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Core Race · House Rules

Nicdarian (The Arcane Souls)

Race Point Total: 20 RP | Power Level: Advanced

Nicdarians are a standalone race. This RP total is not additive with any other race or template.

History & Ecology

Some items are magical, others are intelligent, and yet some strive to become more. Born of magic and children of its primal power, the Nicdar are similar in many ways to the spells wielded by mortals. They look at the world as a place of pure exploration. To them, all races have their place and all cultures are fascinating. One Nicdar might spend ten years as a cobbler and another fifty as a farmer. Inevitably the spark of adventure claims them — by adventuring they can interact with several races at once, travel to distant lands, and immerse themselves in cultures they have not yet mapped.

Each Nicdar is born from a sentient magic item, which for the remainder of that Nicdar’s existence functions as its Arcane Phylactery. This most often occurs when a Wizard creates an Arcane Bonded object and carries it for years, pouring their life’s work and will into it. Upon the death of its owner, there is a chance the object crosses the threshold and becomes a Nicdarian Arcane Phylactery — a chance equal to one-half percent per caster level of the original owner. When a Nicdarian awakens, all of the magical energy contained within the item is consumed and the Nicdarian’s soul is born from it. The item, while still masterwork quality, retains no magical properties. It can be re-enchanted by others, but it will never again become intelligent — unless the Nicdarian itself is attempting to reproduce.

The color and intensity of a Nicdar’s hard-light form appears to reflect the nature of the magic that saturated the phylactery over its lifetime. Weapons tend to produce fierce warm tones — reds and deep oranges. Scholarly items such as staves and rings of working magic more often burn cold blue or pale silver-white. Nicdar who have endured long periods of dormancy or who have burned through several rejuvenations sometimes manifest in dim grays, the fire in them running low.

Physical Description

Before imprinting, a newly awakened Nicdar appears as a slowly rotating mass of swirling energy — formless, genderless, and still. The moment a corporeal humanoid enters their perception, the imprint occurs and it is permanent. The Nicdar takes on the general shape of that first figure — their height, their build, the way they carry themselves — or, if no stranger is nearby, the form of the original owner whose death gave them life. This template cannot be changed, though the details layered over it can shift.

Walking a city street, a Nicdar turns heads it cannot avoid. The body is convincing at distance — humanoid in shape, dressed in clothes, carrying weapons — but something is slightly wrong up close. The skin carries a faint luminous quality. The edges of the form trail off into wisps, especially at the hair and fingertips. The eyes glow a solid color matching the dominant energy of the form. They cannot extinguish this light entirely, only dim it to a faint ambient shimmer. Most stop trying to hide it after a while.

The phylactery is always on their person and always visible. A Nicdar wearing their phylactery at their hip or at their throat is not making a fashion choice. That item is them.

Height and Weight: As the race of the first corporeal humanoid encountered, or that of their original owner.

Society

It is rare for one Nicdar to ever meet another. They are too few and too spread across the world for any true culture to have taken root. What customs they share have been discovered independently and passed along in chance encounters — a nod of recognition between two luminous strangers in a tavern, a quiet comparison of notes before they go their separate ways.

Relations

Nicdarians are explorers of the world by nature and hold no preconceived prejudice or hatred toward any race. They arrive at each culture without the weight of old grievances and tend to be welcomed in return, if sometimes regarded with cautious curiosity.

Alignment and Religion

Nicdarians are always neutral on at least one component of their alignment. Something in their nature — perhaps the impartiality of the magic that made them, perhaps the perspective of a mind that was never young in the mortal sense — prevents them from fully committing to both axes at once. They may hold strong convictions in one direction, but the other always finds its center.

Age

Nicdarians are immortal and gain no benefit or penalty from age. They are beings of magic, not biology, and the passage of years leaves no mark on them beyond the accumulation of memory.

Adventurers

A Nicdar does not take to the road in search of gold or renown. They do it because they woke up in the middle of an enormous and baffling world with no instruction, wearing someone else’s face, and the only reasonable response is to start moving and find out what it all means.

Most newly awakened Nicdar spend their early years close to whoever their phylactery last belonged to — a merchant, a soldier, a hedge wizard who did not know what they were carrying. That person becomes their first map of the world. When that relationship ends, as it eventually always does, the Nicdar drifts. They follow curiosity more naturally than ambition, drawn to old magic and to things that have been around long enough to accumulate a history. They recognize that quality in objects the way other people recognize a familiar smell.

They fall in with adventuring companies easily and tend to stay. A group of capable people moving through the world, encountering strange things, getting into trouble — that is not so different from what a Nicdar was already doing alone, only louder and with better odds.

Racial Traits

Race Point Breakdown

Trait 1 — Type: Construct (Native) [3 RP]

Nicdarians are Constructs with the Native subtype. They are treated as Constructs for all spells, effects, and abilities that target creature type. The Native subtype means they may be returned to life by Raise Dead, Resurrection, and similar spells, provided their phylactery is intact.

Unlike standard Constructs, Nicdarians possess an active soul and do not receive the full standard Construct immunity suite. Their specific immunities and vulnerabilities are detailed individually in the traits below.

Trait 2 — Ability Scores [4 RP]

+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma. Nicdarians have no Constitution score. Their bodies are sustained by arcane projection rather than biology. See Trait 4 (Projected Vitality) for how hit points are determined.

Trait 3 — Senses [2 RP]

Trait 4 — Projected Vitality (Ex) [2 RP]

Because a Nicdarian’s form is sustained by will and magical cognition rather than biological processes, they use their Intelligence modifier in place of their Constitution modifier when determining bonus hit points per Hit Die. A Nicdar with Intelligence 16 gains +3 HP per HD, just as a living creature with Constitution 16 would.

Trait 5 — Hard Light Form (Ex) [2 RP]

The body of a Nicdar is composed of solidified arcane energy. They gain a +2 Natural Armor bonus to AC.

Biological Needs: Nicdarians do not need to breathe, eat, or drink. They must enter a low-power trance for 8 hours per day to recharge their projection, functioning as sleep for all relevant game purposes.

Trait 6 — Arcane Construct (Ex) [2 RP]

Nicdarians count as both Outsiders and Constructs for the purpose of effects that target creature type (such as Bane weapons or a Ranger’s Favored Enemy). They gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease, mind-affecting effects, poison, and exhaustion.

Trait 7 — Vulnerability to Dispel Magic (Weakness) [−2 RP]

Because their bodies are sustained by active magic, targeted Dispel Magic and Antimagic Fields are particularly dangerous to a Nicdar.

Trait 8 — Phylactery Bound & Rejuvenation (Su) [2 RP]

A Nicdar’s soul resides within a specific masterwork item — their Arcane Phylactery. This item is always on their person. It is, in every meaningful sense, them.

Phylactery Rejuvenation: When a Nicdarian’s projected body is destroyed, the following sequence applies:

Trait 9 — Integrated Magic (Ex) [1 RP]

Nicdarians have an innate understanding of magical items. They gain Use Magic Device as a class skill regardless of class.

Trait 10 — Gifted Linguist (Ex) [2 RP]

Nicdarians possess an insatiable curiosity about language and communication. They gain a +4 racial bonus on Linguistics checks, and they learn one additional language each time they invest a rank in the Linguistics skill.

Trait 11 — Changeling Projection (Su) [2 RP]

A Nicdar can reshape the surface details of their hard-light projection at will. This functions as Disguise Self (at will, no action required), but is a physical, tactile change — the hard light itself reshapes rather than creating an illusion. This grants a +4 racial bonus to Disguise checks when attempting to appear as a specific humanoid race.

Note: The Nicdar’s fundamental body shape — determined by their First Waking imprint — cannot be altered by this ability. Only surface details such as skin tone, hair texture, minor facial features, and clothing appearance can change.

The Arcane Phylactery

The phylactery is the Nicdar’s true self. Destroying it means destroying the Nicdarian permanently. It is never simply an item.

Acceptable phylactery types: Amulet, Ring, Wand, Staff, Weapon, or any other masterwork item approved by the DM.

Base Statistics

The phylactery retains the Hardness and hit points of the base masterwork item type (for example, a steel longsword has Hardness 10, HP 5).

Arcane Hardening

The phylactery gains +1 Hardness and +5 Hit Points for every 2 character levels the Nicdar possesses, representing the strengthening of the soul contained within.

Self-Enchanting

A Nicdarian may enchant their own phylactery as if they possessed the relevant Item Creation feat, provided they meet the character level requirements and pay the standard gold cost. This represents the Nicdar’s soul directly infusing power into the item that contains it.

Racial Feats

The following feats are available only to Nicdarian characters. They represent a Nicdar’s ability to invest magical energy and gold into reinforcing or expanding the nature of their projected form.

Integrated Force Armor (Combat, Racial)

You have learned to solidify your hard-light projection into a shell of pure force.

Core Reinforcement (Racial)

You channel raw magic into your form to enhance your physical or mental prowess.

Phylactery Resonance (Racial)

Your soul vibrates in harmony with other magic items, allowing you to push beyond the normal limits of attunement.

Favored Class Options

The following options are available to all Nicdarian characters who select the listed class as their Favored Class. Unless otherwise noted, the bonus applies each time the favored class reward is selected.