Nyaricus' New Campaign Races - Take II

[Nyaricus]

Well, in the Crash, I lost all of my races that I had statted up (silly me for not having them on my HD :\ ) and I have finally decided to do a 'take two' on them, since I really liked quite a few of them. These are for a campign featuring none of the standard D&D races, so be prepared for new takes on old races and tons of new ideas. The idea for this thread is to post 'em up, get some feedback on balance, and end up with a bunch of races LA +0 or +1.

There are three main regions I am focusing on ATM - an archipelago ruled mainly by a large human empire with many surrounding areas in contested control; a large plains area featuring many cities and locals with a nearby mountain range with passages to the underdark more common then normal; and a "New World" area with thick jungles, massive mountain ranges, volcanoes and undiscovered civilizations. Here are the races, divided by region.

The Plains - Region I

• Ibixians: a barbarous plains-dwelling goatmen who have had a recent religious and cultural schizm involving Orcus.
• Lidra: a chaotic, impassioned race of slight size, Lidra's are fey resembling short, golden-skinned elves, they are infused with the elemental power of lightning and can call it to their hands and will.
• Chitine: an alien race from the depths of the earth, these four-armed, four-legged spiderfolk are a race of rich merchants and crafty wizards.
• Frey: a deft race of catfolk who live in human cities, these civilized people are quick and intelligent fighters with a crafty wit, a love of hats with big poofy feathers and are often courtisans and bodyguards for humans.
• Kobolds: a wiry race of survivors living on the fringes of the land; they worship dragons as gods and beleive to obtain power from them.

The Archipelago - Region II

• Sharvellan: an intimidating shark-like race; these formidal people are comfortable both in and out of water.
• Hadozee: a race of wanderlust-taken ship monkeys who have skin-flaps which enable them to glide short distances.
• Kruppi: a race of pushy, xenophobic, sorcererous frogmen who are oftentimes exasperating to deal with. They have a superiority complexe, but are so egotistical that they will push themselves to interact with the 'lesser' races even is they feel the need to puke (or what have you).
• Thri-Kreen: a serene race of hunter-gatherers who roam the beaches, occanionally trading with the other races but often sticking to themselves. They can, however, be fierce opponents, honed by years of hunting.
• Vanara: a cousin to the Hadozee, the Vanara are a peaceful, spiritual race of shamans and holy-chimps who speak with the dead and live in vast tree-cities.

The New World - Region III
[please note these are going to be NPC races, so they won't be as fleshed-out]

• Saurians: a peaceful race of lizardfolk, lost to all civilizations.
• Gruugs: a small but powerful race of dogfolk who are cannabalistic savages not above eating other sentient races.
• Touku: a timid race of birdfolk who know great secrets.

please note that this list is by no means exhastive (I have a few more/want a few more ideas) and that it will be a while to get up all of these entries, but this is the start for the moment. I'd appreciate any comments on anythign thusfar, and will be posting up races ASAP. Thanks for the support everyone

 

[SpiralBound]

There are three main regions I am focusing on ATM - an archipelago ruled mainly by a large human empire with many surrounding areas in contested control; a large plains area featuring many cities and locals with a nearby mountain range with passages to the underdark more common then normal; and a "New World" area with thick jungles, massive mountain ranges, volcanoes and undiscovered civilizations. Here are the races, divided by region.

Got a map? Or is that part of what you want to create here as well?

The Plains - Region I
Ibixians: a barbarous plains-dwelling goatmen who have had a recent religious and cultural schizm.

Very interesting... Looking forward to seeing how these get fleshed out.

Lidra: a slight fey race, born of thunder and lightning. They are an impassioned folk, full of whim and fancy.

Do you mean literally made of thunder and lightning, or are you speaking more of their mannerisms and culture?

Chitine: an alien race from the depths of the earth, these four-armed spiderfolk are a race of rich merchants and crafty wizards.

How many limbs in total? 4 arms and 4 legs? 4 arms and 2 legs? Unless you have a VERY GOOD story based reason that both requires that they HAVE to be spiders and also believably explains decreasing their number of limbs, I would STRONGLY recommend against 6 limbed spiderfolk. It's not worth the "but spiders have 8 legs!!" hassle!

Frey: a deft race of catfolk who live in human cities. These civilized people are quick and intelligent fighters with a crafty wit and a love of hats with big poofy feathers.

[mini-rant]Does it HAVE to be catfolk? I swear some days it really feels like catfolk and elven subraces will swallow all other fantasy RPG races one day... 90% of the time I see a thread with "please critique my new race" in the title, I can bet money that the "new and exciting, never before seen" race is a catman with characteristics like the posters' favourite childhood pet tabby...[/mini-rant]

I like the idea and theme that you're using for the Frey culture, and pretty much all your other races are quite different from other home brews I've seen. How about Rabbitfolk? Ottermen? Hedgehog? Prairiedog? Catfolk are so, so... done, done, done... It taints your otherwise original-feeling setting with a distinct undertone of YAAHBCR (yet another amateur home brew cat race). Give my comments some thought... I mean them as insight, not insult.

Kobolds: a wiry race of survivors living on the fringes of the land; they worship dragons as gods and veleive to obtain power from them.

Borderline in terms of originality, especially when you toss "dragon-worshipping" on top, but still it has potential depending on where you take it.

The Archipelago - Region II
Sharvellan: an intimidating, sea-dwelling race; these formidal people are comfortable both in and out of water.

A bit sparse on the physical nature of this one... Sealmen? Otterfolk? Legged dolphins? Octapusmen? Sentient sea-cucumber? A little description goes a loooong way. I'm interested, but I need more before I care.

Hadozee: a race of wanderlust-taken ship monkeys who has skin-flaps which enable them to glide short distances.

Now that's just too frigg'n cool! I can't wait to see this get statted up! See, now THAT's in the same caliber as your Ibixians, Lidra and Chitine! Tell me more!

Kruppi: a race of pushy, sorcererous frogmen who are oftentimes exasperating to deal with.

Could be good... Gonna have to be careful to not stereotype them too much, otherwise they'll start feeling like froggy Ferrengi except as casters instead of counters! So long as they're fleshed out enough so that they aren't one dimensional, thay should be cool and fun to play though.

Thri-Kreen: a serene race of hunter-gatherers who roam the beaches, occanionally trading with the other races but often sticking to themselves.

Cool, and I like Thri-Kreen, however I do have a suggestion that may fit your apparent purpose and theme for them better... Instead of the mantis-men Thri-Kreen, why not have a race evolved from Lobster, Crab, or even Hermitcrabs... You'd get many of the same basic features, plus a bunch of beach-appropriate coolness and originality! I bet that creating a race of hermitcrab shore-dwellers will be loads of fun!

Vanara: a cousin to the Hadozee, the Vanara are a peaceful, spiritual race of shamans and holy-chimps who speak with the dead and live in vast tree-cities.

I would suggest that you make the Vanara simply another culture of the Hadozee rather than an actual separate race. You run the risk of giving this particular pair of races a "Planet of The Apes" feel if you make the monkey-men and the chimp-men be totally different yet obviously similar simian races. At that point, where are the Orangutang Nobles and the Apemen Fighters and Barbarians... If you want the Vanara to be slightly bigger and stockier, (chimp vs. monkey), you can easily explain that as being an environmentally-induced difference due to the fact that the Vanara lead a more ground-based island lifestyle as opposed to the more active, freewheelin', capt'n Jack Sparrow style of shipbound swashbucklers that the Hadozee appear to be.

The New World - Region III
Saurians: a peaceful race of lizardfolk, lost to all civilizations.

May be good, it's hard to tell just yet until you add more info. You should make them be an interesting contrast to the Kobolds...

Gruugs: a small but powerful race of dogfolk who are cannabalistic savages not above eating other sentient races.

Specifically to balance the catfolk? This hasn't been done to death though so it may be interesting and worthy. Your decription doesn't sound much different from Gnolls. Is there a reason to not simply make a PC race version of Gnolls and call them Gruugs? Using Gnolls as Gruugs could be good.

Kenku: a timid race of birdfolk who know great secrets.

I may be misremembering this, but weren't the Kenku those odd snap-turtle people from Oriental Adventures? Unless you're deliberately aiming for that connotation, you might want to use a different race name. Also, this is another case where a physical description would be invaluable. When you say "birdfolk" should I be picturing Pelicanmen, albatrossmen, crowmen, vulturemen, sparrowmen, eaglemen, chickenmen, or what? See what I mean? From Pelican to Sparrow to Eagle to Chicken is quite the wide range of possible "birdfolk"!!

please note that this list is by no means exhastive (I have a few more/want a few more ideas) and that it will be a while to get up all of these entries, but this is the start for the moment. I'd appreciate any comments on anythign thusfar, and will be posting up races ASAP. Thanks for the support everyone

Really? Even more races? Sounds like plenty already. You sure you want a world with over 20 plus PC races? Trying to balance all the ones you propose above is a big task as it is... If you want more diversity, consider giving each of the races multiple cultures (similar to my idea of combining the Hadozee and the Vanara). Our real world have only one race, humans, but there are hundreds of different cultures and world viewpoints. If "all" you do is create 2-3 cultures for each of the races above, you'll have 24 to 36 different styles of "races" to build characters from in any combinations of whatever classes you add to your world. That's a LOT of diversity right there!!

 

[Nyaricus]

Thanks for all the great questions, SpiralBound, your feedback on a few (rough) drafts on my new races was great

Got a map? Or is that part of what you want to create here as well?

I will eventually be drawing a map, but for now we are mapless. I'll be sharing once I got one though, so don't worry

Very interesting... Looking forward to seeing how these get fleshed out.

Thanks. Basically, they were Orcus worshippers, until a high priest came out that he actually worshipped Ettutt, a good nature god. This ripped tribes in half and now some continue to worship demons while others are now under the guidance of this high priest and his new god.

Do you mean literally made of thunder and lightning, or are you speaking more of their mannerisms and culture?

Basically, they say they were born of lightning, but no one can really say They are like the Uldra (from Frostburn) except lightning based (rather than cold). They'll be getting a few appropriate abilities, and they are of the Fey type.

How many limbs in total? 4 arms and 4 legs? 4 arms and 2 legs? Unless you have a VERY GOOD story based reason that both requires that they HAVE to be spiders and also believably explains decreasing their number of limbs, I would STRONGLY recommend against 6 limbed spiderfolk. It's not worth the "but spiders have 8 legs!!" hassle!

These originally appeared in 3.x in the Monsters of Faerun book, and they will have 4 arms and 4 legs (like a messed-up centaur), which is contrary to the 2 legged, 4 armed version in said sourcebook.. Small sized, really greedy and sadistic. Think of the greed with which a dwarf hoards his gold + Thayan mentality, and you got it

[mini-rant]Does it HAVE to be catfolk? I swear some days it really feels like catfolk and elven subraces will swallow all other fantasy RPG races one day... 90% of the time I see a thread with "please critique my new race" in the title, I can bet money that the "new and exciting, never before seen" race is a catman with characteristics like the posters' favourite childhood pet tabby...[/mini-rant]

]I like the idea and theme that you're using for the Frey culture, and pretty much all your other races are quite different from other home brews I've seen. How about Rabbitfolk? Ottermen? Hedgehog? Prairiedog? Catfolk are so, so... done, done, done... It taints your otherwise original-feeling setting with a distinct undertone of YAAHBCR (yet another amateur home brew cat race). Give my comments some thought... I mean them as insight, not insult.

You MUST have heard of Puss-in-Boots (not the Shrek one, I hope). Well, that's basically it. Take metropolitian halfings (in cat form) with a duelist flair, a crafty wit, a hat with a big, poofy feather and a pair of boots and you got it man. I completely know you dont mean it as an insult, but I'll put it to you this way - while, to you, this is YAAHBCR, to my players this will be their FIRST AHBCR

I have some good ideas for mechanics too, so just wait a bit more - maybe I'll post em first, just to see what you think about the crunch and full fluff.

Borderline in terms of originality, especially when you toss "dragon-worshipping" on top, but still it has potential depending on where you take it.

I am using the new Dragon Shaman class from PHBII for them, because I really want to have some non-standard classes for favoured class. And the kobold sorcerer is so cliche - that's why I used frog people

A bit sparse on the physical nature of this one... Sealmen? Otterfolk? Legged dolphins? Octapusmen? Sentient sea-cucumber? A little description goes a loooong way. I'm interested, but I need more before I care.

oops, sorry. They are a Shark-based race, and steal a lot from the Darfellasn from Stormwrack, except these guys are meaner

Now that's just too frigg'n cool! I can't wait to see this get statted up! See, now THAT's in the same caliber as your Ibixians, Lidra and Chitine! Tell me more!

THAT's stolen *almost* wholesale from the Hadozee from Stormwrack. I really liekd the race, but I'll be giving them their own flair on top of that neat description

Could be good... Gonna have to be careful to not stereotype them too much, otherwise they'll start feeling like froggy Ferrengi except as casters instead of counters! So long as they're fleshed out enough so that they aren't one dimensional, thay should be cool and fun to play though.

Basically, they are xenophobic and have a superiority complexe, but so egotistical that they will push themselves to interact with the 'lesser' races even is they feel the need to puke, or whatever. I'll be expanding on that

Cool, and I like Thri-Kreen, however I do have a suggestion that may fit your apparent purpose and theme for them better... Instead of the mantis-men Thri-Kreen, why not have a race evolved from Lobster, Crab, or even Hermitcrabs... You'd get many of the same basic features, plus a bunch of beach-appropriate coolness and originality! I bet that creating a race of hermitcrab shore-dwellers will be loads of fun!

Actually, I did infact toy with that idea. There is the Yurian fro 3.x Fiend Folio, and the Crabman from Tome of Horrors, 3.0 (same critter, differnt name). I might end up doing somehting like that for another race. I think Cleric or Druid might be a good favoured class, but we'll see

As for the thri-kreen, on my first take I had only good things said about the fluff adn crunch - so they are stayin for sure

I would suggest that you make the Vanara simply another culture of the Hadozee rather than an actual separate race. You run the risk of giving this particular pair of races a "Planet of The Apes" feel if you make the monkey-men and the chimp-men be totally different yet obviously similar simian races. At that point, where are the Orangutang Nobles and the Apemen Fighters and Barbarians... If you want the Vanara to be slightly bigger and stockier, (chimp vs. monkey), you can easily explain that as being an environmentally-induced difference due to the fact that the Vanara lead a more ground-based island lifestyle as opposed to the more active, freewheelin', capt'n Jack Sparrow style of shipbound swashbucklers that the Hadozee appear to be.

Actually, the Hadozee are gonna have rogue as favoured class, but with plenty of 'capt'n Jack Sparrow-style shipbound swashbuckling goodness

The Vanara are truely a race apart from the Hadozee nowadays. They think different. They live different. They look different. I suppose itll take some more fluff and crunch to make that clearer, so just take my word for this

May be good, it's hard to tell just yet until you add more info. You should make them be an interesting contrast to the Kobolds...

They are a lost civilization not availiable for the PCs. The 'New World' area is where the PCs are going to be traveling to, but this thread will help me with baalcning them anyways, so it's all good

Specifically to balance the catfolk? This hasn't been done to death though so it may be interesting and worthy. Your decription doesn't sound much different from Gnolls. Is there a reason to not simply make a PC race version of Gnolls and call them Gruugs? Using Gnolls as Gruugs could be good.

Not to balacne the catfolk at all - they are just a savage race of bushwhackers and man-eaters. You guessed well that they are vaguely based-off gnolls, but I am going to make them nastier than that by far. Atatls will be used with deadly efficientcy, and they like the taste of blood. They are also going to be small size with the powerful build ability (treat as medium-sized for weapons and stuff). I really think a 4-foot-tall pack of spear-throwing dog-men will be a terrifying experience for my players I have more info on an encounter if you want

I may be misremembering this, but weren't the Kenku those odd snap-turtle people from Oriental Adventures? Unless you're deliberately aiming for that connotation, you might want to use a different race name. Also, this is another case where a physical description would be invaluable. When you say "birdfolk" should I be picturing Pelicanmen, albatrossmen, crowmen, vulturemen, sparrowmen, eaglemen, chickenmen, or what? See what I mean? From Pelican to Sparrow to Eagle to Chicken is quite the wide range of possible "birdfolk"!!

Kappa were the turtle people you're thinking of. Kenku are infact a race of crow-people who have a cool name, is all. They are in MM3. Actually, I didn't have an idea of what I wanted to look like specifically until you asked, and immediatly what sprang to mind was Toucan Sam So, they are going to be Toucan People

Really? Even more races? Sounds like plenty already. You sure you want a world with over 20 plus PC races? Trying to balance all the ones you propose above is a big task as it is... If you want more diversity, consider giving each of the races multiple cultures (similar to my idea of combining the Hadozee and the Vanara). Our real world have only one race, humans, but there are hundreds of different cultures and world viewpoints. If "all" you do is create 2-3 cultures for each of the races above, you'll have 24 to 36 different styles of "races" to build characters from in any combinations of whatever classes you add to your world. That's a LOT of diversity right there!!

Oh, there will be cultures, but some regional feats will take care of that. As for more races, you yourself have given me ideas for one or two more, so we'll see what makes the cut

Thanks again for all the great feedback

 

[SpiralBound]

Hi Nyaricus, I'm glad that you took my comments as intended. I knew that I was questioning some of your proposed ideas and I was a bit concerned that you might take offence, and that wasn't my intent at all. Now, as for your races, I do have some more comments / suggestions based on your last post. I'll try to cover each race separately. First, though I have some more general questions.

Are these races going to be created so that their cultures and such are intended to be in the same world? Or to put it another way, will each race have built into them the assumption that they are part of a world that is already interacting with the other races of this world, or will they be more stand-alone in their structure and descriptions. While either way will work, I would cast my vote for a more integrated approach than the stand-alone, "plug and play" approach. While it may be cool to use some of your races in our own home-brews, I think that YOUR world will benefit from having the races be built such that not only do we know about them, but we know how they feel about and interact with the other races of your world as well.

How "blended" are the different races? By this I mean, just how much interaction is there between the different races? Are they all aware of and routinely interacting with each other? ("Good day Mr. Thryxellixphix, and how are Mrs. Thryxellixphix and the hatchlings?") Does only certain members of some races know of other races? ("Lord Jarellia, there are strange beasts wearing clothing camped outside of Moorsdale!" "Hmmm, do they have a pair of horns or do they have enormous hats? Hats? Ahh.. I know what they are...") Are there locations that are the only places where different races mix or do all cities have a mishmash of multiple races represented? ("Welcome to the Ibixian Quarter! They make the best barley soup you've ever tasted! Just don't talk religion with them, okay? It's a touchy subject.")

There are many different ways you can mix-and-match this, of course. Some races may be more isolated and therefore mostly unaware of even the existance of some or all of the other races. ("Ahh! What are THOSE THINGS!!") Some races may technically know that other races do exist, but the average member may never have seen any of them and the general population may have the wildest beliefs about what those other races are "really" like... ("Well, my Uncle told me that at night all Freyans sprout wings and fly off into the night, drinking the souls of those who are caught alone in the light of the full moon!") Perhaps some races have cities that routinely do trade with other races and the inhabitants of those cities may be more blase about it all in comparison to their more rural equivalents. ("Yeah, so it's a Chitine silk merchant, we see them here all the time, big deal.")


Ibixians

So, what of their physical nature and their racial origins can you tell me?

Lidra

I'm still not clear in their physical nature. Can you describe them?

Chitine

Until you write more about these guys, I don't have anything to add or ask.

Frey

Well... making them small will make them slightly different, and the original Puss in Boots was quite cool - that calm and serene, "anything can be accomplished" demeanour of his was particularly neat. Also, if you can resist the urge to make them "soooo kewl and feral!!1! Like miniature lions!!" then they won't be totally horrible. My vote is still for badgermen or the like instead of catmen, but I do see your reasoning. I'll reserve abject and unbridled hatred until I've seen more!

Kobolds

Using the Dragon Shaman is appropriate, but not enough in my mind to make them drastically different than several other builds of "Kobolds as PCs" that I've seen before. Still, I'm not complaining about them. With some good development, Kobold PCs can be cool. Especially since it sounds like you have some direction to take their culture in terms of fleshing them out.

Sharvellan

Sharkmen. Gotcha. Do they have gills? Are they limited in how long they can stay above water? Just how... shark-like vs. man-like are they? Or in other words, where along the spectrum of "sharks that can walk" to "man with a shark's head" are they?

Hadozee

I'm not familar with Stormwrack so it looked like a totally original idea to me when I read it. Way to go with savagely bursting my bubble! Seriously though, original or not, I'm looking forward to reading that "additional flair" you mentioned.

Kruppi

Quite the interesting mindset. You should have them consider themselves to be noble in appearance in comparison to the other races as well. Have Kruppi femaise consider the males of other races to be beastial and loathsome. Turn the whole "gross frogs" stereotype on it's head!

Thri-Kreen

Okay. As I said, I personally like Thri-Kreen, but I still stand by my claim that for the purpose as you first wrote it, some form of crabmen sounds more appropriate.

Vanara

I'll buy what you're saying, but at least take under advisement my "beware of the veneer of Planet of The Apes" warning and take actions to make sure that people won't make such comparisons.

Saurians

Are you going to make them a group of semi-related races as the Saurians were in AD&D (Triceratops-men, Pteradactyl-men, T-Rex-Men, and Stegosaurus-Men), or do you have something else in mind? I personally thought that the old AD&D approach was decidedly ...odd. Kinda like if a new race called the "Mammallians" were created and included the sub-races of a Kangaroo-man, an Elephant-man, a Tiger-man and a Bat-man. Calling them all the same race, just semi-related, sub-races of the main Mammallian race...

Instead, I think that it would be really neat if you took a distinctive specific dinosaur as the base origin stock and made that race unique. Take a Raptor race or an Iguanadon or perhaps even create a sentient form of the Stenonychosaurus as palaeontologist Dale Russell did in the early 1980's. That, plus a really well developed and interesting culture, would more than make up for the lack of Triceratops-men being related to Stegosaurus-men...

Gruugs

It all sounds good. However, just so that you know, the Gnolls are already as bad as you want to make the Gruugs. Take a read of this:

Gnolls are hyena-headed, evil humanoids that wander in loose tribes. Most gnolls have dirty yellow or reddish-brown fur. A gnoll is a nocturnal carnivore, preferring intelligent creatures for food because they scream more. A gnoll is about 7½ feet tall and weighs 300 pounds.

That's pretty nasty all by itself!! Although I am intrigued by your plans to make them small sized. That will certainly mix things up a little! It almost makes them sound like 2nd Ed. AD&D Kobolds were before the whole "Kobolds are descended from Dragons" bandwagon started up...


Kenku

Ah, MM3. Another book that I don't own... envy, envy. You own or have access to a lot of books which I don't. As for making them Toucan-people, cool!! If you're going to do that though, might I suggest you change the race name? After all, if a race of crow-people named "Kenku" already officially exist, then you're only adding needless confusion in the minds of players for no obvious gain.

Other Races...

I gave you race ideas? On top of the as-yet-unposted additional races that you mentioned in your first post? Was it the octipus-men? Ooh boy! This is going to be a really crowded campaign world!!

Overall, despite any objections I outline above, I'm really looking forward to reading more about your campaign world. I'll gladly continue my current role of "asker of questions", "requester of clarifications". "raiser of objections", and generalized "disturber of fecal matter"!

 

[Nyaricus]

Hi Nyaricus, I'm glad that you took my comments as intended. I knew that I was questioning some of your proposed ideas and I was a bit concerned that you might take offence, and that wasn't my intent at all. Now, as for your races, I do have some more comments / suggestions based on your last post. I'll try to cover each race separately. First, though I have some more general questions.

Spiral Bound, let me put it this way: your feedback is some of the nicest, most in-depth I've ever gotten from an EN Worlder (barring a few - Genshou, Aus Snow, Raven Crowking, Luthien Greyspear, DamionW and a few others have also had some great convos with me). You sound like a great guy, just from the way you post and I have to say this: thanks for taking the time to post. You go into a lot of detail and ask a bunch of questions most people wouldn't bother asking. Some of your ideas and thoughts are great, or needed - some I don't really have a use for right now. But anyways, thanks just for taking the time and responding in a civil way to what I have to say here. Anywho: onward!

Are these races going to be created so that their cultures and such are intended to be in the same world?

Well, some are going to be a bit more well-known then others. I'll be writting up some Design Notes after each critter is statted up/fleshed out and that will help explain a bit. The Saurians, for example, are going to be an unknown race only hinted at by the oldest lore of the Touku's (formally Kenku's).

I guess I should explain half the reason for creating all these races: an idea for a campaign. it started back in Feb, I think, in a thread about races in General - a poster was asking what races are cool and that he should put into a homebrew. I started talking about having a new and different type of lizardfolk (called Saurians) because that sounded better. Basically, they are lost to civilization nowadays, and exist in the centre of a tight-knit, circular mountain range. The only way in is through a lost laberith (sp?) in the underdark - and the entrance is only known by [blah] (this blah would eventually be known as the kenku, now known as the Touku). Basically, I got some major creative juices going with that. And now I am creating a campaign setting with my buddies and I am bringing this to the plate (as DM and established worldbuilder I am taking the lead quite a bit). So these races are crafted for that and it's subsequent adventure I have in mind, which involves finding a rare and lost herb for an archemage which brings long life if prepared in the right rituals. The adventures (level ~10) are commisioned to find this in the new world, where they must battle fatigue, hunger, disease, Gruugs, native Aztec-esque humans, etc and try to figure out where this herb is. And it goes on...

How "blended" are the different races?

Depends on the race, and the area. For example: Sharvellans have a taste for Hadozee flesh; Frey live (comfortably) alongside humans; Ibixians either live in shantytowns on the outskirts of cities, out with their Orcus-worshipping folk in the plains, or deep in the primeval forests; Touku don't talk with many folk; Gruugs like to eat anything; both Lidra and Thri-kreen both generally stick to themselves; Vanara and Kobolds live in vast colonies composed of their own folk; Hadozee are charming travellers who are easy to get along with anyone; etc.

Ibixians - So, what of their physical nature and their racial origins can you tell me?

Essentually, this is what they look like (link. Actually, their hook is that nowadays, no one knows where they came from. They eventually came to settle the plains they hold now, living in migrating tribes, under the thrall of the Demon Lord Orcus. Now, there has been a schizm and some have coem to worship Ettutt, the god of Nature.

Lidra - I'm still not clear in their physical nature. Can you describe them?

Think short elves with golden skin, hands than can become wreathed in eletricity, and eyes that glow uncannily. And they are fairies

Chitine - Until you write more about these guys, I don't have anything to add or ask.

A good sign?

Frey - I'll reserve abject and unbridled hatred until I've seen more!

Well, if that's all...

Kobolds - Using the Dragon Shaman is appropriate, but not enough in my mind to make them drastically different than several other builds of "Kobolds as PCs" that I've seen before. Still, I'm not complaining about them. With some good development, Kobold PCs can be cool. Especially since it sounds like you have some direction to take their culture in terms of fleshing them out.

Yep, Kobolds will be coo, one I'm through with them

Sharvellan - Sharkmen. Gotcha. Do they have gills? Are they limited in how long they can stay above water? Just how... shark-like vs. man-like are they? Or in other words, where along the spectrum of "sharks that can walk" to "man with a shark's head" are they?

They do have gills, but are not limited to how long they stay out of water - they are ampibious, essentually. In regards to spectrum, they are basically "man-like sharkmen with a sharks head that can walk". Does that make any sense to you?

Hadozee - I'm not familar with Stormwrack so it looked like a totally original idea to me when I read it. Way to go with savagely bursting my bubble! Seriously though, original or not, I'm looking forward to reading that "additional flair" you mentioned.

You're welcome I'm looking forward to getting these guys done, myself

Kruppi - Quite the interesting mindset. You should have them consider themselves to be noble in appearance in comparison to the other races as well. Have Kruppi femaise consider the males of other races to be beastial and loathsome. Turn the whole "gross frogs" stereotype on it's head!

Actually, that was exactly where I was going with that - "Gross *ribbit* everyone else! *ribbit*"

Thri-Kreen - Okay. As I said, I personally like Thri-Kreen, but I still stand by my claim that for the purpose as you first wrote it, some form of crabmen sounds more appropriate.

Hmmm, well I may still be including a crabman - so watch out!

Vanara - I'll buy what you're saying, but at least take under advisement my "beware of the veneer of Planet of The Apes" warning and take actions to make sure that people won't make such comparisons.

Actually, you're the first and I wasn't intending that at all. Odd

Saurians - Are you going to make them a group of semi-related races as the Saurians were in AD&D, or do you have something else in mind?

Just lizardfolk with a namechange. I alwasy call my Lizardfolk Saurians, no matter the world. Besides, saurus means lizard in latin

Gruugs - It all sounds good. However, just so that you know, the Gnolls are already as bad as you want to make the Gruugs. Take a read of this:

That's pretty nasty all by itself!! Although I am intrigued by your plans to make them small sized. That will certainly mix things up a little! It almost makes them sound like 2nd Ed. AD&D Kobolds were before the whole "Kobolds are descended from Dragons" bandwagon started up...

The plan is to mix up my players. Small creatures with Powerful Build, a medium-sized bite with the feat Imporved Natural Attck is gonna make a BIG mess

Kenku - Ah, MM3. Another book that I don't own... envy, envy. You own or have access to a lot of books which I don't. As for making them Toucan-people, cool!! If you're going to do that though, might I suggest you change the race name? After all, if a race of crow-people named "Kenku" already officially exist, then you're only adding needless confusion in the minds of players for no obvious gain.

Name changed - I actually was thinking about that before you amde mention of it, and it's reasonable. I actually edited the main entry, so check it out man (other races teasers have been changed as well).

Other Races... - I gave you race ideas? On top of the as-yet-unposted additional races that you mentioned in your first post? Was it the octipus-men? Ooh boy! This is going to be a really crowded campaign world!!

I am actually seriously considering what is the LA of an 8-armed/legged/apendagged (??) would be . Seriously.

Overall, despite any objections I outline above, I'm really looking forward to reading more about your campaign world. I'll gladly continue my current role of "asker of questions", "requester of clarifications". "raiser of objections", and generalized "disturber of fecal matter"!

okay, that is SO gettign sigged

 

[SpiralBound]

I was gonna just bump this to get your attention, but I figured that (1) I was bored, and (2) a contribution makes for a better attention-grabber than just "bump", so I grabbed one of your races and ran with it. EVERYTHING I've written below is merely suggestions and suppostions formed by leaping off of the little you've said about them thus far. Feel free to disagree with anything I've written below.

Oh, and thank you very much for the compliments in your last post! You've put me in some impressive company, so I hope that I can live up to your description of me! I too have been empressed by how well you took some of my comments, I was fearing a flame war - they appeared to be a bit popular around here a few weeks ago! Anyway, on with the show! I present for your consideration my elaborations on your Sharvellan:

Sharvellan

Description from you thus far:

An intimidating shark-like race that live in The Archipelago Region. These formidable people are comfortable both in and out of water. They do have gills, but are not limited to how long they stay out of water - they are amphibious, essentually. Sharvellans have a taste for Hadozee flesh.

(Designer's Note: They are a Shark-based race, and steal a lot from the Darfellan from Stormwrack, except these guys are meaner!)​

I don't own Stormwrack, so I went looking to see what was online about them. Thankfully, WoTC saw fit to post the Darfallen race build on their site. Okay, the Darfallen are interesting. Just how much of them do you want to use directly though? Obviously, you want some differences, otherwise you would have just used them as is. I would assume none of the background surrounding their conflicts with the Sahuagin, that seems a bit too tailored for the generic D&D setting and doesn't seem to fit the "racial landscape" you're building in your setting. If anything, your Sharvellan appear to be playing almost the same role for the Hadozee that the Sahuagin played for the Darfallen. How about the "lost culture" aspect? Were the Sharwellan once much more peaceful or developed of a society than they are now? Were they once great poets and philosophers whose society has devolved into barbarism? Making them a victim of their own excesses, so much so that they have become much more savage and beastial than they once were would add an interesting twist to them I think. It would also help make them be less "Gruugs of the Sea" as well, which they might be thought of - in terms of their social role for that region I mean.

The Darfallen are described as being, "a hulking, muscular build with a broad back, powerful arms, and a wide neck and head. A darfellan stands not much over 6 feet tall and weighs nearly 200 pounds." Does that fit your description? I looked at the picture of the Darfallen on their site... It doesn't say "hulking muscular with a broad back" to me... Ah well. I did however find a picture online that (to me at least) perfectly captures the mental image that you've given me so far. Take a look: http://tgz3d.com/images/sharkman.jpg The artist is Brandon Nobbs. I don't know him at all, I only found this pic via a google search. If you like it and want to ask him for permission to use it as the basis for your Sharvellan, his contact info is here: http://tgz3d.com/resume.htm

Were you thinking of using the "Orca Whale" style of skin colouration? Personally, while it fits in well with the Darfellan theme and helps support the caste-driven society they once had, I also think it looks kinda dumb. He looks like a reject from a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles casting call! I recommend you go with a brown or grey skin tone that is darker on the top and back surfaces, and paler on the front bottom surfaces. Throw in some spots here and there and you're done!

Here's some reference pics (Dogfish shark) of what I mean:
In the water: http://www.elasmodiver.com/Sharkive images/Spiny dogfish Quadra 48.jpg
Out of water: http://www.elasmodiver.com/Sharkive images/Spiny dogfish 004.jpg
Artist drawing: http://www.galindorf.com/images/alliedgal/dogfish.jpg


Sharvellan Racial Traits

* +2 Strength, -2 Dexterity: Sharvellan have a powerful physique but are somewhat clumsy, especially out of the water.
* A Sharvellan's base land speed is 20 feet; Sharvellan webbed feet are more suited for moving through water than on land.
* A Sharvellan's base swim speed is 40 feet. A Sharvellan has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. A Sharvellan can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. A Sharvellan can use the run action while swimming, provided he swims in a straight line.

(These first three traits ripped from the Darfellan appear to be a smooth match for what you've told me so far. If you're not planning on ever commercially publishing this setting, you don't even need to change the wording!)

* Amphibious Gills (Ex): Sharvellan have pronounced gills which allow them to breath water as easily as air. These gills are attached to a cluster of small lungs in their chest. When on land, Sharvellan can purge the water from their lungs and breath air through their gills. To return to water breathing, they simply flood their lungs with seawater. Switching back and forth between air and water breathing takes one action. Sharvellan can deliberately forego purging or flooding their lungs, (for example when they want to stealthily clamber up over the side of a ship without making the noise of purging the water from their lungs), but this then means that they are holding their breath, which they can only do for a number of rounds equal to half their constitution score rounded down before starting to drown. A Sharvellan can gill-filter fresh water as well as salt water, but prefer not to. It is uncomfortable and can cause soreness and even infection within their gills and lunglet clusters if done for more than a week.

(While my writeup for it is a bit wordy, I think that this "Amphibious Gills" is better suited to the Sharvellan than the Darfallen's "Hold Breath" ability. It gives them the much more powerful ability to actually breath both in and out of water, but still imposes some limitations on it to balance the power of the ability.)

* Natural Attack: A Sharvellan has a natural bite attack that deals 1d6 points of damage. If fighting without a weapon, a Sharvellan uses his bite as a primary attack, adding 1-1/2 times his Strength bonus to damage. If armed with a weapon, he can use his bite or weapon, as he chooses. When making a full attack, a Sharvellan normally uses the weapon as his primary attack along with the bite as a natural secondary attack (at -5 attack). If the Sharvellan gets extra attacks by virtue of a base attack bonus of +6 or higher, he gets them only with his primary attack.

(Again, this Darfallen trait seems good to go as is, all I did was switch out the race names.)

* Swallow Whole (Ex): A Sharvellan can try to swallow a grabbed opponent of Small or smaller size by making a successful grapple check. Once inside, the opponent takes 1d4 points of crushing damage plus 1d2+2 points of acid damage per round from the Sharvellan's digestive juices. A swallowed creature can cut its way out using claws or a light slashing weapon by dealing 10 points of damage to the Sharvellan's digestive tract (AC 20). A Sharvellan's gullet can hold one Small, two Tiny, four Diminutive, or eight Fine or smaller opponents.
* Keen Scent (Ex): A Sharvellan can notice creatures by scent in a 60-foot radius and detect blood in the water at ranges of up to 1/2 a mile.

(These two abilities I propose in place of the "Echolocation" and the "Racial Hatred: Sahuagin" abilities. Sharks don't have echolocation (that's closer to a dolphin trait), but they do have exceptional senses, especially scent. It is also a well known shark behaviour to swallow first and ask questions... naw, forget the questions, just swallow first! I took the equivalent abilities from the Dire Shark entry of the MM and scaled them back considerably in terms of power to allow for the fact that a Sharvellan isn't 50 feet long and 20,000 pounds!)

* Automatic Languages: Sharvellan. Bonus Languages: Aquan, Common.
* Favored Class: Barbarian.

(pretty standard fare these two...)

Sharks also are constantly losing and regenerating their teeth, have superb hearing and even have electroreceptor organs that sense electromagnetic fields and they use this to find prey buried in sand, to detect movement, and currents in the water. They also have to keep swimming to force enough water through their gills to prevent suffocation, aren't buoyant thus they sink in water, and can become paralysed if turned upside down, the males have two "penis's" & bite the females during mating, the young are often born live, and furthermore sharks store their urine in their blood until there's enough of it to secrete through their skin(!), but I didn't want to over-complicate the Sharvellan with too many crazy abilities from real world sharks! D&D creatures got nothing on real world critters!

P.S. Attention all monster-makers, Wikipedia is your friend! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark )

I know that this a big post, so read it through and let me know what you think. I've also deliberately left out any cultural creations aside from my one suggestion near the beginning.

 

[SpiralBound]

Okay, now I'm just bumping it!
I'm going with the theory that somehow you simply missed seeing this.
If I don't get a reply this time, then I'll assume that you've abandoned this thread until you prove otherwise..

 

[Nyaricus]

Okay, now I'm just bumping it!
I'm going with the theory that somehow you simply missed seeing this.
If I don't get a reply this time, then I'll assume that you've abandoned this thread until you prove otherwise..

lol sorry dude, I somehow completely missed your awesome post - I will get back to you ASAP and I even have the Frey statted up for you and the rest of EN World. Sorry for not getting abck sooner though :\

Cheers!

 

[Turjan]

I will get back to you ASAP and I even have the Frey statted up for you and the rest of EN World.

These are the Frey from Oathbound, right?

 

[Nyaricus]

These are the Frey from Oathbound, right?

They are based on them, yes, but are different in their own right. Before the crash one of the ENnies (Fru, perhaps? That seems right, apollogies if it isn't) sent me a few pages of pdf from Oathbound, some of which had the Frey in it. Basically, I fell in love with 85% of the race - a few slight tweaks and it's pretty much good to go. I'll be posting them up within the hour, just need to go downstairs and grab 'em. Prolly I'll respond to SB's awesome post above, much of which I like and most of which I had in mind (dude, can't thank you enough).

Anyways, I'll be back in this thread ASAP