Xanthian (3.5e Race)

Author: The-Marksman (talk) Date Created: November 2009 Status: Complete Editing: Constructive editing only, and from only those familiar with the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony please.

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The descendants of human whom stumbled onto the magical land of Xanth. The magic of the land itself eventual infused itself into the first humans ancestors who soon developed inherent magic talents.

Xanthians

This is the race of humans found in the series of Xanth novels written by Piers Anthony.

Centuries ago, the first wave of humans colonized the strange new world of Xanth. Those first humans didn't have magic talents, but settled in this strange, new, highly magical realm. So it went for several generations before the first humans began to develop innate magical abilities that only they could cast. So it was with each following generation that every child born in the land of Xanth had an inherent magical talent. Some talents were more powerful than others and those with the most powerful talents being granted the honorary title of Magician.

Personality

Most all xanthians are very polite and friendly. Most are very unassuming people who are gracious and courteous to most anyone they meet. Much like their human ancestry, xanthians have varied personalities. However, a xanthian scoundrel is likely better company than the average human. Xanthians, having lived in the magical land of Xanth, have been cut off from the rest of normal society and have been spared exposure to the consistent wars of humans, and as such are not as hardened and emotionally distant as some humans can become from exposure to such circumstances.

Physical Description

Xanthians typically stand from 5 feet to a little over 6 feet tall and weigh from 125 to 250 pounds, with males noticeably taller and heavier than women. Like their human ancestors xanthians are more physically diverse than most other races due to their penchant for migration and conquest, and their short life spans. Their skin ranges from nearly black to very pale, their hair from black to blond (curly, kinky, or straight), and their facial hair (for men), from thin to thick. Xanthians have short life spans, reaching adulthood at about age 15 and rarely living even a single century.

Relations

Just as their human ancestors, xanthians mix just as readily with other races as they mix with each other. Xanthians are highly tolerant of other traditions and especially of other races, as they have strong alliances with other species, such as centaurs, Merfolk, nagas, nymphs, ogres and zombies which in Xanth are all more or less friendly races, with the exception of the ogres which can still be dangerous if you're not careful.

Alignment

Xanthians are usually neutral on the law-chaos axis, and are most often good. Those that are not neutral on the law-chaos axis are most often lawful as a chaotic xanthian is not very common. Evil xanthians are even more rare than a chaotic xanthian, and a Chaotic Evil xanthian would be one in a literal million, or more.

Lands

Xanthians hail from a small magical island called Xanth. Xanth is an island shaped like the real-life state of Florida, but has a series of islands at the bottom, and off of the southwest coast has a large island just off the coast, this island actually rotates harmlessly into the water and a different island arises in its place, each with its own specific people or way of life. Xanth is cut off horizontally at the center by what the people of Xanth call "The Gap Chasm" which is a mile wide canyon that bisects the country. The Gap Chasm has a 'forget spell' on it, so that once people who cross it are out of sight of it, they must make a DC 25 Will save or completely forget about its existence. The Gap Chasm is guarded and patrolled by what people who have seen it refer to as "The Gap Dragon". In Xanth, many plants bear fruit or finished goods such as pies, pillows, shoes, etc. One of the most fearsome plants in Xanth is the Tangle Tree, a sentient, carnivorous tree that has dozens and dozens of prehensile tentacles for foliage.

Religion

Xanthians believe in a group of higher entities known as Demons. In the land of Xanth there are minor "demons" which are more mischievous than evil, which can be encountered by nearly anyone. Then there are the over-seeing and all powerful "Demons". Each of these "Demons" has a name associated with the realm which they control. These names happen to correspond to the names of the different planets in our solar system. There are the Demons Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Nemesis and Xanth. Xanthians attribute the magic of their land, and their ability to use magic spells as the trace incidental leakage of magic from the body of the Demon Xanth. Lore has it that the Demon Xanth takes the form of a donkey headed dragon named NIMBY (standing for: Not In My Back Yard) and goes around with his consort Chlorine, and does random favors for travelers.

Language

Xanthians language is a simple shift in the alphabet, a letter or two forwards or backwards (See Caesar cipher). For example, the word "What?" in common would be "Xibu?" in xanthian.

Names

Xanthian names come in three equally common types. The first are names that were handed down and brought with them from the human societies that they started in. Such names are any names that can be or that are commonly given to humans. The second type is names that are based on puns, which have developed over the course of time being cut off from the world they started in. The third type are names not common to humans, but also that are not based off puns, these names are as follows.

Male names: Anomy, Crombie, Bink, Dor, Dolph, Hugo, Humphrey, Trent

Female names: Becka, Dawn, Electra, Eve, Irene, Iris, Ivy, Wira

A male xanthian with a "Magician Caliber" talent gains the honorary title "Magician" and female xanthians gain the title "Sorceress". A Magician or Sorceress are called by others either Magician or Sorceress followed by their first name i.e. Magician Trent, Sorceress Ivy, Magician Bink, Sorceress Iris, Magician Murphy, etc. More formally, just called Magician or Sorceress, such as if a Magician gave a directive or made a request of someone, and they didnt know the Magician or Sorceress well, they might reply with “Yes Magician.” Alternatively a Magician or Sorceress can be described to someone else by themselves or by others using what their talent does; i.e. Grey, the Magician of Nullification, Ivy, the Sorceress of Enhancement, Bink, the Magician of Magical Immunity, Iris, the Sorceress of Illusion, or Trent, the Magician of Transformation, etc

Xanthian Racial Traits

None

• Humanoid (Human)
• Xanthians are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Xanthian base land speed is 30 feet.
• Magic Talent: All xanthians are born with a magic talent that is unique to them. Each xanthians talent is rated in power from the weakest "Spot on the Wall" talents, to the most powerful "Magician Calibur" talents. All magic talents act as spell-like abilities, and each talent is either automatic and self activating, in which case the xanthian has no control over it, or more commonly, the magic talent is like a spell-like ability at will. If a saving throw is ever needed in conjunction with a magic talent, the save is always charisma based. Using a magic talent is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity unless the talent requires concentration or is a full round action to cast.
• +4 skill points at first level and 1 extra skill point at each additional level. (The 4 skill points at first level are added on as a bonus, not multiplied in; see the Players Handbook).
• Human Blood: For all effects related to race, a xanthian is considered a human. Xanthians for example are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect humans as their human ancestors are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by humans. (See the Player's Handbook for more information on humans, and the Dungeon Master's Guide for more information on magic items).
• Automatic Languages: Common, Xanthian.
• Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). Xanthians have all of the versatility and broad (if shallow) experience that humans have.
• Favored Class: Any. When determining whether a multiclass xanthian takes an experience point penalty, his highest-level class does not count.
• Level Adjustment: Spot on the Wall and Weak: +0, Normal and Strong: +1, Magician: +2
• Effective Character Level: Spot on the Wall and Weak: 1, Normal and Strong: 2, Magician: 3

Talents

(A) = Always in effect, cannot be “turned off”
(F) = Casting is a full-round action
(C) = Using this talent requires active concentration
(S) = Talent is Self Activating and you have no control over it in any way

Spot on the Wall

• Creating a spot on a wall
• Having stupid ideas (A)
• Changing the color of your own hair
• Change the color of others hair
• Changing your own eye color
• Changing the color of any body parts
• Heating meals
• Eye color changes with mood (S)
• Hair changes color based on your emotions (S)
• Change gender at will (F)
• Glowing in the night
• Sex appeal (being sexy/physically attractive for ones whole life) (A)
• Projecting boom sounds
• Conjuring sweet smelling flowers
• Create small 1 foot illusionary hole in the ground

Weak Talent

• Directing winds direction but not strength (F)
• Your kisses on the lips cause intoxication (S)
• Projecting others most embarrassing moments as visible scenes above their heads (C)
• Transform wood into reverse wood
• Turn any inanimate object from its current material into pure jade stone
• Making people feel guilty (A)
• Conjuring print to appear on any surface
• Making rain in a very small vicinity (F)
• Voice projection up to 15 feet
• Conjuring a normal short sword
• Conjuring fruit
• Manifest sensory organs (noses, mouths, eyes, ears) on objects (F)
• Can feel but not manipulate things via an ethereal hand up to 15 feet away (C)
• Turning up to 1 gallon of water to wine
• Physically see completely through up to 1 object within 10 feet, but not half way through like into a rock, or someones skeleton, only whats past the rock and person (C)
• Creating somewhat small pictures on surfaces
• Your massage can heal a broken heart (F) (C)
• Produce one specific type of music from anything touched
• Poisoning water, up to 1 gallon of water per attempt (As Arsenic found on page 297 of the DMG)
• Conjuring a normal silver flute
• Change through out the month from beautiful and stupid (8 intelligence and 6 wisdom, 20 Charisma), to average beauty and intelligence (10 Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma) then to ugly and super intelligent (20 Intelligence, 16 Wisdom, 6 Charisma). Each phase lasts for approximately 10 days and shifts gradually from one phase to the next. (A)(S)
• Make bridges appear up to 15 feet in length that can comfortably support up to 600 lbs of weight at a time
• Darkvision 60 ft (A)
• Hearing things at great distances (A)
• Causing emotional heartache in others
• Causing sore throats
• Animating rocks, but not fast enough to hurt anyone with
• Soothing burns of others (F)

Normal Talent

• Slow down time
• See the past (a number of hours in the local vicinity back, equal to your hit dice) (C)
• Making living things friendly (As charm creature)
• Flight without wings (As the fly spell but no duration, and at will)
• Turn ordinary stones into gems and vice versa (Roll in the DMG to obtain value of gems created)
• Rusting metal to any length with touch (As rusting grasp but any metal) (F)
• Animating objects (Create animated objects as found in the Monster Manual)
• Create physically manifested puns (i.e. a dandelion flower that can roar, a quarter horse that can divide into 4 one legged creatures, etc)
• Restore zombies to their physical and mental condition from life so long as they stay within 30 feet, though they actually remain undead (A)
• Draw a door on an object and it becomes openable to whatever exists on the other side of the object (as passdoor)
• Invisibility (self) at will
• Making the ground quake (F)
• Create a small invisible wall of force
• Projecting maps of things previously seen (C)
• Turn things transparent
• To change species every day (S)
• Use your finger to write on stone
• Transform into a brick wall
• Conjuring mundane items
• X-Ray Vision
• Changing one type of plant to another
• Killing plant life in the local vicinity
• Assume the essence of what you see
• Summoning and controlling nickelpedes (F)
• To make others believe you if you speak something as a promise (S)
• To know when folks are lying (A)
• Create an extremely tiny spot on the wall that is actually a picture of the future
• A 'stun-gaze' that freezes a person in place
• Can touch someone and they immediately know what others around them truly think of them (F)
• If you want to know the direction of something specific you want, you spin in a circle and will involuntarily stop facing the direction of what you desire, but do not know the distance (F)(C)
• Looking forward in time up to 1 round (C)
• Rewind time 6 seconds in your local vicinity

Strong Talent

• Summoning and directing equines (mules, horses, pegasi, unicorns and the such) (F)
• Duplicate unattended, non-magical inanimate objects
• Know the exact route to anything or place desired except the way home
• Talk to the wind and it obeys (F)
• Create a small intangible barrier that hostile creatures cannot cross
• Reading minds (C)
• Saying no to a creature causes it to choose to not do the action attempted or specified
• Summoning creatures described in any book held (F)
• Producing and controlling small amounts of electricity
• Making a temporary and sentient duplicate of yourself
• Shattering objects (as Shatter)
• Transform into any creature with the aquatic subtype that has the same hit dice as you or fewer (F)
• Transform into any creature that has wings that has the same hit dice as you or fewer (F)
• Changing things from soft to hard or light to heavy
• Suggestion as a spell-like ability
• Absorbing one property of something you touch
• Produce a sticky resin that can trap debris, insects, enemies, or whatever it comes into contact with and preserves it for later use (F)
• Can make tangible imaginary friends with real magic talents (no stronger than normal strength), but no more than any 1 friend at a time, and you can recall the same friends.
• Can communicate with any living creature (plants, animals, creatures, anything) (A)
• Fast healing (10) (A)
• Perfect memory (A)
• To unexpectedly, but pleasantly find something that you weren't looking for (S)
• Erase any unattended, non-magical inanimate object out of existence with a wave of your hand
• To know if something is inimical (threatening or a threat to you or means you harm) (C)
• To see exactly 24 hours into the future as its happening (C)
• Borrowing the talents of others temporarily
• Deflecting all hostile attacks with an equal but opposite amount of force as what was used to strike at you (S)
• Half wishes (get half of what you ask for, probably in an unexpected way)
• Transform into a dragon of your own hit dice (F)

Magician / Sorceress Talent

The magician or sorceress title is given before the talents description. Such as for the first two: The Magician of Animation or the Sorceress of the Magic Field , etc.

• Animation: Bring constructs, golems and statues to life, a human construct becomes a full human, a gargantuan tiger statue becomes a living gargantuan tiger and so-fowarth. The creatures are fully living with randomly determined statistics that adhere as close as possible to the appearance of the creature. i.e a 13 foot tall statue of an overly muscled ogre wont have a strength score lower than 20, but it doesn't necessarily have to have a low intelligence or wisdom, since those factors can't be determined by how it appears. You cannot control these creatures, but they are fully aware that they owe the fact that they are sentient to you. (F)
• The Magic Field: Having a circle of magic 15 feet ahead you, 10 feet behind you, and 5 feet to either side, where magic functions normally, even in an anti-magic field or on planes that have no magic. (holding reverse wood you create an aisle that replicates an antimatic field of the same specifications.) (A)
• Teleportation: This ability follows all of the rules of the Teleport spell including the off target arrival chart except as follows . You can teleport yourself, or other objects touched or send other creatures you touch and any combination there of, to anywhere on the same plane as yourself, distance is not a factor. You can teleport yourself and no more than an additional number of people and/or objects equal to your hit dice per teleportation. i.e. a 10th level xanthian with this talent can teleport himself and 10 other creatures since the xanthian himself does not count towards his total weight or people teleported. Unwilling creatures get spell resistance and will saves. The maximum weight regardless of the combination of creatures or objects taken along, or sent without you, must be no more than a total of 250 lbs times your character level, thus a 10th level xanthian can teleport up to 2,500lbs of objects or creatures not counting himself. You can remove the chance for off-target arrival of you have a photograph (or the equivalent, including through means of scrying type magical images) of the area you wish to go to.
• Plants: Cause any plants you desire to grow rapidly, completing full life cycles from seed to wilted in minutes if you desire, and stopping at any point in between. Any plant with an intelligence score of 4 or higher is entitled to a fortitude save to resist the effect. (C)
• Magical Knowledge: To know all of the magical abilities of others (this includes any class ability that is Supernatural or spell-like in nature, as well as any prepared spells, or spells known to any spellcasting class(es) or even the complete nature of the talents of other xanthians, even if they themselves do not know the true extent of their talent). (C)
• Divination: Divining entire history of a touched object (C)
• Conversation with the Inanimate: You involuntarily make any inanimate objects (rocks, clouds, water, bones, floor tiles, furniture, walls, etc) within a 30 ft radius able to speak having a 7 intelligence, 10 wisdom and 8 charisma. They're most often crass, rude, shallow, argumentative and mouthy, but they know everything that has ever happened around them in the past and you can command any object affected by your power to speak, and it must obey (even if it does so in its typically rude manner), but you cannot 'make' them be silent. (A)
• Inanimate Knowledge: You can know everything about anything inanimate within 10 feet (such as picking up a leaf and seeing the exact spot in the exact forest it came from, and that it was carried by a swarm of tiny creatures on its branch to its current location and on the way the swarm was attacked by a small dragon whos inanimate soot from its breath weapon still microscopically covers the leave, the swarm fought off the dragon after losing many members of the swarm. Once at its current location, it was plucked off and the branch and discard by a specific humanoid, and the branch was thrown into a constructs fire chamber to create its energy, and here the leaf lay since, until you picked it up.) (C)
• Animate Knowledge: Can know everything about anything animate within 10 feet: Such as finding out the entire history of any animal, live plant, humanoid, or outsider, etc. (C)
• Life: Making pictures or paintings come into existence, and if appropriate fully alive. (F)
• Transmutation: Change yourself into any animate creature (another race, species, a lion, griffon, roc, rat, colossal red dragon, cocatrice, unicorn, ogre, goldfish, etc) with all physical characteristics and abilities of the normal creature as tho by means of a Shapechange spell, with the exception that it does not allow incorporeal or gaseous forms.
• Illusion: Create any illusion desired. As simple as making it look like there is a small hole in the ground, to as complex as making a plate of rice look, smell and taste like dragon steak. This includes making the semblance of invisibility or total silence, or even recreating an ancient city and all its detail. Any such illusion can be maintained with little to no effort, even in your sleep.
• Storms: Creating storms of any strength, size, or type, including rain storms, snow storms, blizzards, hurricanes, tornado's, etc and to a minor degree direct them while they are in effect and dissipate them at will.
• Zombies: Reanimate almost any dead body into a zombie, with the exact amount of decay on the body as when it was zombified. This acts as using the Animate Dead spell to apply the zombie template to any creature whom has recently died, with the exception that the creature keeps its intelligence score minus one point for every 12 hours after its death (to a minimum of loss of the intelligence score as normal with the zombie template) and the zombies starting alignment is True Neutral. For example, a body zombified within seconds or within ten minutes of its death would retain all of its class features, abilities, and mental faculties such as intelligence that it had in life, with no outward sign of the fact that it is a zombie even to its closest relatives, though it would still have its type changed to Undead, and still be detectable as an undead creature through magical means such as the detect undead spell. Any creature zombified after 10 minutes of death losses all class features and abilities it had in life as normal for the zombie template.
• Transformation: Transform any animate living thing, into any other animate living thing within a 10 ft radius, a human to a centaur, a tree to a fish, a blade of grass to a human, an orc to an ogre, a minotaur to a blade of grass, a raccoon to a tree, etc. The subjects new form is now its natural form for all purposes including for spells, abilities of others as well as for breeding purposes
• Immortality: Your sentience is immortal. Your body may die, but your soul becomes an ethereal ghost and is capable of taking over others bodies forcefully, after which you control the body and the former resident of the body becomes just a personality in the back of your mind with which whom you can communicate mentally. Spells or effects that end possessions remove you from your host, but you simply return to etherealness and can attempt to repossess the host if no magical barriers prohibit you. (A)
• Adaptation: Adapting by enhancing or partially transforming magical inanimate things to make them more useful.
• Unhappening: You can rewind time by slipping into a blurry limbo and backtracking your steps, and then coming back out in to your own body whenever you choose, leaving only you with the memory of what transpired, this talent starts at adolescence, and at first you can go no further back than when your talent developed, but then after using the talent, you can go no further back in one happening, than to just after you came out of your last unhappening to prevent a time paradox.
• Information: Know where to find the information that will answers any question (S)
• of the Idea: If you both believe and agree with an idea or suggestion that comes from someone who doesn't know your talent, it immediately becomes reality. (S)
• Talents: Create any given magical effect once and its gone forever (for example could fly via using magic to grow feathered wings, but if you wanted to fly again, you couldn't manifest feathered wings, but could grow bat wings, or repel yourself from the ground, or remove the gravity in your local vicinity, or give yourself the ability to make incredible jumps, etc). You could use this talent to replicate the Alter Self spell, but if you wanted to replicate the Alter Self spell again, you couldn't assume the same likeness again, but you could replicate an Alter Self spell to assume a different likeness. The same goes for other spells such as Polymorph and Shapechange.
• Reversal: Reverse anything. make a substance from hard (such as wood) to pliable like putty, liquid (such as water) to solid (walkable surface), solid (such as stone) to powdered (sand), reverse others moods, reverse inanimate (statue) to animate (construct), your current location to another location (reverse here to there), reverse curses into blessings, etc
• Bad Luck: Place a curse on anyone or anything which causes the specified action, series of actions, quest(s), or actions taken by a cursed individual to go wrong for them. (See Murphy's Law) (A)
• Conjuration: Conjure any magical effect you can imagine into reality while singing, whistling, humming, playing an instrument or the like. (F)
• Nullification: You can "nullify" or suppress magic like using a targeted antimagic field on anything as small as a ring or a small coin to an entire person or creature to even an entire 10 ft radius centered on you, except that the effect is permanent if you choose, and that innately magical creatures such as constructs, elementals, undead or outsiders that require magic to animate them, cease animation. Attended objects and artifacts are entitled to saves, this ability has no affect on any creature with a divine rank, or any spell or affect put into place by a creature with a divine rank.
• Enhancement: Selectively alter reality to enhance the qualities you perceive in anything animate or inanimate. i.e. While lost in the jungle, you perceive your new companions magic talent to be good, and then it actually is, you perceive your new companion seems to be smart, and then they really are, and then when you come across a fearsome chaotic dragon, you perceive it to be a nice creature, and it is.
• Magical Invulnerability: Your talent manifests itself via an intangible yet highly intelligent, sentient force that has some small ability to see short distances into the future so that it may foresee and prevent incoming attacks. Your talent only protects you from magical harm of any kind. If the exact nature of your talent were known, then you would be vulnerable to those who want to attack you through non-magic means - thus making (your own) magic the indirect cause of your injury. To prevent the exposure of its existence, the talent prefers to work in roundabout ways, one day it could drag you through a previously unknown whirlpool to avoid a field of magic that kills on contact, for example. So your talent is kept hidden by the select few of your allies who figure it out, or know it. This talent cleverly conceals itself by acting through coincidence, causing you to appear to be an amazingly lucky (if not somewhat clumsy at times) individual. Such as while running away from a dragon, you almost break your ankle after tripping on a rock which causes you to fall into a pit that just happens to be deep enough for you to hide in, and that the dragon can't fit its mouth into. This talent does not care about your reputation or humility or how you look, only that the quickest, easiest and most direct route of protecting you was taken. (A) (S)

Vital Statistics

Table: Xanthian Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
15 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6

Table: Xanthian Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
35 years	53 years	70 years	+2d20 years
At middle age, −1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At old age, −2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At venerable age, −3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Table: Xanthian Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	4' 10"	+2d10	120 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
Female	4' 5"	+2d10	85 lb.	× (2d4) lb.

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