Lizardfolk

For more information on all races, see: Races

Lizardfolk are proud and powerful reptilian predators that make their communal homes in scattered villages deep within swamps and marshes. Uninterested in colonization of the dry lands and content with the simple weapons and rituals that have served them well for millennia, lizardfolk are viewed by many other races as backwater savages, but within their isolated communities lizardfolk are actually a vibrant people filled with tradition and an oral history stretching back to before humans were the dominant race they are today.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Lizardfolk are semi-aquatic reptilian humanoids. Their skin is covered in scales and vary in color from dark green to shades of brown and gray. Lizardfolk have non-prehensile muscular tails that grow to three or four feet in length, and are used for balance as well as swimming. They also have sharp claws and teeth. Lizardfolk are cold-blooded, and cannot regulate their body temperature internally. Although non-reptilians struggle to tell the difference between males and females, lizardfolk can easily distinguish themselves. Lizardfolk have to keep their skin relatively moist and need to wet their bodies regularly if they are in dry climates. For this reason, they are particularly fearful of desert landscapes.

Genetics and Reproduction

Lizardfolk females lay clutches of eggs, from which their young hatch. The eggs are kept well protected in the tribe's lair. The life of a hatchling is especially hard. Lizardfolk reach maturity within five years of hatching. Temperature also determines the gender of the hatchling that emerges from an egg. Lizardfolk eggs subjected to both high and low temperatures over their incubation hatch into females, and lizardfolk thus need to carefully regulate the temperature of incubating eggs to maintain gender balance in future generations.

Additional Information

Social Structure

The lizardfolk's reptilian nature comes through not only in their appearance, but also in how they think and act. Lizardfolk experience a more limited emotional life than other humanoids. Like most reptiles, their feelings largely revolve around fear, aggression, and pleasure. Lizardfolk experience most feelings as detached descriptions of creatures and situations. For example, humans confronted by an angry troll experience fear on a basic level. Their limbs shake, their thinking becomes panicked and jumbled, and they react by instinct. The emotion of fear takes hold and controls their actions. In contrast, lizardfolk see emotions as traits assigned to other creatures, objects, and situations. A lizardfolk doesn't think, "I'm scared." Instead, aggressive, stronger creatures register to the lizardfolk as fearsome beings to be avoided if possible. If such creatures attack, lizardfolk flee, fighting only if cornered. Lizardfolk aren't scared of a troll; instead, they understand that a troll is a fearsome, dangerous creature and react accordingly. Lizardfolk never become angry in the way others do, but they act with aggression toward creatures that they could defeat in a fight and that can't be dealt with in some other manner. They are aggressive toward prey they want to eat, creatures that want to harm them, and so on. Pleasurable people and things make life easier for lizardfolk. Pleasurable things should be preserved and protected, sometimes at the cost of the lizardfolk's own safety. The most pleasurable creatures and things are ones that allow lizardfolk to assess more situations as benign rather than fearsome.
Most humanoids describe cold-blooded people as lacking in emotion and empathy. The same label serves as an apt depiction of lizardfolk. Lacking any internal emotional reactions, lizardfolk behave in a distant manner. They don't mourn fallen comrades or rage against their enemies. They simply observe and react as a situation warrants. Lizardfolk lack meaningful emotional ties to the past. They assess situations based on their current and future utility and importance. Nowhere does this come through as strongly as when lizardfolk deal with the dead. To a lizardfolk, a comrade who dies becomes a potential source of food. That companion might have once been a warrior or hunter, but now the body is just freshly killed meat. A lizardfolk who lives among other humanoids can, over time, learn to respect other creatures' emotions. The lizardfolk doesn't share those feelings, but instead assesses them in the same clinical manner. Yes, the fallen dwarf might be most useful as a meal, but hacking the body into steaks provokes aggression in the other humanoids and makes them less helpful in battle.
The lizardfolk mindset might seem unnecessarily cruel, but it helps them survive in a hostile environment. The swamps they inhabit are filled with a staggering variety of threats. Lizardfolk focus on survival above all, without sentiment. Lizardfolk assess everyone and everything in terms of utility. Art and beauty have little meaning for them. A sharp sword serves a useful and good purpose, while a dull sword is a dead weight without a whetstone. Lizardfolk have no interest in money or jewels. They also do not much value accumulating knowledge if it is not practically useful. They largely value things based on whether or not it is good to eat. If it is, it quickly gets their attention; if not, it is ignored. Lizardfolk often become distracted at the appearance of food, even if they are in combat. They are easier to parley with after a meal, and a hungry lizardfolk is completely obstreperous.
Lizardfolk see little need to plan more than a season or so into the future. This approach allows them to maintain their current level of influence in the world, but it limits their growth. Lizardfolk have no interest in developing writing, making long-term plans, or cultivating other methods to progress beyond their simple existence as hunters and gatherers.
Lizardfolk are highly dangerous when provoked. However, they are not inherently evil; they are simply savage and have a hard time fitting in with the civilized world. Those that venture into towns or cities are often alarmed or offended by the environment. Few try to adapt, let alone assimilate into Iolcusian societies. Instead, they feel their part is to learn about "softskin" ways and in turn show them how "real people" live.
Lizardfolk gather into tribes. A typical tribe might have 150 lizardfolk, with around 50 male, 50 female, and 50 hatchlings. Another might have only 30 – 60 adults, with half as many hatchlings and one tenth that number in unhatched eggs. Lizardfolk society is patriarchal and leaders hold their positions for their strength and power alone. Although challenges for leadership are rarely made, anyone in the tribe can try and seize power from the leader. This would leave the tribe unorganized and vulnerable until a new leader takes charge or the old leader reasserts their position. Lizardfolk leaders are most often barbarians or even druids. In a tribe, they are assisted by two lieutenants. Many skilled warriors are fighters and barbarians. Tribal shamans, meanwhile, rarely serve as leaders, and by-and-large only offer advice. Females in the tribes are responsible for hatching eggs, raising young, and maintaining the camp. All the females in the tribe work together to raise the young. They monitor their hatchlings closely, as the young are difficult to handle and tend to wander off, away from camp and into the wilderness.
Lizardfolk fashion primitive weaponry and tools from wood, stones, and plants they find in the wetlands. Lizardfolk prefer weapons they can fashion themselves from what is available, and so they tend to be simple and limited in variety. More advanced tribes make use of a wider range of weaponry and shields. Moreover, they sometimes utilize weapons they find or steal; tribal leaders typically get to use items that have been stolen or bartered from other races. The barbed dart is a weapon unique to the lizardfolk. However, their claws and teeth are often sufficient.
Camps vary in style from tribe to tribe. The simplest are just damp leaves used for bedding, but more developed lizardfolk tribes build crude dwellings. They do not keep animals as pets or mounts, but rarely a lizardfolk druid might employ their magic to charm a dinosaur and ride it into battle to awesome effect.
The lizardfolk have no traditions of farming, cultivation, or animal raising, so food is acquired through fishing, hunting, scavenging, or stealing. Those that dwell near other humanoids raid their neighbors for food, supplies, and even slaves. The tribe's survival is its primary, or indeed, only concern. When they feel threatened, or when food shortages lead to starvation, a tribe does absolutely anything to guarantee its survival, even committing acts others would see as despicable.
A species of giant gourds are a staple of the lizardfolk. These enormous edible fruits are hollowed and dried out, making them into oversized containers, often bigger than an adult human in size. These gourds are painted, decorated, and used to store various liquids, such as fresh water, fermented alcohol, and small swimming snacks.
Most lizardfolk are content to live their lives out in the swamps and marshes where they were born but, on occasion, some venture outside their swampy homes to hunt bigger and more dangerous prey. Sometimes a lizardfolk even desires to know more about the outside world, but mostly to bring knowledge back to their leader. When they do so, lizardfolk rarely travel alone. If they leave the swamp, they do so in pairs or groups of three. Lizardfolk fear that, without others of their own kind with them to remind them of who and what they were, they would lose their identity and be seduced by the ways of civilization and never come home again.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Lizardfolk take their names from the Draconic language. They use simple descriptives granted by the tribe based on an individual's notable deeds or actions. For example, Hahkun translates as "axe," a name given to a lizardfolk warrior who defeated an orc and claimed his foe's weapon. A lizardfolk who likes to hide in a stand of reeds before ambushing an animal might be called Graag, which means "green" to describe how she blends into the foliage. Lizardfolk make no distinction between male and female in their naming conventions. Each example name includes its translation in parenthesis.
Lizardfolk Names: Ag (burn), Dovah (dragon), Dwiin (steel), Graag (green), Grah (battle), Hahkun (axe), Irhtos (secret), Kein (war), Keth (gem), Kothar (demon), Lovaas (song), Mal (small), Miin (eye), Othoken (smart), Pogaan (many), Qah (armor), Raan (animal), Strun (storm), Strunmah (mountain), Tahrovin (danger), Tu (hammer), Usk (iron), Ved (black), Vulon (night).

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Lizardfolk can master Common, but their mindset results in a speech pattern distinct from other humanoids. Lizardfolk rarely use metaphors. Their speech is almost always literal. They might pick up idioms, but only with some difficulty. Names confuse them, unless they are descriptive. They tend to apply their own naming conventions to other creatures using Common words. Lizardfolk use active verbs to describe the world. A lizardfolk in cold weather might say, "This wind brings cold" rather than "I feel cold." Lizardfolk tend to define things in terms of actions, rather than effects.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Neighboring lizardfolk tribes often ally against formidable enemies, even against other hostile lizardfolk tribes.
The relationship of lizardfolk to other races is considered to be mostly that of hunter to prey. Lizardfolk of a somewhat more civilized nature understand that other races might know something worth learning, and are ready to parley. Nevertheless, lizardfolk consider themselves stronger and thus better than most other races and therefore think of themselves as "real people". Lizardfolk refer to most of the civilized races as "softskins". Lizardfolk rarely interact with other races as their swampy homelands are home to few other sentient creatures. Their main competitors in the swamps are grippli, whom lizardfolk tend to despise. In places where lizardfolk raiding parties threaten civilization, interracial relations can be particularly bad. In some villages, the hunting of lizard folk is considered a sport.
At their core, lizardfolk view other humanoids with an indifference verging on pity. Born into the world lacking stout scales and sharp teeth, it's a wonder they have managed to survive for so long. The typical human would barely make it through a day in the swamps. Still, if other creatures prove useful to lizardfolk, those creatures can trigger a protective response made all the stronger by their apparent weakness. The lizardfolk assess such beings as hatchlings, young ones incapable of protecting themselves but who might prove useful in the future if they receive care.
In rare events when lizardfolk are aided by members of other humanoid races and become respected among a tribe, robed lizardfolk shamans create large enchanted amulets of bronze. These items are universally recognized by all lizardfolk and proclaim that the wearer is a trusted friend. The amulet protects the wearer from any and all lizardfolk attacks unless forced to defend themselves. The magics weaved by the lizardfolk are complex dweomers that make it instantly apparent if the medallion was copied. Additionally, these amulets are attuned to a specific wearer, making them useless when sold, gifted, or stolen.

Favored Class Options

Instead of receiving an additional skill rank or hit point whenever they gain a level in a favored class, lizardfolk have the option of choosing from a number of other bonuses, depending upon their favored class. The following options are available to all lizardfolk who have the listed favored class.

• Aegis: Add +1 to the aegis’s CMD when resisting a sunder or trip.
• Alchemist: Add +1/6 damage to the alchemist’s bite and claw attacks while under the effects of a feral mutagen.
• Antipaladin: Add a +1/3 circumstance bonus on critical hit confirmation rolls while using smite good (maximum bonus +5). This bonus does not stack with Critical Focus.
• Arcanist: Add +1/3 to the DC to one of the arcanist’s exploits.
• Barbarian: Add +1/6 damage to the barbarian’s bite and claw attacks when using the animal fury rage power.
• Bard: Reduce the penalty for not being proficient with one weapon by 1. When the nonproficiency penalty for a weapon becomes 0 because of this ability, the bard is treated as having the appropriate Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat for that weapon.
• Bloodrager: Add +1/2 round of bloodrage per day.
• Brawler: Add +1/2 to the brawler’s CMB when making a trip attempt.
• Cavalier: Add a +1/2 bonus to Acrobatics and Intimidate checks.
• Cleric: Add a +1/2 bonus on caster level checks to overcome the spell resistance of dragons or creatures with the aquatic or reptilian subtypes.
• Druid: Add a +1/2 bonus on Knowledge (Nature) and Survival checks in swamps or aquatic environments.
• Fighter: Add a +1/4 bonus to Will saves fear effects created by creatures of the dragon type or aquatic subtype.
• Gunslinger: Add a +1/3 bonus on attack rolls when using the pistol whip deed.
• Hunter: Choose one ranged weapon. Add +1 foot to the range increment of that weapon. This option has no effect unless the hunter has selected it 5 times (or another increment of 5 a range increment of 24 feet is effectively the same as a range increment of 20 feet, for example.
• Inquisitor: Add +1/6 to the damage bonus granted by the destruction judgment.
• Investigator: Add +1/4 rounds to the duration of the insight bonus granted by studied combat.
• Magus: Add +1/5 of a new magic weapon property that can be added to the magus’s weapon by expending points from his arcane pool. These must be chosen from the following list: corrosive, corrosive burst, countering, furyborn, wounding.
• Monk: Add +1/2 to Acrobatics checks to cross narrow surfaces and to Escape Artist checks.
• Ninja: Add +1/4 point to the ninja’s ki pool.
• Oracle: Reduce the penalty for not being proficient with one weapon by 1. When the nonproficiency penalty for a weapon becomes 0 because of this ability, the oracle is treated as having the appropriate Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat with that weapon.
• Paladin: Add a +1/3 circumstance bonus on critical hit confirmation rolls while using smite evil (maximum bonus +5). This bonus does not stack with Critical Focus.
• Ranger: Add +1/4 to a single existing humanoid favored enemy bonus (maximum bonus +1 per favored enemy). Rogue: Add +1/2 to sneak attack damage dealt to creatures with the humanoid type.
• Samurai: Add +1/6 of an extra roll to the samurai’s resolute ability when using resolve (maximum 1 extra roll, allowing the samurai to roll three times on a Fort or Will save and take the best result).
• Shaman: Add +5 feet to the range of one hex with a range other than “touch.”
• Skald: Add one spell from the bard spell list to the skald’s list of spells known. This spell must be at least one level below the highest spell level he can cast.
• Slayer: The slayer gains +1/6 of a new slayer talent.
• Sorcerer: Add +1/2 point of acid damage to sorcerer spells cast that deal acid damage.
• Soulknife: Add +1/2 to the soulknife’s psychic strike damage.
• Summoner: Monsters summoned by the summon monster ability gain a +1/6 natural armor bonus to their armor class.
• Swashbuckler: Add +1/4 to the swashbuckler’s damage rolls on riposte attacks after a successful parry.
• Warpriest: Add +1/3 to the warpriest’s effective level for the purposes of determining his sacred weapon damage.
• Witch: The witch gains 1/6 of a new witch hex.
• Wizard: Add a +1 bonus on concentration checks made due to taking damage while casting wizard spells.

Racial Traits

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Lizardfolk are strong and hardy enough to weather the perils of their dangerous homelands.

Reptilian
Lizardfolk are humanoids with the reptilian subtype.

Medium
Lizardfolk are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed
Lizardfolk have a base speed of 30 feet.

Bite
Lizardfolk gain a natural bite attack, dealing damage equivalent to that of a creature two size categories lower than normal for their size (1d2 for Small races, 1d3 for Medium, etc.). The bite is a primary attack, or a secondary attack if the creature is wielding manufactured weapons.

Claws
Lizardfolk receive two claw attacks. These are primary natural attacks. The damage is based on the creature’s size (1d4 for Medium creatures.)

Scales
Lizardfolk have tough scaly skin, granting them a +1 natural armor bonus.

Swim
Lizardfolk have a swim speed of 30 feet and thus gain a +8 racial bonus on Swim checks.

Languages
Lizardfolk begin play speaking Draconic. Lizardfolk with high Intelligence scores can choose bonus languages from the following: Aquan, Common.

Average Lifespan
35 years

Average Height
6 ft. 0 in. – 7 ft. 2 in.

Average Weight
200 – 250 lbs.