The Arthubel
It’s time for another new race to add to the list of mindboggling racial options available to players. This time around we head under the sea to provide you with another great option for that underwater campaign you’ve always wanted to run. These odd-looking creatures have only just begun to emerge into the wider world beyond the colony where they were bred and are thirsty for adventure, so what are you waiting for!
Arthubel
Specially bred by aboleths in order to provide a superior slave race in their underwater home, the arthubel are an industrious and capable race of builders and guardsmen. Until very recently, the arthubel were kept in isolation by their aboleth masters, but after generations of slavery, fate intervened, destroying their creators and allowing the arthubel to command their own destinies. Left without a home and more enemies than they can count, arthubel have been forced into a life fraught with danger and excitement.
Physical Description: The arthubel are crustacean-like humanoids with a tauric body. They have four chitinous legs which propel them on land and through the water at great speed. Their upper body is rubbery and highly reminiscent of humans, with an upright torso and two arms. Their bodies tend to be very well muscled beneath the rubbery shell that keeps their skin from deteriorating in the water. Their heads are similar to those of other creatures of the deep oceans, looking like some ancient fish with exaggerated jaws and large, well-developed reflective eyes. Males have more chitin on their torso and arms, giving them a look of being armored at all times, while females are slightly larger and lither in appearance. All arthubel speak with a quick, clicking voice, difficult for most others to understand.
Society: The arthubel were created by a colony of aboleths to serve them as a superior race of slaves. The initial desires of the aboleths were to create a race which could breed true, unlike their skum servants, and which would be better able to move about underwater and skilled enough to build their cities. The experiments were successful, and the arthubel quickly supplanted the skum within the colony. The new slaves were bred to be perfect servants and were imbued with intense loyalty, as well as great skill in both industrial labor and creative artisanship. For untold generations the arthubel toiled for their aboleth masters, building fantastic cities and serving as front line troops in their conflicts with other underwater creatures.
Eventually, the colony of aboleths came into conflict with a kraken sorcerer of such immense power that they could not hope to prevail against it. The aboleths and their fortress city were destroyed, and the only remnants of their legacy were the hordes of arthubel living in crowded subterranean vaults beneath the city. Emerging to find their life work gone and their masters dead, the arthubel found themselves alone and unsheltered. Coupled with a new found freedom in the withdrawal of magical compulsion, the arthubel were lost. At first, they survived on pure instinct, and it would be some time before they began to come together and form societies.
Arthubel society today is driven by industrial merit and sees every member of society dedicated to craftsmanship and duty to the whole. They live in vast vault-like cities of exceptional, if uncreative, beauty, and are ruled by extremely totalitarian local governments. Known for being outstanding craftsman, arthubel builders and smiths are in high demand, which allows commerce to drive their success.
Relations: Though initially suspicious of other races, the arthubel’s skill at craftsmanship and need for commerce has led to an open trade policy and given rise to cosmopolitan attitudes. While arthubel get along well with most aquatic races, they have a strong memory of their aboleth oppressors and kraken destroyers and so avoid the terrors of the deep with a near religious fervor. The arthubel have only very limited contact with surface races, doing some work with friendly coastal communities. However, they usually contract with merfolk, or another common aquatic race, to handle the negotiations in such matters, as most civilized races have difficulty understanding arthubel speech and view their hideous appearance as a sign of danger.
Alignment and Religion: Because of their heritage and industrious nature, most arthubel are lawful in alignment. They look for structure in all things and thrive on discipline and order. Most arthubel find chaotic ideas to be very disturbing and have little tolerance for such things. Chaotically-aligned arthubel are most often rebels or criminals in hiding from the rest of arthubel society. Arthubel are most often neutral, finding ideals of goodness and evil to be dangerous extremes that disrupt the harmony and order on which they thrive. Arthubel worship gods of the sea and gods of artifice common to the region they live in and have no religion of their own.
Adventurers: Arthubel adventurers are most often guards or traveling craftsmen whom circumstance has forced into danger. Arthubel are well suited to careers as wizards, as their magical abilities and wide array of crafting abilities suit the arhubel's disposition. Other arthubel choose to pursue a martial career and find work as fighters or cavaliers, finding those classes to align with their ideas of order and structure.
Male Names: Artic, Chiploth, Forit, Gliple, Notitch, Phratic, Quilit, Shoric, Zoth.
Female Names: Beli, Gorish, Hanni, Phachs, Sulx, Wendrix, Xoi, Yonish, Zox.
Standard Racial Traits
- Ability Score Racial Traits: Arthubel are hardy and quick-witted but are mentally weak. They gain a +2 bonus to their Constitution and Intelligence scores and suffer a -2 penalty to their Wisdom score.
- Size: Arthubel are Small creatures and thus gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
- Type: Arthubel are humanoids with the aquatic and arthubel subtypes.
- Base Speed: Arthubel have a land speed of 20 feet and a swim speed of 40 feet.
- Languages: Arthubel begin play speaking Aklo and Common and may select any language as a bonus language (except secret languages, such as Druidic).
Defense Racial Traits
- Attach: As a swift action, the arthubel can plant his legs into any solid surface in order to hold himself in place. If he does, the arthubel cannot move or be moved by normal means. He also gains a +4 bonus to his CMD against bull rush, overrun, and reposition attempts. Ending this effect is a free action.
- Susceptible to Control: An arthubel suffers a -2 penalty to resist compulsion effects.
Miscellaneous Racial Traits
- Skilled Laborer: Arthubel were created to be laborers, and are particularly well suited to a variety of crafts. At each level, an arthubel gains two additional skill ranks which can only be spent on Craft and Profession skills. Additionally, an arthubel can substitute ranks in any Craft skill for his caster level for the purposes of qualifying for item creation feats, as well as for the purposes of meeting the crafting prerequisites of magic items. The DC to create an item still increases for any necessary spell requirements that are not met (see the magic item creation rules in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook). The arthubel cannot create spell-trigger or spell-activation items this way.
Movement Racial Traits
- Jet: Once per minute, as a swift action, the arthubel can initiate a jet which increases his swim speed to 100 feet for 1 round, but forces him to move in a straight line while under this effect. If he uses the charge action while under the effects of this ability, he gains an additional +2 bonus on the attack roll.