Maskhi

In their natural shape maskhi are lean, wiry humanoids of human size with long but strikingly human faces, often with wide blue or green eyes. All have sun-bleached blond hair worn in manes or braids, and their tanned skin is covered in a pale, peachlike fuzz. Each hand and foot has six talon-tipped digits. Tough hide and quick reflexes make them AC 5.

Each maskhi has three other shapes. Its animal form, chosen to suit its personality and often a little bird or mammal, keeps AC 5 and gains that creature's movement. Its tree form is one kind of small tropical tree, 8 to 12 feet tall, native to the tribe's land. Its stone form, about the size of a man, is one type of rock such as basalt, obsidian, quartz or marble, shaped as a boulder, standing stone or part of an outcrop. As tree or stone it is AC 0 and immobile.

They speak only their own tongue, though a member of a tribe that has raided or traded with outsiders has a 10% chance of knowing Common.

As humanoids they fight with spears, short bows and jambiyas, using their claws if disarmed. Half the tribes rely on bone blades and arrowheads, which deal 1 less damage and break on a 2 in 6 whenever the wielder rolls a natural 1 to hit.

Their favorite ambush is to wait at an oasis as a tree or stone and fall on anyone who stops to drink. They change so fast that foes suffer a +4 penalty on surprise. If no one saw the transformation, a disguised maskhi fools even brilliant enemies by smell and touch, and magic that affects plants or stone, such as charm plant, a potion of plant control, transmute rock to mud or passwall, has no effect on one. When hiding is impossible, they take animal form and flee.

Tribes larger than 20 have two leaders with 33 hit points apiece: a female lore mistress who wields the powers of a desert soothsayer priest of 5th to 8th level, and a male witch doctor who casts as a sorcerer of 6th to 9th level, typically specializing in sand and wind.

Maskhi fear the 'civilized' city folk of the desert lands and live far from them in hide shelters stretched over light wooden frames. A tribe is a loose band of up to 40, with equal standing for both sexes but no lasting bonds; parents stay together only until a child can change shape.

Maskhi revere the land and hunt only from need. Most bands are peaceable, yet any outsider who threatens or crowds their territory meets stubborn resistance.