Shardborn Culture and Society + Stat Redux

Heres an update to the Shardborn race thats less broken and abusable! I loved the old racial traits, but they just opened up too many opportunities for powergaming. Hopefully this is more toned down.

Shardborn are mysterious creatures with strange bodies and seemingly cold, emotionless minds. The body of a shardborn consists of a floating torso of semi-transparent flesh with a circular hole in their chest where a faintly glowing crystal hovers, a floating head with vaguely human features and disconnected arms and legs that float at the shoulders and hips seemingly unattached to the main body. The flesh of a shardborn is almost see-through, but cloudy, looking almost like glass containers filled with pale mist. Shardborne have pale, muted skin color ranging from green to purple and pink, and the floating crystal in their chest cavity matches this color in a brighter hue. Their faces look rough and almost unfinished, as if an artisan started carving a crystal but stopped midway once the face had basic features. They have no hair of any kind on their bodies and are genderless and androgynous.

Shardborn feed by absorbing the ambient energy of the Worldmind that emanates from the natural crystal formations that are common all over Kerebra. This energy is absorbed by their body and drawn into their chest crystal, which is both the repository for the energy that sustains them and the receptacle which hold their minds and souls. All shardborn can manipulate this energy by concentrating and physically touching their crystals, a process which can subtly alter the flow of energy through their bodies to augment their physical form.

Many humans believe shardborne are immortal, static creatures; they are wrong, but not by much. Shardborn do in fact age, though at a significantly slower rate than humans, and new shardborn are created as the old ones die. But shardborn minds are eternal and undying. When a shardborn dies, either of old age or by accident or violence, their flesh dries up and crumbles to dust and all that remains are their central crystals. These crystals contain the essence of the shardborn, and a new shardborn will form around this crystal if it is properly cared for. Individuals who care for these crystals do not have the same role as human parents, and though their relationship to the newly formed shardborn shares some similiarity with human families there are significant differences. These caregivers relationships to the newborn is more akin to teachers and mentors, and while there is usually mutual trust and friendship these mentors will often only remain loose aquaintances once the new shardborn has been guided through their initial confusion and have mastered the ways of their people.
A newly born shardborn forms an adult body around their crystal core. The "newborn" shares the personality of their previous incarnation, but only inherit some of the memories of their predeccessor; the new shardborn considers their previous incarnation as their parent, and treat these legacy memories as the lessons their parent has taught them through their former life.

Fresh shardborn may remember friends from their previous life, and since their personality closely matches their parents many humans are completely unaware that their former friend has passed away and believe they have simply changed or perhaps suffer from some form of amnesia. Some shardborn try to explain the situation, but many simply don't bother.

The shardborn are the enigmatic messengers and defenders of Kerebra. For as long as there have been humans in this world, there have been shardborn to shepherd them and keep them safe from harm.

They kept mostly to themselves in those days, only rarely emerging from the forests to give aid and offer advice from the Worldmind to people in need. There were no dangers then, and Kerebra was a safe haven for all her children, so at most the shardborn emissaries would offer healing to victims of unfortunate accidents, or help rebuild a farm struck by fire or particularly bad weather. 

As the Rot grows greater, the shardborn change. They feel the pain of Kerebra reverberating through the Worldmind, and are driven to act. For the first time, the shardborn take up arms and embrace their role as defenders of Kerebra and her people.

Shardborn culture is based on reverence for the world itself. They are the only people who worship Kerebra as a god, a fact that most humans find strange and often a little disturbing. Kerebra never answers their prayers, or indeed speak to them at all, but they are firm in their faith that She is indeed alive and loves all Her children equally. This religion has never gained popularity outside the shardborn race, mostly because it is incompatible with the Pisteic faith. Some among the Enkéfali feel drawn to the shardborn faith, but they are few and such views are not encouraged by the rest of the Enkéfali church.

In the past, the shardborn built great temples of psionically charged crystal harvested from the deep woods to honor Kerebra and practice their faith, but the Rots spreading corruption has driven them out of their former homes and into human lands and such ancient temples now stand in shadow, dark and corrupted. Many shardborn have sworn to reclaim their homes and temples from the Rot, but those that venture into the woods rarely return. Nevertheless this quest drives many shardborn, who often approach the Purple Knights or the Executores Justitia seeking membership in an effort to gain allies who share similiar goals.

With the loss of their woodland homes, the shardborn have been forced into human lands. A century ago they were an uncommon sight, but now their numbers have grown significantly and encounters between humans and shardborn have grown increasingly commonplace. They often prefer keeping to their own kind, as they have always done, and a number of shardborn communities have sprung up in between human villages and towns. As shardborn interact with humans, dreamlings and even voor, many of them come to respect and even admire the other races of Kerebra in a way they never had a chance to when they simply acted as emmisaries and protectors. For the first time, shardborn are involving themselves directly in the lives of the other races, and are becoming a part of the shared culture of Kerebra where they once were outsiders looking in. Many find added motivation in this evolving bond to continue their mission as Kerebras protectors even in the face of the spreading darkness.

To a human or dreamling, shardborn seem emotionless and aloof, sometimes even arrogant. They seem to have no strong feelings about anyone or anything, and this can give the impression that shardborn are disconnected from the world or that they simply do not care about anything or anyone. Nothing could be further from the truth. Shardborn care deeply about Kerebra and every one of it's inhabitants, and they are capable of strong, intense emotion. They feel not only their own emotions, but pick up background emotion from the Worldmind as well every time they feed. In a way, their emotions encompass not only their own feelings, but the emotional state of every living thing in Kerebra. This can be incredibly intense, which is why many shardborn learn to compartmentalize their feelings and suppress these invading emotions. But this also means that the shardborn are deeply tied to humanity and the other beings of Kerebra, which is a strong motivational force for many of them. They are the guardians of Kerebra and her people after all, self-appointed protectors by mandate of their faith in Kerebra as a divine being.

Racial Traits:

+2 Constitution, -2 Charisma: Shardborn half-crystal bodies are tough and durable, but their emotionless demeanor make them seem cold and aloof.

Outsider (Augmented Humanoid, Native): Humanoids with the Outsider (Augmented Humanoid, Native) subtype

Medium sized

Normal Speed

Darkvision: 60ft.

Birthed By Dreams: Shardborn gain a +1 natural armor bonus to their AC. When they activate their Mutable racial ability, the shardborn may choose to lose this bonus in exchange for a +1 racial bonus to either Fortitude, Reflex or Will saves. The next time the shardborn uses it's Mutable racial ability, they may choose to add this bonus to either a different save or gain a natural armor bonus of +1 again.

Dreamskilled: The shardborn gains a +2 racial bonus to any two skills of their choice. When activating their Mutable racial trait, the shardborn may select two different skills for these bonuses to apply to, losing the old ones in the process.

Inhuman Form: Though humanoid, shardborn are clearly not human and their bodies don't conform to human standards. Shardborn must have armor and items of clothing specially made or fitted to their alien bodies, and they must pay 50% extra for these items and adjustments.

Mutable: A shardborne may take 10 minutes to reshape the flow of ambient psionic energy that flows through their bodies. Doing so grants the shardborn a +2 bonus to any one physical ability score (Strength, Dexterity or Constitution). The shardborn may do this a number of times per day equal to half their Hit Dice, losing the bonus to the previous attribute in exchange for the new one.
Alternately, as a full-round action, the shardborn may spend 1 power point and two uses of this ability to grant themselves a single +4 bonus to any one physical ability score. This effect lasts until the beginning of the shardborns next turn, after which the shardborne loses any bonus granted by this ability and instead gains a -2 penalty to the affected Ability Score for a number of turns equal to twice the duration of this ability.
The shardborn may augment this ability. For every additional power point spent, this effect lasts for one additional round.

Naturally Psionic: Shardborn gain the Wild Talent feat as a bonus feat at 1st level. If a shardborn takes levels in a psionic class, they instead gain the Psionic Talent feat.

Psionic Aptitude: When a shardborn takes a level in a favored class, they can choose to gain an additional power point instead of a hit point or skill point.

Shaped of Crystal: As half-crystal beings, shardborn are vulnerable to sonic attacks. Shardborn have -2 on any Fort save made to resist sonic spells, powers and effects, and take 50% more sonic damage.

Sustained by the Land: Shardborn do not need to eat or drink and are immune to penalties and effects related to hunger or thirst. All shardborn must spend at least one full hour per week in physical contact with one of Kerebras natural crystals to gain sustenance. Going more than seven days without absorbing energy in this way causes the shardborn to gain one negative level per day spent in starvation like this. Touching a natural crystal immediately removes these negative levels. A shardborn who gains more negative levels than their HD is killed.

Languages: Shardborn begin play speaking common. A shardborn with high Intelligence may choose a number of different languages from the ones available in Kerebra.