Fate and Fortune's Aerux PBP (Group A) (Inactive)

Game Master W Canepa

Welcome to the world of Aerux, adventurers.

Aerux is an ancient world undergoing an age of transformation, exploration, and enlightenment after millennia of dark ages following a global cataclysm. Over a thousand years ago, the gods warred against each other, and the resultant battle spilled into the heavens of Aerux. When the sky god, Rannos, fell to the planet below, an unimaginable cataclysm rent the surface of Aerux and the cavernous underworld below. Eldritch energies from the planet and the dying god intermingled and tore a rift to the Astral Plane. While the remaining gods continued their war in the heavens, powerful mages of a forgotten race worked to contain the destruction wrought on their world.

None of the sages are sure exactly what happened, but the region known as the Rift, the floating islands of the world, the strange quality of the upper stratosphere, and the diminishing of magic—both arcane and divine—in the world, is physical evidence of these events. Civilizations from before the cataclysm, such as the mysterious Duergar, the evil Yuan-ti, the nearly-forgotten Elven empire, the human empires of Yr’ath and Sendast, the Cyclopean God-Kings, the enigmatic Praethians, and countless other races, tribes, and cultures have mostly vanished from the collective memories of the inheritors of the world.

Today, the Vesh build monastery-ziggurats deep in jungle-choked regions of the world, worshipping a feathered serpent god and travel vast, lightning-blasted plains atride dinosaurs and giant birds, the nature-worshipping Khaass’solek (known as lizardfolk to the other races) continue healing the world around them and fight against aberrations that would further destroy the world, while the small and elusive Tengu travel far and wide on dinosaur mounts. The alien Gith with their airships, who were thrust into the world of Aerux from their astral homes, are still adapting to their new home, and have forged tenebrous connections with the Astral Plane, allowing limited travel back and forth, yet their population is meager. The ancient Traull dwell in their mountain homes and the ruins of the vanished Duergar, and are masters of crafting and warfare. The fecund and rather obnoxious race of kobolds have spread far and wide since the cataclysm, and every race knows that in ages past they were reviled and excluded; now the kobolds fill the niche of miners, workers, merchants, simple crafters, and various undesirable professions in civilized lands. However, despite the success of these races in this age, it cannot be denied that it is the age of Humanity. Humans have adapted and spread, fusing science and magic into alchemy, building miracles of engineering, and unifying trade and peace between most of the civilized races.

In the far corners of the world remain unexplored lands, lost ruins of empires long forgotten, the powerful magic of a mythical bygone age, strange monsters, stranger peoples, and the completely unknown in the magic-barren blighted lands in the center of the Worldwound. Treasures, forgotten lore, powerful magics, skilled foes, untapped resources, and unimaginable glory await in the strange landscapes of Aerux…

GENERATING ABILITY SCORES
Use the High Fantasy point-buy (20 pts) as per the Pathfinder Core Rule Book (p 15-16).

RACES
The following races are available at character creation: humans, lizardfolk, traulls, and vesh. These races will be detailed further below. Other playable races will become available as the world is explored more.

TRAITS
Humans may begin play with 3 traits. Other races may begin play with 2 traits. Traits will be detailed further below.

ALIGNMENT
Alignment is not used. You should replace any character design focused on alignment with one focused on other elements of your character, such as your history, personal beliefs, affiliations, and so on. Spells and effects such as detect evil no longer function.

CLASSES
At character creation, only the following classes are available to players: Barbarian, Cavalier, Druid, Fighter, Oracle, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Witch. As the world is explored, other classes will become available (some classes require more civilized training, are very rare, or are regionalized).

Changes to class features, if applicable, will be detailed further below.

FEATS
Feats in the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player’s Guide, Ultimate Magic, Bestiary 1 & 2, and Gunslinger Round 2 Playtest are available, with some exceptions. Feats from Ultimate Combat will be included when the book comes out, after I review them. Feats from other sources may be allowed on a case-by-case basis.

New feats, modified feats, excluded feats, epic feats, and rules for gaining feats beyond 7th level will be detailed further below.

COMBAT MANEUVERS
The following combat maneuver has been altered:
Bull Rush: Replace the first sentence with, “You can make a bull rush in place of a melee attack or as part of a charge, in place of the melee attack.”

EQUIPMENT and STARTING WEALTH
All the equipment in the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player’s Guide, and Gunslinger Round 2 Playtest are available to characters, with a few exceptions. Changes to existing equipment and new equipment will be detailed further below.

Characters beginning at 1st level use average wealth for character creation. Characters gain one suit of clothing at character creation for free.

Encumbrance/carrying capacity will be tracked, so keep track. Coins have weight, too.

MAGIC & MAGIC ITEMS
Magic is varied and powerful, but relatively rare in the world. Magic items are not sold on the open market regularly. They are made by individual artificers, alchemists, and mages, are things of legend to be discovered in forgotten tombs, renowned weapons with names and history wielded by the most famous NPCs, or forged by supernatural creatures as payment for some dangerous quest or favor.

Potions, scrolls, and alchemicals tend to be fairly common, however.

coming soon

HUMANS
Humans are the dominant and most prolific race, and this is the age when humanity is coming into its own. Human kingdoms are emerging from the dark ages after the cataclysm, and are entering a sort of renaissance. Reason, alchemy, and civilization are the religion of the day, and the gods are more tradition and a means of political power than a reality to most humans—after all, the gods’ petty wars nearly destroyed the world, and then they all but abandoned the mortals without a second thought. When humans rediscovered wizardry and arcane theory a few hundred years ago, their progress astounded the other races who maintained unbroken magical traditions.
Humans fused science and magic into the art of alchemy. In addition to varied and powerful alchemicals, humans have invented cannons and firearms, and their binding and combat magic rivals that of the ancient elves and strange gith.
On the edges of their civilizations lie uncharted and forgotten lands of vast wilderness, untapped resources, forgotten ruins from ancient civilizations, and other sentient races and monsters that hearken to ages past. The uncharted islands of the sky, the cavernous expanses of the Rift, and the barren lands on the other side pique the curiosity of humans everywhere.
Most humans have seen a glimpse of the supernatural—be it an alchemist or academy mage traveling through their village, a rogue gryphon that was hunting far from its home territory, an expensive curative elixir for sale by a traveling merchant, a gith skyship flying overhead, or the curse of a local hedge witch blighting cattle and crops—and they run the range from skeptical to superstitious, though this exposure to the magical things in the world are the exception to their lives, not the standard. The days of wizard-kings, dragon-riding paladins, clerics of vast holy power, and armies of monsters are things of myth and legend. Few outside of urban centers have ever seen a gith or traull, and fewer still even believe the elves still exist. The stories of a time when the world was whole and magic was prevalent are naught more than bedtime stories to most humans. Those who travel, those in the military, and those who adventure tend to know better, though.

VESH
Vesh are a small, humanlike race with angular features, small, sharp teeth, dark skin covered in fine fur-like proto-feathers, vestigial wings that do not allow true flight, and long prehensile tails. Vesh all wear elaborate avian or saurian masks, and rarely show their faces to those outside their clan. The type of creature that the masks depict are always predatory or scavenger birds, or dinosaurs (such as ravens, crows, hawks, deinonychuses, pteranadons, and the like), and are dependent upon the clan they belong to. Under their masks can be seen the sparkle and gleam of their wolf-yellow eyes. As Vesh get older, it is acceptable for them to wear half-masks, with their long ears and lower faces visible to others, but this usually doesn’t happen until late middle age, and only after they have taken mates and had children.
In their homelands, Vesh are nomads who ride domesticated dinosaurs and axe-beaks across the wide, storm-filled plains or ziggurat-building jungle dwellers who ride flying dinosaurs and giant jungle birds. Their clans tend to be merit-based, and their culture centers on travel, story-telling, animal husbandry, and earth and air magic. Vesh practice a mixture of traditional religion and animism, venerating both a feathered serpent god and their ancestor spirits and attempt to gain harmony with the world around them. In ages past, they worshipped the sky god, Rannos, before his death, but few know this other than the Vesh and learned sages.
The heritage of the nomad also serves more urbanized Vesh well, and they have established themselves across civilized gith, traull, and human lands as merchants, sailors, animal trainers, healers, and criminals. They bring their glib tongues and quick minds to whatever trades they choose to follow. The tribal nomads of the plains can sometimes be found in the cities, but often the Vesh of the cities are unwelcoming to their uncivilized cousins. Though they sometimes choose to live among other races in densely populated cities, their society is tight and closed, and they rarely allow others to see its inner workings. Vesh often band together in small groups to create ‘roosts’ in vacant warehouses, caves, or condemned buildings, and these raucous gathering places are generally assumed to be thieves’ gatherings by outsiders—an assumption that’s correct roughly half the time.

TRAULL
Traulls are an insular and orderly warrior race. Their vast subterranean cities and mountain citadels are impenetrable fortresses of unimaginable wealth and miracles of engineering. The traull kingdoms are few and far between, and their race is slowly dwindling as time goes on and human lands spread and their magic fades from the wounded world they inhabit. While traulls tend toward law and order, the sacred fires of the forge course through their veins, and their tempers are legendary. Best not to insult a traull unless you know you can win the inevitable fight. While traulls are often satirized as brutish and quick to anger, they have a strong sense of friendship and loyalty, and those rare few who earn their trust understand that, while they work and fight hard, they play even harder—especially when good ale is involved.
Traulls are masters of crafting and subterfuge. Traull politics are rife with triple-crosses, spies, intrigue, lies, and blood feuds between clans and individuals. Traulls are a greedy lot that strive for not just the most wealth, but the most power as well. They trade with other races, hire out their mercenaries in times of war, and occasionally send emissaries to other lands, but often keep to themselves. Traulls rarely pursue arcane magic as an end in itself, and aside from alchemists and the occasional wizard focused on crafting; arcane spellcasters are rare. Traulls do employ elite magi in their armies, or as palace guards, but tend to favor martial classes all around.
Divine magic is where things are a bit different. While divine magic is as rare as arcane magic (if not moreso), it is reserved for the priests and battle clerics of the traull race. Traull paladins are the rarest of the rare, and are often warlords, kings, or high priests, leading armies into battle behind their holy banners. Venerating their ancestors and forge spirits, traull religion is very sacred and central to them. Many a human has met his end over insulting a traull’s ancestor or questioning the skill of their smiths.
While most traulls tend to live civilized lives in their vast subterranean mountain homes, some live more simple—even savage—lives on the surface, hunting and gathering, raiding, farming, seafaring, or mixing with the lands of other races as smiths and mercenaries. Traulls are the second most abundant race, but are still uncommon in the world at large due to their insular natures, and their wide diversity leads to much confusion and prejudice on the part of other races.
Most savage traull tribes from before the cataclysm were wiped out of existence, and the remaining traulls’ physiology was altered and enhanced by the eldritch energies that permeated their lands; few remember what their race was originally like. Their ancestors took over the abandoned cities and fortress of the mysteriously vanished Duergar before the Rift was formed. Some traull cities were cut shear in two by the Rift, and others vanished entirely. The majority of their lands were far enough away to allow their race to continue onward and rebuild.
Traulls have skin that ranges from shades of green to a deep green-black, sometimes with lighter or darker skin markings. Their hair tends toward dark brown, black, and black-green, and their eyes range from golden yellow to emerald green. Their appearance ranges from bestial and monstrous to exotic and alien; some traulls have large pointed ears, exaggerated noses, or tusked jaws, and a few look more like green-skinned elves. Traulls, on average, tower a head over the tallest humans, but their race includes ogre-sized members as well as those the size of human children. These variances in size are no different than the differences in humans, but tend to be much more varied within a single community. Something about traull physiology tends to make them mutate and adapt more quickly and unpredictably than other races. In some cultures all subraces are treated equally, and in others some are shunned, killed, put into special castes, or even elevated in status.

LIZARDFOLK (Khaass’solek)
Lizardfolk are proud and powerful reptilian predators that make their communal homes in scattered villages deep within swamps and marshes, or along the coastal waters of tropical regions. Either way, most lizardfolk populations are concentrated around the Rift, and their villages are often the last vestiges of civilization one encounters before the uncharted lands. Uninterested in colonization of the dry lands and content with the simple weapons and rituals that have served them well for millennia, lizardfolk are viewed by humans as backwater savages, but within their isolated communities lizardfolk are actually a vibrant people filled with tradition and an oral history stretching back to before humans walked upright.
Most lizardfolk stand 6 to 7 feet tall and weigh 200 to 250 pounds, their powerful muscles covered in scales of gray, green, or brown. Some breeds have short dorsal spikes or brightly colored frills, and all swim well by moving with flicks of their powerful 4-foot-long tails. While completely at home in the water, they breathe air and return to their clustered mound-dwellings to breed and sleep. As their reptilian blood makes them sluggish in the cold, most lizardfolk hunt and work during the day and retreat to their homes at night to curl up with other tribesmen in the shared warmth of large peat fires.
Though generally neutral, lizardfolks’ standoffish demeanor, staunch rejection of civilization’s “gifts,” and legendary ferocity in battle cause them to be viewed negatively by some humanoids. These traits stem from good reasons, however, as their own slow rate of reproduction is no match for warm-blooded humanoids, and those tribes who don’t defend their wetland territories to the last breath quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the mammalian hordes. As for their tendency to consume the bodies of dead friends and enemies alike, the practical lizardfolk are quick to point out that life is hard in the swamp, and nothing should go to waste.
The lizardfolk were able to survive the cataclysm more by luck than anything else, and as a people they know this. Their geographical concentration far from the
Rift spared their race from oblivion. At the insistence of their oracles and shamans, the majority of lizardfolk peoples migrated, en masse, to the decimated side of the world. This exodus was undertaken to attempt to heal the lands in whatever way they could. The lizardfolk druids, shamans, and nature priests worked over the centuries to bring life back to the blasted lands around the Rift. While their progress has been slow, it has been successful, and entire ecosystems have sprung up in regions that were blasted and barren centuries ago. These actions caused the lizardfolk and the few remaining elves to become staunch allies, putting aside ancient animosities their races once shared before the cataclysm.

Playable Races: Human, Lizardfolk, Traull, Vesh.

Starting Traits: Humans gain 3 Traits, other races gain 2 Traits. Alternatively, characters can trade ALL their traits for a single bonus feat.

Known Languages: Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Auran, Celestial, Centauri, Common, Draconic, Druidic (secret), Giantish, Gith, Traull, Gnoll, Ignan, Infernal, Kobo (kobolds), Orvian (undercommon), Sylvan, Terran, Thieves’ Cant (secret), Trollish

Human Regional Languages: Jyp-Turrani, Failo (Bronze Isles), Calistari, Regethi, E’llyr, Sendasti, Zaredi, Rhull, Thaele, Ravo-hahn, Naru, Duerronar.

Ancient Languages (in conjunction with Linguistics): Ancient Sendasti, Cyclopean, Duergar/Dwarven, Elven (elves now speak Sylvan), Praethian, Yrathi.

HUMAN
>Ability Scores:+2 to any one ability score or +1 to any two ability scores. Humans are varied and adaptable.
>Medium: Humans are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
>Normal Speed: Humans have a base speed of 30 feet.
>Adaptable: Humans treat their ability scores as if they were two points higher for the purposes of meeting prerequisites for feats, prestige classes, and the like.
>Bonus Feat: Humans select one extra feat at 1st level.
>Skilled: Humans gain an additional skill rank at first level and one additional rank whenever they gain a level.
>Traits: Humans begin play with three traits.
>Languages: Humans begin speaking Common. Humans with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as druidic).

LIZARDFOLK
>+2 Strength, +2 Constitution or Wisdom, -2 Intelligence: Lizardfolk are powerful but slower to learn than others.
>Medium: Lizardfolk are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
>Speed: 30 ft, Swim: 20 ft (+8 Swim checks)
>Natural Armor: +1 per class level
>Exceptional Balance: Lizardfolk’s tails and inherent agility grant them a +4 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks.
>Nature Warden: Lizardfolk have a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks.
>Heat Resistance (Ex): Lizardfolk have a +4 racial bonus on Fortitude saves made to resist high temperature conditions. Conversely, lizardfolk take a -2 penalty on Fortitude saves against cold effects and conditions.
>Hold Breath: (4 x Con score)
>Natural Attacks: 2 Claws (1d6, secondary), Bite (1d4, secondary)
>Weapon Familiartiy: Lizardfolk are proficient with clubs and spears (short spear, spear, and longspear).
>Languages: Lizardfolk begin play speaking only Draconic and Sylvan. Lizardfolk who have a high enough Intelligence scores can choose any of the following bonus languages: Aklo, Aquan, Common, Goblin, Terran, and Vesh.

VESH
>+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence or Charisma, -2 Strength: Vesh are fast, observant, and strong-willed, but their small stature makes them weaker than other races.
>Small: Vesh are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a -1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
>Normal Speed: Vesh have a base speed of 30 feet.
>Senses: Vesh have low-light vision.
>Sneaky: Vesh gain a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks.
>Gifted Linguist: Vesh gain a +2 racial bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Linguistics checks, and learn 2 languages each time they put a rank in Linguistics rather than 1 language.
>Wing-Aided Movement: (Ex): Vesh can use their vestigial wings to help with movement. The extra lift from their wings grants a Vesh a +10 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump, both for vertical jumps and horizontal jumps. In addition, Vesh always counts as having a running start when making jump checks using Acrobatics. Once per day, a Vesh can gain a +20 bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump for 1 round. Acrobatics is always a class skill for Vesh.
>Prehensile Tail: A Vesh has a long prehensile tail that grants it a +2 bonus on Acrobatics and Climb checks. A Vesh’s tail can manipulate objects (but not weapons) nearly as dexterously as a hand. The tail has a Strength score equal to half the Vesh’s Strength score, rounded down. Transferring an object from the Vesh’s tail to hand is a swift action.
>Natural Weapons: Vesh possess two vicious natural claw attacks that inflict 1d4 points of damage on a hit. These are primary attacks, or secondary attacks if the Vesh wields a manufactured weapon.
>Languages: Vesh begin play speaking Common and their own language of Vesh. Vesh with high Intelligence scores can choose any language as a bonus language.

TRAULL
>+2 Strength or Intelligence, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma: Traulls are physically powerful and unsociable.
>Medium: Traulls are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
>Normal Speed: Traulls have a base speed of 30 feet.
>Darkvision: Traulls can see in the dark up to 120 feet.
>Cunning Deceiver: Traulls may use their Intelligence modifier on Bluff and Diplomacy skill checks in place of their Charisma modifier.
>Greed: Traulls receive a +2 racial bonus on Appraise skill checks.
>Hardy: Traulls receive a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, spells, and spell-like abilities.
>Master Tinker: Traulls experiment with all manner of mechanical devices. Traulls gain a +1 bonus on Craft, Disable Device, and Knowledge (Engineering) checks. They are proficient with any weapon they have personally crafted.
>Light Sensitivity (Ex): Traulls are dazzled in areas of bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
>Stonecunning: Traulls receive a +2 bonus on Perception checks to potentially notice the unusual stonework, such as traps and hidden doors located in stone walls or floors. They receive a check to notice such features whenever they pass within 10 feet of them, whether or not they are actively looking.
>Sneaky: Traulls gain a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks.
>Weapon Familiarity: Traulls treat any weapon with the word “dwarf,” “gnome,” or “orc” in its name as a martial weapon.
>Languages: Traull and Common. Traulls with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aklo, Draconic, Duergar, Giantish, Goblin, Ignan, Orvian, Terran, Trollish, and Vesh.

Unavailable Classes: Bard, Monk, Summoner, and all Prestige Classes. When the gunslinger class comes out in Ultimate Combat, I will review it and include it, but for now it is unavailable.

Unchanged Classes: Barbarian, Magus, Oracle, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Witch, Wizard

Changes to Existing Classes:

Alchemist:
--Poison Resistance +6 gained at 7th.

Cavalier:
--8th level Order Ability gained at 7th.

Cleric:
--8th level Domain abilities gained at 7th

Druid:
--8th level Domain abilities gained at 7th,.
--Venom Immunity gained at 7th.

Fighter:
--Improved Unarmed Strike: Fighters gain this feat for free at 1st level.
--Wild Card Feat gained at 7th. Wild Card Feat: You gain a bonus combat feat that you may change at the beginning of each day. You must meet the prerequisites, if any, for the feat in order to select it. Your wild card feat may not be used to meet the prerequisites for other feats, prestige classes, or the like.

Inquisitor:
--Replace detect alignment with Uncanny Insight; Uncanny Insight: Inquisitors gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate, Perception, and Sense Motive skill checks. Additionally, 1/day an inquisitor can reroll a single Perception or Sense Motive check and take the better of the two results.

Rogue:
--Rogue Talent gained at 1st level.
--Improved Uncanny Dodge gained at 7th level.

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Changes to Existing Equipment:
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Trident
Gains disarm property.

Shields
Shields provide the following bonuses to AC:
Buckler: +1
Light: +2
Heavy: +3
Tower: +4 (+5 if you take no more than a 5-foot step that round)

Furthermore, you may retain your shield bonus to AC from a buckler or light shield while fighting with two weapons or while wielding a two-handed melee weapon if you take the shield’s AC bonus as a penalty on your attack rolls.

Armor
Breastplates, banded mail, half-plate, and full-plate armor add half their armor bonus (round down) to their wielder’s Touch AC against firearms.

Short Sword
The damage is P or S.

Kama, nunchaku, sai, siangham
These weapons no longer exist in the game.

Spellbooks
Pages from spellbooks can be used as scrolls of the same spell that they contain. Using a page from a spellbook in this manner destroys the arcane writing on the page. Additionally, any spell cast in this manner that involves symbols, writing, etc., has its caster level increased by +1.

Additionally, spellcasters that prepare spells from texts, such as wizards and magi, may prepare a spell from a scroll they can read, but it consumes the magic from the scroll.

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New Equipment:
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Firearms
See the Firearms section.

Saber
A saber is a one-handed martial melee slashing weapon originally intended for use by mounted characters, but often used by duelists and sailors.
Cost: 25 gp
Damage (M): 1d6
Critical: 18-20/x2
Weight: 2 lbs.
Type: Slashing
Special: A character with Weapon Focus (Saber) feat deals damage as if the saber was wielded two-handed (1.5 x Str mod to damage) when mounted or as part of a charge.

Cutlass
A cutlass is a one-handed martial melee slashing weapon favored by sailors and some duelists.
Cost: 15 gp
Damage (M): 1d6
Critical: 19-20/x2
Weight: 2 lbs.
Type: Slashing
Special: When fighting in cramped spaces, grappling, two-weapon fighting, while swallowed whole, etc., cutlasses are treated as light one-handed weapons for the purposes of what you are able to do with them.

Basket Hilt
You can add a basket hilt to any one-handed melee weapon. Weapons do not automatically come with basket hilts.
Basket hilts provide you with a +2 bonus to CMD to resist disarm attempts against the weapon with the basket hilt. Also, the basket hilt functions as a gauntlet for attacks. Masterwork basket hilts provide a +3 to CMD to resist disarm attempts.
Price: Regular: +15 gp, Masterwork: +150 gp

Weapon Barbs
You can add wicked barbs and hooks to a slashing melee weapon that inflict bleading wounds.
Barbed weapons inflict 1 point of bleed damage for a number of rounds equal to the weapons critical multiplier on a successful critical hit. This stacks with bleed damage from other sources. The damage type of barbed weapons changes to slashing and piercing.
Barbed weapons are frowned upon or banned in many societies.
Price: +300gp.

Firearms
Firearms use the rules from the Gunslinger Round 2 playtest document, until Ultimate Combat comes out.

Firearms are specialized weapons (some believe they were invented by the mysterious Duergar before they disappeared from the world). Until recently, knowledge and use of these violent weapons were limited to a few human scholars and weaponsmiths. Within the last century, however, firearms have slowly begun to spread throughout the civilized world. Their complex construction and need for rigorous care makes them rather expensive, thus limiting their availability to the very rich. Their unpredictable nature and the danger of misfires and explosions make them weapons for the truly adventurous or foolhardy.

Until Ultimate Combat comes out, firearms will use the rules from the Gunslinger playtest document, but the Gunslinger class will be unavailable until then.

From 1st to 7th levels characters advance normally. After 7th level, players gain a new feat that they qualify for every 5000 xp they gain after 7h level, to a maximum of 20 post-7th level feats.

After 7th level, denote your feats as follows: a 7th level fighter with 3 epic feats would be notated as "ftr 7/E3."

For every 5 feats gained after 7th level, you are roughly one level higher for the purposes of facing challenges, and that is roughly how I'll gauge xp awards.

Altered General Feats:
See below: Improved (Bull Rush, Dirty Trick, Drag, Disarm, Feint, Grapple, Overrun, Reposition, Steal, Sunder, Trip), Improved Unarmed Strike, Leadership, Quarterstaff Master, Tripping Staff, Tripping Twirl

Epic Feats:
See Epic Feats section: Critical Focus, Greater Shield Focus, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical, Shield Master, Spellbreaker, Strike Back

Improved (Bull Rush, Dirty Trick, Drag, Disarm, Feint, Grapple, Overrun, Reposition, Steal, Sunder, Trip) (Combat)
These feats no longer require their feat prerequisites (Combat Expertise, Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, etc.). They still require all the other prerequisites listed.

Improved Unarmed Strike (Combat)
You are skilled at fighting while unarmed.
Benefit: You are considered to be armed even when unarmed—you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you attack foes while unarmed. Your unarmed strikes can deal lethal or nonlethal damage, at your choice. Additionally, your unarmed strikes now deal damage as if one size category larger (Medium creatures’ unarmed strikes now deal 1d4 points of damage, for example).
Normal: Without this feat, you are considered unarmed when attacking with an unarmed strike, and you can deal only nonlethal damage with such an attack.

Leadership I
Prerequisite: Character level 3.
Benefit: You gain the followers from the Leadership feat, as written.

Leadership II
Prerequisite: Character level 5, Leadership I.
Benefit: You gain the cohort from the Leadership feat, as written.

Leadership III
Prerequisite: Character level 7, Leadership I, Leadership II.
Benefit: You double the number of followers you have from the Leadership feat.

Quarterstaff Master (Combat)
Prerequisites: Weapon Focus (quarterstaff), base attack bonus +1.

Tripping Staff (Combat)
Prerequisites: Int 11, Improved Trip, Weapon Focus (quarterstaff), BAB +1.

Tripping Twirl (Combat)
Prerequisites: Int 11, Improved Trip, Tripping Staff, Weapon Focus (quarterstaff), BAB +4.

E7 EPIC FEATS

These feats may only be taken by characters who are 7th level or higher. Unless otherwise noted, each feat may only be taken once. Once the gunslinger class comes out, I will add epic feats for it.

Advanced Rogue Talent (Epic)
You have mastered the roguish arts.
Prerequisite: Rogue level 7, Rogue Talents class feature.
Benefit: You learn one advanced rogue talent that you meet the requirements for.

Aura of Resolve (Epic)
Your faith empowers your will.
Prerequisite: Paladin level 7.
Benefit: you gain the Aura of Resolve class feature.

Barbaric Resilience (Epic)
You are tougher than most mortals.
Prerequisite: Barbarian level 7, DR 1/—
Benefit: Your damage reduction increases to DR 2/—
.

Critical Focus (Combat)
Prerequisite: Fighter level 7, Weapon Focus.
Benefit: You gain Critical Focus with weapons you have the Weapon Focus feat for.

Expanded Caster Stamina (Epic)
You gain additional spell slots.
Prerequisite: Character Level 7th
Benefit: You gain 1 or more new spell slots, with spell levels totaling to half of your caster level. Treat 0th level spells as ½. Thus, a sixth level Wizard could gain one 3rd level slot, one 1st and one 2nd level slot, three 1st level slots, or 6 0th-level slots. This feat cannot provide spell slots higher than you can already cast.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times; it provides more slots each time you take it.

Extra Domain (Epic)
Your connection to the divine increases.
Prerequisite: Character level 7, Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks, Skill Focus (Knowledge (religion)), Domain class feature.
Benefit: You gain the first level domain power and access to the domain spell list of one additional domain associated with your deity.

Extra Favored Enemy (Epic)
You are a master of hunting and combating a variety of species.
Prerequisite: Ranger level 7, Favored Enemy class feature.
Benefit: You gain a 3rd favored enemy (at +2), though none of your previous favored enemy bonuses improve.

Extra Hunter’s Trick (Epic)
You learn an additional hunter’s trick.
Prerequisite: Ranger level 7, Hunter’s Tricks class feature.
Benefit: You gain an additional Hunter’s Trick, and 1 additional daily use of your Hunter’s Tricks.
Special: You may take this feat twice.

Extra Wild Shape (Epic)
You often spend as much time in animal form as your natural form.
Prerequisite: Druid level 7, Knowledge (Nature) 7 ranks, Wild Shape Class Feature
Benefit: You may Wild Shape one additional time per day.
Special: You may select this feat twice.

Fighter Training (Epic)
You are nearly as adept at combat as a fighter.
Prerequisite: Magus level 7.
Benefit: You gain the Fighter Training magus ability.

Greater Shield Focus (Combat)
Prerequisite: Shield Focus, Shield Proficiency, BAB +1, 7th-level fighter.

Greater Tactician (Epic)
Your ability to direct comrades in battle is peerless.
Prerequisite: Cavalier level 7, Tactician class feature, Diplomacy or Profession (soldier) 7 ranks.
Benefit: You gain the Greater Tactician cavalier ability.

Greater Weapon Focus (Combat)
Prerequisite: Proficiency with selected weapon, Weapon Focus with selected weapon, BAB +1, 7th –level fighter.

Greater Weapon Specialization (Combat)
Prerequisite: Proficiency with selected weapon, Greater Weapon Focus with selected weapon, Weapon Focus with selected weapon, Weapon Specialization with selected weapon, 7th –level fighter.

Improved Bloodline (Epic)
Your supernatural heritage grants you increased power.
Prerequisite: Sorcerer level 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 7 ranks, Sorcerer Bloodline class feature.
Benefit: You gain your bloodline’s bonus 3rd level spell, and its 9th level granted bloodline power.

Improved Critical (Combat)
Prerequisite: Proficiency with selected weapon, Weapon Focus with selected weapon, BAB +7.

Improved Elemental Form (Epic)
You are one with the elemental forces of nature.
Prerequisite: Druid level 7, Knowledge (planes) 5 ranks
Benefit: You can now take the form of a Medium elemental. When taking the form of an elemental, your wild shape functions as elemental body II.

Improved Slow Fall (Epic)
You can fall further without harm.
Prerequisite: Character level 7, Slow Fall ability.
Benefit: You can slow fall an additional 10 feet.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select this feat after the first, you can slow fall an additional 5 feet.

Improved Spell Combat (Epic)
You are a master spell combat.
Prerequisite: Magus level 7, Knowledge (arcana) 7 ranks, Spell Combat class feature.
Benefit: You gain the Improved Spell Combat magus ability.

Improved Trap Sense (Epic)
You are a master of avoiding traps.
Prerequisite: Character level 7, Perception 7 ranks, Trap Sense class feature.
Benefit: Your Trap Sense bonuses increase by +1.
Special: You may select this feat twice.

Major Hex (Epic)
Your have mastered hexcraft.
Prerequisite: Witch level 7, Knowledge (arcana) 7 ranks, Hex class feature.
Benefit: You gain a single Major Hex that you meet the requirements for.

Martial Veteran [Combat, Epic]
Prerequisite: Fighter level 7th.
Benefit: Upon taking this feat you are treated as having fighter level 8 and a base attack bonus of +8 for the purpose of meeting feat prerequisites and for the effects of feats dependent upon fighter level or BAB (such as Power Attack).

Master Combatant [Combat, Epic]
Mastery of your profession has increased the effectiveness of your fighter abilities.
Prerequisite: Fighter level 7.
Benefit: You acquire Weapon Training 2, and your Bravery increases to +3.

Mighty Charge [Combat, Epic]
Your charges can fell the mightiest of opponents.
Prerequisite: Cavalier level 7, Ride 7 ranks, Cavalier’s Charge class feature.
Benefit: You gain the Mighty Charge cavalier ability.

Miraculous Mercy (Epic)
Your mercies are able to heal more effectively, due to your faith.
Prerequisite: Paladin level 7, Mercy class feature, Heal 7 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks.
Benefit: This feat grants you the benefits of taking the Extra Mercy feat. In addition, you add the 9th level paladin mercies to your list of mercies that can be selected with this feat and all future selections of the Extra Mercy feat.

Restoration (Epic)
Prerequisites: 7th level, at least one available 4th-level spell slot, ability to cast 3rd-level divine spells, Wisdom 18, Heal 6 ranks
Benefit: You can use restoration, as the spell (paying the material component), with a casting time of 1 hour. You must prepare restoration in one of your 4th level spell slots.

Ritual Magic [Item Creation, Epic]
You’ve become adept at cooperating with other casters to call upon higher magics.
Prerequisite: Character level 7, ability to cast 3rd level spells, Lesser Ritual Magic, Spellcraft 7 ranks, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spellcasting Ability Score of 15 or higher.
Benefit: Two or more spellcasters of the same type (divine or arcane) who each have the Ritual Magic feat may work together in an elaborate ritual to invoke 4th, 5th, and 6th level spell effects. Each caster may only begin one ritual per day, though they may assist with any number of other rituals.
A Ritual Spell takes a base of one hour per spell level to perform. Each additional caster involved in the ritual beyond the first two may either use Aid Another (to a maximum of a +10 bonus) or reduce the casting time by 20 minutes, to a minimum casting time of 1 hour. Using a Spellcraft DC (15 +2 per effective spell level), the caster can cast magics beyond 3rd level.
Special: Ritual Spells must be researched by players, and have varying material costs, requirements (locations, sacrifices, celestial alignments, etc.). These requirements, and the spells available are subject to DM approval.

Second Judgment (Epic)
You are a master inquisitor.
Prerequisite: Inquisitor level 7, Judgment class feature, Knowledge (religion) 7 ranks.
Benefit: You gain the Second Judgment inquisitor ability.

School Mastery
(Epic)
Prerequisite: Wizard 7, Knowledge (Arcana) 7 ranks. 

Benefit: You gain the eighth level specialist power from your chosen school. If you have chosen the Abjuration School, you instead increase your Energy Absorption and Resistance abilities double.

Shield Master (Combat)
Prerequisite: Improved Shield Bash, Shield Proficiency, Shield Slam, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (shield bash), BAB +7.

Spellbreaker (Combat)
Prerequisite: Fighter level 7, Disruptive, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks.

Stalwart (Epic)
You can use mental and physical resiliency to avoid certain attacks.
Prerequisite: Inquisitor level 7, Great Fortitude, Iron Will
Benefit: You gain the Stalwart inquisitor ability.

Stone to Flesh (Epic)
Prerequisites: 7th level, at least one available 4th-level spell slot, ability to cast 3rd-level arcane spells, Intelligence 18, Craft (alchemy) 6 ranks
Benefit: You can use stone to flesh, as the spell, with an expensive and secret magical ingredient with a market value of 500 gp per HD of the target and a casting time of 1 day. You must prepare stone to flesh in one of your 4th level spell slots.

Strike Back (Combat, Epic)
Prerequisite: Combat Reflexes, fighter level 7.
Uncanny Hunter (Epic)
You are a legendary hunter.
Prerequisite: Ranger level 7, Survival 7 ranks, Stealth 7 ranks.
Benefit: You gain the Swift Tracker and Camouflage class abilities.

Wild Shape Mastery (Epic)
You are a master of turning into natural creatures.
Prerequisite: Druid level 7, Knowledge (nature) 7 ranks, Wild Shape class feature.
Benefit: You may now use wild shape to change into a Huge or Diminutive animal or a Small or Medium plant creature. When taking the forms of animals, your wild shape now functions as beast shape III. When taking the form of a plant creature, your wild shape functions as plant shape I.

Wondrous Rings [Item Creation, Epic]
Prerequisites: 7th level, Craft Wondrous Item
Benefit: You treat rings as wondrous items for the purpose of meeting item creation prerequisites. You must still meet caster level requirements for any ring you create.

Ability Advancement (General)
Your training pays off and one of your Ability Scores increases.
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd, Ability Training.
Benefit: Choose one Ability Score. You gain a permanent +1 bonus to that ability.
Special: You can select this ability multiple times, however it may only be selected twice for each Ability.

Ability Training (General)
You train tirelessly to improve one of your ability scores.
Benefit: Select a single Ability Score. You qualify for the Ability Advancement feat for that Ability.

Angled Throw (General)
Your amazing throws bounce grenadelike weapons off walls into open hatches or through congested battle zones.
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Benefit: When throwing a bomb, splash weapon, or grenadelike weapon, you can attempt to bounce it off a wall or other surface close to your target. If your attack roll exceeds DC 15, you ignore cover with your attack. If your attack roll exceeds DC 20, you ignore improved cover (but not total cover) with your attack.

Aquatic Brawler (Combat)
You are most in your element when fighting in water.
Prerequisites: Lizardfolk; or, Swim 2 ranks, and either Skill Focus (Swim) or the Deep Breath racial trait.
Benefit: When grappling in water deep enough to swim in, you can use your Swim check instead of your combat maneuver check when grappling, or in place of your attack roll when making unarmed strikes or natural attacks.

Artillery Shot (Combat)
You have learned to use the angle and distance between you and your target to devastating effect.
Prerequisites: Proficient with weapon used, Dexterity 13
Benefit: When you make an attack with a burst or splash weapon against a target further than 6 squares away, you can affect two additional squares adjacent to the normal burst or splash area.

Bastion Stance (Combat)
In combat, you are like a fortress, nearly impossible to move when you stand your ground.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1, Constitution 13, Intelligence 13, Combat Expertise.
Benefit: If you start and end your turn in the same space, you cannot be knocked prone or forcibly moved until the start of your next turn, except by mind-affecting or teleportation effects.

Battlefield Inspiration (Combat)
You inspire courage in your allies.
Prerequisites: Charisma 13, base attack bonus +2.
Benefit: A number of rounds per day equal to twice your level plus your Charisma modifier, you can inspire courage in your allies. Starting this ability requires a standard action, but it can be maintained each round as a free action. Each ally within 30 feet of you (not including you) that can hear you and has an Intelligence of 3 or higher gains a +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls. These bonuses increase to +2 at 4th level.
The effects from multiple applications of Battlefield Inspiration do not stack. If a creature affected by this feat ends its turn more than 30 feet from you, it loses the benefit of Battlefield Inspiration unless you use the ability again on him.

Battlefield Tactics (Combat)
You direct the flow of battle with clever footwork, strategic attacks, and insightful orders.
Prerequisites: Intelligence 13, base attack bonus +2, Improved Reposition
Benefits: When you use the reposition combat maneuver, you or a willing ally adjacent to your target switch positions with the target. Your target must be no more than one size category larger than you. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Normal: If your reposition attack is successful you move your target to a new location.

Block Arrow (Combat)
You can block incoming arrows with your shield.
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Shield Proficiency.
Benefit: You must be using a shield to use this feat. Once per round when you would normally be hit with a ranged weapon, you can deflect it with your shield so that you take no damage from it. You must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Unusually massive ranged weapons, such as boulders hurled by giants, siege weapons, and ranged attacks generated by magical abilities can’t be deflected. You cannot deflect bullets with this feat.

Brew Healing Elixer (Item Creation)
You have learned the art of brewing restorative alchemical healing potions.
Prerequisites: Craft (alchemy) 3 ranks, Heal 3 ranks
Benefit: You can brew a nonmagical healing potion by collecting ingredients. This requires a Gather Information or Survival check and then a Craft (alchemy) check. Both checks use the same DC. The cost to create a potion is equal to half its market value in gold pieces.
Ingredients vary by culture and geographic location, but are usually natural substances associated with or possessing healing properties, such as copper, ginseng, honey, or aloe. You may attempt to brew stronger potions, which require harder-to-find ingredients and higher DCs for the skill check.
Drinking a healing potion is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity, and doing so restores a number of hit points to the imbiber (some potions heal ability damage instead). Healing potions cannot grant a character more hit points than his maximum value.
The DCs for the acquisition and Craft (alchemy) checks, and the amount of damage the potion heals, is shown in the table below.
Healing draughts crafted with this feat remain potent for a number of weeks equal to their Craft DC after being created. Each week after that, there is a cumulative 10% chance (to a maximum of 90%) that the potion will degrade and become useless.
Try Again: Yes, but each new attempt requires a new acquisition check, as the ingredients are lost in the spoiled batch.
Special: You can take 10 or 20 as normal.

--Potion Type/ Craft DC /Damage Healed /Time to Craft /Market Value--
Lesser Healing Draught /10 /Converts 1d6+1 lethal into nonlethal damage/1 hr /50 gp
Minor Healing Draught /15 /1d8 + target’s Con mod /2 hrs /100 gp
Major Healing Draught /20 /2d8 + target’s Con mod /8 hrs /600 gp
Wound Ointment /25 /4d8 + target’s Con mod, after 24 hrs of rest /24 hours /2000 gp
Restoration Potion /30 /1d4 ability damage, after 8 hrs of rest /3 days /6000 gp

Cheap Shot (Combat)
Prerequisite: Alertness, Opportunistic Strike, base attack bonus +1
Benefit: As an immediate action, you can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent that takes the withdraw action to withdraw from a space threatened by one of your allies within 30 feet (even with a ranged weapon).

Dash-Leap (Combat)
You can dart quickly around the battlefield before your opponents can react.
Prerequisites: Fleet, Acrobatics 2 ranks, BAB +2
Benefit: You can attempt to move 2 squares as part of a five-foot-step, instead of the usual 1 square. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. To do this, you must make a DC 20 Acrobatics check. If the check fails, you only move 1 square as normal. If the check fails by 5 or more, your five-foot-step provokes attacks of opportunity from any foe that threatens you.
You may not use this ability if you wear heavy armor, carry a shield heavier than a light shield, or carry a medium or heavy load.

Daunting Presence (Combat)
You are skilled inducing fear in your opponents.
Prerequisites: Charisma 13, base attack bonus +2, Persuasive
Benefit: You may take a standard action to overawe an opponent. The opponent must be within 6 squares, have line of sight to you, and have an intelligence score. If the opponent fails a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Charisma modifier), the opponent is shaken for 1 minute and takes and additional -2 on attacks against you. This feat has no affect on a creature that is already shaken. A creature that makes its save is immune to your Daunting Presence for 24 hours.
This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

Death Blow (General)
You waste no time in dispatching downed foes.
Prerequisites: Improved Initiative, base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: You can perform a coup de grace attack against a helpless defender as a standard action.
Normal: Performing a coup de grace is a full-round action.

Deft Opportunist (General)
You are prepared for the unexpected.
Prerequisites: Dexterity 15, Combat Reflexes, base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: You get a +4 bonus on attack rolls when making attacks of opportunity.

Demoralizing Defense (Combat)
You use force of personality, misdirection, and taunts to distract, enrage, and confound your foes.
Prerequisites: Charisma 12+, base attack bonus +2
Benefit: As an immediate action, you can designate an enemy you have just hit with a melee attack. The enemy takes only half damage from the attack, but takes a penalty on attacks made against you until the end of your next turn. This penalty is equal to 2 plus your Charisma modifier.
This is a mind-affecting effect.

Devoted Defender (Combat)
You may elect to place yourself in the path of danger in order to protect an ally.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: Any time that you are adjacent to an ally that suffers an attack, you may switch places with that ally as an immediate action and receive the attack in his place. You must declare this before the attack roll is made.
Special: If you possess the Combat Reflexes feat and you have available attacks of opportunity left for the round, you may use any of your remaining attacks of opportunity to use this feat when you would otherwise be unable to do so due to a lack of available immediate actions.

Diabolical Sabotage (Combat)
You have a knack for destroying objects.
Prerequisites: Intelligence 11, base attack bonus +1
Benefit: You may always deal double damage to unattended objects and vehicles, regardless of your method of attack.
Special: If you have ranks in Knowledge (engineering), you may subtract your ranks in it from an unattended object’s hardness (minimum 0 hardness).

Dodge Monster (Combat)
Ducking and weaving, constantly in motion, you are able to easily evade the attacks of larger foes until the time is right to launch a counter-attack.
Prerequisites: Dodge, base attack bonus +5
Benefit: When fighting against opponents one size category bigger than you or larger, you may spend a swift action to gain an extra dodge bonus against all larger foes that threat you equal to that creature’s size modifier (+1 Large, +2 Huge, +4 Gargantuan, +8 Colossal). This dodge bonus is in addition to the usual +1 from the Dodge feat, and lasts until the beginning of your next turn.
Special: This extra dodge bonus does not apply to larger foes who did not begin their turn threatening you. This bonus to AC stacks with that granted by the Giant-Slayer background.

Drag To Safety (Combat)
Adrenaline courses through you in the heat of battle, granting you a brief surge of strength and speed.
Prerequisites: Strength 11+
Benefits: You can move your full speed when dragging someone to safety for a number of rounds per encounter equal to your Constitution score. These rounds need not be consecutive, but they are cumulative. After that duration is up, you become fatigued for the rest of the encounter. You can drag a willing conscious target (or unconscious target or inanimate object) weighing up to five times your maximum load with this feat (as per the rules for lifting and dragging, page 169 PFRPG).
Special: If you have the Endurance feat you may double the duration that you may use Drag to Safety each encounter.

Dragoon’s Charge (Combat)
You have perfected the art of charging with polearms.
Prerequisites: Weapon Focus (any polearm or lance), Strength 15, base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: When you are mounted, you may wield 2-handed polearms and spears with a reach of 10 feet or less as one-handed weapons, and they all deal double damage on a charge (just like a lance normally does). Furthermore, while on foot, you deal double damage if you make a charge attack while wielding a lance.

Elusive Target (Combat)
You find ways to slip through fights of any size, even when the odds are against you.
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13+, Combat Expertise
Benefit: When fighting an opponent or multiple opponents in melee, other opponents attempting to target you with ranged attacks take a –4 penalty. This penalty is in addition to the normal –4 penalty for firing into melee, making the penalty to target to you –8.
Special: An opponent with the Precise Shot feat has the penalty lessened to –4 when targeting you.
Expanded Spell Repertoire [General]
You learn additional spells.
Prerequisite: Ability to cast spells, Spellcraft 1 rank.
Benefit: You learn 1 or more new spells known, with spell levels totaling to half of your caster level (round down, and treat a new 0th-level spell as ½). Thus, a sixth level sorcerer or wizard could learn one 3rd level spell, one 1st and one 2nd level spells, three 1st level spells, or 6 0th-level spells. This feat cannot provide access to spells of a level higher than you can already cast.

Exploit Weak Point (Combat)
You know how to find and target your enemy’s vulnerable areas.
Prerequisites: Point Blank Shot, Perception 2 ranks, base attack bonus +1
Benefit: Once per encounter, you can use a swift action to ignore the Damage Reduction or hardness of a single target within your line of sight for the rest of your turn. If you are using a thrown or ranged weapon, the target must be within your first range increment to gain this benefit.

Extreme Explosion (General)
You know how to set massive charges as well as use dozens of charges for extremely large explosions.
Prerequisites: Craft (bombs) 5 ranks, Intelligence 13, Higher Yield, Skilled Demolitionist, Shaped Explosion, base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: You increase the blast radius of any mines or explosives by 1 square.

Field Surgeon (Combat, General)
Your awareness of human anatomy allows you to perform simple surgery to treat wounds.
Prerequisites: Heal 2 ranks.
Benefit: You can perform simple field surgery on a stabilized creature, allowing creatures to recover more quickly from their wounds. To perform field surgery, you must make a Heal check and spend time treating an injured creature; success means that the creature heals 1d4+1 points of damage. A single creature may only benefit from the application of this feat once every 24 hours.
Field surgery expends one use from a healer’s kit.
The amount of time you take treating the injury determines the DC of the check according to the following table.

Treatment Time_______DC
1 minute.......................25
5 minutes.....................20
10 minutes...................15

You must decide how long you will perform the surgery before making the check. You cannot take 20 on this check. If you fail the check by 4 or less, nothing happens. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the patient loses 1 hit point. If this puts the patient below 0 hit points, he starts dying.
Try Again: Yes. You may try again as long as the patient is alive.

Flash and Clear (Combat)
You can use the smoke, noise, light, and confusion caused by your grenade and firearm attacks to move unseen near your foes.
Prerequisites: Stealth 2 ranks.
Benefit: When you damage a target with a burst weapon, splash weapon, or a firearm, you gain concealment against that target until the beginning of your next turn.

Furious Strike (Combat)
Your rage and passion surge forth in one full-out attack.
Prerequisites: Charisma 13, Strength 13, Intimidate 1 rank, base attack bonus +3
Benefit: A number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier, you may attempt a Furious Strike with one normal melee attack. You add your Cha bonus (if any) to your attack roll, and your critical threat range is increased by 1 for this attack.

Greater Powerful Charge (Combat)
You can charge with extra force.
Prerequisites: Medium or larger, Powerful Charge, base attack bonus +5, Str 15.
Benefit: as Powerful Charge, but treat yourself as one size category larger than you are. For Colossal creatures, the extra 6d6 points of damage becomes 8d6.

Greater Unarmed Strike (Combat)
Your unarmed strikes deal extra damage.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: Your damage increases by one die-step when you make unarmed strikes (from 1d4 to 1d6 for medium characters).

Heroic Surge (Combat)
Benefit: Your character may take an extra move action or attack action in a round, either before or after his regular actions. The character may use Heroic Surge once per day per 3 character levels, but never more than once per round.

Higher Yield (Combat)
Occasionally, in the heat of combat you can coax out a little extra oompf from an explosive.
Prerequisites: Craft (bombs) 2 ranks, base attack bonus +1
Benefit: Once per day, you can choose to deal +1 die of damage with a single grenadelike weapon, splash weapon, or any explosive device.

Hold the Line (Combat)
Prerequisites: base attack bonus +2.
Benefit: You may make an attack of opportunity against a charging opponent who enters an area you threaten. The attack of opportunity happens immediately before the charge attack is resolved.
Normal: Charging foes do not normally provoke attacks of opportunity due to movement unless you are wielding a reach weapon.

Improved Furious Strike (Combat)
Your furious strike is even more furious than before.
Prerequisites: Charisma 15, Strength 13, Furious Strike, Intimidate 3 ranks, base attack bonus +6
Benefit: You now add your Charisma modifier on melee damage rolls and increase the critical multiplier by 2 (instead of 1) when using the Furious Strike feat. This extra damage is not multiplied on critical hits.
Special: You do not multiply your Charisma modifier as you do with your Strength modifier when wielding certain weapons (such as a two-handed weapon or a weapon wielded in your off-hand).

Improved Torch Fighting (Combat)
You have learned to turn the gimmick of using a torch in combat into its own fighting style, to great effect.
Prerequisites: Torch Burn, BAB 2+, Dexterity 12+
Benefit: When attacking an enemy with a torch (as per the Torch Burn feat) you may choose one of the following effects. When using a torch to attack in this manner, you must declare your intent to do so before you make your attack roll and the torch has a 50% chance of burning out (instead of the usual 25% chance).
Fiery Strike: Add 1d4+1 to the fire damage dealt. You opponent has a 15% chance of catching fire.
Dazzling Strike: Take a -2 penalty to attack. If successful, you deal damage normally, and your foe must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or become blinded for 1d4 rounds. If the target succeeds on their save, they are instead dazzled for 1 round.
Dexterous Strike: You may use your Dexterity modifier on attack rolls with a torch instead of your Strength modifier. If you possess the Weapon Finesse feat you may instead apply your Dexterity modifier to damage instead of your Strength modifier.

Improved Unarmed Strike (Combat)
You are skilled at fighting while unarmed.
Benefit: You are considered to be armed even when unarmed—you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you attack foes while unarmed. Your unarmed strikes can deal lethal or nonlethal damage, at your choice. Additionally, your unarmed strikes now deal damage as if one size category larger (Medium creatures’ unarmed strikes now deal 1d4 points of damage, for example).
Normal: Without this feat, you are considered unarmed when attacking with an unarmed strike, and you can deal only nonlethal damage with such an attack.

Insightful Defense (Combat)
Your accumulation of martial theory and analytical approach to combat allows you to defend yourself better.
Prerequisites: Intelligence 11+
Benefit: You may apply your Intelligence modifier to AC in place of your Dexterity modifier when wearing light armor or no armor. You do not gain the benefit of this feat if you wield a shield larger than a light shield.

Intuitive Defense (Combat)
Almost spiritually, you allow your insight and past combat experiences to guide you in defending yourself.
Prerequisites: Wisdom 11+
Benefit: You may apply your Wisdom modifier to AC in place of your Dexterity modifier when wearing light armor or no armor. You do not gain the benefit of this feat if you wield a shield larger than a light shield.

Knockout Punch (Combat)
Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +3, Strength 12+
Benefit: When making your first unarmed attack against a flat-footed opponent, treat a successful attack as a critical hit. This critical hit deals triple damage. The damage is nonlethal damage.
Special: Even if you have the ability to treat unarmed damage as lethal damage, the damage from a knockout punch is always nonlethal.

Leading Feint (Combat)
You mislead your foe in order to grant an ally an opening.
Prerequisites: Demoralizing Defense, Improved Feint, Charisma 13+, base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: Whenever you successfully damage an opponent with a melee attack, you can make a Bluff check to feint against that target as a swift action. If successful, you designate an ally within 12 squares; your target is treated as flat-footed against the first attack that ally makes against your target before the beginning of your next turn. Once a target is targeted by this ability, whether successful or not, it is immune to its effects for 24 hours.
Lesser Ritual Magic [Item Creation]
Ritual magic can be expensive, time-consuming, or require the use of specific materials or locations, but can provide additional powers to spellcasters.
Prerequisite: Ability to cast 1st level spells, Spellcraft 2 ranks, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spellcasting Ability Score of 13 or higher.
Benefit: Two or more spellcasters of the same type (divine or arcane) who each have the Lesser Ritual Magic feat may work together in an elaborate ritual to invoke up to 3rd-level spell effects. Each caster may only begin one ritual per day, though they may assist with any number of other rituals.
A Ritual Spell takes a base of one hour per spell level to perform. Each additional caster involved in the ritual beyond the first two may either use Aid Another (to a maximum of a +10 bonus) or reduce the casting time by 20 minutes, to a minimum casting time of 1 hour. Using a Spellcraft DC (15 +2 per effective spell level), the caster can cast magics beyond 3rd level.
Special: Ritual Spells must be researched by players, and have varying material costs, requirements (locations, sacrifices, celestial alignments, etc.). These requirements, and the spells available are subject to DM approval.

Luck of Heroes
You have legendary luck.
Prerequisite: Charisma 13.
Benefit: Select one of the following benefits: gain a +1 luck bonus to AC, CMD, and all saving throws or gain the ability to, 1/day, reroll any single d20 roll you made with a luck bonus equal to your Charisma modifier (you must take the second result, even if it’s worse). Once made, the choice is permanent and cannot be changed.

Lucky Reflexes (General)
You are uncannily adept at avoiding falling to your death.
Benefit: You gain a +2 luck bonus to your Reflex Saves, CMD, and Acrobatics checks to avoid falling or being forced to fall (i.e., being bull rushed over the edge of a cliff or the like).

Lucky Stop (General)
A successful hit against you is mitigated by an item you just happen to be wearing or carrying, or glances off your armor or clothing in just the right way to save your skin.
Benefit: Once per day, as a reaction, you can negate the damage from a single attack that would normally reduce you to 0 hit points or less.

Mounted Mobility (Combat)
You are skilled at dodging past opponents while mounted.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Mounted Combat, Ride 4 ranks.
Benefit: If you are mounted, you and your mount get a +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against attacks of opportunity provoked when your mount moves through or out of a threatened square.
A condition that makes you or your mount lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses. Dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most types of bonuses.
Naturally Skilled
You have an enhanced aptitude for mastering skills.
Benefit: You gain +3 skill ranks. For every Hit Die you possess beyond 3 HD, you gain an additional skill rank.
Special: This feat does not confer the ability to allocate more skill ranks than you have levels to a single skill. The maximum number of ranks you may have in any skill is still equal to your character level.

Polearm Master (Combat)
Your sweeping attacks threaten more foes than usual.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected weapon, Weapon Focus (any polearm with the reach descriptor), BAB +5.
Benefit: You now threaten all squares within your polearm’s reach, and may switch attacks between reach and adjacent attacks at will. Additionally, you may use your polearm as a double weapon, striking with its butt. The butt of your weapon deals 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage. You cannot attack with the butt of your weapon at reach.

Powerful Charge (Combat)
You can charge with extra force.
Prerequisites: Medium or larger, base attack bonus +1, Str 13.
Benefit: When you charge, if your melee attack hits, it deals an extra 1d8 points of damage (if you’re Medium). For creatures larger than medium, the damage is as follows: 2d6 for Large, 3d6 for Huge, 4d6 for Gargantuan, and 6d6 for Colossal.
This feat works only when you make a charge. It does not work when you are mounted. If you have the ability to make multiple attacks on a charge, you may apply this extra damage only to one of those attacks in a round.

Prone Attack (Combat)
You attack from a prone position without penalty.
Prerequisites: Dexterity 15, base attack bonus +2, Lightning Reflexes.
Benefit: You can make melee attacks from the prone position with no penalty to your attack rolls. Furthermore, after a successful attack against an enemy that threatens you, you may regain your feet immediately as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity from that foe (it may still provoke from other foes that threaten you).

Renowned Physician (General)
Your knowledge of medicine lets you perform miracles of healing.
Prerequisites: Field Surgeon, Heal 5 ranks.
Benefit: You can use the Heal skill to perform complex surgery and use advanced treatment methods to cure mortal wounds and terminal afflictions. The required treatment determines the DC of the Heal check.

______Treatment_______DC____________Treatment Time
Neutralize Poison...15 + poison DC ................1d4 hours
Remove Disease.....15 + disease DC................1d6+1 days
Cure Hit Points...........DC 20............................1 hour
Repair Injury..................25.................................varies

Neutralize Poison: You detoxify one poison from a creature or object.
Remove Disease: You cure one disease present in the target creature.
Cure Hit Points: You cure the target of 1d8+1 hit points. This follows the same general rules as the Field Surgery feat. A target may not benefit from curing in this manner more than once in a 24-hour period. If you fail the check by 4 or less, nothing happens. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the patient loses 1 hit point. If this puts the patient below 0 hit points, he starts dying.
Repair Injury: You can repair permanent injuries or debilitations such as a crippled leg or blindness. The patient cannot regrow missing tissue, so recovering lost limbs or repairing blindness from having one’s eyes torn out cannot be accomplished.
You may take 20 on this check. Reducing the time by a single time increment increases the +5 DC to perform the surgery (-1 day for Remove Disease, -1 hour for Neutralize Poison, -10 minutes for Cure Hit Points).
Try again: Yes. You may try again as long as the patient is alive.

Second Wind (Combat)
You can shrug off minor wounds with ease.
Benefit: Once per day, as a move action, you can heal yourself of a number of points of damage equal to your Constitution modifier plus your character level (minimum 1 point of damage).
You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you do, you may use this feat one additional time per day.

Shaped Explosion (Combat)
You know how to set charges to direct a blast in a specific direction or manner.
Prerequisites: Craft (bombs) 1 rank, Intelligence 11, Skilled Demolitionist.
Benefit: You can shape an explosion caused by explosives or mines that you set into a line or cone instead of a radius. The length of the line is equal to 2 x the radius of the explosive blast, the length of the cone is equal to 3 x the radius of the explosive blast, and either the line or the cone originates from the square where the explosives are placed.

Short Haft (Combat)
You can shorten your grip while wielding polearms to attack adjacent foes.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected weapon, Weapon Focus (any polearm with the reach descriptor), BAB +2.
Benefit: Once per round, as a free action, you can alter your grip while wielding a polearm with reach that you have the Weapon Focus feat for in order to threaten adjacent foes. While wielding your weapon in this manner you do not threaten foes beyond 5 feet.

Skilled Demolitionist (Combat)
You know how to set explosives in combat situations to go off at a later time.
Prerequisites: Craft (bombs) 2 ranks, Intelligence 11
Benefit: You can set fuses of various lengths as a swift action, and your explosives never go off as the fuse is being placed, even if you fail the check by 10 or more. You must still roll to determine if the charge otherwise goes off as planned.

Slippery Strike (Combat)
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1, Bluff 1 rank.
Benefit: Once per encounter as an immediate action, you can designate an opponent you have just damaged; that opponent cannot make attacks of opportunity against you until the end of your next turn. You may utilize this feat in conjunction with the Strike and Run feat, allowing you to benefit from both feats as a single immediate action.

Slow Fall (Combat)
Your acrobatic training allows you to lessen the effects of dangerous falls.
Prerequisites: Dexterity 14, Acrobatics 2 ranks, Acrobatic.
Benefit: When falling near a wall, ledge, tree, rope, sail, tapestry, etc., you can slow your fall by reducing the effective distance by 5 feet per rank in Acrobatics (to a maximum of 35 feet at 7 ranks).
Special: If you have slow fall from another source, such as monk levels, the distance you can slow fall stacks.

Strike and Run (Combat)
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: Once per encounter, as an immediate action after successfully damaging an opponent with a melee or ranged attack, you can move your speed.

Superior Unarmed Strike (Combat)
Your unarmed strikes are as deadly as the finest weapons.
Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike, Greater Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +4.
Benefit: Your damage with unarmed strikes increases by one die-step. Additionally, your critical threat range doubles (from 20 to 19-20, for example).

Surprise Strike (Combat)
Sometimes you have to fight your way out of a bad situation.
Prerequisite: Bluff 3 ranks, Bluff as a class skill, Improved Initiative.
Benefit: If you fail any Bluff check to convey deceptive information, you can initiate combat and make a single unarmed attack as a free action in the surprise round (or with a melee or ranged weapon, if you have the Quick Draw feat); all other combatants are considered surprised even if they are aware of you.

Sword and Shield Fighting (Combat)
You are adept at using a melee weapon and shield in unison.
Prerequisites: Strength 12, Improved Shield Bash, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, base attack bonus +1
Benefit: When fighting with a melee weapon in one hand and a shield in the other, you treat both your primary hand and your off-hand as your primary hand when applying penalties for two-weapon fighting.
Special: This feat also allows you to deal your full Strength modifier on damage with your shield bash instead of just half.

Torch Fighting (Combat)
You have mastered the art of using a torch as in improvised weapon in combat.
Prerequisites: BAB +1
Benefit: You may wield torches as improvised weapons with no penalty to your attack roll. Treat the statistics as a club, except treat half of the damage dealt as fire damage instead of bludgeoning damage. Every time you successfully strike a target with a torch in this manner there is a 25% chance that the torch will burn out (treat illumination as that of a candle for 1d4+1 rounds before it burns out entirely).

Twin Weapons
You are a master of fighting with two similarly weighted weapons.
Prerequisites: Two-Weapon Fighting, Str 12, BAB +3, proficiency with weapons wielded.
Benefit: You may wield a one-handed melee weapon in your off-hand and only take the penalties as if it was a light weapon.
Normal: With the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, wielding a one-handed melee weapon in your off-hand incurs a -4 penalty to attacks.

Two-Weapon Attack of Opportunity (Combat)
Prerequisites: Two-Weapon Fighting, Dex 16, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You may attack with both your weapons on attacks of opportunity while fighting with two weapons.
Normal: You may only make an attack of opportunity with one weapon.

Undead Empathy
Prerequisites: Ability to cast at least 3 spells from the necromancy school Charisma 13, Knowledge (arcana) 3 ranks.
Benefit You can improve the attitude of unintelligent undead such as skeletons and zombies. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. You roll 1d20 and add your Diplomacy skill modifier to the result. Unintelligent undead typically has a starting attitude of hostile or unfriendly.

Traits: Characters may select up to three traits at character creation. A character may choose to take only one or two traits (or none at all) if they desire. If a character trades in all their traits (3 for humans, 2 for other races), they may select a bonus feat at character creation instead. Characters may not choose the same trait more than once unless otherwise stated, and may only select one trait listed as a Regional trait.

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GENERAL TRAITS
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Anatomist
You have studied the workings of anatomy, either as a student at university or as an apprentice mortician or necromancer.
Benefit: You know where to aim your blows to strike vital organs, and you gain a +2 trait bonus on all rolls made to confirm critical hits.

Ape’s Agility
You have learned to fight and defend yourself while perched from elevated places, such as trees, walls, ladders, and the like.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on all Climb checks and retain your Dexterity bonus to AC while climbing. While climbing, you can fight without penalty or retain the benefits of a shield you carry each round. Switching between these benefits requires a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Armor Expert
You have worn armor as long as you can remember, either as part of your training to become a knight’s squire or simply because you were seeking to emulate a hero. Your childhood armor wasn’t the real thing as far as protection, but it did encumber you as much as real armor would have, and you’ve grown used to moving in such suits with relative grace.
Benefit: When you wear armor of any sort, reduce that suit’s armor check penalty by 1, to a minimum check penalty of 0.

Brute
You have worked for a crime lord, either as a low- level enforcer or as a guard, and are adept at frightening away people.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Will saves and Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you.

Bullied
You were bullied often as a child, and you are now constantly ready to defend yourself with your fists when an enemy comes near.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on attacks of opportunity attack rolls made with unarmed strikes. Note that this trait grants you the ability to make attacks of opportunity with your unarmed strikes, but not proficiency with regular unarmed attacks.

Bully
You grew up in an environment where the meek were ignored and you often had to resort to threats or violence to be heard.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on subdual damage and on Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you.

Canter
You grew up among thieves and scoundrels, and their unusual speech patterns and turns of phrase don’t faze you in the slightest today as a result.
Benefit: Anyone who attempts to use Bluff to deliver a secret message to you gains a +5 bonus on his Bluff check. When you attempt to intercept a secret message using Sense Motive, you gain a +5 trait bonus on the attempt.

Caretaker
As the child of an herbalist or an assistant in a temple infirmary, you often had to assist in tending to the sick and wounded.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Heal checks and Fortitude saves to resist disease, and Heal is always a class skill for you.

Catlike Vision
You can see unusually well in the dark.
Benefit: You gain low-light vision, granting you the ability to see twice as far as normal humans in conditions of dim light. If you already have low-light vision, you can now see four times as far as a human in conditions of dim light.

Cavalry Warrior
You learned to fight in the saddle from an early age. Given enough time to bond with your horse, you fight with deadly accuracy.
Benefit: Ride is always a class skill for you, and if you spend more than 2 days with a normal horse, it counts as a warhorse of the appropriate type (light or heavy) while you ride it. Additionally, you gain a +1 trait bonus to attack while fighting from horseback with a horse that you have trained with for at least a month.

Chain Fighter
You have escaped from slavery and reforged the chains of your imprisonment into deadly weapons.
Benefit: You are proficient with flails and heavy flails, and treat dire flails and spiked chains as martial weapons.

Charming
Blessed with good looks, you’ve come to depend on the fact that others find you attractive.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus when you use Bluff or Diplomacy on a character that is (or could be) sexually attracted to you, and a +1 trait bonus to the save DC of any language-dependent spell you cast on such characters or creatures.

Child of Nature
You have been blessed by the nature gods to be as comfortable in the wilderness as you are at home.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Survival checks to find food and water, and a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (nature) checks. One of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

Child of the Temple
You have long served at a temple in a city, and not only did you pick up on many of the nobility’s customs, you spent much time in the temple libraries studying your faith.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (nobility) and Knowledge (religion) checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

Classically Schooled
Your apprenticeship or early education was particularly focused on the direct application of magic.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance and a +1 trait bonus on Spellcraft checks, and Spellcraft is always a class skill for you.

Climber’s Luck
Years of climbing precarious ledges, towering trees, or ship’s rigging have ingrained you with lightning reflexes that save you from falling.
Benefit: If you should fall from any height, you may immediately make a Reflex save (DC 10) to grab hold of a ledge or similar outcropping (assuming such is available). Success means you stop falling and suffer no damage. You dangle in the air and lose your Dexterity bonus to AC until your next action.

Courageous
Your childhood was brutal, yet you persevered primarily through force of will and faith that no matter how hard things might get, as long as you kept a level head you’d make it through.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against fear effects.

Cowardly Reactions
You were bullied often as a child, but never quite developed an offensive response. Instead, you became adept at anticipating sudden attacks and reacting to danger quickly.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Initiative checks, and if you have any cover or concealment when you make an Initiative check, you can make a stealth check immediately.

Deep Breath
You know how to hold your breath longer than most people.
Prerequisites: Constitution 11
Benefit: When holding your breath, you only need to make Constitution checks once every two rounds.

Deft Dodger
Growing up in a rough neighborhood or a dangerous environment has honed your senses.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Reflex saves and your CMD.

Dirty Fighter
You wouldn’t have lived to make it out of childhood without the aid of a sibling, friend, or companion on whom you could always count to distract your enemies long enough for you to do a little bit more damage than normal.
Benefit: When you hit a foe you are flanking, you deal an additional 1 point of damage (this damage is added to your base damage, and is multiplied on a critical hit). This additional damage is a trait bonus.

Eyes and Ears of the City
Your early training involved serving in the city watch of a large city, the primary duty of which was standing sentinel on a city wall.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Perception checks, and Perception is always a class skill for you. Also, you only need half as much sleep as others do (4 hours instead of 8) to get the benefits of a full night’s rest a number of nights per week equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1).

Exceptionally Skilled
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on any two skills, or a +2 trait bonus on any one skill of your choice. One of those skills is always considered a class skill for you.

Exile
For whatever reason, you were forced to flee your homeland. Chance or fate has brought you to your current adventuring life, and it’s here that your money ran out, leaving you stranded in a small town. You are also being pursued by enemies from your homeland, and that has made you paranoid and quick to react to danger.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Initiative, Disguise, and Sense Motive checks.

Extended Lifespan
You live longer than normal for your race.
Benefit: If you are human, you live 50% longer than normal for your race (maximum age x 1.5).

Failed Apprentice
Perhaps as a child, your parents sent you to a distant wizard’s tower as an apprentice so that you might learn the arcane arts. Unfortunately, you had no arcane talent whatsoever, though you did learn a great deal about the workings of spells and how to resist them.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (Arcana) checks and a +1 trait bonus on saves against arcane spells.

Fast Talker
You had a knack at getting yourself into trouble as a child, and as a result developed a silver tongue at an early age.
Prerequisite: Charisma 13
You gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks, and once per day, you can take 20 on a Bluff check as a standard action when attempting to deceive someone.

Fencer
You trained with blades for long hours as a youth, either taking lessons in the genteel art of fencing from tutors paid for by your parents or by being taken under the wing of a disenfranchised fencer who may have turned to a life of crime.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on attacks of opportunity made with daggers, swords, and similar bladed weapons, and a +1 bonus to your CMD to resist disarm attempts.

Ferocious
Prerequisite: Constitution 12
Benefit: Once per day, when you are brought below 0 hit points but not killed, you can fight for one more round as if disabled. At the end of your next turn, unless brought to above 0 hit points, you immediately fall unconscious and begin dying.
Special: An orc that selects this trait may use his Ferocity racial ability to extend his life to 1 round past his Constitution score.

Filthy
You were forced to live on the rancid and unsanitary margins of society, becoming inured to all manner of sickness.
Prerequisites: Constitution 11
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on all saves against ingested poison, diseases, and becoming nauseated or sickened.

Focused Mind
Your childhood was either dominated by lessons of some sort (whether musical, academic, or other) or by a horrible home life that encouraged your ability to block out distractions and focus on the immediate task at hand.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on concentration checks.

Forceful Presence
Your personality, arrogance, or resolve is more powerful than your general willpower.
Prerequisites: Charisma 11
Benefit: You may use your Charisma modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier on Will saving throws.

Fortified Drinker
The wine god’s holy brews invigorate your mind, making you less susceptible to mental attacks.
Benefit: Whenever you imbibe any alcoholic beverage, you gain a +2 trait bonus on saves against mind-affecting effects for 1 hour.

Freedom Fighter
Your parents allowed escaping slaves to hide in your home, and the stories you’ve heard from them instilled into you a deep loathing of slavery.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on any skill check or attack roll made during the process of escaping capture or in helping a slave escape bondage, and Escape Artist is always a class skill for you.

Gatecrasher
You revel in acts of wanton destruction.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Strength checks to break objects and a +2 bonus on sunder attempts.

Ghost in the Green
Your talent for finding cover in foliage is born of years spent in the woods, and you can step into a forested area and effectively disappear in the blink of an eye.
Benefit: You can take 10 on Stealth checks in the forest at any time, even during combat or other stressful situations.

Giant-Slayer
You have trained in the art of slaying giants.
Prerequisite: Size Medium or smaller.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to AC against all humanoid-shaped creatures of Large size or larger, and a +1 to attack against all Giants, Trolls, and Ogres.

Goldsniffer
Your keen senses lead you to hidden treasures.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Appraise and Perception checks related to metals, jewels, and gemstones.

Guerilla Ambusher
If you have time to prepare an ambush site, you can create face paint and arrange the area to better hide your companions.
Benefit: If you spend 10 minutes preparing an ally, he uses your Stealth bonus until he moves.

History of Heresy
You were raised with heretical views that have made it difficult for you to accept most religious beliefs and often caused you or those you love to be treated as pariahs. As a result, you have turned your back on religious teachings.
Benefit: As long as you do not possess any levels in a class that grants divine spellcasting power, you gain a +1 trait bonus on all saving throws made against divine spells.

Illicit Dealings
Through a life of dealings with black markets, unscrupulous vendors, and the like, you have a knack for locating and negotiating illicit deals.
Benefit: When using Diplomacy to haggle for restricted, military, or illegal goods you may roll twice, keeping the better result.

Killer
You made your first kill at a very young age and found the task of war or murder to your liking. You either take particular pride in a well-placed blow, or find vile pleasure in such a strike as you twist the blade to maximize the pain.
Benefit: You deal additional damage equal to your weapon’s critical hit multiplier when you score a successful critical hit with a weapon; this additional damage is added to the final total, and is not multiplied by the critical hit multiple itself. This extra damage is a trait bonus.

Log Roller
The time you spent leaping between slippery logs as they whirled down the river to market taught you how to keep your footing.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Acrobatics and Swim checks, and a +1 trait bonus to your CMB when attempting to resist trip attacks.

Lore Seeker
The secrets of ancient fallen civilizations intrigue you, particularly the magical traditions of highly mystical cultures. You’ve studied magic intensely, and hope to increase that knowledge by adding forgotten lore.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (arcana) checks and Knowledge (dungeoneering), and one of these skills is always a class skill for you. If you cast arcane spells, pick three spells on your spell list. You are particularly adept at casting these spells, so they function at +1 caster level when you cast them, and their save DCs (if any) gain a +1 bonus.

Magic is Life
Your faith in magic allows you to reflexively use the energy of any spell effect on you to save you from death.
Benefit: As long as you are under the effects of any spell, you gain a +2 trait bonus on saving throws against death effects. If you are reduced to negative hit points while you are under the effects of any spell, you automatically confirm stabilization checks to stop bleeding.

Magical Knack
You were raised, either wholly or in part, by a magical creature, either after it found you abandoned in the woods or because your parents often left you in the care of a magical minion. This constant exposure to magic has made its mysteries easy for you to understand, even when you turn your mind to other devotions and tasks.
Benefit: Pick a class when you gain this trait—your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus as long as this bonus doesn’t raise your caster level above your current Hit Dice.

Magical Lineage
One of your parents was a gifted spellcaster who not only used metamagic often, but also developed many magical items and perhaps even a new spell or two—and you have inherited a fragment of this greatness.
Benefit: Pick one spell when you choose this trait. When you apply metamagic feats to this spell, treat its actual level as 1 lower for determining the spell’s final adjusted level.

Magical Talent
Either from inborn talent, the whimsy of the gods, or obsessive study of strange tomes, you have mastered the use of a cantrip.
Benefit: Choose a 0-level spell. You may cast that spell once per day as a spell-like ability. This spell-like ability is cast at your highest caster level gained; if you have no caster level, it functions at CL 1st. The spell-like ability’s save DC is Charisma-based.

Mighty Vigor
Your sheer strength of muscles compensates for your overall health.
Prerequisites: Strength 11.
Benefit: You may use your Strength modifier in place of your Constitution modifier on Fortitude saving throws.

Militia Veteran
Your first job was serving in a civilian militia in your hometown. Skills learned through daily drilling and protecting your fellow townsfolk gave you special insight into military life.
Benefit: Select one of the following skills: Profession (soldier), Ride, or Survival. You gain a +2 trait bonus on that skill, and it is always a class skill for you.

Missionary
You have decided to adventure primarily to see about expanding the presence of your chosen faith after receiving visions that told you your faith is needed in the world—what that need is, though, you’re not quite sure.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks and Diplomacy checks, and one of these skills is always a class skill for you. If you cast divine spells, pick three spells on your spell list. You are particularly adept at casting these spells, so they function at +1 caster level when you cast them, and their save DCs (if any) gain a +1 bonus.

Nature Spirit Lore
You are familiar with dryads, river nymphs, ancestor spirits, and other embodiments of the natural world.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus to all Will saves and Charisma-based skill checks for dealing with dryads, wood nymphs, river gods, and other nature-guardian entities of the setting (all fey and elementals, and others at GM’s discretion).

Pack Mule
You are used to long journeys with a heavy pack and the use of a wide variety of weaponry and equipment.
Benefit: With this feat you suffer no penalties for carrying a medium load (including penalties to speed from medium armor—but not heavy armor—within your medium load), and may retrieve stored items from your person without provoking an attack of opportunity.

Patient Optimist
You know that all things pass in time, and are used to having to repeat arguments multiple times to convince even the most stubborn believer.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Diplomacy checks to influence hostile or unfriendly creatures, and if you fail at such an attempt, you may retry it once.

Poverty-Stricken
Your childhood was tough, and your parents had to make every copper piece count. Hunger was your constant companion, and you often had to live off the land or sleep in the wild.
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus on Fortitude saves and Survival checks, and Survival is always a class skill for you.

Rapscallion
You’ve spent your entire life thumbing your nose at the establishment and take pride in your run-ins with the law. Somehow, despite all the mischievous behavior in your life, you’ve never been caught.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Escape Artist checks and a +1 trait bonus on Initiative checks, and once per day may reroll any single saving throw, taking the better result.

Resilient
Growing up in a poor neighborhood or in the unforgiving wilds often forced you to subsist on food and water from doubtful sources. You’ve built up your mettle as a result.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Fortitude saves, and you only need to consume half as much food and water as others to survive.

River Rat
You learned to swim right after you learned to walk. As a youth, a gang of river pirates put you to work swimming in nighttime rivers and canals with a dagger in your teeth so you could sever the anchor ropes of merchant vessels.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on damage dealt with a dagger and a +1 trait bonus on Swim checks. Swim is always a class skill for you.

Rock Hurler
You can throw rocks with unerring accuracy.
Benefit: You are proficient with rocks and treat them as thrown, two-handed, simple weapons with a 10-foot range increment. The stones inflict damage based on their size. Your GM judges the stone’s size by comparing it to other weapons. Normally, a Medium stone is large enough that a human must hoist it in two hands.
Picking up a stone to throw is a move action.

Stone Size Thrown Stone Damage
Tiny 1d2
Small 1d4
Medium 1d6
Large 2d6
Huge 3d6

Sacred Tattoo
Tattoos, piercings, and ritual scarification are sacred markings to you or your people.
Benefit: You gain a +1 luck bonus on all saving throws.

Sacred Touch
You were exposed to a potent source of positive energy as a child, perhaps by being born under the right cosmic sign, or maybe because one of your parents was a gifted healer.
Benefit: As a standard action, you may automatically stabilize a dying creature merely by touching it.

Savage Appearance
You wear war paint, have a bizarre haircut (such as a mohawk), are covered in tattoos or scars, wear a warmask, or carry a gruesome war banner. In any case, your appearance promises bloodletting on the battlefield. Consciously or not, your opponents pay more attention to you in a fight than to your allies.
Benefit: During combat, any opponent within 60 feet who can see you suffers a -2 penalty to Perception checks as they find their gaze invariably drawn to your strange appearance. Additionally, you gain a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks to demoralize someone.

Scavenger
You eked out a leaving picking over the garbage heaps of society, and learned to separate rare finds from the inevitable dross.
Benefit: You receive a +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks and on Perception checks to find hidden objects (including traps and secret doors), determine if food is spoiled, or identify a potion by taste.

Scholar of Ruins
From the moment you could walk and talk, the ruins of ancient civilizations have fascinated you. Because of this, you have special insight into geography as well as expertise in exploring lost places.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (geography) and Knowledge (dungeoneering) checks. One of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

Scholar of the Great Beyond
Your great interests as a child did not lie with current events or the mundane—you have always felt out of place, as if you were born in the wrong era. You take to philosophical discussions of the Great Beyond and of historical events with ease.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Knowledge (history) and Knowledge (planes) checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

Scout
You spent some time as a lookout and scout for hunters, a warband, or a merchant caravan. Your keen senses are not clouded by distractions.
Prerequisite: Wisdom 11
Benefit: As a full-round action, you may take 10 on Perception checks even if stress or distractions would normally prevent you from doing so.

Skeptical
Growing up, you were always more aware of deceptions than most.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Will saves against illusions and on Sense motive checks.

Small Stature
You are unusually diminutive—so much so that you count as one size category smaller than other members of your race.
Prerequisites: Medium size.
Benefit: You are a Small creature and gain a +1 size bonus to AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a -1 penalty to your Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks. You suffer a -10 ft penalty to your base land or a -2 penalty to your Strength score (your choice), and you must use weapons one size smaller than normal.
Special: You cannot select this background if you have the either the Tall or Powerful Build traits.

Steady Fighter
You excel at standing your ground and controlling your core strength.
Prerequisites: Constitution 11, Dexterity 11
Benefit: You receive a +2 trait bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense when resisting a Bull Rush, Drag, Overrun, Reposition, or Trip attempt while standing on the ground.

Stout
You are stocky, compact, or even overweight. Your body might be bulkier than normal, but the added mass is muscle and thick bones, not just flab, allowing you to resist damage better than others do.
Benefit: You gain +2 hit points and a +1 natural armor bonus to AC. If you already have natural armor, its bonus improved by 1 point.

Street Rat
You grew up on the streets of a large city, and as a result you have developed a knack for picking pockets and hiding small objects on your person.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Sleight of Hand checks, and Sleight of Hand is always a class skill for you. Also, you gain a +1 trait bonus on all Steal attempts in combat.

Suspicious
You discovered at an early age that someone you trusted, perhaps an older sibling or a parent, had lied to you, and lied often, about something you had taken for granted, leaving you quick to question the claims of others.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Sense Motive checks, and Sense Motive is always a class skill for you. Once per day, when you fail a Sense Motive check, you may attempt the check again 1 round later.

Tall
Your long arms and legs let you tower over others. In battle, your height grants you improved reach, a key advantage.
Prerequisites: Medium size or larger.
Benefit: You gain a +2 size bonus to combat maneuver rolls when grappling. If you already have a size bonus, increase it by 2 points.
In combat, you threaten one additional square beyond your normal threatened area. This square must be adjacent to a square you threaten, but it cannot be adjacent to you. You must have line of sight and line of effect to the chosen square. You do not threaten this square if you do not threaten any other space. You must decide which extra square you threaten on your action. Until you designate a square, you do not threaten an extra space. You can change the square you threaten to a different one on your next action.
Special: You cannot select this trait if you have the Small Stature trait.

Touch of Immortality
The blood of an immortal runs strongly in your veins.
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to Fortitude saves and +5 hit points. When at -1 or fewer hit points, you gain a +4 bonus to stabilize each round.

Undead Slayer
Instructed at a young age in the tenets of your faith, you view the undead as abominations that must be destroyed, so their souls can journey beyond to be judged.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on attacks and weapon damage against undead.

Unnatural Luck
Benefit: 1/day as an immediate action, when an attack hits you, you may force the enemy to roll the attack again. The enemy uses the second result, even if it’s lower.

Vagabond Child
You grew up among the outcasts and outlaws of your society, learning to forage and survive in an urban environment and along the major trade routes.
Benefit: Select two of the following skills: Bluff, Craft (any), Disable Device, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Perform (any), or Sleight of Hand. You gain a +1 trait bonus on those skills, and one of them is always a class skill for you.

Veteran of Battle
You have fought in several battles, and each time felt the presence of your gods guiding your sword-arm, making you ready to act at a moment’s notice.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Initiative checks, and if you are able to act during a surprise round, you may a draw a weapon (but not a potion other item) as a free action during that round.

Well-Informed
You make it a point to know everyone and to be connected to everything around you. You frequent the best taverns, attend all of the right events, and graciously help anyone who needs it.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information and Knowledge (local) checks. One of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

Wisdom in the Flesh
Your hours of meditation on inner perfection and the nature of strength and speed allows you to focus your thoughts to achieve things your body might not normally be able to do on its own.
Benefit: Select any Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity-based skill. You make checks with that skill using your Wisdom modifier instead of the skill’s normal ability score. That skill is always a class skill for you.

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RACIAL TRAITS
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Arcane Sight
You can see magical auras.
Prerequisites: Traull or Vesh.
Benefit: Three times per day, as a supernatural ability, you can use detect magic. Your effective caster level is equal to your character level.

Fast Swimmer
You can swim a bit faster than most other lizardfolk.
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk, swim speed.
Benefit: Your swim speed increases by 5 feet.

Forge-Blooded
You spent so much time around the forges that you have developed a resistance to fire.
Prerequisite: Traull.
Benefit: You gain fire resistance 3.

Magic Resistant
Some of the older goblin clans are particularly resistant to magic.
Prerequisite: Traull.
Benefit: You gain spell resistance equal to 5 + your character level. This resistance can be lowered for 1 round as a standard action. Traulls with this trait take a –2 penalty on all concentration checks made in relation to arcane spells.

Mystic
Some tengu possess a link with the Spirit World from which their race was spawned.
Prerequisite: Vesh.
Benefit: Vesh with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (planes). Vesh with a Charisma score of 10 or higher can cast guidance once per day as a spell-like ability. Vesh with a Charisma score of 13 or higher can cast speak with dead once per week as a spell-like ability. The caster level for these effects is equal to the vesh’s level. The DC for these spells is equal to 10 + the spell's level + the vesh’s Charisma modifier. This ability replaces the gifted linguist racial trait, in addition to costing a trait.

Powerful Build
Your solid, broad build allows you to function in many ways as if you were one size category larger. Perhaps giant or ogre blood flows through your veins, or you just come from larger stock.
Prerequisites: Human, traull, or lizardfolk.
Benefit: Whenever you are subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for a Combat Maneuver Bonus or Combat Maneuver Defense (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), you are treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to you.
You are also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as grab or swallow whole) can affect you.
You can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, your space and reach remain those of a creature of your actual size. You still suffer the full penalties of a creature using weapons sized for creatures two or more size categories above your actual size.
You add Giant to your Humanoid subtype, and are affected by all effects and abilities that target giants, as well as your normal creature type.
The benefits of this trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change your size category.
Special: You cannot select this background if you have the Small Stature general trait.

Quills
Some of your proto-feathers have evolved into quills.
Prerequisites: Vesh.
Benefit: You have spiny quills along your forearms, calves, head, shoulders, and back. You gain a +2 bonus to CMD to resist a grapple, and anyone that successfully grapples you takes 1 point of piercing damage each round they maintain the grapple. In addition, once per day you can pluck 1d4+1 quills. These quills can be used as small sized daggers, except they only deal piercing damage.

Swamp Adaptation
You are adapted to living in the swamps.
Prerequisite: Lizardfolk, Con 13.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Survival and Swim checks. Furthermore, you can hold your breath for a number of minutes equal to your Constitution score.

Toothy
You have vestigial tusks that are massive and sharp, granting a bite attack.
Prerequisite: Traull.
Benefit: You gain a bite attack. This is a primary natural attack that deals 1d4 points of piercing damage.

Tough Hide
Your thick skin protects you from damage.
Prerequisite: Traull, Con 15.
Benefit: You have DR 5/magic against nonlethal damage from all sources.

Totem Spirit
Your ancestors have granted you a totem spirit to look after you.
Prerequisites: Vesh.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus to Will saves, a +1 deflection bonus to Armor Class, and +1 trait bonus on Perception skill checks. You only gain these effects while you are conscious and you wear your tribal mask.

Troll-blooded
Troll blood runs in your veins, granting you amazing healing abilities.
Prerequisite: Traull.
Benefit: You heal hit points at 4 times the normal rate. When not involved in strenuous activity, you may heal a number of hit points per day equal to your Constitution Score. These hit points come back at the rate of 1 HP per hour, and only if you feast considerably during this time (you must rest and eat at least what a normal human would eat in a single meal for each hour you rest).
Additionally, you must eat at least twice as much as a normal human each day or be fatigued until you do so. If you take damage from fire or acid, your increased healing is delayed by 1d6 hours.
Special: If you have the Resilient general trait, its effects do not apply to your regeneration.

Tunnel Fighter
Caves and tunnels are a second home to you.
Prerequisites: Traull or human.
Benefit: While underground, you receive a +2 trait bonus on initiative checks and a +1 trait bonus on weapon damage rolls for critical hits (this damage is multiplied on a critical hit).

Uncanny Luck
Your luck is better than most.
Prerequisite: Human or vesh.
Benefit: You gain a +1 luck bonus to all saving throws.

Wing Slam
Your wings are larger than usual, and you can use your wings to attack in combat.
Prerequisite: Vesh, Strength 13.
Benefit: You gain a slam attack that deals 1d3 points of damage plus half your Strength modifier. This is a secondary natural attack, and has a reach of 5 feet.

Wing Dance
You can use your wings to bolster your defenses in combat.
Prerequisite: Vesh.
Benefit: When wearing light or no armor and carrying no more than a medium load, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class.

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REGIONAL TRAITS
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Arctic Born (Regional)
You were born to the ice and snow of the arctic. The bitterest cold has little effect on you, and you excel at traveling in areas similar to your homeland.
Benefit: You gain a +4 trait bonus on any saving throws made to resist the effects of being in extremely cold conditions and a +2 trait bonus on all saving throws against cold effects. You also treat heavy snow as normal terrain rather than difficult terrain.

Desert Child (Regional)
You were born and raised in rocky deserts and you are accustomed to high temperatures.
Benefit: You gain a +4 trait bonus on any saving throws made to resist the effects of being in hot conditions and a +2 trait bonus on all saving throws against fire effects. You also treat sand as normal terrain rather than difficult terrain.

Forest Born (Regional)
You grew up among the towering trees of the forest, where you are at your best. Perhaps you feel uncomfortable in a situation where you can see the horizon.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus to all Survival checks in forested areas and may use Survival untrained in such regions. In addition, so long as you are in a forested area, you can find enough food and water each day to provide for yourself and an additional creature per character level.

Highlander (Regional)
You were born and raised in rugged badlands or hills, and you’ve become something of an expert at evading the predators, monsters, and worse that haunt the highlands.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Survival and Stealth checks, and Stealth is always a class skill for you. These trait bonuses increase to +4 in hilly or rocky areas.

Jungle Born (Regional)
Born and bred in the tropics, you wander the dense rain forests and jungles with the same ease that civilized folk stroll down a street.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus to Survival checks and may use that skill untrained in jungle and rain forest terrain. Heat and humidity have little effect on you. You gain a +2 trait bonus to Fortitude saves made to resist high temperature conditions.

Mountain Folk (Regional)
You hail from the towering mountains. Traversing the steep slopes, jagged cliffs, and perilous trails of the peaks seem no more daunting to you than a simple walk through a cleared green field.
Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus on Climb checks and to Survival made in the mountains and may use those skills untrained in such areas. High elevations have little effect on you. You gain a +2 trait bonus to Fortitude saves made to resist high altitude conditions.

Rich Parents (Regional)
You were born into a rich family, perhaps even the nobility, and even though you turned to a life of adventure anyway, you enjoy a one-time benefit to your initial finances.
Benefit: Your starting gold increases to 1000 gp.

Savanna Child (Regional)
You were born and raised among rolling plains or savannas. You spent much of your youth running, riding, and exploring these vast reaches and know many of the savanna’s secrets.
Benefit: Pick two of the following skills: Handle Animal, Knowledge (nature), Ride, Stealth, or Survival. You gain a +2 trait bonus on those skills whenever you are in a plains or grasslands environment. Additionally, you increase your base land speed by 5 feet.

University Trained (Regional)
You have studied with the learned men of the civilized realms and have taken these studies to heart.
Prerequisites: Intelligence 11, must be one of the following races: dwarf, elf, halfling, or human.
Benefit: All Knowledge skills are class skills for you. Additionally, you gain a +1 bonus on any two Knowledge skills of your choice.
Special: You cannot take this background if you are a barbarian.

World Traveler (Regional)
Your family has taken the love of travel to an extreme, roaming the world extensively. You’ve seen dozens of cultures and have learned to appreciate the diversity of what the world has to offer.
Benefit: Select two of the following skills: Diplomacy, Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (local), Sense Motive, or Survival. You gain a +1 trait bonus on those skills, and one of them is always a class skill for you. Additionally, you begin play knowing two additional languages of your choice.

Ever since he was a hatchling Rsss’tak had seen his people struggle. It was the way of his folk but he didn’t have to be happy about it. He was a dreamer in a race of pragmatists. Dreamed of the bigger world, dreamed of becoming one of the Lizard Riders of his village.
But the elders always said he was too meek, and not proud enough for a Lizard Folk even though he had the bulk for it. Most of his people were rash, powerful warriors who preferred direct assaults and tearing their opponents apart. Rsss’tak has always thought that tactics and subtlety we just as important. In the minds of most of the tribe’s warriors, that made him weak. In his mind it made him smarter than most.
He wanted to be one of the Lizard Riders, one of the protectors of his tribe. His interest had always been regarded with much skepticism and mostly doubtful glances. He had little way to prove his abilities until a chance meeting. He often wondered far from the village and many times through the badlands. This time his wanderings took him to the sound of battle. When he crested the hill Rsss’tak saw two Elves. Yes rare and quite majestic looking Elves.
They were locked in a titanic struggle with a badlands Vorta, a snake of massive proportions. The Elves seemed to work as one. The snake would try to strike one Elf and he would roll out of the way and the other would strike at it from the other side. But finally the snake struck true though and latched on to one Elf, pulling him from the ground. Something made me move at that moment. While the snake was busy with the Elf I leapt into the fray on the other side of the Elf still standing and started pounding on the creatures head with my club and my claws. What seemed like forever passed as more blood and gore covered all of us. When it was over the Elf, named Jolarius, untangled himself from the snake and thanked me for my courage in helping him and his partner, Kloria defeat the Vorta. To my surprise the Elf spoke our language. He asked me where I was from and when I told him he said he was making a visit to my village on an important mission.
As we travelled he asked me many questions. He was surprised at my easy manner and impressed with the fact that I knew much about the surrounding world. When we arrived at the village, our arrival together helped calm some of the warriors who were alarmed by the sudden appearance of two Elves.
At the gathering that night the guest was honored and the reason for him being here was made evident. He bore a woodlands staff. A rare magical item once held by my people.
By the agreement of our peoples I return the staff once lost to your folk. In return, I accept the knowledge of the ancient tree to help the few Elves that remain. I also wish to honor one of your warriors. The young Lizard Folk who accompanied me here, Rsss’tak. Ask a boon of me and I will do what I can to fulfill it.
All of the tribe’s eyes turned to me. I was surprised by the Elves gesture but quickly blurted out what I had been thinking the entire day since our meeting, I wish to become a Lizard Rider, one of the protectors of the tribe. Many here do not think I am worthy of the honor but I know I have the heart and the soul to become one . Jolarius smiled and turned to the Elders. I had probably just outfoxed many of the Elders in the tribe.
When he spoke it changed my life forever, I will do as you ask. You will have proved yourself in combat to me. Proud Elders, this hatchling has honored me in combat and my life is his, in return he has asked this boon of us. As a guest I can ask for one boon from you, I ask this for Rsss’tak. Will you fulfill his request?
Reluctantly they agreed to do so. They made it hard on me for making it happen in such a manner, but they could not turn me away without dishonoring our traditions. They were surprised with how quickly I learned the ways of the lizard Riders and equally how fast I had bonded with my Marsh Drake, Visssila. I had become a Rider in spite of them, even if I wasn’t the hand-picked warrior as the rest were…

Vess'Sothek

A mild breeze blew through the air one afternoon. Though birds flew and grass swayed, there was no other movement on the plain – save that of a grazing herbivore. Finishing a spot of vegetation, the creature moved on to another, greener patch. As she began to eat, a blur of green sprang from a nearby tree. One blade sliced the animal's throat as the other found its way into the ribcage, felling her. The now-stationary Lizardfolk surveyed his prey for a slight moment longer before stooping to reclaim his weapons and the carcass.

The carcass fastened to his back, Vess'Sothek stood to see a human with a crossbow across the plain. The man smirked, then proceeded to move under the cover of nearby trees. The ranger, Landrith, had encountered Vess'Sothek a few times previous, at first in disbelief the reptile hunted without a bow of sorts. “Surely even you barbarians have the sense to hunt from afar,” he'd said. Once, Landrith had actually seen him in a failed stalk against a fleeing target. The human put a bolt into the quarry's chest, ending its life, shaking his head at the Lizardfolk. “Savages,” he spat, and walked away. Savages. Such arrogance the pinkskins displayed! Vess'Sothek subconsciously straightened his posture in a more human way and made his way back to the tribe.

His tribe was fending well for a bunch of savages, he thought. Himself, he'd already produced a large set of offspring, his strength and vitality desirable traits for the future brood. Fed and fertile was good enough for most of his kind, but he did not feel content; the words of the human had instilled a wounded pride in him, and such injuries were not so easily remedied. Their quick minds and magical aptitude were lorded over their kind as a kind of ceiling, a reminder of their simplicity. Rare as they were, the Elves had at least showed the kindness not to belittle the Lizardfolk, even as esoterically brilliant as the nearly-extinct race was. Vess'Sothek had come to admire them, magic being something he'd always wished his skills encompassed – and to have the power without trodding over others with it spoke of discipline of character. He would never admit it as the scorn of the tribe would follow for sympathy towards a mammal, but he wished he was one of them; he wasn't bright himself (though he would also never admit this!), and he wished for their long life. They seemed almost otherworldly.

Arriving back with his tribe, he took the carcass to the cook's hut, laying it at the entrance. A few tribesmen walked past, diffident in their passage; without actively intimidating any of his folk, Vess'Sothek's prowess on the hunt seemed to instill a fearsome respect in his peers. He exhaled slowly, flexing his tongue in a reptilian sigh. Friends were a quarry he'd not caught, try as he might. The dislike for Landrith filled the void in a bitter sort of way, though it was better than nothing at all. Most other humans he couldn't actually speak with as they didn't understand either tongue Vess'Sothek knew, but Landrith could insult quite well in the reptile's native tongue – and he was rather adept at parrying with a negative remark or two of his own. The relationship resembled, in a way, bickering rivals, though Vess'Sothek felt safe around the warmblood for some reason.

The cook emerged from the hut. It was time to prepare the meal.

The Kes'slessi exist as the wardens of the Trollmires. They are often called the spirit of the swamp by the other Lizard Folk tribes.
Probably the least numerous tribe they play an important part in the spiritual life of Lizard folk. They keep the balance of the swamp and the tribe’s nature magic’s help to keep the swamp a vibrant place of life.
The belief that the trees can heal part of the rift is a commonly held belief in the tribe and it is a great crime to cut down a tree in the Trollmires. The Druids of the other tribes often come to train with the Kes'slessi and some never really return to their tribes. This would have caused conflict between the tribes except for the fact that the Srrr’trak Wordith (Spirit Wardens) are among the most powerful Druids in the region. There are males who are both Tree Wardens and Blood Readers. They are generally smaller males who didn’t fit into the typical hierarchy of the warrior dominated castes but are honored nonetheless.

The balance of power is contested regularly within the Lizard folk tribe. The Dssrrr’ik Fratir (Dragon Warriors) control most of the warriors while the Srrr’trak Wordith control most of the magic within the tribe. From one generation to the next one may gain a slight advantage over the other depending on the events that are occurring. Currently the venerable Srrr’trak Wordith female Lssss’ar holds the most sway in the tribe but Grrrik’Sssrey looks for any opportunity to turn the power back in his favor.

In the center of the Kes'slessi is the great Horrisssla tree. A great mangled swamp oak that serves as the center of the tribe’s power. The great mounds surround the tree and it is venerated for its magical powers as a grove of natures might.

Srrr’trak Wordith (Spirit Wardens)
Female Lizard Folk leaders of the tribe. They consist of a dozen older females who control the spiritual well being of the tribe.
They are split into two sects:
Tree Wardens: Keepers of the secrets of the trees and the druidic magic of the earth.
Blood Readers: Sorcerers and Oracles who speak about the times to come and use magic to defend the trees.

Dssrrr’ik Fratir (Dragon Warriors)
Male Chieftain and council of warriors. The Chieftain and his 12 senior warriors who control the fighting Lizard Folk of the tribe.
There are three castes of warriors:
The Drake Riders: Protectors of the tribe.
The Gatherers: Hunters and scouts of the tribe.
The Slayers: brutal Barbarian warriors of the tribe bred for combat.

Palag was born to the Clan of Torufo (Athene cunicularia), a band of nomad vesh in the Thunder Plains. Their leaders were a druid couple who protected their clan from the harsh weather and called forth lightning when they were threatened by other races. Palag was exceptionally intelligent and the leaders tried to teach him the ways of the druids, but he was too impatient to learn in the long term. Palag did, however, learn to handle the few magic items they had and the leaders suspected that he might have some kind of other skills and thought that maybe finding another kind of teacher would be good.

The clan's good fortune came to a premature end as they ran into an unusually heavily armed slaver group who killed many of their axe beaks before they could fly to safety. The leaders fell as well, but four of their clan, Palag among them, managed to escape on the three surviving axe beaks.

The survivors fled aimlessly and would have surely perished, had they not run into Gairat, a capable solitary vesh of another clan who was heading across the plains to some human settlement. Gairat took care of the survivors for a short while.

On their way, they met another vesh clan, the Clan of Gorredegh (Buteo regalis). Three of the survivors joined them, but Palag didn't want to because they seemed more primitive. Instead, he asked Gairat to take him to the settlement instead and she obliged, though she didn't really know what Palag could find there.

They eventually arrived and young Palag did find something: a small group of more urban vesh who thought he was uncivilised. They did take him into their group, but he had to put up with some comments about his family that he didn't like at all, and was therefore often fighting with the others.

Palag grew more independent in the settlement and after only a couple years, decided that he had had enough of the other vesh in there. He had grown very interested in stories about magic items and wondered why they were so rare. He tried to find anyone who could make such items and broke into a weaponsmith's smithy. He was caught, but luckily the smith was more welcoming of someone actually interested in the making of magic items. While the smith did know her trade, she didn't really know any quick way to teach Palag to make magic items, and Palag of course wasn't one to take up a job so one-sided as smithing.

Palag left the smith and wondered how else he could make magic items. He then decided to find some as well as a quicker way to make them. He decided to leave the small settlement and traveled to Riftview since he thought he needed more information. And probably someone to go with him since he didn't think he could go out to the dangerous world all by himself.

Personality: Palag is smart and even patient but only up to a point. He can lose his temper quickly if his clan is mocked or if he's rushed to do something. ("Faster?! Everyone was always telling me I need to be more patient, what are you talking about?!")

Str 8, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 13
Feat: Point-blank shot
Traits: Exceptionally skilled, Totem spirit
Also this almost ridiculously long list of languages: Common, Vesh, Draconic, Traull, Kobo, Auran, Sylvan (It would be completely ridiculous if I'd chosen the World traveler trait!)