the Planewalker's Handbook

by James O'Rance
dragon-dreamer@geocities.com

Index The Factions New Races Planar Skills Magical Adjustments Magical Items New Spells Planewalking Equipment

Chapter Five: Races and Archetypes
Aasimar Bariaur Githzerai
Rogue Modron Tiefling Planetouched Options

Note on Level + 1 Character Races
  Some planar races are more powerful than the standard PHB character races; these are designated as Level + 1 characters. Only allow a player to create one of these characters when you would otherwise allow that player to create a higher-level standard character of equivalent power.
  Some of the planar races described below are each equivalent to a character level +1 character (ie, a 1st-level tiefling is equivalent to a 2nd-level standard character). As such, it may be best to begin a PLANESCAPE™ campaign with 2nd-level characters. Other races appropriate for PLANESCAPE™ campaigns include the half-celestial and half-fiend templates (Level + 3 characters) from the Monster Manual.
  Beginning Level + 1 Characters: Aasimar, rogue modron, and tiefling characters receive skill points as 2nd-level characters of their chosen class. They have two Hit Dice of the appropriate type, and are +2 in all three saving throw categories (as a 1 HD Outsider).

Aasimar (Plane–touched)
  Aasimar are the other side of the tiefling coin. Like tieflings, aasimar are plane-touched. But while tieflings have something lower-planar in their blood, aasimar are the scions, or descendants of scions, of celestial beings from the Upper Planes.
  Personality: Unlike other plane-touched, aasimar are rarely orphaned or abandoned by their nonhuman parent. Though usually raised by the human parent in human communities, the celestial – if possible – tries to maintain at least some contact or provide some influence in the child's life, guiding him along on the "right path."
  Aasimar often attempt to pass as normal humans in order to right wrongs and defend goodness in a mortal community. They strive to fit into society, although they usually rise to the top as cream rises above milk, becoming revered leaders and honourable heroes.
  Most aasimar are true to their sires and the blood that courses through their veins, being true of heart, courageous, and honest to a fault. Their nobility and goodness are legendary. Nevertheless, a few turn stag and become as untrustworthy a bunch of spivs as ever plied the cross-trade.
  Physical Description: These folk generally appear as gloriously beautiful humans with golden hair, fair skin, and piercing eyes. They might be mistaken for half elves, or even true aasimon, for their innate purity and inhuman glory.
  At least a few aasimar have features different from those described above. An aasimar with planetar blood, for example, may have green skin. Some may even have nonhuman attributes such as regal-looking tails, birdlike or leonine lower bodies, or even vestigial wings.
  Relations: Aasimar have usually been well-treated by human society, and prefer to live among humans. Other races tend to give aasimar a little more respect than they would a normal cutter. On the other hand, tieflings usually feel anger and bitterness towards aasimar, and receive disdain in return.
  Alignment: Aasimar tend towards good, although neutral aasimar are certainly not unknown. Some claim that an aasimar's preference towards law or chaos is an indication of his particular celestial ancestry (lawful indicating archons, for exampe), but this has no actual basis in fact. Aasimar can be lawful or chaotic.
  Religion: Most aasimar are raised to venerate a power of the Upper Planes. Those who have turned to darker deities can easily conceal their blasphemous worship, for their blessed ancestry renders them above suspicion.
  Language: Aasimar do not have their own unique tongue, although most understand Planespeak. They speak the languages of their mortal and celestial ancestors.
  Names: Aasimar take names common to the community in which they grew up, although an aasimar of great deeds (or one who aspired to them) might add an inspirational or glorious honourific to distinguish himself.
  Adventurers: Aasimar are bold, confident, and brave. They may take up adventuring in search of a greater destiny, one that they have been raised to expect, for an aasimar character believes that she is special person. Other aasimar might take to questing in order to protect her community or church from minions of evil.

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Bariaur
  The bariaurs – herbivorous denizens of the Outlands and the Upper Planes – often remind primes of centaurs, their goat-bodies topped by human torsos and arms.
  Personality: In personality, bariaurs are usually carefree, social, outgoing, and friendly. Though considered frivolous by some, the sturdy bariaurs nevertheless are fierce fighters when their families or friends are threatened. Ysgardian bariaurs, in particular, hold a special hatred of giants, no doubt due to the predations of the enormous humanoids upon bariaur herds.
  Bariaurs can be exceedingly fussy about their appearances, dyeing and shaving their pelts in intricate patterns. They are well known for their wanderlust, building no towns but roaming over several of the Upper Planes in a seemingly random path. Most claim Ysgard as their birthplace, though some flocks are native to Elysium, the Beastlands, Arborea, or the Outlands.
  Physical Description: Bariaurs are centaur-like creatures, with goat-like bodies covered with short wool that is usually cut short and shaven in decorative patterns. Their four legs end in cloven hooves well-suited to climbing rocky mountainsides. Bariaur faces display somewhat more animal-like features than centaurs, and male bariaurs sport a fine pair of curling ram's horns.
  Relations: Bariaurs look upon most Prime races as savages who have forgotten the need for honour. The exceptions are elves and gnomes, whose appreciation of the "pure" (ie natural) lifestyle redeems them. Bariaurs consider humans to belong to two separate races - the rural folk and nomads, who are fellow free spirits; and the city-dwelling humans, who are horrible, cruel creatures in dens of stone.
  Alignment: Bariaurs value freedom and creativity, and value the ideal of individual achievement as found on the chaotic Upper Planes. They recognise that holding to one's word and helping others are essential to the survival of nomadic flocks, and try to live a good, honourable life.
  Religion: Like every aspect of bariaur society, bariaur religion is heavily affected by their nomadic lifestyle. Three distinct religious traditions have emerged: The Cult of the Powers (believers and priests of various deities), Shamanism, and Mysticism. They range within the spectrum of belief, with the Cult of Powers representing True Faith on the left to The Mystics, representing Open Belief on the right. In the middle sits Shamanism, a composite balance of the two extremes. Mystics believe in the universality of all religious and philosophical traditions. For mystics, there is a heart of intuitive truth to be discovered in every belief system. Shamanism is the worship of nature and its manifestations.
  The bariaur sense of honor and duty towards others can occasionally result in an individual following the paladin's paladin, unusual for a race so free spirited. Bariaur paladins often struggle psychologically to maintain law and order within their own minds. This struggle often results in infusions of great creativity within many religious organizations utilizing bariaur paladins, taking the shape of works of art, new combat methodology, and innovative philosophical thinking.
  Language: Bariaurs speak their own language, which is written using the runic script of Ysgard.
  Names: Bariaurs all possess a given name that is chosen by the flock's bards or mystics shortly after the birth of a kid. However, as they begin to make a name for themselves, adult bariaurs will eventually receive a "reputation name" from his kinfolk and closest friends. This name might be based on the body decoration of the bariaur, his stature, particular physical attributes, or anything else that the bariaurs consider noteworthy.
Reputation names are used much as other races use family names – to distinguish between different individuals with the same given name. A bariaur who is unpopular with his flock may never receive a reputation name, and if necessary will use the given name of a parent as a surname.
  Male Names: Arwuen, Bryne, Ergyl, Ezra, Hargin, Konnor, Ohme, Rahm, Shek, Tirag.
  Female Names: Altha, Borna, Ema, Hiamore, Kara, Mokka, Nomala, Tarsta.
  Reputation Names: Darkfleece, Flaxenhide, Fleetleg, Goldhorn, Ramsgate, Sagittarius, Silverhoof, Surefoot, Thunderhooves.
  Adventurers: As a nomadic race, it is not unusual for a bariaur to begin an adventuring life out of a simple desire to see more of the planes. Some bariaurs leave their flocks to undertake the self-quest, a mystic journey of understanding and wisdom. Others might be members of a flock that sees travellers often (such as those on the Outlands) who befriended some of the two-legs and left the flock to explore with them. Although many bariaurs would be appalled to think of it, there are also many who have settled in large towns and even planar metropolises such as Tradegate and Sigil; these characters might become adventurers to support their carefree lifestyle.

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Githzerai
  The history of the githzerai is one of ancient war and ancient slavery. Once of one race with the githyanki under the enslavement of the mindflayers, the githzerai broke away from their illithid masters and then their gith brethren, sparing a racial war that has continued into the present. The two gith peoples separated and found new homes: the githyanki in the emptiness of the Astral Plane, and the githzerai in the Outer Plane of Limbo, a plane of swirling chaos. Stability can only be achieved by shaping the chaotic matter of the plane with the mind; focus and discipline are necessary for this to occur.
  Personality: Githzerai are quiet and reserved, burning with a passion that drives them far beyond what most mortals are capable of. Severe and serious, the githzerai tend toward sombreness in their clothing and personalities. They're usually close-mouthed, keeping their own counsel and trusting few outside their own kind.
  The githzerai are sworn to protect their race on their adopted home of Limbo, since that refuge was only won after millennia of hardship and war; any threat against their haven is met with whatever force is necessary to eliminate the threat.
  To the githzerai, there are only three truths: that the githyanki and illithids will never be anything but mortal enemies; that they will allow nothing to hinder the survival of their race; and that no one will ever enslave them again.
  Physical Description: Githzerai are humanoids, thinner and taller than humans with sharp features, long faces, and eyes of grey, black, or yellow. They have a thin, angular frame, and limbs that look like they are made of nothing but strings of muscle knotted around bone.
  Relations: Githzerai believe that members of other races cannot truly understand them, and seem sombre and stand-offish to friendlier races. Githzerai have no true enmity towards most races, however, and can dwell in human, elven, and multicultural communities without difficulty.
  Githzerai bear an ancient hatred for mind flayers and githyanki, and will never accept either as a companion. Their ancient hatreds for the illithids and the githyanki erupt violently in any encounter with those races.
  Alignment: Githzerai value their freedom over anything else conceivable, including any moral considerations of good and evil. Their chaos comes from the fact that they're individualistic to the point of being catlike, and that they believe the ends almost always justify the means. They tend to be chaotic neutral in alignment, and are rarely lawful.
  Religion: The God-King, Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith, is a monument to githzerai racial pride, and the source of the famous githzerai planeshifting powers. He's not particularly aggressive or inhibiting. Most githzerai believe that without him, they might become enslaved again. "Better the heartfelt devotion of a free soul than the grudging obedience of a slave," is a common githzerai saying that contrasts loyalty to Zaerith with "loyalty" to the mind flayers. The God-King personifies the freedom of their kind.
  Some githzerai worship the memory of Zerthimon, an ancient githzerai hero who confronted the tyrant Gith, and begun the aeons-long war for freedom against the githyanki. Zerthimon knew the githzerai before they knew themselves. He defined the People, and gave them one mind. Those that know his words are called zerths.
  Language: Githzerai speech is based on history. All events can become part of their story-like culture; metaphor is a powerful tool, an inspiration to heroism for the People, and a deterrent to villainous deeds. The githzerai accent is difficult to understand – githzerai take every word, snap it, and then drag out the vowels for good measure.
  Names: Githzerai names sound harsh and alien, and usually consist of unusual consonants and glottal stops. Some githzerai are named after one of the myriad historical figures that the githzerai remember as part of their thousands of years-old culture.
  Male Names: Arja'rok, Beezil, Dak'kon, Fri'hi, Hailcii'n, Kars'ten, Retholien, Selqant, Toryg, Tovus, Try'ig'or, Vilquar, Yves, Zerchai.
  Female Names: Ach'ali, Devorxa, Elezpah, Imogen, Jebeel, Ji'li'kai, K'atzn'ii, Kii'na, Lar'il, Moraan, Ro'jhi, T'cha, Torpel'lin.
  Adventurers: Githzerai adventurers have left the company of their own kind to venture beyond Limbo and dwell with other races. There is always a reason for this. Some githzerai adventurers are the sole survivors or apprentices of rrakma (illithid–hunter) bands. Others might be outcasts from the floating cities of Limbo, perhaps due to some injust accusation of treachery by the Anarchs Guild, or wanderers who live in self-imposed exile in order to further their own self–understanding.

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Rogue Modron
  Modrons are the clockwork caretakers of the gears of Mechanus, virtually unthinking in their strict hierarchical order. No being's minds are as focused on law, stability, repetition, and the security of harmonious regulation. But the multiverse isn't perfect – not even in Mechanus – and sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes a modron receives conflicting orders from two or more superiors, or is confronted with incontrovertible proof that all is not orderly. Sometimes a modron's mind just snaps. These circumstances create rogue modrons.
  When modrons go rogue, they lose most of their special abilities and even the normal modron form that designates their position within the clockwork hierarchy. They find themselves cast out of Mechanus, the heart of law and the only world they have ever known, and plunged into the cold, lonely, and (worst of all) chaotic multiverse. Rogue modrons have the forbidden and reprehensible glimmerings of self, the only thing that allows them to survive in this new sphere.
  Personality: Most rogue modrons are not crazed lunatics craving chaos and destruction. On the contrary, most folks can't tell a rogue modron from a "normal" one just by listening to it talk about the multiverse. It is still an extremely ordered being, with law at the centre of all its thoughts and ingrained in the way it feels, acts, and reacts. To another modron, the differences are obvious, and the rogue is some sort of chaotic wild-child; but to other folks, the rogue modron still seems the epitome of order.
  As beings of near-absolute order, they need organisation, rank, authority, regulation, and harmony to be content. Modrons would never join a group that didn't make its organisation and hierarchy clear, including an adventuring group. Modrons need to know exactly where they stand in a group – who ranks above them, and who below. While not as interested in being on top as some, they don't necessarily follow orders blindly and won't appreciate being taken advantage of by someone who thinks he understands how modrons operate.
  Once modrons set a course of action, it's difficult to divert them. They don't become sidetracked or distracted. Modrons have a focus that no human can match in intensity. Most modrons also have no concept of self, but this is only partially true of rogues. Though still less motivated by concepts such as greed, personal happiness, and even self-preservation than a human would be, they do recognise and (vaguely) comprehend such ideas. Emotions, humour, friendship, and many other concepts familiar to humans and other humanoids are new and very strange to modrons (at least until they find or impose order within or upon them).
  Rogue modrons don't believe in, or even understand, the concept of chance. They never use words or embrace ideas like "luck." To modrons, everything is structured, nothing is random. All creatures abide by a set of rules and regulations – whether they realise it or not. In fact, while modrons might not be able to describe exactly what the "rules of the cosmos" are, they may try to figure the rules out – a lifelong task at best.
  Essentially, rogue modrons are refugees from a completely alien society and world, with completely different outlooks – at least at first. These beings had no childhood, family, social rank, or even any real history. In fact, rogue modrons begin to lose what memories they have of Mechanus as time passes; they have even forgotten what rank they once held in the modron order.
  Physical Description: Rogue modrons stand exactly two yards tall, with cube–like bodies similar to those of quadrone modrons. The cubes are 3 feet on each face, adorned with two thin 3-ft.-long legs, two 3-ft.-long arms, and a pair of small, non–operational wings on their backs. A vaguely anthropomorphic face can be found on the front cube face.
  Modron are formed from the stuff of order and given clockwork limbs and other parts. Both mechanical and fleshy parts comprise a modron, but the parts meld together to form an orderly whole. In fact, modron bodies aren't intrinsically different from those of other living beings – cure spells, for example, work on rogue modrons despite their mechanical components. Otherwise, rogue modrons are genderless, ageless, and very difficult to distinguish from one another. Thankfully, the latter problem is solved by the fact that very, very few rogue modrons wander the planes.
  Relations: Rogue modrons usually choose to travel with humans to learn more about mortal society; in turn, humans are the race best able to communicate with a rogue modron and deal with their eccentricities. as creatures of chaos, elves and githzerai serve only to confuse the orderly rogues.
  Alignment: Although they may never accept that there isn't an order to everything, they may adjust the way they view order. Rogue modrons try to impose their own brand of order on everything around them, or simply rationalise explanations that place a veneer of order over the chaos of the multiverse.
  Religion: The modron hierarchy pays worship to no deity, and only rarely does a rogue manage to understand this mortal tradition once it leaves Mechanus.
  Language: All rogues speak the modron language, a highly complex, rule-bound language that is known to sages for its elaborate precision and exactness. Few others are able to understand Modron, however, and so it is fortunate that rogues are also able to understand Planespeak.
  Names: Many rogue modrons have designations that sound like mathematical formulae; these are the last memories of their former existence, when the number of a modron within its unit was the extent of the creature's individuality. Other modrons have cast this designation aside, and renamed themselves with a short phrase describing their pursuit of order, a human name, or even a meaningless word that the modron chose for inexplicable reasons.
  Example Names: 3 of 64, Correct-Ratiocinator, Disciplined-Questioner, Maxie, Quadranomus, Seven Cubed, Tricalus, Unit 87, Ylem.
  Adventurers: Curiosity may be the one downfall of modrons.

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Tiefling (Plane–touched)
  Of all the plane-touched, none precipitate as much fascination – or as much fear – as tieflings. Obviously human and "something else" crossbreeds, the "something else" in the tieflings' case is usually assumed to be lower–planar. Whereas aasimar are obviously touched by a celestial spark, and genasi have the potency of the elements running through their veins, tieflings are enshrouded with the mysteries of an unnamed heritage.
  Personality: An infernal stigma follows all tieflings through their lives. Loners by nature, they make their own paths out of necessity; no tiefling culture exists to aid the outcasts, for no two tieflings are alike. As distinctive from humans as they are from each other, tieflings tend to be wary and distrustful due to the reactions they come to expect from others. Tieflings take care of themselves, for they learn that no one else will take care of them.
  But rather than withdraw into individual hermitages, tieflings challenge the multiverse with everything in their independent spirits. Determined to create their own fates, they dare things that others might not even dream of and defy anything that stands in their way.
  Physical Description: No two tieflings look the same. Beyond an aura that many find disturbing, many tieflings are indistinguishable from humans. Others have small horns, pointed teeth, red eyes, a whiff of brimstone about them, or even cloven feet. More outlandish and frightening appearances are possible.
  Relations: Tieflings are distrusted and feared by humans, aasimar, bariaurs, elves, and most Prime Material races. They respond with bitterness and self–reliance. The githzerai have no particular feeling towards tieflings, which are rare in their society, and can be more accepting of them than other races – which isn't saying much.
  Alignment: Tieflings tend to be selfish, uncaring, and cruel, although this is just as much due to their harsh upbringing as to their heritage. A few defy their nature, but they still must fight against popular opinion and the feeling of otherworldly "wrongness" that seems to follow them wherever they go.
  Religion: Tieflings more often than not follow their inherent traits and heed the call to evil. Few tieflings belong to any faith that is either lawful or good, but exceptional individuals might unexpectedly follow a more stringent moral code.
  Language: Tieflings do not have their own tongue, but speak the language of the communities in which they were raised, as well as Planespeak. Many tieflings have dealings with fiends of some sort, and learn languages of the Lower Planes such as Abyssal and Infernal.
  Names: Tieflings take names common to the community in which they were born, although many also possess a more fearful title bestowed upon them by the childhood gangs that they ran with in youth. Those who respect the tiefling's skill, knowledge, or cunning will refer to her by this title; those who laugh at the thought of the character will laugh mockingly when it is spoken.
  Adventurers: In most societies, tieflings maintain a low profile, and take up adventuring careers as thieves, assassins, spies, and agents–for–hire. In cities of a lower–planar nature a tiefling character might rise to a position of power, but in other places when his nature is revealed he quickly becomes an outcast. Such a character might be forced to undertake perilous ventures to make a place for himself.

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Plane–touched Options

  Because of their varied backgrounds, the appearances of aasimar and tieflings can be quite varied. It is also possible, and even likely, that not all such characters will have the same innate powers. Because of this, the following two tables were created to add variety to aasimar and tiefling characters, and may be used at the time of character creation.

  Instead of the standard power of light or darkness that an aasimar or tiefling character receives, the player rolls 1d20 to determine the nature of the spell-like power. The power rolled can be cast by the character once per day, as though he were a sorcerer of the same level as his character level.

1d20 Aasimar 1d20 Tiefling
1 Change Self 1 Bane
2 Colour Spray 2 Cause Fear
3 Cure Minor Wounds 3 Chill Touch
4 Detect Chaos 4 Darkness
5 Detect Evil 5 Detect Chaos
6 Detect Law 6 Detect Good
7 Detect Magic 7 Detect Law
8 Divine Favour 8 Detect Magic
9 Guidance 9 Ghost Sound
10 Hypnotism 10 Inflict Light Wounds
11 Light 11 Obscuring Mist
12 Protection from Chaos 12 Protection from Chaos
13 Protection from Evil 13 Protection from Good
14 Protection from Law 14 Protection from Law
15 Remove Fear 15 Resistance
16 Sanctuary 16 Spider Climb
17 Virtue 17 Summon Monster II
18–20 Player's Choice 18–20 Player's Choice

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Index The Factions New Races Planar Skills Magical Adjustments Magical Items New Spells Planewalking Equipment