D&D General trying to make a more alien arcane race.

[Mind of tempest]

I hate normal demi-human races with a passion as aside from being kinda pretty they lose all the insane factors that a race should have.

so anyway my brain has made an insane arcane caster frog people.

first, the basic point is what about an arcane race that is not naturally a society building species so you only have to worry about a single city of them in your world?
first, my inspirations were the gravediggers of Serina Serina: A Natural History of the World of Birds - Unassumingly Brilliant: Meet the Gravedigger
and this: Lone trappers in the wilderness

so what are these guys imaging a massive frogman and you are seeing them 5-7 feet tall frog people who are naturally sorcerers or wizards who make a trap in the wilderness and do not normally form social groups instead past childhood they are normally solitary using great skill at traps, animal training and arcane magic to hunt prey.

they are oddly charismatic as they evolved social graces for better relationships with pets and negotiating deals with things willing to give them a warlock pact
highly intelligent the ones who live in cities often work as scholars, wizards bankers and executioners as their different type of empathy make them solid in occupations were caring about people is a detriment so they also make great lawers.
their empath has trouble with seeing others as equals as they are used to serving power or being the master in charge of a pack of animals
famously individualistic they care about little other than their own freedom but as able to work with others as long as it seems logical or they "care" about them in their own way.


their technological timeline was less, form group, make spears work together to hunt and more along the lines of making traps for hunting, form pacts with otherworldly things and fireball everything that tries to hunt them.

recently a whole bunch of them have decided to copy civilization out of curiosity and have built a city for themselves and given almost everyone is magic it is firmly mageocratic

so as far as a more alien take for an arcane dominant race?

images to help make sense of them

any thoughts, opinions or ideas or is this just another of my bad ideas?

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

One piece of advice that might help - Tom Baker had said his ambition playing the Doctor was to play up the alien nature. I could see an alien race in a game being like that - in fact, they may even look and Seem humanoid, but there should always be something UNDERNEATH.

I guess the section about playing lizard folk in whichever book talked about that for roleplaying. That's how my friend ended up - he just took the lizard folk and any time an interaction was happening, he took the OPPOSITE of the 'proper' response by default. the whole key was that they were just pretending.

Another thing to think about with alien/Other creatures and magic... they don't have to be wizards. They may have the mechanics of a wizard, but it's entirely possible that, like elves as beings of magic, this race doesn't understand what magic is. The effects they create just Are. They don't see it as an effect even, it's just what they do. Makes me think of the boy from the Twilight Zone who sends people to the Cornfield - I don't think it's ever explained HOW he does it, it's just accepted that he can AND DOES>

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

any thoughts, opinions or ideas or is this just another of my bad ideas?

I will also be the first to posit that this isn't 'another bad idea'. What you may consider 'bad ideas' may go over amazingly at another table, in another setting, etc.

 

[Mind of tempest]

One piece of advice that might help - Tom Baker had said his ambition playing the Doctor was to play up the alien nature. I could see an alien race in a game being like that - in fact, they may even look and Seem humanoid, but there should always be something UNDERNEATH.

I guess the section about playing lizard folk in whichever book talked about that for roleplaying. That's how my friend ended up - he just took the lizard folk and any time an interaction was happening, he took the OPPOSITE of the 'proper' response by default. the whole key was that they were just pretending.

Another thing to think about with alien/Other creatures and magic... they don't have to be wizards. They may have the mechanics of a wizard, but it's entirely possible that, like elves as beings of magic, this race doesn't understand what magic is. The effects they create just Are. They don't see it as an effect even, it's just what they do. Makes me think of the boy from the Twilight Zone who sends people to the Cornfield - I don't think it's ever explained HOW he does it, it's just accepted that he can AND DOES>

I wanted to make an alien wizard did I succeed?
also, they are not all casters by trade just all can cast magic, I wanted to take the deeply magical race and see what you can push it to.

 

[Yaarel]

I wanted to make an alien wizard did I succeed?
also, they are not all casters by trade just all can cast magic, I wanted to take the deeply magical race and see what you can push it to.

If the goal is the popularity of the race among gamers, maybe create a poll and let forumers vote for each racial feature, item by item. The list can be highly detailed, including options for what the hands should look like, and also add options for how their way of thinking is alien. Then see what kind of creature emerges from the upvotes.

 

[Stormonu]

Any reason not to just use a PC version of slaad, bullywugs or grung?

 

[Mind of tempest]

If the goal is the popularity of the race among gamers, maybe create a poll and let forumers vote for each racial feature, item by item. The list can be highly detailed, including options for what the hands should look like, and also add options for how their way of thinking is alien. Then see what kind of creature emerges from the upvotes.

that would take a lot of brainstorming?

Any reason not to just use a PC version of slaad, bullywugs or grung?

thematic and explanation I do not have any mechanics down yet but I will when I think of some.
slaad are too insane, grung to poisons and evil and bullywugs just lack something to make them more than swamp goblins but I might start with them for stats.

 

[Cruentus]

One of your pictures is of a Slann from Warhammer, whose lore is almost exactly what you’re talking about:

From Warhammer Wiki: The Slann form one of the core species of the Lizardmen race, created by the Old Ones to be the leaders, organisers, architects, and techno-mages of their society and the backbone of their culture.[4a]Being one of the most magically powerful races on the face of the Warhammer World, these favoured servants of the Old Ones have considerable intellect and magical abilities beyond the minds of most mortal races, and rule the Lizardmen as a venerated caste of semi-religious magic-users.

It would be fairly easy to build out from there re: an alien Magic using race of considerable power. You could also re-skin any powerful alien creature from DnD: Phaerimm come to mind, for example, if coming up with abilities whole cloth is challenging. Also, looking at older editions of DnD might also provide some ideas.

 

[Mind of tempest]

One of your pictures is of a Slann from Warhammer, whose lore is almost exactly what you’re talking about:

From Warhammer Wiki: The Slann form one of the core species of the Lizardmen race, created by the Old Ones to be the leaders, organisers, architects, and techno-mages of their society and the backbone of their culture.[4a]Being one of the most magically powerful races on the face of the Warhammer World, these favoured servants of the Old Ones have considerable intellect and magical abilities beyond the minds of most mortal races, and rule the Lizardmen as a venerated caste of semi-religious magic-users.

It would be fairly easy to build out from there re: an alien Magic using race of considerable power. You could also re-skin any powerful alien creature from DnD: Phaerimm come to mind, for example, if coming up with abilities whole cloth is challenging. Also, looking at older editions of DnD might also provide some ideas.

those rule a society based on your description mine are more just pure loners or work with groups for their own reasons, but I might do that second thing.

 

[Minigiant]

so what are these guys imaging a massive frogman and you are seeing them 5-7 feet tall frog people who are naturally sorcerers or wizards who make a trap in the wilderness and do not normally form social groups instead past childhood they are normally solitary using great skill at traps, animal training and arcane magic to hunt prey.

they are oddly charismatic as they evolved social graces for better relationships with pets and negotiating deals with things willing to give them a warlock pact
highly intelligent the ones who live in cities often work as scholars, wizards bankers and executioners as their different type of empathy make them solid in occupations were caring about people is a detriment so they also make great lawers.
their empath has trouble with seeing others as equals as they are used to serving power or being the master in charge of a pack of animals
famously individualistic they care about little other than their own freedom but as able to work with others as long as it seems logical or they "care" about them in their own way.

So WHFB Slann who don't sleep all day and trap their own food?