D&D 5E What do you want in a Dark Sun book (sans psionics)?

Can you take the psionics out of DS? I ask because I have always been interested in the setting since see Brom's wonderful artwork; however, I despise psionics. Would it really make a difference if I just removed that aspect?

Can you take the gods out of the Forgotten Realms? Can you take the dragons out of Dragonlance?

I mean, yeah, you can. But they're huge focus of the setting. And Psionics is more foundational and central to the lore of Dark Sun than the gods are to the FR. So it would be a bizarre thing to do and none of the lore of that setting would make much sense, but... nobody can stop you?
 

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I don't see Kalidnay as a bad idea, but incomplete. A good writter or scripter could use it to create a fabulous story, maybe about something happens and then the dark domain almost come back to the material plane, like a parallel domain, and this regions receives hits from the both sides, from Athas and the demiplane of dread (usually mind-controller infiltrators by Bluespur), and sometimes lovecraftian/alien invaders from the Far Realm.

In the 4th Ed some "dark domains" were not within the demiplane of the dread. Theses could be used for potential "almost-crossovers" and spin-off where we could add new races or classes.

* Can half-orcs be replaced with "half-tarek"?

* Sometimes I try to imagine how would be an elementalist class with a game mechanic like the mysteries of the shadowcaster (Tome of Magic: Pact, Shadow and Truename).

* Can Athasians travel to any elemental realm within the chaotic limbo?

* The petitioner template was power broken, but.... what if any Athasian souls are reincarnated into petitioners in any region beyond Tyr? Maybe are forced to fight as slave-soldiers by genie sultans against cults of elemental evil.

* We can bet we will see a DS videogame. The good side is the may be a great promotion, but the bad side is the metaplot will be frozen because new videogames need time. If you want a really good videogame you can't ask a new Assasin's Creed or FIFA every year.
 


Any sort of setting crossover considerations will most likely (and correctly) be the absolute last thing DS5e writers will be thinking about. They can probably sneak in a line somewhere about how a mysterious disaster afflicted Kalidnay X years ago, but I don't think much more than that is required. Even at the very peak of its release schedule, Ravenloft really didn't flesh out or know what to do with Kalidnay anyway, it was a pretty perfunctory gesture towards the 'all settings must cross over!' mania from 2e. It COULD be done well I'm sure (a good enough writer can make anything awesome) but it's a matter of priorities and focus.

DS isn't at its core about travelling to other planes or other worlds, it's about surviving the one you're stuck in.
 



Short Answer: Dark Sun AD&D thri-kreen were large but only half-giants got double hit points.

Per page 18 of the Dark Sun boxed set, thri-kreen height averaged 7 feet, and they were 4 feet longer than tall, making them 11 feet long. They also weighed around double a typical human. This put them into a large size category, which was also reflected in the AD&D 2E Monster Manual wherein they were listed as 11' long ("large").

However, the thri-kreen first created in 1982, at least in the conceptual art, looked a lot more like thri-kreen from more current editions.

View attachment 121766

Well, very interesting, its weaponry are looking already like DS Catchka and Gythka and are described as such, and that back in 1982? Wow.

But it says Size M though.
 

Humans are the least changed - but like everyone in DS they have psionics as a baseline.

All the other races are more changed. I think in most cases they'd be fine as a subrace:

Dwarfs - Taller and heavier than AD&D Dwarves, are way more obsessed with their tasks, too getting a mechanic called "focus" - in 5E this might give Proficiency or Advantage on certain rolls. This is a huge deal - they can change their focus (but it has to be a task that is likely to take at least 1 week), but if they die with the task unfinished, they become banshees! DS art typically depicts them as beardless.

Elves - extremely tall and skinny (6'6" to 7'6"), incredible endurance runners, nomadic non-civilized culture. Resistant to heat and cold.

Half-Elves - Athasian Half-Elves are particularly outcast and self-reliant, rather being being big friends with everyone. They learn survival and get an animal companion. Probably change to +2 WIS instead of +2 CHA.

Half-Giant - 10-12ft tall (so no pretending they're not size L), 1600lb massive, well half-giants (the 4E deal where they were Goliaths was just stupid, and I say that liking both 4E and Goliaths, note). Always Lawful in alignment in 2E, but I suspect that could change to a mechanic of some kind in 5E. It's hard to say exactly how their other racial traits could work in 5E without being OP - in 2E they got +4 STR +2 CON and -2 to INT/WIS/CHA, and they doubled their HD rolls (before CON mod). I think really they should develop a 5E equivalent of 3E's "level adjustment" for them, and as everyone else starts at 3rd, them starting at third but getting effectively otherwise being L1 (and thus staying 2 levels behind) could work pretty well. I suspect just maxing their HD rolls would be fine - it's not much more than the Toughness Feat, which is legendarily

Weirdly they weren't much of a problem in 2E, and people weren't even that keen on playing them.

Halflings - Terrifying little cannibals with a kind of Darmok and Jalad thing going on. Ability-wise they're basically Halflings so could definitely be a subrace.

Humans - more exciting colours than usual (including ones not regarded as human), and then tend to be mutated in minor ways (as befits a post-apocalypse).

Mul - Half-Dwarf, Half-Human, all endurance. 6'+, completely hairless, ripped, and capable of working for literally days on end without any kind of rest (beyond eating/drinking). Sterile. Bred as slaves. Had +2 STR, +1 CON in 2E, probably would in 5E too. They'd probably ignore the first two levels of Exhaustion they acquired in 5E (at least), and that would refresh on a long rest.

Thri-Kreen - Massive (size L again, but I suspect M versions would be okay, I guess, and I'm pretty sure they used size M weapons, because their limbs aren't that big) Praying Mantises who can talk and think and so on (not humanoid at all). 4 limbs (doesn't give extra attacks, though they can bite as well - probably make that a bonus action in 5E), significant natural armour (AC5 in 2E, probably AC13 or 14 in 5E, because natural ACs tend to be lower), bite and claw attacks (only 1d4 damage though), massive leap (20' up or 50' fowards), know how to throw crystal chakrams, can dodge missiles due to fast reflexes. Also at 5th they could paralyze-poison people with their bite (would be a Feat in 5E). +2 DEX +1 WIS, prob. would stay the same in 5E.

Aarakocra are also buzzing around, and could be used largely unaltered (save for adding Psionics). Pterrans we're not going to talk about because they're just dumb rubbish lizardmen and their addition to the setting as a playable race is one of the most inexplicable things that happened in the second 2E boxed set (which was complete drivel compared to the first - I blame the Prism Pentad, some of the worst D&D fantasy novels, which is saying something!

As for later races, Genasi and Dragonborn (Dray) are a natural fit, but Tieflings (sorry guys...) and others... no.

Pretty good summary, some corrections, I might remember it wrong though, so correct me back if I misremembered:

Halfgiants had one fixed part of alignment and one with a chance of shifting between the extremes each day, so they where a bit of split personality: e.g. A half giant would shift between lawful neutral and chaotic neutral with or lawful good and lawful evil. in the first example neutral would never change, in the second lawful.

I think Muls PC were all males, and Thrikreen all female, due to female Muls would be of lesser use as a heavy duty worker or fighter and also of no use to breed because of sterile. With Thrikreen, males were drones, and probably decapacitated after mating (like with RL Mantis)

Halfelves, was the animal companion a 4e thing?

The cannibalism aspect should play some major role for roleplaying e.g.:

Halflings and Thrikreen would not let anything go to waste: even fallen comrades could provide nutrition and water, enemies same. Other races are eventually disgusted by that behavior.

Also loyality is a bit difficult, a Thrikreen sees an adventuring group it joins as his pack. A Halfling eventually might be more loyal to other halflings encuountered than to his PC group.

@Morrus could you please switch of the autocorrect which makes an I always capital? it is always enerving that every in xyz becomes I nxyz which has to be manually corrected back
 

With Thrikreen, males were drones, and probably decapacitated after mating (like with RL Mantis)
Nah, Thri-kreen were both. Only time there were only female-only Kreen were with one of the subraces who were based on flower mantids and were bright pink. Also one of the video games for whatever reason

EDIT: The game had half-giants and kreen locked to a single gender each due to sprite limits if I remember right.

Speaking of, I want the full set of Kreen subraces
 


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