JBPuffin
2016-01-04, 04:53 AM
This is the beta version of one of my favorite 4e races, the Shardminds. PEACH, and more fluff is on the way eventually. Prime concerns are technical wordings on the racial traits.
Cataclysmic Origins
Shardminds were created when the Living Gate, a construct of psionically-resonant gemstones made to block the Far Realm out of the Material Plane and Astral Realms, was opened and consequentially shattered as abominations poured through it. No one knows who opened it – some say an adventurer with too much curiosity, others a long-forgotten god, further still the aberrations themselves exploiting a weakness in the structure – but it is known that it took several gods to create the next line of defense, using the very same shards that now lay strewn around the gaping hole in the Realms. The gods massed as many shards as they could into a single chunk and tossed it into the Material Plane, a crystalline meteor carrying salvation…
Activation
When the meteor struck, it scattered its load across the Material Plane: crystalline seeds bearing the fledgling minds of shardminds. These crystals do not develop into an operational shardmind, however, until a person comes within five feet of a shard. Once this happens, over the course of a minute the shard digs itself through whatever stone or such is around it until it’s in the same open area as the target, scans the awakener’s mind, and combines that information with that of dead shardminds whose memories have become part of a sort of “knowledge bank” they all share. Then the crystal absorbs some rock, soil, and particles in the air and uses them to build a body for its newly-formed conscious. Shardminds thus arrive in the world as adults fully prepared for a life of adventuring and protecting the world from extraterrestrial monstrosities.
Rationally Emotional
The most bizarre part of the race has to be their relationship with emotions. Psionic energy, being such a powerful conduit for feelings, allows them to experience them; however, as constructs after a fashion, they know precisely why they feel what they do and get a choice as to how they react. This dichotomy is, without a doubt, the distinguishing trait between two shardminds – where one may remain stone-faced in the face of certain death, another might burst into tears at every dead body they find, and a third might do both. Balancing the blend is a shardmind’s primary challenge in social interactions.
Shardmind Names: Shardminds do not have genders, although some manipulate their crystals to appear masculine or feminine. They draw on forgotten languages for their names, many almost unintelligible to a common person.
Names: Amata, Arshaka, Arwia, Balashi, Bashanu, Belessunu, Dipana, Erishti, Eshunu, Hunzu, Iltani, Ishmea, Kuaya, Kubaba, Kuri, Manishtu, Naram, Nuraya, Seluku, Tabni, Ubashu, Utua, Zakiti
Ability Scores: Your Charisma, Constitution, and Intelligence increase by 1.
Age: Shardminds don’t really age so much as weather. Shardminds who have recently arrived on the Material Plane usually have sharper edges to their component crystals and are more tightly packed together; older shardminds’ shards are smoother and smaller, meaning they are less compact and move more fluidly.
Alignment: Shardminds exhibit no alignment tendencies; each is an individual, balancing their original servile guardian purpose with strong emotional reactions and memories of times long forgotten.
Size: Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Crystalline Memories: As a shardmind, you draw on the memories and knowledge of your people from before the Shattering. You gain proficiency in an Intelligence-based skill of your choice (Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, or Religion). (Note – You cannot use this proficiency to get a non-Intelligence skill. Apply this first, then use your class/background skills to cheese your way along :P)
Gemstone Constructs: You are made of what appears to be large crystals and do not require air, food, or drink.
Mental Realignment: Shardminds don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “realignment.”) While meditating, you can hold conversations with various manifestations of yourself or others; these may be either your perceptions of these people, imaginary advisors or allies, or simply a method of processing events through personification. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Psychic Resistance: You are resistant to psychic damage due to your psionic nature.
Shard Maelstrom: As a bonus action at the start of your turn, you may dissipate your humanoid shape and become a swarm of jagged, flying crystals. You use the Dodge action, and your walking speed becomes a flying speed. Then, you must take your move for the turn; the Dodge and flying speed effects end once you've completed it. You provoke attacks of opportunity as normal. Additionally, you have advantage to attack rolls against creatures whose threatening reach you enter until the end of your next turn. You cannot use this ability again until you have taken a long rest.
Thoughtspeech: You can communicate telepathically with any creature within 30 feet, just as if speaking to him or her. You can only speak and listen to one person at a time, and both you and the receiver must understand and speak a language, otherwise the telepathic link fails.
Languages: You speak Common and Deep Speech.
Cataclysmic Origins
Shardminds were created when the Living Gate, a construct of psionically-resonant gemstones made to block the Far Realm out of the Material Plane and Astral Realms, was opened and consequentially shattered as abominations poured through it. No one knows who opened it – some say an adventurer with too much curiosity, others a long-forgotten god, further still the aberrations themselves exploiting a weakness in the structure – but it is known that it took several gods to create the next line of defense, using the very same shards that now lay strewn around the gaping hole in the Realms. The gods massed as many shards as they could into a single chunk and tossed it into the Material Plane, a crystalline meteor carrying salvation…
Activation
When the meteor struck, it scattered its load across the Material Plane: crystalline seeds bearing the fledgling minds of shardminds. These crystals do not develop into an operational shardmind, however, until a person comes within five feet of a shard. Once this happens, over the course of a minute the shard digs itself through whatever stone or such is around it until it’s in the same open area as the target, scans the awakener’s mind, and combines that information with that of dead shardminds whose memories have become part of a sort of “knowledge bank” they all share. Then the crystal absorbs some rock, soil, and particles in the air and uses them to build a body for its newly-formed conscious. Shardminds thus arrive in the world as adults fully prepared for a life of adventuring and protecting the world from extraterrestrial monstrosities.
Rationally Emotional
The most bizarre part of the race has to be their relationship with emotions. Psionic energy, being such a powerful conduit for feelings, allows them to experience them; however, as constructs after a fashion, they know precisely why they feel what they do and get a choice as to how they react. This dichotomy is, without a doubt, the distinguishing trait between two shardminds – where one may remain stone-faced in the face of certain death, another might burst into tears at every dead body they find, and a third might do both. Balancing the blend is a shardmind’s primary challenge in social interactions.
Shardmind Names: Shardminds do not have genders, although some manipulate their crystals to appear masculine or feminine. They draw on forgotten languages for their names, many almost unintelligible to a common person.
Names: Amata, Arshaka, Arwia, Balashi, Bashanu, Belessunu, Dipana, Erishti, Eshunu, Hunzu, Iltani, Ishmea, Kuaya, Kubaba, Kuri, Manishtu, Naram, Nuraya, Seluku, Tabni, Ubashu, Utua, Zakiti
Ability Scores: Your Charisma, Constitution, and Intelligence increase by 1.
Age: Shardminds don’t really age so much as weather. Shardminds who have recently arrived on the Material Plane usually have sharper edges to their component crystals and are more tightly packed together; older shardminds’ shards are smoother and smaller, meaning they are less compact and move more fluidly.
Alignment: Shardminds exhibit no alignment tendencies; each is an individual, balancing their original servile guardian purpose with strong emotional reactions and memories of times long forgotten.
Size: Your size is Medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Crystalline Memories: As a shardmind, you draw on the memories and knowledge of your people from before the Shattering. You gain proficiency in an Intelligence-based skill of your choice (Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, or Religion). (Note – You cannot use this proficiency to get a non-Intelligence skill. Apply this first, then use your class/background skills to cheese your way along :P)
Gemstone Constructs: You are made of what appears to be large crystals and do not require air, food, or drink.
Mental Realignment: Shardminds don’t need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day. (The Common word for such meditation is “realignment.”) While meditating, you can hold conversations with various manifestations of yourself or others; these may be either your perceptions of these people, imaginary advisors or allies, or simply a method of processing events through personification. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.
Psychic Resistance: You are resistant to psychic damage due to your psionic nature.
Shard Maelstrom: As a bonus action at the start of your turn, you may dissipate your humanoid shape and become a swarm of jagged, flying crystals. You use the Dodge action, and your walking speed becomes a flying speed. Then, you must take your move for the turn; the Dodge and flying speed effects end once you've completed it. You provoke attacks of opportunity as normal. Additionally, you have advantage to attack rolls against creatures whose threatening reach you enter until the end of your next turn. You cannot use this ability again until you have taken a long rest.
Thoughtspeech: You can communicate telepathically with any creature within 30 feet, just as if speaking to him or her. You can only speak and listen to one person at a time, and both you and the receiver must understand and speak a language, otherwise the telepathic link fails.
Languages: You speak Common and Deep Speech.