Hybsil

A hybsil is a small antelope centaur: the lower body of a delicate deer-like antelope joined to the upper body of a pixie, sprite or brownie. Coats range from chestnut to charcoal gray, sometimes with small spots, white or tan stripes, dark legs or white tails. Males grow antlers and shed them each season. Their pointed, elegant ears end in little tufts. Hybsils are wary of other races and prefer their own company.

Hybsils fight with short swords, daggers and short bows, coating them with a rare plant extract. Anyone wounded must save vs. poison at -4 or fall asleep for 1d4 hours. Their bows have standard short bow range, and the arrows deal 1d6 like flight arrows in addition to the sleep venom.

Fey blood gives them a handful of magical tricks, each usable once per day: ventriloquism, pass without trace, continual light and mirror image. That heritage, plus very high Constitution, grants +4 on all saving throws and complete immunity to poison.

In any forest their chance to move silently or hide in shadows is 75%, and they find and remove snares or traps at 50%. For one turn each day it can sprint at movement 21.

Hybsils live in close tribes of 20 to 80. When a tribe tops 50, young males may split off to found their own. They are seminomadic, wandering broad forests and plains for food or to stay away from other intelligent races, so most tribes keep to big woods near open grassland in the central lands.

Males hunt, gather and defend the tribe. Females raise and teach the young, keep the lore, traditions and oral history of the tribe's range, and nurse the sick and wounded; they can fight like the males but rarely do, and they seldom leave camp except to retrieve a stray youngster or pursue a special quest. A 4th- to 7th-level leader heads every tribe: 60% are druids, the rest mages. For every 30 members, 1d4 guards of 3 HD protect the tribe, and once a tribe reaches 50, it also boasts a 5 HD champion with every skill of a 7th-level ranger.

Hybsils eat roots, berries, fruit and small game. They live about 50 years, and spellcasters may pass 70. Their antlers are thought to hold magic and have sold for up to 100 gp to sages, wizards and potion-makers. Because the antlers drop every year, no hybsil need be hurt to obtain them, but getting permission to gather them on hybsil land, or persuading a male to part with his, is rarely easy.