Sahuagin (3.5e Race)

Sahuagin
Summary::Known to all others as sea devils, sahuagin have a reputation of being deadly raiders who strike at seaborne vessels and terrorize land settlements with destructive fury.

Personality
Sahuagin are vicious and merciless killers who love to make the ocean run red with blood. This persona is rooted in nearly every aspect of their Spartan-like society. Mating rituals are violent and occasionally deadly, and once the young sahuagin are born they are often pitted against each other in death matches to prove their worth. This practice has also served to winnow their ranks in times of overpopulation, which are common due the high rate of multiple births.

Sahuagin history is far from pretty; they exist in a near-constant state of war with other creatures, but in many cases their conflicts against land-based opponents go completely in the sahuagins’ favor due to the advantage of mobility and surprise. Most of what other creatures would consider war, however, is mere child’s play to the sahuagin; even long and bloody conflicts with the aquatic elves, tritons, and kuo-toa have done little to temper their natural bloodlust.

Physical Description
Sahuagin are humanoid, averaging around six feet in height and weighing approximately 200 pounds. Their frames are lean and wiry, the additional weight added on by a finned tail. Their skin is scaled and a variable green color, especially as descriptions often very when sahuagin are encountered underwater. Their heads are distinguished by long, protruding jaws filled with needle-like teeth, while each of their webbed limbs end in sharp claws. Sahuagin are underwater creatures, and as a result cannot survive indefinitely on land on their own. A sahuagin that is adventuring on land, however, will often have a facemask that retains its watery environment, preventing it from using its bite attack but allowing it to breathe normally.

Sahuagin practice a form of species-wide eugenics in an attempt to produce four-armed sahuagin mutants, who are known for their strong bloodlines and proven abilities. Even with these attempts, there seems to be no pattern in the births of mutants, and only one out of every several hundred sahuagin even has the potential to gain the evolved form they all aspire to.

Relations
Sahuagin are almost universally hated. Their reputation as greedy and rapacious pirates and undersea conquerors has done little to increase their popularity. Land dwellers regard them as menaces that give even the most hardened ship crews nightmares, while their traditional foes hold as much seething hatred as possible for the dreaded sea devils.

Alignment
Sahuagin are typically of evil alignment, but anything other than that is down to the individual. Since they are mostly composed of freely moving brigades of raiders and pillagers, they have a high tendency towards chaotic alignments. As with thieves, there’s little concept of honor amongst the sahuagin.

Lands
Amongst the aquatic races, the sahuagin possess the most far-reaching empire, a loose net of cities and ports from which roving bands of pirates set up their bases of operations. Despite their typical lack of loyalty to one another, sahuagin will readily band together to combat a mutual threat just as they have done for ages past.

Religion
Sahuagin worship a deity known as Sekolah, who is considered the patron of both the sahuagin and all sharks. Sekolah’s dogma has but one rule: in life there are those who eat and those who are eaten. This philosophy permeates all areas of sahuagin culture.

Language
Sahuagin speak their own language, which is also allegedly understood by sharks.

Names
When translated into Common, sahuagin names are often pronounced as descriptors of those who bear them, all hyphenated into a single name. An example name might be He-Who-Chases-Fish, although a sahuagin with as lame a name as that is probably not too highly respected amongst his peers. Slayer-of-Men or Sharp-Claw are common names amongst sahuagin, usually adopted as a pseudonym by those who are separated from their group.

Sahuagin do not have surnames in the conventional sense; they instead identify themselves via a list of their blood relatives, which is a marker of dignity and nobility amongst their kind. Someone with a particularly long list of martyred ancestors is usually expected to be a powerful warrior amongst the sahuagin.

Racial Traits

 * , : Sahuagin value combat ability above all else, and scholarly pursuits mean absolutely nothing to their race.
 * Type::Monstrous Humanoid (Subtype::Aquatic): Sahuagin have the aquatic subtype, meaning they never have to make Swim checks to move properly in water.
 * Size::Medium:
 * Sahuagin base land speed is 30 feet: Sahuagin also have a swim speed of 40 feet.
 * Light Sensitivity : A sahuagin is treated as dazzled whenever it is inside an area of bright light.
 * Natural Attacks : A sahuagin has a bite attack, which deals 1d6 points of damage, and two claw attacks that each deal 1d4 points of damage. The claws are considered the sahuagin’s primary natural weapon.
 * Shark Empathy : A sahuagin can speak naturally with sharks (and only sharks) as if it was under the effect of a speak with animals spell. It can also use the Handle Animal skill to teach tricks to sharks.
 * Water Dependency : Sahuagin can survive out of water for 1 hour per two points in its Constitution score, after which it begins to drown.
 * Automatic Languages: Common, Sahuagin.
 * Bonus Languages: Aquan, Draconic, Elven, Kuo-toa, Undercommon.
 * Favored Class: Barbarian
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::0
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::1