Hm. Dot for later.
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Gems are kinda really, really powerful.
Polymorph at will, the ability to summon personal weapons at will, effective immortality...
But, there is an "earth"-based race available to characters - Oreads.
Some "gem"-themed alternate racial traits are:
Crystalline Form Oreads with this trait gain a +2 racial bonus to AC against rays thanks to their reflective crystalline skin. In addition, once per day, they can deflect a single ray attack targeted at them as if they were using the Deflect Arrows feat. This racial trait replaces earth affinity.
Oread Gem Magic (1 RP) Oreads' proclivity for long spans of study and concentration makes them natural wizards, witches, and oracles. Oreads with this racial trait can augment their earth-related spells and spell-like abilities through the use of precious and semiprecious gemstones as additional material components (see Table: Oread Gem Magic below). The gems are destroyed in the process, granting the spell the listed effects in addition to its normal effects unless otherwise noted. Only one instance of oread gem magic can be applied to a spell at a time; excess expended gems do not stack. This racial trait replaces the earth affinity racial trait. Source: Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Elements
Yeah, Oreads are Earth plane outsiders and are definitely what you want.
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Gems are kinda really, really powerful.
Polymorph at will, the ability to summon personal weapons at will, effective immortality...
But, there is an "earth"-based race available to characters - Oreads.
Some "gem"-themed alternate racial traits are:
Crystalline Form Oreads with this trait gain a +2 racial bonus to AC against rays thanks to their reflective crystalline skin. In addition, once per day, they can deflect a single ray attack targeted at them as if they were using the Deflect Arrows feat. This racial trait replaces earth affinity.
Oread Gem Magic (1 RP) Oreads' proclivity for long spans of study and concentration makes them natural wizards, witches, and oracles. Oreads with this racial trait can augment their earth-related spells and spell-like abilities through the use of precious and semiprecious gemstones as additional material components (see Table: Oread Gem Magic below). The gems are destroyed in the process, granting the spell the listed effects in addition to its normal effects unless otherwise noted. Only one instance of oread gem magic can be applied to a spell at a time; excess expended gems do not stack. This racial trait replaces the earth affinity racial trait. Source: Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Elements
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In a much, much BROADER sense, there are 6 races which could be, depending on the setting, rescripted in their fluff as Crystal-Gemem-like characters - they're 5 races based around Elements, and one based around Shadow (which can sorta be seen as an element unto itself).
Oread (Earth)
Undine (Water)
Ifrit (Fire)
Sylph (Air)
Suli (Any of the other four/Quintessence)
Fetchling (Shadow)
I think you're not going to be able to get everything you want purely from Race. You're going to have to add in a class to get every detail you want.
For example, the only gem that really transforms consistently is Amethyst. While they all /can/ transform, you don't /need/ every Gem to transform.
If you focus on the spellcasting aspect, and the signature weapon you could probably find your perfect combination of race/class quicker.
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It might work if all the players are using this race, especially if you come up with fusion (gestalt?) rules.
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I think you're not going to be able to get everything you want purely from Race. You're going to have to add in a class to get every detail you want.
For example, the only gem that really transforms consistently is Amethyst. While they all /can/ transform, you don't /need/ every Gem to transform.If you focus on the spellcasting aspect, and the signature weapon you could probably find your perfect combination of race/class quicker.
Thinking about it, the "summon a weapon" thing could easily be recreated by a Warpriest:
Holy Ice Weapon would allow the Gems to summon their signature weapons.
Heighten Spell, Preferred Spell, 1 Metamagic Feat, Quicken Spell, and Spell Perfection altogether would let them summon their weapons as often as they wanted to, since they could do it as a Swift Action and as many times per day as they have spells.
Sacred Weapon then would let them up the power of those weapons.
And they could pump themselves up with Fervor-cast spells as Swift Actions.
EDIT: ninja'd a few times. Also, noting I haven't actually seen the series, I'm just going based on your initial questions.
EDIT 2: After reading all the other posts, those may work better. They seem to know what they're talking about.
Well, at the least the personal weapon-thing is easy to imitate (in at least two ways).
Beyond that, if this is a home campaign, that you don't mind bending the rules a bit for, I've got some recommendations (though, based exclusively off of what you're saying).
Start with the lich template, and strip it of its offensive properties (touch attack, fear aura, paralyzing touch) and a few of the weirder defensive properties (the DR makes no sense, nor does the channel resistance or hit dice alteration - the cold and electricity immunity may or may not make sense, depending on the nature of the world). Instead of being an undead, it's a half construct (despite the rules, I'd say just put it in "humanoid" and ignore any subtypes, but that's up to you). Add the change shape racial ability, and the monstrous "spell-like ability, at will" ability (found below it, at the very bottom, near Movement abilities) and choose shadow weapon.
Re-fluff everything.
Now you've got a race with 7+0+6+2 = 15 rp (similar to an aasimar), and a ~+1 or +2 CR-adjustment for template (not really important, but worth noting) which can be "evened out" (hypothetically) by providing NPC-level amounts of equipment (but this is strictly hypothetical). So long as the "gem" <phylactery> survives, the creature can rebuild its body in a few days.
This isn't that bad, over-all for an approximation of what you were asking about, based on your own criteria.
You can do something similar with deathknight or ghost, though I think those would require a lot more work.
Hope that helps!
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Also, noting I haven't actually seen the series, I'm just going based on your initial questions.
Gems are anthropomorphic magic stones (think Ioun Stones that have gained sentience and a humanoid body).
They all have superstrength (the degree to which they do varies on the individual gem), superspeed (again, varies), are extremely physically tough, have the ability to shapeshit (Polymorph Any Object on themselves, at will), temporarily or permanently fuse together, summon their own unique weapons, create small magical bubbles around objects and teleport them to a prescribed location, and each seemingly have a unique ability.
Apparently, they're also Usually Evil, or at the very least are Usually Neutral as they have little to no regard for non-Gem life (they see it as not "life" persay, the way we view machines, or view it in a way most humans would view insects - i.e. insignificant)
The Crystal Gems are just a group of rogue Gems who broke off from the Gem Homeworld because they didn't agree with the Homeworld strip-mining the Earth, because we're heavily inhabited by organic life (and the strip-mining would have resulted in the extinction of all organic life therein). Their leader was Rose Quartz, who is Steven's deceased mother ("deceased" is a little odd, as she "had to give up her physical form" in order for Steven to have been born - her Gem was transferred to him apparently at birth).
Steven (a half-Gem) has healing as his special ability. Signature Weapon: Shield / Sword & Shield
Garnet, the tallest and strongest Gem, has precognition (although it's more like she sees all possible outcomes of any situation all at once). She can transfer that power for a very brief time to others by giving them a kiss on the forehead. Signature Weapon: Gauntlets
Amethyst, short and squat, is the most-prolific with transformations, or at least abuses it to no ends. Her "special ability" may be that she can transform more easily than the others. Signature Weapon: Whip / Spiked Chain (her whip has gem shards poking out its length)
Pearl, svelte and graceful, seems to have super-intelligence as her special ability; at the bare minimum she's the most prolific with weapons, and is intelligent enough to create a single-manned Ground-To-Space Plane out of Earth junk and synthesize rocket fuel from base chemicals. Signature Weapon: Glaive
Very, very cool.
That... all mostly seems to line up with what I wrote as the most basic, most minor "version" of what you could want in a PF-type "basis" for these things.
At least to me! :D
Everything else seems to come about from class abilities. Maybe switch out the "+2 WIS and CHA" for "+2 STR" or something. Expeditious Retreat would also work as a spell-like ability (for 2 more RP) to get the "speed" thing.
It's worth noting that at 24 rp, svirfneblin are highest race-point race listed under the "races" section of d20pfsrd, followed by fetchlings at 17 rp. Drow nobles, of course, eclipse that at 41 rp, and it's been recommended that, at 41 rp, they start off as one level lower than their fellow adventurers... though the race builder recommends higher adjustment than that. (It's also worth noting that at 11 rp, dwarves are considered an "advanced" race and thus more powerful than "standard" races, despite being one of the latter.)
Start with the lich template, and strip it of its offensive properties (touch attack, fear aura, paralyzing touch) and a few of the weirder defensive properties (the DR makes no sense, nor does the channel resistance or hit dice alteration - the cold and electricity immunity may or may not make sense, depending on the nature of the world). Instead of being an undead, it's a half construct (despite the rules, I'd say just put it in "humanoid" and ignore any subtypes, but that's up to you). Add the change shape racial ability, and the monstrous "spell-like ability, at will" ability (found below it, at the very bottom, near Movement abilities) and choose shadow weapon.
While the liches are the closest actual approximations, I think you can work with something a lot more....not OP.
Just have their bodies turn into the gem when they die, and require a ritual to bring back out (normal spells like raise dead). Since the one time we have seen a gem get knocked out (without some other excuse being there) involved her being gone for weeks... yeah, it is not too hard to justify the need for a spell to make a new physical form.
Do that, grab one of the elemental native outsides (for that bit of power and the excuse to have colored skin)... yeah, you can do fine.
If I had to pick a class, magus with a black blade might be good, to simulate general power and the cool weapon.
EDIT: For clarity.
Someone on the OOTS board made a very interesting suggestion:
"I might suggest a Lifespark Psicrystal. As for class, I would actually go with the Aegis Class that way it can literally build its own "body" Of course to emulate the weapon quality you can either a) level up in soulknife or b) take the unlocked talent feat and select Call Weaponry."
Any thoughts on that?
I link them for those who, like me, had no idea what was going on (I'd heard of lifespark constructs, but thought that you might be referring to something specific until I remembered the template as a separate thing.
The enforced 3d6 for mental scores can be really harsh, while the weaknesses do weaken the power of the construct traits somewhat.
Aegis class.
Soul Knife (which I linked earlier).
After looking at them, I like the basic idea (and generally prefer psionics to other classes), but would suggest a synthesist summoner instead of the aegis - again, you're building a body, but you're building one with "super strength" (optionally, anyway), and "super-speed" (again, at least optionally), and so on. And... you're building it around the psycrystal. They all just have the humanoid (I guess) base forms. If the body "pops" out of existence due to damage, the crystal simply goes away until it can rebuild the body a day later.
Add in shadow weapon (or soul knife abilities) and you've got your personalized weapon back, and a large number of unique powers at your fingertips.
EDIT:
Start with the lich template, and strip it of its offensive properties (touch attack, fear aura, paralyzing touch) and a few of the weirder defensive properties (the DR makes no sense, nor does the channel resistance or hit dice alteration - the cold and electricity immunity may or may not make sense, depending on the nature of the world). Instead of being an undead, it's a half construct (despite the rules, I'd say just put it in "humanoid" and ignore any subtypes, but that's up to you). Add the change shape racial ability, and the monstrous "spell-like ability, at will" ability (found below it, at the very bottom, near Movement abilities) and choose shadow weapon.While the liches are the closest actual approximations, I think you can work with something a lot more....not OP.
Just have their bodies turn into the gem when they die, and require a ritual to bring back out (normal spells like raise dead).
Do that, grab one of the elemental native outsides (for that bit of power and the excuse to have colored skin)... yeah, you can do fine.
If I had to pick a class, magus with a black blade might be good, to simulate general power and the cool weapon.
Meh, I went with "closest approximation" I could think of. :)
(It also helps that I'm not worried about OP-ness, and, if you apply the limits that I suggested, you're not going to be terribly OP, even compared to your comrades... you just tend to get better in a few days.)Also, the synthesist summoner with a lifespark psicrystal actually sounds even better to my mind.
However, you bring up a good point. Is there any summoner archetype or ability that nets a black blade somehow? Might be useful with the summoner combination. If nothing official, maybe for flavor, trade out your Summon Monster ability?
Also, noting I haven't actually seen the series, I'm just going based on your initial questions.Gems are anthropomorphic magic stones (think Ioun Stones that have gained sentience and a humanoid body).
They all have superstrength (the degree to which they do varies on the individual gem), superspeed (again, varies), are extremely physically tough, have the ability to shapeshit (Polymorph Any Object on themselves, at will), temporarily or permanently fuse together, summon their own unique weapons, create small magical bubbles around objects and teleport them to a prescribed location, and each seemingly have a unique ability.
Apparently, they're also Usually Evil, or at the very least are Usually Neutral as they have little to no regard for non-Gem life (they see it as not "life" persay, the way we view machines, or view it in a way most humans would view insects - i.e. insignificant)
The Crystal Gems are just a group of rogue Gems who broke off from the Gem Homeworld because they didn't agree with the Homeworld strip-mining the Earth, because we're heavily inhabited by organic life (and the strip-mining would have resulted in the extinction of all organic life therein). Their leader was Rose Quartz, who is Steven's deceased mother ("deceased" is a little odd, as she "had to give up her physical form" in order for Steven to have been born - her Gem was transferred to him apparently at birth).
Steven (a half-Gem) has healing as his special ability. Signature Weapon: Shield / Sword & Shield
Garnet, the tallest and strongest Gem, has precognition (although it's more like she sees all possible outcomes of any situation all at once). She can transfer that power for a very brief time to others by giving them a kiss on the forehead. Signature Weapon: Gauntlets
Amethyst, short and squat, is the most-prolific with transformations, or at least abuses it to no ends. Her "special ability" may be that she can transform more easily than the others. Signature Weapon:...
Wouldn't Pearl's special ability be the ability to make projections? (At Will Silent Image?)