Marion (3.5e Race)

Author: Leziad (talk) Date Created: 30th June 2014 Status: Finished Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Marion

One day a great magic craftman built lovely lifelike marionette, somehow over time these marionette were awoken by a strange magic. The marion are a race of marionettes suspended by dark silvery strings that vanish in mid-air. They look like extremely human-like and they feel midway between wood and flesh to the touch. While they are strangely organic they seem to burn like wood and are vulnerable if you cut the strings 'animating' them. Marion have free will and souls much like living creatures.

Personality

Marion are extremely similar to human personality wise but tend to be more sarcastic and humorous than most. They tend to stay very in-character with the persona that they were given as marionette.

Physical Description

Marion look like incredibly life-like marionette of human, they move slightly less awkwardly than an actual marionette but it still feel unnatural. Marion are usually extremely similar to human appearance wise, thanks to the magic that animated them. A marion skin feel organix to the touch but is rigid to the touch.

Relations

Marion are typically not liked too much by other races, they have no community of their own and are seen as oddities. Marions find some camaraderie with other construct races and humans and halflings of all humanoid race are more accepting of marions. Overall marions tend to be adventurers and wandering entertainers.

Alignment

Marion can be of any alignment, however there is a slight tendency toward chaotic alignments within the marions.

Lands

Marion have no land of their own, they are living marionette. Marion are usually wanderers who travel either in group or alone, most often they find a lukewarm welcome when they reach civilization.

Religion

Marion do not tend to be particularly religious, although those that do follow religion follow Gods of artifice and constructs.

Language

Marion speak common, they do not have racial languages.

Names

Marion tend to give themselves human name after their awakening, it often match the personal they were originally given.

Racial Traits

• -2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence or +2 Charisma: Marion move very awkwardly, but they have fantastical magical attributes.
• Construct (Living Construct): Marion are construct but the magic that breathe life into them made them partly organic. 
• Small: As a Small creature, a marion gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –4 size penalty on special attack (bull rushes, grapples, overruns, and trips) checks, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but it uses smaller weapons than humans use, and its lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
• Marion base land speed is 20 feet.  
• Low-Light Vision: A marion 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. 
• Marions gain the hidden sorcery and flexible feats as a bonus feats even if they do not meet the prerequisites. 
• Marions have spell resistance equal to 11 + their HD. If a Marion does not have the ability to cast spells or manifest powers granted by a class increase it spell resistance by 3. 
• Living Construct Traits (Ex): Unlike other constructs, a living construct has a Constitution score. A living construct does not gain bonus hit points by size but gains (or loses) bonus hit points through a Constitution bonus (or penalty) as with other living creatures. Unlike other constructs, a living construct does not have low-light vision or darkvision. Unlike other constructs, a living construct is not immune to mind-influencing effects. They have immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain. A living construct cannot heal damage naturally. Unlike other constructs, living constructs are subject to critical hits, effects requiring a Fort save, death from massive damage, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects or necromancy effects.Unlike other constructs, a living construct can use the run action. Living constructs can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a living construct can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a living construct is vulnerable to a harm spell. However, spells from the healing subschool provide only half effect to a living construct. A living construct responds slightly differently from other living creatures when reduced to 0 hit points. A living construct with 0 hit points is disabled, just like a living creature. He can only take a single move action or standard action in each round, but strenuous activity does not risk further injury. When his hit points are less than 0 and greater than -10, a living construct is inert. He is unconscious and helpless, and he cannot perform any actions. However, an inert living construct does not lose additional hit points unless more damage is dealt to him, as with a living creature that is stable. They may be raised and resurrected as normal. They do not need to eat or breathe, but they DO need to trance (much like elves) for 4 hours in order to perform basic maintenance on their bodies. They must still rest 8 hours to prepare spells, and can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items such as heroes' feast and potions. 
• Master of Hexes: Marion gain the special ability of the curse domain, additionally they may spend their own spell slot to spontaneously cast spells from the curse domain by expending a spell slot of equal level (including the slots gained from hidden sorcery). If a marion take a level in a spellcasting class it immediately gain attune domain (curse domain) as a bonus feat for that class. 
• Suspended by Magic Strings (Ex): Marion are suspended by magic strings that seem to animate them. There is ten strings that can be be targeted independently by taking a -4 penalty to attack roll, two strings attached to each arms, each legs and the head. The strings are fragile and each string has 1 hit point per hit dice of the marion, full construct immunity, use the marion's saving throws and AC and have an hardness of 10. The strings can only be affected by targeted attacks, they are never included in area of effect. If both strings of a single limb is severed the marion take penalties (see below) based on which strings were severed until at least one of the string is repaired. A marion's string can only be be repaired by magic, spells that repair objects and construct (such as mending or make whole) work.
  • Arm: When one arm string is severed the marion take a -2 penalty to all actions that would involve using that arm. If both strings are severed the arm immediately go limb causing the marion to immediately drop all item held with that arm. If one arm has both strings severed the marion gain arcane spell failure of 25% which apply to all spell with somatic components (even divine spells), if both arm have their strings severed the arcane spell failure become 50%.
  • Head: If both of the head's strings are severed the marion is staggered (bypassing immunity) as it become unable to move it head around.
  • Leg: For each leg string severed reduce the marion speed by 5', if one leg has both of it string severed reduce the marion's speed by half (stacking with the previous penalty). If both legs have their strings severed the marion immediately fall prone and is unable to get up until the strings are repaired. It may still crawl as long as at least one arm remain, otherwise it is completely immobilized.
  • All: If all strings are cut the marion is paralyzed (bypassing immunity) and is only capable of taking purely mental actions. 
• Slight build (Ex): The physical stature of marion lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category smaller. Whenever a marion is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as Hide), the marion is treated as one size smaller if doing so is advantageous to the character. A marion is also considered to be one size smaller when "squeezing" through a restrictive space. A marion can use weapons designed for a creature one size smaller without penalty. However, the space and reach of a marion remain those of a creature of their actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject's size category. 
• Vulnerability to Fire (Ex): Marion are vulnerable to fire, taking an additional 50% damage to the energy attack. Marions are even more vulnerable to continual fire and take twice as much damage as normal when burning.
• Automatic Languages: Common
• Bonus Languages: Any non-secret.
• Favored Class: Any
• Level Adjustment: +1
• Effective Character Level: 2

Vital Statistics

Table: Marion Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
0 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6

Table: Marion Aging Effects

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

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	2’ 2”	+2d4	30 lb.	× (1) lb.
Female	2’ 0”	+2d4	25 lb.	× (1) lb.

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