Harpie (3.5e Race)

Harpies

Personality

Harpies are free spirited and usually motivated by self satisfaction. They can form close personal relationships with those around them and tend to be very loyal to those they find trustworthy.

Physical Description

Harpies stand about 5', 8" to 6', 3", and usually weigh between 65 and 93 lbs. Their dimensions are roughly similar to humans. Harpies have bird like wings, in addition to humanoid arms. Their legs are similar to a human until the just above the knee where it becomes a scaly composition. Their feet have an elongated ankle giving them long claws. Their leg-claws have three talon-tipped toes, the three toes face forward. They will often use legs to carry objects up to twice their weight while flying. Their eyes are usually blue or green. As they are avian in origin they lay eggs to reproduce. Although the eggs that they produce are unfertilized and are not cared for by the Harpies, it is not until the eggs have been fertilized do the Harpies care for the eggs. Once a female Harpie has reached maturity they can lay an egg once a day.

Confusion between Harpie & Harpy

There are some differences between the Harpie and the Harpy, one of them being the naming of the two especially when the names are referred and written in plural. So for this category they will be referred in their singular forms. Many a Harpie will tell anyone who asks about their cousins will say that the Harpy are the result of both over-breeding and possible incest, resulting in their rather ugly features and their arms. Whether these allegations are true are not have been up for debate for many years.

The major physical differences are easily seen by simply looking at the two species. The face of a Harpie will look rather normal compared to a human and the same goes torso between males and females of both the Harpie and the other races of the world with males having flat chests and females growing breasts during puberty. The Harpy, on the other hand, look very ugly and even the males grow breasts resulting in the myth that there are no male Harpy. Harpy also notably have no arms, they are instead replaced by wings and resort to bites and their talons for attacks, along with clawed weapons mounted to the feet if they so happen to have any ready. Harpie have arms in addition to their wings.

Breeding would also appear very different between the two. Female Harpie only lay eggs after reaching maturity sometime around age 16 and continue to do so almost daily, laying a single egg a day and needing the fertilization of a male for the eggs to hatch (Not necessarily a male Harpie. Cases of breeding with other races have resulted in a child but the child seemingly looks fully Harpie), however female Harpy begin laying their eggs at the age of 2 and in batches of up to twenty eggs, with the fertilization from males being unclear with the genders of the Harpy being so hard to distinguish.

The Societal differences are as black and white. Whereas the Harpie are generally open to other cultures and races entering and visiting their tribes, the Harpy are hate-filled and prefer to travel in small groups, large tribes being very rare.

(Source for the Harpy )

Society

The Tribes of the Harpies, unlike their evil cousins, do have structure. They are traditionally led by a female of their kind of noble blood known as the "Great Mother". When it is time to pass on leadership to a new generation the old Great Mother will choose one of her daughters to take her place. The choice is personal and the reasons why vary from Great Mother to Great Mother. Under her guidance the tribe hunts, trades, communicates and is educated of the world. Men are often used for physical labor and military roles, whereas women take either Political or housework positions. Merchants can easily see both male and females traders working the shops or traveling, often with hired help of another race. They are, for the most part, very open with the other races but remain wary fully knowing their similarities to their cousins. They hopefully try to find peaceful solutions with the races of man and elf as well as the barbaric tribes of the mountains but are more than willing to fight for their land.

Relations

Harpies are usually very easy to get along with but become very aggressive in environments of scarcity (such as low food or water). Harpies find that Slimes often make good friends so harpies will often defend a slime and try to find a nonviolent solution to any situation involving a Slime. With the other sentient races, such as man and elves, they are open but cautious. They will try to make allies where they can in the realm of man but doing so has proven time and again that is an ever uphill endeavor. It is very much recommended that when traveling into and around a large and densely populated city to wear a cloak that covers their entire body and have an escort to follow them for protection.

In some tribes Harpie are encouraged to leave the tribe to mate with another race to possibly birth a stronger child than a pure-blood Harpie. Whether breeding this way will actually produce the desired results is unknown.

Alignment

Harpies can be any alignment but are not usually found to be lawful due to their bird like nature. Evil Harpie are anything but uncommon but are a minority in comparison to the good and neutral brothers and sisters.

Lands

Harpies live on the tops of mountains but can occasionally be found in forests, either in solitude, with their family or with a tribe.

Language

Harpies are more than capable of learning the languages of men knowing the vast majorities of languages from traveling tradesmen. Above this, Harpies have learned to speak the language of their cousins, a collection of chirps, and singing calls.

Names

Harpies don't use names in their societies but often pick a name to use if they have to interact with creatures from other races.

Racial Traits

-1 strength, +3 dexterity, +3 intelligence +3 wisdom, -1 constitution +2 charisma

Harpies have hollow bones that grant them increased mobility at the cost of durability.

Type:Humanoid (avian)

Size:Medium. Harpies have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

• A Harpie's base land speed is 30 feet and its fly speed is 50 feet (good).

Avian body: Harpies are born with a light body and with air-worthy wings. Harpies also have the ability to fly 30 minutes(a number of own rounds equal to their character level(max 5) times 2. Аfter flying avian need to take a brake about 15 minutes(or 2 rounds in battle). Going past the turn limit causes them to get tired and fall dealing 1d4 damage.

Eagle eyesight: Able to spot a something at distance about 1.5 km with size modifier +1.

2 natural attacks: 2 claws(1d4 slashing, crit x2) or Peck(1d4 piercing, crit x2).

Automatic Languages: Avian and Common. Bonus Languages: Any.

Avian can hold breath for 10 minutes.

Avians don get wet after getting into water.

Avians cant fly after they put on heavy armor. Flight half speed and time after they put on medium armor.

In spite of wisdom of avian they get -3 modifier in gambling

After spreading its wings avian get size modifier -1.

Favoured class: any

For additional rules on flying, please see and

Vital Statistics

Table: Harpies Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
16 years	+1d4	+2d4	+1d10

Table: Aging Effects

Middle Age^i	Old^i	Venerable^i	Maximum Age
125 years	345 years	760 years	+ 5d100 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; +2 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At venerable age, −3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +4 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Table: Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	5' 10"	+2d4	45 lb.	× 1d6 lb.
Female	5' 0"	+2d4	40 lb.	× 1d6 lb.

---

Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Races