| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Just a little something i've been meaning to write up. Thoughts and correction of errors are appreciated! This is just a draft, and when I have the time and inspiration, I plan to add favored class options and alternate bloodlines... maybe some variant abilities and physical features, racial archetypes, and racial feats, too.
Humans whose ancestry includes the blood of neutral outsiders, Liminals are a race of conflict and concordance. Spiritually torn between the varied potential of mortal morals and ethics, and the more balanced and metaphysically ordained will of their planar ancestors, they live a life acutely aware of their unnatural role, yet gifted with a sense of the balance of the universe. Although this personality tends to result in an alignment that favors no one extreme, their individual experiences growing up just as often lead to a compassionate or malicious adulthood. Although capable of lying dormant for many generations, the heritage that produces liminals always eventually manifests, often seemingly just in time to correct some imbalance in their home community. Most often born to tribal cultures with large numbers of powerful druids or cloistered sects devoted to a faith of neutrality and balance, they are seen as born to a religious or diplomatic life, fated to act as intermediaries between the spiritual and secular worlds. With an innnate gift to set all around them on equal terms by forcing the telling of truths, many others pursue the path of the diplomat or the peacekeeper. Even those liminals who tend towards good, evil, chaos, or law typically see themselves as correctors of an imbalance, striking out against factors they see as favoring their opposite alignment.
Physical Description
Liminals strongly resemble their human forebears, yet always have some sign of their planar ancestry. This may range from the subtle—having one eye be an opposing color to the other, or hair that always remains perfectly symmetrical regardless of external factors—to the more dramatic, such as having hair that looks like the night sky complete with twinkling stars, or a body of uniformly gray features with no change in hue or tone. One notably universal characteristic is androgyny; liminals of any sex tend to have the same tall, lightly built frames that favor neither masculinity nor femininity, and an exceptionally high proportion of liminals are born intersex or otherwise possessing features not clearly male or female.
Adulthood: 60 years
Intuitive¹: +4d6 years (64 - 84 years)
Self-Taught²: +6d6 years (66 - 96 years)
Trained³: +8d6 years (68 - 108 years)
1 This category includes barbarians, oracles, rogues, and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, cavaliers, fighters, gunslingers, paladins, rangers, summoners, and witches.
3 This category includes alchemists, clerics, druids, inquisitors, magi, monks, and wizards.
Base Height: 5 ft. 0 in.
Height Modifier: +2d8 in. (5 ft. 4 in. - 6 ft. 6 in.)
Base Weight: 90 lbs.
Weight Modifier: +(2d8×5 lbs.) (100 - 170 lbs.)
Society
Born to humans, liminals lack a true society of their own, and yet are also by nature partly outside of the culture of their birth, instinctively aware of the greater cosmos. Though this sense often leads them to sympathize with folk from other cultures, it also often means that they have trouble relating to concepts like patriotism and loyalty. Thinking in terms of "the big picture", they sometimes overlook local concerns in favor of more widespread issues, leading them to be shunned; at other times, they devote unusual attention to everyday matters that only their gut feelings tell them will have an impact on the world at large, earning the favor of those who see them as always willing to help. In the spiritual communities where they are most often born, liminals are typically seen as being ideal candidates for priesthood, training as a shaman, or as impartial lorekeepers and judges. Due to their tendency towards androgyny, liminals are often given names that are neither especially masculine nor feminine.
Relations
Even among their human kin, liminals are exceptionally adaptable to other races, sometimes seeming to be just a bit more comfortable among elves, dwarves, and gnomes than their own kith. This is an illusion, however; those other races will see the opposite tendencies among visiting liminals. Predictably, liminals find the best company among other half-breeds and beings of planar ancestry, finding in them others with the same sense of marginality. Half-elves and half-orcs especially are fast companions, with many liminals seeing them as embodiments of balance between their parent races. However, some rare liminals grow hostile towards other mixed-ancestry folk, seeing in them a perversion of the natural order and the crossing of boundaries not meant to be crossed. The sole exception to these rules seem to be halflings, whose practical outlook and marginal role among larger folk mesh well with liminals' tendency towards objectivity and disconnect from their parent race.
Non-human liminals have the same base statistics as human liminals, with the exception of size; a gnomish liminal is Small but possesses the same statistics and abilities as a human liminal, with the differences being only in outward appearance. Non-human liminals do not possess any of the racial abilities of their base race; however, they are typically raised within the same culture as members of their base race, and usually adopt the same fighting style, train with the same weapons and armor, and learn the same skills.
Alignment and Religion
Liminals are typically of neutral alignment, though many tend towards law or chaos, and others towards good or evil. It is not unheard of, however, for an individual liminal to find themselves of a less moderate mindset, favoring two extremes in moral and ethical alignment. Even so, the great majority of liminals favor deities of balance, the natural world, or dualistic concepts like life and death. Some also find themselves drawn to faiths of knowledge and invention, or primal deities and ancient fey gods. Especially popular is the dualistic Gozreh, with many liminals finding meaningful symbolism in the transition between surf and sky.
Adventurers
Liminals often become adventurers, whether out of a need to experience the vast scope of the wider world, or even encouragement from their home community to go out and act on their behalf. Liminals make for intuitive rogues and rangers and uncanny witches, and those who embrace their spiritual nature make for wise clerics and powerful druids.
Names : Aeyun, Aroney, Dryn, Hamar, Isone, Shaayan, Sheng, Talantey, Uren, Zalka
- Ability Score Racial Traits: Liminals are intuitive and graceful, but their nature as something in-between mortality and outsiders makes their connection to life tenuous at times. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and -2 Constitution.
- Type: Liminals are outsiders with the native subtype.
- Size: Liminals are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Base Speed: Liminals have a base speed of 30 feet.
- Languages: Liminals begin play speaking Common. Liminals with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic).
Defense Racial Traits
- Liminal Resistance: Liminals have cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
- Skill bonus: Liminals have a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks.
Magical Racial Traits
- Spell-like ability: Liminals can use zone of truth once per day as a spell-like ability (caster level equal to the liminal's class level).
Senses Racial Traits
- Darkvision: Liminals have darkvision 60 ft. (they can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.)
The following alternate racial traits may be selected in place of one or more of the standard racial traits above. Consult your GM before selecting any of these new options.
- Advanced Light and Dark A liminal's intermediate role in the cosmos means that they sometimes walk the boundaries of life and death. Three times per day as an immediate action, a liminal with this racial trait can treat positive and negative energies as if it were an undead creature, taking damage from positive energy and healing damage from negative energy. This supernatural ability lasts for 1 minute once activated. This racial trait replaces liminal resistance.
- Cosmic Visage Some liminals have eyes that seem to open onto the depths of the universe, starry voids occasionally marred by the passage of comets and the flaring light of novas. When making eye contact, they gain a +4 bonus to Intimidate checks. This racial trait replaces skill bonus.
- Lesser Envisaging Liminals with hereditary connections to aeons and related beings possess a limited form of the ability of those creatures to communicate thoughts. Once per day as a free action, a liminal with this racial trait may communicate with a single creature by telepathically projecting images and sounds; this ability cannot target any creature immune to mind-affecting effects. This racial trait replaces the spell-like ability racial trait.
- Liminal Magic A liminal with this racial trait with a Charisma score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities (the caster level is equal to the user's character level):
1/day—comprehend languages, deathwatch, sanctuary, share languages
This racial trait replaces the
- Lifebound The connection of liminals to cosmic forces ensures that they resist death; they gain a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws made to resist death effects, saving throws against negative energy effects, Fortitude saves made to remove negative levels, and Constitution checks made to stabilize if reduced to negative hit points. This racial trait replaces liminal resistance.
- Symmetrical Grip Many liminals have perfectly balanced features, but a rare few show this symmetry on more than one axis; not only are they ambidextrous, but their feet can function as hands. When in a prone position or while balancing on one foot (DC 10, DC 15 to perform complex actions), a liminal with this racial trait can wield weapons or hold items with their feet so long as they are not wearing shoes; attacks made with feet in this manner take a -10 penalty even if the liminal is not wielding any other weapons. Liminals with this racial trait receive a +2 racial bonus to Climb checks, and may switch which hand is treated as their off hand as a move action. This racial trait replaces skill bonus.
Neat as hell, though you just know people are gonna want some heritages. If i think up some feats ill totally post them though.
tagged 4 interest
How many RP did this end up?
Neat as hell, though you just know people are gonna want some heritages. If i think up some feats ill totally post them though.
+1 to this - great concept, but I want more fluff/heritages to really flesh this out. The Alternate Racial Traits are excellent - that's the kind of stuff that really makes the flavor shine - tagging these to particular races would be cool. Leaving it open ended is fine too though...
Neat as hell, though you just know people are gonna want some heritages. If i think up some feats ill totally post them though.
Thanks! What I have in mind at the moment is: Aeon-Blooded (the Dyad), Axiomite-Blooded (the Codified), Caulborn-Blooded (Cowlkin), Inevitable-Blooded (Enforcerkin), Jyoti-Blooded (Pranaborn), Kami-Blooded (Landborn), Protean-Blooded (Dinspawn), Psychopomp-Blooded (Thnetokin), and Sceaduinar-Blooded (Nullseed).
I'm also considering maybe including NG/NE outsiders, where the Neutral part of their influence is what influences the kid, rather than the moral alignment.
How many RP did this end up?
15 (by my count), same as Aasimar. I may bump it down a bit to 13 to match Tieflings, by cutting out one of those two skill bonuses....
Is this meant to reflect Aeons, or also Axiomites, Inevitables and Proteans? (How of those mate with humans anyway?)
It feels just a slight bit inclined towards the lawful side, especially the Zone of Truth.
Also what do the alternate SLA replace? There's a bit of text missing.
It's meant to reflect a variety, as suggested above. As with other planetouched, the ancestry isn't necessarily a matter of mating: it could be the magical might of a neutral divinity or other extremely powerful neutral-aligned entity, or it might be a matter of exposure to planar forces of balance and concordance. It may even be something more abstract, a seemingly random occurrence brought on by the impersonal influence of destiny. As far as Aeons, i was especially imagining an Akhana being involved, due to their power over birth (and death).
Bear in mind that maintaining orderly behavior has often required lies; think of the fables and fibs that parents tell their children to get them to behave out of fear of a boogeyman.
Whoops! Liminal Magic is meant to replace the regular spell-like ability. I realize now that it seems like a better offer; really, I was kind of stuck for what SLA to give them, and decided to just go with multiple options. I'll fix it in a moment.
EDIT: Whoops! I can't seem to edit the original post. Just assume that Liminal Magic replaces the Spell-Like Ability.
Now I want favored class bonuses!
TURTLE MANEUVER.
Go prone, wield brilliant energy weapons- four at once.
The rest of this race looks decent, though I don't think Zone of Truth would be the best option... why not Calm Emotions?