Reef Singers will generally take things in good part and are always pleased to have someone perform for them. A feat of strength, a new song, or some well-turned trick of conjuring will win good-natured and enthusiastic applause. They prize being good-natured and the ability to laugh at one’s own mistakes. An easy way to upset them is to set oneself up as more important, or to be obviously wasteful either through excessive consumption leaving things uneaten or through destruction of property and beauty. These sorts of actions strike against the egalitarian and thrifty nature of these people.

Characters raised in the Reef Singer culture share a variety of traits in common with one another.

Coral Singer. Given access to warm water and sufficient nutrients, a coral singer can easily create a Haven for up to four creatures within 8 hours. Over the course of 24 hours of effort, the coral singer can expand this to up to 8 creatures keeping them warm and dry and safe from the elements. Further efforts are possible, but require monthly maintenance, care, and a great deal of food for the coral. Such efforts can, over the course of a year, provide a level 1 Encampment, Farm, House, Menagerie, Sacred Grove or Temple stronghold. Such a stronghold requires yearly maintenance by a reef singer lasting 1 week or it will fall into disrepair and lose its status as a stronghold.

Increasing the level of this stronghold or combining it with another stronghold is a task best designated by the Narrator and likely involves additional reef singers, alternate construction efforts, magic, or, most likely, all three.

Skills of the Seas. Choose two from the following list: Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, Culture, Medicine, Performance, Survival. You gain proficiency with the chosen skills. You also gain proficiency with water vehicles.

Coastal Weapon Training. You have proficiency with blowguns, nets, spear-throwers, and tridents.

Reef Craft. You are proficient with two of the following: carpenter’s tools, cook’s utensils, herbalism kit, leatherworker’s tools, mason’s tools, musical instrument, painter’s supplies, poisoner’s kit, sewing kit, tinker’s tools.

Languages. You can speak, read, write and sign in Common and Aquan, plus up to three others of your choice.

Coral reefs are more than colorful, stately structures—they are countless animals banding together and providing food, home, and protection to countless others. In turn, those who tend these reefs, too, exercise both teamwork and hospitality. Not only do these folk tend the coral, however, they are able to grow them at an astonishing rate.

Warm Ocean Builders and Travellers. The people of the Reef Singer culture are well known to enjoy traveling the warm parts of oceans, looking for areas that are naturally rich in nutrients and safe from storms, such as sheltered lagoons. When they find a suitable spot, they form nurseries of coral and begin to grow their reefs and atolls. Rather like caring for trees in an orchard, these people build fences around the coral to protect it from sea creatures and, after their work is done, they leave. Every year or so, they return, shaping the coral further to their liking and expanding and producing these rainforests of the sea such that fish, plants and other living things flourish there, making them ripe to be harvested again and again. The intricate structures they can make from coral are impressive, for they possess the art of coral-singing. This ability also allows them to create dwelling places, under the right circumstances.

Open Arms and Open Hearts. The reef singers are an open and gregarious people who freely adopt others of different heritages and consider them Reef Singers for purposes of marriage and inheritance. Bargains are struck by word of mouth and both sides are expected to adhere to them freely. However, writing down contracts is regarded as a grave insult and is considered tantamount to declaring either or both parties untrustworthy and seeking to cheat the other.

The singers’ social structure is fairly flat and while they can support specialists and artisans, the maximum size of their coral structures and their preference to build in shallow lagoons means that they often avoid building large cities. Some groups travel between several different islands and atolls over the course of a year or several years, checking and tending their sung-coral structures and leaving in time to allow the resources that have been depleted by their presence to replenish.

From the Depths. Reef singers believe their way of life originated in the deep song of the whales that cruise the long dark abyssal depths of the ocean, that in the before times all was chaos and churning water. There the whales sang to each other and the ground descended from above to split the water, eventually ending the chaos and bringing solidity to the world. At the side of the ocean were the great sandbanks. The whirling and swirling of the water over these sandbanks carved out strange and novel shapes. These shapes, filled with the deep song of the whales, became the first people, and with them the beasts of the air and land and sea.

Making a Splash. Reef singers have a wide variety of different ways to adorn themselves. Fabrics are useful for sails and providing warmth when coming in and out of the water, but for day-to-day use one of the more common features of reef singer culture is self-adornment using a specially bred (or magically altered) species of sea anemones as wigs or accessories. Unlike the hairpieces of humans, these sea anemones have their own sticking capability, but must also be fed regularly and regularly submerged in salt water to keep them healthy, fresh and clean. If neglected, they may wander off, which can be distressing for all concerned.

These coastal people also favor the use of shells, bits of coral, pearls, coconut shells, and sheets of tanned shark hide to create adornments for themselves. The brighter and more ornate the costume, the higher the status of the individual that has had the spare time and dedication to collect the pieces of their outfit, though even this status translates more to respect than true authority.

Siren Sounds of Surf and Sand. Reef singers favor shakers, horns, and bottles. They prefer to avoid most stringed instruments and other instruments that water and salt will warp and rust. The highest form of art is storytelling through dance, which captures the feel of flowing underwater. Some podes, with their ability to transform their skins into different colors, hone this talent to new heights, with the most talented performers able to produce kaleidoscopic, shifting multi-coloured and faintly glowing patterns of rings and stars. Galeoni and those of other heritages can and do mimic this effect with tattoos and glowing body paint.

Songs from outsiders are often a big hit due to their novelty value and frequently enjoy popularity with the younger podes. Such younglings have not developed sufficient skin control to lean into story-telling dances, but they can still weave their magic through coral in song and are always looking for fresh and exciting ways to practice.

Waste Not, Want Not. Greed and wastefulness are considered great social faux pas, and everything taken from the ocean must be used with respect. Each community is in frequent contact with others, but the coral cannot support great numbers, so the search for new locations can be frequent. This exposes them to the dangers of traveling into the unknown, so every member able is expected to use their resources wisely. To this end, a combination of hard muscle and soft paunch is admired, showing a prosperous individual capable of making long journeys.

High Seas? Highways! Reef singers have a very strong preference for travel via water. Decorative anemones need frequent watering, and why walk when you can sail or drift? It is a coming-of-age ritual in most reef singer groups for an adolescent to craft their own small, basket-like boats, similar to coracles. Those inclined to the craft continue their studies, but whether is obtained from an artisan or built by hand, to a reef singer decorating their craft is done with as much purpose and deliberation as adorning themselves and yearly competitions to judge the artistry of such ships are common.

Attitudes Towards Adventurers. Reef singers may come across adventurers in several ways, such as meeting them as they travel through the interstitial zone of the shallows between dry land and the high seas or greeting a party as they return to their seemingly abandoned homes as part of a routine migration. As described above, they happily offer their hospitality to visitors, but those seeking violence should beware—the sea is not kind, no matter its face, making reef singers a hearty folk more than capable of defending themselves if their welcoming nature is abused.

The result of planar shifts, teleportation spells gone wrong, and the power of malicious fey or monsters of dream, planar slumber causes a creature’s taxed mind to turn to sleep to recover from the acute sensation of being detached from reality. A creature suffering from planar slumber is impacted by the curse in two ways, both of which require it to make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw .

Firstly, the curse triggers each time they roll for initiative. On a failed, save the creature falls asleep and remains asleep until it takes damage or another creature uses an action to physically wake it. Secondly, the curse triggers when they attempt to take a long rest . On a failed save, the rest passes, but for the creatures it lasts only an instant and it only gains the benefits of a short rest .

After three consecutive successful saves, the curse is broken. A spellcaster with a spell available from the planar school may expend it to secure the affected creature to their current plane rather than for its usual effect. Doing so provides the target with a bonus equal to the level of the spell slot expended on any future saving throws against the slumber. Additionally, as a curse, planar slumber can be removed by the greater restoration spell.

As we mentioned in our latest character builder update over on the official Level Up website, we have a work-in-progress static character sheet to show you. This sheet is very much just a character sheet (it doesn't 'do' anything) and the layout and theming is still being tweaked, but it gives a sense of what a character on this tools site will look like--we're aiming for simplicity and functionality over graphical flourishes, so it won't get super-fancy.

So far we have some sample characters for you to look at. We'll be adding more soon.

Please remember, this is a work-in-progress. A lot of the links don't work (yet), but you can get a sense of how items on the sheet will link to their entries here on A5E.tools.

• Cenya Stonesinger (Elf Bard 1)
• Akanni (Human Adept 1)
  • Akanni (Human Adept 4)
• Zidi Wheatling (Halfling Fighter 1)
• Diamond (Planetouched Cleric 1)
• Gia (Planetouched Warlock 1)
• Captain Surrem Cobalt (Constructed Artificer 4)
• Dr. TikTok (Android Scientist 1)
• Sasha Bolotnikov (Human Scout 1)

• Archetypes || Apex | Ashborn | Colorseer | Contaminated Warrior | Cursed Claw | Cursehand | Egomolder | Eldritch Mentalist | Feyblood | Frostrunner | Heart-Eater | Humachinist | Laughing Death | Planestrider | Planewalker | Titan | Urbanite 
• Feats || Adapted | Aquestio  Diver |  Flexible Thinker | Guncaltan Skyglider | Ingenus Survivor | Enlarging Parasitism | Legacy of Ingens | Unnatural Size | Ostium Diver | Out of the Pit | Shining Soul | Thoughshaper | Vassal of Spades | Xyclonian Robustness
• Cultures || Fowl Turncoat | Mergian Migrator
• Heritages || Plantfolk
• Spells || Building Pressure | Conjure Shadows | Exposure of Drunath | Golden Weapon | Gravitoss | Impose Law | Interplanar Vision | Planar Disruption | Rapid Evolution | Sandblast | Skyward | Summon Forgotten God | Transform Head
• Planar Vehicles || Bootlegger | Cypsella | Fatenaught | Intrepid | Lapidary | Shadowspinneret | Valhalla Longship | Webjammer
• Webship Weaponry || Fateshot | Webber
• Planefaring Inns & Taverns
• Planar Arachnids || Blazing Spider | Cloud Spider | Littoral Spider | Geode Spider | Fateholder | Shadowspinner
• Other Monsters || Alpha Xenid | Beast Illusion | Belagon the Behemoth | Blazing Spider | Bookseer | Brainling | Building Mimic | Carrionettes | Celestial Illusion | Celestial Sabre-Toothed Tiger | Cloud Spider | Detritivore Larva | Dire Fly | Dune Scorpion | Echo Emperor | Elemental Illusion | Fey Illusion | Feywood Treeherd | Foundro | Geode Spider | Gidim Scout | Goatrilla | Greater Mimic | Knight of the Club | Knight of the Diamond | Knight of the Heart | Knight of the Spade | Knútadraugr | Limpocait | Littoral Spider | Magma Elemental | Metal Wolf | Monstrous Illusion | Nixie | Noble of the Club | Noble of the Diamond | Noble of the Heart | Noble of the Spade | Pale Striganes | Psionic Brain | Ravel Larva | Root | Rustshot | Shadow Pirate | Shadowspinner | Sisao | Smoke Elemental | Storm Elemental | Swarm of Mimics | Swift Sendriya | Terraforming Detritivore | Tragedian Actor | Undead Illusion | Unholy Huntmaster | Unravelled | Urban Detective
• Exploration Challenges || All Aboard! | Backside Terrain | City Cyclone | Danger Underfoot | Dry Patch | Gelatin Cloud | Gravitic Distortion Field | Melting Freeze | Pyroclasm | Spontaneous Portal Feedback | Xenid Sky Swarm
• Transitive Planes || Astral Seas | Ethereal Plane
• Elemental Planes || Carlton | Jesse | Mavisha | Urim
• Other Planes || Ambitio | Aquestio | Bleak Gate | Corzcunath | Cryos | Darakoa | Dreaming | Drunath | Dunesia | Far Realm | Feornal | Guncalta | Ingens | Inphasmada | Lexal | Luria | Mergia | Nülda | Objectio | Ostium | Pannerok | Plantasia | Resvree | Silyōna | Terrapolis | Valhal | Veskrollo | Wheel | Xyclione

Workshops (which contain a forge, tools, and workers) include armorers, weaponsmiths which forge swords and other weapons, carpenters, bakeries, or any other location where items are created or repaired. Workshops range from singleperson smithies to enormous factories which employ dozens of workers.

Stronghold Feat: Choose the type of workshop. You gain an expertise die on ability checks made to craft items in your workshop.

At Grade 2, any items you purchase from your workshop are considered fine quality, although you only need to pay the cost of a normal quality item.

At Grade 4, any items you purchase from your workshop are considered masterwork quality, although you only need to pay the cost of a normal quality item.

At Grade 5, you gain advantage on ability checks made to craft items in your workshop and the time required is reduced by half.

Best Suited For: Any

Minimum Size: 100 square feet (Grade 1)

Minimum Quality: Luxurious

Followers Available: Porter, smith, teamster, torchbearer