Yuke race

[Kupo]

This post will cover details of the Yuke race from final fantasy crystal chronicles.
(I will add more in just a bit when I have more time, kupo.)

[Kupo]

YUKE
Yukes are tall, slender creatures with vast amounts of knowledge who wear suits of armor that conceal their faces. It is theorized that in reality the armor serves as 'bodies' and the Yukes are only souls that use a physical form to augment their magical abilities. Among Yukes, removing a Yuke's mask and / or armor is considered a severe punishment if the Yuke does not have a strong relationship with the person removing the armor. They tend to grow a little taller than the typical Hume, from 5.5 to 6.5 feet. Their armor is typically gold, or another tan color, and females sport an angel motif with angel wings and a halo plume, while males are more demonic in theme, with bat-like wings and spikes or horns atop their heads. They are usually encountered with other Yukes as nomads or in a Yuke city, but a few Yukes develop a bond with other races and will associate with them. Yukes are especially adept practitioners of magic, science, and philosophy, with Yuke settlements acting as glittering beacons of magic throughout the world; however, only Yukes, those accompanied by Yukes, and those specially chosen may enter these bastions of magic freely. Yukes tend to be quiet and whispering in their speech, giving a heavy air to their words.

Yuke Racial Traits

• Ability Score Racial Traits: Yukes are intellectually gifted, but their cultural focus upon the mind and thin stature has left them much frailer than other races. They gain +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength.
  
• Type: Yukes are Humanoid creatures with the Yuke subtype.
  
• Size: Yukes are Medium creatures, and therefore gain no bonuses or penalties because of size.
  
• Base Speed: Yukes have a base speed of 30 feet on land.
  
• Languages: Yukes begin play speaking Common and Shellan. Yukes with high Intelligence scores can choose to learn any language which they are able to.
  

Feat and Skill Racial Traits

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WILL ADD MORE LATER

[Kupo]

New post! Added racial traits and finished flavor text. Next, other traits!

[ZeronosVega]

For their attributes, I would actually give them a +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength. The reason for this being that most Pathfinder races have this sort of distribution, Yukes are known to be both powerful white and black mages and are typically shown to have lower strength in terms of the Crystal Chronicles games.

According to Crystal Bearers, their bodies are really just the armor which we see them wearing. As such, you could in a way treat them as a construct for the purpose of their Constitution modifier. When I was working on my 3.5 version of Yukes, I had the race basically treat the armor as their body. They could switch the armor without the help of others and wouldn't be penalized for having said armor. Because they are shown to be highly knowledgeable, I gave them a bonus to knowledge checks although you could probably narrow it down to specific knowledge skills. Finally, because they are shown to live for a long time, you can give them an arbitrary number for their lifespan (i.e. 2,000) and have that be a basis if you want a hard cap.

I hope any of this information is useful!

[Kupo]

It is useful, very much, kupo! I will change a few things around from this input. I don't know if they are really constructs, because I always figured they were more magical in nature (their 'bodies' are souls which the armor covers. Also, there is those furry hands they have.)
I was planning on giving Yukes an initial penalty to wearing armor because their bodies were armor; however, I think that a good idea is to make them use a ritual of sorts (like, when they have an 8-hour rest) to change their armor when it's higher than medium weight.

Also; Crystal Bearers (I believe) also notes that Yukes may 'transfer' their souls when they die, leading them to revive with a different armor. I thought that an additional feature (more of fluff) would be that after they die (like, die die, not just Phoenix down die, but full-fledged resurrection spell die), they would have different armor on.

Finally, I thought that a big part of the Yuke race (besides physical weakness and their turning invisible to block) in Crystal Chronicles was how they charged spells more quickly and could cast them farther. I was thinking I could add a 25% (1/4) boost to their spell ranges and / or a 25% (1/4) decrease in spell casting time (for long spells of over an hour): would this be too powerful, in your opinion? Besides what I have posted here, they probably wouldn't have too much else to them.

[ZeronosVega]

It is useful, very much, kupo! I will change a few things around from this input. I don't know if they are really constructs, because I always figured they were more magical in nature (their 'bodies' are souls which the armor covers. Also, there is those furry hands they have.)

It was mainly an idea, though not one I was particularly fond of because there wasn't any concrete fact about it. If anything, they just have special rules for their bodies as was addressed.

I was planning on giving Yukes an initial penalty to wearing armor because their bodies were armor; however, I think that a good idea is to make them use a ritual of sorts (like, when they have an 8-hour rest) to change their armor when it's higher than medium weight.

Well, the penalties could be related to their speed (they are considered a slower race) and would more-than-likely be coupled with a hit to their skills (assuming armor still imposes penalties like that in Pathfinder). In regards to changing their armor, something like that could work though with a stipulation that they do so in private as is their nature (or in with only the audience of those really close to them, GM/Player's call).

Also; Crystal Bearers (I believe) also notes that Yukes may 'transfer' their souls when they die, leading them to revive with a different armor. I thought that an additional feature (more of fluff) would be that after they die (like, die die, not just Phoenix down die, but full-fledged resurrection spell die), they would have different armor on.

I'm not familiar with this, but it is definitely more of a fluff feature. If they die and do transfer, it could lead to some sort of story elements and have less of a "character death, re-roll" scenario. So long as everything has its checks and balances, the feature seems sound.

Finally, I thought that a big part of the Yuke race (besides physical weakness and their turning invisible to block) in Crystal Chronicles was how they charged spells more quickly and could cast them farther. I was thinking I could add a 25% (1/4) boost to their spell ranges and / or a 25% (1/4) decrease in spell casting time (for long spells of over an hour): would this be too powerful, in your opinion? Besides what I have posted here, they probably wouldn't have too much else to them.

That sounds like something which could be handled by a Favored Class Option.

[18colemant]

i hope the rest of the racial skills are added in shortly,sounds like a fun race to use.

[Manly Man]

Another idea would be to simply model their abilities after the Warforged race from D&D 3.5. Obviously not with the same racial ability score adjustments, but making them Constructs with the Living Construct subtype might suit things well and cover your bases without making them be full-on Constructs (and thereby prevent the GM from getting the headache that comes from players having too exotic of PC races). Here's some copypasta from the Wizards of the Coast archives:

"A living construct is a new subtype of construct, a created being given sentience and free will through powerful and complex creation enchantments. Living constructs combine aspects of both constructs and living creatures, as detailed below.

Features: A living construct derives its Hit Dice, base attack bonus progression, saving throws, and skill points from the class it selects.

Traits: A living construct possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).

-Unlike other constructs, a living construct has a Constitution score. A living construct does not gain bonus hit points by size but gains (or loses) bonus hit points through a Constitution bonus (or penalty) as with other living creatures.

-Unlike other constructs, a living construct does not have low-light vision or darkvision.

-Unlike other constructs, a living construct is not immune to mind-influencing effects.

-Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain.

-A living construct cannot heal damage naturally.

-Unlike other constructs, living constructs are subject to critical hits, effects requiring a Fort save, death from massive damage, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects or necromancy effects.

-Unlike other constructs, a living construct can use the run action.

-Living constructs can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a living construct can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a living construct is vulnerable to a harm spell. However, spells from the healing subschool provide only half effect to a living construct.

-A living construct responds slightly differently from other living creatures when reduced to 0 hit points. A living construct with 0 hit points is disabled, just like a living creature. He can only take a single move action or standard action in each round, but strenuous activity does not risk further injury. When his hit points are less than 0 and greater than -10, a living construct is inert. He is unconscious and helpless, and he cannot perform any actions. However, an inert living construct does not lose additional hit points unless more damage is dealt to him, as with a living creature that is stable.

-Can be raised or resurrected.

-Does not need to eat, sleep, or breathe, but can still benefit from the effects of consumable spells and magic items such as heroes' feast and potions.

-Does not need to sleep, but must rest for 8 hours before preparing spells."

Obviously, a few things need to be changed to fit FFd20, but that's the gist of it.

[Biyama]

Finally, I thought that a big part of the Yuke race (besides physical weakness and their turning invisible to block) in Crystal Chronicles was how they charged spells more quickly and could cast them farther. I was thinking I could add a 25% (1/4) boost to their spell ranges and / or a 25% (1/4) decrease in spell casting time (for long spells of over an hour): would this be too powerful, in your opinion? Besides what I have posted here, they probably wouldn't have too much else to them.

You could easily represent this by either giving them quicken spell, enlarge spell, or reach spell as a bonus feat OR you could have them reduce the mp cost of spells they cast with with metamagic (no lower than the original spell +1 though)