Telums (3.5e Race)

Telums

It has long been known that weapons and objects can be given life, of a sorts. While little more than constructs, they have minds, personalities, and wills of their own. So, what happens when the magic strengthens to the point where it can manifest outside of it's original casing of steel and wood? Telums are the spirits of intelligent weapons, whose humanoid bodies are spirit, magic, and essence given form.

Personality

While on the surface telums seem to share human(oid) psychology, they are weapons, weapons who spend what counts as their "childhood" in weapon form and view the world differently. They often are given, and stubbornly stick to, their original base alignments granted to them during their creation, and they are not entirely used to the concept of actively interacting with the world. This results in either strangely passive telum, or telum who are excited to affect everything... physically, mentally, socially, and more.

Physical Description

Telums take on a humanoid appearance, but there is always something off about them, and their appearances vary with the designs of their weapons. For example, a black greatsword with red arcane runes on the surface and a white tassel would manifest as a large man with long white hair, red tattoos, and skin as black as a drow. Meanwhile a mithril rapier may take on an almost elven appearance, thin, with all-silver eyes with no whites, and wooden grain on their skin. The appearances vary, and often at least one part of their body looks artificial such as the aforementioned eyes of silver orbs. If the weapon grows and changes with time, so does it's humanoid manifestation. They are always found with their weapon-self nearby.

Relations

Many races have no idea what to make of telums. Rare magical oddities in their own right, they are apt to be seen as objects, magical curiosities, but not a race of their own. More often than not a telum would enter society in secret, taking up the mantle of whatever creature it most resembles. Dwarves and gnomes are the most likely to accept telums for who they are. In fact, they are probably their creators.

Alignment

A telum's alignment can be practically anything, and if they have a creator, it usually corresponds with them. Regardless, they often take great effort to change out of their base mold.

Lands

A telum can be found anywhere, even in the depths of an abandoned dungeon where a weapon, over many years, has evolved on its own.

Religion

Telums are not usually a religious sort, but since they do possess strong convictions they can easily find themselves working with the devoted. Some telums are even given such an inclination on creation, if say they were birthed from a Holy Sword of Divine Justice.

Language

A telum speaks whatever language of its creator. By default, this is common.

Names

Because of their origin, telums tend to have fanciful names like "Firebrand" and "Slayer of Titans". This quickly becomes socially odd, and a telum may pick up a more normal sounding name, while still addressing its original weapon body by his original title. Of note, weapons which become telum always have some sort of name associated with them.

Racial Traits

• Outsider (Augmented Construct, Native): Their original bodies were constructs but out of essence of reality, they pulled together a form shaped by the soul, which became as one, outsiders very much through and though.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, telum have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Telum base land speed is 30 feet.
• Telum breath, but do not eat or sleep. In weapon form they do not breath at all.
• Telum get a +2 bonus on Appraise and Craft check related to weapons, and +4 related to their specific weapon.
• Weapon Soul (Ex): A telum IS a weapon, in the literal sense. On creation a player selects what kind of weapon they are, which can be any non-ammunition weapon they are proficient in. From that point they are that weapon, and can only alter their weapon type when they level. Generally, a telum remains the weapon it was born as. As a full-round action which does not provoke attacks of opportunity, a telum can switch between it's humanoid form and weapon form (see below) as long as it is within 30 ft. A telum can be parted from his weapon-self, but rarely does so willingly. A telum separated more than than 1 mile from his weapon gains 1 negative level a day which cannot be removed. A telum is compelled to find his weapon, and always knows its direction (but not distance and perhaps is unable to recover it from its holds. A weapon on another plane registers as being on another plane, but not which or what direction). He must hurry, otherwise he will die when his negative levels equals his character level.
• Weapon Form (Ex): In weapon form the telum is effectively a masterwork weapon with intelligence and ego score. It has hardness as normal, and hp equal to the humanoid-form telum with +10 hp for every +1 enchantment bonus it possesses, and retains saves, special attacks provided they are not dependent on anatomy, special qualities, speech, and spellcasting (but cannot cast unless the spells are augmented by Still Spell). It has visual and audio senses out to a range of Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) but cannot naturally move or attack on its own. It can also be forged into a new material, such as adamantine, by paying the 150% of the cost. When in humanoid form they do not have the hp bonus from having an enhancement score. It can be enhanced as any weapon could. If wielded in humanoid form and disarmed, it can be turned into dust and recalled to the hand as a move action if within 30 ft, reforming in the telum's hand. If a telum falls under 0 hp, they automatically convert into weapon form and any additional damage goes to the weapon, hardness does not apply. The weapon's additional hp from a high enhancement bonus may leave the telum alive but disabled, but if the weapon's hp is destroyed the telum dies. As an outsider, a telum can only be raised and resurrected by spells such as Revive Outsider^SpC, Limited Wish, Wish, Miracle, and True Resurrection.
• Magic Aura (Su): Telums show up on Detect Magic attempts and similar as if they were a magic item, even in humanoid form. A telum with no enhancement bonuses shows up as faint universal magic.
• Partial Construct Traits (Ex): Both in humanoid and weapon form, a telum is a living creature of sorts. They only take half damage from positive and negative energy, which means they only are healed half as effective by cure spells, but are fully repaired by the Repair line of spells. In addition they count as a construct for any requirements.
• Automatic Languages: Common (or as creator). Bonus Languages: Any.
• Favored Class: Fighter.

Vital Statistics

Table: Telum Random Starting Ages

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

Table: Telum Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
100 years	200 years	300 years	Infinite
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: Telum Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	5' 6"	+2d6	150 lb.	× (1d3) lb.
Female	5' 0"	+2d6	120 lb.	× (1d3) lb.

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