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View Full Version : Taqriaqsuit [PF Race, Shadow-Folk, Vespuccia]



Admiral Squish
2013-01-29, 11:05 PM
Taqriaqsuit or Shadow-Folk
Designed for Vespuccia (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269334)

http://www.inuitmyths.com/images/shadowpeople.jpg

Personality: Taqriaqsuit are extremely polite and gentle beings, despite their somewhat unsettling appearance. They’re generally easy-going, and have go-with-the-flow attitudes. But they are not forgiving of those who wrong them, and they make fearsome enemies that can strike from any angle, walk through any wall to reach those who have wronged them.
Physical Description: Taqriaqsuit are unusual beings. They look much like normal humans, but their bodies are dark gray, resembling silhouettes more than anything, shadowy and indistinct around the edges. If you look closely, you can actually see through them. Their heads are featureless but for two softly-glowing pools of white in the shape of eyes. They have noses and mouths but their indistinct form reders them indistinguishable from the rest of their bodies. They eat and breathe just like normal people, food just disappears as they take bites. They are usually dressed in typical inuit clothes, crafted of leather and hides. Their clothes are fully real, unlike their hazy forms.
Relations: Taqriaqsuit are generally regarded as unsettling by other races. Their residence on the spirit world puts them in contact with the spirits of the dead rather often, and they generally are quite welcoming of their temporary visitors, showing great hospitality until they pass on.
Alignment: Taqriaqsuit are usually chaotic or neutral, and generally between good and neutral. Evil taqriaqsuit are thankfully rare.
{table=head]|L|N|C
G|10|15|20
N|5|15|15
E|5|5|10[/table]
Taqriaqsuit Lands: The shadow folk were originally normal residents of the spirit world. They lived just like humans. But a powerful shamans predicted a great plane-wide cataclysm, and in an effort to save his people, he cast a spell of great power, to move every member of his people to the mortal world, where they would be safe. But the shaman reached too far, and the magic failed, moving only a fraction of their essence to the mortal plane, and leaving them stretched across the boundary of the planes. they still dwell on the spirit world, now transformed by the actions of the shaman.
Religion: The Taqriaqsuit are highly spiritual, in large part due to their frequent interactions with the spirits they share their world with and the souls of the recently departed. Their religion mirrors the religions of the human residents of the arctic, though the spirits are slightly less mysterious to them.
Language: Taqriaqsuit speak a language this is identical to Inuktitut when spoken, but all the written symbols are mirrored. Nobody is quite sure why this is the case. Taqriaqsuit can write 'backwards' to make themselves understood to the humans, if necessary, but the symbols often look crude.
Names: Taqriaqsuit have naming traditions very similar to the tuniit. Their names are very simplistic and prosaic, usually based on physical traits of the child. They also use the names of legendary beings or heroes, believing they can take on some of the strength or qualities of their namesake.
Adventurers: Taqriaqsuit adventurers are surprisingly common. Many taqriaqsuit don’t ever really feel like they truly belong, and this unsettled feeling often drives them to travel. Some even believe that their people should have their own nation, and seek to create their homeland.

+2 Wisdom, -2 Strength, -2 Charisma. Taqriaqsuit are wise, but their semi-real bodies make them somewhat weak and they generally come off as creepy.
Type: Taqriaqsuit are outsiders with the (Native) subtype.
Medium: Taqriaqsuit are medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Taqriaqsuit have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Taqriaqsuit can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Two-worlds: A taqriaqsuit’s being straddles the barrier between the worlds, and they exist partially in the material world and the spirit world. While a taqriaqsuit moves through the spirit world, he is shadowed on the material world by an intangible, invisible portion of his essence. If a taqriaqsuit travels to the material world, a similar intangible shadow moves on the spirit world. As such, a taqriaqsuit can perceive both planes at the same time.
Ghost Step: A taqriaqsuit can, as a swift action, will themselves further across the barrier between planes. The taqriaqsuit becomes incorporeal until the end of their actions for the round. While incorporeal, they have a fly speed equal to their base land speed, and can make incorporeal touch attacks, dealing 1d6+cha damage. The taqriaqsuit can use this ability a number of times per day equal to their wisdom modifier. While this is active, sometimes glimpses of shadowy figures or snippets of conversation can be heard on the opposite plane.
Skills: A taqriaqsuit gains a +4 racial bonus to hide checks made in areas of shadowy or darker illumination.

Admiral Squish
2013-01-29, 11:06 PM
Feats

Battle-fade
Prerequisites: Taqriaqsuit, BaB +5
Benefit: A taqriaqsuit with this feat has learned how to instantaneously fade from the world in combat, going incorporeal for a few moments to protect themselves from attack. As an instantaneous action, you can go incorporeal until the start of your next turn, just long enough to avoid a particularly devastating attack or spell. Each use of this ability consumes one use of your ghost step ability.

Extra Steps:
Prerequisites: Taqriaqsuit
Benefit: You gain two additional daily uses of your ghost step ability.

Long Stride:
Prerequisites: Taqriaqsuit, 5 HD
Benefit: A taqriaqsuit with this feat stays in the spirit world longer each time they use their ghost step ability. When using ghost step, a taqriaqsuit with this feat can hold the shift for longer, until the start of their next turn. They materialize for an instant when their turn begins, even if they use their ghost step ability again immediately.

Ghostly Trek:
Prerequisites: Taqriaqsuit, Long Stride
Benefit: A taqriaqsuit can remain in the spirit world for even longer. They no longer have to materialize between uses of their ghost step ability, but each round they remain in the spirit world still costs one use of ghost step.

Slip Through:
Prerequisites: Taqriaqsuit, 10 HD
Benefit: A prticularly powerful taqriaqsuit can slip through the barrier between planes, frocefully shifting their essence across. By using two daily uses of their ghost stride ability, a taqriaqsuit can plane shift between the material world and the spirit world. This only moves the taqriaqsuit and his equipment, no other creatures. The taqriaqsuit moves directly laterally, so they arrive exactly where their invisible, intangible essence was when they began the move.

Vanishing Step:
Prerequisites: Taqriaqsuit, 5 HD
Benefit: While incorporeal, a taqriaqsuit becomes invisible as well.

Admiral Squish
2013-01-29, 11:08 PM
And you may now post. I'm still not sure how to deal with religion, honestly. I mean, they originally lived on a world where the souls of the dead would pass through. What kind of effect would that have on the formation of their religion.

Pokonic
2013-01-29, 11:34 PM
They probably would stick to honering the spirits in general, but would find the idea of doing anything more as strange. After all, they used to live in the realm of the dead, pretty much, so why would they be focused about what happens when they die?

Brett Nortje
2013-01-29, 11:49 PM
Well, you could make them without a throat, as they could breathe through direct gaseous exchange, because they don't eat, but then they couldn't speak?

With regaurds religion, they could be into shadows being sacred, or something like that. they could teleport as far as their shadow streches, so at sometimes they would be at a great advantage, but only in one direction. of course at night there are no shadows, so maybe they would be able to melt into everything? wait, this is about religion!

so, they could worship shadows of moutains. mountains are regaurded as fairies, along with everything else in primitive societies, so, being a grand shadow, they could all gather in the shadow of a mountain and then have a social session of touching and other types of interaction?

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-29, 11:56 PM
Ghost Step: A taqriaqsuit can, as a swift action, will themselves further into the spirit world. The taqriaqsuit’s real body moves to the spirit world, leaving only an incorporeal shadow on the material plane. The move reverses itself at the end of their actions for the round. On the spirit world, the technique works in reverse, moving their physical body to the material plane for a moment. The taqriaqsuit can use this ability a number of times per day equal to their wisdom modifier.

This is odd, given that they have an incorporeal form at all times. Do the forms simply switch places? I don't think that's intended, but you might want to clarify, as their having an incorporeal "shadow" body makes this a bit more complicated than I think you want it to be.


Battle-fade
Prerequisites: Taqriaqsuit, BaB +3
Benefit: A taqriaqsuit with this feat has learned how to instantaneously fade from the material world in combat, going incorporeal for the briefest of instants. As an instantaneous action, the taqriaqsuit can go temporarily incorporeal, just long enough to potentially avoid a single attack or targeted spell.

Please specify that this uses up a use of your Ghost Step ability. Otherwise you can do this all day long. :smalltongue:

Brett Nortje
2013-01-29, 11:58 PM
This is odd, given that they have an incorporeal form at all times. Do the forms simply switch places? I don't think that's intended, but you might want to clarify, as their having an incorporeal "shadow" body makes this a bit more complicated than I think you want it to be.

Please specify that this uses up a use of your Ghost Step ability. Otherwise you can do this all day long. :smalltongue:

Clever name!

Admiral Squish
2013-01-30, 12:34 AM
They probably would stick to honering the spirits in general, but would find the idea of doing anything more as strange. After all, they used to live in the realm of the dead, pretty much, so why would they be focused about what happens when they die?

Well, it's the spirit world. The souls of the dead pass through it to their final reward, but they are only temporary visitors. the ACTUAL afterlife is going to be completely inaccessable.

Perhaps they viewed it as their purpose to guide the souls of the dead through the spirit world?


Well, you could make them without a throat, as they could breathe through direct gaseous exchange, because they don't eat, but then they couldn't speak?

With regaurds religion, they could be into shadows being sacred, or something like that. they could teleport as far as their shadow streches, so at sometimes they would be at a great advantage, but only in one direction. of course at night there are no shadows, so maybe they would be able to melt into everything? wait, this is about religion!

so, they could worship shadows of moutains. mountains are regaurded as fairies, along with everything else in primitive societies, so, being a grand shadow, they could all gather in the shadow of a mountain and then have a social session of touching and other types of interaction?

Well, let me clarify something. On the spirit world, before the cataclysm that turned them into their current form, they were just like the tuniit that lived in the area. They looked like normal people. They weren't actually shadows, they were the shadowed projection of a culture, cast upon the neighboring plane. Their current form behaves in all ways like a normal person's body, it just looks hazy and indistinct. Their culture doesn't actually have anything to do with shadows. The whole shadow-thing is new.


This is odd, given that they have an incorporeal form at all times. Do the forms simply switch places? I don't think that's intended, but you might want to clarify, as their having an incorporeal "shadow" body makes this a bit more complicated than I think you want it to be.

Please specify that this uses up a use of your Ghost Step ability. Otherwise you can do this all day long. :smalltongue:

I can see how it works in my head, but it's harder to do in words, you know?

The way I see it, imagine a wall. Most beings can't cross the wall without serious magic. A taqriaqsuit's existence is mostly on this side, but a portion of their being pushes through the wall to the other side. When they use ghost step, they just push more of their being onto the far side, leaving only a little on this side. They don't break the wall, since their existence already forms a little hole.

Essentially, yes, the forms switch planes. The real body moves to the spirit world, and the incorporeal body moves to this one. I mean, the original version just made them go a incorporeal temporarily, but then I asked, where does the rest of them go? So, I'm trying to do something new and cool.


As for battle fade. I think if I'm gonna make it cost uses of ghost step, it would need to be a bit more powerful. Like, incorporeal until the start of your next turn. I figured reducing one attack each turn's damage by 50% is a cool and very nice defensive action, but it's not broken.

-----------

Oh, and I'm not sure about the ability modifiers. Are they too weak for a pathfinder race? Any ability modifiers that seem like they'd fit?

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-30, 12:37 AM
As for battle fade. I think if I'm gonna make it cost uses of ghost step, it would need to be a bit more powerful. Like, incorporeal until the start of your next turn. I figured reducing one attack each turn's damage by 50% is a cool and very nice defensive action, but it's not broken.

But it's also flat-out better than most other feats, because it can be used to out-right avoid many things.

lsfreak
2013-01-30, 12:51 AM
A minor thing. I don't speak Inuktitut, so if you do ignore this, but by my understanding the name would be Tarriaqsuit, -qr- being forbidden in every dialect if Wikipedia hasn't lied to me, with the outcome of -rr-. Considering it's across every Inuktitut dialect, that would mean it's almost certainly present in the time period you're working with (unlike -qs- which is a whole mess of different outcomes in modern times). Though the look of Taqriaqsuit is more strange/foreign/native since no one's going to know that their r isn't an r :smalltongue:

Doorhandle
2013-01-30, 08:21 AM
Cool concept bro.

But let me just get something clarified. If a Taqriaqsuit ghost-steps into the spirit realm, he's incorporeal in the normal realm, right? You haven't made that clear.

Admiral Squish
2013-01-30, 11:00 AM
But it's also flat-out better than most other feats, because it can be used to out-right avoid many things.

True. Okay, I just went and modified the feat, making it last the whole round until your turn, and adding in the ghost-step cost.

Maybe I should add a feat to give you extra uses of ghost step?


A minor thing. I don't speak Inuktitut, so if you do ignore this, but by my understanding the name would be Tarriaqsuit, -qr- being forbidden in every dialect if Wikipedia hasn't lied to me, with the outcome of -rr-. Considering it's across every Inuktitut dialect, that would mean it's almost certainly present in the time period you're working with (unlike -qs- which is a whole mess of different outcomes in modern times). Though the look of Taqriaqsuit is more strange/foreign/native since no one's going to know that their r isn't an r :smalltongue:

I honestly have no idea, I just copied the name from directly from this site. (http://www.inuitmyths.com/taqriaqsuit.htm)


Cool concept bro.

But let me just get something clarified. If a Taqriaqsuit ghost-steps into the spirit realm, he's incorporeal in the normal realm, right? You haven't made that clear.

Yes, they become incorporeal on the material world. I think I managed to clarify that in the ghost-step description now.

Admiral Squish
2013-01-30, 11:30 AM
Added a whole mess 'o new feats! Go check 'em out!

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-30, 12:06 PM
Long Stride is a worst version of Battle Fade now tht both last until the start of your next turn. Battle Fade has all the advantages of Long Stride, and cab also be used as an instantaneous action.

Admiral Squish
2013-01-30, 12:22 PM
Long Stride is a worst version of Battle Fade now tht both last until the start of your next turn. Battle Fade has all the advantages of Long Stride, and cab also be used as an instantaneous action.

Long stride isn't supposed to be battle fade. It's supposed to be so you can go incorporeal, take your actions, and stay safe until your next turn, all for the cost of one daily use. If you had ghost stride and battle fade, being incorporeal for a whole round would cost two uses. Say, fade through a wall and end your move in a dangerous area, maybe hit with a touch attack, and stay safe until your next turn when you can open up with a full attack or something.