Abilen

Sketch of a typical abilen, wearing light armour and carrying a shortbow and short sword

Gentle, civilised catfolk descended from savage beasts

Abilen Heritage Traits

Average Height: 137-167cm (4’6”-5’6”)
Average Weight: 27-45kg (60-100 lb.)
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +2 Intelligence or Dexterity

Size: Small
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low-light vision

Languages: Common and Abil, plus any one
Skill Bonuses: +2 Diplomacy, +2 Insight

Feline Grace: You have a +1 racial bonus to Reflex and Will.

Cultural Savant: At first level, you gain training in one additional skill of your choice.

Through the Crowd: You have the through the crowd heritage power.

Through the CrowdAbilen Heritage Power
You utilise your small frame to slip into the perfect position, right under your enemies’ noses.
Encounter
Free Action Personal
Effect: Until the end of your turn, you do not provoke opportunity attacks for moving, and you can move through enemy squares.

Known the world over for their hospitality and smooth social skills, the catlike abilen are a fixture of civilised cities. Secluded in Ashar during the War of Empires, they adapted quickly to peace in Alm, ingratiating themselves to friendly nations with a fortuitously-timed trade offer or favourable business deal. Abilen became a necessary part of the new era so smoothly it was barely noticed.

Like the nation of Independence, the abilen’s approach to the recent wars was to take great pains to work themselves into the political and mercantile foundations of all of Alm’s important nations, meaning hostility toward them is widely frowned upon.

Play an abilen if you want…

  • to have feline traits and appearance.
  • to get along easily with friends and strangers.
  • to be a nimble, lightly-armoured adventurer.

Physical Qualities

Abilen are small and slight creatures, with delicate builds and fine features. Their height is as a short human—typically a little under five feet—but they are extraordinarily light, weighing as little as a human youth. Their slender bodies lack the physical bulk of their bestial forebears, but in return grant them natural grace and agility.

Although their shape and stance are humanoid, abilen bear many feline features, especially on their face. They have rounded faces with short muzzles, sharp teeth, and small pointed ears which sit toward the top of their heads. Their soft, sleek fur ranges in colour and markings, and they have tails much like domestic cats. They also sport small claws on their fingers and toes, which retract when they are at rest.

Abilen have lifespans similar to humans, but spend much longer in their prime. They show virtually no signs of aging until their twilight years, when their health typically deteriorates very swiftly.

Playing an Abilen

Despite being beast-kin, abilen evolution has followed a very different path to gnolls and equitarn. The typical abilen is spry but delicate, ill-suited to combat or heavy labour, and hardly a brutal predator. Nevertheless, Ashari business dealings can be ruthlessly efficient, even when they are mutually beneficial.

Though they are native to the desert nation of Ashar, there are few civilised places where abilen have not become part of the community. Between Ashar’s diplomatic efforts and the abilen’s non-threatening image, they have a good reputation that puts them at an advantage in many social situations. They are strongly associated with trade in all nations, and often travel with merchant caravans, going wherever they perceive value.

While abilen do not typically seek out danger, many adventuring companies and guilds are financially linked to Ashar, giving them plenty of opportunities to get a taste for adventure. The typical abilen adventurer is optimistic but practical, planning for both the best and worst outcomes. Most prefer low-risk ventures, seeing adventuring as a job rather than a chance to brawl, but there are always those who prefer high risk and high reward.

Abilen are perceived as… Friendly, easygoing, sharp-witted, practical, mercantile, sanguine, creative, adaptable, sensible.

Names: Adina, Ari, Ashei, Eisha, Janya, Laksha, Leyla, Mia, Myan, Ruhan, Samira, Sanura, Shadi, Shameen, Shema, Tasha.

Abilen names are the only modern use for Abil, the native abilen tongue. They are typically short—no more than two syllables—and usually end in vowel sounds.

Examples of Abilen PCs

Abilen Backgrounds

Merchant Prince

“ I believe there is an opportunity here.”

The heir of a wealthy business empire, you have grown up wanting for nothing. Now, however, you find yourself separated from your former life of luxury. Did you strike out to find your own worth, without the aid of your lineage? Or have been sent forth by your family to prove yourself an adequate heir? How badly do you want to return home—and what will allow you to do so?

Associated Skills: Bluff, diplomacy

Associated ritual: Fluid funds (EPG)

Caravan Minstrel

“ You know, this reminds me of a song…”

Growing up as a traveller on the merchant caravans, you have never felt the desire to settle; to you, home is about what you experience, and with whom you share it. You collect performances like souvenirs—an exotic dance from Ashar, an artful symphony from Sorairo, a bold epic from Brandeis—and better yet, you can share them freely without ever giving them away. Are you travelling with your current group in order to add their heroic chronicle to your repertoire? Or have you decided it’s finally time to be part of the story?

Associated Skills: History, religion

Associated ritual: Call of friendship (AP)

Industrial Saboteur

“I protect something which is bigger than all of us.”

Culturally, abilen value community and cooperation—and they see worldwide economic stability as something more valuable than any individual. Threats to the international marketplace are taken as seriously as anything can be, and the agents of this cause are subtle and without recognition. If an arms dealer runs aground after subverting trade sanctions, if a powerful cartel makes a bad deal and loses its monopoly, why should any special interference be assumed? Only a few are ever aware that the market does indeed possess invisible hands.

Associated Skills: Bluff, diplomacy

Associated ritual: Fool’s gold (AP)

Abilen Feats

Circle of Fate

Prerequisite: Abilen, Awakened or Gremblin

Benefit: When you or one of your allies misses all targets with an attack power, the next creature to attack one of those targets gains a +1 bonus to hit with that attack.

Communal Instinct

Prerequisite: Abilen, Equitarn or Gremblin

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and a +2 bonus to damage rolls on attacks granted to you by allies. The damage bonus increases to +4 at Paragon tier and +6 at Epic tier.

Community Spirit

Prerequisite: Abilen, Shaman

Benefit: Whenever you summon or dismiss your spirit companion, one ally adjacent to it gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Double Dealing

Prerequisite: Abilen, Con 13+

Benefit: Whenever an ally’s healing power causes you to gain hit points, you also gain temporary hit points equal to half the amount healed. Whenever an ally’s healing power causes you to gain temporary hp, you heal hit points equal to half the number of temporary hit points.

Eye of the Storm

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus to all defences against burst and blast powers used by your allies, and any damage dealt to you by such powers is reduced by half. At the end of your turn, you may end any effect on you, caused by an ally, that a save can end.

Friendly Face

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: During a skill challenge, failed Diplomacy or Bluff checks you make do not count against the total number of failures.

High Spirits

Prerequisite: Abilen, Shaman

Benefit: Allies adjacent to your spirit companion gain a +5 bonus to saving throws versus fear effects.

Insider Information

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: As long as more than one enemy is adjacent to you, any ally who makes a ranged attack against an enemy adjacent to you gets a bonus to the attack roll equal to your dexterity modifier.

Invisible Hand

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: As long as you have combat advantage against an enemy, your weapon attacks gain a +2 bonus to damage against that enemy. This bonus increases to +4 at Paragon tier and +6 at Epic tier.

Marked Merger

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: If an enemy marked by you is adjacent to another enemy marked by you, it suffers a -3 penalty to attack rolls for attacks that don’t target you, instead of the normal -2 penalty.

Opportunity Cost

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: The first time an opportunity attack is made against you during an encounter, you can make a melee basic attack against the attacking creature as a free action.

Settle the Score

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: Once per round, when you hit an enemy by whom you are marked, you may choose to end that enemy’s mark on you.

Strategic Withdrawal

Prerequisite: Abilen, through the crowd heritage power, at least one encounter attack power

Benefit: At the beginning of your turn, if you have no encounter powers remaining, you regain the use of your through the crowd power.

Trade Futures

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: The first time you become bloodied during an encounter, you regain the use of your Second Wind. The first time each day you drop to 0 hp, you regain one Healing Surge.

Trade Up

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: The first time during an encounter you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you may shift half your speed as a free action, as long as you end your movement closer to another enemy than when you started.

Unexpected Advance

Prerequisite: Abilen, through the crowd heritage power, paragon tier

Benefit: When you use your through the crowd heritage power, you can spend a standard action to use an at-will melee attack power on an enemy whose square you move through. That attack gains combat advantage against the target.

Vested Interest

Prerequisite: Abilen

Benefit: When and enemy suffering ongoing damage caused by you becomes bloodied for the first time during an encounter, you gain a bonus to damage rolls against that enemy equal to your Intelligence modifier. The bonus lasts until the end of the encounter.