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View Full Version : Race ideas (All done, thanks.)



Jallorn
2009-06-05, 11:54 AM
So here's the deal, I'm creating a DnD world that I intend to DM once it's done, but I need some help. So I've got the gnomes in this world in a native american sort of culture with traces of african tribal touches. Anyway, lots of druids and stuff, and they live in a giant forest the elves once inhabited, and they worship the elves. But I'm trying to create an enemy for them. I was toying with a necromancer sort of thing, but it seemed a little too dangerous for them. Besides which, there are no wizards in this setting, all such mystical secrets having been lost with the elves. And sorcerers aren't very numerous because dragons are incredibly rare. That means that powerful sorcerers are even more rare, though they do exist. So, any ideas on a new race, or perhaps an altered one, that would make a good enemy for my nature-loving gnomes?

CullinaneLives
2009-06-05, 11:57 AM
REPOSTING from other thread:
What about aranea or chitine?
What sources do you have available to draw from Monster Manual-wise?

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 11:59 AM
Just the first MM.

Edit: I'm also looking for something that could be a PC, I'm going with a very grey morality on the kingdom side, although obviously the gnomes consider this enemy evil.

Rhiannon87
2009-06-05, 12:00 PM
Their traditional enemies in D&D are kobolds. Maybe you could refluff them to make that work?

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:01 PM
I'm trying to break from tradition. I'll hold onto that idea just in case though.

JellyPooga
2009-06-05, 12:02 PM
Well Kobolds are the typical enemy of Gnomes, so you make them a technologically advanced (relatively) race...steampunkish...that are bulldozing over the Gnomes' more holistic lifestyles.

edit: ninja'd!

Tsotha-lanti
2009-06-05, 12:03 PM
Should it be another arboreal/nature-themed race?

In that case I concur with CullinaneLives: use araneas, but make ettercaps part of the same species, with the araneas ruling them in a choldritch-chitine -style arrangement. They spin webs in dark parts of the forests (think northeastern Native Americans rather than plains) and fight from the trees, etc.

Or should it be a race with a culture antithetical to nature (maybe with some British/French colonialist overtures)?

In that case, use azer in a dwarf-style culture (mining, digging, chopping trees down for fuel, etc.), ruled by an upper caste of salamanders, and maybe a couple of efreeti.

Tackyhillbillu
2009-06-05, 12:05 PM
If you haven't got your humans to set, make it them. Not through a concious destruction, but through their civilizing of land. They chop down trees, make farmland, civilize places. Your Gnomes aren't in favor of that.

Neither way is inherently evil, especially in the sense of Captain Planetesque Villains destroying the environment because they are evil, but just two very different priorities.

Choco
2009-06-05, 12:06 PM
you could go the cliche "science vs. nature" route and have their enemy be a human empire that is almost industrial age, and thus probably encroaching on the gnome's forest to make room for development and for lumber.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:06 PM
As to the steampunk... well, here:

As to your idea, I don't see that happening because I'm avoiding that sort of advanced feel. My most advanced kingdoms only have iron weapons, and most of the other groups are even further behind, so I don't really see that working.

Wowo, several more while I was finding my quote...

CullinaneLives
2009-06-05, 12:07 PM
I was thinking about suggesting Derro for a nasty dwarf-like opponent.

Or lizardfolk for a flat-out turf-war kinda deal. Maybe there's a big marsh along one of the borders, closest to the elf capital city and both feel it rightfully belongs to them.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:08 PM
Well... That might work, there is a mountain range through the forest. But I'm trying to avoid mixing species in one culture. At this point people band together because they're the same species/race.

Choco
2009-06-05, 12:09 PM
Some Roman style enemy then? A massive empire of <insert race here> that are in the process of expanding their borders, and they need to secure the gnome's forest to build a stronghold against an enemy on the other side?

Elder Wraith
2009-06-05, 12:10 PM
What about extremely small tieflings? with resist fire suggesting they use it a lot and fire destroying nature...that could work.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:12 PM
Currently, the elves have drawn on the greeks, only they're destroyed, so the forest is littered with now overgrown temples and such in roman style, but because they were elves, they were less expansive in their building.

CullinaneLives
2009-06-05, 12:13 PM
Ahem...
I was thinking about suggesting Derro for a nasty dwarf-like opponent.

Or lizardfolk for a flat-out turf-war kinda deal. Maybe there's a big marsh along one of the borders, closest to the elf capital city and both feel it rightfully belongs to them.
Howzabout this?

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:14 PM
What about extremely small tieflings? with resist fire suggesting they use it a lot and fire destroying nature...that could work.

I like this idea for a start. I'm thinking full sized tieflings, only they aren't a subspecies of humans, but their own species, and they don't necesarily have and fiendish connections, although that would give them the appropriate dark look. I'll tweak the stats to remove their level adj., and they'll do just fine.

Spiryt
2009-06-05, 12:14 PM
Well Kobolds are the typical enemy of Gnomes, so you make them a technologically advanced (relatively) race...steampunkish...that are bulldozing over the Gnomes' more holistic lifestyles.

edit: ninja'd!

Well, they don't really have to be technologicaly advanced, they just can be numerous, fast breeding farmers, who need to burn down the trees for more and more crops.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:16 PM
Ahem...
Howzabout this?

Nice idea, but the Gnomes don't have ties to cities. I'm going with an iriqouis feel for them mostly, so longhouses and such.

Choco
2009-06-05, 12:17 PM
Currently, the elves have drawn on the greeks, only they're destroyed, so the forest is littered with now overgrown temples and such in roman style, but because they were elves, they were less expansive in their building.

Well, you could always go Egyptian or Aztec or Minoan or Arab or <insert whatever culture you want here>. The basic idea is to have some giant empire trying to conquer/annex the forest not because they are evil but because they:

1. Need the lumber
2. Need the building space for their expanding empire
3. Have a powerful (and actually evil) rival on the other side and are securing the forest/mountain range as a natural defense

This way you have the moral gray ground, the empire is not actually out to get the gnomes, and perhaps if the players try they could make some pact with said empire, allowing a few watchtowers and roads to be built (about as intrusive as the elven buildings) and acting as the first line of defense?

CullinaneLives
2009-06-05, 12:17 PM
Nice idea, but the Gnomes don't have ties to cities. I'm going with an iriqouis feel for them mostly, so longhouses and such.
I was thinking more like they wanted to keep the elven cities free of residents, themselves because they worship the elves and it wouldn't be right to live in a holy city, and others because it IS a holy city.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:18 PM
Well, they don't really have to be technologicaly advanced, they just can be numerous, fast breeding farmers, who need to burn down the trees for more and more crops.

I've been toying with making it a rainforest, and since one of the problems there is slash-and-burn farming, that would work, still not sure about the rainforest part though. I think that'll be the tiefling's thing. They mine near the mountains, and slash and burn parts of the forest as they expand.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:19 PM
I was thinking more like they wanted to keep the elven cities free of residents, themselves because they worship the elves and it wouldn't be right to live in a holy city, and others because it IS a holy city.

That's not a bad idea, I'll see where I can incorporate it.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:22 PM
Well, you could always go Egyptian or Aztec or Minoan or Arab or <insert whatever culture you want here>. The basic idea is to have some giant empire trying to conquer/annex the forest not because they are evil but because they:

1. Need the lumber
2. Need the building space for their expanding empire
3. Have a powerful (and actually evil) rival on the other side and are securing the forest/mountain range as a natural defense

This way you have the moral gray ground, the empire is not actually out to get the gnomes, and perhaps if the players try they could make some pact with said empire, allowing a few watchtowers and roads to be built (about as intrusive as the elven buildings) and acting as the first line of defense?

I like the idea of making them Aztecy. They should probably have lots of gold in their mountains then. That way when the PCs reach them, they have to decide between allying with the gnomes, or the Tieteks (name a work in progress).

CullinaneLives
2009-06-05, 12:25 PM
That's not a bad idea, I'll see where I can incorporate it.
Yay! I contributed! :smallbiggrin:

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:26 PM
So what do you guys think, rainforest, or temperate forest?

CullinaneLives
2009-06-05, 12:29 PM
So what do you guys think, rainforest, or temperate forest?
I like the rainforest idea. Gives a wider range of flora and fauna, IMHO.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:31 PM
Would it be insane for me to put a rainforest further north, and have it slowly turn into a temperate one as it goes south?

CullinaneLives
2009-06-05, 12:34 PM
Would it be insane for me to put a rainforest further north, and have it slowly turn into a temperate one as it goes south?
Not unreasonable, I think there are sections of Africa and South America like that.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:36 PM
Cool, I'll have the northern Gnome tribes be more african then, and the southern ones more Iriqouis.

Spiryt
2009-06-05, 12:38 PM
Would it be insane for me to put a rainforest further north, and have it slowly turn into a temperate one as it goes south?

If this takes place in the southern hemisphere, it is in fact absolutely logical. :smallamused:

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:39 PM
At first it was north of the equator, but the more things I decided upon, the further south it went. lol.

SSGoW
2009-06-05, 12:40 PM
You could always make a nomadic branch of kobolds or halflings that are blighters (if this is 3.5 but if not then just make a blighter class for them) not only would this bring in the druid v.s blighter conflict but you could also set the blighters to be kinda spartan like.

Choco
2009-06-05, 12:40 PM
Not unreasonable, I think there are sections of Africa and South America like that.

yeah, I think so too, with some plains added as well.

Anyway, it doesnt need to make logical sense, in one of my settings I had a tropical rainforest and frozen glaciers right next to each other, with bout a 1-2 mile strip of temperate land in between. The excuse was magic of course: This was on the Antarctica-equivalent continent, and the rainforest section was that way due to an ancient magical artifact that was buried there millenia ago. It only had a certain radius, so it extended to the border of the rainforest, then due to the heat of the rainforest there was a bit of temperate land before it hit the natural glaciers.

Jallorn
2009-06-05, 12:42 PM
Yeah, the majority of magic items in my campaign are leftover from the elves.

Danin
2009-06-05, 12:43 PM
I'm going to throw my support in with lizardfolk. A physically powerful opponent who could very easily adapt to an Aztec or Mayan theme with enough variations to make them interesting. And don't let anyone tell you they aren't viable for a PC. I had a poison dusk lizardfolk scout who was bloody incredable.

Xapi
2009-06-05, 02:43 PM
Halflings.

Chaotic, Evil, Goblin Flesh-Eating Halflings.

Edit:

Maybe Chaotic Neutral. After all, it's not their fault that their mouths water at the thought of juicy, delicious appendages of an inteligent species.