D&D 5E Homebrewing a PC race: Gorgons

[QuietBrowser]

So, long story short, a PC race I plan on including in a homebrew setting of mine are a race of Gorgons, inspired by Vraska and the other gorgons of Magic: the Gathering.


Again cutting a long story short, my setting's gorgons are descendants of the elven race, but corrupted by a bad reaction to infusing themselves with draconic magic. Because of this, they are a highly mutable race; this is reflected in both their wide array of gaze attacks (subrace mechanic) and in the diverse array of physical and mystical traits they can bear, which is represented by racial feats.


Yes, I really like how 5e has begun trying to use racial feats to add some more "oomph" to its races, because hells know they need it.


Anyway! I'm really trying to better get a grasp of balancing the mechanics and exploring the possibilities, so, once again, I'm here hoping folks are interested in talking.


I want to reiterate that this is all first-draft stuff. I know that I want to give them a varied array of possible gazes, and I know I want to use feats to provide options for all three of Strengthening Gazes, Enhancing Gaze Themes, and Physical Mutations. This is just my slap-knuckle shot at doing that, and I'm fully prepared to rewrite this from the ground up.


Gorgon:
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Charisma, +1 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
Venom-Kissed: You have Resistance to Poison damage and Advantage on saving throws against Poison and Disease.
Writhing Mane: Your head bears a tangle of serpentine tendrils, which you can use to manipulate objects as if you had cast the Mage Hand cantrip. Additionally, you have Advantage on Grapple checks.
Gaze Attack: As a bonus action, you can unleash a gaze attack on a single creature within 30 feet that you can see and which can see your eyes. The targeted creature must make a Constitution saving throw, with a DC of 8 + your Charisma modifier + your Proficiency bonus. On a failed save, the target takes 2d6 damage and suffers an after-effect. On a successful save, the victim only takes half-damage. The damage inflicted by a failed save increases by +1d6 at levels 6 (3d6), 11 (4d6) and 16 (5d6). Once you have used your Gaze Attack, you must complete a short rest before you can use it again.
Spectrum of Vision: You belong to a specific caste of gorgons, which determines the power of your gaze attack. Choose either the Stone-Eyes, Dust-Eyes, Cinder-Eyes, Frost-Eyes, Venom-Eyes or Thrall-Eyes subrace.


Stone-Eyes:Your Gaze Attack inflicts Force damage. On a failed save, the target is Paralyzed until the end of your next turn. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Petrified.


Dust-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Necrotic damage. On a failed save, the target is Stunned until the end of your next turn. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Disintegrated.


Cinder-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Fire damage. On a failed save, the target takes bonus Fire damage equal to your Charisma modifier. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Disintegrated.


Frost-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Cold damage. On a failed save, the target takes bonus Cold damage equal to your Charisma modifier. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Frozen Solid (treat as Petrified, but the target is Vulnerable to all damage instead of Resistant).


Venom-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Poison damage. On a failed save, the target is Poisoned until the end of your next turn. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Liquified (as Disintegrated, just a visual change).


Thrall-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Psychic damage. On a failed save, the target is Charmed until the end of your next turn.




Racial Feats:
Withering Gaze
Effect: Your Gaze Attack is more potent. If you belong to the Stone-Eyes, Dust-Eyes, Venom-Eyes or Thrall-Eyes subrace, a victim that fails their save is instead affected by the secondary effect for 1 minute. If you belong to the Cinder-Eyes or Frost-Eyes subrace, a victim that fails their save suffers Fire or Cold damage (as appropriate) equal to your Charisma modifier each round for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier.


Sweeping Gaze
Effect: Your Gaze Attack now affects a 15ft Cone instead of targeting a single creature within 30 feet.


Multiple Arms
Effect: You have two pairs of fully functioning arms. You can use your secondary arms in a logical fashion - for example, holding or activating an item whilst your primary arms are holding weaponry or a shield. You can wield weapons in your secondary arms, but these must have the Light weapon quality, unless you have the Dual Wielder feat. Wielding weapons in all of your arms does not grant you extra attacks. Likewise, fighting with three or four weapons follows the same rules as Two-Weapon Fighting (PHB pg 195); you don't gain more than one bonus action attack, you simply can choose which of your secondary weapons to attack with as that bonus action.


Serpent's Coils
Effect: You gain the Serpent Body and Constrict racial traits.
Serpent Body: Instead of legs, you possess an undulating tail, like the body of a giant snake.Your unusual anatomy prevents you from using footwear-based magical items unless they have been specifically designed to fit your monopedal anatomy, or can magically reshape themselves to fit. Additionally, you must have armor custom-fitted; properly-fitted armor increases its cost by +50% (rounding up), whilst improperly fitted armor has its AC reduced by -2 points, minimum of AC 0, to represent the glaring vulnerable spots it presents. You cannot use magic armor unless it can be made to magically reshape itself for your anatomy.


Constrict: Your serpent body is a natural weapon, which you can use to make constrict attacks as an unarmed strike. If you hit with your constrict attack, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, and the target is grappled (escape DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and you can’t constrict another target.


Mane of Serpents
Effect: Your hair transforms from serpent's tails into hissing snakes armed with poisonous fangs. As a bonus action, you can make an Unarmed strike against a single creature within reach; on a hit, the victim takes 1d3 Piercing damage and then 1d6 Poison damage.


Gorgon's Wings
Effect: You gain a Fly speed of 15 feet.

 

[QuietBrowser]

So, does anybody have any comments? Even just critiquing the first draft I have here is fine, because it gives me some idea of what's too weak or too strong and how I can potentially improve this.

 

[DeanP]

I'll start small. I think the gaze attack should be an action and not a bonus action. This would put it on par with the Dragonborn breathweapon. Venom-Kissed. I like the name and its fine for poison resistance, and I probably could even accept the advantage on poison saves, but why add disease? I think I would keep it per the rules for poison resistance, which again, makes it comparable to the Dragonborn.

 

[Sunseeker]

Fundamentally, multiple arms should either be phrased along the lines of "You have increased your ability to use your extra arms..." or be a replacement ability to say, the head tendrils. Since logically, one would need to be born with an extra set of arms to use them better in the future. It's probably also worth noting something like "this feat can only be taken once", unless you want to allow players to have like, infinity extra arms (I don't know why, but I can name a couple people I've played with who would!). I would also probably give the extra arms advangage on grapple checks, but non-stacking grapple.

The same is true of the Serpent Coils feat. This should note that this enhances an existing appendage, as opposed to suddenly gaining one.

UNLESS (Onceler voice), UNLESS you want to say that these Gorgons of yours can actively mutate their bodies as they level up. It would be an interesting feature and certainly make them a big more on the monstrous side of things.

 

[Quickleaf]

My go to resource when making new races is Tyler Kamstra's Monstrous Races on DMsGuild. I'll give a quick point build analysis of your gorgon. You want to be at 8 - 10 points to be balanced against official races.

Humanoid 0
Ability score increases 3
Darkvision (60') 2
Almost Dwarven Resilience 1
Bonus Cantrip at-will 0.5
Reverse of Slippery (advantage *to* grapple) 0.5

So far that's 7 build points. Generally I aim for about 9.

Gaze Attack is the tricky one to evaluate. Since there are no guidelines for short-rest recharging damaging racial powers, I have to compare to something...can't think of any races...really the Gaze Attack is more like a spell than anything else. With the point guidelines, a 1st level spell usable 1/day would be 1 point, a 2nd level spell usable 1/day would be 2 points, and so on. However, a short rest recharge...I'd value that as 3x a spell usable 1/day...so a power equivalent to a 1st level spell with short rest recharge would be worth about 3 points. Which would put your Gorgon at the higher end of the power scale, but still within tolerances.

The question becomes: what level spell is Gaze Attack worth?

I'm not going to do that design work, since you probably are capable & it likely will involve some judgment calls, but that would be my next step were I designing this. I will tell you this much: right now, it's clearly worth well above a 1st level spell!

Cheers!

So, long story short, a PC race I plan on including in a homebrew setting of mine are a race of Gorgons, inspired by Vraska and the other gorgons of Magic: the Gathering.<snip>

Gorgon:
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Charisma, +1 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
Venom-Kissed: You have Resistance to Poison damage and Advantage on saving throws against Poison and Disease.
Writhing Mane: Your head bears a tangle of serpentine tendrils, which you can use to manipulate objects as if you had cast the Mage Hand cantrip. Additionally, you have Advantage on Grapple checks.
Gaze Attack: As a bonus action, you can unleash a gaze attack on a single creature within 30 feet that you can see and which can see your eyes. The targeted creature must make a Constitution saving throw, with a DC of 8 + your Charisma modifier + your Proficiency bonus. On a failed save, the target takes 2d6 damage and suffers an after-effect. On a successful save, the victim only takes half-damage. The damage inflicted by a failed save increases by +1d6 at levels 6 (3d6), 11 (4d6) and 16 (5d6). Once you have used your Gaze Attack, you must complete a short rest before you can use it again.
Spectrum of Vision: You belong to a specific caste of gorgons, which determines the power of your gaze attack. Choose either the Stone-Eyes, Dust-Eyes, Cinder-Eyes, Frost-Eyes, Venom-Eyes or Thrall-Eyes subrace.


Stone-Eyes:Your Gaze Attack inflicts Force damage. On a failed save, the target is Paralyzed until the end of your next turn. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Petrified.


Dust-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Necrotic damage. On a failed save, the target is Stunned until the end of your next turn. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Disintegrated.


Cinder-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Fire damage. On a failed save, the target takes bonus Fire damage equal to your Charisma modifier. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Disintegrated.


Frost-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Cold damage. On a failed save, the target takes bonus Cold damage equal to your Charisma modifier. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Frozen Solid (treat as Petrified, but the target is Vulnerable to all damage instead of Resistant).


Venom-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Poison damage. On a failed save, the target is Poisoned until the end of your next turn. A creature slain by your Gaze Attack is Liquified (as Disintegrated, just a visual change).

Thrall-Eyes: Your Gaze Attack inflicts Psychic damage. On a failed save, the target is Charmed until the end of your next turn.

Racial Feats:
Withering Gaze
Effect: Your Gaze Attack is more potent. If you belong to the Stone-Eyes, Dust-Eyes, Venom-Eyes or Thrall-Eyes subrace, a victim that fails their save is instead affected by the secondary effect for 1 minute. If you belong to the Cinder-Eyes or Frost-Eyes subrace, a victim that fails their save suffers Fire or Cold damage (as appropriate) equal to your Charisma modifier each round for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier.

Sweeping Gaze
Effect: Your Gaze Attack now affects a 15ft Cone instead of targeting a single creature within 30 feet.

Multiple Arms
Effect: You have two pairs of fully functioning arms. You can use your secondary arms in a logical fashion - for example, holding or activating an item whilst your primary arms are holding weaponry or a shield. You can wield weapons in your secondary arms, but these must have the Light weapon quality, unless you have the Dual Wielder feat. Wielding weapons in all of your arms does not grant you extra attacks. Likewise, fighting with three or four weapons follows the same rules as Two-Weapon Fighting (PHB pg 195); you don't gain more than one bonus action attack, you simply can choose which of your secondary weapons to attack with as that bonus action.

Serpent's Coils
Effect: You gain the Serpent Body and Constrict racial traits.
Serpent Body: Instead of legs, you possess an undulating tail, like the body of a giant snake.Your unusual anatomy prevents you from using footwear-based magical items unless they have been specifically designed to fit your monopedal anatomy, or can magically reshape themselves to fit. Additionally, you must have armor custom-fitted; properly-fitted armor increases its cost by +50% (rounding up), whilst improperly fitted armor has its AC reduced by -2 points, minimum of AC 0, to represent the glaring vulnerable spots it presents. You cannot use magic armor unless it can be made to magically reshape itself for your anatomy.

Constrict: Your serpent body is a natural weapon, which you can use to make constrict attacks as an unarmed strike. If you hit with your constrict attack, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, and the target is grappled (escape DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and you can’t constrict another target.

Mane of Serpents
Effect: Your hair transforms from serpent's tails into hissing snakes armed with poisonous fangs. As a bonus action, you can make an Unarmed strike against a single creature within reach; on a hit, the victim takes 1d3 Piercing damage and then 1d6 Poison damage.

Gorgon's Wings
Effect: You gain a Fly speed of 15 feet.

 

[Dausuul]

On the tendrils: I'd just say that they're X feet long, can lift Y pounds, and cannot wield weapons. There's no reason to link them to a spell. (Do they vanish if the gorgon steps into an anti-magic field?)

Gaze attack: This is wildly overpowered. A 2d6 damage blast, as an at-will bonus action? Way, way too good. And that's before you add the debuffs; paralysis, usable at will from level 1, is beyond balancing.

An at-will racial combat ability should not be better than a cantrip. So: Regular action to use it, and 1d8 damage, scaling to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and 4d8 at 17th level. No secondary effect; just have the creature suffer some cosmetic death effect on being reduced to 0 hp (turned to stone, disintegrated, frozen solid, burned to ash).

Feats:

• Withering Gaze no longer applies if you get rid of the secondary effects. And you need to get rid of the secondary effects. There ain't no way to balance those, unless you bring back 3E-style level adjustments.
• Sweeping Gaze... I'd watch this one, it's definitely at the high end of the power scale, but might be okay.
• Multiple Arms is weak; cool visual, but it doesn't do anything for you except reduce the amount of bookkeeping involved in juggling weapons and spell components. On the other hand, "three-weapon fighting" is not an area I'd want to get into. This would take some thought to balance.
• Serpent's Coils imposes restrained, which is a pretty powerful debuff. This is another one to keep an eye on.
• Mane of Serpents is decent. A bonus action attack for 1d3 + 1d6 is comparable to Polearm Master's bonus action attack for 1d4 + ability mod. You don't get any of Polearm Master's other features, but you're also not locked into using a polearm. You might add a "ribbon" of some kind, like free proficiency in Intimidate, and the damage could be upped to 1d4 and 1d8.
• Gorgon's Wings is fine except 15 feet is way too slow. It isn't that hard to fly in D&D if you really want to, and the PC is giving up an ASI for this. I'd make it 30.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Firstly, let me thank you both for taking the time out of your day to comment on this! I really need to discuss this matter, so critique is really appreciated.

I'll start small. I think the gaze attack should be an action and not a bonus action. This would put it on par with the Dragonborn breathweapon. Venom-Kissed. I like the name and its fine for poison resistance, and I probably could even accept the advantage on poison saves, but why add disease? I think I would keep it per the rules for poison resistance, which again, makes it comparable to the Dragonborn.

Mostly I added the Disease resistance because A: Venom-Kissed was inspired by the Dwarven Resilience racial trait from the corebook, and B: it is kind of fitting for the race, seeing as how their territory resides deep in hostile swamp & jungle terrain.

The gaze attack being action was something I considered; I wimped out and went with bonus action because I was unsure of how to actually write "gaze attack takes an action to use" - I've seen people argue about the wording of that before.

Fundamentally, multiple arms should either be phrased along the lines of "You have increased your ability to use your extra arms..." or be a replacement ability to say, the head tendrils. Since logically, one would need to be born with an extra set of arms to use them better in the future. It's probably also worth noting something like "this feat can only be taken once", unless you want to allow players to have like, infinity extra arms (I don't know why, but I can name a couple people I've played with who would!). I would also probably give the extra arms advangage on grapple checks, but non-stacking grapple.

The same is true of the Serpent Coils feat. This should note that this enhances an existing appendage, as opposed to suddenly gaining one.

UNLESS (Onceler voice), UNLESS you want to say that these Gorgons of yours can actively mutate their bodies as they level up. It would be an interesting feature and certainly make them a big more on the monstrous side of things.

As a matter of fact, the lore for the gorgons is that they can and do spontaneously mutate as they grow in age/power - some are born mutated (which ties into the mechanics; house rule for the setting is that everybody gets a feat at 1st level), but others spontaneously go from the basic template (elven maid with scaly skin, serpentine eyes, clawed digits and a mane of prehensile snake's tails) to a more mutated form - sprouting extra limbs, legs melding into a tail, etcetera.

That's why mutations are a feat and not a subrace.

Also... I thought all feats in 5e were explicitly a once-off choice unless the feat states otherwise?

And gorgons already get Advantage on Grapple Checks for their Writhing Mane trait, so Four Arms granting the same is pointless; Advantage doesn't stack.

My go to resource when making new races is Tyler Kamstra's Monstrous Races on DMsGuild. I'll give a quick point build analysis of your gorgon. You want to be at 8 - 10 points to be balanced against official races.

Humanoid 0
Ability score increases 3
Darkvision (60') 2
Almost Dwarven Resilience 1
Bonus Cantrip at-will 0.5
Reverse of Slippery (advantage *to* grapple) 0.5

So far that's 7 build points. Generally I aim for about 9.

Gaze Attack is the tricky one to evaluate. Since there are no guidelines for short-rest recharging damaging racial powers, I have to compare to something...can't think of any races...really the Gaze Attack is more like a spell than anything else. With the point guidelines, a 1st level spell usable 1/day would be 1 point, a 2nd level spell usable 1/day would be 2 points, and so on. However, a short rest recharge...I'd value that as 3x a spell usable 1/day...so a power equivalent to a 1st level spell with short rest recharge would be worth about 3 points. Which would put your Gorgon at the higher end of the power scale, but still within tolerances.

The question becomes: what level spell is Gaze Attack worth?

I'm not going to do that design work, since you probably are capable & it likely will involve some judgment calls, but that would be my next step were I designing this. I will tell you this much: right now, it's clearly worth well above a 1st level spell!

Cheers!

Appreciate the commentary. There is one short-rest recharging damaging racial power in 5e canon, though; the Dragonborn's breath weapon.

On the tendrils: I'd just say that they're X feet long, can lift Y pounds, and cannot wield weapons. There's no reason to link them to a spell. (Do they vanish if the gorgon steps into an anti-magic field?)

Gaze attack: This is wildly overpowered. A 2d6 damage blast, as an at-will bonus action? Way, way too good. And that's before you add the debuffs; paralysis, usable at will from level 1, is beyond balancing.

An at-will racial combat ability should not be better than a cantrip. So: Regular action to use it, and 1d8 damage, scaling to 2d8 at 5th level, 3d8 at 11th level, and 4d8 at 17th level. No secondary effect; just have the creature suffer some cosmetic death effect on being reduced to 0 hp (turned to stone, disintegrated, frozen solid, burned to ash).

Feats:

• Withering Gaze no longer applies if you get rid of the secondary effects. And you need to get rid of the secondary effects. There ain't no way to balance those, unless you bring back 3E-style level adjustments.
• Sweeping Gaze... I'd watch this one, it's definitely at the high end of the power scale, but might be okay.
• Multiple Arms is weak; cool visual, but it doesn't do anything for you except reduce the amount of bookkeeping involved in juggling weapons and spell components. On the other hand, "three-weapon fighting" is not an area I'd want to get into. This would take some thought to balance.
• Serpent's Coils imposes restrained, which is a pretty powerful debuff. This is another one to keep an eye on.
• Mane of Serpents is decent. A bonus action attack for 1d3 + 1d6 is comparable to Polearm Master's bonus action attack for 1d4 + ability mod. You don't get any of Polearm Master's other features, but you're also not locked into using a polearm. You might add a "ribbon" of some kind, like free proficiency in Intimidate, and the damage could be upped to 1d4 and 1d8.
• Gorgon's Wings is fine except 15 feet is way too slow. It isn't that hard to fly in D&D if you really want to, and the PC is giving up an ASI for this. I'd make it 30.

Firstly, I feel I must point out that you've read the profile wrong: Gaze Attack is 1/Short Rest. It is not At-Will.

Secondly, I appreciate the advice on Writhing Mane; that definitely sounds better, and it's not like I'm working with /tg/'s wordcap-per-post here.

Third, removing secondary effects from Gaze Attack... I can see where you're coming from, but I would like to try and have the option to build a PC up to being able to petrify or disintegrate with their gaze; it is a 1/encounter attack, after all. But that may be something I have to sacrifice on the alter and just use the flavor ribbon of what happens to kills.

Fourth, I appreciate your approval for the Multiple Arms racial trait. And, yeah, it is hard to make this have a mechanical effect in an edition where you get 1 Action, 1 Move, 1 Interaction, and that's it. A free bonus action is way too powerful at a glance.

Fifth, thanks for the comment on Serpent's Coils. Yeah, it's an iconic aspect (serpentine tauric "Greater Medusae" go all the way back to AD&D, whilst Pathfinder has its Eurayle), but mechanically balancing it is tricky.

Sixth, I'm glad you like Mane of Serpents, and those tweaks definitely make it sound a lot more worthwhile.

Finally, I mostly made Gorgon's Wings a 15ft Fly speed because of how many people I see complaining about Fly speeds at all. But, really, a feat-locked Fly speed of 30 feet with the usual "Light Armor or worse if you want to be able to use it" restriction isn't that powerful, surely?

 

[Sunseeker]

As a matter of fact, the lore for the gorgons is that they can and do spontaneously mutate as they grow in age/power - some are born mutated (which ties into the mechanics; house rule for the setting is that everybody gets a feat at 1st level), but others spontaneously go from the basic template (elven maid with scaly skin, serpentine eyes, clawed digits and a mane of prehensile snake's tails) to a more mutated form - sprouting extra limbs, legs melding into a tail, etcetera.

That's why mutations are a feat and not a subrace.

Mmm, well okay then.

Also... I thought all feats in 5e were explicitly a once-off choice unless the feat states otherwise?

I don't know to be honest. In that case, perhaps an exception? If someone wanted their Gorgon to be more Maralith-esque, why not? Doesn't really give them any advantage except to fiddle with more fiddles at the same time. (since playing an instrument falls under the item use rules I think).

And gorgons already get Advantage on Grapple Checks for their Writhing Mane trait, so Four Arms granting the same is pointless; Advantage doesn't stack.

I think my comment was a remnant from a part of my post I edited out. I was going to say that I question if the head tails, which exert relatively little pressure (comparable to Mage Hand which only lift 10 lbs), I'm not sure that even with 20 head-tendrils the effect would be cumulative.

I personally would not give the head-tails advantage on grapple and leave that to the special bonus from the extra arms, which seems a little light as it. But having them be prehensile I think is fine. (multiple arms, prehensile head tendrils, will there be any small objects a Gorgon can't lift!?) Totally want to make a Gorgon monk BTW.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Mmm, well okay then.

I don't know to be honest. In that case, perhaps an exception? If someone wanted their Gorgon to be more Maralith-esque, why not? Doesn't really give them any advantage except to fiddle with more fiddles at the same time. (since playing an instrument falls under the item use rules I think).

I think my comment was a remnant from a part of my post I edited out. I was going to say that I question if the head tails, which exert relatively little pressure (comparable to Mage Hand which only lift 10 lbs), I'm not sure that even with 20 head-tendrils the effect would be cumulative.

I personally would not give the head-tails advantage on grapple and leave that to the special bonus from the extra arms, which seems a little light as it. But having them be prehensile I think is fine. (multiple arms, prehensile head tendrils, will there be any small objects a Gorgon can't lift!?) Totally want to make a Gorgon monk BTW.

Hah! Gorgon monks sound awesome to me. ;p But, yeah, I must confess, I am struggling with figuring out how to make both traits work. Still, this is what you've inspired me to rewrite Writhing Mane into...

Writhing Mane: Your head is adorned with myriad prehensile, serpentine tails in lieu of hair, which you can use to interact with the world around you. Your hair is functionally a third hand, which you can use to complete various interactions, such as gripping a lever, making a Thievery check to pick a pocket, or attempting to use tools. It can accomplish any task that a pair of hands could functionally do, such as untying knots. However, you cannot use your hair to wield a weapon, which means it does not grant you any extra attacks, nor does it grant you extra actions per turn, as attempting to use your hair as a manipulative limb requires too much attention.

Racial Feat: Warrior's Mane
Effect: Through natural talent or dedicated training, you have learned to use your serpentine hair in a collective mass, its collective strength letting you wield a single one-handed melee weapon in it at a time. Whilst you are wielding a weapon in your hair, it cannot be used for any other task, in the same way as having your normal hands full interferes with your ability to interact with the world. Weapons wielded in your hair follow the normal restrictions for dual-wielding.

Racial Feat: Flowing Locks
Effect: Your hair grows to a far greater length than is normal for gorgons. When interacting with the world via your Writhing Mane, or making an attack via either the Warrior's Mane or Mane of Serpents feats, your Reach is considered to be 10 feet instead of the normal 5 feet.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

The gaze attack being action was something I considered; I wimped out and went with bonus action because I was unsure of how to actually write "gaze attack takes an action to use" - I've seen people argue about the wording of that before.

Just delete the word "bonus": "As an action, [effect]." Alternatively, "You can use your action to [effect]." This is 5E, the natural language edition.

As a matter of fact, the lore for the gorgons is that they can and do spontaneously mutate as they grow in age/power - some are born mutated (which ties into the mechanics; house rule for the setting is that everybody gets a feat at 1st level), but others spontaneously go from the basic template (elven maid with scaly skin, serpentine eyes, clawed digits and a mane of prehensile snake's tails) to a more mutated form - sprouting extra limbs, legs melding into a tail, etcetera.

Monster anatomy pet peeve: legs shouldn't be described as merging into a tail. A tail is an extension of the vertebrae, not fused legs. Not to get too vulgar, but consider where the digestive tract ends on a human vs a snake.

(At least you didn't say that digitigrade legs have "backwards knees"... )

Okay, with that off my chest, a highly mutation-prone race is a cool idea. WotC kind of did this with kobolds, but the execution wasn't stellar, and they're kobolds so nobody cared anyway. The freaky snake lady race is a much better place for it.

One point that may not matter at all depending on your worldbuilding: "mutation" is a term and concept coming out of the modern science of biology. A culture based closely on classical or medieval civilization might look at what's going on with these gorgons through an entirely different lens.

Also... I thought all feats in 5e were explicitly a once-off choice unless the feat states otherwise?

Correct.

And gorgons already get Advantage on Grapple Checks for their Writhing Mane trait, so Four Arms granting the same is pointless; Advantage doesn't stack.

I have a hard time imagining those things being "worth" advantage, since they're not that strong and they're in a kind of awkward position for the gorgon to use (you generally don't want to give an opponent in a grapple any kind of control over your head). I think they're fine being used simply as extra manipulators. It's not as if the race is otherwise tuned for grappling builds, anyway. If you think they need a little more power, give 'em a bit of natural armor for their scales, like lizardfolk or draconic sorcerers.

Finally, I mostly made Gorgon's Wings a 15ft Fly speed because of how many people I see complaining about Fly speeds at all. But, really, a feat-locked Fly speed of 30 feet with the usual "Light Armor or worse if you want to be able to use it" restriction isn't that powerful, surely?

Pssh. No. Go nuts. Make it 40 ft.