Role for reptilian humanoids in homebrew world

[Sir_Chivalry]

In my current campaign, I've done some jostling to the race roles (along with minor tweaks to abilities to reflect this) and I suddenly came up with a problem. We have:


Elves that live in a caste-based system, with grey elf priests at the top, followed by high elf warriors, star elf (along with sea and winged) commoners, wild elf and wood elf slaves and the outcast (and embittered) dark elves. Elven gods are merely powerful figures from their history, exalted to divinity after death.
Dwarves that are sea-faring and ship-builders, fighting underwater races instead of orcs and goblins. Heavy armour still stays, but they are aware of the limitations it puts on their survival in water, so only the most rich wear it, as they can afford modifications and special craftsmenship to make the armour less heavy or more water-friendly.
Gnomes that take the dwarves place as masters of rock, earth and stone, ruling both hill and mountain, a xenophobic and untrusting race that when forced out into the world, adopts a facade of geniality and friendliness to confuse and mislead others.
Halflings that are the great keepers of magical lore, but instead of it being a written history stored in books and keep in towers, it is an oral history, one that reveals secrets of the oldest artifacts and the most ancient of heroes, but only if you can find someone who knows that particular story.
Orcs that live in the north and organize themselves into mercenary houses, selling entire clans as additional fighting forces to the greedy and warring humans to the south. A strict code of honour binds them to their employers, and they just as often go to war with other clans as the enemies of their employers.
Goblinoids as the great originators of democracy and republics as a system of government. The three monster manual goblinoids are all as smart as humans overall, so they could easily make a society that wasn't grubbing and war-based. Plus I liked the idea of all the other races still being more authoritarian in their governments, but the goblins have democracy.


And then I realized I didn't think of what the kobolds are doing. Then I realized I didn't now what any reptilian humanoid was doing. Should I:

Continue the trend of shifting the races away from traditional good and evil roles and give the lizardfolk, kobolds and trogs complexities?

OR

Take the niche originally filled by goblinoids and orcs, and put the reptiles there? Like maybe they were originally the favoured races of the gods, but the warm-blooded humanoids usurped them? Perhaps the gods were originally draconic? Perhaps dragons share in this lose?

Let me know what you think? And if you have opinions on the other races in the spoiler, I'm open to that too, always willing to fine tune.

[Kenneth]

I would do the whole thet reptiles were the orrigianl races that acheived civilization, but do to theri traditional ways were left behind when the elves goblinoids and humans came to dominance.

I would put the Kobold and troglodytes in teh whole 'embittered' over teh whole thing with teh kobolds focusing on the gnomes for whatever reason to keep that in line with their lore still, and the troglodytes being very uh, upset.

with Lizard folk being a fallen civilization. everything that once made them great is dwindling. some tried to capture that power again a loong time ago, hence lizard man kings. but they are more the race that has glories past. but not so much future, unless somebody plans to change that.

[Tibbaerrohwen]

I haven't heard much about Dragons yet. Though I am not one to normally look to Dragons as an answer for a problem, they could work well in this case.
With a large-scale and very expensive war going on, it could be that dragons are worried about their treasure. Kobolds and Lizardfolk may find a place as draconic bodyguards, with Dragons looking to their decendants for protection and creating small tribal kingdoms of their own.
This allows Lizardfolks and Kobolds to have a role in the world at large, but also buys you time to think of something else for them t be doing (Dragons have a tendency to be secretive, so players may not see very many Kobolds or Lizardfolk right away).
Alternatively, have you thought of lizardfolk as a foil for the dwarves? What is the Lizardfolk took to adventuring to find new lands for home, where they could protect and develop their now endangered culture? On the open ocean, they may be competing with dwarves over resources and undiscovered land.

[Tvtyrant]

Reptiles naturally retain water better then mammals and are able to digest a far greater percentage of a carcass. A Kobold could be fluffed as horde like in wet environments and successful in dry ones, with efforts to destroy the over populating ones in wet environs successful with greater technology/magic but the desert ones are effectively beyond reach.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd give Lizardfolk an ancient shamanistic culture, with primitive superstitions such as forsaking the use of metal. Poison dusk lizardfolk would be mean-spirited leaders, with the blackscale lizardfolk serving as their brutish lackeys, and the MM lizardfolk would be slightly above slaves in their pecking order. Their religious leaders would be druids, spirit shamans, and archivist/hexers, their warriors hexblades, duskblades, and wild shape variant (mystic) rangers. They should primarily inhabit a large chain of islands, and should be in the business of enslaving and selling other humanoid creatures as well as exotic animals.


Troglodytes and Sahuagin should be the former slaves of their creators, a rarely seen aquatic illithid race. The two should be rivals and often outright enemies, similar to the standard gith races. Each should make a habit of keeping aquatic minions, I'd make one raise hydras, darktentacles, and water-variant arrowhawks as pets and the other enslave chuul, monstrous damn crabs, and similar. There should also be nomadic aquatic trolls or ogres (with primordial giant and/or phrenic) who trade with both and tend to act as mediators when conflicts arise.

All of the aquatic cultures should have prophecies of a terrible elder god of the deeps awakening to consume all he beholds. The illithids aren't actually evil, it is their duty to bolster their numbers and then gorge themselves on the brains of slaves so that when the elder god awakens they can throw themselves into his maw, thus sating his hunger and sending him back into a thousand-year slumber in order to spare the rest of the world from his wrath.

[Gnorman]

In the grand war between gnomes and kobolds, the gnomes won. Kobolds are either extinct (if you're feeling sinister), or a slave race yearning to be free from the cruel gnomish yoke (my preference, personally - the irony is palpable).

Remember, when speaking of reptilian races, that their cold blood restricts them primarily to activity during the dawn and dusk hours, as they will be too busy resting in shade during high noon and conserving what little warmth they have by huddling underground at night. They will also likely cling to the tropical band, as polar temperatures could send them into eternal torpor.

I personally believe that the following tropes have been overdone, and cannot in good faith support them: lizardfolk as creator race or ancient competitor (see: Neverwinter Nights, Chrono Trigger, Doctor Who, and Land of the Lost), or lizardfolk as thinly-veiled native American analogues (see: almost every depiction of them ever, but primarily Warhammer Fantasy).

I would personally like to see a ruthlessly mercenary warrior culture amongst lizardfolk, using their size and strength to their advantage. Their code is not honor, but commerce, and they measure themselves not by the largest foe they've felled, but the largest purse they were paid to do so. It's not even about the money, per se, but about the ever-escalating competition between them. They take their winnings and turn them into garish, enormous jewelry to show off how much they are worth, and marriage negotiations between them frequently devolve into bitter arguments over the purity and worth of the precious metals and gems that they adorn themselves with.

[Tibbaerrohwen]

I personally believe that the following tropes have been overdone, and cannot in good faith support them: lizardfolk as creator race or ancient competitor (see: Neverwinter Nights, Chrono Trigger, Doctor Who, and Land of the Lost), or lizardfolk as thinly-veiled native American analogues (see: almost every depiction of them ever, but primarily Warhammer Fantasy).

I would personally like to see a ruthlessly mercenary warrior culture amongst lizardfolk, using their size and strength to their advantage. Their code is not honor, but commerce, and they measure themselves not by the largest foe they've felled, but the largest purse they were paid to do so. It's not even about the money, per se, but about the ever-escalating competition between them. They take their winnings and turn them into garish, enormous jewelry to show off how much they are worth, and marriage negotiations between them frequently devolve into bitter arguments over the purity and worth of the precious metals and gems that they adorn themselves with.

I +1 this actually. This is a pretty good idea and takes Lizardfolk away from over-done cliches.