Polly (3.5e Race)

Author: Sulacu (talk) Date Created: December 4, 2017 Status: There is mushroom for improvement. Editing: Clarity edits only please

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A number of Polly subspecies.

Polly

These diverse-looking mushroom people live quietly within the Soggy Bogs of the Polly Forest from which they derive their name. Because of their seemingly quaint natures and the fact that they don't communicate verbally, they were often considered unintelligent and were at one point hunted to near extinction for their caps and stems, many of which possess unique alchemic properties. It is owing to their tenacious vitality and ability to grow from a single spore cluster into a mammal-sized entity over a long period of time that they exist to this day.

The full name of the genus is 'Polliform', owing to their humble beginnings as simple clusters of fungal spores. Sufficiently large and dense clusters of Polliform spores are endowed with an intellect roughly equivalent to that of humans.

Personality

Pollies are generally shy and withdrawn in non-Polly company, as they lack the ability to converse like most humanoids do, instead relying on their silent telepathy and other biological functions to interact with one another (see Language). Many Pollies shy away from confrontation, though they also have a very passive-aggressive tendency when confronted with something they don't like.

Pollies are generally languid and lazy, their sluggish fungal bodies not prone to fast movements. They often sink themselves in the earth to assume the guise of an ordinary mushroom in order to absorb nutrients from the ground and rest.

Physical Description

Fully realized Pollies run are about as large as a human, though they may grow to exceptional sizes depending on their subspecies and growth direction. Fungal clusters and stems approximate legs and feet in varying states of completeness, whereas the head is often part of the main stem or the cap.

Relations

Pollies go out of their way to have as little contact as possible with the civilized races that they distrust, although living in swamps, woods and various underground biomes that support fungal growth, there are some creatures that they have come to tolerate and accept. Underground, they often coexist with slimes and gelatinous oozes for protection, and above ground, they have relations with fey. Their closest relationship with the more ordinary races is with gnomes, as they share their habitat with offshoots of forest gnomes above land and the svirfneblin below.

Alignment

Pollies are generally neutral aligned, with a moral tendency towards non-evil.

Lands

A Polly is most comfortable where funguses thrive; humid forests and jungles, bogs and marshes, moist caves and subterranean spaces are all prime habitats for Pollies to put their spores down.

Religion

Pollies worship idols of a vague entity they call the 'Fungal Queen', though they themselves are largely unaware of the roots of their religion. In truth, this worship started with Zuggtmoy, the Demon Queen of Fungi (see Book of Vile Darkness and Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss). Unbeknownst to the Pollies themselves, who only attained true sentience much later, they evolved from the discarded offshoots from the fungal slaves created by Zuggtmoy's clergy to do their bidding. Knowing this requires a DC30 Knowledge (religion) or Knowledge (the planes) check.

Language

Pollies speak Polly, an incredibly intricate multi-layered language that uses tonal input generated through telepathy to convey basic meaning, where grammatical emphasis, context, and deeper meanings are added through a mixture of releasing various different fungal spores and very feint body language that non-Polly are very unlikely to pick up on. With careful study and practice the tonal input of the Polly language can be emulated by a creature with telepathy, but that only allows for the most rudimentary of conversations. Though most Polly lack actual mouths and have no vocal chords, they are also capable of learning and telepathically speaking in civilized languages, however regardless of which party adjusts to the other, there will be a lot lost in translation unless a mutual understanding between the Polly and the other creature can be formed over the course of years.

Names

Because of the way they communicate, native Polly names are tonal rather than verbal. Polly that mingle with civilized races will often adopt a name in the commonly spoken tongue of the area that echoes the meaning of their birth name.

Racial Traits

Below are the traits common to all species of Polly. For further traits specific to individual Polly, see Polly Subspecies below.

• -4 Dexterity, +2 Constitution: Pollies are tough and hard to kill, but their sluggish fungal forms are not accustomed to moving at any kind of speed.
• Plant: Though they sport largely humanoid forms, at their base Pollies are a form of sentient flora. 
• Medium: As a Medium creature, a polly has no special bonuses or penalties due to its size.
• Polly base land speed is 20 feet.  
• Low-Light Vision: A polly can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions. 
• A Polly has a base natural armor bonus equal to its Constitution bonus. 
• Placeholder: Placeholder 
• Telepathy out to 100 feet. 
• Susceptible to Light: Pollies love places that are damp and dimly lit. They have light sensitivity and incur a -4 penalty against light-based spells and effects. 
• Root (Ex): A Polly may root itself into any natural surface. While rooted, a Polly absorbs nutrients from the ground and gains rapid healing equal to its effective character level. While rooted, a Polly enjoys a +8 circumstance bonus to Hide and Disguise checks to impersonate an ordinary mushroom. For this purpose, a rooted Polly may hide in plain sight as a ranger. 
• Hearth Mushroom (Ex): A Polly may spawn a special mushroom called a hearth mushroom in which it stores a portion of its life force. A newly spawned hearth mushroom requires 1 hour to plant and takes a number of days to mature equal to 20 minus the Polly's character level, to a minimum of 1 day, and requires the Polly to invest 1,000 XP into its growth. A Polly may have multiple hearth mushrooms, to a maximum of 1 per character level. The hearth mushroom is the same subspecies as the Polly that spawned it, and looks for all intents and purposes like an ordinary mushroom of Small size. A hearth mushroom has half the hit points of the Polly that spawned it and an AC of 6 + the Polly's natural armor score.

A Polly can establish a mental link with any of its hearth mushrooms as long as they are within 10 times their usual telepathy range (normally 1,000 feet). The Polly can cast its senses and its telepathy trough a linked hearth mushroom to observe anything around it as though it was their own body. As such, Polly communities often put their hearth mushrooms in one hidden spot so they can communicate telepathically with each other through their hearth mushrooms.

If a Polly has an ability to release spores, it can do so with it hearth mushroom as well (see Polly Subspecies below).

If the Polly dies within 1,000 feet per character level of a fully matured hearth mushroom, the hearth mushroom will grow into the Polly's new body over the course of 1d10 days, consuming the mushroom in the process. A dead Polly can similarly be returned to life by being brought into the radius of one of its hearth mushrooms as long as the number of days since its death is less than half its character level. After this period, a dead Polly's hearth mushrooms will all die.

• Automatic Languages:
• Bonus Languages:
• Favored Class: Any
• Level Adjustment: +
• Effective Character Level:

Vital Statistics

Table: Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
years	+	+	+

Table: Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
years	years	years	+ years
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: Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	' "	+	lb.	× () lb.
Female	' "	+	lb.	× () lb.

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