpful for a race that might spend a lot of time in deep water.
Speed: 30ft walking speed and a swim speed equal to our walking speed.: Having a swim speed is both tough to come by and necessary for many builds if you plan on spending much time in the water. Underwater combat sucks in 5e if you don’t have a swim speed.
Amphibious: Breathing water on the other hand is very easy to come by, but we still appreciate having this.
Guardian of the Depths: Resistance to cold damage is one of the better resistances you could have, but it’s also not the best. Could be more or less useful depending on your campaign.
Emissary of the Sea: Notably this lets us talk to beasts, elementals, and monstrosities who have a swim speed, and that last one is the real kicker. This lets you communicate with a Kraken, and any ability that potentially helps you avoid an encounter with one of those is automatically decent at least, though I’d be remiss to not admit that this is incredibly situational.
Control Air and Water: I’m not really sure why they decided that Tritons are masters of sea and wind and not just sea. There’s definitely enough spells to sell the theme, but I digress, this is still a decent spell selection. Fog Cloud is a spell that takes some experience to get the most of, but a player with a good knowledge of the game mechanics will get a lot out of it. Gust of Wind is situationally very useful to keep enemies inside a different area of effect spell cast by a friend, especially if they have no other avenue to escape that spell outside of the wind gust. Water Walk is even more situational, but at the very least it can be used to quickly return to the surface after you’ve finished your business on the sea floor.
The Triton is largely competing with the Sea Elf for best amphibious race, and it’s a pretty close call. I’d say the Sea Elf is more broadly applicable and easier for new players to get the most out of, while the Triton is best in strictly aquatic campaigns and provides some very interesting spells for experienced players to tinker around with.
Final Rating: 3/5
Triton (Legacy)
The old Triton is actually different in a number of ways, though I think it’s definitely worse than the revision. Our swim speed can’t be increased nearly as easily, we get Wall of Water instead of Water Walk, which is definitely a downgrade, and we can’t cast our spells with spell slots. We can also only talk to beasts with a swim speed, which removes the coolest thing about this race. Yeah you have no reason to ever select this over the revised version.
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