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Spirit Folk

Spirit folk are the descendants of humans and various spirits of nature. Spirit folk have three distinct races—bamboo, river, and sea spirit folk. All tie very strongly to the natural world as well as to the society of humans.

Personality: Spirit folk tend to be serene and calm, attuned to their surroundings and at peace with the world. Their spirit ancestry gives them an awareness of the spirit world, and they show little desire to manipulate that world through magic. They manifest a love and enjoyment of life that many humans can only envy.

Physical Description: Spirit folk look human. Their eyes are slender and their mouths are small. Their eyebrows are very thin and their complexions are very pale or golden. They have no facial or body hair, but the hair on their heads is thick and luxurious. They appear in all the diversity of humans, and many come close to the ideal of human beauty.

Relations: Spirit folk live as part of human society, and are accepted as equals in human communities, even when their true ancestry is known. They are members of human clans, citizens of human nations, and have blood relations who are entirely human. At the same time, they are part of the spirit world, and never feel completely at home in the mundane life of a human village.

Spirit folk get along well with faen, who share their love of the natural world, though they are sometimes left bewildered by faen enthusiasm. Their relation with the dracha through dragons gives them something in common. The dwarf giants' obsessions with crafting and ceremonies are often lost on the spirit folk mind. Spirit folk also see aventi, illithyiri, mojh, and verrik as "unnatural" and shun contact with them whenever possible.

Allegiances: Perhaps because of their strong ties to the natural world, spirit folk tend to seek balance between extremes. They tend away from moral and ethical allegiances.

Spirit Folk Lands: Spirit folk live among humans, but usually near regions of untouched wilderness—uncut bamboo groves, pure streams and rivers, and deep ocean waters. Unlike half-elves, they are tightly integrated into human communities, bound by family ties. They do not usually join in communities with other spirit folk, but in the Northeastern Ocean there are a number of islands inhabited by spirit folk who are said to be descendants of humans who crashed there on ships in centuries past and joined with the spirits and dragons there.

Religion: Spirit folk share the religious habits of humans, venerating a host of spirits and Fortunes. They typically venerate their human ancestors as well as their spirit forebearers.

Language: Spirit folk speak the same language as their human communities, but can also converse in the Spirit Tongue that is used among spirit creatures.

Names: Spirit folk usually have human names, though their given names often reflect their ancestry.

Adventurers: Some spirit folk feel their difference from their human neighbours more accutely than others of their kind, and take up the life of an adventurer in order to find their own way in the world. Sometimes, sheer wanderlust drives a spirit folk to explore the world.

Spirit Folk Racial Traits

These abilities are common to all three subraces of spirit folk.

• Medium-size: As Medium-size creatures, spirit folk have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
• Spirit folk base speed is 30 feet.
• Low-light vision: Spirit folk can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish colour and detail under these conditions.
• Spirit Subtype: Spirit folk have the spirit subtype, which means they can be affected by abilities that specifically target spirits, such as protection from spirits and invisibility to spirits. Their human ancestry makes them humanoids, however, so they are also affected by abilities such as hold person and charm person.
• Automatic Languages: Spirit Tongue and one regional language. Spirit folk adventurers also freely know Common.
• Bonus Languages: Aquan, Draconic, Giant, Goblin, Sylvan, or any regional language.
• Favoured Class: Any. When determining whether a multiclass spirit folk suffers an XP penalty, her highest-level class does not count.

Bamboo Spirit Folk

Bamboo spirit folk have these additional characteristics.

• +2 racial bonus on Survival checks.
• +4 racial bonus on Hide checks when in woods or forest.
• Trackless Step (Su): Bamboo spirit folk leave almost no trail. In natural surroundings, increase the DC to track bamboo spirit folk with the Survival skill by +20.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects of Earth and all friendly elements, and Evoke Nature spells.
• Once per day a bamboo spirit folk can use speak with animals as a spell-like ability in order to speak with any animal. This ability is innate to bamboo spirit folk. It has a duration of 1 minute (the spirit folk is considered a 1st-level caster when using this ability, regardless of actual level). See the speak with animals spell description in the Player's Handbook.

River Spirit Folk

River spirit folk have these additional characteristics.

• Water Breathing (Ex): River spirit folk can breathe water as easily as they breathe air.
• River spirit folk have a base swimming speed of 30 feet. They do not need to make Swim checks to swim normally. They gain a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard, and they can always choose to take 10 on these checks, even if rushed or threatened when swimming. They can use the run action while swimming, provided they swim in a straight line.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects of Water and all friendly elements.
• Once per day a river spirit folk can use speak with animals as a spell-like ability in order to speak with any fish. This ability is innate to river spirit folk. It has a duration of 1 minute (the spirit folk is considered a 1st-level caster when using this ability, regardless of actual level). See the speak with animals spell description in the Player's Handbook.

Sea Spirit Folk

Sea spirit folk have these additional characteristics.

• Water Breathing (Ex): Sea spirit folk can breathe water as easily as they breathe air.
• Sea spirit folk have a base swimming speed of 30 feet. They do not need to make Swim checks to swim normally. They gain a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard, and they can always choose to take 10 on these checks, even if rushed or threatened when swimming. They can use the run action while swimming, provided they swim in a straight line.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects of Fire and all friendly elements.
• A sea spirit folk can make a Knowledge (nature) check (or an untrained Intelligence check) with a +2 racial bonus to predict the weather for the next 24 hours. The DC is 15.

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