Sand Elves:
Sand elves are the rougish cousins of elves. Sand elves are genreally nomadic, but dwell primarily
on the planes of neutral chaos: Gladsheim, Limbo, and Pandemonium. They
are thought to have originally come through a rift that connects a desert
area on the prime to the depths of the soup of chaos that is Limbo. To
this day, the the largest or the rare permanent cities inhabited by the
sand elves, called "The City of Iron," is a walled citadel in a treacherous
area of limbo called the "shifting desert." The shifting desert seems to
be a reflection of the prime desert that the nearby planar rift connects
to on the prime, but in reality, the desert is every bit as unpredicatable
and dangerous as the primordial soup of chaos that covers most of limbo.
Game Attributes: If you use the statistics of planar elves as written
in Dragon #235, assume those to be planar settlers of a more mundane sort,
similar to the way planar humans came to the planes.
Special Abilities:
Kits:
There are a few kits the are especially appropriate
for sand elves; others are not. Most notably, many kits in
the Complete Book of Elves that are not listed here aren't really to appropriate
for their divergant attitudes. The remaining kits are merely recommendations.
Note that some of these kits weren't designed with the Skills & Powers
in mind. If you as a DM feel a kit is especially powerful in comparison
to S&P kits, you may want to apply a character point surcharge for
that kit (many DMs have a problem with bladesingers, for example.)
Sand elves are very introspective. As a result of
the extreme environment that they call home, sand elves have a very rough-and-ready
attitude. They believe in the strength of the few--or the individual. The
only authority in sand elf society is a vague system of respect. To earn
a sand elf's respect takes skill, wit and ability. A sand elf accords respect
to those with strong self-images and ability to match. They have difficulty
respecting those with lower intelligence than themselves. Non sand elves
find it exceptionally difficult to earn respect in this way from a sand
elf, but it can be done.
The individualist sand elf ideals make their attitudes
consitant with those of the Fated, Signers, Free League, and Anarchists.
Despite their chaotic outlook, few of their numbers are melancholic enough
to join the Bleakers.
Some sand elves appear similar to their elf cousins. others have been changed by the very planes of chaos that
they call home, including such variations as swarthy skin and deep black
hair. Eye color among sand elves seems to be truly random.
Sand and elves have some different ability
modifiers and S&P abilities:
Attributes:
Sand elves' exposure to the element has bred out
the low constitution typical of the elvish races. But it has bred a dour
outlook and less intuitive, more cynical way of viewing the universe. Accordingly,
sand elves get the typical +1 dexterity, but suffer a -1 to either wisdom
or charisma (player's choice.)
Sand elves have the standard
allotment of character points per S&P and Dragon #235 to buy racial
abilities. However, there are some alterations in the available special
abilities:
Sand Elves:
Standard Abilities: Natural Psionic (10),
Limbo Power (5), Wild Resistance (5), Sword Bonus (5), Infravision (10),
Stealth (10).
Chaos Shaper (5): The elf receives the chaos
shaping proficiency. The character can automatically shape land on limbo
can can shape twice the indicated amount of land.
Limbo Power (5): The elf can move at a rate
of 96 on limbo and suffers no ill effects of the primal matter on limbo.
Mind Guard (5): The elf recieves +1 on saves
vs. mind affecting spells and psionic attacks.
Natural Psionic (5/10): The elf has natural
psionic ability. For 5 points, the elf may be a psionicist regardless of
alignment (i.e., can be chaotic with no penalties.) For ten points, the
elf recieves this benefit (if a psionicist), plus automatically rolls
a wild talent.
Presence (5): The elf can use command
once per day.
Wild Resistance (5): The character possesses
30% magic resistance to wild magic spells, the effects of wild magic, and
priest spells of the chaos sphere.
Willpower Bonus (10): The elf recieves as
wisdom / willpower sub-ability of +1. Elves may not take this ability if
they opted to take the sand elf -1 wisdom penalty.
Magic Resistance (15): The elf recieves a
magic resistance of 5% plus 5% per point of intelligence or wisdom over
14. This ability may not be combined with wild resistance or the standard
elven resistance to sleep or charm.
Lower Resistance (10): An elf who possesses
magic resistance (above) may voluntarily lower their own resistance by
1/2 to use a lower resistance on an opponent, once per day. The
elf must have a valid target with magic resistance to use this ability;
the elf's magic resistance returns to normal when the lower resistance
ends.
Classes:
Sand elves can be psionicists with
the same level limits as priests (i.e., 12th level).
Sand elves can subsitute psionicist for priest in any standard elven class
combination.
If you do not use psionicists in your campaign,
I recommend allowing sand elves to be mentalists (a
mage specialty described in the Spells & Magic book) in lieu of any
other wizard class.
