Think Tank: Oddball Races...

[skippy_the_witch]

Gnomes are traders and bankers whose reach is found accross the entire world. But they are a dour and humorless race, who worship a singular god, dress in severe and dark styles, and basically act like Puritans. Naturally, they believe they are the chosen people, and, while they also believe that other races cannot truelly worship their diety, they also believe that, being an obviously superior race, it is their task to care for the more downtrodden people. Thus, they have "missionaries" and trading posts in even the most remote regions of the world. It is part of a young gnomes passage into adulthood and responsibility to go out into the world and "help" the misguided peoples he finds, especially if they don't want his help. While this may sound "lawful good", it is actually more "lawful nuetral", because a gnome will inadvertently (and sometimes even purposely) cause trouble and "evil" through his actions by refusing to adapt himself and the code of his people to the situation. Scrupulously honest, gnomish contracts would make the lawyers in Hell have headaches.

"A gnome never lies, but rarely tells the truth." -- well known proverb.

Gnomes have VERY proscribed rules on magic, especially arcane magic. There are NO gnome sorcerers (who would be treated basically as witches in Salem), or any other spontaneous caster class, but many do study the path of wizardry. They make great "witch-hunter" types. Think a very short Solomon Kane as an example of a gnome adventurer.

skippy
GM of the Cursed Earth Campaign

 

[Nyaricus]

hmmm, not bad, but we actually voted against the gnome completely in our setting [no one really lieks them in our group, lol]

However, that's an interesting take on SOMETHING, in any case

 

[Hand of Evil]

Halflings are the elite race, running governments and trade. They move in and take over, using every means possible to overthrow other governments, then placing a captlistic structure in place that indentures the other races to them. Everything looks peaseful but people are being sold to pay-off debts, nobles and other trade guild are being removed, all behind the scene.

 

[FnordBear]

Hrm

Here would be my suggestions. (Note you will want access to Tome of Magic, Races of Eberron, Heros of Horror, and Dragon# 341)

Warforged

The Warforged are a mysterious race of living constructs that are "native" to the island of Machina. There they operate ancient creation forges from the eras of the ancient empire to maintain thier numbers.

Warforged society is very military themed. Each warforged has a name and rank assigned to it based on his performance in society. A basketweaver for instance, who practiced his trade for 50 years and became highly proficent, may eventually be promoted by the local government to be Lt. We-Var of Basketweaver Platoon 78.

Warforged religion revolves around the beings that inhabit the plane of Mechanus and they consider Modrons and Inveitables to be beings worthy of song and praise. The Warforged government is a military theocracy governed by a cabal binders (See Tome of Magic), all of which summon and bind the vestige Primus (see Dragon 341) Most Warforged who are granted the rank of "Cleric" are in fact multiclassed Binders/Archivists(See Heros of Horror). Warforged are mostly lawful by nature and neutral by disposition. If a Warforged takes cleric levels, inevitably it is for the concept of Lawful Neutral with Law and one other domain that suits the individual Warforged as thier chosen domain.

Warforged are a powerful seafaring presence as well. A pirate has to have iron resolve, a well armed ship, and a bit of a suicidal nature to take on a Warforged irconclad. Warforged have even been know to make war on the mainland, sending fleets of irconclads slowly over the ocean while a vast army of Warforged march tirelessly across the ocean floor.

Warforged Heroes

Fighters and rangers are the most common heroic class among thier "race" reflecting thier martial society.

Barbarians and Paladins are virtualy unkown in Warforged society. The barbarian mindset of chaos is alien to most Warforged and the dedication to good is generally beyond the nature of most warforged.

Rogues are very rare and found mostly in elite military units as scouts and rangers.

Bards hold a special place in Warforged society. Bards provide what many consider the one redeaming value of Warforged society, song. Warforged Bards sing long lamenting dirges about thier fallen comrades and heroes. It is said by many, even the elves, a Warforged funeral dirge is at once the most beautiful and most heartwrenching music that can be found.

Clerics and Druids are rare but not unheard of in Warforged society. As mentioned previously most Warforged clerics worshing the Lawful Neutral concept. Warforged Druids tend to shun mainstream warforged society and live apart from thier breathern. They typical favor Earth descriptor spells for their spells memorized and they oversee the careful management of Machina's reasources.

Warforged Wizards and Sorcerors are respected througout the known lands for thier deftness at constructing various golems and other constructs. Many Warforged arcane casters make their way in to the Effigy Master prestige class (see complete arcane) as crafters of fine and fearsome effigies.

The warforged racial variant known as Psiforged are a rare subtype of the Warforged race. They all inevitably are part of a psionic class, the most common of which being the soulknife. Warforged wilders are virtually unkown.

Other classes.

Warforged Binders and Archivists make up the majority of thier religious leaders and hold positions of high rank in Warforged society.

Warforged Warwizards are feared through the known lands for thier fierceness in battle and fearless manner. They can also be commonly found as Ships Wizard in the Warforged navy.

Warforged Samurai hold the position in Warforged society that Paladins hold in other societies. A Warforged Samurai does not typicaly posses an ancestrial daisho, instead they are granted a double bladed sword by their Lord Commanders.


Thats about all I have to say.

 

[Sejs]

Warforged are a powerful seafaring presence as well. A pirate has to have iron resolve, a well armed ship, and a bit of a suicidal nature to take on a Warforged irconclad. Warforged have even been know to make war on the mainland, sending fleets of irconclads slowly over the ocean while a vast army of Warforged march tirelessly across the ocean floor.

Nice.

Two words to add, particularly pertaining to the above segment: Warforged. Submarines.

 

[FnordBear]

Nice.

Two words to add, particularly pertaining to the above segment: Warforged. Submarines.

Who needs submarines when you have submerged warwizards and warforged titans?

 

[Sejs]

Who needs submarines when you have submerged warwizards and warforged titans?

Because neither of those transport large amounts of troops or material particularly well.

Plus, walking on the sea floor can be a tad problematic at times, esp. when you're far out and the ship you want to sink is several fathoms above you. Kicks butt for coastal engagements, though.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

How about ballasted platforms like small drydocks that can sink underwater and be pulled by some kind of giant underwater construct like a whale. Since the WF don't need to breathe they can simply stand ready to unload kind of like a submerged landing craft from WW2. The formations of troop carriers are surrounded by convoy escorts. They can be something like those huge construct attack squids from Five Nations with elite troops hanging onto riding straps.

As the hidden invasion fleet closes on enemy shores part of the escorts break off and attack shipping up and down the coasts and into major rivers. The rest fall slightly behind the convoy and form an underwater blockade to cut them off from shipping. Once the convoy reaches inshore waters it breaks off into individual target groups that ground out at the ten or twelve fathom line disgorging troops.

Be more complicated, but the terrain underwater isn't miraculously better than on land. Think of mid-ocean trenches, submerged mountain ranges, deep mud-beds, etc. Marching troops across that sort of terrain even if they don't tire or need to breathe would take a long time and suffer serious attrition from terrain and attacks by monstrous hazards. This way you still get the horde of constructs marching out of the sea to attack the fleshy things, and it also makes the process more interesting and gives more ways for PCs to derail the invasion. They could sink the troop platforms causing them to crash to the floor of the sea miles below, etc.(By the time a ship hits the sea floor after sinking it can be going more than thirty miles an hour depending on circumstances that's some serious damage in D&D terms especially since Warforged don't float). Think of it more like slow-moving aerial combat than ground combat.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

ok heres a few i have used
.seafareing drawfs yep tatoos and all did not like enclosed space best shipbuilders in the world had floting cites and clan owned ships and vessels also had hydofils powered by elementals and sail/wind based spellcasters
.barbaric horse nomad elves very clan based some clans were headhunters worshiped totems hated none nature based spellcasters
.psionic orcs none evil very cast based losts of monks psioncists and such very few spellcasters lived in psionic powed floating cites used psionic weaps and such very civlized
.once used vampires as rulers of a nation had whole cloning centers where they produced there "food" lots of used parts went to feeding the lower classes very dark think i made a player sick when he found out what they been eating for weeks in the inn
halfings as a techno magical nation used planes powered by alchemal crystals that put off coubustion when exposed to salt water..yep jets used med sized battel armor had firearms and were techno mages lloked done on lesser races d
.gnomes as masters of elemental magic had citys for each element used{2nd ed} 10 11 and 12 level spells all spells used one of the elements [sonice cold ice lighning based ,fireballs eta}
only race in the campian that wilded such power other races did not forget them
have a few more but recall them the most was lots of fun

 

[Corbert]

[*] Chitines are an alien race from the depths of the earth, well-versed in magical lore.

How high magic do you want them? In a Furries and Fantasy game I'm running the kangaroos have a system spanning empire that only serves as a transport system by using teleport pads. By posing as just a transport system for others the roos make themselves seem harmless. PCs can go to anywhere on the planet there is a teleport pad, for a modest fee of course (I charge 100 GP per person, + 1 GP per magic item), and even go to other planets in the system. Of course, there's a catch . All travelers must submit to having a small piece of flesh and blood taken so they can be examined for supernatural parasites, harmful magic, diseases and such, or so people are told . The small wound caused by the sample being taken is then healed by roo clerics, taken away and used to create a fast growing clone of people like adventurers, nobility, wealthy merchants, etc. Since the clone is technically dead, spells like Speak With Dead will work on it, so it can be questioned about secrets, goals, etc. Then the clone is disposed of in case the original dies. The roos have information on practically every nation, every ruler, every major player, that they use to keep nations in line. Occasionally they even use the info gained to send 'recovery teams' ahead of adventurers to obtain powerful magic items/artifacts they can use .