A review copy of “Cosmolyths a Race for D&D 5e” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.

Support my work by using affiliate links for shopping and pledging via Patreon.

Designed by: Hamilton Ross

Celestials in the D&D universe are typically associated with the gods and other divine beings, and the assimar race. Cosmolyths adds a new race that’s more literally associated with space and space-stuff, like stars, novas, planets, and even the black vacuum of nothingness.

Cosmolyths are magical beings born of the stars. They can live for thousands of years, construct vast city-states among uninhabited worlds, and travel through space via magical portals. Why would someone from such a supremely powerful civilization bother with completing quests, slaying goblins, and adventuring in the Forgotten Realms?

Provided you can swallow their odd motivations, the Cosmolyths seem mostly well-balanced, save for one game-breakingly crazy subrace that’s only available after level 10.

All Cosmolyths can exist in the vacuum of space, and do not need to breath or sleep, a cross between Warforged and Elves. They get +2 to CON, Darkvision, and proficiency in Insight due to their empathy with all things. It’s like, universal, man.

An impressive seven subraces are included, all associated with different celestial bodies. The glowing Solaish are based on stars. You have disadvantage on Stealth at night (you’re glowing!) but can coalesce the energy into a Fire Bolt once per Short Rest. At 3rd level, you can transform into a being of pure light once per day, becoming incorporeal and burning those around you for 1 minute. Nice!

All the subclasses have similar 3rd level abilities. The Naisent, born of the void of space, can cast Misty Step, and have advantage on stealth checks at night, while the rare Gaian are drawn from life-granting earth-like worlds, able to cast Create Food and Water and Goodberry, along with a more limited form of the Paladin’s Lay on Hands.

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The seventh subrace is where things get a little crazy. The Gholla, based on the abyssal end of the universe, cannot be chosen at character creation. Once reaching level 10, a Cosmolyth must endure a “path review” at the discretion of the DM. They’re given a pass/fail rating based on all their actions, and if they fail, they become Gholla.

Gholla get +2 to STR, DEX, and CON, by -2 to WIS, INT, and CHA. A martial min-maxer’s dream! It gets crazier: Your form becomes permanently incorporeal; you’re resistant to nonmagical attacks, can move through solid matter, and are invisible in daylight, and only barely visible at night. What!

Furthermore, you gain The End of Time ability, which triggers whenever you take damage equal to one quarter of your health and fail a CON save. You become a miniature gravity well as you suck in everything around you, dealing hefty force damage that scales as you level.

While I like the idea of a subrace that must be “unlocked” later in your adventuring career, those abilities and traits are a little too out of this world. Given all those awesome abilities, who wouldn’t want to embrace the dark side?

The supplement also includes four Cosmolyth backgrounds that attempt to explain why these powerful beings are mucking around on the material plane. Three of them have to do with searching for things, people, or new worlds and planes, while the fourth helps maintain the various portals the Cosmolyth use to zip around worlds and stars.

Celestial beings that have nothing to do with the gods are a neat idea for a race, and the large number of subraces grants thematically appropriate options for whichever celestial body you’d like to… embody, wrapped in a lovely layout with striking non-D&D artwork.

Pros:

  • Seven subraces, including a fallen version that you may transform into after level 10.
  • Four Cosmolyth backgrounds, with tables for Traits, Bonds, and Flaws.
  • Professional layout with evocative artwork.

Cons:

  • Fallen subrace has game-breakingly powerful traits and abilities.

The Verdict: If you want your celestials more like space elves than Angels, including all the wild diversity of elvish subraces, Cosmolyths has you covered.

A review copy of “Cosmolyths a Race for D&D 5e” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.

Support my work by using affiliate links for shopping and pledging via Patreon.