The earth caste hivelings are builders. They craft tools, bore tunnels, and, above all else, build the multitudes of structures within the hive. With broad chests and strong backs, they are practical, down-to earth hivelings.
Personality: Earth caste hivelings are practical and approach everything from a logical standpoint. All problems have solutions, you just have to be able to see them. They rarely make jokes. The earth caste is often seen as the most ‘typical’ of the hiveling castes, exemplifying all the traits the hivelings are known for.
Physical Description: Earth caste are stout of build, with black chitin all over their bodies and large hands, clearly designed for digging and labor. One of their most unique traits is their saliva. When mixed with the black sand of ferrara, the resultant paste can be shaped and formed, but quickly hardens into a black, glossy substance nearly as strong as steel. This blackstone is used for almost all hiveling constructions. It is used to line and support hiveling tunnels, to build their titanic hives, and even to create tools, armor, and weapons, though it does require some special treatments to work properly for these purposes.
Relations: Earth caste spend very little time among the other hivelings. Their duty is to dig, build, and design, and they obey their queen zealously. Most of their waking hours are spend on the job, in huge forges underground crafting weapons and armor for warriors as well as tools and glassware for the other castes. When not at this task, they are digging, constantly tunneling to create new fungus farms and gather more sand to be used for crafting and the further expansion of the hive.
Alignment: The earth caste are extremely lawful, most at ease when at work for the glory of the hive. Many are good, eager to serve for the greater good, but many are neutral, simply satisfied to do their given tasks.
Earth Caste Lands: The earth caste take their meals in a large central chamber just below the main body of the hive. However, each earth caste is required to dig their own room. It is these rooms that allow a earth caste to express themselves individually. Some are large, with furniture sculpted of blackstone, while others are small, barely large enough to fit themselves into.
Language: Earth caste tunnels are long and winding, making it too difficult to carry sound through and too distant for scent. So earth caste have actually developed a language of their own, a language of beats that is tapped into the blackstone for all those nearby to ‘hear’. Hard pounds can be felt for a surprising distance, carried through the stone.
Adventurers: Earth caste adventurers are extremely rare. Some may take a level or two of artificer or the like if they have the gift, but this is rare. Those who train themselves to become guardian caste may earn levels of crusader.
[RACE] RACIAL TRAITS
- +2 con, -2 Dexterity. Surprisingly, for their small size, the earth caste are clumsy and somewhat slow, but their bodies are hardy, and they show surprising strength for their size.
- Monstrous Humanoid: Hivelings are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
- Small: As a Small creature, a hiveling gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but it uses smaller weapons than humans use, and its lifting and carrying limits are three quarters of those of a Medium character.
- Earth caste base land speed is 30 feet.
- Chitin: Earth caste hivelings gain a +3 natural armor bonus to AC
- Scent: Hivelings gain the scent special ability.
- Compound Eyes: A hiveling’s multifaceted eyes grant it a +2 bonus to spot checks.
- Tremorsense 60. A earth caste hiveling can use this ability to hear and understand earth caste silent within 200 feet. Earth cast silent cannot be heard by creatures without tremorsense.
- Tunneling: An earth caste can bore through sand at a speed of 20 feet. This does not leave a usable tunnel behind. To leave a usable tunnel 3 feet in diameter, the hiveling must dig at half this speed. For a 5-foot diameter tunnel, the hiveling can only dig at a speed of 5 feet. These tunnels are not permanent, and collapse within 1d4 minutes unless the hiveling takes a move action to coat the walls with their saliva.
- Blackstone: This unique substance is created by a earth caste hiveling mixing saliva with black sand. It takes one minute to produces one pound of soft blackstone. The earth caste may make a craft (sculpting) check within that time to shape the blackstone into any shape it desires. When hardened, blackstone has hardness 8 and 10 HP/inch of thickness. It requires a craft (weaponsmithing) or craft (armorsmithing) to turn the rough blackstone shape into a proper weapon. Any weapon created of blackstone that hasn’t been treated with a craft (weaponsmithing) check deals damage as though it were one size smaller, and imposes a -2 penalty to attack rolls made with it. Armor or shields created from backstone that hasn’t been treated with a craft (Armorsmithing) check have their armor check penalty increased by 2 and their armor bonus reduced by 1.
- Metamorphosis: When an earth caste hiveling consumes royal jelly, he may enter a state of metamorphosis by creating a chrysalis. This chrysalis takes three days to complete. The chrysalis for an earth caste’s metamorphosis is medium sized, with 100 HP and hardness 8. It resembles a lumpy black sphere, like a small boulder. Upon completion of the chrysalis, the hiveling must climb inside it, seal it, and remain within it for a week. If the chrysalis is broken during this time, the hiveling inside dies, but may be resurrected as normal. At the end of the week, the hiveling emerges, transformed into a guardian caste. The hiveling loses a level at this time, as though it had been raised from the dead. The level loss cannot be negated by any means, even by wish or miracle.
- Automatic Languages: Hiveling. Bonus Languages: Common, Draconic, Earth Caste Silent, Giant, Reptilian, Undercommon
- Favored Class: Warblade. A multiclass flame caste hiveling’s warblade levels don’t count when determining whether he takes an experience penalty for multiclassing.
Originally Posted by EdroGrimshell
Re: Hivelings [3.5 Tryor Race (3/15 Sub-Races!)]
My Homebrew
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