Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 8576839" data-attributes="member: 92511">I'll preface by saying, I'm a good ole east coast American mostly-Irish/some German/bit of English/drop o' French mutt gay guy who is NOT at all an expert with the ages/history, cultures or religions of the various nations of the Indian subcontinent. So, grains of the proverbial salt all around for all of these ideas that I'm just pulling out of thin air as I type.That said, here's what I think you could do/see that might be useful and/or cool for a D&D setting/region.1. Anthro-elephants are likely to appear insensitive or mocking to those who revere Ganesh. I think it would be more flavorful -and less expected- to use the "Indian" (one horned) rhinocerous for an PC anthroanimal-species (which have become entiiiiirely too commonplace, as to be cliche at this point, imho). But a rhino people could be cool. I definitely would NOT do multiple different animal people...maybe the vanara (monkey-folk) because they're an actual "mythological" species which has already appeared in other systems (PF). Those two. No more. There are multiple ways to do/have "tiger people" already. And PLEASE do not give us another bird-people or annakocra subspecies called Garuda.  2. Recently doing some research for some monkish subclasses in my homebrew, I came across mention of something called the Muni ("saint")- ascetic sages or hermits, with mystic powers, and the Sanyasi- perjhaps more complicated, because it is a term for the actual "fourth stage" mendicant in Hinduism, but certain orders of which (again alleged real world) became warrior-ascetics in India's past. So we could have a two classes -or culturally flavored subclasses- for clerics and/or monks and/or paladins. "Yogi" and "guru" are really more "titles" for achievement of a certain level/degree, I think, than something you could call a class.3. Another idea I had for a monk/ascetic in my homebrew was a subclass based around connecting with and manifestation of the chakras. But it could easily, also or alternately, be worked up into a unique magic-using system providing a special kind of wizard/mage/sorcerer: matching the various (and/or NEW) schools of arcane magic/spells with the different chakras.4. Clearly, Rakshasa are a D&D mainstay and should certainly fit into the setting somewhere...perhaps their own nation/region under their control. But in INdian myth, it is my understanding, the rakshasa are more "demons," a type of extradimensional entity. So, maybe, they need a special version for this hypothetical setting...as extraplanar uber-magic baddies, even worse than we already know them to be.5. Kali is and has always been present in D&D. First, as the Type V demon/Marilith. Direct copy/designed after. Of course, she also exists/-ed in Deities & Demigods (and I presume the Legends & Lore, follow up versions. I've never seen them.), as a goddess/herself. So, I don't know, maybe there's something there...a region/kingdom of type 5 demons...demonic incursion ruled by type 5's? I would probably NOT make Kali a corporeal (or fantasized goddess) "Queen of the Marilith." But there's probably something in the existing creatures that could be done/incorporated. Certainly NOT as a PC option.       6. There should definitely be some kind of "giant problem" plaguing the lands, possibly/probably their own kingdom/region...with a new -culturally/mythologically appropriate- setting specific giant subspecies.That's all that's coming to mind on the topic. I know there is tons and tons more flavorful fantasy that can be gleaned from this mystic, diverse, and ancient part of the world.</blockquote>

Verification