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Small Humanoid
Hit Dice: 1d8+3 (7hp)
Initiative: +1 (Dex)
Speed: 20 ft.
AC: 14 (+1 Size, +1 Dex, +1 Shield)
Attacks: Short sword +0 melee; or dagger +2 ranged; or net +2 ranged
Damage: Short sword 1d6-1; dagger 1d4-1; net entangle
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft., speak with animals
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +0
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 13, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Hide +6, Move Silently +4, Spot +2
Feats: Toughness
Climate/Terrain: Any forest and underground
Organization: Gang (4-9), band (10-100, plus 1 leader of 4th to 6th level and 1 3rd-level net-using sergeant per 20 adults), or tribe (40-400, plus 1 leaer of 6th to 8th level, 1-2 lieutenants of 4th - 5th level, 1-4 clerics of 1st to 5th level, 13rd-level net-using sergeant per 20 adults, and 3-30 giant rat guards)
Challenge Rating: 1/4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually Chaotic Evil
Advancement Range: By character class
Xvarts are small humanoids living primarily in the Bandit Kingdoms, former lands of the Horned Society, the Bone March, the Pomarj, near Verbobonc, and the Vesve. Although xvarts have a primitive society compared to humans, it seves them well and allows them to support large tribes on limited resources. As a whole they are not a threat to civilization, as they fear humans and prefer to occasionally take out their aggression on kobolds. Goblins often use xvarts as spies for warbands, and xvarts often act as mediaries between goblins and kobolds.
Xvarts have bright blue skin and vivid orange eyes. Tolerant of most weather extremes, they dress in little more than loose cloth doublets. Xvarts of both sexes are mostly bald, having only a fringe of wiry black hair on the back and sides of the head that connects with their eyebrows. Their ears are large. Xvarts' claws look impressive but are insufficient for combat, and their teeth are no larger than that of a human chile.
Combat
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Xvarts prefer to ambush and overwhelm their opponents, resorting to superior numbers instead of fairness. Although they fear humans and only attack them if they have a tremendous edge in numbers, xvarts hate halflings and almost always attack them, even if their numbers are equal.
Xvart officers sometimes have better armor (preferring chain shirt to anything more cumbersome). Sergeants are trained in the use of the net, and other officers learn the net or Two-Weapon Fighting with a dagger or another short sword. Hunting parties use scouts to drive prey toward a readied net, and ambushes usually involve at tleast one net and enough xvarts to pile upon every person in a group.
Speak with Animals (Sp): Once per day a xvart can speak with animals as a 1st-level druid to communicate with rats or bats, including dire varieties.
Skills: Xvarts gain a +2 racial bonus to Move Silently checks and a +4 size bonus to Hide checks.
Xvart Characters
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A xvarts favorite multiclass is fighter; xvart leaders tend to be fighters or fighter/clerics. Xvart clerics can choose two of the following domains: Animal, Evil, and Trickery. Xvart clerics prefer spells that summon rats and bats or creatre fire.
Xvart Society
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Xvarts are tribal. Their leaders are generally the strongest and most clever creatures in the tribe. They live in a communal existence, with hunting parties leaving the lair daily to bring back food for the entire tribe. If hunting is poor, they sometimes resort to stealing livestock or crops from farms. They war with enemy humanoids for territory but never with their own kind, preferring to move or eliminate a common foe when the population grows too high. Xvarts rarely raid unless a powerful leader has driven them to a cause, such as avenging many deaths by adventurers or the encroachment of humans. When they take prisoners, it is only for torture and ransom, as the xvarts have little need for laborers.
These creatures live in caves underground or in deep and remote portions or forests. Their camps are well-patrolled by xvarts, bats, and rats, and kept reasonably clean, particularly when compared to goblins. Often a tribe is allied with one or more wererats, with the tribe providing shelter in emergencies and the wererats ferrying ransom notes. Xvarts with lycanthropy are greatly respected by their peers. Other tribes form close alliances with goblins, although these pairings never involve worg mounts, as the canines tend to eat the rat guardians.
Xvarts worship the god Raxivort, who teaches that xvarts will eventually come to dominate and rule all of the small creatures of the world, aided by rat and bat allies and using the tools of fire and the sword as their means to this goal.
Xvarts are the inheritors of the world. They and their rat, wererat, and bat allies will destroy their enemies, particularly the goblins and kobolds. With cunning, numbers, and small allies, the xvarts will overwhelm all opposition/ Like Raxivort himself, fire and knives are the tools of the xvarts against their hated foes. Those that can take the shape of rat or bat are doubly blessed.
Most clerics of Raxivort are xvarts, although some rat and bat creatures worship him as well. The less militaristic clerics search out old ruins to find stores of magic and weapons that can be brought back for their tribe. His clerics are more open-minded about and leass fearful of humans thatn other xvarts, and take the role of negotiator or diplomat when humans are encountered.
Domains: Animal, Evil, Trickery; Weapons falchion (m), dagger.