Asterion

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Because of their size, build, and the horns that grow from their heads, asterion are presumed by most sages to be the offspring of minotaurs and some other humanoid race. (For example, human sages suggest a minotaur/orc heritage while orcish shamans claim asterion are minotaur/human crossbreeds.) This belief is also widespread among common folk of most societies, resulting in a strong distrust of asterion in cities and foreign lands, where they are seen as savage, honorless raiders just one step up from beasts.

This view has nothing to do with how asterion think of themselves, and the stereotype itself is often a source of conflict between asterion and other groups. According to their own creation myths, asterion are not related to minotaurs at all. Their shamans speak of an ancient chieftain (most agree he was a northern barbarian, though some describe him as human, others as an ogre, and a few even call him a dwarven warlord) who found himself waging an impossible war against raiders who used horseback archers to ravage his lands.

Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the chieftain went to the river’s edge on a holy night to pray for aid in his battle. Unwilling to depend on just one god for his salvation, the barbarian chief directed his attention to the constellation of his birth, the Bull’s Head, and promised to show loyalty and respect to whatever deity would send him the power to defeat his enemies. As soon as his prayer was done, the chieftain was amazed to see mighty cattle emerge from the river’s edge, all females with star marks on their heads and gravid with young. Knowing these were the answer to his prayer, the chieftain brought the cattle to his village. Each of the cattle birthed four young, strapping youths with hooved feet and small horns atop their heads.

By morning, the youths were young men and women of full stature. When next the horse-archers attacked, they faced not just the chieftain’s people, but an army of supernaturally strong and swift warriors born of the star cattle. The horned warriors defeated the archers, and were welcomed into the chieftain’s tribe. Because they came as an answer to a prayer to the night sky, the new members of the tribe were called asterion, or the star-born.

Asterions in your Game

If a GM chooses not to use asterion as an independent race, there are numerous other options for a race with the same approximate appearance and game rules.

Asterions are obviously designed with many similarities to minotaurs, and could be linked more closely to that monstrous race. Asterions can simply be considered a sub-species of minotaur, or could represent half-minotaur crossbreeds.

Physical Description: Typical asterion are powerfully-built humanoids, standing nearly 7 feet tall. They have roughly human features, though tend to have thicker, wilder hair and broader, flatter faces. Two horns grow from all asterion’s heads, beginning around the ear and jutting forward toward the cheek or jaw. These horns range from short spikes of just a few inches to mighty curved horns curling up and forward (though some rare individuals can be found with horns that curl downward). While males generally have larger horns than females, that isn’t always the case. From the knee down, asterion legs are covered in hair (ranging in texture from shaggy wool to fine fur), and their feet are digitigrade and end in hooves. Most asterion have stout tails, like those found on cattle, though this is not a universal trait.

Though many think of them as a dusky race, in truth there are many lighter-haired and lighter-skinned asterion. They have a much broader range of skin and hair color than most races, and individuals may be white, cream, tan, brown, yellow, golden, bronze, red, brown, black, or even blue. More rarely some asterion tribes have members that are green or purple, which is often perceived by outsiders as a sign of orcish crossbreeding. In most cases, an asterion’s fetlocks and manes will match, as will its hoof and eye color.

Society: Asterion tribes are usually small and located in inhospitable territories such as frozen mountains, barren plains, deserts, and swamps. They are often part of larger racially-mixed tribes that include humans, orcs, and half-orcs who band together for survival in lands ruled by ogres, giants and dragons. Life in these societies is harsh, brutal, and often short. Since any group of asterion must repeatedly face the loss of one or more of its members every few months, ties of friendship and family are considered ephemeral and impermanent—to be appreciated while they exist but not important factors when weighing major decisions. However, these same cruel conditions make it crucial that every asterion feel responsibility for and loyalty to the tribe as a whole. An asterion will not think twice about leaving a wounded childhood friend to die, but he would freely give his own life if it meant giving his whole village a chance to survive.

Asterion appreciate things that are simple, easy to make, and easy to maintain. Things that appear more complex than necessary, too delicate, or purely ornamental are seen as useless and distasteful. Their vision of beauty matches closely with other races’ idea of functionality. An asterion does not care what a prospective mate looks like, but can quickly become enamored of a suitor who demonstrates a useful skill, power, or talent. There are two areas where asterion appreciate artistic efforts and skill—good music and fine foods, which they admire for combining functionality with pleasant aesthetics even though, from a practical standpoint, their artistic rendering does not have any material benefit.

Relations: Asterion form opinions about those they meet very quickly, and thus often have the best relations with those who are straightforward and do not stand on ceremony, observe rigid protocol, or practice stylish etiquette. They generally get along well with dwarves, humans, orcs, and giants, and have a difficult time understanding why those groups often do not get along with each other. Asterion don’t react as well to elves, whom they see as wasteful and flighty. Asterion are surprisingly accepting of gnomes and halflings, despite the often less-than-pragmatic attitudes of members of those races. Asterion seem to feel that since gnomes and halflings are small and weak, any off-putting behavior they engage in is part of some clever deception designed to help their fragile races survive.

Asterion communities are not exclusionary, this includes a noticeable lack of taboos regarding mating between asterion and humans, orcs (or other races, as long as they are members of the tribe). Such unions can be productive, through the offspring are invariably infertile. An asterion/human union produces short asterion, but asterion/orc unions produce tall half-orcs.

Alignment and Religion: Asterion have a very black-and-white view of the world. Once they identify someone as a foe, they rarely change their minds. They display emotions openly, seeing no point in concealing their feelings, but refuse to allow such sentiments cloud their devotion to doing what is right and necessary. They can be steadfastly pragmatic, and may consider certain actions imperative while others find them cruel or even evil.

Because of their origin myth, asterion tend to revere gods of the night, stars, and rivers. They also favor gods of war, battle, and craftsmen.

Adventurers: Heroes in asterion folklore often leave home to find and confront powerful foes from distant lands, fighting for the glory of their tribe, and earning eternal glory by dying in bloody battle. This tradition, coupled with the fact that most asterion homelands are barren and inhospitable, means it’s fairly common for young asterion to leave their tribes and seek their fortunes elsewhere. Many civilized nations hire asterion warriors, to serve either in the rank and file of armies headed to war or as elite guards for the noble families.

Male Names: Aranar, Bansab, Jadakir, Kikeru, Minjaros, Nashu, Pitaj, Rus, Tarin, Tikaku

Female Names: Arianah, Asikah, Ehn, Kitain, Mijari, Nashe, Pitajah, Pureh, Samah, Yishahr.

Holy Horn Caps and Magic Horseshoes

Asterion can gain natural attacks, which will inevitably lead players to seek to increase the effectiveness of such attacks with magic items. Leaving aside the practical impact that wearing +1 flaming horn caps might have on a character’s coiffure, this is a reasonable desire. Magic items of this type are placed on the character’s natural weapon and grant attacks made with that weapon the benefits of enhancement bonuses to attacks and damage, and other special weapon abilities. A GM wishing to balance such items can take one or two routes when pricing them.

The first is to have such items count against a specific body slot, then price them as magic weapons. Taking this route, a set of +1 flaming horn caps counts against the head slot and cost 8,000 gp. It’s important to note that the benefits of these items apply only to the specific natural attack they are mounted on. An asterion monk with +1 flaming horn caps gains no benefits from the horn caps with any unarmed attacks other those made using his horns.

The other option is to simple have characters buy an amulet of mighty fists, which applies to both unarmed and natural attacks. While this is more expensive and not particularly cost-effective for most characters (monks being the obvious exception), it’s more consistent with the standard game rules.

Racial Traits

  • +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence: Asterion are powerful and hardy, and see their somewhat limited imagination as a boon (preventing them from being easily bored or distracted) rather than a drawback.
  • Medium: Though tall and broad by the standards of most Medium races, asterion aren’t big enough to qualify as Large.
  • Fast Speed: Asterion have a base speed of 40 feet.
  • Low-Light Vision: Asterion can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
  • Endurance: Asterion receive Endurance as a bonus feat.
  • Racial Feats: Asterion have access to a set of racial feats, abilities often associated with great asterion heroes and exceptional adventurers. These are detailed below. Due to their hefty size asterion may also select the Lunge feat without meeting its normal prerequisites.
  • Stand On Your Own Feet: Asterion do not do well when traveling by means other than their own two hooves. Asterion take a –2 penalty to all Fly and Ride checks.
  • Vigorous Charge: Asterion take only a –1 penalty to AC when charging, and deal +1d6 damage to any melee attack made as part of a charge.
  • Wild Instinct: Asterion receive a +2 racial bonus to Survival checks.
  • Languages: Asterion begin play knowing Common and Giant. Asterion with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Aquan, Gnoll, Goblin, and Orc.
Random Starting Ages
Adulthood Intuitive1 Self-Taught2 Trained3
14 years +1d4 years (15 – 18 years) +1d6 years (15 – 20 years) +2d6 years (16 – 26 years)

1 This category includes barbarians, oracles, rogues, and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, cavaliers, fighters, gunslingers, paladins, rangers, summoners, and witches.
3 This category includes alchemists, clerics, druids, inquisitors, magi, monks, and wizards.

Random Height and Weight
Gender Base Height Height Modifier Base Weight Weight Modifier
Male 6 ft. +3d4 in.(6 ft. 3 in. – 7 ft.) 160 lbs. +(2d12×7 lbs.)(174 – 328 lbs.)
Female 5 ft. 8 in. +4d4 in.(6 ft. – 7 ft.) 140 lbs. +(2d12×7 lbs.)(154 – 308 lbs.)

Racial Feats

The following feats are available to an asterion character who meets the prerequisites.

Alternative Racial Traits

You can exchange one or several of your character’s normal racial Traits, but of course you cannot exchange the same racial trait more than once.

As with any alternate or optional rule, you must first get the permission of your GM to exchange any of your character’s normal racial Traits for those listed here.

Favored Class Alternatives

Instead of receiving an additional skill rank or hit point whenever they gain a level in a Favored Class, asterions have the option of choosing from a number of other bonuses, depending upon their Favored Classes. The following options are available to all asterions who have the listed Favored Class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the listed Favored Class reward.

Alchemist: +1/4 alchemical bonus to Strength when using a mutagen. (+1 to Strength for every 4 times you select this option.)

Armiger: +1 to AC against attack rolls made to confirm a critical hit (maximum +10).

Barbarian: +1 ft. fast movement. (+5 feet fast movement for every five times you select this option.)

Cavalier: +1/2 Strength to cavalier’s mount. (+1 Strength every two times you select this option.) If you replace your mount, the new mount gains this bonus.

Cleric: +1 to concentration checks to cast a spell from one of your domains.

Death Mage: Unbreathing companion gains +1 ft. fast movement. (+5 feet fast movement for every five times you select this option.) Must have unbreathing companion to select this option.

Druid: +1 ft. fast movement when in wild shape. (+5 feet fast movement for every five times you select this option.)

Fighter: +1 to CMD against bull rush or overrun maneuvers.

Godling, Mighty: +1 to CMB when making a bull rush or overrun.

Inquisitor: +1/2 on Sense Motive and Survival checks. (+1 to these checks for every two times you select this option.)

Monk: +1/3 to CMD. (+1 to CMD for every three times you select this option.)

Oracle: +1/2 to all Knowledge (history) and Spellcraft checks. (+1 to these checks for every two times you select this option.)

Ranger: Choose one favored enemy. +1/2 circumstance bonus to attack rolls to confirm critical hits against those enemies (maximum +4). (+1 to rolls to confirm criticals for every two times you select this option.) Does not stack with Critical Focus.

Summoner: +1 ft. to one movement rate of the summoner’s eidolon. (+5 feet to one movement rate of the summoner’s eidolon for every five times you select this option.)

War Master: +1/2 to all Bluff and Intimidate checks. (+1 to these checks for every two times you select this option.)

Witch: +1/3 to effective witch level when determining the effectiveness of hexes. (+1 effective level for every three times you select this option.)

Section 15: Copyright Notice

The Genius Guide To: Races of Hoof and Horn. Copyright 2010, Super Genius Games. Author: Owen K.C. Stephens

The Genius Guide To: Hoof and Horn Racial Options. Copyright 2010, Super Genius Games. Author: Owen K.C. Stephens

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