Neth's Child (Nethling) (GEP)

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Neths children are formed directly from the substance of the Demiplane That Lives. As such, each child is an “avatar” of Neth, going forth from its parent to search for meaning on the Ethereal Plane.
Neth's children take many forms, depending upon the particular purpose for which they were formed. Those that serve as Neth's ethernoughts have a base form and an active form. The base form is that of a pinkish circular membrane, 10 feet in diameter and a few inches thick, which abruptly thickens at the center to form a brownish fleshy bulb measuring some 1 foot in diameter. The undulations of the membrane serve to propel each child through the ethereal medium.
When confronted with other entities of the Ethereal Plane, a nethling usually takes on active form by attempting to mimic the general form of those it has encountered. First, the nethling's central bulb extmdes a rough face, then head, neck, torso, and so on, as it pulls in and absorbs its undulating membrane for material, until finally the entire mass of the creature is utilized to create the desired form. This process takes 1 round, after which the nethling roughly resembles the mimicked creature's race but not the individual. No weapons, items, or clothing are mimicked, and the child retains its pink and brown coloration. Once a nethling has mimicked a particular form, it can call upon that same form for future form shifts, if necessary.
Once in active form, the child speaks in one of the languages “programmed” into it by its parent-this language includes the planar trade tongue commonly spoken in Sigil and among etherfarers. In effect, Neth's children are extensions of Neth, and so do not recognize themselves as freefloating, free-willed entities. If they ever return to Neth, they are reabsorbed into the living demiplane for transferal of any gained knowledge. The nethling's first words to those it encounters are invariably, “Neth has questions.”
A nethling's questions include the following:
* Where am I?
* Ethereal Plane? What is Ethereal?
* There are more places than Neth and the Ethereal?
* Are you of Neth? Who are you of?
* What is free will?
Those who attempt to answer any of the questions posed by the child satisfy it to some extent, but because the child knows so little ahout cosmology in general, and even less of the possibility of whole worlds each filled with countless unique individual organisms, answered questions pose yet more questions. At some point, those being interrogated likely tire of the questioning and seek to break away. At this point, the child makes an encounter check on Table 59: Encounter Reactions in the DUNGEON MASTER Guide. Any result besides hostile means the child is happy with what it has learned, and either leaves or just stops asking questions and “tags along” with those it has just questioned. A hostile result means that the child is not yet satisfied, and thus instantly seeks to absorb one or more of those it just questioned in order to extract more answers directly.
Very rarely, a child goes rogue. It gains an independent existence beyond serving merely as an extension of Neth. Rogue children usually take on a favored active form, hone the mimicry to perfection, and attempt to make a life for themselves apart from their parent. 'Course, even selfaware children are still of Neth and must always fight the inbred compulsion to return and be reabsorbed into the Demiplane That Lives. Independent children may become player characters, as described below.
Neth's Child: AC 5 {3}; MV 12 {24};HD 13; THAC0 7; #AT 1; Dmg 1d10 (acid absorption) or by weapon; SA Absorption; SD Regenerates 1 hp/round if it has absorbed a living being within last 24 hours; MR 35%; SZ M (10' diameter membrane or 5-6' tall); ML steady (11); Int very (11-12); AL N; XP 6,000.
SA-Absorption: When attempting to absorb other organic beings, a nethling can strike with an open palm (or other appendage) while in humanoid form. Foes struck suffer ldlO points of damage from the acidlike surface of the palm. If the nethling succeeds at the attack by 4 or more, it automatically reverts to its base form and begins to absorb the victim at a rate of ldl0+4 hit points each round. When the victim reaches -10 hit points, he is completely absorbed and the nethling gains Id IO of the victim's memories (spells count as memories). While a victim is being absorbed in this way, those who attempt to tear the nethling away physically only place their own hands into the child and are in turn absorbed. The only way to stop the absorption is to kill the creature outright.
==Neth's Children's as Player Characters==
Because children of Neth, the living demiplane, very rarely attain a separate identity and intelligence apart from their creator, such player characters should be allowed only in very rare cases. These nethlings forsake their base form, taking on a humanoid or near-humanoid form that they predominantly use.
AVAILABLE CLASSES: Fighter, Thief, Mage (no specialty schools). Nethlings can dual class. A nethling can never become a priest, nor can it choose any class variant that employs clerical spells, as its subconscious knowledge of its true creator makes all such training pointless.
MAXIMUM LEVEL: 9th (11th if nethling PC possesses an 18 in his prime requisite).
RACIAL ABILITIES: Nethling PCs add 1 to their Strength and Intelligence and subtract 1 from their Dexterity and Constitution.
Free-willed nethlings live between 100–600 years; the variability in a child's lifespan is tied to the number of times it shifts form (see below). Those nethlings who rarely shift form can live closer to 600 years, while nethlings who shift form once per month or more live closer to 100 years. The exact proportion of shape changes to years lived varies between individuals (and is up to the DM's discretion). 
Nethling player characters don't have a native tongue; however, they can communicate with any other nethlings through touch alone. Additionally, a nethling player character knows the planar common tongue and 1d4 other languages granted it by the Demiplane That Lives when it was first engendered.
Nethlings advance normally, beginning at 1st level in their respective class. Nethling player characters don't have the hit points a "loyal" 13-HD Neth's child possesses, nor do" player characters possess a full 35% Magic Resistance. In fact, breaking with their progenitor drops a nethling PC's resistance to 3%. Apparently the force that ensures nethling servitude is inextricably interwoven with mental/patterns granting Magic Resistance and Hit Dice. Player _character nethlings must start at 1st level and gain person~~ S.x-peri-· ence to advance their power-though their Magic Resistance never rises above 301o while they are separated from ·Neth.
All of Neth's children can shift their form, mimickjng the general forms of other living creatures. Nethlings can't mimic specific individuals, nor do they gain any spell-like abilities or magical powers of mimicked creatures-though growing wings may provide a limited ability to fly (at the DMs discretion), with much practice. Nethling player char- · acters, by necessity, have taken on a favored active humanoid form in order to adventure and advance in level. They have honed that form to such a degree that members of the mimicked race are 95% likely to believe the nethling is actually a member of their race. In effect, the nethling comes to think of this form as its real one. Sometimes, though, nethling player characters temporarily change form in order to gain an advantage (by slipping into a very small space or mimicking another race, for example). Such changes in form have a price: Each time a nethling player character shifts away from its favored humanoid form, it stands a base 5% chance to "lose touch" with the skills and class abilities gained in that form; such unfortunate nethlings lose 1 level of experience. Level loss in this fashion can never lower a nethling player character below 1st level.
A nethling can also absorb another organic being (as fully described under the Neth's Child entry) when in desperate straits. If an independent nethling absorbs another organic being, it reverts to its base form and has a 65% chance to lose 1 level. In addition, absorption attacks have a 5% cumulative chance to jolt the PC out of his independent mindset and back into his old programming, causing him to break off all other activities and return to the Demiplane That Lives to report all he's learned. Unless somehow stopped by concerned companions and restored to his former personality (via a restoration or wish spell), a reverted Neth's child permanently merges back into the Demiplane That Lives