Touched (Race)

## Introduction

The touched are what happens when human bloodlines come in contact with inhuman sources. The majority of touched are influenced by powerful spirits of some sort, but some touched have gained their unusual traits from more earthly sources, such as dragons or undead. Whatever changed them, the touched are a rare sight, often forced to live in hiding thanks to their unusual traits. Some are revered, some are feared, but they all stand apart from the humans they live among.
Personality: The touched are isolated by their inhuman nature. They never quite fit in with the humans around them, and even those who encounter other touched are unlikely to find anything more in common than they would with another human. This isolation takes its toll on them as they grow. Some become ashamed of their inhuman nature, other become fiercely proud, some become jokers to take the power from those who abuse or bully them.

## Description

**Physical Description:** The touched have highly varied appearances, even more widely varied than the humans they’re descended from. As many different kinds of humans there are, there are infinitely more spirits and inhuman creatures that can give rise to a touched, and when the two combine, the possibilities are staggering. Touched are, thanks to their human nature, usually between 5 and 7 feet in height, and they always have the same frame, two arms and two legs.

**Relations:** The touched interact with humans in different ways. There is always a clear division between them and the humans they live with, but how things flow across that divide varies. Some touched are seen as freaks, abominations, corruptions of humankind. Many are simply killed at birth in some places, or hidden away and taught to hide their nature. Others are seen as living connections to the powerful spirits and forces that shape the world, and rise to positions of authority and power. Others turn their hurt sideways into humor, becoming jokers, pranksters, and tricksters of all sorts.

**Alignment:** Touched come in all alignments, good, evil, lawful, chaotic, and neutral. It’s all but impossible to predict a touched characters alignment. Even those with otherworldly parents strongly associated with one alignment or another aren’t guaranteed to take that particular alignment.

**Touched Lands:** The touched have no lands of their own, they live among humans. They’re born to humans, and most are raised among them. Some live their whole lives among them, either as part of society or drifting through it on the outskirts. Some will leave, living alone out on the frontiers of society. Others will seek to merge into inhuman societies.

**Religion:** The touched often have strong relationships with the spirits. Whether those relationships are positive is another matter. Some spirits see their touched offspring as tools, pieces on a cosmic board to be played to their advantage, with their knowledge or without. Some touched seek out spirituality to try and connect with their inhuman heritage, or even contact their otherworldly influence directly. Others shun the spirits, resenting their meddling in mortal affairs.

**Language:** The touched speak the languages of the humans they were born into. Many will learn a variety of languages, to allow them to roam through different regions freely in the search for a place to accept them.
Names: Touched are given many different kinds of names Typically, they are named in the language of their human culture, but their names are usually uncommon at best and unheard of at worst.

## Adventurers

Touched almost always become adventurers to one degree or another. It would be almost as unusual to see a touched commoner as it would be to see an adventurer among humans. Touched naturally gravitate toward Chosen and Priest classes, but they can easily settle into almost any class.

* **+2 to any one ability score** Touched are highly varied creatures. Note, there are additional ability modifiers detailed under the sources. They cannot apply this bonus to any ability modified by their source.
* **Humanoid Type** Touched are humanoid creatures with the [Touched] subtype.
* **Medium Size** Touched are medium creatures, and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* **Normal Speed** Touched have a base speed of 30 feet.
* **Touch of the Inhuman** Touched are influenced somehow by an inhuman force, through blood, spirit, or magic. Select one of the following sources when creating a character. The touched gains the ability modifiers and universal abilities associated with the source, and may select any two of the variable abilities listed, gaining them as well. Once these selections are made, they cannot be changed.

## Spirit Sources

The spirit touched are those touched influenced by otherworldly forces, granted inhuman powers by the powers of the natives of the spirit world, be they gods, demons, animals, or stranger beings. Spirit touched are only rarely created by actual mating between a spirit and a mortal being, those that are often becoming very powerful chosen or priests. The most are created indirectly, when the spirits change or bless a child in the womb. Sometimes they do this with the parent’s knowledge, in gratitude for some heroic act or to show their favor to a devout worshiper, and sometimes without, the parent only finding their child is changed when they’re born with something obviously abnormal. Some are even created accidentally, the sheer presence of some more powerful beings enough to alter the unborn nearby. However they come about, the spirits that granted them their inhuman traits only rarely directly interact with the spirit touched after that first interaction. Those that do usually seek to use them as pawns in supernatural power games, to varying degrees of success. Others may have more pure intentions, but the attentions of powerful spirits often draws a target upon their progeny.

* [Beast]
* [Wood]
* [Air]
* [Earth]
* [Fire]
* [Water]
* [Chaos]
* [Evil]
* [Good]
* [Law]

## Blood Sources

The blood touched are those touched who trace their inhuman traits to more earthly sources. Many blood touched are many generations removed from an inhuman ancestor, whose supernatural influence on the bloodline became just strong enough to alter the touched for reasons inscrutable to man. Many are accidentally created when a pregnant mother is attacked by some supernatural being, or spends time in a place heavy with magical power, the magical influence enough to change the unborn child. Some are more directly traced to supernatural beings living under some magical guise, something that made them human enough to breed with them, but inhuman enough to grant their offspring some unmistakable trait. Blood touched are typically more obviously inhuman than the spirit touched, and they are much less likely to survive to adulthood. Many human societies that wouldn’t dare harm a child under the protection of a mighty spirit would smother an infant with a more mortal parentage. Others are abandoned, or starve to death, or are slain by angry mobs as they grow. While spirit touched often have a chance, albeit a slim one, of meeting their inhuman source, the generations of distance often make such contact impossible for the blood touched.

* [Aberration]
* [Dragon]
* [Fey]
* [Undead]