Candothist (3.5e Race)

Author: Ganteka Future (talk) Date Created: 29 May 2008 Status: Version 2.1 Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Candothists

Incarnated through unnatural means, they are haunted by their past.

A male candothist, a female teroccus candothist and a genderless zicotion candothist.

Powerful magic has powerful consequences. Magic can pierce into where the souls of the dead reside and send souls hurtling back to the Material Plane and be given flesh. Magic can call to those whose time had come too soon, only to find that the spell was cast improperly and the wrong soul was retrieved. A powerful soul can travel to the Material Plane and bind matter to himself to form a body. A powerful mage may turn a stone statue to flesh and blood and bind a soul to it. All these are possible origins of candothists. Whatever the cause of their incarnation, they themselves are all the result of a soul returning to the world to live again.

A candothist only loses his memories from before he initially incarnates as a candothist. He retains most all his memories when he self-reincarnates.

Personality

Candothists are glad to be alive and relish every moment they get. They enjoy the pleasures and the pains of existence. They brim with quirks and often show signs of old fashioned conservatism. They love aged things, as if they trigger an innate sense of familiarity in a world that seems strange to them. However, all too often, seemingly innocuous circumstances causes them to freeze in a grip of lost thought. Because of their lost past, they endlessly search their world for answers about who they were, just as much as they would rather forget their past entirely and focus on who they are now.

Physical Description

Candothists are among the most physically varied of mortals, being difficult to identify from half-breed folk and unusual outlanders. They often share traits that are common to certain races, such as pointed ears or small horns. Among the great diversity, identifying an individual becomes a simpler task, as each candothist has one or more unique traits that allow him to be identified after a reincarnation.

Whatever the specifics of their appearances, all candothists appear oddly assembled, with slightly twisted anatomy or strange features. In addition, since candothists might have no gender, they can also appear generic or androgynous.

Candothists range in height from a bit below five feet on the short side to nearly seven feet tall at their tallest, with the shorter individuals weighing around 90 pounds and the taller ones weighing in at nearly 230 pounds. They almost always appear lanky, a trait accentuated by their typically disproportionate anatomy. As their gender varies from incarnation to incarnation, there is no distinction among height and weight among the sexes (or sexless).

Due to whatever trick of scrambled thoughts and memories from past lives, candothists generally have very poor fashion senses, mixing colors and styles or simply dressing awkwardly or in clothes not designed for their gender. They wear what they like.

The physical condition of candothists possesses them of an unusually awkward gait, occasionally likened to that of shambling undead or someone being puppeted about.

Relations

Candothists do not have a society or shared culture of their own, as their numbers are far too small and widespread. Needing the companionship of other humanoids for their pursuit of self-realization, they integrate themselves as best they can wherever they find themselves living. Human lands offer the quickest and easiest opportunity for social acceptance as often in human lands, a candothists eccentricities are often overlooked. Frontier towns with mixed folk are also fair locations for candothists to live.

Alignment

Candothists have no predisposed fixation on any moral or ethical compunction. They may not remember how or why they feel certain ways, due to their loss of memory and reincarnation, and take to their previous alignment readily unless they are not given to the same lifestyle and situation as before they returned to life.

Lands

Candothists don't typically prefer to lead sheltered lives and are often drawn into the lands of other peoples. Human lands often support the most variety and willingness to support other welcome races. Candothists don't congregate into communities of their own and have no lands they call their own.

Religion

Candothists often praise deities for giving them the power to return to the world of the living as often as they curse those same deities by taking away their memories. They often find solace by praying to deities of Magic and Travel as they search for arcane secrets and wander from town to town. Many candothists, lacking a childhood to impress upon them the importance of religion, as well as lacking the social structure for a need for religion, find themselves reflecting upon the world around them for spiritual guidance.

Language

From the moment they are created, candothists know how to speak Celestial and Common. They can be quite talkative, readily telling stories in hopes of garnering enough trust to hear one in return. They tend to prefer speaking in specialized tongues, depending on the topic at hand. Gesticulating during conversation is also common, even if it is subtle.

Names

Candothists have no racial names, with them often choosing names from faded memories, or being given names by those around them.

Racial Traits

• –2 Constitution, +2 Charisma: Candothists have a strong sense of self and can be very likable, but their bodies are fragile from reincarnation. See Table: Morphic Reincarnation below for changes to their ability scores.
• Humanoid (Candothist)
• Medium: As medium-size creatures, candothists have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Candothist base land speed is 30 feet.
• Skill Memory: A candothist gains an additional +4 skill points at first level, as they retain some form of memory from a past life.
• Bend Time (Su): Once per minute, as a swift action, they can alter the flow of time around themselves. This ability mimics the effects of either haste or slow, but the duration is 1 round and only the candothist and those in their space (of their size or smaller) are targeted. This supernatural ability does not counter the effects of those spells, but does supersede it for that one round. The save DC to resist this ability is 10 + their Charisma-modifier + ½ their HD.
• Existential Shield (Su): Once per minute, as a swift action, they can call upon the force of their being, granting them their Charisma bonus as a bonus to their Armor Class for one round.
• Strange Body Language (Ex): They move differently than their form suggests, especially in combat. They are treated as non-humanoid for the purposes of resolving Feint attempts (attackers suffer a –4 penalty to their attempt). Unfortunately, their odd movements cause them to suffer a –4 penalty on Balance skill checks.
• Haunting Flashbacks (Ex): From time to time, they encounter something that perplexes their senses as if they were overwhelmed by déja vu. At the start of every encounter, before they take any action, there is a 25% chance that they notice something that triggers the recollection of a vague broken memory. If this happens, they take a –2 morale penalty on attacks, saves, ability checks and skill checks for 1 round and a –1 morale penalty thereafter until they snap out of it by concentrating as a full-round action.
• Self-Reincarnate (Su): A candothist can return from death without outside magical aid. When a candothist dies and rests in the afterlife for 8 hours, they can choose to return to their flesh up to 1 day/level later, though they are temporarily weakened when they do so. Upon returning, they acquire a temporary Negative Level which lasts 24 hours. If taking this Negative Level lowers their current level to less than one, they instead take 2 points of Constitution burn which can only be healed naturally. The Negative Level and ability burn never reduce their Constitution below 1 or lower their HP below 1 per HD. Upon using this ability, they returns to their body, which is restored to life and at 1 HP. If they choose to use this ability, the player then rolls on the Morphic Reincarnation chart below. If their body was destroyed (reduced to less than half its original weight), they cannot return to life with this ability. See additional restrictions and notes under The Reincarnation Process below.
• Automatic Languages: Celestial and Common.
• Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Speak Language skill.
• Favored Class: Sorcerer
• Level Adjustment: +0
• Base Effective Character Level: 1

Vital Statistics

Table: Candothist Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
0 years	+1d4	+2d4	+3d4

Table: Candothist Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
40 years	50 years	60 years	+2d6 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: Candothist Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	4' 5"	+3d10"	80 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
Female	4' 5"	+3d10"	80 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
Neutral	4' 5"	+3d10"	80 lb.	× (2d4) lb.

The Reincarnation Process

There are several circumstances that prevent a candothist from returning to their body upon their death:

• If their body is raised as an undead. However, making an unsuitable vessel, the process instead fails and their corpse melts into blood and ichor.
• If their body is placed inside a magical container or surrounded by magical barriers or force.
• If their body is cut in half (or otherwise reduced to less than half its original weight).
• If their body is petrified. A candothist turned to stone is not dead. However, this situation grants them the option of allowing their soul to depart, which does kill them. This choice must be made at the moment of petrification. If their body is ever turned back to flesh, they may return to it as normal.
• If their body rots.
• If they cannot pay the cost of the Negative Level or the full 2 Constitution burn, they cannot use Self-Reincarnate.

There are several circumstances that allow a candothist to return under special conditions:

• If they have previous bodies that have been preserved (such as through gentle repose), their soul may return to a previously inhabited body, so long as it is available to be inhabited.
• Their soul may inhabit the bodies of other departed candothists, so long as the body has been prepared for them to return to it. To prepare a foreign body for them to inhabit, an 8 hour ritual must take place as the body is bathed in specially prepared magical fluids costing 1,200 gp.
• A casting of reincarnate rebuilds the candothist’s body and can recall them. With the spell, a candothist rolls on the Morphic Reincarnation chart, not the reincarnate chart listed with the spell.

Upon using their Self-Reincarnate ability, a candothist will have no memory of just being dead, and will often come to the conclusion that they were left for dead, but somehow survived. Waking up in a coffin six feet underground has killed many candothists (again), but when they escape, it often acts as fuel for rumors of undead in the area.

Each time a candothist uses his Self-Reincarnate ability, they must roll on the Morphic Reincarnation chart below to determine what parts of their form change. Each Incarnation starts at the adult age and characters loose any age penalties or bonuses from their previous incarnation. Candothists do not have a maximum age from which they can be incarnated from, but they still die of old age. If Neutral is rolled, the character appears neither male nor female. Their unique candothist traits (such as horns or pointed ears) do not change during reincarnation.

Morphic Reincarnation

Roll a d3 for each attribute.

Table: Morphic Reincarnation

Attributes	d3 Result			Attribute Information
	1	2	3
Sex1	Male	Neutral	Female	Neutral is neither male nor female. Gear worn by the old body does not change to suit the new form.
Features1	Rugged	Average	Fair	General Appearance. Rugged tends toward masculinity. Fair tends toward femininely featured.
Height & Weight2	+ 1", +5 lbs.	Same	−1", −5 lbs.	Changes are within the limits of the race.
Hair	1 Darker	Same	1 Lighter	Black ↔ Brown ↔ Auburn ↔ Redhead ↔ Blonde ↔ Platinum
Skin	1 Darker	Same	1 Lighter	Dark Brown ↔ Brown ↔ Olive ↔ Medium ↔ Fair ↔ Light
Any Change in Sex or Features results in a +4 Disguise bonus to avoid being recognized as their former self. Typically for every inch gained or lost, adjust weight by 5 lbs.

Unique Traits

Each candothist is created with one or more unique traits that aid identification even when its body is altered during the morphic reincarnation process. Listed below are some basic concepts and ideas to help players decide on possible unique traits.

If you would prefer, you may roll a d12 to determine a unique trait category randomly.

Table: Candothist Unique Character Traits

#	Unique Trait	Ideas and Options
1	Horn(s)	Antlers, Dragon-like, Fiend-like, Ram-like, Short Nubs, Unicorn-like
2	Tail	Club-Tipped, Finned, Long, Mouth-Tipped, Short, Thick, Thin, Tufted
3	Eyes	Animalistic, Extra Eyes, Extra Lids, Metallic, Solidly Colored, Unusually Colored
4	Teeth	Flat, Jagged, Multi-Layered, Numerous, Oddly Colored, Pointed, Small, Toothless
5	Hands	Differently Colored, Extra Fingers, Fewer Fingers, Nail-less, Thick Nails, Webbed
6	Feet	Differently Colored, Extra Toes, Fewer Toes, Nail-less, Thick Nails, Webbed
7	Hair	Completely Hairless, Oddly Colored, Pointed, Slick, Tendrils, Unusually Hairy, Unusual Placement/Location, Vines
8	Facial Features	Animalistic, Cheekbones (Pocked, Prominent, Spiked), Chin (Cleft, Pointed, Prominent), Ears (Externally Absent, Folded, Sylvan), Eyebrows (Absent, Boney, Spiny), Nose (Aquiline, Horned, Protruding, Snubbed), Scarred
9	Tongue	Forked, Frog-like, Hollow Tube, Long, Oddly Colored, Raspy, Tendrilous
10	Arcane Markings	Branded, Cracks in the Skin, Flowing Veins, Marked with Lines, Single Prominent Sigil, Tattooed with Writing
11	Skin	Bony Protrusions, Chitinous, Oddly Colored, Oddly Textured, Patterned, Soft, Tattooed, Tough
12	Blood	Clear, Colored (White, Yellow, Orange, Magenta, Purple, Blue, Cyan, Green, Brown, Gray, Black), Solidifies in Air, Sublimates in Air, Syrupy, Unusually Scented/Flavored

Races of Rom

The races from Rom:

• Aiton Amazons
• Aroghin

• Granlings

• Candothists

• Teroccus Candothists

• Darkkin
• Deeka

• Ivories
• Ivory Elves

• Durzites
• Malaquians

• Guromescai

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