Lakshu are tall, beautiful, well-muscled, green-haired amazons. These armored harridans have laid waste to a thousand worlds, at the command of their reigar. Lakshu have a fondness for tattoos, body paint, and ornate raiment (when not in battle dress). Their physical appearance is virtually identical; the only identifying marks are their tattoos, and their individual tastes in off-duty clothing. The principle form of identification comes from their individual shaktis (see entry on Reigar for complete shakti information). Consequently, each lakshu is known by her totem animal (e.g., Phoenix, Manta, etc.).
Combat: Lakshu are deadly in combat, exhibiting extreme proficiency in their weapon of choice. They are equally skilled in armed and unarmed combat, having been adapted by the reigar expressly as bodyguards/shock troops and shakti repair experts.
Barbarian Rage: When the lakshu needs to, she can fly into a screaming blood frenzy. In a rage, the lakshu gains phenomenal strength and durability, but becomes a reckless and less able to defend herself. She temporarily gains +4 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, and +2 morale bonus on Will saves, but suffers a –2 penalty to AC. See the Barbarian class (page 25 of the Player's Handbook) for complete details concerning barbarian rage.
Of special note – if the Dual Strike optional feat is used, the lakshu can still gains the benefits from that feat regardless of her raging or not; lakshu have trained since birth to work in tandem with each other and such coordination is second nature to them.
Helots: In battle, each lakshu can call and command up to three helots (see individual
Helot entry for details). These helots are used by the reigar in coordination with the lakshu as organized fighting units, in addition to serving as crewmembers on the reigar esthetics.
Shakti (Sp): Each lakshu uses a fully functional shakti magic item given to her from her master, and it is only usable by her. Each shakti is as different and unique as its owner. The shakti can be commanded to become a set of full plate armor and corresponding weapon (+10 armor bonus [not including any enchantment bonus her reigar has imbued into her item]/+8 max. Dex bonus/30 ft. base move/-20% chance for arcane spell failure/-0 armor check/always considered as “light” armor/10 pounds weight; weapon as per individual lakshu's taste but always with an additional magical effect occurring with each successful strike.) See
Shakti magical item description for more information on specific types and suggested powers
Skills: A lakshu receives a +2 racial bonus on Craft and Profession (Tattooist) skill checks.
#Dual Strike is a feat described in the optional rulebook for fighters and monks, Sword & Fist. If this optional feat is unavailable, please substitute “Dodge” [and recalculate the lakshu's Armor Class as appropriate for the use of that feat], or any single “Exotic Weapon Proficiency”, instead [if the Exotic WP is chosen, then the lakshu's Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization is with that weapon].
In the Spheres It is not known how the lakshu came into service of the reigar as thier elite troops. The reigar liked the lakshu's war-like temperament, and are creating a uniform appearance for their race, in keeping with the reigar ideal of a single work of art. In this case, that meant re-creating the appearance of the lakshu as a whole, to gain the currently uniform height, weight, body mass, etc.
The lakshu society, such as it is, is military in structure. Whenever two or more lakshu are present in one place, one must be superior to the others. A strict hierarchy is maintained, so that each lakshu knows her place and does not aspire to elevate herself. Before they came under the sway of the reigar they use to lay waste at will to any world they encountered. Now they lay waste when told to by their masters.
Lakshu reproduce via parthenogenesis. At specific times they give birth to a young lakshu, who is raised in a crèche with the other offspring.
Lakshu characters
A lakshu's favored class is fighter. Lakshu leaders are simply the highest-level fighters in any given division. Lakshu clerics are almost unheard of, but one would gravitate toward a power devoted to war or strength.
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d20™ System, Conversion of Lakshu ©2002,
Ron Pollard
Image by
Ron Pollard
Original Source: Monstrous Compendium #7
A very special thanks goes to
Tristan Entropy for giving me permission to use this photo of women modeling some of his armor he makes to be used for the lakshu warrior! Just follow the link or double click on the lakshu pic to make your way to his web site. Tristan also has given me permission to use other photos from his site, kewl!
Notes on this Conversion: This conversion is what an average lakshu warrior would be, who was in the employ of a reigar. The leader of a division would most likely have a high-end feat - such as Great Cleave or Whirlwind Attack - as well as the necessary levels to back it up. Lakshu have been under their master's rule for so long that these class choices (Barbarian and Fighter) are mandatory classes for them to learn, provided that the lakshu is raised in such an environment (“Where else would she be raised?” you ask? That's up to the GM!) If raised apart from the reigar's “loving attentions”, lakshu could learn any class but would still be war-like and confrontational anyway.
Land-bound lakshu (i.e. lakshu who, for generations, have been separated from a reigar's genetic/magical manipulation) could/should follow closely the Lakshu, Land bound article written by Mark T. Doolan and myself (also posted on Troy Gomm's
Return to the Void). I chose not to duplicate the information in that article since it would just eat up web space to duplicate the information.
I gave them a CR equal to their hit dice since they are nearly as versatile as a standard PC, with the major exception being that they are well equipped for their level by their reigar master. Fortunately for GMs, lakshu treasure usually consists of odd trinkets and personal effects and not much combat-related material; reigar masters don't want their elite troops being ravaged over for their mysterious shakti devices let alone having their own weaponry used against them at a later date. The other reason why I chose to keep it at CR 5 versus CR 6 was that they are predictable - a party can overcome them by playing upon their weak Will saves {similar to orcs} and not allowing themselves to be flanked.)
I see lakshu magic resistance being dependant upon the proximity of the lakshu to her master/reigar's “glory” aura; if said lakshu was to be removed from her master's influence for a long period of time (let alone generations) then the SR would disappear.
