Geoids: The Crystal Men of the Underdark

[Frathe]

Geoid
Geoid, 1st-Level Warrior
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (Geoid)
Hit Dice: 1d8+2 (6 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 17 (-1 Dex, +2 natural, +4 chain shirt, +2 heavy shield), touch 9, flat-footed 17
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Spear +3 melee (1d8+1/×3) or longbow +0 ranged (1d8/×3)
Full Attack: Spear +3 melee (1d8+1/×3) or longbow +0 ranged (1d8/×3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., geod traits, immunity to poison and petrification, vulnerability to sonic
Saves: Fort +4, Ref -1, Will -1
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 9, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8
Skills: Appraise +2*, Listen +1, Spot +1
Feats: Weapon Focus (spear)
Environment: Underground
Organization: Band (2-4), company (11-20 plus 2 3rd-level sergeants and 1 leader of 3rd-6th level), or regiment (30-100 plus 20% noncombatants plus 1 3rd-level sergeant per 10 adults, 5 5th-level lieutenants, and 3 7th-level captains)
Challenge Rating: ½
Treasure: Standard coins; double goods; standard items
Alignment: Often lawful neutral or lawful good
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +0

Any fool knows the gods created man from the clay of the earth. It was for us they saved the finer stuff—the riches of the deep earth, in all their varied hues and aspects. Yet here in earth’s bowels we remain—I say no more! Brothers, sisters, join me. Together we will claim our destiny as the true children of the earth! – Cornelian Feldspar, rebel leader

Geoids resemble human statues sculpted from flawless diamond, with only slightly rough edges betraying their natural origin. They eat gemstones, being especially partial to precious gems, and cannot digest organic matter.

Geoids speak Geoidan. Those who live underground—the majority—also speak Undercommon, while those few who travel aboveground learn Common.

Most geoids encountered outside their home are warriors.

Combat
Much like the crystals that make up their bodies, geoids are a highly organized species. They fight in well-organized regiments, usually using mostly mundane weaponry and relying on their naturally tough bodies to protect them. Being a proud species that considers victory over inferior beings inevitable, they do not use “dishonorable” tactics such as traps or poison.

A geoid's weapon of choice is diamond spears, crafted from the stalactites and stalagmites of their home caverns. The diamond that makes up these spears is equivalent to adamantine except it does not count as metal for the purpose of spells and other effects and it can only be used to fashion simple melee weapons.

Geoid Traits (Ex)
Geoids possess the following racial traits.
• +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity.
• Medium size.
• A geoid’s base land speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision out to 60 feet.
• Stability: Geoids are exceptionally stable on their feet. A geoid has a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
• Racial immunity to poison and petrification.
• +2 natural armor bonus.
• Vulnerability to sonic.
• +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to stone or crystal items. *This is included in the stat block above.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Geoidan. Bonus Languages: Common, Dwarven, Gnome, Terran, Undercommon.
• Favored Class: Fighter.
The geoid warrior presented here had the following ability scores before racial adjustments: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8.

Subraces
The information above is for diamond geoids, the most common variety.

There is one other major geoidan subrace, which differs from diamond geoids as follows.

Ruby Geoid
Ruby geoids live in deep caverns near the scorching heat of magma pools. They brave extreme temperatures to harvest fresh jewels, newly formed by the heat and pressure of the depths.

Like their diamond cousins, ruby geoids have transparent bodies, but theirs are tinged with red. Some are also slightly smokily translucent.

Ruby geoids speak Geoidan and Undercommon, and occasionally Common.

Ruby Geoid Traits (Ex)
These traits are in addition to the diamond geoid traits, except where noted.
• Resistance to fire 10
• Low-light vision. This replaces the diamond geoid’s darkvision.
• Ignan replaces Terran as a bonus language.
• Level adjustment +1

Suggested first names for geoidan characters: Amber, Antimony, Beryl, Cornelian, Emery, Galena, … (basically, go scan the Wikipedia list of minerals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minerals)).

[nonsi]

Vulnerability to sonic does not offset all the good stuff this race comes with.

It should be LA +1.

[TuggyNE]

Vulnerability to sonic does not offset all the good stuff this race comes with.

It should be LA +1.

Why do you say that? They're basically dwarves with a harsher dump stat, an energy vulnerability, a slightly better speed, a few less minor racial features, and +2 natural armor. That's not worth +1 at all.

[Debihuman]

+2 Natural armor is what really pushes them into LA +1.

Debby

[TuggyNE]

+2 Natural armor is what really pushes them into LA +1.

All by itself, despite the race being otherwise inferior to dwarves? (They'd be only slightly worse if it wasn't for the vulnerability, which could be rather painful.)

[nonsi]

All by itself, despite the race being otherwise inferior to dwarves? (They'd be only slightly worse if it wasn't for the vulnerability, which could be rather painful.)

1. The Dwarf's Achilles Heal is low speed.
2. Dwarves don't get poison or petrifaction immunity.
3. Dwarves don't have +2 nat. armor.
4. Dex is inferior to Cha in the global count.

Compare the above to +2 vs. magical effects and +2 to Craft checks.

According to my calculations, the Dwarf loses bigtime.

[Debihuman]

Vulnerability to sonic is not worth much since sonic attacks are the rarest of attacks

Debby

[TuggyNE]

1. The Dwarf's Achilles Heal is low speed.

But, in return, they're not slowed by armor, so it's not as bad as it could be.


2. Dwarves don't get poison or petrifaction immunity.

Hmm. True. Had skimmed over that a bit, but you're generally only going to worry about one of those at any given level, and those are pretty niche immunities.


4. Dex is inferior to Cha in the global count.

It is? For most characters, dumping Cha quite thoroughly is perfectly acceptable, even if it might also be possible to achieve a similar result by boosting Cha to enormous levels and pinning everything to it. So a dwarf is generally perfectly capable of achieving what they need to do despite their minor dump stat.

Dex is not so happy, since it applies to AC, touch AC, reflex saves, initiative, and assorted other things right out of the box.


Compare the above to +2 vs. magical effects and +2 to Craft checks.

And, of course, a lack of vulnerability to sonic, racial attack and AC bonuses against some enemies, +2 against poison (+4 against poison spells), and stonecunning.

1
Consider troglodytes: at 2 RHD and +2 LA, they are most notable for +6 NA. They also have a trio of natural weapons, a bonus feat, -2 Dex/+4 Con/-2 Int, some decent stealth skill bonuses, and a save-or-gimp special attack. If, very conservatively, you consider everything but the natural armor to compensate for the 2 RHD, then +6 NA is worth +2 LA. And +2 NA, in that case, is not really worth +1 LA.

If instead, as I suspect, the RHD would be more or less worthwhile with just the natural weapons and bonus feat (and perhaps special attack), then natural armor is worth still less in terms of LA.

(Further, troglodytes are not usually considered especially good options as it is, which lends still more weight to this analysis.)

[nonsi]

Hmm. True. Had skimmed over that a bit, but you're generally only going to worry about one of those at any given level, and those are pretty niche immunities.


I don't know. Where I played (on both sides of the table), on average, poison played a part once per session. Petrifaction - about once per 6 sessions.
That's enough to ruin your day every once in a while.

[Debihuman]

As far as I can tell, this race is only suitable for NPCs. I would never give out immunity to poison and petrification at character generation. If it were a simple +2 racial bonus to the saves, it would be slightly more tolerable.

Debby