Paynim (Greyhawk Action)

Greyhawk Action!

Attributes and Schticks

Body: 4-10
Mind: 4-10
Reflexes: 4-10
Move: 6

Hybrid Race

Inherent

Select one Race other than human. You are a hybrid of human and the selected race. The GM might not allow hybrids with all races, check before making your selection. Someone with this feat is often called a half-X, where the X stands for the selected race.

• You look like a hybrid between a human and your selected race and might be mistaken for either.
• You can purchase the racial schticks of the selected race.
• Note which attribute has the highest racial maximum for the selected race; you get to pick one if there is a tie. Your racial maximum for this attribute becomes 11.

Saddleborn

Inherent

You can ride a mount and simultaneously take other actions. When mounted, your mount can move your Move meters with each Basic Action you take. This allows you to move-move-act, move-act-move, or act-move-move. You cannot use Saddleborn if the basic Action is one that in itself allows additional movement or when attacking with a Static weapon.

Throwback

Inherent

Select one Race Schtick; you learn this schtick. You do not become a halfbreed or otherwise have your looks or physical form changed except as required for the schtick to work.

You cannot take this schtick go learn a schtick you already know a second time, nor can you pick Throwback multiple times.

Description

Fantasy Mongols. The nomadic Paynim suddenly appeared from the northeast and subjugated a large part of the Flanaess. Today they have largely been absorbed by the Baklunish. The Tiger and Wolf Nomads are remnants of the Paynim empire.

Appearance

Paynims are of sandy complexion and look wrinkled to other humans. They are sturdy, with a large torso and short limbs. They are between 160 and 170 cm tall. Most have dark eyes and hair, tough a few are have amber or fire-red hair and/or eyes.

Role

Loyalty and adherence to custom are the prime values of the Paynim. As nomads they have no concept or land ownership, but the right to use land and water and to drive cattle is tightly regulated. All able Paynim are warriors, herdsmen, and shamen to a degree. Specialization is looked down on, a Paynim should be able to master all aspects of life. A Paynim that excels in one of these areas is prized, but one that excels in all is beyond reproach.

Politics

Paynim respect strength. Society is organized in warbands; often temporary social structures led by a strong and charismatic leader. A warband that defeats another absorbs the survivors. If a warband becomes too large to be practical it can split on amicable terms, in which case the dominant leader can call upon the vassal warband at any time. The households of a warband can leave at any time, but in wartime there is safety in a large band. Paynim have little respect for the borders and fences of settled peoples and consider it a right to raid such weaklings when they can, but only a great leader can galvanize the Paynims enough for true war.

Integration

As a people, Paynims are very demanding and unlikely to accept an outsider who isn't capable in all the Paynim virtues. They do take slaves and guests along when they travel, and an outsider who learns the ways of the Paynim is accepted as a Paynim; Paynim are never slaves.

Family

Polygamous, arranged marriages, usually patrilineal. A family is a warband in miniature; as long as the head of the family maintains authority and meets the needs of the family, the family stays as a unit. Heads of families and warbands can be women or even foreigners, but the vast majority of leaders are Paynim men. Marriages are informal and can be temporary. Polygamy is common.

Power Use

The Paynim are masters of tactics and their powers focus on deception, they are great illusionists and summoners of storms. The see little different between arcane and divine magic, what matters is what you can achieve.

Pantheon

Paynim are animists and spirit-worshippers, often paying lip service to demons, elementals and whimsies. They have no pantheon and few personalized gods, seeing the forces of the universe as either immediate and small, possible to subjugate, or great and impersonal. Many Paynim accord respect to the gods of other peoples.