The aarakocras are a race of intelligent bird-like people who live in mountainous areas around Toril. Aarakocras love to soar high in the sky for hours on end, riding the thermal currents and updrafts with their wings spread wide. From a distance, it’s easy to mistake them for eagles or some other large bird of prey.
Aarakocras stand about 5 feet tall and have a wing-span of 20 feet. On average, they only weigh about 90 pounds. Midway along each wing they have a three-fingered hand, which is only useful when the wings are folded in. Their wing muscles attach to a bony chestplate, and their powerful legs end in sharp talons that can be drawn back, allowing aarakocras to use their feet as hands. Their heads combine the features of an eagle and a parrot. Their beaks are grey-black, and their eyes are black as well. The males are brightly coloured, usually red, orange or yellow, while the females are either brown or grey.
Aarakocra hatchlings aren’t permitted to leave the nest for the first three months of life. After that, they are considered children for only about five years. At this point, they are kicked out of the family’s portion of the tribe’s communal nest and given a place of their own. Aarakocra can live to be over 100 years old.
Aarakocra have the same life expectancy and age categories as humans.
History: The aarakocras originally came from the distant land of Maztica, far to the west of Faerûn. Over the course of several generations, flights of aarakocra migrated from island to island across the Trackless Sea, following far-ranging scouts in search of new nesting grounds beyond the sunrise. The first aarakocra colonists arrived in northern Faerûn in 418 DR, the Year of the Eagle’s Flight.
The aarakocras eventually created four major colonies in Faerûn: the Star Mounts in the High Forest, the Storm Horns in Cormyr, the Cloven Mountains on the Vilhon Reach, and the Mistcliffs in Chult. However, the Star Mounts colony was destroyed only a few years ago by Elaacrimalicros, an ancient green dragon. All Faerûnian aarakocras have sworn to avenge their deaths of their kin.
Outlook: Aarakocra look down on other races, both literally and figuratively. They pity the poor land-bound fools for their lack of mobility, and they often criticize them for a “lack of perspective”.
Aarakocras have a need to travel, to see the world unroll beneath their feet. This, combined with a lust for vengeance against the creature who murdered their fellows in the Star Mounts colony, has thrust many of them out into the wider world.
Characters: The aarakocras are a proud people with strong ties to one another. They are hunters of surpassing skill. Aarakocra hunters soar over their chosen hunting ground until they spot game, then dive down at top speed to snatch up their meal and kill it before it even knows what happened to it. For this reason, most aarakocras become fighters, and this is their favoured class.
Society: Life as an aarakocra is mostly spent hunting or making tools and weapons. While not every male aarakocra is expected to snatch up the tribe’s meals on a daily basis, those who don’t better have good reasons why not. Children and the extremely old are excused from this duty.
As a young aarakocra nears maturity, his elders teach him to hunt for himself. If he shows a great reverence for the sky and his prey, he may be steered into a career as a cleric.
Tribal life is everything to most aarakocra. The tribe shares a large, roofless communal nest made of thick vines woven together into a gigantic bowl. The eldest member of the tribe, whether male or female, leads the tribe with the help of the tribal shaman (cleric).
Away from the tribe, aarakocras are aloof, whether singly or in a group. They are extremely claustrophobic and refuse to enter any enclosed area unless there is no other choice. To them, being trapped in a room with no way to reach the sky is akin to death.
Language: Aarakocras speak Auran, the language of air elementals. Their race has had such a long relationship with these creatures that aarakocras have adopted the tongue as their own. They also normally speak Common, having long since realized that they need to be able to communicate with those people on the ground.
All aarakocras are illiterate, except for those with a player character class other than barbarian.
Magic: Aarakocra have a single spell particular to their people, the aerial summoning dance.
Religion: Aarakocras in Faerûn almost all worship a single deity: Aerdrie Faenya. This elven weather god is favoured by the aarakocras simply because she is the only good deity who speaks to the aarakocran way of life. She has been known to sometimes appear to the aarakocras in the form of a brilliant white, giant bird. The feathers that fall from this bird-god’s plumage are among the most treasured items in an aarakocran nest.
Relations: Aarakocras like to keep their distance from other races. Of all the other races, aarakocras feel closest to elves because of their common worship of Aerdrie Faenya and the respectful way in which most elves treat nature.
Aarakocras don’t feel much of anything about the other standard character races. They have an abiding hatred of orcs, goblinoids and lizardfolk, though, for these creatures will cage and torment aarakocras, given the chance.
Equipment: In battle, aarakocras prefer javelins over all other weapons. They often carry six of them at a time, strapped to their chests in individual sheaths, like a large bandolier. Many of them also carry flight lances.
Animals and Pets: Aarakocras do not raise domestic animals for food or as beasts of burden. They sometimes allow smaller birds to nest around them, but these are more friends than pets. Like the avariels, aarakocras often befriend giant eagles.
Regions: The Stormhorns
Source: Races of Faerûn (Page 130), Player’s Guide to Faerûn (Page 30)
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’ 10" | +2d10 (5’ 0"—6’ 6") | 120 lbs. | ×2d4 (124—280 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 5" | +2d10 (4’ 7"—6’ 1") | 85 lbs. | ×2d4 (89—245 lbs.) |
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 109)