Meister (3.5e Race)

Tales of Vorrelia (3.5e_Sourcebook)

Meister are mankind's bane and greatest achievement through the experimental union between alchemy and magic. They are a race entirely comprised of their maker's greatest sin and redeeming character trait, embodying a personality as cultured as a debonair noble, but as carnal as evil itself. They are the madness in balance, behaving perfectly refined in the crowd while revealing a tortured monster in the shadows. They are the beast that longs and hungers with unquenching desire, harboring the seven deadly sins with poetic passion as it blazes their souls to strive harder, fiercer, and more cunning then any mortal. They are beautiful and horrifying, majestic and loathsome. They are the reminder to all who practice magic why it is a gift from the gods meant to serve for the greater good and not for selfish ambition. Meister are the painful reminder that through Pride, Envy, Greed, and Lust history will often be rewritten to throw man from their lofty thrones in every trial, every challenge, and every monumental achievement. Everything a normal person could hope to achieve, a Meister can outdo tenfold with punctuality and keen efficiency. It is because these beings are so perfect in their diabolically flawed natures that almost all nations have outcasted this race on sight far from the reaches of their technology and homes as they are seen as a threat to the preservation of cultures and security.

Over time though, some Meister have come to earn nation's trust and allowed the privilege to work a trade within their territory's walls. Some have even managed to find notable positions, such as becoming a teacher in an academy or a politician, though these are extremely rare cases as there is much prejudice and scrutiny cast on this race as a whole.

Personality

Meister are individuals with exceptional skills and supernatural abilities activated on their birth of creation through a powerful mage's mixing of magic with alchemy, often leaving an imprint of their creator within them wether that be an uncanny habit, a quirky way of speaking, their level of intellect, hobbies, or how they formulate goals. Their character is based on the personalities of their creator, and how the world around them influences as they begin to learn and adapt to the cultures around them. A Meister has the potential to becoming a peaceful pacifist or an outright bastard.

Physical Description

Meisters can vary in race, often retaining a monster-like build of an elongated body, disproportionately long limbs that are either bulky or skinny, a strangely profound pot-belly, or extremely muscular and toned midsection. They can walk and stand in a crouched position, similar to a predatory animal, or behaving like a human who walks with an eerie grace. Some have a line of small bumps in their skin going down spine due to reactions of the alchemical experimentation, others have unnaturally smooth skin that is a pale deathly grey. Often a Meister will do their best to cover up their deformed bodies by wearing strange-looking outfits similar to their creator's while also retaining an odd sense of style that would somehow tie to a morgue. Meister love to wear facial accessories to cover up their unique eyes that usually are a bright blue filled with electricity or a lusty blood red shimmering as though almost dripping. It's a dead give away to their origins so its not unheard of a Meister wearing masks, glasses, cowls, and very large scarves.

Relations

Some young and very perverted apprentices of wizards at Candlekeep thought to "experiment" on a newly created Meister to see what functions worked properly. They discovered two things: Meister do not take kindly of having their unmentionables man-handled, and they are very powerful when angry. Needless to say, the infirmary was packed and the Meister's behavior was documented to further educate pupils on the matter that Meister were a race and not a construct. Typically, Meister get along with those that don't behave with arrogance, blind ignorance, and don't rely on prejudices or cultural racism to feel important. Meister tend to get along extremely well with the Drow as their empires embrace races that readily get along with them such as Lycanthropes, Lizardfolk, Yuan-Ti, Ratfolk, and Tieflings. Meister particularly try to avoid mages as often a practitioner of magic will look for any excuse to experiment on them, with or without consent.

Meister retain some of the racial traits of the creatures that was grafted to create them, with the player selecting one werecreature from the list below, with listed spell-like abilities having a caster level equal to the Meister's Challenge Rating and all save DC’s being Constitution-based (with a default save DC of 20):

Human: Gain three bonus feats, and 5 points to Constitution Ability Score; this racial version of the Meister follows the physical description of the Soul Stitched

Vampire: Gain Ability Score Adjustments: Str +6, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4; Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, and Lightning Reflexes.

Werewolf: Gain Ability Score Adjustments: Str +2, Dex +4, Con +4; Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Stealthy, Track, and Weapon Focus (bite).

Weretiger: Gain Ability Score Adjustments: Str +4, Dex +4, Con +6; Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (bite, claw), and Iron Will.

Wereshark: Gain Ability Score Adjustments: Str +4, Dex +4, Con +2, Int +2, Wis +2; Blind-Fight, Power Attack.

Werecrocodile: Gain Ability Score Adjustments: Str +6, Dex +2, Con +6, Int +2, Wis +2; Alertness; Power Attack; Skill Focus (Hide), and Improved Grapple.

Werebear: Gain Ability Score Adjustments: Str +4, Dex +2, Con +6; Endurance, Iron Will, Multiattack, Power Attack, Run, Track

Alignment

All Meister follow the Neutral grid, meaning they are either True Neutral, Neutral Good, Chaotic Neutral, or Neutral Evil; this is because even in their extremes, they don't do it for themselves, it is due to the nature of their creator imprinted on them that they're constantly at war with internally, which often leads to side effects such as split personalities, extreme drops and rises in moods, and erratic behavior where they'll defer to isolation rather then outright confrontation.

Lands

Meister prefer to dwell in lands where it is socially acceptable for their practices to continue, as most Meister have an innate thirst to practice taboo forms of alchemy and necromancy, and given whatever race was spliced into their genes during their creation also determines how comfortable a Meister will be around certain races, so often they search for nations where curse-afflicted groups are received well and the laws of that nation are left to the imagination of those living within on how to interpret it without getting caught.

Religion

Most people would assume since Meister have some similarity to Undead that they'd follow deities of Death and Undeath, but Meister are very much so alive; they bleed and feel, eat and sleep just like other races, having emotions, memories, and dreams. Meister long to create their own soul by living life, to shed their creator's imprint on them through deeds which is why many a Meister is torn when it comes to religion. They will either be atheist, follow an Archdevil or Archdemon, or follow a deity such as Mystra or Boccob as magic is the very source to their existence. Deities that Meister loathe completely are: Helm, Tempus, Talos, Lathander, Kelemvor, Ilsensine, Corellon Larethian, Cyric, Gruumsh, Horus-Re, and any other deity that was racist, unlawfully prejudice, and prevented cultures from adapting to changes as change is what brings new discoveries and enlightenment according to Meister.

Language

A Meister retains the racial languages of the creatures used to create them. Typically, all Meister know at least common starting out. The official language of the Meister is known as Necril, the language of the undead which universally can be spoken to any type, even those found in other planes.

Names

Names are given to Meister according to either what their creator named them (if courteous enough to give them that), what people would name them (either in a good or bad context), or what the Meister itself has come to call itself through experiences. Usually in all these cases, the name is short and with symbolic meaning, examples being like "Corpseborn", "Cophagius", or "Vilanous" (a play on the word Villainous).

Racial Traits

• Meister gain the racial stat bonus according to the race parts used to graft their body; players take the average of the race bonuses to create their character's current racial stat bonus list.
• Monstrous Humanoid
• Size: Large
• Meister have a basic land speed of 40ft due to their superhuman enhancements.
• Living Dead (Ex): Meister are a monstrous fusion of undeath and organic flesh. They are treated as Undead for spells and effects, with a turn resistance of half his Meister class level. He gains the following traits:

Resistance This trait acts as Resist Energy in the terms of granting a +10 resistance bonus vs Sleep, Paralysis, Stunning, Fatigue, Exhaustion, Death, Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, and Sonic effects. Meister gain a resistances based on their Charisma modifier, as in the modifier determines the amount of resistances the character may have. At every increase to the Charisma modifier the character may select another resistance to their list.

• Consume Identity (Su): Meister who eat the flesh or drink the blood of a Large-size or Medium humanoid victim absorbs the mind, memories, and personality of that victim. After consuming a victim's identity, the Meister can assume the victim's form with 100% accuracy and possess the victim's memories, abilities, and alignment. The only exceptions are spells, spell-like abilities and special abilities/powers that are granted by the deities as those are something a Meister can't learn via consuming a target's identity since they are aspects tied to divinity and the Weave itself. When a Meister that has already consumed a previous personality and consumes another, it must make a Will save (DC 25) to avoid gaining insanity as losing that personality is damaging to the Meister's very spirit and a risky process as a Meister can only ever have one stolen identity at a time. If a Meister "wearing" one of its consumed identities commits an act that runs counter to that form's alignment, it is immediately forced into its base form for 1d10 rounds. In its base form, a Meister retains the basic memories of the identities it has consumed, though not deeper memories. Memories from previously consumed identities that have been forced out by new identities fade quickly.
• Skills: Meister gain a +6 racial bonus on bluff, intimidate, and sense motive checks. +10 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks when using Consume Identity ability.
• Mirror Mirror: Meister can hear a subject's heart rate and be able to read a subject’s surface emotions within a 30ft radius. This supernatural ability is treated as the spell Zone of Truth that is activated at will, requiring the target to make a DC 25 Bluff check vs this ability if they pursue trying to deceive the Meister and cloud their judgement.
• Lord's Soul: Meister who use the Consume Identity ability on a demon, devil, fey, or celestial creature of high ranking will ascend by 10 character levels, but forever losing Meister Racial Abilities and Racial Traits, becoming an Archcreature that is whole with a new array of abilities and racial traits based on their final Consume Identity act.
• The Bad Touch: Meister have the ability 1/per day to alter the gender of a male species into a female for the necessity of mating as all Meister are restricted to being males as no experiment concerning their race ever succeeded in mutating a female body by a wizard/sorcerer. The Meister initiates a Grapple vs Grapple check, which upon success the Meister will then begin the attempt to mate which will cause the male target to make three consecutive Fortitude Saving rolls DC 25 (DC will increase by 5 for every failed roll), requiring the target to succeed in at least two out of the three rolls to pass, otherwise that results in them becoming a female upon failure. The species of that female target also changes to a Meister, taking on the racial traits and supernatural abilities of the Meister itself.
• Automatic Languages: Necril (Undead), Common; Meister automatically begin with the language of the race that was spliced into their genes.
• Favored Class: Alchemist, Alchemist Savant, Rogue, Warlock
• Level Adjustment: +4

Vital Statistics

Table: Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
20 years	+1d4	+1d8	+2d6

Table: Meister Aging Effects

Middle Age^1	Old^2	Venerable^3	Maximum Age
100 years	500 years	1000 years	+unknown 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: Meister Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	9' 6"	+1d6	350 lb.	2× (2d12) lb.
Female	8' 0"	+1d6	300 lb.	2× (2d10) lb.

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