Tasaka

Tasaka are little black-skinned people with red hair who are excellent monkish sorts. I should note that there are two sets of descriptions below: complete and broken. Tasaka are all born with a portion of power in them which isn't precisely natural (it is the remnant of the god of destruction which is only contained by their continued existence). Some of them choose to loose this piece, significantly lengthening their lifespan but loosing some magical powers.
Complete Personality: Utterly without fear. Big risk takers. Love combat. Loyal. Hold grudges. No social skills. Tasaka are also noticeably obssessed with their looks, which is really bad because their ugly as **** . The tasaka which doesn't care that his face looks like something the cat coughed up and spat in the fire is a truely rare thing.

Complete Aging: 1: baby. 2 to 4: childhood. 4 to 10: adolescent. 10 to 200: adulthood. 200 to 230: middle age. 230 to 250: old age. 250 to 300: venerable. Must make a fortitude save every year, against dc 1/5th their age or die. This save cannot be magically modified.

Complete Physical Description: 2 to 3 ft tall. 20 to 60 lbs. Black skin covered with pus-filled cracks. Fiery red hair which is dry and clumpy and falls out a lot. Often missing pieces of ears. Nails often fall off. Extremely high temeperature, at 160 degrees.

Complete Racial Traits: -2 strength, +16 dexterity, +2 constitution, -10 charisma; bonus feats (alertness, weapon finesse - unarmed, improved unarmed strike); no weaponry (see below); perfect darkvision; 5 cold and fire resistances; hard to kill (see below); innate magic (can use abilities from the flame dance lists as set by their prerequisites); not ressurectable

Complete Size and Speed: small. 20 ft movement

Complete Face and Reach: 5 ft x 5 ft; 5 ft


Broken Personality: Brave. Enjoy combat. Loyal. Hold grudges. Depressed. Usually embarrased about themselves. Bad social skills. Broken usually care more about their looks than complete, which is often why they turn away from their heritage. It should also be noted that all broken tasaka are, due to the magic which seperates them from the fire in them, completely sterile and as such avoid really close relationships.

Broken Aging: 1: baby. 2 to 4: childhood. 4 to 10: adolescent. 10 to 200: adulthood. 200 to 230: middle age. 230 to 250: old age. 250 to 300: venerable.

Broken Physical Description: 2 to 3 ft tall. 20 to 60 lbs. Black skin covered with cracks. Fiery red hair which is very dry. Often missing pieces of ears.

Broken Racial Traits: -2 strength, +8 dexterity, +2 constitution, -4 charisma; bonus feats (weapon finesse - unarmed, improved unarmed strike); hard to kill (see below)

Broken Size and Speed: small. 20 ft movement

Broken Face and Reach: 5 ft x 5 ft; 5 ft

Okay, several abilities above that are not elsewhere. I'll start with No Weaponry: tasaka grow up in a place where no weapons are used. They are all very well trained in unarmed combat but have no experience with weapons. Regardless of class, they start with no weapon or armor proficiencies.
Next is Hard to Kill: Tasaka are viscious buggers which cling to life with a vengeance. They don't die until they reach -25, rather than the regular -10. Also, they stabalize 20% of the time, not 10% of the time.
Finally, Flame Dance: This is more complex and I won't go into complete depth. Basically, these creatures have a portion of a semi-dead god in them and can draw on that power. Unfortunately, that drawing is very draining. Casting flame dance spells costs them hit points with every use. Some are combat related, some call fire, and they are capable of healing others slightly. The one of the most import is the final strike set of dances. When a tasaka dies, its contained power causes a burst which chars things nearby. A talented tasaka can aim this with its dying thoughts, so it isn't always smart to kill them. At first, they can only cause the flame to strike whoever killed them. Later, they can have it create a burning pyre which hurts everyone around them for a long while. Eventually, they can cause a blast similar to a fireball. The best tasaka can make this energy coalesce into a spirit of flame which they can posses for a few rounds and in that way continue to fight even after they die. Unfortunately, this brings us to the unressable ability. They are always obliterated in their death and cannot be returned to life, even with true ressurection (you'd better be careful, huh?)

The next major thing is the flame-dancer class. This is similar to a monk, but also somewhat like a barbarian. Tasaka are of the opinion that they can just ignore any amount of pain or damage and it will go away. They are actually better trained than the average monk at combat, but have more combat-specific abilities. Due to their inner flames, their ki-strike comes earlier and gets higher. They also get some damage reduction, like a barbarian. They also get three totally new abilities: endure pain, tireless, and until death. Endure pain lets them ignore all pain-based effects and continue to act for two rounds after they are reduced below 0, unless they are killed. Tireless lets them choose to exert them continuously and far beyond their normal limits, although it may kill them. A tasaka flame-dancer might be able to run for an entire week straight to get someone a message. Then, he'd probably either drop dead or be in a coma for a month or two. He could also, if he needed to, fight for several days in a row without resting and without suffering fatigue penalties. Unfortunately, that would almost certainly kill him. Until Death is one of their most powerful abilities, allowing them to continue fighting until they die. This means they never suffer from unconsciousness, staggering, or even unconsciousness due to subdual damage. A flame dancer with until death will continue to fight until he is at -25 hit points, at which point he will die.

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Be silent, tongue that speaks. Leave to the chosen the secret ways...

Jamethiel Knorth