Oh hey. It’s been a minute. Here’s some crab people as an apology.
I’ve been radio silent for a bit, working on some personal matters. As a result, I haven’t felt too interested in writing-based pursuits. But I recently finished an editing job for some 5e content, and found some inspiration to write out rules for an uplifted crab lineage that has become surprisingly popular in my local tabletop area.
Before I get to some mechanics, I’d like to explain the origin of this lineage, and how its introduction has affected other local campaigns. This summer, I started a pair of Pathfinder 2nd Edition campaigns as a foray into GMing traditional d20 heroic fantasy games. The first combat I ran was against a group of suspiciously smart Giant Crabs. It was rough, but the players succeeded and had a really positive response to big, smart crabs. I took the idea and ran with it, eventually making the crabs sapient in my other group’s sessions. This group liked the crabs even more, leading to their sudden arrival becoming a big subplot (even bigger when I get back to that system).
My second play group is kind of a unicorn, in that all of the current players are also GMs/DMs. They took the uplifted crab concept and ran with it, creating important NPCs and crazy encounters in their own games. Players I’ve never run a game for now have stories about this wild group of uplifted crustaceans. That’s the coolest shit ever, and it has inspired me to actually write up some mechanics to make them playable as PCs.
These rules are for 5th Edition D&D, and are a first draft. Let me know something’s terrible or too good. Note that they use some vocabulary from a game world I’ve been working on, a whalepunk-inspired island nation called Ascaphalus. If anyone wants to know about that, it can be a topic for another time.
A Pathfinder 2nd Edition Ancestry is on the horizon, but the need to match PF2e’s balance, as well as the need to make Heritages and Ancestry Feats, makes it a much more involved process. Enjoy!
Neocarcine
Victims (or beneficiaries?) of the encroaching Fog of Chaos, the Neocarcine are a new lineage of uplifted crabs. The protean magic of the Fog has granted the Neocarcine with sapience, and they’re using it to form a society at a breakneck pace. They’ve got an uphill scuttle ahead of them–they’re giant crabs in a world of fleshy, bipedal things–but if they have a chance anywhere, it’s the egalitarian meritocracy of Ascaphalus.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1 (If you’re using the ruleset from Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse, you may instead choose to increase one score by 2 and another by 1, or any three different scores by 1).
Age. Crabs of all ages were uplifted by the Fog. Neocarcine ages are expressed in moltings; like their non-sapient bretheren, the Neocarcine occasionally grow too big for their current exoskeletons, and must discard and regrow them.
Creature Type. You are a Beast. However, the chaotic magic that uplifted your species lingers in your very being, also making you Fey for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be Fey.
Size. Neocarcine are larger and wider than most humanoids, a result of their wide-legged stance and chitinous body. That said, you are still Medium. Aging or growth from raising your level may raise your size to Large, at the discretion of your DM.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Swim. You have a swimming speed of 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 discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Natural Armor. Your hard shell provides you a base AC of 17 (your Dexterity modifier doesn’t affect this number). You can’t wear any armor, but can equip a shield if you can grab it with your claw.
Crab Claws. You are proficient in Athletics, and have advantage on Athletics checks to crush objects in your claws. In addition, your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.
Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.
Languages. You can speak, read and write Common and Neocarcine, a cuneiform-like etched language easily produced by crab claws. You speak through a form of limited telepathy, speaking directly into the minds of your conversation partner.