New Psionic Race [PEACH]

[Sir_Chivalry]

Hello, I have a race I've been making for a while. I've set it up sort of like a Races of X entry, and I am lloking both for crunch PEACH and fluff PEACH. Now I know fluff PEACH is subjective, but I mean more like does the fluff work as a race? I will add more to this entry as I finish typing the last few sections. Here we go:

Galean
Galean Racial Traits
• -2 Str, +2 Cha
• Humanoid (psionic)
• Medium: As Medium creatures, galeans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Galean base land speed is 30 feet
• Naturally Psionic: Galeans gain 1 bonus power point at 1st level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
• Psionics (Sp): At will/- empathy, Effective character level equals the galean’s class levels. The save DCs are Charisma based.
• +2 racial bonus on Gather Information and Perform
• Automatic Languages: Common, Galean. Bonus Languages: Elven, Celestial, Gnome, Draconic, Undercommon
• Favoured Class: Bard or Wilder

A Day in the Life

Iri awoke late in the morning, a common occurrence these days. She quickly washed her face and hands, then hurried swiftly out of her apartment in the city’s guildhall district. Iri walked swiftly and with a skip in her step towards the offices of Belneiros Goldweaver, master of the physic’s guild.The work was hard, but the clients were interesting and friendly, and Belneiros mainly used her for looking over paperwork from the city hall, and paying visits to the other dozen-odd physics in the city. She relished the sunny days like this in the city. She loved the feel of the wind in her emerald hair, the warmth of the sun on her chalk-white skin. When Iri arrived, she sat down at her desk, touching the singing orb on her desk. The orb sang a quiet, ethereal song, reminding Iri of the quiet days in the hatchery of her people. Back in those days, if she had walked through the same city street, she would have been overwhelmed just by the daily happiness, sadness, anger and confusion of the city as a whole.

Mr. Goldweaver came in to scold Iri for being late, and then gave her the forms and records for the guild’s books. Iri opened the thick leather folder, sighing as she started to check the numbers and sign the duplicate forms. She hated days like these. If she was busy doing paperwork, she would have no time to chat with the clients.

Once her work was done for the day, Iri pulled on her cloak and walked briskly towards the Drunken Dragon tavern. Tonight, Eldak Sandtracker, famous gnomish eccentric, had given Iri the chance to sing some songs she had written to an audience of Eldak’s best patrons. As Iri sat down in a chair provided on the stage at the back of the Dragon, she could feel the excitement. Not just her own, but the excitement of the crowd. They were as happy to hear her as she was to sing for them.

Description
Galeans generally stand a little bit shorter than humans. They stand somewhere between 4-1/2 feet to 6 feet, and can weigh between 90 to 130 pounds. All Galeans share three highly noticeable traits, their chalk-white skin, bright, colourful hair and vivid eyes. Their hair is never a colour in the ordinary human range, instead being red, green, blue, metallic silver or even purple. Some have mixtures and bands of colours in their hair. Their eyes are described as like jewels, mianly because of the colours they share in common. Ruby red, sapphire blue, and emerald green are all common eye colours among Galeans. Though their appearance can be startling at first, many humanoids, especially humans, find a sort of exotic appeal to the Galean physique. Most Galeans are not muscular, and tend towards being slim and waif-like, though exceptions do exist, especially among those Galeans chosen to be Blades of Emotion. Galean males are able to grow facial hair, and frequently do grow short and neat beards.

Galean Psychology
Galeans are strangely dualistic creatures. They thoroughly enjoy urban life, almost exclusively spending most of their adult lives in cities and metropolises (or at least large trading towns). On the other hand they do not raise their children anywhere near cities, fearing that the negative emotions normally present in such a location would harm their children psychically. This leads Galeans cultivating two very separate and different personas. A Galean bard, for instance, might be outgoing and playful to his friends, his superiors, his employers, and might even of out of his way to start conversations with random strangers on the street, but in private, or among other Galeans, the same bard might be somber and quiet, drawing all the emotional sustenance he needs from his surroundings, savoring the silence so absent in the rest of his life. Years of quiet and subtle emotional molding by the Galean elders give all Galeans an ability to shut the world out from their minds when needed, and like all other humanoids, sometimes all a Galean wants is to be alone. But they never remain alone for long, always seeking out new friends and experiences.

Galean Life
Galean females bear children much like other humanoids, having generally one child at a time, at rare times perhaps twins. When a Galean child is born, it is known by its “hatchling name”, a three syllable name denoting who its father and mother are, and where it is from. The reason for this is simple, in the regrettable case a child is lost, any member of the Blades of Emotion who finds the child will be able to determine from its name where to return it. For the first fifteen years of a Galean’s life, it remains a small and frail creature. It has not yet mastered its empathic powers, and so is overwhelmed by strong emotions or loud noises. At the age of fifteen, a Galean undergoes a quick and uncomfortable transformation, in which its empathic ability becomes so sensitive it feels the emotions of every creature in a five mile radius. It is for this reason that the communities where Galean children are raised are far from cities.

Once this time of change is over, after about a week’s time, the young Galean is now an adult, and begins to physically mature. It is during this time that the parents of this Galean begin teaching him or her about Galean culture and religion, and after three years of maturation and education, the now fully adult Galean is taken to the nearest city, where he or she live with his/her parents for one year. After this time, the Galean is expected to live and work in the city (or any other city if they want to move) on his/her own. Most Galeans procure jobs as actors or musicians, but any job that brings them into contact with others is highly valued.

Leisure
If a Galean’s job brings him/her into contact with other people, they find great enjoyment in their work. That being said, in order to relax, many Galeans perform an art of some sort. Even as children, before they learn much of anything, the Galeans instinctively know how to dance and to sing. Soon after learning words, Galean children compose songs and short plays or comedies to perform. In their own private lives, many adult Galeans have a passion for writing, painting or composing, and create works in line with their chosen form of performance expression. Many Galeans create these works in Common, so as to share with their friends, but just as many keep at least some of their work confined to the Galean language, so that only other Galeans (or the particularly learned) can appreciate it.

Art
As mentioned above, most Galeans love art, both creating and showcasing it, and it is this love of art that defines an otherwise mainly individualist race. For the art of the Galeans is not merely copied from the books and galleries of humans or elves, but is a unique entity of its own. Galeans favour art that evokes great emotion, and are drawn towards merging both abstract and realistic art into a surreal fusion. A Galean poet, for instance, might create a string of adjectives and epithets for the subject of his work that becomes a poem onto itself in length, just to pinpoint the exact meaning of a word in his poem. A Galean painter may not even paint his subject as it is, but instead use a varied splash of colours to show the emotions present in the subject. Galean jewelry is asymmetrical and flowing, symmetry representing boredom to a Galean.

Coming soon:

Technology and Magic
War

Galean Society and Culture

Galean Societal Roles
Religion
History and Folklore

Galeans and Other Races
Creating Galean Characters
Galeans as Characters

Galean Communities
Sample Community

[Solaris]

I'm liking what I see so far. Sort of a low-grade empath. Maybe a bonus to Diplomancy?

[Milskidasith]

Favored class psion with a cha bonus? It should be favored class: Wilder.

[Violet Octopus]

It's a race of Counsellor Trois

What you've got so far is interesting. I'm not so sold on the physical appearance, but the naming and community structure is nice.

Perhaps a bonus to Sense Motive? Then again, too many skill bonuses can be overboard.

Perform (dance) is rather specific. I'm assuming the bonus is due to a cultural tradition of cute dancers and not due to subconsciously tailoring the performance to the emotional state of the crowd?

[Yora]

I think it would be okay to add some more power to the race. As it is, it does not seem very strong.

[Latronis]

Nah i think it's a pretty Solid LA0.

The bonus power points is the kicker, if you give them too much even 1 extra point starts to look LA+1 worthy. You've got a bit of a skill boost and an at will power too.

[Sir_Chivalry]

I'm liking what I see so far. Sort of a low-grade empath. Maybe a bonus to Diplomancy?

The empathy psionic power provides a +2 to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Sense Motive. So I've already sort of included a bonus to those skills.

It's a race of Counsellor Trois

What you've got so far is interesting. I'm not so sold on the physical appearance, but the naming and community structure is nice.

Perhaps a bonus to Sense Motive? Then again, too many skill bonuses can be overboard.

Perform (dance) is rather specific. I'm assuming the bonus is due to a cultural tradition of cute dancers and not due to subconsciously tailoring the performance to the emotional state of the crowd?

I'll admit the physical appearance is unusual, but at the moment I'm not really into changing that. I'm still open to your comments and suggestions, I mean I have to be willing to change some stuff if it doesn't work. Any particular reason you're not sold on the appearance, or just a general "weird"?

As for Sense Motive, see above your quote.

Would you say I could expand the bonus on Perform (dance) to all Performs? Allows more variance, especially since not even the iconic in my "Day in the Life" is a dancer.

Favored class psion with a cha bonus? It should be favored class: Wilder.

Psion was left over from a previous edition of the race I'd made. Thank you for the point out, changed to Wilder.

[Silverscale]

I just did a quick rendering of a female Galean in HeroMachine 2.5 to see what they look like. They do have a strangely attractive quality.
The only thing I might suggest is that instead of saying that they all have green hair and red eyes, maybe give them a range of hair and eye colors that tend to stick to vivid jewel tones line Emerald Green, Sapphire Blue, and Ruby Red.

[Sir_Chivalry]

I just did a quick rendering of a female Galean in HeroMachine 2.5 to see what they look like. They do have a strangely attractive quality.
The only thing I might suggest is that instead of saying that they all have green hair and red eyes, maybe give them a range of hair and eye colors that tend to stick to vivid jewel tones line Emerald Green, Sapphire Blue, and Ruby Red.

I like that idea alot! I'm going to incorporate it.

[lightningcat]

Perform (dance) is rather specific. I'm assuming the bonus is due to a cultural tradition of cute dancers and not due to subconsciously tailoring the performance to the emotional state of the crowd?

Could also be a minor bit of agility that isn't worth an bonus to Dex. But maybe the actual reason could be mentioned in the fluff. Most likely in the Liesure, Art, or Galean Society and Culture sections.
But maybe mention something about "even walking down the street seems a dance" in the description if it meant as an agility bump.

[Sir_Chivalry]

Could also be a minor bit of agility that isn't worth an bonus to Dex. But maybe the actual reason could be mentioned in the fluff. Most likely in the Liesure, Art, or Galean Society and Culture sections.
But maybe mention something about "even walking down the street seems a dance" in the description if it meant as an agility bump.

Changed the bonus to Perform (dance) to a bonus to Perform.

[Sir_Chivalry]

bump for Leisure and Art