Presented here are a variety of psionic races, just as varied in nature as the standard races.

Seemingly ubiquitous in presence, the elan hide their unusual nature by blending in with the mortals they once were. The half-giants are most often to be found in the harshest of climates that other races would shy away from, while maenads typically take homes on the coast or island chains, respecting the dichotomy of the ocean that so well mirrors their own internal conflict of emotions. Xephs, although closely resembling humans, make their homes away from the firm structures of most societies, while dromites build hives underground, their alien appearance ostracizing them from the xenophobic nature of less accepting races.

Blues, like the dromites, are often ostracized from all societies, including the goblin tribes that give birth to them, although in some cases, they can rise to become leaders of these primitive tribes. Ophiduans, with their monstrous appearance, have chosen to build up their own society, rather than worrying about fitting into the society of other races, while the duergar battle against their dwarven brethren. Those of psionic heritage can be found in just as broad of lands as the standard races, getting enmeshed in political dealings and simply trying to survive.

Choosing a Race

After you have determined your ability scores, but before you put them on your character sheet, you should choose the race for your character. At this time, you’ll also want to choose your character’s class, as many races have features that work better or worse depending on your class selection. Once you have determined your character’s race and class, assign your ability score rolls to particular abilities, and then adjust the ability scores based upon the race you’ve selected, and then continue to fill in the details of your character.

Racial Characteristics

Your character’s race determines many of his or her qualities.

Race Adjustments

Your choice of race determines some adjustments to your ability scores.

Apply these adjustments to your character’s ability scores, even if it would bring an ability score above an 18 or below a 3 (although you cannot have an Intelligence below 3).

In addition, each race grants automatic languages. All characters know how to speak Common, in addition to racial languages they may also speak. Characters with a high Intelligence speak additional languages, gaining one per point of Intelligence bonus. Select your character’s bonus languages (if any) from the list of languages in the race’s Racial Traits entry.

Literacy: Unless your character has some literacy impediment, he or she can read and write all the languages he or she speaks.

Psi-Like Abilities

Many of the following races have psi-like abilities. These function in a fashion similar to spell-like abilities.

New Subtypes

There are several new subtypes for the humanoid racial type. These include the aberrant and insectoid subtypes.

Aberrant: This subtype is applied to elan and other humanoids of an unusual nature.

Forgeborn: This subtype is applied to forgeborn.

Insectoid: This subtype is applied to dromites and other insect-like creatures.

Noral: This subtype is applied to norals.

Xeph: This subtype is applied to xephs.