Stonechild

• Weapon and Armor Profi ciency: As a monstrous humanoid, a feral gargun is profi cient with all simple weapons but has no profi ciency with any armor or shield. • Natural Attack: A feral gargun has two claw attacks, each dealing 1d6 points of damage. A feral gargun armed with a weapon sometimes uses the weapon as its primary attack and a claw as a natural secondary attack (provided it has a claw free to make the secondary attack). • Goliath Blood: For all effects related to race, a feral gargun is considered a goliath. Feral garguns, for example, are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect goliaths as their goliath ancestors are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by goliaths. • Favored Class: Barbarian. A multiclass feral gargun’s barbarian class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty. The rough life of the feral garguns in the wild produces many barbarians. • Level adjustment +2.

FERAL GARGUN MONSTER CLASS

Monstrous Humanoid If you want to play a feral gargun at 1st level, you can use the feral gargun monster class. To use the monster class, generate your character with the racial traits given below (rather than the normal feral gargun racial traits presented above), and then take levels in the feral gargun monster class as you would levels of other classes. For more information on monster classes, see the Monster Classes section at the beginning of this chapter or Savage Species. Feral garguns sacrifice a few Hit Dice (and therefore base attack bonus, feat, and skill point accrual) in exchange for bonuses to Strength and Constitution, the powerful build ability, and natural armor. Because of these bonuses, a high-level feral gargun barbarian or ranger is a formidable foe. Dungeon Masters can also use the feral gargun monster class to create less powerful feral garguns to use as low-level antagonists or young NPCs for their campaigns.

Racial Traits • Starting Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Strength, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma. Feral garguns are strong, but they are uncultured and not very smart. • Medium: As Medium creatures, feral garguns have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. • Speed: Feral gargun base land speed is 30 feet. • Darkvision: Feral garguns can see in the dark out to 60 feet. • Goliath Blood: For all effects related to race, a feral gargun is considered a goliath. • Mountain Movement: Feral garguns can make standing long jumps and high jumps as if they were running long jumps and high jumps. They can engage in accelerated climbing (climbing half their speed as a move action) without taking the –5 penalty on the Climb check. • Resistance to Cold 5 (Ex): Feral garguns have resistance to cold 5.

Class Skills

The feral gargun’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis),

Search (Int), Spot (Wis), and Survival (Wis). See Chapter 4 of the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the feral gargun monster class.

Weapon and Armor Profi ciency: A feral gargun is profi cient with all simple weapons, but has no profi ciency with any armor or shield.

Acclimated: Beginning at 2nd level, feral garguns become acclimated to life at high altitude. They don’t take the penalties for altitude described on page 90 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Unlike other denizens of the mountains, feral garguns don’t lose their acclimation to high altitude even if they spend months or years at lower elevations.

Powerful Build: From 3rd level on, feral garguns grow large enough that, although they are Medium creatures, they are treated as Large for many purposes. See the Powerful Build racial trait described above for details.

STONECHILD

Born of a union of mortal and elemental, a stonechild is a hardy entity grounded in soil and stone and gifted with incredible strength, fortitude, and a keen intellect. Although they are not the outcasts that half-orcs often are, stonechildren are rarely raised among others of their kind. Most stonechildren grow to maturity while living in dwarf or human communities, and those few who stay on the Material Plane often wander alone, taking up the mantle of adventurer. Stonechildren are most comfortable in and under the mountains; because of this preference, they usually end their wandering by settling with a community of dwarves. As they grow older, even the most adventurous stonechildren become more and more likely to seek a way to the Elemental Plane of Earth and surround themselves with others of their kind.

Personality: Stonechildren relish challenges and enjoy proving their own strength. They admire those who make their own way in life, and they feel a sense of camaraderie with the earth itself. Even when traveling alone through dangerous areas, stonechildren remain solid and sensible. Stonechildren keep their feelings hidden behind a slow practicality, and when they find someone’s company unpleasant they usually just leave quietly. Stonechildren are stalwart in the face of adversity, whether it takes the form of the physical dangers of combat or the long solitude of life as a wanderer.

Physical Description: With rough, gray skin and a stony bulk, a stonechild looks like a powerful human made out

of stone. Stonechildren have tremendous physical strength and fortitude, and can easily overpower most humanoids. Stonechildren do not have hair, and their eyes are limited to shades of gray, black, or the occasional gemlike hue (usually a muted blue or green). Although their tough hide resembles stone, they are outsiders, not elementals. Stonechildren grow nearly 7 feet tall, and they can easily weigh more than 300 pounds.

Relations: Tough, reliable, and focused on the utilitarian, stonechildren get along with most races. Stonechildren are closer to dwarves than any other race, and they often settle in dwarf communities for a time. Many humans and dwarves seek to emulate the strength and silence of the stonechildren, but their strength and practicality can seem alien to elves and gnomes. Of the few stonechildren who do not live on the Elemental Plane of Earth, most are wanderers, and as such they enjoy the company of halfl ings. For their part, halflings readily acknowledge the value of having a large, physically powerful stonechild with their troupe. On the other hand, stone children sometimes have a difficult time understanding the elf mind-set. Like stonechildren, elves are close to nature, but elves share none of the stonechildren’s connection to stone and the power of the earth, making them seem fl ighty and unfocused. Stonechild

Alignment: Stonechildren make their own way in life, keeping a balance between following the rules and laws of others and adhering to their own sense of honor. This outlook leads many stonechildren to adopt an attitude of neutrality. Although they make their own choices, stonechildren have a deep love of the earth and a compassion for others. In their own way, stonechildren are workers for the cause of good, quietly protecting others when they can.

Stonechild Lands: Stonechildren do not have lands of their own on the Material Plane. Even on the Elemental Plane of Earth, their numbers are sparse, but they occasionally form permanent communities along with elementals and other earth creatures. On the Elemental Plane of Earth, stonechildren build secure dwellings in the sides of great caverns, usually with the help of powerful elementals.

Religion: Because they often wander alone, stonechildren do not have any racial religion. Most stone children adopt the religion of their mortal parent or the community in which they grew up, making a wide array of deities the norm for any group of stonechildren. Although Moradin the Soul Forger is primarily seen as the deity of the dwarves, stonechildren also venerate his powers over stone, his solid strength, and his prodigious skills at the forge. More stonechildren revere Moradin than any other single deity, but even his worshipers fall far short of constituting a majority. Language: Stonechildren speak both Terran and Common, but they prefer Terran. They are more intelligent than many humanoids, and they pick up languages readily. Almost all stonechildren learn Dwarven early in their life, and many master other languages as well. Stonechildren do not have a literature of their own, although many individual members of the race have kept records and stories of their travels. Names: Stonechildren share some of the naming conventions that dwarves have, but they are far less rigid about the process. Whereas dwarf names belong to the family and clan, stonechildren bond closely to their names, making them intensely personal things. Stonechildren also do not follow the strict naming traditions of dwarves, and they create new names with each new generation. Some of their typical names derive from the Common names for different types of stone. Male Names: Beltan, Fartach, Ingot, Ored, Slate. Female Names: Berna, Kihild, Merna, Shale, Zeea. Family Names: Angaran, Kar-Gulduk, Pal-Mituk, Raskanik, Rendark. Adventurers: Stonechild adventurers usually travel in search of something they desire. For some, this goal is material wealth; for others, it is a chance to study with famed craftsmen. Some want to seek out more of their kind on the Material Plane, while others search for new ways to test themselves in physical combat. Stonechildren are tough and ready for whatever comes their way, and many stonechildren go off on adventures at least once or twice in their lives.

STONECHILD RACIAL TRAITS

• +8 Strength, +8 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma. • Size: As Medium creatures, stone children have no special bonuses or penalties due to size. • A stonechild’s base land speed is 30 feet. • Darkvision: Stonechildren can see in the dark out to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and stonechildren can function just fi ne with no light at all.

Illus. by B. Williams