Desert Elf

Desert Elf - Level Adjustment 0
Unlike their Woodland kin, the Desert Elven names are more normal in comparison, influenced slightly by eastern/Middle-Eastern naming sense due to their desert home, but also influenced heavily by traditional elven naming conventions of beautiful, yet practical names that better reflect their more grounded natures.

Male: Ajaxis, Jyoti, Vespis, Kalkan, Etherious, Ghuptrix, Astasi, Tallarn, etc...

Female: Amrune, Darlara, Faunra, Jathal, Merisiel, Opral, Soumral, Tessara, Yalandra, etc...

=== Durable Makeup: === Traditional Elf Ability Score Racial Traits replaced by (+2 INT, +2 CON)

Nimble Striders:
Never impeded by difficult terrain

Well-Acclimated:
Has a +5 Racial bonus to Stealth and perception checks in a desert environment, immune to the environmental effects caused by prolonged exposure to a desert(Can ignore penalties from dehydration for twice as long as normal)

Reminding Light:
Capable of casting the spell Homeward, but no matter where you are it always points in the same direction…(Level 0 spell, always treated as a cantrip, produces a glowing golden line of magic energy visible to you that leads to an unknown place) These Mysterious Elves hail from parts unknown, and are always distinguishable by their blisteringly bleached skin, nomad nature, and quick speed…however, they’re all but forgotten in the current era, a nearly dead race. Unlike their more woodland kin, these elves are more hardily built, and seem adapted to moving in difficult terrain. Those who see them say they all claim to be traveling to the same place...

Sandshaper:
Gain ability to cast Gaseous Form as a free action spell-like ability 1/day, but instead of mist/gas you become a cloud of sand. The caster level of the spell is equal to your HD(Minimum 1)

This replaces Nimble Striders.

Some Desert Elves are so in tune with the sand they can even adopt its form, and become a swirling mass of sand. They are less adept at navigating the difficult desert environs, and instead navigate it by becoming one with it. Though it isn’t quite known how these strange elves have become so in tune with their native habitat, they are nonetheless strange individuals, and most are treated with suspicion and wariness by both their brethren and others alike...though, they are undoubtedly in possession of odd, yet useful, abilities.

 

Planesblasted:
Gain Knowledge Planes as class skill, gain +2 to Knowledge Planes checks, and gain the ability to cast Blur 1/day as a spell like ability. The caster level of the spell is equal to your HD(Minimum 1). (This Replaces Elven Magic and Keen senses.)

In hushed voices and quiet whispers, the Desert Elves speak of those amongst them who carry traces of the sundering, the great catastrophe that wiped their home from this plane. These Elves are unnatural, and barely belong in the mortal coil, for they carry within them innate knowledge of the realms beyond the mortal, and carry a spark of it within them, which they can use to make themselves tougher to hit.

 

Legacy of Martial Discipline:
Racial ability bonuses become (+2 CON, +2 DEX,     -2 CHA)

May choose to receive one of the following as a bonus feat, even if you do not meet the requirements: -Lightning Reflexes

-Dodge

-Improved Initiative (This Replaces Elven Magic and Elven Immunities.)

Though rare in the current times than they were, some desert elves carry within them the blood of their once-mighty warriors, known for their quick wits, reflexes, and blindingly fast speed. These Elves are mighty warriors, and small glimpses into the power of the Desert Elven army that once was. They are known for being nimble, hard to hit, and prefer to strike their enemies before they can even realize what hit them.

 

Free Spirits, to the End:
Gain racial +4 to Acrobatics, Athletics, and Escape Artist checks, one is always a class skill; Replaces Nimble Striders.

True to their origin, the Desert Elves yet keep a part of their freer, more chaotic selves within. Even after so much they have endured, some among them embody the truest values that the Desert Elves once strove to live for, and are wild, free beings as unpredictable, chaotic, and wild as a typhoon. These such Desert Elves are are nimble, athletic, and quiet adept at escaping any situation they find themselves in, their free, wild spirits unable to be contained or restrained by anyone. They are flighty, carefree, and unpredictable, and treasure their personal freedoms above all else. To these Desert Elves, the sadness of their situation is even more a reason to be as true to themselves as possible; what better way to show the world who you are than to be expression in its most unrestrained form?

Unfettered by Catastrophe:
Gain racial +2 to will saves, +6 to resist fear effects; Replaces Keen Senses and Nimble Striders.

Having seen the soul-crushing madness of the sundering and lived to tell the tale, the desert elves are a broken people. However, some among them, having stared into the face of such a calamity, steeled themselves and were better for it. These Elves are stoic and stalwart, and little can faze them one way or another….they are infamous among their people for rarely, if ever, smiling. Indeed, they seem to feel little at all...to these Elves, they’ve seen the worst the planes can throw at them...they’ve seen their home lost, their people splintered, and their race in decline. To them, not even a dragon’s roar could shake their hearts, which stand as firm as adamantine in the face of danger and terror...and as such, only the most potent of effects can affect their minds.

Blessings of the World Tree:
Gain a racial +2 bonus to heal, and it is always a class skill. In addition, Gain the following as spell like abilities:

1/day: Speak with animals, Speak with plants, Goodberry(Caster level equal to HD for both)

Replaces Elven magic

While their home, the legendary world tree which one stretched miles into the sky above the desert, may now be gone, some among the Desert Elves retain a connection to their home. Blessed with an innate connection to nature that even the Forest Elves envy, these Desert Elves are living heroes to their people, idols made manifest and proof that their beloved home is not lost forever...that one day, their people might see the light of prosperity again. These elves are warm, and comforting, and are capable of soothing even the most stubborn of hearts...they also possess a natural affinity for the healing arts, the natural gifts their connection to their home gives them letting them produce infinitely valuable food in the dry, dry desert. Whenever they appear, they quite regularly take on the role of sages, healers, and shamans to their kind...and while most may remain in the secret village of their kind, some have gone on journeys of self-discovery, seeking to use their connection to the world tree to bring it home to their people at long last.

Entrepreneurial Spirit:
Gain Racial +2 bonus to Appraise, Sense Motive, and Diplomacy, one is always a class skill; Replaces Keen Senses

While most Desert Elves in the current day are content to wither away in their hidden village, some are more defiant. These Elves are cocksure, and sure that their destiny, and the destiny of their people, lies out in the wider world. They learn to face the perils of the world, and easily find they are quite capable at bartering, negotiating, and the ways of the aspiring businessman.They are charming, and in possession of a keen eye for both an item’s worth and the truth in the words others speak...to them, the world is infinitely larger than the depressing, heavy atmosphere within their secret home, and even should they be unable to bring their home back, they will live their lives how they wish, and to the fullest.

Desert Elven Magic:
Racial +2 to Spellcraft, Knowledge Arcana, and Use Magic Device and one is always a class skill, +2 for checks to overcome SR

Replaces Elven Magic

Thanks in part to their innate connection to their home, the world tree, the Desert Elves once stood at the very forefront of magic and magical innovation, the branches of the world tree they called home allowing them access to most of the planes in the realms and granting them access to knowledge, places, and arcane secrets even the most savvy of wizards would die to learn. Though much was lost in the sundering, some Desert Elves still retain a fraction of that innate magical might which made the envy of all the other races, and find themselves in possession of an innate, almost inherent understanding of the fundamentals of magic.

==  Racial Feats: ==

Sandwraith Training
Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Legacy of Martial Might' alternate racial trait, Character level 4th

Effects: Everytime you enter combat, you are the target of an obscuring mist effect. This effect is mostly identical to the spell, but instead of mist a cloud of sand ripples out from you. This effect follows your movement for 1 round upon the start of combat, after which it remains stationary. You may choose to willingly hold this power back on the start of combat.

The Sand Elves that carry remnants of their former military might are rare indeed, but it has been said they sometimes learn to harness something greater within them, something that lurks within that very legacy. Often taken as recruits into the infamous Desert Elven group that is known only as ‘The Sandwraith Company’ serves as the only Desert Elven fighting force left in the world, sometimes taking on mercenary contracts and jobs but always defending the desert and their kin, these Desert Elves are surrounded by a sandstorm each time they begin combat.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Sandwraith Training' racial feat, Character level 7th
 * Sandwraith Reaper:

Effects: When you have any means of concealment(Or a miss chance of at least 20%), all attacks you make ignore any concealment/miss chance below 50%(Total Concealment). In addition, within the radius of the Obscuring mist effect from the ‘Sandwraith Training’ racial feat, your vision is not hindered and operates as normal.

Within the strong, powerful group known as ‘The Sandwraith Company’, there are those who hold the rank of ‘Reaper’...having honed their bodies to the limit and trained their minds to acclimate to all but the most intense of sandstorms, these Reapers stride through the storms that come forth from their bodies in combat to strike with impunity, often before the enemy knows they’re there.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Sandwraith Training' racial feat, Character level 7th
 * Sandwraith Strider:

Effects: On any round in which you have any means of concealment(Or a miss chance of at least 20%), all forms of movement you possess double until the next round, and enemies cannot make attacks of opportunity at you for attacking or entering their threatened square. In addition, within the radius of the Obscuring mist effect from the ‘Sandwraith Training’ racial feat, your vision is not hindered and operates as normal.

Within the strong, powerful group known as ‘The Sandwraith Company’, there are those who hold the rank of ‘Strider’...and unlike their Reaper brothers, these Elves within the Company train for hours, days, and even months to become as nimble as the wind even within the bleakest of storms...they use such power and training to dart around the battlefield with absolute impunity, using the cover of the storm and their sight which is incapable of being hindered, they dance a beautiful dance of death around their foes, killing them before they realize where they are.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Free Spirits, to the End' or 'Unfettered By Catastrophe' alternate racial trait, Character level 4th
 * Sandlotus Lodgemate

Effects: You gain an innate sense for identify when people are bound, restricted, enslaved or under a similar effect against their will. Within 60ft of you, you may, as a full round action, study a being and determine whether it is under an effect that would impede it’s movement or is being dominated/enslaved/influenced.

The counterpart to the infamously cruel lodge of Elven Slavers known as the “Four-Clover Lodge’, the Sandlotus lodge is a collection of free, unfettered Desert Elves dedicated to preserving free will and freedom around the world...and those who join their group as lodgemates are taught to hone their sight and their desire for freedom to learn how to sense when another is under an effect that is keeping them bound or enslaved...

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Sandlotus Lodgemate' racial feat, Cannot have ‘Sandlotus Unseen Watcher’ racial feat, Character level 7th
 * Sandlotus Freedom Fighter:

Effects: 3/day, when you identify a person who is under the effects of an effect described in ‘Sandlotus Lodgemate’, upon making physical contact with them, you may break all such effects as if that person was the target of both a Dispel Magic and Freedom of Movement effect if such an effect was forced upon them in some way. A subject who willingly accepted a Dominate Monster effect will not have such an effect broken.

Supernatural warriors of justice and freedom, the Freedom Fighters in the Sandlotus lodge are the Lodgemates who go forth once the other Lodgemates find them a target, using their innate powers and gifts honed in their time at the Lodge to thwart the efforts of Slavers, villains, and other such beings that enjoy binding and enslaving others against their will. They are the first and best line of defense against the evils of the Four Clover Lodge, who are hesitant to enslave other elves.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Sandlotus Lodgemate' racial feat, Character level 7th
 * Sandlotus Unseen Watcher:

Effects: The range of the ‘Sandlotus Lodgemate’ racial feat is doubled to 120ft. In addition, once you identify a person who meets the criteria described with it, against the creature that was the source of that effect you are treated as if being under both Nondetection and Invisibility effects for 24 hours.

If the Freedom fighters were the swords and arms of the Lodge, the Unseen Watchers are the senses of it. Capable of picking out targets for their Freedom Fighting lodgemates to free later from twice the distance of other lodgemates, they are also, crucially, capable of rendering themselves invisible to the being who enslaved or bound their target to begin with. They spread out, unseen, through the continent to form a vast net of informants marking who enslaves who, how often they do it, which people need to be freed...nothing escapes their sight. Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, Character level 6th
 * Miragemelder:

Effects: You cast all Illusion spells at +2 caster level, and at a +2 high DC to disbelieve them.

Special: Once per day, you may choose one square that you have visual line of sight to, and swap the appearance of that square with your own(Making you seem to be somewhere else, etc.). Doing so is a standard action, and any creature must make a save to disbelieve it as normal(DC 10 + 1/2 your level + INTMOD)

Among the reclusive Desert Elves, one can find the odd, reclusive ones who are dubbed ‘Miragemelder’ by their kin, for, as the shifting sands of the desert runs within their bodies, they are innately capable of harnessing the illusory properties of the desert they call home. Capable of manipulating light and creating very believable illusions, they can even make one location look like another, for a time...

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, Character level 4th
 * Boundless Optimism:

Effects: So long as you are within 150 feet of members of your race or allies, All magical effects that possess the emotion descriptor must reroll twice and take the lower result to determine whether they affect you. If you must make such a roll, you roll twice and take the higher.

Though it comes as surprise to others who know of their race, some Desert Elves are veritable wellsprings of positivity, never letting anything or anyone get them or their spirits down. To them, they smile, laugh, and smile some more, as that indelible spark of emotion is precisely what defines them, what sets them apart and what drives them to greater heights. So long as they stand near allies or kin, they are as unflappable as stone.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Sand Elven Magic' alternate racial trait, 8 ranks in any Knowledge Skill
 * El'Adri Chronicler:

Effects: You can always choose to take 10 on any of his Knowledge checks, even if you are in immediate danger or distracted. At the beginning of each day, you may reallocate a number of skill ranks equal to your HD. Additionally, you gain the ability to, by focusing on any non magical item for an hour or a magical one for two, learn the rough market value of it on average, some history of the item itself and what powers it may have(if any), and some information on the previous owner. If the item has had multiple owners in the past, you gain information about them at random, but are more likely to get more recent owners.

The city of El’Adri, long said to be the home city of the high elves and now thought lost among the planes, sometimes resurfaces in odd ways. The Fellspires, the Feywilds, sometimes simple chance...though the ways it happens are unknown and varied, there is the rare Desert Elf who stumbles into the dead city, finding themselves amongst the ruins of its once mighty, sprawling Librariums. Though what transpires there is unknown, when they return they are forever changed. Touched by the wisdom of El’Adri, these Elves become fonts of knowledge, capable of adjusting their own skill set each day as if drawing upon different stores of memories themselves. At the mere touch, they are capable of establishing the history of an item they touch, reading its history and owners to glean more information about it.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, Character level 10th
 * Our Destiny Lies beyond the Horizon:

Effects: Your type becomes outsider and you gain the native subtype. Your movement speed increases by 10ft, and you are treated as if you had the Light Steps ninja ability.

Special: You become aware of one location on the material plane that serves as a natural portal to one of the outer realms.

To some Desert Elves, after the events and tragedies their race has experienced, they find themselves being tugged inexorably into the realms beyond the material, to greater and higher places to seek their fortunes, destiny, and even find a new home. To them, the Material Plane has offered them all it can, and it has become long overdue for their kind to seek a new home elsewhere...some, however, return to the Material Plane, outsiders by nature, and carrying knowledge of the plane they’ve come to call home in their journeys to find their destiny, just beyond the horizon.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Blessing of the World Tree' alternate racial trait, Character level 6th
 * Lifeshaper:

Effects: You gain a racial +4 to heal checks, and it is always a class skill for you. You may bestow the effects of Goodberry and Speak With Animals/Plants to any creature you touch, but they can only be affected thusly once in a 24 hour period.

Special: Everytime you cast a spell, power, or similar effect that heals a variable number of hit points on a target, roll a d100. On an 85+, it is affected by the Empower metamagic effect. If it is 95+, it is affected by Maximize instead. These do not affect casting time nor spell level, but cannot be added in conjunction with other Metamagics.

The Lifeshapers are the Sand Elves who serve as the conduits to the natural world, using their innate connection to their World Tree home even now, wherever it may be, they spread their gifts as far and as wide as they can. Capable of bestowing sustenance and healing to others at but a touch, they continue to serve as wise, healing beacons of light amidst the desert darkness, healing others with both magic and their medical skill in an effort to show them a better life, and to show them hope.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, Divine Spellcasting or 'Deific Obedience' feat(Choosing Nour as deity), Character level 7th
 * Servant of the One True King:

Effects: Your blood is always treated as being Holy water. If you do not possess blood, pure liquid holy water instead pumps through you. You may choose to take 1d4 unavoidable slashing damage, self-inflicted, to fill two vials with your blood, which become two vials of holy water. By taking 1 point of CON damage, you may raise the damage die of holy water created in this way by one step. By taking 1d4 CON damage, you can create two potions of cure light wounds.You cannot bring yourself below 1 CON this way, but you can bring yourself below 0 HP. If you lack a CON score, you instead take CHA damage. If you are undead, you produce unholy water instead.

Special: If you are reduced to 0HP or 1 CON at any time by any means that are not self-inflicted, all land within a 15 foot burst of you becomes consecrated for 24 hours.

Special: If you gain the ‘Sarcophagus Knight’ template after taking this feat, you are capable of producing both holy and unholy water, decided at the time you wish to produce it.

While their faith and devotion has been tested time and again, all the more so in the current era, the Sand Elves remain devout followers of the Minor god Nour on the whole. To them, he is their one and only king, their future and past king, and all that they strive to be...to speak nothing of the legends that he is, in fact, the patron saint of their species. They love and worship him, and those who truly embody such devotion and become capable of divine casting in his name or instead take rigorous vows and prayers to him to prove their obedience are granted the amazing power of holy water. Their blood transmuted into the miraculous liquid, they use their gifts to spread Nour’s word all over the world.

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, Must not be undead, Must not have the 'Our Destiny lies beyond the Horizon' racial feat, Character level 5th
 * Mummification Ritual:

Effects: You no longer need to eat, breathe, or sleep, and are treated as being an undead creature for the purposes of positive and negative energy. You gain a frightful presence aura out to 30ft with a duration of 1d6 rounds.

Special: Once per day as a swift action, you may act as if you were affected by the Haste spell for one round.

Though many have forgotten, it was the ancient Sand Elves who first began the use of Mummification, in the act of embalming and respecting their dead, they ensured Nour would accept them into his eternal sanctum in the afterlife. However, some Desert Elves strive to walk the path of mummification far before their death, embalming themselves and turning themselves into undead husks, into walking monuments to Nour’s glory and grace. Capable of terrifying others with their mere presence, they are also capable of giving themselves a boost of speed. Though nothing but conjecture, some claim they do so to serve a higher purpose...

Prerequisites: Sand Elf Race, 'Servant of the One True King' racial feat, 'Mummification Ritual' racial feat, Character level 11th
 * Apocryphal Rebirth:

Effects: You gain the 'Sarcophagus Knight' Homebrew template as a servant of Nour, but take one negative level that can be recovered as normal. To gain the template, you must venture to the location in the world that you wish to be the location of your sarcophagus, and upon your arrival it shall appear before you in the chosen location. You must climb inside, willingly entomb yourself inside of it, and die within to be reborn 1d10 days later with the ‘Sarcophagus Knight’ template as normal. Work with your GM to decide the oath you take as a Sarcophagus Knight, as described in the template description.

The final step for the Desert Elves in their quest to serve Nour, the way of the Sarcophagus Knight is one that only the most devout walk...for to do so is to forgo your everything, your afterlife, emotions, loves and joys...to offer it all up, even your life and death, to him to carry out his will and serve him forever...it is the way of the martyr, and one that is highly respected amongst the Desert Elven people.