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Small/Large
Humanoid (Spriggan) Climate/Terrain:
Any forest, hill, and underground These ugly, dour cousins of gnomes are able to become giant-sized at will. In either size, spriggans look basically the same. They are ugly, thick-bodied humanoids, with pale or dull yellow skin, brown or black hair, and red eyes. On rare occasions a spriggan may have red hair, which they believe is a symbol of good luck. Their noses are large and bulbous, but not beyond the human norm. They are very fond of mustaches and bushy sideburns, but they never clean or comb them. This same policy of uncleanliness extends to their bodies and any other possessions. Spriggans smell of dank earth, stale sweat, and grime. Outside of their lair they always wear armor and carry weapons, usually polearms such as spears, although they have been known to carry swords or maces. Spriggans never use shields. They like to carry several nasty little daggers concealed in various places in their armor. Spriggans never wear jewelry or other ornaments. They prefer to keep these things with their hoard, where they brood over them at odd moments. COMBAT Spriggans are tricky and tough in battle. They have a wide variety of options for combat, and are particularly fond of stabbing unsuspecting opponents in the back. Spell-Like Abilities (Su.): 1/day—pyrotechnics, scare, and shatter. These abilities are as the spells cast by a sorcerer of the spriggan's character level (Save DC 10 + spell level). These spell-like abilities can only be used when the spriggan is small. Spriggan Traits (Ex.): These replace the basic gnome traits. Giant Growth: Their major ability is to change from small to giant size, or back, at will. Weapons, armor and other inanimate objects on their person shrink and grow with them. This action takes the whole round, during which they can move up but not fight. The growth changes the spriggan as follows: Size: Large; Hit Dice: plus 4d8 (bonus hp modified by new Constitution); Initiative: (modified according to new Dexterity); Speed: 40 ft. base; AC: +2 natural armor (modified by Large Size -1 and new Dexterity -1); Attacks: (melee/thrown bonus modified by new Strength and Size); Damage: (melee/thrown damage modified by increase in weapon size by two steps, and new Strength); Face/Reach: reach increased to 10 ft.; Saves: (Fort and Ref Saves modified by new Dexterity and Constitution); Abilities: Str +12, Dexterity -4, Constitution +6; Cannot use Spell-Like Abilities in giant form. Note: not only do the size modifiers from Large have to be factored in when the spriggan transforms, but the DM must remember to remove the original Small size benefits. · Low-Light Vision: Spriggans can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. · Small: Spriggans in their natural form gain a +1 size bonus to AC and attack rolls and a +4 size bonus to Hide checks, but they must use smaller weapons than humans use, and their lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of Medium-size creatures. Skills: Spriggans receive a +4 racial bonus to Move Silently checks. SOCIETY Spriggans can never quite get organized as groups. In fact, they are sometimes encountered with part of the group giant-sized and part of them gnome-sized. On an individual level they are very clever and use their abilities to the fullest to accomplish their goals. These goals are usually to cause great havoc and mayhem amongst other races. They seem to take great pleasure in destroying property and hurting innocent creatures. Spriggans usually travel in packs, all of them male. The females keep to dismal burrows or secret dens in forgotten ruins, rarely venturing out farther than necessary to gather food. The females mate with males from packs that wander nearby. The children are cast out upon reaching maturity, the males to join up with packs and the females to find a place to lair. Spriggan infant mortality is high, with the males (80%) surviving more often than the females (60%). Spriggans hate gnomes more than any living creatures, but they truly love none but those of their own ilk. Perhaps it is the similarity of the true gnomes to their race that drives their hatred. They like to terrorize, rob, and otherwise work vile deeds. They do not hesitate to attack or steal from traveling groups or small settlements in their area. All of their possessions, including their armor and weapons, are stolen from their victims. They greatly fear large groups of organized humans and demihumans, and they avoid such parties. The roving packs of males tend to be meat eaters, preferring to hunt or steal their food. As such they must keep moving and establish wide areas of control. The females tend to eat fruits and grains that can be easily gathered near their dens. They eat meat only when offered by a male as part of the mating ritual. Spriggans are too mean and nasty to have any natural predators, although gnomes attack them on sight unless faced with overwhelming odds. It usually takes a well-armed party to root out a band of spriggans. SPRIGGAN CHARACTERS A spriggan's favored class is rogue. Spriggan clerics worship Urdlen (favored weapon: spiked glove) and can choose two of the following domains: Cavern, Chaos, Earth, Evil, and Gnome.
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