Jermlaine (Dragonstar)
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On final consideration, it was decided that this is not an elegible PC race.
Jermlaine are tiny fey, rat-like humanoids who thrive on mischief and deception. They infest sewers, caves and warrens, and sometimes spread to warehouses and grain silos, where they can cause a lot of damage. As intelligent creatures, they can be negotiated with or bribed , and it is even possible for them to become friends or form partnerships. But mostly, they are treated ad vermin and exterminated whenever possible.
House Noros has formed an alliance of sorts with many Jermlaine, using them as infiltrators and spies. Due to their small size, they can infiltrate through pipes and nooks larger creatures could never enter. This has given the Jermlaine a position of sorts within the Dragon Empire, and forced the other civilized races to deal with them on a somewhat equal footing.
But Jermlaine are fey, and thus never really reliable. Neither their masters in House Noros or anyone else they deal with can truly tame their mischievous instincts.
Personality: Jermlaine love to cause mischief and to get larger creatures in their power, but they seem to do this more as a sort of cruel prank than as guerilla warfare. Once a victim is captured, bound and taunted mercilessly, the jermlaine will often let them go.
Physical Description: About a foot long, with a baggy body and long, spindly legs and arms, jermlaine who are crouching can easily be mistaken for big rats. Their ears and beady eyes are rat-like, but they have distinctive faces, no whiskers, and head and body hair rather than fur. Most of them lack tails.
Relations: Civilized races detest jermlaine, and the drow and dwarfs have especially much trouble with them. Kobolds andLesser Goblins share some their love of mischief, and House Noros often uses goblins as emissaries and do-betweens. Gnomes sometimes share their prankish nature, and the good jermlaine that exist are usually friends with gnomes.
Alignment: Jemlaine are always mischievous, but some carry their pranks further than others. Mistreated and hunted like vermin, it is small wonder that they resent larger creatures, but still a few of them run less malicious pranks and might even help the weak and lost.
Jermlaine Lands: Jemlaine are scavengers and prefer to live near civilized creatures, in sewers, dumps and the like. A jermlaine dwelling can exist right under the noses of larger creatures without their knowing.
Religion: Jermlaine worship an amalgam of The Trickster and The Destroyer which grants them the domains of Evil, Destruction, Luck, and Trickery. Those that join galactic civilization often turn to The Trickster or to The Judge in his aspect as intelligence-gatherer.
Language: Jermlaine have their own language of rat-like pips and squeaks. It takes a Wilderness Lore or Urban Lore roll of 20 to realize that this is actually speech. World wise jermlaine may speak the language of their neighbors as well.
Names: Jermlaine have names in their own language that sounds like pips and squeaks. When speaking to others, they like to assume pompous names, like Mamundo the Magnificent or Roger of Severstone, which may or may not have some meaning or relation to who they really are.
Adventurers: Jermlaine can sometimes be bribed or cajoled into working for other creatures, and from this a genuine sense of friendship may grow, or the jermlaine might just enjoy the opportunities and sense of power that larger companions bring.
Jermlaine Racial Traits
- -8 Strength, -2 Constitution, +6 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence. Jermlaine are tiny and fragile. Though not smart, they are very alert to danger.
- Tiny: Jermlaine have a facing of only 2 ½ feet and no reach, so they have to move through the threatened zone of most other creatures in order to get into position to attack them in melee. Their small size gives them a +2 size bonus on attacks and Armor Class, as well as a +8 bonus on all Hide checks. Their carrying capacity is only half normal.
- Speak with Rats (sp): Jermlaine can use 'speak with animals' at will, but only to communicate with rats and dire rats.
- Base speed 40 ft.
- Fey Traits (ex): Not subject to spells targeting humanoids, such as 'hold person'. They have low-light vision.
- Strong Fortitude Save (ex): Despite their small size, jermlaine are highly resistant to poison, disease and other attacks on their constitution, and receive a +4 racial bonus on all Fortitude saving throws.
- Highly Perceptive: Jermlaine receive a +4 racial bonus on all Wisdom-based skill checks.
- Reduced Hit Die: Jermlaine have their hit dice for any class levels reduced by one category.
| Original class hit die | Jermlaine reduced hit die |
|---|---|
| d12 | d8 |
| d8 or d10 | d6 |
| d6 | d4 |
| d4 | d3 |
* Equipment Limitations: Jermlaine are Tiny, and cannot use most equipment designed for normal characters. The largest weapons that they can use are small, and armor must be manufactured specifically for them, at normal cost but only one-tenth the weight. * Automatic Languages: Jermlaine and Undercommon. Bonus languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc. * Favored Class: Rogue. Rogue levels do not count when determining if a jermlaine suffers multiclass penalties to experience points (see chapter 3 of the PH). * Level Equivalent: +0
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