Plantmen

Also known as Malatran Mold Men, Plantmen are bipedal fungus creatures.   Plantmen are the oldest known race in Malatra.

Personality: Plantmen are a unique people in a land of the strange and marvelous.  At lower levels plantmen are extremely aggressive and eat a great of meat.  This meat is usually raw or even old and spoiled.  Most plantmen dislike cooked meat and vegetarians are rare.  As plantmen grow (gain levels), chlorophyll begins to take over and the need for meat subsides; by 7th level a plantman only needs one meal a day, and none by 10th.  A plantman’s personality also tends to mellow with age.

Physical Description:   Malatran plantmen are medium to large-sized bipedal fungus creatures.  They have sharp thorn-like claws, and leaf-like tendrils form a fringe on their shoulders, abdomens and limbs.  A topknot of these tendrils sits at the apex of a plantman’s head.  Malatran plantmen have a greenish-brown skin that gets harder and harder as they mature until it becomes almost bark-like, this does not grant any armor bonus.  They are 4 feet tall plus ½ foot per Hit Dice.  At 8 feet tall they are considered ‘Large’ creatures and as such players should make the appropriate adjustments.  Furthermore, as a large creature, a plantman gets a reach of 10 feet.

Plantmen do not breathe as normal humanoids do.  Like plants, plantmen respirate through the surface of their entire bodies.  As a result of this they need little oxygen normally and can remain underwater twice as long as a humanoid.

Plantmen do not have a life-giving blood like humanoids.  Instead they have a sap-like substance or ichor that will slowly oozes from wounds.  Plantmen do lose hit points for wounds past the 0 hit point mark.  Generally plantmen do not leave blood trails if they move while wounded, probably because no one else recognizes the trail of sap and its has no scent like blood.  Malatran plantmen can be healed by any magic in the jungle just like everyone else.  Plantmen shamans can also heal any other race in the jungle as well.

Relations: Plantmen feel cautious towards any creature not like them since they have little understanding of the ways of flesh-creatures.  Plantmen have alien motivations and a life cycle that is not completely understood by even the most renowned sages.  Their numbers are unknown since they can hide their homes so well in the jungle.  In fact, while in their ‘villages,’ plantmen get a +15 circumstance bonus to hide checks by non-plant people, it is otherwise only +4 in a forest environment.   The plantmen ‘elders’ talk of secret knowledge and of being ‘the first and only native inhabitants’ of Malatra.  All of this contributes to some unease amongst other races.

The plantmen also feel they have reason to be wary.  They call the other people “the animal peoples” and see them as being short-sighted, short-lived, and unpredictable.  Plantmen remember the ‘quiet-time’ before the ancients came , and see the animal peoples as disturbing the natural peace of the jungle.

Alignment: Usually neutral.

Lands: Unknown - and everywhere.  Plantman villages are hastily moved once they are discovered by others.  One large village is thought to like just south of Fire Mountain in the Jungle of Lost Tribes
Spiritual Beliefs: Plant and nature spirits.  For the plantmen, this can also translate to ancestor worship. A select few plantmen are selected to join the “Council of Trees” and found new villages.

Language and Communication:  Plantmen are not able to ‘speak’ as others do, or even animals..  They do not have a vocal vocabulary.   However, plantmen can communicate with a series of clicks, whistles and body/limb motions and gestures.  Plantman language itself, Plantspeak, is influenced by their mysterious and possibly magical nature in that they can ‘hear’ or rather feel the vibrations of the clicks and whistles made by other plantmen while communicating.  This does not make them more susceptible to vibrations than flesh people.   But they do not hear (i.e. listen checks are meaningless),   The clicks sound like two sticks hitting together and the whistles sound like blowing over a piece of grass held taught between your fingers.  Plantmen can learn to understand vocal languages like common by reading the lips of the speaker.  A plantman must be looking at the speaker to be spoken with.   The vibrations of normal speech do not register with plantmen either unless magic is involved.  Plantmen can of course feel the vibrations of large creatures like an approaching garuda.  Plantmen receive Plantspeak and Malatran sign language.

Society and Combat: NPC plantmen hunt near their villages.  In the forest, plantmen blend into their surroundings (plantmen get a +4 hide racial bonus).  Their villages are nearly indistinguishable from the forest to non-plantmen such that a pc can walk right through without even knowing they had done so.  Groups of plantmen will attack prey or hostile sentients from ambush positions.

Plantmen will often attack with naturally grown, or ‘living’ weapons until of sufficient level to make their claw attacks more damaging.  Plantmen claw attacks deal 1d4 + 1/level points of damage.

Chiefs can also attack with spores.  Victims must make a saving throw versus poison DC 18 or be paralyzed; with death following in 5d4 minutes unless treated with a cure disease spell.  Victims who die in this manner are ‘reborn’ 1d4 + 20 hours later as a plantman.
Plantmen loathe fire, and are afraid of it.  Plantmen will usually run from a fire rather than face it unless something of value is threatened.  Natural fires in the jungle are left alone by plantman unless extreme duress.  Plantmen take double damage from fire attacks and need to make a Will save, DC = 15, to avoid fleeing for 1d6 rounds.  Plantmen spell casters are not able use fire or cold-based spells and suffer only half damage from water-based.

The favored class of plantmen is fighter in order to help protect the natural balance.  All other classes except Kwaku (Rogue) are allowed.  All plantman heroes receive Move Silently and Hide as a class skill only when in a forest/jungle terrain.  Therefore a pc may put skill points into them, in addition to the +4 bonus, but it will only behave as full credit while in jungle.  Otherwise, the +4 disappears and any skill points put into either skill counts as half.

Racial Traits:
•		Primary Abilities: None
•		Move: 30 ft/40 ft when they reach 8 ft tall.
•		Preferred Class: Fighter
•		Size: Medium (5 ft by 5 ft/ 5 ft)
		         Large (5 ft by 5 ft/10 ft)
•		+4 Hide individuals, +15 Hide when in a village
•		Natural Armor +6
•		Natural Attack: 1d4 +1/level x2 (2 claws)
•		Lowlight Vision
•		Special Qualities:
				½ damage from water-based attacks.
				Immune to poisons, polymorphing and    paralysis
				Plantmen are subject to critical hits.
				Fire-based attacks cause double damage and require the plantman to make a Will save or act as if under the effects of a fear spell cast at 10th level.  The DC is 10 + damage suffered.  Plantmen get a +1 bonus to the save per Hit Die.
				Read Lips is a cross-class skill for all plantmen, regardless of class.
•		Bonus Proficiency: Halfspear
•		Automatic Language: Plantspeak (not talk to plants), Malatran Sign.
•		Bonus Language: Any
•		Special Note: Plantmen can be healed by non-plantmen shamans with normal cure/heal spells.  Likewise, Plantmen can cure/heal any non/plant species.  Healing magic is the same throughout the jungle of Malatra.  It comes from the same source - the spirits of nature.

Ecology:  Plantmen live by scavenging and hunting.  They will eat meat in any condition, from fresh to carrion.  In times of great need, they have been known to eat other plantmen.  Plantmen do not regard dead allies or opponents as sacred so if food is needed, have no qualms about eating them.  Though of course they are not stupid and won’t eat an ally in front of his living friends.

Plantmen can suffer from dehydration very easily.  When adventuring outside of very moist, swampy areas (like the majority of the jungle) a plantmen will lose two Constitution points twice a day unless they wet themselves down.  A typical waterskin or gourd holds enough water for one wetting.  Lost Constitution points are regained at the rate of two points per bath.