Think Tank: Oddball Races...

[Quickleaf]

All giants were born from the sea, spat up upon the earth after the union of the Sea Goddess and the Air/Earth God. As creatures of the borders between land and sea, giants represent the yearning of the sailor, the lunar influence on the tides, ravaging storms, the bountiful harvest of shells, fish, ambergris, and seaweed. There are Shoal Giants, Reef Giants, Tide Pool Giants, and so forth. They have strong ties to sirens and tritons, taking these beings as lovers and slaves. An ancient giant prophecy states that when the moon falls from the sky for a fortnight, the giants shall return to their ocean mother's womb in a great exodus.

 

[Nyaricus]

Keep 'em coming guys, some of these are great

 

[DMH]

Human sized mechs run by intelligent cockroaches.
Flying Tiny crystals that use telekinesis to manipulate objects.
Potted plants that enslave those they touch.
Weredoves, weremice, weremonkeys, werecocker spaniel, etc.
Spirits that can only inhabit mechanical devices.
Sightless dog people who use scent to get around.
Bloodthirsty 6" tall wax golems.
Slug people who constantly complain about how fast others move.
To steal from Low Life for Savage Worlds- sapient snack cakes who are filled with magical toxins that gave them life.
Living sound that needs to constantly bounce off of hard objects.

 

[Jacob the Impaler]

-A lost, innocent race of halflings fled underground thousands of years ago to escape the madness on the surface. Other subterranean races, even the eviler ones, treat them like children and usually leave them alone to their solitary lives. They have a secret that is kept very tight. They have the ability to travel the planes in their dreams, and often wake up with strange things they involuntarily picked up during their adventures. Most of the halflings believe that it's normal and think little of it. The communities are usually led by a shaman who has control over his or her dreams and understands the dreams' significance. Often this shaman is extremely wise and keeps all of the secrets that would destroy the community's innocence.

-In remote places, there are talking rocks with human-like features. They usually don't have anything interesting or useful to say, however.

-Dinosaurs didn't go extinct - they fled into the deepest caverns of the earth, which are lit and warmed by the molten core. Primitive tribes of orcs, gnolls, goblins and other monstrous creatures struggle to survive the constant threat of dinosaur attacks.

 

[Dog Moon]

-In remote places, there are talking rocks with human-like features. They usually don't have anything interesting or useful to say, however.

Galeb Dhur?

One of my characters managed to befriend two Galeb Dhur once, and they became statues out in front of his inn. They aren't the BEST defense, but they were still cool to have.

Oddball races in my campaign, eh? Hrm...

Not necessarily oddball, but variants at the least:

Drow: Yes, Drow exist in my campaign. However, they have been nearly annihilated by the Dwarves underground, so few enough of them remain for them to be considered as a great threat underground anymore. They have traits of shadowed beings and Demons [yeah, their LA is now like +4, so they aren't really player races anymore]. They believe [rightfully so] that by making pacts with Demons and that by having babies with Demons, that they race will become more powerful. They also deal with body augmentations such as Demon Grafting.

Dwarves: One of my Dwarves are essentially insane and have gained powers over stone. They are fearsome and have been annihilating many of the races underground. They are, of course, highly warlike and skilled in battle.

Another group of Dwarves are the frozen Dwarves in the cold lands. They have tamed some Xorn and use them for everything from battle to mining. There are different tribes and each tribe has modified their Xorn for what they most require them [so the battle clan will have better combative Xorn while the mining clan will have Xorn who are more capable of clawing through stone than enemies].

Goblins: Plants. Yep, they're plants. The most annoying thing is that as they grow, the 'farmers' can pick and choose desirable traits for the Goblins. Example: they are fighting lots of fire elementals. Within a terribly short amount of time, they will grow Goblins who are immune to fire to fight the fire elementals. Haven't completely figured out their stats though...

Well, that's all I got for now.

 

[Nyaricus]

DM, those goblins sound completely whacky, and I like. Orcwort (MM2 or 3) had a similar tree-like creature which grows orc-like beings which it uses to its' advantage. Very neat, and a good reminder or a neat idea.

Galeb Dhur are a neat idea, too