Post by sandcastles on Feb 19, 2012 23:36:14 GMT -5
The Arakocra
Regions: Chult, Cormyr, High Forest, Vilhon Reach.
Racial Feats: Flyby Attack, Hover, Improved Flight, Wingover.
Level Adjustment: +2.
The aarakocras are a race of intelligent birdlike people who live in the mountainous areas around Toril. Aarakocras love to soar high in the sky for hours on end, riding the thermal currents and updrafts with their wings spread wide. From a distance, it's easy to mistake them for eagles or some other large bird of pray.
Aarakocras stand about 5 feet tall and have a wingspan of 20 feet. On average, they only weigh about 90 pounds. Midway along each wing they have a three-fingered hand, which is only useful when the wings are folded in. Their wing muscles attach to a bony chestplate, and their powerful legs end in sharp talons that can be drawn back, allowing aarakocras to use their feet as hands. Their heads combine the features of an eagle and a parrot. Their beaks are grey-black, and their eyes are black as well. The males are brightly colored, usually red, orange, or yellow, while the females are either brown or grey.
Aarakocra hatchlings aren't permitted to leave the nest for the first three months of life. After that, they are considered children for only about five years. At this point, they are kicked out of the family's portion of the tribe's communal nest and given a place of their own. Aarakocra can live to be over 100 years old.
Aarakocra have the same life expectancy and age categories as humans.
History
The aarakocras originally came from the distant land of Maztica, far to the west of Faerûn. Over the course of several generations, flights of aarakocra migrated from island to island across the Trackless Sea, following far-ranging scouts in search of new nesting grounds beyond the sunrise. The first aarakocra colonists arrived in northern Faerûn in 418 DR, the Year of the Eagle's Flgiht.
The aarakocras eventually created four major colonies in Faerûn: the Star Mounts in the High Foest, the Storm Horns in Cormyr, the Cloven Mountains on the Vilhon Reach, and the Mistcliffs in Chult. However, the Star Mounts colony was destroyed only a few years ago by Elaacrimalicros, an ancient green dragon. All Faerûnian aarakocras have sworn to avenge the deaths of their kin.
Outlook
Aarakocra look down on other races, both literally and figuratively. They pity the poor landbound fools for their lack of mobility, and they often criticize them for a "lack of perspective."
Aarakocras have a need to travel, to see the world unroll beneath their feet. This, combined with a lust for vengeance against the creature who murdered their fellows in the Star Mounts colony, has thrust many of them out into the wider world.
Aarakocra Characters
The aarakocras are a proud people with strong ties to one another. They are hunters of surpassing skill. Aarakocra hunters soar over their chosen hunting grounds until they spot game, and then dive down at top speed to snatch up their meal and kill it before it even knows what happened to it. For this reason, most aarakocras become fighters, and this is their favored class.
Aarakocra Society
Life as an aarakocra is mostly spent hunting or making tools and weapons. While not every male aarakocra is expected to snatch up the tribe's meals on a daily basis, those who don't better have good reasons why not. Children and the extremely old are excused from this duty.
As a young aarakocra nears maturity, his elders teach him to hunt for himself. If he shows a great reverence for the sky and his prey, he may be steered into a career as a cleric.
Tribal life is everything to most aarakocra. The tribe shares a large, roofless communal nest made of thick vines woven together into a gigantic bowl. The eldest members of the tribe, whether male or female, leads the tribe with the help of the tribal shaman (cleric).
Away from the tribe, aarakocras are aloof, whether single or in a group. They are extremely claustrophobic and refuse to enter any enclosed area unless there is no other choice. To them, being trapped in a room with no way to reach the sky is akin to death.
Language and Literacy
Aarakocras speak Auran, the language of air elementals. Their race has had such a long relationship with these creatures that aarakocras have adopted the tongue as their own. They also normally speak common, having long since realized that they need to be able to communicate with those people on the ground.
All aarakocras are illiterate, except for those with a player character class other than barbarian.
Abilities and Racial Features
Aarakocras have the following racial traits:
- -2 Strength, +4 Dexterity: Lightweight but fast, the aarakocras are built for speed over bulk.
- Medium-sized: As Medium-sized creatures, aarakocras have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Aarakocra land speed is 20 feet. Their fly speed is 90 feet, with average maneuverability.
- +1 natural armor.
- Natural Attacks: A flying aarakocra can attack with 2 talons, dealing 1d4 points of damage each, or he can use a weapon in his talons. An aarakocra on he ground can wield weapons in his wing-claws at his base attack bonus and attack with his bite as a secondary attack (-5 penalty on the attack roll, and half Strength bonus on the damage roll), dealing 1d3 points of damage.
- Proficient with javelin.
- +2 racial bonus on Craft (any one), Knowledge (nature), Listen, and Spot checks. Aarakocras spend a great deal of their time hunting, building nests, or making tools.
- Claustrophobic: Aarakocras suffer a -4 circumstance penalty on all attack rolls and skill checks when in an enclosed area.
- Automatic Languages: Common, Auran, and home region. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Elven, Orc, Sylvan. When aarakocras speak, they punctuate their words with birdlike sounds, much in the same way a parrot imitating human speech.
- Level Adjustment: +2. The aarakocras' ability to fly is the greatest reason for this A player may play an aarakocra as a character with total levels equal to his class levels +2.
Aarakocra Magic and Lore
Aarakocra have a single spell particular to their people, the aerial summoning dance.
Aarakocra Deities
Aarakocras in Faerûn almost all worship a single deity: Aerdrie Faenya. This elven weather god is favored by teh aarakocras simply because she is the only good deity who speaks to the aarakocran way of life. She has been known to sometimes appear to the aarakocras in the form of a brilliant white, giant bird. The feathers that fall from this bird-god's plumage are among the most treasured items in an aarakocran nest.
Relations with Other Races
Aarakocras like to keep their distance from other races. Of all the other races, aarakocras feel closest to elves because of their common worship of Aerdrie Faenya and the respectful way in which most elves treat nature.
Aarakocras don't feel much of anything about the other standard character races. They have an abiding hatred of orcs, goblinoids, and lizardfolk, though, for these creatures will cage and torment aarakocras, given the chance.
Aarakocra Equipment
In battle, aarakocras prefer javelins over all other weapons. They often carry six of them at a time, strapped to their chests in indivual sheaths, like a large bandolier. Many of them also carry flight lances.
Animals and Pets
Aarakocras do not raise domestic animals for food or as beasts of burden. They sometimes allow smaller birds to nest around them, but these are more friends than pets. Like the avariels, aarakocras often befriend giant eagles.
Source: Forgotten Realms: Races of Faerûn