The Quintessential Human Adrian Bott
Contents
Credits
Introduction
2
Character Concepts
4
The Prestige Human
15
Tricks of the Humans
32
Human Feats
54
Tools of the Humans
60
Interior Illustrations
Human Cultures
70
Alejandro Villen, Chad Sergesketter, David Molinas, Eric Bergeron, Marcio Fiorito & Tony Parker
Dynasties
102
The Limits of Mortality
116
Designer’s Notes
122
Index
123
Character Sheet
124
Licences
128
Editor Richard Neale Developer Paul Tucker Cover Art Anne Stokes
Production Manager Alexander Fennell Playtesting Mark Howe, Daniel Scothorne, Mark Sizer, Michael Young, Mark Billanie, Daniel Haslam, Jamie Godfrey, Alan Moore Proof Reading Ben Hesketh
Open Game Content & Copyright Information
The Quintessential Human ©2003 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of non-Open Game Content of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. The Quintessential Human is presented under the Open Game and D20 Licences. See page 128 for the text of the Open Game Licence. All text paragraphs and tables containing game mechanics and statistics derivative of Open Game Content and the System Reference Document are considered to be Open Game Content. All other significant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. If you have questions about the Open Game Content status of any material herein, please contact Mongoose Publishing for clarification. ‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are Trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and are used according to the terms of the d20 System Licence version 5.0. A copy of this Licence can be found at www.wizards.com/d20. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. Dungeons & Dragons® and Wizards of the Coast® are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. in the United States and other countries and are used with Permission. Printed in China.
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1
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
The Collector’s Series
H
umans in the fantasy game environment are one of the few constants between the real world and the fantasy world. In an environment of surreal creatures, tremendous beasts, castles in the sky and the shimmering dance of magic, the presence of something as mundane as humanity must give us pause. We know ourselves well in the real world but how well do we know our strange cousins, the humans of heroic fantasy? What traits of ours do they share? Would they recognise us, or we them? How exactly did they come to exist alongside elves, dwarves and the other races, with whom they are oddly similar on the surface yet fundamentally different in essence? What can they teach us about a fundamental question common to both the real world and that of imagination, namely that of what it truly means to be human?
The Collector’s Series is a range of class and racial sourcebooks from Mongoose Publishing, all designed to widen greatly a player’s options for his character within the d20 games system. Slotting seamlessly into any fantasy-based campaign, each will give a comprehensive guide to one class or race within the game, allowing both players and Games Masters the chance to present old character types in a completely new way without overpowering or unbalancing the game as a whole. The Collector’s Series will not necessarily allow players to create a better character, but they will be able to do a lot more than they ever thought possible before.
The Quintessential Human
This book breaks completely new ground, daring to look at a race most would perhaps have considered unworthy of serious examination – the humble human. Lacking the exotic appeal of a non-human race, with their promise of other cultures and mores to roleplay, the human has been left untouched until now. There is much more to learn than many players had imagined.
To many players, a human character is an ideal eidolon or avatar. It allows escapism while simultaneously letting you see yourself in your character’s situation. There is no need to adopt an alien mindset or try to roleplay a person who lives by non-human values. Humans are and always have been the easy choice of race. On account of their versatility, they have unfairly been seen as essentially bland and uninteresting. It is not necessary to detail humans in the game world, because everyone already knows all about them. What is there to say about humans, the opt-out choice of character race, the race that offers nothing in the way of racial features but the increased versatility of additional skill points and bonus feats?
Humans are not all created alike. Character concepts, backgrounds, new uses for old skills, tricks and feats all lend colour and originality to a human character. Their nature is explored in depth, with particular attention given to their desire to perpetuate themselves, defying mortality by leaving successors and heirs behind. As well as dealing with the essence of human beings, their adaptability and pioneer spirit, we will be looking at what happens after they have adapted to a given environment. An extensive section on human cultures broadens the idea of what a ‘human’ can be, far beyond the traditional ‘just a normal, boring person’ idea of a human character. It is our hope that with the help of this sourcebook, more of the true nature of humanity, with all its flaws and virtues, can pass into and enrich your campaign.
As it happens, there is one heck of a lot left to say. In this volume, we will be looking at the rich diversity of human life in the fantasy world, drawing upon examples found both in the history of the real world and in our folklore and legends. Humans are not bland templates waiting to be individualised but a people of extraordinary resource, inventiveness and adaptability. They are set apart from the other races by the intensity and richness of their lives, which are altogether too brief. Mortality is their curse and yet a peculiar blessing, as the finiteness of their lives is what makes them meaningful. Longer-lived races are prone to ennui and a lack of motivational energy, while humans can truly appreciate the value of a sensory pleasure, the love of a mate or the thrill of adventure. Everything is the sweeter for them, because they know they might never live to see another morning.
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INTRODUCTION Today we buried another friend, just as we buried his father and grandfather before him. As humans do, he had lived out his time on this world. He was interred alongside the armour his shrunken body no longer fitted into, holding the sword he could no longer lift. This has laid a melancholy mood upon me. I find I have a question to ask. What does it mean to be human? As my quill writes this question and I bend my mind to the task of answering it, I permit myself a smile; one has heard the question before and none seem so fond of asking it as the humans themselves. Who am I truly? What am I here for? Why was I created? These questions are on their lips, it seems, at any moment when they pause from the frantic activity of their lives and allow their minds to pass into abstract speculation. It seems that a human is never more than a glass of whisky or a pipeful of tobacco away from questioning his very existence. Whatever else you might say about humans, however much you might admire their inventiveness, their wit or their unending ability to surprise, they very rarely have a developed sense of who they are. They live their lives like children at a fairground, hopping on this, playing at that and before they know it the sun has set on their little day and they pass from the world no wiser than they were at the start. Humanity would be a tragedy, if one were inclined to measure how very rarely their lives live up to their dreams. The vast majority of them start out with ideas as tall as the trees and broad as the seas, aspiring to be the best and the most renowned and the most celebrated of their class, but all eventually turn to the same thing; the provision of a new generation. There is nothing quite so rebellious or iconoclastic as a young human and nothing quite so conservative in his ways as an old one. They begin by wanting empires and end their days craving a quiet cottage. What other race was so obsessed with permanence, with achievement? The dwarves carve out their mountain glories and right proud they are of them, yet they are more proud of their function than of their meaning. A dwarf loves a well-made wall because it does its work truly and well, not because it will perpetuate his own reputation or make others envious of him. If it stands for a dozen lifetimes, then it will not need to be repaired for as long and the dwarf may take pride the work he has saved his descendants. That is the measure of it. It is not the way of dwarves to parade their accomplishments for other races to admire. As for my people, the elves, we take pride in leaving the earth undisturbed where we can. To live a thousand years and yet not mar the forest mother by leaving so much as a footprint in her sacred soil to mark my passage after I am gone; that is something to which I aspire. The humans, though, they are different. When they are wanderers, they are closer to our kind than at any other time; but settle them in a city and watch the monuments spring up. See how they commemorate themselves with statues, plaques and buildings, as if they somehow granted themselves more years by giving their name to an edifice. It is not enough that they have achieved. They must trumpet their achievements to the world. They clad themselves in history like a dwarf clads himself in armour. They exaggerate the tales of their origins, with even the humblest finding something to boast about; they lie to history, seeing to it that they are remembered in the best light possible. Many a time have I looked into the blank eyes of a marble bust and seen nothing of the haggard, degenerate human who was the ostensible model for it. They pass down their songs and sagas, in which scuffles are made into battles and battles into wars. Even the knocking down of a drunken brute in a tavern is turned into a story to be told and retold. For all this, they are often supremely oblivious of their mortality. I have never known a human who was other than surprised when age claimed him. One wants to say: what? Did you expect that you would be the exception, that time would somehow forget to come calling on you? Have you not seen your own people wither and fall like leaves in the darkening months, time and time and time again? Oh, paradoxical race. You are gone in a moment, yet you strive to leave your mark, as if it made a difference; you are flippant where we would be solemn and yet you take your games and pastimes with utter seriousness. Maybe it is true what some of our priests say; that the Gods made you from everything that was left over after the other races were finished…
3
CHARACTER CONCEPTS
Character Concepts
alignment. In later life, they can become competent governors, finding clever ways to sort out disputes between people. Adventuring: Cunning Lads are equally happy to travel alone or to join up with bands of companions. They do not make too many plans for the future, preferring to follow their fortune and see where it takes them. A Cunning Lad has learned to respect fickle fate. He is rootless and mobile, preferring to travel until he finds his ultimate place in the world and not settling down until then. He is motivated by a strong sense of right and wrong which is not necessarily anything to do with the law, so he will take it upon himself to set wrongs right where he can, even if that means finding a way to topple a much stronger opponent. A Cunning Lad is not the type to flee; his cunning is matched by his bravery.
C
oncepts are a way to add more flavour to a human character. Each one represents a background for a human who might otherwise have seemed like little more than a set of statistics. Taking on a character concept allows certain advantages and disadvantages, but these are not the main point of the exercise. They are there to enrich roleplaying and to give players fresh ideas. As humans are so diverse, the concepts available for them range from the richest to the poorest backgrounds. Some are mundane, while some are exotic. All of them are infused with the typically human love of adventure and the need to move beyond one’s beginnings, whether they are the stifling confines of a rural farmer’s existence or the gilded cage of a boy born to be a ruler. These are not so much boxes to put humans into as ways in which humans have sought to escape their boxes.
Role-Playing: A Cunning Lad is always in good spirits, possibly because he refuses to take life too seriously. He seems to be in on some private joke that nobody else around him can quite understand. His attitude is optimistic, but not so much so that he becomes a burden
Any one Character Concept may be applied to a character as it is being created. The listed bonuses and penalties are applied and the character’s story adjusted to take account of the concept. The player and Games Master should make sure that the character is played in keeping with his concept; it has as much to do with the character’s values and ultimate goals as it does with his current situation in life.
Cunning Lad
Everyone knows this chap. In the stories humans tell their children, he is usually a miller’s son, outwardly simple and owning few possessions, but with a good deal of wit about him. His name is often ‘Jack’ and he is noted for his cleverness more than his strength as a warrior. The real Cunning Lad is similar to his fictional counterpart in that he is much more likely to trick an opponent than to match strength against strength. He is from a humble background and has few prospects but has managed to get by against the odds, with nothing more than his wits to help him. A Cunning Lad (or Lass) always starts out young. They are not often especially ambitious, though they have a habit of going on to achieve great things. They can sometimes have scant respect for the law but such is their charm that they rarely remain in trouble for too long. They are almost always of chaotic good or neutral good
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CHARACTER CONCEPTS to others around him. Older women tend to fuss over him while younger ones may find him rather dashing. As he is from simple stock, he knows that people think him to be stupid and he likes to take advantage of this. Being underestimated is the Cunning Lad’s stock in trade. Bonuses: Fortune favours the brave. The Cunning Lad is stout-hearted as well as ingenious. He receives an inherent bonus of +1 to all Will saving throws made to resist fear effects. As his name implies, he has a great reserve of natural cunning, giving him a +1 racial bonus to his Wisdom ability score. There is something about him that makes you want to believe what he says. He has such an aura of wholesomeness and lack of guile that the most outrageous stories can sound plausible when he tells them, a feature that comes in handy when persuading monsters to cut their own heads off. This quality of rustic honesty gives him a +2 racial bonus to all Bluff checks. Penalties: The Cunning Lad did not get his learning from books and most probably grew up in a tiny hamlet where the only kind of lessons you learned were how to truss a hog and bind a wheatsheaf. He is illiterate, much as a barbarian character is. He also does not benefit from the additional Skill point with each advance in level to which humans are normally entitled, though he does get his four bonus skill points at initial character creation.
The Noble in Disguise
The character is of noble origin but hides it for some reason. This may be because his life is in danger and he has to pretend to be less than he is in order to survive, as in the case of the sole survivor of a royal bloodline who would be hunted down and killed if his enemies knew he would still be alive. Alternatively, he may adventure under a disguise because he cannot do the deeds he wishes to do, good or bad, while in the character of a noble. A noble character could easily lead a double life as a notorious rogue, especially if he was so bored with the restrictions of courtly life that he was willing to consider burglary as a form of entertainment. Some nobles have taken on secret identities in order to repair the damage that their noble families have done. For example, the son of a tyrannous lord who treated the peasants like scum might lead a second life as the heavily disguised hero of those same peasants, using his knowledge to help them and stealing items from his own father’s manor house so that they can be sold for food.
of how rough or common they may be. Depending on their motive for disguising themselves, they are drawn to adventures which will either allow them to indulge a wicked side that never finds expression at home, or which will give them the chance to take a more active part in stamping down evil than they can ordinarily do. Nobles who are in disguise for fear of their lives often adventure as a means of travelling away from dangerous areas, throwing pursuers off the scent (what would the prince be doing sleeping on the straw in a tavern with a bunch of ruffians?) or simply of earning money, as they are no longer able to live in noble luxury with every meal brought to them. Nobles in this situation can be next to helpless and they tend to value the few friends they know they can trust. Role-Playing: For a disguised noble, the most important quality in a friend is trustworthiness. His whole adventuring life is a lie concocted to hide the secret of who he truly is; there are few people who can stand to keep such a thing to themselves. A disguised noble will usually confide the truth of his identity in one other person, two at the most. Some disguised nobles
Adventuring: Disguised nobles go out of their way to hide their identity. For this reason, they will throw their lot in with anyone who serves their purpose, irrespective
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CHARACTER CONCEPTS are twitchy and paranoid, with a hunted look to them. Such people assume that anyone could be an enemy, as this attitude has kept them alive so far. They are utterly suspicious of strangers and will not place any trust in them if they can help it. Others are gallant heroes or antiheroes, enjoying the chance to let themselves go away from the stifling restrictions of court. These use the gentility of their noble background as a way of showing off, making sure to be as courteous, precise and mannered as possible and delighting in the incongruity of this approach. When the man who has just stolen your jewels on the highway then dances with you on the sward and plays you a passionate tune on his mandolin before galloping off into the night, you can be fairly sure that there goes a disguised noble. Bonuses: A disguised noble has the advantage of his background even when its physical resources are not available to him. He is also well used to the art of disguising himself. He therefore benefits from a +2 racial bonus to all Diplomacy, Disguise, Perform and Knowledge (nobility and royalty) checks. Penalties: Disguised nobles may not select any Craft or Profession skill, as such things do not befit one of noble birth. Gentlemen and women are not expected to do anything so vulgar as work for a living. Such skills are always treated as cross-class skills should the player wish to take them up later in life. The specialisation and sheltered nature of his upbringing, which will have trained him only in the gentlemanly arts of fighting rather than that which is used by soldiers in the field, mean that he may not select Exotic Weapon Proficiency as a starting feat.
own people and with curiosity by those of her husband’s. Intermarriages between elven women and human men are also not unknown. Such characters are deemed to have been living with their elven spouses for at least 6 years before beginning play, long enough to have absorbed the necessary rudiments of elven culture. Adventuring: These ‘changelings in reverse’ have much the same adventuring habits as half-elves do, finding a place where they can. They are usually welcome to accompany their elven comrades on missions where only elves would ordinarily go, such as a delegation to visit another elven civilization, but as they are acutely aware of their clumsiness and lack of grace when compared with the elves, they will often forego this. Elf-friends share the elves’ love of woodland and wild spaces and are every bit as comfortable in a forest environment.
Elf-Friend
Human and elven society often coincides with happy results. Half-elves, with one elven and one human parent, are the most commonly encountered crossbreeds of all. Elf-friends are humans who are steeped in elven culture and lore. The most usual way for a character to begin as an elf-friend is by having been found as a baby by elves or entrusted to elven foster parents and raised in that culture. Such people receive both blessing and bane from their upbringing. They sometimes find it difficult to relate to their fellow humans, seeing them through elven eyes as boorish and uncultured, yet they can often find their adopted elven kin infuriating and hard to relate to; their human blood asserts itself sooner or later.
Roleplaying: At their best, elf-friends are bridges between different civilisations, proving that patience and affection can overcome cultural differences. At their worst, they are neither one thing nor the other, feeling themselves to be too lumpen and crude for the world of elves yet too alien from the hectic human world. An elffriend who becomes cut off from his elven upbringing can be a lonely figure indeed, with nowhere in the world that he can truly call home. Other humans often find
There is another kind of elf-friend who is well known; this is a young human woman who has married into elven society and keeps a foot in both worlds. She is viewed with awe and sometimes fear by those of her
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CHARACTER CONCEPTS the elf-friend to be affected and pretentious, which is an undeserved criticism. The elf-friend has simply learned the detachment of the elves without having had time to master the complexities of elven conduct and protocol. Elf-friends share characteristic elven attitudes towards humanity, believing them to be fascinating creatures with an unfortunate tendency towards distasteful and coarse behaviour.
races, to cover up his profound jealousy of them and sense of inadequacy. Malcontents would like nothing better than to give up their worthless humanity and become something else, something which will not vanish from the world after its three score years and ten are up. They spend their lives seeking for ways in which they can gain power over that which they fear the most, death and decrepitude. They are anxious to preserve their lives at all costs and because of this may often be cowardly or reclusive.
Bonuses: All elf-friends are fluent in the common and elvish tongues as well as any other languages they may learn. They have elven weapon proficiencies, as the surrounding culture will have obliged them to learn the use of these weapons even if they married into elvenkind. They will have become accustomed to elven habits of deportment; it is not possible to accompany an elven hunting party without something of their grace and poise rubbing off on you. This translates to a +1 racial bonus to Balance, Move Silently and Hide checks. Although elves do not have such a bonus, their heightened Dexterity makes them more competent with these skills, so it amounts to the same thing. When elffriends interact with true elves, their familiarity with elven custom, etiquette and manners mitigates any circumstance penalties arising from culture clash that would otherwise be applied to Charisma-based skills.
There are many examples of malcontents in historical lore. The great archetypes are Doctor Faustus, who entered into a compact with dark powers in order to gain worldly success, Melmoth the Wanderer who made a similar bargain for extended life as a damned soul on Earth and of course those mortals who have craved vampiric status and in some cases achieved it. Almost all malcontents are fascinated by vampires and would welcome the chance to become one, so long as they could retain their own consciousness. The moral issue is not a concern to them. Adventuring: Malcontents are more likely to become wizards than any other class, as a wizard has the chance to unlock the gates of life and death. Most humans who become liches were malcontents in life. Only one who shared the malcontent’s contempt for human life would prefer an eternity in a skeletal, monstrous form to a clean death and eternal rest. It is ironic that the one class which might promise immortality of a sort, namely that of the druid, does not appeal to malcontents because of its emphasis on balance. Malcontents are far too concerned about their own personal power to care about balance or the proper cycle of nature. They want to drive a spanner in the works and prevent their own death, rather than accepting that each season will come in its time.
Penalties: Elf-friends are uncomfortable if they spend too much time away from elven society. They have not learned the art, as the true elves have, of carrying their home in their hearts. They do not have the necessary emotional stability to do without the beauty and harmony of elven existence for long periods of time. If they go for longer than six months without spending time in the company of an elf or group of or elves, they acquire a –1 morale penalty to all checks and saves and a bleak depression begins to hang over them.
Malcontent
Malcontents know all too well what it is to be human; it means being doomed to a mere handful of years of life, trapped in a graceless, unremarkable body. They feel themselves to be inadequate compared to the other races. They have nothing of the elves’ grace, the dwarves’ robust endurance or the gnomes’ ingenuity. As for the half-orcs, their condition is at least more wretched than that of humans, so they at least have them to look down upon. To a malcontent, every success achieved by a member of another race is something to be jealous of, while every failure perpetrated by a human is yet another proof that humans only exist to give the Gods something to laugh at. The malcontent lives his life wishing he had been born into a different race. He often effects to despise members of other
Malcontents adventure in order to gain knowledge and power. They hate to fight, as it places their precious lives at risk, though they reluctantly understand that they must co-operate with others and pull their weight if they are to get what they want. A party that contains a malcontent knows that he will do his utmost to ensure his personal survival, which usually means the survival of the group as well; however, his greed is a liability as he can be tempted far too easily. A malcontent is quite prepared to sell out his comrades in order to guarantee his own survival. This makes him the weak link in the chain and the most profitable target on which an enemy can work. Malcontents make marvellous Judas figures. Role-playing:
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Malcontents are usually of evil
CHARACTER CONCEPTS
Farm Boy
alignment. They are ultimately selfish, as what they want is to carry on as they are indefinitely, with no thought for what this might cost anyone else. They regard conventional human approaches to death, such as the raising of a family or the achievement of noble ends so that you will at least be remembered fondly, as just so much sentimental garbage. Let others achieve immortality through their good works; the malcontent wants to achieve immortality by not dying.
Unlike the Cunning Lad described above, who is also of common origin but has a keen wit and natural charm, the Farm Boy has straw in his hair and stars in his eyes. He is a peasant and the descendant of peasants. In the ordinary run of things, he would not amount to very much, but he has dreams of becoming an adventurer and achieving fame and glory. As he has not been further from the farm all his life than the nearest large town, many of his ideas are naive and some are complete superstition. His impression of adventurers and the life they lead is taken from heroic sagas and legends, rather than conversations with actual adventurers. Were he given the chance, he would bombard an adventurer with questions before asking if there were any way for him to come along on an adventure and help, even if it were only to mind the horses.
Bonuses: Malcontents are characterised by their high intelligence and cold rationality. Their attitude to death and mortality is a result of a purely intellectual approach to life, without any of the tempering influence that wisdom might bring to it. He is disciplined and focused in the tasks that he undertakes, not wasting time or attention; this grants him a +1 racial bonus on all Concentration checks. His unconscious will to live is so phenomenally strong that he only dies once he has been reduced to -15 hit points, rather than the usual -10. Finally, the breadth of his learning and his capacity to retain any information that might be of use on his quest to extend his life grant him a +1 bonus to all Knowledge skill checks.
The Farm Boy is uneducated and inexperienced but not stupid. He is resolved to leave the farm and achieve his fortune as an adventurer, even if it breaks his parents’ hearts. Sometimes, a Farm Boy turns to adventuring after the loss of his family farm and the death of his relations, as he has no other option but to enlist in the army. Whereas the Cunning Lad is often thought of as a fool by those who do not know better, the Farm Boy is more likely to be respected as a local ‘good lad’. He has certainly learned to fight and will have lent a hand in defence of his village if necessary.
Penalties: If the malcontent were wiser, he might realise the terrible cost of his intended goal and reconcile himself to his fate as a mortal being. Unfortunately, malcontents are not wise. They receive a -2 racial penalty to Wisdom. His horror of death and determination to survive at all costs makes him a coward, with a -4 racial penalty to saving throws against fear effects.
Adventuring: It takes a long, long time for the farm boy’s awe and wonder at being an adventurer at all to wear off. He is most likely to be a member of one of the fighting classes, with a sturdy respect for clerics (having had the example of his village priest in his early life) though other religions than his own will be alternately fascinating and bewildering to him. Farm Boys can make very good clerics, as the simplicity of their life has led them to see things as a simple matter of right and wrong and of accepting whatever the Gods choose to give you. They are wary of magic, as it is not something they understand and it lacks the regulating framework of religion. Role-Playing: The Farm Boy is the ultimate ‘newbie’. Everything is new and fascinating to him. This can sometimes be wearying for those around him, to whom the world of swords, armour, monsters and magic is a matter of daily life, not a storybook adventure. He welcomes any chance to travel to exotic places and is so keen to earn the respect of his fellow adventurers that he will often rush into dangerous situations when a more considered approach would be wiser.
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CHARACTER CONCEPTS though like any character concept they may be of either gender.) Those who have achieved their heart’s desire live in fear of having it take away from them again. He is usually a simple craftsman who for whatever reason is unable to ply his trade. For example, he might be a farmer whose lands have been confiscated by a noble and given to another, or a healer whose work has been made illegal by a fundamentalist regime. Adventuring: A homemaker will always have a spouse and children at the start of play. He has either been driven to adventure out of want of any other work, because it is the only way to protect his loved ones against a threat, or because a sense of duty demands it of him. Many homemakers are former adventurers who started down that road and travelled only a little way before realising their destiny was a more domestic one; they are now obliged to dust off their old gear and put their long unused skills to use.
Bonuses: You cannot not fork hay for ten hours at a stretch, dig fields, tend cattle in all weathers and load up carts at harvest time without having a fair bit of muscle on you. The Farm Boy begins play with a +1 racial bonus to Strength and Constitution. Having used agricultural tools since he was old enough to be trusted with them, he can fight with them, too. He receives Agricultural Weapon Proficiency (see Chapter 5) as a free bonus feat at first level.
The only influence that can motivate a homemaker to leave his family behind and take to the road once more is a higher need. This is almost always the homemaker’s own sense of honour. Many homemakers will have taken an oath to defend their country in times of trouble. Others have pledged to defend old comrades and rescue them from danger, no matter what the cost. A few are even members of secret societies that notify their members when their services are needed. The pledge taken to such a brotherhood makes it quite clear that family interests are to take second place to the cause.
Penalties: Though they are not stupid, Farm Boys are remarkably credulous and easily impressed. As they have a microscopic amount of experience of the world outside their village and their beliefs of what it is like are informed by any number of fantastic tales, they find it difficult to dismiss any story as untrue. To be blunt, it is not difficult to suggest to one that he exchange the family cow for a bag of magic beans. A Farm Boy suffers from a racial penalty of -4 to all Sense Motive checks, as he often does not have the first clue what another person’s true intentions are. The same penalty applies to saving throws to resist Enchantment effects. Fey creatures and accomplished seducers are able to lead a Farm Boy by the nose, which often spells his downfall.
Role-playing: Homemakers often try to make up for the absence of their family by taking a paternal role with their fellow adventurers. They will act as counsellors, shoulders to cry on, providers and mediators. The line one hears most often from a homemaker on an adventure is ‘I don’t care who started it’, closely followed by ‘Come on, it’s not as bad as all that.’ They are concerned with being ‘sensible’ in all things and will counsel against recklessness, though they will put their own lives on the line without a second thought to defend those they care about. Having a homemaker with you on an adventure is remarkably like having a parent along for the ride, with all the positive and negative aspects of that situation. They will be the ones who get up early to cook everyone else breakfast, fix whatever gear needs fixing and tend to the wounded; they will also present
Homemaker
Not all adventurers are the itinerant kind, wandering far and wide and calling no one place home. The homemaker has a house, a family and responsibilities to attend to. This warm hearth is a source of strength to him, but also a source of concern. (We have used the male pronoun to refer to the homemaker throughout,
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CHARACTER CONCEPTS resolute opposition to any plan that seems to them to be silly or ill-considered and will scold those who get themselves or others into trouble.
what it is to be. Members of other races can of course have prophecies made about them, but humans produce Chosen Ones and Future Kings all the time, possibly because the many uncertainties of their short lives make them crave something definite in the future that they can work towards.
The homemaker’s family is the centre of his universe. He derives moral strength from knowing that they depend on him and that he has them to go home to. Should his family ever be slain and his home destroyed, that love turns to a burning wish for vengeance. Bereaved homemakers pursue those responsible with unflagging energy and treat them with no mercy, refusing to rest until all who had a hand in the deed are slaughtered.
Some subjects of prophecy are initially completely oblivious to their future role. Even if they know nothing of the future that awaits them, there will always be other parties who know exactly what they are and what this implies. Any subject of prophecy always has one faction working to keep him alive, which will sometimes include tracking him down in the first place and identifying him, and a second faction that is threatened by the future he represents and will attempt to have him destroyed. For example, if a character is destined to become the king of a nation that is currently occupied by a foreign power, he will be supported and protected by the dispossessed chieftains of that nation and hunted by the nation’s current rulers, as well as any of the original chiefs who have thrown their lot in with the occupiers and do not want anyone rocking the boat.
Bonuses: Homemakers are strong-willed, as their sense of responsibility pushes them on and they do not give way easily. They receive a +1 racial bonus to all Will saving throws. They are assumed to have worked for some years to keep their house and family well provided for, so they are entitled to the Skill Focus feat for free; this must however be applied to a Craft or Profession skill. If the homemaker’s family are ever slain, the racial bonus to Will saving throws is lost. Penalties: A homemaker’s preoccupation with domestic matters makes it difficult for them to consider travelling far afield. They are required to return to their homes and families whenever they can. If, during a period when they are not actively engaged upon an adventure or working for a cause, they do not take an opportunity to return home when it is presented, they lose their racial bonus to Will saving throws and suffer a -1 morale penalty to all checks and saves owing to guilt and sorrow. Returning home for at least a week removes these penalties and restores the bonus.
All subjects of prophecy have a mentor. This person is a member of the supporting faction, whose special responsibility is to provide guidance and help as the subject of prophecy comes into full understanding of his role. The mentor gives his charge tasks to perform, duties to undertake and training to undergo. The most familiar instance of this relationship is that in which Merlin instructs the young Arthur to fit him for his role as King to come. Adventuring: Subjects of prophecy go on such adventures as their mentors deem fit. They are deliberately placed into the company of adventurers who will do them the most good; these are usually friends who have been trusted with the secret of who the subject of prophecy is, even if he himself does not know. (A player need only know that he is the subject of a prophecy in order to apply this character concept. The exact nature of the prophecy need not be known to him, but can be known to other players, which makes for interesting roleplaying situations.) The object of these adventures is usually to build up the character’s experience and confidence, so that when the time comes for him to fulfil his destiny, he will be powerful enough to do so. Adventures may also be undertaken for tactical or strategic reasons, such as the achievement of an objective which only the character can do, an attack upon the opposing faction or a relocation of the character’s secure hiding place following a security breach.
Homemakers are required to send home at least half of the money they make. They must continue to do this even if their family is no longer in direct danger or poverty. Failure to do this, or to attempt it, causes them to forfeit their bonus to Will saving throws.
Subject of Prophecy
Most humans are content to be ordinary, while some seek to distinguish themselves in their chosen field. A third, much rarer kind of human is chosen by fate to achieve a great destiny, often against his will. The subject of prophecy has been named by some prognosticating force, such as an oracle or a shaman, as the agent of cosmic necessity. He will usually have a single physical feature, by which he may be identified, such as a scar, a birthmark, a missing finger or something similar. The player does not necessarily know the prophecy, though the Games Master should decide in advance
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CHARACTER CONCEPTS A character who is destined to do something important can still die or otherwise fail. It is usually the case that for every such prophecy made, there is a second one that predicts another side will come out victorious. Characters in messianic roles, such as those who are destined to defeat a great evil, will have opposite numbers who (from their point of view) are destined to defeat the character. Nobody can tell which prophecy is the true one until events have played themselves out. Role-Playing: Subjects of prophecy can become very frustrated. They seem to spend their lives surrounded by people who know more about their life than they do, but will not tell them who they really are or what they are supposed to be doing. The character knows that he is destined for something important, which can sometimes inflate his ego and make him feel superior to those around him, but his status as a mere pawn of destiny with no say in what happens to him can leave him feeling cheated, powerless and futile, envious of those who have less significant but more open-ended lives. Bonuses: The subject of prophecy is hard to kill before his time. Fate has a way of taking a hand in his affairs, keeping him alive against the odds. He receives a +4 racial bonus to all Fortitude saving throws made to stabilise spontaneously should he be reduced to below 0 hit points. He also receives the Toughness feat for free. He has a very limited power to defy bad luck, as he has an explicit destiny that as nothing to do with chance. Once per game session, he may re-roll any single die roll and may choose which of the two results to keep.
Displaced One
This option is for players and Games Masters who like to stretch the boundaries of standard role-playing. It should not be used unless the Games Master is confident that it will not disrupt the campaign. The character concept is very familiar from fantasy fiction but is rarely adopted in fantasy role-play.
Penalties: Subjects of prophecy have one-pointed futures; they are destined to achieve greatness in one specific respect. This limits them considerably in their choice of career. A subject of prophecy may never have levels in more than one class. Prophecies always include a form of penalty clause or limited geas (in the old sense of the word) regarding one thing to which the character is especially vulnerable, a form of Achilles’ Heel. The player must select a single kind of energy damage - fire, cold, acid, sonic or electrical - that spells special trouble for him. He receives a -4 racial penalty to all saving throws made to avoid taking damage from that particular source.
A displaced one is a human being from another world - the everyday world of Earth. Owing to some irregularity, such as a rift opening between universes, the experiments of some deranged sorcerer or even the intervention of a deity, he has been thrown into an unfamiliar, bizarre realm of elves, orcs, dragons and magic, like something out of a fanciful novel. Displaced ones can be from any time and place in the world’s history, with the most common choices being the Victorian era, the old American West and the pirate heyday of the seventeenth century, but the most usual option is to have the character arrive from Earth as we know it today. They will undoubtedly have a hard time adapting and may often question whether what they are
11
CHARACTER CONCEPTS experiencing is truly real. Too many fantasy stories to count have used this device, with the most memorable being the tales of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, who refused to accept the reality of the world into which he was thrown. More comical examples are found with the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and even the premise of the original Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
Cop who chases the Crook into the other world. Role-playing: Playing a Displaced One can be enormously rewarding for all concerned. A high level of maturity is required from the players, as the introduction of real world elements into the game can be fatal for the communal suspension of disbelief on which the game’s atmosphere depends. They have the advantage of not being saddled with the conventional wisdom of the game world and can bring an innovative point of view to bear on the challenges faced by the group. Applying contemporary models to fantasy situations can be helpful as well as entertaining, as can the use of episodes from Earth history for inspiration, such as when one organises a brigade of dwarves into a classic Roman turtle formation, or borrows a bard’s mandolin and plays ‘Stairway to Heaven’ to entertain a tavern full of rowdy half-orcs.
Displaced ones are usually more concerned with finding their way back to their own home plane than anything else, though some discover that they prefer life in a fantastic world, even if it is more hazardous than the world from which they have come. If the Games Master wants to have a truly Hollywood feel to the proceedings, it can be ruled that a person of opposite alignment and contrary goals to the character came through the rift at the same time as he did and the character must track him down and stop his fiendish plans; the classic example being the Cop who chases the Crook into the other world.
Bonuses: Displaced ones have the questionable advantage of knowledge of an advanced society’s technology. This may be useful but in the vast majority of cases will not be; there is no point in knowing how to fire a gun if the campaign world does not have them, nor in knowing how to drive a car if there are only carts available. However, a character who knew how to aim and fire a pistol might not be quite so confused with a hand crossbow as another would, and
Adventuring: Displaced ones are usually reluctant to adventure at first, as they are not used to life in the fantasy environment, but they soon display the human capacity for adaptation and get used to it. Displaced ones are usually more concerned with finding their way back to their own home plane than anything else, though some discover that they prefer life in a fantastic world, even if it is more hazardous than the world from which they have come. If the Games Master wants to have a truly Hollywood feel to the proceedings, it can be ruled that a person of opposite alignment and contrary goals to the character came through the rift at the same time as he did and the character must track him down and stop his fiendish plans; the classic example being the
12
CHARACTER CONCEPTS
The Enigma
anyone who had spent time at sea would know enough about knots to compensate for a lack of training in rope use.
The most perplexing thing about this person is how normal he is. He seems to have no special powers or supernatural precognitive abilities and yet events conspire to bring him what he needs and take him where he needs to go. When he gets there, he instinctively knows what his duty is. The Enigma is the instrument of fate but in a very different way to the Instrument of Prophecy above. Enigmas are blown from place to place by the winds of circumstance; they always seem to find themselves in situations that call for exactly their skills and abilities. Enigmas are always wanderers. The archetypes here from modern fiction are Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John, the ‘man with no name’ immortalised by Clint Eastwood and John Constantine of the Hellblazer graphic novels.
The Games Master may allow a Displaced One to attempt to replicate an artefact of the world from whence he came, such as a cannon. This is only permissible if the character’s background is such that he would be familiar not only with the appearance and function of such devices but also their design and method of manufacture. Ideas that enrich the game (such as the building of an elementary hang-glider to escape a tower prison) are acceptable but those that would seriously unbalance play (such as trolls armed with chainsaws) should be avoided. The inherent tendency for a displaced one to question everything about the world around him makes it hard for him to accept the existence of magic, even when he sees it happening around him all the time. As Displaced Ones have come from a realm where magic does not exist, they are less susceptible to it than those who have grown up with it as a fact of life. They therefore suffer a +1 racial bonus to all saving throws made to resist magical effects of any kind, including spells, spell-like abilities and effects produced by magical items. This bonus does not, however, apply to supernatural abilities. This questioning tendency is especially effective against illusion magic; as far as the Displaced One is concerned, the whole world might well be an illusion. When confronted with illusion magic, they have a +2 racial bonus to their saving throws to disbelieve. This does not stack with the ordinary bonus to their saving throw to resist magical effects.
Enigmas usually do not give their names. If they do, they generally refer to themselves by some simple or even monosyllabic title, such as ‘Mr. Jones’, ‘The Grey Knight’ or ‘Rider’. They instinctively accept their fate and are content to drift from one adventure to the next, lending assistance wherever it is needed. They are usually of good alignment, though some are irredeemably evil, moving from place to place like a plague and leaving slaughter and ill will behind them. Almost all Enigmas have a great calamity, tragedy or betrayal in their past. Some may even have been closer to Homemakers at first, before disaster overtook them and drove them on to wander. This dark secret is not something that the Enigma confides in other people. The reason for his wandering and doing the deeds his does is often to forget the past, to atone for it or even to celebrate the moral void into which it threw him. Most evil Enigmas were originally good until some horrible event (such as the slaughter of their family before their eyes, or the killing of a loved one) destroyed any belief on their part that there was good in the world, or any hope for redemption.
Penalties: Owing to their offworld background, displaced ones may not enter play as a class with spellcasting abilities, nor may they invest any of their starting skill points in Alchemy, Decipher Script, any Knowledge skill specific to the fantasy game world such as Knowledge (the planes), Scry, Spellcraft or Use Magic Device. They may only select one starting language.
Adventuring: The Enigma is not a team player. He can work with others if their values and objectives are compatible with his, but his uncommunicative nature and concern for his own work make him a frustrating travelling companion. He may sometimes have a regular travelling companion or sidekick, making the Enigma an excellent character concept for one-on-one or two-on-one roleplaying sessions; he does not work so well as part of a larger group. The typical Enigma does not adventure to gain glory, riches or power but simply to do what needs to be done, whether that is the saving of a village or the destruction of a cathedral. Once his work in a region is done, it is his custom to move on.
The Displaced One’s origin on a different world leaves him without the resistance to diseases that native-born dwellers have. He is also much more likely to be physically less fit than others, coming from a culture where industrialisation has polluted the environment and healing magic is not available. All of this gives the Displaced One a –1 penalty to his Constitution ability score. This applies even to those Displaced Ones who come from earlier time periods.
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CHARACTER CONCEPTS Roleplaying: The easiest way to play an Enigma is to smile a lot (or snarl, if that is more in keeping with the character) and say very little. One feature characterises all those of the Enigma concept and that is their taciturnity. They do not like to waste words; they prefer actions. When they have something to say, it is usually worth hearing. Enigmas often have very strong feelings beneath their silent exteriors, though they rarely give them expression. They usually react violently to attempts to find out about their past. They can sometimes befriend the unlikeliest of people, such as a young child or a monstrous humanoid of some sort, such as a centaur, finding in these unusual companions kinship of a sort that the other races cannot offer.
Bonuses: Enigmas have a form of sixth sense that can warn them of danger or alert them to a person in peril. This sense is passive; they cannot use it at will to attempt to find out information. Whenever the Enigma is about to enter a dangerous situation without knowing it, or someone of the same alignment as the Enigma within a half-mile radius is in trouble (if they know the Enigma personally they may call for his help) he may make a Wisdom ability score check against DC 15 to suddenly ‘know’ that something is amiss. He can tell no more than this, though he knows the difference between a danger to himself and a danger to others. This sixth sense does not work if the Enigma is entering a dangerous situation voluntarily, such as descending into a mine. It is a capricious ability, connected to the Enigma’s fate as a wandering problem-solver and cannot be used as a universal warning system. It is certainly not as powerful as a foresight spell. The danger sense is only ever activated when the Enigma moves into a region, such as entering a tavern where someone is waiting to kill him, or walking down a road when there is an ambush up ahead. It does not give any warning of threats moving into the area, such as a rogue sneaking up behind him or a sniper aiming an arrow at his back. It is difficult to find anything out about an Enigma by magical divination. The term ‘enigma’ is not conferred lightly; the same fate that keeps him moving from place to place intervenes to prevent him from becoming too well known to people. He has a +1 racial bonus to saving throws made to resist the effects of divination spells such as detect thoughts or discern lies. Penalties: Enigmas find it difficult to make friends or establish lasting relationships. They cannot easily establish rapport with people. Though they are trustworthy, they have a hard time convincing others of this; there is something about them that you just cannot put your finger on, something elusive, and this makes people reluctant to extend goodwill to them. They accordingly suffer a –2 penalty to all Charisma-based skills and checks made when dealing socially with other people.
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THE PRESTIGE HUMAN
The Prestige Human
climbed the cathedral tower without rope or pitons because his mistress challenged him to do so to prove his love. They are more likely to be fighters or rogues than any other character class, purely because characters of these backgrounds are used to surviving danger on their own, one through physical toughness and endurance, the other through agility and skill. Characters with higher than 10 Wisdom are simply not reckless enough to be daredevils.
T
he following selection of human prestige classes covers humans from the highest levels of society, such as the Princely Hero, down to the lowest, such as the Giant-killer. Classes such as the Fakir and the Holy Fool are modelled on the religious behaviour of humans from different non-standard cultures, while the Lothario and the Cult Leader show humans at their opportunistic, deceptive worst. The Monster Captor exemplifies the human propensity for trade and takes a very unorthodox route to the making of money, embodying the human ideal that there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Finally, the Daredevil shows forth the human paradox in all its glory; they have such short lives and yet they pack so much into them.
Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify to become a daredevil, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus: +3 or higher. Ability Scores: Dexterity 12+, Wisdom 10 or less Skills: Climb 5 ranks, Jump 5 ranks (or Balance 5 ranks, Tumble 5 ranks)
Daredevil
Class Skills
‘I’m always in trouble. I wouldn’t know how to act if I weren’t!’
The Daredevil class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Escape Artist (Dex), Jump (Str), Tumble (Dex) and Use Rope (Dex). See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions.
Humans are motivated by a love of variety. Their short lives demand that they have a multitude of different experiences. This prestige class covers those humans who are so obsessed with acquiring new experience and laughing in the face of their inevitable death that they are completely addicted to the dangerous and daring.
Skill Points At Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the daredevil prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The daredevil is proficient in the use of light armour and all simple weapons. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble.
Showy, audacious, admired by many and considered crazy by even more, the daredevil lives to take risks. Life is not worth living unless it is one death-defying challenge after another. He is attracted to anything that is dangerous, purely because it is dangerous. His motto is ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths’. Daredevils are often quite vain and very arrogant, boasting of their deeds to anyone who cares to listen. When two or more are met at the same place, a furious contest of boasts is almost certain to begin, which will usually end with one daredevil challenging the other to perform some dangerous task with him right there and then. The challenges entered upon by daredevils are not limited by anything so mediocre as sanity. They may range from the conventional, such as the dispatching of an angry drunken minotaur who is rampaging in the next valley, to the bizarre, such as a challenge to drink a bottle of poison and then count out loud as high as one dares to before swallowing the antidote.
Iron Will: The daredevil is focused on the challenge in front of him and will not let anything distract him from it. At 1st level, he gains Iron Will as a bonus feat. Cannot Resist A Challenge: If challenged to perform a task which is clearly dangerous, not obviously fatal and within his own estimate of his abilities, the daredevil must make a Will saving throw as if he were the subject of a suggestion spell cast by a 6th level sorcerer. Particularly tempting or audacious challenges may carry a circumstance penalty to the saving throw at the discretion of the Games Master. If he fails, the challenge seems like a perfectly fine idea and he will do everything in his power (within reason) to achieve it. He may also accept the challenge voluntarily. The bonus
Daredevils come from all walks of human life, from the peasant who started out by drinking a whole keg of grandpappy’s rotgut for a bet to the nobleman who
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THE PRESTIGE HUMAN Evasion (Ex): At 3rd level the daredevil acquires Evasion as per the rogue class feature if he does not already have it. If exposed to any effect that normally allows a character to attempt a Reflex saving throw for half damage, the daredevil takes no damage with a successful saving throw. Evasion can only be used if the daredevil is wearing light armor or no armor. It is an extraordinary ability. Desperate Thrust (Ex): His willingness to make risky moves means the daredevil is often the one to strike the single crucial blow that turns the tide during a hard combat. He may add a circumstance bonus equal to his level +3 to any one attack made during a combat in which he or his party are outnumbered by two to one or more. Such a move opens him up to attack; on the following round he is denied any Dexterity or dodge bonuses to armour class. Flashy Moves (Ex): The daredevil is used to showing off his skills and basking in the appreciation of the crowd. While in the presence of an audience, defined as any person watching him who he does not know personally, he may add his Charisma modifier as a circumstance bonus to any attack rolls or Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump or Tumble skill checks. For him to receive the modifier the audience cannot assist him or fight alongside him in any way.
Giant-killer
‘Those are my mother’s sheep and you can’t have them.’ to Will saving throws from the Iron Will feat does not apply when attempting to resist a challenge.
The most ordinary people sometimes become heroes of their communities. One does not have to be highborn or a dragon-slaying knight to gain renown. A giantkiller is not necessarily a high-level warrior but simply a common man or woman whose skill and daring have prevailed time after time against a monstrous enemy. They work well together, often teaming up to bring down a particularly fearsome specimen. Giant-killers often wander from place to place, seeking to pit their wits against any giant-class monsters who are making a nuisance of themselves in the area. Communities are
Charmed Life (Ex): To have survived this long and taken this many stupid risks, the daredevil must have some kind of outrageous good fortune going for him. When he is in a perilous situation and knows it, he receives a +2 competence bonus to all Reflex saving throws.
The Daredevil Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1
+1
+0
+2
+0
Iron Will, Cannot Resist A Challenge
2
+2
+1
+2
+1
Charmed Life
3
+3
+2
+3
+2
Evasion
4
+4
+3
+3
+2
Desperate Thrust
5
+5
+3
+4
+3
Flashy Moves
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THE PRESTIGE HUMAN often happy to dig deep into their coffers to reward such a hero.
Speak Giant: All giant-killers are able to speak the Giant language.
Hit Die: d10.
Fearless: Being of stout heart and used to facing down creatures much larger than himself, the giant-killer is contemptuous of fear. He receives a +6 morale bonus to Will saving throws to resist fear effects and to any roll made to oppose an Intimidate skill check directed at him.
Requirements
To qualify to become a giant-killer, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus: +3 or higher. Ability Scores: Dexterity 13+. Wisdom must be at least 4 points higher than Intelligence. Special: Must have killed at least one giant-class creature. Note that ‘giant’ is a class of monster, covering creatures such as ogres and ettins as well as the named giant types such as hill giant and stone giant. See Core Rulebook III for full information on the giant class of monster. Special: Must be of common origin with no noble blood.
Jack’s Cunning (Ex): The giant-killer may add his Wisdom modifier to any damage rolls made when fighting a giant-class creature. Head Chop (Ex): Under certain very specific circumstances, the giant-killer may attempt to decapitate a giant-class creature outright. He must have a weapon ready, which must be large and inflict slashing damage. The giant-class creature must be denied any Dexterity bonus to its armour class, whether or not it has one. If the giant’s head is not within reach (which it might be if the giant-killer were perching on top of a dresser or hiding in a tree) the giant-killer must first succeed in a Jump check (DC 20) to launch himself from the ground and attack the target. He must then make an attack roll. If the result is a successful critical hit, the giant-class creature’s head is severed with one blow. The head chop attack is a full attack action and provokes attacks of
Class Skills
The giant-killer class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str) and Survival (Wis). See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions. Skill Points At Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the giant-killer prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The giant-killer is proficient in the use of light armour and all simple and martial weapons. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble. Crafty Ruse (Ex): The giant-killer is accustomed to tricking giant-class creatures. He knows what to say to goad, tempt or intimidate them and how to draw their attention away from things he does not want them to notice. He receives a +4 circumstance bonus on any Bluff, Diplomacy, Forgery, Intimidate or Hide checks made in order to deceive, baffle or frighten a giant-class creature. Run: A giant-killer needs to be able to move quickly when he is up against opponents twice his size. At 1st level he receives Run as a bonus feat.
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THE PRESTIGE HUMAN The Giant-Killer Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1
+1
+1
+1
+0
Crafty Ruse, Run, Speak Giant
2
+2
+2
+1
+0
Fearless
3
+3
+2
+2
+1
Jack’s Cunning
4
+4
+3
+2
+1
Head Chop
5
+5
+3
+2
+1
The Harder They Fall
Spells: Instead of skill in Handle Animal (see above) the character may substitute the ability to cast charm monster.
opportunity. If the creature has two or more heads, only one of its heads may be severed at once by this attack. The Harder They Fall (Ex): The giant-killer knows how to aim a sling bullet or sword thrust so as to strike a vital area. When fighting giant-class creatures, any weapon he uses automatically benefits from the effects of the Improved Critical feat, doubling its critical threat range.
Class Skills
The monster captor class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Ride (Dex), Swim (Str), Use Rope (Dex) and Survival (Int). See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions.
Monster Captor
Skill Points At Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
‘Into the crate. That’s it. Good girl. No, we don’t want to see your snakes. Put the snakes away…’
Class Features
Bring them back alive! That is the maxim by which the monster captor lives. The arena, the wizard’s laboratory, the dungeons of the local warlord – all of them need live monsters and they do not grow on trees. The monster captor has many scars, a solid reputation and a good livelihood trading in the strangest creatures he can bring home.
All of the following are class features of the monster captor prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The monster captor is proficient with light and medium armour and becomes proficient in the use of the whip and the net if he was not already. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble.
Not all monster captors are ethical, of course. They do not necessarily bring their creatures back in one piece because they are concerned for their welfare. There are those who are, to all intents and purposes, slavers. Good-aligned monster captors specialise in neutralizing the threat posed by unintelligent creatures who have caused trouble for locals merely by hunger or by being in the wrong place, while evil-aligned members of this class have no compunctions about capturing intelligent creatures and selling them as exotic pets, slaves or gladiatorial combatants.
Knockout (Ex): When tacking a monster which you intend to bring back still breathing, it is best to inflict subdual damage if you possibly can. The monster captor only suffers a –2 penalty to the attack roll when inflicting subdual damage with a weapon that ordinarily inflicts normal damage, instead of the usual –4 penalty. Nerve Spot (Ex): The monster captor is experienced in striking nerve clusters and unarmoured parts of a monster’s body that will hasten it toward unconsciousness. When facing a monster of the Animal, Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Magical Beast or Aberration class, as a free action the monster captor may make a Knowledge check: Knowledge (nature) for Animals, Beasts and Monstrous Humanoids, Knowledge (arcana) for Magical Beasts or Aberrations. The DC is 20. If the check is successful, he may add additional subdual damage as listed in addition to his regular damage when fighting that creature. Each Knowledge check applies only to one creature and only one attempt
Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify to become a monster captor, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus: +4 or higher. Skills: Handle Animal 4 ranks, Move Silently 2 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 6 ranks
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THE PRESTIGE HUMAN competence bonus to any Use Rope checks made to tie up an unconscious creature. Gaze Resistant: It is possible to become inured even to the supernatural attacks that some monsters are able to use. The monster captor receives a +2 resistance bonus to any saving throws made against a creature’s gaze attack.
Princely Hero
‘Good morrow, old woman! Does the Fell Warlock of Wrackham dwell in yonder tower, pray tell?’ Straight from the pages of the storybooks and belonging to those realms where there are still such things as benign royal families, the princely hero is the archetypal golden boy who sets out from a privileged environment to right the wrongs of the world. Having been brought up properly, he has charm, fortune and the blessings of the Fey on his side. Gallant, humble and courteous in everything he does, he inspires those around him, reminding them that the golden age of heroes is not altogether lost. Princely heroes are most often found in kingdoms where humans and elves have a history of peaceful coexistence, as the princely hero has a great deal of elven culture and grace about him. The elfraised (see Chapter 2, Character Concepts) make good princely heroes. A princely hero is keen to prove himself, knowing the expectations of his royal line rest upon him. He is usually used to competition, as royal families tend to be very extensive and he will have had numerous brothers, sisters and cousins to contend with for the ruler’s attention. The princely hero is fiercely loyal to the nation of his birth; he has to be, as one day he may well be its ruler. While he does not often understand the ways of the common people, he has been taught to defend their interests and so will try his utmost to ensure their prosperity and safety.
may be made per creature. A separate roll must be made for any other creatures either in the same combat or encountered later, even if they are of the same species. Poison Resistant (Ex): The monster captor has been bitten more times than he can count. He receives a +2 resistance bonus to any saving throws made to avoid poison effects.
Naturally, evil-aligned forces (and other enemies of his country) despise him and would like nothing more than to see him dragged down into the mud and slaughtered. It is for this reason that Princely Heroes
Hogtie (Ex): Even unconscious monsters need to be properly bound to ensure they do not cause havoc when they wake up. The monster captor receives a +4 The Monster Captor Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1
+1
+2
+1
+1
Knockout, Nerve Spot +1d6
2
+2
+2
+2
+1
Poison Resistant, Hogtie
3
+3
+3
+2
+1
Nerve Spot +2d6
4
+4
+3
+3
+1
Gaze Resistant
5
+5
+4
+3
+2
Nerve Spot +3d6
19
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN often go adventuring in disguise, trusting the truth of their identity to a few well-chosen companions. Hit Die: d10.
Requirements
To qualify to become a princely hero, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus: +2 or higher. Ability Scores: Charisma 14+ Alignment: Any good. Age: 25 or younger. A youth of royal blood who does not become a princely hero soon enough has lost his chance. On reaching the age of 25, the princely hero loses all his class features. He is then expected to resume his royal duties and not to go gallivanting around the world having adventures any more. Special: The character must be of royal blood and acknowledged as such, though he need not necessarily be in direct line of succession to the throne. A Fey creature must have formally blessed him upon his birth or within a week thereof. As these are extraordinarily rare circumstances for a character, the Games Master may allow a player who wishes to play this class to ‘discover’ his royal origin.
Class Skills
Blessing of the Fey (Su): As a result of the blessing placed on him by a Fey creature shortly after his birth, the princely hero receives an enhancement bonus to certain checks and other rolls. If the Fey blessed him with charm, he receives a +1 bonus to all Charismabased checks; if he was blessed with health, he receives a +1 bonus to all Constitution-based checks and Fortitude saving throws: if he was blessed with wisdom, he receives a +1 bonus to all Wisdom-based checks and Will saving throws. Should the Princely Hero ever willingly harm a good or neutrally aligned Fey creature, the blessing is negated forever.
The princely hero class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Ride (Dex) and Swim (Str). See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions. Skill Points At Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the princely hero prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The princely hero is proficient with the following weapons: dagger, light lance, short sword, heavy lance, longsword, rapier and greatsword. These weapons alone are considered to be ‘gentlemanly’. His genteel origin prohibits him from using any other weapon whatsoever. If he should chance to do so, he does not lose any class features but he does incur a –6 morale penalty to all attack and damage rolls as well as any other penalty incurred from lack of proficiency (if appropriate). Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble.
Servant: As he sets out on his adventures, the princely hero’s family grants him a manservant or lady-inwaiting, as appropriate for the character’s gender. This person is a 5th level commoner or a 3rd level expert as the Games Master decides. The servant’s role is to look after the princely hero as best he can, cooking his meals, keeping his equipment in good order and generally making any necessary advance arrangements. Right Wrongs (Ex): The princely hero’s keen sense of justice and righteousness lends force to his blows in combat. When fighting a foe known to him to be evil, he may add a morale bonus to his damage rolls equal to his Charisma modifier.
20
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN Just A Flesh Wound (Ex): Fortune smiles on the princely hero, making him harder to kill than most. After all, it would be a poor hero who did not appear to die tragically at the hands of evil from time to time, only to surprise everyone by proving to have survived after all. On receiving any damage from a single attack or effect that reduces him to zero or fewer hit points, the princely hero may make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 plus the total damage received). On a successful saving throw, the damage from the wound is treated as subdual rather than normal.
around the princely hero. He gains Leadership as a bonus feat. Bounce Back (Su): The princely hero does not admit defeat easily. With the true blood of a (potential) future king in his veins, he is just the kind to cry ‘Once more unto the breach!’ and lead the charge himself. Being an unflagging optimist, he can attempt to take a disastrous situation and turn it around. On any occasion on which a group or force led by the princely hero (or of which he is a member) has suffered defeat and there is a realistic possibility of making a second attempt, he may attempt to bounce back. Defeat is defined as any combat or other perilous situation after which one third of the group is dead or incapacitated. The attempt to bounce back must be made within ten rounds of the defeat, or the moment will have passed and the princely hero will be unable to stir his comrades to a second attempt. To make a bounce back attempt, the princely hero must make a Perform or Diplomacy check (DC 20). He suffers a –2 circumstance penalty to this check if more than two-thirds of the group were killed or incapacitated in the course of the defeat. A successful check grants all those who were involved in the defeat a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength and Constitution and a +2 enhancement bonus to all Will saving throws for the duration of their second attempt. The temporary gain in hit points caused by the bonus to Constitution may put incapacitated characters back on their feet. Hit points so gained do not last after the bonus has expired.
Heirloom: At 3rd, 6th and 9th level, the princely hero receives a precious heirloom from his family. Weapons, armour and shields are common heirlooms to receive. It is up to the Games Master to decide what the heirloom should be. At 3rd level, its value will be no greater than 2,500 gp, at 6th level its value will be no greater than 8,000 gp and at 9th level, 35,000 gp. To lose the heirloom incurs no penalties save the extreme disappointment of the family, which may be a factor when its members come to consider the princely hero’s suitability for eventual authority. Contagious Mirth (Ex): The princely hero’s high spirits, good humour and unflagging optimism cheer all those of non-evil alignment who are within fifty feet of him. They all receive a circumstance bonus equal to his Charisma modifier to saving throws against fear effects. Any evil characters that happen to be within this area find his relentless cheeriness unbearably irritating and receive a circumstance penalty equal to his Charisma modifier to all Concentration checks.
Endurance: The princely hero’s youthful zeal lends him the strength to keep going when others fall by the wayside. He gains the Endurance feat for free.
Dreadful Oath (Sp): The princely hero may choose one person or intelligent creature as a destined foe and swear to overcome him in single combat. He must have seen this intended foe at least once before. The oathtaking is a standard action. From the moment the oath is taken, the princely hero and his foe are aware of each other, even at a distance. By concentrating and making a successful Scry check (DC 10) the princely hero may form a mental image of what his foe is doing at that moment. This may be done three times a day. The link works both ways: the princely hero’s foe may also use this ability to find out what he is doing. Unlike a true scrying spell, no spells may be cast through the link. If the princely hero enters into combat with his sworn foe, he receives a +3 insight bonus to all attack and damage rolls. This bonus is not granted to his foe. A new dreadful oath may not be sworn until and unless the chosen foe has been slain. If this was achieved by anyone other than the princely hero fighting in single combat, he may not swear a new dreadful oath for 28 days.
Leadership: Attracted by the tales of his heroic exploits and mindful of his eventual destiny as a powerful ruler, coteries and significant individuals begin to gather
Wrathful Kingdom (Sp): Upon his reaching 10th level, the princely hero’s bond with the earth of his homeland is so strong that once per week he can call upon the land
Woodland’s Favour (Sp): By 5th level, the popularity of the princely hero is echoed in the natural world as loudly as it is in as the world of men. While he is in the woodlands of his home country, he may call on its denizens for assistance. This call for aid works as a summon nature’s ally III spell as cast by a 7th level druid. Green Sanctuary (Ex): The rocks and trees themselves seem to wish to shield the princely hero from harm; as a result he receives a +4 circumstance bonus to all Hide and Move Silently checks when made in the forests of his homeland.
21
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN The Princely Hero Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1
+1
+2
+0
+0
Blessing of the Fey, Servant
2
+2
+3
+1
+0
Right Wrongs
3
+3
+3
+2
+1
Just A Flesh Wound, Heirloom
4
+4
+4
+3
+1
Contagious Mirth
5
+5
+4
+4
+1
Woodland’s Favour, Green Sanctuary
6
+6
+5
+4
+2
Endurance, Heirloom
7
+7
+5
+5
+2
Leadership
8
+8
+6
+6
+2
Bounce Back
9
+9
+6
+6
+3
Dreadful Oath, Heirloom
10
+10
+7
+7
+3
Wrathful Kingdom
itself to rise up and defend itself against evil or foreign invaders. The princely hero must be within his own country’s designated borders to utilise this ability and the country itself must be under threat, either from the presence of massed enemies (over 500 HD of creatures with evil alignment or hostile intentions towards the princely hero’s country present within a square 500 feet on a side) or the endangerment of the life of its lawful ruler. The wrathful kingdom manifests itself either as an earthquake spell or as a command plants spell as the princely hero chooses, as if cast by an 18th level druid.
This has however been achieved at a tremendous price. He has renounced so much of what ordinary humans take for granted that many humans would not consider his life worth the living. To the vast majority of humans, a life with so little physical pleasure in it is not worth extending into eternity. Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify to become a fakir, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria.
Fakir
Base Attack Bonus: +5 or higher. Ability Scores: Constitution 14+. Spells: Must have the ability to cast divine spells. Alignment: Any non-evil. Special: The fakir must renounce violence altogether. He must give up eating meat (if he has not done so already) and may never intentionally cause harm to another living creature, with the exception of insects and other creatures of Tiny size, on pain of total loss of all class features with no way to restore them. The fakir must also go semi-naked, with no covering but a loincloth, cloak or blanket. Exposure of the body to the world is a crucial part of his discipline. He may not use any of his class features if he is wearing more clothing or armour than this. Given that he acquires elemental resistance to cold at 1st level, this is not so much of a trial for him as it might appear.
‘This body – it is only flesh. It is nothing. The spirit is what is important. It must be controlled, disciplined.’ It is in the nature of all religions, not just those of the humans, to focus on the spiritual dimension of life at the expense of the physical. There are however those rare scholars of the spirit who take this approach to extremes and for whom the physical body becomes an object of contempt. According to such practitioners, the body ought to be wholly the instrument of the soul. It is legitimate to deny the body its desires in order to strengthen the spirit to the utmost. ‘Fakir’ is the general title for those whose religious practice includes the subjugation of the physical form. Their meditative disciplines grant them extraordinary powers; their bodies become resilient, their physical needs diminish and they develop uncanny strength and elasticity. These practices are also demanding on a moral level. As well as keeping up with his meditative and devotional practices, the fakir must be completely committed to the path of non-violence.
Class Skills
The fakir class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Dex), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Sense
A fakir who progresses to the end of his path has achieved what all humans dream of – he has conquered mortality.
22
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Rope (Dex). See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions. Skill Points At Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the fakir prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The fakir scorns armour and has no use for weapons. He therefore gains no new weapon or armour proficiencies. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble. Spells Per Day: The fakir continues to gain ability as a divine spellcaster as well as subjugating his flesh through long hours of meditation and ascetic practice. For each level gained as a fakir, the character also gains new divine spells as if he had gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class he belonged to before becoming a fakir. The fakir does not, however, gain any other benefits of his former divine class, such as improved chance of turning or rebuking undead. In other words, to determine the number of spells that a fakir can cast per day, simply add his level as a fakir to the level of his previous divine spellcasting class. Characters with more than one divine spellcasting class must decide which class to assign each level of fakir to for purposes of determining spells per day.
Rope Trick (Sp): The fakir may perform one of the classic miracles of his calling. By using a simple length of rope, he may use rope trick as the spell cast by a 10th level sorcerer as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to his level.
Elemental Resistance (Su): In an ongoing extension of the powers of his will over the physical plane, the fakir makes a degree of peace with the energies of the elements. From 1st level onwards, he begins to become resistant to the various forms of energy as indicated. Once he has become resistant to a given form of energy, he may subtract 15 points per round from any damage taken from such energy.
Human Pincushion (Su): The fakir’s flesh has by now developed a supernatural elasticity, allowing sharp skewers and needles to be thrust through it without causing any significant damage, not even drawing blood. This is not an automatic reaction and requires some concentration on the fakir’s part. In game terms, at any time when the fakir would be granted his Dexterity bonus to armour class (whether he actually has a Dexterity bonus or not) and a source dealing piercing damage wounds him, he may make a Fortitude saving throw to ignore the damage completely. Ordinarily, the source of the damage will be withdrawn from the fakir’s body immediately after the wound is caused, such as by a dagger thrust. However, damage caused by arrows and crossbow bolts is slightly different, as the bolt remains in the body after it has pierced the fakir’s flesh. He must make a Concentration check (DC 15) once per round as a free action for every arrow or bolt that is stuck in him. A failed check means the weapon deals damage as normal, which must be rolled and applied afresh. The fakir may take a standard action (provoking attacks of opportunity) to pull one arrow or bolt from his body.
Trance (Su): As part of his meditative practice, the fakir may enter a deep trance. One hour of such practice is equivalent to three hours of normal sleep. In addition, he recovers one hit point per hour spent in trance. Tough Skin (Su): The fakir may add his Wisdom modifier to his armour class exactly as a monk does. In addition, he receives a Sacred bonus to his armour class equal to his level. Double-Jointed (Ex): The fakir’s body is extremely supple even in the early stages of his training. He may stretch and bend in startling ways. He thus receives a +2 circumstance modifier to any Dexterity-based skills and checks.
23
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN The Fakir Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
1
+0
+2
+1
2
+0
+3
3
+0
4
Special
Spellcasting
+1
Trance, Tough Skin
+1 level of existing class
+1
+2
Doublejointed
+1 level of existing class
+3
+1
+3
Rope Trick
+1 level of existing class
+0
+4
+2
+4
Human Pincushion
+1 level of existing class
5
+0
+4
+2
+5
Levitate
+1 level of existing class
6
+0
+5
+2
+6
Detachable Limbs
+1 level of existing class
7
+0
+5
+3
+7
Nourished By Air
+1 level of existing class
8
+0
+6
+3
+8
Ageless
+1 level of existing class
9
+0
+6
+3
+9
Astral Projection
+1 level of existing class
10
+0
+7
+4
+9
Reincarnate
+1 level of existing class
Levitate (Sp): Extending contempt for the flesh to contempt for the physical laws which govern its behaviour, the fakir develops the ability to float free of the ground during his meditations. He may now levitate at will as a spell-like ability as the spell cast by a 5th level sorcerer. He may only use this ability on himself.
Elemental Resistance Cold
Fire
Electricity
Sonic
Acid
Astral Projection (Sp): The fakir is now so dominant over his physical body that he may leave it behind as easily as removing a garment and enter the astral plane. From there, he may ascend to higher planes of existence and converse with higher beings. In game terms he may use astral projection once per day as the spell cast by an 18th level sorcerer. This is a spell-like ability.
Detachable Limbs (Su): Mastery of the body has now progressed to a bewildering degree. The fakir may remove a hand, foot, arm, leg or even his head, which continues to function normally unless it is moved to a distance of more than a mile away from the rest of the fakir’s body, in which case it is essentially severed. In the case of the head, immediate death then results. The fakir may reattach the limb or head at any time simply by holding it to the rest of the body. This ability may be used once per day per level of the fakir.
Reincarnate (Sp): A fakir of 10th level is not at all easy to kill, neither is it obvious why anyone would want to do so. Nevertheless, should he die, his soul is adequately prepared to seek a new body and return to material life in order to help those unfortunates who are still bound to their physical forms. Upon death, the fakir instantly and automatically reincarnates as per the spell cast by a 16th level druid. He is still a fakir in his new body, even if it does not have the minimum Constitution requirement. The fakir does not have a choice in the matter. His soul is compelled to reincarnate because of his self-imposed obligation to come back to the world and assist his fellow creatures.
Nourished By Air (Su): The fakir develops the mystical ability to derive nourishment from the vital force in the air. He no longer needs to eat or drink. Ageless (Su): The fakir has tapped deep wells of vitality within his soul. The subtle energies upon which he may now draw revitalise his bodily tissues daily. The fakir’s body no longer suffers the effects of aging.
24
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN
Holy Fool
own alignment and the will of the God or Goddess they follow. For instance, if a supposedly ethical ruler is causing his people to suffer unjustly and nobody dares to tell him so, then a lawful or good aligned holy fool will do his best to march straight up to him and tell him to his face. If a warlord is allowing excessive mercy or a love of fine things to interfere with his campaign, a holy fool devoted to a warlike deity will spell these facts out to him. Holy fools are often those who are allowed to speak the truth when it would be offensive for any other to do so.
‘I have wandered the whole earth over, looking for my shadow. Now it seems he was part of me all along.’ It takes a special kind of dedication to follow the path of the holy fool. Taking ascetics to the extreme, they wander the earth constantly, seeking the divine and trusting to their intuition to guide them. They are the most extreme examples that it is possible to find of the human tendency to wander and call no one place your home. Often they will undertake pilgrimages to far-off sites of special significance. They have contempt for possessions, dressing in ragged or filthy clothing, so they can sometimes seem to be no more than ordinary beggars or vagrants until one becomes aware of their spiritual strength. Exceptional devotion such as theirs brings exceptional rewards from the Gods, as is soon apparent to anyone who spends time in their company. They often speak in riddles or parables and can easily infuriate those who like to have things explained to them in rational terms.
Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify to become a holy fool, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus: +3 or higher. Ability Scores: Wisdom 14+, Constitution 14+ Spellcasting: Must have the ability to cast divine spells. Special: The holy fool must dedicate himself to the Wanderer’s Code.
Despite the implications of the name, holy fools are not stupid. They are called ‘fools’ because they have little to no regard for social custom and often say or do things that no sensible person would do if he were remotely concerned for his own safety. This tendency derives from the way they think, which is always along extremely simple lines, interpreting the world in the light of their
25
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN
Class Skills
Wanderer: All holy fools live by the wanderer’s code. In order to continue to pray for divine spells, a holy fool may not remain in the same place for more than one week without moving on. To have ‘moved on’ he must travel at least half a mile from the place where he last slept. Having visited a place once, he may not visit there again until a week has elapsed. A holy fool may not bathe; he thus incurs a –2 circumstance penalty to any Charisma-based checks in which personal hygiene would be an important factor, which covers most cases. He may not own more than he can carry. Though he is allowed to possess armour, he will often carry it bundled up while travelling rather than wear it, as it is less restrictive of his movements that way. A holy fool whose ability to pray for divine spells has been suspended because he has failed to move on may regain the use of divine spells as soon as he has travelled the necessary distance. Note that even if his ability to pray for divine spells is suspended, the holy fool may still cast any spells that were already prepared before the suspension took effect.
The holy fool class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (any) (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nobility & royalty) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Ride (Dex), Swim (Str) and Survival (Wis). See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions. Skill Points At Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the holy fool prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The holy fool is proficient in the use of light armour and all simple weapons. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble. Spells per Day: The holy fool continues to gain ability as a divine spellcaster as well as travelling the world and seeking wisdom in the forests and mountain paths. For each level gained as a holy fool, the character also gains new divine spells as if he had gained a level in whatever divine spellcasting class he belonged to before becoming a holy fool. The holy fool does not, however, gain any other benefits of his former divine class, such as improved chance of turning or rebuking undead. In other words, to determine the number of spells that a holy fool can cast per day, simply add his level as a holy fool to the level of his previous divine spellcasting class. Characters with more than one divine spellcasting class must decide which class to assign each level of holy fool to for purposes of determining spells per day.
Honest: The holy fool may never intentionally tell a lie. If he ever does so, he loses the use of all of his class features as a holy fool, forever. This ability applies to all holy fools, even those of evil or chaotic alignment. Companion: The open road is less of a lonely place when one has company. At first level, the Holy Fool acquires an animal companion who accompanies him on his journeys. This functions as per the Druid class feature. Wild Kinship (Su): The holy fool’s wanderings in the wild outdoors grant him a degree of kinship with nature. Unless it is starving hungry, provoked or influenced by
The Holy Fool Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
1
+1
+1
+0
2
+1
+1
3
+2
4
Special
Spellcasting
+1
Wanderer, Honest, Companion
+1 level of existing class
+0
+2
Wild Kinship
+1 level of existing class
+2
+1
+2
Iron Stomach
+2
+2
+1
+3
Unfettered Spirit
+1 level of existing class
5
+3
+2
+1
+3
Resist Immobility
+1 level of existing class
6
+3
+3
+2
+4
Gain Access
7
+4
+3
+2
+4
Lucky Companion
+1 level of existing class
8
+4
+3
+2
+5
Protected From Above
+1 level of existing class
9
+5
+4
+2
+5
More Lives Than One
10
+5
+4
+3
+6
Free Roaming
26
+1 level of existing class
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN magic, no animal or beast will attack him voluntarily. He simply does not register as a threat. This is a supernatural ability.
Diplomacy checks made when maintaining security or actively seeking to deny him access to their employer. Lucky Companion (Su): The holy fool is universally seen as a lucky figure and his reputation precedes him wherever he travels. Those who accompany him on his journeys or who work alongside him receive a +1 Luck bonus to all attack rolls, saving throws and checks.
Iron Stomach (Ex): One cannot survive long in the wilderness without having the ability to digest the most unpleasant seeming substances. The holy fool’s strong stomach grants him a +2 resistance bonus to saving throws against all ingested poison effects, ingested disease effects and nausea-inducing effects.
Protected From Above (Su): The holy fools are beloved of the Gods and to kill one is a bad omen, even if he is of opposite alignment to yourself or has tried to kill you first. Anyone who sheds the blood of a Holy Fool or helps to do so suffers a –2 Luck penalty to all saving throws for the next three days. He may make a Will saving throw to avoid this effect (DC 15 plus the holy fool’s level) on every round during which he is shedding the holy fool’s blood or actively aiding this.
Unfettered Spirit (Sp): The holy fool is driven to the wandering life by forces higher than those of the material world. Whether he is inherently good or evil, lawful or chaotic, he will not tolerate the obstruction or, worse still, the imprisonment of that motivating spirit. Accordingly, neither ropes nor chains nor manacles nor any other form of bondage may hold the holy fool reliably. If he is placed in bondage or is placed in an entangled condition by whatever means (such as a tanglefoot bag) he may make a Wisdom check (DC 10 plus the hardness of the substance from which the bonds are made) once per round. This is a full action and provokes attacks of opportunity if performed in a combat situation. If the check is successful, the bindings simply fall from him, no matter how securely they were fastened.
More Lives Than One (Su): The resilience of the earth itself has entered the holy fool’s body and spirit. Those who are determined to kill him soon discover it is extremely difficult to finish him off once and for all. The holy fool effectively has a number of extra lives equal to his wisdom modifier. If he is ever killed by a means that does not destroy his body completely, he automatically returns to life as per the raise dead spell as cast by a 20th level cleric, using up one of his extra lives in the process. He does not lose a level of experience from returning to life in this way. If he is ever killed with no remaining extra lives, he is simply dead.
If a locked door or similar barrier impedes the Holy Fool’s progress, he may make a similar Wisdom check (the DC being that of the lock itself) for the door to unlock spontaneously. For this ability to work, the door must be directly in his intended path. The power will not work on any other barrier and he may not just walk up to a locked door and open it because someone wants him to. Each use of this feature is a spell-like ability.
Free Roaming (Su): At 10th level, the holy fool is as free as the air itself. Even stone or adamantine walls cannot hinder the holy fool from following his allotted course and wandering whither he will. As a spell-like ability, he may become ethereal as per the ethereal jaunt spell a number of times per day equal to his Wisdom modifier.
Resist Immobility (Su): The holy fool’s spirit becomes even harder to contain. From 5th level he becomes completely immune to magical hold effects and receives a +4 circumstance bonus to saving throws against all paralysing or petrifying attacks.
Cult Leader
‘Faith, brothers and sisters! Faith is what will heal you!’
Gain Access (Su): In carrying out the will of his God or Gods, the holy fool will often wish to speak to people in high places, whether these people wish to be spoken to or not. Should the holy fool decide to speak to a person in authority, irrespective of whether this person is a monarch or the head of a Thieves’ Guild, all those employed by or otherwise in the service of this person (such as sentries, desk clerks, elite guards or viziers) find it extremely difficult to argue with the holy fool or even to notice him as he goes about his business. They receive a circumstance penalty equal to twice the Holy Fool’s level to all Spot, Listen, Sense Motive and
Not all of those who preach a gospel are genuine believers and not all established religions are dedicated to the service of existent deities. Even in a fantasy setting, where the deities are as undoubtedly real as the spells they grant to their clerics, there is always someone who is capable of setting themselves up as the head of a charismatic cult. People will always want to believe and the cult leader is there to help them make sure they believe in something that benefits him personally. He
27
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN Spellcasting: May not be able to cast divine spells. Special: The cult leader must start a wholly new religion, cult, mystery school or similar movement. He need not necessarily believe in it and in most cases will not. He may do this as many times as he chooses, inventing new religions as former ones become discredited.
may refer to his flock in affectionate terms but you can be sure he is thinking only of fleecing them. Clever humans are very good at gathering others together under one flag through charismatic rhetoric, while stupid humans are very good at flocking together to listen to whatever new and exciting revelation has just hit the marketplace. The cult leader uses trickery, showmanship and patter to persuade his followers to obey his word. He fakes miracles using nothing more supernatural than his own skill. In doing this, he is sometimes able to acquire very limited clerical powers. As belief in the cult leader and his religion grows, so too does his own power.
Class Skills
The cult leader class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Alchemy (Int), Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Forgery (Int), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Innuendo (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (any) (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Magic Device (Cha), See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions.
Cult leaders characteristically spring up overnight. They present their new religion to the world as if it were a revelation for which the world had been waiting. This new religion is almost always based around a focus, which may be a hypothetical new deity, a person, a practice or even a physical object. A hypothetical new deity is the most risky focus to use because one never knows whether there is not a real deity answering to the description one has dreamed up, who will not be any too happy at the new cult taking his name in vain. A cult based around a person is slightly easier to achieve; one can even claim that a person is the avatar, the son or the chosen one of a deity who already exists and thus benefit from some of the credibility of that deity’s established religion. Cults based around practices tend to stay small and are often curiously masochistic. People like to think that suffering enobles them and that by hurting themselves they are getting rid of sins that they imagine themselves to have committed. Cults based around objects are the easiest of all to start. Again, one can link one’s cult with the pre-existent religion of an established deity, claiming to own the one true hammer of this deity or the crystallised tears from the eye of that one. The object acquires the status of a holy relic in the eyes of the cultists.
Skill Points At Each Level: 8 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the cult leader prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: The cult leader is proficient in the use of medium armour and all simple and martial weapons. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble. Compelling Rhetoric (Ex): With a successful Perform check (DC 15 +1 for every 2 people in the crowd) the cult leader may capture the attention of a crowd of bystanders. To qualify as a ‘bystander’ each person in question must not be engaged upon activity that they consider especially important. Each one must make a Will saving throw (DC 10 plus the cult leader’s level plus his Charisma modifier) to voluntarily leave the area before the cult leader has finished speaking. Any person of opposite alignment to the cult leader receives a +1 circumstance bonus to his saving throw; any person of the same alignment receives a –1 circumstance penalty to the same roll. The power of the cult leader’s rhetoric is not greater than the instinct for self-preservation. Captivated onlookers may leave the area
Hit Die: d6.
Requirements
To qualify to become a cult leader, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus: +5 or higher. Ability Scores: Charisma 15+. Skills: Bluff 8 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks, Perform 8 ranks.
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THE PRESTIGE HUMAN The Cult Leader Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Spells Per Day
1
+0
+0
+1
+1
Compelling Rhetoric, Attempt Conversion
2
+1
+0
+2
+1
Pseudo-Clerical Spells (10), Dig Deep
1
3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Pseudo-Clerical Spells (15)
2
1
4
+3
+1
+3
+2
Pseudo-Clerical Spells (20)
3
1
5
+4
+1
+3
+2
Pseudo-Clerical Spells (30), Baffle Undead
3
2
Special
without making saving throws if their own safety or that of a dependent is threatened.
1st
-
2nd
3rd
-
-
-
1
his Charisma bonus.) Success negates the effect of the conversion, whether partial or complete. Exposure of the cult leader as a fraud, which must be backed up by tangible proof, will also undo the effects of a partial or complete conversion.
Attempt Conversion (Ex): The cult must increase its numbers. With a combination of impressive posturing and ‘miracles’ produced by sheer sleight-of-hand, the cult leader can win the loyalty of the gullible. In order to persuade a given person or group of persons to join the cause, the cult leader must make both a Perform check and a Dexterity check with a circumstance bonus equal to his level, the latter representing his skill in faking miracles. The targets may oppose these checks with a Sense Motive check in first instance and a Spot check in the second, representing their chance either to see through the cult leader’s conjuring tricks or to detect the insincerity behind his words. If the targets successfully oppose either of the cult leader’s checks, they are not affected. If they fail to oppose both of them, they become partial converts. Up to ten people at a time may be turned into partial converts by use of this ability. If the target is alone, he is exposed to the full force of the cult leader’s personality and receives a –2 circumstance penalty to his opposing skill checks.
The Games Master should keep a careful record of the number of believers that the cult leader has managed to sway, as this number has a direct bearing on the powers he may wield. Pseudo-Clerical Spells (Sp): Once the cult leader is in charge of a movement to which more than ten people in the vicinity belong, he begins to develop the spellcasting abilities of a genuine cleric as listed. The number given in parentheses is the size of the cult necessary to grant the spells per day. If the cult leader does not have enough members in his cult to receive his allotted spells for the day, he receives spells according to the number of members he has. Should the numbers drop below ten or the cult leader move away from his organisation or it from him, the ability to cast clerical spells is lost. The cult leader receives bonus spells not according to his Wisdom modifier as a true cleric does, but according to his Charisma modifier.
Partial converts do not convert to the new religion immediately, though they are thenceforth friendly and respectful to the cult leader. Instead, conversion takes place after the targets have slept for more than four hours. During sleep, the affected targets are allowed a Will saving throw (DC 10 plus the cult leader’s level plus his Charisma bonus). If this saving throw is failed, they wake up the next morning as converts. To remain converts they must hear the cult leader speak at least once a week, or they will begin to lose their faith. Clerics and paladins are immune to this ability.
Dig Deep (Ex): Once per week the cult leader may exhort the faithful to fill his coffers. He receives a quantity of gold pieces equal to 1d4 per member plus his level plus his Charisma modifier. Baffle Undead (Su): So long as he has at least 30 believers in his cult investing their faith in him, the cult leader may exercise a limited amount of sway over undead creatures. He may turn or rebuke undead (according to alignment) as a cleric of the same level as his cult leader levels. The resultant effect only lasts half as long as normal, i.e. for 5 rounds (30 seconds.) The cult leader may only ever achieve a turn or rebuke affect
Those who wish to prevent conversion from taking place, or to undo it once it has occurred, may attempt to ‘talk the affected characters out of it’. To do this they must make a Bluff, Diplomacy or Knowledge (religion) check (DC 10 plus the cult leader’s level plus
29
THE PRESTIGE HUMAN
Class Skills
by use of this ability; undead may never be commanded or destroyed.
The lothario class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Innuendo (Wis), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis) and Swim (Str). See Core Rulebook I for skill descriptions.
Lothario
‘What did you say you did for a living? Something to do with poisons? How fascinating. My, you have an exquisite skin tone. It positively shimmers in the candlelight. More wine?’
Skill Points At Each Level: 8 + Int modifier.
The lothario lives for amorous conquest and proves that old adage about some humans – that they will go with anything. Unlike those prestige classes for whom seduction as a part of important undercover work, his objectives are entirely selfish. In temperament he is usually vain, self-obsessed and tends to see the world as having been put there for his amusement. The important things in life are to be desired, to get one’s own way and to have other people envy you.
Class Features
Lotharios are found at all levels of human society but mostly belong to the richer end of the spectrum. It is easier to afford a well-stocked wardrobe and full wine cellar that way. Many of them tend towards those professions in which one does not have to work too hard or in which one can rely on a devoted crowd of followers. As a result, the more successful rogues and bards are the most likely classes to become lotharios. The prestige class offers them a chance to do what they like to do most, namely pursue a reward, in a walk of life that is challenging but less likely to get you killed.
The Spice Of Life (Ex): The lothario’s ideal life involves a series of conquests of members of the opposite sex, who must of as many different types as possible. One day, the lothario will settle down and write his memoirs, which in order to be interesting must contain a fair degree of variety. Monotony is death to the romantic soul and blunts one’s seductive talents; indeed, it obviates their necessity. There is precious little point in being a demigod of seduction if you only ever pursue one small class of person.
All of the following are class features of the lothario prestige class; Weapon and Armour Proficiency: As he is (in his own words) a lover not a fighter, the lothario gains no new weapon or armour proficiencies. Note that armour check penalties for armour heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand and Tumble.
In game terms, whenever the lothario successfully seduces a person who is of a race and class combination not previously seduced by him, he receives a +2 morale bonus to all attack rolls, damage rolls and saving throws for the whole of the next day. He will also radiate an aura of smugness and self-satisfaction that his teammates may find irritating but which has no in-game effect.
As a rule, rogues love to take and enjoy what belongs to someone else without getting caught, whereas bards love to be appreciated and praised for their skill. Each of these paths is entirely compatible with the lothario’s outlook. Fighters and rangers sometimes take up the prestige class, seeking to add conquest in the boudoir to that of the battlefield. Sorcerers likewise take up the class to slake the urges of their draconic blood. Wizards, however, are generally too cerebral to bother with such things as the carnal desires.
To qualify to become a lothario, a character must fulfil all of the following criteria.
Smooth Conversation (Ex): The lothario has a ready mental library of verbal manoeuvres. He knows enough witty comments, bon mots and cheesy lines to fill an encyclopaedia. These are usually thought up and rehearsed in advance or traded with other lotharios rather than being improvised on the spot. Nonetheless, he still benefits from a +2 circumstance bonus to all Bluff, Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks.
Base Attack Bonus: +3 or higher. Ability Scores: Charisma 14+. Alignment: Any alignment except lawful good. Skills: Bluff 4 ranks, Diplomacy 4 ranks, Profession (any) 4 ranks (the lothario must have a respectable career!) Sense Motive 2 ranks.
Take Unfair Advantage (Sp): It is a cad’s trick to play but sometimes a lothario will take advantage of a person’s drunken, disorientated or confused state to plant an idea in their mind. Such suggestions are extremely difficult to resist; the power of rational objection seems to simply ebb away and the unfortunate subject becomes as easily
Hit Die: d6.
Requirements
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THE PRESTIGE HUMAN manipulable as soft putty. When a target is suffering from intoxication or is in a similar suggestible state (at the discretion of the Games Master) the lothario may attempt to make a suggestion as per the spell cast by a 3rd level sorcerer. The target is allowed a Will saving throw to resist the effect. This suggestion may not involve the target engaging in any violent or perilous activity. The threat of loss of reputation or similar consequence of having been seduced does not count as ‘peril’ for the purposes of this ability. Hasty Exit (Ex): The life of a dedicated seducer can often get one into scrapes. One soon grows used to diving out of windows, climbing down drainpipes and fleeing the building disguised as a washerwoman. Any armour that one had is usually abandoned where it lies. Accordingly, from 4th level onwards the lothario receives a +1 dodge bonus to his armour class whenever he is wearing light armour or no armour. Outrageous Flattery (Su): The lothario has faked sincerity countless times. When he says that a person has lovely eyes or the complexion of a damask rose, his statements sound completely plausible irrespective of how hackneyed the phrase may be. Such is his power to b e believed that he may sometimes use it upon the most unlikely of targets. The lothario may attempt to flatter any one target of the opposite gender, irrespective of its species. The target must be capable of understanding the language in which it is being addressed. While the lothario is making compliments, the target must succeed in a Will saving throw (DC 10 plus the lothario’s level plus his Charisma modifier) in order to take any hostile action towards him at all.
This may be because the target is genuinely flattered, or it may be out of complete bemusement and shock. If the lothario attempts to use this ability while in combat, the target receives a +2 circumstance bonus to its saving throw. If the saving throw result totals more than 10 above the required number, the target is massively offended at what it perceives as mockery. If this takes place in a combat situation, the intended target subsequently attacks the lothario in preference to other targets.
The Lothario Class Level
Base Attack
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
1
+0
+0
+1
+1
The Spice of Life
2
+1
+0
+2
+1
Smooth Conversation
3
+2
+1
+3
+1
Take Unfair Advantage
4
+3
+1
+3
+2
Hasty Exit
5
+4
+1
+3
+2
Outrageous Flattery
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS
Tricks of the Humans
Humans are capable of extraordinary acts of altruism, dedication and self-sacrifice and the ability push is one of these. This does not mean that the human carrying out the push has to be of good alignment. Evil characters often have causes to support, people for whom they care (even if this is not reciprocated) or beloved projects that need to be protected (‘My creation! My beautiful creation!’) The human capacity to push an ability is not just a matter of anger and adrenalin surges. It is more that they put their whole heart and soul into the task that is directly in front of them, as they are not likely to get a second chance.
T
he human race is full of surprises. Just when you think they are finally beaten, they come back fighting; just when they seem to be coming out on top, some tragically human flaw can bring them down. The human ability to keep others guessing and to summon up reserves of strength from their spirit is the subject of fascinated speculation by other races. They seem, as a species, no stronger than any other and significantly weaker than such rugged races as the half-orcs, yet a human mother will sometimes overturn a heavy cart with nothing more than brute strength just to reach her child – a feat of strength that should, by the ordinary laws of matter, be impossible.
Suitable situations in which an ability could be pushed would therefore be: † Pushing your Dexterity so as to hit a distant and despised target with a ranged weapon, when you know it is the last chance you are likely to get, to disable the device that is slowly descending from the ceiling and is about to slice your friend in half, or to squeeze out of the rope bonds that hold you so that you can heal a comrade.
Other races, such as dwarves, are capable of feats of physical endurance but it is the humans who lead the field where deeds of moral endurance are concerned. Their attitude to adversity is such that it whets their appetite for survival rather than crushing their will to live; this is one of the reasons why they have been able to survive so successfully in so many harsh and forbidding climates. Humans are hard to wear down and hard to kill. They have so little life that they cling on to what they have with unmatched ferocity. Their light may burn half as long, but it also burns twice as bright.
† Pushing your Constitution so as to throw off a disease, in order to return to your family who are under attack from goblins, or to survive the poison that a gloating enemy has just fed you † Pushing your Strength to hold up a collapsing roof and allow your oldest friend to escape, to split the chains that are binding you while your friend is being tortured in front of you, or to break open the door of a burning building and rescue your beloved
Pushing an Ability
All humans have the innate capacity to ‘push’ their physical ability scores, namely Dexterity, Constitution and Strength. Tales are often told of the resolute way in which a human can cling to life when he has something to hold on for, of sudden feats of impossible strength, or of zen-like trances into which perfectly ordinary humans can fall, in which complicated physical tasks are completed as if they were child’s play.
There are certain set conditions that apply to ability pushing. † The push must relate to a single, achievable task. It is this that the character is trying to do. The push lasts for five rounds or until the task is accomplished, whichever is sooner. If the task becomes impossible, the push ends. For example, if you pushed your Dexterity in order to hurl a throwing axe accurately through the rope from which your worst enemy was dangling, you could make repeated attempts at heightened Dexterity in order to do this. However, if he then climbed the rope and stood on the edge, your Dexterity push would come to an end, as the specified task was to sever the rope while he was hanging from it.
This ‘pushing’ is not something that can be turned on and off at will. History records that it can only be done when the character has to use the ability in the service of a cause in which he has a passionate belief or a person for whom he cares more than life itself. Abilities may not be pushed in order to save your own life or to get yourself out of trouble; they may only be pushed for the sake of another. This may, of course, mean that you survive a situation that would otherwise have killed you; this cannot, however, be your prime motivation.
† The task must itself relate to some ultimate goal. The task must assist the character in achieving the goal. For example, achieving revenge against a hated foe
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS is a goal, so you could push your Strength in order to smash down a door and reach him. However, in this case you could not push your Strength to carry a heavy sack of treasure, as this has no bearing on the achievement of the final goal.
ability at once, if the task calls for it. Overcoming an enemy in combat is an allowed task. Pushing an ability score is draining to the character in the long term. Increasing an ability score by one point burns 250 experience points, increasing it by two points burns 500 experience points and increasing it by three points (the maximum possible) burns 1,000 experience points.
† The goal must be one in which the character has invested considerable emotional significance. ‘I don’t want to die’ is not a goal. However, ‘I must slaughter the dastard who killed my father and took his throne and only then can I rest’ certainly is. You may not push an ability in service to a goal that is not important to you personally, such as one that you are only attempting because you have been paid to do so, or that is contradictory to your alignment. The Games Master has the final say on whether or not your proposed push is allowable.
Some appropriate goals and motivations for a push are given below:
Pushing an ability score increases it by one to three points; you may not increase any ability score by more than three points by pushing alone. Each ability push takes a standard action to perform. This increase counts as an inherent bonus, as it comes directly from the heart and soul of the character. You may push more than one
†
As has been proven time and again, the mysterious force known as ‘true love’ has a storybook quality that can make the enfeebled strong, the dying rally their strength and give a dancer’s grace to the feet of the clumsy. A character that has a genuine and unselfish love for a partner has a motivation to be with them and protect them while they are alive and to avenge them should they perish.
†
Blood is said to be thicker than water. The tie of family is a suitable one for motivating a character to achieve a goal. Providing for your own parents, defending your children, keeping a sibling alive or even redeeming a family member who has become corrupted, are all allowable goals for ability score pushing. † Hatred is every bit as strong as love; the force of purest hate can drive a human to exceed his usual limits. It takes time for hatred to evolve. Like love, it can be engendered in an instant but always matures steadily over months and years. Characters may despise enemies, those who have carried out acts that they find abhorrent, or those who have previously been their lovers but who have in some way betrayed them. † Over all these emotion-driven goals burns the pure cold flame of vengeance. There is perhaps no goal more guaranteed to drive a character beyond the limits of what a human being would ordinarily be able to take or be willing to do. Those who seek revenge are usually operating in a simpler, more mechanistic way to other motivated characters. The reason for this is simple: an avenger has nothing left to lose. He has nobody to worry about but himself, as those for whom he cared are usually gone. Avengers are very focused, single-minded people. It is said that ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’, alluding to the emotionless state in which avengers habitually operate; however, if they are denied their revenge or something stands in their way, they can burst into
33
TRICKS OF THE HUMANS raging passions. It is not unknown for an avenger to claw his way back from the very brink of death, just to run a blade through the person he so desperately craves to kill.
dwarves and elves, who despite their differences are both respecters of tradition. Each of these new applications can be learned if the character is human or has a chance to study under a human teacher. Other races can also learn them, though they are not as common. They represent a specific application of an existing skill, so no new skill needs to be learned. However, the skill uses are such that other completely different skills than the usual may offer a synergy bonus. For example, the Heal skill does not ordinarily offer any synergy at all to the Disguise skill; yet in the specific application of Disguise, Play Dead, the character’s Heal skill ranks do make a difference, because the more Heal skill the character has, the more familiarity he has with the muscular system and the likely behaviour of a corpse.
Clinging To Life
A variant of the ‘push’ ability above can be used to keep yourself alive when you are on the brink of death. The character need not be conscious to do this; it is a matter of the subconscious will as much as the conscious desire to live. A human who has reached –10 hit points and is about to die may make a Will saving throw at DC 20 to hang on, rather than slip over the edge into death. Hanging on to life keeps him at –10 hit points, though it does not stabilise him or heal him of any damage. Even if he makes his saving throw and avoids death for the moment, he still takes one point of Constitution damage, so he cannot hang on indefinitely.
The uses for the existing skill are listed first, followed by an explanation of new synergy bonuses and other considerations.
A character may only cling to life if he has unfinished business in the realm of the living, or if his religion demands a certain kind of circumstance of death in order to achieve reward in the afterlife. This unfinished business must be a matter of direct personal concern to the character; failure to complete a mission which was only undertaken because of payment is not adequate unfinished business. Suitable unfinished business would be an incomplete goal as defined above under ‘pushing’, as well as such examples as these: †
‘I cannot go into the darkness yet: I have not yet atoned for my sins.’
†
‘I refuse to die before my enemy dies.’
†
‘I will not die like this, in a bed of sickness; I should go like a warrior on the field of battle, with my greatsword in my hands.’
†
Appraise: Detect Fake
This ability differs from the standard use of Appraise in that it does not work in terms of relative value. Ordinarily, Appraise skill checks will tell you the accurate value of an object. You can tell good quality gold from poor quality, or cheap tat from expensive jewellery. By contrast, the detection of a forgery is an all-or-nothing matter. A forgery is not just ‘less valuable’ than the genuine article, it is an out-and-out deception. Forgery also includes an element of artistry, in that the forger is attempting to deceive the trained eye of the appraiser. Calculating the precise value of a gem is a difficult task, based on expertise and careful measurement, while detecting that a gem is in fact a forgery is a task that pits your wits against those of the person that created it. Check: You make an Appraise skill check as usual, as if you were evaluating the object. This Appraise check is made against the DC to detect the fake. If the Appraise check is successful, you perceive the forgery for what it is. If it is unsuccessful, then the Games Master applies the result as if the item had not been a forgery. For example, the standard DC for an Appraise check is 12. If you were appraising the value of a fake gem with a DC of 15 and rolled a total of 17, you would detect the forgery. If you rolled a total of 14, you would not detect the forgery and would estimate the gem’s value as the sum that the faker intended it to seem worth. If you rolled a total of 10, you would not only fail to detect the forgery, you would estimate the value of the fake gem as different from its creator’s intentions.
‘The princess – my sacred charge - is not yet safe. If I die, she dies.’
New Uses For Old Skills
Human ingenuity is forever coming up with new applications for the expertise of old. Much like the gnomes, they have considerable powers of invention and innovation. They would much rather improve upon an idea than practice it for centuries unchanged, a trait which earns disapprovingly raised eyebrows from
34
TRICKS OF THE HUMANS Synergy: As well as the usual synergy bonuses that apply to uses of Appraise, a character who has more than 5 ranks in the Spot skill has a +2 synergy bonus when using Appraise to detect fakes. Those races who have the Stonecunning ability are entitled to use their appropriate bonuses when examining fake jewels.
all. In addition, if a subsequent Bluff skill check that builds on the first is failed, then the cumulative effects of all the Bluff uses are cancelled. ‘Wait a minute. You ain’t no werewolf, and he weren’t no werewolf hunter!’ Special: If any contributor to the grift has five or more ranks in the Perform (act) skill, he may add a +2 synergy bonus to his Bluff skill check.
Bluff: Two-Man Grift
Halflings are capable liars but some humans make a career out of lying. The ignoble and yet celebrated profession of the confidence trickster is one which nets vast amounts of cash for its most practiced adepts. Humans, being everyone’s second-best friends, are easy to trust. They are such an open and welcoming race that it is hard to believe that a human would have nothing in mind but fleecing you; yet fleece you they will, given half a chance.
Bluff: Courtly Flirtation
The seamy world of the streets and the elite ballrooms of the upper classes have one thing in common – they both have private languages that are used to pass messages from one person to another without a word being spoken or an onlooker even noticing that a conversation is taking place. The repressions of high society, in which one can only marry (or even speak to) the ‘right’ kind of person, have caused the sons and daughters of noble houses to evolve a whole symbolic language with which to arrange their nocturnal trysts, plan elopements and pledge undying love.
The two-man grift is a type of confidence trick that depends upon two people working together. The target of the con trick, or ‘mark’, is exposed to each trickster in turn. Naturally, they do not admit to knowing each other. A classic example of the two-man grift is the scenario in which one poor-looking person leaves an apparently worthless item (such as a wand) with the mark, who is usually a shopkeeper. Next, the second person (dressed as a wealthy merchant) comes in and exclaims that the item is worth a fortune and he must buy it, then disappears off to fetch his money. The first person then returns to claim his item, at which point the mark usually offers to buy it, so that he can sell it to the wealthy merchant. Of course, the ‘wealthy merchant’ never comes back and the two conmen split the takings.
The messages are conveyed by glances, the holding of hands at a given angle when speaking some common phrase and most importantly by the manipulation of fans (in the case of the ladies) or wine glasses (in the case of the gentlemen). The look a young woman gives you over the top of a spread fan can be nothing more than simple coquettishness, or it can be a discreet invitation to sojourn at some later date when the servants and chaperones have retired to bed. The courtly flirtation application of the Bluff skill also includes the ‘flower language’, which is a complicated system whereby different flowers have different meanings and the delivery of a bouquet containing several different blooms can spell out a clear message for those with eyes to see.
Check: The two-man grift use of the Bluff skill allows two people to combine their Bluff skills. Its use must be planned in advance and a story agreed upon; it cannot be used spontaneously. On any occasion on which a single Bluff skill check has been successfully made, a subsequent Bluff check made by a different character is made at a +2 circumstance bonus, so long as the story being told is supported by the second bluff. For example, if one rogue successfully pretended to a city guardsman that he was a lycanthrope hunter who was tracking a werewolf in the area, then a second rogue pretending to be a werewolf would make his Bluff check at a +2 circumstance bonus. The great advantage of the two-man grift is that it allows you to stack an unconvincing lie on top of a moderately convincing one. In the example above, a rogue who simply pretended to be a werewolf without any groundwork being laid would have a hard time of it.
A less romantic application of exactly the same symbolic communication system is found when aristocratic conspirators are hatching their plots. Especially in societies that resemble the Asian models, the language of flirtation can also be used to pass messages to agents and receive reports. Courtesans and geishas are not only capable at the arts of pleasure but also excellent spies and purveyors of intrigue. Those who have not been schooled in the arts of etiquette and the private language of the aristocratic parlours may not attempt this application of the Bluff skill. It differs from the usual application of Bluff to convey a secret message in that it is completely non-verbal and cannot be understood by those who have not been schooled in its set of symbols.
Retry: No. If the first Bluff skill check is not successful, then the subsequent ones cannot be made at
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS Check: You may make a Bluff skill check at DC 15 to convey a simple message (no more than three words) to a person who is of an aristocratic background or who is otherwise versed in the protocols of courtly flirtation, without saying anything out loud or while talking about other matters. You must have their attention for the communication to be made; if they are not looking your way, the message cannot be delivered. They must also be within 20 feet of you, as it is not possible to communicate with subtle glances over a greater distance.
of the time, if you make the performance convincing enough, your opponent will not think twice about whether your death was genuine or not, especially if he is in a hurry. Of course, you do have to face the possibility of his decapitating your body so that he can take your head as a trophy (or some similarly barbaric practice) but if you were certain to have been killed if you had fought anyway, then this is a risk worth taking. It is not only intelligent opponents who can be persuaded to leave you alone if you give a good imitation of a corpse. It is widely believed that the best way to deal with a bear is to lie down and pretend to be dead, not moving at all as he snuffles around you and turns you over with his paws. Again, if the alternative is a fight you cannot win, which will probably end with you being eaten as well as killed (making raise dead spells rather impractical) then you may as well play dead and take your chances.
You may attempt to convey a more complicated message, adding an additional word or two (to a maximum of five words) but every additional word increases the DC of your Bluff skill check by 3. An onlooker may make a Spot check at a DC of 15 plus your number of ranks in the Bluff skill in order to detect your subtle attempts at communication; if detected, they may make a Sense Motive check at a DC of 15 to understand what you are trying to convey, so long as they have the necessary background.
There are other uses for this application of the Bluff skill. Nobody expects to be mugged by a corpse. If you can convincingly pretend to be dead, you can lay a very effective ambush, getting the drop on those who probably expected to loot your remains rather than vice versa.
Retry: Retries are allowed, as per the usual application of the Bluff skill to convey a secret message. Synergy: A character with five or more ranks in Knowledge (nobility and royalty) is so well versed in the fan alphabet, the language of flowers and the semaphore of the languid gaze that he may add a +2 synergy bonus to all uses of the Bluff skill for courtly flirtation.
Check: There are two ways in which you can play dead. The first is to act as if a situation that could have killed you did kill you. For example, you might ‘die’ as the result of a fall from a building, a sword thrust or a trap going off in your face.
Bluff: Play Dead
Humans, being masters of lateral thinking, are good at applying this process to seemingly insoluble problems. How do you win a fight against someone you cannot defeat, who is quite capable of killing you, when there is no chance to run away or to avoid the combat? The human answer is simple; you do not win. Sometimes the only way to leave a fight alive is to pretend to have been killed. So, you let yourself be ‘killed’ in as convincing a manner as possible and hope that your assailant is satisfied with that. Most
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS If you attempt to die while others are watching you, you must make a Bluff check to pretend to die convincingly and maintain the pretence while others examine your body. You must score at least a 10 on this check, or your fake death is not convincing enough to fool anyone. You must do this on receiving a wound of some sort, or suffering an effect; attempting to fake death from causes that an observer cannot see, such as an apparent heart seizure or poison, is inherently unconvincing and a –4 circumstance penalty is applied to your skill check. This restriction only applies when you are facing an intelligent opponent. You can fall down dead in front of an animal or beast and it will not think the situation unusual.
not of the rogue class. In a strikingly similar fashion to that in which the nobles developed ways to sign to each other or make common phrases carry different significance when combined with hand gestures, the rogues worked out a whole system of communication that would remain forever closed off to the authorities – save only for those law-enforcers who had deserted the criminal ranks to repress their former brethren. Check: You may make a Bluff skill check at DC 15 to convey a simple message (no more than three words) to a person who is of the Rogue class or who is otherwise intimately familiar with street-savvy, without saying anything out loud or while talking about other matters. You must have their attention for the communication to be made; if they are not looking your way, the message cannot be delivered. They must also be within 20 feet of you, as it is not possible to communicate with hand signals and eye movements over a greater distance.
The other option is to pretend to be a corpse and wait for others to find you. If you have a chance to lie down and play dead before anyone finds you, the Bluff check is made at a +4 circumstance bonus, as you do not have to give a convincing death performance. Other factors may, at the Games Master’s discretion, confer additional circumstance bonuses or penalties. For instance, if you have already fought for several rounds and have taken some gory wounds, your skill check will be made at a +2 circumstance bonus, as it is easier to believe that you are now succumbing; while if you are heavily armoured and go down at the first blow, the onlookers are likely to be suspicious and you would receive a –2 circumstance penalty.
You may attempt to convey a more complicated message, adding an additional word or two (to a maximum of five words) but every additional word increases the DC of your Bluff skill check by 3. An onlooker may make a Spot check at a DC of 15 plus your number of ranks in the Bluff skill in order to detect your subtle attempts at communication; if detected, they may make a Sense Motive check at a DC of 15 to understand what you are trying to convey, so long as they have the necessary background.
Anyone examining your body may make a Spot check against a DC equivalent to your Bluff check to notice that you are not dead. If your body is moved, you must make a fresh Bluff check each minute while it is being moved to maintain the pretence, as there are different techniques of fakery involved in reacting like a corpse as opposed to simply lying still without breathing much.
This use of the Bluff skill differs from the ordinary conveying of a secret message in that it is completely non-verbal and thus cannot be listened in on. It does have the disadvantage that the message must be very simple. Retry: Retries are allowed, as per the usual application of Bluff skill.
Special: A character with more than 5 ranks in Perform (act) or in Disguise can add a +2 synergy bonus to this use of the Bluff skill.
Synergy: A character with 5 or more ranks in Gather Information is sufficiently streetwise to know the basics of rogues’ signing and can add a +2 synergy bonus to this use of the Bluff skill.
Bluff: Rogues’ Signing
There are some phrases you just should not say out loud. ‘Get him drunk, then wallop’ is one of them. However, the phrase still needs to be conveyed somehow, if your comrade sitting opposite you is to understand that you are not buying drinks for a stranger out of a wish to be convivial but out of a plan to leave him naked and penniless in a blind alley somewhere.
Craft (alchemy): Concentrate / Crystallize Potion The processes involved in alchemy are not altogether dissimilar to those involved in the brewing of potions. One could be forgiven for thinking that an alchemist’s laboratory, with its bubbling flasks, spirit burners and curious steaming concoctions was in fact a place for brewing magical potions; equally, on discovering the workroom of a potion-maker, with drawers full of dried
Human rogues are the most inventive of their kind and quickly came up with a way to pass messages between themselves that could not be eavesdropped upon, overheard or easily understood by those who were
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS ingredients and flasks waiting to be filled with strange coloured liquids, it would be understandable to think that the alchemical arts were being pursued, rather than the thaumaturgic.
its ordinary volume a ‘tincture’. The main benefit of reducing a potion is simply that you can fit two doses into one flask, rather than one. This makes the potion easier to transport and allows you to carry more doses on your person, a very valuable benefit when you are trekking into dangerous country and need all the antitoxins and healing potions you can carry.
One of the few places where alchemy and potion-making cross paths is in the process of reduction, whereby a liquid is reduced by boiling or slow simmering to a fraction of its previous volume, producing vapour as a by-product. This process is used, for example, in the making of tanglefoot bags, in which several pints of slick, glossy black oil are slowly reduced on a low heat until they resemble a cross between molasses and rubber.
A potion that has been reduced to granular form is called a ‘salt’. This is an extremely difficult operation to pull off and only the most capable alchemists can do it. A potion in salt form is inert. It must be mixed with at least half a pint and no more than one pint of fluid before it is considered a potion again. Once the salt is introduced into the fluid, it will bubble, steam and foam for five rounds before settling down; not until this rehydration process is complete will the potion confer any effects. If it is drunk while bubbling and steaming, it will not work. (It is possible, though difficult, to eliminate this five-round bubbling process and produce a quick-dissolving salt; see below under the Check entry.) A potion cannot be ingested in salt form; sniffing it up your nose or dissolving it on your tongue will result in nothing more than an impressive coloured froth emerging from your nostrils or mouth.
It takes a human to cross one thing with another and come up with a new thing; whether one is speaking of races or inventions, it is always true of the humans that they are expert cross-breeders. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that some human alchemists who are also versed in potion-making have attempted to apply the techniques of alchemical reduction to the potions they brew. Their hope is to produce a substance that will remain potent as a potion but will be a good deal easier to transport and to conceal. These experiments have been, to some degree, successful. It is possible for a potion-maker who also has alchemical expertise to reduce the volume of the potions he makes. This is not a simple process. If you try to halve the volume of a potion just by boiling away the substance of it, you will destroy the subtle balance of ingredients that makes the potion carry the magical charge. It is a matter of great precision to reduce a potion to a smaller volume and a matter of even greater precision to reduce it to the form of a crystalline powder.
The advantage of a potion in salt form is that it takes up practically no space and is of negligible weight. It is also dry, which makes transportation and storage easier. Reducing an ordinary potion to salt form leaves about half an ounce of powder, which can be carried in a tiny phial or wrapped up in a square of parchment. If you can reduce potions, or are in contact with a person who can do this, you can carry around a selection of potion salts and mix them up into drinkable potions as and when you see fit. Potion salts are also much easier to slip into someone’s drink. They can, for example, be placed in a poison ring (see Chapter 6, Tools of the Humans) and thus dropped surreptitiously into someone’s goblet of wine, a much easier task than pouring a whole potion into a goblet. The resultant foaming and bubbling may of course attract attention but a competent alchemist can treat a potion so that it does not do this.
Most potion-makers are content to leave their potions as they are, without messing with them. It is enough of a hard job to make the potion in the first place without risking the loss of the whole thing just because the liquid took up too much room. They have a point; if a reductive operation is unsuccessful, the whole potion is a spoiled, lumpy mess that resembles soured milk or burned custard. When you have not only invested time and money but hard-earned experience points in a potion, you may not want to risk messing the whole thing up.
Check: To reduce a potion down to half its volume, you must make a Craft (alchemy) check at a DC of 15 plus the caster level of the potion. To reduce a potion to a salt, you must make a Craft (alchemy) check at a DC of 20 plus the caster level of the potion. If you wish to remove the tendency of the salt to foam when added to liquid, so that the salt is turned into a drinkable potion as soon as it is dropped into liquid, the DC of the check is increased by +3.
This use of the Craft (alchemy) skill allows you to attempt the reduction of a potion to half its normal volume, or reduce the liquid content altogether leaving behind a layer of crystalline granules. Those that follow these lines of work call a potion that is reduced to half
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS Retry: No. Failure destroys the potion.
You may use the residue of genuine gemstones to make your fake seem more authentic. By using the ground dust of a true gem, you may increase its seeming value without making it quite so easy to detect the fakery. If you mix half the intended value of the end product in gem dust into the alchemical compound, then you only reduce the DC of the Appraise (detect fake) skill check by 1 for every 500 gold pieces of apparent value. For example, if you were trying to make a fake sapphire that would seem to be worth 2,000 gold pieces and you included the dust of a sapphire worth 1,000 gold pieces, then the DC of the Appraise (detect fake) skill check to discover the fakery would be the result of your Craft (alchemy) skill check, minus 4.
Special: This use of the Craft (alchemy) skill is not available to any character who does not have the Brew Potion feat.
Craft (alchemy): Fake Jewel
For generations, human alchemists have sought to find the philosopher’s stone, the mysterious substance that can transform base metals into the purest gold. For generations, they have failed miserably. For generations, they have worried themselves sick about how they are going to afford the rent, what they are going to tell the patron who invested so heavily in their fruitless experiments and how they are going to pay off their bar tab at the Screaming Horn Tavern.
Note that the character who makes the fake gem is not, himself, aware of what the DC is to detect it. He may make an Appraise skill check (with no retry allowed) to assess how good his forgery is. This is handled like an ordinary Appraise skill check made against a DC of 10 (it is easier to assess your own creations) with failure meaning that you estimate the DC at between 50% and 150% of its actual value, rather than misestimating the fiscal value of the item.
All of these concerns have driven alchemists to regrettably dishonest practices. Many an alchemist has noticed that the glassy, crystalline residue left at the bottom of alembics and retorts looks rather like the matter from which precious stones are made. These observations have led to certain experiments and there is now a thriving school of under-the-counter Craft (alchemy) that specialises in creating synthetic, chemically produced substitutes for genuine gemstones. Recipe books, giving instructions as to which compounds make the best ‘ruby’ or ‘topaz’ change hands for high prices and are often copied out in the alchemists’ own personal cipher, so as to avoid detection.
Synergy: A character with 5 or more ranks in any Craft skill having to do with jewellery or gemcutting receives a +2 synergy bonus to this use of the Craft (alchemy) skill. If you have the Deceitful feat, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on this use of the Craft (alchemy) skill.
An alchemically congealed jewel is very much like the real thing and an untrained eye cannot easily detect the sham. For rules on the use of Appraise to detect outright fakery, see the Detect Fake use of the Appraise skill below.
Craft (mortician)
Only the human race is so concerned with death that it could have a whole craft dedicated to the event and its consequences. Other races do not have so much of a problem with looking death in the face. Once you die in an elven or dwarven community, you are placed on your pyre or sealed up in your stone tomb and that is that. Humans, on the other hand, seem to want to pretend that the dead person is not actually deceased but is in fact sleeping peacefully. They try to delay the process of decomposition for as long as possible, using such curious processes as embalming and mummification to achieve these ends. Some human morticians go to the extreme of using cosmetics and surgical procedures to improve the appearance of the deceased, as if to suggest that their death had not really been as bad as all that.
Check: You must make an Craft (alchemy) skill check to produce a faked jewel. The result of the skill check is the base DC of the Appraise (detect fake) skill check to detect the forgery. A note of this should be made at the time of the gem’s creation. Your faked jewel has an apparent base value of 200 gold pieces. For the purposes of an ordinary Appraise skill check, this is its value. You may attempt to produce fake gems of higher apparent value, but every additional 200 gold pieces of apparent value you add to the gem reduces the DC of the Appraise (detect fake) skill check by 1. For example, if you were trying to fake a gem of 1,000 gold pieces in value, the DC of the Appraise (detect fake) skill check would be the result of your Craft (alchemy) skill check minus 4. If this reduces the DC to less than zero, then your gem is an obvious and botched fake.
The craft of the mortician is a somewhat abject one, though it is vitally necessary to human society. Nobody is ever pleased to see you and your best candidates never compliment your work. To carry out his craft properly, a mortician needs a full set of the appropriate tools (these count as artisan’s tools) as well as such staples as
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS embalming fluid, a liquid preservative that keeps flesh from decaying. Embalming fluid is made by alchemists and requires a successful Craft (alchemy) check at DC 15 to prepare.
your hands and make do with what you have, instead of lamenting that you do not have your grandfather’s prized chisels or your specialist armoursmithing mallet set with you.
Check: As well as making Craft skill checks in the usual manner in order to earn a living, a mortician may apply his skill in certain unusual cases. He may make a Craft (mortician) skill check to make a corpse presentable, a task that is usually carried out before relatives and friends view the body. This can sometimes be very difficult. The base DC for such a check is 15 if the corpse died of natural causes. If the death was especially violent, or energy damage such as that from fire or acid was involved, the DC is 20; if the corpse was mangled or partly consumed, such as by a ghoul, the DC is 25. This use of the skill requires at least two hours of hard work; if the corpse was badly damaged, four hours of work are needed. Retries are allowed, so long as the corpse has not yet begun to deteriorate.
This application of the Craft skill – and they may all, within reason, be used in this way - is used to make a slapdash, hasty version of whatever it is that the Craft skill would ordinarily produce. For example, you could jury rig a ‘buckler shield’ from a large saucepan lid, some rivets and a piece of leather, or a ‘spear’ from a broom handle with a kitchen knife tied securely to it. These items are, of course, wretched and inferior versions of the real thing, but they are often better than having nothing at all. Bodging a task is slightly different from jury-rigging. Jury-rigged items are obviously thrown together, while a bodged job is one that looks good on the surface but has in fact been done to a very poor standard. For example, a bodged suit of scale might be polished and shiny but prove to be ill-fitting, have sharp edges and be prone to falling apart; a bodged wall is built with mud and sand instead of good brick and will collapse within weeks; a bodged table will not bear any great weight without collapsing. Repair jobs can be bodged, such as when you have a cartwheel fitted back on by a carpenter who charges you well over the odds, only to have the wheel fall off again on the first bumpy road you venture on to.
The mortician may also prepare a corpse so that it does not decay so swiftly. This allows more time to elapse between the corpse’s time of death and the possible casting of raise dead spells. Corpses must be embalmed within three days of death (four days in cold climates and two days in hot climates) in order for this to be effective. The DC of the skill check is 10. Embalming preserves the corpse so that raise dead spells may be cast upon it for a number of additional days equal to the result of the Craft (mortician) skill check. This use of the skill requires at least two hours of solid work. Retries are not allowed.
This jury-rigging application of the skill can also be used to ‘MacGyver’ a situation, such as by knocking together various bits of timber and rope into an improvised ballista, or rigging a ‘cart’ from the wreckage of other carts. In this case, the Games Master should assign an appropriate DC and price for the item, with suitable prerequisites. For example, it should be a prerequisite that a character have Profession (siege engineer) before he can cobble together a cow-flinging catapult from the timbers of an old barn.
Morticians, being familiar with the ways of dead bodies, also have the peculiar knack of being able to repair damaged corpses or anything made from them. They may attempt a Craft (mortician) check at a DC of 15 in order to heal damage to an undead creature or a flesh golem. This use of their skill takes ten minutes and if successful restores a number of hit points equal to the character’s number of skill ranks in Craft (mortician). Retries are not allowed; if the damage cannot be fixed by these methods first time around, it cannot be fixed at all.
An item produced by these methods is cumbersome to use. Weapons suffer from a –2 circumstance penalty to attack rolls and a –1 circumstance penalty to damage rolls, while armour and shields carry an armour check penalty 2 higher than usual and lower the maximum Dexterity bonus for the armour by 1.
Craft (any): Jury Rig / Bodge
Craftsmen and women take pride in their work; it is an honour to the trade and a matter of personal ethics to do the best job you can. Sometimes, though, the tools are just not there, the time is not nearly sufficient to get the job done, or the materials are wanting. When it is a matter of doing something in an emergency or having nothing, then most human craftsmen will do something. It is the human way to roll up your sleeves, spit on
Any jury-rigged item has a high chance of breaking when used. Jury-rigged weapons break on a natural attack roll of 1 or 2. Jury-rigged armour or shields fall to pieces if the character wearing them receives any blow that is a critical threat, whether or not the blow proves to be a critical hit. Jury-rigged items that are not used to inflict violence nor to protect against it, such as
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS a simple bridge, must make a d20 roll on every hour of use, with a roll of 1 meaning that the item falls to pieces. In this context, ‘use’ means having the structure jostled or moved. A jury-rigged item that just stands there is not in danger of falling apart unless jostled by the elements. Alchemical, complex, superior and masterwork items cannot be jury-rigged or bodged.
Some puzzle-makers are in the security trade, producing tricky little gadgets that are devilishly hard to open or close unless you know the method. Puzzle boxes are very popular with the nobility, as they use them both to amuse their friends and to keep their valuables safe. As a puzzle box is a challenge to a thief’s mental acumen rather than to his physical dexterity (as an ordinary lock would be) they are very useful items to keep your precious possessions safe.
Check: Jury rigging works like the usual system for building an object with the Craft skill, with the exception that you do not pay for raw materials (you must still have materials, but you work with whatever you have to hand) and each skill check represents the work of an hour instead of a week. Bodging works in the same way, with the skill check representing the result of a day’s work instead of an hour’s.
The crafter of puzzles must have some prior ability working with metal or wood. As puzzle-making is very difficult, requiring the parts to fit together exactly, before any ranks can be gained in Craft (puzzles) the character must first have at least 5 ranks in some other craft having to do with metalwork or woodwork, such as Craft (carpenter), Craft (weaponsmith) or Craft (trapmaking).
Retry: Yes, according to the usual rules for the use of the Craft skill, with a failed check representing an hour or a day of wasted work. You may also repair a juryrigged item (it is frequently necessary to do this!) at the DC that was used when it was last repaired or built. So, jury-rigged items that fall apart become increasingly harder to repair the more often they disintegrate, as the materials from which the items are made suffer further deterioration.
For the purposes of this Craft skill, a ‘puzzle’ is an item of Small size that involves multiple moving parts and has a single correct solution. To solve the puzzle, the parts must be moved in the correct sequence. This is never arbitrary and always has some kind of logic to it. For example, a puzzle might be a grid of jumbled, sliding square tiles with one square blank, with the object of the puzzle being to complete a picture. As a second example, a puzzle box might need to be tipped one way and then another, so that loose sliding pieces on the inside would slip into the correct configuration and the box could be opened.
Special: Humans and gnomes are entitled to a +2 racial bonus on this particular use of the Craft skill, as they are especially inventive races.
Some puzzles are assembly or disassembly puzzles, with the idea being to put the pieces together in the correct way or dismantle the puzzle into its component pieces; these, however, are usually made for entertainment only, as they cannot easily be used to protect an item. Some guilds use assembly puzzles as tests of cerebral ability when a candidate is undergoing an admissions examination, as they provide a good assessment of the candidate’s powers of abstract reasoning and threedimensional visualisation.
Craft (puzzles)
The human mind loves an enigma. It is one of the most common motives for humans to go adventuring. They are drawn by the promise of problems to solve, dilemmas to work out and difficult cases to crack. Other races have observed that humans will make themselves little problems that they can take pleasure in solving, in order to give their brains something to do, a practice that the other races can find baffling, charming or just incomprehensible.
Solving a puzzle is a matter of making a successful ability score check; which ability score is used will depend on the nature of the puzzle. A puzzle that depends on logic, such as lining up the next symbol in the set, requires an Intelligence ability score check. One that depends on spatial awareness and visualisation, such as a cube whose faces must be rotated until all the colours match, uses Wisdom, while a puzzle whose solution requires manual agility, such as manoeuvring a blob of mercury through a little maze until it reaches the centre, relies on Dexterity.
The crafter of puzzles is a tradesman like no other. He specialises in the creation of three-dimensional challenges to the wits of his customers. His services are often in demand from those who are putting together a contest, testing maze, trial pit or similar ‘dungeon’ environment, as it is not easy to find someone who is capable of putting together a real challenge to the mind; challenges to the body are easily posed, such as by placing strong doors in-between the contestants and the goal, but mental challenges are much harder to set.
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS Those who become frustrated with puzzles sometimes attempt to bypass them in a more direct way, such as by smashing them. It is common practice to build a trap of some kind into the puzzle to guard against this action, if the puzzle is to be used to protect an object or region.
emotions in future. For example, a character who is troubled by nightmares, suffers from feelings of guilt, is phobic of a situation or creature or who is prone to fits of anger can be helped into calmness by counselling. Characters driven insane by shock or other stimuli may be talked back into sanity by use of counselling skills.
Check: The DC of the Craft (puzzles) check to create a given puzzle is equal to the DC of the finished puzzle itself. You cannot create a puzzle with a difficulty DC of more than 21 plus your appropriate ability score modifier. For example, you cannot create a Dexterity puzzle with a DC of 25 if you only have a Dexterity ability score of 16. Incorporating a locking mechanism into the puzzle (for example, making a locked puzzle box so that solving the puzzle opens the box) adds 2 to the DC to make the puzzle, while incorporating a simple trap such as a poison gas capsule adds 2 to the DC.
Check: This use of the skill requires a simple Diplomacy check against a DC of 15. More severe cases may have a higher DC, at the Games Master’s discretion. The Games Master may rule that a set number of successes result in the condition being cured completely; the nightmares are gone, the phobia no longer afflicts the character and so forth. Retry: Allowed, but the counsellor must leave at least one week between attempts.
Synergy: A character with 5 or more ranks in the Open Lock skill may add a +2 synergy bonus to all uses of the Craft (puzzles) skill, as he is already familiar with the intricacies of tumblers, spindles, tiny internal springs and cogwheels.
The second use of counselling is to assist a person who is in an emotionally distressed state to perform an action. A person who is suffering morale penalties to their checks or saving throws because of an emotionaltering effect, such as magically induced fear or battlefield panic, may ignore these penalties for one round if the character making a counselling attempt can succeed at the use of this skill. The subject must be able to hear and understand the counsellor. In this instance, the skill takes one round to use.
Diplomacy: Counselling
Ordinarily, the Diplomacy skill is used to bridge divisions between people; it can persuade one person that another’s intentions are peaceful, settle differences between individuals and mollify those who would otherwise have been angry or aggressive. When the skill is used in its counselling application, the divisions that are resolved are those between the individual and his own self. Counsellors specialise in relieving mental anguish and distress by calmly talking a person through a situation.
Check: The counsellor makes a Diplomacy check against a DC of 15 plus the total morale penalty expressed as a positive figure. For example, if you were trying to help a shaken character who had a –2 morale penalty to checks and saving throws because he had just been the target of a successful Intimidate check, the DC of the check would be 17.
Although psychotherapy as such is completely unknown in the d20 universe, counselling is still a valuable skill. In the fantasy context it essentially means the speaking of soft and well-chosen words that are intended to reassure, comfort, encourage and pacify the person. Those who are given counselling are usually those in a state of great anger, sorrow or fear. Counselling cannot fully counteract magically induced states of fear, grief, panic or rage but it can go a good way towards alleviating these states when they have arisen naturally.
Retry: Yes, but a character who has refused to listen once (or been too troubled to pay any attention to you) is less likely to do so again. The DC is raised by 2 on each subsequent attempt. Special: Characters with five or more ranks in the Heal skill receive a +2 synergy bonus to this use of Diplomacy, as they are used to comforting creatures in difficult or extreme emotional states. Humans are allowed a +2 racial bonus to all uses of the Diplomacy skill for counselling purposes, as they are generally considered to be a tolerant and accepting people with a talent for looking at others’ difficulties objectively.
The counselling use of the Diplomacy skill allays extreme emotional states. There are two ways in which it can be used. The first is most often used in a context of simple roleplaying. The skill takes half an hour to use, during which time the characters involve must be able to engage in quiet conversation. The effect is to give the subject character help in getting over a source of emotional distress and enable him to resist these
Disguise: Apply Cosmetics
Humans are a cosmopolitan, chimeric race. They are so concerned with variety and stimulus that outside observers often wonder whether one face is really
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS enough for them; they seem so fond of change and progress that one might think they had a mask for every occasion. This view of humanity is not far from the truth. The use of cosmetics is hardly unknown amongst other races, but humans have made an art of it. Elves generally disdain make-up as a mere vanity, allowing its use for ceremonial purposes, while the thought of a dwarven female in eyeliner and rouge is enough to put most male dwarves clean off their beer. Halflings know the value of a good set of face-paints and gnomes have even been known to beautify themselves on occasion; as for the half-orcs, they will happily paint their bodies but application of beauty treatments to them is generally considered to be something of a lost cause.
to your Disguise check. This use of cosmetics is not dependent upon having social customs in common with the observer. The ordinary use of Disguise can make you seem younger than you are but the difference here is that a disguise that is seen through is interpreted as a disguise and is therefore seen as suspicious, whereas the use of cosmetics is not believed to be deceptive. Cosmetics must be refreshed periodically (once every two hours on average) or their benefit is lost. Some circumstances, such as rainfall or bursting into tears on the subject’s part, can cause the cosmetics to run, causing their benefits to be lost completely; the Games Master may even rule that spoiled make-up is enough to earn a mild circumstance penalty to Charisma-based checks.
Humans are streets ahead of the other races in their creative use, consumption of and dependence upon cosmetics. Part of the reason for this is the human preoccupation with mortality. Every additional year of your life brings you one step closer to the grave; every wrinkle, every silver hair is a sign that one day you will be nothing more than rot and corruption. Humans like to persuade themselves that this is never going to happen to them, so they use oils, paints and powders to make themselves seem younger and less imperfect than they are.
The use of cosmetics is typical of human females but is not confined to that gender by any means. Depending on the accepted social rules of conduct, men may also use make-up. This use may vary from the wearing of kohl and lip darkener by young rebellious males who wish to model themselves on the undead to the enormous wigs, powdered faces, rouged lips and heart-shaped beauty spots of the more extravagant kind of noble. Check: Using the Disguise skill for cosmetics application works just like an ordinary use of the skill and takes as long to achieve. A disguise kit is no help, but expensive or otherwise high-quality cosmetics provide a +2 circumstance bonus to the check. On meeting you, others are entitled to a Spot check with the DC being equal to the result of your skill check; if they succeed, they perceive that you are not quite as glamorous as they had believed you to be and the modifier to your Charisma-based checks is lost. They also perceive your true age category, if the cosmetics had hidden it.
The use of cosmetics comes under the Disguise skill, as it is an attempt to alter your appearance with makeup. However, while the Disguise skill is traditionally used to make you look less like yourself, the application of cosmetics is supposed to make you look more like yourself – more like an idealised version of yourself, anyway. Cosmetics are also much more subtle than most disguise make-up, as they are used to highlight specific features and make them more alluring, without the make-up itself being too obvious. It is not deception, so it is not possible to see through the ‘disguise’, but it is possible to realise that a person’s make-up is making them seem more impressive than they are.
Retry: Yes. If you have not put your make-up on to your satisfaction, you may wash the whole lot off and start again. Bear in mind that this takes another 1d3x10 minutes of work. Sometimes it is best to accept the job that you have done rather than take up several hours trying to get your make-up just right.
Cosmetics may be used for two main purposes. They can make the subject seem more attractive and they can make them seem younger than they truly are. These purposes can be combined and usually are. Successful application of cosmetics grants the user a +2 circumstance bonus to all Charisma-based checks when interacting with humans or half-humans who share your social customs. (For example, if a female adventurer prepares her face with cosmetics, she will gain a bonus when talking to a half-elven noble from the same kind of society as she frequents but no bonus at all when talking to a steppes raider or a jungle dweller.) You may also use cosmetics to seem one age category younger than you are, with a modifier of –2 applied
Special: Characters with more than 5 ranks in Profession (actor) or Profession (harlot) receive a +2 synergy bonus to this use of the Disguise skill, as both those professions require the repeated and expert application of cosmetics.
Forgery: Counterfeit Money
A great bard of the human race once quipped that ‘all that glistens is not gold’; how right he was. Human
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS invention is all too often turned towards dishonest ways of making a living. Few are more dishonest than that which seeks to debase the very coin of the realm, turning out cheaply (though artfully) made replicas of genuine currency. Counterfeit coin is a headache for rulers and merchants alike. Rulers despise it because it is both insulting (mimicking the stamp of the ruling power) and deeply illegal, while any unfortunate shopkeeper who accepts a counterfeit gold piece is left without recourse. He can either make himself complicit in the crime by trying to slip it into the change he gives to a second, honest customer, or accept his loss and throw the thing away.
check against a DC of 15 can produce 100 counterfeit coins in one hour; a failed check spoils the batch. One genuine gold or silver piece is needed for every 20 gold or silver pieces produced. The person who casts the coins need not be the same person who prepared the moulds; indeed, counterfeiting is usually carried out by a partnership of one forger and one caster. Action: It takes at least 32 hours of work in total to prepare the moulds to forge a coin properly. Special: A character with 5 or more ranks in Appraise can add a +2 synergy bonus to this use of Forgery, as he can pre-empt the eyes of the observer; he knows what they will be looking for as evidence that the coin is counterfeit, so he can make sure that the clues are properly covered up.
Rogues, on the other hand, are great purveyors of counterfeit coin. They often sell bags of the stuff, taking good money in exchange for bad, because those to whom they sell it know that they can live better on a hundred fake gold coins than ten real ones. When you can make your own money, you do not have to worry so much about the exciseman coming to collect his due. Some ingenious souls even carry a bag of worthless counterfeit coin around with them that they can give to robbers, knowing that the laugh will be on their assailants when they try to spend their booty in the local tavern.
Gather Information: Spread Rumours
Humans are the most sociable of the races, mixing merrily with all levels of society. They enjoy the trading of tales, news and gossip, especially among the members of their own race. Older humans in particular like nothing better than the discussion of other people (and other races) and their business. To a human, it is always worthwhile to have something to tell your neighbour; good gossip is treasured, as is makes you the centre of attention.
The usual method of forging coin is to make a base out of some metal alloy of similar weight to the kind you are trying to duplicate, cast it in the form of a genuine coin and then coat it with a layer of the genuine metal. Less convincing methods include casting the whole coin from some metal that looks superficially like the kind you are trying to emulate; this method is very unsatisfactory as the coins do not look like they are made out of the precious metal and the forgery is thus easy to detect, but it can fool an observer in poor light or from a distance.
This use of the Gather Information skill allows you to work the information-gathering process backwards. Instead of picking interesting titbits from the rumour mill, you may think up rumours of your own and put them into general circulation. You may dream up any rumour you like, but the breadth of its circulation will depend on the quality and scope of your own connections (the more people you tell, the more sources people will hear the rumour from, adding to its credibility) and your own storytelling skill. It is always much easier to circulate a damaging or negative rumour among humans than a positive one, as humans are always ready to believe the worst of people and find bad news much more easy to believe than good news.
Check: Although it might seem that the counterfeiting of coins is more a matter of Craft skill than of forgery, the forger’s art is in duplicating the stamp on the coin. This is a difficult undertaking. One cannot simply make a mould from a standard coin, because too much detail is lost. It is best if the forger can gain access to the blanks used at the mint and make copies of these. If this course of action is impractical (it usually is) then straightforward forgery is called for. The counterfeiter must make a Forgery skill check, the results of which are kept secret. This result then becomes the DC for any Appraise (detect fake) skill check, for which see above. All coins made from these moulds have the same DC. Once the moulds are made, the next step is for the coins to be cast. This requires a successful Craft skill check for any Craft that has to do with the working of metal, such as blacksmith, weaponsmith or armourer. A successful
Check: You make a Gather Information skill check to put your rumour into circulation. The DC of the check depends on the breadth of circulation that you intend the rumour to have. The Games Master sets the DC. As an example, a DC of 10 should apply to the task of inducing the occupants of a building (such as a tavern) to accept your rumour, a DC of 15 to the population of a small town, a DC of 20 to a city district, a DC of 25 to a city and a DC of 30 to a metropolis. Note that the distribution of a rumour does not necessarily mean that the people repeating it believe it to be true. It is
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS simply information that is ‘doing the rounds’. A Gather Information check performed by another character within (or including) the area that you have affected will pick up your rumour.
of drinks, expensive meals, bribes and other financial incentives. Synergy: A character with 5 or more ranks in Bluff is especially good at spreading rumours, as he knows how to make them sound convincing. He receives a +2 synergy bonus to this application of the Gather Information skill.
The Games Master may apply circumstance bonuses or penalties if your rumour is easy or difficult to believe. For example, a rumour that the tumbledown, abandoned Valjean Mansion is haunted or that the crooked old woman at the end of the road is a witch will be snapped up eagerly, but a rumour that a small tavern is keeping a dinosaur in its basement or a lawful good cleric is having commerce with demons will not go down quite so well.
Heal: Autopsy
Human inquisitiveness and human obsession with mortality combine in this curious use of the Heal skill. In their dedicated crusade to avoid death, humans have been studying it for years. They have dug up, dissected, illustrated, categorised and catalogued more specimens of the dead than any other race. Most of their medical practices and their understanding of anatomy have evolved from patient examination of the bodies of the dead. Field surgeons, confronted by ghastly wounds of all kinds, have been able to learn a good deal about healing techniques by studying those they were treating.
Action: Putting rumours into circulation involves a lot of legwork and a great many words whispered into eager ears. You must spend at least four hours talking to people for every 10 points of DC for your skill check. In addition, you must spend 4d6 gold pieces for every four hours spent talking to people, representing the cost
When a human dies, his kinsmen naturally want to know why. It is typically human to be curious, to look into the whys and wherefores of things, rather than simply accepting and moving on. Human healers have thus evolved a practice whereby the bodies of the dead can be respectfully examined and the cause of their death ascertained. At the very least, a good guess can be made. Even when the cause of death is blatantly obvious, such as in the case of decapitation, an observant healer can discover other things from observation of the body, which might shed some light on how and why the death occurred. Though this use of the skill is tentatively titled ‘autopsy’ it does not reflect a full autopsy procedure, but refers rather to the examination and (if necessary) the dissection of a cadaver in order to learn things from the body. It is an application of the Heal skill, because understanding wounds, diseases and poisons from a healer’s viewpoint allows you to identify their effects when found on someone who did not survive them. This application of the skill is not limited to humans, though humans have made the most use of it. Such spells as speak with dead can sometimes make autopsy examinations redundant, as the dead person can tell you what happened in person. Nonetheless, an autopsy can tell you
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS DC 25: If the corpse was killed by an attacker or attackers, you may give a simple description of their likely height, strength and handedness.
a great deal about the person’s death that the person himself might not even know. For instance, the cadaver might only remember a searing pain in its bowels, while an autopsy carried out by a competent healer could identify the poison that was used to do away with the victim. Speak with dead might reveal that the corpse’s last memory was of a blow from behind, while a thorough autopsy could tell you what kind of weapon dealt the blow and even what hand the weapon was in.
DC 30: You can give a simple reconstruction of the likely circumstances of death; this is essentially an encapsulation of the last hour or so of the victim’s life, as close as may be attempted. Obviously, you cannot give names to people, but you can make such suggestions as ‘The stomach contents reveal that she met friends shortly before her death for a glass of beer, the nail scratches show that she got into a fight with another woman but that this was not seriously intentioned, while the stab wounds indicate that an invisible attacker was able to strike as she waited for her next customer, as she made no attempt to defend herself and had not even taken out her hairpin to use as an impromptu weapon.’
All information resulting from an autopsy is essentially guesswork and opinion. The character understands that he is not able to look into the past, but is instead using his technical knowledge and his imagination to attempt a reconstruction of events. An autopsy cannot be carried out on a mostly decomposed corpse or a skeleton.
The following modifiers apply to the check. If the corpse has deteriorated owing to exposure, consumption by vermin, immersion in water, fire or acid damage or similar, the Games Master should apply a circumstance penalty of –2 to –10. This assumes that the corpse is still more or less intact despite its condition, as a deliquescing cadaver or a skeleton cannot be treated with an autopsy. If the character can examine the body in the place where it was discovered, he may add a +2 circumstance bonus to his check, as he is able to take environmental factors into account.
Check: You make a Heal check to study the body of a dead creature. The difficulty of the check determines the level of information that you are able to extract from these studies. You must attempt each check in order, if you do so at all. For example, you cannot attempt a Heal check at DC 15 to find out how long the corpse has been dead unless you have already attempted one at DC 10. Note that you do not have to have succeeded at an earlier check in order to progress to a more challenging one. Success conveys accurate information, while failure conveys wrong information. As the player should not know whether his information is accurate or not, the Games Master makes these skill checks in private.
If the creature is not human or humanoid, a –10 circumstance penalty applies in the case of aberrations (whose anatomy is frequently alien), a –4 penalty for monstrous humanoids and giants and a –6 penalty for all other creature types. Undead, oozes and constructs cannot be given autopsies.
DC 10: You can tell simple facts about the corpse’s station in life and their behaviour. For example, long nails would indicate little need to do manual work, decayed teeth would indicate poverty and a tattoo of a swallow on the bicep would probably indicate that the deceased was a mariner who had crossed the Equator at some point in his life. If the creature was not humanoid, you could deduce what its last meal had been and whether it was intelligent.
Action: Each successive Heal skill check takes 30 minutes of activity. Special: A character with more than 5 ranks in Spot or Search may add a +2 synergy bonus to his use of the Heal skill to perform an autopsy. A character with the Diligent feat may add a +2 bonus to his use of this skill in this capacity, as his meticulousness is exactly the kind of qualification needed to notice giveaway details that others would fail to observe.
DC 15: You are able to determine the cause of death accurately (what kind of weapon made the wound, what kind of disease killed the person, what kind of poison was used) and tell how long the corpse has been dead. DC 20: You can tell whether the corpse has been moved, or whether it is lying in the same place in which it died. You can ascertain whether death is likely to have been accidental or intentional.
Heal: Kiss of Life
Humans are famous for their refusal to ‘go gently into that good night’ and accept death. While they can still fight against it, they do. This use of the Heal skill is a special technique whereby a character who has died from drowning may be revived, so long as the technique is applied in time. It may only be used following
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS drowning in a liquid and not suffocation in gas, powder or any other substance. The healer expels water from the victim’s lungs and breathes air back into them in an attempt to start the victim breathing again. Check: The Kiss of Life must be used within one minute (ten rounds) of the victim’s death by drowning. The victim must have lungs and some kind of mouth or nose into which air can be blown and may be no more than one size category larger than the character administering the Kiss of Life, as you can only use your breath to inflate lungs that are close to the size of your own. The character administering the resuscitation attempt must make a Heal check at DC 20. The DC is raised by 1 for every round that has passed since the death by drowning occurred. If successful, the victim coughs water from their lungs and is restored to life, with one hit point. Retry: Yes. Note that the more rounds go past without success, the harder it is to succeed at this task. Action: The character administering the Kiss of Life must take a full-round action to do so and concentrate on the task. damage is non-lethal by default. You may inflict lethal damage if you choose, but this adds 4 to the DC of the check. Damage inflicted in this way does not leave marks upon the victim’s body.
Intimidate: Avoid Leaving Marks
Humans are eternally inventive. Unfortunately, they are just as creative when it comes to inflicting physical and psychological pain, coming up with new ways to torment the body or mind of a creature. It has long been known that a victim who you are trying to interrogate will break much more easily if you rough him up a bit. This not only shows that you are serious and that he is in genuine danger, it provides an incentive to cough up the information you want, as the promise of future beatings hangs over his head if he does not co-operate. The only trouble is that a battered victim can go straight to a sympathetic friend, or even to the forces of law and order (so long as they are likely to sympathise), show his bruises and have his tale of woe confirmed. It is much better if a victim can be roughed up without having any evidence of this on his body. For this reason, certain human interrogators have developed a science of inflicting damage that does not leave a mark.
Retry: If you fail the skill check, you leave a mark. You may, however, make as many skill checks as you like, possibly reducing the victim to unconsciousness or even death. Action: Inflicting damage upon a helpless opponent without leaving marks requires a full-round action and demands concentration upon the task.
Move Silently: Muffle Blow
Humans do not have the halflings’ capacity for stealth but they can still apply their legendary inventiveness so that their actions will make as little noise as possible. Some humans, particularly those of the rogue and assassin classes, are so skilled at placing their blows that practically no noise is created. This can be because a dagger is slipped between the ribs at the same time as a hand is laid upon the mouth, or because the weapon that strikes the blow has been swaddled in velvet, or even because the blow is placed so as to thump into a part
Check: The victim of this use of the Intimidate skill must be helpless. An Intimidate check is made against a DC of 10 plus the victim’s Constitution modifier. If the check is successful, you may inflict damage upon the victim as if you had made an unarmed attack. This
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS of the body which is mostly vital organs and very little bone, which always makes a loud crack (at the least) when you bring a weapon down on it.
as imitating the husky voice of an old woman) the skill check is unmodified for a person of your own age and gender, with a -1 circumstance penalty if the person is of a different age category to you and a –1 circumstance penalty if they are of a different gender. Those hearing your imitation may make a Listen check in opposition to your Perform check in order to detect the mimicry. A successful Perform check covers one minute of conversation or noise-making. Once this has elapsed, you will need to make a further check to carry on the mimicry.
Check: You may take a full action to make a single melee attack against a target. Before the blow is struck, make a Move Silently check. Anyone who might hear the blow land may make a Listen check in opposition to your Move Silently check in order to hear the blow fall. Once the skill check is made, make your attack roll as usual. If you miss, you do not make any noise anyway; if you hit, you make so little noise that only those whose Listen check result exceeded your Move Silently check result hear anything. If your blow renders your target unconscious or kills him, he goes down without making any more sound than the blow itself made; those that did not hear the blow do not hear him fall. However, if he is still alive after your blow falls, he may make as much noise as he likes.
If you are trying to imitate a specific person, the skill check is modified as above; however, you must have listened to the person’s voice for at least half an hour before you can attempt to impersonate them. If they are extremely familiar to you, there is no penalty to the check. If you have studied their voice for less than a day, the circumstance penalty applied is –6; if you have studied them on more than one day but have not spent more than a week in their company, it is –4; otherwise, it is –2.
Special: Any character with the Sneak Attack or Death Attack feature may apply a +2 synergy bonus to this use of the Move Silently skill, as they are used to placing blows accurately on unaware targets.
The Games Master may also apply additional circumstance penalties to the check if the person you are trying to mimic has a foreign accent or a similar speech trait that makes them hard to imitate, or if they are a race with markedly different physical characteristics to your own, such as a slender elf trying to imitate the bassoprofundo voice of a dwarf.
Perform (mimicry)
If human nature could be summed up in one word by the other races, they would probably agree on the word ‘versatile’. Humans have an astonishing ability to absorb information from their environment and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Thanks to this trait, they have a better grasp of imitation than any other race, with many of them being able to listen to a sound and learn to repeat it, eventually acquiring the ability to duplicate the sound with uncanny accuracy. Those humans who live in wild environments use this ability to signal to one another with animal noises, so as not to arouse suspicion, while those who live in an urban habitat can use their skills of impersonation to satirise public figures or even to imitate people in authority, so as to gain access to places they should not be allowed into.
When attempting to impersonate the noises made by a monster, such as the howl of a werewolf or the grunting of a hungry troll, you make a skill check as above. You may only imitate creatures that are no larger than one size category above yours, as there is a limit to how realistically human-sized lungs can portray the bellowing of giants and dragons. You may also only imitate creatures that have a single discernible mouth. No performer, no matter how skilful, can emulate an ettin when he has only one head. Proceed as if you were impersonating a specific individual, with the same penalties applying for lack of familiarity. For example, if you have grown up around orcs, you can easily imitate the gruff accents of an orc warrior, while if you have only ever seen one ogre in your whole life you will have no idea how to imitate one. When you attempt to mimic a creature of a different creature type to yourself (such as a humanoid attempting to mimic a monstrous humanoid) then a creature that belongs to the race you are trying to imitate receives a +4 circumstance bonus to its Listen check to detect the imitation.
Mimicry is a new subcategory of the Perform skill. Like any subcategory of Perform, it may be used to put on a show (such as the notorious rustic ‘barnyard impressions’ routine) though it is not quite so readily adapted to the stage as the more conventional performing arts such as Sing or Oratory. It may be used to impersonate specific individuals or creatures, even monsters. Check: When using the skill to put on a show, use the standard rules for Perform given in Core Rulebook I.
Retry: No.
When imitating the sounds made by a person without impersonating any one individual in particular (such
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS
Sleight-of-Hand: Prestidigitation
Special: Imitating others is integral to the art of disguising yourself. A character with more than 5 ranks in Disguise is entitled to a +2 synergy bonus on all Perform (mimicry) checks and vice versa.
Not all those who have nimble fingers use them for taking what they oughtn’t and not all those who bear the title ‘magician’ are capable of working genuine magic. In one of those flights of whimsy which human beings find charming, entertaining and distracting and other races (with the exception of halflings in this case) find merely odd, the humans have perfected means of seeming to work wonders with nothing more than a quick hand and some well-prepared props. This practice is sometimes called ‘conjuring’, though it is not to be confused with the genuine magical practice of summoning creatures. Elves in particular find this characteristically human entertainment completely baffling. Their attitude is ‘Why not just learn magic? It’s so much more straightforward,’ to which the human comeback is ‘Because this is so challenging.’
Sleight-of-Hand: Bunco Booth
When you are in a city of the humans, especially if you take a detour into some of the less well policed areas or the regions around the markets, you can be sure that there are plenty of jolly city inhabitants who are willing to use all of their legendary human ingenuity to relieve you of your money. One of the most popular ways of doing this is a backstreet ‘game’ played in a stall commonly called the bunco booth. The target is invited to watch the stall operator as he displays three nutshells or cups and a single pea, then moves the shells around with bewildering agility so that it is practically impossible to tell which cup the pea is under. The stall makes its money by allowing the target to bet on whether he can lift the cup under which the pea is sitting. A sharp-eyed customer can sometimes beat the stall and come away with a profit, though the stallholders are often much too quick for the average member of the public.
In a world where magic is a commonplace occurrence, there might seem to be little room for the conjurer who works with sleight of hand alone. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even the most accomplished wizard cannot saw a woman in half and put her back together without seeming to cast some sort of a spell or perform lengthy incantations. The people of a world that believes in magic are far more likely to believe that a conjuror’s tricks are genuine sorcery than to wonder how it was done. This means that a person who is competent in prestidigitation can establish a reputation for himself as a powerful wielder of magic without having so much as one level in wizard or sorcerer. Prestidigitation can fascinate onlookers and in some cases scare them.
Check: An honest bunco booth (and yes, there are some) is run as follows. The target places a sum of money on the table, matched by the house. The stall operator then makes a Sleight-of-Hand skill check, which is opposed by the target’s Spot skill check. If the target loses, he is certain that the pea resides under the wrong cup; if he wins, he knows which cup is the right one. If the target picks the correct cup, he takes the pot; if he does not, the house keeps his money.
To perform major feats of prestidigitation, such as making an apparently severed head come alive and talk or making a tiger vanish from a cage, you must have properly prepared equipment. This is expensive, ranging from 2 gold pieces for a simple prop, such as a hat with a secret compartment, to 50 gold pieces for an elaborate one, such as a cabinet in which you can stand safely while swords are thrust through the walls.
Dishonest bunco booths use rigged equipment and allow the stall operator to palm the pea, meaning that none of the cups have the pea beneath them and the target can never choose correctly. The operator of this kind of stall is allowed a +4 circumstance bonus to his Sleight-ofHand skill check; if the target succeeds in opposing this with his Spot check, he sees the cheating going on. A bunco booth of this type will usually play a couple of rounds straight, just to give the observers the idea that they can win the game.
You may perform minor feats of prestidigitation without any props other than those you borrow or have on your person. For example, you may seem to pull coins out of someone’s ears or make a small object vanish.
Retry: No. Special: A character with more than five ranks in Perform (act) receives a +2 synergy bonus to this use of the Sleight-of-Hand skill, as the stream of patter that the bunco booth operator pours forth is extremely efficient at distracting those who are trying to keep their eyes on the pea as it is switched from cup to cup.
Check: When used to put on a show for entertainment purposes, prestidigitation works just like a performance skill; you make a skill check, which determines how well your performance went down. To make a Tiny object (such as a key) seem to appear from nowhere or vanish up your sleeve, a straight skill
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS Retry: No. When you are attempting a stunt, you only get one crack at it. Special: A character with more than five ranks in Perform (act) receives a +2 synergy bonus to this use of the Sleight-of-Hand skill, as working the audience and verbally misdirecting them is a large part of the conjuror’s act.
Profession (harlot)
The cosmopolitan nature of humans expresses itself in many ways. Their tolerance and acceptance of other races is what makes humans the natural diplomats, mediators and traders of the world. This tolerance also finds expression in the lower levels of society, in which humans are seen as the best publicans and party hosts a person could wish for. They are willing to mingle with all sorts of people and get on equally well with each of them. This openness can and often does extend to humans’ marital relations, as they do not have other races’ compunctions about marrying or breeding outside their own race. Those who condemn humans for their overly tolerant ways tend to lay emphasis on the large number of halfhumans in the world, commenting that a typical human is like a good table wine; ‘it goes with anything’. These comments are without doubt exaggeration, but it is an undeniable fact that the great majority of the harlots in the world are human. It is a vital part of the harlot’s job to make the client feel welcome, a role that humans excel at. Humans also have a tendency to enjoy experimentation and variety, traits which a harlot has to have if she (or he) is to cope with the work. The human tendency to travel, particularly by sea, inevitably results in a population of human dockside harlots building up in port towns; one of the reasons for the large number of racially mixed half-human individuals is the consequence of sailors of all races encountering the human workers in the port brothels and nature taking its inevitable course.
check is made at a +4 circumstance bonus, which is then opposed by Spot checks from any onlookers. If their result beats yours, they notice you palming the item or pulling it out of a secret pocket. To attempt to convince an audience that you have genuine magical powers, make a Sleight-of-Hand check; the observers may oppose this with Spot or Sense Motive checks, whichever skill they have more ranks in. Success means that the observer or observers believe you to be some kind of a wizard, sorcerer or similar spellcaster and will treat you accordingly, while failure means that your attempts to impress them are ineffective. The Games Master may allow a circumstance bonus if the populace are especially credulous, such as a gathering of peasants, or a circumstance penalty if they are jaded, sceptical or have ‘seen it all before’, such as the audience in a city theatre.
The profession of harlot is as varied as that of a jeweller or leatherworker. Some are poor, with nothing but their expertise to fall back on for food and shelter, grubbing out a living in the benighted areas of the city, town or country; some are ordinary traders, carrying on the world’s oldest profession with no more reluctance or care for their clients than a barber or tattooist; some are highly paid specialists, serving noble houses, exclusive wealthy clients or even royalty. They are not limited
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS to one gender. The most exotic of harlots is more of a distinguished companion, who will have a variety of skills to entertain her clients (at least two Performance skills) and is the very model of courtesy, gentility and refinement.
setting must be one in which work of this kind is done and the target must be of appropriate gender and race (one does not proposition minotaurs!) The character may use her Charisma ability score instead of her Wisdom as the basis for this skill check. The target must make a Will saving throw in order to resist her wiles, with the DC of the saving throw being the result of the skill check. At the Games Master’s discretion, he may be allowed circumstance modifiers to this saving throw, based on his ordinary character and conduct. A drunken mariner should be given a –2 circumstance penalty, while a lawful good cleric should be allowed a +10 circumstance bonus. Note that success on the harlot’s part only entices the target to follow her and does not guarantee any further activity.
A character’s motive for taking this profession will also vary tremendously from person to person. Some, usually those of a street-raised culture, follow the profession because it is all they know and though they hate it they have no other means of earning a living; some treat it as just a job and some take a genuine pride in their work, just as they would if they were a grand diva or accomplished artist. There is no specific alignment associated with this profession. Many societies attach a negative social stigma to harlotry. In lawful societies, which tend to prize the institution of marriage and punish those who undermine or devalue it, it is usually deemed to be a filthy practice that results from human weakness and is strictly repressed. Good societies also tend to forbid it, but the law is orientated more towards rehabilitation, protection and refuge than punishment and the harlots are seen as victims of society rather than criminals. It is repressed because of the misery it causes and the danger to public health rather than its transgression of family values. Evil societies allow harlotry to flourish while exploiting and maltreating those who practice it, while chaotic societies are most likely to let people do what they like and charge money for it if they want to. There are some societies in which it is not only tolerated but an accepted part of the way the community works; such societies rarely let harlotry run unchecked, but issue licenses for individuals and houses to ply their trade.
Special: A character with more than five ranks in Profession (harlotry) receives a +2 circumstance bonus to all Gather Information checks, as she is in an exceptionally good position to pick up gossip.
Check: Harlotry is not a safe profession by any means but it is a relatively profitable one. A character can earn a number of gold pieces for a week’s work equivalent to a Profession (harlotry) check. At the Games Master’s discretion, this sum might be even higher in rich areas of a city, or lower in rural or poverty-stricken areas. A roll of 1 on the skill check indicates that the character has become exposed to disease and must make an appropriate Fortitude saving throw or contract a disease (contact or ingestion spread) of the Games Master’s choosing. A character may attempt a Profession (harlotry) check to entice a target to follow her. The
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS
Sense Motive: Cold Reading
minute of cold reading, you may make a Sense Motive check at DC 15; this is raised to DC 20 if you cannot, for whatever reason, take the hand of the subject. A successful check allows you to learn something about the subject that they have strong emotional feelings about. Cold reading detects emotional issues above others, so if the subject was feeling guilty about neglecting his mother, suspicious of a lover’s fidelity or anxious about an imminent bank raid, these would be likely subjects to pick up on.
Some of those who set up fortune-telling stalls are genuinely clairvoyant. They cast divination spells, write out detailed horoscopes and perform auguries, all for a fairly hefty price. At the other end of the market are those less gifted practitioners whose art is based more on reading the person than on reading the cards or the signs. There have always been and always will be unsophisticated, trusting people who want to know more about their future, usually so that they can be reassured that they will find a good partner, marry, settle down and be prosperous. While this class of person exists, there will also be the other class of person who makes a tidy living by exploiting them.
Retry: Yes, but failure to produce information about the subject (and thus confirm your supposed clairvoyant ability) is likely to cause them to give up and try someone else.
A cold reader is someone who sets himself up as a fortune-teller but has no genuine abilities. Instead, he relies on bodily and verbal cues to gain information about the subject. Most cold readers are palmists, as it is much easier to ‘read’ a person if you can hold their hand while you ask them questions. These questions usually begin as vague statements; as the cold reader gets a feel for the candidate, the statements become more specific. Tiny reactions, such as pulling away or pushing forward, are giveaways from which the cold reader can make deductions. For example, a cold reader might say something along the lines of ‘I sense a great deal of love in your life’ and on feeling the client jerk away or tense up, modify this to ‘love which has been denied to you, for yours is a lonely soul.’
Special: Water nomads have a +2 cultural bonus to cold reading checks, as their families train them up in the techniques. Any character with 5 or more ranks in Bluff receives a +2 synergy bonus to cold reading checks, as they are more able to make their probing questions seem like incisive statements.
Swim: Long Dive
Those humans who spend a lot of time on or near the sea learn to hold their breath for longer than other characters. Pearl fishermen, for example, regularly spend many minutes on the sea floor searching for the pearls that bring them their livelihood. One does not need especially strong lungs to do this. It is simply a matter of acclimatization and having had the proper training. So long as you take the time to breathe deeply before you make your dive (or do whatever else you need to do that requires you to hold your breath) you may extend the duration of the dive beyond its usual limits.
The cold reader’s technique is to establish trust by telling the subject facts about himself which the reader ‘could not possibly know’, all derived from cold reading, before making a pat set of cosy predictions designed to make the subject feel good about himself and his future. The cold reading is not intended to tell the subject anything he did not already know. It is only performed in order to give the semblance of clairvoyant ability on the cold reader’s part.
Check: Ordinarily, a character can hold his breath for 2 rounds per point of Constitution. A character who uses this technique may make a Swim check in the first round of holding his breath. The result of the Swim check divided by 2 is the number of additional rounds for which he may hold his breath before needing to make Constitution checks.
Check: You may use this skill in two ways. If you have the necessary paraphernalia to pass yourself off as a fortune-teller and you have a place from which you can work, such as a market stall or a tent, you may use your Sense Motive skill as if it were a Profession skill, practicing your trade and making a decent living. You may make a skill check for any given week of dedicated work and earn half your check result in gold pieces.
Retry: Yes, but you must exhale and take another round to prepare yourself. Action: The character must spend a round breathing deeply before he holds his breath. This is a full-round action. It does not require concentration, nor does it provoke an attack of opportunity.
Alternatively, you may use cold reading to eke information from someone. This can only be done if the other person is willingly talking to you in the context of fortune telling; you cannot use the ability to pry information from an unwilling target. For every
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TRICKS OF THE HUMANS ‘What does it mean to be human? Heh. The special thing about us is that there’s nothing special about us. We’re the also-rans, the honourable mentions, the runners-up. I guess when the Great Big Whoevers were building the world, they made the humans last, once they’d run out of ideas. ‘I mean, look at the other lot. Even the half-orcs, for God’s sake. They’re all special in their own way – they have something that sets ‘em aside, something you can point at and say “Aha!” Not us, though. We can be just about anything we want, because there’s nothing that shapes us, nothing that defines us. ‘I reckon it’s like this. A dwarf is like a squashed-up human. An elf is more of a skinny human with pointy ears. Halflings and gnomeses are like scaled-down humans and half-orcs are big dumb humans. So, what does that make a human? I’ll tell you what it makes us – the originals, the blanks. We’re here by accident. Everyone else is based on us, but we weren’t even supposed to be here. We should be up there with the Gods, watching these freaky versions of ourselves run around on the earth like, I don’t know, like we was playing some great cosmic board game or something… ‘Ugh, that was deep. Can I have my gold now, eh?’ - Brinksley Tallow, bar-stool philosopher, pessimist and self-proclaimed ‘dark poet’.
Swim: Rescue the Drowning
water, allowing them to breathe freely. They count as a load, so your Swim skill check is penalised accordingly. However, you do not suffer from their armour check penalty, as this is based on restriction of free movement of limbs rather than weight. While you are assisting another person, you can only move at all by taking a full-round action to do so and even then you move at one quarter of your speed, as you are using one of your limbs to help the other person along.
Humans contribute more members of the seafaring communities than any other race. This is partly because of the innate human urges to see more of the world, to travel and explore and partly out of the many opportunities to meet members of other races that seafaring affords. Unfortunately, those who venture on to the water are not always capable of dealing with it if they fall in. A character need only be lightly laden to find his swimming ability hampered; many weaker characters do not have much swimming ability at all. It is occasionally necessary for a sailor or dock-hand to strip off his shirt and dive into the water to help a floundering person out. Those who are used to the ocean learn how to swim with another person in their grasp, so that both heads are held above water. If it were not for the heroism of those brave souls who have practiced these swimming moves, many more lives would be lost at sea.
Retry: Yes. Special: A character with more than 5 ranks in Profession (sailor) receives a +2 synergy bonus to Swim checks made when assisting another person, as sailors are used to helping passengers back on to the boat.
In order to assist a character who is having trouble swimming, you must first come adjacent to them, which will probably involve a Swim check on your part. Next, you must successfully grab the target with a melee touch attack. This is much more difficult to make in rough water conditions, as the target is being flung about by the force of the water. Rough water therefore confers a –2 circumstance penalty to your grab attack roll, while stormy water confers a –4 circumstance penalty to the same roll. Once the grab has been made, you may make Swim checks as normal in order to move through the water with the other person. You may hold their head above
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HUMAN FEATS
Human Feats
T
be used against melee attacks that inflict bludgeoning or slashing damage; piercing attacks may not be blocked. (Morningstar attacks count as bludgeoning for this purpose.) You cannot block with a weapon that is smaller than the one being used against you; for example, you cannot block a Medium club with a Medium dagger, or a Medium longsword with a Small longsword. You must use a weapon to block. ‘Unarmed attack’ does not count as a weapon for this purpose.
Agricultural Weapon Proficiency
You may not make a blocking parry under any circumstances when you would be denied your Dexterity bonus to armour class, such as when flatfooted. This applies whether or not you actually have a Dexterity bonus to armour class.
he feats developed by humans are primarily about survival. They allow them to use their weapons to prevent damage to themselves or others or even to use agricultural tools as weapons. Other feats relate to the humans’ role as communicators, learners and facilitators, while a few involve the raw power of the human soul, a force that burns all the brighter for the short lifespan of the body it inhabits.
This feat allows the character to select one agricultural weapon (see Chapter 6, Tools of the Humans), which he then knows how to use as a combat weapon, rather than an agricultural tool.
To make a blocking parry attempt, you must use up one of your attacks in any given round in order to use your weapon to block an attack. You may take a blocking parry action as a reaction to an attack, even if the round has not yet reached your initiative count. A blocking parry is a free action. If you make a blocking parry before your initiative count is reached, then you have one less attack to use if you should declare a full attack action. You may only make as many blocking parries in a round as you have available attacks.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1 or Commoner character class, plus Str 13 for sledgehammer. Benefit: You may use the weapon normally, with only the standard –1 penalty to attack rolls occasioned by use of any agricultural weapon. Normal: A character who uses a weapon with which he or she is not proficient suffers a –4 penalty to attack rolls.
If you have a weapon in each hand and have not yet made an attack with your offhand weapon despite having acted already in the round, you may use your offhand weapon to make a Blocking Parry attempt, so long as you have not moved more than 5 feet during the round.
Special: This feat may be taken multiple times. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new agricultural weapon. Proficiency with the sledgehammer has an additional prerequisite of Str 13.
A blocking parry does not count as an attack of opportunity and may never be directed against any other target than an attacking weapon. A blocking attempt is made after the enemy has committed himself to attack but before his attack roll is made. Instead of your enemy making an attack roll against you, you and he make opposed attack rolls. If you are using a twohanded weapon, you may add a +2 circumstance bonus to your attack roll, as these weapons may be held in a sturdy grip and are well suited to blocking incoming attacks.
A fighter may select Agricultural Weapon Proficiency as one of his bonus feats.
Blocking Parry
Humans use wit and ingenuity to stay alive. Dwarves traditionally rely on armour and endurance, half-orcs on brute strength and elves on natural grace, but humans apply their minds to the problem. They have come up with techniques that let them use melee weapons effectively for defence as well as attack, such as the blocking parry.
If you succeed, you have successfully blocked his attack. He rolls his damage against your weapon. For the purpose of the blocking parry, you may add your Strength ability score modifier to your weapon’s effective Hardness, representing your ability to brace your weapon against the force of the blow.
Prerequisite: Str 13. Benefit: This defensive move allows you to use your weapon to block an attack made against you. Essentially, you attempt to ‘hit’ your opponent’s weapon with yours, but in such a way that your weapon takes the force of the blow rather than causing damage to your opponent’s weapon. A blocking parry may only
If you fail the opposed attack roll, your enemy’s result is applied as if it was an attack roll made against you.
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HUMAN FEATS You may not add your Dexterity bonus (if any) or any Dodge bonus to armour class in this one instance, as your attention was taken up with blocking the weapon’s blow. If you used a shield in your off hand to make the blocking attempt, you may not add your Shield bonus to armour class for the purpose of resolving this attack, either.
longspear cannot be used against an adjacent foe, the wielder of the smaller weapon comes off best. To make a deflecting parry attempt, you must use up one of your attacks in any given round in order to use your weapon to turn aside an attack. You may take a deflecting parry action as a reaction to an attack, even if the round has not yet reached your initiative count. A deflecting parry is a free action. If you make a deflecting parry before your initiative count is reached, then you have one less attack to use if you should declare a full attack action.
If your attacker causes sufficient damage to destroy your weapon altogether, he may apply the result of his attack roll as if you had failed the opposed attack roll but with a –2 circumstance penalty to the total, as smashing his weapon through yours is likely to have deflected the blow slightly.
If you have a weapon in each hand and have not yet made an attack with your offhand weapon despite having acted already in the round, you may use your offhand weapon to make a deflecting parry attempt, so long as you have not moved more than 5 feet during the round. This is in fact the most common approach of human duellists, who habitually fight with a rapier in one hand and a main-gauche (a dagger designed for off-hand use) in the other.
Special: A fighter may take this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Deflecting Parry
Humans do not have the racial advantages of enhanced Strength, Constitution or Dexterity, so they have used ingenuity instead, learning how to manoeuvre their weapons in cunning ways and deflect incoming damage.
A deflecting parry does not count as an attack of opportunity and may never be directed against any other target than an attacking weapon. A deflecting attempt is made after the enemy has committed himself to attack but before his attack roll is made. Instead of your enemy making an attack roll against you, you and he make opposed attack rolls. If you are using a weapon to which the Weapon Finesse feat may be applied, you may add a +2 circumstance bonus to your attack roll when attempting to deflect a piercing attack only, as these weapons are ideally suited to turning aside the thrusts of others.
Prerequisite: Dex 13 Benefit: This defensive move allows you to use your weapon in such a way that the attacker’s blow is turned aside. It differs from a blocking parry in that the force of the blow is sent off along a different vector, rather than being absorbed by your weapon. A deflecting parry may only be used against melee attacks that inflict piercing or slashing damage; bludgeoning attacks cannot be deflected. You cannot deflect with a weapon that is more than one size category larger or smaller than the one being used against you. For example, you may deflect a Medium longsword with a Medium dagger, but you may not deflect a Medium dagger with a Medium greatsword or vice versa. You must use a weapon to deflect incoming attacks. ‘Unarmed attack’ does not count as a weapon for this purpose.
If you succeed, you have successfully deflected your opponent’s attack. If the attack would have dealt piercing damage, then no damage at all is dealt and the strike is completely deflected. If the attack would have dealt slashing damage, then your opponent rolls damage and applies it to your weapon. For the purposes of damage resolution in this instance, you may add your Dexterity ability score modifier (if positive) to your weapon’s effective Hardness, representing your ability to minimise damage to your weapon by redirecting the force of the blow.
You may not make a deflecting parry under any circumstances when you would be denied your Dexterity bonus to armour class, such as when flatfooted. This applies whether or not you actually have a Dexterity bonus to armour class.
If you fail the opposed attack roll, your enemy’s result is applied as if it was an attack roll made against you. You may not add your Dexterity bonus (if any) or any Dodge bonus to armour class in this one instance, as your attention was taken up with deflecting the weapon’s blow.
A deflecting parry does not have to be used against an adjacent target. It is a common tactic for human swordmasters to take on overconfident longspear wielders by keeping their distance at first, deflecting the spear thrust and then closing for the kill; as the
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HUMAN FEATS The tactical advisability of deflecting parries depends on the kind of opposition you face. A Deflecting Parry is an excellent move for one rapier-user to use against another, though it is less advisable to use a rapier to deflect a scythe or a greatsword. It may buy you some time, but your weapon is likely to be chopped to pieces after a few rounds have passed. Special: A fighter may take this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Empathic Understanding
Some humans are gifted with the ability to understand what a creature or person is trying to convey, even though they do not speak the person’s language; sometimes they can interpret messages from creatures or read their behaviour, although the creature cannot communicate verbally. Through empathy and intuition, they can overcome communication barriers. This ability is extremely useful when a faithful dog is trying to tell you that a small boy is trapped down a mine, or when a sorcerer’s familiar is attempting to relay an important message from him and nobody can understand what ‘flap flap squeak squeak’ is supposed to mean. You can also tell when an animal’s behaviour is caused by something that is not immediately obvious. For example, you could tell that a lion is roaring angrily because it has a thorn in its paw and not because it is maddened or intent on eating people. Benefit: As discussed in Chapter 10, The Limits of Mortality, a character may acquire one or more ghost companions in the course of adventuring. This is handled as a feat, as interaction with the ghost takes up a considerable amount of the character’s time and attention; moreover, not every character has a soul to which a ghost can cleave and remain in the material world. The character may not have an indefinite number of ghostly companions. Rules are given in Chapter 10 governing how many of these entities may attend the character.
Prerequisite: Human, Wis 13 Benefit: You may make a Sense Motive check at DC 12 to understand the behaviour of a person or creature that is not capable of meaningful verbal communication with you. This feat may only be used to understand things that the person or creature would tell you if they could; it may not be used to find out secrets. This feat does not allow you to communicate back to the person or creature. It only allows you to understand them, without giving them any facility to understand you in return.
Greater Soul Tenacity
Normal: Communication barriers of this kind can only be overcome by magic in the ordinary run of events.
Characters with this feat have souls so strong that they not only resist the embrace of death, they put up a fight against attempts to dislodge the soul from the body during life. The character has less to fear from the assaults of certain horrendous undead or the wiles of soul-stealing spellcasters.
Ghost Companions
You have one or more ghost companions. Prerequisite: Human, minimum 5th level
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HUMAN FEATS Prerequisite: Soul Tenacity
Special: A fighter may take this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Benefit: The character with this feat receives a +4 circumstance bonus to saving throws made against attacks or effects that seek to drive or draw the soul out of his body. This benefit does not apply to death magic or effects, which simply kill the body and let the soul escape, but it would apply to the saving throw made against a magic jar spell, a trap the soul spell, or the malevolence ability of a ghost.
Intuitive Grasp
You have picked up knowledge from various different places, broadening your overall repertoire of skills and have a natural knack for utilising skills that ought to require a lot more previous training. Prerequisite: Human, Int 14
Intercept
Benefit: You may select any two skills in which you have no skill ranks and which are not usable untrained. These may be class, cross-class or even forbidden skills. You may use these skills at zero ranks, meaning that you may make an ability score check to use the skill as if it were possible to use it untrained. This feat may only be taken once. If you ever invest skill points in these skills, the benefit no longer applies.
This is a further development of the blocking and deflecting moves. Prerequisite: Dodge; also Blocking Parry, Shield Parry or Deflecting Parry Benefit: You may intercept an attack aimed at a person who is adjacent to you on the left or the right side but not directly in front of or behind you. This interception takes the form of a blocking parry, shield parry or deflecting parry, according to which feats you have. This interception is treated as if you were making a block or deflection against an attack aimed at you. It is resolved in the same way, with opposed attack rolls made by yourself and the assailant, with the exception that in the case of failure on your part, the assailant’s attack result is applied to the person you are trying to protect. You may also not use any Dexterity bonus (if you have any) or Dodge bonus to armour class for the remainder of the round, whether or not your interception attempt is successful. All of the conditions associated with a parry apply; it is particularly important to note the impossibility of making an interception while you are flat-footed.
Normal: Characters may not ordinarily use ‘trained only’ skills unless they have ranks in them.
Jack of All Trades
You have picked up knowledge from all sorts of different places. Prerequisite: Human, Wis 14 Benefit: This feat represents the ability of some rare human beings to learn a little bit of everything. They have usually travelled widely and paid close attention to what they have heard and seen. They might have done some work in a tanner’s shop, then spent a season serving as a mercenary, then signed on board a merchant ship before being captured by pirates and forced to serve as ship’s cook, only to end up as a barman in a dockside tavern. Those with the Jack-Of-All-Trades feat have many stories to tell and always have an opinion on how something should be done.
This feat may be used in conjunction with the Blocking Parry, Shield Parry and Deflecting Parry feats and does not have to be taken separately for each one. You may, for example, take the Blocking Parry feat, then the Intercept feat, then the Deflecting Parry feat and immediately begin make interceptions with a Deflecting parry.
The counterbalance to the seemingly universal competence of the Jack-Of-All-Trades is that he is the master of none. These individuals have such a broad variety of experiences that they have not had time to settle down and learn the full application of skills in which they might otherwise have specialised, nor do they have the capacity to do so any more; their minds are too full of ‘stuff that might come in handy’ to accept a sustained programme of disciplined training.
This feat is extremely popular among human bodyguards, who often use it to protect the lives of their charges. When your charge is flat-footed (or worse, taken by surprise and unable to act in a surprise round) and is attacked by an opponent who you cannot hope to take down in a single round, it makes sense to use one of your attacks to intercept his blow. Once that blow is prevented from falling, your charge may have a chance to act and get himself out of harm’s way.
This feat may be taken multiple times. Every time it is taken, the character may apply a +1 bonus to four skills of his choice, which must be class or cross-class skills,
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HUMAN FEATS not forbidden skills for his class. Once this is done, he may not increase the number of ranks in these skills beyond four.
You may make an immediate attack of opportunity with your offhand weapon against any foe whose attack you have just successfully deflected. For the purpose of this attack of opportunity alone, your opponent receives a –1 circumstance penalty to his armour class, as he is off guard.
Lightning Riposte
The masters of human fencing arts are so adept at the use of their blades that they can press home an advantage as soon as it is created, beating a blade aside and striking home into the vulnerable space created.
This feat may be used in conjunction with Lightning Riposte, meaning that an experienced fencer is a truly deadly foe when attacked with any kind of a blade. If he successfully parries your thrust or slash, he can potentially riposte with his primary weapon and make an attack with his offhand weapon, all before his initiative count has even come around.
Prerequisite: Combat Reflexes, Deflecting Parry Benefit: You may turn a deflecting parry into an attack. If you successfully beat your assailant when making the opposed attack roll to resolve a deflecting parry and your attack roll in this case was 5 or more higher than the total you would have needed to hit your opponent if you were making an attack against him, then you not only turn aside the blow, you inflict damage against him even though it was he rather than you who was making the attack.
Special: A fighter may take this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Shield Parry
As well as benefiting passively from carrying a shield, with the correct training it is possible to place your shield deliberately in the path of a blow, staving off damage to yourself.
For example, the human pirate Deadly Ernest, clad in leather, is engaged in a fierce rapier duel with Brythna the elf, who is wearing only light clothing and relying on his Dexterity to keep him alive. Deadly Ernest has the lightning riposte feat. Brythna makes an attack and Ernest declares a deflecting parry. They make opposed attack rolls; after modifiers are applied, Brythna has a total of 18 and Deadly Ernest a total of 22. Brythna’s armour class is only 14, so Ernest’s attack roll is enough to swat Brythna’s rapier aside and drive his own rapier into the elf’s abdomen.
Prerequisite: Shield Proficiency Benefit: You may attempt to make a Blocking Parry attempt (see the Blocking Parry feat for details) with a shield as if it were a weapon. This works like the use of an offhand weapon to make a blocking parry; you may use it before your initiative count, but not on or after it unless you have moved no further than 5 feet in the round. Unlike the usual blocking parry, it is effective against piercing, slashing and bludgeoning damage.
Special: A fighter may take this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Attempting to make a Blocking Parry attempt with a shield counts as use of an offhand weapon for the purpose of the attack roll. However, a circumstance bonus is applied to your attack roll equal to the shield bonus conferred by the shield plus 2, as shields are designed to be placed between the wielder and incoming blows. Shields described as ‘light’ count as light weapons for the purpose of determining penalties for two-weapon fighting.
Offhand Riposte
Some humans, impressed by the ability of their fencing masters to turn a defensive move into a spontaneous attack, applied the same principles to two-weapon fighting. Prerequisite: Two-Weapon Fighting, Deflecting Parry Benefit: This feat comes into play when you are fighting with two weapons. It may only be used when the weapon in your off hand is Light, as it depends on speed. It represents the result of hours of practice in the art of striking with an offhand weapon, specifically a strike made into the areas of an armed opponent’s body that would ordinarily be defended passively with his weapon but are briefly exposed following a successful parry.
This tactic is not generally as efficient for keeping you alive as accepting the ordinary passive shield bonus to armour class but there are some times when you really need to place your shield between yourself and your opponent’s weapon, such as when you have been disarmed and cannot reach your weapon, or when you are fighting for your life and your weapon seems to be having no effect against your foe.
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HUMAN FEATS Special: A fighter may take this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
many good human beings when faced with a difficult moral decision.
Soul Tenacity
This feat represents an individual’s strong sense of his own humanity and determination to preserve it. He has an almost supernatural grasp of his own essential human nature, enabling him to resist threats to it.
The human soul is a thing of great power and unusual brilliance in the world of the spirit. Humans are much better at other races at holding on to their precious souls. The body of a human can cling to life, refusing to give up the proverbial ghost, long after it should have been driven into the next world by the punishments inflicted on the body. A human with this feat has extraordinarily strong bonds between body and soul. His spirit clings to his body and stubbornly refuses to let go, no matter how torn and tattered the body is.
Benefit: A character with this feat receives a +2 bonus to all saving throws against attacks and effects that would change his status from ‘human’ to something else. For example, he would receive this saving throw against a baleful polymorph, against the curse of lycanthropy inflicted by a lycanthrope’s bite attack when in animal form. The benefit also applies to attacks and effects that would change the substance of the character’s body from flesh into some other substance. For example, he would receive the benefit to saving throws against the stone to flesh spell or a medusa’s gaze attack. The benefit applies after death, to an extent; a character with this feat will never arise as an undead creature if slain by one.
Prerequisite: Human, Cha 13 Benefit: The character may cling to life (see Chapter 4, Tricks of the Humans) without having any strong emotional motive to do so. He is simply like that all the time and does not need any greater cause to live for to keep him tied to the world of the living.
This benefit only applies to attacks and effects that threaten the humanity of the individual and not to attacks or effects that would kill him, infect him with ordinary disease, disintegrate him or otherwise damage him.
Normal: Human characters can only cling to life when they have a cause outside themselves that is so powerful that it compels them to hang on.
Strength of Humanity
Soul Retention
Humans are proud of who they are. Humanity is a potent force in the world; the members of the race generally associate being human with positive social values, as expressed in such words as ‘humane’, implying compassion, gentleness and consideration. Some humans have a quite different pride in being human, seeing the race as more ‘pure’ than others, who they consider to be freakish and in some way below the humans. Either way, humanity is a quality which very few humans are willing to compromise or sacrifice. ‘If I did that, I would give up my precious humanity,’ is a common statement from
This feat builds on the ability of an especially strong human soul to hang on to the body and refuse to depart. The soul now refuses to lose even a small portion of itself. Attacks that would sap part of the essential life force of the character (energy drain attacks and effects) have less of a chance to be permanently damaging. Prerequisite: Soul Tenacity Benefit: The character with this feat may add a +3 resistance bonus to any saving throws made to remove a negative level.
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS
Tools of the Humans
that you must ready them again after every attack. For example, attacking with a sledgehammer involves bringing the huge head down on a foe, meaning that you have to raise it up again to make another attack. Readying a large agricultural weapon is a move-equivalent action. You may, however, ready a large agricultural weapon and move with it readied. A large agricultural weapon may not be used to make an attack of opportunity or block (see below) unless it is readied.
H
uman inventiveness is what has enabled the members of the race to expand into inhospitable regions and establish colonies many leagues away from home. Humans have little in the way of biological advantage to help them get by, so instead they must use their brains and their hands. This section deals with the products of human invention, some of which are adopted by other races but all of which have the unmistakable stamp of human ingenuity upon them. We look at the tools that are used to survive, as well as the devices that humans have created simply to amuse themselves.
It is possible to make masterwork agricultural weapons, though this does not add any enhancement bonus to an attack roll made with one, as the tool is simply better balanced for digging, reaping or whatever its intended purpose is. It does however allow the item to be enchanted
Blocking Attacks With Agricultural Weapons
The Cultivating Human
As so many agricultural weapons have thick wooden hafts and the humans who wield them are more used to having to defend themselves than they are to attacking, those who have proficiency in the use of an agricultural weapon of Medium size or greater may attempt to block an attack with it. You may make as many blocking attempts as you have available attacks of opportunity (so the Combat Reflexes feat is useful here) and each blocking attempt, whether successful or not, uses up one of your potential attacks of opportunity.
Of all the races, humans have given the most time to agriculture. This may well be because they are simply better at it than other races, having both the hardiness to survive in all seasons and the patient stamina to raise a crop. Elves are more likely to live as hunter-gatherers, while dwarves, gnomes and halflings combine herding with a small amount of pastoral farming. Dwarves in particular are too fond of meat to bother cultivating cereal crops. By contrast, rolling fields of wheat and barley with little family-owned farms set at intervals are characteristic of human civilization.
When an opponent makes an attack against you, before the attack roll is made you may attempt to strike his weapon with yours. See the rules for attacking a weapon in Core Rulebook I. If you are successful, your weapon blocks the attack. Although yours is the weapon that ‘struck’, your opponent rolls damage against your weapon, as what you have actually done is to move your weapon so that it takes the damage for you. If your opponent’s attack deals enough damage to your weapon to destroy it, he may make a second attack roll at a –2 circumstance penalty to attempt to carry on and strike you. If he has the Cleave feat, this penalty does not apply.
Agricultural Weapons
As so many humans at the poorer end of the social pyramid spend their working lives on farms, they become used to the heft and balance of farming tools. They often spar with them, learning to strike targets and deflect blows, as a poor farmer rarely has any decent weapons to his name and in times of trouble, a pitchfork is as good as a spear if you know how to use it. When the common people decide to rise against an enemy, they are traditionally armed with crude farming implements rather than proper weapons; the image of the mob brandishing torches, scythes and hoes is familiar to all.
If you fail to block with your weapon, your opponent may attack as normal. You may not add any Dexterity or Dodge bonuses to your armour class for this attack and you suffer a –2 circumstance penalty to your armour class, as your failed block attempt has left you open to attack.
The term ‘agricultural weapons’ is really a misnomer; these objects are farming implements. The Agricultural Weapons Proficiency feat represents the knowledge to use one of these implements as a weapon. The tools are not balanced for fighting nor shaped for use in combat, so certain penalties apply to agricultural weapons.
Riding Crop This is a short, stiff leather whip used to smack a horse’s flanks and tell it to speed up. It deals subdual damage, dealing no damage to any creature that has so much as a +1 armour bonus or at least a +3 natural armour bonus. Riding crops are not often used as weapons for serious combat. They are much more commonly used to belabour or humiliate a foe, leaving nasty red welts upon their flesh. A riding crop is often the weapon of a bully or a sadist,
† Using an agricultural weapon of any kind reduces your attack roll by –1. † Some agricultural weapons of Large size, namely the farmer’s scythe and the sledgehammer, though they inflict fearsome damage are so cumbersome to wield
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS Agricultural Weapons Size
Weapon
Cost
Damage
Critical
Range Increment
Weight
Type
S
Riding Crop
2 gp
1d4
x2
-
1 lb.
Slashing
S
Meat Cleaver
10 gp
1d6
19-20/x3
10 ft.
4 lb.
Slashing
S
Skillet
3 gp
1d6
x2
-
3 lb
Bludgeoning
M
Flail, Threshing
4 gp
1d6
x2
-
4 lb.
Bludgeoning
M
Fork
2 gp
1d8
x2
-
8 lb.
Piercing
M
Shovel
2 gp
1d6
x2
8 lb.
Bludgeoning
M
Shears
3 gp
1d8
19-20/x3
-
4 lb.
L
Axe, Woodsman’s
3 gp
1d10
x3
-
10 lb.
Slashing
L
Crook
1 gp
1d6
x2
-
4 lb.
Bludgeoning
L
Hoe
1 gp
1d6/1d6
x2
-
8 lb.
Slashing/Bludgeoning
L
Pitchfork
3 gp
1d8
x3
-
6 lb.
Piercing
L
Rake
1 gp
1d6/1d6
x2
-
10 lb.
Piercing/Bludgeoning
L
Scythe, Farmer’s
12 gp
2d6
19-20/x4
-
20 lb.
Slashing and Piercing
L
Sledge Hammer
8 gp
1d10
19-20/x3
-
25 lb.
Bludgeoning
who wants to inflict pain but cannot afford to do permanent damage to the person he is beating. Sometimes, however, an unfortunate victim can be thrashed to death if the beating is sufficiently severe.
stones, nor arrows or bolts. To attempt this, the player makes an attempt to block as described above. They must successfully hit the bullet with the skillet in order to deflect it.
Meat Cleaver This item is used to butcher livestock. It is a rectangularbladed chopping knife, kept honed to a keen edge, with a hole in the end of the blade from which it may be hung up. The weight of the blade assists the butcher to chop down through flesh and bone, making a clean cut. For an implement that is not intended for use as a weapon, meat cleavers see a surprising amount of action in the hands of rogues, assassins and thugs. Some even use them just for intimidation value, as they are a lot more frightening than a small blade, however sharp and pointy it might be. The meat cleaver looks like a cumbersome weapon, but in the hands of an expert (whether he is cooking or fighting with it) it can seem as light as a rapier. It can even be thrown, as many an apprentice chef has discovered.
Flail, Threshing Although the old legend that the nunchaku were developed from a rice flail is apocryphal, flails are used by human farmers as weapons. Threshing flails are jointed lengths of wood that are used to smash the grain, breaking off the inedible husk and leaving only the edible centre.
Fork A fork is similar in design to a shovel, but has a set of tines where the blade should be. In combat it is used as a thrusting weapon, unlike the shovel, which is wielded more like a club or hammer. Though it is not a large weapon, it must be used two-handed because of its design.
Shovel The flat blade of the shovel is ideal for bashing an opponent over the head. It is not sharp enough to inflict slashing damage but can bludgeon nearly as well as a hammer. Shovels are often used as murder weapons in disputes between country dwellers, as they can be used to dig the victim’s grave as well as beating them to death. There is nothing suspicious about carrying a shovel with you, whereas swords and clubs immediately attract attention.
Skillet This is a thick, black, shallow, cast-iron pan, used for frying. The skillet can be used as a two-handed weapon and thus used to inflict one and a half times the wielder’s Strength ability score bonus in additional damage, if he has a bonus. It may seem odd that anyone could acquire proficiency in the use of a skillet as a weapon but there are many would-be thieves buried in the rose gardens of human grandmothers whose ghosts would ruefully attest to the skillet’s murderous potential.
Shears A set of shears is like a large pair of scissors with wooden handles, used for cutting hedgerows and trimming plants. It is an impractical tool to use in combat, as one has to try to snap the shears shut on the opponent – a frightening but easily avoided attack. Attacking with shears confers a –3
A player who is proficient in the use of the skillet can use it to deflect some projectiles, as it is easily as broad as a buckler. The skillet can only be used to deflect bullets and
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS Hoe Hoes are lengths of stout wood with a curved blade on the end, used for digging shallow ruts in the soil for planting and then smoothing the soil over again. It is also used for weeding. When used as a weapon, experts slash with the blade end and thump with the blunt end. A hoe is a double weapon. You can fight with it as if you were fighting with two weapons, but if you do you incur all the normal attack penalties associated with fighting with two weapons as if you are using a onehanded weapon and a light weapon. A double weapon may not be used as such if held in one hand. The blade end inflicts slashing damage when used to strike, while the blunt end inflicts bludgeoning damage.
Rake Rakes are wooden poles with a long metal claw at the end, used to scrape up fallen leaves, collect cut grass or smooth gravel. A rake is a double weapon. You can fight with it as if you were fighting with two weapons, but if you do you incur all the normal attack penalties associated with fighting with two weapons as if you are using a one-handed weapon and a light weapon. A double weapon may not be used as such if held in one hand. The claw end inflicts piercing damage when used to strike, while the blunt end inflicts bludgeoning damage.
Pitchfork A pitchfork is a long pole on the end of which are two long metal prongs. It is used for lifting and loading large masses, such as bundles of hay. Pitchforks are among the most feared of agricultural weapons, as they look extremely dangerous. They are reach weapons and can be readied against a charge.
circumstance penalty to the attack roll instead of the usual –1 penalty. However, if the shears connect they can be deadly, slicing off hands, feet and even heads. Shears must always be used two-handed.
The double tines of a pitchfork may be used to pin an opponent to a surface. To do this, the wielder must successfully attack an opponent with the pitchfork (using it either as a melee or thrown wepaon) while the opponent is either prone and lying on the ground or standing upright next to a wall made of material soft enough for the pitchfork to penetrate. The pinning attack suffers a -4 circumstance penalty on the chance to hit, as it is hard to aim it properly. Success inflicts no damage but holds the opponent pinned. He may attempt to break the pin as if the pitchfork had a Strength ability score 4 lower than the wielder. If the wielder keeps hold of the pitchfork so as to prevent the target escaping, he may use his own Strength score +2 to contest attempts to break the pin. When large numbers of human farmers face off opponents, pitchfork wielders are expected to pin the more formidable opponents and hold them helpless while others move in to finish them off.
Axe (Woodsman’s) Unlike the usual variety of axe, which has a broad head and a fairly short shaft, the woodsman’s axe has a long shaft and a relatively small, heavy head. This concentrates all the power of the swing into the cutting edge. A woodsman’s axe is used primarily for cutting down trees and chopping off boughs. A smaller hatchet will usually be employed to split the logs for burning. Crook There are few more humble weapons than the shepherd’s crook, an item that resembles a long staff with a hook at the end, used for helping sheep and lambs out of trouble and guiding them when they trot off in the wrong direction. In the right hands, however, it can be a surprisingly effective weapon, especially against multiple attackers. Shepherds frequently have to fend off rustlers who come after their sheep and unless they know how to fight, they are likely to lose the animals they are trusted to defend. The hook on the end can be used to make a trip attack at a +2 circumstance bonus to your opposed Strength check.
Scythe (Farmer’s) The scythe whose statistics are given in Core Rulebook I is a smaller version of the type used in crop reaping, scaled
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS Boomerang
down for use as a melee weapon. A full-size scythe is much larger and is very difficult to wield, as it was never intended for use as a weapon at all. The blade is very low, as the scythe is intended to strike the lower parts of plants, close to the ground. This makes it a difficult weapon to raise. The most one can usually do is to sweep it in arcs. A combatant who is proficient with the scythe has also learned to fight with the scythe upside down, with the blade at the top, allowing the scythe to be spun around and strikes made at the head and torso regions. It must be readied afresh after every attack.
This is a throwing club carefully shaped from wood; it is thick, flat, smooth and angled in the centre. A properly thrown boomerang will spin in a circle and return to the caster, who may catch it and throw it again. Naturally, the best throwers strike their targets on the first attempt, so the return flight is not a concern! Boomerangs are so aerodynamic that they have a much greater effective range than other thrown weapons. Humans dwelling and hunting on large open plains develop them, as they are best suited to that kind of environment, needing a lot of space to fly through.
Sledgehammer This imposing tool is used to drive posts into the ground, smash up rocks and knock down walls. It is a mallet slightly less tall than the average farm labourer, with a massive iron head. A lot of effort is needed to heft and swing it. It is much more suitable for striking targets that do not move. When used in combat, the target is likely to have dodged out of the way by the time the blow descends upon him. Attacking with a sledgehammer is a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity. Sledgehammers can easily smash a foe to his knees or on to his back. Any attack that successfully deals damage may be treated as a free Trip attack in addition to inflicting damage.
Blowpipe This is a hollow length of bamboo or wood, through which an attacker may blow a dart. The dart is made from a single thorn in primitive cultures, or from a needle fitted with flights in more advanced ones. The dart itself inflicts only a single point of damage but is always coated with a toxin of some kind. A blowpipe has a maximum effective range of 20 feet. The darts must be dipped in venom immediately prior to use. The usual chance to poison oneself accidentally applies; see Core Rulebook II for details. If a player rolls a 1 on his attack roll with the blowpipe, he has accidentally inhaled the dart. His saving throws to resist the poison are made at a –2 circumstance penalty, as the poison is both ingested and absorbed through the soft tissues of the mouth.
Weapons Of The Human Cultures
Bolas The bola is a throwing weapon used in many different human cultures, used to hunt down wild animals and occasionally to bring down people. It consists of weights of various sizes connected together by lengths of cord. The weights are made of different materials, which are either used to fill pouches or tied directly on to the cords. A typical bola has three weights, though some have more.
The various different human cultures and tribal groups found across the world have evolved weapons that meet their particular cultural needs, each using the resources of the environment in individual and inventive ways. These diverse examples of human creativity are testament to the inexhaustible variety and adaptability of the race. Some cultures have been gifted with insights that other cultures have taken further, exploiting them as much as possible. For instance, the blowpipe that had its origin in jungle cultures has become a feared assassin’s weapon in the heart of the city. Each of these weapons counts as exotic for the purpose of weapon proficiency.
One throws a bola either by holding on to one of the weights, or holding the point where the cords come together and whirling it around. As it flies, the cords separate and the bola resembles a flattened, open net. On striking the target,
Cultural Weapons Size Weapon
Cost
Damage
Critical
Range Increment
Weight
Type
S
Blowpipe
5 gp
1
x2
5 ft
0 lb.
Piercing
S
Darts, Blowpipe (20)
1 gp
-
-
-
0 lb.
-
S
Boomerang
2 gp
1d6
19-20/x3
20 ft.
2 lb.
Bludgeoning
S
Catapult, Hand
12 gp
1d4
x2
10 ft.
2 lb.
Bludgeoning
S
Bullets, Catapult (10)
1 gp
-
-
-
1 lb.
-
S
Chakram
10 gp
1d6
x2
20 ft.
3 lb.
Slashing
S
Kukri
50 gp
1d6
18-20/x3
-
6 lb.
Slashing
M
Bolas
8 gp
Special
x2
10 ft.
8 lb.
Bludgeoning
M
Swordstick
30 gp
1d6
19-20/x3
-
4 lb.
Piercing
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS the weights and their cords wrap round the target’s legs, entangling and tripping it in most cases. The weights also inflict bludgeoning damage when they strike. Bolas will not work against an opponent of greater than Large size. To attack with bolas, make a ranged touch attack against the target. If the attack is successful, the target becomes entangled in the cords. The weights then make a second ‘attack’ against the target, who may not apply his Dexterity modifier to armour class. If they hit, they inflict 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage. The character must then make a Strength ability score check against a DC of 10 to avoid falling over, as if struck by a trip attack; he may derive suitable bonuses from being braced, as per the usual rules for the resolution of trip attacks. A character who is entangled suffers a –2 penalty to attack rolls and a –4 penalty to effective Dexterity. He can move at half his movement rate but cannot run or charge. Catapult (Hand) The human discovery of rubbery, elastic compounds made the hand catapult possible. Previous designs had used springy substances such as gut, but had been unable to create an array with sufficient propulsive force to make the weapon workable. Instead, the sling was used as a more reliable weapon. The human hand catapult – very much a prototype – uses a U-shaped bracket with a handle as the frame and has a length of elastic cord slung between the tines of the U. As it uses a cord to propel a projectile, it counts as a ranged weapon and can thus fire to a maximum range of 10 range increments. Hand catapults have the distinct advantage that they do not need to be swung around the head in order to be thrown, unlike a sling. They can be fired from a stationary position, attracting little attention. They are often used to break windows, smash lamps and stun unwary targets. They use lead bullets, similar to those fired from a sling, as ammunition.
Use of a kukri in the real world has frequently resulted in single-blow decapitations and the severing of limbs. In game terms, the kukri’s design allows the user to apply one and a half times his Strength ability score bonus (assuming he has a bonus) to the damage dealt by the blade, even if it is used one-handed, as it usually is. The kukri also has a significantly higher critical hit range than other weapons of the same size. It is costly, as it is harder to make than a long blade; if the bend is not properly fashioned, the whole weapon goes out of skew.
Swordstick Chakram
Those humans who live in cities have applied their ingenuity to the solution of two problems at once; how to carry a weapon unobtrusively while simultaneously looking dapper. The swordstick, very much a gentleman’s weapon, is the solution. It is a hollow stick or cane, topped with an ornate knob of silver; the knob is attached to a steel blade, which can be drawn with a single flourish. A typical fighting style is to use the swordstick in one’s dominant hand as a rapier and the hollow cane in the other hand as a club. Swordsticks are a favourite weapon of nobles and well-to-do human rogues. In some circles, they are even a status symbol.
A chakram is a sharpened steel ring used for throwing, sometimes called a ‘quoit’. It is either hurled like a discus or spun around the finger and released. It does not, unfortunately, have any inherent ‘boomerang’ property, but it can inflict fearsome slashing damage against distant targets.
Kukri The kukri is a short knife with a bend in the centre, making it look oddly like a boomerang, though its purpose is totally different. The kukri’s characteristic shape transmits a good deal more power to the blow, causing it to be one of the most deadly weapons ever created for hand to hand combat.
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS
The Exploring Human
The Travelling Human
When asked why he climbed up a mountain all the way to the peak, only a human could possibly answer ‘Because it’s there’. Only a human would travel into the depths of the jungle or the deepest pits of the earth just for the sake of doing it, rather than to pursue some reward or fulfil a quest. Something in the human spirit seems to resent the idea of a place where it cannot go. Humans are frustrated by their limitations, so much so that they are constantly finding ways to exceed them.
For all races, travelling is an occasional necessity. Even those who live out their lives in a forest or a mine must journey to other places from time to time. No race, however, has produced so many members who live to travel as have the humans. Whole tribes, as we have seen, live as nomads, making camp where the grazing is and moving on when the time comes. There is another kind of human who does not make even a temporary settlement, but chooses instead to make his means of transport into his home. These happy wanderers travel in groups or alone as they choose, travelling up and down the land by highway, waterway or river. They are the true ‘Kings of the Road’ and take pride in their ability to survive with very little sustenance.
Humans have come up with many tools to help them contend with the environment. Every tool a human invents increases the potential boundaries of human civilisation
Climbing Fixtures The vehicles typically used by travelling humans are detailed below. Travelling humans are not always popular; even other humans sometimes view human travellers with suspicion. It is felt that those who do not have the necessary self-discipline to live in a house and live an orderly life will somehow infect ‘good, law abiding folk’ with their unruly ways. The prejudices felt towards such people as gypsies are reflective of this. Some members of nonhuman races even scare their children into obedience by whispering that if they do not behave, the humans will come to town and take them away.
The traditional way to climb up a rock face or a wall is to hammer spikes (or pitons) in at regular intervals, so that these will hold the rope in place, providing a fixed anchor point should you lose your grip and fall. This is not always possible, as many rock faces do not offer suitable cracks and crannies into which a spike might be driven, while many walls are just too well built to have even a small crevice where a spike could sit. To compensate for this, human climbers have come up with a small device that incorporates cog-like toothed wheels and a screw. It can be made to lock into place in a shallow depression or even a joint of masonry, making walls much easier to climb and removing the need for spikes all the way up. It is also much quieter to operate than banging a spike into a wall, an activity that is bound to alert guards. The use of these devices allows you to fix handholds and footholds into a wall that ordinarily would not take them; see the rules for the Climb skill in Core Rulebook I.
Live-in vehicles are an excellent way to adventure. Instead of having to worry about camp fires and building shelters, you can get your head down inside a covered space, with a roof to keep the rain off. Monsters are less likely to attack a structure than they are to go for a person with nothing more than a cloak over him. If you are overwhelmed, you have an escape route ready and you do not have to worry about breaking up the party as you all take to your horses; everyone can flee in the same vehicle.
Breathing Tube To compensate for the human lack of gills, they have invented a curved breathing tube or ‘snorkel’, made from tarred leather and metal pipe. This fits snugly into the mouth and allows the user to breathe underwater, so long as he stays just below the surface.
Caravan A caravan is, in its simplest description, a cosy little wooden house on four wheels. They are traditionally ‘bow-topped’, meaning that the roof is arched. There is room for up to four Medium-sized creatures to sleep in the back and two Medium-sized creatures to sit up front, driving the horse. Caravans are made from wood and canvas and need only a single horse to draw them. Most caravans have an iron pot-belly stove inside and a chimney in the roof, allowing the occupants to stay warm in cold weather and do their cooking inside. The caravan comes with one spare wheel.
Fume Mask Tired of encountering seething swamps and sulphurous lava flows in their explorations and seeing their retainers collapsing from the noxious fumes, human ingenuity came up with a helmet-like contraption that fits over the head. The wearer can breathe air through a filter and see through two glass-filled apertures. The apparatus is bulky and uncomfortable to wear, restricting vision to the space directly in front and applying a –4 circumstance penalty to all Spot and Search skill checks. Spells with verbal components suffer an additional 20% arcane spell failure chance unless they are prepared with the Silent Spell feat, as the mask muffles the wearer’s voice. While it is worn, the wearer is immune to gaseous effects such as stinking cloud, cloudkill, poisonous gas and so forth.
Travellers in caravans usually stay on the move constantly, stopping for long enough to drum up a little trade. They often set up temporary roadside stalls proffering whatever trades they are able to carry out. At the least, this will include selling food and drink to travellers, a welcome service on long journeys where there are no taverns near, though the prices tend to be a little high. They will also
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS customarily offer a repair service for metalwork, with a small portable forge being used for this. Less reputable travelling families – and there are, unfortunately, a few of these - will also offer stolen goods (or offer to steal goods for you) or even provide a prostitution service. The worst of all will entice travellers in with offers of hospitality, a warm fire, liquor and female companionship, then cosh them and leave them unconscious or dead by the wayside, missing any valuables they owned. It hardly needs saying that a family in a caravan can be packed up and away in minutes, so there is absolutely no chance of a refund if you are a dissatisfied customer, or of vengeance if you are robbed.
A barge does not have a sail, unlike other forms of riverboat. A horse or similar beast of burden pulls it along, wearing a cushioned collar to which a rope is attached. One member of the barge’s crew has to walk along the riverbank and drive the horse along, while others pole the barge away from the shore if it should chance to run aground. Should the barge enter a tunnel without a bridle path, it needs to be pushed through with poles against the walls. Barges are extremely efficient at transporting heavy loads at low cost but are very slow. They can only move as fast as a solitary horse can pull them. Perhaps because of this, barge-dwelling families do not tend to be viewed with the same degree of suspicion as those who live in caravans.
Barge Covered Wagon
Barges are used for hauling goods, such as coal or timber. Where a country has a large number of rivers or has an inland waterway system, barges are likely to be a common sight. They are long, narrow vessels that sit low in the water. Barges can be used to carry much heavier loads than carts, as they float on the water and take less effort to pull. On the inside, they are very much like caravans, except that only a part of the barge is given over to living space; the rest is used for cargo.
Covered wagons are more lightweight versions of caravans; as the name suggests, they consist of little more than a conventional wagon with several broad hoops set down the length, over which sheets of oil-treated canvas are fastened. Covered wagons are usually the vehicle used to take a colonist family to their ultimate destination, so they tend to be packed with useful equipment rather than being fitted out as a living space. This means that when the wagon stops to make camp every night, the occupants will usually move all their chairs, cooking utensils, tents, tools and such like out of the wagon and set up camp, with only the most vulnerable members of the family unit sleeping inside the wagon itself.
The Nurturing Human
Humans have created many devices and made many innovations to ease the lot of the suffering. They are quirky and idiosyncratic in their approach to health, often following faddish pursuits or sticking resolutely to ‘what was good enough for granddad’ in the way of diet, but when their compassion is aroused they are exceptionally attentive and caring.
Limb Plaster This is a concoction made from plaster and bandages, which is used to hold a healing limb, steady. When a limb is badly mauled, an elf might apply a wooden splint, while a dwarf would either ignore it or strap it into a harness; humans used their ingenuity and craftsmanship came up with this stuff. It sets hard around the limb, preventing it from moving and protecting it from further injury, thus allowing the limb to heal. In game terms, limb plaster may be applied whenever a limb is broken or badly mauled; it is for the Games Master to decide whether limb plaster can help a given case or not. A successful Heal check at DC 15 is needed to apply it properly. Failure still applies the plaster, but confers no benefit. Properly applied limb plaster allows the player to recover half of his level in hit points per day
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS as natural healing, whether he is engaged in restful activity or not. He may recover a maximum number of hit points equal to 25% of his total hit points in this way. While the limb is in plaster, it may not be used. Creatures with a leg in plaster are reduced to half of their normal movement and may not run, while creatures with an arm in plaster may not use that arm to fight or hold a shield, nor may they cast spells with somatic components.
class involves moving the feet to dodge out of the way, a wheelchair user may only apply half his overall Dexterity bonus (if he has one) to armour class. Some wheelchairs are fitted with hidden weapons. It is possible to rig the arms of a wheelchair so that they will hold a single crossbow bolt each. The user may aim and fire these as if he were using a heavy crossbow. Other more inventive souls have attempted to add flamethrowing contraptions to wheelchairs, but these have so far proved too hazardous.
Family Remedy Many human families, particularly those who live in rural areas, have a family remedy whose recipe has been passed down from generation to generation. It usually involves several ‘secret ingredients’ and tastes absolutely foul. Family remedies are, however, efficacious both as a preventative and as a cure. A bottle contains three doses; a single dose is enough to give the imbiber a +2 resistance bonus to all saving throws versus disease for the next three days. When used as a cure, a dose of the family remedy gives the sufferer a +1 resistance bonus to his next Fortitude saving throw made in an attempt to throw off the disease. This, of course, assumes that the remedy is actually efficacious and does the imbiber some good. 10% of all family remedies only succeed in making the imbiber nauseous for 10 rounds and have no effect on disease whatsoever.
The Inhumane Human
Some human inventions are contradictory to the very connotations of the word ‘humane’. Other races are astounded by the ability of the short-lived humans to cause so much grief and destruction in such a narrow span of time. Other races practice torture and inflict pain but humans seem to have mastered it, even to the extent of creating specialist tools for the purpose. It is sometimes speculated that the brevity of human life makes them contemptuous of life itself; that they are the ultimate dogsin-the-manger, caring nothing about the future of other creatures or of the environment, as they have no future of their own to look forward to.
Barbed Wire
Family remedy requires a successful Heal or Alchemy skill check at a DC of 10 to make; you do not need the Brew Potion feat but a family member must have entrusted you with the recipe. Family remedies are jealously guarded by the older generation, who like to keep their secrets to themselves.
Ironically, this invention of the human race has been more despised than any of its engines of war. It is simply a length of metal wires twisted together, with shorter pieces of wire wrapped around the skein at regular intervals. This second piece is snipped to create a sharp point, leaving jutting wire spikes on which creatures can entangle themselves. Barbed wire is considered by elves to be especially disgusting, while the Fey are said to abandon any area where it is used. It is expensive to make, as large amounts of wire cannot easily be produced but it is a very effective deterrent. Perhaps fortunately, its use is not yet widespread.
Wheelchair Not all adventurers stride gamely around on two legs. Some do not have the use of their legs at all, whether this is from temporary incapacitation (such as failing to notice that a floor was covered in caltrops) or permanent damage such as spinal injury. It is true that magical healing can cure a great many ailments, but the outlying human settlements do not always have access to the kind of restorative magic that can regrow a severed limb or restore a mutilated one. Some humans are also born without the use of their legs, or with deformities that make their legs small and useless for walking. The human way to ensure that such people have a degree of mobility is to build a wheelchair, a wooden seat with wagon-like wheels affixed to the side and smaller wheels at the front. The user propels the chair by shoving the wheels with his arms. Other people can also push the chair from behind. A wheelchair user has a movement rate of 30 feet per round and can fight, cast spells and take any other action requiring the use of arms. They must however sheathe any weapon they are using and stow any shields carried before they can move, as open hands are needed to push the wheels. As part of the Dexterity bonus to armour
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Climbing over barbed wire is difficult and dangerous. A Dexterity ability check at DC 15 must be made in order to avoid entanglement. Any creature that comes into forcible contact with barbed wire must make a Reflex saving throw at DC 15 or become entangled. Becoming tangled up in barbed wire causes an immediate ‘attack’ from the barbs, which attack at +5 melee and inflict 1d4 points of damage. The target is treated as pinned for the purposes of this attack. While tangled, the victim suffers a –2 penalty to attack rolls, a –4 penalty to effective Dexterity and cannot move. Any attempt to move or to free himself provokes an immediate ‘attack’ from the barbs. The character may extricate himself with a successful Dexterity ability check at DC 20. He may tear himself free with a successful Strength check against DC 20 but in doing so suffers an immediate attack from the bars. His own Strength ability score modifier is applied to the barbs’ attack and damage rolls.
TOOLS OF THE HUMANS Man-Trap This device shows the inventiveness and the cruelty of humans. It is a trap that when sprung slams toothed iron jaws shut on the leg of the unwary victim. A man-trap is made from two serrated lengths of metal, each one in the form of a semicircle, hinged and joined with a powerful spring. When opened, a pressure plate locks into place. The pressure of the victim’s foot on the plate releases the spring and the trap snaps shut. Man-traps are used to hobble large creatures. The wounds they cause often become infected and the animal will sometimes gnaw off its own leg in order to escape. As a man-trap is nearly flat, it can easily be concealed with a layer of bracken, leaves or sand. They are commonly secreted around prisons or hide-outs.
swiftly. If the knot has been tied wrongly or not fastened properly around the victim’s neck, he suffers a slow and agonizing death by choking instead. In the unhappy event that a player is condemned to die by the gallows (that will teach you to invest more skill points in Pick Pocket!) the following procedure is used. First, the last victim is released and the knot retied. In order to tie the knotted noose properly, a successful Use Rope skill check is needed. The DC is 15. The criminal is then marched up the steps to the beat of a slow drum. The executioner is usually hooded and according to tradition the victim pays him if he has money to do so. (Payment, in the human world so bound up with trade and barter, is believed to free the executioner from the stigma of having killed you. It becomes a matter of hire and salary, not of murder.) The rope is then fastened around the victim’s neck, necessitating a second Use Rope skill check, this time with a DC of 10. When the drum stops beating, the lever is pulled and the victim drops. If, and only if, all the Use Rope checks have been successful, the victim makes a Constitution saving throw at DC 25. Failure means that his neck breaks and he dies instantly. Those killed on the gallows are usually allowed to hang for a while to make sure they are dead, then cut down and thrown into a pit of lime.
A creature stepping on a man-trap must make a Reflex saving throw against DC 15 to pull its leg back out of the way and avoid the snapping jaws. Failure causes the victim to suffer 2d6 points of crushing damage. Until this damage is healed, he is lame and moves at half his movement rate. While the trap remains fastened on his leg, he is reduced to one-quarter of his normal movement rate. Opening a man-trap, whether to reset it or remove it, requires a Strength check at DC 15. To remove the trap, the victim must have both hands free and be able to pull with them. Creatures that do not have hands or similar appendages cannot remove the trap themselves and must have help to get it off.
The lever does not always work. Sometimes damp weather or inadequate maintenance can cause the timbers to swell or the mechanism to seize up, so that the lever is pulled but the trapdoor fails to open. Under these circumstances, there is nothing to do but check the mechanism, give it a kick, maybe call a carpenter to sand down the trapdoor’s edge and try again. Tradition has it that if the trapdoor fails to open three times in a row, the prisoner’s death sentence is annulled, though he remains a prisoner. Such things are interpreted as a sign from the Gods that the prisoner’s time to die is not yet.
Gallows Many an adventurer has cast an apprehensive eye on that most human contribution to the execution industry, the gallows. Many other races, the elves in particular, find the concept of a machine whose sole function is to kill a helpless being morally abhorrent. Much better, they argue, to give the victim a quick and clean death by turning him into a forest of arrows. As for the dwarves, they prefer a swift blow with the hammer or a single hard chop with the axe. Defenders of the gallows argue that it is supposed to be quick and clean, designed to kill with one pull of a lever. Unfortunately, the gallows rarely works as well as it was intended to.
If the rope has been sabotaged or the knot tied wrongly, the victim is not in danger of a broken neck when he reaches the end of his drop. Instead, he begins to choke. Use the drowning rule (see Core Rulebook II) to handle this. The character cannot breathe from the moment he finishes his drop. Many different and dramatic methods have been used to rescue comrades from the gallows. These vary from sawing the rope through beforehand (leading to the rope breaking, the intended victim landing with a bump and then trying to run away with a hood over his head) to sabotage of the trapdoor mechanism to firing arrows through the rope. This last method is somewhat implausible, but then again this is fantasy. A player attempting to sever the rope with a weapon must inflict 2 points of damage upon it. Gallows rope has a damage resistance of 30 against bludgeoning attacks and a damage resistance of 10 versus piercing attacks.
A full-sized gallows is a wooden platform on stilts, in whose centre is a wooden trapdoor. Above is a wooden beam from which the noose hangs. A lever operated by the executioner opens the trapdoor, sending the victim down to die. More simple versions of the gallows consist of a single standing pole with a crossbeam, securely anchored at the base. The length of the drop is essential, as the jerk at the end of the drop is what kills the victim. The characteristic hangman’s noose is actually a merciful thing. Contrary to popular belief, the gallows does not kill by choking. The large knot in the rope breaks the neck of the victim as he reaches the end of the drop, killing him
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TOOLS OF THE HUMANS ring of protection+2 and an amulet of natural armour +3 would have their damage reduced by 5 points. If the total damage is reduced to 0 or less, the player need not make the Fortitude saving throw to survive the coup de grace; however, if even a single point of damage gets through, they must make their save.
Poison Ring This grim little device is a favourite of human crime families. It is even said that the poison ring is one of the human inventions for which the Drow most admire them; it combines elegance, efficiency and subtlety in a pleasing blend. A poison ring is not, despite the name, a magical item. It is a large ring, usually made of silver, with a chunky look to it, as if the jeweller had gone out of their way to emphasise the importance of the wearer by piling as much silver into the design as possible. The ring holds a secret. A hidden catch opens it up, revealing a tiny hollow space inside. This secret compartment, though small, is large enough to hold one dose of ingestive poison, or a potion reduced to salts (see Chapter 4, Tricks of the Humans.) Only dry poisons may be used with a poison ring, so any poison listed as ‘dust’ or ‘powder’ is acceptable, whereas a poison listed as an ‘oil’ is not. Filling a poison ring with a poisonous substance counts as ‘using poison’, giving the user a 5% chance to poison himself accidentally unless he has the Use Poison ability. Opening a poison ring and delivering the contents similarly counts as ‘using’ the poison. The skill check made to deliver the contents into a receptacle is usually a Sleight of Hand check made at a DC of 12.
Guillotine The guillotine is a much more elaborate method of execution than the gallows. It is also much more reliable and gets the job done quicker. A guillotine is a tall rectangular arch of wood that serves as the housing for a slanted, weighted blade. There is a pillory-like arrangement at the base where the condemned man places his head; the top portion locks over the bottom to prevent flinching or an attempt to escape. The blade is hoisted up to the top of the guillotine with a rope and on a signal it is dropped. The blade falls down, neatly severing the victim’s head. Guillotines are expensive to construct and are thus rarer than the gallows. They are usually set up in a town square on a platform, so that plenty of people can see the proceedings.
The usual method of using a poison ring, as practiced by many human crime families (the victims do not live to warn others of the trick) is to offer your guest a drink of wine. If they know anything about who they are dining with, they will be uneasy about this, as wine is so often poisoned. So, to set them at their ease, you fill both your goblets from the same jug and drink; you can even swap goblets if they are worried about any pellet of poison being somehow secreted in theirs. Later, you offer to refill their goblet for them from the jug that they now know to be safe. While you do this, you tip in the poison from the ring.
If a player should happen to be sentenced to death by the guillotine, the blade’s drop is counted as a coup de grace. It inflicts 2d6+3 points of slashing damage. This damage is reduced by one point for every point of natural armour bonus or deflection bonus to armour class that the target has. (Armour bonus also counts if the player is able to wear it; for example, a wizard who had cast mage armour upon himself before facing the guillotine would be allowed to reduce the damage by 4 points.) Therefore, damage from a guillotine blade falling on the neck of a person wearing a
A typical poison ring costs 20 gold pieces. A successful Spot check at DC 20 is needed to notice the secret mechanism that opens the compartment. Masterwork poison rings are even harder to detect, with a Spot check at DC 25 needed to espy the secret poison stash. Such rings also allow a +2 circumstance bonus to the wielder’s Sleight-of-Hand skill check, as the works are expertly made and can be opened with a discreet flick of a fingernail.
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Human Cultures
differences between races seem less important and the progressive, revolutionary human spirit gradually wears down prejudices. Humans live so much in the moment that they have little regard for age-old traditions, including traditions of hate.
T
hough to an outside observer there would seem to be many different sub-races in the human species, what with the variety in skin colour, the shape of the eyes, hair texture and facial features, this is in fact not the case. There is only one human race, with more variation between different members of the same ethnic group than there is between members of diverse ethnic groups. A human is a human, whether he is six foot five inches tall and the colour of coffee, or five foot four inches tall and the colour of a freshly sliced potato.
Notwithstanding this absence of racial prejudice, there is certainly a great deal of prejudice among some humans concerning an individual’s cultural background. The more settled a human is into what he considers to be his ‘place’, the firmer his opinion of humans from other places will be. Humans from the rural regions look with contempt upon the city dwellers, considering them ignorant, superficial people with no grasp of real values, while the folk of the city view their country cousins with amusement or disdain, dismissing them as bumpkins. Jungle dwellers are dismissive of plainsmen, nomads view settled peoples as their rightful prey and northerners consider southerners to be soft. Meanwhile, plainsmen cannot understand why jungle dwellers would want to live where they do, settled people view nomads as ravaging wolves and not human beings at all and southerners see northerners as coarse brutes. Whichever culture a human belongs to, he is bound to encounter negative reactions from other humans. This is a sorry situation, as these reactions are based on years of built-up assumptions and projections, seeing only the culture instead of the individual. Firm friendships can (and often do) grow up between humans from very different cultural backgrounds but there is often a great deal of mistrust and superstition to be overcome.
Despite the persistent myths of the everyday world, there are no racial bonuses or penalties for the different ethnic groups of humanity. This group is not strong, unintelligent and lazy and that one is not polite, ingenious and inscrutable. Players may therefore select whatever racial phenotypes they wish for a human character, as these make no difference at all to their abilities. The physical appearance of a human character may have something to do with their family’s ultimate geographic origin, but humans are so much given to travel and expansion over the whole world that this is barely relevant to who they are.
Racism In The Fantasy Game Environment
It is a point in favour of humans that they will set aside cultural prejudice in an instant if something serious demands their attention. Humans in the marketplace may sneer at each other, each insulting the other’s country of birth and degree of evolution, but if they came to blows they would not do more than hurt each other and were they to be attacked they would stand side by side. There are issues that will divide humans and even drive them to slaughter each other, but cultural prejudice is not one of them. Some humans even turn cultural prejudice into a form of friendly insult; seemingly caustic shouts of ‘southern cider-drinking pansy’ and ‘northern lager-drinking bonehead’ can be nothing more than the sound of old friends greeting one another in the street.
The issue of racism between different members of the human species is not often explored in fantasy. In the worlds typically explored with the d20 system, it barely seems to exist. One can see straight away why this should be. Racism is based on the outdated concept that some types of human are higher than others, or more truly human. When the whole of humanity is set against the background of humanoid species such as elves, dwarves and gnomes, it becomes immediately apparent that they are indeed one species. It is this recognition of themselves as a multiethnic, multicultural race that has made humanity into ‘everybody’s second-best friends’, as it is said. Members of a race that can accept such broad diversity amongst its own members are uniquely qualified to act as go-betweens, mediators and arbitrators for members of other races. Humanity is based on tolerance and as a consequence, humans are extremely good at fostering tolerance between other individuals. This is the reason for the ethnically diverse population in human areas. Human beings are the catalyst for racial integration; where they live, age-old
Choosing a Culture
Humans may choose a culture for their characters. In practice, this works just like choosing a race. You are still human and benefit from the usual racial abilities, but you may also add those of your culture. Your character may only have one culture. Cultural bonuses
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Crime Family
and penalties are here described as ‘racial’ bonuses and penalties, as they function in exactly the same way.
Culture is not always about whole tribes and peoples and the way they live in the world. The culture of a particularly well-established family can have just as marked an effect upon the personality, traits and abilities of a person. Culture is what is passed on from one generation to the next, the means whereby one’s ideals and customs are given continuity; some human families indoctrinate their children in a way of life that is as distinctive as it is antisocial. These are the crime families, the aristocracy of the underworld, who consider the law by which ordinary people live to be an inconvenience that they learn to circumvent.
Your culture is the sum total of your family background, the environment in which you grew up, the survival traits that were passed on to you, what you were taught to believe about the world and the moral values you had instilled in you by your mentors. Many humans in the fantasy game environment cannot even be said to have a culture. They are ‘citizens of the world’ and as such are too cosmopolitan to belong to a specific culture. They will have grown up around members of different races and been exposed to all sorts of cultural variance. By contrast, the kind of human who has a culture as presented here will usually belong to a long-standing tribal or familial line and will not have had much experience of anything outside his own culture. The humans listed here mostly belong to ‘pockets’ of human civilisation that have not followed the usual route of integration and have maintained a distinct way of life. This is not to say that these cultures are resistant to mixing with others, only that in many cases they are too isolated or well-established to do so.
Crime families are found in many major cities. They are usually deeply enmeshed in the city’s underworld, with roots so deep that it is remarkably difficult for any representative of the law to dig them out. As with many more conventional families, the older generation passes on its wisdom to the younger, except that in this instance that wisdom consists of practical advice in living a life of crime, introductions to the people who can do you favours and schooling in the management of the lesser criminals and thugs who will eventually work for you. A crime family can be as small as a band of pickpockets grubbing out their existence in a city slum, or as well established as a full criminal empire, with judges and
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HUMAN CULTURES city officials kept sweet with regular bribes and whole subsidiary guilds paying tribute.
treat him like a monster or a hooligan, he will treat you with equal contempt; if you treat him like a gentleman and a professional, or (better still) as an influential and valuable member of the local community, he is more likely to respect you in return.
A crime family works on the well-established principle that blood is thicker than water. Rogues who band together in a guild are less able to trust one another than family members who have known each other all their lives. If you are member of a crime family, you can draw upon not only the experience but the reputation of those who have gone before you. Family loyalty is instinctively recognised on the streets; everyone understands that if they mess with you, they are messing with your whole brood.
Many communities do, in fact, enjoy good relations with crime families, who in return do not hunt where they eat. Those who suffer most at the hands of crime families are not the local people but the richer members of society and the merchant classes. Crime families are very much in favour of ‘looking after your own’, which means placing the interests of your neighbours and your family above those of the city’s official government or its richer citizens. A tightly run crime family can make a district a much safer place to live, since the only crime that goes on is carefully controlled and anyone who committed a criminal act that offended against the prevailing crime family’s values could expect a far worse punishment at the hands of the family than the city guards would inflict. In a chaotic slum, someone could rob an old woman and get away with it; in a region controlled by a crime family, where everyone is likely to know everyone else, the culprit would have been tracked down, his kneecaps smashed and the goods returned without the city watch ever becoming involved.
Those born into crime families do not have a great deal of freedom in their choice of lifestyle. When you have been raised to be a criminal and taught that the rest of the world (barring a few favoured individuals) is your hunting ground, then there is not much option left to you than to follow in the last generation’s footsteps. Those who try to follow a different path are eventually allowed to do so, though they risk being disowned if they do not show the proper respect, or neglect to do favours for their own flesh and blood when called upon to do so. To betray your family is the worst crime possible. If you do this, then you will be disposed of without mercy or remorse, even though you are kin.
A member of a crime family never questions his right to do what he does. He is simply born into a privileged position, like any other prince; he collects taxes and provides protection, like any other prince. He must sometimes be ruthless in the defence of his interests, but the same could be said of any ruler who had to defend his borders or crush a rebellion.
Personality: Members of crime families are usually even-tempered on the surface, sometimes chillingly so. They are formal and polite in matters of business and warm and affectionate with trusted friends and close family. They can fly into frightening rages when they are provoked or when they allow themselves to do so; this will usually be in private, when it is safer to let loose. If a member of a crime family ever loses his temper with you and is making no effort to restrain himself, it usually means that he does not expect you to survive the encounter. It is quite typical of crime family members to intimidate a person, even strike them, without the composed expression ever vanishing from their face; this is understood as a warning that you had better take seriously. When they start to rant and rave, it means that they do not care about keeping up appearances, which spells very bad news for you.
Appearance: A member of a crime family is never scruffy. To appear in public without being well turned out is an insult to your family, whose reputation is in your hands. They wear the best clothes they can afford and often display excellent taste in clothing, with the menfolk wearing tailored tunics and the women silks and ermine. Unlike the street-raised (see below) they do not go overboard with their jewellery, preferring discreet understatement and elegance. Relations: The relations between one member of a crime family and other races and tribes will depend upon the attitude of the whole family. There is, however, one overarching ethos; it is a sad fact that a good many of the crime families have ‘humans first’ as their unofficial motto. The argument is that human beings, being everyone’s second-best friends, are too often secondclass citizens as a result. Dwarves, elves and gnomes do not have large numbers of humans in their lands, so why is it that human civilization is always flooded with
A member of a crime family is concerned about respect more than anything else. He does not care whether you hate him or love him, so long as you show respect to him and his own. Respect does not mean bowing and scraping, or showering him and his family with empty flatteries. It means recognising the influence that he has and saluting it as befits your station. It is very annoying for a member of a crime family to be thought of as a common thug; he is anything but. If you
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HUMAN CULTURES members of other races? A human craftsman is every bit as good as a dwarven one (so the argument goes) and yet it is always the dwarves who get the building contracts, just as it is always the long-lived elves who hold the real reins of power while the humans struggle to get themselves a foothold.
Within the family, some of the members have titles that they expect each other to use, such as ‘Lieutenant’ or ‘Captain’. These reflect the authority held by the member within the family. Rival crime families within the same area will also use these titles. The failure to do so is taken as a deliberate insult, as is the failure to use the title if you have been introduced to someone by that title. It is for the member of the crime family to say whether informality is appropriate in any given situation. So, if you are introduced to Lieutenant Samuel Garstang of the worthy Garstang family resident in Cisternum, remember to refer to him as Lieutenant next time you meet him. If he tells you ‘call me Sam’, you can relax.
Humans are therefore the most favoured of races as far as the crime families are concerned. It is customary to refer to a member of another race by specifying his race in the same breath, as if it were not obvious: ‘Go and buy yourself some new leathers from that Timshel the Elf.’ Alignment: Members of crime families are, more often than not, evil, though they are almost always lawful with it. Their objectives are fundamentally selfish and they do not baulk at killing or torture to achieve their ends. Occasionally, a member will be revolted by the destiny that lies before him and will try to run from it. Such exceptions to the rule are the most likely people to become adventurers.
Adventurers: There are two ways in which a member of a crime family can be driven to go adventuring. The majority are those who have turned their training and background to other uses, rejecting the stifling confines of the family and trying to make a life of their own. Some of these are those rare individuals of non-evil alignment, who have been trained to break the law and exploit others but who would rather live a less corrupt life, while others are just as evil as their kinsmen but prefer a solitary life of crime to that spent as a cog in the family machine. In either case, the renegade will not be popular with the family he has abandoned, who will spare no expense or effort to have him tracked down and punished.
Lands: Crime families are a symptom of human city life. They do not exist in any other environment than this. Individual members of crime families may own property, such as a second home in the country, outside the city’s environs but the family itself does not exercise any influence in such places.
The other way, which does not arouse the ire of the family, is for the crime family to hire a team of adventurers to accomplish an objective, sending one of their own (the player) along to make sure that the job is done properly. If there is a sufficiently warm relationship between the adventurers and the crime family, the player may even be put into their company to gain experience of the world and ‘build character’.
Religion: Most crime families are deeply religious, though they do not honour the Gods of thievery and deception as one might expect. They honour deities whose province is the home, the family and mutual assistance. Some families honour their departed ancestors as if they were saints, keeping small chapels to their memory in the family home, constantly aglow with candles.
Typical Class: Members of crime families naturally drift into the rogue class, with many being assassins. Assassination is a way of life for a crime family, with hits against rival families being necessary and contract killings being a means of regular income. Those members of the family who are too hefty to make good rogues are brought up as fighters, the ‘muscle’ of the family organization.
Language: Crime families speak the common tongue and the thieves’ cant, the language of the underworld. This is a private language to which only the members of crime families and their henchmen have access. It is so constructed that the position of a hand or the angle of one’s head can change the meaning of a sentence spoken in the Common tongue so that it means something completely different. For example, if you were to say ‘Give Scaplio Mountaintorrent my best regards when you see him,’ while tapping the region of your heart and smiling, it would mean ‘Make sure he is killed and make sure he knows why.’
Cultural Features Members of crime families are taught to be dominant and impress other people with their body language, style of dress and choice of words. They lose out where education is concerned, as they do not often operate outside their own city or town and thus have a narrower range of experiences to draw
Names: The names given to members of crime families are the ordinary names given to humans, with the exception that names from other races are never used.
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HUMAN CULTURES upon. Accordingly, they have +1 Charisma and –1 Intelligence.
life. Nomad encampments are usually set up at oases in the desert and consist of multiple tents; a nomad is proud of his tent and will go to great lengths to decorate and embellish it.
A crime family schools its members in the criminal disciplines assiduously; once a child is old enough to hold a fork, he is old enough to be given his first lockpicks. Different crime families specialise in different techniques. Those who run operations based on physical aggression and intimidation, such as protection rackets or blackmail jobs and oversee the lower ranks of criminals are not likely to have been trained in the arts of theft, while the sneak-thief families are likely to have grown up picking pockets. A member of a crime family may choose any two of the following skills and benefit from a +2 racial bonus to checks made: Disable Device, Escape Artist, Forgery, Intimidate, Move Silently, Open Lock, Sleight of Hand. These skills must be allocated at character creation and cannot be changed later. Irrespective of the class taken by the character, the aforementioned skills are always considered ‘class skills’, reflecting the character’s thorough grounding in the criminal arts.
As the desert is so harsh, the nomads live their lives by a system of rigid law. This is best expressed in such customs as that of hospitality. As a stranger, you may ask the hospitality of a desert nomad and he is obliged to give it to you, even if you are enemies. This is because the desert is inhospitable to all equally and there is a strange fraternity among all those who travel across it. Hospitality is confirmed by your acceptance of the nomad’s salt. To eat a man’s salt is to seal the promise that while you are his guest, he will not harm you and you will not harm him. Other equally important laws exist, such as the rule against poisoning a waterhole or sabotaging water skins. He who breaks such laws is deemed to be ‘blood to be wasted’ and may be killed without repercussions. Personality: Desert nomads are proud, noble people and very conscious of this. Even the most humbly born of them takes pains to behave as befits a gentleman. They are famous for their courtesy and generosity, freely sharing the essentials of life with others who have none. To a desert nomad, all living creatures are ultimately sons or daughters of the same deity. To refuse charity or aid to one who is in genuine need and has done you no harm is to insult one’s own noble spirit.
Membership of a crime family restricts the character’s conduct. While he is an active member of the family, he must abide by the decisions of his superior (usually a parent, uncle or aunt) and must not undertake any major criminal operation without consent. He may not leave the city without permission and must report to his superiors at least once every two days. If he brings dishonour upon the family or allows it to be disrespected – or worse, allows the forces of law and order to interfere with the family’s operations – he will be severely punished, which usually means death. If the player ever breaks away from the family, they will hunt him until his dying day.
Though they are usually composed and measured in their speech, remaining cool even when provoked, they do have a limit to their tolerance and can sometimes quicken into anger; when angry, they do not calm down readily and can cause grievous mayhem before they settle back down again. They will not tolerate insult to themselves, their family or those under their protection, demanding that such dishonour be answered for at the point of a sword.
Nomad, Desert
One would think that a man would have to be insane to live in the desert by choice. Who could live in an immense dereliction of sand and relentless heat, with the necessities of life few and far between? As usual, humans are surprising; a whole culture of desert nomads exists, content to call the sandy wastes their home and uniquely adapted to survival in this merciless environment.
Appearance: Nomads of the desert like to dress in silken garments. They take pride in their grooming, many of them sporting trimmed beards and long, gleaming hair treated with scented oil. White and similar pale colours are preferred for robes, as they keep off the heat more efficiently. Head coverings are essential, as the blazing desert sun can incapacitate a man with heatstroke if he is not covered up. Turbans are sometimes worn. Women dress in multiple layers of brightly coloured silk and usually have jewelled piercings in the nose, ears, navel or lip.
Desert nomads are migratory, moving from place to place to trade and to lay in stores of food. They take their herds with them; these are usually camels, sheep or goats. They can cover many miles in a day, mounted on the riding beasts who are so essential to their way of
For weaponry, desert nomads favour curved blades such as scimitars and falchions. They use small circular
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HUMAN CULTURES shields and wear little armour during the day, as it becomes hot very quickly in the scalding sun. As they are all accomplished riders, their favourite attack is to strike with a blade from horseback.
of their common faith; this, however, is never done in order to make new converts or to suppress those who have other beliefs. It can only ever be entered into legitimately in order to defend the faith. This may mean protecting fellow believers in the nomads’ religion who are suffering persecution or are not being allowed to practice their rituals, or it may involve the defence of a holy site.
Relations: Desert nomads are more likely to be at odds with other tribes of their own culture than with other races or cultures, though they conduct their feuds in a civilised manner. They are respected by the more lawful of the elves, who they respect in return for their formal way of life. There has always been a close relationship between desert nomads and the genies; in particular they enjoy good relations with the jann, as the cultures are very similar. Some families of desert nomads have the responsibility of protecting a jann tribe from discovery by strangers. Desert nomad wizards and sorcerers favour contact with djinni and efreeti over other types of Outsider and frequently work with them to common ends. Holding relations with the efreeti is forbidden by the codes of the nomads’ religion, so those magicians who do so make sure their practices are secret.
Language: Desert nomads can speak and write Common, Auran and Ignan. This unusually broad selection of languages is down to the number of texts written in these languages that the nomads study and learn as part of their faith. It is necessary to know the two elemental languages as the djinni and efreeti prefer to converse in their appropriate language and to do them this courtesy is a mark of respect. Names: The name given to a desert nomad will almost always be drawn from the sacred texts of his religion. Nomads are named after legendary heroes, warriors, prophets and kings. Some especially devout nomads take names that mean ‘Servant of God’ or ‘Loyal to God’. Typical male names are Muchmed, Jahal, Nefnefaru or Ghameer; female names are Ayeila, Namura or Sheirahn.
Alignment: Desert nomads are fundamentally lawful, with few exceptions; the majority of them are lawful good. Their culture, though based upon generosity and mutual welfare, is extremely strict. Tradition must be held to, because the alternative is the disruption of the system that keeps everybody alive. Breaches of tribal law are punished harshly and promptly and the method used is always capital or corporal. Death by decapitation or stoning is a common punishment for the worst crimes. A persistent thief is likely to have his hand cut off, while one who committed a lesser crime would be flogged.
Adventurers: Desert nomads become adventurers when circumstance forces it upon them. Most nomad adventurers have been taken from their own lands by some disaster, such as shipwreck, kidnap or magical relocation, adapting to their circumstances as best they can. Some desert nomads adventure out of personal obligation, such as a duty to help a friend or a wish to defend some interest of their faith. When a desert nomad pledges friendship, it is a friendship for life and you can count on his assistance whenever it is needed. Such friendship can bring nomads travelling for thousands of miles in order to give assistance to a friend in trouble.
Evil desert nomads tend to be either brutish and greedy or the archetype of the corrupt vizier, hatching subversive plots while maintaining a facade of outward co-operation. An evil desert nomad will make a point of being scrupulously polite to you, even if you are facing each other with daggers drawn.
Typical Class: Desert nomads belong to a broader variety of classes than most cultures. Those who remain with the tribes to protect it are usually monks and fighters, those who act as scouts and guides are rangers and those who are especially strong in the faith become paladins. A paladin of the desert is one of the strongest forces for good that humanity can produce, as he has been trained from birth in a religion of compassion, honour, nobility and mercy. Desert nomads also have many wizards among their number. Desert nomads have a great love of ornate calligraphy and the spellbook of one of their wizards can instantly be recognised, because of the beauty of the script and the fine ornamentation.
Lands: Desert nomads are found only in the hottest climates, where the environment is nothing but sand and rock with the occasional oasis to break the monotony. Religion: Desert nomads follow a monotheistic faith, honouring the God of Law above all. They keep the sacred laws of their people and the utterances of their deity in book form, quoting from it often and reading it every day. Though they are often completely devout in their beliefs, they recognise the validity of other religions that are also lawful, or at least not chaotic. Desert nomads will sometimes join together, forgetting even their tribal differences, for a holy war in the name
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HUMAN CULTURES Desert nomads must pray four times a day, at noon, dusk, midnight and sunrise. This is an essential part of their culture. The prayer lasts for five rounds and requires that the nomad be able to move his hands and feet. If at the time when they are supposed to pray they are engaged in a struggle that is a matter of life and death, whether that is a physical fight or the attempt to keep somebody alive, or they are physically prevented from praying (such as by having a gagged mouth, or having to tread water in the middle of the sea) then they are allowed to defer the prayer until the struggle is finished. Failure to pray at the allotted time results in the loss of 100 experience points, which may not be recovered by any means. Missing prayers may never reduce experience to below zero.
Nomad, Highway
Those humans who spend their lives wandering the country, travelling on the roads and camping in fields, are the highway nomads. They would never exchange the freedom of the open road for a settled life in a cottage or, worse still, in the city. Highway nomads travel in family groups, each family unit having its caravan or covered wagon. They have a strong culture that goes back many generations, to which outsiders are not admitted, except by marrying in. Highway nomads greatly resemble the Romany people of the real world. They are organised in a clan system, with one overall headman whose responsibility it is to settle disputes.
Cultural Features The nomads of the desert are trained in riding from an early age and can make themselves comfortable on any mount. They do not need saddles or other similar equipment, though they prefer them; they are able to ride bareback if necessary, without penalty. All desert nomads have a +2 racial bonus to all Ride skill checks.
The horse-drawn caravans of the highway nomads travel in convoys, stopping at the end of the day to make camp and cook food. A festival of the nomads is something to see, as they are very fond of music, song and dance. They are notoriously passionate and hot-tempered and fights often break out in the course of these celebrations, either between the nomads and local folk or between the various nomad families. The addition of home-brewed liquor does not help; there are few draughts more potent than the raisin and potato spirit distilled by the highway nomads.
The nomads practice attacking from horseback, playing a game similar to Polo in order to familiarise themselves with the moves necessary to strike a small target with a weapon while riding. They benefit from a +1 racial bonus to all melee attack rolls (not ranged attacks) made while mounted. They are also able to use the momentum of the mount to strike with greater force, inflicting more damage. Instead of adding their Strength ability score modifier to damage rolls in the usual way, when making a melee attack while mounted they add one and a half times their Strength ability score modifier to their damage if they are using a one-handed weapon and twice their Strength ability score modifier if they are using a two-handed weapon.
Highway nomads are not well liked by the people of the towns and cities, who are often afraid of them and will seek to drive them out. Accusations of child-stealing are often bandied about, though these have no basis in fact. The nomads are used to this and never stay in one place longer than they have to.
A desert nomad who is a faithful follower of his religion can declare a holy blow once per day. He adds his Charisma ability score modifier as an enhancement bonus to the attack roll. This ability does not work against creatures who follow the same religion as the nomad, in which case the blow is dealt as a normal one.
The nomads become the focus of settled people’s overactive imaginations; they are believed to be
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HUMAN CULTURES mysterious, exotic people, in possession of strange supernatural powers, who can bewitch with a glance or bring bad luck down upon a household. The womenfolk in particular are believed to be seductresses, who will steal good men away from their wives and families. Some of these rumours are occasionally true.
travelling with a highway nomad an exasperating experience, as he will attempt to milk you for whatever he can get, while all the time being perfectly pleasant company. Alignment: Nomads of the road are always chaotic, inasmuch as they keep to their own ways and do not acknowledge the ways of others in the slightest. They are most likely to be chaotic neutral. Chaotic evil nomads are extremely rare, as their habit of preying on their own (the ultimate taboo) inevitably results in their banishment from the tribe. A nomad who begins to exhibit overtly evil tendencies is on borrowed time. It is possible for players to be evil nomads, but they may not use the resources of their family and will be met with hostility if they try to approach them.
Personality: Highway nomads are renowned for their undisguised emotions. When they laugh, cry or rage, they do it with their full heart and soul. As these tempests are so intense, they rarely last. A highway nomad can be murderously furious with you, calling you obscene names in every language he can think of and threatening to slit your throat, before falling asleep and acting in the morning as if nothing had happened. A nomad has a great love of life and will indulge happily in all things of sense and rapture, hurling contempt at those who are too timid or weak to match them in their excesses. Being ‘lightweight’ or unable to last the distance is an insult to a highway nomad; you must drink as much as he does and dance for as long as he does if you wish to stay on his good side. Their party spirit is one of the main reasons for the dislike that more settled folk have for them.
Lands: Highway nomads are found in most civilised lands. Wherever roads connect a multitude of towns, villages and cities, highway nomads can be found. They avoid open plains and mountainous regions, preferring to stay on the fringes of human civilization. In many ways they are dependent upon the settled peoples who they hold in such contempt, as their way of life involves thieving from them and cheating them out of gold. Their life is symbiotic with that of settled peoples; those who dislike them would say that they are parasites.
A nomad does not like to be in any one place for too long. Travelling is in his blood. The worst thing that can happen to him is to lose his mobility; a lame nomad is a miserable nomad and a nomad in chains is in a state of mental torment as well as physical restraint.
Religion: The nomads pay reverence to the God of roads. The various families have secret ceremonies in which their ancestors are worshipped and their wisdom sought. Part of the reason for the nomads’ sense of their own superiority comes from a tribal legend that the God of roads is the ultimate father of the race and all of his children derive their wanderlust from him.
Appearance: Male highway nomads wear their hair long, either tied in a plait or bound up in a topknot. Their clothing is similar to peasant garb when travelling but they always keep beautiful embroidered garments in reserve for nights of celebration, embellished with mirrors and with gleaming metallic thread. Female nomads sometimes wear elaborate headdresses set around with coins or ‘zills’, which are golden discs strung on wires. Both genders wear large earrings and opulent jewellery.
Language: Highway nomads speak the Common tongue when dealing with outsiders and use Draconic when talking amongst themselves; player highway nomads are automatically fluent in both. They like to keep their use of Draconic a secret from others. They learn a special set of codes that can be drawn in chalk outside a house or on a road, with meanings such as ‘generous person’ or ‘guard dog here’. These can only be understood by another highway nomad or by a character who makes a successful Decipher Script check at DC 15.
Relations: Highway nomads divide the whole world into ‘us’ and ‘everyone else’. As far as they are concerned, everyone other than themselves is fair game. You must obey the tribal law with your own people, but you may cheat an outsider, lie to him and exploit him in any way you like. They are extremely democratic in this respect; all races are equally there to be preyed upon.
Names: Highway nomads give their children oldfashioned sounding names, as if to emphasise that they remain themselves while the world changes around them. Typical male names would be Gustave, Archimbolo or Lucius, while common female names would be Anastasia, Miriamele or Jeherenthe.
Outsiders simply do not enjoy the same rights that nomads do, whatever their race or class. There is no animosity in their stealing from others, nor do they consider it immoral. Others are just fair game to them, according to their sacred traditions. This can make
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HUMAN CULTURES Adventurers: The lure of wealth and renown lures many highway nomads on to the adventuring trail. They have a distinct advantage in that they are already used to the rigours of outdoor life; most beginning adventurers have a hard time adapting to the outdoors at first. Nomads learn many stories in their travels and are often keen to investigate whether there is any truth behind them. Quests are frequently begun after a group of young nomads has listened to folk tales told around a campfire, then sworn to seek out for themselves the legendary creature or item spoken of.
Highway nomads are therefore entitled to a +2 racial bonus to all Bluff skill checks. The legends that the highway nomads have clairvoyant powers are based upon truth. Whenever a highway nomad uses scrying upon an opponent, he raises the DC of the Will saving throw made to resist the scrying by 2. A divination spell performed by a highway nomad has a greater chance of being correct. The diviner may add the total of her Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma ability score modifiers (if positive) to the percentage chance that the divination will be correct, with a maximum total chance of 99%.
Although nomads can be annoying companions, especially since they have next to no concept of team spirit, they can also be very useful. Nomads are used to getting their own way and can often win out through a combination of sheer doggedness and native ingenuity. Their passionate approach to life can make them heroes in the most unexpected ways; nomads love to show off and it is not unknown for a party to escape danger while a solitary highway nomad challenged their pursuers single-handed. Part of the nomad’s love of life is his refusal to fear death.
It is extremely hard for a highway nomad to control his temper. At any time when the Games Master rules that the nomad is under stress and is likely to lose his temper, such as when he is being insulted or provoked, he must make a Will saving throw at DC 15 or attack the source of the provocation. This attack is made in a blind rage; the player may not take any action subtler than charging in and hitting the source of the provocation. The Games Master may increase the DC of the saving throw or apply circumstance modifiers to take account of the circumstances. A particularly vile insult should increase the DC by at least 2, while a nomad who is drunk should receive a –2 circumstance penalty to his Will saving throw. The player may attempt to make a further saving throw whenever he inflicts damage on his opponent and whenever his opponent inflicts damage on him. In this way, he may come to his senses before bludgeoning someone to death or getting himself killed.
Typical Class: The highway nomad culture produces a great many bards and rogues. Many of the great bards of history have been of highway nomad descent; the culture almost seems tailor-made for that class, as the nomads have a tradition of wandering, singing and gathering information, just as the bards do. Nomad rogues are so common as to be almost a cliché. The prejudice of townsfolk would have one believe that every highway nomad is in fact a rogue.
Nomad, River/Canal (‘Water Rat’)
Cultural Features Highway nomads have very strong personalities, so much so that their explosive passions can overrule their common sense. They receive +1 Charisma and –1 Wisdom.
Similar to their cousins the highway nomads, river nomads (called ‘water rats’ by just about everybody, including themselves) are lifelong wanderers. They make their homes on rafts and barges, subsisting on fish and edible weed and occasionally coming ashore to raid farmers’ vegetable patches and similar sources of food. They are an altogether darker culture than the highway nomads, especially those who live in swampy regions and hunt up and down the bayou for strange roots and herbs. Where the nomads of the road are fiery and passionate, those of the waterways are quiet and reserved.
Every highway nomad has been brought up to sing, dance and play music for the entertainment of his family. Nobody in a nomad caravan gets to be the ‘audience’. They are all constantly performing and striving to outdo each other, performing the most complicated violin pieces or reciting the lengthiest poems. This dedicated training and formative early experience grants the highway nomad a +2 racial bonus to all Perform skill checks of any kind.
Water rats make their living by doing little jobs for the shore dwellers and by hauling cargo in their barges. They are not so feared as the road nomads, but they are more avoided, because they do not have the same reputation of being excellent party hosts. Water rats keep themselves to themselves. Many of them are
Highway nomads are extremely good at lying. A good part of their income is based upon deception. They could hardly do so well from cheating outsiders if they were not able to spin out their stories plausibly.
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HUMAN CULTURES believed to have sorcerous powers, sending magical lights to dance across the water, or calling up the fish to speak to them. These stories have some basis in fact, as many of this culture become sorcerers, though their powers are not quite so outlandish.
Water nomads do not have the same attitude to other cultures and races that the land nomads do. They would rather trade with the settled peoples than rob from them, though they are not averse to cheating them out of money if they need to do so.
Personality: Water nomads are as chilly as their roadside cousins are hot-tempered. They have a tendency to introspection, sitting for long periods of time contemplating their own thoughts. Many people find this suspicious, though the water nomad is probably only pondering, not necessarily plotting. Sitting at the helm of a slow barge for hours on end makes the water nomads a quiet, thoughtful people. They can hold a grudge for years. If you wrong them, they will not even acknowledge this at first, but they will find a way to get their revenge on you if they have to wait ten years to do it.
Alignment: Water nomads are usually of neutral alignment, with the majority being true neutral. Very few of them are good. Charity is not something that comes naturally to them; they are simply too concerned with their own welfare. Evil water nomads are not often isolated cases, as it is more usual for a whole boat family to share the same alignment. Even the nomads are inclined to see some boats as ‘cursed’ or ‘twisted’, as if it were the boat itself that were responsible for corrupting the family that lived on it. Lands: Water nomads are found wherever there is an inland waterway system, or a good deal of river land. They are particularly common near river deltas and in swamp country.
Water nomads live with whole families on one boat. These families are extremely close-knit, to the point of being xenophobic. The rest of the family believes what the head of the family believes. If he (or she) decides that a stranger is an enemy, the family will act as one. The boat itself is treated as if it were a part of the family. No nomad ever neglects his family boat or allows it to go unrepaired. Damaging a nomad’s boat is as bad as striking his mother in the face.
Religion: The beliefs of water nomads depend on the alignment of the family unit. Good-aligned nomads usually worship deities associated with the sun and with healing, neutral ones worship the gods of nature, while the evil ones worship old draconian entities such as the troglodytes are said to honour.
Appearance: Water nomads like to dress in drab, colourless clothes, since they do not like to draw attention to themselves. Their hair is often allowed to grow into dreadlocks. Some of them wear facial jewellery, though this is not ostentatious. Water nomads believe that appearing to be too rich is the best way of making yourself into a target. If everybody believes that you are poor, then they will not try to rob you. Water nomads keep their wealth hidden in compartments aboard their boats.
Language: Water nomads speak Common. The neutral and good families also speak Aquatic, while the evil families are fluent in Draconic.
Relations: There is no love lost between the nomads of the land and those of the river. The two cultures hate each other bitterly. With this one exception, nomads conduct civil relations with other races and cultures. These relations are never more than civil. Those water nomads who spend most of their time in swampy regions have good relations with the lizard folk, a much more amicable arrangement than any other human can hope for. It has been speculated that there is some link between the water nomads and the lizard folk that belongs deep in the murky past; such speculation has even been known to suggest at a few water nomad children being born with webbed toes and tiny, useless tails.
Adventurers: Very few water nomads break away from their families and turn to adventuring. Those that do take up the adventurer’s calling have usually suffered a disaster, such as the loss of their family or the sinking of their boat and thus have no other option. Water nomads are often quiet and melancholy, so a character with such an event in his recent past is likely to be even more sullen and ruminative than others of his culture. The tie between a nomad and his family is too strong for anything other than death to break it. A nomad might conceivably go adventuring to help his family if they were in dire straits but would want to rejoin them as soon as the crisis was over.
Names: The names of water nomads are not those given to common folk. They clearly belong to some older language, with the likeliest candidate being Draconic. The names contain many sibilants and hissing sounds. Typical names would be Slith, Cellitch, Merthan, Rellish and Krith.
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HUMAN CULTURES Typical Class: Most water nomads are sorcerers. The frequency with which this culture produces sorcerers has led to them being called ‘water witches’ by some, while others believe that it is evidence of a particularly strong strain of dragon blood. Those that do not have sorcerous potential usually become rogues or bards.
attempt to alter a non-player character’s reaction with a Charisma ability score check (see Core Rulebook II). Water nomads who become sorcerers are thus not suitable for the role of party spokesman, despite their relatively high Charisma ability scores.
Northerner
Cultural Features
The rugged, capable Northerners have a culture not dissimilar to that of the Vikings of Earth. They have grown up in a place where the pickings are not easy and one must work to feed oneself. The environment of snow and ice leaves its stamp on them; many Northerners know no more of mercy than the frost itself. The savagery of their environment and harshness of their day-to-day life makes kinship very important to them. If the whole family does not pull together, nobody will make it through the winter. If a blood relation asks your help, you give it. If your family is insulted or harmed, you avenge the injury, without thinking of the risk to yourself. Debts have to be honoured and a man’s word is his bond.
Water nomads live their lives in damp and miasmal conditions that are physically weakening. This causes them to grow up with less flesh on their bones than most; many water nomads are skinny, pale people. They do however have a powerful presence. Though they do not often speak, their eyes are filled with a lurid intensity that can unsettle onlookers. A few brief words from them can carry more weight than a whole speech from a member of a different culture. They thus have –1 Strength and +1 Charisma. Nobody can spend his whole life on a boat without falling in the water and learning to swim back. All water nomads thus receive a +2 racial bonus to Swim skill checks.
Northerners have a love-hate relationship with their country. When they are in it, they are always cursing it and its intractability, grumbling about the diet of endless fish, whale meat and bread that tastes of rust. However, if they are away from it from any length of time, they can become profoundly homesick, longing for the pine trees and the purity of white snow, for the land where the men and women are real men and women. Northerners have a great love for song, as there is little else to do on the long winter nights but sit around the fire in the longhouse and sing songs of heroes past. Their respect can be earned with a good singing voice.
Among the secrets learned on board a water nomad’s boat by a growing child is how to put the evil eye on an enemy. To do this, the nomad must make eye contact and the target must be within 30 feet. Placing the evil eye is a standard action. The target is entitled to an attack of opportunity if and only if he notices what is happening. To do this, he must succeed in a Sense Motive roll at a DC of 15. The target of the evil eye is entitled to a Will saving throw at a DC of 10 plus the nomad’s Charisma modifier plus his highest experience level. A victim of the evil eye suffers a –1 luck penalty to all attack rolls and saving throws. The nomad may only place the evil eye on one person per day. The effects last for one day plus one additional day per point of the nomad’s Charisma bonus (if he has one). The victim may cancel the effect of the evil eye by drawing the blood of the nomad who placed it. This is a spell-like ability.
Personality: The typical Northerner is gruff, hearty and calls a spade a spade. He does not like to mince words. If he has a problem with your behaviour, he will probably hit you, or tell you to your face; what he will not do is go away and stew on it. To brood over wrongs done to you is not the Northern way and is seen as the act of a coward. Though they are usually impassive, Northerners can be surprisingly emotional at times, breaking into sudden roaring rants and smashing up the furniture, or weeping quietly and with dignity over a fallen foe who was respected.
The brooding, stubborn nature of the water nomads gives them a powerful force of will. This not only expresses itself through their personalities, it makes them resilient to attempts to control them or influence their thinking. Water nomads receive a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws against mind-affecting magic.
Northerners have a curious attitude to their enemies. They make a clear distinction between worthy and unworthy foes. The former are to be treated with honour, even shown hospitality if the occasion calls for it. The understanding is that circumstance forces you to be enemies; it is not personal and if either of you should die, the other will make sure that his affairs are taken
Despite their strength of personality, the water nomads are not a sociable people. Their heightened Charisma is based upon their forbidding nature and the peculiar intensity of their eyes. They are good at impressing or frightening people, but not good at befriending them. They therefore receive a –4 racial penalty to any
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HUMAN CULTURES care of. An unworthy foe, by contrast, is hardly worth fighting at all. If the Northerner has to do so, he will do so with distaste and is likely to leave the bodies of the slain to rot where they fall. As far as he is concerned, they are just so much walking offal.
with masterwork axes and swords, while the humans kept the dwarves in beer and meat, since these things are easiest to cultivate up on the surface. Northerners are fascinated by the grace and beauty of elves, though elves tend to be impatient with them. Northern men have often fallen hopelessly in love with elven women, which is rarely reciprocated, though sometimes it will be. Half-elves are most comfortable of all in the company of Northerners, while half-orcs are viewed with distrust and have to prove themselves before they will be counted as comrades.
Northerners often have private customs of their own that they will keep to assiduously, resenting any intrusion into their privacy. These might include praying to the dead shade of one’s father, always placing a piece of meat on the ground for the dog of one of the Gods, or greeting the morning sun with a recitation of one’s lineage.
Barbarians and rangers are the most likely classes for a Northerner to befriend. Wizards are viewed with respect, as their magic involves writing, but sorcerers make Northerners uneasy. A sorcerer is often more powerful than he looks and Northerners do not like that kind of misleading surface appearance. Bards who reveal themselves as such will be treated like visiting gentry, such is the Northerner’s regard for poetry and song. Northerners keep a distance from clerics of other religions when sober and when drunk are likely to start loudly comparing the merits of the Gods of other
The Northerner’s most obvious feature is his pride. A Northerner does not know what humility is, and when full of alcohol will happily brag about his conquests (both on and off the field), the worthiness of his bloodline, the trustworthiness of his axe, the strength of his horse and just about anything else he can think of. A group of Northerners together soon becomes a boasting contest. The quickest way to have a Northerner furious with you is to insult his pride. This belief on the Northerner’s part that he and his kinsmen are the best of all people can cause them to be very domineering; at worst, Northerners are land and sea pirates, raiding people too weak to defend themselves. Appearance: Northerners wear their hair long, both the women and the men. Both hair and beards are customarily braided; growing a good full beard is an aspiration for the menfolk, who are given to displays of masculinity. It is a point of pride for a Northerner not to have to wrap up overmuch against the cold; let the southerners and similar decadents huddle in their furs, because a true Northerner likes the icy tingle of snow on his skin and finds a howling gale refreshing. They like to wear their wealth, favouring chunky gold rings, torcs and bracelets. Some sport large tattoos of their Gods, or runic messages intended to bring good luck or commemorate their family. Northerners are usually muscular, not because of any racial propensity but because the high-protein diet of meat and fish together with constant hard work toughens them up. Relations: A Northerner enjoys the company of those who can pull their weight, take a punch and hold their drink. It does not matter what race you are, so long as you are a sound, trustworthy person. They are cordial with dwarves, with whom they bear many similarities, sharing a common love of beer and roasted meat. Some of the most successful communities have been symbiotic, with the dwarves supplying the above-ground Northerners
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HUMAN CULTURES peoples with their own, naturally concluding that their own Gods are the best and would undoubtedly win in a fight.
can confuse some translators. Northern bards often learn elven, as there are many great epic poems written in that language.
Alignment: Northerners are essentially neutral with lawful tendencies, though their behaviour can seem very chaotic to others. They believe in the virtue of fighting as a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff and do not acknowledge the authority of anyone other than their oath-bonded superior. They will often serve under other commanders, travelling where they need to to get work as a hired sword; if this means throwing in their lot with a brutal or rapacious person, then some will do this, so long as he does not prove to be a weakling and keeps to his word. Evil Northerners are those who have no sense of honour or decency. These are despised by their fellow Northerners as oath-breakers and treated as mere carrion.
Names: When introducing himself formally, such as to a respected fellow Northerner or to strangers, a Northerner always includes his lineage in his name, giving the name of his father and sometimes that of his grandfather. A typical name would thus be ‘Nagmar son of Vordik, that was the son of Ulf.’ A Northerner who is of full age and counted as a man or woman will be given a tribe-name, which commemorates their achievements or their attributes. Such names would be ‘Rugni Willow-pale’, ‘Ravni Maidkiller’ or ‘Bjorn Ironskull’. Adventurers: Northerners adventure to gain honour and renown. They will often be sent out into the world to ‘make something of themselves’ by their parents once they have come of age, which results in a great many wet-behind-the-ears Northern youths signing up with the armies of neighbouring nations, or wandering through the cities asking if anyone has a job to offer. Such young Northerners inevitably get into fights as soon as their background or accent is mocked, which in most cases happens within the first hour. Northerner adventurers like to return home once every few years, just to make sure that their family are well and to tell the tales of their travels. Many Northerners dread that harm will come to their family if they are away for too long.
Lands: Northerners, as the name suggests, occupy northern latitudes, favouring lands that abut upon snowy mountains and broad seas drifting with ice floes. As they are a seafaring people, they settle many coastal areas, living from fish and such crops as they can cultivate. They are drawn to desolate, rocky places, preferring them to the sumptuous sunny pastures of the south. Their villages are usually made from wood, with ornate carvings on the roofposts. Religion: Northerners are polytheistic, revering several different Gods rather than basing their faith upon a single one. Their pantheon is headed by an All-Father, who is attended by various lesser gods, most of whom are his children. These deities tend to be very human in their behaviour, fighting, drinking and loving with the best of them. The Gods of the Northerners are every bit as earthy and boisterous as the people themselves, without the grace or decorum that characterises the more civilised deities. Aside from the All-Father, whose province is wisdom and leadership, the most powerful and revered Gods are that of Justice, representing the importance of keeping one’s word at all costs and that of Combat, representing the Northern warrior spirit.
Typical Class: Like all humans, Northerners have no favoured class. The majority are barbarians or rangers, though a select few will become bards or clerics. It is rare for a Northerner to be a wizard; those that are, are female more often than not. Sorcerers are not popular and those who exhibit sorcerous potential may well be driven from the village, unless their family is sufficiently powerful to argue their case.
Cultural Features Northerners are physically hardy but have a confrontational approach to interpersonal relations, giving them +1 Strength and –1 Charisma.
Northerners have a reverence for writing, especially in their own runic script. They hold the letters of the runic alphabet to be holy and will not allow them to be defaced. Those Northerners who become clerics are initiates of the mysteries of the runes, knowing how each one came to be and what its secret meanings are.
The much-vaunted immunity to cold of which the Northerners boast is based in fact. They spend most of their early lives in frosty conditions and build up layers of insulating fat and muscle. All Northerners have damage resistance of 3 against cold effects – not a vast amount, but enough to make a difference in snowy weather, or when plunged into freezing water. They also receive a +1 racial bonus to all saving throws made against cold effects. Some Northerners claim to be descended from frost giants, which would go some way towards explaining this ability, were it not for the
Language: Northerners speak common and dwarven. Those that can write use the dwarven runic alphabet instead of that of the common tongue, though the words written down are in the common language, a fact that
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HUMAN CULTURES same ability’s manifestation in individuals from other bloodlines who were raised in the Northern culture.
focused silence in a moment, a habit reminiscent of the need to ‘freeze’ on the spot when something dangerous is passing by in the jungle. This can be disconcerting for those who are not used to the company of these folk; when your companion suddenly stops talking and stares at a point above your left shoulder, it can unsettle you somewhat.
A Northerner may never break his solemn oath, as his word is more precious to him than his blood. If he does so, no wound that he suffers will ever heal naturally; he is denied the daily healing rate from which other characters benefit. Moreover, no healing spell cast by a cleric of the Northern deities will ever work on him. Atonement spells will not work, as there is no possible compensation for having broken the only thing of worth you can ever possess. It is the cultural equivalent of selling your soul. This restriction makes Northerners reluctant to swear to any undertaking unless they mean to carry it through with all their hearts.
Jungle dwellers are often misjudged because of their carefree, almost childlike demeanour. It is easy to assume that there is nothing of substance under the surface, or that the jungle dweller is undeveloped in some way. In reality, their minds are alert and focused. No jungle dweller will ever rush into a confrontation. Their lives are based around careful hunting and avoidance of danger. In the jungle, it is much better to attack with a poisoned dart from a safe place than to rush in with a spear or sword. They will study the situation from all sides before taking decisive action. When they do act, they do so swiftly and confidently.
As they are familiar with the icy wastes from early childhood, Northerners receive a +2 racial bonus on all Survival skill checks made within or relating to such areas.
Appearance: Many jungle dwellers wear facial ornaments that can be startling on one’s first encounter with them. These include large plugs in the earlobes, pointed bones inserted through various parts of the face, or extensive facial tattoos or scarification. These are used to denote one’s status in the tribe. Young people go unmarked until their coming of age, at which point they receive appropriate markings to show which tribe they belong to.
Jungle Dweller
The jungle dweller is at home in the deep rainforest. Members of this culture have grown up in a rich, colourful environment or lush vines, enormous trees and thousands of diverse species. They become accustomed to living above the forest floor as well as upon it, making platforms and tree-dwellings in much the same way that elves do. A jungle dweller knows how to use the amazing variety of plant and animal life in his environment to cure himself or heal others. They are an agile people, used to moving swiftly across the dense forest and as comfortable among the boughs as any primate.
Jungle dwellers seem to be shorter than other humans but this is due to their habitual posture. They walk with a low, stooping gait, keeping their centre of gravity close to the ground. This manner of movement is learned from the primates in the jungle and is useful when moving through the jungle, as it makes it easier to balance. The longer a jungle dweller spends outside of his native environment, the more likely he is to stand straight.
Jungle dwellers are not an agricultural people. The rich resources of the jungle provide them with all that they need to survive. Their homes are often simple huts made from wood and leaves, or fashioned from mud-baked bricks. The most they need to do to survive is to hunt, which is done with blowpipe, spear or bow. The greatest threat to their existence is found in rival tribes, clans of monstrous humanoids, against whom they are constantly warring, or isolated monsters such as girallons who raid their settlements.
Jungle dwellers are not fond of clothing and wear as little of it as possible. They are used to hot climates, so colder regions which oblige them to wear many layers are not at all popular. They find even small amounts of clothing restricts their movement and prefer to wear a simple loincloth or leather kilt.
Personality: Jungle dwellers are often humorous, inquisitive people. Although they have grown up surrounded by a hundred different ways to die, from venomous scorpions to giant constrictors (or perhaps because of this) they give the impression of being carefree and untroubled by danger. A jungle dweller can snap from being happy and conversational to utter,
Relations: Jungle dwellers enjoy the company of gnomes, as they have a similar general temperament. They find dwarves rather forbidding and hard to get along with. They respect any person of the ranger class, as rangers understand the need to hunt patiently and are prepared to rough it in the wilderness rather than seeking
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HUMAN CULTURES Names: Jungle dwellers have a single long, polysyllabic name that translates to a description of the person, such as Mi’quillik’pa, meaning Talks like the Waterfall, or Tirri’quok’olla, meaning Bad Moon Shining On Bad Ground. These names are conferred upon coming of age. Until that point, the child is referred to by an affectionate diminutive, such as Root, Shrub, Twig or Beetle.
the comforts of the city. They despise kobolds, who are an especial plague to them; an infestation of kobolds near by, attacking by night, is enough to mobilise a whole tribe to wipe the humanoids out. Alignment: Jungle dwellers are mostly lawful neutral, with tendencies towards lawful good. They are content to mind their own business and so long as they are not taken advantage of or treated dismissively, they see no reason to enter into conflict.
Adventurers: A jungle dweller usually leaves his home because his family has kicked him out. This may be because he has expressed dissatisfaction with the limitations of jungle life, which though dangerous does not offer anything in the way of self-advancement; you begin your life in a mud hut with no possessions and you end it much the same way. Alternatively, it may be because he is not making enough of a contribution, or
Lands: Jungle dwellers set up their homes in warm forest and occasionally in swamps. They are most often found in rainforests, close to the banks of rivers. As they are a people whose life depends on a warm climate, they are not found in the extreme northern or southern latitudes. Religion: The religion of these people tends to be shamanic. They revere animal spirits and the ghosts of departed ancestors, not acknowledging deities in the traditional sense. Each tribe is presided over by an animal spirit, whose image the tribe member will have tattooed upon his body. The spirit is similar to a deity in that it grants divine spells, but it is not ‘worshipped’ in the same way that deities are. The jungle dweller religion seeks rather to identify with the animal spirit in moments of trance and ecstacy. Jungle dwellers frequently make use of the narcotic plants in their habitat in their religious ceremonies. Juices from crushed vines or sacred fungi are used to induce a trance state, in which the celebrants dance without tiring for six hours or more before collapsing and receiving prophetic visions. For details of these substances, see Chapter 6, Tools of the Humans. Some cultures of jungle dwellers – those that have built from stone as well as mud and wood - do revere Gods, which are so bizarre in their appearance that it is uncertain whether they are not powerful Outsiders of some description. These Gods are such figures as the rain-maker, the smoky deceiver, the mother-of-all and the great devouring frog. They are represented by wooden or stone carvings that resemble distorted human figures with animal features. Language: Jungle dwellers speak Common and Draconic (the latter having been learned from frequent interactions with the lizardfolk) and their own patois, a language containing elements of both of these. They do not have a written language and use simple pictographic symbols to convey ideas.
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HUMAN CULTURES is deficient in some other way. Some jungle dwellers are exiled because they have broken a fundamental law of the tribe, or because they would have had to do so if they had stayed, such as marrying a person with an incompatible animal totem.
poisoning himself. He thus has the Poison Use special ability.
Some rare jungle dwellers are inspired to go and adventure because a vision has told them that this is where their destiny lies. Their animal spirit gives them a clear image of where they must go and what they must do, and the next day they set their affairs in order and leave the village. Jungle dwellers do not often return to their tribes once they have left. Some would not be welcome; most find that the wider world has more to offer than the jungle from which they have come.
As they do not have a written language or any need for one, Jungle dwellers are illiterate in the same way that barbarians are.
All jungle dwellers are proficient with the blowpipe, for which see Chapter 6.
Jungle dwellers hate the feeling of cloth against their skin and feel claustrophobic in armour. They may thus never take the Armour Proficiency (medium) or Armour Proficiency (light) feats. In addition, any armour whatsoever is treated as if it had a maximum Dexterity bonus two levels lower than it has. A jungle dweller in studded leather would therefore only be able to use a maximum Dexterity bonus to his armour class of +3.
Jungle dwellers naturally drift into the role of scouts for the party, especially in a wilderness setting. They have spent their lives learning how to stalk prey and avoid being seen, so they can fulfil this role with ease. Their expertise with the blowpipe can also make them efficient assassins.
Jungle dwellers have a particular terror of the undead, drummed into them by their elders. Their folklore contains many accounts of ghosts, shades and walking dead men and they grow up with the firm belief that these creatures are more powerful than they actually are. When in combat with an undead creature, jungle dwellers suffer a –2 morale penalty to all attack rolls, damage rolls and saving throws.
Typical Class: Jungle dwellers tend to favour the rogue, druid, monk and sorcerer classes. Most jungle dwellers are technically rogues, though they are not thieves; they have perfected the art of the sneak attack by hunting prey through the jungle. The jungle produces many sorcerers, which may have something to do with the close proximity of reptilian humanoid races such as kobolds and lizardfolk.
Plainsman
Plainsmen are seasonal migrants, making camp out where the herd animals roam during summer and retreating to a more sheltered winter camp when the days become shorter. Stores of provisions such as corn and grain are buried to keep them safe for later use. Plainsmen are hunters rather than cultivators, bringing down large creatures with bows and arrows (or occasionally magic) and making full use of all parts of the animal. Some plainsman cultures make extensive use of horses, but these are not universal.
Cultural Features Jungle dwellers are nimble and have good reflexes, but work from a basis of instinct rather than intellect. They receive +1 Dexterity and +1 Wisdom but –2 Intelligence. This does not mean that they are stupid, only that they are not given to literary methods of learning. All jungle dwellers are used to moving swiftly and silently while negotiating an environment of tree trunks, vines and branches. They receive a +2 racial bonus to all Climb, Balance, Tumble, Move Silently, Jump and Swim skill checks. In addition, their expertise with jungle flora and fauna gives them a +2 racial bonus to Heal and Survival checks made when in a jungle environment.
There are usually multiple tribes of plainsmen in a given area. These are by no means guaranteed to get along peacefully with each other. Intertribal rivalry is fierce and raids are frequently carried out, whether to steal livestock or women or simply to ‘count coup’. Personality: Plainsmen are not talkative. They speak when they have something to say and they use as few words as possible. Their culture holds that the feelings of the heart are as important as the thoughts of the head. Speaking from the heart is the same thing as honesty. They are similar to the Northerners in their hatred of falsehood, but while the Northerner measures
Part of the jungle dweller’s hunting technique involves extracting poison from natural sources such as tree frogs and using it to envenom blowpipe spines. In learning how to do this, he has become competent in applying poison to weapons without accidentally
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HUMAN CULTURES his worth by his ability to keep to a solemn promise, the plainsman considers the speaking of truth to be the touchstone of human integrity. Plainsmen often view the folk of the cities, with all their haggling and gossip and empty promises, as a poison. They strive to keep things simple, which is difficult and frustrating when those around you have grown up with duplicity and lies as a way of life.
weapon. The elves also admire the plainsmen’s reluctance to speak unless it is absolutely necessary, a stance reminiscent of the elves’ own gravity and solemnity and a very different approach from the usual human twittering about inconsequential things. Dwarves find plainsmen unsettling, as they do not have much time for permanent constructions (which the dwarves glory in) nor do they like to venture underground, the natural habitat of dwarves.
A plainsman tends to see the world in black and white, in terms of good things and bad things. A bad person is ‘bad’ in the same sense that a rotten fruit is. They do not have any truck with moral ambiguity, preferring a situation to be clear-cut and their course of action to be as clear as an arrow’s flight.
Of the human cultures, plainsmen are most likely to have antipathy towards other tribes of plainsmen; this hatred runs deep and is cherished as much as any more benevolent tradition. They will trade with other humans, providing furs and similar animal produce in exchange for metal weapons and jewellery, though they do not extend trust easily and a single person’s misconduct can cause a whole group to lose favour in their eyes. Once you have lost a plainsman’s trust, it is next to impossible to regain it. They are not a forgiving people.
Appearance: It is traditional for plainsmen to dress in leather, as they will have grown up wearing garments of this kind; there are few other materials available on the plains, other than goat-hair cloth and simple woollen blankets. Some will wear ritual cosmetics (the men as well as the women) according to the work at hand; there will be one face to wear for interaction with strangers, one for ceremony and one for going to war.
Though plainsmen are not chaotic, they respect freedom where they see it and do not interfere with others unless they are struck first. They view any attempt to annex land that is part of their history or to prevent them from wandering where they choose as oppressive and a denial of their natural rights.
Relations: Plainsmen have tremendous respect for elves, who in turn are more willing to interact with plainsmen than with any other culture of human. The plainsmen and the elves have a mutual regard for the sanctity of the natural order, for long-standing tradition and the use of the bow as a
Alignment: Plainsmen are usually lawful neutral, with approximately equal numbers being true neutral and lawful good. They are great ones for tradition and their elders are experienced in making wise judgements, having heard all sides of the situation. It may be an effect of the strictness of their adherence to tradition that plainsmen who turn to evil become the antithesis of their inherited culture, going out of their way to be treacherous, malicious and false. Such is the depth of their loathing of their own laws that some people believe evil plainsmen to be demons in human form, or monsters who have put on a human skin, a similar concept to the rural human belief in ‘changelings’. Some plainsmen believe that evil is in fact a form of sickness, rather than a force in its own right. Evil, they maintain, has its seeds sown when the heart is out of balance and only grows to full flower when that heart can no longer purge itself. It is the duty of the plainsman’s elders to provide for the purging of that heart, so that evil does not take root among the tribes. Lands: Plainsmen are found on open country where there is a good deal of grazing land. For the most part, they live in lands that have yet to be ‘civilized’ with cities and roads. It seems to be impossible for the culture of
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HUMAN CULTURES the plainsmen to survive the kind of civilization that closes fields in behind fences and hedgerows. They are often found in lands where elves are also established, the elves being content to live in the forests while the humans roam the plains and hills.
threat to their people, remaining with their group once they have proved themselves worthy of trust. Typical Class: Plainsmen tend towards the barbarian, ranger and druid classes. Those who take the role of scouts are more usually rogues. Neither sorcerers nor wizards are common among the plainsmen; they much prefer divine magic to arcane.
Religion: The plainsmen have many different approaches to religion, but they all share a common belief in one prevailing spirit who created everything. This single spirit created other deities out of the landscape, who are one and the same as the natural features, so that to harm the one is to harm the other. The religion thus includes deities such as the Corn Daughter and the Prince of the North Wind. Each secondary deity has its ‘law’ to impart and this law is the proper way of dealing with the natural feature concerned. For example, the proper time to reap the corn is part of the ‘law’ of Corn Daughter, not an abstract agricultural principle. You do it in the old way because that is what Corn Daughter wants, not just because it works.
Cultural Features Plainsmen are raised in a culture that depends upon animals and a balanced relationship with the environment. They receive a +2 racial bonus to all Handle Animal, Ride and Survival checks. All plainsmen are taught from an early age to hunt with the shortbow and the throwing axe. Plainsmen thus receive the Weapon Focus feat for free; it must be applied to one of these two weapons. Plainsmen prefer wide-open spaces to enclosed ones. Their culture gives them little preparation for underground or even indoor activity. Whenever they are deeper underground than a cellar, they suffer a –1 morale penalty to all checks and saving throws and a –2 circumstance penalty to all saving throws against fear effects.
To keep to the old cultural ways is the same as walking in the way of the faith; there is no distinction made between religious codes and tribal customs. Anyone who speaks a lie has profaned his spirit; anyone who fails to observe the duties of a tribesman or tribeswoman is spiritually unclean as well as in breach of the law and must duly atone.
The plainsman’s cultural claustrophobia also prevents him from being willingly encased in armour. He may never take the Armour Proficiency (heavy) feat.
As with so many of the tribal human cultures, the religion of the plainsmen has a shamanic side. The clerics of the plainsmen’s religion allow themselves to be possessed by the various spirits, who then speak to the tribe members through the shaman’s mouth.
A plainsman must choose a totem animal. This must be an ordinary animal, such as a fox, beaver or badger and not a beast, magical beast, vermin or any other class of creature. It must also be native to the area where the plainsman lives; you cannot have a totem animal that you are never likely to encounter. If he accidentally kills his totem animal, eats its flesh or allows another to kill it without attempting to prevent them from doing so, he has committed a terrible affront against his personal spirit. To be free of the stain of this affront he must ritually purge himself in a ceremony that lasts for 24 hours and leaves him with one point of temporary Strength damage owing to fasting and fatigue. Until he does this, he may not acquire further experience.
Language: Plainsmen speak the common tongue, though they do not speak very often. Those who live in elven lands also speak Elvish. Names: Plainsmen are named after natural features, events in the plainsman’s life or traits of the plainsman himself. Members of the culture might therefore be called Eats Like A Wolf, Tumbling Ferret or Hater-ofLies. Plainsmen also have true names, or ‘soul’ names, known only to the parents and the shamans of the tribe. A plainsman may also entrust a close friend with his true name. Use of a plainsman’s true name allows you to cast a spell of which he is the target at one higher effective caster level than you possess, irrespective of whether the spell will help or harm him.
A plainsman who willingly harms his totem animal or helps another to do so must shift his alignment to evil thereafter or be barred from further advancement in level, or must receive atonement at the hands of a cleric of his tribe. If this means travelling hundreds of miles back to his own people, then this he must do.
Adventurers: Plainsmen adventure when the spirit stirs in them to do so. They do not seek to rationalise their impulse to go and adventure, they merely follow it. Some adventure for the first time in order to deal with a
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Religious Colonist
for the rest of one’s life. Those who were raised in highly lawful cultures tend to be humourless and grave, considering the technicalities of any proposed course of action and finding it difficult to be spontaneous; those who were raised to be chaotic are often wearyingly hyperactive, with a childlike sense of humour and a tendency to babble. They delight in breaking rules and will often do forbidden things just because they are forbidden.
Humans are creatures of extremes. What they do, they do with intensity and conviction. When a single human discovers a religious truth, it does not take long before other humans pick up the torch and follow him. Such humans are ready to believe that their way is the best and that everyone else in the world is wrong. Other races have a multitude of different deities who are accepted more or less universally across the lands of the race, but humans are so diverse in the matter of religion that they have whole communities based around one specific deity who may be unknown anywhere else. Humans bring a zeal to religion which other races find bewildering. Others are content to worship the same deities for generation after generation, but the eternally inventive humans always seem to be discovering new ones. When one hears of a new cult that has sprung up and is drawing in followers from all around, it is a safe bet that these followers are human.
Appearance: Almost all religious colonies prescribe a code of dress for the adherent, according to the colony’s idea of the ‘right’ way to live. These are startlingly diverse. Some colonies insist that heads be shaved, while others require hair to be grown so long that it turns into dreadlocks; some require women or men to cover up their bodies, while in other colonies constant nakedness is the rule. Some colonies prescribe robes whose colours reflect one’s rank in the society, while others choose a costume from history and keep to that. The faith must always be expressed by wearing a holy symbol or body marking of some sort. Some of the more well-established colonies allow their members to wear ‘travelling’ dress, which is a less strict version of the regular religious garb.
The religious colonist is a human who has grown up in a community dedicated to a religious way of life. These communities are separatist. They have cut themselves off from the world as much as possible, because of their belief that the world is less enlightened than they are. It is also common for members of religious communities to be persecuted by others who resent them for being different. These communities are usually the size of whole villages, which are as self-sufficient as possible, growing all of their own food so that they will not have to trade with others.
Relations: All too often, religious colonists are rampantly xenophobic, towards their fellow humans as well as members of other races. They are suffused with the belief that they, and they alone, have the right answers; their God is the best of all possible Gods and all other faiths are misguided, however well intentioned they may be. They will co-operate enthusiastically with members of their own faith from other colonies, with minor differences of geography and background forgotten.
Those who establish these communities try to find sites that are as isolated as possible. An island is perfect; an unexplored continent is even better. Some communities are situated up mountains, while others are based in old abandoned mansions or manor houses that the community members have restored.
It will sometimes happen that the God worshipped in a colony is the deity of an established pantheon; in such circumstances, the colony is more of a private devotional sect dedicated to that God and his ways, and less of a separatist cult. In this case, members of the colony will be more tolerant and relaxed towards those who acknowledge the pantheon, as they recognise the authority of the God concerned, even if they do not worship him exclusively.
The religious community is not necessarily lawful or good in its nature. For example, whole islands are said to exist where a very primitive form of paganism is the general rule, with the seasonal festivals reaching their climax with the burning of a captured foreigner in a huge wicker man. Other religious communities can be based around tenets that others would think insane, such as sacred cannibalism or the need to kill others construed as a blessed act, releasing them from the living hell that is the material world.
Alignment: Religious colonists are not restricted to any one alignment. They are as diverse in this respect as the deities themselves. The further the alignment is from neutrality, the more likely the colony is to be isolated from the mainstream. A true neutral colony could conceivably exist in a large building in a city.
Personality: Religious colonists tend to have their religion on their mind all the time, even if they have broken away from the colony. One cannot grow up steeped in a faith and not have it colouring one’s vision
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Lands: The founders of religious colonies often site them in lands that have not been colonized yet, or that other groups of people would not want to settle. The best example from real-world history is that of the Pilgrim Fathers. The more extreme and cult-like the religious colony, the more unusual or extreme the environment in which it will thrive. For example, a colony of chaotic evil ascetics who believed in the mortification of the flesh and the holiness of undead creatures might establish itself among the tombs of a huge necropolis beneath a major city; a clan of chaotic good pagans with close ties to the Fey might adore their old gods in a cave system, dismissing houses as abominations against the Goddess; a lawful good colony based on extreme simplicity, in which everyone learned a basic craft like carpentry, could build itself a settlement deep inside a forest; a lawful evil colony could take over an old monastery or cathedral and run itself from there, holding devilish rites on the high holy days in the remains of the temple area.
too extreme in their outlook for that. They are instead based around one single interpretation of religion; this single interpretation is held up as the only correct one. This may either be a wholly new addition to the religions already established in the game world, a surviving religion with very few remaining members, or alternatively it may be a reinterpretation of an established religion or a revision that gives primacy to one deity over the others. Some colonies are founded as the result of a specific instruction given by the deity concerned. An example of the first kind would be a common herdsman receiving a vision of a blazing angelic figure, who announces himself as Cavornius, the harbinger of light and then goes on to tell the herdsman that he has been chosen to bring the truth to humanity. A Holy Book is then dictated and the herdsman goes to find himself some converts. The faith of Cavornius is a strict one and the followers soon find their fellow humans to be far too impure for their tastes; they begin wishing that they had a home of their own where they could practice their religion in peace. Eventually, a wealthy merchant joins the faith of Cavornius and uses his money to start a colony.
The most important concern when a religious colony is being established is freedom from interference; the second most important concern is a regular supply of food. A colony surrounded by water is ideal. Religion: Religious colonies are never examples of ordinary religion in the game world; they are much
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An example of the second kind would be the Cult of the Spider-Demon Kluth, driven out of its homeland of
HUMAN CULTURES Cultural Features
Mekelia when that country was sacked and its corrupt empire came to an end. Escaped clerics kept the cult running in secret, indoctrinating the new generations into the cult’s ways and the use of its sacred tools, until such a time as a new home could be found for the cult. The religions of the exiled and the dispossessed are excellent seeds for religious colonies, especially when the religion is an unpopular or persecuted one.
Religious colonies prioritise spiritual education and awareness of the world above scientific education and logic. Their members receive +1 Wisdom and –1 Intelligence. All members of religious colonies are required to work. There is no room for those who do not pull their weight. Religious colonists are therefore used to practicing a trade and receive a +2 racial bonus to all skill checks made with a single Craft skill of their choice.
As for the third circumstance, this would be exemplified by a particularly charismatic priest of a given pantheon’s war god establishing a subgroup of devotees who are personally dedicated to the service of that God. Initially, this group would be a part of the faith, but with the passage of time they would become more insular, prizing the single God above the other members of the pantheon and perhaps even rewriting the texts of the religion to give the war God a more central role.
The firmly maintained connection to the deity grants the player the ability to pray for direct divine intervention once per day. The player may add a +3 sacred bonus to any single saving throw or skill check, or add a +1 sacred bonus to his armour class for 5 rounds. Religious colonies start up in the first place because they wish to practice a more restrictive code of behaviour than other societies. Their members are placed under religious restrictions much more severe than those of other faiths. The character must select one simple act as absolutely taboo; this should be agreed with the Games Master and must be the kind of act which other characters perform all the time without thinking. For example, a character might be barred from shedding blood, eating meat, speaking above a whisper, or appearing in public without his head covered. If he ever breaks this taboo, he can no longer pray for divine intervention (see above); if he is a cleric, he may no longer cast divine spells. These effects are removed if the character receives formal atonement at the hands of a cleric of his own religion.
Any given member of a religious colony is always a follower of the religion, even if they have left the colony. This cultural background should not be used for characters who have turned from that religion; although they may have had a similar upbringing, they cannot apply the cultural features. Language: Members of religious colonies speak Common. Many such colonies also school their members in a second language if this has a connection to the mysteries of the religion. For instance, the Cult of the Spider-Demon above would teach its members to speak Abyssal as well as Common. Names: Religious colonies assign names based on long-established tradition and the tenets of the religion. For example, a lawful good colony might give its children names like Charity, Faith, Hope or Chastity; a chaotic good pagan colony would bestow such names as Rowan, Willow, Beech or Hazel.
Savannah Hunter
The culture of the savannah hunters is based upon the wide, rolling plains of hot countries. These people live in villages made from the simplest of substances, such as bundled grass, white clay and mud. Their life revolves around the game animals they hunt; the stalking and spearing of prey is the focus of their existence by day, with songs and dances around the fire taking up their nights.
Adventurers: For most occupants of a religious colony, going off on an adventure would be anathema; they would rather remain in the private world they have created. Some rare members hear the call of their deity to venture out into the world to accomplish some task for the community, such as the recovery of an artefact or simply the spreading of the community’s religion. Occasionally, a member will defect from the community or be driven out for an infraction; it is possible that an individual was just too zealous even for a community made up of religious enthusiasts.
Savannah hunters are a robust, happy people in the main, living off very few resources and working in family units under an overall tribal system. They hold the aged in particular respect, looking to them for counsel. They are often thought to be simplistic or backward, but they are no less intelligent than the most learned city dweller; many of them study arcane magic and their frequent opportunity to observe the vast savannah sky gives them a natural expertise with astrology and navigation.
Typical Class: Religious colonies produce clerics and paladins more than any other class.
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They bear a superficial resemblance to the plainsmen but the two cultures are really quite different. Plainsmen migrate with the seasons, while savannah hunters build up their community in one area and stay there. They have no need to lay in provisions for the winter, as the hot climate means that food is plentiful all the year round.
Lands: This culture is found only in places where there is a lot of open plain and a very hot climate. Religion: The religion of the savannah hunters is completely based around the animals that are hunted and the world in which they live. It is a very animistic faith, believing that there is a God for the sky, the earth, the water and the fire, with an animal spirit set over each animal. The religious rituals of the tribe are either held to mark a member’s birth, coming of age, marriage or death, or are directly or indirectly to do with the hunt.
Personality: Savannah hunters are straightforward. What you see is usually what you get. They do not tend to suffer very much from guilt or remorse and refuse to take life too seriously. They often laugh at others, usually when those others are coming to grief. Hunting is their pride and joy and when deprived of opportunities to hunt their own food, they can become moody and sullen. When a savannah hunter feels an emotion, he will express it right away, not bottling it up for later or refraining from giving vent to his feelings because the social situation is inappropriate. You can rely on a savannah hunter to roar with laughter at the royal opera or angrily threaten a desk clerk if he does not get his way; he is not the type to moderate himself.
The hunt is the deed around which the whole tribe’s live revolves. Rituals have to be done before and after, with every member of the tribe playing a part. The blessing
Appearance: Hunters wear little in the way of extraneous clothing, though they are comfortable so long as they can move freely. They love bright colours and will happily dress in robes of blazing scarlet or blue, though naturally they will not wear these on the hunt. Ornaments tend to be in the form of collars of precious metal, though some tribes wear jewelled ear-rings or nose rings. Relations: Savannah hunters are civil at best with outsiders, unless they are traders in which case they are made welcome. They resent any attempt to interfere with their lives or to impose another’s idea of civilization upon them and simply want to be left in peace, living the life they have lived for so long. Of the humanoid races, they have the best relations with elves, though the elves do not often reciprocate this, seeing the savannah hunters as an overly simplistic people with very little in the way of sophistication. Alignment: Savannah hunters can be of any alignment. They have fewer evil
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HUMAN CULTURES of the appropriate animal spirit is asked, the weapons are ceremonially consecrated and the members of the hunting party formally swear to defend one another. Outsiders are not allowed to observe these sacred rituals; if this taboo is broken, the whole ritual is profaned and must be begun again, while the spy will be killed, even if he was previously considered a friend.
All savannah hunters are relentless carnivores, with little time for other foods. They are used to subsisting on meat and if they do not get it, their body suffers. No other food sustains them adequately. For every day on which a savannah hunter does not eat fresh meat, he suffers a point of temporary Strength damage, to a minimum Strength of 5. A single meal of fresh meat is enough to restore him completely.
Language: Savannah hunters speak the Common tongue. They have a private written language of pictographic symbols, unknown outside their culture. If in a plains, forest or jungle environment, they can leave messages for others who know this language using simple items such as sticks, leaves and rocks. This message must be limited to two words, such as ‘gone north’ or ‘beware spiders’. It cannot contain any names or other proper nouns.
A savannah hunter knows how to bless his weapon as part of the preparation for a hunt. He must do this in privacy, without any observers of which he is aware, or the ritual will not work. The ritual takes 10 rounds and requires the building of a small fire. The weapon must be one designed to make range attacks, such as a spear or a throwing axe; the ritual will not work on a sword. This ability functions as a bless weapon spell cast by a cleric of equivalent level to the savannah hunter’s highest experience level, with the difference that creatures of the monster type specified are affected, rather than evil creatures. A savannah hunter could therefore bless his weapon to be effective against Outsiders, Giants or Beasts. If the savannah hunter fails to kill the next foe that the weapon strikes (he must land the killing blow himself) or does not eat of the creature’s flesh once it is slain, he loses this ability for a week and during that time suffers a –2 morale bonus to all checks and saving throws.
Names: Savannah hunters take names that commemorate their physical attributes, such as Long Locks, Broken Nose or Bull Neck. They can be made to take a new name if the tribal elders agree to it, which is often done to confer a punishment or tribal honour. For example, a traitor might have his name changed to Stinking Breath, or a hero to Buffalo Heart. Adventurers: Those who grow to maturity on the plains of the Savannah usually turn to adventuring when they have won as much glory as their small tribe can offer. They have hunted the most ferocious of beasts, gained renown in the eyes of their tribe and now seek to find challenges more worthy of their stature. They often go off to find adventure in groups of two or three rather than as wandering tribesmen, as they have grown used to working in a team rather than as individuals.
Seafarer
Some families of humans have sea salt in their blood. Not calling any one land their home, they are born, live and die on board ship. Ordinary mariners learn the ropes by training and time spent in service, but the true seafarer has been hauling sails and tying off ropes since he was six or seven. True seafaring families are not common, as the majority of sailors were born on shore and eventually plan to retire there, while the seafarer wants nothing more than to live out his life on the ocean.
Typical Class: Savannah hunters are fighters, almost without exception. Even those who follow other paths will usually do so after having gained some levels as a fighter first. It is very much a warrior culture. Those who work with magic are respected but even they are expected to know which end of a spear is which.
To a seafarer, the feel of solid land under one’s feet is unnatural. They are so used to the roll and pitch of the sea that when the congregate in large numbers, they prefer to build raft communities. A seafarer village is a great collection of floating platforms, all roped together, with simple shelters built on each one. Seafarers are fond of their ships but they are not attached to them in the way that water nomads are; one seafaring family can have many ships and some even keep spare ships moored to live on, or to pass on to sons and daughters as they grow old enough to have their own vessel.
Cultural Features Savannah hunters are strong and swift, but are inexperienced in matters outside their village. They receive +1 Strength and +1 Dexterity, but –2 Intelligence. A savannah hunter can keep up pursuit of prey for hours without becoming tired. He receives the Run feat for free and may keep up a running speed for a number of rounds equal to twice his Constitution score (see the running rules in Core Rulebook I) before having to make a Constitution check to avoid becoming fatigued.
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HUMAN CULTURES Personality: Seafarers are rough, weather-beaten people, who like to meet all circumstances with pluck and tenacity. Their temperament is forged by repeated exposure to hostile weather, turbulent seas and similar environmental hazards; there is not much time for petty whining or mouthing off when faced by such things and the only course of action is to stick to your guns and ride the storm out. They can often be brutal, having no time for social niceties or gentle ways. In many respects, they model their own behaviour on the sea itself. One must meet them on their own terms and be strong enough to stand up to them.
Lands: Individual seafaring families have no land other than the planks of their ship and can be found wherever there is salt water and a fair wind. Temporary communities of seafarers, living on rafts that have been strung together, grow up around small islands in tropical regions and can expand to accommodate thousands of families. Even the most dedicated of seafarers must come ashore sometimes, in order to lay in supplies; when they must do this, they prefer to do it away from major ports, with the land mass as small as possible. Religion: Seafarers honour deities of the sea, understandably enough; they prefer to view her as a mother deity than a father. They also have a host of secondary deities, to whom tiny shrines are sometimes set up on board ship. These are not so much Gods as tribal fetishes. Many of them are in fact versions of the deities of various other cultures and races, adopted into the seafarer belief system in a form of eclectic voodoo. Those seafarers who have come to the culture from other cultures have often brought new faiths with them, which are added to the mix.
Appearance: Seafarers do not get to change their old clothes for new ones very often, so they frequently appear raggedy. They are not especially fussy about how they look and collect clothes wherever they can find them, giving them a carnival, tatterdemalion appearance when gathered together in numbers. They keep their hair out of the way by tying it in pigtails or shaving it off altogether. Tattoos are extremely common and are usually large and crude, with the names of family members or of favourite ships being the preferred designs. Relations: Seafaring families see the whole world as potential customers. They have practically no prejudices concerning any one race, as their broad experience has enabled them to come into contact with people all over the world and see their similarities more than their differences. A seafarer is more concerned about whether you can pay the price of passage, or his hire fee, than where your ancestors came from. Humans from all sorts of different cultures join up with both seafaring families and the marine population in general. A seafarer might have a wife who was originally from the jungle dweller culture and half-siblings whose nonseafaring parent was a plainsman. In much the same way as the seas link together all the disparate islands, so too does the seafaring culture act as a melting pot for other cultures. The willingness of humans to mix, to trade and to celebrate diversity is exemplified in the seafarers. Alignment: Seafarers are predominantly chaotic. Where their ships are concerned, they run by a tight set of rules, meting out severe punishments to those who disregard them, but that is down to the practicalities of shipboard life and does not represent a philosophy of life. The freedom of the seas is important to them. They do not like territorial boundaries and are not great respecters of private land. Part of their love of the sea comes down to the impossibility of building walls on it. It is there for all races to wander upon.
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HUMAN CULTURES Language: Seafarers speak Common, Elven and Dwarven fluently. They also have a chance to understand other spoken languages, as they have been exposed to so many different tongues; see the entry on Cultural Features below.
nor does it allow the seafarer to identify spells from their verbal components. The environment of a ship gives the seafarer plenty of practice in clambering up and down rigging, balancing on narrow edges and holding on tight to whatever comes to hand, especially when a storm blows up suddenly and sails need to be struck. Seafarers receive a +2 racial bonus to all Climb and Balance skill checks.
Names: The names of seafarers reflect the great variety of cultures that have fed into the melting pot. A child is as likely to be called Sebikwa, Skinny Bear or Mabturu as he is to be called Jake, Rodrigo or Brand.
Their strong, trained grip makes their grapples well placed and confident and their weapons more difficult to knock from their hands. Seafarers gain a +1 racial bonus to their attack rolls when seeking to resist a disarm attempt or when making a grapple attack.
Adventurers: Seafarers turn to adventuring more out of curiosity than anything else. They ‘go off to the land’ in a curiously parallel way to that in which young people go off to sea. Their travels from land to land often involve them in intrigues; port cities are great places for drama. Sometimes, they are included in a group of adventurers because the group needed to hire a ship and the seafarer decided to keep company with them after the terms of the hire were up.
Seafarers have grown up with the roll of the ocean beneath them and are used to sleeping the same way. They find it hard to rest if they cannot feel the ocean move, or are in some form of bed which cannot rock. Most seafarers will therefore take a hammock with them when they ‘go to land’ as this is the easiest way to get a comfortable night’s sleep. Any seafarer who is forced to spend the night on a fixed, solid surface (such as a tavern bed or dungeon floor) does not rest well and is fatigued for the whole of the next day.
Typical Class: Seafarers are commonly fighters and rogues, with occasional seagoing barbarians being reported. For information on the kinds of prestige classes a seafarer would adopt, consult Seas of Blood by Mongoose Publishing.
Cultural Features
Steppe Raider
Seafarers build up a lot of muscle working on their ships all year round; their abrasive personalities and rugged approach to life are well known. These factors give them +1 Strength and –1 Charisma.
Not all of the cultures that grow up in wide-open spaces are as relatively peaceful as the savannah hunters or the plainsmen. The steppe raider is a grim figure whose culture is based upon the wolf rather than the herd. Steppe raiders do not cultivate crops or keep animals, they prey on settled peoples. They have a saying: ‘Raids are our agriculture’. Those who co-operate and allow them to take what they want may be spared; those who put up a fight are attacked without mercy and the survivors strung up on crosses around the remains of the settlement as a warning to others. The steppe raider is little better than an orc or hobgoblin in his attitude to humanity. He cares only for himself and his own brood. The rest of the world is there to be used, or crushed.
There is not one seafarer above the age of three who cannot swim. All seafarers benefit from a +2 racial bonus to all Swim checks. Additionally, they are used to holding their breath for long periods of time, giving them greater lung capacity than their fellow humans. A seafarer can hold his breath for a number of rounds equal to three times his Constitution score before he has to start making Constitution checks. See the drowning rule in Core Rulebook II. Seafarers are exposed to many different languages as they travel the world. Any dockside tavern is guaranteed to have several travellers present, talking freely in their own exotic language. This background means that seafarers have a chance to understand the rudiments of conversation held in any language. On hearing words spoken in a language they do not speak, they may make an Intelligence check at DC 10 to understand the basic gist of what is being said. The DC of the check increases to 15 if the language originates off-plane, such as Ignan or Abyssal. This feature does not confer any ability to understand written languages,
Steppe raiders always travel on horseback, making camp near to a vulnerable area and mounting their raid at first light. They prefer to attack herded animals, killing the herder and bringing the animals back alive as it is easier than dragging a carcass. Raiders have developed a plan of attack that is swift and devastating; all of them can ride standing up in the saddle and are expert shots with the bow. Personality: Steppe raiders are not eloquent. They express themselves with a growl or a belch as soon as
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HUMAN CULTURES Religion: The steppe raiders have no organised concept of religion. Those who worship deities do so on a personal basis, carrying an image of the God around with them and praying to it and (in all probability) discarding it for a different God if those prayers go unanswered. The steppe raiders produce adepts and shamans, but not clerics. The one thing that is held in reverence by all of them is fire. The raiders have great respect for fire, considering it a holy thing. To throw refuse into a fire or to extinguish it in a disrespectful manner is an insult and is believed to bring bad luck.
with a word. There is very little civilizing influence between their bestial drives and the outside world; they are spontaneous, greedy people, acting like pack animals and with no dignity. They like to be thought of as monsters and do not consider themselves to have anything in common with their fellow humans. Within their own society, they operate like a pack. The leader is the one in charge and the other males, however strong, had better acknowledge that. Appearance: A typical steppe raider is muscular and grimy from constant travel. They wear their hair in topknots and the men cultivate as much facial hair as possible. Their clothing is a haphazard mish-mash of scavenged armour and stolen garments, all of it taken from those that they have plundered. Trophies are often worn to show the kind of enemy the raider has successfully overcome in combat, such as the severed ear of a wizard or the gold chain of a town’s mayor. The eyes of steppe raiders have a tendency to bulge (they practice this expression in order to be more intimidating) and they often sport large, primitive tattoos on the face and body. Those steppe raiders who are at the head of a raiding posse show their rank by filing their teeth down to points, making them resemble humanoid monsters in form as well as in deed.
Language: The raiders speak Common and Orc, usually using the latter language to swear and issue insults. Their speech is heavily accented and difficult to understand. Names: Steppe raiders give themselves names based on their own characteristics or those of animals. Typical names would be Big Skunk, Broken Nose, Old Wolf, Smiling Fox and Half Face. Adventurers: Steppe raider adventurers are in the business for the profit to be made from it. They do not like taking orders from others, though they understand that leaders are necessary if the pack is going to eat. They will join bands of adventurers through boredom or want of anything better to do, or because they have fallen out of favour and been driven away from their tribe. Some raiders go adventuring because they need to get their teeth into a more difficult challenge. This is common among middle-aged raiders who find that villagers and their ilk are so terrified of them that they can no longer find decent opponents any more. Raiders enjoy the challenge of a good fight; they see it as the thrill of the chase, without which the prize at the end is less sweet.
Relations: Of the other races, steppe raiders only have time for half-orcs, who sometimes find status and position within a raider tribe. Elves, dwarves, halflings and gnomes are all despised equally. Steppe raiders often have better relations with orc and hobgoblin tribes than any other human culture. They are not at peace with such creatures by any means, but they are viewed with a grudging respect, much as one orc tribe would view another. Many half-orcs are the results of liasons between members of orc tribes and steppe raiders, willing or unwilling. There are said to be some fearsome steppe raider women who have gone to become the wives of orc chieftains voluntarily.
Typical Class: Almost all steppe raiders who are not simple warriors are barbarians. They epitomize the worst kind of barbarian, namely the savage who cares for nothing but despoil and slaughter.
Alignment: Steppe raiders are, with very few exceptions, chaotic evil. Their culture is founded on the belief that they can do whatever they want, because they are the strongest. They do not restrain themselves; when they feel an urge, they act on it.
Cultural Features Steppe raiders are completely uneducated (except in their own oral traditions), gruff, brutish and uncommunicative. However, their constant exertion and love of conflict makes them grow up burly and strong. Steppe raiders thus have +1 Strength and +2 Constitution but –2 Intelligence, -1 Wisdom and –1 Charisma.
Lands: Steppe raiders occupy the barren lands on the fringes of civilisation, the arid plains where cultivation is difficult and life is harsh. They often occupy border regions where monstrous humanoids are found, as their culture forms a halfway stage between humanity and the rapacious nature of orcs, bugbears and hobgoblins.
Steppe raiders make more use of bows than any other weapon, standing up in the saddle to fire them. They are
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HUMAN CULTURES automatically proficient with all non-exotic bows and receive the Mounted Attack feat for free.
actively resist any attempt to force it upon him. If a steppe raider accepts magical or supernatural healing from any source, he loses 500 experience points. He is expected to let his wounds heal naturally, or cauterise them with fire if they are bleeding heavily.
A ghastly roar is always given by a troupe of steppe raiders when descending upon a settlement, which is often enough on its own to terrify potential victims into surrendering. The raider battle cry is a technique learned only within that culture. When it is given, all those within 90 feet of the raider uttering the cry must make a Will saving throw at a DC of 10 plus the raider’s Charisma modifier or become shaken, suffering a –2 morale penalty to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls and saving throws. Every additional raider giving the cry at the same time adds +1 to the base DC of the saving throw, to a maximum DC of 15 plus the Charisma modifier of the raider leading the cry. Victims who fail their saving throws are shaken for a total of 1d4+2 rounds.
Street Raised
Human cities run by good authorities always have some kind of provision for orphans and similar unfortunates, even if it is only a state-sponsored roof over their head. Private benefactors can also do a lot to help homeless young people. However, for some human children, living in the harsher cities, the streets are home, school and playground all in one. With no parents to provide for them (or, just as frequently, parents who do not care) these children learn from their peers and their elder brothers and sisters. Instead of learning about the world or being prepared to take up a useful trade, they learn how to survive on the streets. They are taught to be tough, to defend themselves, to stick up for their own and to look after their territory. Communities of the street raised are set up in abandoned buildings and similar secret places in the city, such as disused sewers and catacombs.
Living in the wilderness as they do, steppe raiders know it very well and are able to find their way around from long experience and basic instinct. Their travels on horseback from one end of the tundra to the other give them a connection to their mounts that is so close as to be almost telepathic. They receive a +2 racial bonus to all Survival and Ride skill checks and a +2 racial bonus to all Handle Animal checks made when the animal in question is a horse. They also receive a +3 racial bonus to Handle Animal checks made to train dogs or wolves, which they do by a combination of innate empathy and brutal discipline.
Street children have many enemies – the officers of the law, rival gang members, twisted human beings - and can lose their young lives in many different ways, so the earliest lessons are all about making the most of your small size, learning your way around and not letting adults catch you. A street raised child in his home quarter is practically impossible to track, as he knows a thousand different hiding places, shortcuts and rooftop scrambles by which he can get away from any pursuer. Those who do not learn what the street has to tell them are usually killed or maimed before their age reaches double figures.
Steppe raiders learn from early childhood to use their sense of smell, accepting olfactory signals that other cultures filter out. They do not have any biological advantages in this respect (since culture has nothing to do with race) but are able to use scent to track simply because they are used to it. The steppe raider thus has the Scent ability as detailed in Core Rulebook III, but it is operative at half the usual range, as the human sense of smell is simply not as sensitive as that of other creatures, whatever your training. The steppe raider can track a foe by scent, but the default DC for a fresh trail is 15 rather than 10, with the ability otherwise following the rules for the Survival skill when used for tracking.
Almost all street raised children grow up to become members of gangs. Early lessons in evasion and running away are replaced by tuition in aggression, intimidation and dirty fighting. The lessons of the street stay with them for life. On the streets, life is often violent and short; those who do not die in gang fights are just as likely to drink themselves to death. The few who do get away from street life are never the same afterwards. It is an old adage that you can take the person out of the street but you cannot take the street out of the person.
Steppe raiders are proud of their ability to endure punishment and consider magical healing to be the recourse of milksops and cowards. They have a healthy respect for pain, thinking of it as the best teacher; when the sacred fire burns you, it is a lesson not to put your hand there again. The tribes of steppe raiders have no use for healers; the most they will do is to bandage a wound or allow a comrade to treat it with the Heal skill. No steppe raider may accept magical healing. He must
Most people run into the street-raised when they are in taverns or minding shops for friends. The standard line is ‘Do you want to buy this?’ What ‘this’ is varies from moment to moment, but it is always something that the street-raised youth has stolen and is looking to sell on.
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HUMAN CULTURES One can purchase the most peculiar items from streetraised children, especially since half the time they rarely recognise what they have stolen. Some stick to items that they know they can sell, such as food or clothing, while others will grab anything that is not nailed down and try to make money from it.
the same lack of parental care and moral guidance that they had. Appearance: The appearance of a street raised person depends on his age and how well he has done for himself. The younger ones are often dressed in a medley of different clothes, scrounged up from different sources. The strongest and quickest among them have the best garb, as they will have stolen it from more expensive establishments or mugged people for it. The older, tougher street raised youths like to make a point of their wealth by wearing it. They often have gold jewellery and symbols of status such as masterwork swords or crossbows.
No other race produces street raised individuals. Only humans are so prolific that they would breed more children than they could provide homes for; only humans have such a mania for urban expansion that they could produce cities simultaneously huge enough and decrepit enough for such an upbringing. Sometimes characters of other races join the gangs of the street raised but their psychology is such that they do not take the street into themselves the way humans do. Humans have to learn a lot in a short time, as they are so short-lived, so they tend to soak up their environment much more readily than longer-lived races. An eighteen year old human is an adult and has already lived a whole life, while an eighteen year old elf is still essentially an infant by the standards of the race.
All gangs of the street-raised use some kind of identification that can be seen clearly, such as an emblem or a sash. Members of full age are very likely to have gang tattoos or scars. Relations: The street raised trust nobody but each other. They will not open up to a stranger unless a mutual friend introduces them. Their first thought is to wonder what you can do for them, or if they can use you in any way. A life of grabbing opportunity when it arose has made them hard and unsentimental people. They have no compunctions about getting whatever they can out of you without offering anything in return. Street raised people are contemptuous of those who have high ideals or sentimental convictions. They have seen too much of real life to have any time for that.
Personality: The street raised are innately suspicious of others and stubbornly proud of themselves and each other. They have spent a good part of their lives carving out an identity for themselves, so they are very concerned to receive respect. In the environment of the street, respect consists in keeping your distance, not looking the other guy in the eye and not taking a superior attitude. Street raised characters know perfectly well that they have come from the poorest of origins and are quite prepared to beat the life out of anyone who acts like this makes them inferior. Street-raised people do not relax unless they truly feel safe, which is not often. They are edgy and defensive when off their territory and brash and confrontational when on it.
There are always a few people who the street raised character will respect. These will be those who have treated him or her with respect or kindness in the past. Such people as a cleric who brings food to the homeless night after night not as a salve for his conscience but because he knows it needs to be done, a rogue who is prepared to pay for information and do the street raised a favour or two, or a healer who patches up wounds sustained in gang fights without charging for it are all likely candidates for this role.
If you are not a trusted friend of a street raised person, you will find it extremely difficult to get the truth out of him. Their fondness for lies is more than just a habit; it is a way of life. They lie, boast, exaggerate and mislead all the time, as it is what they are used to. Privately, many of them have big dreams. They fantasise about pulling off the biggest heist possible, becoming a famous gladiator, learning magic or simply becoming rich and escaping the streets somehow, without having any idea how they would achieve this.
Alignment: The street raised are always chaotic. Most are chaotic neutral, looking out for themselves first, with many tending to chaotic evil and the smallest number being chaotic good. The chaotic good ones are those who will go out of their way to help their fellow street children, setting themselves up in the ‘den mother’ or ‘elder brother’ role and doing the most to find a base of operations and keep it safe. Chaotic evil street raised characters are mostly simple thugs who will think nothing of cutting your throat and rolling you into a ditch just for a few silver pieces.
In later life, some street raised people try to help the remaining denizens of the place they came from, becoming clerics and setting up providential missions in the poor areas of the city, or just by donating money to shelters so that others will not have to grow up with
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HUMAN CULTURES Lands: Much like the crime families above, the street raised are a product of a city environment. They are found in cities where the presiding power is too poor, unconcerned or corrupt to look out for them. Cities that have suffered from recent wars are especially likely to produce street-raised characters, as a great many children are left without parents from the fighting and plenty of unoccupied buildings are left for the children to make into their homes. Plutocratic governments (see The Book of Strongholds and Dynasties from Mongoose Publishing) produce street-raised children and adults all the time and consider them vermin, even commissioning special detachments of warriors to kill them on sight. Religion: Street-raised characters are very rarely religious in the conventional sense at all. They have not grown up with religious guidance; in all likelihood, their only exposure to religion will have been visits to a sympathetic cleric to beg for healing or food. Many of them are however extremely superstitious. As life on the streets is so dangerous and unpredictable, they evolve a whole mythos of their own that cannot be taught to outsiders and by keeping to it they feel they are maximizing their chances of survival. For example, it might be extremely bad luck to walk on the cracks in the pavement, or (a more adult belief) to see a person’s reflection while you are killing him. The street-raised come up with their own versions of deities, adjusted to suit their own requirements. For example, a Goddess of mercy could be turned into a Goddess who keeps the guards away from you when you are trying to run. The only deities who are kept as they are are the Gods of thievery, trickery and deception, who are propitiated in superstitious ways such as by throwing coins into a supposedly bottomless drain or whispering a special verse when you first see the moon on an evening.
while the weaker and younger characters must go with the nickname that is bestowed upon them. Often a character will try to give himself a nickname that sounds streetwise and tough, only to have someone come up with a belittling name that sticks. Typical street names are thus Froggie, Slash, Fish-Hooks, Skankling, Grabber, Ogre, Skidmark or Captain Puke.
Language: The street-raised speak Common and a language of their own, similar to thieves’ cant. This language can only be used to convey simple concepts, such as ‘being followed’ or ‘me hungry’. As it is a form of patois, anyone who makes a successful Intelligence skill check at DC 15 can understand what is being said.
Adventurers: The street brings people up to be competent adventurers; they are alert, slick and good at getting out of trouble. They fall down on the teamwork factor, as they are so used to taking care of themselves first that they rarely bother with other people. In the vast majority of cases, the street raised go adventuring because they grow bored with the city and see a chance to turn their talents to more profitable use. Most of them meet up with their future comrades in taverns or back
Names: Street raised characters have ordinary human names, though they are rarely used other than by close friends and siblings and even then the name is used only in private or at moments of great emotional intensity. All street raised characters have nicknames. The strongest and most brutal characters choose their own,
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HUMAN CULTURES alleys, in situations where the street raised character has tried to steal something from them or sell them stolen goods.
play at the age of 17, he will begin to suffer the effects of middle age (see Core Rulebook I) in only three years. His Strength, Dexterity and Constitution will drop, but his Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma will not be raised until he actually reaches the age of 35, assuming he lives that long.
Typical Class: Rogues and fighters are the most common classes to be street raised, as the urban environment breeds those kinds of skills into people. Quite a few sorcerers are the product of the streets, having been rejected from ordinary culture or run away from home when their powers began to manifest. Sorcerers are highly valued by gangs, as their magical powers are useful; conversely, sorcerers enjoy the respect that gang members give them, especially as it has nothing to do with being big and strong, which sorcerers usually are not.
Urban Sophisticate
Some humans love the cities and some loathe them, but there are those humans who were just plain born to city life. At the opposite end of the spectrum from the street raised (see above) are the urban sophisticates, that breed of rich city folk who have either been brought up to afford the best, introduced to the ‘right kind of people’ from early on and had their way paved for them, or who have educated themselves in the ways of the city and blended in on their own initiative, with little more than wit, charm and nerve on their side. Urban sophisticates are used to the city’s comforts and conveniences and have a love for cities that poorer people and country labourers cannot understand. They make a point of visiting as many of the taverns in the various areas as possible, staying on first-name terms with merchants and shopkeepers, learning all the interesting and obscure facts they can about the city’s history and becoming ideal guides and advisors for those who are coming there for the first time.
Cultural Features All street raised characters have next to nothing in the way of formal education and are brought up on a diet of what they can scavenge and steal. Many of them indulge in drink and narcotics, as these make street life more bearable, though they are damaging to health and cause long-term harm to the body’s development. Street raised characters thus have +1 Wisdom and +1 Dexterity but –1 Intelligence and –1 Constitution. Growing up on the street means you have to keep alert at all times and be prepared to duck out of trouble whenever you can. The street-raised may choose Combat Reflexes or Run as a free feat at first level.
Urban sophisticates move in very closed circles indeed. Whatever their background, they are all participants in the city’s high society. Each of them has a chance of gaining access to the most exclusive parties or listen in on the city council’s planning meetings, while others would be flatly refused on the first inquiry and have to bluff it out. This possibility of access is because of a certain collective elitism on the part of the city’s movers and shakers. It does not matter if you get your income by shipping cargo, selling silks or commanding soldiers; so long as you have taste and sophistication, you are one of the Right Kind of People. These attributes are central to the urban sophisticate’s cultural upbringing.
Different characters growing up on the street take on different roles within their gang or group. Some are bullies, some are accomplished thieves, some act as messengers and some do the organizing. A street raised character may apply a +2 racial bonus to any use of any two of the following skills, chosen at character creation: Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (Local), Move Silently, Open Lock and Sleight of Hand. The lack of any kind of a balanced or structured education means that the street raised character may never invest any skill points in any Knowledge, Craft or Profession skill except Knowledge (local) at character creation or at any other time; the character does not have the patience to learn these skills.
Urban sophisticates embody the cosmopolitan nature of humanity. They are the ultimate party hosts, acting rather as if the diversity of races in the world was there for their appreciation, just so they could exercise their skill in introducing people to one another and enjoying the resulting interactions.
The damage done to the bodies of street-raised characters by years of sleeping in draughty old warehouses, getting into fights, smoking and drinking is permanent. He looks his age, if haggard and drawn but for the purpose of ability score penalties (not bonuses) derived from aging, the character’s age is considered to be 15 years in advance of his current age. So, if a character enters
Personality: Urban sophisticates are refined, snooty and contemptuous of those who do not share their tastes, or who lack the wherewithal to understand them. They consider themselves to be the cream of the cream as far as humanity is concerned. They are
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HUMAN CULTURES not always arrogant, though they are often patronising; however pleasant they are to your face, you can tell that they believe themselves to be superior. They attempt to be charming, witty and entertaining at all times, especially in dangerous circumstances. This habit can sometimes make them pleasant travelling companions and sometimes make them rather tiresome, as they have to produce a bon mot for every occasion.
next?’ and half-elves are ‘ever so fortunate, born to the best of both worlds, aren’t they?’ Alignment: Urban sophisticates do not tend to any particular alignment. Lawful ones believe that the clear division of social strata is necessary so that the deserving can enjoy their privileges, while chaotic ones are more the ‘life and soul of the party’, throwing crazy stunts and attracting attention to themselves as much as possible. Those who tend towards good adopt the ‘wise mentor’ role, guiding their friends through the intricacies of city life, while the evil ones tend to indulge in the depraved pleasures the city has to offer, slumming it in districts where narcotics and vice are rampant and nobody asks any questions.
Many urban sophisticates think of themselves as gallant and obliged to uphold the standards of nobility. Whether they are noble by birth or not, they certainly belong to the urban aristocracy, which has more to do with being a ‘fascinating person’ than it does with how blue your blood may be. Crudeness and vulgarity are objectionable to them.
Lands: It takes a city to produce urban sophisticates; the culture does not grow up anywhere else. The larger the city, the more of a community of them can be found. They are exclusive to human lands, as only the territory of the humans has the eclectic mix of races and classes that is necessary for their cosmopolitan lifestyle.
Most urban sophisticates are genuinely confident and at ease in high society but there are some (usually newcomers or those with something to prove) who are pretentious in the extreme. They are at pains to follow the latest fads of fashion, no matter how ridiculous; they are happy to appear in boots with ten-inch pointed toes or ornamental codpieces if that is the latest thing. They speak with effected accents, using slang terms that they do not fully understand, sucking up to those who they consider to be influential and treating others with disdain.
Religion: Urban sophisticates do not have a cultural concept of religion, considering it a personal matter. Other things than their faith unify them. The most commonly worshipped deities amongst them are those of craft and creativity.
Appearance: Sophisticates take great care with their appearance, never wearing less than the best. If their clothing is torn, their hair out of place or (in the case of those women and men who wear it) their make-up smudged, they will prioritise this over seemingly more urgent concerns, such as finding shelter or getting something to eat. They follow fashion, though some do so in an understated way, while some simply have to have the latest design of hat, even if it gets in the way of their use of their weapon.
Language: The children of high society speak Common and Draconic, this last because it is considered to be a mark of good education to know a ‘classical’ language. Names: Those sophisticates fortunate enough to have been born in positions of status often have doublebarrelled surnames, such as Jendith Morkin-Vermel or Meskew P. Stevely-Tharrin. Some have titles, such as Baronet or Count. It is extremely common for urban sophisticates to change their names so that they sound more distinguished. A sophisticate who was born as Barnsley Stubbs is not likely to get far with a name like that and will change it to something more akin to Bartholomew S. Gandieve.
Relations: Urban sophisticates are happy to spend time with all of the races except for half-orcs, who they consider to be ‘irredeemably boorish’. They would rather keep company with the nobles and princes of a given race than its common citizens, though they consider it a point of good breeding to be civil to all people without necessarily expressing the contempt they feel. The best way to think of urban sophisticates is as the self-appointed party elite of the world. So long as a person is interesting, they are happy to spend time with them. In general, elves are considered to be ‘such a graceful, artistic race’, dwarves are ‘hard working little people, you have to respect them for that’, halflings are ‘ever so much fun, but they do wear one out’, gnomes are ‘awfully clever little buggers, what will they think of
Adventurers: Urban sophisticates adventure for the thrill of it, wishing to add further excitement to their already overstimulated lives. A small number of them take up adventuring with the notion that it is going to be heroic, just like in the legends and are rudely surprised when they receive their first wound or witness their first death. They prefer adventures that take place in the city environment; long wilderness treks are challenging for them, as they are used to the city’s comforts and having a safe place to retreat to at the end of the day.
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HUMAN CULTURES Typical Class: This culture produces individuals of most classes, with the exceptions being the ranger and the druid, who both depend upon a wilderness environment.
Cultural Features Urban sophisticates are brought up to be clever and charming but lack the opportunities for exercise that country children have; they are less robust, having (in most cases) never had to work hard for a living. Accordingly, they receive +1 Charisma and –1 Constitution. As they are accustomed to talking their way into exclusive gatherings and acting with the confident élan of those who know they are the best, urban sophisticates find it easy to make connections and learn what is happening where. They receive a +2 racial bonus to all Gather Information skill checks made when in a city or large town. From being either well-educated or wellconnected, or both, urban sophisticates have a surprising array of facts at their disposal. They collect gossip, trivia and scholarly learning with equal enthusiasm. An urban sophisticate receives a +1 racial bonus to all uses of a Knowledge skill in which he has skill ranks. He may also make skill checks for Knowledge skills in which he has no ranks; this check is resolved by rolling d20 plus the character’s Intelligence modifier alone. It is thus possible for an urban sophisticate to succeed at (for example) a Knowledge (the planes) check when he has no ranks in the skill; he has instead picked up the necessary information on his travels by associating with those in the know.
As they have had less exposure to dirt and filth while growing up and thus less chance to build up immunity to it, urban sophisticates find it harder to throw off disease than members of other cultures and races. They make their Fortitude saving throws to avoid contracting a disease in the first place as normal, but should they become ill, their Fortitude saving throws to try to throw the disease off are made at a –2 racial penalty.
The Craft and Profession skills are not the province of gentlefolk; these lesser matters are left to those who have to work for a living. For urban sophisticates, Craft and Profession skills may not be gained at all unless they are class skills and even then are always are always gained at the rate of half a rank per skill point, as if they were cross-class skills. Urban sophisticates do not adapt well to life in the outdoors. They receive a –3 racial penalty to all Survival skill checks.
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Dynasties
Why Have Children?
The motives for raising a family in the real world are complex; in the game world, they are thankfully more straightforward. Here we look at the various possible reasons why a human character could want to become a parent.
A
ll races breed. If they did not, they would ultimately die out, no matter how long-lived they were. Accidents, violence and disease eventually account for even the hoariest of beings. Of all the races, humans are the most enthusiastic breeders. Crude jokes apart, they have good reason to be. Reproduction is the human compensation for a comparatively low lifespan. Other races acknowledge this fecundity on the part of humans for what it is, a survival mechanism; but many of them do so with a certain alarm and apprehension. Left to themselves, humans breed like rabbits. A small colony can grow to several times its original size in the space of a mere century. This is partly because humans reach biological maturity so much sooner than other races. From the perspective of a longer-lived race, such as the elves, the humans are no sooner walking unassisted than they are raising families of their own.
Roleplaying: You may decide that it is simply a matter of good, consistent roleplaying that causes your human character to want to breed. Humans between the ages of 20 and 30 in the game world can often start to feel ‘broody’. Raising a family is the social norm, so there is a good deal of peer pressure to do this. Adventurers often feel torn between their desire to continue adventuring with few or no ties, and the impulse to settle down and breed. If you need a motive for a character to decide to reproduce, one common deciding factor is exposure to mortality. A character who has seen a good friend die, who has lived through a battle or who has tried to save creatures who perished despite his best efforts is very likely to think gloomily on the future. There is nothing like witnessing death to make a human want to bring new life into the world.
There are those who see humans’ explosive population growth as a danger. Humans, they argue, threaten the purity of other races’ cultures. By expanding their muddling influence into more and more lands, they are making the world into their mixing pot, a puppet show to satisfy their short attention spans, instead of having the decency to stay within boundaries and leave things as they have been for hundreds of years.
Roleplaying reasons are really the best ones to use, if the situation allows for it. The concerns of reproduction are not always an easy matter for a group to address and can make for some truly challenging and rewarding game play. It is a prerequisite that the group be grownup enough to take such a roleplaying challenge on board; if the game is likely to descend into innuendo or bad romance fiction, it would be best to see human reproduction is simply a matter of game perks.
This chapter deals with the issues of human breeding and childrearing from an in-game perspective. It can be adapted for use with other races, but we have chosen to make it humanocentric because that race is far and away the most concerned with these issues. Human adventurers do not have the luxury of setting aside a whole part of their lives to raise a family before going back on the adventuring trail. They have only seventy years, on average, in which to do everything they dream of doing. It is therefore much more likely that a human character will have parenting concerns to deal with during game time, instead of handling the whole business in downtime or between campaigns like another race might do. Humans are also the only race that is are likely to have an offspring character old enough to play (by the race’s standards) within the timelines of an average campaign. Dwarven and elven children are not considered mature until they have lived several decades, while a human character can be out adventuring for himself by the age of fifteen or sixteen.
Property: When your current character dies, what happens to his money and gear? Are you really willing to let someone else, however close a comrade, walk off with a magic weapon that you sweated blood to get your hands on? As in the real world, characters in the game are reluctant to let all that they have worked for be lost or given away. By raising a child, you ensure that one of your own bloodline will inherit your accumulated wealth. To put this in the crudest possible terms, having a child means that you can keep all your treasure but play a new character when your old character dies. There are, of course, potential complications with this (just as in the real world); the child does not magically receive the deceased parent’s goods and you will have to see to the business of wills, executors and related issues, all of which will be addressed presently. The Legend Continues: It is not only material property that can be handed down from generation to generation. The reputation of a character can be bestowed upon his heirs. If your father or mother was a champion in
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DYNASTIES their field, or was much beloved of the common people, you can expect them to treat you with the same warmth and respect. A character born of heroes is halfway to being considered a hero himself. Of course, there is also the question of having a reputation to live up to. Those who have exceptional parents are expected to be exceptional themselves and can sometimes find it very difficult to live up to the standards that others set for them. Redemption: It is rare for a character to be utterly crushed by a defeat, or so badly hurt that he gives up adventuring, but this fate does befall some. An adventurer who is left a mere wreck of his former self can sometimes find solace in his family and live vicariously through his children. Such children are often given the solemn responsibility of succeeding where the parent failed. They grow up with the parent’s woe echoing in their ears and with a clear awareness that the parent expects them to make up for their own failings or redeem them in some way. Trusted Assistance: Humans who are not adventurers by profession often look to their children to provide support and help for them as they grow older. Those who run a business or work a trade find it useful to have another pair of hands about. This is especially true in farming communities, where all hands are needed at such times as the harvest or lambing season. Adventurers find that having their children along for the ride (once they are old enough to be responsible) makes good sense, as they can help to carry gear, build shelters, tend to the wounded and even sometimes wriggle into places too small for an adult to reach. It is easier to trust your children, who are your own flesh and blood, than to hire a henchman to do the same thing. From a callous point of view, it is also cheaper to have your children do the work. Investment: Some adventurers, especially the spellcasting classes, see their children as projects. They attempt to provide the best in the way of training, education and magical enhancement that they can. As we will discuss later, this can create an artificial experience pool for the character. From the player’s point of view, this only means that he can create a higher-level starting character, who he can then take over playing when his current character is retired or dies. It is, however, a risky process. If the ‘child prodigy’ rebels against their upbringing, the player may never get to control them as a character..
Plot Twists: This is more for the Game Master’s benefit than that of the players. A child that a player did not know he had, or that he had but abandoned, can make a magnificent plot device. This is especially so when the child is of opposite alignment to the parent. One only has to consider the vengeance enacted on Arthur by Mordred in the legends of Camelot to see how bitter the feelings of an abandoned or estranged heir can be. A completely different twist is found when the child is of good alignment and the parent evil. Everyone knows of the famous confrontation in which a son tells his father than there is still good in him. Of course, in the game world, all sagas do not have such happy endings.
Playing Your Character’s Children
It is taken as read that the offspring of any one character may be played as characters by the same player. A player may give another player the option of using one of his children as a character if he decides not to do so, but the option of first refusal always falls to the player controlling the parent character. This rule only applies to those children that the player knows about and has had a hand in raising. Children that the character does not know he has sired, or children who were given up soon after birth to be raised by another family, may not become player characters unless the Games Master
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DYNASTIES makes special provision. They are, by default, nonplayer characters under the Games Master’s control. When a character is the offspring of two players rather than a player and a non-player character, the situation is slightly more complicated. If one of the parent characters is still alive, then control of the offspring character defaults to the player controlling that parent. If both parents are alive or dead, then either player can take the new character on. In the case of a conflict of interest, the Games Master takes charge of the child as a non-player character until the ‘parents’ agree for themselves as to who shall play the child as an ongoing character on a permanent basis.
to produce one is a shame upon the couple and their family.
Planned and Unplanned Conceptions
This section deals with the nitty-gritty of human breeding. If you would rather have a system in which the arrival of children is simply announced by the Games Master, then feel free to do so. It is assumed that some players will want to make these matters realistic, so for their sake we are being thorough in our treatment of the subject.
Human Fertility
If two human player characters (whether or not they are married) wish to attempt to conceive a child, all that they need to do is to announce this intention to the Games Master. There is no need to go into any more detail than that unless the players so choose; these rules are meant to cover the establishment of dynasties, not to cause undue embarrassment on the players’ part. Every week, the Games Master rolls a d20 and adds the two prospective parents’ Constitution modifiers to the result. A total of 18 or more signifies a successful conception, which usually becomes apparent within a month; divination spells are sometimes employed to check the result.
Not all humans are fertile. It is quite possible that a character, for all of his careful planning, is doomed to have no heirs. For game purposes, assume that 1% of all characters are infertile, making for a 1 in 50 chance that any given pairing will never result in a child. Every time a character is brought back from the dead after having been raised or resurrected, the chance of becoming infertile increases by 10%, owing to the trauma inflicted upon the system. There is a theory that raising the dead draws life force from their body which would otherwise have passed into a child, which may go some way towards explaining why those who cheat death by repeated resurrections do not tend to leave heirs behind them. Infertility is also a common curse to wish on a person, either as a casual curse or an actual spell, especially if the caster is of the ‘old village witch’ school of hexers; see the curse of infertility spell below. ‘May you die alone and leave no heirs’ is about the worst thing one can wish on a country peasant, who often has nothing to his name but the hope of a family.
As we will be discussing in a later chapter, humans seem to be especially good at breeding with other species; there is much more chance of a child resulting from a human pairing with another creature than from two non-human creatures of different species. As an optional rule, if one of the prospective parents is human and the other is not, then add only the human parent’s Constitution modifier to the roll.
The Games Master should determine in secret whether a given character is infertile or not and let the characters work out what is going on for themselves. Couples who fail to produce a child always have the option of adopting one and may even make the child their legal heir, allowing for inheritance, but such a character will not have his ability scores derived from those of his parents (see below) nor will he gain the benefit of his parents’ reputation. It is possible to use magical means to overcome the problem of infertility. As we will find out later, there are divine spells that can be cast and magical items that can be used (such as the girdle of fecundity) which can allow childless couples to breed. Such spells and items are greatly in demand in the poorer human lands, where children are seen as valuable assets and the failure
The same roll may be used to ascertain whether any in-game encounter that could conceivably result in conception actually does. These delicate matters are left to the discretion of the Games Master. We would only add that it is a challenge of a wholly different (and vastly entertaining) kind for a character to be confronted with the fully-grown result of a drunken night spent in a tavern, which he probably does not even remember.
Pregnant Characters Characters who are carrying children may choose to continue adventuring; they may be left with no choice in the matter, as when an expectant mother is living in a besieged city or is being targeted by assassins. The following section deals with the difficulties of
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DYNASTIES adventuring while pregnant and the risks to the unborn child.
The unborn child is very vulnerable at this stage. If the character suffers a critical hit from any source, is reduced to half her hit points or less, sustains any amount of falling damage or suffers a non-damaging physical shock (such as an impact that knocks her over or a blow to the head), she must make a Fortitude saving throw at DC 15. Failure means that the child is lost and an additional 2d4 points of damage are sustained owing to tissue damage and blood loss.
A human pregnancy is of course nine months in length and is divided into three ‘trimesters’ or time periods, each one with its own hazards. The greatest danger to the child is that of miscarriage, the loss of the baby; the greatest danger to the mother is during the process of birth, when her own body can be badly damaged and there is a risk of childbed fever.
Second Trimester: The pregnancy is now much easier to see and does not require a Spot check. Morning sickness does not apply at this stage. The character’s body is swollen in places and uncomfortable, giving her –1 to her effective Dexterity. Masterwork armour made to fit her no longer does and is treated as normal armour. In addition, any metal armour pieces that are designed especially to fit over a flat stomach (such as a breastplate) must be specially modified before they can be worn at all, requiring an appropriate Craft skill check at DC 15. The character can only run for a number of rounds equal to half her Constitution ability score before becoming fatigued. The same rules apply as above regarding miscarriage.
First Trimester: During this period the pregnancy is not obvious, though it may be detected with a Spot skill check at DC 25. The mother is quite likely to be wracked with nausea for the first hour after getting up in the morning. Every day, the pregnant character must make a Fortitude saving throw at DC 10 or experience mild nausea. This is not as debilitating as the usual kind of nausea, as the character can still move and act; she is however left with a –1 circumstance penalty on all attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks and saving throws and cannot run.
Third Trimester: At this stage the character’s body is greatly distended. She cannot run and can move only at half her normal movement rate. Her effective Dexterity is reduced by –4. Armour of any kind cannot be worn at all unless it is specially modified. The same rules apply as above regarding miscarriage; however, non-damaging physical shocks are more likely to result in premature birth. Going Into Labour: The character has a flat 5% chance of going into labour prematurely, in the eighth month; see the rules for premature births below. In all other cases, the child has a 30% chance to be born on the due date, with a cumulative 5% chance for every further day that passes. Once the mother has gone into labour, birth is inevitable and cannot be delayed. This can be extremely inconvenient if the character is engaged in other activity at the time. Childbirth: There are many variables involved in this process, which can be more fatal than the most vicious of traps. Most births take place in the home, with some taking place in hospices, which are kept clean and have experienced midwives on hand. A mother can give birth alone and unassisted, though this is a hard and dangerous route to take, as the process is damaging and could easily kill her.
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DYNASTIES The mechanics are as follows: for every hour the character is in labour, she makes a Constitution ability score check at a DC of 20. Success means that the child is born. Failure means that the mother suffers a point of temporary Constitution damage, while failure by more than 10 indicates a complication, inflicting 1d3 points of permanent Constitution damage upon the mother. Childbirth frequently used to result in death in mediaeval times, when medical technology was not well advanced. A character who was unvanquished on the battlefield could easily meet her end giving birth to children.
of one’s own bloodline. This may seem like a trivial consideration from a modern-day perspective, but in the pseudo-mediaeval context of the game world, legitimacy is crucially important. If there is ever a contest between legitimate and illegitimate children as to who should inherit from a deceased parent, then the right always falls to the legitimate child, whether what is being fought over is a farm or a throne. Children born out of wedlock are considered to be of blood only, not ‘real’ offspring. Players should bear this in mind when planning heirs. It is not enough simply to produce a son or daughter, as they will not be entitled to your property unless they were born in wedlock. Some more primitive societies do not bother with notions of wedlock, believing that a child is a child and that is all there is to it. Such societies are more likely to let the claimants literally fight it out rather than decide which has the right to the claim.
Other characters can assist in the process. A character who is giving assistance may add his total ranks in the Heal skill as a circumstance bonus to the mother’s Constitution ability score check, to a maximum bonus of +5. Up to three characters can assist in this way but the total bonus derived can be no higher than +5. If the character is giving birth in unsanitary conditions, such as a barn or slum housing, she may contract childbed fever. On the hour on which the child is born, she must make a Fortitude saving throw to avoid contracting this disease, which is restricted to her and cannot spread to others. The DC to avoid contracting it is 14; if contracted, it has an incubation time of 1 day and inflicts 1d6 Constitution damage.
You can, of course, take other precautions than making a will (such as entrusting your property to a long-lived friend and making sure he gives it to your children) and you always have the option of giving your children as much of your property as you like before you die. Nonetheless, illegitimacy remains a stigma in most societies. Illegitimate children cannot hold rank without special dispensation. When rank is given, the illegitimacy is often mentioned, such as the case of ‘Sir William the Bastard’. Illegitimate children have to display this on their heraldry, if they use it, so they cannot even take to the battlefield without their status being obvious to onlookers.
If a child is born prematurely, it is treated as if it were suffering from a non-contagious disease. It must make a Fortitude saving throw every day against a DC of 15 or suffer 1 point of Constitution damage; a character tending to the child may make a Heal check and substitute this result for the child’s Fortitude saving throw, thus giving it a greater chance of survival. If it makes three successful saving throws in a row, it is no longer at risk. Consult the section below to find out the effective ability scores of newborn infants.
When parents are unmarried, it is almost always the mother who is the target of social disapproval. Marriage is considered to be the ‘respectable’ way of producing children. This value system is one of the few ethics to be held in equal regard by rich and poor alike. An unmarried mother who is known to be such receives a –1 circumstance penalty on all Charisma-based ability scores and checks when dealing with members of ‘ordinary decent human society’. The penalty would thus apply when dealing with town elders or village shopkeepers, but not when talking to a camp of highway nomads or non-humans.
Social Stigmas
Producing descendants is not a straightforward matter. The institution of marriage exists in order to give legal status to children, amongst other things; if you depart from the standard pattern of marriage and subsequent family, as many adventurers do (especially those of chaotic alignment) then you must bear in mind the social stigmas that follow from this.
In strictly lawful societies, it is very common for the parents (or other self-appointed guardians) of an unwed mother to try to marry her to a suitable spouse, so that some veneer of respectability may be maintained. This is done as quickly as possible, so as to give the impression that the child is that of the new husband. Such marriages of convenience often result in the mother making a bid for freedom, looking for some
Illegitimacy: In most lawful societies in the fantasy game world, a child born to unmarried parents is not considered to be a legitimate heir. Marriage in these societies is more than just a ceremony, it is the means whereby one’s children can be considered an extension
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scores of 1 in all respects. Every year, their ability scores increase by 1 until they reach their eventual ability score, at which point they no longer increase. A child with an eventual ability score of 17 or 18 in a given ability gains an extra point to that ability at the ages of 5 and 10. So, a child with an eventual Intelligence of 18 would have an Intelligence of 1 at the age of one year, 6 at the age of 5 years, 12 at the age of 10 years and finally reach his eventual Intelligence score of 18 at 16 years of age.
Uncertain Parentage: Scandal can result when a woman falls pregnant and there is more than one possible candidate for the father. Worse issues than scandal can arise later in life, when issues of heirship are brought up. Sometimes a child’s actual father will deny having anything to do with it; when he is a lord and she a peasant, or he is a priest and she a married woman, the common folk tend to take the man’s word over the woman’s. Fortunately, divination magic and such specific spells as discern lies can sometimes vindicate the mother, although finding anyone willing to help is sometimes a hard task.
The child’s gender should be determined randomly, with equal likelihood of the child being of either gender. There are some substances that can influence the gender of a child, such as the preparation called ‘mother’s milk’ (see The Slayer’s Guide To Amazons by Mongoose Publishing for further details).
Missing Father: This stigma is close akin to the prejudice that is visited upon unmarried mothers and illegitimate children. A mother who has produced a child but who cannot (or will not) say who the father is, is a figure to be condemned by lawful humans. Regular human society depends upon making the future secure and having everything in its proper place. Mothers who flaunt this become the target of gossip and speculation and are often deemed to be no better than common prostitutes.
To determine which of the parents the child most resembles, roll 1d6, adding 1 for a male child and subtracting 1 for a female child. This is not only additional character depth for the child, it has a bearing on inherited influence and reputation. Those that admired your father are much more likely to give you the same respect if you look like he did, irrespective of whether or not you have any of the qualities that made him great.
In areas where superstition runs rife, especially small rural villages, there is a whole body of folklore that has arisen purely for the purpose of explaining seemingly spontaneous pregnancies. It only takes a small amount of speculation and the exaggeration of stories in the telling for a local legend to result. When virtuous young women who were believed to be safe in their rooms start exhibiting the symptoms of pregnancy, a culprit has to be found. There is thus a belief in ‘demon lovers’, spirits who take mortal form in order to beget children upon human women. Against these lecherous entities, no mere physical barrier will suffice. Sometimes, these folk tales are nothing more than a convenient smokescreen, designed to persuade credulous folk that someone other than the village priest or the handsome stable boy was responsible for putting young Jemima in the family way; but there is no smoke without fire and it is true that some Outsiders do take human beings as lovers.
Parental Resemblance d6
Appearance
0
The child is a dead ringer for her mother and could easily be mistaken for her at a younger age
1
The child favours its mother in looks
2-5
Both parents are equally represented
6
The child is clearly the offspring of its father
7
The boy is a chip off the old block; it is like having his father back around again
Raising Children Yourself
The day-to-day business of raising children is done in downtime. If you are not intending to play your child as a character in future, then you do not need to give any special attention to the manner of their upbringing. It is assumed that you leave your child in good hands while you are out adventuring and see them when you can. A child raised in this way does not have the privileges derived from the use of this system (such as bonuses derived from the parents’ ability scores) and is prepared
Ability Scores and Other Traits for Children
A child’s eventual ability scores are determined at birth (see below). As newborn infants, they have ability
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DYNASTIES by the Games Master in the standard way, like any other non-player character.
Investing Experience
Any parent has to make sacrifices in order to raise a child. To some extent, you must set aside personal development if you want your child to grow up to be a worthy successor and a contented individual in their own right. You can accomplish this by staying at home, but if you do so then it is hard to get any adventuring done! A compromise must therefore be found. In game terms, this means setting aside part of your experience points. If you do not do this, then your child is in danger of failing to fulfil its full potential, or even rejecting your influence.
If your child is destined to be played as a character, you must roll his eventual ability scores and keep them for reference. These represent what your child will grow up to be if his upbringing is adequate. He will have these ability scores at the age of 16, always assuming that nothing unpleasant happens in the meantime. The scores are rolled as if you were generating a new character, using the standard methods. However, some characteristics are passed down from parent to child. If both parents have a positive ability score modifier in a given ability, or one of the parents has an ability score modifier of +3 or above in a given ability, then the child receives a +1 racial bonus to that ability; similarly, if they share a negative ability score modifier, or one parent has an ability score modifier of -3 or less, then the child receives an appropriate -1 racial penalty.
A character who is raising a child while still adventuring actively must sacrifice 5% of all earned experience points if two people are contributing and 10% if he or she is raising the child alone. This ongoing sacrifice continues until the child reaches the age of sixteen and becomes an independent character in his own right. If a parent has more than one child, then they must contribute the same amount to the development of each one.
If the total of their positive or negative ability score modifiers for a given ability is 7 or higher, the bonus or penalty is plus or minus 2 instead of 1. So, if two characters with Strength ability score modifiers of +3 and +4 respectively produced a child, the child would have a +2 racial bonus to his Strength ability score. Unlike the standard racial modifiers, these racial bonuses and penalties may never raise an ability score above 18 or below 3. In the event that one of the parents is not human, do not count their racial modifiers when calculating the bonuses or penalties that the child will receive. For example, if one of the parents is elven and has a Dexterity ability score of 12, thus giving her an ability score modifier of +1, for parenting purposes her Dexterity is only 10. This is because the benefits of her elven blood will be conferred in different ways, namely in the racial traits enjoyed by a half-elf. The only ability score modifiers that count towards the child’s abilities are those derived from the individual, not from their racial traits.
These experience points are not wasted. They go into a parental influence pool, which will assist the child’s future development when it takes up a character class of its own. When the child character gains a new level of experience, it may claim a number of experience points from the pool equal to one tenth of the experience it needs to achieve the next level, assuming that there is sufficient left in the pool to cover this. If not, the child gains such experience as there is left.
Inadequate Parenting
Raising a child is not as simple as setting aside part of your experience. Every four years, beginning on the child’s first birthday, you must make a Wisdom ability score check at DC 10, representing your success as a parent. (If the other parent has a higher Wisdom ability score modifier, they may make the check instead.) If you are of evil alignment, a –4 circumstance penalty applies to this check; if you are of chaotic alignment, a –2 circumstance penalty applies. A successful check means that the child grows towards maturity without incident. A failed check causes a roll on the table below.
A child of whatever age always uses its eventual Fortitude saving throw when making a roll to resist disease; this includes children who are born premature making rolls to survive early birth. This is because the child’s Constitution is not just the measure of its physical mass but its essential robustness. A bawling infant can be more resistant to disease than a sickly adult.
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DYNASTIES Hazards Of Inadequate Parenting d100
Outcome
01-10
Under-exercised
11-25
Lack of stimulus
21-30
Inadequate education
31-50
Maladjusted
51-55
Over or underfed
56-60
Not enough play
61-70
Accident
71-80
Rejection of values
81-00
No negative outcome
Accident: Someone was not watching out for the child when they should have been and an accident happened. The child must make an immediate Reflex saving throw against a DC of 15. If the result is a 1, the child is killed outright and any experience left in the pool goes to waste. Any other failure leaves the child with an equal chance of being lame, reducing his eventual movement rating by 10 feet, or lacking the use of one hand, meaning that he cannot carry items with it or use it to wield a two-handed weapon. He may, however, bear a shield on that arm. This maiming may be cured with a regenerate spell. Rejection Of Values: Ordinarily, the child assumes the alignment of those who raise him. When a rejection of values occurs, it means that the child is embittered and disgusted with those who are raising him, whether these are his parents or a guardian. He spurns their values and takes up new ones. If the alignment of those who are raising him is lawful or neutral, then his alignment changes to chaotic. If they or he are already chaotic, then his alignment changes from good to neutral or from neutral to evil. So, a formerly lawful neutral child would become chaotic neutral and a neutral good child would become true neutral, while a chaotic neutral child would become chaotic evil. If the child is already chaotic evil, they have no values left to reject.
Under-exercised: Your child does not receive enough physical exercise to make the best of himself. His muscles do not develop as they should, wasting his physical potential. A –2 racial penalty is applied to your child’s eventual Strength score. Lack Of Stimulus: While the child is growing up, there are not enough interesting things around him and not enough attempts are made to engage his interest. As a result. the child’s awareness of his environment is dimmer than it should be. He receives a –2 racial penalty to his eventual Wisdom ability score. Inadequate Education: The child does not have enough books to read and is not given enough formal education. He does not use his brain to its fullest potential and as a result receives a –2 racial penalty to his eventual Intelligence ability score.
Fostering
If you do not want to invest experience points in your child’s development but you also want to avoid the pitfalls of inadequate parenting, there is another option. You can entrust the child to a friend, who will raise it for you. They then get to make the requisite Wisdom checks on a five-yearly basis, which may even be a better option if you do not trust your own ability to raise a child. Parents of chaotic alignment sometimes leave their children with lawful friends, so that they will have a stable home to grow up in.
Maladjusted: Many parents fail to understand their children and give them more or less attention than they need. A lack of compassion and care in the child’s life cause him to grow up more withdrawn and introverted than he would otherwise have been, giving him a –2 racial penalty to his eventual Charisma ability score.
Giving a child over to foster parents prevents you from raising the child in your culture. For instance, if you are a desert nomad and you leave your child in the care of a city family, they will not be eligible to take the desert nomad cultural background. However, they are entitled to take on an appropriate culture based on the foster family’s life and standing. You might, for example, give a child over to a seafaring family to raise, so that by the time he is 16 and ready to become a player character, he will have the seafarer culture.
Over/Underfed: Proper attention has not been paid to the child’s diet. As a result, the child has grown up without proper nutrition and is either too fat or too thin. Either way, he suffers a –2 racial penalty to his eventual Constitution ability score. Not Enough Play: The child has not had enough in the way of game-playing, either because of a lack of toys, no playmates or not enough space to romp around in. This inability to develop hand-eye co-ordination skills leaves him with a –2 racial penalty to his eventual Dexterity ability score.
Fostering a child is a tremendous responsibility and is not something one asks lightly. It is customary for the parent of a child to provide some form of payment if
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DYNASTIES possible, so that the child’s needs can be met. Certainly no good character should pass a child on to a foster family without leaving up to 5,000 gold pieces (or as close to that as they can get) with them, to cover the expenses of raising and schooling their progeny.
Given that adventurers often die far away from their homes, this can be a problematic process, although it is mitigated slightly by the frequency with which adventurers – especially experienced ones – recover from death. Old age is the one sure killer for characters and of course humans are the only race that has anything to worry about in that department. Nonetheless, there are bound to be times when a character perishes irrevocably and these are when heirship becomes an issue.
Transferring Property and Repute
Transferring property from parent to child in the game world is best handled by the simple process of giving your goods to your children while you and they are both still alive. When a character retires from adventuring, he can give his heir (the next character to be played by the player in question) a head start by passing on his accumulated goods. Naturally, this can only happen once you are no longer using your suit of demon armour or your holy avenger longsword; if you still have a use for it, then it does not make very much sense to give it to your offspring. Most characters are more concerned that their descendants will benefit from their property once they themselves are dead.
In the game world, possession is significantly more than nine tenths of the law. There is not much point in being legally recognised as the rightful owner of a magical item if the current possessor is actively using it and does not want to give it back to you. The best way to ensure that your property is transferred to your offspring following your death is to entrust the job of passing it on to a close friend or ally, who can then act as your executor.
Heirship And The Law
In most lawful countries, when a citizen dies, the friends and family are not given free rein to ransack his home and loot anything they like. The city’s authorities, or the representatives of the kingdom in the area control the process of allocating his possessions. If the dead character has not made any provision for the dispensation of his goods, such as making a will, the right to his possessions belongs to the next of kin. These are, in order of priority, the marriage partner, the legitimate children, other blood relatives, then illegitimate children. Unmarried partners do not inherit anything, as a general rule.
Reputation
A character who has a famous or infamous parent has the potential to benefit from their reputation. This is not just a matter of those who admired your father or mother admiring you for their sake. There is a prevalent belief among the common people that heroism and heinous evil alike are ‘in the blood’. This belief is the foundation of such institutions as hereditary monarchy, which holds to the principle that a worthy king will beget more worthy kings. As the child of a former player character, you do not automatically benefit from the reputation your parents enjoyed. As far as those who knew them before you are concerned, you may be your father’s son or your mother’s daughter, or their
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DYNASTIES blood may flow but weakly in your veins. Until they are convinced one way or another, they will suspend judgement.
your abilities to those of your parent, as those are the most obvious criteria they have to judge you by. A physical resemblance to your parent helps here. If you are a dead ringer for your famous parent (a result of 0 or 7 on the resemblance table) you must reduce the DC of the Recognition check by 3; if you clearly take after him or her (a result of 1 or 6) you may reduce the DC by 1.
When dealing with any person who knew one or both of your parents and had a strong positive or negative opinion of them, there is a chance that you will receive a circumstance bonus or penalty to all Charismarelated checks. Either the person himself (if you are dealing with an individual) or a representative figure of authority such as a headsman or village elder (if you are dealing with multiple people) must make a Recognition check. This should be done under the following circumstances: †
On first meeting you
†
After any event observed by one or more people, during which you had a chance to prove yourself to be a true child of your parent, such as beating a brawny opponent in a fight if your father was a famous fighter, or being caught in the middle of a theft if your mother was a despised thief
†
Whenever you address a large number of people and attempt to persuade them that your parent’s spirit lives on in you, or try to take the opposite route and persuade them that you are not the kind of person your parent was at all
†
Whenever you take an action (or appear to take an action) that would cause observers to revise their opinion of you, such as an openly brave act when you were believed to be a coward, or a dishonest act when you were believed to be virtuous
†
Whenever someone who is known to have been a friend of your parent deems you to be an worthy child of theirs, such as a former adventuring colleague of your mother’s paying tribute to your skills with sorcery or a former bosun of your pirate father’s claiming you are every bit as wicked and black-hearted as your old man ever was A Recognition check is handled as follows. The person sizing you up and trying to decide whether you are worthy of inheriting your parents’ reputation must make a Spot or Sense Motive check, whichever has the highest skill level. The DC is 20 minus the ability score modifier of the highest ability score your famous parent had. For example, if your father was known for his Strength, you subtract (or add, if it is negative) your own Strength ability score modifier to the DC. Those who are observing you will naturally tend to compare
The observer may also benefit from a circumstance bonus to the roll if you have been seen to perform acts that were recognisably in character for your parent. When you are in doubt as to whether a person has inherited the generous spirit of his paladin mother and then you are able to watch secretly as the person administers healing without charging a copper for it just because a person is in need, then your doubts are likely to vanish with the morning dew. At the Games Master’s discretion, an act on the character’s part that seems to the observer to be in character may add a circumstance bonus of +2 to +4 to the recognition roll, or a concomitant penalty. Unfortunately, this works both ways; a character who is trying to shake off the bad reputation of a parent can easily be set up by malicious adversaries, so that they seem to have done something lawless or evil. If the observer thinks that you have committed an act, then the bonus is still conveyed, whether you actually did it or not. It is not entirely correct to speak of a ‘successful’ or ‘failed’ recognition check. The observer does not really attempt anything, so he cannot be said to have failed or succeeded. The terms are used here simply because that is the gaming convention. The purpose of the check is to ascertain whether or not the parent’s reputation is transferred to the child, based on the observer’s assessment. If the recognition check is failed, then you are, as far as the observers are concerned, your own person and the reputation of your parents is irrelevant. They may acknowledge that you are your parent’s child in body, but not in spirit. This may, of course, be exactly the outcome you hoped for. If your parent was dishonest where you intend to be honest or vice versa, then you may well have wanted to prevent people from associating you with your parent.
Successful Recognition
If the Recognition check is successful, then that person or group of people treats you with the respect they feel you are owed as the child of your famous parents. As
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DYNASTIES well as any immediate, social reaction, such as pledging allegiance or offering a place to stay for the night if your parent was liked or demanding the payment of old debts or attacking berserkly if your parent was hated, you benefit (or suffer) from a circumstance bonus (or penalty) to Charisma-based checks when dealing with the person or persons in future. If the parent was liked and trusted, the result is a bonus, while if they were disliked and mistrusted, the result is a penalty. The bonus or penalty is equal to your parent’s highest ability score modifier, to a maximum of five. So, if it was your father’s Wisdom ability score of 18 that helped to made him famous and well-beloved among the denizens of a given hamlet, then as soon as you have proved yourself worthy of his name, you can benefit from a +4 circumstance bonus to Charisma-based checks where those people are concerned.
These spells are not the exclusive province of humans, though humans have developed them and make more use of them than any other race.
The Life Domain
The new clerical domain of Life is introduced in these rules. Life is deemed to be not only the logical contradiction of death but also the preservation of existence through the centuries via the parenting and safe raising of children. The clerics of the Life domain are not often found adventuring, as they prefer to look after their flock. Life to them is something to be cultivated and cherished within a safe environment; it is more the role of those who have a Healing domain to run around after adventurers and make sure they are patched up. Clerics who have the Life domain are often cheery, ruddy people with a great joie de vivre and fondness for children.
Either successful or failed recognition can be overturned. The key event from the list above in this case is ‘any event that would cause onlookers to revise their opinion of you’. A person who sees you do something of which your parent would not have approved, or who finds evidence that you are not the person he thought you were, is entitled to make a new Recognition check with appropriate circumstance penalties. If he succeeds, his faith in you (or contempt for you) does not waver and he tries to find other explanations for what he has seen; if it fails, he accepts that you were not the person he believed you to be.
Deities: The deities of Life are often old pagan concepts of divinity from the myths of the humans, such as a Horned God or a Great Mother. Deities of the sun and the moon often have Life as an available domain. Granted Power: You may use the breath of life once per day. When a creature has died but has not had its hit points reduced to below –10 and is physically intact (no severed limbs or destroyed body parts) you may attempt to breathe life back into it. To do this, you must physically breathe into the creature’s mouth or nose; if it has none, the ability cannot be used. The creature is restored to life but is neither stabilised nor healed. If it was on –10 hit points, it will die again the round afterward unless it is stabilised. This ability must be used within 10 rounds of the creature’s death, or it is ineffective.
Recognition checks are also employed when a stranger attempts to claim heirship from a famous person, such as a bastard son of a royal line riding into the palace and demanding his birthright. Under these circumstances, a person with due authority (such as a court wizard) must make a Recognition check on behalf of the whole court, or even on behalf of the whole kingdom. His word determines whether the newcomer is the legal heir, though this does not guarantee him any bonuses or penalties from repute from people he has never met. You can only gain such bonuses or penalties by meeting people face to face and letting them see what kind of person you are.
Life Domain Spells
1. Naming Boon. Blesses a newly born infant creature. 2. Mother’s Strength. Helps a creature to give birth safely. 3. Fruitful Blessing. Increases fertility and removes barrenness. 4. Death Ward. Confers immunity to all death spells and magical death effects. 5. Raise Dead. Restores life to a dead creature who died up to 1 day/level ago. 6. Heroes’ Feast. Food for one creature/level cures and blesses. 7. Resurrection. Fully restores dead subject. 8. Clone. Duplicate awakens when original dies. 9. True Resurrection. As resurrection, plus remains aren’t needed.
Magic and Heredity
There are some spells and magical items specifically created to deal with the human desire to raise children. In the absence of any other remedy, magic can help to provide offspring to the barren; in the absence of any trustworthy legal guarantee, magic can ensure that your property passes to your descendants only and will not be purloined by ill-intentioned others.
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Naming Boon
This spell imbues the target creatures with heightened fertility, temporarily removing the curse of barrenness (or permanently removing it if it is magically induced) and making conception much more likely. While the spell’s effects last, infertile creatures become fertile, though a creature that has no reproductive capacity (such as a golem) or has lost its capacity to reproduce through maiming (such as a eunuch) is not rendered capable of engendering offspring. The roll to check whether conception has taken place is increased by +5. Fruitful blessing counters and dispels barrenness.
Conjuration Level: Clr 1, Life 1 Components: V, S, DF Casting Time: 1 action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft. level) Target: One living creature Duration: Permanent until discharged Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless) Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless) This spell may only be cast upon an infant creature in its first week of life and may only ever be placed once upon any one creature. It is traditionally cast when the creature is given a name in a formal religious ceremony. It allows the creature to call upon a +2 sacred bonus to any ability check or saving throw, which it may do a number of times equal to the level of the cleric who cast the spell. Some characters use up their naming boon surviving their childhood, while others still have some uses left by the time they begin adventuring.
Druids who are visiting the villages in their care often cast this spell at the end of a festival day. The crops are blessed in the morning with a plant growth spell and the people in the evening with a fruitful blessing spell, so that there will both be a fine harvest and a good number of new sons and daughters to enrich the community.
Barrenness
Transmutation Level: Clr 3, Drd 3 Components: V, S, DF Casting Time: 1 action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft. level) Target: One living creature/level Duration: Permanent Saving Throw: Fortitude negates Spell Resistance: Yes
Mother’s Strength
Transmutation Level: Clr 2, Life 2 Components: V, S, DF Casting Time: 1 action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft. level) Target: One living creature Duration: 1 hour/level Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless) Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
This spell smites a creature with infertility, making it unable to father or bear offspring. It is an especially feared curse among primitive peoples, as children are equated with wealth; one who leaves no descendants behind him has his name erased from the books of history. Those accused of being witches are often said to have cast this spell upon a couple in order to spite them. The absence of children is often adequate evidence for these accusations to blow up, although the accusation is far more common than the casting of the spell. Barrenness counters and dispels fruitful blessing.
This spell is used to ease the suffering of a woman who is in labour and give both her and her child the best chance of survival. It confers a +3 sacred bonus to the Constitution ability check needed to give birth successfully and to the Fortitude saving throw needed to avoid contracting childbed fever. Rural priests often prepare this spell when they first learn that a mother has gone into labour; it has often made the difference between life and death.
Threatening to smite humanoid monsters with barrenness is also a surprisingly effective move. The chieftain of an orc tribe, for example, is as concerned to have strong sons who will rule after him as the headsman of a human village would be.
Fruitful Blessing
Transmutation Level: Clr 3, Drd 3, Life 3 Components: V, S, DF Casting Time: 1 action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft. level) Target: One living creature/level Duration: 8 hours Saving Throw: Fortitude negates (harmless) Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
Curse the Unborn (Lesser) Transmutation [Evil] Level: Sor/Wiz 5, Clr 5 Components: V, S, M/DF Casting Time: 1 action
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DYNASTIES Range: Touch Target: One pregnant living creature Duration: See below Saving Throw: Fortitude negates Spell Resistance: Yes This ghastly spell, targeted as it is upon a complete innocent, belongs rightly to the realm of evil magics. It is worked as a malicious curse upon a pregnant mother, usually one in a position of power or authority, such as a noblewoman or even a queen. The object of the curse is usually to destroy the hope for continuity in the dynasty by making the child unfit. For example, a king who was trusting to his heirs to rule after him would soon see his bloodline expire if the child was born a weakling or an idiot. A curse of barrenness is more easy to remove and to detect, while curse the unborn is not only more subtle but more spiteful. The effect of curse the unborn is to afflict the child within the womb so that one if its ability scores will never develop beyond 6. The child develops as normal until that level is reached and other ability scores continue to increase if appropriate. The caster can choose which ability score this will be. The mother makes the saving throw and any spell resistance must come from her rather than the unborn infant. Curse the unborn does not take effect until the child is actually born, at which point it is permanent. The effects may not be undone after the birth has taken place, as they are considered to be birth defects and thus an integral feature of the person. Before birth has taken place it is possible to remove the curse. Curse the unborn may be removed with a break enchantment, remove curse, limited wish, miracle or wish spell. It is however more tenacious than most curses. A caster attempting to use break enchantment or remove curse to remove the effect must succeed in an opposed caster level check against that of the original caster.
Curse the Unborn (Greater)
Transmutation [Evil] Level: Sor/Wiz 8, Clr 8 Components: V, S, F/DF Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Target: One pregnant living creature Duration: See below
Arcane Material Component: A single eggshell, which is crushed as the spell is cast.
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DYNASTIES ‘I say, I say, I say... how many humans does it take to change a candle stub?’ ‘Dunno, how many?’ ‘None! They don’t live long enough!’ -typical joke told about humans by members of just about any other race Saving Throw: Fortitude negates Spell Resistance: Yes
the owner can retrieve it. For the purposes of this spell, the ‘owner’ is considered to be the person who has the item in their possession. It must have been within 5 feet of them for no less than 24 hours prior to the casting of the spell. The owner must participate in the creation of the bequest and is required to contribute a small portion of their blood to the process, as a material component.
As curse the unborn, except that the caster may choose any one of the following effects to apply: †
Any one of the child’s ability scores will not develop beyond 3
†
The child is born a lycanthrope instead of a human
†
The child is born with a blood disorder, so that any wound it receives will continue to bleed, causing the loss of 1 hit point per round until magical healing is bestowed
†
The child’s morals are twisted, so that its alignment begins as lawful evil, neutral evil or chaotic evil (the caster chooses which) and remains that way as it is growing up
†
The child has no soul of its own and is instead possessed at the moment of birth by a powerful ghost, demon or devil
†
The effect of bequest is to transmute all but a small portion of the item (such as its protruding hilt in the case of a sword) into a magical rock of Large size that is as heavy and hard as adamantite, with a hardness of 20 and 40 hit points per inch of thickness. For saving throw purposes, there is no distinction made between the rock and the item. It is impossible to target a spell at the rock (such as disintegrate) without affecting the item, as they are effectively a single object. This rock weighs a total of 800 lb. The item has its substance fused with the rock on the inside, so even if it could somehow be chipped free, it would be useless. Magical items have their powers suppressed by the bequest and cannot be activated or used at all while the spell lasts. The bequest is discharged when a blood descendant of the original owner takes hold of the protruding part of the item. This causes the magical rock to shatter and the item to reform and regain its suppressed powers. A bequest spell is only effective so long as there is a living child or grandchild of the original owner in the world. If all of the original owner’s direct descendants die, the bequest automatically expires.
The child carries to term normally, but is born dead Arcane material component: Hair from the lycanthrope type in question if this result is wished, or a small drum made from a human skull and an arm bone.
Bequest
The item embedded into the magical rock is entitled to a Will saving throw to resist the effects of the spell, though this is made at a –4 circumstance penalty because of the slow, overwhelming force of the magic, built up over 8 hours of casting time. In addition, the caster must successfully suppress the item’s powers with a dispel magic spell or similar method immediately prior to casting bequest. Bequest may not be used on artefacts.
Transmutation Level: Sor/Wiz 9 Components: V, S, M Casting Time: 8 hours Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft. level) Target: One nonliving item of no larger than Medium size Duration: Permanent until discharged Saving Throw: See below Spell Resistance: No
Material components: Blood from the item’s owner and a piece of adamantite.
The bequest spell is used to bind a powerful or precious item in such a way that only a biological descendant of
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THE LIMITS OF MORTALITY
The Limits of Mortality
All of these characters must have had a close relationship with the player while they were alive. The most likely candidates to become ghost companions are the player’s parents or relatives. An ancestor who never encountered the player during life may also become a ghost companion, especially if he recognises in the player something of the qualities he used to prize in life.
H
umans see a lot more of death than the other races do. Almost all humans who survive into middle age have seen their parents and grandparents die. Even if disease or violence did not claim them, the inevitable clutch of old age undoubtedly comes sooner or later and humans suffer it much earlier than the other races.
Most of the time, ghost companions will accompany the character unseen, keeping watch on him from the ethereal plane. Their motivation is usually to assist him and keep him alive, though their motives will vary depending on the relationship they had with the character during life. They will use their powers to lend a hand, even going so far as to possess the character with their malevolence ability if a task calls for a skill that they do not have. For example, a fighter trapped behind a locked door in a room slowly filling with water might allow himself to be possessed by the ghost of his rogue brother, whose chance of picking the lock is much higher than the fighter’s.
This is not, however, the end of the story. Humans have more resilient souls than other races and a human who dies while he still has unfinished business to attend to may stay on the material plane for a while longer, becoming a ghost. The rules for creating ghosts are given in Core Rulebook III. Many ghosts are malevolent entities, haunting places and unable or unwilling to move beyond those areas. Some ghosts, by contrast, haunt people. They may do this because the person wronged them in some way, because the person still needs their protection or because they just do not want to say goodbye yet. A ghost can become a regular part of a person’s life, showing up frequently to give advice or pass judgement, or even giving practical assistance by such expedients as passing through the wall to see what is in the room beyond, or taking possession of a foe who is threatening their charge.
Ghost companions are not servants. They will express disapproval, refuse to help if they do not like the course the character is taking and will use their telekinesis ability or even their malevolence ability to interfere with the character’s actions. This is the downside of having ghost companions. If the shade of your father does not want you to go drinking with your friends, he may pour himself into your body and steer it away, or knock bottles over on the tables of people sitting next to you, prompting angry accusations and the high probability of fisticuffs.
Ghost Companions
Human characters with the Ghost Companion feat (see Chapter 5) may acquire one or more ghost companions. A character may acquire one such companion at fifth level, another at tenth level, a third at fifteenth level, a fourth at twentieth level and so on. However, he may have only as many ghost companions as he has points in his Charisma bonus, if positive.
Ghost companions can also become jealous or resentful of other beings. They can fight and argue among themselves, causing headaches for the mortal whose life they are supposed to be helping to preserve, or interfere with the mortal’s attempts to find other sources of advice, comfort or love than the ghost. Sometimes, the ghost companion whose presence you welcomed because it meant that a loved one would never be far away from you begins to seem more like a prison sentence.
The Games Master, in consultation with the player, creates the ghost companion characters. Each one is limited to a minimum character level of the player’s own overall levels minus five, to a minimum of one. A fifteenth level character with the Ghost Companion feat could therefore have one ghost companion who was a tenth level fighter, one who was a fifth level sorcerer and another who had been a first level rogue. The ghosts do not advance in level as the player does. If they are destroyed, they attempt to return as per the usual rules for ghosts.
Communicating With Ghost Companions: A ghost companion cannot communicate anything to its human charge unless it manifests or takes possession of a mortal body. The ghost can hear anything the player says but does not have to respond or even acknowledge the player’s words. Manifestation is tiring for ghosts, as they have to channel some of their energy into forming an ectoplasmic vehicle on the material plane. Unless the ghost has an especially good reason to respond, a Charisma ability score check (DC 12) is necessary to
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The Parent
persuade it to manifest and communicate with you. You may make this attempt once per hour.
The human character is haunted by the ghost of his father or mother, or a foster parent.
Manifestation Of Ghost Companions: The kind of ghostly being who haunts a person on an ongoing basis is slightly different from that which haunts a place. Ordinary ghosts can manifest at will, for as long as they choose; theory has it that the psychic residue from their death imbues the place with a kind of energy which enables them to come and go from the material to the ethereal plane. Ghost companions are reliant upon their link with the person. This enables them to travel further afield than ordinary ghosts, who are usually limited to a specific area such as a graveyard or house but also limits their capacity for interaction with the material world. They can only manifest once per day, for a maximum of ten rounds; this manifestation is limited to a range of 30 feet from the character. Though they can travel further than this range once they have manifested, their initial manifestation must be within this area. If they have the malevolence ability, they can make one possession attempt per day. They may possess the character for up to one hour per day, or another person for a maximum of half an hour per day.
Motive: Parents often haunt their human children because they feel that they are still needed. A parent may remain with a child out of a sense of unfulfilled duty, which can happen if the parent died early in the child’s life. They can also haunt a child who they feel has dishonoured them in some way, in the hope of turning them into a worthwhile person; this might happen if a good cleric had a child who proved to be the most rebellious, sadistic rogue around, or if a sorcerer of chaos had a child who was so disillusioned by his upbringing that he resolved to be a paladin. In either case, the parent would want to keep the child alive, just so that they could eventually see the change in the child’s life of which they had dreamed for so long. Advantages: A parental ghost is likely to be practical and sensible, giving the character wise advice and keeping his spirits up in adversity. They are good at preempting difficulties, warning the character of dangers he is likely to face. A parental ghost will often use its Sense Motive skill to look out for the character, with statements like ‘Don’t trust that Watteel, I’ve seen his like before, they’re no good, any of them, we knew some Watteels when we lived back in Boddersley, the whole family are a bunch of rapscallions if you ask me.’ Such ghosts receive a +2 circumstance bonus to all Sense Motive and Spot checks made when looking out for the character’s interests, such as when watching his back or watching over him while he sleeps.
Perils Of Ghost Companions: There are a great many advantages to having ghost companions during life. You can ask the ghost to scout for you, to scare enemies or even to possess your body and do something you have no ability to do, such as cast a spell. However, there is one terrible danger associated with ghost companions. They are all, in their own way, waiting for you to die, though they do not want this event to happen any more than you do. Should you die, the ghost companions you had during life will attempt to keep you from returning to life. They will fight to keep your spirit with them in the afterworld.
Disadvantages: Parental ghosts do not often respect the privacy of the human they are bound to and have difficulty seeing the character as anything other than a child. They still feel they have authority over the child’s life, as they were responsible for bringing him into the world. A parental ghost can make the character feel like he has no life of his own. They are more likely to intervene directly in the character’s life than any other kind of ghostly companion, making decisions for the character and sometimes ruining his chances to do something he had set his heart on. ‘I didn’t raise you to be a thief! Go back inside and put that jewel back, this instant!’ If the parent has the same alignment as the child, this will cause problems, as the parent will be trying to keep the child on the proper moral course; if the parent has a differing alignment, this will also cause problems, as the parent tries to impose his or her own view of what is right on to the character’s choices.
A character who has ghost companions when he dies and who is targeted by a raise dead or resurrection spell must make a Will saving throw against DC 25 for each ghostly companion he had when he died. Failure to succeed at any one of these saving throws means that his soul now resides with the ghosts and is not free to return to life.
Types of Ghost Companion
This section gives examples of typical ghost companions that a human adventurer might have. Any companions created by the Games Master should follow the same lines. Having a ghost companion is, on balance, an advantage for the character (which is why it requires a feat) but it is not an easy ride. All ghost companions have clearly delineated advantages and disadvantages.
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THE LIMITS OF MORTALITY
The Lover
splendour they can manage and distracting an opponent who was about to strike the character down, then fading away with an enigmatic smile. A character with a former lover on the other side has less to fear from death, as he knows there is someone who cares for him waiting for him to pass through the veil. A character with a ghostly lover for a companion always has a +2 circumstance bonus to his Charisma ability score check to make the ghost manifest and communicate with him.
Motive: In the majority of cases, ghostly lovers seek to protect the character from harm, as they are so devoted to them and do not wish them to suffer. Even if the ghost would prefer to be reunited with the character after death, they understand (most of the time, anyway) that the character still has some living left to do.
Disadvantages: Dead lovers (much like live ones, really) are remarkably good at making living characters feel guilty. Passive-aggressive behaviour on the part of a ghost of this kind is all too common. The words ‘Don’t worry, you go and have fun, I’m sure I would be frequenting dockside taverns too if I still had a body,’ are frequently heard emanating from ghostly presences.
The character is haunted by the ghostly shade of a former paramour. This is usually a person who was in a happy relationship or marriage with the character before they died, though sometimes rejected lovers can become persistent ghosts. The most dreadful situation of all is when a rejected lover kills himself and then comes back as a ghost, haunting the person he was obsessed with during life.
Advantages: Ghostly lovers are prepared to go to any lengths to help the character. Of all the ghost companions, they are the most helpful; by being useful to the character, they retain some contact with him or her and can maintain some semblance of a relationship. They like to help the character out in ‘romantic’ ways, such as by appearing without warning in all the
A ghost lover who is upset can be sullen, moody and uncooperative, while one who is jealous or angry can be flagrantly malicious. Depending on how possessive the departed lover is, if the living character enters into a liason with anyone else, or even forms an especially close friendship, the ghost can become bitterly resentful and go out of its way to sabotage the relationship. A truly resentful ghost will even go so far as to possess the body of its living rival during a moment of intimacy, so that it can enjoy the embrace of the mortal character once more.
The Friend
The character is followed around by the shade of a former friend or adventuring colleague. This category of ghost companion is also suitable for brothers and sisters of the character. Former player characters who have died are not good choices for ghostly companions unless the player who controlled them forfeits any option to ever play them again; the possibility of resurrection is simply too strong for a departed player character, so a non-player character should be used whenever possible. Motive: The ghosts of friends stay with their mortal companions out of dogged loyalty, both to the person and to what he stands for. They feel they still have something to contribute to the character’s cause. When the ghost was a former adventuring colleague, it often feels reluctant to ‘break up the team’ and tries as best it can to resume its old role in the party. Some deceased friends are keen for the character to investigate their deaths and avenge them if possible, which always makes for a good adventure hook.
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THE LIMITS OF MORTALITY Advantages: The ghosts of friends are not as prone to malicious interference, sorrow, jealousy or rage as other spirits are; they are more likely to deal with the character as if nothing much had changed, treating their own death as a minor inconvenience that can be worked around. Friend ghosts are more trustworthy than others and tend to be as sensible as they were in life. In addition, the close bonds of amity and mental sympathy between the character and the ghost mean that a friend ghost with the malevolence ability can take possession of the character for up to four hours per day instead of one hour.
eventually. They will not help him to do any evil deed, though they will keep him alive as best they can, while constantly urging him to repent of his evil ways before death comes and makes it too late. Advantages: There are not many advantages to being followed around by one or more of your victims, especially if they are still bloody from the final gash your blade inflicted upon them, or smoking from the fireball you could have sworn they were a safe distance away from when you cast it. However, there is one powerful advantage. Victims are the closest of all the ghostly companions to the conventional kind of ghost. They have been taken, violently, before their time and the person with blood on his hands – the character – is still alive. They can therefore manifest as many times in the day as they choose, as the link between them and the character is very strong. They may not remain manifest for longer than thirty minutes at a time and must remain wholly ethereal for at least ten minutes after any one manifestation is finished.
Disadvantages: The very attitude that says ‘nothing has really changed’ can make for problems. Ghosts of friends want to have a say in what the character, or sometimes what the whole party, should do. They refuse, if you will pardon the pun, to lie down and die. They give their help only so long as their advice is listened to and acted on. Being dead is very frustrating for this kind of ghost. They try to live vicariously through the character, urging him to try new experiences or do challenging things, because they cannot do these things themselves any more.
Disadvantages: Victims are often more than a little bitter. After all, they had their lives ahead of them before the character brought them to an abrupt close. Some are forgiving, while others are outright vengeful and would slay the character themselves were it not for the fact that his death would bring their own end upon them and they are scared to go into the endless dark. The ghosts of victims are just as likely to interfere with the character’s affairs as they are to help him, though they are not likely to do anything that would put him in direct peril for the reasons given above. The bond between slayer and slain is intimate as well as strong, allowing the ghost to take over the character’s body more easily even if the character is not willing; characters with victims as ghostly companions suffer a –3 circumstance penalty to their saving throws to resist the ghost’s malevolence ability.
The Victim
The ghost of someone the character has killed, whether the death was accidental or intentional, accompanies him. This is an especially good option for good or neutral characters who have killed someone by mistake, as the responsibility for the killing still lies with the character but there is not necessarily any animosity between him and the ghost. Evil characters, or those who have to carry out a lot of killings in their line of work (such as fighters or barbarians) can find that the ghosts of those they slay without mercy can haunt them afterwards. Assassins in particular can find that a retinue of their victims builds up as they advance in level. Motive: Victims who were of good alignment usually help good and neutral characters because they find themselves bound to their slayers and decide to do the best they can in the situation. It is expected that the character will make amends for killing the person who became the ghost, if they have not already done so. The motives of characters murdered by evil players are less clear. It is not always obvious in these cases why such a ghost would want to keep the character alive or help him but the overwhelming reason is usually a deal made between the character and the ghost; if the ghost gives assistance, the character will not cause even further misery for those the ghost cares about on the earthly plane.
The Casualty
This kind of ghost companion is one who has died because of the character, though not by his hand. There is always an element of guilt by association on the character’s part, though not nearly as severe as that associated with the victim type of ghost. Casualties are people such as a favourite innkeeper who was killed by enemies who were trying to find out your location, a random bystander who stopped to help you and took an arrow meant for you, a henchman who was killed by a trap you failed to detect, a person you accidentally sent into danger because of a detail you had forgotten, or even someone you knowingly betrayed or failed to warn, so that although others slew them, you still bear the responsibility.
Some ghosts are simply so innocent or pure that they assist the character in the hope of redeeming him
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THE LIMITS OF MORTALITY attach themselves to the last surviving member of their bloodline, as this person represents the only chance for the whole family not to die out, an eventuality that the ancestor is desperate to prevent.
Motive: Casualties tend (with reason) to see the character as a liability. They assist him in order to prevent him causing any further damage to other people’s lives. They also turn up in order to remind him of his responsibilities. Few ghosts are better at causing guilt for a character than a casualty; all they have to do is to manifest and look at him reproachfully, as if to say ‘Look what you did.’ A character who has several casualties for ghost companions can soon begin to think of himself as a jinx, who brings death and destruction to people without meaning to.
Motive: The ancestor is usually driven by a sense of responsibility to his family. He was in his time a dedicated upholder of the family’s reputation and wants to make sure that the character lives up to the same standards. His role is to help the character, just as an elder is supposed to, giving the benefit of his guidance and wisdom.
Advantages: As the prime motive of a casualty ghost is to prevent further harm coming to others because of the character’s negligence or treachery, they tend to act on their own initiative without being asked to first. They will use their telekinesis abilities to protect those around the character or associated with him. This can, ironically, cause the character to be seen as a lucky presence, as people who would otherwise have met with accidents feel ‘unseen hands’ pushing them out of the way. A casualty ghost that has a chance to use its telekinesis ability on a target who is attempting a Reflex saving throw to avoid damage can give the target a +1 circumstance bonus to this saving throw, as the extra telekinetic push can help them to avoid damage. Casualty ghosts also have a wider range of manifestation available, because they are used to looking out for those close to the character as well as the character himself. Accordingly, a casualty ghost can manifest within 60 feet of the character, rather than the usual limit of 30 feet.
There is a wholly different kind of ancestor, the sort who usually patronises evil characters. This is the ‘black sheep’ variety of ancestor, the family shame. Many families will have one of these, a person who is not spoken of in polite company and who was either mad, twisted, debauched or all of the above. A ‘black sheep’ can sometimes graft himself on to a descendant out of approval, being happy to see someone as ghastly as himself emerge from the bloodline at last, or out of a wish to corrupt a character further who is already taking the first steps down the dark road. Advantages: An ancestor ghost is the least likely of all the spirits to act in a way that would sabotage the character’s interests, however he defines them. Even if they disapprove of the course a character is taking, they will never actively meddle, unlike a lover or a parent. Ancestor spirits have been walking between the worlds for many years. The character is, in all probability, not the first human being that they have counselled and protected. As a result of this, they are considerably more learned than other phantoms. An ancestor ghost receives a +2 insight bonus to all Knowledge skill checks. Ancestor ghosts are also much more adept at the arts of possession than other ghosts, having had many centuries (in most cases) to refine their talents. They may use malevolence to possess the character without having to manifest fully in order to do so; they manifest in the character’s space and enter his body in one move.
Disadvantages: A casualty is more interested in helping others than it is in helping the character. It will still manifest on occasion and assist the character but it is harder to persuade it to manifest than other ghosts. Accordingly, the character suffers a –2 circumstance penalty to the Charisma ability score check needed to force the ghost to manifest and take action.
The Ancestor
The ghost of a distant relative, such as a grandparent or even some legendary hero from former times, haunts the character. Ancestors have rarely met the character during their mortal life. They usually have a tie to the bloodline rather than the individual, having sworn to guard their descendants down all the ages. Their interest in the character is because of what he is (a descendant of the same line) not who he is. Ancestor ghosts are not generally interested in the personal traits of the character. They are much more concerned with how the character’s conduct and aspirations reflect upon the family as a whole. Ancestor ghosts will often
Disadvantages: Ancestor ghosts are used to being called upon to take possession of their charges. They regard this as a privilege of their position. They will not cause outright trouble for the character but they will insist on using his body as a matter of course, in order to experience the sweet things of the world that they have left behind. Unfortunately, many ancestor ghosts are of a martial temperament and consider fighting to be one of the most sorely missed activities in their nonlives. They will often attempt to possess the character just so that they can get into a scrap. Whenever the
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THE LIMITS OF MORTALITY character makes a Charisma check to call the ghost to manifestation, the ghost has a 1 in 4 chance to make an immediate possession attempt, using its malevolence ability.
bit as reluctant to enter a dangerous situation as a mortal person would be; perhaps more so, since the ghost has experienced death already and does not want to be reminded of the process. The party members, especially the character with the Ghost Companion feat, should never take the ghost for granted. Instead of acting as the ultimate invisible servant, almost all ghosts will negotiate before doing something difficult or dangerous for anyone other than their charge.
Roleplaying A Ghost Companion
Ghost companions can sometimes make entertaining player characters. This works best if the ghost is only played for one adventure or story arc, as they are difficult characters to sustain; the inability to collect equipment becomes a problem in the long run. A good option is to allow a visitor to the gaming session to play a regular character’s ghost companion for the evening. It gives the ghost character more of a personality and allows for interesting roleplaying opportunities between the character and his spectral ally.
One might ask what a ghost could possibly negotiate for, as they have no use for money or goods. The answer is simple: having been human once, they want to be human once again. The fee demanded by a ghost for its service is, traditionally, the use of the body of one of the party members. This is about the only reward that will benefit a ghost directly. They may, depending upon their nature and alignment, also demand that other actions be taken in recompense for their work. For example, a parental ghost might refuse to help a group of adventurers (including his child) break into a building, even though the owner is a wicked and corrupt man, on the grounds that burglary is wrong. He might, however, agree to distract the guards on the condition that none of the servants were mistreated and at least a thousand gold pieces were donated to the city orphanage. Ghosts can be extremely awkward when they want to be and any player taking the part of one should bear this in mind.
The most likely approach from a typical group of players is to see the ghost companion as a sort of super-familiar or secret weapon who can be sent into places that the characters cannot reach, pull levers with telekinesis, terrify enemies or drain their ability scores and otherwise bail the regular characters out of trouble. The ghost is already dead, so what harm can come to it? Within limits, this attitude is acceptable and can even advance the game. There are plenty of examples from fiction of mortal characters having ghostly sidekicks, assistants or advisors, from Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) to Six Feet Under. It is, however, important to remember that the ghost is also a person and having a guest party member play the ghost as a character drives that fact home. The Games Master should remember that ghosts are far from invulnerable. Although they return once discorporated, it takes them several days to do so and they do not enjoy the experience. It is no less pleasant to have an ectoplasmic body shredded than a physical one. A ghost should therefore be every
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DESIGNER'S NOTES
Designer’s Notes
presence of humans was down to nothing more than the way the game evolved. However, more attractive explanations began to suggest themselves. It finally became apparent how a species that was plagued by interracial hostility in the real world could become the very model of interracial harmony in the fantasy world, without resorting to simple ‘everything’s so much nicer in the game universe’ explanations. The results of these speculations are found in the chapter on human cultures, which I hope you will find thought-provoking as well as useful.
W
ell, this has been my biggest challenge to date as a Mongoose writer. I am still quite surprised by what an enjoyable trip it has been, given the difficulty of the original remit. I mean – the Quintessential Human? Sum up the nature of humanity in 128 well-chosen pages? How exactly was I supposed to do that, when the philosophers of the real world have yet to do it after several million pages? I know it is not quite the same thing that is being asked, but there is still some of the essential trickiness there. The simpler a thing is, the harder it is to describe it. The other races can be identified and detailed by how much they differ from humanity. The peculiar body shape, the unconventional tastes, the unusual living conditions – whether it is a dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling or half-orc you are looking at, it is the unfamiliar characteristics that stand out. It is thus easy to say something about them. Focus on a human and it seems almost impossible to say anything new about them.
It was clear from the outset that this could not possibly be an ordinary Quintessential book, if indeed there is such a thing. In particular, the Dynasties chapter necessitated the sensitive handling of issues that some players might not want to tackle in a game world. I therefore request the reader’s patience regarding such things as die rolls to determine whether or not conception has taken place, rules for surviving childbirth and theorization about the human tendency to breed with creatures other than other humans. All I can offer by way of excuse is to point out that these things are implicitly there in the game. It was my intention to bite the bullet and tackle them, not to introduce some home-baked brand of ‘realism’ or gender politics into the d20 fantasy worlds. I hope they lend colour and flavour to your game.
Or so I thought at first, as I expect most people would have done in my position! Fortunately, humanity itself came to my rescue. It was only necessary to turn the situation on its head and look at the humans as if I had been a member of another race. The flavour text that opens the book was the first thing to be written and gave me the necessary perspective. If the book seems as if it were written by an elf at times, then it was because I was trying to see the likes of you and me the way an outsider would see us. Some things leapt into focus immediately. For example, human mortality and limited life expectancy explained a great deal about us. Our energy and quick learning capacity (expressed in such game mechanics as additional feats and skill points) is the result of our need to hurry up and get on with life before death claims us. We need to be adaptable, because we do not have forever in which to acclimatize ourselves.
I must give profuse thanks to fellow Mongoose writer Alejandro Melchor for the initial proposal that became the foundation of this book. Without those ideas I would have had to do a lot more groping down the back of the inspiration sofa. Incidentally, that is where writers get their ideas from, though they will never admit it. In closing what has been an extraordinary and memorable project, I would like to dedicate it to any gamer anywhere who has ever undertaken the task of bringing up a child to be a decent person. If anything is truly quintessentially human, then that struggle is it. Adrian Bott
As far as the human approach to other races went, in particular the famous quote that has humans as ‘everybody’s second-best friends’, this was slightly harder to crack. The cynic in me kept returning to the obvious fact that this was just a game and the
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INDEX
Index A Ability Scores and Other Traits for Children 107 Agricultural Weapons 60 Agricultural Weapon Proficiency 54 Appraise: Detect Fake 34 Axe (Woodsman’s) 62 B Barbed Wire 67 Barge 66 Barrenness 113 Bequest 115 Blocking Attacks With Agricultural Weapons 60 Blocking Parry 54 Blowpipe 63 Bluff: Courtly Flirtation 35 Bluff: Rogues’ Signing 37 Bluff: Play Dead 36 Bluff: Two-Man Grift 35 Bolas 64 Boomerang 63 Breathing Tube 65 C Caravan 65 Catapult (Hand) 64 Chakram 64 Choosing a Culture 70 Climbing Fixtures 65 Clinging To Life 34 Covered Wagon 66 Craft (alchemy): Concentrate / Crystallize Potion 37 Craft (alchemy): Fake Jewel 39 Craft (any): Jury Rig / Bodge 40 Craft (mortician) 39 Craft (puzzles) 41 Crime Family 71 Crook 62 Cult Leader 27 Cunning Lad 4 Curse the Unborn (Greater) 114 Curse the Unborn (Lesser) 114 D Daredevil 15 Deflecting Parry 55 Diplomacy: Counselling 42 Disguise: Apply Cosmetics 43 Displaced One 12 E Elf-Friend 6 Empathic Understanding 56 F Fakir 22 Family Remedy 66 Farm Boy 8 Flail, Threshing 61 Forgery: Counterfeit Money 44 Fork 62 Fostering 109
Fruitful Blessing 113 Fume Mask 65 G Gallows 68 Gather Information: Spread Rumours 44 Ghost Companions 56, 116 Giant-killer 16 Greater Soul Tenacity 56 Guillotine 69 H Heal: Autopsy 45 Heal: Kiss of Life 47 Heirship And The Law 110 Hoe 62 Holy Fool 25 Homemaker 9 Human Fertility 104 I Inadequate Parenting 108 Intercept 57 Intimidate: Avoid Leaving Marks 47 Intuitive Grasp 57 Investing Experience 108 J Jack of All Trades 57 Jungle Dweller 83 K Kukri 64 L Life Domain Spells 112 Lightning Riposte 58 Limb Plaster 66 Lothario 30
Pregnant Characters 104 Princely Hero 19 Profession (harlot) 50 Pushing an Ability 32 R Racism In The Fantasy Game Environment 70 Raising Children Yourself 107 Rake 62 Religious Colonist 88 Reputation 110 Riding Crop 61 Roleplaying A Ghost Companion 121 S Savannah Hunter 90 Scythe (Farmer’s) 63 Seafarer 92 Sense Motive: Cold Reading 52 Shears 62 Shield Parry 58 Shovel 62 Skillet 61 Sledgehammer 63 Sleight-of-Hand: Bunco Booth 49 Sleight-of-Hand: Prestidigitation 49 Social Stigmas 106 Soul Retention 59 Soul Tenacity 59 Steppe Raider 94 Street Raised 96 Strength of Humanity 59 Subject of Prophecy 10 Successful Recognition 111 Swim: Long Dive 52 Swim: Rescue the Drowning 53 Swordstick 64
N Naming Boon 113 Noble in Disguise 5 Nomad, Desert 74 Nomad, Highway 76 Nomad, River/Canal (‘Water Rat’) 78 Northerner 80
T The Ancestor 120 The Casualty 119 The Cultivating Human 60 The Enigma 13 The Exploring Human 64 The Friend 118 The Inhumane Human 67 The Life Domain 112 The Lover 118 The Nurturing Human 66 The Parent 117 The Travelling Human 65 The Victim 119 Transferring Property and Repute 110 Types of Ghost Companion 117
O Offhand Riposte 58
U Urban Sophisticate 99
P Perform (mimicry) 48 Pitchfork 62 Plainsman 85 Planned and Unplanned Conceptions 104 Playing Your Character’s Children 103 Poison Ring 69
W Weapons Of The Human Cultures 63 Wheelchair 67 Why Have Children? 102
M Magic and Heredity 112 Malcontent 7 Man-Trap 67 Meat Cleaver 61 Monster Captor 18 Mother’s Strength 113 Move Silently: Muffle Blow 48
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The Quintessential Human
CHARACTER ________________________________________________ PLAYER ________________________________________ CLASS ______________________________________________________ LEVEL _________________________________________ CHARACTER CONCEPT _______________________________________________________________________________________ RACE _______________________________________________________ ALIGNMENT ____________________________________ PATRON DEiTY / RELIGION ____________________________________________________________________________________ PLACE OF ORIGIN_____________________________________________FIGHTING STYLE_______________________________
HIT POINTS
SCORE
MODIFIER
TEMP TEMP SCORE MODIFIER
SUB DMG
CONSTITUTION INTELLIGENCE
SAVING THROWS
TOTAL
BASE
ABILITY MAGIC
MISC
TEMP
MODIFIERS
FORTITUDE (CON) REFLEX (DEX) WILL (WIS)
APPRAISE
Y / N
INT
BALANCE
Y / N
DEX
BLUFF
Y / N
CHA
CLIMB
Y / N
STR
CONCENTRATION
Y / N
CON INT
CRAFT (
)
Y / N
CRAFT (
)
Y / N
INT
CRAFT (
)
Y / N
INT
DECIPHER SCRIPT
Y / N
INT
DIPLOMACY
Y / N
CHA
Y / N
INT
DISABLE DEVICE TOTAL
------------- MODIFIERS ----------ABILITY SIZE MISC TEMP
BASE
DEX
DISGUISE
Y / N
FORGERY
Y / N
Y / N
DEX
CHA
Y / N
CHA
RANGED (DEX)
HEAL
Y / N
WIS
HIDE
Y / N
DEX
A PE RM NA OU LT R Y CH EC A K R FA C IL AN U E RE S PE LL SP RE EL SI L ST A N CE
Y / N
HANDLE ANIMAL
A FL C W AT H FO EN OT AC TO V ED U ER CH S AT US TA CK M IS S S CH A N M CE BO AX N D U EX S
GATHER INFORMATION
WEAPON AND ARMOUR PROFICIENCIES
INTIMIDATE
Y / N
CHA
JUMP
Y / N
STR
KNOWLEDGE (
)
Y / N
INT
KNOWLEDGE (
)
Y / N
INT
KNOWLEDGE (
)
Y / N
INT
KNOWLEDGE (
)
Y / N
INT
KNOWLEDGE (
)
Y / N
INT
Y / N
WIS
Y / N
DEX
LISTEN
WEAPONS
MOVE SILENTLY
ATK BONUS DAMAGE CRITICAL RANGE TYPE SIZE HARD HPS
NOTES
OPEN LOCK
ATK BONUS DAMAGE CRITICAL RANGE TYPE SIZE HARD HPS
NOTES ATK BONUS DAMAGE CRITICAL RANGE TYPE SIZE HARD HPS
NOTES WEAPON
DEX
PERFORM (
)
Y / N
CHA
PERFORM (
)
Y / N
CHA
Y / N
DEX
ATK BONUS DAMAGE CRITICAL RANGE TYPE SIZE HARD HPS
PROFESSION (
)
Y / N
WIS
PROFESSION (
)
Y / N
WIS
RIDE
Y / N
DEX
SEARCH
Y / N
INT
SENSE MOTIVE
Y / N
WIS
SLEIGHT OF HAND
Y / N
DEX
SPEAK LANGUAGE
Y / N
NONE
SPELLCRAFT
Y / N
INT
Y / N
WIS
SPOT SURVIVAL
NOTES WEAPON
ATK BONUS DAMAGE CRITICAL RANGE TYPE SIZE HARD HPS
Y / N
WIS
SWIM
Y / N
TUMBLE
Y / N
DEX
USE MAGIC DEVICE
Y / N
CHA
USE ROPE
NOTES
Y / N
PICK POCKET
WEAPON
NATURAL MISC
INT
MELEE (STR)
WEAPON
SIZE
CHA
ESCAPE ARTIST
INITIATIVE (DEX)
WEAPON
WIS
CROSS KEY MODIFIERS MAX RANKS = LVL +3 (/2) CLASS ABILITY TOTAL ABILITY RANKS MISC
DAMAGE REDUCTION
CHARISMA
COMBAT BONUSES
CLASS
HIT DIE
WISDOM
ARMOUR SHIELD
= 10 +
STRENGTH DEXTERITY
ARMOUR
ARMOUR ARMOUR WORN
ABILITY SCORES
Y / N
STR
DEX Y / N
CAN BE USED WITH 0 RANKS, ARMOUR CHECK PENALTY APPLIES, DOUBLE NORMAL ARMOUR CHECK PENALTIES APPLY.
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FEATS
EQUIPMENT ITEM
LOCATION WT
ITEM
LOCATION
WT
NAME
EFFECT
CLASS/RACIAL ABILITIES ABILITY
CURRENT LOAD
TOTAL WEIGHT CARRIED
MOVEMENT / LIFTING Movement
Rate Movement
Walk (= Base)
Hour Walk
Hustle
Hour Hustle
Run (x 3)
Day Walk
Run (x4)
Special
Load
MONEY & GEMS Rate
CP SP GP -
Weight Carried Max Dex Chk Pen Run
Light
EFFECT
-
-
-
Medium
+3
-3
x4
Heavy
+1
-6
x3
PP GEMS -
EXPERIENCE TOTAL EXPERIENCE LIFT OVER HEAD = MAX LOAD
LIFT OFF GROUND = 2 X MAX LOAD
PUSH OR DRAG = 5 X MAX LOAD
LANGUAGES XPS NEEDED FOR NEXT LEVEL
THIS PAGE IS DESIGNATED OPEN GAME CONTENT. PERMISSION GRANTED TO PHOTOCOPY FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. A COPY MAY BE DOWNLOADED FROM OUR WEBSITE
SPECIALIST SCHOOL:
HEAL RATE PER DAY
PROHIBITED SCHOOL(S): SPELL SPELLS SPELLS BONUS # SPELLS SAVE DC LEVEL PER DAY SPELLS KNOWN
SPELLS
0 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH 6TH 7TH 8TH 9TH
SPELL SAVE DC MOD
MAGIC ITEMS
HENCHMEN / ANIMAL COMPANIONS / MERCENARIES NAME
RACE
NUMBER
HD / LVL
HP
INIT
SPD
AC
BAB STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
NOTES NAME
RACE
NUMBER
HD / LVL
HP
INIT
SPD
AC
BAB STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
RACE
NUMBER
HD / LVL
HP
INIT
SPD
AC
BAB STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
NOTES NAME
NOTES
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PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
AGE
SEX
HEIGHT
SIZE
WEIGHT
HAIR
EYES
HANDEDNESS
QUOTE / FAVOURITE SAYING
PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER
ENEMIES, ALLIES, PAST AQUAINTENCES
BACKGROUND & FURTHER NOTES
GUILD
ALLIES
RESOURCES
TYPE: ALIGNMENT: REACH: LOYALTY: ACTIVITY: VISIBILITY: INCOME: THIS PAGE IS DESIGNATED OPEN GAME CONTENT. PERMISSION GRANTED TO PHOTOCOPY FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. A COPY MAY BE DOWNLOADED FROM OUR WEBSITE
LICENSES Open Game License
Contributions are Your original creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by this License.
THIS LICENSE IS APPROVED FOR GENERAL USE. PERMISSION TO DISTRIBUTE THIS LICENSE IS MADE BY WIZARDS OF THE COAST!
6.Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright holder’s name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.
OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc (“Wizards”). All Rights Reserved.
7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another, independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does not constitute a challenge to the ownership of that Product Identity. The owner of any Product Identity used in Open Game Content shall retain all rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity.
1. Definitions: (a)”Contributors” means the copyright and/or trademark owners who have contributed Open Game Content; (b)”Derivative Material” means copyrighted material including derivative works and translations (including into other computer languages), potation, modification, correction, addition, extension, upgrade, improvement, compilation, abridgment or other form in which an existing work may be recast, transformed or adapted; (c) “Distribute” means to reproduce, license, rent, lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise distribute; (d)”Open Game Content” means the game mechanic and includes the methods, procedures, processes and routines to the extent such content does not embody the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art and any additional content clearly identified as Open Game Content by the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative works under copyright law, but specifically excludes Product Identity. (e) “Product Identity” means product and product line names, logos and identifying marks including trade dress; artifacts; creatures characters; stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork, symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations; names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations, environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game Content; (f) “Trademark” means the logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor to identify itself or its products or the associated products contributed to the Open Game License by the Contributor (g) “Use”, “Used” or “Using” means to use, Distribute, copy, edit, format, modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative Material of Open Game Content. (h) “You” or “Your” means the licensee in terms of this agreement.
8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open Game Content. 9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License. 10. Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this License with every copy of the Open Game Content You Distribute. 11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or advertise the Open Game Content using the name of any Contributor unless You have written permission from the Contributor to do so. 12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game Content due to statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open Game Material so affected.
2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a notice indicating that the Open Game Content may only be Used under and in terms of this License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use. No terms may be added to or subtracted from this License except as described by the License itself. No other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content distributed using this License. 3.Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of this License. 4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content. 5.Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original material as Open Game Content, You represent that Your
13. Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply with all terms herein and fail to cure such breach within 30 days of becoming aware of the breach. All sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License. 14. Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable. 15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. System Reference Document Copyright 2000-2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich baker, Andy Collins, David noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Open game content from The Quintessential Human copyright 2003, Mongoose Publishing Ltd.
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