Beastfolk, Bucktoothed Builders (3.5e Race)

Bucktoothed Builders

Where dwarves settled into the hard stone of the hills and mountains and built their mighty cities in those solid foundations, the Bucktoothed Builders took up residence lower down, in the wooded hills and along the wild rivers, adapting themselves with incredible industry to their environment, overcoming obstacles through the use of their highly skilled engineering minds. It is believed by some that the first Bucktoothed Builders (also called Beaverfolk) are a subrace of forest-dwelling dwarves who fell under a strange curse for forsaking their traditional ways, though the truth of this is uncertain.

Personality

Bucktoothed builders are very tradition-minded thinkers, preferring tried and true methods to newfangled ideas, though they are wiling to experiment in a very controlled manner, building upon past successes to produce later and greater results. While very intelligent, this often results in a single- and close-mindedness that, while offset sufficiently by their hospitable natures to keep from irritating others, makes it hard for them to stop a task once they have started it, even if there is no further need for the work. Those who meet Bucktoothed Builders generally find them to be stoic, dedicated craftfolk of exceptional skill and kindly manners, so long as nobody interferes in their work.

Physical Description

If there is any animal that best describes the hardworking nature of the dwarves, it would be beavers, and Bucktoothed Builders are indeed what a cross between these two creatures would look and probably act like. Bucktoothed builders are indeed stolid creatures, standing between 4’6” and 5’2” at their tallest, with broad, powerful bodies and sleek, waterproof brown, black, red or grey fur, with a flat, leathery tail protruding from the base of their spines.

Relations

Dwarves and Bucktoothed Builders naturally get along very well, and the two races often trade agreeably whenever they meet. Elves are often annoyed at the tree cutting tendencies of the Bucktoothed Builders, and this sometimes leads to violence in extreme cases, but as long as the beaverfolk tone down their actions somewhat, they make good allies, and the two races work together reasonably well. Gnomes enjoy Bucktoothed Builders because they tend to be too firm of purpose to avoid a cleverly-laid prank, but are good-natured enough to laugh with a gnome afterwards – most of the time. Wolfen and beaverfolk sometimes cross paths, but the two races do not really enjoy each others’ company, the savage, wild nature of the wolfen and the boring, homebodyish ways of the Bucktoothed Builders making them largely incompatible. Bucktoothed builders loathe orcs, seeing them as a scourge on society and a form of chaos incarnate, and will usually have nothing to do with this race and its hybrid offspring.

Note: Bucktoothed builders can interbreed with dwarves.

Alignment

Bucktoothed builders are highly interested in order and the community, and devote great efforts to keeping these things strong. They are less concerned with rightness and more concerned with tradition, though they generally reject acts of evil as not conducive to a pleasant living environment, and so they tend to be Lawful Neutral.

Lands

The lands of the Bucktoothed Builders are places covered with trees and water, usually hilly country where there are plenty of downward-flowing streams to harness for power in their engineering projects. Sawmills and waterwheels are a regular sight among beaverfolk communities, and every home acts as a place of crafting as well as a place for living. Bucktoothed builders are also adept at defending their homes from outside attack, and usually have a wide variety of carefully-constructed traps and pitfalls and fortifications to keep out unwelcome intruders who don’t use the carefully-guarded and plainly-marked main entrances into their communities.

Religion

Generally more interested in work and less interested in religion, Bucktoothed Builders are more often the victims of druids and nature-worshipping clerics seeking to put a stop to their sometimes destructive acts on their surroundings during their many engineering projects than they are worshippers of any gods. However, the beaverfolk do keep up a minimal-level worship of deities of community and security and hard work, and some occasionally worship dwarven deities as well, despite the continuing rumors that it was these gods who cursed them into what they are now.

Language

Bucktooth builders speak Common and a simplified form of Dwarven, lacking the poetic portions of both languages, but with a vastly greater technical vocabulary. They also can speak, as bonus languages, Avian, Feline, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Squeak Speak and Wolfen.

Names

Communities of Bucktoothed Builders all share the same last name, even when not related, so as to improve community unity. These clan names tend to be descriptive of regions or great ancestors who helped found a clan. Names such as Irontooth, Riverfree, White Oaks, and Woodgate are not unusual. Forenames are not as important as one’s clan name, and so tend to be short and simple, often being simply nicknames by which others in the community remember an individual, though parents always make especially certain that a name is not used by another person in the community of the same age, to avoid confusion, though a younger person might be named after an older person (with the two differentiated by being called by the prefix “Old” and “Young,” respectively). Carpenter, Chip, Diver and Slappy are common names used by both sexes.

Adventurers

A typical Bucktoothed Builder has no interest in leaving home and family for the uncertain fortunes of a life of adventure. However, there are a rare few who find they do not fit in around their community, perhaps because of too much restless energy and curiosity, or because of lacking in skill as a worker. These few will, when they find that a stay in another community doesn’t straighten them out, sometimes run off to try their hand on the open road, and see if perhaps they can’t make their fortune in a different realm, since they were unable to fit into the one in which they were born.

Racial Traits

• +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom
• Monstrous Humanoid
• Medium-size
• Bucktoothed Builder base land speed is 20 feet: Swim speed 20 feet
• Natural Engineers: +2 racial bonus to Knowledge: Architechture and Engineering and to Craft: Woodworking. These skills are always considered class skills for Bucktoothed Builders.
• Single-Minded: +2 bonus to Concentration skill rolls, and against Fear and Mind-Control .
• Buck Teeth: Bucktoothed builders have a 1d6 damage bite attack, thanks to the teeth from which they get their names. These can be used as a primary attack at no penalty, or as a secondary weapon at a –5 to the attack roll. They also make excellent cutting tools, being able to chew through even metal given enough time, giving a +2 to Escape Artist checks.
• Iron Lungs: Bucktoothed Builders can hold breath for 4 times longer than normal.
• Dwarf Blood: Bucktoothed builders count as dwarves for the purposes of spells and magic item effects.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Avian, Feline, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Squeak Speak, Wolfen.
• Favored Class: Fighter.
• Level Adjustment: 0

Bucktoothed Builder Subrace: Paradoxus.

Some people, dwarves and Bucktoothed Builders included, cannot leave well enough alone. A colony of Bucktoothed Builders was left isolated from contact with any other sources of dwarven culture for many long years, due largely to their own decision to remove themselves from their culture, so as to better explore their new existences as beastfolk and to develop their own way of dealing with the world. When they were eventually rediscovered, they had not only adapted to their strange new lives as beastfolk, they had decided to revel in it. As part of their effort to become more in harmony with the rivers that they lived by, this colony of eccentrics had opened up strange secrets in the place where they had settled which had changed them utterly. While they still had the tail of a beaver, they also had the fur of an otter, the webbed feet and bills of a duck, and many of them had even grown poisonous spurs on their heels, which they could use as potent weapons. All of this made them perfectly suited to life in the river, but had also made them wholly unsuited for life among any dwarven kin, with whom they could no longer even interbreed, having become, through their own efforts, a completely different race. The paradoxus are Chaotic Good in their outlook on life, free-spirited and free-thinking, and are willing to try almost anything at least once. Their culture now is one of harmless hedonism and simple survival, hunting and gathering for their living and enjoying the company of others as they please. While adventuring is often considered to be too hard work for this race, some are willing to risk it for the sake of the interesting experiences it might bring, and the greater opportunities for thrill-seeking.

Racial Traits

• +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
• Monstrous Humanoid
• Small: +1 size bonus to AC, +4 size bonus to Hide checks, a -4 size penalty to Grapple checks
• Pradoxus base land speed is 20 feet: Swim speed 20 feet
• Darkvision out 60 feet
• Sensitive bill: The fleshy, highly-flexible bill of a paradoxus grants a +2 to Search checks, because of the subsonar impulses it gives off. In addition, a paradoxus that passes within 5 feet of a secret passage or concealed door can make a Search check to discover it.
• Poison Spurs: A paradoxus can, as a 1st-level Feat, choose to have poison spurs, which allow a natural attack that takes the place of all other attacks (counts as an armed attack) at the paradoxus’ normal attack bonus, doing 1d3 damage (plus normal damage bonuses for Strength, etcetera) and also injecting a deadly poison, requiring a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the paradoxus’ Constitution bonus) to avoid taking 1d2/1d2 Constitution damage.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Dwarven. Bonus Languages: None.
• Favored Class: Ranger.
• Level Adjustment: 0

Vital Statistics

Table: Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
years	+	+	+

Table: Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
years	years	years	+ years
At middle age, −1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At old age, −2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At venerable age, −3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Table: Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	' "	+	lb.	× () lb.
Female	' "	+	lb.	× () lb.

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