Sunday 13 January 2013

The Pregen PCs & race notes

Rex Deveron, Human Rogue
Jenn Morgan (f), Half-Elf Warlord
Vialya Akmenos (f), Tiefling Warlock
Elthar Danikus, Human Bard
Jonn Altarok, Human Ranger
Valgrim, Human Fighter
Tasarus, Deva Invoker - reserved by Dean
Erik Van Karsen, Human Paladin - reserved by Dana
Red Adell (f), Half-Elf Tempest Fighter



Racial info from D&D Compendium:

Human

Ambitious explorers, driven leaders, eager to master the world
PHYSICAL QUALITIES

Humans come in a wide variety of heights, weights, and colors. Some humans have black or dark brown skin, others are as pale as snow, and they cover the whole range of tans and browns in between. Their hair is black, brown, or a range of blonds and reds. Their eyes are most often brown, blue, or hazel.    Humans’ attire varies wildly, depending on the environment and society in which they live. Their clothing can be simple, ostentatious, or anything in between. It’s not unusual for several distinct human cultures to live side by side in a particular area and mingle. As a result, human armor, weaponry, and other items incorporate a variety of designs and motifs.    Humans have average life spans of about seventy-five years, though some venerable members of the race live as long as ninety or more years.
PLAYING A HUMAN
Humans are decisive and sometimes rash. They explore the darkest reaches of the world in search of knowledge and power. They hurl themselves into danger, dealing with consequences as they arise. They act first and ponder later, trusting their will to prevail and their natural resourcefulness to see them through perilous situations.    Humans always look to the horizon, seeking to expand their influence and their territory. They chase power and want to change the world, for good or for ill. Their settlements are among the brightest lights in a dark and untamed world, and humans constantly seek to explore new lands and settle new frontiers.    Their self-reliance and bravery inclines humans toward martial classes such as fighter and rogue. They often prefer to find hidden reserves of strength in themselves rather than trust to the magic of wizards or clerics.    That said, humans tend to be a pious race, worshiping the whole pantheon of gods. Their myths name no god as the creator of their race. Some tales say the gods worked together to create humans, infusing them with the best qualities of each race that had come before. Other tales say that humans were the creation of a god whose name is no longer known—a deity killed in the war against the primordials or assassinated by Asmodeus or Zehir.    Humans are tolerant of other races, different beliefs, and foreign cultures. Most human settlements consist of diverse enclaves where different races live together in relative peace. The human empire of Nerath, the last great world power, united many different peoples and ruled the land for more than five hundred years before it collapsed about a century ago. Most of the human settlements that survived the empire’s fall now stand as fortified bastions against the encroaching darkness. When elven forests are razed or dwarven mines overrun, the survivors often flee to the nearest human town or city for protection.    Despite the far reach and power of Nerath, humans in the present day are a scattered and divided people. Dozens of small baronies, fiefdoms, and free city-states have arisen from Nerath’s ruins, and many of these realms are petty, weak, and isolated. Tensions and misunderstandings can precipitate skirmishes, espionage, betrayal, and even open warfare between neighboring communities.
Human Characteristics: Adaptable, ambitious, bold, corruptible, creative, driven, hardy, pragmatic, resourceful, territorial, tolerant




Tiefling

Cursed heirs of a shattered empire who live in the shadows, but do not fear the dark

PHYSICAL QUALITIES

The appearance of tieflings testifies to their infernal bloodline. They have large horns; thick, nonprehensile tails that range in length from four to five feet; sharply pointed teeth; and eyes that are solid orbs of black, red, white, silver, or gold. Their skin color covers the whole human range and also extends to reds, from a ruddy tan to a brick red. Their hair, cascading down behind their horns, is as likely to be dark blue, red, or purple as more common human colors.
    Tieflings favor dark colors and reds, leathers and glossy furs, small spikes and buckles. Tiefling-crafted arms and armor often have an archaic style, harkening back to the glory of their long-vanished empire.
    Tieflings have the same life spans and general aging patterns as humans.

PLAYING A TIEFLING

Heirs to an ancient, infernal bloodline, tieflings have no realms of their own but instead live within human kingdoms and cities. They are descended from human nobles who bargained with dark powers, and whose empire once subjugated half the world. But the empire was cast down into ruin, and tieflings were left to make their own way in a world that often fears and resents them.
    Hundreds of years ago, the leaders of the human empire of Bael Turath made pacts with devils to solidify their hold over its enormous territory. Those humans became the first tieflings, and they governed their empire in the name of their infernal masters. In time, Bael Turath came into conflict with Arkhosia, the ancient empire of the dragonborn, and decades of warfare left both empires in ruins. Bael Turath’s grand capital was thrown down in ruin.
    Following the collapse of their empire, the tieflings were scattered. Bearing the infernal visage that was the mark of their pact with the forces of darkness, they found a cold and sometimes deadly welcome in the humanoid societies to which they fled. Once a powerful people with a strong nobility, the tieflings were reduced to little more than vagabonds. Their population dwindled, and for many decades, the survivors of Bael Turath were in danger of being wiped out and forgotten.
    Over time, however, the last of the great Turathi nobles began to reclaim their place in the world. Cautiously earning the trust of other peoples, the descendants of those nobles began to spread into human communities that were willing to allow them to live in peace, and the tiefling race was reborn. In the present age, tieflings are less common than many other races, but their numbers grow stronger with each generation.

Tiefling Characteristics: Cunning, disquieting, imposing, mysterious, proud, rebellious, self-reliant, sinister, sly, unconventional



Deva

Immortal spirits who embody virtue, born and reborn to mortal life in the world
Deep in the recesses of memory, devas recall what they once were: immortal servitors of the gods of good, spirits who chose to bind themselves to the world in mortal flesh. For millennia, their souls have been reborn to wage an endless war against the forces of darkness. Most devas are fiercely committed to the cause of good, because they fear what they might become if they turn to evil: A deva whose soul becomes corrupted risks being reborn as a rakshasa.

Play a Deva if you want...
•     to have dimly remembered connections to a thousand heroic lifetimes.
    to embrace the cause of good and strive for perfection in all you do.
•     to be a member of a race that favors the avenger, cleric, invoker, and wizard classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES

In appearance, devas are very similar to humans, but with an unearthly beauty and an uncanny stillness about them. They are almost as tall as dragonborn, but much more slender.
Devas’ coloration distinguishes them most strongly from humans. All devas have patterns of light and dark colors on their skin. The light portions are chalk white or pale gray, and the dark areas range from blue or purple to dark gray or black. In any individual deva, either light or dark can be dominant, with the opposite shade appearing in simple, elegant patterns on the face, chest, and shoulders. A deva’s hair is typically the same color as these skin patterns.
When sitting or standing at rest, devas remain almost perfectly still, except for the occasional blink of the eyes. They don’t fidget or twitch, and their eyes move only when they are actively examining something.
Devas do not have children. When a deva dies, his or her spirit is reincarnated in a new, adult body that appears in some sacred place, such as a mountain peak, a riverbank, or a desert oasis. The new deva retains enough memory of past lives to speak and understand multiple languages and offer the proper prayers and sacrifices to the gods of good.

PLAYING A DEVA

Devas are refined and polite. They follow the highest moral standards, but they are not afraid of violence. They believe that the pursuit of good is an eternal war with the forces of evil, embodied in rakshasas, demons, devils, and the evil gods and their servant angels. Devas wage that war in their hearts as well, constantly vigilant lest evil take root and corrupt their souls, transforming them into the creatures they most despise.
Because they remember, at least dimly, a life in the Astral Sea spent in close company with the gods, most devas are devout worshipers of the gods of good, especially Bahamut but also Moradin and Pelor. Devas seek to achieve a personal connection with the gods rather than approach them through temples and priests. They worship at meals in their homes, setting an empty place for the absent gods, and strive through meditation and prayer to become more like the gods they serve. Deva adventurers are commonly avengers, clerics, and invokers, who savor the experience of divine power flowing through them without any intermediary.
Devas do not have cities or societies of their own, and their numbers are so small that a deva can spend entire lifetimes without ever meeting another of his or her kind. They live among other races and, at least to some extent, adopt their ways. However, all devas remember elements of the life they had before their incarnation in flesh and the beginning of their cycle of rebirth, and they share some common cultural elements of dress, religion, and habits. Devas favor flowing clothes of fine silks, polished metal armor with winglike shoulder ornaments, and headdresses or helmets that suggest crowns or halos. In other ways, they prefer to live simply, without extravagance.

Deva Characteristics: Dedicated, devout, elegant, enlightened, introspective, mystical, refined, righteous, spiritual, thoughtful


Half-Elf

Born heroes and leaders who combine the best features of both humans and elves.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES

Half-elves tend to be sturdier of build than elves but more slender than most humans. Half-elves have the same range of complexions as humans and elves, and, like elves, they often have eye or hair colors not normally found among humans. Male half-elves can grow facial hair, unlike male elves, and often sport thin mustaches, goatees, or short beards. Half-elves’ ears are about the size of human ears, but they are tapered, like the ears of their elf ancestors.
    Half-elves usually adopt the dress and hairstyles of the society they spend the most time with. For example, a half-elf raised among a barbaric human tribe dresses in the furs and skins favored by the tribe and adopts the tribe’s style of braids and face paint. However, it is not unusual for half-elves raised among humans to seek out articles of elven clothing or jewelry so that they can display signs of their dual heritage.
    Half-elves have life spans comparable to those of humans, but like elves they remain vigorous well into old age.

PLAYING A HALF-ELF

Half-elves are a race originally descended from the union of elves and humans. Many half-elves are the direct offspring of human and elf parents. However, half-elves produce half-elf offspring among themselves, and some members of the race can trace their mixed ancestry back for generations. Half-elves combine the best traits of both their lines, mixing the wisdom and long-term perspective of the elves with the energy, ambition, and ingenuity of their human parentage.
    Half-elves are most common in places where elves and humans live in close proximity. In the earliest age of the world, elves lived in the Feywild and did not mingle with the other mortal races. However, following the bloody war that sundered the elves, the eladrin, and the drow, the first elves made their way into the world to settle in the deepest primeval forests.
    This new civilization spread over time, coming into contact with humans and other races. Elves dwelled in peace alongside their human neighbors, for although humans often proved quick-tempered and aggressive, they made good allies and companions. Though tensions sometimes arise between human and elf communities, these two races relate to one another on consistently good terms.
    On the borderlands, human villages are often situated near elven forests. When relations between a human settlement and nearby elf villages are good, half-elves are the natural result of the mingling of the two populations. Likewise, the uncertainty that has arisen in settled lands since the fall of the human empire of Nerath has seen countless elf and human families relocate to the settlements of the other race. In such mixed communities, half-elves are an increasingly common sight.
    Half-elves are natural leaders and versatile adventurers, and they are commonly seen as good friends and allies. They share some of the natural grace, athleticism, and keen perceptiveness of elves, along with the passion and drive of humans. However, their status as the children of two worlds makes them confident and open-minded, and many are natural diplomats, negotiators, and commanders.
    Half-elves rarely settle down for any length of time. Their wanderlust makes them natural adventurers, and they quickly make themselves at home wherever they end up. When their paths take them back to a place they have visited before, they track down old friends and renew old contacts.
    Ultimately, half-elves are survivors, able to adapt to almost any situation. They are generally well liked and admired by everyone, not just elves and humans. They are empathetic, and better than most others at putting themselves in others’ shoes.

Half-Elf Characteristics: Accommodating, adaptable, charming, confident, gregarious, open-minded

No comments:

Post a Comment