The Cairn Race (The Children of the Mountain)

[Kinslayer777]

The Cairn

Description:

The Cairn are a quiet, good-natured race of living stone. Born from the mountain itself, the Cairn came into being where the stone of Greatmount melded with a well of magicka. Lacking a sense of gravity toward racial society, the Cairn are a race of wanderers, lacking a binding point of interest beyond a genuine, all-encompassing curiosity for the living world.

The Cairn resemble humans in terms of physical build, varying from time to time, but mostly between 5-6 ft tall. They're eyes are pure white marble, effectively useless for vision, as the Cairn "see" with their feet (assuming contact with a stable ground is in effect). Their "hair" is made of pure crystal that grows out straight to a point, they're bodies, of pure stone. Indented patterns cover the Cairn's bodies, lit by pure World Magicka that is a Cairn's life force.

The Cairn are born of the mountain and spend a time there, talking to the stone in their native language, learning what the stone knows of this new world the Cairn have emerged in. Some spend an eternity in their first home, wandering the caverns and passes of the mountain. Some eventually stumble into the societies of other races, treated with mild quizzicalness which, because of their quiet, altruistic nature, usually leads to silent acceptance from most races. The sight of a Cairn is extremely rare and limited but the stories of them are known throughout most crevices of the known world. And many a story-weaver has regaled the birth of the children of the mountain.

The motivation of the Cairn is universally to answer the question: "Why am I here? What IS here? What is my purpose?". And that road diverges into many separate paths.

Alignment: Any Good

Racial traits:

• +2 Cha, +2 Con, -2 Int: The Cairn are physically tough yet gentle, which adds a peculiar allure to this altruistic race. They are uneducated in the realm of academia.
• Medium: Cairn do not receive any special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• A Cairn’s base land speed is 30ft.
• World's Eye View (Ex): Cairn tremorsense up to 180ft. However, they possess no visual sense whatsoever, and are considered blind to any creature they cannot detect through their tremorsense.
• Earth Communion (Sp): Cairn can use Stone Tell at will.
• Mountain's Will: Cairn are resistant to magic. They receive +2 to saves vs. magical effects.
• Because of their natural affinity with magicka, Cairn receive a +2 to both Concentration and Spellcraft checks.
• Favored class: Sorcerer. Cairn are magical in nature and have an affinity for using it. A multi-class Cairn’s sorcerer levels do not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Optional Bonus Racial Feats:

Spoiler

Show

• Stone Meld
  Prerequisite: Cairn
  Benefit: Permanent Meld into Stone ability
• Stone Empathic
  Prerequisits: Cairn
  Benefit: Permanent Soften Earth and Stone ability
• Stone Shaper
  Prerequisits: Cairn
  Benefit: Permanent Stone Shape ability
• Rock to Mud
  Prerequisits: Cairn
  Benefit:Permanent Transmute Rock to Mud ability
• Greatmount Stonehide
  Prerequisites: Cairn, Base Attack Bonus +6, Con 17
  Benefit: You have learned to move the shifting plates of your body to it's best defensive advantage. You gain a +2 natural armour bonus to AC and damage reduction 5/adamantine.
• Innate Geomancy
  Prerequisites: Cairn, Con 13, Wis 13, Cha 15, Spellcraft 6 ranks
  Benefits: You gain a +1 bonus to caster level when targeting a creature within range of your tremorsense if you have used stone tell on the surface the creature is standing on.

[AustontheGreat1]

The Cairn

Description:

The Cairn are a quiet, good-natured race of living stone. Born from the mountain itself, the Cairn came into being where the stone of Greatmount melded with a well of magicka. Lacking a sense of gravity toward racial society, the Cairn are a race of wanderers, lacking a binding point of interest beyond a genuine, all-encompassing curiosity for the living world.

The Cairn resemble humans in terms of physical build, varying from time to time, but mostly between 5-6 ft tall. They're eyes are pure white marble, effectively useless for vision, as the Cairn "see" with their feet (assuming contact with a stable ground is in effect). Their "hair" is made of pure crystal that grows out straight to a point, they're bodies, of pure stone. Indented patterns cover the Cairn's bodies, lit by pure World Magicka that is a Cairn's life force.

The Cairn are born of the mountain and spend a time there, talking to the stone in their native language, learning what the stone knows of this new world the Cairn have emerged in. Some spend an eternity in their first home, wandering the caverns and passes of the mountain. Some eventually stumble into the societies of other races, treated with mild quizzicalness which, because of their quiet, altruistic nature, usually leads to silent acceptance from most races. The sight a Cairn is extremely rare and limited but the stories of them are known throughout most crevices of the known world. And many a story-weaver has regaled the birth of the children of the mountain.

The motivation of the Cairn is universally to answer the question: "Why am I here? What IS here? What is my purpose?". And that road diverges into many separate paths.

Racial traits:

Darkvision: 180' radius
Stone speech: May commune with stone as the commune spell (Though the stone has a very narrow knowledge of worldly matters)
Alignment: Any good
Ability adjustments: +2 Cha, +2 Con, -2 Int
Save bonus: +2 Save vs. Magic (Natural resistance to magic)
Size: Medium
Base land speed: 30 ft
Skill bonus: +2 Spot, +2 Listen
Favored class: Sorcerer (Natural affinity for magic)

For what its worth, I really like the Idea; but I think it could use some cleaning up. Maybe something like...

• +2 Cha, +2 Con, -2 Int
• Medium: Cairn do not receive any special bonuses or penalties due to their size
• A cairn’s base land speed is 30ft.
• Cairn can see in the dark up to 180 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and cairn can function just fine with no light at all. (this makes sense for mountain dwellers, but doesn’t match the flavor you gave, I recomment changing it to tremorsense)
• Stone speech: Cairn can commune with the stone as the commune spell (Though the stone has a very narrow knowledge of worldly matters)(there is a spell specifically for talking with rocks called stone tell. It’s in the SRD, I think it makes a little more sense)
• Cairn are resistant to magic. They receive +2 to save vs. magical effects.
• +2 Spot, +2 Listen (I recommend you give a brief explanation why they receive this)
• Favored class: Sorcerer. Cairn are magical in nature and have an affinity for using it. A multiclass cairn’s sorcerer levels do not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Traditionally, alignment is left in the description instead of the racial traits, I believe. Well, like I said, for what its worth.

[Edge]

Also, you're probably looking at a +1 level adjustment, mostly from the ability score modifiers.

[Kinslayer777]

For what its worth, I really like the Idea; but I think it could use some cleaning up. Maybe something like...

• +2 Cha, +2 Con, -2 Int
• Medium: Cairn do not receive any special bonuses or penalties due to their size
• A cairn’s base land speed is 30ft.
• Cairn can see in the dark up to 180 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and cairn can function just fine with no light at all. (this makes sense for mountain dwellers, but doesn’t match the flavor you gave, I recomment changing it to tremorsense)
• Stone speech: Cairn can commune with the stone as the commune spell (Though the stone has a very narrow knowledge of worldly matters)(there is a spell specifically for talking with rocks called stone tell. It’s in the SRD, I think it makes a little more sense)
• Cairn are resistant to magic. They receive +2 to save vs. magical effects.
• +2 Spot, +2 Listen (I recommend you give a brief explanation why they receive this)
• Favored class: Sorcerer. Cairn are magical in nature and have an affinity for using it. A multiclass cairn’s sorcerer levels do not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

Traditionally, alignment is left in the description instead of the racial traits, I believe. Well, like I said, for what its worth.

Much appreciation! Changes have been made.

[Debihuman]

Cairn can "see" in the dark or light, uninhibitedly, up to 180 feet. He accomplishes this by sensing tremors or plate shifting.

Shouldn't this be tremorsense 180 ft.?

Debby

[Edge]

Shouldn't this be tremorsense 180 ft.?

From the sounds of it, probably.

And I still think it needs +1LA.

[Kinslayer777]

Shouldn't this be tremorsense 180 ft.?

Debby

Yeah, missed that the first time around. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Kinslayer777]

From the sounds of it, probably.

And I still think it needs +1LA.

Showing my ignorance here a bit, but what does a +1 level adjustment entail?

[Forever Curious]

Showing my ignorance here a bit, but what does a +1 level adjustment entail?

It means that a member of this race is treated as having one class level higher than it really is.

For example, a Cairn with one level of Fighter would be treated as having two character levels.

...i could be wrong though.

[Edge]

Level adjustment is described in detail on page 172 of the DMG.

Essentially, it boils to down to being a mechanic that allows more powerful races into play by making them 'count' as a higher level for the purposes XP needed for levelling up and wealth by level, whilst they remain their actual level for all other purposes.

As your race has unbalanced ability score modifiers and a rare, useful sense with a large range (i.e. the tremorsense), it looks worthy of a +1LA, roughly equivalent to the Aasimar or Tiefling.

I could, of course, be wrong in my assessment of this race's strength.

[ninjaneer003]

The ability modifiers wouldn't be overpowered if your using Pathfinder races as well but for dnd 3.5 ya a +1 level adjustment

[Edge]

Yeah, in Pathfinder they're pretty much fine, though I'd drop the range on the tremorsense down to about 60ft.

Optional Bonus Racial Feats:

• Permanent Meld into Stone ability
• Permanent Soften Earth and Stone ability
• Permanent Stone Shape ability
• Natural Stoneskin ability 1x per encounter
• Permanent Transmute Rock to Mud ability

These look okay, aside from the stoneskin 1/encounter. That's a hefty load of damage reduction, and very few monsters overcome DR/adamantine.

These would also benefit from being written out in the proper feat format:

FEAT NAME
Prerequisites:
Benefit:
Special: This field is only needed if you see the feat interacting with another ability in an odd manner.

[Kinslayer777]

Level adjustment is described in detail on page 172 of the DMG.

Essentially, it boils to down to being a mechanic that allows more powerful races into play by making them 'count' as a higher level for the purposes XP needed for levelling up and wealth by level, whilst they remain their actual level for all other purposes.

As your race has unbalanced ability score modifiers and a rare, useful sense with a large range (i.e. the tremorsense), it looks worthy of a +1LA, roughly equivalent to the Aasimar or Tiefling.

I could, of course, be wrong in my assessment of this race's strength.

I typically use Pathfinder race bonuses for all of my PC's. Do you agree with ninjaneer that this would be balanced in that light?

[Edge]

Drop the tremorsense down to 60ft and put some relatively high requirements on that stoneskin feat, and it'd be perfectly fine amongst Pathfinder races.

The average adventuring day is (supposedly) 4 encounters, so design the requirements for it so it can be taken as close to the level where a wizard could prepare 4 stoneskin spells.

But personally, rather than that, I'd do this:

Greatmount Stonehide
Prerequisites: Cairn, Base Attack Bonus +6, Con 17
Benefit: Your skin is exceptionally tough, blah, blah background text to fill in as you wish. You gain a +2 natural armour bonus to AC and damage reduction 5/adamantine.

[sscheib]

I would agree with Edge in respect to the Stoneskin ability and tremorsense.

Stonehide seems pretty reasonable to me.

[Edge]

Oh, and for what it's worth you may want to read up on the ins and outs of tremorsense. However, I just noticed in the background that they don't see with their eyes. Throw in a line mentioning that in the racial traits, and you can keep the tremorsense at 180ft.

Other than that, I like them, though the Listen and Spot do seem odd. I'd have pegged them as Concentration and Spellcraft myself. Also, how often can they use stone tell? At-will? 1/day? Several times per day? I myself am unsure on the frequency. Stone tell is a 6th level spell, but it is pretty weak.

Please note that despite all the criticism, I do like the race.

[DracoDei]

Don't THINK Spot checks do anything for a race that sees via Tremor-sense...

[Edge]

Because I really do like this race, here's how I'd write it all up:

Cairn Racial Traits

• +2 Cha, +2 Con, -2 Int: Cairn are an outgoing and flamboyant people that inherited the innate toughness of the mountain, but they are a grounded, simple folk with little formal education.
• Medium: Cairn do not receive any special bonuses or penalties due to their size
• A Cairn’s base land speed is 30ft.
• Seeing the World through the World (Ex): Cairn possess tremorsense out to 180ft. However, they possess no visual sense whatsoever, and are considered blind to any creature they cannot detect through their tremorsense.
• Earth Communion (Sp): Cairn can use stone tell 3/day as a spell-like ability.
• Mountain's Will: Cairn are resistant to magic. They receive +2 to saves vs. magical effects.
• Pay No Heed: Cairn possess a +2 racial bonus to Concentration checks.
• Magical Flair: Cairn possess a +2 racial bonus to Spellcraft checks.
• Favored Class: Sorcerer. Cairn are magical in nature and have an affinity for using it. A multi-class Cairn’s sorcerer levels do not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

And another feat:

Innate Geomancy
Prerequisites: Cairn, Con 13, Wis 13, Cha 15, Spellcraft 6 ranks
Benefits: You can now use your racial stone tell spell-like ability at-will. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to caster level when targeting a creature within range of your tremorsense if you have used stone tell on the surface the creature is standing on.

[Kinslayer777]

Because I really do like this race, here's how I'd write it all up:

Cairn Racial Traits

• +2 Cha, +2 Con, -2 Int: Cairn are an outgoing and flamboyant people that inherited the innate toughness of the mountain, but they are a grounded, simple folk with little formal education.
• Medium: Cairn do not receive any special bonuses or penalties due to their size
• A Cairn’s base land speed is 30ft.
• Seeing the World through the World (Ex): Cairn possess tremorsense out to 180ft. However, they possess no visual sense whatsoever, and are considered blind to any creature they cannot detect through their tremorsense.
• Earth Communion (Sp): Cairn can use stone tell 3/day as a spell-like ability.
• Mountain's Will: Cairn are resistant to magic. They receive +2 to saves vs. magical effects.
• Pay No Heed: Cairn possess a +2 racial bonus to Concentration checks.
• Magical Flair: Cairn possess a +2 racial bonus to Spellcraft checks.
• Favored Class: Sorcerer. Cairn are magical in nature and have an affinity for using it. A multi-class Cairn’s sorcerer levels do not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

And another feat:

Innate Geomancy
Prerequisites: Cairn, Con 13, Wis 13, Cha 15, Spellcraft 6 ranks
Benefits: You can now use your racial stone tell spell-like ability at-will. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to caster level when targeting a creature within range of your tremorsense if you have used stone tell on the surface the creature is standing on.

Wow, thanks a lot Edge! Really appreciate your input as I'm a bit new to the whole homebrew gambit. Much thanks at helping me create this race!

[Edge]

No problem at all. Now, consider them borrowed.

[Kinslayer777]

No problem at all. Now, consider them borrowed.

Haha consider it a gift. Hope you enjoy.