Okay then, update time! Some tweak to the lore too.
LIMULIAN
Masters of the sea floor with emotions that surge like crashing waves
RACIAL TRAITS
Average Height : 5’4 ‘’ – 6’2’’
Abverage Weight : 200 - 300 lb
Ability Scores : +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma OR +2 Wisdom
Size : Medium
Speed : 6 squares, Swim 4
Vision : Low-light
Languages : Common and one other.
Skill Bonuses : +2 Endurance, +2 Perception, +1 to one other
Aquatic : You have the Aquatic keyword and can breath underwater.
Blue Blood Resistance : When you make an Endurance check roll twice and use either results.
Exoskeleton : Your natural toughness means you need to wear less armor to gain the full benefit of it, your armor weighs half its normal weight for purposes of determining your load.
Potent Ichor: When you first become bloodied during an encounter, each ally adjacent to you gains 5 temporary hit points. Increase the number of temporary hit points to 15 at level 11 and to 25 at level 21.
Unbreakable: When an enemy inflicts a penalty to your AC, that penalty is reduced by 1.
Limulian Awareness: You can use limulian awareness as an encounter power.
| Limulian Awareness |
Limulian Racial Power |
| With a mighty stomp or a roar you connect to the world around you and gain unparalleled awareness of your surroundings for a short time. You can see and feel everything down to the bones in your enemies bodies. |
| Encounter |
| Minor Action - Personal |
| Effect: You gain Tremorsense 5 until the end of your next turn. The next time before the end of your next turn that you hit an enemy within range of your Tremorsense with an attack, that enemy takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of their next turn. |
|
| Level 11: Tremorseense 7. |
| Level 21: Tremorseense 9. |
The Limulians hold as truth that they arose when a drop of Melora’s blood fell into the ocean during the Dawn War. Even today their blood carries the blue color of Divine Ichor and Limulians are known for the same unpredictable and mercurial temperament as their legendary mother. Limulians know the seafloor like no other civilised race but are no stranger to the surface world either. Their fickle nature means they bore easily and have to constantly make sure their dedication doesn’t falter.
Play a Limulian if you want…
♦to be quick to anger and just as quick to laughter
♦to be able to breath underwater
♦to be a member of a race that favors the Ardent, Avenger, Bard, Battlemind, Cleric, Druid, Invoker, Paladin, Seeker, Shaman and Warlock class.
Physical Description
Limulians are relatively tall humanoids entirely covered in a segmented chitineous exoskeleton. This exoskeleton is very resistant and inflexible, usually shattering before bending. Such an event is not worrisome to a Limulian, however, as their exoskeleton also regenerates at an impressive rate, sometimes in a matter of minutes depending on the severity of the fracture. Beyond this great regenration rate Limulians are known for their great immune system and rarely get sick. Both those qualities are attributed to their blue blood, and more than one dark practionner has tried in the past to unlock those secrets from the blood of an hapless Limulian.
As Limulians grow older their exoskeleton will sometime grow spikes, bumps and spurs of various shapes and size. Prideful Limulian sculpt, cut, shape and nurture those formations like many species do with their hair. Their exoskeleton can range in color from an almost white pale grey, to beige, to greenish grey or even dark grey while a white or black skin with a blueish tint protects areas not covered by the exoskeleton. Their distinctive helmet-shaped head is well known for the tail-like spike coming out of the back that can reach up to three feet in length with multiple segments. Limulians have two pairs of eyes on the sides of their head, with one being a much smaller and sometimes barely visible pair of compound eye, and a lone bigger eye right in the middle of their face. The larger eyes are usually of a bright primary color with a black pupil while the smaller pair is completely black.
Limulians have a shorter lifespan than humans, becoming mature at around 8 years of age and rarely living older than 50. Female Limulian grow larger than males but the males have a rougher exoskeleton with more formations and have large bumps over their wrists. Fistfights between males used to be the traditional method of courtship amongst Limulians.
Because much of what other creatures hide with garment is hidden behind movable plates, (whether it is their mouth, the gills that run down the side of their body or even their reproductive organs) Limulians have little use of clothing, preferring to simply decorate their body with the bounty of the sea such as seashells, corals or even bones. Only those expected to fight truly need to wear protection and when they do they try to match the color and texture of their armor with their exoskeleton in an effort to appear tougher than they truly are.
While aquatic in nature Limulians are actually lousy swimmers, preferring to walk along the sea floor aided by their long, flat foot. They also can survive far from any body of water just fine, usually even handling thirst far better than their landlocked allies since, after all, you can’t drink salt water anyway. However when a female lay her eggs she keeps them in a stretching membrane around her thighs and must keep them hydrated at all time, usually spending the entire 4 month gestation period under the surface.
Playing a Limulian
At first glance Limulians don’t appear much different from surface folks: tending to their lobster coops, seaweed farms or trading their goods at the market for what they cannot produce.They live in communities of about 50 to 100 individuals at the base of cliffs, with most of their settlement underwater with their homes carved into the cliff side, going all the way above the water surface from where they can then access nearby villages.
However just like the sea that appear calms can hide the presence of sharks, one shouldn’t dismiss Limulians as polite undersea farmers for if they feel slighted or their friends in danger they will lash out in a vindictive rage. If one wishes to walk out of an encounter with a Limulian with the same number of body parts they walked in with they should be respectful at all time, and especially avoid referring to them as ‘Horseshoecrabfolk’.
Limulians are fickle, almost bipolar, always changing moods. What might interest them five minutes ago could mean nothing but boredom now. This does not mean that Limulians don’t value dedication, quite the contrary in fact: they admire those among them who can fight against their mercurial nature. A driven Limulian who persevere and can fight back the growing sense of disinterest bubbling within him is a respected member of the community.
They understand the value of a work well done, and as such Limulians community have developed a unique system of traded task. One Limulians never does one task for longer than a week before moving on to a different one while another individual picks up where he left off. The trading of the tasks is handled informally and most haphasardly during a large communal feast held at the end of the cycle. Those feasts also include religious ceremonies. All fields, all farms, prey captured or traded items obtained belong to the entire community and are tended by each member in turn. Specialists who learn a specific trade are rare but highly valued and respected. Trading, in such a context, becomes very important and most Limulians are known to be decent haggler, yet easy to distract due to their fickle nature. Most Limulians family also have a few pet oysters they keep for pearl harvesting to supplement their incomes, however most communities are mindful not to flood the local markets. Introducing special coumpound into the oysters, a Limulian can also create all sorts of colored variation of the standard pearl, helping diversify their offerings. Communities are generally well off but Limulians don't flaunt their wealth, prefering to spend it on exotic food or other perishable goods rather than material luxury, as experiencing something new is more valued than owning something.
As there is no natural way to forge metal underwater Limulians never developed any form of metallurgical knowledge, preferring to use other materials such as stone, coral, shell fragments or even, in rare cases, pieces of their own exoskeleton. Its not unusual for a Limulian warrior to fight with a spear with a tip fashioned out a spike of exoskeleton, either his own or that of an enemy he bested in battle.
Another important aspect of Limulian culture is their hobbies. Limulians take up various hobbies in their spare time to better be able to focus on more important task later. Learning songs, stories of other culture, picking up a new language, sculpting, collecting… anything will do, the goal here being to seek new things, new experiences so you don’t risk procrastinating in your work. More dedicated Limulians will put down stories and lyrics they learn in written form and then gather those written accounts into the community’s library for other member of the tribe to share. Limulians libraries hold vast quantities of legends and lost knowledge for one brave enough to search through the unclassified mess of tablets and scrolls.
The Limulians once held sway over a large part of the coast, under and over the sea. When Arkhosia was all but a small kingdom the Empire of Li-Mu had controlled the coastline for a century before inner turmoil and Suhagin raiders shattered the empire into tiny communities. Somewhere on the sea floor the vast libraries of the empire still exist, holding untold riches of History. The oral traditions of more than one Limulian community still hold legends from people and places that no longer exist to carry their own culture.
These hobbies might give the impression that a Limulian is harmless and introspective but learning new fighting styles is also a type of hobby and in case of trouble the whole community is expected to be able defend itself. Limulian also pick up hobbies regardless of their proficiency which might result in all sorts of mishaps. It is often advised not to bring a Limulian to a circus, lest he or she takes an interest in juggling, fire spiting or worse.
An old saying dating back to the days of the Empire of Li-Mu says that ‘friends like the tide: they are reliable and always bring new things into our life.’ Limulians might get tired of a task but never of people. A Limulian community always live in symbiosis with a nearby village, protecting them and their boats from undersea and sea-bound invasions all the while trading pearls, crustaceans and medicinal algaes for commodities found only on dryland. Loyalty is rarely a problem for even the most fickle member of the race. Limulians are even sometimes loyal to the point of being naïve .This is an important quality for a race almost naturally born to adventure beyond the horizon, if only for the purpose of seeing where his friends are going.
Limulians don’t feel the world quite the same way as regular folk. They can feel the Primal Spirits and the natural cycle of the World instinctively. They can feel the coming tide even when not in water, they can tell the shifts in air pressure that announces the oncoming storm or that the Raven Queen will bring Winter early this year. Limulians of all stripes pay respect to Spirits of change such as Always Falling, Great Current or even Everflame and they all generally consider Melora to be their ancestor in one shape or form. A quick prayer to Melora is traditionnally adressed whenever one leaves or enter the sea, even if it is only because of a short trip to the village, these two or three sentences can usually betray the region of origin of a Limulian, if one is knowledgeable enough. Some of Melora’s most ardent, and dangerous, zealots can be Limulians.
Limulian BackgroundsHere are background elements for Limulian characters
Failed GuardianMaybe you were jumped from behind and knocked out before you could react, perhaps you were held up by an a group of scouts. Its doesn't matter, what matters is that you failed your people. When you arrived at your village the water was thick with the blood of your kin but their bodies, save for a few limb, nowhere to be found. You don't know who did it or why, and maybe you never will, all you know is that you have no home anymore and you'd rather not talk about it too much. Perhaps you are looking for information on those who did such a terrible thing, or perhaps you are looking for a chance to prove yourself by defending other helpless innocents or simply looking for a way to keep your mind off your pain. Somehow you found your way to a great city and tried to lose yourself, but the past often has the bad habit or rearing its ugly face again...
Associated skills: insight, Streetwise
Horizon ChaserFor you the horizon isn't just something you can see, it is a state of mind. It is the impossible frontier you thrive to cross, a goal you will never reach but never stop trying to reach until you die. You intend to die on the road, your head held eye and your eyes focused on your unattainable goal. See everything, experience everything, only when there is nothing left will you feel truly satisfied. There is many reasons that might have started you on your journey, but now the journey has become the only reason needed for the journey itself to continue. Sometimes this irritates your friends who would like to stay longer, sometimes its no easy to convice them to go through that dangerous forest or relentless desert just because its there. How did you get so far away from home? Where is home anyway? Is it that village you left behind or is it with your adventuring group? Maybe, in the end, it doesn't really matter... all you want is to take one more step forward.
Associated skills: Endurance, Nature
New Feats: Don’t Show Blood
Requirement: Limulian, unbreakable racial trait.
Benefit: When you become bloodied for the first time during an encounter, enemies do not treat you as bloodied for the purpose of effects until the end of your next turn. If you spend a healing surge before enemies can treat you as bloodied you regain an additional 1D6 hit points. The additional hit points you regain become 2D6 at level 11 and 4D6 at level 21.
Dire Lobster Form
Requirement: Aquatic keyword, Druid Wildshape power
Benefit: While you are in Beast form you gain a Swim speed of 5 and a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls while underwater. Furthermore when you hit with the Savage Rend or Grasping Claw you can grab the target until the end of your next turn.
Segmented Vision
Requirement: Limulian
Benefit: When you make a Perception check, roll twice and use the higher result of the two rolls.
Underwater Caster
Requirement: Aquatic keyword
Benefit: You can use a weapon from the Spear -group you are proficient with as Implement for your Implement powers. When you make a weapon or implement attack with a weapon from the Spear group you gain a +1 feat bonus to the attack roll. This bonus increases to +2 at level 11 and +3 at level 21.
Blood of Melora
Requirement: Limulian, Divine Class, potent ichor racial trait
Benefit: Allies who gain temporary hit points as a result of your potent ichor trait also regain hit points equal to your Wisdom or Charisma modifier (your choice) and can make a saving throw.
Break the Stance
Requirement: Limulian, any Martial class, Limulian awareness racial power
Benefit: When you use your limulian awareness racial power, the first time you hit a target within your tremorsense it is knocked prone.
Surging Wave Blood
Requirement: Limulian, Warden
Benefit: When you use your second wind, you and each allies within 3 squares of you can shift 2 squares.
Tainted Ichor
Requirement: Limulian, potent ichor racial trait
Benefit: When you become bloodied for the first time during an encounter, each enemy adjacent to you takes damage equal to your Constitution or Charisma modifier (your choice).
Vindictive Vitality
Requirement: Limulian
Benefit: When you use your second wind, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls until the end of your next turn. The bonus damage increases to +4 at level 11 and +6 at level 21.
Here you go! Paragon path coming up later...
