Catertaur (3.5e Race)

Author: Eiji-kun (talk) Date Created: 9-5-16 Status: Complete Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Catertaur

Deep in the forests where fey roam, the catertaurs stalk amount the massive trees. Half-human half-caterpillars, these strange creatures are destined to one day transform into an entirely new state.

Personality

Typically, catertaurs hailed from the same places as fey and as a result many had picked up their personality traits and culture. However unlike the fey this is not a built in product of their existence, and as more and more catertaurs slip out of the forest into the rest of the world they slowly begin to adopt the cultures of others. Being outsiders to most, they could be considered cautiously curious, quietly judgmental, and beings of instinct. They trend towards fearful reactions over outwardly aggressive ones, for their large bodies are soft and vulnerable.

Catertaurs body positions often speaks volumes about their personal behavior. Most keep a low profile, their human bodies lifted up slightly shorter than most humanoids with long trailing bodies. When aggravated they rear up to appear larger than most, or curl up when feeling defensive.

Physical Description

Catertaurs are massive caterpillars whose heads meld into the upper body of humanoids. Their legs are more pronounced allowing for faster, almost centipede-like movement. Their humanoid halves sometimes have insect-like features, such as segmented-appearance eyes, small antenna, or fluffy down-like hair. Most tend towards tanned or olive skin, with their caterpillar halves being various flora tones such as green with black or brown spots or stripes. Their mouths have small but potent and durable canines.

Catertaurs possess a voracious appitite, even for their size. If left to their own devices they usually focus on eating or getting more food with a seemingly unlimited stomach. It is said that if a catertaur is well fed indeed, it becomes capable of moving onto the next stage of development. Underfed (or sometimes unwilling) catertaurs may spend their entire lives without changing.

The change, of course, is a major thing in catertaur society and biology. This form is technically the child form in which they transform into winged moth-like people. Like the caterpillars they resemble they wrap themselves up in a cocoon and enter a dramatic process of conversion into a new life form, a being which is both the same and slightly different from its base form. The change comes with certain neurological alterations, so while both forms share memories they may react to the memories in a different way.

Catertaurs internally fertilize and lay soft shelled thick leathery eggs. They usually keep them in secluded damp places, and lay clutches of 1-4 at a time. Children must be provided food quickly lest they starve in short order or worse, attempt to eat each other.

Relations

Catertaurs keep a cautious outlook to other beings, and so they tend to have a friendly but minimal contact with others, usually for trade. They outright avoids aggressive species.

Alignment

Catertaurs can be any alignment, but most tend towards neutrality of some sort.

Lands

Catertaurs hail from the same wooded magical forests and fey, and have slowly been expanding outward. They still prefer the safety of forests and other flora than dangerous open plains or inhospitable deserts and mountains.

Religion

Catertaurs don't worship gods directly, but generally venerate nature as a concept.

Language

Catertaurs speak Common and Sylven.

Names

Catertaur names tend to sound very similar to elven names, likely due to their fey connections.

Racial Traits

• +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence: Hale and hearty, they suffer from simple minds. After all, their minds must remain malleable for future changes.
• Monstrous Humanoid: More insect than man, catertaurs aren't quite humanoid enough to blend among others. 
• Large (long): As a Large (long) creature, a catertaur takes a -1 size penalty to Armor Class, a -1 size penalty on attack rolls, a +4 size bonus on special attack (bull rushes, grapples, overruns, and trips) checks, and a -4 size penalty on Hide, but it uses larger weapons than humans use, and its lifting and carrying limits are three times those of a Medium character. They have a space of 10 feet and a reach of 5 feet.
• Catertaur base land speed is 30 feet. climb 30 ft 
• Darkvision: A catertaur can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and a catertaur can function just fine with no light at all. 
• Create Silk (Ex): Catertaurs are capable of creating up to 2 feet/HD of silk thread each day over the course of 1 minute. It can be used to make proper rope, coverings, or possibly even clothing with the appropriate craft checks. It is sticky when fresh and silky when dried, has hardness 2, 8 hp per inch thickness, is immune to acid, bludgeoning, and sonic damage, quarters fire damage, takes full damage from slashing, and takes half damage from everything else. 
• Immunities (Ex): Catertaurs are immune to poison. 
• Natural Weapons (Ex): Catertaurs have a strong tail and a surprisingly solid bite. The tail slap deals 1d8 points of damage plus Strength as a primary weapon, and gives +2 on trip attempts. The bite deals 1d6 points of damage plus 1/2 Strength as a secondary natural weapon, and has poison (see below). 
• Poison (Ex): Catertaurs have a venom in their bite (Contact, 1 damage per round for 1 minute for primary and secondary damage). This damage increases by 1 at four HD and every four HD beyond. Poison overlaps, it does not stack. As a standard action it can be shot up to 30 ft as a touch attack, dealing no damage but forcing a save vs poison. Regardless of success or failure, poison can only be used once every 1d4 rounds. It degrades rapidly and cannot be harvested. The DC is Constitution based. 
• Tauric (Ex): Half-man, half-caterpillar, their tauric nature is both a boon and bane. They are always counted as mounted for the purposes of feats and abilities, and always count as having maximum ranks in Ride (though they never require ride checks, it is purely for qualifying pre-requisites). They cannot use the Ride skill for evading attacks or any of its other normal functions. In addition, they benefit from the increased carrying capacity of being both a large creature and a quadruped. They require barding instead of normal armor (which at a large size is x4 the cost of traditional armor). Finally their human halves are scaled for medium creatures and thus they use weapons as if they were medium sized.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Sylven
• Bonus Languages: Any
• Favored Class: Druid or Ranger
• Level Adjustment: +0
• Effective Character Level: 1

Vital Statistics

Table: Catertaur Random Starting Ages

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

Table: Catertaur Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
50 years	80 years	90 years	+3d10 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: Catertaur Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	8' 0" long	+2d12	200 lb.	× (1d6) lb.
Female	8' 2" long	+2d12	200 lb.	× (1d6) lb.

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