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Strangers of the marsh

Reed

Tall, reed-thin marsh dwellers with green eyes, moss-like hair and a disturbing way of renewing their bodies.

The adventurer’s field guide

Reed scorecard

Attribute aptitudes

Higher aptitude means cheaper training and greater racial potential. Humans have 4 in every attribute. Your actual stats grow with levels, training and equipment.

  • STR3/10

    Strength

    Carry more, hit harder with heavy weapons, and gain endurance.

    Training cost 7
  • DEX7/10

    Dexterity

    Improve accuracy, dodging, attack speed and light-weapon damage.

    Training cost 3
  • CON2/10

    Constitution

    Gain health and endurance, and resist disease and stunning.

    Training cost 8
  • INT7/10

    Intelligence

    Gain spell points, strengthen attack spells, and learn skills faster.

    Training cost 3
  • WIS3/10

    Wisdom

    Gain spell points and strengthen healing and religious powers.

    Training cost 7
  • CHA6/10

    Charisma

    Get better shop prices and lead adventuring parties more efficiently.

    Training cost 4

Aptitude = 10 − racial training cost. Lower cost makes an attribute easier to train.

Racial abilities & survival

  • Deep-dark vision

    You can see in deep darkness without carrying a light.

  • Merge Major

    Feeds off a corpse carried on the back.

  • Carnivorous digestion Major

    Raw meat and fresh kills make a safe meal.

  • Natural resistances

    Psionic +10

    Positive resistance ratings reduce damage of that type; negative ratings mean vulnerability. Ratings are not percentages of damage blocked.

Recovery & resources

Higher recovery ratings help refill your reserves. These are racial baselines; your stats, skills, condition and surroundings also affect recovery.

  • HP

    Hit points

    9

    Below human · Human 13

    Health keeps you alive when you take damage.

  • EP

    Endurance points

    9

    Below human · Human 11

    Endurance fuels movement and physical exertion.

  • SP

    Spell points

    15

    Human baseline · Human 15

    Spell points fuel your magic.

  • PSP

    Psi points

    20

    Above human · Human 10

    Psi points fuel psionic disciplines when you learn them.

Two guilds to explore

Two guilds that suit this race’s attributes. Their skills and abilities develop as you train.

Reed artisan

Reed artisan

Master Artisans

Develop craftsmanship and progress into specialist trades. Artisan training can sit alongside a main guild, opening another way to make your living.

Explore the Artisans
Reed mage

Reed mage

Mages of Valkor

Build spells by combining their size, shape and element. Mages study offensive magic alongside useful spells such as light.

Explore the Mages

Explore all guilds

Appearance and culture

The Reed, as other dwellers call them are quite mysterious, and rarely seen outside their natural habitat, the marshlands in the southern edge of the valley. They have almost no contact with other races, preferring to stay in the deepest reaches of the swamplands, in solitude, gathering together only at rare festives and feeding sprees. Only at those rare gatherings they can be observed, their eerie rituals creating much wonder and amazement and to say simply, horror.

Physically, they differ from most races quite a lot, their body is reed-thin, thus their name, the original being too difficult to pronounce by most other races. They have normal, or at least mostly normal limbs, arms and legs, their fingers and toes longer than you'd imagine and thin, seeming almost to be in verge of breaking apart at any time. Their bodies have absolutely no fat, nor much meat in them, only thin bones and thick greenish grey skin. Branching, root-like ridges and fine plant-like fibres trace their skin, most clearly over their narrow faces and long limbs, giving them the appearance of living marsh growth. Their eyes almost burn with a green gaze. Their face is very narrow and teeth long and sharpened, with moss-green hair, usually uncut and flowing free around their narrow shoulders and far into their back. They are extremely tall, but being thin as they are, their bulk is not greater than any medium-sized race.

The Reed are rarely in contact with most other races, but those few contacts have all been violent. Considering their strange body structure and inability to store little energy to their bodies they have evolved into new symbiotic ways to regenerate. They usually bind nutritious materials, most often corpses, humanoid preferred, to their back and start to merge with them, the rotting flesh becoming construction material and nutrition source, allowing them to regenerate at normal speed. This need for rotting flesh greatly concerns other races, and they are often killed in sight, if one is able to.

Create a character

Explore race traits, professions and training choices in the builder.

Race reference in the wiki