Dwarves of the Steel Realms
@RP Impact: Half elfs have a genetic imbalance giving them a Short Fuse.
Cultural Stigma: As a mixed race, they suffer Weak stigma everywhere; Their Stigma Offset(s) are > skilled, practiced, loyal
These halfbreeds are common – roughly about 80,000 exist, and most (half of them) in N’lokrha. Half elves are generally not welcomed, due to their alien features, temper and instability, but do not evoke the animosity Half Orks do. Half elves have the parentage of an elf and a human or other half breed. Sometimes dormant elven blood can evince itself in a generation – usually as twins of opposite genders. As children, they have distinctly elven features and grow slower (50-150 years longer than a human), making them more tolerable to an elven parent. Exposure to the sun and elements changes this as they go through puberty (age 18), and many are cast out by age 25. Half elves are universally shunned, often living at the outside of society and paying more for goods and services, and folk are less inclined to help them.
i20 assumes you are familiar with the 2014 DnD 5.0 SRD and the PHB it is based off of.
Starting i20 Characters have Zero Discretionary CP unless noted by the Game Master. These are all taken acquiring a Race/Species and a Pathway of Experience. A starting character is the moment of character creation (@Character Inception).
Are you using Best Practice guidelines? (ask your Game Master)
This corresponds to the HALFLING ( Race/Species)
The following aspects deviate from or add to the base race, though may also vary by setting, back story, and/or cultural experience; ‘Baseline’ values are just average/defaults to be used * without specific reference checks. *
Strong Faerie Features: The faerie ancestry is unmistakable.
The character comes from an area which has a dominant culture of the race/species and evinces it’s common physiologically and sociologically developed features. As they develop, the cultural norms are ingrained and stay with them in absence of consciously ridding themselves of them (and their benefits).
> This inherits from: None.
This race uses all the standard essential Attributes. Characters inherit the primary Developed Attribute Profile by default (optional). Adjustments are noted as specific Attributes or Attribute Group(s).
Wherever the character grew up, they eschewed the common cultural experience in favor of a more individualistic approach to life. While they are aware of the cultural norms, they chose not to be confined by them and not to benefit from them, and any unconscious behavior that reflects them gradually fades over time. Unless noted, all Archetype options are available.
The following elements reference game details that are physically part of every character of this race/species:
Unwelcome: Umbak, Kaald
Accepted: Dunstrand, Merchant Cities
Welcomed: N’lokrha
Ill-Tempered: The biological makeup of a half elf makes them prone to violence and anger. These traits cannot simply be overcome, they are built into the biological makeup of the character.
Compensated Skill: Half-elves try and compensate for their ill-temper by focusing in their Charisma (to try and avert the threshold of of their Ill-Temper feature); Many choose to forgo this emphasis and change the focus to improving existing skills to compensate.
Weakened Presence: Those born without a Soul Gem or Faey-Sight ae physically less hardy.
Confident Amidst Nature: Half-elves growing up in the wild offset penalties to physical skills and survival capabilities from low Attributes.
Alien Countenance: The features of the half elves are a pronounced angular chin and cheek bones, odd color skin, strange hair colors and patterns, wide then eyes, left handedness (75%), and thin lips. Their fingers and toes are long, and they are typically thin for their size. Their features are ugly to both elves and humans. Half elves are normally born without an elvish Soul Gem (and cannot begin as Flora Bound, like full elves), though those few that are have eyes that “sparkle” with flecks of green and gold. The few born with Faey Sight have their eyes irritated around the edges from dryness, and have a tendency to stare unblinking.
“The Cut Ones“: A half elf that has been exposed for days unblinking in the light of the full sun and moon, and cut the tips of their ears off, shaved their head and slicing their face. At the end of a week, assuming they dont die from infection, they heal. Their angular features and tell-tale signs of being a half elf are gone – eyes, skin, and hair color become washed out and human-like. Any soul gem they may have had cracks and turns to dust and its place is a deep scar (though they can be soul bound again, if they find a way). They are considered human for all intents and purposes. All powers gained through their ancestry and race are lost.
Half elves gain no extra languages, and have only a DC 10 Intelligence check chance to know Feyloise (elvish), and unless their background, cultural experience, or class provide an academic or literary tradition they do not gain literacy in known languages to start. They have a DC 20 Constitution check as a chance to be born with a Soul Gem; Those growing up among the elves (they cannot have other Cultural Experiences) or with a full elven parent, they are taught spoken languages of Feyloise, Primilate (Primordial), and Celestine (Celestial) languages (DC 10 Charisma check for each as a chance to be taught the written version by their elven parent). Additionally, they have a DC 18 Constitution check as a chance to have Faey Sight; If they have a Soul Gem, the DC is 15.
Weakened Presence The character begins play with 1 less HP if they are missing Faey-Sight or a Soul Gem.
Compensated Skill: A character may choose to trade 1 of their Charisma Attribute’s bonus points for Expertise in a starting skill. This can only be done at the time of Character Inception.
Confident Amidst Nature: If a half elf character chooses both Athletics and Survival as their starting racial skills (reflecting a rough upbringing in the wild), they receive no penalties for low Attributes.
Barbarian: The half-elves of N’Lokrhia have ONLY the wolf totem available to them – imprinted deeply by the left over remnant of their wyld cousin’s wolf-bond.