Pachyfolk (4e Race)
Pachyfolk[edit]
Elephant-like humanoids with massive ears, trunk, body and a flawless memory.
| Racial Traits |
| Average Height: 6'5"-7'4" |
| Average Weight: 650lbs. - 800lbs. |
| Ability Scores: +2 Wisdom, +2 Strength |
| Size: Medium |
| Speed: 5 squares |
| Vision: Normal, Tremorsense 2 |
| Languages: Common, Deep-Speech |
| Skill Bonuses: +2 History, Religion or Arcana |
| Prehensile Trunk: Your trunk is capable of simple tasks, allowing you to move and carry objects up to 5 pounds in weight as a minor action. |
| Perfect Memory: You cannot forget that which you put your mind to. You gain the Ivory Mind racial ability. |
| Massive Countenance: Due to your size, you are difficult to move. When an effect forces you to move — through a pull, a push, or a slide — you can choose to move half your Constitution modifier squares less than the effect specifies to a maximum of four squares. |
| Deep Hearing: You gain a +5 racial bonus to perception checks when listening to sounds transmitted through the earth. This bonus applies even if you are Deafened |
| Ivory Mind | Pachyfolk Racial Power |
| After making a technical mistake, you draw on your flawless memory of the subject to correct your error. | |
| Encounter | |
| Immediate Reaction | Personal |
| Trigger: You make an Arcana, History, Nature, Religion or Dungeoneering check and dislike the result. | |
| Effect: You re-roll the check. Use the new result, even if it is lower. | |
Pachyfolk trace their origins to the tropical rainforests of the Feywild that once spread into the Natural World. They are massive, the heaviest often weighing over a ton and the tallest nine feet. They have a rich cultural history, and a deep-seated hatred for the Rakshasa that drove them from their rainforests.
Play a Pachyfolk if you want...
- To play as an anthropomorphic elephant.
- To be a member of a race that favours the Fighter, Cleric and Shaman classes.
Physical Qualities[edit]
A Pachyfolk resembles a heavily built humanoid, but their head resembles that of an elephant. As like the elephant, a long trunk replaces their nose, and they are capable of manipulating small objects with it. Two massive ears sprout from the side of their head, and a small tuft of hair grows on their cranium. Two small tusks protrude from either side of the trunk on males, but are absent on females. Their legs are thick and lack the structure of other humanoids, instead powerful elephantine limbs replace them. Their arms are like that of a human, albeit more massive. They lack a tail.
Pachyfolk, like their non-humanoid kin, communicate through infra-sound and can hear sounds transferred through the ground for miles around. Although it is not true sixth-sense, a Pachyfolk can detect the sounds of movement and accurately position their sources above or below the ground within a small area. Beyond that, they can hear, but not pinpoint.
Playing a Pachyfolk[edit]
Pachyfolk are honourable and metaphorical, with a rich and exotic culture spread through oral tradition, unforgotten in their memory. Their names often reflect the qualities of their ancestors, or how they will be expected to act. A tribe of Pachyfolk is one extended family, and often a generation of tribe members will be named similarly.
Pachyfolk have a complicated relationship with the arcane. Whilst many of their kind will learn magic, most will never learn true spells beyond cantrips. The alien nature of the arcane removing its presence from their memories frightens the Pachyfolk, who cannot forget. Younger, rebellious Pachyfolk have often become addicted to the arcane, treating the memory loss much like alcohol and other forbidden pleasures.
Driven from their native rain-forests by Rakshasa millenia ago, Pachyfolk are nomadic and widespread. They wander the tropics and savanhas of the natural world, keeping far from the cramped cities of civilisation. Every Pachyfolk will undergo a migration in their lifetime, seeking out their ancient birthing grounds in the wild jungles of the world. Along the way, they meet with other Pachyfolk to spread their history and mate. Most Pachyfolk do not favour any of the gods, but death holds a mystical place in their culture.
When a Pachyfolk dies, their tribe will migrate to deliver their bones to the mystical Elephant's Graveyard, where the deceased will rejoin their ancestors. There was once a great, unified Graveyard, but now each tribe holds their own. It is the belief that upon unification with the bones of their ancestors, a Pachyfolk will return to their native home in the Original Rainforest. Should a Pachyfolk die alone, it is believed their spirit will cry for its ancestors and languish until delivered to the Graveyard. Pachyfolk will go to great lengths to retrieve the bones of a fallen kinsmen and deliver their body to the Graveyard.
Their respect for their ancestors and reverence of death leads many of their kind to worship the Raven Queen. Others still worship Moradin for his closeness with the earth and ideals of familitude. Most Pachyfolk, however, worship spirits and primal beings than the divine.
Pachyfolk Characteristics: Honourable, Good-Natured, Serious, Level Headed, Intelligent, Sentimental, Traditional
Male Names: Bobo, Nuren, Noor, Kedar, Jayant, Hari...
Female Names: Gauri, Fulande, Ela, Chhaya, Sagara, Safi...
Pachyfolk Adventurers[edit]
Three sample Pachyfolk adventurers are described below.
Hari is a lone bull on a pilgrimage to the rainforests, a renowned healer for his tribe. Upon arriving at his birthing grounds, he found the city of Greysky, the jungle felled to fuel the town. Now, he works for the Governer to pay his way to continue his pilgrimage, his instinctial longing growing stronger with each coin earned.
Ela's tribe was lost years ago to Rakshasa poachers, herself losing portions of both of her ears in the hunt. Unable to forget the horrors of that night, she has taken to drinking and sorcery. Whilst the drink keeps her feelings dull, the magic exhilerates her as the magical words are ripped from her memory, forgotten by arcane law. This is a volatile combination, and often she has found herself barred from towns and villages. Now she travels to the large cities, where taverns are everywhere and a good wizard can earn her drinks with ease.
Nuren is a warrior of the Red Tusk tribe, on the hunt for his father's remains. While still young, Nuren's father was killed by a hungry green dragon. Now the young warrior takes his charge to the beasts, hunting down every green scale for his father's bones. Recently he has heard of the ancient dragon Hurst, and seeks other warriors for the hunt. Finding such warriors has been difficult, and it has driven him far from his homeland, but he is determined to retrieve his father's bones and deliver them to the Graveyard of his tribe.
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