Weird Races of D&D

This is a Tondi; a Flower Mantis-based kreen subrace from "Thri-Kreen of Athas". I really want to use this in my next setting.

Are there any other weird races from D&D that anons out there remember fondly, or want to use in their games?

Other urls found in this thread:

annarchive.com/files/Drmg158.pdf
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This is a Silthilar. It looks like a terrifying hovering eight-limbed monster, four "arms" are giant menacing spikes and four "legs" are grasping curved cutting daggers wrought of some alien bone. It is an Aberration, a creature that blasphemes the laws of nature.
It is, however, actually a swarm of tiny green worms, and its race are the nicest people you will ever meet. The spiky appearance is their combat form, which they only take for self-defense, and normally they wander around as a vague green mist cloud. They used to be a race of elf-like humanoids, but a magical plague demolished their race, and they had to forcibly mutate themselves into something else to continue living. To a one they all have advanced medical knowledge and are accomplished at working with flesh, usually working as doctors and even cosmetic surgeons. They can install incredibly beneficial upgrades on people for a price, called Silthilar Grafts.

In general they're actually kind of overpowered (their at-will fleshwarping is a polymorph any object effect) and hard to fit in a setting. Still, I love 'em.

I love any and all mantis people. I'm desperate for them to be added to 5e, since that's all anyone's playing that I can get a hold of.

>"Thri-Kreen of Athas"
Can you post the pdf, by the way? My Google-fu isn't working.

I've been trying to homebrew my own Kreen race with subraces for To'ksa, Jeral, J'ez, T'keech, J'hol and Tondi - Thri and Tohr are cultural prefixes - but I haven't had a lot of luck. Thri-Kreen of Athas and the Dark Sun MCA2 are surprisingly unhelpful.

Here you go.

Thanks, mate. I haven't had any luck with homebrew, either; DMs are so finnicky and most of them think I'm trying to exploit the second pair of arms, even though I'm willing to remove them altogether.

Personally I think they look better with four legs.

Except they've never had those; the only four-legged mantis-folk in AD&D lore are the Trin, a primitive and feral species of mantis-folk not actually related to the Kreen.

Best compromise IMO is to use 3.5e as a guideline. They have two primary arms usable in combat, and two secondary arms that are smaller and weaker, better-suited to delicate work like lockpicking or whatnot. So they can't quad-wield, but they can dual-wield and still carry a couple other things or do other stuff in combat.

All of my favorite D&D characters have been thri-kreen. I had a Kenshiro/Kamen Rider-themed monk, for instance, and a fighter-bard who dual-wielded scimitars while playing a goblet drum and insulting his enemies in combat in a thick stereotypical Persian accent. You know he's your friend because he always calls you "my friend."

Oh, my problem's not with DMs - I'm the DM. My problem is both balancing the race AND coming up with traits to make each subrace interesting.

Tondi have a strong enough motif - +2 Wis/+1 Cha, Druidism cantrip, free proficiency in Nature and the Herbalism kit. But the rest? How are you supposed to define a J'hol, a J'ez, or a T'keech?

>using non- core / homebrew races
Is there any clearer sign of a shit roleplayer than this? I am so sick of these fucking niggers who think they are allowed to play whatever they want in my campaigns. No, your shitty tengu is not allowed. No, your ratfolk is not allowed. No, your catfolk is not allowed. No, your tiefling is not allowed: that is a literal fucking demonspawn. Why the fuck would that be allowed in any campaign, let alone this one? No, you cannot play a drow. You will be shot on sight on the surface. Half these fuckers don't even read Drizz't so they have no excuse for wanting to play a drow, besides "lol it's different." Fuck different. Here's the thing: your race is the most boring fucking part of your character. Unless you do something interesting with it (which 90% of these stupid cunts don't do), then you are just weighing down the game. When you have a thri-keen, some homebrew furry shit, a tiefling and some fuck who wants to play kender, you know what? Fuck this. I made a setting that actually feels somewhat like the real world because it doesn't have 90 different races running around like it's motherfucking Mos Eisley cantina. It's not my fault that YOU are a bad roleplayer who can't be satisfied playing something out of the core book. Create an interesting character, and you can play as a human for the rest of your RPG career. I had groups that were entirely human yet they had personalities that seemed like real people. But no, no one wants to lump in 30 homebrew races plus 60 official wizards of the coast crapshit races they pump out like chocolate because they know it will keep people entertained and requires zero effort on their part. No DM worth shit wants to spend hours and hours putting that in his world. Play. A. Fucking. Human.

this pasta is stale

doesn't matter what race you play desu as long as the character is interesting

>doesn't matter what race you play desu as long as the character is interesting
Then play a human. Because that's what exists in my setting that you are allowed to play, until I have known you long enough to give you access to other races.

Why the fuck would I want to play with a fucking sperg like you? I play RPGs to have fun, not get talked down to by some self-important neckbeard faggot.

Is the intent to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different races?

Personally, this is my current rule for four-armed races in 5e: I've yet to get any commentary on how broken it may or may not be.

Four Arms: You have two pairs of fully functioning arms. You can use your secondary arms in a logical fashion - for example, holding or activating an item whilst your primary arms are holding weaponry or a shield. You can wield weapons in your secondary arms, but these must have the Light weapon quality, unless you have the Dual Wielder feat. Wielding weapons in all of your arms does not grant you extra attacks. Likewise, fighting with three or four weapons follows the same rules as Two-Weapon Fighting (PHB pg 195); you don't gain more than one bonus action attack, you simply can choose which of your secondary weapons to attack with as that bonus action.

You forgot the Xixchil

Nope, they were four-armed too. Though, officially, they're not a kreen subrace, and neither is their Athasian counterparts, the Zik-chil.

It just kinda lets them use two weapon fighting while also using a shield. The extra AC is helpful for certain fighter and ranger builds I guess, but it won't break the game.

Good god, what the hell were they smoking back at TSR in 94 to think that publishing a 127 page book on ONE RACE that goes in ONE SETTING was ever going to make them money.

Well I'm glad they got a hold of whatever it was, because the 'Kreen are rad. A very nice departure from the normal rubber forehead demihumans

>(((fun)))

Huh, really? Do you think I should make it that you explicitly can't benefit from more than 1 shield at a time, or any other tweaks?

You both sound like a barrel full of fun. Let's try a test. I'm a member of your group and I'm new to role playing. But, uh oh! I decide to make an exiled elven prince. Or, something equally horrid sounding. What do you do?

You already cannot benefit from more than one shield at a time, it's just that people who are dual wielding usually don't have room for a shield (as both hands are occupied by weapons), but these guys would.

>I play RPGs to have fun

Rolled 2 (1d10)

You again?
>You want to play in my campaign? You get to roll a d10. On a 1+ you get access to humans. On a 6+ you get access to halflings, on a 7+ you get access to dwarves, on an 8+ you get access to elves and gnomes, on a 9+ you get access to half-elves, half-orcs, and orcs, on an 10+ you get access to dragonborn, goblins, hobgoblins, and on a 11+ you get access to tiefling or drow. You get +1 for each full years I've known you, and you get a -1 if you play Dark Souls, World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls games, or any of that shit.

Let's see if I'm allowed to play a dwarf.

Huh, they already took care of that rule? Well, in that case, I suppose I can take pride in a 4-Armed trait that is flavorful, but not overly powerful.

Why would I want to play with a badwrongfun type like you? Also I play non humans because humans are what really exists, why would I want my world more like reality, I'm here to get away from that.

Well I like letting g players contribute to the world building, if theirs room for it I might entertain it, but there are going to be risks, if they are truely being a faggot about it i'll put a veto, if they refuse to play I will wish them well and tell them they can join any time they like for another game when they wish to play with the group instead of against it

Humans for you, boy. I'll give you a reroll if you buy pizza for the next month of sessions.

All mantis people should be inherently evil.

This is the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. I love it when bizarre, Lovecraftian-looking monsters aren't evil or hostile.

Don't forget Flumphs.

Even if they've now got a terrible dark secret

Bad retcons should be ignored.

What are the Flumphs up to now?

It's not a retcon.

It's so much worse

This is from a terrible, evil thing, isn't it?

Yes.
Notice the word in the second paragraph.

Oh I see it. Personally I'm wondering how the fuck this got printed, and if it's official.

HAIL EVIL!

I don't, please spoon feed

Well, there is an rpg produced, and this is its bestiary.

So officially sanctioned.

And of course flumphs aren't product identity. So technically they can appear anywhere.

Will easily make friends with clever ponies

It's from the MLP RPG bestiary. Because the world apparently needed such a thing.

>"Thri-kreen do not become thieves; nor do they become bards.
Skulking about and playing with locks, traps, poisons, and other
nefarious devices just does not suit them."
Can you believe this horseshit?

Several problems.

One, they're massive, it's kind of difficult for them to sneak around with their huge mantis butt.

Two, it's impolite. I mean, their saliva is a poison. So a Thri-kreen who uses poisoned weapons is like one who's drooling on his polearm.

Disgusting.

>can't be a mantis bard
I have fucking fiddle legs, how can I not be a bard?

This is dark sun, where bards are less musicians, and more assassins.

>One, they're massive, it's kind of difficult for them to sneak around with their huge mantis butt.
This makes me mad but the fact that they ended up getting their butts torn all the way off in later editions makes me madder. They look so stupid now.

Small-abdomened kreen were definitely not without precedent. That was characteristic of the J'hol in AD&D.

Best way to rationalise it that I've found is that the abdomen is where they store food. Kinda like on a Jalath'gak.

Thri-Kreen are able to survive once it's cut off, but it makes it harder to live as one of the kreen, since they get hungry much faster and need to eat more.

To avoid being a drain on their packs, they leave as exiles, going out to hunt and die, only to eventually wind up in civilization. Here food is plentiful, and they can make a living as adventurers.

My favorite weird race? Simple. The human skeleton, undead. Review the fact that in the year 2017, D&D still hasn't made a core skeleton race for PCs in spite of how iconic to fantasy settings they are as monsters. Grow freshly indignant that WotC gave people a balanced way to play as "dragons" in the form of the Dragonborn, yet didn't do the same thing for liches.

I go with that they can only use their primary limbs, but they are always counted as having their hands free for most purposes such as climbing grappling or drawing weapons.

It's because DnD lore makes everything tied to the Negative Energy Plane in any way absolutely, unforgivably evil in a way not even Devils/Demons are, and WoTC is not inclined to change it.

As much of a shithead that guy is, I would totally want to try running an OSR-style game about exploring the unknown and finding new people to interact with. Have players start off with the standard core races, then when they do things like befriending the thri-kreen they'd be able to have them as options for hirelings and replacement characters.

That doesn't even bother me, I want to play an evil skeleton.

PCs aren't supposed to be evil.

Then ask your GM to let you use the racial stats for Skeletons listed in the 5e DMG.
Page 282

That's absurd. As long as you don't start PKing each other for the hell of it, what does it matter?
This sounds new. Worth a shot.

Huh, interesting. I'm hoping my current wording reads that if you have at least one hand free, you count as having a hand free, but I'm not entirely convinced that's the case...

As says, WoTC still stupidly sticks to the idea that PCs are lawful good by default, which is an ancient relic from decades ago when you were encouraged to take control of PCs who did something evil away from players.

...

The N'djatwa, a race made from elves and ogres crossbreeding.

annarchive.com/files/Drmg158.pdf (start on pdf page 43)

It's because typically evil means selfish in a game that is supposed to be cooperative.

What ugly creatures

All three evil alignments are noted to be willing to cooperate with others to achieve their aims.

I am going for mechanical simplicity. I am playing 5th, so I am trying to keep things clean.

Same here. On the other hand, 5th edition encourages mechanical simplicity AND straightforward language to thwart the rules lawyers.

Zorak frequently burgles houses and plays the electric guitar so it's clearly just bullshit some idiot made up.

No the abdomen is usually where insects keep almost all of their important internal organs such as their digestive tract and reproductive organs and heart

So, query; am I the only one who'd be impressed if WoTC actually pulled off a decent take on the "Kreen as Core Race, six subraces" approach and brought back the "thri-kreen/tohr-kreen is a cultural title" aspect?

It was in my Barns and Nobles the other days. So not only is it out there, it made it to southern Alabama.

My GM is doing this right now. He's big into the history of D&D or whatever, and points out that the original conception is that these other races had kind of faded from the landscape. So, we're only making nonhuman PCs when we've met those races, which is rarely. Like, we're five RL years into the game and have met dwarves and gnomes, but no elves yet. It's true that it's made them more of a big deal, but the focus on hypermedievalism's made everyone fairly into playing the humans we've got.

Ever played Shadowrun? It seems to me that an evil PC group in D&D might run on the same logic; you work together for professionalism and rep, not because you like each other, and you might be pretty cold blooded about what you do to get at that treasure.