Yakkha race


Homebrew and House Rules


Yakkha:

These nature-spirits are related to Yakshas and Rakshasa. They are connected to water and underwater nature and plants. They are more known for their trades and trickery than maliciousness.

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Yakkha
Swim (2RP)
Energy Resistance (2RP)
Darkvision (2RP)
Hypnotic Gaze (3RP)
Change Shape Lesser (3RP)
Amphibious (2RP)
Delicious (-1RP)
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Intro: Yakkha have a deep connection to Yaksha and Rakshasa. They bear the same shapechanging and trickery quality their cousins have, however, unlike them, they are guardians of good-aligned water gods in many cases. These creatures are known to guard their underwater temples and keep the treasures within safe from outsiders, but their own eyes desire wealth with utter fascination. Yakkha, in general, envy those with wealth and greatness. They are intensely beautiful in either form they take and they often will use that beauty for ill-gotten gains if they stray from the path of righteousness. Like dragons or dwarves, Yakkha have a fascination with treasure and each desires to have their own hoard. For this reason, Yakkha can be in any city, on land or in the sea, seeking to make money somehow and oftentimes you'd never know they were any different than the humans around you.

Physical Description: Yakkha stand about the average height of a human on the taller side with women slightly taller than the men. Both males and females are typically strong in musculature and are not lithe like their sea elf or mermaid neighbors. They host a hardy body in most cases. Males commonly have deep-set musculature with revealing might and strength on short, hulking bodies and women have a curvaceous, slender form to their taller bodies. Both females and males have long, elf-like ears that actually double as gills. Set within the ridges of the ear are hidden frills that directly help them breathe. They also have the capability of filtering through the inner lining of their noses.

Their skin can be a myriad of colors from peach-like human skin to blue or red-tinted skin. They feature pronounced upturned eyes, typically of green or deep blue, and are very human-like except for a scintillating myriad of changing colors in certain lights. They use this to their advantage to hypnotize those who are of weaker minds; usually for pranks. Their hair can be found in any color often seen within the sea. Many prefer black or red colors with accents of pink or coral. Some will seek hair dyes, either magical in nature or natural.

When in their natural bodily state, Yakkha share a similar structure to humans. Males are identified by typical human-like features, but uniquely have four long, slender fingers on each hand. Each foot has 4 long, slender toes. Women are identified by a pronounced chest and typical female human-like features, but unlike the males, they only have three fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot. When in the water, these feet and fingers can flatten into a fin-like shape that helps propel them through the water.

Society: Yakkha are often afforded some courtesy from creatures under the water, but that is not always the case. Evil underwater races often seek out these benevolent creatures of the deep and kill them for the treasures they likely have stashed away and because they have a delicious flavor when eaten. Those who aren't seeking the wealth that a Yakkha stores up, or trying to eat them, often will engage with them in trade. Yakkhas who do not guard temples often involve themselves somehow in business and most often become traveling merchants or innkeepers in vast underwater hotels built of hardened sand. They are known to be one of the more common tradesmen seen doing open deals between the surface dwellers and water nations. Oftentimes, they will not hesitate to bring wealthy people from the surface or ocean-going vessels down into the depths for prolonged trade deals. These deals can go well for the savvy businessman, but can often be scams for those who don't come prepared for the depths. Yakkhas enjoy studying all sorts of subjects but more commonly enjoy dragging sea-going humanoids down into the depths to nearly drown them because they think it's funny. Rarely does anyone actually perish when experiencing this, but it's done most often by those who are in their youth living near land-dwellers. Some will even go so far as to disguise themselves as humans to invite them for a swim and then yank them down into the depths to a ready-made cave with oxygen--just to give them a fright. Then, they will safely return them. Communities along the coast have even taken it to be a fortunate experience, as occasionally a Yakkha may have a treasure hoard in that location and might not notice a few coins go missing.

Relations: Yakkha bear their young like fish and abandon them in protected caves or crevasses, hoping that they will survive the brutality of nature. Because of this, most Yakkha females and males are not fond of children. Those who intermingle with humans or nations on land may develop this sense, but it is not common. At a young age they know how to survive innately within the safe waters they are born in and mature their physicality quite quickly. With their longer natural lives, they have an infantile view of life for many years after they hatch, and can develop their intellect, wisdom, and personality over the course of their lives based on experiences they have had. This means that each Yakkha may be different than another, with younger Yakkha acting more impulsively and on natural instinct, and those who are older based on intellect and wisdom. Yakkha often do not mate for life, although it is possible if there is a particularly strong bond. Yakkha are also known to intermingle with other species, although their children are always born Yakkha if the female gets pregnant, and are often the non-yakkha race if the males get someone pregnant. At older ages, Yakkha seem to be regarded as legends in the watery realms and often are approached by younger Yakkha for the lessons they can give to increase survivability in the deadly lakes, oceans, and rivers of the world.

Alignment and Religion: Most Yakkha are good in alignment, as they are the known protectors of good-aligned underwater gods. Many try to devote themselves to this cause and are rewarded vast sums of treasure for their duty if selected. Most Yakkha within their community aspire to be like these few and so their societies are often wartime-focused but with good intentions. They seek peace from those around them but are extremely violent to those who oppose and threaten them. For this reason, they are often feared by evil races, who'd usually rather prey on the weak. Those Yakkha who seek wealth and adventure elsewhere can be as varied as any other race in alignment. They tend to still strive for good, but there have been bad seeds before that have been influenced by seedy, ill-gotten gains and greed.

Adventurers: Yakkha are typically isolated beings, but from time to time one may become curious enough to engage themselves in human-like campaigns in search of wealth and more splendorous treasures for their secret cache. They are more driven by wealth than humans and so find camaraderie with the lusts of dwarves regarding power and finances. In some even rarer cases, a Yakkha will become an adventurer out of boredom or from a desire for fame, but this is not commonly the case.
Males Names: Aben, Casd, Igat, Potr, Radi, Shir, Valm
Females Names: Asvena, Candella, Ismardi, Phoema, Reneth, Shonya, Visma

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Standard Racial Traits
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Ability Score Modifier: Yakkha characters gain a +2Dex, +2Cha, -2Wis to represent their agile and beautiful nature, but also their susceptibility to fascinating things.
Type: Yakkha are humanoid creatures with the shapechanger subtype.
Size: Yakkha are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Yakkha have a base speed of 30 feet and a swim speed of 30ft. They gain a +8 racial bonus on swim checks that a swim speed normally grants.
Language: Yakkha begin play speaking Common and Aquan. Yakkha with high Intelligence scores can choose from any of these additional languages: aboleth, draconic, elven, gnome, grippli, protean, sylvan

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Defense Racial Traits
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Energy Resistance: Yakkhas have cold resistance 5.

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Senses Racial Traits
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Darkvision: Yakkha gain the ability to see 60ft in the dark.

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Feat and Skill Racial Traits
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Hypnotic Gaze: Yakkha gain the following supernatural ability (the caster level is equal to the character's level):
1/day—hypnotism; The effects last only 1 round.

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Magical Racial Traits
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Change Shape, lesser: Yakkha can assume the appearance of a specific single human form. The Yakkha always takes this specific form when it uses this ability. A Yakkha gains a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks made to appear human. Changing shape is a standard action. This ability otherwise functions as alter self, except that the Yakkha does not adjust its ability scores and can remain in this form indefinitely. It also retains its darkvision racial sight in this form.

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Other Racial Traits
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Amphibious: Yakkha are amphibious and can breathe both air and water.

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Weaknesses
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Delicious (Ex): Yakkha take a –2 penalty on Escape Artist and combat maneuver checks to escape a grapple against a creature that has a bite attack with the grab ability.

Questions: Do you think this is decently powered for PCs or too overpowered?
Do you think the swim speed + amphibious quality for a 1st-level PC is overpowered?
Would you play this race?


Being able to breathe water is unusual for a 1st level PC but hardly overpowered. There are other races with the same too.

It doesn't look unusual in any way except breathing thru the ears and a shortage of digits. You'd need a piece or two of good artwork to make them stand out and for players to choose to play one. Certainly the power level is nothing unusual.


Very well written. My eyes usually glaze over on longer race posts, but this one kept my attention. The race seems decently balanced, and the extra mobility and dark vision are nice freebies for various builds. I would probably want to see some unique racial feats, traits, spells, or gear before strongly considering this race, but it definitely could stand on equal footing with the other standard races.


They look pretty balanced to me. Even though it might be a bit too ''strong'', Delicious is a funny trait, i like it.

I will admit i did raise an eyebrow when i glanced at the ability score bonuses. Two lines in your physical description seems to point toward something different.

SmooshieBanana wrote:
Both males and females are typically strong in musculature and are not lithe like their sea elf or mermaid neighbors. They host a hardy body in most cases.

Doesn't this suggest strength or constitution instead of dexterity?

Otherwise, cool race, well done! :)


Thanks for the feedback! You could be right. I would suggest Str and Cha, but I would be open to variants still, including the Dex Cha combo, as they are nimble in the water and out of it.


You might toy with giving them some extra skill bonus or perk to acrobatics and/or swim to reflect that nimbleness. The physique described really does lean more towards Str or Con.

Alternatively, you could give them a more diverse stat array. Let them have 2 physical stat bonuses, but either up the Wisdom penalty, or find a why to give them a ding on the 3rd physical stat. Of course it could just all be good news. After all, merfolk get 3 pluses with no penalty. Depends on how balanced/accessable you want this race to be for PCs.

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