Candothists (3.5e Race)

Candothists

Race Description::Incarnated through unnatural means, they are haunted by their past.

Male, female and genderless candothists.

Powerful magic has powerful consequences. Magic can tear into The Edge of Time (a plane where the souls of the dead reside) and send souls hurtling back to the Material Plane and be given flesh. Magic can call to those whose time had come too soon, only to find that the spell was cast improperly and the wrong soul was retrieved. A powerful soul can travel to the Material Plane and bind matter to himself to form a body. A powerful mage may turn a stone statue to flesh and blood and bind a soul to it. All these are possible origins of candothists. Whatever the cause of their incarnation, they themselves are all the result of a soul returning to the world to live again.

Personality

Candothists are glad to be alive and relish every moment they get. They enjoy the pleasures and the pains of existence. They brim with quirks and often show signs of old fashioned conservatism. They love aged things, as if they trigger an innate sense of familiarity in a world that seems strange to them. However, all to often, seemingly innocuous circumstances causes them to freeze in a grip of lost thought. Because of their lost past, they endlessly search their world for answers about who they were, just as much as they would rather forget their past entirely and focus on who they are now.

Physical Description

Candothists are perhaps the most varied group of mortals. They may have traits common to any other. Each candothist has one or more unique traits that allow him to be identified after a reincarnation. Whatever the specifics of their appearance, all candothists appear oddly assembled, with slightly twisted anatomy or strange features. In addition, since candothists might have no gender, they can also appear generic or androgynous.

Relations

Candothists do not have a society of their own, as their numbers are far too small. They simply integrate themselves as best they can wherever they live, but they fit best in human lands where their eccentricities are often overlooked.

Alignment

Candothists have no predisposed fixation on any moral or ethical compunction.

Lands

Candothists don't typically prefer to lead sheltered lives and are often drawn into the lands of other peoples. Human lands often support the most variety and willingness to support other welcome races. Candothists don't congregate into communities of their own and have no lands they call their own.

Religion

Candothists often praise the Gods for giving them the power to return to the world of the living as often as they curse those same Gods by taking away their memories. They often find solace by praying to Gods of Magic and Travel as they search for arcane secrets and wander from town to town.

Language

Candothists can be quite the talkers, and tend to prefer speaking in specialized tongues, depending on the topic at hand. Gesticulating during conversation is also common, even if it is subtle.

Names

Candothists have no racial names, choosing names from memories, or being given names by those around them.

Racial Traits

• 3e Constitution Score Adjustment::−2 Constitution, 3e Charisma Score Adjustment::+2 Charisma: Candothists have a strong sense of self and are very likable, but their bodies are fragile from reincarnation.
• Humanoid3e Creature Type::Humanoid (Candothist)
• Medium3e Size::Medium: As medium size creatures, candothists have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Candothist base land speed is 30 feet.
• Skill Memory: Candothists gain an additional +4 skill points at first level, as candothists retain some form of memory from a past life.
• Bend Time (Su): Once a day, as a free action on his turn, a candothist can alter the flow of time around himself, granting the effects of either haste or slow for 1 round. This supernatural ability does not counter the effects of those spells, but does supercede it for that one round. This ability also affects targets in the candothist’s space of his size and smaller. The save DC to resist this ability is 10 + his Charisma-modifier + 0.5 ½ his HD.
• Existential Shield (Su): Once a day as a free action on his turn, a candothist can call upon the force of his very being, granting him his Charisma modifier bonus as a bonus to his Armor Class for one round.
• Strange Body Language (Ex): Candothists move much differently than their forms suggest. Feint attempts against a candothist suffer a −4 penalty. Unfortunately, their odd movements cause them to suffer a −4 penalty on Balance skill checks.
• Haunting Flashbacks (Ex): From time to time, a candothist sees something that reminds him of his former lives. At the start of every encounter, before he takes an action, there is a cumulative 5% chance (5% for each death, up to 25% at 5 deaths) that he notices something that causes him to recall his past. If this happens, the candothist can take no action (other than defending himself) for 1 round and thereafter takes a −2 morale penalty on all attacks and skills until the encounter is resolved.
• Self-Reincarnate (Su): Once, after resting in the afterlife for 8 hours (and only once per week), a candothist that has been killed can return to his flesh up to 1 day/level later at the loss of a level (similar to the spell raise dead). If he was first level, he instead looses 2 Constitution. If his body was destroyed (reduced to less than half its original weight), he cannot return in this fashion. If he chooses to use this ability, the player must roll on the Morphic Reincarnation chart below. He returns to life no sooner than 8 hours after death and at 1 HP. He also suffers 2d4 ability score damage to his Strength, Dexterity and Constitution each. The ability score loss does not reduce any score below 1, nor does the Constitution loss lower his HP below 1.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Celestial. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Speak Language skill.
• Favored Class: 3e Favored Class::Sorcerer.
• Level Adjustment: 3e Level Adjustment::+1.
• Base Effective Character Level: 3e ECL::2nd.

Vital Statistics

Table: Candothist Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
15 years	+1d4	+2d4	+3d4

Table: Candothist Aging Effects

Middle Age^1	Old^2	Venerable^3	Maximum Age
40 years	50 years	60 years	+2d6 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: Candothist Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	4' 5"	+3d10"	80 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
Female	4' 5"	+3d10"	80 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
Neutral	4' 5"	+3d10"	80 lb.	× (2d4) lb.

The Reincarnation Process

Candothist can also be a template added onto a humanoid body that changes during the incarnation process. In this event, remove the character’s old racial bonuses, including those obtained through training or study (since just about all memory of his old life is forgotten). If the character loses a feat in this manner that is the prerequisite to another feat(s), he loses the use of that feat(s) until the time he is able to relearn that feat.

Candothist may also be placed as an option into the reincarnate spell list for bodies at the DM’s discretion.

There are several circumstances that prevent a candothist from returning to his body upon his death:

• If his body is raised as an undead, the process instead fails and his corpse melts into blood and ichor.
• If his body is placed inside a magical container or surrounded by magical barriers or force.
• If his body is cut in half (or otherwise reduced to less than half its original weight).
• If his body is petrified. A candothist turned to stone is not dead. However, this situation grants him the option of leaving his body as a free soul, thus killing him. This choice must be made at the moment of petrification. If his body is ever turned back to flesh, he may return to it as normal.
• If his body rots. However, if his old bodies are preserved, he may return to any previous body he has used, so long as it is available to be inhabited. He may even inhabit the bodies of other departed candothists. A casting of reincarnate rebuilds the candothist’s body and can recall him. With the spell, a candothist rolls on the Morphic Reincarnation chart, not the reincarnate chart listed with the spell.

Candothists are sterile and can't have children.

Upon using his Self-Reincarnate ability, a candothist will have no memory of just being dead, and will often come to the conclusion that he was left for dead, but somehow survived. Waking up in a coffin six feet underground has killed a great many candothist (again), but when they escape, it only acts as fuel for rumors of undead in the area.

Each time a candothist uses his Self-Reincarnate ability, he must roll on the Morphic Reincarnation chart below to determine what parts of his form change. Each Incarnation starts at the adult age (15), and characters loose any age penalties or bonuses from their previous incarnation. Candothists do not have a maximum age from which they can be incarnated from, but they still die of old age. If Neutral is rolled, the character appears neither male nor female. His unique candothist traits (such as horns or pointed ears) do not change during reincarnation. Eye color is considered a unique trait for these purposes.

Roll a d3 for each attribute.

Table: Morphic Reincarnation

Attributes	d3 Result			Attribute Information
	1	2	3
Gender^1	Male	Neutral	Female	Gear worn by the old body does not change to suit the new form.
Features^1	Rugged	Average	Fair
Height & Weight^2	+ 1", +5 lbs.	Same	− 1", − 5 lbs.
Hair	1 Darker	Same	1 Lighter	Black - Brown - Auburn -Redhead - Blonde - Platinum
Skin	1 Darker	Same	1 Lighter	Dark Brown - Brown - Olive - Medium - Fair - Light
Racial Ability Score	−2 Strength	−2 Dexterity	−2 Constitution
Any Change in Gender or Features results in a +4 Disguise bonus to avoid being recognized as their former selves. Typically for every inch gained or lost, adjust weight by 5 lbs. The base candothist has −2 Constitution to start. During reincarnation, this may move. Apply changes as necessary from previous incarnations.

If you would prefer, you may roll a d12 to determine a unique trait category randomly.

Table: Candothist Unique Character Traits

#	Unique Trait	Ideas and Options
1	Horn/Horns	Unicorn-like, Ram’s, Antlers, Short Nubs, Devil-like, Dragon-like
2	Tail	Long, Short, Finned, Tufted-tip.
3	Eyes	Solid Single Color, Oddly Colored, Glowing, Animalistic
4	Teeth	Pointed, Small, Flat, Oddly Colored, Jagged, Toothless
5	Hands	Six Fingers, Four Fingers, Webbed, Thick Nails, Nail-less, Different Colored
6	Suppressible Aura	Windy, Shocking Sparks, Wavy, Fiery, Candle-like Glow
7	Hair	Hairy, Completely Hairless, Pointed, Slick, Oddly Colored, Vines, Tendrils
8	Facial Features	Chin, Eyebrows, Nose, Cheekbones, Scar, Pointed Ears, Animalistic Features
9	Tongue	Long, Forked, Oddly Colored, Frog-like
10	Arcane Markings	Heavily Tattooed with Writing, Single Prominent Sigil
11	Skin	Patterned, Tattooed, Tough, Soft, Oddly Colored, Oddly Textured
12	Blood	White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Magenta, Purple, Blue, Cyan, Green, Brown, Gray, Black

---

Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Races