Verdan
by Prince Phantom
Coming to us from Acquisitions Incorporated, the Verdan are a type of goblinoid who are a very new race to the lore and therefore don’t have much history behind them. They do have some incredibly unique mechanics though, so let’s see if those can make up for it.
Verdan Features
Size: Small, then Medium after level 5: I don’t usually make mention of a race’s size, but this is just so weird that I’ve got to talk about it. We start as small, then hit a growth spurt at level 5 to medium. I have absolutely no idea how to incorporate this into a build, though I suppose it could be a turning point for your character to upgrade to heavy weapons. I don’t think this growth spurt makes this race any stronger, but it does make it very interesting to think about.
Black Blood Healing: This is an ability that I check up on about once a year to see if it’s good yet or not. There is an increasingly high number of abilities that call for a hit die roll outside of a short rest, and more and more are being printed each year. So far, none have been that strong, but the moment one is, check to see how it plays with this feature. You’ll notice that this doesn’t only reroll hit die when using them to heal, so there’s great potential for shenanigans with this, we just don’t have the feature to pair it with yet.
Persuasive: Persuasion is the best Charisma skill, so I’m happy to gain it here.
Limited Telepathy: Boy, this really is limited. We don’t need to share a language, but we can only communicate simple thoughts and ideas. This will come down to DM ruling a lot, but I think you can still get a lot of use out of this, it just won’t be as much as what some other races provide.
Telepathic Insight: Advantage on Wisdom and Charisma saves is amazing, as Wisdom is really the most important one anyway. I’d still work to get Wisdom save proficiency eventually, as advantage doesn’t help much when you need to hit a DC 19 with only a +1, but it does mean we don’t need to worry about it for a lot longer than most races can afford.
The potential for Verdan to be powerful is right there, we just need something to push Black Blood Healing over the top. Outside of that, the big gain here is Telepathic Insight, which is one of the best saving throw features that any race grants. This is a decent option right now, but keep an eye on this one.
Final Rating: 3/5
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