Le Naga

Description: The naga are cursed Highborne Kaldorei who were smashed to the bottom of the sea during War of the Ancients. The Highborne survived this calamity, dwelling magically on the ocean floor. The Highborne suffered a terrible curse for their transgressions, and this mutated and intensified over the years until they became the dread naga.

Naga only marginally resemble the noble race they once were. Their proud Kalodrei visages are warped and twisted. The naga are part night elf, part serpent, and some have evolved weird oceanic mutations. In this way, the race has developed an array of genetic variations and defenses, such as ink jets, tentacles, razor fins, venomous fangs, hardened barnacle carapaces and spined fists.

Naga serve their dark empress Azshara (yes, the same Azshara who summoned the Legion in the War of the Ancients) without question. Naga society is matriarchal, and the sexes have diverged radically, both mentally and physically, in the millennia of their estrangement. Women are dominant and often train as spellcasters, while men form the brute labor force and serve their women as physical warriors.

Naga are avaricious and sadistic, and their millennia of aquatic banishment have only intensified their evil, power-hungry nature. Illidan Stormrage summoned some naga to aid him in his quest to destroy the Frozen Throne, but for the most part the aquatic race has yet to play its hand in the world. Yet the time is soon when the naga will arise once more.

Appearance: Naga men are bestial and considered less intelligent than females, but are remarkably strong and though, able to withstand a great deal of bodily injury. Naga women more resemble the Kaldorei from whom they came, their faces fair, even beautiful. This unearthly splendor is ruined by their monstrous deformities - they often have multiple limbs (four to sic arms) and medusalike hair (snakes). Naga average 6 1/2 feet tall, and naga men are much bulkier the women.

Region: Most naga live in Nazjatar, their capital city. This is built into a massive abyssal sea trench in the ocean floor, and houses Empress Azshara's imperial palace. The naga also have coastal encampments along eastern Kalimdor. One great outpost is Azshara, on the eastern coast of Ashenvale, in the ruins of the ancient Kaldorei capital. A handful of naga live in the extradimensional realm of Outland with Illidan Stormrage and the blood elves.

Affiliation: Independent. Naga are dangerous and avaricious, and most races are unaware of their existence. Naga play well with blood elves, trolls and other dark, independent powers, but only the rarest naga joins the Alliance or Horde.

Naga Racial Traits

* +2 Strength (males only), +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence (females only). Naga are physically powerful, mentally superior and very agile. Naga men are generally stronger than naga women, while naga women tend to be more cunning.
* Medium: As Medium creatures, naga have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* naga base land speed is 30 feet.
* Naga base swim speed is 50 feet. A naga has a +8 racial bonus on Swim checks and can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if rushed or otherwise distracted. A naga character can take a run action while swimming as long as she swims in a straight line.
* darkvision: Naga can see up to 60 feet in the dark.
* +4 bonus racial bonus on Spot checks for naga females, owing to the eyes on each serpent strand of their hair.
* +1 natural armor bonus (+2 for males). Naga can take the Improved Natural Armor feat to improve their inherent defenses (see MM, Cahpter 6: Monster Skills and Feats).
* Aquatic Healing (Ex): As one of the many changes wrought through ages living underwater, the naga heal at twice the normal rate when they are underwater.
* Water Breathing (Ex): Naga are amphibious, though they do not suffer any significant discomfort while out of the water.
* Uncanny Dodge (Ex): Only female naga receive this ability. Female naga have a nest of writhing serpents in lieu of hair. They can see out of these serpents' eyes just as easily as their own, granting them a keen awareness of their surroundings. They do not lose their Dexterity bonus to AC when flanked and can dodge and move in response to attackers on both sides. This defense denies rogues the ability to sneak attack the hero; however, rogues 4 levels higher than the naga neutralize this ability an can thus flank and sneak attack her. This ability only works if the serpent strands are not bound or covered.
* Mutation (Ex): Naga heroes begin play with a single mutation, chosen from the "Standard Mutations" list below. This mutation grants the character a bonus or special ability she would not otherwise have. Alternately, you may choose to grant your naga character a mutation from the "Greater Mutations" list. Doing so, however, adds +1 to the naga hero's level adjustment (for a total of +2). Note that this system is somewhat different than that used by naga as presented in Manual of Monsters, and NPC naga are commonly more mutated than PC naga.

Standard Mutations
Bite: The naga hero gains a bite attack that inflicts 1d6 points of damage.

Claws: The naga hero gains two claw attacks, each of which inflicts 1d4 points of damage.

Extended Darkvision: The naga hero's darkvision extends to 120 feet.

Ink Jet: Three times per day, the naga hero can expel an obscuring cloud of black ink while underwater. This ability is otherwise similar to the obscuring mist spell as cast by a sorcerer of the naga's character level.

Tentacles: The naga hero has two extra limbs - long, writhing tentacles. These tentacles are incapable of fine manipulation and cannot be used to attack, wield weapons, open doors or pretty much anything else. They can, however, be used to wrap around opponents and crush them. This allows the naga hero a constriction attack, which inflicts 1d6 + Strength modifier points of damage on a successful grapple check.

Thick Scales: The naga gains an additional +2 natural armor bonus.

Greater Mutations

Choosing one of these mutations adds +1 to the naga hero's level adjustment.

Blindsight: The naga hero can discern the location of characters and objects within 60 feet through fine hearing, vibration detection and subtle temperature cues. The naga has also learned to react quickly to minor changes and gains a +4 bonus on initiative checks.

Heavy Scales: The naga hero gains an additional +4 natural armor bonus. The naga is also just plain tougher than normal and gains a +2 racial bonus on all Fortitude saves.

Extra Arms: The naga hero has two additional arms, which can be used to do anything arms can do - wield weapons, perform arcane movements or make rude gestures, for instance. A naga with extra arms may take the Multiattack feat (see MM, Chapter 6: Monster Skills and Feats). Only female naga may select this mutation.

Fast Healing: The naga hero gains fast healing 1. This improves to fast healing 2 when the naga is underwater (see MM, Chapter 7: Glossary).

Improved Tentacles: As the tentacles mutation, above, but the tentacles are thicker, stronger and lined with powerful suckers. The tentacles inflict 1d10 points of damage on a successful grapple check and grant the naga the Improved Grapple feat.

Natural Weaponry: The naga hero gains two claw attacks, each of which inflicts 1d8 points of damage. Only male naga may take this mutation.

Size Increase: The naga hero's size increases to Large (tall). It gains a +8 bonus to Strength, a -2 penalty to Dexterity, a +4 bonus to Constitution, and a +2 bonus to natural armor. The naga takes a -1 size penalty to AC and a -1 size penalty on all attack rolls. The naga occupies a 10-foot space and has a natural reach of 10 feet. Large naga have lifting and carrying limits equal to twice those of a Medium character; they suffer a -4 size penalty on Hide checks but gain a +4 bonus on grapple checks.
* Automatic Languages:|/I] Common and Nazja.
* [I]Bonus Languages: Darnassian, Draconic, and Eredun.
* Favored Class: Fighter (male); sorcerer or wizard (female). Neither a multiclass male naga's fighter class nor a multiclass female naga's sorcerer or wizard class counts when determining whether he or she suffers an XP penalty (see Player's Handbook, Chapter 3: Classes, "Multiclass Characters," XP for Multiclass Characters. For naga women, the choice of sorcerer or wizard as a character's favored class must be selected as soon as she acquires a level in either the sorcerer or wizard class, and it cannot be changed thereafter.
* Level Adjustment: +1 (or +2 for a naga with a greater mutation). Due to their mutations and aquatic nature, naga are generally more powerful yet gain character levels more slowly than most of the other races common to Azeroth. See Starting Characters and Level Adjustment, above, for more details.