Did you watch Finding Nemo as a kid and wish you could be like Crush? Is it possible that you watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and decided that you desperately wanted to be Michelangelo? If so, the Tortle race in D&D 5e is just the one you should use as your next player character.
Tortles are humanoid turtles. That’s literally what they are. They’re turtles who stand on two legs and talk. They are a hardy race due to their shell and have a base armor class of 17. They can also withdraw into their shells and gain an additional +4 to their armor class.Â
Tortles in D&D 5e have the ability to use their claws as weapons, which means that when they make an unarmed strike, they can also deal slashing damage.
They also get a stat boost in strength and wisdom, which means that they can be effective barbarians and paladins. The barbarian and paladin class are both strength-based classes, so when you add all of the strength bonuses that come from being a Tortle, you’ve basically got a turtle version of a tank running around.
Tortles as a race are travelers. They’re born on beaches and eventually begin their travels when they grow up a little bit. Most Tortles have a lawful good alignment as they favor order over chaos. They don’t follow a particular religion, but they have a spiritual connection with the world around them.
I believe the ideal Tortle build would be a Tortle Barbarian Path of the Ancestral Guardian. The Ancestral Guardian subclass builds up the defense of a Tortle Barbarian even more, which allows you, as the player, to have an effective tank for your campaign. You could also double class and take a few levels as a druid or a ranger to build off of the spiritualism towards nature.
Example Tortle Build:
Grok is a Tortle Barbarian who has spent most of his life living on ships. He’s a skilled sailor and fisherman and well-known in many of the ports that he’s stayed in. However, he has not been able to find much as a sailor in the last few months, so he’s resorted to going inland to see if he can find some missionary work within the big cities.Â
He’s rather intimidating at first, but once folks get to know him more, they realize what a true softie he is inside. He’s an excellent poet and writes many sea shanties in his free time. It’s clear that he longs to go back to the sea and resume his work as a sailor, but alas, a man needs money to live.
