Shrimple (3.5e Race)

Author: the bluez in the dungeon (talk) Date Created: 05/06/2023 Status: Complete Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Shrimple

Shrimp people who have excellent markmanship and live both underwater and on shoals and coastal regions.

Personality

With a bubbly disposition, a curious attitude but a cautious approach, shrimples make a very diverse society, in terms of self-expression, with the mentioned key traits. They are serious but not too much, like to travel but always come home. Their personality is strictly related to their physique, a feature that makes them easily readable, especially to humans that notice this pattern.

Physical Description

Most of them have a slight build, with a body resembling that of a shrimp, with humanoid features. They have wispy moustache-like appendages on their face, antennae, a chitinous body of a variety of colors (blue, red, yello, green, pink, black, sand, light grey and even iridescent), four thin legs. They have pincers for hands, which have about the same skill-level of human hands. One of them is oversized, and as a very particular anatomy which allows the to put projectiles in it and fire them, not unlike a sling. While underwater, they may clap the pincer strong enough to produce a bullet-like wave of water.

Relations

Most of their contacts are with coastal or seafaring communities, or acquatic races like sea elves, aventi or darfellans. They often work as mariners, explorers or diplomats between races of the land and those of the sea. Evil races from the shores and the ocean consider them a delicacy.

Alignment

Most of them are neutral, and a lot are good, but any alignment is present among them.

Lands

They inhabit both shallow waters and shores, as well as the depths of the ocean. They congregate in small, but dense, communities called "colonies" which are ruled by traditions and families' councils. They build house of rocks, shells, compacted sand and coral carefully grown.

Religion and Society

Communities mantain the traditional religion of the region, usually involving local sea gods, gods of travel, bountiful fishing and ancestors' spirits. Some more indipendent individuals may eschew their people's traditions and live as hermit or adventurers.

Language

They speak a dialect of Common with strong Aquan influences, two languages that all shrimples speak.

Names

Their names are a combination of a Common first name and an Aquan family name.

Racial Traits

• +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength: Quick and precise, they lack in physical power.
• Humanoid (Anthro) 
• Medium: As a Medium creature, a shrimple has no special bonuses or penalties due to its size.
• Shrimple base land speed is 20 feet. Swim 20 feet. 
• Amphibious (Ex): Shrimple can breath both water and air. 
• Pincer Gun (Ex): They have a dominant claw which is bigger and stronger than the other one. This pincer can be used as a sling of their size and counts as both a sling and a feral strike for all purposes. Other than charging it with projectiles to throw, if underwater, it can be used with no ammunition, dealing Water damage. Using their pincer guns underwater suffer no penalties to range, attacks or damage. 
• Shrimp Dash (Ex): Shrimples have extreme speed when moving backwards. They gain the Backward Step skill trick for free. 
• Tight Grip: Having a strong pincer-hand, they gain a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks made with their pincers. 
• Monstrous Body (Ex): Due to their unique physiology, if they wear armor they need to have it made especially for them, resulting into an increase of 50% of the base mundane price, before any additions. 
• Sand Cover: They have developed quite a few ways to hide in the sand. When in aquatic, coastal or sandy environments, they gain a +2 to Hide checks. When hiding in sand with no cover, with a result of at least 20 they gain the benefits or soft cover, until they move, but even if they are spotted.
• Automatic Languages: Common, Aquan
• Bonus Languages: Any, except for secret ones
• Favored Class: Fighter or Pathfinder Gunslinger
• Level Adjustment: +0
• Effective Character Level: 1

Racial Options

Feats

• Bubble Bullet

• Crusher Claw

• Double Pincer

• Molted Giant

Pathfinder

Alternate Racial Features

• Climbing Crustacean: Having been born on land for generations, some shrimples have forgone their aquatic adaptations and instead have learned how to climb efficiently. They gain a climb speed of 30 feet. This racial trait substitutes their swim speed and the Amphibious trait.

• Crabhammer: Crabhammer shrimples have an oversized claw instead of their usual pincer gun. This grants them the benefit of treating their unarmed attack with the claw as if they were a size larger. They also invert their Strength penalty with the Dexterity bonus. This racial trait substitutes Pincer Gun and alters their ability score bonus and penalty.

• Foam Mantle: Those shrimples that don't possess a strong grip develop additional ways of defending themselves. Once per hour, as a move action, they can produce bubbles on their body. For the next minute they gain Resistance to Fire up to their HD, Spell Dampening against Fire spells equal to 1 + 1 per each 5 levels. The Fire Resistance lowers by one per each point of fire damage it prevents, and immediately ends the Foam Mantle after having received the maximum amount of fire damage. This racial trait substitutes the Tight Grip trait.

• Hermit Shell: Self-sufficient and sturdy, these shrimples have a shell that they inhabit and which acts as a sort of armor for them (bypassing their Monstrous Body's limitations). It provides a +1 armor bonus, with +1 maximum Dexterity, -1 penalty and 5% arcane spell chance of failure. This shell is not natural armor and counts as both a masterwork armor and masterwork clothes, but may be enhanced only as one of them and the choice is final. It requires no proficiency. This shell occupies the same space on the body as a suit of armor or a robe, and thus a shrimple cannot wear armor or magic robes while wearing it. Shrimples' shells can be enchanted just as armor can be, and as clothes. They can take warforged only feats which augment or alter their hermit shell, but this may make it work as an armor only. The shell can be taken off and even changed or modified just as clothes or armor can. It's usually made of chitin (making it suitable for druids) but other materials can be used, paying the price. It counts as being in the most beneficial armor weight category. This trait substitutes the Shrimp Dash trait.

• Scissor Claw: Vicious and well-armed, these shrimples sport an impressive, razor-like pincer, which gives them a feral strike, with the statistics presented below. This trait substitutes the Pincer Gun trait.

• Small Shrimp: Although already nimble, only a few handful of shrimples are actually small in size. They are Small-sized, with all its consequences. They lose their Medium size.

Scissor Claw

One-Handed Melee

Cost:	— gp
Damage (Small):	1d4
Damage (Medium)1:	1d6
Critical:	19-20/×2
Weight2:	— lbs
Type3:	Slashing
HP4:	10
Hardness:	5

1. See Damage Increases by Size to calculate the damage for a weapon larger than Medium or smaller than Small.
2. Weight figures are for Medium weapons. A Small weapon weighs half as much, and a Large weapon weighs twice as much.
3. When two types are given, the weapon is both types if the entry specifies "and", either type (player's choice at time of attack) if the entry specifies "or", or each end of the double weapon is a different type if the entry specifies "/".
4. The hp value given is for Medium armor, weapons, and shields. Divide by 2 for each size category of the item smaller than Medium, or multiply it by 2 for each size category larger than Medium.

Vital Statistics

Table: Shrimple Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
5 years	+1d20	+2d20	+3d20

Table: Shrimple Aging Effects

Middle Age1	Old2	Venerable3	Maximum Age
50 years	75 years	100 years	+3d20 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.

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