One of the more rural races found throughout the world, harpies airborne nature leaves them with a natural separation of the problems the lands they dwell upon face, their ability to quickly retreat and learn by living viewpoints commonly have left them out of the cultural circles of many places they reside in.
Physical Description: Harpies are a humanoid and avian hybrid, bearing a wide variety of colours, divergence, and sizes. While a harpy's feathers wildly differ based on heritage, between a variable mosiac, or pure silken black feathers, the skin of a harpy is more restrictive, following the usual patterns of humans such as humans or dergerians. A harpy's face primarily bears the features of humanoids, They possess beady eyes akin to birds and their scalp is covered in a mix of feather and hair, and special feathers that seem a mix of both. A pair of sharp fangs are hidden in their teeth, used for ripping apart their food not already shredded by their talons. The body of a harpy bears similarity with most humanoids, barely mostly skin but bears the capability of growing downy feathers. As one moves away with their torso, they quickly get covered by feathers and consumed by avian features that wildly diverge from their otherwise mixed visage. Lacking arms of any sort, they instead bear massive wings bearing nearly twice the wingspan of their height to fly aloft and even help monitor their temperature while their legs match exactly a birds from their waist down, providing digitigrade feet ending in scaled sharp talons that can replicate a reasonable amount of hand movement that other, properly armed races take for granted. While harpies bear tailfeathers, for most they bear far less function then an actual birds, existing purely as a balancing tool in the air and nothing more.
| Adulthood |
Intuitive |
Self-Taught |
Trained |
| 15 years |
+1d4 years
(16 – 19 years) |
+1d6 years
(16 – 21 years) |
+2d6 years
(17 – 27 years) |
| Gender |
Base Length |
Length Modifier |
Base Weight |
Weight Modifier |
| Male |
5 ft. 0 in. |
+2d10 in.
(5 ft. 2 in. – 6 ft. 8 in.) |
105 lbs. |
+(2d8×5 lbs.)
(115 – 185 lbs.) |
| Female |
5 ft. 0 in. |
+2d10 in.
(5 ft. 2 in. – 6 ft. 8 in.) |
105 lbs. |
+(2d8×5 lbs.)
(115 – 185 lbs.) |
Society: Harpies normally stick together in large groupings of nests at a raised altitude, such as on cliffs or a collection of buttes, these groupings are akin to a tribe or a clan of other races, including usually being led by an elder. Harpies intrinsicly trust their elderly since long term survival implies cunning, wits, and wisdom to have reached such an age, even such a thing might not be the case. This trust can be very quickly broken if it turns out their elder is incapable of bearing young for any case, leading this trust to be a one way street as the elders within a grouping may become incredibly secretive if they feel they bear a trait that might lead to others losing respect for them.
Relations: A harpy's intrinsic, yet flimsy trust in elders, extends to the aged mentors and elderly of other races as well. Races who do not show signs of ages such as heraklesians or psiroids are often in a perpetual passive aggressive war with harpies due to commonly being disrespected or being seemingly untrustworthy by the standards of a harpy. Reversely, races that age quickly such as orcs, ogres, or even humans, normally have better relations when dealing with a stray harpy clan or the rare sort to be within cities.
Alignment and Religion: Harpy's normally follow their own whims unless properly lectured by their elder, and as such commonly lean towards the chaotic alignment. The shamanistic nature of a grouping of harpy's naturally lead them to prefer worship of nature over gods when isolated, with their elders taking the position of shaman and leader.
Adventurers: Harpy's whimsy leads chance of going separate from a tribe to be a random case of chance, while harpies within cities have a reasonable possibility of becoming an adventurer as anyone else. In the cases where a harpy does join an adventuring group harpy's natural dexterity and tracking sensibilities combined with their flight leaves them with a welcome spot as a tracker, scout, or rogue. However a harpy is capable of choosing any class.
Standard Racial Traits
- Ability Score Racial Traits: Harpies are nimble quick fliers, and commonly follow shamanistic teachings and their wisened elders, however they are not too bright when the wisdom of age is not a factor. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and -2 Intelligence.
- Type: Harpies are monstrous humanoids.
- Size: Harpies are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
- Base Speed: Harpies have a base speed of 10 feet and a fly speed of 40 feet with good maneuverability.
- Languages: Harpies begin play speaking Common. Harpies with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
- Captivating Song: Harpies are beautiful and naturally talented vocalists, giving them a +2 racial bonus on perform (song) checks.
Offense Racial Traits
- Natural Attack: Harpies gain two talon attacks as secondary natural attacks that deal 1d6 points of damage.
Defense Racial Traits
- Tough Feathers: Harpies have durable yet light feathers on their limbs and lightly on their body, granting them a +1 natural armor bonus.
Senses Racial Traits
- Darkvision: Harpies have darkvision and so can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
Magical Racial Traits
- Spell-like Abilities (Sp): A harpy can use charm person once per day as a spell-like ability. A harpy’s caster level is equal to their total Hit Dice.
Weakness Racial Traits
- Handless: Harpies must use their talons to grip and wield anything that would normally require hands as their arms are instead replaced with wings, while airborne they receive a -4 penalty to use anything that requires two hands, and are incapable of using anything that requires two hands while on the ground.
