P99 offline: Races

From the barbarians of the frozen north to the trolls in the southern swamps. the lands of Norrath are full of many different races, each with their own civilizations. cultures. and tolerances. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses. as well. ranging from physical and mental abilities, class choices. and special abilities (or lack thereof). Very little will affect your character as much as your choice of race. which. once decided. you can't change during the course of your character's career.

Not every class is available to each race. and you should consider this when choosing your character's race. Even within the classes available to each race, some races are going to be better at some classes than others. Barbarians. for example, make particularly good warriors, but in many ways make worse rogues than do halflings.

Additionally. the race you pick is likely to have a strong impact on how non-player characters (NPCs) — that is. characters controlled by the GM — react to you (see “Factions" in Chapter 6: Description). Most members of a race fall into rather broad categories of behaviors and beliefs. as noted in each race description. Although many of these are only guidelines. most characters will assume your dark elf is a fairly typical member of his race. even if you‘ve decided to make him a rare exception to the normal dark elf culture of hatred and deceit.

Racial Adjustments:

Your character's race will have an effect on her starting ability scores, feats, and skills, and may grant your character special abilities.

Racial Ability Adjustments:

Most races have a few bonuses and penalties to starting ability £32.] scores. These modifiers are listed under each race's description in this chapter, and are summarized on Table 2—1: Racial Ability Adjustments. These modifiers change your character’s starting ability scores, and similarly affect your maximum starting ability scores (see Abilities Link).

Race	Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
Barbarian (Bar)	+4 Str	+2 Con	N/A	-2 Int	-2 Wis	-2 Cha
Dark Elf (Def)	-2 Str	+2 Dex	N/A	+4 Int	N/A	-2 Cha
Dwarf (Dwf)	+2 Str	N/A	+2 Con	-2 Int	+2 Wis	-4 Cha
Erudite (Eru)	-4 Str	-2 Dex	N/A	+6 Int	+2 Wis	-2 Cha
Froglok (Frg)	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
Gnome (Gnm)	-4 Str	+4 Dex	-2 Con	+4 Int	-2 Wis	N/A
Half Elf (Hef)	N/A	+2 Dex	-2 Con	N/A	-2 Wis	+2 Cha
Halfling (Hfl)	-2 Str	+4 Dex	N/A	+4 Int	+4 Wis	+2 Cha
Human (Hum)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Iksar (Iks)	+4 Str	+2 Dex	N/A	N/A	+2 Wis	-4 Cha
Ogre (Ogr)	+6 Str	-2 Dex	+4 Con	-4 Int	-2 Wis	-4 Cha
Troll (Trl)	+4 Str	N/A	+6 Con	-4 Int	-2 Wis	-6 Cha
Kerran (Vah)	+2 Str	N/A	N/A	-2 Int	N/A	N/A
Wood Elf (Elf)	-2 Str	+4 Dex	-2 Con	N/A	+2 Wis	N/A

Class:

Each race has a number of classes available to it, and may have one or more favored classes that do not count against it when determining experience point (XP) penalties for multiclassing (see “Experience for Multiclass Characters" in TBD Link). The available classes for each race are listed on Table 2-2.

Race	Available Classes
Barbarian (Bar)	Beastlord, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior*.
Dark Elf (Def)	Cleric, Enchanter, Magician, Necromancer*, Rogue, Shadow knight, Warrior, Wizard.
Dwarf (Dwf)	Cleric*, Paladin*, Rogue, Warrior.
Erudite (Eru)	Cleric, Enchanter**, Magician**, Necromancer**, Paladin, Shadow knight, Wizard.
Froglok (Frg)	TBD
Gnome (Gnm)	Cleric, Enchanter*, Magician*, Necromancer, Paladin, Rogue, Shadow knight, Warrior, Wizard.
Half Elf (Hef)	Bard*, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warrior.
Halfling (Hfl)	Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warrior.
Human (Hum)	Bard**, Beastlord**, Cleric**, Druid**, Enchanter**, Magician**, Monk**, Necromancer**, Paladin**, Ranger**, Rogue**, Shadow knight**, Warrior**, Wizard**.
Iksar (Iks)	Beastlord, Monk*, Necromancer, Shadow knight, Shaman, Warrior.
Ogre (Ogr)	Beastlord, Shadow Knight, Shaman, Warrior*.
Troll (Trl)	Beastlord, Shadow Knight, Shaman, Warrior*.
Kerran (Vah)	Bard**, Beastlord**, Rogue**, Shaman**, Warrior**.
Wood Elf (Elf)	Bard, Druid, Ranger, Rogue, Warrior.

A * indicates a favored class. A * indicates the highest level of these classes is considered a favored class. See the race description for details.

Racial Experience Penalties:

Not all races are equally challenged by the usual dangers of adventuring. As a result. some races gain less experience than others even when facing the same difficulties. Those races with experience point penalties are listed below.

When determining experience penalties from race and multiclassing, add all the penalties together and then modify the total experience gained. For example. a barbarian 5th-level rogue] 2nd-level shaman has a 5% XP penalty for being a barbarian and a 20% XF penalty for multiclassing, resulting in a 25% total experience penalty.

Table 2-3: Racial Experience Penalties: Barbarian 5% lksar 15% Ogre 20% Troll 20%

Languages:

All characters. in fact practically everyone in Norrath, speaks the Common tongue fluently. In bazaars in major cities, dwarves, gnomes, humans and wood elves all barter together in Common. with no difficulty understanding one another. Even the reptilian Iksar and monstrous ogres and trolls can speak Common without hardship, although ogres and trolls are not known for their extensive vocabularies. All characters begin play with 4 free skill ranks in Common, with the exception of ogres and trolls, who begin with 3 ranks (see the Language skill in Chapter 4: Skills).

However, people don't always want to he understood by every- one around them. Each race has its own native language as well, and every character also starts with 4 free skill ranks in her native speech (again, ogres and trolls are the exception: they begin with only 3 tanks). There are also some languages used by groups, such as the Dark Tongue, and languages spoken by certain NPC races, such as Goblin and Elder Dragon. If a character does not begin with a particular language, they may buy it just like any other skill.

Special Abilities:

Many races have special abilities that are universal to all members of their race. Some of these are simply bonus feats, as described in Chapter 5: Feats. Characters of other races receive certain skills as class skills, regardless of the character‘s actual class, or else receive bonus ranks in certain skills. Some traits. however, are unique abilities available only to members of a given race. These are listed in the race descriptions, and are described below in detail. All of these racial special abilities are treated as extraordinary special qualities (see the Introduction to "Special Abilities" LINK TBD Using Magic for an explanation of extraordinary abilities).

Resistance:

Resistance is rated as a type and a number, as in the following example: “a bonus of cold resistance (3)." This resistance represents the amount a creature subtracts from any damage taken from the given type of source, whether through mundane effects of the given type or from magical effects with the appropriate descriptor. For example, Iksar, having a bonus of fire resistance (5), subtract the first 5 points of fire damage inflicted upon them by a singular source of mundane heat or fire or by any singular magical effect with the [fire] descriptor. See “Spell Special Effects“ in LIKNK TBD Using Magic for more information on resistance.

Infravision:

Infravision is common to several races, constituting the ability to see heat as light. This allows a creature with Infravision to see warm objects (including living creatures and fires) as glowing sources of light when it is otherwise dark. In general, a living, warm-blooded creature sheds as much light for the purposes of Infravisiona as does a torch‘ Since creatures with Infravision generally shed their own heat. they effectively illuminate the area around themselves as if they carried a torch (granting vision to a 20 foot radius). Other warm-blooded creatures are easily spotted in darkness at considerable distances, since, to a creature with infravision, such creatures shed "light" in their own 20-foot radius as if they were walking torches.

Fast Recovery:

Iksar and Trolls have fast recovery, allowing them to heal from injuries much more quickly than other races. Rather than recovering their 1/2 their level in hit points for each day of rest, creatures with fast recovery heal 1/2 their level in hit points for each hour of rest. Thus. a 14th—level troll character heals 7 hit points of damage per hour. During this time, the recovering character may engage in light activity, such as traveling or similar activities that aren't strenuous. hut engaging in any fighting or tiring activity prevents the character from recovering any hit points for that hour.

Characters and creatures with fast recovery heal points of subdual damage at the same rate as real damage, and do so simultaneously. Thus, the 14th—level troll above would heal 7 points of both real and subdual damage each hour.

Fast recovery cannot heal any injury that a creature without this ability could not naturally heal. Thus iksar and trolls do not automatically grow hack lost limbs or ignore starvation damage — they simply recover hit points more quickly when recovery is possible.

Ultravision

Among the player races. only dark elves have ultravision. Ultravision is the ability to see forms of light invisible to other creatures. Such light can he found at night. and is common in most underground settings as well. Creatures with ultravision can see as clearly in normal darkness as a human can see in normal daylight. Full details of shape. distance and color can be deter- mined by a creature using ultravision. just as if they had a bright light source.