The Origin of Psionic Species

[Jürgen Hubert]

I have a hard time getting a handle on some of the PC races in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Duergar are an old D&D classic, Half-Giants and Thri-Kreen are known PC races from the Dark Sun setting, and Githyanki and Githzerai are widely recognizeable from Planescape.

But Dromites, Elans, Maenads, Xephs... where the heck did these guys come from? Were they ever published in D&D (any incarnation) before? What's their angle, their niece in the D&D ecology?


And since we are at it, has come anyone up with a better set of stats for Half-Giants - one that better represents their Dark Sun origins? +2 Str and +2 Con doesn't really seem appropriate to how strong and tough these guys were back then...

 

[SteelDraco]

And since we are at it, has come anyone up with a better set of stats for Half-Giants - one that better represents their Dark Sun origins? +2 Str and +2 Con doesn't really seem appropriate to how strong and tough these guys were back then...

The problem here is that they were trying to avoid any rough ECL or racial hit dice problems for the PC races in the XPH. I'm not really sure why they neutered the half-giants but left the kreen as tough as they were, but that's what they did.

For Athasian half-giants, I'd probably start with +4 Str, +4 Con, -2 Dex, -4 Int, -2 Cha, Large size (not the odd halfway-between-Medium-and-Large stuff they did in the XPH), and drop their innate psionic powers. I'd likely start them off with roughly two Giant hit dice and an ECL of one or two, for a total level adjustment of three or four. Giant hit dice are pretty poor mechanically (d8 hp, medium BAB, good Fort save, 2+Int skill points), so I wouldn't feel the need to punish their ECL more than that. I might also give them a racial penalty to Will saves against mind-affecting magic, to reflect the idea that they were magically created to be enslaved by mages.

 

[dead]

But Dromites, Elans, Maenads, Xephs... where the heck did these guys come from? Were they ever published in D&D (any incarnation) before? What's their angle, their niece in the D&D ecology?

I don't own the XPH but I've never heard of these races in D&D before. They sound new to me.

Maybe they could have worked with some more "D&D classic" psionic races like:

Su-monster
Illithid
Shedu
Yuan-ti

I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them.

 

[dead]

Su-monster
Illithid
Yuan-ti

One might argue that these races are too evil. But, hey, they've made the drow and the duergar PC classes so why not the illithid?

 

[Piratecat]

They did convert yuan-ti, actually.

But Dromites, Elans, Maenads, Xephs... where the heck did these guys come from? Were they ever published in D&D (any incarnation) before? What's their angle, their niece in the D&D ecology?

Dromites are the cool bug-guys. I intend to use them as an insectoid slave-race. Not as fussy (or powerful) as other bug-people, they'll fill a nice niche for pseudo-insectoid burrowers.

Elan rock my little world. They're normal humans who have been "treated" to become something more. I think the concept is rife with plot hooks, from the secret council of elan who convert others to the idea of a powerful and well-known pesonality suddenly living forever... but being back at 1st level.

Maenads would probably be pretty rare. I understand the classical reference in their origin, but I need to find a niche for them in my game. They'd probably pass for big, tempremental humans most of the time.

Xephs? I like them, but lord knows what I'm going to do with them.

 

[Creamsteak]

Dromites are the cool bug-guys. I intend to use them as an insectoid slave-race. Not as fussy (or powerful) as other bug-people, they'll fill a nice niche for pseudo-insectoid burrowers.

Very cool bug guys. I like them a lot. I'm using them as the partially willing slaves of the duergar kingdom in my campaign.

Elan rock my little world. They're normal humans who have been "treated" to become something more. I think the concept is rife with plot hooks, from the secret council of elan who convert others to the idea of a powerful and well-known pesonality suddenly living forever... but being back at 1st level.

I've chosen to use Elans (since they are aberrations) as being created to serve the illithid. The "council" keeps their secret to immortality not just because it's powerful, but because the source is something they certainly would not want the applicants to know about (the illithid).

Maenads would probably be pretty rare. I understand the classical reference in their origin, but I need to find a niche for them in my game. They'd probably pass for big, tempremental humans most of the time.

I'm using them as a human subrace (granting them the human feat and skills at +1 LA), that come from an isolated region. They are the "natural born" arch-nemisis of the Elans. I was sorta inspired by the riddick film to make them the Riddicks of the Elan cults.

Xephs? I like them, but lord knows what I'm going to do with them.

Got rid of them myself. I like them, a little, but they don't have a niche I can use. I'm "considering" setting my campaign before the Githyanki and Githzerai came into existence, and using Xephs as a Gith race of some-kind, possibly.

 

[Turanil]

I think that DROMITES are vaguely inspired from DRAMITES, who weren't a D&D or other rpg creation, but a race of horrid bug-like humanoids in a Corben's comic.

In this comic book (DEN II), the dramites were an insect like race living in a big termite-nest structure. They reproduced through a queen's larva inseminated into a human, and then growing inside the unfortunate victim until the fully grown queen would emerge of the hideously transformed human, devouring his remains. In the story, the dramites eventually go out of their nest, and in doing so, the thousands of their swarm consume-eat everything on their way, leaving nothing alive behind them, like an horrid tide of destruction. However, in Corben's comic book, the dramites had no psionic powers.

 

[Gez]

What's the rational for psionic half-giants outside of Dark Sun? Any reason to include the EPH half-giants if you don't play DS?