Noble Hirudin (3.5 race; WIP, PEACH)

[Griffith!]

Personality: Hirudin hold duty to be paramount over all else - they see society as a living entity, whose care is the responsibility of all. Each person is like a drop of blood in the veins of the being, and they must do not what is best for them, but what is best for the creature.

Thus, Hirudin often seem cruel or emotionless to outsiders - a Hirudin has no compunctions killing a wounded companion if the wounded would slow down the party. That's not to say Hirudin do not form emotional attachments - they can and they do. But some things other races take for granted are alien to them - Mating, for example, is never done as an act of love. The act of reproduction is done only in service to the enclave. Never as recreation.

Noble Hirudin, as the caste bred for and dedicated to war, are given the dual responsibilities of enforcing Hirukar - "Hiru's Law", the Hirudin code of honor - and providing for the enclave. This is accomplished mostly by raiding caravans and cities for goods, food and, in many cases, slaves.

Physical Description: Noble Hirudin are pale, sallow creatures of a size comparable to humans, if a bit thinner on average. Noble Hirudin are very human-like in appearance, with smooth, flat noses and wide-set yellow eyes. Hair grows from their scalp, in shades ranging from white to black - they are incapable of growing beards, eyebrows, or body hair. Additionally, each Noble Hirudin has ridges beneath their eyes, unique to the individual. Finally, they posses tridactyl hands and feet, with hard, chitinous ridges on each finger-tip.

Relations: Hirudin have a word for anybody who is not descended of Hiru. That word is Paru - a term roughly equivalent to "food". The Patriarchs consider other races to be beneath them at best and little more than cattle at worst. If they had allies, they are more likely to find them among the evil races, such as the orcs, ogres or Drow than among any of the goodly races.

Alignment: Hirudin as a whole tend toward lawful evil alignments. Their strict caste system and rigid patriarchal societies discourage free spirits, and it is often common practice in Hirudin enclaves to feed off of Paru captured in raids. This doesn't mean that every Hirudin feeds off sentient creatures - some enclaves, particularly those who live close to other races, feed only on animals and may be closer to neutral than evil. Because of their nature, however, few Hirudin are good.

Lands: Hirudin live in sheltered enclaves, often hidden in mountain caves or deep within forests and rocky crags. They tend to keep close to the other sentient races - close enough to ensure an easy supply of food, but far enough away to protect the enclave.

Religion: Hirudin honor their ancestors, but not in the way most people think. They revere the collective spirit of the dead and honor service to the enclave, but they care nothing for the old or the lives of individual Hirudin. It is said that when a Hirudin dies, his spirit becomes one with the noble spirit of Hiru, the great progenitor. But Hiru is not thier god; Hirudin do not put faith in the gods, believing instead that the organism is divine - their god is their people.

Language: Hirudin, a word meaning 'Born of Hiru', sometimes speak Hirudu, or "Hiru's Speech" - a language as much cultural as it is racial. Hirudu is not spoken in day-to-day meeting, activities, or gatherings. It is the language of the courts, the nobility, and the holy texts. Business is never discussed in Hirudu; that would be a grave insult to the ancestors. Instead, these dealings are often done in Parudu, literally "food speech" - what most would call the common tongue.

Adventurers: Noble Hirudin who venture from their enclaves are either exiles, traitors, or renegades without exception. The very act of leaving the enclave is a betrayal of Hirukar and the Hirudin in whole. In extremely rare circumstances, a single Hirudin may be given a charge by the enclave and leave on a quest in service to the people, but these are the exceptions to the exception, and are never welcomed back without reservation.


Racial Traits:

• +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -4 Charisma; Physically hardy, and notoriously tough to kill, the Hirudin are disturbing to most other humanoids
• As medium creatures, they gain no benefits nor penalties due to size.
• Hirudin have a base land speed of 30ft
• Life Leech: The Hirudin have a unique metabolism; they feed by leeching the life energy of their victims through specialized patches of skin on their fingertips. On a successful touch attack, the Hirudin deals 1d6 damage per round the contact is maintained, gaining a number of temporary hit-points equal to the damage dealt. These temporary hit-points cannot increase a Hirudin's maximum hit-point total, and fade an hour after feeding as his body digests the excess life force. The target can resist the Hirudin's touch with a successful fortitude save, vs. DC 15 + 1/2 HD (rounded down - minimum of one) + wisdom modifier.
• Darkvision up to 60 feet, in black and white with no need for light.
• Inflexible: A Hirudin that has reached 0 hit-points automatically stabilizes, provided he has fed within the last twenty-four hours. He still falls unconscious, and will die if he reaches -10 hit-points, but he no longer bleeds out.
• The unique metabolism of a Noble Hirudin prevent them from eating and digesting normal food and drink. Thus, they cannot gain any benefit from ingesting enchanted substances, including but not limited to all kinds of potions and consumables. Furthermore, if a Hirudin has not fed from a living victim for longer than four days, he no longer gains any benefit from resting. If he still has not fed after seven days, he begins to take a cumulative d4 non-lethal damage per day. A second week without food reduces all of his skill checks, saving throws, and attack rolls by -2. After three weeks without feeding, the Hirudin will die, his physical form reduced to a dried out husk.
• +2 on search, spot and balance skill checks; the Hirudin possess slightly enhanced spacial awareness, a vestige of their insect origins.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Hirudinae
• Bonus Languages: Any, though they are most likely to learn the languages of the scholar races - draconic, elvish, and infernal are popular choices
• Favored Class: Raksha ((coming soon))
• Aberration

Height and Weight Table:

Racial Feats: ((coming soon))

((I'm too tired - I'll finish when I wake up))

[Debihuman]

Type and Subtye (if any) need to be noted.

Debby

[BShammie]

The charisma penalty should be either -2 or -4.
Even bonuses and penalties always have the same effect on a stat, but odd ones don't. For example, if you put a 12 into your charisma you would have a score of 9, which is a -1 penalty. If the score you put into charisma was a 13 your score would become 10 and wouldn't have a penalty.

I'm a bit short on time at the moment, but that was all that stuck out to me. I'll try and give a better PEACHing later.

[eftexar]

Life leech needs a scaling save, because I immediately say no to any ability that doesn't scale. It becomes useless too quickly, though 25 is a bit high for level 1. How about 20?
Their weakness, as is, puts them at a LA of 0 in my opinion. It's not too drastic, but this race isn't that powerful to begin with.

[nonsi]

Now I wish someone homebrewed a full fledged SG-Atlantis Wraith.

[Griffith!]

@Debihuman - Right, right. Forgot.

@BShammie - Yeah, I neglected to put any thought into that at all. Now that you mention it, you're exactly right. I have no idea how that went past me.

@eftexar - I wanted the save to be high because it is the only way they gain sustenance. At the same time I can see your point. I'm thinking of scaling it by character level, or adding an ability modifier, or both. Thoughts?

@nonsi - Yeah, I can see the similarities. I would probably call the wraith an inspiration, but in terms of culture and flavor, they're pretty different.

[eftexar]

I vote both as in having the DC equal 10 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier. Or, to keep it higher, use 15 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier.

[Griffith!]

I vote both as in having the DC equal 10 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier. Or, to keep it higher, use 15 + 1/2 HD + ability modifier.

Fair enough. I can't think of a mechanical reason to scale it any other way, really. So done.

[Griffith!]

Okay then. Added type, dropped the level adjustment, and fixed the charisma penalty. I changed the dc of the save versus Life Leech, and I'm finishing up the racial feats; I'll post them as soon as I'm home from work.

Anyone have anything else to add?

[Gandariel]

I see in your last post you "Dropped the level adjustment".
So it has LA 0 ?

This thing has:
+2 Str AND Con for a (useless) -4 Cha
A Bonus feat
Life leech ability?(not that strong when you can do double digit damage on hits, but hey)
Aberration type
Darkvision, free Diehard, Skill bonuses

and LA0 ?

Humans are one of the best races and they only get a feat and 24 skillpoints over 20 levels.
this is at the very least LA+1

[Griffith!]

I see in your last post you "Dropped the level adjustment".
So it has LA 0 ?

This thing has:
+2 Str AND Con for a (useless) -4 Cha
A Bonus feat
Life leech ability?(not that strong when you can do double digit damage on hits, but hey)
Aberration type
Darkvision, free Diehard, Skill bonuses

and LA0 ?

Humans are one of the best races and they only get a feat and 24 skillpoints over 20 levels.
this is at the very least LA+1

I can see your point. But the inability to gain any benefit from consuming things like potions is a weakness too. I'm not saying it necessarily offsets all of the benefits, but it does offset the Life Leech ability.

So, to help offset the lack of a level adjustment, what would you suggest? I could speed up the decay for not feeding, or limit the ability to sentient creatures. Or I could reduce the save DC to make feeding easier to resist.

I'd just like to avoid a level adjustment, if possible.

[Gandariel]

As long as you possess a Bag of tricks, the feeding thing is irrelevant.
Also trees count as living creatures, so really it only has an easier time eating than other people.

Anyway, you can't use potions. AND you can't benefit from Heroes' feast.
This is a really, really minor drawback.
And none of the things you suggest would be useful (The feeding thing is irrelevant, and the life leech nerfs.. well the ability itself isn't very strong, and nerfing would only make it so that people wouldn't use it)

Except for Cha-focused charachters, i see no reason why ANYONE would not take this race

If you remove the bonus feat...
Well, every single melee charachter will still use this race, but it's a step forward for sure

[Griffith!]

I actually can't refute any of that and I hate you for it.

So. I agree. Anyone else want to offer a second opinion - drop the bonus feat, or add the level adjustment?

[Analytica]

I can't see that this is overpowered. Possibly drop the feat though - humans get theirs because they are flexible, these people are anything but.

[Gandariel]

I actually can't refute any of that and I hate you for it.

So. I agree. Anyone else want to offer a second opinion - drop the bonus feat, or add the level adjustment?

=)

Just drop the feat. The race will be pretty strong nonetheless, but who cares. It's WotC's fault they designed the half-elf so weak :P

[Griffith!]

I can't see that this is overpowered. Possibly drop the feat though - humans get theirs because they are flexible, these people are anything but.

Point taken.