New race? You mean like in fantasy stories? Things like elves and dwarves and such?

“Yes, indeed. Now, different races come with different benefits in Tarona. Humans, for instance, are the ‘basic’ type. They’re not really bad at anything, but not the best at anything, either. Very versatile. Other races, on the other hand, will have pluses and minuses based on their abilities.”

So, what races do I get to pick from?

“Well, you got a few standard ones, and then you have ‘templates’ that you can toss on top of them, to further customize things. Now, before you go wild, just remember that everything has a price. You end up looking like a monster, and people will treat you like one. And more powerful templates tend to have drawbacks. Either it takes you longer to level up since you got to work off the power difference, or you have some kind of weakness that can get you killed.”

I think I understand. Things have to balance out somehow, right? Can’t just give me superpowers without a flaw like Superman’s kryptonite, or it would be bad for everyone else.

“Exactly. The goal of Transfers is to enrich the worlds they go to, shake them up somehow, not burn them to the ground because they are unstoppable. That doesn’t help anyone.”

All right. Can I see the races and templates?

Immediately, a list of races appeared before me. I noticed that some were definitely more powerful than others. They not only had racial hit dice, but something called a ‘level adjustment’. The old man had mentioned levels, so that had to be related. Those races had another stat that was Effective Character Level (ECL), which looked to be a combination of the racial hit dice and level adjustment. Keeping in mind the old man’s warning about me taking longer to gain power with one of those, and that people who looked like monsters would be treated as such, I filtered out the ones that were more than ECL 1. I was going to be starting from the bottom, and I still didn’t know just how hard starting at even an ECL 2 would make things.

Races

Race

Description

Human

Medium Size

30 feet base speed

1 extra feat at 1st level

+4 skill points at 1st level and +1 at every subsequent level

Automatic Language: Common

Bonus Languages: Any (except secret tongues)

Favored Class: Any

Dwarf

+2 Constitution, –2 Charisma.

Medium Size

20 feet base speed. However, can maintain this speed even when encumbered.

Darkvision 60 feet

Stonecunning: +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction, unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn’t stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A dwarf can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up.

Weapon Familiarity: Dwarven Waraxes and Dwarven Urgroshes treated as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.

Stability: +4 bonus to resist bull rush or trip attacks when standing on the ground

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison.

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.

+1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs and goblinoids.

+4 dodge bonus to AC vs monsters of giant type

+2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to stone or metal items.

+2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal.

Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven

Bonus Languages: Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, and Undercommon

Favored Class: Fighter

Elf

+2 Dexterity, –2 Constitution.

Medium Size

30 feet base land speed

Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.

Low-Light Vision: An elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination

Weapon Proficiency: longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow)

+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.

Automatic Languages: Common and Elven

Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan

Favored Class: Wizard

Gnomes

+2 Constitution, –2 Strength.

Small Size: +1 size bonus to AC, +1 size bonus on attack rolls, +4 size bonus on Hide checks, uses smaller weapons, and lifting/carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium creature.

20 feet base land speed

Low-Light Vision: A gnome can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination

Weapon Familiarity: Treat gnome hooked hammers as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions.

+1 to the DC for all saving throws against illusion spells cast by gnomes.

+1 racial bonus on attack rolls against kobolds and goblinoids.

+4 dodge bonus to AC against monsters of the giant type

+2 racial bonus on Listen checks.

+2 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks.

Automatic Languages: Common and Gnome

Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Goblin, and Orc.

Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—speak with animals (burrowing mammal only, duration 1 minute). A gnome with a Charisma score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation. Caster level 1st; save DC 10 + gnome’s Cha modifier + spell level.

Favored Class: Bard

Half-Elves

Medium Size

30 feet base land speed

Immunity to sleep spells and similar magical effects, and a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against enchantment spells or effects.

Low-Light Vision: A half-elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination

+1 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks.

+2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks.

Elven Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-elf is considered an elf.

Automatic Languages: Common and Elven

Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic).

Favored Class: Any.

Half-Orcs

+2 Strength, –2 Intelligence (min 3), –2 Charisma.

Medium Size

30 feet base land speed

Darkvision 60 feet

Orc Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-orc is considered an orc.

Automatic Languages: Common and Orc

Bonus Languages: Draconic, Giant, Gnoll, Goblin, and Abyssal.

Favored Class: Barbarian

Halflings

+2 Dexterity, –2 Strength.

Small Size: +1 size bonus to AC, +1 size bonus on attack rolls, +4 size bonus on Hide checks, uses smaller weapons, and lifting/carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium creature.

20 feet base land speed

+2 racial bonus on Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks.

+1 racial bonus on all saving throws.

+2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear

+1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings.

+2 racial bonus on Listen checks.

Automatic Languages: Common and Halfling

Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc.

Favored Class: Rogue

That was a lot to take in, of course. I didn’t want to rush this decision, as, from what I gathered, it would be rather permanent. I immediately threw out the Halfling and Gnome options. I had been short in my old life, and I shuddered at the idea of being shorter than everyone again. Who would want something like that? Asking everyone to get stuff off a table for them, much less the top shelf? No, I’ll go with someone normal sized, thanks.

Half-Orc and Half-Elf were the next to get the axe. Half-breeds tended to get the shaft in fantasy books, because they didn’t really fit in each race’s culture. I didn’t know if that was going to be true for this one, but I really didn’t want to find out the hard way. Especially since most stories of half-breeds came from bad situations to begin with. The best stories usually involved some human and elf falling in love and living isolated from both groups. The majority, though, seemed to be because a human man got too handsy with an elf woman, or an orc warband took a human woman as a breeding slave. I didn’t want to touch that kind of ‘origin story’ with a ten-foot pole, not after my last life. So, both of those were gone.

That left the ‘big three’ of fantasy stories: Humans, Dwarves, and Elves. Frankly, any of them would have been a perfectly acceptable choice. All three probably had nice, robust cultures that I could lose myself in, and none of them were really all that bad at anything. That wasn’t a small consideration, of course. Still, dwarves were on the stumpy side of things, and elves had that whole elven arrogance thing, at least in stories. And I wanted to see these ‘templates’ the old man had mentioned, so if this was the foundation, I didn’t want it slanted one way from the start, right?

So, I picked Human. All well and good. Then I brought up the templates. There were tons of them! Seriously, if you could think of it, there were templates for it. I noticed that some of these templates were actually monsters, too! Most kinds of undead seemed to be modifications of the ‘base creature’. I stayed way the hell away from those, since I wanted no part of a zombie apocalypse, and these vampires looked like the monstrous type, not the emo sparkly type. However, there was one template that caught my eye, and it was a +0 ECL!

Unseelie Fey Template

HD: d6 or Character Class

Wings: Most Unseelie Fey have wings, though not all are usable. Roll a d100 and check the table for wing type.

d100

Description

1-33

None

34-50

Unusable wings of type listed below

51-60

Batlike

61-70

Birdlike

71-80

Butterflylike/Mothlike

81-90

Dragonlike/Scaled

91-100

Insectlike

Special Attacks: Retains all special attacks of the base creature, and gains a special attack based on the season they were born.

Special Qualities: An unseelie fey has several special qualities.

Damage Reduction (Ex) – Gain DR based on HD

HD

DR

1-3

None

4-7

5/Cold Iron

8-11

10/Cold Iron

12+

15/Cold Iron

Iron Vulnerability (Ex) – Damaged by the touch of iron (including steel). Touching iron deals 1 point of damage. Take +1d6 additional damage from iron or steel weapons. Damage Reduction applies to this damage.

Vision (Ex) – Unseelie Fey have enhanced senses

d100

Description

1-70

Low Light

71-80

Standard human vision

81-90

Darkvision 60’

91-95

Creature lacks eyes but has tremorsense 30’

96-100

Creature lacks eyes but has blindsense 30’

Abilities: -2 STR, +2 DEX, -2 CON, +2 CHA

Skills: +4 racial bonus on Intimidate

Level Adjustment: +0

ECL: +0

I was a little worried about the iron vulnerability thing, but that was a normal weakness of fey creatures in stories, right? I’m sure I could find some way to deal with it, at least until I gained a couple levels, and would be able to shrug off some of it. But I would get to be a fairy! And maybe, if I got lucky, I could become a fairy princess, and live in a castle like in the stories that mommy read me as a child! That would be awesome!

I took a breath to center myself. Did I really want to go through my new life as a fairy? Maybe they wouldn’t be respected in this world. No, I definitely wanted to be a fairy! I would get to fly around, and it would be awesome! I made my choice.

Human (Unseelie Fey template) chosen.

Rolling for wings.

1d100: 63 – Birdlike wings

Random wing color chosen: Black

Rolling for vision.

1d100: 89 – Darkvision 60’

The old man smiled at me as I finalized my choice. “Oh, hoh. That is unusual. Most people from this world tend to choose something more… boring, I guess you could say. Not that it is a bad thing, but people typically pick safer options. Picking a fey template will make your life more interesting, to be sure. Just make sure you try and keep alive long enough to make a difference.”

I nodded, even though my body wasn’t really a thing at the moment. I had no intention of dying too quickly. I wanted to live a nice, long life. Or at least one that was better than the one I’d just lived.

“Now, are you ready to look at classes?”

Yes!