Chaos ƒulƒilled: Noah Marshall on a B/X race-class

Storm-born

Also known as Storm-children, the Children, or the Wardens; Storm-born are a peaceful race of hulking giants with deep spiritual devotions, and an insatiable curiosity about the small-folk of the wider world.  They are found only in the cliff-side regions which border the Pale Straights, and derive their name from the near-ceaseless thunderstorms which wrack the area, and which the Storm-born revere as a spiritual singularity.

Basic Mechanics:

Storm-born have very high hit-points but are generally no more effective in offensive combat than a Wizard due to their unfamiliarity with violence. They gain abilities related to healing, divination and fast-travel as they level up, and gain clerical magic at about half the normal rate of a Cleric.

Prime Requisite: Wisdom

Experience Bonus:  +5% for Wisdom 13-15, +10% for Wisdom 16-18

Hit Dice: 1d10 per level up to 8^th level. Starting at 9^th Level +2 hit points per level and Constitution adjustments no longer apply.

Maximum Level: 36

Armor: Not trained in use of any. Any worn must be specially sized.

Weapons: Club, Staff, Sling, Aboch (bola)

Abilities:
Sensory: Near-Perfect night vision and the ability to see monochromatically in the ultraviolet spectrum, but completely blind along the red/green spectrum.

Great-Size: Despite their great size, the innate gentleness of storm-born give them no benefits of strength beyond those of a typical adventurer; i.e. if you roll a 12 strength, you may actually have a strength of 22, but it doesn’t matter mechanically except…

Storm-born have encumbrance limits  x3 what their strength would normally indicate.

Their nourishment requirements are also x3 higher than a human’s. They are untrained in the use of armor, and even acquiring armor to suit their frame would cost x10 the normal price.

Tough Hide: Stormborn have a natural AC adjustment of +2.

Lay on Hands: Beginning at 2^nd level, Storm-born gain the ability to Lay on Hands to heal the wounds of a living creature.  They may heal a total of hit points each day equal to 2x their level. Each time they use Lay on Hands, they may heal as many hit points as they desire.

Dimension Door 1/day: This ability is gained at 5^th level, and functions exactly like the spell of the same name as a caster of the Stormborn’s level.

Commune 1/day: This ability is gained at 9^th level, and functions exactly like the spell of the same name as a caster of the Stormborn’s level.

Spellcasting: Functions exactly like clerical spellcasting, but with fewer spells per day than a Cleric of their level, and access to fewer spells overall. Their spell list is a mix of Cleric and Druid spells.

Strongholds: Storm-born are too short-lived and busy to typically worry about building lasting structures. If a player really wants to get into domain play, model the Storm-born stronghold on the Cleric.

Class Tables:

Appearance:

At first glance the creatures are quite intimidating; they stand nearly 10’ at the shoulder, with a hunched posture that suggests an even larger potential, and their faces are bestial, in a stubbed equine fashion. Their alien eyes are great blue orbs, overlarge for their heads, and their skin is an inhuman shade of orange-brown, and thick as bull-hide.

However, on closer observation, their true character can be discerned; while initially unsettling, their wide-eyed stare belies a constant sense of wonder and curiosity. Their mouths are filled with flat and rounded teeth to accommodate their herbivorous diet. Their movements are slow and deliberate, they take careful steps to avoid damaging the small world around them.

Culture:

Violence is not abhorred among the children, it’s simply unknown. While sport and lively competition are an important part of their culture, particularly Aboch-yar, an odd mix of horseshoes, dodge-ball, and soccer; the idea of hurting someone else because of anger or for gain just doesn’t cross their minds. Guilt and shame are the primary deterrents in Storm-born society, and they have a complex system of shaming laws that would confuse a human visitor.

Their cultural behaviors are derived from their spiritual belief system, and the Storm-born are a very religious people. They believe that all of their people are soul-shards of a singular hive-mind called The Storm. Periodically The Storm decides that it wishes to learn more about the Prime Material and sends another Storm-born in, as a sort of reality scout. The deeds of any given storm-born, whether glorious or dishonorable, will eventually be brought back to The Storm to be shared among the entire singularity. Thus, the concept of bringing shame to one’s family has existential implications to a Storm-born. 

The advisability behind punishing shameful actions with more shame, which must eventually be experienced by the entire race in unison, is best left debated by the High Storm-Wardens.

Storm-born cities are haphazard affairs. Storm-born believe this life to be but a short intermission in their eternal bodiless existence as part of The Storm, and thus build only the most basic creature comforts necessary to sustain them for their short lives. However, most do consider the process of building a living space to be a worthy experience to bring back to The Storm, and so their cities are jumbles and jumbles of stone and wooden lean-tos, half built into the Cliffs they call home, all built atop one-another, and only a handful of them occupied. Where they do take care to make a lasting impact is with the living things they grow for food or raise for company, and so their jumbled cities lie in stark contrast to their perfectly ordered orchards, symmetrical rows of crops, and beautifully maintained pastures.

Storm-born are birthed in an unknown fashion. Their people possess no defining sexual characteristics, and they gender themselves or don’t as suits their mood.  They are born by simply washing up upon the shores of the Pale Cliffs, fully aware, and fully curious about the world around them.  They live short lives of 10 to 15 years.

Boring self-indulgent explanations:

-I tried to follow Rules Cyclopedia format as closely as possible except I used ascending AC/Attack-Rolls.

-I don’t know nothin’ about Anime, but I got the idea for this race from this guy:

Just the look, and the “gentle-giant” theme really.