New Rules
The following section details alternate racial traits, feats, gear, and magic items favored by ratfolk.
Alternate Racial Traits
The following racial traits may be selected instead of existing ratfolk racial traits.
Cheek Pouches
Some ratfolk have developed stretchy cheek pouches that they can use to hold and carry small loads up to 1 cubic foot in volume and 10 pounds in weight, such as light weapons, potions, scrolls, and similar objects. Such a ratfolk can transfer a held object to his cheek pouches or extract an object from his cheek pouches as a swift action. As a move action that provokes an attack of opportunity, the ratfolk can instead massage all of the items held in the cheek pouches onto the ground in the square it occupies. As long as the ratfolk has at least one object in its cheek pouches, its speech is difficult to understand, and it has a 20% spell failure chance when casting spells with verbal components. This racial trait replaces swarming.
Cleanliness
Ratfolk strive to keep themselves and each other immaculately clean, to make it difficult for disease to spread. A ratfolk with this racial trait gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against disease, and whenever she exceeds the save DC to recover from a disease effect by 5 or more, she is treated as though she had succeeded at two consecutive saving throws. This racial trait replaces rodent empathy.
Lab Rat
For every ingenious ratfolk inventor, there is another who must inevitably test the invention. Those who survive enough experiments sometimes develop strange metabolic quirks that grant them heightened resilience and, on occasion, fortunate side effects when consuming alchemical or magical draughts. As a result, they gain a +1 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, alchemical weapons, and harmful effects from drinking potions or elixirs. In addition, once per day such a ratfolk can either increase the caster level of a potion he consumes by 1 or double the duration of an alchemical remedy he consumes or applies to himself (to a maximum of 4 hours). This racial trait replaces tinker.
Surface Sprinter
Some ratfolk spend as much time as they can aboveground and become very fast runners. This comes at the cost of their night vision, which becomes less acute after years of sunlight. These ratfolk gain low-light vision and have a base speed of 30 feet. This racial trait replaces darkvision and slow speed.
Ratfolk Feats
Ratfolk have access to the following feats.
Gnawer
Thanks to your teeth's strength and quick growth, you are able to chew through nearly any obstacle given sufficient time.
Prerequisites
Sharptooth*, ratfolk.
Benefit
Damage dealt by your bite attack ignores an amount of hardness equal to 3 plus half your character level. You can spend a full-round action to deal double your bite damage to an unattended, inanimate object.
Special
If you have the Burrowing Teeth feat, you can burrow through solid stone at a speed of 5 feet per 10 minutes.
Pack Rat
You collect all sorts of things, and frequently lose and refind things you acquired.
Prerequisite
Benefit
Once per day, when confronted with a situation that calls for a particular mundane item, you happen to have such an item on your person. The item must cost no more than 25 gp plus 5 gp per level, and you must pay its cost when you "find" it (in other words, the money you thought you had on your person was actually the item). The item must be something you can easily carry—for example, if you are on foot and have only a backpack, you could not have a large iron cauldron. You can't find magical items using this feat, nor can you have specific items, such as the key to a particular door. If you are stripped of your equipment or possessions, you lose the benefits of this feat until you have at least a day to resupply and acquire new items.
Shared Stash
You are adept at borrowing from your allies even in the middle of combat.
Prerequisites
Quick Draw, base attack bonus +1, Sleight of Hand 1 rank, swarming racial trait.
Benefit
While you are in the same square as a willing ally who also has this feat, you can draw a weapon from that creature as a free action or draw a hidden weapon or any other object as a move action. You can also take a held object from a willing ally in the same square as you as a free action. Drawing or taking an object (but not a weapon) in this way provokes an attack of opportunity.
Sharptooth
Your teeth are especially sharp and sturdy.
Prerequisite
Benefit
You gain a bite attack. This is a primary natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage.
Ratfolk Equipment
Ratfolk have access to the following equipment.
Aura:CLl:
Price: 75 gp
Weight: 1/2 lb.
When applied to the nose as a standard action, this alchemical paste traps airborne particles and sharpens your olfactory receptors, heightening your sense of smell. You gain the scent ability, except you can detect creatures and odors at only half the distance. If you already have the scent ability, rhinarium paste increases the range at which you can detect creatures by 50%. Rhinarium paste's effects lasts for 1 hour. Crafting this item requires a successful DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check.
Aura:CLl:
Price:
Weight:
Horses, ponies, and other draft animals are ill-suited to living underground for long stretches, so the ratfolk bred a particularly strong type of dire rat to assist in pulling their wagons and serving as mounts for caravan scouts. As rodents, riding rats respond favorably to ratfolk's commands, and the animals' hardiness and omnivorous diet make them very easy to care for even on long journeys through inhospitable terrain. Use the statistics for a dire rat with the giant simple template. A ratfolk with the animal companion, mount, or similar class feature can select a riding rat as her mount.
Riding Rat Companions
Starting Statistics :
Size Medium
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
AC +1 natural armor
Attack bite (1d6)
Ability Scores Str 14, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 4
Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
4th-Level Advancement :
AC +2 natural armor
Ability Scores Str +2, Dex +2
Ratfolk item crafters often make magic weapons with the following weapon special abilities.
Aura: strong evocationCLl: 12th
Price: +1 bonus
Weight: &mdash
This ability can be placed only on a corrosive or corrosive burst weapon. When the wielder of a catalytic weapon hits a creature, the weapon triggers a devastating chemical reaction that burns the struck creature. The creature struck must succeed at a DC 15 Fortitude save, or take 1d6 points of acid damage at the start of its turn for 1d4 rounds. Successive hits with the catalytic weapon increase the duration but don't add to the damage. The creature can attempt to neutralize the reaction as a full-round action as if it were on fire (including bonuses for dropping and rolling on the ground or jumping into water). Anyone who hits a creature subject to this chemical reaction with a natural weapon or unarmed strike takes 1d6 points of acid damage.
Aura: faint necromancyCLl: 5th
Price: +1 bonus
Weight: &mdash
A virulent weapon magically intensifies any poison it delivers. The saving throw DC of any poison applied to either a virulent weapon or any ammunition fired from it increases by a number equal to the weapon's enhancement bonus. The duration of the poison increases by a number of rounds equal to the virulent weapon's enhancement bonus.