Tell me about Psionic Races in your game

[Psion]

Yeah, yeah, next in a series...

When XPH came out and it had all the new nifty mages, I was like "ah well", having a campaign that was pretty well set in the races department.

Now that my planar campaign is going, I am looking at other options. I am thinking about inserting the dromite as a common NPC race because they feel different enough not to be just a funny human but not so alien as to be unplayable.

Maenads I think are too close to human, but I like the idea of replacing Mindshadows elves with them, since they seem to fit. And it lets me cut down on the "everyone has their own elf" syndrome that would come up WAY too often in a planar campaign.

But I am always on the lookout for more ways to integrate races. Those of you who decided to integrate the XPH races into your game in some capacity, what was it and how is it going?

 

[Yair]

I had an Elan character that was based on an "Elan-as-guauld" (sp? I mean the Stargate ones) concept. Was a rather cool concept, me thinks. Unfortunately, the campaign never really got going...

 

[was]

Just the super-nasty mind-flayers.

 

[Crothian]

I have mind flayers and a still undetermined race. I have a psionic god and I just want a powerful race that would be number one in his eyes.

 

[Samuel Leming]

I'm starting over, so placing new races will be trivially easy. I intend to use most of the psionic races.

Since you're running a planar campaign you can put your new races off in alternate dimensions, other planets or moons, pocket planes, astral islands, etc and your players will have the means to reach them. Well, all that's probably so obvious it doesn't help you much.

Hey! Moon Dromites! I think I'll use that one myself. It's almost cliche in an amusing sort of way.

Sam

 

[I'm A Banana]

Since I'm a bit of an obsessive inclusivist, psionics effectively come from a kingdom far to the South of the main campaign setting, kind of a Carribean/Mesoamerican feel to it.

The dromites are creatures from the mountains, seen as magical by most of the lowlanders, creatures of the underworld come to the surface.

Duergar are rather typical bitter dwarves, but they have a powerful control of the stones that are required for construction in the region, and control a lot of the jade trade, making them powerful and rich.

Elans are not a hidden elite -- they are the incarnate gods of the region, and rule it as powerful tribal lords, though many share power with the charismatic popular leaders.

Githyanki, rather than being planar, have a great Maya-style empire, built with the aid of Red Dragons. Being located near volcanoes, they tend to dominate the obsidian trade.

Githzerai are not planar either, existing rather as isolated mystics in high peaks and deep valleys that are loathe to converse with others.

Half-Giants are islanders, not considered half-giant, just unusually large, and they make up a great race of pirates and raiders on the eastern coast of the continent (with a dash of Asian flavor thrown in, too).

Maenads are a northern race that dominates many cultural centers, and are quite religious, seeing the sacrifice of life as being key to keeping in check their own emotions.

Thri-Kreen are officially 'desert barbarians' of the far north, the best-known species in the campaign setting lands, but they have a very cold relationship with the southern folk in the lands, and are regarded as a big danger. They're big on the use of bone rather than crystal in their psionics.

Xephs are a little bit fey-like, and are mostly hunter/gatherers that exist as dangerous headhunters in a very primitive style.

 

[Samuel Leming]

I can't believe I forgot to mention the 999th level Flumph Psion

Sam

 

[Aeric]

If by "psionic race" you mean a race which is known for its use of psionics, then there is really only one--the T'alma, or First Ones as they are called by those few scholars who have heard of them.

The T'alma were the children of the First God and predate even the gods, although the latter were more powerful than them. The T'alma took the races that the gods had created and changed them using some as-yet-undefined psionic procedure to make all the variant races in the world. They also enslaved the mortal races, which angered the gods greatly. The gods, in turn, went among the slaves and formented rebellion against the T'alma, granting a portion of their divine power to those who would follow them (and thus the first clerics were created). There was a great war between the T'alma and the gods; eventually the gods won, but they could not destroy the T'alma due to the laws set down by the First God. So they imprisoned the T'alma and hid them in a pocket dimension.

There are also the Vhaedru, or Dark Savants, who are the equivalent to Tolkien's Ringwraiths (only more numerous). They are the twisted and corrupted souls of T'alma who were sacrificed to the Beneath (evil and entropy encarnate) in return for its aid against the gods in the war.

The T'alma are only just now escaping from their dimensional prison, but the Vhaedru have always been around. Not even the scholars who have heard of the T'alma have made the connection between the two, however, and psionics as an art different from magic is a foreign concept to them.

 

[mythusmage]

I don't have psionic races. I have races known for their psychic ability. Elves and goblins foremost among the human species. Of all the sophonts I guess the best at it would be the kekihj, my replacement for illithids. Very psychic and, according to the dragons, very gullible.

On Dragon Earth psionics is the term used for the electronics used to boost psychic abilities. Such as the amplifier used to boost telepathic range. Or used to convert psychic (magical) energies or signals to electro-magnetic or vice versa. No one as yet has invented a device that can convert magical energy to the weak nuclear force, the strong nuclear force, or gravity.

BTW, magic on Dragon Earth is considered a psychic ability. A flexible psychic ability unlike the more rigid psychic powers people are more familiar with.

 

[Psion]

If by "psionic race" you mean a race which is known for its use of psionics,

Actually, I was speaking of the XPH races, but not exclusively. Any input that makes for some cool backdrop bits works for me. Yours fills the bills nicely, thanks.

In addition to the XPH races, I also use the Talaire, a human variant race from a world destroyed by mind flayers, originally introduced in the Dragon.