Endless Blue - Week 14

Biology

Amoeboids – Microscopic Life at the Macroscopic Level

Evolution took an interesting track with the Amoeboids.  Instead of becoming more complex, specializing function, and forming organs, these cell-based life forms simply grew in scale.  Amoeboids are little different from the floating amoebae that creatures on the lowest rungs of the food ladder feast upon, except on a more massive scale.

Personality: All Amoeboids begin exactly the same as the one before them at the moment of mitosis.  It is the trials and tribulations that the Amoeboid experiences from that point in time onward that will shape their personality.
Physical Description: Essentially a single cell organism magnified to the same size as a small Piscean, Amoeboids are a coherent glob of protoplasm holding its internal structures aloft inside a thin membrane.  Their bodies are transluscent, with shades of light and darkness tracing out the internal workings of their biology.  A darker patch, the nucleus, hovers towards what would be the creature's head, and in many ways operates as the organism's brain.
Relations: First glace Amoeboids would seem to be just like the Lumulans -- distant and uncaring.  However nothing could be further from the truth.  They are immensely loyal to those they have a familiar bond, and are always willing to put themselves on the line to serve the greater cause.
Alignment: At their most primitive state, Amoeboids are typically true neutral,  But as the learning process of life begins to shape their personality, they can take on any alignment in the moral and ethical spectrum.  Having other creatures around them, going about their everyday activities, has a profound effect on the formation of Amoebiod scruples.
Homeseas: Much like the plentiful phytoplankton that drifts lanquidly throughout the seas of Elqua, Amoeboids do not call any one place home.  The ultimate expression of the zen concept of "living in the now", the creatures allow the fates to guide their path, carrying them across the globe on the myriad currents.  They can be found anywhere food is plentiful and predation is rare.
Religion: Amoeboids believe fully in the Source, the single beginning of all life on Elqua.  They worship this origin point as almost a collective Gaia, with each Amoeboid representing another cell in the embryo that is the Source..
Language: Lacking any form of a mouth or vocal cords, Amoeboids communicate through a completely physical means somewhat like sign language..
Names: While Amoeboids do have the concept of self, the expression of it through their epidermal language is impossible for outsiders to pronounce.  So instead, most give an Amoeboid some type of cutesy nickname, usually linked to their gelatinous consistency.
Nick Names: Gleep, Gloop, Inque, Knid, Odo, Protty
Formal Names: Blancmange, Dralasite, Plasmoid, Vernicious
Adventurers: Amoeboid adventurers are curious things, learning about themselves and the world around them at the very instance they experience it.  They can fill most any adventuring niche with just the right kind of encouragement from a charismatic party member.

Racial Traits

Ability Adjustments: Constitution +4, Charisma 0 (Amoeboids are such a primitive lifeform that they lank any type of interpersonal skill and have a Charisma score of 0).
Automatic Class Skills: Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Tumble
Skill Bonuses: Escape Artist +5, Sleight of Hand +3, Tumble +4.
Bonus Hit Dice: None
Natural Armor: None.
Natural Weapons: The amorphous shape of an Amoeboid means it can sprout a bludgeoning appendage (1d4 subdual) from any angle at any time as a free action..  As such, Amoeboids should be treated as always being armed.
Movement: Medium creature (1 cube tall), base speed 30 cubes.
Senses: Blindsense
Buoyancy: Shelf (adjustable)
Gooey Body (Ex): The physiology of the Amoeboid makes it impervious to grapples, constriction, or being caught in a net.  Always treat an Amoeboid as if it was under the effects of a constant freedom of movement spell..  Further, with no internal organs or endoskeletal system, Amoeboids ignore sneak attack damage and do not risk dying from massive damage (50+ hit points from a single attack).
Favored Class: Amoeboids have no favored class, and instead always suffer an experience point penalty when they choose to multi-class.
Social Flaw: Inhuman
Base Height: 4'4” (+ 4d2 in.)  This is a rough approximation of the space an Amoeboid occupies when it is in the shape of a sphere.  An Ameoboid can make itself as thin as its height modifier at the maximum.
Base Weight: 200 lbs. (+ height mod. x 4d2 lbs.)
Automatic Languages: Amoebic Sign Language
Bonus Languages: None.  Without the ability to speak or the facility to see, Amoeboids cannot take Speak Language to either speak or write.  The best an Amoebiod can produce would be basic shapes and lines written crudely in the silt of the sea bed.
Level Adjustment: None

Amoeboid settlements are non-existent due to the wandering lifestyle the race possess.  They will recognize others of its kind as kin, but will hold no special regard or attachment to them than if they had just met a stranger.

An amoeboid can produce a number of pseudopods equal to the number of itterritive attacks it has gained in its class.  These tentacles have a reach of 5 feet, but an amoeboid can extend that reach by 5 more feet for ever pseudopod it does not create.  For example, an Amoeboid with a BAB of +15 can get three pseudopods with a 5 foot reach, two pseudopods -- one with a 10 foot reach and the other with 5, or one pseudopod with a 15-foot reach.  Creating or absorbing these tentacles is a free action  as part of the Amoeboid's normal movement.

“Having an Amoeboid around is great for cleaning up a campsite,
until it starts to multiply like the red tide...”
The entirety of Amoebic sociology