Triton

Tritons guard the ocean depths, building small settlements beside deep trenches, portals to the elemental planes, and other dangerous spots far from the eyes of land-bound folk. Long-established guardians of the deep ocean floor, in recent years the noble tritons have become increasingly active in the world above.
Tritons have a strong morality that often drives them into conflict with evil creatures. Tritons despise cruelty and corruption, and few matters can unite tritons like the presence of powerful evil in the area.
Tritons train conscientiously, refining their tactics and learning to work as a team. They diligently tame aquatic animals such as dolphins and giant seahorses to act as mounts. While tritons hate all evil creatures, they have a particular enmity for aboleths and krakens. Undersea communities plagued by these horrors sometimes send word to triton bands for help, and triton kraken slayers respond as quickly as possible.

Haughty Nobles

As a result of their isolation and limited understanding of the Material Plane, tritons can come across as haughty and arrogant. They see themselves as caretakers of the sea, and they expect other creatures to pay them deep respect, if not complete deference.
This attitude might grate on others, but it arises from a seed of truth. Few know of the tritons’ great victories over dreadful undersea threats. The tritons make little allowance for such ignorance and are delighted to expound upon the great debt others owe them.
Tritons also have a tendency to emerge from their isolation under the assumption that other folk will welcome them as respected allies and mentors. Again, distance drives much of this attitude. The tritons’ limited view of the world leaves them ignorant of the kingdoms, wars, and other struggles of the surface world. Tritons readily see such concerns as minor events, a sideshow to the tritons’ role as the world’s true protectors.

Staunch Champions

Despite their off-putting manners, tritons are benevolent creatures at heart, convinced that other civilized races deserve their protection. Their attitude might grate, but when pirate fleets prowl the waves or a kraken awakens from its slumber, they are among the first to take up arms to protect others.
Tritons readily sacrifice themselves for the common good. They will fight and die for humans, merfolk, and other creatures without question. Their self-absorbed nature makes them overlook the history of other creatures, but they also endure a sense of guilt over allowing the evils of the Plane of Water to enter the Material Plane and threaten its inhabitants. The tritons believe they owe a debt of honor to the world, and they will fight and die to pay it.
At times their fervor and ignorance of the world can lead them astray. Tritons encountering other creatures for the first time can underestimate them, leaving the tritons vulnerable to deception. With their strong martial tradition, tritons can sometimes be too eager to leap into a fight.

Strangers to the Surface

Given their isolation, most tritons have never been to the surface world. They struggle with the idea that they can’t easily move up and down out of water, and the changing of the seasons mystifies them.
Tritons also find the variety of social institutions, kingdoms, and other customs bewildering. For all their proud culture, they remain innocent of the surface world. The typical triton protectorate is tightly regimented, organized, and unified around a common cause. A triton on the surface becomes easily confused by the bewildering array of alliances, rivalries, and petty grievances that prevent the surface folk from truly unifying.
At its worst, a triton’s arrogance compounds the tendency for the triton not to understand the ways of the surface world. It’s easy for a triton to blame baffling social practices on what the triton perceives as the barbarism, weakness, or cowardice of surface folk.

5e Racial Stats

• Ability Score Racial Traits: A triton increases three ability scores of their choice by 1.
• Type: Tritons are humanoids with the aquatic subtype.
• Size: Tritons are medium.
• Speed: Tritons have a base speed of 30ft.
• Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Aquan.

Amphibious (2) (Ex)

You can breathe air and water.

Cold Blooded (x) (Ex)

Triton are cold-blooded, they cannot be detected by thermal vision; however, they are especially susceptible to the environment around them, they suffer Disadvantage on any Environmental cold or heat effects, and are Vulnerable to damage caused by Environmental cold or heat effects. Resistance to either Cold or Fire, cancels out the Environmental vulnerability of that environment. Natural resistance to one of these environments negates that environment's penalties.

Control Air and Water (2) (Ma)

A child of the sea, you can call on the magic of elemental air and water. You can cast the fog cloud spell with this trait. Starting at 3rd level, you can the cast gust of wind spell with it, and starting at 5th level, you can also cast the wall of water spell with it. Once you cast a spell with this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Deepsight (x) (Ex)

Tritons are especially adapted to the lightless depths of the oceans, but not to air-filled environments. You can see in dim light within 120 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. This only applies while you are underwater.

Emissary of the Sea (1) (Su)

Aquatic beasts have an extraordinary affinity with your people. You can communicate simple ideas with beasts that can breathe water. They can understand the meaning of your words, though you have no special ability to understand them in return.

Guardians of the Depths (2) (Ex)

Adapted to even the most extreme ocean depths, you have resistance to cold damage, and you ignore any of the drawbacks caused by a deep, underwater environment.

Natural Armor (1) (Ex)

You have tough, scaly skin. When you aren’t wearing armor, your AC is 12 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.

Natural Swimmer (x) (Ex)

A triton gains a swim speed of 40 feet.

Protector (2) (Su)

Whenever you would use a Reaction to make an opportunity attack, or use a Reaction to protect an ally using the Protection fighting style. You or the target of your reaction gain a +2 bonus to armor class until the end of your next turn. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency bonus, regaining spent uses after you complete a long rest.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Tritons are comparable in appearance to merfolk, but with two scaly finned legs instead of a fish tail. They are athletic in build and covered in silvery scales that shimmer blue and green in the light. Older tritons may have parasites like barnacles or coral growing on their bodies, but they wear them as a mark of pride. Their hair is white, blue, or green. Most tritons are the same size as humans, but a handful grow twice as tall; such giant tritons are regarded as heroes of their people.

Growth Rate & Stages

Adulthood	Intuitive	Self-Taught	Trained
15 years	+1d4 years (16 - 19 years)	+1d6 years (16 - 21 years)	+2d6 years (17 - 27 years)

---

Young	Middle Age	Old	Venerable	Maximum Age
under 10 years	35 years	53 years	70 years	70 + 2d20 years

Additional Information

Social Structure

Tritons are capable of walking on land, but they are slow and clumsy, vastly preferring the mobility granted by their native salt-water environments. They are self-appointed watchers of the sea, patrolling the waves with the help of dolphins and other aquatic beasts. Tritons hate evil sea monsters like aboleths, krakens, sahuagin, and skum, and have waged many wars against such creatures.
Tritons live in underwater cities, usually built around volcanic vents for the heat and abundant food. Their homes are sculpted from stone or grown from living coral. They are distrustful of outsiders, especially surface-dwellers, but usually have a few dry, airtight buildings set aside for visitors.
A militant race, tritons gather into strong aquatic cavalry units to patrol against their enemies. They build relationships with other aquatic races for the mutual defense of the sea. Though they regard surface-dwellers as trespassers beneath the waves, tritons are quick to change their opinions if they witness an air-breather performing acts of courage and welcome such heroes with open arms. They are known to manufacture specialized magical items (such as the powerful horn of the tritons) to assist them in the defense of their territories.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Most triton names have two or three syllables. Male names typically end with a vowel and the letter s, and female names traditionally end with an n. Tritons use their home protectorate as a surname, with the name formed by adding a vowel followed by a “th” to the end of the protectorate’s name.

Female Triton Names: Aryn, Belthyn, Duthyn, Feloren, Otanyn, Shalryn, Vlaryn, Wolyn
Male Triton Names: Corus, Delnis, Jhimas, Keros, Molos, Nalos, Vodos, Zunis
Triton Surnames: Ahlorsath, Pumanath, Vuuvaxath

Average Physique

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Weight	Weight Modifier
Female	4' 5"	+2d10" (4’ 7" – 6’ 1")	85lb.	+2d10*5lb. (95 – 185lb.)
Male	4' 10"	+2d10" (5’ 0" – 6’ 6")	120lb.	+2d10*5lb. (130 – 220lb.)