Runeborn (4e Race)

Runeborn

By Kienan Lafferty

Knowledge incarnate, infinity given shape-a race of learning and teaching in any way possible.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 4'-7'

Average Weight: 5-15lb

Ability Scores: +2 Intelligence; +2 Charisma or +2 Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, choice of two others

Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Nature

Trance: Rather than sleeping, runeborn enter a meditative state known as trance. You need to spend 4 hours in this state to gain the same benefits other races gain from taking a 6 hour extended rest. While in a trance you are fully aware of your surroundings and notice approaching enemies and other events as normal.

Living Construct: You are a living construct. You don't need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep. You never have to make Endurance checks to resist the effects of starvation, thirst, or suffocation.

Transcend: When you use the total defense or second wind actions, you also take half damage from melee and ranged attacks until the end of your next turn.

Runeswarm: You gain the Runeswarm power.

Encrypted Memory: You do not have to make a check to recall any memory. You are immune to any effects that would alter or erase your memories.

Runeswarm	Runeborn Racial Power
You separate, becoming a loose cloud of runes.
Encounter
Minor Action	Personal
Effect: You become a swarm of runes until the end of your next turn. Your equipment is absorbed into this form and you continue gaining the benefits of worn and wielded items. Whilst this form you gain the following benefits: Melee and ranged attacks do less damage to you. When you take damage from either kind of attack, the damage is reduced by your Intelligence, Wisdom & Charisma modifier. If you are carrying a normal or lighter load, you gain a fly speed equal to your speed with an altitude limit of 1 square. When you fly, you can squeeze through gaps as small as 1 inch.

Often the result of strange magic, runeborn are a race forgotten by many, only rarely coming back into the world again.

Play a runeborn if you want...

• To be a mysterious and often confused member of any team.
• To struggle with understanding the moral and ethical constraints that so many other creatures live by, but you just can't seem to understand.
• To be a member of a race that favors the Wizard, Avenger, Invoker, Shaman, Psion, Duelist, and Swordmage classes.

Physical Qualities

Runeborn look like a coalition of hundreds of runes loosely packed into the general shape of a human. The runes can be of any size and color of the runeborn's choosing, and can fluctuate as it wishes. A runeborn's runes are an impossibly accurate record of its life, with every action, feeling and thought recorded in a solely written language so detailed as to defy comprehension by even the greatest scholars in the world. This gives a runeborn a memory so accurate and detailed that if you were to ask them what the 5792nd word on page 4713 of Kanan's Bestiary of the Planes (for example) was, they would answer correctly every single time, even if they had read the book centuries ago. In addition to their human form, runeborn can separate their individual runes, allowing them to pass through very small openings.

Playing a Runeborn

A runeborn can differ in personality in any way imaginable, except that they will always, except through experience, feel alienated and detached from most other races. As a rough guideline, runeborn will often be quite naive and are often confused about concepts other races take for granted, such as right, wrong, good and evil, compassion and cruelty. This does not mean they should be played as an emotionless robot,however, they simply find it difficult to understand why some actions are viewed as 'good' and others as 'evil'. This can be a very rewarding experience to play, as the group and the adventures they will Inevitably embark on will, for better or worse, shape the runeborn's outlook and view of life.

Runeborn Characteristics:

Names: Wisdom, Fate, Infinity, Curiosity, Conquest, Victory.

Runeborn Adventurers

Three sample runeborn adventurers are described below.

Conquest is a Runeborn Duelist. He was created when a drow priest of Lolth performed a ritual to try to ascend into the form of a drider. This priest was hoping to become a conduit for Lolth's will, and thus, called upon the magic of thousands of faithful worshippers of Lolth. The priest became a drider, but in the process grew to a level of power that Lolth did not wish him to remain on the face of the world as she feared that he might grow in power even more and take her place in the pantheon of gods. Conquest was raised by a group of Drow Duelists who found him, newly created and as confused as can be, and took him in, hoping that he would prove to be their ultimate weapon. They trained him to worship no god, but to seek only power and to obtain knowledge by forcing it from victims through torture and blackmail. He is now the leader of this Duelist faction, which has turned cult as he does not age and has shown all the values and ;powers of a demigod fit to be worshiped by the Drow.

Victory was a female Runeborn Wizard. After a young elf brought her to life the two of them escaped, journeying together to see the world for what it is. Their powers have grown strong together, however one day the two of them had an argument, splitting apart and turning against one another.

Feather the Runeborn Psion had no creator she could remember, and as such she traveled the world alone. She currently lives in a spacious cavern with a red dragon, going out to collect treasure and food for it on a regular basis in exchange for a place to live.

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