Medium-Size Monstrous Humanoid
Hit Dice: 6d8+12
Initiative: +5 (Dex)
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 20 (+5 dex +5 natural)
Attacks: +8/+3 long sword
Damage: 1d8+2 longsword
Face / Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft. / 5 ft.
Special Attacks: Leap
Special Qualities: Evasion, shield, stoneskin
Saves: Fort +4 Ref +10 Will +6
Abilities: Str 15 Dex 20 Con 14 Int 5 Wis 12 Cha 11
Skills: Balance +9, Climb +6, Hide +9, Jump +6, Tumble +9
Feats: Expertise, Improved Trip, Spring Attack (B)
Climate / Terrain: Any warm forest (or cold)
Organisation: solitary or family (2 + 2d6 children)
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: no coins, double items
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: By character class.
Thyrian beastmen look like werebeast versions of great cats frozen in hybrid shape. Usually they are based on tigers, leopards, or snow tigers. Rumours of more powerful beastmen based on sabretooth tigers and panthers persist, who start out with more HD. (Add 3 HD to the statistics above to create them.)
Thyrian beastmen are not the brightest creatures around. Generally their needs and thoughts are simple and revolve around their next meal, some storage for hard times and their families, if they have any. Most beastmen are too simple to bother with morale or anything else than survival and giving their prey enough respect to allow it to reproduce and continue to exist. Thyrian beastmen are usually found hunting or lying lazily in the sun.
Combat
The beastmen are fierce and surprisingly clever fighters. They usually
attack with large leaps and leave quickly, before the opponent has the
chance to strike back. They will usually flee, if the fight turns against
them, unless they are defending their young, where they might fight to
death, if they cannot find a way to escape with their family. The jagged
edges of the swords make them appear more fearsome to some.
Evasion (Ex): Any effect that allows a
reflex save for half damage deals no damage instead and only half damage
on failure. Thyrian beastmen may try a reflex save against any attack
they are aware of (DC is the result of the attack roll) to avoid getting
hit. They cannot be caught flat-footed.
Leap (Ex): Thyrian beastmen may leap up
to a distance of 30 ft. in a standing jump and add 5 ft. to the distance
jumped, instead of 1 ft., as described on page 70 of the Player's
Handbook. They may jump as much as 60 ft in one leap. They may always
take 10 on any jump check, even when under pressure and add a +20 racial
bonus to all jump checks. Thyrian beastmen may jump as a charge action
and may use spring attack during the leap, if they can reach an opponent
while doing so.
Shield (Su): The shields thyrian beastmen
carry are enchanted with spell turning and can return a maximum
of ten spell levels per round.
Stone Skin (Su): Once per day a thyrian
beastman may emit a special roar as a full round action, which makes
their skin tough, as though they were affected by a Stoneskin
spell, which absorbs 150 points of damage before dissipating. The
effect starts at the when the beastman starts roaring.
Skills: When in their natural
environment (jungle for tigers, night for panthers, snow for snow
tigers, etc.), thyrian beastman receive a +10 bonus on their hide checks.
Background
Most thyrian beastmen live in small nomadic family groups, wandering through their territory, but they are not particularly territorial. Occasionally several beastmen families gather in and form larger tribes for mutual protection, particularly in areas where they or their hunting grounds are threatened by more powerful creatures or humanoids.
Legends speak of ancient people, who displeased the animal spirits whom they worshipped and were moved closer to the beasts they had begun to scorn, than they would like. Sages believe, that the beastman evolved in a world without more intelligent predators like humanoids or dragons and spread to other places by accidentally stumbling through magical portals, or being called by summoning spells failing to dissipate.
Beastmen are carnivorous predators, who prey on large herbivores (so that they do not have to hunt as often) and weaker predators, less intelligent than them. They know the secrets of preserving food and spoil very little. Normally their weapons are made of magically reinforced bone.
Beastmen Characters
Thyrian beastmen become barbarians, fighters and rangers. Their favoured class is ranger and most beastmen leaders are rangers. Occasionally one has the "gift" and becomes a sorcerer, who usually learn tracking and combat spells. Beastmen sorcerers- may learn spells from the plant and travel domains as arcane spells. They have a level adjustment of +7. A first level beastman character is the equivalent of a 8th level character.