I need a good desert horde race!

[veven]

My players are currently living in a walled city on the frontier of an untamed wilderness. Little do they know, this city is about to be besieged by a horde of _______s from the desert to the north. I could easily just do hobgoblins or something like that but I was hoping for something a bit more exotic.

I am looking for a good uncommon race for a desert horde, the more well trained soldiers will be sword sages, with a few warblades sprinkled in for taste. I would prefer minimal racial HD and a level adjustment of 1 or less (2 is alright if the race is just perfect).

Thanks for the help.

[PollyOliver]

Have you taken a look at the Sandstorm races? Asheratis and bhukas are both fairly exotic.

[Asheram]

Just so you know... noone expects a halfling warband.

[Moriato]

How about Jackalweres? I don't have the stats in front of me, so I can't be sure about their HD and LA, but I think they're only CR 1 or 2, and they fit the desert theme perfectly. Very ancient egypt-y. Or refluff some Gnolls as being jackal-headed rather than hyena, although hyena fits well, too.

[Dusk Eclipse]

how about Marruspawn from the already mentioned Sandstorm they are jackal headed monstous humanoid. The marrulurk is small with 3 RHD and LA +1 (CR 3 or so IIRC) have +Wd6 Sneak attack, Death Attack (DC Cha-based) and some nice abilities modifiers. So they can work. And can be advanced by class levels if you need a bigger treat.

[Zaq]

Half-elves. No one expects half-elves to give 'em any trouble. Hell, no one expects to see half-elves.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Half-elves. No one expects half-elves to give 'em any trouble. Hell, no one expects to see half-elves.

Valenar half elves (from Eberron) they even have the rampaging horde fluff already built it; though they are more steepes horde (think mongols)

[veven]

Have you taken a look at the Sandstorm races? Asheratis and bhukas are both fairly exotic.

Yeah I looked at em' but I am sort of looking for a more buff race I suppose..They both seem geared towards stealth.

I like the Jackalwere but I am gonna be putting a few of these against one level 1 character (granted it is a spike chain tripper goliath barbarian w/ a 20 foot reach while raging). Also, and i think this may be a typo, but the Jackalwere is listed as having DR 15/ +1. Seems pretty rough for a CR 2

[Ein0r]

What about Ashen Husks ? Medium sized undeads wich died in the dessert because they dehydrated.
Pro: Dehydrated undead creatures bring nice flavour to this whole desert setting.
Con: Undead. not everyone likes them.

They are from the Sandstorm book too, CR3 monsters so you would have to downgrade them a bit and adjust their abilities.
dehydration aura: 1d4 nonlethal dmg each round to monsters/classes that have to drink or are not protected against heat. + dc13 fort save against dehydration status effect.
Bonus Hp through Charisma
Everyone who died because of their aura spawns as an Ashen Husk several days later.
Both heat and dehydration are mentioned in the book.
Or use them as some sort of special attack unit, mixed under your "normal" monsters.^^
The invading army could be led by a Walker in the Waste ~


Mh.. i think i am goint to take this idead myself too the next time i need some adventure :smallamused:

[Zaq]

Blast.

How about rilkan, from Magic of Incarnum? They're not a very interesting race (I find the skarn much cooler in both fluff and crunch, and honestly don't see many reasons to play a rilkan without the Rogue sub levels), but I can guarantee that the players won't see them coming. They do tend to work decently in large groups, since they get a bigger bonus when aiding one another, but the kenku (MM3) do that better.

Alternatively, a tribe of a common race (humans work well, for obvious reasons) that all have the same distinctive feat is an interesting time. An old GM of mine once had us run into a group of humans who lived on the middle of the ocean (no boats or islands or anything), because they all had the feat Shape Soulmeld: Cerulean Sandals (which lets you walk on water). They had a few rafts and such to hold supplies and stuff, but they just lived on top of the water. Something like that can work. Good choices include Shape Soulmeld, [Improved/Practiced] Bind Vestige, Blessed by Tem-Et-Nu (HIPPO-BASED SOCIETY GO GO GO), Hidden Talent, refluffed Dragonmarks, Aberration Blood, and so on.

[Moriato]

I like the Jackalwere but I am gonna be putting a few of these against one level 1 character (granted it is a spike chain tripper goliath barbarian w/ a 20 foot reach while raging). Also, and i think this may be a typo, but the Jackalwere is listed as having DR 15/ +1. Seems pretty rough for a CR 2

If it's 15/+1 that means that those are 3.0 stats. If it was 3.5 it would be #/Magic, and the number will undoubtedly be much lower. Unfortunately I don't have access to my books right now so I can't tell you if they were reprinted for 3.5 or where.

[veven]

I'm also not completely adverse to home-brewing something. I like the idea of a race of Jackal looking people..If I had a medium sized Jackal looking race with like...one interesting racial ability and a CR of about 1 that would be perfect.

[Fable Wright]

Hm... if you're not completely sold on the Jackals, try Thri-kreen. They were originally fluffed for a desert setting, they have decent tracking ability, four arms for Tiger Claw maneuvers, and a small number of decent defensive buffs. They can jump really high in the air (At least 10ft on average with no ranks), making them good for jumping over barricades and similar defensive measures, and they can also operate covertly if they need to. All in all, pretty good if you want them to stay in the desert for a while.

[Tvtyrant]

What about desert orcs? They, and desert everything, are in the srd alternates.

[KillianHawkeye]

According to the 3.5 update for Fiend Folio, the Jackalwere's Damage Reduction is now DR 5/cold iron.

[Natael]

Just so you know... noone expects a halfling warband.

Unless you have played Dark Sun, in which case you stay in the horrible desert because Halflings will eat you....

[Absol197]

how about Marruspawn from the already mentioned Sandstorm they are jackal headed monstous humanoid. The marrulurk is small with 3 RHD and LA +1 (CR 3 or so IIRC) have +Wd6 Sneak attack, Death Attack (DC Cha-based) and some nice abilities modifiers. So they can work. And can be advanced by class levels if you need a bigger treat.

This, this, this, a thousand times, this! I just finished running a campaign last week that was basically an extrapolation on the marruspawn society and the "Wisdom" plot given in the book. They are an extremely good antagonist race, with plenty of nice racial features, and good variety in their different sub-species, with the marrulurks (rogue/assassins), marrusaults (fighters), and marrutacts (wizards) covering most of the base archetypes.

[Rei_Jin]

If you have access to the Dragon Compendium, there's the Lupine race. They're wolf-men, but you could just as easily refluff them as Jackal-men. No Level Adjustment, just slap a class level or two on them and off you go.

[Greenish]

Just so you know... noone expects a halfling warband.Except when in Dark Sun or Eberron (in the latter case, they'd be riding dinosaurs, too).

Valenar half elves (from Eberron) they even have the rampaging horde fluff already built it; though they are more steepes horde (think mongols)Valenari are mostly full elves, though.

YI like the Jackalwere but I am gonna be putting a few of these against one level 1 character (granted it is a spike chain tripper goliath barbarian w/ a 20 foot reach while raging).Well, that's ECL 2, to be technical. :smalltongue:


Or how about Sunscorch Hobgoblins (Dragon Magic)?