Crystalline Human(?)

[Baneth]

Hello,

I'm very new to D&D (albeit not RPGs in general) and since my friends have told me on and on, how with D&D any character should be possible, I struggle to find the right race, class, whatever for the character I have in mind.

Basically a Human(oid) Person, made from sentient crystal, but basically human looking. Maybe add in a bit of colorful crystal hair or something like it. And for those that know it, it's basically inspired by the Anime Houseki no Kuni.
As far as abilities go, Swordsfighting is a must, fast and nimble. (Swordsage looked fun, but I really don't know)

Thanks in advance.

[Feantar]

Welcome to D&D. Abandon all hope all ye who enter here.
There's two quick ways I can think of:

Make a warforged (Eberron Campaign Setting, or Monster Manual III) and just say it is made out of crystal and resembles a human.
An animated object crystalline statue of a human (but small size), subject to the awaken construct spell would be an 1 HD construct (and thus, its 1 HD could be replaced by a character level).

It's Racial Traits would be:
Crystalline Traits (Ex):

+2 Dexterity, Ø Constitution.
Small size.
Base Land Speed 40 ft.
Construct traits, Darkvision 60 ft., Low-light vision
Automatic Languages: Common Bonus Languages: non e
Favored Class: none
LA: No idea


The problem here is that it doesn't have any LA, and thus your DM would have to make one up. Since awaken construct sets your Int, Wis, and Cha to 3d6, that means you don't have any mental score bonuses or penalties. As to your physical scores, you have a +2 Dex. Also construct traits. But construct traits are essentially undead traits and that has no LA (See Necropolitan). Maybe make it a variable LA +1 for 1 & 2 HD and LA 0 for 3 HD and further. Or maybe just make it 0 LA, I'd still get a human over it 90% of the time.

Edit: D&D 3.5 allows for a lot of characters, but any character is a bit of a stretch.

[Inevitability]

Consider a Mineral Warrior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e) human/halfling.

[Crake]

Consider a Mineral Warrior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e) human/halfling.

Yeah, was gonna suggest mineral warrior as well, I've run a player using that template as being crystalline in natre, rather than stony (which technically most crystals are types of rock, so it's not much of a stretch)

[Particle_Man]

If Pathfinder is allowed then I think that the earth genesai called the oread has a crystalline racial variant. Oreads do not have racial dex bonus but yours could have a high dex. They have a wisdom bonus which is nice for swordsages.

If racial HD and +LA are not a problem you could refluff a stonechild. They are more of a bruiser though.

[Baneth]

Thanks for all the answers, the mineral warrior or animate statue sound really promising.

And well, compared to what I'm used to, it seems anything goes here, so that makes me happy.

[ShurikVch]

How about the Gemstone Golems (Monsters of Faerûn)?
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/sfery/images/1/1e/Golemy_Klejnotowe.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090522211031
They're have no LA, and 10+ HD, but otherwise - look just right...

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You could pull off something like this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?177889-Brainstorm-for-Psionic-Tricks-Tactics-and-Combos-Handbook/page11&p=23285432#post23285432) at higher levels, once you can afford it, and imbue your skin with weapon properties. One property in particular, metalline, allows you to change the mineral composition of the weapon in question. And since psionic crystal has the exact same stats as steel, just use that as your default.

[inuyasha]

If human with crystalline hair is the way you'd like to go, I really suggest Earth Genasi. They're a pretty classic D&D race, and don't require a lot of weird sourcebooks or jumping through hoops.

They're generally rocky or dirty, but crystal would certainly work for them too, and the whole point of them is being a human with distant earth-creature lineage, be it an actual elemental or a genie

[Thurbane]

There's also the Crystalline Troll from MM3, but it's not very human-like.

[Troacctid]

It's too bad you're not playing 4e. The shardmind (https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Shardmind) race is basically exactly what you're looking for, and it wasn't introduced until the 4e Player's Handbook 3. You could ask your DM about a homebrew conversion.

For 3.5e, mineral warrior is an okay suggestion, but doesn't fit great with being quick and nimble (it actually comes with a penalty to Dexterity). Earth genasi is better on that front. You might also try psiforged (https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Psiforged). They're not made of crystal, but they have psionically-charged crystals embedded all over their bodies.

[Thurbane]

It's too bad you're not playing 4e. The shardmind (https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Shardmind) race is basically exactly what you're looking for, and it wasn't introduced until the 4e Player's Handbook 3. You could ask your DM about a homebrew conversion.

Good call.

There's a couple of home-brewed 3E versions out there, including one right here: Shardminds! (3.5, PEACH) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?192273)

...there's also a couple on the various D&D "Wiki" sites, but I tend to have inherent distrust for anything on there.

[Mieko]

Hey everybody, the DM here.

My dear player decided that she wanted to go with the awakened construct animated object route Feantar suggested (thanks a lot for that!), and I agree that it fits what she told me that she wanted to play perfectly and it's fine by me. She still would rather play a medium one, and I don't see where this is a problem either, so I'd just drop the 2 HD and give it 1 LA instead (buyoff enabled). Don't see where 2 HD difference between the small and medium animated object are justified anyway, with the only differences being the sizes and the Dex being traded for Str. Since 3d6 is about the normal ability starting range I'm just gonna give it the stat array we play with, too. And since Str is about a dump stat for all her planned classes and it's not gonna ruin anything either, I'm just gonna let her keep the +Dex instead of Str. Big statues can be graceful too!

Also, question is, would it be just a construct, or have the living construct subtype as well like warforged do?