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Page 1: 610 17920 001 EN PlanarHB CV - DriveThruRPG.com · festo by Dori Jean Hein, Tim Beach, and J.M. Salsbury; “Fractious Factions: Planar Prestige Classes” by Christopher Campbell

A Player’s Guide to the Planes

Bruce R. Cordell and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel

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C R E D I T S

Visit our website at www.wizards.com/dnd

D E S I G N

BRUCE R. CORDELL AND GWENDOLYN F.M. KESTREL

A D D I T I O N A L D E S I G N

STAN! AND JD WIKER

D E V E L O P M E N T T E A MANDY COLLINS, ANDREW FINCH,

DAVID NOONAN

E D I T O RRAY VALLESE

M A N A G I N G E D I T O R

KIM MOHAN

D E S I G N M A N A G E RED STARK

D E V E L O P M E N T M A N A G E RANDREW FINCH

D I R E C T O R O F R P G R & DBILL SLAVICSEK

A R T D I R E C T O RDAWN MURIN

C O V E R A R T I S TMATT CAVOTTA

I N T E R I O R A R T I S T SBRENT CHUMLEY, EMILY FIEGENSCHUH, DAVID HUDNUT, DANA KNUTSON, DOUG

KOVACS, DAVID MARTIN, DENNIS CRABAPPLE-MCCLAIN, JAMES PAVELEC, STEVE PRESCOTT,

VINOD RAMS, DAVID ROACH

G R A P H I C D E S I G N E RDAWN MURIN AND DEE BARNETT

C A R T O G R A P H E RTODD GAMBLE

G R A P H I C P R O D U C T I O N S P E C I A L I S TERIN DORRIES

I M A G E T E C H N I C I A NCANDICE BAKER

P R O D U C T I O N M A N A G E RJOSH FISCHER

Resources: Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb, Bruce R. Cordell, and David Noonan; “The Lich-Queen’s Beloved” (Dungeon #100) by Chris Perkins; Incursion (Dragon #309) by Chris Perkins & James Wyatt; Arms and Equipment Guide by Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, Jeff Quick, James Wyatt; Uncaged: Faces of Sigil by R.V. Vallese; Faction War by Monte Cook and Ray Vallese; Races of Faerûn by Eric L. Boyd, Matt Forbeck, James Jacobs; The Planewalker’s Handbook by Monte Cook; The Factol’s Mani-festo by Dori Jean Hein, Tim Beach, and J.M. Salsbury; “Fractious Factions: Planar Prestige Classes” by Christopher Campbell (Dragon #287); Tu’narath web supplement for “The Lich Queen’s Beloved” by Christopher Perkins at www.paizo.com; Secrets of the Lamp by Wolfgang Baur; A Guide to the Astral Plane by Monte Cook. Inspirations include The planetouched races on AndyCollins.net; “Arcane Alterations: Templates for Spells” by Christopher Perkins (Dragon #311).

Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® rules created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and the new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, and Peter Adkison.This product uses updated material from the v.3.5 revision.

This WIZARDS OF THE COAST® game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in

any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 System License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, DUNGEON MASTER, d20, d20 System, WIZARDS OF THE COAST, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual, Planar Handbook, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Wizards characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Distributed to the hobby, toy, and comic trade in the United States and Canada by regional distributors. Distributed in the United States to the book trade by Holtzbrinck Publishing. Distributed in Canada to the book trade by Fenn Ltd. Distributed worldwide by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and regional distributors. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. Printed in the U.S.A. ©2004 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

620-17920-001-EN 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Printing: July 2004

U.S., CANADA, ASIA, PACIFIC, & LATIN AMERICAWizards of the Coast, Inc.P.O. Box 707Renton WA 98057-0707Questions? 1-800-324-6496

EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERSWizards of the Coast, Belgium

T Hofveld 6d1702 Groot-Bijgaarden

Belgium+322-467-3360

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ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A Player’s Guide to the Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4What You Need to Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter 1: Races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Choosing a Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Racial Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Aasimars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Bariaurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Buommans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Mephlings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Neraphim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Shadowswyfts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Spikers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Tiefl ings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Wildren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Age, Height, and Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Character Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Height and Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Powerful Races. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Avoral Guardinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Chain Devil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Hound Archon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Janni . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Lillend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 2: Classes and Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Planar Substitution Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Barbarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Bard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Cleric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Druid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Fighter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Monk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Paladin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Ranger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Rogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Sorcerer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Feats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Heritage Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Feat Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Chapter 3: Prestige Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43The Athar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Lore of the Athar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Prestige Class: Defi ant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

The Doomguard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Lore of the Doomguard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Prestige Class: Doomlord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

The Fated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Lore of the Fated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Prestige Class: Fatemaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

The Mind’s Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Lore of the Mind’s Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Prestige Class: Visionary Seeker . . . . . . . 53

The Society of Sensation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Lore of the Sensates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Prestige Class: Ardent Dilettante. . . . . . . 55

The Transcendent Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Lore of the Transcendent Order . . . . . . . . 58Prestige Class: Cipher Adept . . . . . . . . . . . 58

The Xaositects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Lore of the Xaositects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Prestige Class: Chaotician . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Other Prestige Classes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Astral Dancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Elemental Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Chapter 4: Equipment and Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Goods and Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Mounts and Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Special Substances and Items . . . . . . . . . . 75

Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Armor and Shields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Rods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Staffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Wondrous Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Chapter 5: Spells. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Planar Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

The Abyss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Arborea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Baator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Celestia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Elysium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Hades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Limbo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Mechanus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Spell Lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Bard Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Blackguard Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Cleric Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Druid Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Paladin Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Ranger Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Sorcerer/Wizard Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Chapter 6: Creatures of the Planes. . . . . . . 107Anarchic Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Creating an Anarchic Creature. . . . . . . . 108Astral Kraken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Axiomatic Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Creating an Axiomatic Creature . . . . . . 111Dharculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Dwarf, Frost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Elementite Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Air Elementite Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Earth Elementite Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Fire Elementite Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Water Elementite Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116Elsewhale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Elysian Thrush. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118Energon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Xac-Yel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Xac-Yij . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Xap-Yaup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121Xong-Yong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121Xor-Yost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Entropic Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Creating an Entropic Creature . . . . . . . . 123

Gaspar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Gnome, Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Limbo Stalker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126Nightmare, Lesser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Blackguards and Lesser Nightmares. . . 128Pack Fiend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128Shadow Jelly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129Unraveler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130Ur’Epona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130Vivacious Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Creating a Vivacious Creature. . . . . . . . . 132Void Ooze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133New Creatures and Summon Spells . . . . . . 134

Chapter 7: Planar Sites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Cosmology Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

The Material Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135The Transitive Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135The Inner Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136The Outer Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136The Demiplanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136Geography of the Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Planar Metropolises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138The City of Brass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138Sigil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141Tu’narath. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Planar Breaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151Mechanics of a Planar Breach . . . . . . . . . 151Breach Candidacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153Random Breaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Planar Touchstones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153What Makes a Touchstone? . . . . . . . . . . . 154Traveling to Touchstone Sites . . . . . . . . . 154Touchstones on the Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . 154Encounter Level 4 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155Encounter Level 5 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155Encounter Level 6 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Encounter Level 7 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Encounter Level 8 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Encounter Level 9 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168Encounter Level 10 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171Encounter Level 11 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174Encounter Level 12 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Encounter Level 13 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182Encounter Level 14 Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Appendix: Planar Encounters. . . . . . . . . . . . 187Building a Plane-Specifi c

Encounter Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

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IntroductionYou’ve adventured in sunken ruins, abandoned dwarven mines, temples to death gods, and the thief-fi lled sewers of large cities. Still, you know there must be more to adventure, more to reality than what you’ve so far seen. You yearn to experience for yourself the mystical realms told about in stories and authenticated by the appearances of strange outsiders pulsing with elemental vigor or divine strength. You knew there had to be more to the multiverse. And you were right.

A PLAYER’S GUIDETO THE PLANES

The Dungeon Master’s Guide and Manual of the Planes both provide information on creating games that take place on worlds other than the Material Plane. But as excellent a resource as both these books are, they are primarily aimed at the Dungeon Master. The Planar Handbook is organized differently. It was written and compiled with players, and player characters, in mind. The Planar Handbook offers a vast array of options for exploring and adventuring on the planes. Like a hero of myth, your character can descend into the land of the dead, traverse Olympian mounts, or battle devils in Hell itself. In this player’s guide to the planes, you’ll discover new races, feats, equipment, spells, and magic items to help burst the barriers and bridge the gaps between the Material Plane and other environments and realities. New tricks for “ordi-nary” characters are also provided; now a barbarian, fi ghter, or sorcerer can improve his or her ability to function and survive on other planes by taking special planar substitu-tion levels. Another highlight of this book is the concept of planar touchstones—points of power interspersed throughout the multiverse that are ripe for the tapping. By knowing where they are and how they work, your character can tour a small constellation of planar touchstones to which she is attuned, thereby directly charging her body with planar power. Now, you hold the reins for instigating a trip away from the familiar Material Plane. With this handbook, you can become better prepared to make that trip—and to return.

CHAPTER SUMMARY Chapter 1: Races. This chapter introduces several new character races—buommans, mephlings, neraphim, shadow swyfts, spikers, and wildren—as well as a selection of planar character races from previous products. It also presents several powerful races in the “monster class” format popularized by Savage Species: avoral guardinal, chain devil, hound archon, janni, and lillend. Chapter 2: Classes and Feats. This chapter intro-duces the planar substitution level—a new option for

characters using the standard classes from the Player’s Handbook . The chapter also includes new plane-specific and planar-inspired feats, such as Acheron Flurry, Celes-tial Summoning Specialist, and Planar Familiar. Two new feats, Planar Touchstone and Personal Touchstone, allow a character to “plug into” extraplanar locations that exude power, which that character can then channel and use. Finally, a new category of feats—heritage feats—enables you to define your character’s extraplanar ancestry in new ways. Chapter 3: Prestige Classes. Take your character in an exciting new direction with the elemental warrior, astral dancer, cipher adept, or doomlord, to name just a few of the prestige classes presented here. Most of the classes in this chapter are presented along with descriptions of organiza-tions appropriate to a planar campaign, which may serve as allies or foes of the player characters. Chapter 4: Equipment and Magic Items. When all the planes are your marketplace, the variety of possible equipment is nearly infi nite. This chapter provides a small sampling of that variety, focusing on a few weapons, armors, gear, and other useful items available “out there.” For those interested in getting around the planes in a reliable manner, planar mounts or plane-traipsing vehicles, such as the ethe-real tunneler, may be just the thing. Chapter 5: Spells. When your knowledge of spells is informed by familiarity with multiple dimensions, magic undreamed of could be yours. With these new resources, you can precipitate a dimensional rift, summon mighty new monsters, tap into the abilities of extraplanar creatures, or even open up entirely new domains of divine power. Chapter 6: Creatures of the Planes. Here you’ll fi nd plane-hopping creatures and monsters native to other planes to challenge all characters. A few, such as the else-whale and the lesser nightmare, could serve your character as a mount, ally, or summoned servant. Chapter 7: Planar Sites. In addition to traveling tips, a discussion of planar breaches, and tours of some big-name metropolises that any planar adventurer will want to visit sometime during his career, this chapter describes dozens of planar touchstone locations—sites that let you tap into the higher-order powers of the multiverse.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAYPlanar Handbook makes use of the information in the three D&D core rulebooks—Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. In addition, it includes refer-ences to material (primarily monster descriptions) from several D&D supplements, including Manual of the Planes, Monster Manual II, Fiend Folio, Draconomicon, Miniatures Handbook, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, and Epic Level Handbook. Although possession of any or all of these supplements will enhance your enjoyment of this book, they are not strictly necessary.

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particular abilities, alter the abilities according to race (see Table 1–1: Racial Ability Adjustments, on the next page), and continue detailing your character.

RACIAL CHARACTERISTICSYour character’s race determines some of his or her qualities.

Race AdjustmentsFind your character’s race on Table 1–1: Racial Abil-ity Adjustments and apply the adjustments you see there to your character’s ability scores. If these changes raise your score above 18 or below 3, that’s okay. Exception: Intelligence for characters cannot go below 3. If your character would have an Intel-ligence of 1 or 2 after applying ability adjustments, make it 3 instead.

In addition, each race’s favored class is listed on Table 1–1: Racial Ability Adjustments. A character’s favored class doesn’t count against the character when determining experience point penalties for multiclassing (see Experience for Multi class Charac-ters, page 60 of the Player’s Handbook).

The level adjustment (Level Adj.) is also given for each race. This number indicates the effective

he races presented in the Player’s Handbook are perfectly suitable to a planar campaign. Humans, elves, dwarves,

and the other races all travel between the planes, and some even choose to make their homes there.

Players and DMs wishing for a more multiplanar feel to the campaign might choose to incorporate charac-ters from one or more of the planar-oriented races in this chapter. Some of these races hail from specifi c planes, while others simply show the signs of planar ancestry, but all of them have a distinctly planar fl avor. The neraphim originate in Limbo, but some have found their way to the great planar metropolises, including Sigil and Union. The wildren travel the wild places between planes, enjoying their capacity to seek and explore, while the Acheron-born spikers seek to prove themselves in combat wher-ever they go.

CHOOSING A RACEAfter you roll your ability scores (see page 7 of the Player’s Handbook) but before you write them on your character sheet, choose your character’s race. At the same time, you’ll want to choose his or her class, since race affects how well he or she can do in each class. Once you know your character’s race and class, assign your ability score rolls to

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level of the character you bring to the table and is useful for comparing the power of your character’s race to the power of characters of the standard races.

Finally, Table 1–1 lists each race’s bonus languages. All characters know how to speak Common. Some races also speak a racial language. Smart characters (those with an Intelligence bonus) speak other languages as well, one extra language per point of bonus. Select your character’s bonus languages (if any) from the list found on the table.

Literacy: Unless your character is a barbarian (a class in the Player’s Handbook), he or she can read and write all the languages he or she speaks.

AASIMARSCarrying the blood of a celestial, an aasimar is usually good-aligned and fi ghts against evil in the world. Some aasimars have a minor physical trait suggesting their heri-tage, such as silver hair, golden eyes, or an unnatu-rally intense stare.

Personality: Most aasimars strive for nobility in their behavior, but must often fight against tendencies toward venge-fulness or quick judgment. Some also experience a great deal of prejudice, particularly from their human neigh-bors, which can lead to aloofness. Ultimately, most aasimars tend to be loners, unable to fully trust others.

Physical Description:Aasimars look human (and are roughly the same height and weight as members of that race), except for one distin-guishing feature related to their unusual ancestry. This feature may take the form of silver hair, golden

or even topaz eyes, iridescent skin, an intense stare, or a powerful, ringing voice.

Aasimars reach adulthood at about the same age as humans but are longer-lived, with the eldest members of the race living to be 150 years old.

Relations: Although aasimars are mostly human, they rarely feel like they fi t in among human society. Instead, they get along best with other halfbreeds—namely, half-elves and half-orcs—because they usually share the same sort of semioutcast background. Good-aligned aasimars are also generally friendly toward bariaurs and wildren, which share some of their celestial heritage.

Of the other races, aasimars save their distrust for tief-lings, whose fi endish ancestry strikes a chord of suspicion in the heart of the aasimar.

Alignment: Aasimars are usually good, as befi ts their celestial heritage. However, the extraordinarily rare evil aasimar often makes the vilest villain.

Religion: Aasimars have no chief deity. Popular

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Table 1–1: Racial Ability AdjustmentsRace Level Adj. Ability Adjustments Favored Class Bonus LanguagesAasimar +1 +2 Wis, +2 Cha Paladin Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, SylvanBariaur +1 +2 Str, –2 Cha Ranger Abyssal, InfernalBuomman +0 +2 Wis, –2 Cha Monk Aquan, Githzerai, TerranMephling, Air +1 +2 Dex, –2 Int, +2 Cha Bard Aquan, Auran, Ignan, TerranMephling, Earth +1 +2 Str, –2 Dex, –2 Int, +2 Cha Druid Aquan, Auran, Ignan, TerranMephling, Fire +1 +2 Dex, –2 Int, +2 Cha Sorcerer Aquan, Auran, Ignan, TerranMephling, Water +1 +2 Con, –2 Int, +2 Cha Monk Aquan, Auran, Ignan, TerranNeraph +0 None Ranger Common, Celestial, AbyssalShadowswyft +1 +2 Dex, –2 Con Rogue Abyssal, Celestial, ElvenSpiker +0 None Fighter InfernalTiefling +1 +2 Dex, +2 Int, –2 Cha Rogue Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin,

Halfling, OrcWildren +1 +4 Con, –2 Dex, –2 Cha Barbarian Sylvan, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran

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