Those people who have heard of mongrelfolk know them as brutish, ugly creatures who bear the worst features of all their parent races.
And that is exactly how the mongrelfolk like it.
In actuality, mongrelfolk can pass for members of their parent races — any of them. In fact, when someone meets a mongrelfolk, he always assumes the new acquaintance is a member of one of the other major humanoid races — just not his own. Dwarves see mongrelfolk as unusually tall and broad-shouldered elves, while elves might consider them to be surprisingly tall and slender dwarves. Orcs view them as oddly short and ugly humans, while humans might see them as tall and strangely comely orcs. To each race, a mongrelfolk looks like a member of another race, because they have features common to several species. Mongrelfolk use this inability to pin down their ancestry to their advantage. After all, it is difficult to describe the culprit of a crime if a witness cannot even identify her race with certainty.
Those few mongrelfolk who are born with clearly non-human features serve as a distraction from the rest of the race. They grow up knowing that they will be spat upon by the other races, but secretly honoured by their own kin. These visibly misshapen mongrelfolk make sure that people in the area know who they are and where they are, thus reinforcing the stereotype about their race in general. In such a situation, ordinary-appearing mongrelfolk are often able to move about more freely, because no one associates the slightly tall dwarf or slightly stocky elf with the hideously deformed creature hiding in the woods nearby.
Personality: Mongrelfolk grow up knowing that they do not belong to one particular race, but are kin to all of them. They are perhaps the most open-minded of the humanoid races in terms of dealing with each other — mongrelfolk see nothing wrong with having orc friends, any more than they have problems allying with dwarves or elves or gnomes. They treat every race as equals and as distant cousins and hope to be treated the same way in return. To facilitate this goal, mongrelfolk learn how to imitate the other races. They practice archery and woodcraft to be more like elves, stonework to be more like dwarves, and cooking to be more similar to halflings.
The race’s real talents lie in the area of stealth. Mongrelfolk are naturally sneaky, expert at vanishing into a crowd. They hone these skills, working to become quieter and quicker and less obtrusive, and their familiarity with different races makes this task even easier.
Physical Description: Mongrelfolk range in height from a little under 5 feet to almost 6 feet tall, and they weigh between 125 and 230 pounds. Their skin ranges from pale to dark, perhaps with grey or pink undertones, and their hair ranges from fine to coarse and black to white-blond. They usually have large green or brown eyes, which can be dark or pale or (as is often the case) indeterminate enough to look dark in shadow but pale in bright light. Their ears are slightly upswept and come to mild points at the upper tips, and they usually have heavy brows and jaws. Mongrelfolk favour simple, functional clothing and rarely wear jewellery.
Relations: Mongrelfolk get along extremely well with the other humanoid races, for two reasons. First, the mongrelfolk themselves appreciate each race’s unique traits and culture, and they enjoy meeting and mingling with people. Second, other races never realize mongrelfolk are among them, taking each mongrelfolk instead for a member of another race. This allows the mongrelfolk to move freely through the world, avoiding any racial bias and giving none in return. Mongrelfolk are perhaps closer to half-elves than to any other race, because half-elves can also be mistaken for a member of one of their two parent races. Mongrelfolk feel a degree of pity toward half-orcs and half-ogres, who are clearly not human and are persecuted for their differences.
Alignment: Mongrelfolk tend toward neutrality and chaos. They live their lives by their own standards, preferring to follow instinct rather than rules. Mongrelfolk lean more toward good than evil, simply because they know that helping others earns them more respect from the world at large. But some decide that since no other race fully accepts them, they should not care what happens to anyone else, and they focus entirely upon their own welfare and prosperity, even to the point of harming others to achieve their goals.
Mongrelfolk Lands: Mongrelfolk do not claim their own lands, and deliberately so. Their race focuses on blending in with other races, and so they carefully establish small communities within a variety of lands, preferably in large villages or cities where their presence will not be noticed. Mongrelfolk establish their largest populations in human cities because humanity contains a great variance of appearance. Human cities also generally support a racially mixed population, giving the mongrelfolk even more cover. Those mongrelfolk who are visibly non-human can usually be found within a day’s ride of such places, and they live within caves and swamps close enough to a major road that travellers can see and hear of them.
Religion: Mongrelfolk worship their own god, Meriadar. The deity appears as a humanoid with an elf’s ears, a dwarf’s nose, a human’s chin, an orc’s jaw, and a gnome’s eyes. His height, weight, build and colouring shift from second to second, making it impossible to pin down his true features. Meriadar encourages his people to use their ability to blend in among the other races, and to remember that they represent the ultimate result of a mixed society. His priests teach mongrelfolk the ways of each parent race, help establish and maintain their hidden communities, and see to the welfare of the misshapen mongrelfolk set out as distractions from the rest. Meriadar expects open-mindedness and compassion from his worshippers, and an attempt to meet and befriend members of every parent race.
Language: Mongrelfolk speak Common. Many also speak Elven, Dwarven, Gnome, Halfling, Orc or several of the above. Mongrelfolk have their own pidgin language, known appropriately enough as Mongrel, but they only use this when other races are watching.
Names: Mongrelfolk pick their names from those used by other races, and they take care to use names that sound close to those of several different races. They adopt different last names or clan names depending on what race they encounter. A mongrelfolk’s clan name is used as a middle name, staying constant no matter what disguise the individual uses. Mongrelfolk clan names are one syllable in length, and can easily sound like the first portion of a last name, allowing a mongrelfolk to utter his clan name and then the fictitious one after it, and thereby identify himself to any mongrelfolk nearby.
Male Names: Andion, Austen, Caden, Elzedar, Haraze, Jerain, Michel, Randal, Tahriol, Winden.
Female Names: Betra, Candace, Deliah, Esthel, Gerta, Jenemia, Lissende, Marte, Safire, Vendela.
Clan Names: Bar, Cam, Del, Fir, Gav, Lim, Mon, Nek, Pul, Ras.
Adventurers: Mongrelfolk love meeting people and seeing new places. They particularly enjoy visiting places where no one knows them, and where they can start fresh without having to worry about anyone determining their real ancestry. Mongrelfolk also like spending time with their parent races, studying each culture and trying to fit into it or least learn how to prosper within it.
Ultimately, mongrelfolk prefer travelling to settling down. They roam from place to place, plying a craft such as tinkering or carpentry that earns them respect and coin wherever they go and also provides them a good cover for their excursions. Mongrelfolk have a natural gift for stealth and thieving; though not all become rogues, they keep an eye open for any wealth that might be had, both for themselves and for their families back home.
Source: Races of Destiny (Page 98)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 years | +1d4 (16—19) years | +1d6 (16—21) years | +2d6 (17—27) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 years | 53 years | 70 years | +2d20 years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4’ 4" | +2d6 (4’ 6"—5’ 4") | 100 lbs. | ×2d6 (104—244 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 3" | +2d6 (4’ 5"—5’ 3") | 85 lbs. | ×2d6 (89—229 lbs.) |
Note: The weight factor for Females has been updated to 2d6 from the printed version of 2d4. It’s extremely unlikely that the factor is different between male and female, and the low value does not really match the overall weight range given in the description, so it is probably a misprint.
Source: Races of Destiny (Page 110)