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The Demented One
2008-08-11, 06:01 PM
The Malmooth
The Malmooth are a subterranean race of insectoid humans, possessed of remarkable magical talent. While the Malmooth race produces many skilled Wizards and Sorcerers, their greatest skill lies in artifice—the Malmooth have created and mastered many magical items far beyond the ken of other mortal races.

Personality
The Malmooth are almost universally intellectual, placing great value on pursuits of the mind or mental challenges. Malmooth are notedly obsessive, fixating single-mindedly on any task they undertake until they have completed it. Because of this, they are typically thought of as an industrious and perseverant race, though Malmooth without any constructive channels for their obsession tend to succumb either to depression or addiction.

Physical Description
The Malmooth stand slightly shorter than a normal human, and have a thick blue carapace that covers their bodies. Their face, however, is uncovered, and is much like that of an elf or human, a slight trait which, coupled with the inherent skill at diplomacy and speechcraft the Malmooth possess, has led to more friendly relations between the Malmooth and aboveground races than exist with other Underdark natives. All Malmooth are female, their reproduction being facilitated by a number of symbiotic species that exist within the innards of a Malmooth. In addition to providing nourishment to a Malmooth, the symbiotes fertilize their eggs, allowing a Malmooth to effectively reproduce asexually.

Relations
The Malmooth maintain good relations with Human and Elven civilizations, often trading their magical items for goods available only aboveground. While Dwarves only rarely have mercantile dealings with them, their diplomatic relations are almost always on friendly terms. The Malmooth, however, have poor relations with the Gnomes. Despite the value both place on intellectualism and creation, the Gnomish focus on mercantilism baffles the Malmooth—for them, the goal of artifice is the art itself, with profits being only a coincidental benefit. This has led to a deep diplomatic rift between the two societies, though it rarely devolves into outright hostilities.

No such relationships exist, however, between the Malmooth and other subterranean races. The Drow in particular are fierce enemies, raiding Malmooth cities with the primary intent of lashing out at their elven allies. They are also known to plunder Malmooth technology and magic items, stealing them for their own uses.

Alignment
Malmooth are almost universally lawful, though a healthy minority of neutrals exist. They tend towards good, although there are just as many evil Malmooth as there are evil humans or elves.

Malmooth Lands
The Malmooth inhabit colonies carved into the Underdark's caverns. While most of these complexes are deep beneath the earth, newer ones are often formed beneath a human or elven city, to facilitate trade. In areas where Drow are over-prevalent, the Malmooth have been known to seek shelter with the dwarves, carving asylum colonies into the stone around and within a dwarven citadel.

Malmooth Religion
Malmooth theological concepts are difficult for other races to comprehend, as they are very much defined by the Malmooth scent-language. The scent-compound used to describe a god are also used to mean society, the Malmooth race, the world, and speech or sound. The most common simplification used by other races is to conceive of Malmooth religion as centering around deified personifications of various aspects of Malmooth society, their names being loose and poetic translations of their scent-compounds. The primary gods are:

Harmonic-Sound-of-Diamonds-Within-The-Crown-Of-Malmooth: Lawful Neutral deity of the elite heads of Malmooth government, with the domains of Law, Nobility, and Protection.
Dissonant-Sound-of-the-Breaking-of-All-Things: True Neutral deity of the Malmooth military, with the domains of Planning, Strength, and War.
Echoing-Sound-of-the-Gold-of-Others: Lawful Neutral deity of the Malmooth economy, with the domains of Earth, Greed, and Metal.
Polite-and-Well-Mannered-Sound-of-Secrets: Lawful Neutral deity of Malmooth diplomatic ventures, with the domains of Community, Charm, and Pact.
Well-Metered-Sound-of-the-Turning-of-Clockwork-in-Complete-Beauty: True Neutral deity of the engineering and artificer castes, with the domains of Balance, Craft, and Knowledge.

Malmooth Language
The Malmooth communicate by releasing clouds of pheromones. A Malmooth can release pheromones as a free action, and all Malmooth within 60 ft. can smell them and understand the message. Non-Malmooth can detect the smell, but do not understand the message. However, a creature with the scent ability can spend Speak Language ranks to learn the Malmooth language. However, have rapidly learned the languages of other races. Their speech is marked by one quirk, however, that instantly distinguishes a Malmooth from any other race. They begin all sentences, regardless of the language spoken in, with the prefix "chan," and end them with the terminal "tho," a linguistic approximation of the distinctive signal pheromones used to begin and end a thought in the Malmooth language. The omission of these is comparable to vulgarity among the Malmooth, while the expletives native to the languages they speak are considered harmless, if impolite.

Malmooth Names
Malmooth names consist of a distinct sequence of pheromones. However, they Malmooth transcribe their names into written and spoken forms when conversing with other races. There are two methods for doing so: one translates the scents into sounds, while the other creates a name based on the meanings of the scents, creating a poetic sobriquet. Which name a Malmooth uses is left to its individual preference, and some use both. As a rule, though, artificers and craftsman use the phonetic transcription, while diplomats and spellcasters use the poetic translation.

Female Names
Antha (Breaking-of-Stones-Upon-Iron), Bremme (Upward-Growing-Roots-of-Moss), Chantho (Proper-and-Upright-Daughter-of-Philosophers), Dahnbei (Ink-Written-on-the-Page), Donla (Memories-Kept-Only-By-Stone), Grathka (Passing-of-Days-from-Winter-to-Spring), Maltha (Healing-of-Old-Wounds-As-Days-Pass), Meldae (Wetness-on-the-Walls-of-the-Cavern), Virei (Long-Darkness-Beneath-the-Earth), Zenza (Song-Written-in-the-Stars)

Adventurers
Malmooth are free to leave their underground cities at any time, and most do spend some time aboveground adventuring. While those who leave their underground homes forever are typically looked down on as outcasts, misfits, or xenophiles, it is considered upright and proper for a Malmooth to leave and adventure for several years before taking up a position in Malmooth society, particularly among the less important occupation-castes in society.

Malmooth

+2 Int, +2 Cha, -2 Dex, -2 Wis. Malmooth are intelligent and personable, but have little great willpower. Their exoskeletons prevent them from moving as freely as other humanoids.
Monstrous Humanoid: Malmooth are of the monstrous humanoid type.
Medium: As Medium creatures, Malmooth have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Malmooth base land speed is 30 feet.
Malmooth have a +1 natural armor bonus to AC.
Arcane Adept: All Malmooth have ½ ranks in both Spellcraft and Use Magic Device.
Light Sensitivity: Malmooth are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Magic Resonance: The caster level of any magic item a Malmooth wields or wears is increased by 1. The Malmooth must be in possession of the item for 24 hours before the bonus is granted.
Spell-Like Abilities: All Malmooth may use mending at will as a spell-like ability. Malmooth with a Charisma score of 12 or higher may use detect magic once per day as a spell-like ability. The caster level of a Malmooth’s spell-like abilities is 1st.
Sustenance: A Malmooth's body is inhabited by symbiotic insects and other vermin that provide nourishment for it. A Malmooth does not need to eat, and can go twice as long as other humanoids without drinking. It still breathes normally.
A Malmooth has a +2 racial bonus on all Craft and Use Magic Device checks.
Automatic Languages[/i]: Malmooth and Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Common, Dwarven, Elven, Terran.
Favored Class: Artificer. A multiclass Malmooth’s Artificer class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

thevorpalbunny
2008-08-11, 10:22 PM
LA?

Otherwise, cool. I like the fluff, and the crunch is interesting.

The Demented One
2008-08-11, 10:28 PM
LA?

Otherwise, cool. I like the fluff, and the crunch is interesting.
I think it works at LA +0. Could be wrong.

thevorpalbunny
2008-08-11, 10:46 PM
I'm wary of having +2 Int and +2 Cha at LA +0. If you stripped one of them, I think it would probably be okay. Not that I'm a balance expert.

Lappy9000
2008-08-11, 10:47 PM
Wow, that's nice. I've been needing a nice LA +0 subterranean race. Mind if I steal them? :smallsmile:

Fluff is nice, and yeah, the LA works out to +0,

vicente408
2008-08-11, 10:50 PM
Why do you have a listing of male names if they are a female-only race?

ForzaFiori
2008-08-11, 10:55 PM
I'm wary of having +2 Int and +2 Cha at LA +0. If you stripped one of them, I think it would probably be okay. Not that I'm a balance expert.

the -2 Dex and Wis balance those out fairly well imho.

The Demented One
2008-08-11, 10:57 PM
I'm wary of having +2 Int and +2 Cha at LA +0. If you stripped one of them, I think it would probably be okay. Not that I'm a balance expert.
In my mind, the dual penalties, with one of them being to a caster-essential stat, and the light blindness help to balance out the double bonuses.


Why do you have a listing of male names if they are a female-only race?
...Because I'm an idiot.

Owrtho
2008-08-11, 11:04 PM
Well, if you think about it, it's not actualy an all female race. It's more like the the angler fish with radicly different males and females. In both cases the males are much smaller and end up being symbiotes for the females with the purpose of fertilizing eggs. That said those are obviously common names among the symbiotes inside of them. (though it does make one wonder how the males get inside the females and manage to avoid inbreeding.

Owrtho

thevorpalbunny
2008-08-11, 11:04 PM
With that in mind, I don't think it's balanced. Though the -2 Dex hurts casters worse than most, the -2 Wis doesn't really hurt them much, usually, and they have an additional +2 to the other mental stat. Also, the natural armor bonus offsets most of the Dex penalty.

Personally, I would ditch the +2 Cha and make it LA +0 or ditch the -2 Wis and add a minor feature or two (gain that feat that lets you do a snap appraisal of magic items? Complete Adventurer, I think) and make it LA +1. Probably the first one.

The Demented One
2008-08-11, 11:26 PM
Well, if you think about it, it's not actualy an all female race. It's more like the the angler fish with radicly different males and females. In both cases the males are much smaller and end up being symbiotes for the females with the purpose of fertilizing eggs. That said those are obviously common names among the symbiotes inside of them. (though it does make one wonder how the males get inside the females and manage to avoid inbreeding.

Owrtho
It's actually not a gender difference. Literally all the Malmooth are female, the symbiotes that do the fertilizing are of different species (and not all of the same species). Granted, it's completely ridiculous in the context of real-world genetics, but hey, it's D&D. Genetically implausible hybrids are the least of our worries.

Owrtho
2008-08-11, 11:42 PM
Actualy it could be possible in real world genetics (though highly unlikely). Assuming that all fertilization is done by the same symbiote, then at some point a creature (perhapse even a human or elf) female happened to mate with them. Assuming that the symbiotes are asexual, then they would have no genetic data to compete with the female genetic data of the other species. Then a stable hybrid is born that breeds true successfuly with the symbiote (or maby the continual increase in the symbiotes genetics is why they now have exoskeletons). As no genetics for males have ever been introduced (unless the manage to crossbreed with a male of the mother species), they would be all females. However, assuming they can breed with the mother species, it would be possible (though rare, and never in their own societies) for there to be males.

Owrtho

Lappy9000
2008-08-11, 11:42 PM
Google search.
Dr. Who, eh?

Well, I don't like you any less for it :smalltongue:
Nah, I liked how you went into religion and language without being overbearing. And Malmooth is just so much fun to say. Malmooth. Malmoooooth.


Actualy it could be possible in real world genetics...Genetic-y Smart Stuff...

*blinks confusedly*

The Demented One
2008-08-11, 11:44 PM
Google search.
Dr. Who, eh?

Well, I don't like you any less for it :smalltongue:
Nah, I liked how you went into religion and language without being overbearing. And Malmooth is just so much fun to say. Malmooth. Malmoooooth.
Normally I avoid adapting stuff from other things, but I liked Chantho and her adorable little verbal tic so much, and then she got refrigerator'd. And she'd've made such a good companion...