TORTLE

TORTLE TRAITS

Your tortle character gains traits that enable it to cope with the perils of a savage world

NATURAL ARMOR. Due to your shell and 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.

SIZE. Tortle adults stand 5 to 6 feet tall and average 450 pound. Their shells account for roughly one-third of their weight. Your size is Medium.

SPEED. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

SURVIVAL INSTINCT. You gain proficiency in the Survival skill. Tortles have finely honed survival instincts.

LANGUAGES. You can speak, read, and write Aquan and Common.

HOLD BREATH. You can hold your breath for up to 1 hour at a time. Tortles aren’t natural swimmers, but they can remain underwater for some time before needing to come up for air.

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 throw. 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.

CLAWS. Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

AGE. Young tortles crawl for a few weeks after birth before learning to walk on two legs. The reach adulthood by the age of 15 and live an average of 50 years.

ALIGNMENT. Tortles tend to lead orderly, ritualistic lives. They develop customs and routines, becoming more set in their ways as they age. Most are lawful good. A few can be selfish and greedy, tending more toward evil, but it’s unusual for a tortle to shuck off order in favor of chaos.