Chrone

Description

A stooped, alien creature advances on all fours, its general shape appearing somewhat humanoid with a tubular body covered in sleek, blue-gray flesh. It has an oversized, almost featureless head with a small mouth slit, no eyes or nose, and an irregular forehead. The rear legs resemble those of a dog, with wide, splayed feet.

This alien race appears vaguely humanoid in form, but often knuckle-walks on all four limbs like an ape. The rear legs are bent back at the knees like a dogs, and it has splayed, almost bird-like feet. Its oversized skull lacks any visible organs or orifices, save for a mouth slit underneath, and the only distinctive features are a set of ridges and fin-like projections running from front to back across the scalp. The body is nearly cylindrical, tapering slightly toward the rear. The flesh of a chrone is smooth and sleek, with a slight blue-gray hue, and is covered in a mottled pattern of small, dark spots.

Due to their exotic characteristics, the chrone perceive the world in an entirely different manner than most creatures, viewing a continuum of time rather than merely the present moment. This makes their thought processes very bizarre, and quite confusing for a telepath. They possess a certain degree of foresight, which grants them a significant advantage in combat or other time-sensitive activities. However their time continuum sense is most focused about the present, so it is unable to predict with great accuracy what is yet to come.

Those who spend some time observing the chrone will note that they often behave in a chaotic manner, spontaneously changing their behavior without apparent reason. They often seem to succeed at tasks out of pure luck, but more often than not this is a result of their time sense providing an uncanny predictive quality.

Combat

The eerie temporal sense of a chrone makes them dangerous foes in a fight, and they make full use of their presentient abilities to defeat their enemies. They prefer to maintain a fluid combat situation, keeping their foes off balance while pressing the attack. If a fight appears likely to end in defeat, the chrone will retreat and regroup.

Blindsight (Ex): A chrone can ascertain all foes within 120 feet. Beyond that range it is considered blinded.

Chrones are invulnerable to gaze attacks, visual effects of spells such as illusions, and other attack forms that rely on sight. A chrone who is concentrating, stunned, or dazed is effectively blinded, treating all targets as having total concealment.

Spell-Like Abilities: At will―guidance. 3/day―augury. 1/day―true strike. 1/week―speak with dead. Caster level 3rd. Only another chrone can sense when these abilities are activated and in use.

Foresight (Ex): Due to their eerie temporal sense, chrones gain the Evasion and Uncanny Dodge special qualities of a rogue, and the Lightning Reflexes feat as a bonus feat.

*While they are not concentrating, chrone receive a +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class. Any time a chrone loses its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, such as when it's caught flat-footed, it also loses its dodge bonus.

Spell Resistance (Ex): A chrone has spell resistance equal to its class levels +5.

Skills: Chrones have a +2 racial bonus on Sleight of Hand and Search checks. A chrone who passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if he were actively looking for it.

Chrones as Characters

Chrone characters possess the following racial traits.

• +4 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.
• Small size: +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rols, +4 bonus on Hide checks, -4 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits ¾ those of Medium characters.
• A chrone's base land speed is 20 feet.
• +2 racial bonus on Sleight of Hand checks.
• +2 racial bonus on Search checks. A chrone who passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
• Special Qualities (see above): Blindsight 120 ft., spell-like abilities, foresight.
• Favored Class: Rogue.
• Level Adjustment: +3.

The chrone warrior presented here had the following ability scores before racial adjustments: Str 9, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8.

Chrone Society

Most chrone are long lived and have few offspring. They are a migratory race, traveling in tight-knit family groups to worlds and regions that are safe from conflict or hazard. Chrone merchant ships often fare well, carrying specific cargoes that their foresight tells them will be much needed where they intend journey. As a result they are usually wealthy creatures, with large investments on many civilized worlds.

The chrone civilization, such as it is, has proven resistant to the rise and collapse cycles common among other races. All chrone prefer to take the long view, even in their daily activities. Thus while the chrone are not exceptionally gifted in terms of technological advances or great discoveries, their stability has placed them in good stead over the course of history.

Many scholarly chrones become historians and paleontologists, carefully recording the story of other civilizations for the future. Many a lost species still lives on as a historical record among the chrone's data libraries. Unfortunately the exotic and efficient record keeping methods of a chrone can be difficult for other species to fathom.