Lizardfolks in Dragon #268

Status
Not open for further replies.

Shade

Monster Junkie
On second thought...

I just compared the Malatran lizard man to the Monstrous Manual lizard man, and they are almost word-for-word the same writeup. Only the Int is different and a small name-drop to a Malatran human tribe and the bit about "wetting themselves" :heh:. I'm not sure I'd classify them as a separate creature.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Maxxx26

First Post
Yes, they are nearly identical, so that should be it. I am currently using all of them in a campaign and its works very well, thanks for all the help.
 

freyar

Extradimensional Explorer
Maxxx26 said:
Yes, they are nearly identical, so that should be it. I am currently using all of them in a campaign and its works very well, thanks for all the help.
I think there will actually be one more lizardfolk race coming up (judging from posts in the "Paging Echohawk" thread). So don't disappear too soon! ;)
 

Shade

Monster Junkie
freyar said:
I think there will actually be one more lizardfolk race coming up (judging from posts in the "Paging Echohawk" thread). So don't disappear too soon! ;)

There is a prophet among us! :p

Malpheggi Lizard Men

The Malpheggi are a race of swamp-dwelling lizard men. They're sly and cunning survivors, among the most mercenarty sentient races of the Hollow World, and challenge the notion that lizard men are just dumb brutes with scaly hides.

Appearance and Dress
Malpheggi lizard men stand from 6' to 7' tall. They stand like men, walking on two lower legs and manipulating weapons and objects with their forelimbs. But they are very reptilian in appearance, with fine-scaled skin, lizard-like heads, and strong tails. Their hands and feet are clawed and are webbed (to help propel them when they swim) between their digits.
Malpheggi coloration ranges from yellow through all sorts of greens, to pure black; a very few Malpheggi lizard men are albino (pure white, with pink eyes).
Malpheggi lizard men don't wear clothes, but do wear belts and baldrics for their weapon-sheathes and other useful pouches.

Customs
Malpheggi lizard men are cunning and suspicious. They trust one another, and can come to trust representatives of other races who prove their trustworthiness over a period of years, but will otherwise never take someone at face value.
These lizard men are very protective of their young and their swamp. The swamp is theirs, and anyone entering it had best be bringing them gifts or business, or at least be willing to leave by the most direct route when confronted by a lizard man... otherwise, the intruder will find himself chased out or killed as soon as possible.
They're a clever race. They don't care for direct confrontation, they don't stand up in front of intruders in combat lines and allow themselves to be conveniently cut down. Instead, they use the terrain to their advantage, swimming stealthily beneath the black surface of the water, kidnapping stragglers from intruder parties, ambushing scouts, whittling down the numbers of opposition.
They're mercenaries. They hire out their services to anyone willing to pay their price. Their usual services include guiding war-parties through the fringes of the swamps so those parties can launch sneak attacks on nearby enemies, or to accompany war-parties on aquatic expeditions (in order to scout out enemy positions, cut subterranean nets or harbor defenses, etc.).
Most Malpheggi lizard men worship the Immortal Ka, who is their patron.

Names
Malpheggi names are short and sibilant, using many consonants and diphthongs which can easily be hissed: 'f', 'h', 'l', 'r', 's', and 'sh' especially.
Names such as Sliss, Haarss, Hlaar, Shlirt, and so forth are very common.

Roles and Genders
By ancient tradition, the Malpheggi are ruled by a queen. Beyond that tradition, males and females are equal in stature.

Language
The Malpheggi speak their own lizard man tongue, the dragon language, and the Neathar human language.

Allies and Enemies
The Malpheggi sell their services as scouts and warriors to the Azcans and the Schattenalfen, but do not like or trust representatives of either or those races. The Malpheggi help the Azcans against the Schattenalfen, and the Schattenalfen against the Azcans; they lead the Azcans against the Oltecs; and they have no personal interest in any of these struggles.
The Malpheggi do hate one sort of human, the Nithians, whom they remember from their most ancient legends. Though no living Malpheggi lizard man has ever seen a Nithian, were he to see a human matching the description of Nithians, he'd fly into a murderous rage. In ancient times, the Nithians of the outer world brought a fatal plague to the outer-world lizard men and nearly destroyed the race.

The Malatran lizard men have been expunged from the "to be converted list". Here are the Malpheggi, please excuse the slight delay:

New Character Race: Malpheggi Lizard Men
If you want to create a Malpheggi lizard man character, here is how you do it:

Racial Ability Modifiers
Malpheggi lizard men receive a +2 bonus to Strength ability scores, and a -2 to Dexterity. (Change all results of 19 or 20 to 18's instead, and results of 1 or 2 to 3's instead.) In spite of popular belief, Malpheggi lizard men do not suffer penalties on Intelligence scores.

Saving Throw Table
Lizard men save as clerics of the same experience level:

Level 1-4 5-8 9-12
Death Ray or Poison 11 9 7
Magic Wands 12 10 8
Paralysis or Turn to Stone 14 12 10
Dragon Breath 16 14 12
Rod/Staff/Spell 15 13 11

Experience Table
Malpheggi lizard men can rise to 12th experience level, according to the following table:

Experience Experience Hit
Level Points Dice
1st 0 1d8
2nd 1,500 2d8
3rd 3,000 3d8
4th 6,000 4d8
5th 12,000 --
6th 25,000 5d8
7th 50,000 6d8
8th 100,000 7d8
9th 200,000 8d8
10th 300,000 --
11th 400,000 9d8
12th 500,000 10d8

Gaining New General Skill Slots
Above 12th level, the ceiling for Malpheggi characters, the lizard men get another general skill slot with every 400,00 points earned.

Prime Requisite
Strength is the prime requisite for Malpheggi lizard men. A lizard man with a Strength score of 15 gets +5% experience bonus; one with a score of 18 gets a +10% bonus.

Minimum Scores
A Malpheggi lizard man must have a score of at least 13 in Strength and 9 in Constitution.

Weapons and Armor
Weapons and armor permitted to Malpheggi lizard men include these:
Cultural Melee Weapons: Axe/battle, axe/hand, dagger, sword/short, sword/normal (broad), sword/bastard, hammer/war, hammer/throwing, spear, javelin, trident, net.
Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow/light, crossbow/heavy.
Cultural Armor: Shields only (horned shield, knife shield, sword shield, tusked shield allowed).
Shamans Can Use: Axes and hammers, shields.
Wokani Can Use: Dagger, net.

Shamans and Wokani
Malpheggi lizard men can reach 6th level as shamans and 4th as wokani.

Special Hindrances
Lizard men can wear no armor, though they can carry shields (and thus lower their AC by 1).

Special Abilities
These lizard men have numerous special abilities:
Though they are slow on land than many other races, they aren't as slow as most lizard men. Their land movement rate is 90' (30').
They can breath water, as in the spell of the same name, but with unlimited duration; they swim very well, and have a swimming rate of 120' (40').
Lizard men have a naturally tough hide; they have a basic AC of 5.
Even when unarmed, Malpheggi lizard men still have their claws. When striking barehanded, with their claws, they get two 1d4 attacks.

Languages
Malpheggi lizard men speak their own language, the dragon language, and Common (Neathar).

Alignment
Lizard men may be of any alignment, but most are neutral.

General Skills
Malpheggi lizard men must take the Survival (Swamp) general skill.
 


freyar

Extradimensional Explorer
Parsing through all that:
  • +5 natural armor
  • 2 claw attacks at 1d4 damage (primary, + 1-1/2 Str?)
  • Just 30 ft land speed? Normal lizardfolk in 3e are not particularly slow.
  • Swim speed (30 ft?) and water breathing.

For abilities, do we want to go with this
Racial Ability Modifiers
Malpheggi lizard men receive a +2 bonus to Strength ability scores, and a -2 to Dexterity. (Change all results of 19 or 20 to 18's instead, and results of 1 or 2 to 3's instead.) In spite of popular belief, Malpheggi lizard men do not suffer penalties on Intelligence scores.
or this
Minimum Scores
A Malpheggi lizard man must have a score of at least 13 in Strength and 9 in Constitution.
? The latter would seem to indicate that a roll of 3 on 3d6 should be boosted to 13 and 9 for Str and Con respectively, which gives racial bonuses of +10 and +6. Too high?
 

Shade

Monster Junkie
Malpheggi lizard men receive a +2 bonus to Strength ability scores, and a -2 to Dexterity. (Change all results of 19 or 20 to 18's instead, and results of 1 or 2 to 3's instead.) In spite of popular belief, Malpheggi lizard men do not suffer penalties on Intelligence scores.

Well that part was easy. ;)

Weapons and Armor
Weapons and armor permitted to Malpheggi lizard men include these:
Cultural Melee Weapons: Axe/battle, axe/hand, dagger, sword/short, sword/normal (broad), sword/bastard, hammer/war, hammer/throwing, spear, javelin, trident, net.
Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow/light, crossbow/heavy.
Cultural Armor: Shields only (horned shield, knife shield, sword shield, tusked shield allowed).
Shamans Can Use: Axes and hammers, shields.
Wokani Can Use: Dagger, net.

Go with a few of the cultural melee weapons on the attack lines?

Special Hindrances
Lizard men can wear no armor, though they can carry shields (and thus lower their AC by 1).

Depending on the weapon selection, we can give our sample guy a shield.

Though they are slow on land than many other races, they aren't as slow as most lizard men. Their land movement rate is 90' (30').

Since standard lizardfolk are 30 ft., bump the land speed to 40 feet?

They can breath water, as in the spell of the same name, but with unlimited duration; they swim very well, and have a swimming rate of 120' (40').

Interesting. So true water breathing rather than hold breath, like so?

Water Breathing (Ex): A black dragon can breathe underwater indefinitely and can freely use its breath weapon, spells, and other abilities while submerged.

We've got our swim speed.

Lizard men have a naturally tough hide; they have a basic AC of 5.

+5 natural armor bonus?

Even when unarmed, Malpheggi lizard men still have their claws. When striking barehanded, with their claws, they get two 1d4 attacks.

Same as standard lizardfolk.

Malpheggi lizard men speak their own language, the dragon language, and Common (Neathar).

Retain the own language? Draconic and Common?

Lizard men may be of any alignment, but most are neutral.

That answers that.

Malpheggi lizard men must take the Survival (Swamp) general skill.

Racial bonus on Survival skill?
 

freyar

Extradimensional Explorer
Heheh, I think you missed my post at the same time (just above). I agree with most of what you say, with these exceptions:

The malpheggi are supposed to be slow on land compared to most races, but 30ft is already the norm for medium creatures. Maybe normal lizardfolk were extra slow. I don't think we should increase the speed past 30ft.

Let's just go with Draconic and Common.

There is this bit about the ability scores that might contradict the racial bonus line:
Minimum Scores
A Malpheggi lizard man must have a score of at least 13 in Strength and 9 in Constitution.
If you always get a 13 by rolling, that means a Str bonus of +10 and similarly a +6 in Con. Not sure what to make of this.
 

Shade

Monster Junkie
Oops..we sure did. :lol:

As for the Con score, back in 1e, you used to have to meet certain ability score prereqs to play certain classes. I think they were trying a similar approach here, with the race being similar to a class progression. If that's the case, you wouldn't get a bonus, just simply couldn't play the character you wanted unless you met the prereqs (or had a merciful DM).

Yeah, the old days were harsh. :p
 


Status
Not open for further replies.
Remove ads

Top