5e Homebrew Setting: Malebolge, Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy
QuietBrowser
First Post
Why, thank you very much!
I don't suppose I can persuade you to elaborate on what ideas in particular caught your eye? I love to hear what brainstormings I have go on to inspire, excite or entertain people in their wake! To continue with ideas... I've actually been sitting down and thinking about a particular field of monsters in the Malebolge: Drakes. I've stated at certain points in the thread that these are all the results of failed kobold experiments to transform their offspring back into proper dragons. Thing is, I've never given a definitive outline of what Drakes actually exist in this setting, so I thought I might try and put that together for critique.
All of these are taken from my collection of 4e books; I also have Bestiaries 1-5 for Pathfinder, and 5e's MM and Volo's Guide, so if folks are willing to help me further expand this list, I'd love to do so.
- Basilisks: Regarded as abominations by kobolds because not only are they the "typical failure", but they actively seem to enjoy preying on kobolds. Combined with their deadly gaze attacks, kobolds try to kill basilisks whenever they accidentallyp roduce them, but some escape. Fortunately, they have trouble breeding successfully.
- Behemoths: These are the "fantasy dinosaurs", specifically referencing the giant herbivorous monsters. These are the fruit of experiments that got the size right, but reduced the kobolds to docile plant-eating beasts in the process. Kobold tribes love to press these into service as brute muscle.
- Destrachans: A spin-off of the "Drakon" project line, this sonic-blasting pack-hunting bipedal reptile is slightly closer to a dragon, but still a failure due to being an eyeless, predatory beast.
- Drakons: These are the predatory "fantasy dinosaurs", often not resembling any specific dinosaur - look at the 4e Spiretop and Horned Drakes, for example. Failures for the same reasons as the Behemoths.
- Hydra: Technically a success story. Feral, simple-minded, but powerful and dangerous, mostly due to ever-gnawing hunger. Hydras are technically sterile; they can't procreate with more of their own kind, but constantly self-fertilize and lay kobold eggs as they consume more nourishment.
- Wyvern: Although their combination of size, strength, flight and retained intelligence makes them a success story, their fairly simple minds and brutal attitudes, combined with lack of magical power or breath weapons, means the kobolds keep trying to improve.
- Behir: Held up as the greatest success in kobold experiments so far, Behirs are the closest things to "true" dragons to currently roam the Malebolge. Arrogant, cruel and vicious, they usually become brutal tyrants over their distant kin, meaning many kobold adventurers are either fleeing Behirs or seeking the power to slay or control them.
- Elemental Drakes: Technically, their ability to manipulate a chosen element makes them a success. In practice, their animalistic intelligence and voracious appetites make them deadly failures.
Incidentally, I grew tired of waiting for further conversation on revamping the kobold racial gazetteer, so I went ahead and just did it. I removed the "semi-genders" biology split, hopefully tweaked the issue with their pseudo-breasts, and modified their courtship and culture sections to explain how having no distinct genders affects their language and interactions with other races.
Check out the google doc and, please, folks, let me know what you think! I know I've got other establishe races to work on, but this was my first gazetteer and I can't leave it in shameful condition.
On a related topic... in my various meanderings across the internet, I stumbled across a fetishist's drawing of a concept it called a "chubtail kobold". Created for facilitating vore & stuffing fetishism, it was a kobold with a distinctly long and broad tail, which was explained as containing both fat deposits and an extension of the kobold's stomach, allowing it to swallow things up to/greater than its own size and otherwise hold more food than would be physically possible. It was essentially described as a fusion of a kobold and a snake. It's actually a work-safe pic, so I can post it here if folks are morbidly curious.
Now, I tried to move on from this, but, I found myself unable to stop thinking about two things.
The first is that I recalled thinking that I had planned on faerie dragons being one of the more "successful" kobold experiments. As I fell deeper into my own mind on this matter, recalling the wyvarans of Pathfinder, I wondered if maybe I couldn't actually even make them playable: using the basic "mutable kobold" PC race writeup I'm working on over in my race hombrew thread, they'd be kobolds with Draconic Presence (+2 Cha/+1 Dex ability score mod), Wings, Fae Ancestry and a racial feat to give them some "fae appropriate" SLAs.
The second was that, if faerie dragons are a thing, perhaps there are other "kobold subspecies" who've developed fairly true-breeding racial traits? For example, winged kobolds with feathers, who're basically Small anthro archaeopteryx? This'd mostly be just a flavor thing, but it could perhaps add some more flavor to kobolds?
The final, most crucial thing... Lost in the pits of my mind, I began to wonder if maybe "chubtail kobolds" weren't viable themselves. With how crazy the list of kobold experiments has already grown, between fantasy dinosaurs, lizardfolk, wyverns, behirs and dragonborn, is a kobold tribe messing around with snake essence and it going wrong really that far fetched? Chubtails might make a good "small but deadly" denizen of the Jaderealms, on that logic. And then I started to wonder if maybe they really did have to be held back from PC status, so... yeah, apologies in advance.
[sblock]A distinctive subspecies of kobold, the so-called "chubtail kobolds", also known as snakebolds, ever-hungers, slithering gullets and other, less flattering names, are a race of diminutive reptilian bipeds. In fundamental appearance they are basically identical to their kobold ancestors, save for their distinctive blunt-tipped tails, which are easily as long and thick as the kobold itself, their serrated fangs, and their toxic spittle.
Creating through experimental fusions of kobolds and snakes, chubtail kobolds are slightly more aggressive and feral in nature, though whether this is inherent or is due to their ancestors being expelled from the tribes of their creation is unknown. Many have reverted completely to the level of animals, whilst others still form primitive, stone-age tribal cultures and pack-like family groups. Intelligent despite their bestial instincts, chubtail kobolds can be civilized, and have been known to take on members of other species as "packmates", usually becoming members of adventuring parties.
Despite their small stature and typically lackluster training, chubtail kobolds can be extremely deadly, especially if underestimated. Toxic spittle and wicked fangs are lethal enough, but their ability to consume their kills and digest them at hyper-accelerated speed for a surge of energy makes them particularly lethal.
Chubtail Kobold
Ability Score Modifier: +2 Constitution, +1 Charisma
Size: Small
Speed: 25 feet
Vision: Darkvision
Ripping Maw: A chubtail kobold can choose to bite when making an unarmed strike; this causes it to inflict 1D6 + Str modifier Slashing damage with its attack.
Sunlight Sensitivity: A chubtail kobold suffers Disadvanage on Attack Rolls and visual Wisdom (Perception) checks made if it or its target is in direct sunlight.
Down the Hatch: When a chubtail kobold using its Ripping Maw attack kills a creature, it can choose to swallow the corpse as a reaction. It can also choose to swallow corpses it encounters as an action. Attempting to swallow creatures bigger than Medium sized requires 1 extra action per size category above Medium, forcing the chubtail kobold to devote multiple rounds to this. Whilst it has a corpse swallowed, the chubtail kobold increases its weight allotment by the corpse's weight.
Toxic Spittle: A chubtail kobold can spit gouts of venom over a startling distance. A chubtail kobold can cast the Poison Spray cantrip using Charisma as its casting ability score.
Digestive Boost: When a chubtail kobold has a corpse swallowed, it can use a bonus action to dissolve its meal with necrotic bile. This heals it for (Constitution modifier + total CR score of all swallowed corpses) hit points, with excess hit points becoming temporary hit points.
Scavenger's Blessing: A chubtail kobold has Resistance to Poison and Advantage on Saving Throws against Disease.[/sblock]
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Bitbrain
Lost in Dark Sun
off the top of my head.
1. the idea of an entire mountain range being not just covered in debris, but possibly partly comprised of it. Fire Giants would love that place.
2. Mutant Mecha-armored Eldritch Knight Dwarves, an awesome idea if ever there was one. I'm picturing a PC dwarf sub-race with a bonus to intelligence and maybe some kind of ~1/short rest Frightful Appearance racial trait to reinforce their mutant nature.
3. Your latest post. Dragons to Kobolds, and then Kobolds try to reclaim former glory and create reptilian monstrosities. This one is just brilliant.
1. the idea of an entire mountain range being not just covered in debris, but possibly partly comprised of it. Fire Giants would love that place.
2. Mutant Mecha-armored Eldritch Knight Dwarves, an awesome idea if ever there was one. I'm picturing a PC dwarf sub-race with a bonus to intelligence and maybe some kind of ~1/short rest Frightful Appearance racial trait to reinforce their mutant nature.
3. Your latest post. Dragons to Kobolds, and then Kobolds try to reclaim former glory and create reptilian monstrosities. This one is just brilliant.
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QuietBrowser
First Post
I see. Thank you very much for explaining, and I'm glad you found the things to enjoy here.
By the way, since you liked my last post, tell me; do you have any opinions on the "chubtail kobolds"? Maybe suggestions of a better "common name" for them?
In fact... since my internet is being so atrocious in recent days, I might take up my notepad and start working on the hypothetical gazetteers for the Draega and Chubtail Kobolds, just to see if they can be spun to fit the setting. Should also work on finishing up the Aranea and Forgeborn Dwarf gazetteers too...
By the way, since you liked my last post, tell me; do you have any opinions on the "chubtail kobolds"? Maybe suggestions of a better "common name" for them?
In fact... since my internet is being so atrocious in recent days, I might take up my notepad and start working on the hypothetical gazetteers for the Draega and Chubtail Kobolds, just to see if they can be spun to fit the setting. Should also work on finishing up the Aranea and Forgeborn Dwarf gazetteers too...
QuietBrowser
First Post
Well, I wanted to wait until I had both the Fangwyrm and the Draeg gazetteers done up... but then I realized that'd be an awful lot of material to work through, so I just went with the Fangwyrms for starters. The Draeg gazetter is proceeding apace.
Honestly, having sat down and written about these little...guys? Gals? What is the more appropriate term here? Anyway, despite their origins in a piece of art dedicated to something I strongly dislike, I've actually found myself getting quite attached to the little monsters. They've come out as a whole different kettle of fish to their grim and angsty kobold cousins, and pairing that sense of light-hearted affection and lazy hedonism with their vicious predator side makes for a surprisingly fun dichotomy.
I've just got this fun mental image of a lost traveler/adventurer in the Jaderealm encountering a fangwyrm and not really understanding what it is, but befriending it through a combination of pidgin Kobold-tongue (need a better name for that) and sharing food, thinking it's just a cute little lizard-thing until they get attacked by giant rats, whereupon it saves his life by spitting venom in the face of one and then killing the other by crushing its skull in its jaws before swallowing the corpse whole. Then it drags itself right back over to him and cutely asks for more chin-rubs once it's sure he's safe.
[sblock]
Fangwyrms
Who Are They?
The rejected bastard children of kobolds and their many twisted experiments, the fangwyrms - also referred to by such names as chubtail kobolds, slithering gullets, gorgelizards, ever-hungers, snakebolds, and other, far less printable names - struggle to carve out a civilisation for themselves in the depths of the Jaderealm, fighting against instincts belonging to a much larger predator.
Physiology
As their common moniker of "chubtail kobolds" - a moniker never repeated where a kobold can here - suggests, fangwyrms have not diverged that greatly from their kobold ancestry.
Like all kobolds, they are small reptilian bipeds - with an average height range of 3'6" to 4'5", they are significantly larger than their kinsfolk. Colored in mottled patterns of green and/or brown, their most obvious physical difference is their distinctive tail. Roughly as long as the fangwyrm is tall and almost as broad, its wide, blunt tip and ample weight means it's no longer prehensile like that of a normal kobold, as well as causing this species to be slower than their ancestors.
This tail, along with the blunter shape of their muzzle, are the most visible signs of the prominent internal differences that truly mark this species as unique. As a result of experiments infusing kobolds with serpentine essence, fangwyrms have drastically enlarged, elastic stomachs that stretch all the way from their torso along the length of their tail. Although a significant portion of its bulk is fat deposits, like certain lizard species, this oversized gullet allows fangwyrms to consume vast amounts of food, much like a serpent. Their blunter muzzles are even structured like those of a serpent, relying on powerful, elastic tendons to connect both the fronts of each jawbone and the upper and lower jaws. This means that not only can fangwyrms open their mouths to 120 degrees, they can actually successfully swallow things whole of their own size - or larger.
Of course, when a fangwyrm has its mouth open, there are somewhat more immediate concerns. If not the double-row of backward-curving, wickedly serrated incisors that are continuously replaced throughout its life, earning this species the common nickname of "walking fang factories", then the powerful glands that can expel jets of virulent contact toxin some 10 feet through the air with pin-point precision. All in all, despite their small size, fangwyrms are designed to be significantly dangerous predators.
However, although this species elastic gullet is the source of many horror stories, the truth is that it is not as dangerous as many make it out to be. What a fangwyrm gains in elasticity, it loses in durability; a fangwyrm could swallow a human whole, but if its meal were alive for whatever dubious reason, then it would be more than capable of inflicting sufficient blunt trauma to burst the overzealous predator's abdomen. Fangwyrms, like all except the most gargantuan of snakes, only eat prey after it is well and truly dead - although, with their wicked maws, achieving that result is not much of a challenge for their usual prey.
Incidentally, the scales on a fangwyrm's underbelly, especially along the tail, are much softer and more sensitive than those of a kobold. Although touching a fangwyrm's tail without permission is a good way to get bitten, rubbing it is intensely pleasurable to them and can put them into a veritable euphoric coma. Especially if they've eaten recently..
One final internal oddity shows that fangwyrms are actually more of a success story than kobolds like to admit. Fangwyrms possess a form of fundamentum, the organ that gave the dragons of old their infamous breath weapon. In their case, it allows them to release a flood of bile infused with necrotic energy into their stomachs; this reacts with dead flesh by instantly discorporating it and transforming it into a surge of raw life energy, allowing a fangwyrm to rapidly heal its injuries. The only drawback is that it produces an intense sensation of hunger after being used, which can admittedly be useful on the battlefield.
Ironically, despite the extensive alterations to their digestive organs, the fangwyrms have not experienced any mutations to their reproductive organs. This means that, just like normal kobolds, the "chubtail kobolds" are still hermaphroditic. However, lacking the cultural resistance to their pseudo-breasts, fangwyrms proudly flaunt their faux cleavage if given the opportunity to develop it, seeing it as the mark of a skilled hunter.
Personality
It is commonly accepted by those who have only heard of them that fangwyrms are mindless, vicious beasts; ruthless predators that live only to fill their bellies with whatever other living creatures they can ambush and kill.
And, to be fair, that is an accurate description... of what the fangwyrms themselves dub "the ever-hungry": members of their race who, due to mental malady or sickness of spirit, have chosen to forsake their reasoning and live as nothing more than beasts. Few beings are so hated and despised by other fangwyrms, for these twisted savages regard anything that moves as prey, including their own race; if overwhelmed by an ever-hungry, a fangwyrm's only recourse is to try and present itself as a mate would, hoping that the ever-hungry will simply rape them and then leave as opposed to killing and eating them. It is these creatures, combined with kobold tales of their cousins' "savagery", that has fuelled the terrible reputation of this race.
In reality, fangwyrms are nothing like their reputation. Predators, yes, but hardly mindless or vicious. As a matter of fact, despite being predators, fangwyrms are a surprisingly affable people.
These reptilians are very sociable and intensely loyal, perhaps due to similar traits being present in their kobold ancestors. Unlike kobolds, however, fangwyrms are more sedate and laidback. They are fairly docile by nature when not hunting, being patient, easy-going and generally quite content with a sedentary sort of lifestyle.
That is not to say that fangwyrms are all seetness and light. Even beyond their predatory instinct, fangwyrms have some serious flaws. The most obvious of which is their hedonistic streak.
If Pride can be classified as the defining vice of kobolds, then Gluttony is almost certainly its equivalent amongst fangwyrms. Naturally impulsive and inquisitive anyway, the instinct to gorge themselves when presented with the chance is so prevalent in their psyche that a significant part of fangwyrm education is focused on teaching their young to control their bellies and not be controlled by them, much like how kobolds are taught the values of self-control and emotional discipline as they age.
Feasting is a euphoric act for fangwyrms. There is something deeply, physically, almost sexually pleasurable about having a belly laden with food, and this makes them absolute suckers for the prospect to gorge themselves. Quality is certainly important to them as well, and tasting new things is a delight for most fangwyrms, but sheer quantity, packing themselves full and then lounging around in a blissful torpor, that's joy in its own right.
But food isn't the only pleasure that fangwyrms grow addicted to. Anything that a fangwyrm comes to see as pleasurable is something that it wants to indulge in as often as possible. Even the remnants of their hoarding instincts are mostly directed towards things that please them or things that remind them of great pleasures past - a horn taken from a blood-ram that the fangwyrm managed to kill and ingest, for example, would serve as both a reminder of its huge accomplishment as a hunter and as a token to recall the feeling of the magnificent feast that ensued afterwards.
Some speculate that this may even play a part in their intensely social natures. Although cultural fear of the ever-hungry may play a part in it, the fact is that no fangwyrm really likes to be alone. They are extremely loyal to friends and family, eager to make new friends, grow very depressed and miserable when seperated, and viciously rise to defend those they care about. Highly physically affectionate by nature, a fangwyrm who doesn't enjoy touching those it cares about to reaffirm their presence, or take pleasure from being petted, caressed, hugged, or otherwise touched affectionately, would be quite an oddball indeed.
Whether this hedonistic streak stems from their impulsiveness or merely further fuels it, none can really say. But fangwyrms have a bad tendency to leap ahead when the consequences are not obvious enough, meaning they have a genuinely well-deserved reputation for getting into mischief and having (usually embarrassing) accidents.
This impulsiveness is at least partially to blame for their gluttony in that, when it comes to food, fangwyrms are bad at foresight. Although somewhat justified by the fact they can live off the fat in their tails for a substantial period of time, it's very difficult for fangwyrms to have food and not immediately eat it.
However, fangwyrms are not stupid. They are rational, thinking beings and, honestly, can be deceptive and cunning. Those who underestimate them will usually come to regret it, as fangwyrms have an all-too-koboldish love of messing with those who look down on them, and are more than willing to use peoples' misconceptions about the fangwyrms' intelligence against them.
Courtship
Fangwyrms take a rather straightforward approach to the idea of courtship, such that even kobolds regard them as rather scandalous. Hedonistic by nature, and rarely exceptionally shy, fangwyrms who find each other attractive usually waste little time in expressing that interest. When they feel subtle, gifts of food are offered, the most obvious signal of interest a fangwyrm can consider. When actively looking for suitors, a fangwyrm shows off, visibly displaying its strength, skill and curvaceousness in order to showcase how desireable it would be as a mate.
Once a would-be suitor approaches, a fangwyrm will either accept or reject them, depending on various factors; the more desireable a suitor can prove themselves, the more likely the object of its attentions will accept them. Rejection is blunt and summary, involving threat displays, and fangwyrms quickly back off; however, although rape is abhorrent to them and deeply taboo in their culture, there is no stigma with being persistent about attempting courtship, until either they are accepted or decisively rejected.
Acception is quite obvious, as it essentially entails the fangwyrm leading their suitor aside and presenting themselves for sex. The new couple will mate as often as they like, and either choose to stay together or seperate, depending on how much they come to enjoy each other's company.
There is no formal establishment of mateship amongst fangwyrms, and nor is there any taboo about monogamy. Some fangwyrms establish life-long monogamous relationships, others drift from partner to partner, and others still form stable networks of sexual partners, and all are ultimately accepted.
As mentioned above, fangwyrms are still fundamentally kobolds where it comes to matters of reproduction. As hermaphrodites, any given individual fangwyrm can impregnate or be impregnated as it wills, producing a clutch of 2-6 eggs from any pregnant fangwyrm that hatch some seven months after conception and which can be voluntarily laid at any point from two weeks after conception.
Culture
The basis of all fangwyrm culture is the pack, an extended "nucleus" family unit of two or more sexually mature and intimate adults and their juvenile offspring. Larger groups than this form tribes, usually based on packs that can trace blood connections to each other. Tribes are thusly usually led by a council of elders.
The norm for fangwyrm culture is a Stone Age hunter-gather society, with packs roaming through the Jaderealm in search of prey and then returning to a central settlement - or else migrating nomadically between camps. This is not an indication of the intelligence of fangwyrms, but merely a result of their history and environment. In other regions, fangwyrms may well be advancing to more developed status, and they certainly will readily integrate themselves into other cultures.
In truth, the tribe serves more as a support group during times of hardship and a way to organize parties. The typical life of fangwyrms is a fairly laidback one, consisting of nocturnal hunts and foraging followed by retiring to their dens at sunrise for raucous feasting and sleep. Youth learn the ways of life from their elders through song, dance, music and stories, the hunters celebrate their achievements, and in generally they relax and take delight in having lived through another night, ready to face the challenges again when the sun goes down tomorrow.
Fangwyrms have little need for personal wealth, even they do adapt to the concept of money with surprising quickness amongst other societies, and so they have little in the way of crime. Most of what they consider evil acts are obvious; murder and rape, and to fangwyrms, there is only one real punishment for such evil - though some fortunates may find themselves exiled if they are judged by their kin to have not acted with deliberate malice, usually, fangwyrm criminals find themselves in the bellies of those they have wronged. A brutal and savage justice, in the eyes of most outsiders, but one that certainly seems to serve the fangwyrms well.
Despite the justifiably fearsome reputation of the ever-hungry, fangwyrms do not consider other sapients to be prey. In fact, the consumption of "talking meat" is one of their strictest dietary taboos, and it is considered one of the vilest forms of murder.
However, there are two things that should be noted about this taboo.
The first is that fangwyrms regard cannibalism to only apply to the concept of deliberately killing a person (defined as "someone who can talk", with a good deal of common sense about overcoming language barriers besides) to then eat their flesh; consuming the bodies of those who died for completely unrelated reasons is not cannibalism, in their eyes. Thusly, fangwyrms practice funerary cannibalism, consuming the bodies of dead packmates or dear friends out of a peculiar combination of "meat is meat" pragmatism and a cultural desire to honor and remember the fallen. In fangwyrm packs, it is taught that the spirits of the dead live on the blood of those who take them into their bellies, and that is why it is a sign of great love to consume your dead family, friends and other loved ones.
The second is that fangwyrms have a very pragmatic view when it comes to self-defense. Cannibalism is evil. But when a person legitimately attacks you, then they have stopped being a person and become a predator, in which case it's alright to eat them, because it's eat or be eaten. This is tempered by common sense, of course; a fangwyrm would not switch into "predator mode" as a result of a friendly scuffle between friends or a child being boisterous and play-acting as a great hero, but vicious bandits, cannibal gangsters and murder cultists have a tendency to (burp) "disappear" when fangwyrms pass through.
That said, many bartenders either outright refuse to sell alcoholic liquors to fangwyrms or strictly control how much they serve, even when this isn't mandated by law, under the not unreasonable justification that when you have a fang-mawed predator with a cultural doctrine of eating its enemies, you don't want to impair its judgement. This is usually not really necessary, as the vast majority of fangwyrms collapse into a blissful, hiccuping stupor - or start getting amorous - upon getting drunk, but still, better to be safe than sorry. There can always be exceptions, as they say.
Ironically, despite having a great deal of difficulty with the concept of animal husbandry - as fangwyrms see it, if you're going to eat it anyway, why not eat it now? - fangwyrms have actually become quite adept at domestication. Because of their deeply sociable nature, and perhaps because their hedonistic appreciation of how nice it can be to pet things (especially cute fluffy things), fangwyrms can form very deep bonds with animals. These pets are deeply beloved by their fangwyrm owner, and seen almost as packmates - which means that showing off their pets is a deeply respected, even necessary, part of pet ownership for fangwyrms. Eating another fangwyrm's pet is valid gounds for a blood-vendetta, which can potentially tear a pack apart. Fangwyrms have even been known to eat each other or exile pack-members over such a crime.
As loyal and caring as fangwyrms can be to their packs, however, life in the Jaderealm is never easy, and so packs often have casualties. Fangwyrms who have lost their packs or even tribes become nomadic wanderers, mournfully roaming the jungle in hopes of finding another pack to take them in - this is the primary source of fangwyrm adventurers.
Settlements
Fangwyrms are quite different to their kobold relatives, in that their lairs rarely make extensive use of traps. That's not to say they don't prepare some defenses, particularly in dangerous areas, but in general they consider the fact that their settlement is a nest full of venom-spitting fang factories with ravenous appetites to be deterrent enough for sapients, whilst most critters that wander in save them the effort of hunting for breakfast.
Fangwyrms, like kobolds, dislike bright light, and so the primary thing they look for in a settlement beyond easy access to water is shelter from the sun. Nomadic fangwyrms often fashion temporary shelters from bark and woven grass, at least in their native environment of the Jaderealm, but caves, hollowed out giant trees, dense vine-fields, ruined cities, and similar "natural caverns" are preferred.
They can and will dig out their own caves, but it takes quite a bit of work to produce a den into which a pack can comfortably fit, and so these creatures prefer to take over existing dens when they can.
Adventurers
Fangwyrms are, in many ways, natural adventurers, being that they are brave, inquisitive, not afraid of violence, loyal and eager to explore. Sometimes, entire packs have been known to venture out of the Jaderealm, or justget themselves into typical adventurer "mischief", just to sate their own curiosity. Other fangwyrms bond with adventurers of other species, especially as a result of losing their packs or tribes or as a result of being exiled, and simply follow along out loyalty and curiosity.
Barbarians: These are perhaps the most common of the "combative" adventurer classes for fangwyrms. Relying on brute force and natural savagery, it is a natural fit for this species, which comes from such primitive roots. The majority of fangwyrm barbarians are Berserkers, Zealots and Storm Heralds, with the latter two representing untamed sorcerous power or a particularly powerful fundamentum. Totem Warriors and Ancestral Guardians are both rare, but respected and admired. Battleragers are almost unheard of, and usually come from fangwyrms that were taken in by kobold tribes as living weapons.
Bards: Needless to say, the fangwyrm culture's emphasis on partying and using entertainment to educate makes bards a natural fit for adventurers. Almost all "native-trained" fangwyrm bards are either Lorekeepers or Jesters, however; they lack the martial culture to make Skalds and Blades the same kind of natural fit. A fangwyrm bard who takes those paths was educated by members of another race.
Fighters: Less common than barbarians due to the fact fangwyrms do not have very strong martial traditions, those who take up the path of the fighter are still very real. Often, these were fangwyrms with a particular focus on defending the pack or the tribe from bigger, nastier predators. Almost all fangwyrm fighters are either Cavaliers - who were lucky enough to befriend a pet big enough to ride, Champions or Scouts, with the remainder being Eldritch Knights who tap into their lingering ancestral magic. Battlemasters and Bannerets are completely foreign to their culture, and would require extensive training from an alien race or even growing to maturity in an alien culture.
Monks: There are no native monastic traditions amongst fangwyrms. A fangwyrm monk was trained by a member of another race, and a DM is justified to request a good backstory explaining how this happened. Especially if they view the monkly tradition as demanding asceticism and self-denial, both of which are very foreign and unappealing concepts to fangwyrms.
Rangers: Less common than barbarians but more so than fighters, rangers are very respected by fangwyrms for their skill at hunting. All of the Conclaves are equally popular.
Rogues: Because fangwyrm culture uses barter rather than currency, fangwyrm rogues are not really a thing. Those that take up this path due so due to extensive contact with other races and coming to fully assimilate the idea of property and theft. Most fangwyrm rogues are either Assassins (where their fangs, venom and ability to devour an entire human come in handy) or Thieves (often swallowing their loot and regurgitating it in private), with a small minority of Arcane Tricksters. Masterminds are essentially unheard of.
Sorcerers: The most common of the fangwyrm magic-users, unlike kobolds, there are no recorded cases of Dragon Blood Sorcerers arising amongst this race. Instead, the most common are Kobold Blood Sorcerers and various elemental origins.
Warlocks: Although it's unusual for a fangwyrm to either seek out a patron or attract the interest of one, they have no cultural stigma against warlocks, unlike their kobold kin, and so these spellcasters are very much represented amongst fangwyrms. As a practical people who live in a dangerous environment, the Lifegiver and Dark Mother patrons are most preferred.
Wizards: Rarest of all the fangwyrm arcanists, these either are self-taught by finding spellbooks lost in the wild or scavenged from the bodies of slain adventurers, or belong to the largest and most civilised of fangwyrm tribes. There is no particular bias about magic, but Wood, Earth and Water Elementalism, alongside Necromancy, tend to be particularly favored.
Mystics: Extremely rare, and always self-taught, fangwyrm mystics are predominantly members of the Order of the Immortal, subconsciously melding physical and psychic prowess to become a more lethal predator.
[/sblock]
Honestly, having sat down and written about these little...guys? Gals? What is the more appropriate term here? Anyway, despite their origins in a piece of art dedicated to something I strongly dislike, I've actually found myself getting quite attached to the little monsters. They've come out as a whole different kettle of fish to their grim and angsty kobold cousins, and pairing that sense of light-hearted affection and lazy hedonism with their vicious predator side makes for a surprisingly fun dichotomy.
I've just got this fun mental image of a lost traveler/adventurer in the Jaderealm encountering a fangwyrm and not really understanding what it is, but befriending it through a combination of pidgin Kobold-tongue (need a better name for that) and sharing food, thinking it's just a cute little lizard-thing until they get attacked by giant rats, whereupon it saves his life by spitting venom in the face of one and then killing the other by crushing its skull in its jaws before swallowing the corpse whole. Then it drags itself right back over to him and cutely asks for more chin-rubs once it's sure he's safe.
[sblock]
Fangwyrms
Who Are They?
The rejected bastard children of kobolds and their many twisted experiments, the fangwyrms - also referred to by such names as chubtail kobolds, slithering gullets, gorgelizards, ever-hungers, snakebolds, and other, far less printable names - struggle to carve out a civilisation for themselves in the depths of the Jaderealm, fighting against instincts belonging to a much larger predator.
Physiology
As their common moniker of "chubtail kobolds" - a moniker never repeated where a kobold can here - suggests, fangwyrms have not diverged that greatly from their kobold ancestry.
Like all kobolds, they are small reptilian bipeds - with an average height range of 3'6" to 4'5", they are significantly larger than their kinsfolk. Colored in mottled patterns of green and/or brown, their most obvious physical difference is their distinctive tail. Roughly as long as the fangwyrm is tall and almost as broad, its wide, blunt tip and ample weight means it's no longer prehensile like that of a normal kobold, as well as causing this species to be slower than their ancestors.
This tail, along with the blunter shape of their muzzle, are the most visible signs of the prominent internal differences that truly mark this species as unique. As a result of experiments infusing kobolds with serpentine essence, fangwyrms have drastically enlarged, elastic stomachs that stretch all the way from their torso along the length of their tail. Although a significant portion of its bulk is fat deposits, like certain lizard species, this oversized gullet allows fangwyrms to consume vast amounts of food, much like a serpent. Their blunter muzzles are even structured like those of a serpent, relying on powerful, elastic tendons to connect both the fronts of each jawbone and the upper and lower jaws. This means that not only can fangwyrms open their mouths to 120 degrees, they can actually successfully swallow things whole of their own size - or larger.
Of course, when a fangwyrm has its mouth open, there are somewhat more immediate concerns. If not the double-row of backward-curving, wickedly serrated incisors that are continuously replaced throughout its life, earning this species the common nickname of "walking fang factories", then the powerful glands that can expel jets of virulent contact toxin some 10 feet through the air with pin-point precision. All in all, despite their small size, fangwyrms are designed to be significantly dangerous predators.
However, although this species elastic gullet is the source of many horror stories, the truth is that it is not as dangerous as many make it out to be. What a fangwyrm gains in elasticity, it loses in durability; a fangwyrm could swallow a human whole, but if its meal were alive for whatever dubious reason, then it would be more than capable of inflicting sufficient blunt trauma to burst the overzealous predator's abdomen. Fangwyrms, like all except the most gargantuan of snakes, only eat prey after it is well and truly dead - although, with their wicked maws, achieving that result is not much of a challenge for their usual prey.
Incidentally, the scales on a fangwyrm's underbelly, especially along the tail, are much softer and more sensitive than those of a kobold. Although touching a fangwyrm's tail without permission is a good way to get bitten, rubbing it is intensely pleasurable to them and can put them into a veritable euphoric coma. Especially if they've eaten recently..
One final internal oddity shows that fangwyrms are actually more of a success story than kobolds like to admit. Fangwyrms possess a form of fundamentum, the organ that gave the dragons of old their infamous breath weapon. In their case, it allows them to release a flood of bile infused with necrotic energy into their stomachs; this reacts with dead flesh by instantly discorporating it and transforming it into a surge of raw life energy, allowing a fangwyrm to rapidly heal its injuries. The only drawback is that it produces an intense sensation of hunger after being used, which can admittedly be useful on the battlefield.
Ironically, despite the extensive alterations to their digestive organs, the fangwyrms have not experienced any mutations to their reproductive organs. This means that, just like normal kobolds, the "chubtail kobolds" are still hermaphroditic. However, lacking the cultural resistance to their pseudo-breasts, fangwyrms proudly flaunt their faux cleavage if given the opportunity to develop it, seeing it as the mark of a skilled hunter.
Personality
It is commonly accepted by those who have only heard of them that fangwyrms are mindless, vicious beasts; ruthless predators that live only to fill their bellies with whatever other living creatures they can ambush and kill.
And, to be fair, that is an accurate description... of what the fangwyrms themselves dub "the ever-hungry": members of their race who, due to mental malady or sickness of spirit, have chosen to forsake their reasoning and live as nothing more than beasts. Few beings are so hated and despised by other fangwyrms, for these twisted savages regard anything that moves as prey, including their own race; if overwhelmed by an ever-hungry, a fangwyrm's only recourse is to try and present itself as a mate would, hoping that the ever-hungry will simply rape them and then leave as opposed to killing and eating them. It is these creatures, combined with kobold tales of their cousins' "savagery", that has fuelled the terrible reputation of this race.
In reality, fangwyrms are nothing like their reputation. Predators, yes, but hardly mindless or vicious. As a matter of fact, despite being predators, fangwyrms are a surprisingly affable people.
These reptilians are very sociable and intensely loyal, perhaps due to similar traits being present in their kobold ancestors. Unlike kobolds, however, fangwyrms are more sedate and laidback. They are fairly docile by nature when not hunting, being patient, easy-going and generally quite content with a sedentary sort of lifestyle.
That is not to say that fangwyrms are all seetness and light. Even beyond their predatory instinct, fangwyrms have some serious flaws. The most obvious of which is their hedonistic streak.
If Pride can be classified as the defining vice of kobolds, then Gluttony is almost certainly its equivalent amongst fangwyrms. Naturally impulsive and inquisitive anyway, the instinct to gorge themselves when presented with the chance is so prevalent in their psyche that a significant part of fangwyrm education is focused on teaching their young to control their bellies and not be controlled by them, much like how kobolds are taught the values of self-control and emotional discipline as they age.
Feasting is a euphoric act for fangwyrms. There is something deeply, physically, almost sexually pleasurable about having a belly laden with food, and this makes them absolute suckers for the prospect to gorge themselves. Quality is certainly important to them as well, and tasting new things is a delight for most fangwyrms, but sheer quantity, packing themselves full and then lounging around in a blissful torpor, that's joy in its own right.
But food isn't the only pleasure that fangwyrms grow addicted to. Anything that a fangwyrm comes to see as pleasurable is something that it wants to indulge in as often as possible. Even the remnants of their hoarding instincts are mostly directed towards things that please them or things that remind them of great pleasures past - a horn taken from a blood-ram that the fangwyrm managed to kill and ingest, for example, would serve as both a reminder of its huge accomplishment as a hunter and as a token to recall the feeling of the magnificent feast that ensued afterwards.
Some speculate that this may even play a part in their intensely social natures. Although cultural fear of the ever-hungry may play a part in it, the fact is that no fangwyrm really likes to be alone. They are extremely loyal to friends and family, eager to make new friends, grow very depressed and miserable when seperated, and viciously rise to defend those they care about. Highly physically affectionate by nature, a fangwyrm who doesn't enjoy touching those it cares about to reaffirm their presence, or take pleasure from being petted, caressed, hugged, or otherwise touched affectionately, would be quite an oddball indeed.
Whether this hedonistic streak stems from their impulsiveness or merely further fuels it, none can really say. But fangwyrms have a bad tendency to leap ahead when the consequences are not obvious enough, meaning they have a genuinely well-deserved reputation for getting into mischief and having (usually embarrassing) accidents.
This impulsiveness is at least partially to blame for their gluttony in that, when it comes to food, fangwyrms are bad at foresight. Although somewhat justified by the fact they can live off the fat in their tails for a substantial period of time, it's very difficult for fangwyrms to have food and not immediately eat it.
However, fangwyrms are not stupid. They are rational, thinking beings and, honestly, can be deceptive and cunning. Those who underestimate them will usually come to regret it, as fangwyrms have an all-too-koboldish love of messing with those who look down on them, and are more than willing to use peoples' misconceptions about the fangwyrms' intelligence against them.
Courtship
Fangwyrms take a rather straightforward approach to the idea of courtship, such that even kobolds regard them as rather scandalous. Hedonistic by nature, and rarely exceptionally shy, fangwyrms who find each other attractive usually waste little time in expressing that interest. When they feel subtle, gifts of food are offered, the most obvious signal of interest a fangwyrm can consider. When actively looking for suitors, a fangwyrm shows off, visibly displaying its strength, skill and curvaceousness in order to showcase how desireable it would be as a mate.
Once a would-be suitor approaches, a fangwyrm will either accept or reject them, depending on various factors; the more desireable a suitor can prove themselves, the more likely the object of its attentions will accept them. Rejection is blunt and summary, involving threat displays, and fangwyrms quickly back off; however, although rape is abhorrent to them and deeply taboo in their culture, there is no stigma with being persistent about attempting courtship, until either they are accepted or decisively rejected.
Acception is quite obvious, as it essentially entails the fangwyrm leading their suitor aside and presenting themselves for sex. The new couple will mate as often as they like, and either choose to stay together or seperate, depending on how much they come to enjoy each other's company.
There is no formal establishment of mateship amongst fangwyrms, and nor is there any taboo about monogamy. Some fangwyrms establish life-long monogamous relationships, others drift from partner to partner, and others still form stable networks of sexual partners, and all are ultimately accepted.
As mentioned above, fangwyrms are still fundamentally kobolds where it comes to matters of reproduction. As hermaphrodites, any given individual fangwyrm can impregnate or be impregnated as it wills, producing a clutch of 2-6 eggs from any pregnant fangwyrm that hatch some seven months after conception and which can be voluntarily laid at any point from two weeks after conception.
Culture
The basis of all fangwyrm culture is the pack, an extended "nucleus" family unit of two or more sexually mature and intimate adults and their juvenile offspring. Larger groups than this form tribes, usually based on packs that can trace blood connections to each other. Tribes are thusly usually led by a council of elders.
The norm for fangwyrm culture is a Stone Age hunter-gather society, with packs roaming through the Jaderealm in search of prey and then returning to a central settlement - or else migrating nomadically between camps. This is not an indication of the intelligence of fangwyrms, but merely a result of their history and environment. In other regions, fangwyrms may well be advancing to more developed status, and they certainly will readily integrate themselves into other cultures.
In truth, the tribe serves more as a support group during times of hardship and a way to organize parties. The typical life of fangwyrms is a fairly laidback one, consisting of nocturnal hunts and foraging followed by retiring to their dens at sunrise for raucous feasting and sleep. Youth learn the ways of life from their elders through song, dance, music and stories, the hunters celebrate their achievements, and in generally they relax and take delight in having lived through another night, ready to face the challenges again when the sun goes down tomorrow.
Fangwyrms have little need for personal wealth, even they do adapt to the concept of money with surprising quickness amongst other societies, and so they have little in the way of crime. Most of what they consider evil acts are obvious; murder and rape, and to fangwyrms, there is only one real punishment for such evil - though some fortunates may find themselves exiled if they are judged by their kin to have not acted with deliberate malice, usually, fangwyrm criminals find themselves in the bellies of those they have wronged. A brutal and savage justice, in the eyes of most outsiders, but one that certainly seems to serve the fangwyrms well.
Despite the justifiably fearsome reputation of the ever-hungry, fangwyrms do not consider other sapients to be prey. In fact, the consumption of "talking meat" is one of their strictest dietary taboos, and it is considered one of the vilest forms of murder.
However, there are two things that should be noted about this taboo.
The first is that fangwyrms regard cannibalism to only apply to the concept of deliberately killing a person (defined as "someone who can talk", with a good deal of common sense about overcoming language barriers besides) to then eat their flesh; consuming the bodies of those who died for completely unrelated reasons is not cannibalism, in their eyes. Thusly, fangwyrms practice funerary cannibalism, consuming the bodies of dead packmates or dear friends out of a peculiar combination of "meat is meat" pragmatism and a cultural desire to honor and remember the fallen. In fangwyrm packs, it is taught that the spirits of the dead live on the blood of those who take them into their bellies, and that is why it is a sign of great love to consume your dead family, friends and other loved ones.
The second is that fangwyrms have a very pragmatic view when it comes to self-defense. Cannibalism is evil. But when a person legitimately attacks you, then they have stopped being a person and become a predator, in which case it's alright to eat them, because it's eat or be eaten. This is tempered by common sense, of course; a fangwyrm would not switch into "predator mode" as a result of a friendly scuffle between friends or a child being boisterous and play-acting as a great hero, but vicious bandits, cannibal gangsters and murder cultists have a tendency to (burp) "disappear" when fangwyrms pass through.
That said, many bartenders either outright refuse to sell alcoholic liquors to fangwyrms or strictly control how much they serve, even when this isn't mandated by law, under the not unreasonable justification that when you have a fang-mawed predator with a cultural doctrine of eating its enemies, you don't want to impair its judgement. This is usually not really necessary, as the vast majority of fangwyrms collapse into a blissful, hiccuping stupor - or start getting amorous - upon getting drunk, but still, better to be safe than sorry. There can always be exceptions, as they say.
Ironically, despite having a great deal of difficulty with the concept of animal husbandry - as fangwyrms see it, if you're going to eat it anyway, why not eat it now? - fangwyrms have actually become quite adept at domestication. Because of their deeply sociable nature, and perhaps because their hedonistic appreciation of how nice it can be to pet things (especially cute fluffy things), fangwyrms can form very deep bonds with animals. These pets are deeply beloved by their fangwyrm owner, and seen almost as packmates - which means that showing off their pets is a deeply respected, even necessary, part of pet ownership for fangwyrms. Eating another fangwyrm's pet is valid gounds for a blood-vendetta, which can potentially tear a pack apart. Fangwyrms have even been known to eat each other or exile pack-members over such a crime.
As loyal and caring as fangwyrms can be to their packs, however, life in the Jaderealm is never easy, and so packs often have casualties. Fangwyrms who have lost their packs or even tribes become nomadic wanderers, mournfully roaming the jungle in hopes of finding another pack to take them in - this is the primary source of fangwyrm adventurers.
Settlements
Fangwyrms are quite different to their kobold relatives, in that their lairs rarely make extensive use of traps. That's not to say they don't prepare some defenses, particularly in dangerous areas, but in general they consider the fact that their settlement is a nest full of venom-spitting fang factories with ravenous appetites to be deterrent enough for sapients, whilst most critters that wander in save them the effort of hunting for breakfast.
Fangwyrms, like kobolds, dislike bright light, and so the primary thing they look for in a settlement beyond easy access to water is shelter from the sun. Nomadic fangwyrms often fashion temporary shelters from bark and woven grass, at least in their native environment of the Jaderealm, but caves, hollowed out giant trees, dense vine-fields, ruined cities, and similar "natural caverns" are preferred.
They can and will dig out their own caves, but it takes quite a bit of work to produce a den into which a pack can comfortably fit, and so these creatures prefer to take over existing dens when they can.
Adventurers
Fangwyrms are, in many ways, natural adventurers, being that they are brave, inquisitive, not afraid of violence, loyal and eager to explore. Sometimes, entire packs have been known to venture out of the Jaderealm, or justget themselves into typical adventurer "mischief", just to sate their own curiosity. Other fangwyrms bond with adventurers of other species, especially as a result of losing their packs or tribes or as a result of being exiled, and simply follow along out loyalty and curiosity.
Barbarians: These are perhaps the most common of the "combative" adventurer classes for fangwyrms. Relying on brute force and natural savagery, it is a natural fit for this species, which comes from such primitive roots. The majority of fangwyrm barbarians are Berserkers, Zealots and Storm Heralds, with the latter two representing untamed sorcerous power or a particularly powerful fundamentum. Totem Warriors and Ancestral Guardians are both rare, but respected and admired. Battleragers are almost unheard of, and usually come from fangwyrms that were taken in by kobold tribes as living weapons.
Bards: Needless to say, the fangwyrm culture's emphasis on partying and using entertainment to educate makes bards a natural fit for adventurers. Almost all "native-trained" fangwyrm bards are either Lorekeepers or Jesters, however; they lack the martial culture to make Skalds and Blades the same kind of natural fit. A fangwyrm bard who takes those paths was educated by members of another race.
Fighters: Less common than barbarians due to the fact fangwyrms do not have very strong martial traditions, those who take up the path of the fighter are still very real. Often, these were fangwyrms with a particular focus on defending the pack or the tribe from bigger, nastier predators. Almost all fangwyrm fighters are either Cavaliers - who were lucky enough to befriend a pet big enough to ride, Champions or Scouts, with the remainder being Eldritch Knights who tap into their lingering ancestral magic. Battlemasters and Bannerets are completely foreign to their culture, and would require extensive training from an alien race or even growing to maturity in an alien culture.
Monks: There are no native monastic traditions amongst fangwyrms. A fangwyrm monk was trained by a member of another race, and a DM is justified to request a good backstory explaining how this happened. Especially if they view the monkly tradition as demanding asceticism and self-denial, both of which are very foreign and unappealing concepts to fangwyrms.
Rangers: Less common than barbarians but more so than fighters, rangers are very respected by fangwyrms for their skill at hunting. All of the Conclaves are equally popular.
Rogues: Because fangwyrm culture uses barter rather than currency, fangwyrm rogues are not really a thing. Those that take up this path due so due to extensive contact with other races and coming to fully assimilate the idea of property and theft. Most fangwyrm rogues are either Assassins (where their fangs, venom and ability to devour an entire human come in handy) or Thieves (often swallowing their loot and regurgitating it in private), with a small minority of Arcane Tricksters. Masterminds are essentially unheard of.
Sorcerers: The most common of the fangwyrm magic-users, unlike kobolds, there are no recorded cases of Dragon Blood Sorcerers arising amongst this race. Instead, the most common are Kobold Blood Sorcerers and various elemental origins.
Warlocks: Although it's unusual for a fangwyrm to either seek out a patron or attract the interest of one, they have no cultural stigma against warlocks, unlike their kobold kin, and so these spellcasters are very much represented amongst fangwyrms. As a practical people who live in a dangerous environment, the Lifegiver and Dark Mother patrons are most preferred.
Wizards: Rarest of all the fangwyrm arcanists, these either are self-taught by finding spellbooks lost in the wild or scavenged from the bodies of slain adventurers, or belong to the largest and most civilised of fangwyrm tribes. There is no particular bias about magic, but Wood, Earth and Water Elementalism, alongside Necromancy, tend to be particularly favored.
Mystics: Extremely rare, and always self-taught, fangwyrm mystics are predominantly members of the Order of the Immortal, subconsciously melding physical and psychic prowess to become a more lethal predator.
[/sblock]
Chaosmancer
Legend
Trust me, it takes a lot to scare me away
I think, if it was me, I’d abandon any sign of gender division at all. I think it is the more elegant solution. If you truly want to keep it though, I’d choose a separate set of terms… not sure what it would be though.
Well, that may be a question I can’t answer. Personally, I think you’ve got enough, but if you want to add more, add more.
I can be kind of brilliant at times
But yeah, could easily work.
Firstly, I'll be sure to post up a list of my currently planned species by region, just to clear things up for you.
Secondly, the "Duties of the Palatine" fluff-piece from earlier in the thread refers to exactly one clan of rodushi from the Cradlelands; it's a look at general culture for Malebolge's ratfolk, but not covering all of their territory, if that makes sense?
Makes sense, but that being my only point of reference for them, I make assumptions.
I don't quite follow what you mean by "stat-wise or story-wise"? The "ork-treatment" is definitely a story-wise thing; they're not an Always Chaotic Evil race, but they're not fluffy bunnies, either, if that clarifies. And looks like we agree that thematically they're good for that region.
You said you “didn’t know how to get them”. I wasn’t sure if you didn’t know how to get them with a write up of stats, or if you didn’t know how to get them with the story.
Personally, I’m a little partial to the “Furry People” of the webcomic “Guilded Age”
All seems pretty awesome.
Though, I really have to ask why the focus on Physiology? Is it a common theme in the more traditional gazeteers? I don't mean this as a critique, I just personally don't know why you bother to go into so much explicit detail on the physical traits of things. I tend to broadbrush that and then focus on the culture.
Honestly, I read through the rest and I didn’t see anything jump out that I wanted to comment on. Maybe I’m just really tired. This is all looking pretty awesome so far though
QuietBrowser
First Post
Well, that's certainly a relief!
Every reviewer and commenter and person who's willing to stick their nose in and say "nice ideas" or ask a question is a precious resource.I ultimately decided it just made more sense to abandon any sense of gender to them and made them all hermaphrodites with a single arrangement of genitalia. There should be a googledoc link to the new version of the gazetteer somewhere in this thread, if you want to check out how it looks know.
Stat-wise, I'm fine for gnolls; I got a writeup for them in my race homebrew thread that I'm really quite proud of, even if I could use some help making them more balanced. It's figuring out a story-wise role for them that I'm struggling a little. Where did they come from? What are they like? The Fangwyrms and Draeg actually kind of write themselves with the "failed experiment" and "Elven lich-wraith revenge ploy via Shin'hare expy" concepts, but I don't have something like that for lizardfolk or gnolls yet.
The focus on physiology is that many of my races are either homebrewed or very much not like standard D&D depictions of them. Aranea have been a very obscure D&D race and their hybrid forms have never been done very well.
Generally, though, Physiology will only be particularly long for races that are particularly unusual. The dwarf and gnome gazetters will be a lot shorter, more or less.
Honestly, I read through the rest and I didn’t see anything jump out that I wanted to comment on. Maybe I’m just really tired. This is all looking pretty awesome so far though[/QUOTE]
Thank you so much for coming back, I was really waiting for somebody to speak up. I'm glad to see that you continue to take a positive interest in this setting.
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QuietBrowser
First Post
So, I actually gave a basic summary of the fangwyrm's crunch on 4chan out of morbid curiosity, see how overpowered I'd made it, and I actually got some fairly good feedback - to whit, darkvision + sunlight sensitivity really is crap and I should at least give them superior darkvision like the drow & duergar, Scavenger's Blessing was kind of weak, and the Down The Hatch & Digestive Boost traits were overly complicated and not really working out well - for example, few DMs bother using either version of the encumbrance rules. So, based on that positive feedback, I've done a little reworking. How does it look now, crunch-wise?
Fangwyrm
Ability Score Modifier: +2 Constitution, +1 Charisma
Size: Small
Speed: 25 feet
Vision: Superior Darkvision
Ripping Maw: A fangwyrm can choose to bite when making an unarmed strike; this causes it to inflict 1D6 + Str modifier Slashing damage with its attack.
Sunlight Sensitivity: A fangwyrm suffers Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and visual Wisdom (Perception) checks made if it or its target is in direct sunlight.
Down the Hatch: When a fangwyrm using its Ripping Maw attack kills a creature, it can choose to swallow the corpse as a reaction. It can also choose to swallow fresh corpses within reach as an action. It can only swallow creatures that are one size category larger than it or smaller.
Toxic Spittle: A fangwyrm can spit gouts of venom over a startling distance. A fangwyrm can cast the Poison Spray cantrip using Charisma as its casting ability score.
Digestive Boost: When a fangwyrm has a corpse swallowed, it can use a bonus action to dissolve its meal with necrotic bile. This heals it for (Constitution modifier + level) hit points, with excess hit points being lost. Outside of combat, consuming a corpse allows each corpse to "count as" an expended hit dice for purposes of taking a short rest, as well as providing a full day's meal intake.
Scavenger's Blessing: A fangwyrm has Resistance to Poison and Advantage on Saving Throws against Poison and Disease.
Fangwyrm
Ability Score Modifier: +2 Constitution, +1 Charisma
Size: Small
Speed: 25 feet
Vision: Superior Darkvision
Ripping Maw: A fangwyrm can choose to bite when making an unarmed strike; this causes it to inflict 1D6 + Str modifier Slashing damage with its attack.
Sunlight Sensitivity: A fangwyrm suffers Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and visual Wisdom (Perception) checks made if it or its target is in direct sunlight.
Down the Hatch: When a fangwyrm using its Ripping Maw attack kills a creature, it can choose to swallow the corpse as a reaction. It can also choose to swallow fresh corpses within reach as an action. It can only swallow creatures that are one size category larger than it or smaller.
Toxic Spittle: A fangwyrm can spit gouts of venom over a startling distance. A fangwyrm can cast the Poison Spray cantrip using Charisma as its casting ability score.
Digestive Boost: When a fangwyrm has a corpse swallowed, it can use a bonus action to dissolve its meal with necrotic bile. This heals it for (Constitution modifier + level) hit points, with excess hit points being lost. Outside of combat, consuming a corpse allows each corpse to "count as" an expended hit dice for purposes of taking a short rest, as well as providing a full day's meal intake.
Scavenger's Blessing: A fangwyrm has Resistance to Poison and Advantage on Saving Throws against Poison and Disease.
QuietBrowser
First Post
So, just to swing the topic back to Gnolls... the problem I'm having with them is that, whilst I would enjoy having them, and I have a perfect place to put them in, there's no real ideas in my head for defining them. I do't know whether they come from, or how they live or anything else that really defines them.
For comparison, Orks I know for a fact where they come from (mutated elves), how they came to be (dwarves mutated them from elves as expendable warrior slaves) and I have some significant cultural/background hooks to build them from (their struggle against the "bludga", the Red Rage, and shamelessly stealing the Cult of Pain from Wicked Fantasy). The Draega are rabbits mutated into humanoid form to serve as cannon-fodder by vengeful elven lich-wraiths (inspired by the "Suel Lich" from that Greyhawk Creature Catalogue in Dragon) and culturally based on the Shin'hare. Heck, even the Fangwyrms managed to work by spinning "voraciously predatory snake-infused kobolds abandoned by their disgusted creators" to a logical(ish) conclusion.
But I don't have anything like that for Gnolls.
...In fact, I've come to realize Gnomes have a similar problem, in that I know vaguely where they came from - the truly mutated descendants of dwarves - but not how they mutated, or how they differ from their ancestors in any ways other than the physical. I'm fairly confident I want a magitek tinker gnome angle to them, avoiding the comic relief aspect that made Krynn's gnomes to cringingly awful, but beyond that, I could really use someone to spitball ideas with.
But, to get back on topic, I really could use someone to talk to about figuring out what to do with gnolls.
Part of that also revolves around their racial crunch. See, I did a writeup for gnolls I'm quite proud of based on their 4th edition lore (the best lore that WoTC ever gave them), dividing them into Butcher's Brood and Hyena's Soul subraces, plus with the addition of a more magical "Bouda" subrace. Figuring out how to make use of these subraces - whether they're all present, or only one or two exist - will play some part in figuring out a proper "identity" for Malebolge's Gnolls.
In fact... I'm not set on this, just to get it out of the way, but, when one remembers the infamous spotted hyenas, with their bigger, more aggressive and socially dominant females, contrasting the egalitarianism of the striped hyenas, combined with the anatomical issues of the spotted that earned them their mythological reputation as hermaphrodites & genderbenders, and the prominence of striped hyenas in still-practiced African folk magics aimed at bestowing success in love & sexual congress, an idea forms. That the stronger, more aggressive Butcher's Brood "subrace" is used to depict the females of Malebolge Gnolls, with the sleeker and wiser Hyena Souls being males and the Boudas being some third gender - intersex, hermaphrodite, androgynous, whatever - to reference how they stand apart physically and spiritually from the males and females.
Really not set on this idea, gender oddities are fitting for the kobolds and those races descended from them by extension, but I don't want to make every race some kind of sexual oddity - dwarves, orkoids, gnomes, aranea, humans, ratfolk, calibans (okay, maybe there are individual exceptions, but that's because they're mutants), draega, these are all standard humanoid binary gendered races. But, as I tried to say, I can see reasons to support gnolls possibly having some kind of third sex, especially if this is represented by their "magical" race, given how often duality and non-standard sexuality/gender was associated with magical power or divine blessings in real world cultures.
For comparison, Orks I know for a fact where they come from (mutated elves), how they came to be (dwarves mutated them from elves as expendable warrior slaves) and I have some significant cultural/background hooks to build them from (their struggle against the "bludga", the Red Rage, and shamelessly stealing the Cult of Pain from Wicked Fantasy). The Draega are rabbits mutated into humanoid form to serve as cannon-fodder by vengeful elven lich-wraiths (inspired by the "Suel Lich" from that Greyhawk Creature Catalogue in Dragon) and culturally based on the Shin'hare. Heck, even the Fangwyrms managed to work by spinning "voraciously predatory snake-infused kobolds abandoned by their disgusted creators" to a logical(ish) conclusion.
But I don't have anything like that for Gnolls.
...In fact, I've come to realize Gnomes have a similar problem, in that I know vaguely where they came from - the truly mutated descendants of dwarves - but not how they mutated, or how they differ from their ancestors in any ways other than the physical. I'm fairly confident I want a magitek tinker gnome angle to them, avoiding the comic relief aspect that made Krynn's gnomes to cringingly awful, but beyond that, I could really use someone to spitball ideas with.
But, to get back on topic, I really could use someone to talk to about figuring out what to do with gnolls.
Part of that also revolves around their racial crunch. See, I did a writeup for gnolls I'm quite proud of based on their 4th edition lore (the best lore that WoTC ever gave them), dividing them into Butcher's Brood and Hyena's Soul subraces, plus with the addition of a more magical "Bouda" subrace. Figuring out how to make use of these subraces - whether they're all present, or only one or two exist - will play some part in figuring out a proper "identity" for Malebolge's Gnolls.
In fact... I'm not set on this, just to get it out of the way, but, when one remembers the infamous spotted hyenas, with their bigger, more aggressive and socially dominant females, contrasting the egalitarianism of the striped hyenas, combined with the anatomical issues of the spotted that earned them their mythological reputation as hermaphrodites & genderbenders, and the prominence of striped hyenas in still-practiced African folk magics aimed at bestowing success in love & sexual congress, an idea forms. That the stronger, more aggressive Butcher's Brood "subrace" is used to depict the females of Malebolge Gnolls, with the sleeker and wiser Hyena Souls being males and the Boudas being some third gender - intersex, hermaphrodite, androgynous, whatever - to reference how they stand apart physically and spiritually from the males and females.
Really not set on this idea, gender oddities are fitting for the kobolds and those races descended from them by extension, but I don't want to make every race some kind of sexual oddity - dwarves, orkoids, gnomes, aranea, humans, ratfolk, calibans (okay, maybe there are individual exceptions, but that's because they're mutants), draega, these are all standard humanoid binary gendered races. But, as I tried to say, I can see reasons to support gnolls possibly having some kind of third sex, especially if this is represented by their "magical" race, given how often duality and non-standard sexuality/gender was associated with magical power or divine blessings in real world cultures.
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