literature

Pathfinder: Race, Anthromoprh

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A people almost as old as the earth beneath their feet, the Anthromorph culture is a vibrant one that focuses on the reverence of the nature and all things native to the primal world.  They are indeed a creature of nature – they often find themselves feeling out of place and discontent in cities of stone and steel.  Indeed, their own settlements are "grown" from the natural environment of their surroundings.

Physical Description: Anthromorphs blend the qualities of humanoids and beasts.  The degree of this mixture may vary beteween individuals, but they all sport a more-or-less humanoid appearance (two legs, two arms, standing uprights), whose hands sport four fingers and a thumb.  Some of their kind are plantigrade (they stand flat on the soles of their feet, like a human, and their legs often bend at the knee in similar fashion), while others are digitigrade (they stand upon their toes, more like the beasts they resemble, and their legs often have a second joint below the knee).  This difference neither affects an individual's capabilities or social standing.  Furthemrore, an anthromorph is often covered in a thick coat of fur, resilient scales, or tough hide, just like his beast.  The anthromorph character uses the height and weight tables of a human (see chapter 7 of the Core Rulebook for more details); however, they age twice as fast as a half-orc (use the half-orc age tables, but cut all age categories, including random starting age, by half).

Society: As noted above, anthromorphs are most at home in the wild.  Theirs is a primitive, tribal society, living by a simple hunter/gatherer principle.  These tribes can be as small as a single family, or might be an entire clan of related families.  In either case, these wild tribes are uniracial – that is, each member of the tribe resembles the same kind of beast (such as a wolf tribe, a fox tribe, et cetera).  In the typical anthromorph "kingdom" (often little more than a vast territory collectively guarded by loosely allied tribes), each clan carries its own rich history, which is kept in the oral traditions of its shaman, and defines itself and its pride by that history.

But not all anthromorphs live, or are even born, in nature.  Perhaps lured to the city by the promise of wealth and power, or perhaps once enslaved by other races and now escaped, anthromorphs occasionally find their way into more "civilized" societies.  But such an alien world often does not understand the philosophies carried by these creatures – philosophies such as survival of the fittest, the sacred cycle of predator and prey, and reverence of nature.  In order to preserve their culture, and sometimes to survive in a harsh and intolerant society, these "domestic 'morphs" often band together in groups that act as surrogate tribes.  Wild 'morphs often disdain the practice, since these civilized tribes often host members of many different races (foxes, wolves, and bears for example).  A city tribe often buys or commanders an unoccupied building to serve as their "tribal territory".  When two ore more tribes exist in the same city, bloody shadow wars are often sparked when members of one tribe violate the territory of another.

An anthromorph tribe is led by its Alpha – this is a hereditary position, and can be filled by either gender, but it may also be taken by force (by completing some ritual, the details of which are unique to each tribe) if the current Alpha is unsatisfactory.  In his tribe, the Alpha wields ultimate authority – none may question his order, but anthromorphs are a people very inclined to trust their leaders implicitly to begin with.  The Alpha is served by his Betas.  These tribesmen form a council that advises the Alpha, and is also in charge of the day to day events of the tribe (to relieve the Alpha of some of the burden of leadership).  Each tribe has a different number of Betas.  They are appointed by the Alpha, so a new Alpha might even release some of the previous generation's Betas from service.  Each Beta focuses on a different aspect of tribal life, and common Betas are of war, spirituality, and breeding/matchmaking.  Beneath the Betas are the pack's Deltas.  A Delta is a guardian of the tribe – often a well-trained master of combat, stealth  or magic, who plies his talents to the defense of his family or clan.  The Deltas directly serve the pack's Alpha and no other.  All other members of the tribe, and the majority of the tribe, form the Gammas – a rank that is basically equivalent to that of a commoner or peasant.

Relations: Anthromorphs tend to have solid ties to races that also prize the wonders and bounties of the natural world, particularly elves, orcs, gnolls and dwarves.  They are sometimes wary of dwarves, however, disturbed by the dwarven proclivity for the act of metallurgy – an art, for its nature of bending the earth to the will of a mortal, that is viewed as heresy and profane by most tribes.  Anthromorphs hold suspicion, fear and sometimes outright hatred for any who would claim to "master" the natural world, which often includes the ever-expansionist humans, and many gnomes who are obsessed with technology and science.

Alignment and Religion: Anthromorphs, regardless of their personal ideology, are creatures who understand their place in the nature.  They accept that all creatures must fit the role of either predator or prey – that though a wolf may kill to eat, it is neither cruel nor vindictive.  It is an implicitly understood fact to them that all things have a dual-nature.  As a result, their society is often neutral in alignment.  Most tribes shirk organized religion in favor of a more "natural," animistic faith that attributes spirits and living essence to the aspects of nature (mountain spirits, sky spirits, sea spirits, river spirits, fire spirits, and the like).  Those who do pray to a particular god often choose to focus on deities whose portfolios include the natural order, and so are fascinated by the druidic faith.

Adventurers: Like any barbaric society, each member of the tribe has a vital role to play in the tribe's survival.  This is especially true of smaller tribes that consist of only a single family, or but a handful of them.  As a result, most anthromorphs are skeptical of the virtues of adventure.  Those who become adventurers are often slaves whose homes were raided by those with greater technology, who have since bought or taken their freedom back.  Some may be forever disowned by their tribe, outsiders who have abandoned the ways of their ancestors in favor of the heresy of city life.  Occassionally, an anthromorph who survives the death of his tribe may vow a blood-oath, which can only be ended upon his own death, to ruin his foes.

Names: Male names for anthromorphs tend to be harsh, consisting of two hard consenants separated by a single vowel.  Examples include Kek, Gak, Byet, Pog, Dek, Cad and Tork.  Female names are often longer, with a softer and almost musical note to them.  Their names are often variations of female elven names.

Racial Traits
To play an anthromorph, the character must select one animal or vermin.  This becomes his "beast", and determines many of his racial features.  At the GM's purview, additional creature types may be available.  For example, a GM may allow players to build Unicorn-morphs by adding Magical Beast to the available creature types, or Nightmare-morphs by adding Outsider.  In any case, the DM is free to limit or define exact creatures that are available, not just creature types, on a case-by-case basis.

+2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence.  The instincts of their ancestors make anthromorphs perceptive, but also dull their intellect.  Furthermore, the anthromorph character gains a +2 bonus to his ability score that corresponds with the strongest physical ability score of a typical member of his beast.  For example, a raven-morph gains +2 Deterity.  If the beast has two physical ability scores that are tied, note that Strength is of higher priority than Dexterity, which is of higher priority than Constitution.

Size: Medium.  As a medium monstrous humanoid, the anthromorph has no special benefits or penalties due to size.

Normal Speed: The anthromorph's base speed is 30 feet.

Claws of the Beast: The anthromorph gains all the natural attacks of his beast ancestor, but treats these as secondary natural attacks.

Durability: Anthromorphs have tough hide, skin or scales.  They gain a +1 natural armor bonus.

Speed of the Beast: If the anthromorph's chosen beast has any special forms of movement (burrow, climb, fly, swim), than the character gains those speeds as well.  This provides him with the associated skill check bonus for having a special mode of movement.

Senses of the Beast: An anthromorph character gains all senses available to a typical example of his beast (including any racial modifiers to Perception).

Languages: Anthromorphs begin play speaking Common and the Beastongue, their native language.  Anthromorphs with a high Intelligence can select from the following languages: Elven, Draconic, Dwarven, Gnoll, Orc, or Sylvan.
This race is intended for players who want to play furrie-/furry-based characters for Dungeons and Dragons.

[EDIT 6/28/10] I just totally overhauled this race. I wanted to make it much less of a "template," though it has never been a true template per se. At any rate, it should be a little more streamlined now. Enjoy.

[EDIT 6/29/10] As you can see, I've just overhauled the race again. I've decided to convert my Mage's War campaign setting, and all of the materials associated, into the Pathfinder mechanics.
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do you have the advanced race guide?