Heuco (3.5e Race)

Heuco
Summary::Tall, thin, seemingly a man, the Heuco would pass for little more than gaunt humanoids were they not born, literally, empty. The heuco is a strange race said to be born from a curse. From whatever humanoid race they once were, they were damned to be hollow, nothing more than skin deep, and never know the rush of real emotion. Their hollow insides are as spiritual as they are physical, allowing them to channel spirits easily, but also fall victim to possession just as well.

Personality
One would imagine one would be saddened to live a cursed existence (if the legends of their creation are accurate that is), but the heuco mind little. In fact, few things stir them, for the heuco have forgotten the touch of emotion. Logical and pragmatic, they are slow to be moved by joy and sorrow alike. Only in most rare occation does emotion ever show, and those few who have claimed to have seen it say that those times they almost seemed human.

Physical Description
The initial race the heuco were spawned from is unknown, but they were humanoid, and possibly of elven nature, for they possess small pointed ears and lithe forms, made ever more lithe by their hollow states. From the holes within their eyes and mouth, and that caused by wounds, one can see that under their skin is simply a thick gray layer of underskin, and nothing but shadow and air. Whatever fills out the shape of the heuco is utterly invisible and intangable, and without their skin, the heuco's phantom form dissipates into nothing, leaving behind the suit of epidermis. As such, the heuco are largely boneless, with exception of teeth and jaw, where the tongue connects and empties behind into the nothing beyond, and their eyes are empty, marked with small flames of light where pupils should be. Combined with an expressionless visage they look rather grim and serious, even when they claim they are content and happy.

Their bodies seem stretched out, an they stand anywhere between 6 to 7 feet tall, but weigh surprisingly little being nothing but skin. They otherwise have human features... a human face, hands, legs, hair and all, and favor long robes and flowing shapes which appear to bulk up their frame. Heuco are capable of eating and digesting food, though how the food seems to hang in the air where a stomach should be and vanish hours later is a mystery.

Relations
Heuco do not have strong feelings towards many species, and open to all as equals. They are always willing to give others a chance, and thus can be found nearly anywhere they themselves are not oppressed. Their natures are often off-putting, but they almost never come up as hostile.

Alignment
The lack of emotion subdues the extremes in alignment found in other races. Many heuco are true neutral.

Lands
As a rule, heuco can be found anywhere. Ghremlond hosts a fair amount of them, having found kinship with similarly neutral-aligned and physically off-putting folks.

Religion
The nature of the heuco makes religion a mixed batch. Some turn inward, an attempt to find substance in their lack of substance, becoming monks or psionicists and trusting in the power of the self to gaurd themselves from spirits outside. Others seek outward, looking to the gods for a means to fill their soul, or finding the arts of binding and purposefully drawing spirits within their body. Heuco have a concern that they may not possess a soul, not a complete one anyway, and thus their fate in the afterlife is somewhat unknown. They can be brought back as any living creature, indicating there is at least something present.

Language
Heuco speak Common, but have an echoing, booming voice. Many learn to speak other languages to compliment their ease in interacting with others.

Names
Heuco names have a haunting mellow tone to them. Names which could easily be sounds from wind instruments, and heavy use of vowels are common.

Racial Traits

 * ,, , : Their bodies are frail with little support, but whatever constitutes what shapes them is strong and connected with the flows of reality, giving them great insight and confidence.
 * Type::Aberration: Heucos are not subject to spells or effects that affect humanoids only, such as charm person or dominate person.
 * Size::Medium: As Medium creatures, heuco have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
 * Heuco base land speed is 30 feet.
 * Heuco gain 4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 extra skill point at each additional level. Their logical mindset and long lifespans tends to allow greater learning.
 * Channel Spirit (Su): The world is populated with latent spirits, and the heuco can draw upon them to gain certain benefits.  At the beginning of the day, with 5 minutes of meditation, a heuco can invite various spiritual archtypes into their body, augmenting their abilities while giving the benign spirits a chance to experience the world.  As heuco are often channeling something at all times, even accidentally, they qualify for Host feats found in Complete Psionic.  Select your channeled spirit for the day from the list below.  At 6 HD, you may host two spirits at once.  At 12 HD, you may host three spirits at once.  Finally at 18 HD you may host up to a maximum of four spirits at once.  You need not prepare all the spirits at the same moment, but each spirit takes an additional 5 minutes of meditation, and the spirits leave after you rest.


 * Featherlight (Ex): Unusually lightweight, they do not take as much damage falling. All fall damaged is halved.
 * Heuco take a racial -2 penalty on all social skill checks (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Sense Motive), but gain a racial +2 bonus on all Intelligence-based skill checks. Because of their weight, they also gain a +4 racial bonus to Jump checks.
 * Hollow Body (Ex): Being extraordinarily light is a disadvantage.  They take a -4 penalty on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).  Heuco are treated as one size category smaller when dealing with wind effects and effects which would move their position and are based on size.  They are also treated as one size category smaller when advantageous for the purpose of spells and spell like abilities (such as the limits on a teleport spell).
 * Hollow Soul (Ex): With only a shadow of a soul, the heuco is very easy to possess.  They take a -2 penalty on saves against possession attempts, opposed ego rolls from intelligent items, and spells which otherwise duplicate such effects (like magic jar).  On the other hand, the same alien nature of their soul allows them to resist mind-affecting effects much stronger, granting them a +4 racial bonus on their saves, and a +8 bonus against abilities which work by altering emotions (such as crushing despair).
 * Logical Study (Ex): Bereft of emotion, a heuco is able to focus on certain matters at hand. Concentration, and all Knowledge skills are always class skills for the heuco.  If the heuco becomes psionic, add Autohypnosis to class skills known.
 * Heuco gain the Bind VisageToM feat, allowing them to bind visages. If a heuco takes levels in binder, they lose this feat and instead improve their effective binder level by 2.  This stacks with the Improved Binding feat and other feats or abilities which improve your binder level.
 * Automatic Languages: Common.
 * Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Auran, Celestial, Draconic, Elven, Halfling, Infernal, Sylvan, and Undercommon.
 * Favored Class:, , or BinderToM.
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::1
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::2