#zarxorin

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Hinyasi (Brawler Archetype)

(art by FranLu07 on DeviantArt)

They often say that when you handle a weapon long enough, it becomes an extension of your arm, your body knowing perfectly how to compensate for it’s weight and all the little intricacies of how it interacts with the forces you subject it to.

It may be less glamorous, but that is also true for tools as well, your implements becoming a part of you as you use them to perform, whether it be a precision tool for precision work, or something strong and unyielding, like a farmer’s hoe.

Though it may come as no surprise to us, with any luck their enemies are very surprised when some warriors choose to use simple tools as weapons!

We’ve seen a few improvised weapon builds and archetypes before, but this one in particular is geared towards the brawler class and their gift of further improvising with their martial flexibility!

In the Lost Omens setting, the Hinyasi were a group of soldiers and guards that were formed with the nation of Yamasa seceded from Lirgen. The former being the breadbasket of the latter until they could no longer stand the neglect of the stargazing Lirgeni. And with their familiarity with farming, the Hinyasi were formed as a border guard, warriors that seemed like unassuming farmers that could catch would-be bandits and raiders by surprise, turning farming implements into deadly weapons.

Sadly, Yamasa as a nation collapsed, becoming the Sodden Lands when the permanent hurricane known as the Eye of Abendego appeared offshore. While some remained, degenerating into brutality, most fled and took their traditions, including the Hinyasi, with them.

Of course, while I do love the aesthetic of the farmer that can make a raider eat their leather straps, you need not use this archetype solely for the farming aesthetic. Any martial artist that specializes in using whatever is around as a weapon could use this archetype, whether they seemingly belong to any noncombat vocation, or they simply were trained to grab anything and everything like their name is Jackie Chan.

Regardless of where they are from or what they do as their day job, these warriors can prove that anything can be a weapon if you know it’s properties intimately and apply extreme force in the right way.

Naturally, these warriors are trained to use improvised weapons effectively, specializing in melee or thrown objects.

While most brawlers scale the damage their weapons do at a slower rate than their unarmed strikes, their improvised weapons improve at the same rate, making them shockingly deadly.

Improvised weapons are often known for their odd shapes and weight distribution, as well as other properties that make them shockingly good at befuddling foes. A threshing scythe hooked around the ankles to trip foes, a flag being wrapped around a weapon to yank it out of the foe’s grasp, or a heavy boulder forcing a foe to move back, all and more are possible. As such, these brawlers can get in a free combat maneuver in after a strike with their improvised weapons, though they tend to be more awkward than if they had focused on the maneuver first. Additionally, the brawler must choose which maneuver to specialize in, though they gain a second and third choice later on.

Finally, these warriors learn to specialize on different weight categories of improvised weapons, light ones, one-handed, or two-handed, becoming especially effective with them.

This archetype is fairly simple, but it offers good ways to combine improvised weapons with the brawler class, both by letting you use the brawler unarmed strike full progression, as well as letting them use a few types of combat maneuvers free as part of your attacks. If you’re going this route, I highly recommend feats like the entire Shikigami Style line, as well as Chairbreaker to get a little damage boost when you don’t care about breaking your weapon. Also, consider the Disposable Weapon feat as well, since it works with any weapon with the fragile trait, not just primitive weapons the way Splintering Weapon does. Also, be sure to make the improved and greater combat maneuvers that you’ve specialized in a mainstay of your arsenal as well.

It's interesting to think of the reason why someone would train themselves in this art. Some may see it as a way to demonstrate their own fighting skill by not even using tools meant for fighting, while others may seek to be inconspicuous but deadly at a moment’s notice. Others still might have a philosophical aversion to using weapons, but not against violence.

Klaubon’s big stick is his favorite thing, a strong reinforced fence post that he has added all sorts of metal bits to make it useful for nearly anything, from digging holes to tilling earth, to shattering a bandit’s skull. While not balanced right to be a weapon, the ogre doesn’t mind, and is quite adept at using it, this crude multi-tool of his in times of conflict and in peace.

Despite there being plenty of weapons available, Shofa swears by her “magic rock”, which sometimes discharges sparks of magic and lightning when she uses it as a crude bludgeon. What the young barbarian doesn’t know is that the rock is a fragment of a menhir from the back of a zarxorin, a massive elemental that resembles a hill capped with standing stones, and those flashes of power will one day attract its attention.

Though he swears it isn’t on purpose, Baulidare Farwalker often finds himself in situations where his life is threatened, and the athletic but seemingly mild-mannered man must defend himself with anything on hand with a shocking level of skill. Is he really a sap with incredibly bad luck, or is he hiding a past as a skilled warrior?

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Planar Eberron Monsters (Ironfang Invasion)

Here’s some more monsters from Pathfinder with where they would fit in Eberron. This time, I’m looking at the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path. 

Daanvi, the Perfect Order Inevitable, Kastamut

Lamannia, the Twilight Forest Agathion, Muldnal Bore Worm (All) Bramblelash Cicada (All) Dallo Fuldrex Gallerok Giant Ground Cricket Glimmerhollow Heartrot Tree Hobbe Hound Leshy, Cactus Leshy, Lichen Leshy, Snapdragon Leshy, Sunflower Lich Newt Lycanthrope, Wereraptor Ringhorn Rock Tuatara Switchback Jackal Venomroach Xiomorns (all) Zarxorin

Mabar, the Endless Night Onyx Scourge

Thelanis, the Faerie Court Anhana Faerie Mount Mome Rath Ohancanu Snark

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Feyform Shifter (Shifter Archetype)

 When it comes to shifter archetypes, we’ve seen characters be able to go far beyond animal to almost any other creature type, and so the trend continues today.

While there are many fantasies that children enjoy, the idea of having butterfly or other insect wings, and/or shrinking down, or perhaps imagining oneself as a magical prince/princess of the wild definitely feels intrinsically magical in a way that’s hard to describe.

These shifters emulate that feeling by allowing them to take on fey-like forms, albeit in a slightly different way than the traditional shifter does.

Certainly the fey are heavily associated with nature in a way that other creature types are not, so they make a good combination with the shifter concept as a whole.

Some may belong to druidic circles that have a strong connection to the fey, while others might have been blessed after a rare encounter, while others still might hearken back to the original folklore of changelings being either a fey disguised as a human or the stolen child come back different.

Regardless, they promise not only shapeshifting martial prowess, but a bit of trickery as well.

 At their most basic form, their fey shapeshifting lets them take on an enhanced form, their shape becoming burry and indistinct, gaining enhanced senses and a bit of fey durability as well. As they grow in power, this form gains butterfly wings which only grow in agility as they do, and they become resistant to mental effects as well as those that would inhibit their movement, not to mention a resistance to magic in general.

With true wild shaping, however, these warriors can take on the form of various fey creatures, ranging from tiny sprites, vicious redcaps, and regal greater fey, and beyond, the size and power of these forms only growing with their mastery.

Finally, they also eventually gain various more traditional animal aspects, able to blend the minor forms with their fey aspect as well as take on the wild shape forms should they choose to, until they fully master the power at the zenith of their ability.

Essentially, this archetype is all about using one agile, powerful form and getting all the benefits of your minor aspects at once, with wild shape forms reserved for utility or unique, powerful abilities. Beyond that, I recommend a build all about mobile combat and feinting, particularly using your aerial maneuverability to your advantage.

 Being able to shift between a mortal and fey-like form gives these shifters a unique perspective, but you can also use it to play up the dangers as well. An NPC becoming addicted to and lost in the whimsy of their fey forms might be a useful encounter for your storylines, a reflection of the need for control and remaining grounded.

  Clocktown is a city that has left nature behind, or so the powerful would like to think. Occassionally, fey creatures are spotted causing mischief, and tiny gardens sprout up here and there as bastions of the natural world. Most of these sightings are the shapeshifting freedom fighter Vegashi, who spreads whimsy throughout the city.

 Bikka is of a dual nature. As an ironsoul oread, they have a primal connection to unworked metals, including cold iron, and yet they also were blessed with the ability to transform into fey by a trickster Eldest. For their part, they try their best to balance the chaos and order in their bodies, finding the harmony within.

 The standing stones of Hengalk have long stood as a sacred site for both mortals and the fey, but not even the oldest fey remembers that the menhirs are actually the protrusions of a mighty hibernating earth elemental called a zarxorin. The site’s shapeshifting guardians, however, recall a ritual to renew the energy of the local ley lines, which has the benefit of keeping the elemental quiescent.