Brachyura (3.5e Race)



=Brachyuras=

Summary::Deep sea creatures from Gokia, they have a grudge against the surface world and would love to see it drown.

Personality
According to the brachyura, the Planet Gokia was once completely covered with water. Vast brachyuran empires spanned the globe and they were in a golden age. But it was then that the protective storms which has enveloped the planet begin to disperse, allowing the sun to shine it's cruel bright gaze. Thus the waters did recede and land was born. As the brachyura puzzled at the events they did not see the beings of land spring forth in number, they did not notice the land growing, the deserts expanding, and the storms weakening until it was far too late. Realizing that the beings of land were constructing buildings, terraforming the world, and other unknown terrors, they sought to take back the land that the landwalkers had stolen from them. And so they moved against them...

The battle was long, but ended in victory for the landwalkers. Humiliated and defeated the brachyura slunk into the deepest abyss to hide and regroup. And so filled with religious zeal and a desire to take back their slowly drying planet, their civilization began a long campaign against the gokiburi upon the land. So goes the story they say to explain the racial hate for their insect kin. While they are not without reason or ability to debate, the brachyura feel that, be it now or be it later, one day the gokiburi must leave the world and return it to the rightful owners. While brachyura are rarely seen off the Gokia homeworld, when they do they have mixed feelings for other races. They tolerate with reluctance the landwalking races of other worlds, wondering how they can stand such arid environments, while actively enjoying the company of other aquatic beings and trying to convince them to turn all worlds into water planets.

Physical Description
The brachyura are a race of crab-people whose true form is a sort of mollusk inside their hard exoskeletons. It is naturally occurring organic power armor of sorts, allowing them great strength and, more importantly, the ability to leave their deep water homes and walk the sunlit land, if only for brief periods of time. It is said that when the war first begun, the gods blessed their original carapaces with this new, combat worthy form.

They possess two powerful claws and four smaller pincer arms. The claws cannot hold weapons, but the pincer arms can, though they are weaker than a normal human hand. Their face is actual a sort of mask, filtering the strong sunlight and protecting their moist albino faces away from the sun and dry air. When feeding, a brachyura briefly opens his mask, revealing two bulging eyes, gills starting from the chin down, and a lamprey mouth covered with tentacles.

Relations
The brachyura tend to be a surly, serious lot. Unless they have somehow been isolated, most brachyura have been given the dogma that the land is bad and the water is good, and take their prejudices with them. They have a strong religious pantheon they believe in, with society breaking down into those who work, those who preach, and those who fight, and it is the fighters who are the ones who have the means and reasons to surface most often.

Even when isolated from their teachings, it is said brachyura are bull-headed and difficult to convince once they have put their mind to something. "It will happen no matter the consequences" seems built into their genes.

Alignment
Brachyura raised by their own tend to be neutral evil, while those with better raising stray towards true neutral. Their stubbornness is tainted with considerable difficulty working with others, as might often makes right.

Lands
The brachyura live underwater, and so on the surface they are there on a mission, temporary, for the surface is as comfortable to them as a human who must stay in his space suit for extended periods of time.

Religion
The brachyura have a pantheon of gods relating to the elements which "secure their planet", Xolotl the God of Storms and lord of all things war, Necoc Yaotl the God of the Deep Darkness and it's mysteries, Tlazolli the God of Sea Beasts and natural disasters, and Mayahuel the Goddess of Wealth and Fortune, the Golden Age robbed from them shall be their again. Even non-clerics tend to be fanatic with their chosen god. There is a fifth worshiped being, Kukulkan, who is a god yet to be born and who shall bring about the apocalypse upon the landwalkers. However faith in his prophecy is strong enough that clerics can receive spells from this 'god'.

Language
In a strange curiosity, brachyura speak a dialect of Aboleth, possessing the necessarily mouthparts and number of effective tongues to bellow it's infernal chorus. How the brachyura learned aboleth, a language of a creature alien to their seas, is unknown. It is suspected aboleths had their slimy tentacles somewhere in the ascension of the brachyura race. Out of necessity, those brachyura who travel also speak common.

Names
The names of the brachyura have been best described as "the sound of people drowning". It is a horrid noise, and more often than not a brachyura will end up picking up a nickname the surface people have given it.

Racial Traits

 * ,, , : Strong and powerful, their exoskeletons also restrict their movement.  Perhaps it is the overly strong focus on revenge, but education amongst the brachyura have dropped compared to others.
 * : Alien aquatic crab people from afar, they have certainly adapted to their strange environment.
 * : -1 penalty to Armor Class, -1 penalty on attack rolls, -4 penalty on Hide checks, +4 bonus on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits double those of Medium characters.
 * Brachyura base land speed is 20 feet:  Swim 40 feet.
 * Damage Reduction (Ex): The hard shell protects well, giving DR 2/bludgeoning plus 1 per two HD (so a 10 HD brachyura has DR 7/bludgeoning).
 * Deep One's Blessing (Su): Every day a brachyura may spend 15 minutes in meditation to worship one of his gods as a blessing for power in that day. The benefit lasts all day and may be repeated or changed next morning.
 * Xolotl: By burning an attack action bio-energy point you may make a special smite attack against any non-aquatic creature, dealing +1 damage per HD you possess.
 * Necoc Yaotl: By burning a bio-energy point as a free action you can re-roll a single d20 roll made, once per round.
 * Tlazolli: By burning a bio-energy point as a swift action you can coat your natural or manufactured weapons in poison that deals 1d6 Con/1d6 Con damage, DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Constitution modifier. The poison lasts for 1 round until it vaporizes.
 * Mayahuel: By burning a bio-energy point as an attack action you make attack as normal, half the damage you deal is absorbed as hp up to a maximum of your own HD in absorbed hp. Benefit from your enemy's misfortune.
 * Kukulkan: By burning a bio-energy point as a free action, you may gain 1/2 your HD as a racial bonus to an opposed check, such as a grapple or bull rush attempt (round down).


 * Four Arms (Ex): Each non-pincer arm is able to hold an item or weapon as well as any limb. However, due to their smaller size they can only hold weapons designed for a medium sized character, and only possess 5 ft reach (their claws retain normal 10 ft. reach).
 * Gills (Ex): Brachyura can survive out of the water for 1 hour per point of Constitution (after that, refer to the suffocation rules).
 * Light Weakness (Ex): The sun burns their eyes and boils their flesh, and thus they are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell. In addition the brachyura takes additional damage from any Light spells that deal such additional damage as if they were undead.
 * Limited Landwalking (Ex): While the brachyura can survive for a long time in the wet protection of his exoskeleton, they must seek get to water and soak every so often. For each day past where the brachyura did not spend soaking in water for 10 minutes or longer, the brachyura takes 2 points of Constitution damage.  Arid conditions may accelerate this check to once every 6 hours, or even once every hour.
 * Organic Armor: Encased in a thick carapace, the brachyura gains a +6 armor bonus, has no arcane spell failure, but a -2 armor check penalty. It does not count as armor for the purpose of class features and feats, but can be enchanted as a suit of armor.
 * Natural Weapons: The brachyura has two primary claw attacks which deal 2d6 plus your Str in damage. If they gain the Improved Grapple feat, it instead becomes the improved grab special ability, triggered on their claw attacks.  Because of the unique construction of the shell, the claws can be enchanted as any weapon.
 * Brachyura gain Varia Skin as a bonus feat.
 * Xenotheric Traits: A brachyura is immune to poison, polymorph, petrification, possesses telepathy out to 100 feet, fire and cold resistance 10, +2 on saves against fire and cold, possesses a bio-energy pool, and may take xenotheric feats.
 * Brachyura gain a +8 racial bonus to Swim checks.
 * Automatic Languages: Common, Aboleth.
 * Bonus Languages: Undercommon, Aquan, Terran, Infernal.
 * Favored Class: Favored Class::Barbarian
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::2
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::3