Puppets (3.5e Race)

Puppets

"All I want is to be free. I'm stuck in this damn tower all day! I'm leaving!" ~ A puppet's bitter last words to their old master before running away.

Puppets are constructs that have been made by a lonely wizard in the hope of making a friend or someone to follow in their footsteps, which almost always backfires. They are chaotic beings that want only to live freely, they often end up leaving the wizard who made them.

Personality

Puppets are normally not evil beings, although they may often seem it by their appearance which makes society think they're not trustworthy or some just find them unease to be around. They are a very outgoing and slightly curious race and observant of their surroundings, they seem to watch everything and everyone that's going on around them. They exist in a strange world that they barely understand, puppets try as hard as they can to blend into the world they live in and try not to alter it much more than they have to.

Puppets can have a habit of taking broken objects like pocketwatches apart to see how it works and fix it, making them great at mechanical engineering or clockwork-based jobs. Some puppets have accidentally made the problem/s worse by trying to fix the object.

Due to Puppet's need to be free and/or being allowed to do whatever they want, they can seem impulsive and change their 'minds' often which makes them difficult to work with at times.

Physical Description

Puppets vary in shape and size, dependent upon the whim of the wizard who created them. All are humanoid, possessing lifelike, glass eyes that do not blink, leaving them with an unnerving stare. Mostly comprised of wood, puppets are made to look flesh-toned, and the joints of their bodies are lined and gapped for ease of movement.

Relations and society

They are very lonely once they leave their creator's side, some aimlessly wander around cities and towns to find their purpose while others join groups of adventurers to find out more about the world they've been dropped into it. They do try to blend into society to be more like civilized beings but are very obviously something else.

When questioned about their old master, puppets tend to have mixed feelings about them since they acknowledge that they're on this world because of them but they hated them for limiting their freedom or taking it from them.

Very few puppets live in groups since they're almost used to be the only of their kind in a city or town. But when two puppets meet up, they can talk to each other for ages, comparing their old masters.

Alignment

Almost always chaotic neutral, very few puppets are true neutral.

Lands

A big town or city is the best for a puppet to live in, some puppets chose to stay in villages. Puppets will live anywhere if they get to observe other races since it's better to see how others work around citizens.

Puppets don't last long outside of cities or towns due to their wooden bodies and not being able to heal normally like other races.

Religion

Almost never pray to a deity, unless their old master taught them otherwise.

Language

Always common unless their creator taught the puppet another language. They mostly know any other languages their old master spoke to them in. For example, a puppet who's old master was dwarf would most likely know dwarvish and common.

Names

A puppet is given a name by their wizard. In the slim chance that the wizard who made them didn't name them, the puppet will try to give themselves a name but most if not all puppets are named by their creator.

Racial Traits

• Living Construct
• Living constructs are unaffected by mind-altering effects. Mind effects include charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects.
• Constructs do not eat, sleep, or breathe. Constructs are unable to ingest materials, including potions or chemical-based drugs.
• Constructs lack nervous systems, circulatory systems, and vital organs. As a consequence, a construct isn't subject to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, or necromancy effects. A construct also cannot be nauseated or sickened, fatigued or exhausted. There are a few counter-examples, but this holds more or less true in all instances.
• Due to the puppet's life core, they are still susceptible to positive and negative energy and critical hits. Cure moderate wounds is an example of a positive energy spell, and inflict light wounds is an example of a negative energy spell.
• Puppets do not naturally heal, they can only be healed by spells or successful craft checks. The only way to resurrect a puppet is to find a wizard to recharge its life core, and in this instance, the puppet may or may not have consistent memories from its past life. The puppet may reawaken as a completely new individual, with a 'blank slate' personality.

• -4 Strength, +2 Constitution, +4 Charisma
• Natural Armor +2
• Puppets are Medium-sized creatures.
• Puppets have a base land speed of 30 feet
• Vulnerability to fire. All damage from fire sources does 50% more damage.
• Play Dead(Sp): A puppet has the ability to lay prone on the ground like a lifeless toy as a move action. If the puppet is known to be alive, this ability has no effect (unless you can make a winning argument to the DM, of course). Play Dead works by allowing a bluff check versus an opposed spot check. If the opponent succeeds, then the puppet's spark of life is detected, otherwise, the target is convinced that the puppet was never alive.
• Weak Spot: Puppets are considered living due to the life core that sustains them. This point can be hit for massive damage and possible destruction of the individual. This works mechanically by extending the critical range for any attack on the puppet by 1 point. For example, a weapon with a critical range of 19-20, would, for all intents and purposes, function as having an 18-20 crit range on attacking the puppet.
• Body Pocket: A puppet can carve pockets into their shell that adds a +4 bonus to sleight of hand checks to conceal objects up to size tiny.

• +6 to bluff. The facial expressions of a puppet are difficult to read.
• +4 to craft and disable device checks. Puppets have an intimate understanding of mechanical engineering and clockwork.
• -3 to climb, jump, and balance checks. Puppets do not have an internal equilibrium and find it difficult to correctly position their weight.
• -4 to ride and handle animal checks. Animals find puppets unnatural and have an immediate distrust for them.

• Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Any.
• Favored Class: Rogue.
• Level Adjustment: +0

Vital Statistics

Table: Puppets Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
0 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6

Table: Puppets Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
100 years	200 years	300 years	Lives Forever
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.

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