Pikos (Stymphalides/Tengu)

## Pikos

(Stymphalides/Tengu)

Pikos are avian humanoids with metallic tones to their feathers. They have long, thin beaks that have the sheen of polished steel, powerful neck muscles, and feathery crests on their heads. Unlike their tengu parents, pikos can have numerous colorful feathers in distinctive patterns on their bodies, such as bands on their bodies or masks about their heads.

Pikos are said to be created in bizarre fertility rituals involving polymorphed stymphalides by tengu sorcerers or clerics from a cult dedicated to the conquest of the world. The cult attempts to guide pikos to become warriors by placing them into do-or-die situations from the time they can hold swords. These rigorous ordeals leave only the most capable alive, ready to be molded into perfect soldiers or commanders. Many of these remaining pikos find a way to escape, leaving the tengu who bred them empty-handed and having to create a new flock of warriors. Some pikos study the methods of their creation, and, although horrifying, re-enact the rituals with unwilling participants through the use of advanced magic. For all these reasons and their tendency to inhabit and viciously defend forests nearby the tengu’s mountain homes, the tengu are convinced pikos are no better than demonic creatures in the guise of their own kind.

Pikos breed true among their own kind, and the few who choose to live disguised with dyed feathers and take tengu partners find their children to be tengu with unusual markings of metallic feathers. Piko children raised among piko communities free from the influence of the race’s original creators learn the art of war hand-in-hand with creative pursuits, such as painting, poetry, and woodworking. Drilling into trees with their sharp beaks, pikos construct homes in large trees found deep in massive forests. They do so to keep their small population safe from harm, and they use their martial training to meet any who they perceive as a threat with a swift death from all sides. Pikos tend to be logically-minded, detailed planners, and, in combat, strike with calculated precision. Pikos find joy in proving their theories about the world correct, even in the midst of conflict. The pikos’ laughing cry in the midst of bloodshed led to one tengu coining the slur “cuckoo.”

* Ability Score Racial Traits: Pikos are quick and sharp-minded, but they care little for the ways of others in the world. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, and -2 Wisdom.
* Size: Pikos are Medium sized creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Type: Pikos are humanoids with the tengu subtype.
* Base Speed: Pikos have a base speed of 30 feet.
* Low Light Vision: Pikos can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
* Fire Resistance: Pikos have fire resistance 5.
* Swordtrained: Pikos are trained from birth in swordplay and, as a result, are automatically proficient with sword-like weapons (including bastard swords, daggers, elven curve blades, falchions, greatswords, kukris, longswords, punching daggers, rapiers, scimitars, short swords, and two-bladed swords).
* Drilling Beak: Pikos have a bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage. This bite attack also ignores hardness on an object with 5 or fewer hardness. On a critical hit, pikos peck a second time with their beaks, dealing extra damage equal to the bite’s damage dice (usually +1d4). Pikos can quality for Feral Combat Training for their bite as though they met the prerequisites.
* Razor Feathers: Pikos have sharp metallic feathers they can fling as though throwing a dagger, using a dagger’s statistics for range, damage, and critical threat range. Pikos can fling a total of 6 feathers per day. Pikos can also pull out a single feather as though drawing a weapon and wield it as a dagger. The feathers break after hitting a target.
* Languages: Pikos begin play speaking Common and Tengu. Pikos with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic)

## Section 15 OGL Copyright Declaration:

• Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

• System Reference Document. Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

• Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. Copyright 2009, Paizo Inc.; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.

• The Book of Experimental Might. Copyright 2008, Monte J. Cook. All rights reserved.

• Tome of Horrors. Copyright 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Authors: Scott Greene, with Clark Peterson, Erica Balsley, Kevin Baase, Casey Christofferson, Lance Hawvermale, Travis Hawvermale, Patrick Lawinger, and Bill Webb; Based on original content from TSR.

• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player’s Guide. © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn

• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Race Guide. © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Dennis Baker, Jesse Benner, Benjamin Bruck, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Jim Groves, Tim Hitchcock,Hal MacLean, Jason Nelson, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Owen K.C. Stephens, Todd Stewart, and Russ Taylor.

• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary. © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.

• Psionics Unleashed. Copyright 2010, Dreamscarred Press.

• Little Red Goblin Games Racial Guide 2.5: Halfbreeds and Hybrids 2014, Little Red Goblin Games LLC, Authors: Caleb Aylsworth, Jeremiah Zerby, Christos Gurd, Scott Gladstein, Stewart Hall, Nick Esposito, Jason “Mikaze” Garrett, and Sarah Counts