Lightning Lungs:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 4th, 'Typhoon Breath' Alternate Racial Trait
Effect: Each time you use 'Typhoon Breath', you can choose to deal electricity damage instead of magic bludgeoning damage. If you do, the radius becomes a 30ft cone instead of a 60ft line.
Developing a mutated set of lungs that put them surprisingly similar to Dragonborn in terms of biological makeup, these rare Tortles become capable of shooting out a sweeping sheet of lightning from their beaks instead of a cutting jet of water...like shelled dragons of a distinctly unique variety.
Rushing Waters:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 4th, 'Typhoon Breath' Alternate Racial Trait
Effect: When you use 'Typhoon Breath', you may attempt a free bull rush check at a +5 against each foe hit by the breath attack. Doing this does not provoke AoO from enemies.
With enough careful practice and dedicated effort, Tortles who utilize Typhoon Breath can focus the water stream that they breath into a suprisingly coherent mass of water that bludgeons and pushes their foes back along its path like a large iron wall.
Tattooed Master:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 3rd, 'Scrimshaw Artist' Alternate Racial Trait
Effect: Gain Inscribe Magical Tattoo as a bonus feat, ignoring prerequisites. 1/day, you can inscribe a tattoo on yourself or another willing or helpless creature, which can be activated as an immediate action to allow the wearer to reroll any one roll and take the better result, used after rolling. Once used, the tattoo fades. This ability must be used after the roll has been made but after the results have been revealed. You may use this ability one additional time per day at 8th and 14th level.
A common profession within Tortle society, Tattooist Tortles who train themselves day in and day out eventually reach heights in the span of months that many other races cannot reach without decades of training. Highly capable artists, they put their skills to work on ships of all kinds, bars, taverns, and all sorts of locations in the service of all kinds of people if it means a bit of coin and a new experience.
Jade-Souled:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 8th, 'Inheritor of Jade' Alternate Racial Trait
Effect: Gain a +5 on any save made versus an effect that works on the soul, such as Trap the Soul. Creatures you strike with a natural attack, armor spikes, or unarmed strikes take a -2 on saves verus mind-affecting effects for 1d4 rounds. This bonus does not stack. If a creature is immune to mind-affecting, it instead loses that immunity for 1 round.
Special: When a Tortle with this feat dies, their soul does not pass on to the Great Beyond(Or to another Plane, if they made some unfortunate bargains in life and sold their soul) and instead is bound to their Shell as if by a Soul Bind effect(CL20th). Breaking the shell(Hardness 20, 10HP per HD of the Tortle in life. The shell regenerates 10HP per round.) automatically ends the effect and allows the Tortle to be resurrected or returned to life as normal.
With their gleaming jade shells, these Tortles who are blessed with the gift of jade find that, over the course of their lives, the jade shells they wear begin to have a strange and alien influence on their very souls...protecting them and making it harder for others to influence them. Conversely, with every strike they land, the jade that they wear sends rippling waves of energy into their foes and disrupts their very soul...and, to the mindless or immune, remind them what true vulnerability feels like.
Deadly Shell Spines:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 6th, 'Razorback Tortle' Alternate Racial Trait
Effect: Any creature hit by your shell spikes takes 1 point of bleed damage. This bleed damage stacks. You can launch your shell spikes as a ranged attack at any foe within 60ft. On a successful hit, these spikes deal double damage and cause bleed as normal, but you lose the use of the spikes for one hour.
As they grow and eventually hit adulthood, some Tortles find that the chitinous spikes that grow out of their back begin to grow a bit longer with age, developing vicious barbs that hook and tear the flesh of those they impact. These highly lethal Shell Spikes cause profuse bleeding in those they hit...but most oddly, these Tortles can launch these spikes from their shells like porcupines, launch a volley of spikes to a distant foe to catch them by surprise.
Myrmidon of the Empty Path:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, 'Squire of the Empty Path' Alternate Racial Trait
Effect: Whenever another creatures attempts to move you out of your square unwillingly, you may make an immediate CMB check against their CMD. If you succeed, they move to that location instead. You gain Deflect Arrows as a Bonus Feat even if you do not meet the prerequisites for it.
Taking their training in the mysterious Empty Path even further, Squires of the Empty Path which devote months and years to unlocking its secrets learn how to redirect attempts to move them back upon the attacker, and with but a deft smack, can knock projectiles out of the air.
Slow but Steady:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 5th
Effect: When you fail a save versus a mind-affecting effect, it does not take effect until one round later. During that round where an effect has been delayed, this feat does not work and effects take hold as normal. You have a 10% chance at the beginning of your turn of automatically shrugging off one mind-affecting effect. When not in combat, this chance drops to a 10% chance once every day, rather than every round.
Although Tortle may be slow, it would be a foolish assumption to assume them dull-witted or easy prey. With enough training, Tortles can train themselves to process dangerous magical compulsions that work on their mind to take hold later than normal as a sort of defensive mechanism.
My Shell is my Home:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race
Effect: Your shell becomes an extra-dimensional space, 15ft by 15ft, that you and up to 5 other medium-sized humanoids can enter and take shelter within. The temperature inside the Shell is 70° F if the exterior temperature is between 0° and 100° F. For every degree the exterior temperature is below 0° or above 100°, the interior temperature decreases or increases, respectively, by 1°. Your shell also provides protection against the elements, such as rain, dust, and sandstorms. The shell withstands any wind of less than hurricane force, but a hurricane (75+ mph wind speed) or greater force forces you and any within out of it. While you and others are within it, the shell grows in size and appears to all outsiders as an empty, huge-sized abandoned shell. Others are not prevented from actually entering the shell, but they only see an empty interior when looking in.
Natural born wanderers at heart, Tortle enjoy exploring the world and going out on adventures to find new experiences and things to call their own. Considered a secret of Tortle Shamans, the magic by which they enchant their brethren's shells to allow for living inside of is mystical and alien, but is nonetheless incredibly useful to those far from home.
Defensive Spin:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character Level 4th
Effect: As an immediate action after being struck by an attack for a non-zero amount of damage, you can retreat into your shell and launch into a deadly spin attack, forcing all enemies within 10 feet of you to make a reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2HD + STRMOD) or take 2d6 bludgeoning damage and be pushed back 5ft. Making the save halves the damage and negates the 5ft move. This damage increases by 1 dice step for every 4 levels possessed above 4. You may end the spin in any square within 10ft of you, moving there without provoking AoO. Using this ability leaves you staggered for 1 round after the spin is completed.
Possessing strong self-preservation instincts as a species combined with a low desire for violence, some Tortles learn to capitalize on this survival instinct and learn how to retreat in their shell at a moments notice, whipping themselves into a deadly spin and slamming into those nearby to try and make themselves from room.
Rolling Thunder Rollout:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 12th, 'Defensive Spin' Racial Feat
Effect: Enemies who fail to save against 'Defensive Spin' are staggered for 1 round. The Damage dice for 'Defensive Spin' increases by 1, and the range you can move in and damage enemies in increases to 20ft, from 10ft.
As they grow older, Tortles find their shells getting heavier and bulkier, and their bodies growing more frail...as a result, many hone their defensive spin abilities to heights unheard of to such a degree that they slam into their foes with colossal force and zip across the battlefield at speeds unheard of, like a peal of thunder.
Shell Trick:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race
Effect: A number of times per day equal to (CONMOD +1, Minimum 1) as a move action, a Tortle can slip into its shell and exchange squares with any ally within line of sight. This exchange happens instantaneously and does not provoke AoO.
While none but the mysterious Tortle themselves are sure of the details of how such a marvelous ability works, the magic of their shamans proves itself time and again as it allows Tortles to protect their allies and switch places with them at a moment's notice.
Self-Contained Ecosystem:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 8th
Effect: You constantly generate fresh air, providing breathable air and a +4 to yourself and allies within 10ft on saves versus cloud-based spells that would harm you(Such as cloudkill) in a 10ft bubble around you. At GM Discretion, you may eventually fill up a confined space with breathable air if you are in a vacuum. You produce enough food and water for two other creatures besides yourself to live comfortably off of, and 3/day, you can cast goodberry with a CL equal to your HD. You gain the Wild Empathy Druid class feature as a druid of your level.
Spending so much time in close proximity to nature, sometimes a Tortle becomes to finely tuned to the natural world that they BECOME the natural world...growing little trees with fruit, grass, lichen, and moss from their shells as little waterfalls generate and cascade down their backs, these Tortles constantly give off fresh air and bring the natural world with them wherever they go.
Trained Defender:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 5th
Effect: You gain partial cover against attacks(+2 AC, +1 to Reflex Saves) against attacks and effects that originate from creatures that are more than 10ft away from you.
Thanks to their large shells, many Tortle train to quickly protect themselves from distant threats using the thick and durable shell on their backs.
Nothing but a Tree:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race
Effect: You gain 'Tree Shape' as an at-will spell-like ability, except you can choose to be Huge-Sized instead of large, and bend space to fit inside even spaces too small for you.
An odd defensive mechanism even for the exotic Tortle, the ability to suddenly change ones' self into a tree is an odd one indeed, albeit one that is undeniably effective.
Stormcaller:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, Character level 12th
Effect: 1/day, you may, after 10 minutes of meditation, affect the weather as if you had just used a Control Weather spell, except the results are immediate and treat you as if you were a druid. While it is raining and/or storming badly, you gain a See Invisibility effect as well as Blindsight(60ft) for the duration of the storm. This counts as an Extraordinary ability.
Born with thunder in the veins and storm in their bones, these azure-tinged Tortle have eyes as fierce as a hurricane and moods as calm as the eye of a storm. They are wise, powerful, and so in tune with the world around them that they can ask the world for weather and get results in a powerful Tortle Ritual.
Rokurokubi Child:
Prerequisites: Tortle Race, 'Snapping Jaws' Racial Trait
Effect: You can make your bite attacks from 'Snapping Jaws' with a range of 15 feet. Your bite damage goes up by one step, but you lose the ability to trip those you bite.
Shunned and feared by their kin, these odd Tortles have necks as long as massive lengths of rope that can extend outwards to bite foes at extreme range with teeth sharpened to points as sharp as knives.
© 2019 Jacob Wrightsman
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