Editing Shardworld/Races (section)

==Twists==

+2 to any ability score

'''Twisted Form''': Pick one permanent mutation from the list below, or create your own with your GM. As a general rule, a +2 to a specific background check and another small bonus is a good starting point.

''Warped in Body and Mind'': Add +2 to two defenses, and subtract 1 from another. Think of a reason why your character is deficient in this defense.

''Demonic Corpulence'': Treat your Constitution modifier as two higher for the purpose of calculating hit points. Somehow, you manage to both stay fat and require half as much food as other people. 

''Prehensile Tail'': Gain a +2 to any background check involving balance or acrobatics. Your tail can be used to hold small objects and creep people out. You can use small one-handed weapons with your tail.

''Barbed Claws'': Your claws count as small one-handed melee weapons, and provide a +2 to any background check involving climbing, grabbing, or holding on to something.

''Heartfire'': Your blood burns at unearthly temperatures. Gain resist fire and cold 16+, and a +2 to background checks involving intimidation.

''Otherworldly Perception'': Gain a +2 to any background check involving vision. Your eyes can also see something others can't, subject to GM approval. Here are some examples:

-You can see perfectly in the dark. In fact, you can see slightly better in the dark than when it's bright out.

-You can see the beating hearts of living things through their chests, but not other obstacles.

-You can see the spirits of the dead, if they want to be seen.

-You can see the lingering residue of every lie anyone has told. This isn’t an instant lie detector, but it is a good gauge of how trustworthy someone is.

'''Racial Power''': Curse of Chaos

Once per battle as a free action when a nearby enemy rolls a natural 1–5 on an attack or a save, turn their roll into a natural 1 and improvise a further curse that shows how their attempt backfires horribly. A curse should have about the same impact as a typical once-per-battle ability. For example, a typical curse might lead to the cursed attacker dealing half damage to themself with their fumbled attack and being dazed until the end of their next turn. The GM may reward storytelling flair and/or limit the suggested effects of the curse.

''Champion Feat'': Whenever a nearby enemy rolls a natural 1 on an attack against you, you can use ''curse of chaos’’ against them without expending it.

Twists are members of bloodlines tainted long ago by the malign influence of the Rot, the origin shard of demons and devils. They generally appear as human, but with a handful of grotesque or uncanny differences that cause them to resemble denizens of the Rot. Wickedly sharp teeth and claws, long, serpentine tails, forked tongues, reptilian eyes, hunched backs, limbs with extra joints, creaking, leathery skin, mutable or extra facial features, perpetually weeping sores and boils, and atrophied, vestigial wings are just some of the many bizarre mutations Twists can be born with. Their peculiarities of form can extend beyond their bodies, examples being voices that seem to echo and resonate, screams that shatter glass, the ability to hear or see things beyond the scope of mortal perception, uncanny charisma, insanity, reading the thoughts of the sick and dying, and even the curse of prophecy. Twists possess the strongest blood of any shardborn- nearly every child born to a twist, even those of a pairing of twist and another shardborn, will be born with the taint of the Rot. Their mutations are almost always passed along to their children as well, resulting in many different clans of twists with their own identifying features.

Their unnerving appearances and behavior cause Twists to be the most reviled of any shardborn on the Continent. Twists frequently live isolated from other races in their own isolated villages and hiding places, or in the sewers and slums of major cities. The term used in the Adnati tongue for a group of twists composed of more than one clan is a “caper,” originating in old folk stories of twists summoning demons and devils through bloody ritual dances. Clans and capers mingle with the other races only for necessities of trade, or when it comes to those that have embraced their outcast nature, to prey on travelers of the other races. However, for all the bloodshed and mistrust perpetuated between twists and the other races, there are still those that strive to work within society, either to redeem themselves of the stigma of their blood, or to prove that it makes them the strongest of the shardborn. In an adventuring party, twists generally fill the roles their unique mutations make them suited for, whether martial or magical. Twist sorcerers, in particular, are renowned and feared in equal measures for their ability to channel the hellish energies that course through their blood.