Shardminds (3.5e Race)

Shardminds

Personality

Shardminds are fragments of pure thought given life and substance. They are logical, emotionally distant, and naive to the ways of society in the world. Some approach life with Innocent curiosity, eager to embrace the wealth of experience the world has to offer. Others remain resented and aloof, bearing a higher purpose in mind at all times. Though they often seem dispassionate, when a strong emotion seizes them, they experience it powerfully. For example, shardminds don't get annoyed, they become enraged.

Physical Description

Shardminds are crystalline creatures consisting of hundreds of small shards of translucent green, white, red, or amber crystal assembled into humanoid form and animated by a force of pure psionic energy. Shardminds choose their forms to mimic the shapes of humanoids; some take on forms that seem more masculine, while others appear more feminine. Regardless of their shape, shardminds are physically agender and cannot reproduce. A shardmind's animating force glows dimly from within each of its component shards, emanating most brightly from where the eyes of a natural humanoid would be. This inner light sheds dim light in a shardmind's space, but a shardmind individual can squelch the light with an instant's concentration, useful for hiding in the dark for example.

The crystalline fragments making up a shardmind's body are in constant, silent motion, almost like the circulation of blood. When a shardmind is stunned or unconscious, it might lose control of the tight mental reins that keep its body in humanoid form, a few shards slipping free into orbits around its body until the shardmind regains control.

Shardminds are living creatures only in the loosest sense. Their crystalline bodies require no sustenance, and they don't breathe. They don't need sleep, though they must still rest for six hours to gain the benefits of an extended rest. They don't have gender and don't reproduce, but the shardminds alive today aren't the same ones that sprang to life during the Dawn War. Shardminds say that the Living Gate shattered into countless fragments, and each time an awakened shardmind is killed, another one somewhere in the universe stirs to consciousness.

Alignment

Any neutral. Shardminds are mostly interested in their self-preservation and success, both as individuals and as a race, and care little for the affairs of others. As such, they tend not to care much about matters of good vs evil or law vs chaos that do not directly affect them. Of course, outliers exist, however.

Lands

Shardminds are crystalline in nature and thus feel most comfortable in rocky environments, including mountainous regions and underground caverns. A shardmind's true ancestral homeland is the Astral Sea, but they're well adapted to live just about anywhere.

Example Names

Amata, Arshaka, Arwia, Balashi, Bashanu, Belessunu, Dipana, Erishti, Eshunu, Hunzu, Iltani, Ishmea, Kuaya, Kubaba, Kuri, Manishtu, Naram, Nuraya, Seluku, Tabni, Ubashu, Utua, Zakiti

Racial Traits

• +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom: Shardminds are highly logical beings, created from shards of pure thought and well-suited to psionic endeavors.
• Construct (Living Construct, Psionic):
  • No Constitution score.
  • Low-light vision.
  • Darkvision out to 60 feet.
  • Unlike other constructs, a living construct has a Constitution score. A living construct does not gain bonus Hit Points by size but gains (or loses) bonus hit points through a Constitution bonus (or penalty) as with other living creatures.
  • Unlike other constructs, a living construct does not have Low-light vision or darkvision unless their race grants them that as an ability.
  • Unlike other constructs, a living construct is not immune to mind-affecting effects.
  • Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, death effects, and necromancy effects.
  • Living constructs can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a living construct can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a living construct is vulnerable to a harm spell. However, spells from the healing subschool provide only half effect to a living construct.
  • Unlike other constructs, living constructs are subject to critical hits, effects requiring a Fortitude save, death from massive damage, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects or necromancy effects.
  • Unlike other constructs, a living construct can use the run action.
  • A living construct responds slightly differently from other living creatures when reduced to 0 hit points. A living construct with 0 hit points is disabled, just like a living creature. He can only take a single move action or standard action in each round, but strenuous activity does not risk further injury. When his hit points are less than 0 and greater than –10, a living construct is inert. He is unconscious and helpless, and he cannot perform any actions. However, an inert living construct does not lose additional hit points unless more damage is dealt to him, as with a living creature that is stable.
  • Can be raised or resurrected.
  • Does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, but can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items such as heroes’ feast and potions.
• Medium size.
• Shardmind base land speed is 30 feet.
• Shardswarm (Su): Once per day, as a standard action, a Shardmind may break apart its body, move up to 15 feet in any direction, and reform. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Every creature adjacent to it before it moves must succeed on a Reflex save (DC 10 + Shardmind's Intelligence modifier). Creatures who fail the saving throw take 1d10 piercing damage.
• Crystalline Containment (Ex): A Shardmind may enclose a light load's worth of equipment inside crystals which are part of its swarm, and stay with it when assuming its shardswarm form. This equipment appears back in its normal position once the Shardmind resumes its humanoid form.
• Crystalline Body (Ex): A Shardmind may incorporate armor or weapons made from Deep or Mundane Crystal as part of its natural swarm of crystals. When a Shardmind uses its shardswarm special ability, the equipment breaks down along with the rest of the Shardmind's body, but still provides any bonuses it would normally provide while whole. After the shardswarm effect ends, it rematerializes just as it was before, and can then be removed as normal.
• Crystalline Hands (Ex): A Shardmind's unarmed attacks deal 1d4 lethal bludgeoning/piercing damage.
• Crystalline Frailty (Ex): Because of the crystalline structure of its body, a Shardmind has weakness to sonic damage.
• Psi-Like Abilities: At-will—mindlink. 1/day— far hand, catfall (Augmented +2).
• Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Gnome, Gnoll, Sylvan, Terran.
• Favored Class: Psion. A multiclass Shardmind's Psion class does not count when determining whether it takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
• Level Adjustment: +1.

Vital Statistics

Shardminds are created mature, and do not physically age. They cannot gain the ability score changes applied to most aged mortals, and they cannot die of old age.

Random Height and Weight

Table: Shardmind Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
5' 5"	+2d6	155 lbs.	x (2d4) lbs.

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