Quillkin

Quillkin are stout, deliberate folk covered from crown to tail in a dense mantle of banded quills. Where other peoples answer violence with violence, a quillkin simply endures it and lets the aggressor pay the toll on the way in. They are patient, unhurried, and famously hard to push around, a temperament shaped by never having needed to run from much of anything.
They keep to woodland burrows, root-cellars, and the undersides of old bridges, emerging at dusk to forage. Quillkin culture prizes stubbornness as a virtue: debts are settled slowly, grudges are held politely, and a quillkin who has decided to sit somewhere is, for all practical purposes, part of the furniture. Most other races find them oddly restful company, right up until the moment someone tries to shove one.
A quillkin's quills are their signature, their armory, and their vanity. Patterns are read like heraldry, a stranger's markings tell a quillkin where they were born and roughly how much trouble they are.

Quill Markings

Roll a d8 to determine the markings of your quills:

d8	Markings
1	Ashbanded: Soot-grey quills ringed in charcoal, the mark of a lowland burrow lineage.
2	Copperspine: Your quills catch firelight like polished wire.
3	Frostcap: White-tipped quills that lift stiffly in cold weather.
4	Inkdipped: Pale quills ending in blots of near-black.
5	Split-Crest: A permanent gap in your crest, left by an old and memorable disagreement.
6	Mossgrown: Lichen genuinely grows on your back quills. You have named some of it.
7	Rattler: Your quills click audibly when you are annoyed. You are frequently annoyed.
8	Gilded: You decorate your quills with rings, beads, and dangling trophies.

Ability Score Increase#

One ability score of your choice increases by 2, and another increases by 1.

Age#

Quillkin reach maturity at 15 and rarely live past 80.

Alignment#

Quillkin lean neutral. They are slow to take sides and slower to change them.

Creature Type#

You are a Humanoid.

Size#

You stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and are built low and heavy. Your size is Medium.

Speed#

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision#

Accustomed to foraging after dusk, 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.

Languages#

You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Barbed Reprisal#

Your quills punish anyone who closes with you. When a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a melee attack, it takes piercing damage equal to your proficiency bonus.

Bristling Hide#

You have advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to escape a grapple or to avoid being restrained by a creature. While you are grappled by a creature, that creature takes piercing damage equal to your proficiency bonus at the start of each of its turns.

Defensive Curl#

As a bonus action, you can tuck in your head and limbs and curl into a bristling ball. While curled, Barbed Reprisal deals piercing damage equal to twice your proficiency bonus instead of your proficiency bonus.
You can still move by rolling, using your speed as normal, but you can't take actions other than to uncurl, and you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.
You can uncurl using an action on your turn, and you uncurl automatically if you fall unconscious.

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Tags:piercingbonus actionmelee attackgrappledhumanoiddarkvisionadvantagedisadvantagesaving throw