Qi'ses
Chitin
When calculating health, add 6 to critical range. However, Qi'ses receive +2 damage from Bludgeoning attacks.
Pheropathy
All Qi'ses can communicate psychically with other Qe'sis through pheromones, transferring thoughts in their completeness rather than using language. They do not make any noise. They may also roll to sense the general emotional and psychological state of the surrounding Qi'ses in the area. This allows Qui'ses to read the pheromonal signatures of other species to a lesser degree as well. The Qi'ses can make Assess checks of other species' mental state one difficulty threshold easier.
Evolve
Once per day, Qi'ses may refund one or more skill ranks from a single skill or a single Feat (not including Species Feats). These become General Skill Points.
Species Complex
At character creation, choose one of the following Species Traits:
Flying: The Qi'ses can fly of their own volition. They make flight checks just as if they were moving, with all the same penalties in battle. Saving rolls for flight are made with the AGI primary statistic. If the character is wearing armor of Medium category or above, they cannot fly, they can only glide.
Acid: The Qi'ses may fire a projectile of Acid, applying one dose of Acid on each successful strike. (Delay: 2. Skill: 12)
Horn: 4d8+STR mod. On successful strike, apply Knockdown to target. (Delay: 4. Skill: 12)
Pincers: Unarmed (Grapples) is at one layer decreased difficulty threshold.
Hyper-Evolving: Evolve may now refund one or more skill ranks from two skills or Feats per day.
The Qi'ses are a species complex of insectoid humanoids with widely diverse morphologies, having arisen and settled on the southern half of Faydorn. The Qi'ses speak with near telepathic clarity to all other Qi'ses, regardless of morphology, through use of pheremones. However, they are still individuals. Qi'ses have their own names and psyches and can differentiate their own history and personhood from the rest of their species complex. Nonetheless, they have very little intra-species conflict because of the empathy produced by this connection. The Qi'ses molt numerous times over the course of their lives, typically becoming larger, stronger, and better armored as they grow older. They also become less sensitive to pheropathy, making them less empathic and therefore more difficult to integrate. For this reason, the regular dynamics within Qi'ses society is that the old become explorers, hunters, or warriors when they are needed. This is how many of the new colonies were established, when older Qi'ses set out in bands of explorers to establish new territories.
For this reason, when there is resource scarcity, the Qi'ses tend to expand and colonize new territory rather than enter into conflicts. This even expands into their relations with other species. They would rather colonize unclaimed territory than enter into interspecies conflict. If conflict would arise from expansion, they will tend to consolidate their species' existing territory rather than expand. Nonetheless, on the rare occasions that other species encounter them, they often enter conflict with them anyway not due to their own desires but because those species view them as freakish and terrifying. The only exception to this has been the Utwesh, who did not enter conflict with Qi'ses, but instead made clear that they they did not welcome colonies being established in their ancestral lands. For this reason, the Qi'ses mostly keep to themselves in the underground parts of the southern portion of Faydorn. However, they do still enter into conflict with the Frughish Famulus on the eastern seaboard from time to time. But this remains limited due to the Qi'ses lack of desire for further conflict.
The Qi'ses reproduce through the usage of a single shared gene pool in each of their major colonies. Males of the species donate their genetics to an enormous pool of genetic slurry in their locality and the females of the species take a sample from this pool in order to make new broods, contributing their own genetics again at this juncture. The Qi'ses also pass down epigenetic changes in this pool. This means that the Qi'ses evolve very rapidly as a species, taking on shared communal epigenetic adaptations as genetic adaptations in the next generation. And, due to their short lifespans and rapid population expansions, they tend to overcome obstacles in very short order.
Lifespan: 15-50 years
Height: 5'1"-7'8"
Homeland: Faydorn Frontiers
Language: Chittering, Pheropathy
Statistic Minimums:
STR: 5
AGI: 5
CON: 5
INT: 4
WIS: 1
CHA: 2
MAG: 1
Health Calculation:
Head: CON for slight. CON * 2 for serious. Add 7 for critical.
Chest: CON * 2 + STR for slight. CON * 4 + STR for serious. Add 6 for critical.
Limbs: CON + STR for slight. (CON + STR) * 2 for serious. Add 6 for critical.