I want a playable merfolk D&D race (so I made one)

[@GinnyDi]

TO BE CLEAR (since our jokes apparently confused people!) this race is NOT gendered! Just wanted to make sure there were subraces with lots of different ~vibes~. 🐙 Check out the KRAKEN WEEK playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLsmjZYZs1ps3EB_GuzXKEEQWeODalde_o 🧜🏻‍♀ Download the MERFOLK race: drive.google.com/file/d/17rUHwWYWW5DcSb-n_Uup2UGSFIaBkHSH/view?usp=sharing

[@zvenlin]

Poseidon approves this message

[@Kholan95]

Is the playlist going to be opened up for other D&D content creators to add their stuff to? Or like, a Google Form to propose said videos with links when they drop...? It would make sense that only one or two folks updating the playlist could miss stuff/take a while.

[@GinnyDi]

@Kholan95 Pointy Hat and I are going to be keeping tabs and updating the playlist every day! We'll do our best to keep up, and folks can reach out to either of us if something gets missed.

[@leaguesmanoframsgate]

I wanted to come up with an addition because your stuff was so inspiring! Therefore, please accept this attempt at an additional subrace:- --- RIVERINE MERFOLK Even in the expansive underwater towns and cities of the merfolk, there are places that feel too small. Others, indeed, look upon the unparalleled vastness of the open ocean and feel too big. Across the world, there are communities of merfolk who rejected the embrace of the sea, instead roaming through river and stream to find a new home where they felt they could truly belong. These merfolk often take on appearances seen more often on terrestrial animals. While some might sport the glittering silver scales of a leaping salmon, others may have the heavy paddle of a beaver or the thick, powerful tail of a river otter. Riverine merfolk tend to live nomadic lives. Their wanderlust takes them across the surface world, seeing things most other merfolk can only dream about. They wander in small groups; a few families at most, often less. While they may seem solitary, riverine merfolk are never truly alone, for they have found kinship with terrestrial plants and animals. Some decide to use this power to bring peace, finding lost lambs or singing to lonely hilltop trees. Others use it strictly to survive, whispering to the forests they run through to track a wild stag for their group's meal. --- RAPIDS RUNNER If you are submerged in water for four hours or more during your long rest, you may take the Dash action as a bonus action both in your humanoid and merfolk form. This is in addition to the benefit provided by your Aquatic Affinity racial ability. In addition, you gain proficiency in the Athletics skill. STREAM CHATTER You may cast the spell Speak With Animals without expending a spell slot a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain these uses after you finish a long rest. You may cast this spell with any additional spell slots you possess. --- Hope you like it! =]

[@MostLikelyMortal]

As a bi guy, this race speaks to me in many ways

[@Josh_Wen]

“Mermaids: for men” sounds like a 3 in 1 conditioner, and I love it.

[@Babbling_Wizard]

Trademark pending

[@yes_hi_there]

I got a 3 in 1 conditioner ad when she said she needs a male perspective lol

[@duckman2443]

Or a short, under the sea version of 7 Brides for 7 Brothers.

[@steel5315]

*draws picture of sexy seal man* "Okay put me back in the closet now" That was 100% on purpose and I love it🤣🤣🤣

[@kylethomas9130]

Gotta be honest, the official stat block for the D&D wheelchair, made me want to play a merfolk who refuses to transform their tail into legs.

[@lued123]

This is the way it officially works in Pathfinder 2E. Howl of the Wild, the book that added the Merfolk ancestry, recommends giving Merfolk PCs a Supramarine Chair for free.

[@GinnyDi]

I love this idea!!

[@procrastinatinggamer]

@@GinnyDiThe book that lued123 mentioned in this comment thread had a really cool design for the supramarine chair that the merfolk in the book’s framing device has - it’s tall so she’s more “standing up” in it (though that may just be for increased water storage) and the levers she uses to turn the wheels work like boat oars.

[@ForDBssake]

​@@lued123I came into the comments to see how many people were talking about the PF2e ancestry and how good they are

[@lued123]

@@procrastinatinggamer KZbin won't let me link it, but if anyone is really curious to see the design of the chair, you can Google search, "paizo blog howl of the wild", click the first result, then scroll down to, "Meet the crew of the Zoetrope!" The character sheet for Lythea the Navigator shows her chair. Edit: Or just image search "pf2e lythea". That worked for me, but your algorithm might not pull it up that easily.

[@EcthelionOTF]

I LOVE this. An idea, if the Merfolk character dies in combat, the party LOSES their water-breathing. Making that character a core aspect of underwater adventure, and feeling like the center focus in a meaningful, thematic way that doesn’t step on the toes of other players

[@gabrielmunozbezerra9632]

Nice, time to protect the fish

[@shmee123ful]

ginny: why cant i play a mermaid triton: am i a joke to you yes, yes you are

[@GinnyDi]

🤡🐟 (Sorry, tritons)

[@templarw20]

@@GinnyDi not sorry. The fin feet look really goofy. Bad on land AND the water.

[@arellajardin8188]

That brief mention of Selkies reminded me of a very old character I had. I basically just played a human with webbed digits, but her entire motivation to adventure was based on Selkie folklore. Doffed her Seal skin for a fisherman, he stole it and sold it to a traveling merchant. Instead of just being his captive wife, I killed him, then set off to find my skin. Any town we went to, I'd check pawn shops, hunting lodges, collectors, anywhere a rare animal skin might end up. I adventured for money, so I could pay investigators (who frequently scammed me).

[@kat-sp2jm]

did she ever get it back D:

[@arellajardin8188]

@@kat-sp2jm Nope. In Selkie folklore, they would abandon everything if they got their skin back, returning to the sea immediately. If I had found my skin, it would have ended my character.

[@queenmarshmallow8013]

I mean kudos for you to keeping it accurate to folklore, but also you guys could've just said she enjoyed the party's company so much so stayed with them and swam whenever near a shore.

[@t3kscarecrow474]

I am a completely straight, cis male, and even I want to be a mermaid because being able to live underwater is cool and they're pretty

[@GinnyDi]

See, SOME men have taste! 😂

[@erikwilliams1562]

No, our oceans are terrifying. And that's not including the trash. Jaws has scared me for life

[@snips8108]

I too am extraordinarily these things and enjoy being a pretty mermaid

[@genericname2747]

​@@erikwilliams1562 Sharks are just idiots! You should be scared of dolphins!

[@fightingfalcon777]

I get you, dude. I’m a bi cis male, and I think it would be cool as hell to play a merfolk

[@kmagdeev]

Fun fact: pathfinder recently released a merfolk ancestry and its super cool. You can enchant people with magical singing or bite them with shark-like jaws. And yes, you can do both.

[@rainstorm-14]

🎶she's death and she's doom, she lives in you bathroom. Mermaid giiiiirlfriend🎵

[@dougmhd2006]

She's baaaaaaack!😮😅

[@philurbaniak1811]

Ooh, should we get takeout? I'll call a plumber 😄👌

[@rainstorm-14]

@@philurbaniak1811 her favorite!

[@TinyRobotED-tm9rs]

Heheh

[@commonviewer2488]

Don't get too close, she bites

[@smudge8466]

I've always wanted to play a merfolk who gets around on land NOT with magic legs and NOT with some special wheelchair, but instead with the power of MARTIAL ARTS. I think a fish lady scooting up to someone and beating the crap out of them with her bare hands is hilarious!

[@angeldude101]

Walking entirely on their hands, and then attacking by slapping people with their tail.

[@naten6981]

"What kind of merfolk would men like?" Ripjaws from ben 10. Tidal Merfolk works alright for this

[@GinnyDi]

Ripjaws is SUCH a good shoutout

[@jackofalltrades1594]

You have the best taste

[@nicklasdantes2471]

2 words ''street sharks''

[@Telleryn]

I'd also say the Naga from Warcraft works for both, aquatic serpentine eel people that can slither along on land on their tails and even stand upright on them

[@marcusreading3783]

Personally, I like just A little shork.

[@ne0w01f3]

Shark mermaid man is the power fantasy we all want

[@aestevalis0]

Orca.

[@trublgrl]

Mermaid with tail. Giant fishbowl. "Levitate" as a free cantrip. *BOOM!*

[@rafaszczawinski4103]

Or: four goblins carrying the fishbowl at all times.

[@trublgrl]

@@rafaszczawinski4103 Ugh, the chatter!

[@karmelllll]

Absolutely yes

[@warmachine5835]

Hear me out--fishbowl mech. Extremely technologically advanced, built robots/power armor for land use.

[@trublgrl]

@@warmachine5835 It's full of water! You want to electrocute the mermaid? Think, McFly, think!

[@minaly22]

Also wanted to add my two cents about the Water Breathing argument presented by Ginny in the video. In campaigns that do involve going underwater, the campaign book or the DM would then hand out water breathing magic items from air bubbles or potion/scroll of water breathing anyway. So having a character that has a feature for that doesn't break a setting's main obstacle at all. Nice skit as usual! Pointy Hat emerging and then being shoved back into a dusty cupboard was really funny 😂

[@wunnup3229]

The lore implications of the Ginny Di universe when we learn Pointy Hat just... LIVES IN HER CLOSET, APPARENTLY.

[@cgkase6210]

He's been hiding in there while they plan Kraken Week

[@wunnup3229]

@@cgkase6210 That makes more sense, but I prefer my new headcanon that they're roommates and nobody talks about it lol

[@Stormcaller3801]

@@wunnup3229 I was assuming that Pointy Hat uses closets as a sort of Planescape-esque network of portals to visit different content creators, but that works too.

[@JohnWilliams-cr2sz]

Oh I have the mental image of just all of Ginny's characters living in her house and just causing all sorts of chaos. The sitcom plots practically write themselves!

[@moraien3278]

She should be carefull. His familiar somtimes burn closets.

[@mangler2435]

As a man who wrote his master thesis on mermaids and sirens this speaks to me on a special level. LOVE all variants. 👏🏽😘👌🏽🧜🏽‍♂️🧜🏽‍♀️🌊 Not that it should matter, but I'm bi leaning more for guys.

[@starscream71288]

The PointyHat portion was perfectly interrupted with an ad featuring Jeff Goldblum, and I honestly didn't catch that it was an ad for an embarrassing amount of time

[@GinnyDi]

😂😂😂

[@pattheplanter]

I didn't get that ad. Did it mention the price of a Jeff Goldblum?

[@graywolfdracon]

I got a political ad instead.

[@3nertia]

@@pattheplanter I believe he would cost one, ahem, "Goldblum" xD

[@CaitlinKoi]

8:00 A great balance for the overpowered water breath would be disabling the use of fire ball while submerged in water

[@kayleyanna3164]

Honestly, as a disabled ttrpg player, the idea of a mermaid traversing the land in a wheelchair or something similar is very fun to me. Happy disability pride month everyone ❤

[@misterthegeoff9767]

If you haven't already come across it the combat wheelchair rules by Mark Thompson are a boon to anyone wanting to keep their tail on land.

[@myname8035]

Agreed, it would be great fun for wheelchair and/or other mobility aid users to be represented in d&d with a merfolk race that doesn't transform. Maybe coastal towns with a large community of costal merfolk living nearby are more wheelchair accessible too! (Would also work bc docks often need to wheel/lift things around) Damn, now I want it to be Canon... Happy disability pride to you too! ❤

[@misterthegeoff9767]

@@professorhal8098 as a queer disabled person nah I'm cool with getting 2 months instead (but yeah seriously some more intersectionality would rock, disabled people can have a hard time with protest marches)

[@PlatformingCyndaquil]

I have the same problem.

[@spongecakes1986]

Monster High did this before. He wasn't a big character, but there was a really cool short with him. He was like an adrenaline junkie and the girls were super worried about him and didn't want to tell him about Skulltimate Roller Maze (the school's biggest sport) because it's super dangerous and they knew he'd like it, because they thought he'd hurt. Then Clawd tells him about it and the girls get mad at him, but he quickly reminds them that he thought the same thing when they wanted to play, but they proved him wrong. They talk to the mermaid dude and he tells them that while he appreciates that they want to look out for him at his new school, he's not as fragile as they think, and it's his choice to do things that people with legs can do, no matter how dangerous it is. If people with legs can play the sport despite the danger, he can, too. Even though he's not a big character, I think the short is a really cool piece of representation that there wasn't a lot of at the time (or even now honestly) and a great lesson to teach kids.

[@codex_jinora]

I've been DYING since 2015 to be able to play my half-siren in a D&D setting, and this is PERFECT. Ginny I knew you were a mermaid fan but this is genuinely the best present you could've given to the community. I love this so much I could cry.

[@krysbingham2501]

Ngl, I love going by flavor of Luca. There's no downsides to being out of water, but the fish traits go away when they are dry and they look like humans until they get water dumped on them again. Sure, people know about them but if a specific merfolk that wants to blend in, that's a perfect way... just they also have a tail to swim with this.

[@GinnyDi]

I think involuntary transformation is interesting, but it would be a major downside for a merfolk PC that other races don't have to deal with! I am not super into the idea of giving just ONE race a huge achilles heel. although of course, I am all for doing whatever each player & their table thinks will be fun! It's just not something I'd write into the race.

[@krysbingham2501]

@@GinnyDi Oh yeah, definitely not for everyone's table, just something that stuck out with how modern media like H20 and Luca that in my head with a potential flavor and aesthetic. At least the involuntary bit in Luca is a little more wieldy since there's legs and a tail involved. I'd go for it but that's just a me thing for a potential game in the future so the homebrew helps. Also check out Under the Seas of Vodari sometime, you'd have fun because its got rules for entirely aquatic campaigns you'd adore

[@speculativemusings3593]

I had an NPC based on Ariel in my first campaign. She was a Feylost Simic Hybrid Fathomless Warlock. The idea was that she was a mermaid that got trapped in the Feywild, made a deal with her patron, Ursula, to escape, and now serves as Ursula’s errand-girl until she pays off her debt. To facilitate this, her tail was swapped for legs, and she has tentacle hair (her Feylost trait). She can extend her hair to grab things and help her climb (her Simic Hybrid traits). I included her as an intended rival for my friend’s Fairy character, because I knew she liked the movie. What I didn’t expect was that the two would start flirting because my friend liked the pairing so much. Oh well, roll with the dice you’re given, right?

[@hellothere2570]

3:50 I'm not quite sure why but when you said "victorian style mermaid tanks" I thought of military tanks so I just pictured a merperson driving through a small Victorian village in a full on armored tank

[@purpleniumowlbear2952]

This is really cool. I think I’d consider making the water breathing ability give characters a 30 foot swim speed, or an increase of +30 feet if they already had a swim speed though. This means that your triton party member will like you for buffing his preexisting swim speed, rather than being annoyed that you just made the 35ft/round wood elf better at swimming than him.

[@GinnyDi]

Great point!

[@trise2033]

Wouldn't that just make it so a party of merfolk would swim infinitely fast if they all made out together while doing it?

[@MemoryPhaseStudios]

How about +10 to swim speed if they already have one like Aquatic Affinity?

[@purpleniumowlbear2952]

@@MemoryPhaseStudios yeah, you’re right. +30 is too much. 30 or +10 would be more refined.

[@AnnikaOakinnA]

@@trise2033 you say that like it's a bad thing!

[@johnnyappleseed621]

Just wanted to say thanks to you and pointy hat for creating this event. I have been introduced to several content creators that I had not heard of before because of it. Well done!

[@ardentslacker]

I... suddenly am gripped with a desire to be a pretty green-haired steampunk siren artificer with her own custom-built motorbike! (And a ring of free action. Hey, it removes "can't swim" penalties for two-legs underwater, it should remove disadvantage for "not actually legs" on land!) Vrrrrm... vrrrm. And then thank the GM for putting up with me building a... mechanic pixie dream mergirl.

[@andresmarrero8666]

Does the bike also run on sea water and has see through sections so that one can see the water flowing through the contraption?

[@savingpyro]

Please make the bike look like the "bikes" from Atlantis!

[@GwenActually]

this sounds cool af

[@TheRhetoricGamer]

Go further than that and make a mech! In Pathfinder, I made an inventor merfolk, red-haired with a lionfish pattern, that rides a mech made from scrap and a broken apparatus of the crab. The cockpit functions like an aquarium to keep her comfortable and hydrated.

[@ardentslacker]

@@andresmarrero8666 It does now! ^_^

[@gabrielmartinspedra5598]

Ginny and Pointy named this entire week named after a tentacled creature and are paying the price for it. Also, Atop the Rock supremacy.

[@luiseveigel849]

Getting roasted by yourself in a mermaid costume while explaining mermaids sounds like a fever dream. It also makes great content, apparently 😂❤. I love this video a lot

[@GinnyDi]

Sometimes the scripts just write themselves 😅

[@XX-dw7lm]

This video made it click for me that I’ve been listening to your music for years! I just found your channel a few weeks ago. It’s crazy because I listened to two song on repeat for probably months in college and I had imagined the voice attached to a monstrous but beautiful mermaid siren thing and you just seem so sweet 😂

[@DastardlyDnD]

Thank you both for setting this up! Love me some pirates and sea monsters! Love this concept for a merfolk race, and the surprise guest was fun!

[@GinnyDi]

I don't know if you mean Undertow or Pointy Hat, but I suppose my response of "they've been taking up space in my house, they might as well pull their weight!" applies either way 😂

[@chadharris979]

This is pretty cool; both the mermaid playable races and Kraken Week with a variety of creatives collaborating on a theme. Amazed how you all support each other. This is what a community looks like.

[@benjamincortez4259]

Wow. The last time I was this early, the kraken hadn’t even been unleashed yet.

[@DndNate-qs1fz]

Now I want to make a panda race

[@staysilly9106]

you are so cool and have always been a HUGE inspiration for me- both as a DM and as a player. im so excited to see you participate in Kracken-Week, and im absolutely blown away by your creativity!!

[@goodeveningtalos]

The "naur" really got me 🤣

[@AfroditeBell]

Saaaame!!

[@kleverkitsune4363]

I have literally been working on setting up a Merfolk race for my own setting for what feels like ages, but never really knew where to go with it. Feeling very inspired after this, especially the mermaid's breath ability.

[@MisterDiceGuy]

The moment the you began rattling off shows I'm like "Incoming Naur!"

[@endorsedbryce]

Googling this doesn't reveal anything.

[@GinnyDi]

@@endorsedbryce The eldritch texts are too ancient 🧜‍♀

[@endorsedbryce]

@@GinnyDi D=

[@cherylrosbak4092]

Yes! I've been thinking recently about an entirely underwater campaign -- everyone's merfolk, just flavoured the way the usual species are.

[@jadethest0ne]

The whole "needing to make this for a man" thing is ironic, cuz the one player of mine that I was thinking this was perfect for (before you brought in pointyhat), is a man. "The Thirteenth Year" is your classic merfolk story with a boy as the main character, and also one of my player's favorite films. Either way, thank you, I shall be scooping this up for my game table!

[@Vibgyor6]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make this for everyone!! I know I’ll definitely be using this to decorate the port town I have planned in my campaign as well as the ocean!

[@AMoniqueOcampo]

I honestly thought that a male merfolk would be akin to Aquaman. That can basically be as silly or as badass as the player chooses. Dude is king of the sea for a reason!

[@GinnyDi]

LEGS 😤

[@DanielTaber-p7f]

Aquaman is a Triton, down to being able to speak with fish.

[@SG_01]

I was thinking the same thing, but then I realized that it is probably easier to turn him into a ranger subclass mechanically than a race.

[@templarw20]

@@GinnyDi Sidon!

[@bskec2177]

"PC3 Sea People" is a Basic D&D supplement with rules for underwater movement, spellcasting, and aquatic character races, including merfolk (they are called merrow here). It was printed in 1990, and there are free pdf's available online if you know where to look. Basic rules were different than 5e though - it used what is now referred to as the "race as class" system. That would mean an elf is an elf, and gains levels in being an elf, instead of class levels - and that applies to the character races in this book as well. It's all fairly easily modified to work in 5e however, and includes some sample encounters and adventure ideas. Species include Tritons, Aquatic elves, Merrow, Kna (8ft tall humanoid Koi fish), Kopru (looks a little like if an illithid was a merfolk, but eels for tails -also pyschic), Sea Giants, Shark-kin (sahuagin rip offs), and Nixies. Sea Giants are powerful, but every other race swims, and giants have to walk on the sea floor, so they're a little balanced (imagine playing where all the other PC's and monsters fly and you can't, but you're also 20 ft tall). Also, Basic balanced races by XP requirements for leveling up, and powerful races can start at negative levels. Your Sea Giant character would start adventuring as a child.

[@thenightranger987]

I’m in a high seas campaign right now and half of our players are the same homebrew race called the Okenasi, which is a sort of shapeshifting merfolk that can be any sort of sea animal (one person is playing an octopus-human and another is a dolphin-human). They can switch between having legs and having other animal parts, but need to have a certain amount of water to stay human for a long time. Also don’t be too hard on yourself about the whole tentacle thing. That campaign had a magical item that was unironically called the Tentacle Rod.

[@splatman7300]

In case you weren’t aware already, the tentacle rod is unfortunately a legit dnd item

[@soap6035]

This video was so unique!!!! I really enjoyed it, and I want to comment for engagement I will be sharing this everywhere to help out! I really liked the style and execution of this video! Happy Kraken week!!

[@GhostWolf743]

The Pointy Hat cameo was a pleasant surprise! Feel free to have more community cameos in the future!

[@GinnyDi]

oh don't worry, I already feel quite free to do whatever I want on my channel 😜 this is Pointy Hat's third cameo in my videos, actually!

[@georgewarburton7482]

There’s potions that let people breath underwater, there should be potions that let mermaids swim in air. Maybe like daily meds to give them weightlessness, give air viscosity, and allow breathing of said air.

[@georgewarburton7482]

When you realize that we are all living under an ocean as well (the atmosphere is a “fluid” ocean of gas with different densities) this would be very cool

[@LeeCarlson]

When you mentioned the various media with merfolk, I thought of "Siren." However, it occurs to me that designs for the "combat wheelchair" lend themselves to folk without legs. I might also place some limitations on the Water Breathing, such as linking its duration to the tides and limiting the number of targets to the merfolk's level.

[@GinnyDi]

Giving a mermaid a combat wheelchair instead of (or along with!) a transformation ability is GENIUS and I wish I'd thought of it! That's so good!!

[@lebunnisk6389]

I feel like a really good idea for the merfolk race is them being able to "swim" through the air as if in the water, Merfolk are supposed to be magical like all the other races so i feel like a sub-race maybe mixed with a fairy of some kind using their magic to swim in the air is pretty cool and i love the idea

[@AlbertaGeek]

My homebrew merfolk also transform to legged, have blind sight that only works when underwater (for those deep and/or murky seas), resistance to cold-based attacks, and advantage on any roll involving the effects of coldness from spells or the environment.

[@droidgeist]

The first of those is really cool. Love that idea. I think that would be perfect for Ginny's Deepwater subrace. Might make less sense for the others.

[@AlbertaGeek]

@@droidgeist I understand what you're saying, but I'm basing the ability on a very real sense that all fish have courtesy of their _lateral line organ,_ or LLO. Perhaps deep-sea variants would have a greater sensory range, though.

[@droidgeist]

@@AlbertaGeek That's really interesting! Never knew that, and that's a strong argument for giving them all it. Having said that, D&D often limits senses to create differentiation - average cats don't have darkvision for example.

[@ryancowell9382]

You pretty much nailed on the head why I was always hesitant to use/play as merfolk. But now??? THIS LINEAGE

[@convalaria]

I have actually been wanting to play a mermaid for a while (my current pc is a triton, you can see i’m doing my best) so this is amazing

[@GinnyDi]

Yess join me 🙌

[@misterthegeoff9767]

one of my recent PCs was a triton pirate with a scary mermaid girlfriend because I couldn't make a playable mermaid on dndbeyond so I feel you there

[@HybridDom]

1) Thank you for pioneering Kraken Week. 2) This was inspiring. 3) Will recommend these ideas to others 4) Would love to see you all do this again next year and maybe even do a one shot game.

[@TheGIJew.]

The mermaid stuff sounds great, but the most interesting lore drop in this video is that Pointy Hat lives in Ginny's closet

[@PandamaticBreakcore]

I've been working on a fully aquatic race for a science fiction game and it turns out everything about living underwater is strange. Light, sound, motion, all wind up working differently. Sound, for example, travels much more quickly and farther - in fact it travels so fast that the human brain can't do it's little ear-differential calculation and determine which direction a sound is coming from underwater. Plus! There is a specific water layer where temperature stops dropping (this happens at around 4 C) but it grows increasingly dense - this causes sound waves to be bounced off the top and bottom of a sort of sound channel, which refocuses the waves and lets them travel many kilometers farther than they normally could. Humans have listening devices down at that depth for spying purposes, and I'm sure any underwater intelligence would take advantage of this sort of feature. There's tons of weird shit down in the ocean!

[@brentage5000]

Love this! Im currently part of an underwater campaign and one of our players actually is a mermaid, and that's in addition to actually mermaiding IRL.

[@GinnyDi]

Living the DREAM! 🧜‍♀️🥰

[@carlieenglish995]

Way to out me lmfao

[@Fangirltothefullest]

I LOVE all of these and the underwater breathing kiss is a nice touch. Now I'm just imagining river merfolk that are very otter-like or crocodile-esque. They have the tails and the transformation abilities but one is very reptilian, and the other is mammalian. Interesting storytelling possibilities too if there are merfolk that are afraid of landfolk, merfolk that are curious about them, merfolk that emulate landfolk, merfolk that coexist for mutual benefit at docks and river towns....

[@corbyrobinson3640]

"First of all, stop interupting me..." Hilarious.

[@ContractAaron]

This was hilarious - loving all of the Kraken week content. I don’t think the ability is OP at all, it just opens up another environment for play, and makes the mer-player fill a role. Terrific job!

[@thedocklighter]

_Swim through Air,_ settling if motionless. One example of custom Merfolk-oriented spells. Ritual to imbue legs for a day, requiring a long rest in water. Just a little willing creativity to carry off.

[@PinkLightnan]

This is really cool!! My main dnd character for the past few years is a merfolk monk! We just used variant human as the base and made the leg/tail switching basically happen automatically when his legs are submerged. Only mechanic things that changed was he can obviously breathe underwater and his swim speed was inherently double the normal swim speed. I love the idea of incorporating sub-races of merfolk or some sort of inherent magic with them too.

[@BlossomRaique]

I've always wanted a mermaid race and now you've made one, this is awesome!!

[@vamphunterx]

Good job on this. I understand exactly what it is to want a specific thing like Merfolk and not other water based things. Good job on making traversal on land simple, and the bonus for spending some time in water instead of a janky water requirement that eventually kills your character. Love the 1/day Water Breathing. To some it may seem overpowered, but who cares. Its cool and thematic for Mermaids to ask their friends to join them "Under the Sea" And as a very manly man, every time I've played a merfolk character, they were a pretty princess of the waves and loved by everyone

[@thebienderman4848]

4:35 I love how you pulled a muscle to bring someone down 2 flights of stairs for someone who can walk😂😂

[@volosguidetomonsters3440]

hodor

[@Neuvost]

why was it two flights of stairs tho? how deep do Ginny's basements go?

[@TreantmonksTemple]

"I've been a little salty." Nicely played Ginny, nicely played.

[@martiraz]

Now this is such a wonderful blessing for me. I'm running a pretty homebrewed campaign focused around a large island ocean continent, and quite a lot is going to feature and happen around water, so having a new race of merfolk as this will greatly help me. I LOVE IT. This solves several of my issues and has imedeatly opened new doors and given me extra inspiration, cant wait to use it.

[@SecondEllis]

I really appreciate your digression to talk about the balance of giving a character a level 3+ spell at level 1. That's the kind of nuance of design that's really easy to miss. Similarly, the Aqua Affinity ability is really cleverly designed. It grants a bonus that's not going to give the player FOMO in a desert. In places where it's hardest to achieve, it's least likely to be relevant. You require the time in water to be during a rest which is also a great idea because if it can be 4 hours at any point, the player might be encouraged to divert the party to let them take a bath in the middle of the day and interrupt play. The fact that there is still a mechanical benefit serves to remind the player to interact with their species' peculiarities, and the rules are short and simple (unlike this paragraph). It's a perfect little feature! I'm curious what the intent was with the Deepwater Mermaids and tentacles on land. The tentacular casting feature implies they're walking on their tentacles on land, and I kinda like that idea. I'm sure there's a cool way to flavor that feature if they have legs too.

[@nivthefox]

Missed opportunity: the bonus action swap should be "Land Legs", as a joke on Sea Legs, because the default state is to have the tail.

[@tombratcher6938]

"Land fins"?

[@leafscaer4710]

Planeshift, has merfolk(with sub-races), vampires, sirens, dog people, bird people (with sub-races), naga, space elementals?, and sky islanders.

[@jb-qc2jl]

Was gonma say glad i'm not the only one who thought about that

[@bealikestodraw]

Ginny, istg not too long ago my brain thought of this concept and you just made it so much easier. K.J.(my character) I ended up making after buying the PDF document for An Elf and an Orc had a little Baby. They're basically a merfolk/elf rogue but their mermaid half is actually kraken and their tail is actually octopus tentacles in the water. The fact that you up and made this feels more than coincidental. 😅

[@comridleyw9679]

I really like these implementations of merfolk races, especially the way Aquatic Affinity gives you some edge in the water over other races even if your entire party wears Cloaks of the Manta Ray. I guess if you really want to go all out, you could add some sort of "Merfolk quirks" similar to the ones that Lizardfolk get, just to reflect a bit that even with legs, your Merfolk character is a bit out of their element when they're outside of water.

[@Eruvadhril]

"Being stuck with a mermaid tail would make it really difficult to adventure." Supramarine chair baybee!

[@LaineyBug2020]

I like your idea of different cultures because the ocean is so big. It's like the different pods of orcas that use unique methods to hunt unique prey depending on where they live.

[@rileymarie1940]

One of my favourite parts of being a DM is giving players freedom and creating homebrew lore. If someone wants to play a non-official character build, go for it! If there aren't pre-written rules for whatever thing, we collaborate and make them! I know not all folks enjoy designing new races but this is just what works for us!

[@TechtonixZi]

the oceanfolk in my homebrew can conjure a bubble of water to float around in. I worked it out so legless types can get around, thinking of it like a water wheelchair. As long as the location isn't boiling hot, it let's them hover about a foot off the ground, is between 10-30 gallons, and can be salt or fresh water. Yes it can be drinkable, or breathable. Can only be cast X times equal to the Con Mod +1 to a minimum of 1. Recharges after a long rest.

[@robertdean52]

One challenge to having merfolk characters underwater is that the tactical combat would be inherently three-dimensional. Reaper alone has plenty of minis, but but using them properly is a different story.

[@alltat]

You can avoid that problem by having most of the combat happen in a underwater caves or ruins, or fairly shallow water.

[@Tinalles]

One of my favorite characters ever was Pirin, a merfolk sorceress built for a very high level Pathfinder 1e one-shot. She got around in a Cauldron of Flying which I declared transparent for role play purposes. It had some colorful rocks and a small castle at the bottom. She had a stupidly high AC and focused on enchantment spells. That session was a lot of fun. Also in PF 1e, I've long toyed with the notion of building a merfolk monk. Monks in PF 1e get lots of bonuses to their movement speed, and you can make unarmed strikes with any portion of your body. So he would walk around on his hands and fish-slap people with his own tail. Sadly I've never been in a game where a concept that goofy would really work.

[@edgar-sama642]

A more animalistic mermaid that can transform is a really cool idea, like Ripjaws from Ben 10

[@terence7025]

1:55 "land folk almost never encounter them" that we (land dwellers) know about. If they look human (or elven, or fae... etc) how would we know? Also don't forget the silkies (cold water, curvey, furry), the fresh water lakes and rivers (same as their sea kin but less salty and maybe druid friendly), and under-dark (horrors of the deep).

[@terence7025]

And yes I saw that the Tidal-mer were silkie like, but they don't change form, and that was a key point in the song about the silkie.

[@paszczar3352]

Two of my favorite youtubers drop a video at the same time. Omg thank you and pointy hat for being so amazing❤

[@GinnyDi]

I hope you enjoy Kraken Week!! 🦑

[@michellethomas6494]

I have brought up this vid so many times to my friends in the last week.Not because of anything having to do with mermaids, but bc the idea of using possitive reinforcement to help guide the players into doing thing benifical to their character, rather than negative. it has completely made me rethink how i wanna run my games.

[@yiklongtay6029]

Pointy hat hit the nail on the head. Give men the tools to use whatever metal as hell animal they want to look cool

[@PeteRepeatYT]

Shoutout to the writing in this episode - your videos are typically well written anyway, but the jokes in this one really landed, the pacing and editing of those jokes was great, it just seemed even better than usual! Not to mention that you’ve actually made me want to play a merfolk now…

[@Emil-Roma]

What a cool idea for a collaboration. As someone obsessed with the sea (I wanted to be like Steve Irwin but for the ocean as a kid), Kraken week made me crack he biggest smile.

[@davidm9612]

"Steve Irwin but for the ocean" you mean Jeremy Wade??

[@crunchylettuce]

pun intended?

[@noahrice3362]

Yeah, seriously, why are there so few options for Underwater gameplay in D&D? Glad to see this is becoming a thing now. Very happy to have shark week make its mark! And wow, was that pointy hat cameo awesome! I’ve started popping in on more of your videos lately, I’ve gotta say, I love the extra performance aspect you add to it, even if I don’t particularly care for the diva type. I’ll definitely be back here more often.

[@lued123]

Pathfinder 2E recently added an official Merfolk ancestry (race in d&d), with several heritage (subrace) options, and they established that the existing wheelchair rules can be used to let them up onto land.

[@pinkcupcake4717]

That's what I was thinking, I don't need to homebrew this in PF2, it's official content!

[@duncanmacneil4759]

Great job, giving the group water breathing is a way to allow the other players to be part of the story with out being at a huge disadvantage where they wouldn't want to join the adventure.

[@nathanlamberth7631]

Oh I'm definitely playing a deepwater merfolk that works as a masseuse. He's offered his services back home for years, but now his client base has begun to wane pushing him to travel abroad for new clients.

[@sendi_sen]

I think an under explored type of merfolk are ones that are closer to dolphins and whales. I’d love to see the third type to have blowholes that are to the back of their head, with larger eyes further up and to the side. Those feature make evolutionary sense to me and would be the reason they have high base perception: - Eyes being further apart on the “corners” of their head would give greater field of view. - Larger eyes allow them to focus better with one eye when they can’t turn their head towards something. - Their nose being at the back of their head lets them keep their heads down underwater, and as the nasal passages would need to go around their spine there would be two quite separate holes. They may also be able to close them independently, but either way they’d be able to hold their breath for ages, giving a benefit to toxic air. - Littoral waters are often murky, so they have sonar sense, which would give them the ability to sense how big a space is, along with generally knowing where others are around them at all times. But all this comes at a cost: - Out of water their big eyes need to be constantly moisturised, and more generally being out in bright light strains their eyes. - Busy places are hard for them as they’re perceiving all the things all the time. Okay, I’ve convinced myself. I need to fully build this out and play one as a monk.

[@droidgeist]

There are so many cool mythical creatures from real world mythology that aren't a prominent part of D&D: - Jorogumo: Spider demons from Japanese folklore that can transform into beautiful women to lure victims. - Encantados: Shape-shifting dolphin spirits from South American folklore that can turn into humans. - Leprechauns: I know halflings exist, but they're closer to hobbits than leprechauns. - Nymphs & Dryads: they have such a prominent place in numerous mythologies - the fact that they're not playable races is crazy to me.

[@TheRoseWolf]

"achkually" dryads are a type of nymph, so it's something. I agree on the fact that they're not playable is absurd, though

[@Eruvadhril]

Season of Ghosts has some interactions and negotiation with a jorogumo NPC, and she's a very cool character. I'd definitely like to see more of her.

[@droidgeist]

@@TheRoseWolf Nymphs and Dryads aren't real creatures - there's no formal taxonomy for them. Just because websites like Wikipedia choose to group them together under the same umbrella, it doesn't mean that's how they always have to be perceived.

[@droidgeist]

@@Eruvadhril Haven't heard of that but it sounds cool. I'll have to check it out now!

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

I want to be a hot spider demon lady!

[@LunarSyndicate]

THANK YOU! In one of my games I created a town that's half on land and half underwater with a kind of Venice vibe where humans and merfolk live in harmony. It was really cool to think about how such cultures would develop. For example there was a restaurant that had tidepools connected together under the floor for the merfolk waiters and customers where they could swim up to the tables and share dinner with human friends.

[@marcusreading3783]

...I feel called out. I just want a tentacle mermaid because I love the aesthetic!

[@waywardh9528]

Mhmm, sure

[@ShallieDragon]

I love everything about this! Thank you for making something so cool! Also gonna check out the other creators.

[@doggosplosion]

DQ11 had one of the best Merfolk Kingdoms I have played in a game and a mechanic to visit it repeatedly. On a D&D note, I think I mounted seahorse mermaid cavalry would be a ton of fun to play.

[@worksbeforedeath]

Your timing on this is so convenient! I was working on building a merfolk race for my world that was created by Posiedon to protect the seas. We have very similar ideas on Merfolk, including the Deepwater Merfolk!!!! As a dude as well, I love the Tidal Merfolk too and will be implementimg it.

[@willbrashear]

That poor neighbor with the loud motorcycle if they ever see the video... he probably okayed it.

[@matthewpopow6647]

I always like the Merrow from the Mtg Lorwyn/Shadowmoor setting (a setting without oceans but COVERED in rivers). They are mechents, messengers, spies, assassins. They dont get legs but can travel on land with minor difficulty because their tails let them slither.

[@bercechillyfinger]

My sister loves you so much. Keep up the great work you’re doing good.

[@moonbells9225]

oh this is getting added to the list of accepted homebrew in my ocean world D&D setting immediately. i mean IMMEDIATELY, it's already in the list accessible to my players, i made the announcement before this comment. thank you and bless you for sharing this for free!

[@s0ulwind]

This is why 3.5 rules. We *had* playable mermaids, lol!

[@link090909]

PF2e has it now! Just saying ;)

[@vamphunterx]

​@@link090909nobody wants to play jankfinder 2

[@Nalehw]

Great justification for Merfolk's Breath! My one objection here is that the benefit of Aqua Affinity is faster swim speed... It's encouraging you to spend time in water, but giving a reward that only matters if you're already around lots of water anyway. If the party - with their terrible taste - insist on heading inland, so that you're unlikely to encounter any swimming, then you lose any incentive to start doing the bathtub stuff! Maybe it could give +10 (or even just +5) to land speed too? Or some other minor benefit?