Homard

The Homards are a race of intelligent lobsters who can move onto land and use weapons and other tools.


 

Species Name: Homard, Lobster man

Type: Lobster

Physical Traits: A Homard grabs with its claws and constricts its foe, then passes the opponent to its paralytic tentacles. It tries to always have one claw free, so if it faces a large number of opponents, it drops a paralyzed or dead victim and continues attempting to grab, constrict, and paralyze the rest.

Height: 7-8 feet

Weight: 650lbs

Abilities: Although amphibious, Homards are not good swimmers and actually prefer to be on land or in very shallow water when they attack. They are able to dive down to a maximum depth of 20 metres per CON and can see in low light with absolute clarity at a distance of 60 feet.

Mobility: Legs

Sensory Organs: Visual

Communication: Visual

Reproduction: Egg. Oviparous creatures, adult Homard produce clusters of slimy yellow-green eggs from which Homard hatchlings emerge. An adult Homard will lay such egg sacs only rarely, and so will viciously protect them (as would any fellow pod members). If a Homard with hatchlings finds itself in a food-poor environment, it will attempt to collect humanoid prisoners to feed to its young. Seemingly counterintuitively to their aforementioned protective care towards their young, Homards are known to attach their egg sacs to the underside of ships, boats, and rafts in an attempt to increase their distribution to new lands.

INT: 3D6, WIS: 3D6, STR: 5D6, DEX: 3D6, CON: 3D6, CHA: 2D6, MR: 3D6 walk/2D6 swim, HPs: CON +D20, AC: 4

Orbit/Climate: See Earth

Feeding Habits: Omnivore

Lifespan: 60 years

Technology: 1

Culture: Hostile, intolerant and aggressive, held in check by strong social customs.Homards are armored, crustacean-like surprisingly intelligent, leading many to speculate fruitlessly on their origins and motivations. They speak a chittering, burbling dialect of Common, but few are inclined to speak to those outside their race, and if Homard society exists beyond their frenzied mating season, humanoids have yet to record it. Instead, Homard intellects seem entirely devoted to seeking out the perfect ambush sites to attack other intelligent creatures and decorating their elaborate lairs with trophies from their kills. Though the Homards themselves seem uninterested in using tools of any kind, they have an almost compulsive need to collect keepsakes from their victims. Homard could be found in aquatic lairs in a variety of watery habitats. Although they prefer swamps, jungle lakes, temperate marshes, and underground bodies of water, some individuals will purposely seek out sewer tunnels or coastline shipwrecks in order to provide themselves with a more accessible source of food. They are also known to use rivers, and even oceans, in order to travel to new locales. Homards can be found living as solitary creatures, in pairs, or in small groups of 3-5, which were known as pods. A pod will purposely seek out a body of still water that is large enough to support the entire group. Some Homard, particularly older ones, will create lairs by digging up lake bottoms and building rudimentary structures from trees and stones. A Homard lair consists of roughly circular rooms that are interconnected by tunnels made just large enough for the biggest member of the resident pod to squeeze through. One of the aforementioned rooms will always be a trophy room, as Homards are born hoarders. After making a humanoid kill, a Homard will keep aside something from the victim as a trophy, whether shiny armour, a piece of jewellery, or even a well-crafted saddle. If the victim is not carrying anything of interest, then the Homard would settle for displaying their skull in their trophy room. The skull itself would be empty, but not due Homard consumption; brains were poisonous to them. Homards either discard the brain far away from their lair or trade it with the brain-eating mind flayers. A Homard could even be persuaded to barter with the items in their hoard, but only for captive humanoids or other things a Homard consider a "delicacy". They share a racial memory, which they possess from the moment they hatch. This allows a Homard to clearly recall events experienced by the previous generation of their race, but this becomes less and less vivid the further back it goes. Such memories tend to carry one defining message though: hate and kill the humanoids. With such an innate hostility, Homards will attack any such beings whenever they are able.

Government: None

Population: 4,456,130


 

Creating a Homard character

Step 1: Attributes
Roll attributes as normal but STR is 5D6 and CHA 2D6. Mana = INT + WIS. Mana is recovered at a rate of 2 per hour if remain active (but not using magic) and 5 per hour if asleep. Mana can however be permanently traded for HPs at a rate of 1 for 1. Hit points = CON +20, +20 per level.
Step 2: Skills

Choose skills in the normal manner according to the character's class, however some may not be available due a lack of fingers.

Step 3: Abilities

All Homards gain all the following free;

Hard Shell - The Homard's exterior shell has AC 5 and CON +20 HPs, +20 per level. If damaged it can regenerate 1 HP per day per CON.

Night Vision - The character can see in low light with absolute clarity at a distance of 60 feet.

Additionally Homards start with 35 Points to spend on any of the following abilities. As they earns more experience they may buy or rebuy more abilities.

Ability Cost Notes
Animal Empathy 5 Homards can establish telepathic communication with any small or normal aquatic crustaceans within line of sight if he does nothing else in the round. The crustacean must have a minimum INT of 1. This has the following benefits:
He can communicate to the creature that he desires its friendship. If the offer is sincere (and the animal will be able to sense if it isn't), the creature can be calmed and will not attack or flee unless it is attacked. It will answer any of his questions.

Further he can then recruit this crustacean as an ally. Once he does so he permanently psionically links with the crustacean turning it into a familiar. At any point he may see through the familiar's eyes, smell through its nose, hear with its ears, taste with its mouth or link with any of its other senses (including supernatural ones). The two are always in constant telepathic contact.

Enhanced Taste 5 Can identify the specific ingredients of anything that have previously eaten, drunk or sample tasted. This includes chemicals, animals, plants, toxins and poisons.
Natural Chameleon 5

Using this ability the Homard can blend into and render himself nearly invisible so long as he remains still. When hiding he can conceal himself from attackers and eavesdrop on his enemies. He can hide near a well travelled road and secretly observe passersby, or conceal himself near an enemy campsite waiting for an opportune moment to steal their supplies. 

Natural Mana 10 +5 Mana at levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20.
Nature Heal 5

Only ocean terrain maybe selected for healing at phenomenal rates. He must concentrate for 1 minute uninterrupted to perform the following healing; restore 1 HP per INT, +1 per level per 10 minutes; reduce the damage and duration of drugs, toxins and poisons by 4% per INT, +1% per level and gives +1 to save per 4 INT; negate all pain for 1 minute per INT, +1 minute per level; or stabilize his condition (stops bleeding, binds wounds, etc.) for 15 minutes per level.

Nature Survival 5 Due to a Homard's extensive experience and training in the ocean they gain +1 to any physical, combat and survival rolls made while within that environment. Each time this ability is rebought he may take an additional +1.
Really Hard Shell 5 +1 AC. This can be rebought multiple times but not beyond AC 0.
SAN Bonus 10 +1 Sanity save at levels 2, 5, 9, 11, 13 and 17.
Willpower Bonus 10 +1 Willpower save at levels 1, 4, 8, 12, 14, 16 and 20.
Witch Sight 10 The character can see the true image of any person or object regardless of any form of concealment, disguise, illusion or invisibility. This also includes the ability to detect whether it is magical, and whether it is harmful or helpful.
Step 4: Classes

Any, but spellcasting is difficult so a mage would be very weak.

 

 

Races