THE RACES The Akashic Records are home to several races. Noin live simple lives in the cities of the Records, devoting their lives to the entities who saved them from the darkness. Atlach spend most of their energies building and maintaining the bridges that link the Records to the rest of creation. Kagaribito explore strange new lands and return home to their mechanical families with stories to tell. Henkei ooze from place to place, living everywhere without fitting in anywhere. And the Kami run the show; everything that happens in the Records occurs according to their plans.
CHOOSING A RACE After you roll your ability scores and before you write them on your character sheet, choose your character's race. At the same time, you'll want to choose his or her class, since race affects how well a character can do in each class. Once you know your character's race and class, assign your ability score rolls to particular abilties. Alter those abilities according to race (see the table below), and continue detailing your character.
RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS | Race | | Type | | Level Adj. | | Ability Adj. | | Favored Class | | Automatic Languages |
| Atlach | | Monstrous Humanoid | | +0 | | +2 Int, -2 Cha | | Majo | | Common, Moji |
| Henkei | | Ooze | | +0 | | -2 Dex, +2 Con | | Mamono | | Common, Moji |
| Kagaribito | | Construct (living) | | +0 | | +2 Str, -2 Wis | | Meister | | Common, Moji |
| Kami | | Outsider | | +0 | | -2 Str, +2 Int | | Any | | Common, Moji |
| Koudelka | | Fey | | +0 | | -4 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Cha | | Majo | | Common, Moji |
| Noin | | Humanoid | | +0 | | -2 Con, +2 Wis | | Miko | | Common, Moji |
| Suijin | | Monstrous Humanoid (aquatic) | | +0 | | +2 Str | | Meister | | Common, Moji |
| Vessel | | Humanoid | | +0 | | -2 Str, +2 Wis | | Miko | | Common, Moji |
Your character's race determines some of his or her qualities.
Race Adjustments Find your character's race on the table above. Apply the ability adjustments given on that table to your character's ability scores. If these changes raise your score to above 18 or below 3, that's okay, except in the case of Intelligence, which does not go below 3 for characters. In addition, the table above gives each race's favored class and automatic languages.
A character's favored class doesn't count against him or her when determining experience point penalties for multiclassing (see XP for Multiclass Characters, page 60 of the
Player's Handbook). All of the favored classes on the table above are technician classes, presented in
The Classes.
All characters know how to speak Common, and every Akashic race knows how to speak Moji, the language of the Records. Smart characters (those with an Intelligence bonus) speak additional languages, one extra language per point of bonus. Select your character's bonus languages (if any) from the lists found in each race's Racial Traits summary.
Unless your character is a barbarian, he or she can read and write all the languages he or she speaks.
VITAL STATISTICS The tables in this section extend the information about generating starting and maximum age, height, and weight for player characters presented in Chapter 6 of the
Player's Handbook to include the new races detailed in this chapter.
Age: As described in the
Player's Handbook, you can choose your character's starting age or determine it randomly by consulting the following table. A kagaribito meister, for example, starts at an age of 0 + 1d6 years, or you can choose any age, with a minimum of 1.
Kami and kagaribito are created as adults; they have no childhood or adolescence. Kagaribito shows signs of physical deterioration after 150 years, but have no further aging effects after that point and no maximum age. Kami do not suffer aging effects, and have no maximum age.
This table divides the available character classes into the categories of simple, moderate, and complex. The notes under the table indicate which classes are in each category.
| Race | | Adulthood | | Simple | | Moderate | | Complex |
| Atlach | | 20 years | | +2d4 | | +2d6 | | +3d6 |
| Henkei | | 6 years | | +1d4 | | +2d4 | | +2d6 |
| Kagaribito | | 0 years | | +1d4 | | +1d6 | | +2d6 |
| Kami | | 0 years | | +2d6 | | +3d6 | | +4d6 |
| Koudelka | | 10 years | | +1d4 | | +1d6 | | +2d6 |
| Noin | | 15 years | | +1d4 | | +1d6 | | +2d6 |
| Suijin | | 15 years | | +1d4 | | +1d6 | | +2d6 |
| Vessel | | 20 years | | +2d4 | | +2d6 | | +3d6 |
Simple classes are barbarian, mamono, rogue, and sorcerer.
Moderate classes are bard, fighter, meister, miko, paladin, and ranger.
Complex classes are cleric, druid, majo, monk, and wizard.
| Race | | Middle Age | | Old | | Venerable | | Maximum Age |
| Atlach | | 40 years | | 60 years | | 80 years | | +2d20 years |
| Henkei | | 30 years | | 50 years | | 65 years | | +2d20 years |
| Kagaribito | | 150 years | | --- | | --- | | --- |
| Kami | | --- | | --- | | --- | | --- |
| Koudelka | | 30 years | | 45 years | | 60 years | | +2d10 years |
| Noin | | 35 years | | 53 years | | 70 years | | +2d20 years |
| Suijin | | 35 years | | 53 years | | 70 years | | +2d20 years |
| Vessel | | 40 years | | 60 years | | 80 years | | +2d20 years |
At middle age, -1 to Str, Con, and Dex; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.
At old age, -2 to Str, Con, and Dex; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.
At venerable age, -3 to Str, Con, and Dex; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.
Height and Weight: Again, as explained in the
Player's Handbook, you can choose your character's height and weight based on the ranges shown on the Random Height and Weight table and your character's ability scores, or you can randomly generate these figures.
Henkei can change their height at will. As such, the given base height represents the maximum height a henkei can obtain while maintaining human proportions. Henkei and kagaribito always vary in weight proportional to their height.
| Race | | Base Height | | Height Modifier | | Base Weight | | Weight Modifier |
| Atlach, male | | 4'5'' | | +2d10 | | 170 lb. | | x (2d4) lb. |
| Atlach, female | | 4'10'' | | +2d10 | | 200 lb. | | x (2d4) lb. |
| Henkei | | 4'10'' | | +2d10 | | 120 lb. | | x 4 lb. |
| Kagaribito | | 5'2'' | | +2d10 | | 255 lb. | | x 4 lb. |
| Kami, male | | 4'5'' | | +2d6 | | 85 lb. | | x (1d6) lb. |
| Kami, female | | 4'5'' | | +2d6 | | 80 lb. | | x (1d6) lb. |
| Koudelka, male | | 1'3'' | | +1d4 | | 5 lb. | | x 0 lb. |
| Koudelka, female | | 1'6'' | | +1d4 | | 6 lb. | | x 0 lb. |
| Noin, male | | 5' | | +2d10 | | 100 lb. | | x (2d4) lb. |
| Noin, female | | 4'8'' | | +2d10 | | 85 lb. | | x (2d4) lb. |
| Suijin, male | | 4'10'' | | +2d10 | | 100 lb. | | x (2d4) lb. |
| Suijin, female | | 4'5'' | | +2d10 | | 80 lb. | | x (2d4) lb. |
| Vessel, male | | 4'5'' | | +2d6 | | 75 lb. | | x (1d6) lb. |
| Vessel, female | | 4' | | +2d6 | | 65 lb. | | x (1d6) lb. |
