0-LA race of humanoids descended from vampires. Like a lot of my work, designed with eberron in mind, but easily adapted to fit other campaign settings.
Edit: Note: Still under reconstruction.
Finished. Enjoy.
Description
Spoiler
Show
Night-touched
In rare circumstances, a vampire that has recently consumed a significant quantity of blood gains the ability to breed successfully with living humans, creating half-vampire offspring, and these half-vampires in turn pass on their taint to future generations. In areas where vampires are common, such as Karrnath and many large cities, these offspring have developed into a race that breeds true. Stories also abound of the unusual case of a pregnant human who survives a vampire’s blood drain attack. Legends say the child may be born “tainted” by the attacker’s vampirism. Regardless of their origins, these are the night-touched, and they are branded outcasts by both the living and the undead.
Personality: Night-touched are typically dark, brooding individuals. They admire fine things such as jewelry, expensive clothes, wines, and foods, and often dress in the most noble outfits available. Night-touched are nocturnal, waking up at dusk to enjoy the nightlife only to withdraw into their darkened halls to sleep through the day. They are sometimes prone to fits of rage or melancholy, but are seldom equally excited or joyful. A night-touched is more likely to be amused than excited. They reply to petty insults with disdain, and serious insults with vengeance.
Physical description: Night-touched are often physically attractive and persuasive. Even as they age and grey over their centuries-long lifespans, they keep a regal air about them. Their skin is pale, even ashen in color. Their eyes are typically a deep red, like blood, and seem to burn with an inner fire in conditions of low light. While they lack the fangs of their forebears, they possess slightly more pronounced canine teeth. Males are slightly taller than the average human male, with females being about the same size as human females.
Relations: Night-touched are drawn to other living creatures and feel far more comfortable living in towns and cities. Still, night-touched know that they must keep their identities secret or else risk the hatred and violence of others. Of the common races, night-touched get along best with elves, half-elves, and humans due to similar outlooks and a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Orcs, half-ors, halflings, and dwarves are too uncivilized. Shifters, who share a similarly feared ancestry are interesting to night-touched, but their brash, rude, uncivilized nature often prevents the two races from connecting. Changelings and gnomes are valuable allies and should be treated as such, though they are not to be trusted beneath the surface.
Alignment: Unlike their undead forebears, night-touched enjoy the freedom (or curse) of pursuing any alignment, though most tend toward neutrality or evil. Those rare few good-aligned night-touched often feel haunted by their heritage, sometimes working to undo the evil of their ancestry.
Lands: The sort of unions that produce night-touched happen in Karrnath more often than the church of the silver flame would like, however the church itself (save for the most fanatic sects) holds little if any enmity toward the night-touched. Night-touched can be found throughout Khorvaire, forming small secretive social networks in large cities, but hold no lands of their own.
Religion: Night-touched are religious as often as not. Some worship the same dark deities that their forebears worshipped, such as the Dark Six. Some, seeking to repent for their dark heritage pay homage to the Sovereign Host or the Silver Flame. The vast majority of religious night-touched are members of the Blood of Vol. They know firsthand the power of blood and the divinity of undeath.
Language: Night-touched speak common plus any additional languages of their homeland.
Names: Born in Human lands, often to human families, night-touched carry the naming traditions of their homeland.
Adventurers: Night-touched adventure to escape persecution, gain wealth, test their strength, or simply out of boredom with the humdrum life of a noble. Some good-aligned night-touched dedicate their lives to the eradication of the undead or other evils that haunt the night. Night touched can be found following nearly any class, but some of the more common choices include bard, cleric, rogue, sorcerer, wizard, spellthief, warlock, hexblade, swashbuckler, beguiler, duskblade, archivist, dread necromancer, and shadowcaster.
Stats:
Spoiler
Show
Night-touched Racial Traits
Medium Humanoid (Night-touched)
30 ft base land speed
+2 Cha, -2 Wis. Night-touched are exotic and attractive, but aloof, hailing from sheltered lives.
Darkvision 60ft
Low light vision
+2 racial bonus to Bluff, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot checks
+2 racial bonus on saves vs. Sleep, Stunning, Paralysis, Poison, and Disease
Light sensitivity: Night-touched are children of the night. As such, they are dazzled in conditions of bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Vampiric Awakening (Su): A Night-touched can tap into his vampiric heritage to gain short bursts of power. Once per day, a Night-touched can enter a state that is superficially similar to a barbarian’s rage. Each Night-touched has one of eight awakening traits—characteristics that manifest themselves when a character is awakened. Each awakening trait typically provides a +2 bonus to one of the character’s ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) and grants some other advantage as well. Awakening traits are described in the following section.
Awakening is a free action and lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the Night-touched’s Constitution modifier. (If an Awakening trait or other effect increases the character’s Constitution modifier, use the newly improved modifier.) A Night-touched can take feats to improve this ability. These Awakening feats are described later in this section.
Every Awakening feat a character takes increases the duration of his Awakening by 1 round. For every two Awakening feats a character takes, the number of times per day he can tap into the ability increases by one. So, a character with two Awakening feats can Awaken two times per day (instead of the usual one), and each use of the ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to 5 (instead of 3) + the Night-touched’s Con modifier.
Awakening, though related to and developed from vampirism, is neither an affliction nor a curse. It is not passed on by bite or claw attacks, and a Night-touched can’t be cured—Awakening is a natural ability for the race.
Automatic languages: Common
Bonus languages: Any
Favored class: Any
Awakening Traits
Spoiler
Show
Awakening Traits
Deadflesh (Su): While awakened, a Deadflesh Night-touched gains a +2 bonus to Constitution and natural armor that provides a +2 bonus to AC.
Dustmote (Su): While awakened, a Dustmote Night-touched gains a +2 bonus to dexterity and can assume gaseous form at will as the spell (caster level 5th), but it can remain gaseous only up to the duration of its awakening.
Creeping (Su): While awakened, a Creeping Night-touched gains a +2 bonus to Dexterity and can climb as if under the effects of a Spider Climb spell.
Alacritous (Su): While awakened, an Alacritous Night-touched gains a +2 bonus to Dexterity and a bonus of +10 feet to his base land speed.
Feeding (Su): While awakened, a feeding Night-touched gains a +2 bonus to Strength and can suck blood from a living victim with its fangs by making a successful grapple check. If it pins the foe, it drains blood, dealing 1 point of Constitution damage each round the pin is maintained. It can’t drain more points of Constitution in a single hour than its Constitution score. When a Night-Touched drains a victim’s Constitution, it gains 5 temporary hit points. Temporary hit points gained in this way last for up to 1 hour.
Soaring (Su): While awakened, a Soaring Night-touched temporarily gains a +2 bonus to Dexterity. His arms grow leathery flaps of skin (similar to a bat’s wings), which grant him a fly speed of 20 feet (average maneuverability).
While airborne, the Night-touched can’t use his hands for anything other than flying, though he can still hold or carry objects. A Night-touched can’t fly while carrying a medium or heavy load or while wearing medium or heavy armor.
Rising (Su): While awakened, a Rising Night-touched gains a +2 bonus to Constitution and heals 3 points of damage each round so long as it has at least 1 hit point but less than half its full normal hit points. As long as the Night-touched has more than half its full normal hit points, its fast healing does not function (but other forms of healing still function normally).
Charming (Su): While awakened, a Charming Night-touched gains a +2 bonus to Charisma and can charm humanoid or monstrous humanoid opponents just by looking into their eyes. This is similar to a gaze attack, except that the Night-touched must use a standard action, and those merely looking at the Night-touched are not affected. Anyone the Night-touched targets must make a successful Will save (DC 10 + ½ the Night-touched’s HD + the Night-touched’s Charisma modifier) or fall under the Night-touched’s influence as though affected by a charm monster spell (caster level equal to HD). Any creature that successfully saves against a Night-touched’s charm gaze cannot be affected by that half vampire’s charm gaze for 24 hours. The ability has a range of 30 feet.
Awakening Feats
Spoiler
Show
ALACRITOUS ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Alacritous trait.
Benefit: While awakened, your base land speed improves by an additional 10 feet.
CHARMING ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Charming trait.
Benefit: While awakened, you may use your charm gaze to instead implant a suggestion as the spell. The save DC remains unchanged.
CREEPING ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Creeping trait.
Benefit: While awakened, your climb speed improves by an additional 10 feet.
DEADFLESH ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Deadflesh trait.
Benefit: While awakened, you gain damage reduction 2/silver and magic.
DUSTMOTE ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Dustmote trait.
Benefit: While awakened, your gaseous form has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.
EXTRA AWAKENING TRAIT [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
You manifest a second awakening trait while Awakened.
Prerequisites: Night-touched, two other night-touched feats
Benefit: Select a second awakening trait from those described above. You manifest all the benefits of the second trait except for the temporary bonus to an ability score.
FEEDING ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Feeding trait.
Benefit: With a successful pin, you now deal 1d4 points of constitution damage while awakened.
NIGHT-TOUCHED AGILITY [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Your heritage of speed and grace has honed your reflexes, allowing you to avoid attacks.
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Creeping, Alacritous, or Soaring trait.
Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class and a +1 bonus to Reflex saves while awakened.
NIGHT-TOUCHED SENSES [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Your discerning tastes and social skills combined with your vampiric senses let you notice things that others might miss.
Prerequisite: Night-touched
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus on Sense Motive, Search, and Spot checks, and a +2 bonus on initiative checks.
NIGHT-TOUCHED STAMINA [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Yours is a heritage of undead survivability. As such, you can shrug off bruises and fatigue.
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Deadflesh, Dustmote, or Rising trait.
Benefit: While awakened, you are immune to nonlethal damage, and the effects of fatigue and exhaustion are suppressed. When your awakening ends, any fatigue or exhaustion effects that would have taken effect during your awakening (or that were in effect when you began awakening) take effect normally.
REACTIVE AWAKENING [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
You can awaken with a mere thought.
Prerequisites: Night-touched, Improved Initiative.
Benefit: You can activate your vampiric awakening ability as an immediate action, allowing you to awaken even when flat-footed or when it’s not your turn.
RISING ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Rising trait.
Benefit: While awakened, your fast healing granted by your rising trait improves to fast healing 5.
SOARING ELITE [NIGHT-TOUCHED]
You are a creature whose heart lies in the endless night skies.
Prerequisite: Night-touched with the Soaring trait.
Benefit: While awakened, your base fly speed improves by 10 feet and your maneuverability improves to good.
Height, Weight, Age
Spoiler
Show
Random Starting Ages
{table=head]
Adulthood|
Simple|
Moderate|
Complex
16 Years|
+1d4
|
+1d6
|
+2d6
[/TABLE]
Aging Effects
{table=head]
Middle Age|
Old
|
Venerable|
Maximum Age
165 Years|
225 years
|
310 years
|
+6d20 years
[/TABLE]
Random Height and Weight
{table=head]
Gender|
Base Height|
Height Modifier|
Base Weight|
Weight Modifier
Male|
5' 2''
|
+2d10
|
100lb.
|
x(2d4)lb.
Female|
4' 5''
|
+2d10
|
85lb.
|
x(2d4)lb.
[/TABLE]
Comments and Critique are welcome. :smallcool:
