Common Races & Prestige Classes in the Realms

1. Humans

a) Northerner/Sword Coast - tall build, pale skin, hair of flameor straw, hazel or blue eyes, slow tospeak, frowns cities and are awestruck with magic.
b) Moonsea North - Dark hair, muscular, speaks fast
c) Heartlander - medium to fair, various hair and eye colors, stocky, burly, finefeatured
d) Turmish - dark brown skin, black hair
e) Vilhon Reach / Border Kingdoms - mostly crossbreads of various human races
f) Thay/Calimshan - dusky skin, lots of black body hair, shorn or shaved hair (sometimes golden)
g) Old Empires - dark brown skin, red eyes, pale and gaunt
h) Easting Reach - slender, shorter, more agile humans
i) Rasheme and Narfell - swarthier skins, hard manners and don't take lightly to insults.

2. Dwarves

a) Gold Dwaves - heavy built, golden skin, bald
b) Gray Dwarves (Duergar) - mostly evil, bald, thinner, severe facial expressions, gray hair, gray skins, women do not grow beards
c) Shield Dwarves -categorized into the "Hidden" and the "Wanderers". Survivors of the Underdark Wars, sometimes no beard

3. Elves

a) Drow - favored class: wizard (male), cleric (female)
b) Moon Elves (Silver Elf) - most common, fair to bluish skin, silver or white hair, black, blue or green eyes
c) Sun Elves - bronze skin, golden hair, copper, green or gold eyes. Most civilized and haughty of the elves
d) Wild Elves (Green Elf) - dark brown skin, black to light brown hair, tattoed, some have been known to be barbarians
e) Wood Elves (Copper Elf) - copper skin, green or hazel eyes, brown/black hair or blond/copper.
f) Sea Elves - very rare. Blue or green skinned, green or blue hair

4. Gnomes

a) Deep Gnomes - svirfneblin, underdark denizen
b) Rock Gnomes - most common, similar to PHB

5. Half-Elves - nearly identical to PHB. State exact elven bloodline please.

6. Half-Orc - similar to PHB.

7. Halflings

a) Ghostwise - wild, feral halflings
b) Lightfoot - most common, traders, cooks and entertainers
c) Storngheart - orderly, organized warrior and builder race

8. Planetouched

a) Aasimar - good, descended from Celestial outsiders
b) Ganasi - elemental blooded, Air, Earth, Fire and Water subtypes
c) Tiefling - descended from demons or evil outsiders. Some are good.

PRESTIGE CLASSES

Listed below are the Prestige Classes (PrC) found in the Forgotten Realms hardbound Campaign Setting book. They are, by no means comprehensive and complete.

1. ARCANE DEVOTEE : Wizards or sorcerers who are fervent followers of a deity. Their spells and power complement the clerics and the church. They are able to develop powers to defend against enemy divine magic and focus on "alignment spells" offered by the diety.

Common Classes (CC): Wizard, Sorcerer

2. ARCHMAGE: most advanced practitioners of magic. Supreme masters of the Art, they are both feared and respected. They gain various powers and abilities to alter spells in remarkable ways, but must sacrifice some spell casting capability to master these arcane secrets.

CC: Wizard only

3. DIVINE CHAMPION: Mighty warriors dedicated to their diety's cause, defending holy sites, destroying enemies of the church. They are church-sponsored warriors and fill the niche between Fighter and Paladin due to some Pantheons are not always LG. Those who wish to play paladins but scoff at the thought of lawful good, this is the next best thing!

CC: Fighters, barbarian, Rangers

4. DIVINE DISCIPLE: Mostly clerics and druids who serve as intermediaries between diety's mortal and divine servants. Eventually they transcend into a divine creature and are greatly favored by their chosen diety.

CC: Clerics, Druids

5. DIVINE SEEKER: "Black Ops" section of the church. These people do 'unsanctioned' activities of the church such as eliminating rival religious leaders, spying on enemies and hunting and destroying suspected "heathens".

CC: Rouge, Monks, Ranger

6. GUILD THIEF: as name implies, urban rogues part of an organized thieves guild. Acquiring bonus feats and specializing in various guild operations such as spying, fencing, robberies, smuggling, conning, collecting bounties, etc.

CC: Rogue

7. HARPER SCOUT: members of the Harpers, a secret society dedicated to holding back evil, preserving knowledge and maintaining the balance between civilization and the wild. They gain "Harper Knowledge" (similar to bardic knowledge) and choose a favored enemy from organizations that oppose Harper ideals such as: the Church of Bane, Zhentarim, Red Wizards of Thay, etc. They are also able to specialize or focus on a harper scout class skill and have mostly defensive and saving throw bonuses.

CC: Bard, Rogue, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard

8. HATHRAN: The "Learned Sisterhood" or good-aligned elite sisterhood of spellcasters belonging to the Witches of Rashemen. Powerful Cleric-Wizards who heal, raise dead, spread the faith and often adventure to recruit champions for the outer planes. They can call upon their ties with their native land of Rashemen to cast spells without preparing them are some of their other more powerful abilities.

CC: Clerics/Wizards (usually multiclassed)

9. HIEROPHANT: High level divine spellcasters who gain access to spells and abilities of which lesser faithful can only dream of. Some powers include "Blast Infidel", for example, which causes all damage dealing spells to be "Maximized"!

CC: Cleric or Druid
10. PURPLE DRAGON KNIGHT: The Purple Dragons of Cormyr are renkowned. They are nonevil, nonchaotic, skilled and loyal soldiers. They develop skills related to coordinating and leading soldiers.

CC: Fighters, Rangers, Paladins

11. RED WIZARD: the supreme masters of Thay and the conquerors of Rashemi. Cruel and evil tyrants with mastery of magic within a very narrow focus. They are also practitioners and are adept at the dreaded art of Tatoo Magic.

CC: Wizard, nongood

12. RUNECASTER: a skill originally developed by the dwarves and giants, a runecaster has the ability to create Runes of Power with potent and reusable magical energies. Most runes guard a site or portal.

CC: dwarven clerics, rangers, paladins, druids

13. SHADOW ADEPT: arcane spellcasters akin to the Shadowdancer PrC (PHB). They practice and strive for mastery of the Shadow Weave. Bending and controlling Shadow Magic to their whims.

CC: Wizards, sorcerers, nongood.

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