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Dhavaer
2006-10-27, 04:20 PM
Mantid: CR 1/2; Medium aberration; HD 1d6-1; hp 2; Mas 8; Init +1; Spd 30 ft.; Defense 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 (+1 Dex); BAB +0; Grap +0; Atk +0 melee (1d3, unarmed strike); Full Atk +0 melee (1d3, unarmed strike); FS 5 ft. by 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.; SQ scent, stable, Occupation (astronaut trainee); AL varies, often Mantid Collective and Sol Republic; SV Fort -1, Ref +1, Will +2; AP 0; Rep +1; Str 10, Dex 12, Con 8, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 12.
Skills: Computer Use +7, Craft (electronic) +5, Disable Device +5, Knowledge (physical sciences) +5, Knowledge (technology) +5, Navigate +5, Profession +3, Read/Write Language Mantid, Read/Write Language English, Repair +7, Research +5, Speak Language Mantid, Speak Language English.
Feats: Gearhead, Ultra Immune System, Zero-G Training.
Advancement: By character class (example mantid is a Smart ordinary 1).

Prior to racial adjustments, the example Mantid had abilities Str 12, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 12.

Stability: Mantids have multiple legs and a relatively long, flat body, and therefore recieve a +4 stability bonus against trip and bull rush attempts. They also possess twice the carrying capacity of a biped of equal strength.

Skills: Mantids' many legs and mainly cylindical bodies make the excellent climbers. They gain a +4 species bonus to Climb checks. They are also highly sensitive to vibration, giving them +2 to Listen checks.

Feats: Despite their fragile bodies, Mantids handle most poisons very well. They gain Ultra Immune System as a bonus feat. This mantid has the Zero-G Training feat from its occupation.

Physical Description: Mantids are vaguely arthropoid creatures, measuring about four feet high when rearing up in their normal posture. Their heads are vaguely triangular, with twelve eyes in two symmetrical 2 x 3 parralellogram formations. Instead of lower jaws, they possess mandibles. They can protrude their tongue, a long, whip-like organ, from their throat at will. It is dextrous and tipped with a 'hand' possessing three 'fingers'. This is their primary manipulative organ. Mantids do not possess antennae.
The rest of their body is segmented, being covered in a dark, chitin-like exo-skeleton. The exo-skeleton is coloured dark blue or green, shading to black, and is not unlike human fingernails. Mantid legs have two main segments, and end in a very simple 'foot'. Mantid bodies are quite flexible, and they can assume a flat posture when running, which is less tiring due to more legs being in contact with the ground. The two pairs of legs closest to the head are larger and have pincers, but these are weaker and less precise that the tongue, and are best used for holding things.
Mantids are extremely physically weak. Their exo-skeleton affords them little more protection than human skin, and their muscles are poorly developed and ineffecient. Humans are easily capable of crushing mantids with bare hands, although this would be immensely disgusting, resulting in the mantid's innards spewing from cracks in the exo-skeleton.
Mantids do not respire, but they do eat, drink and undergo a process equivalent to photosynthesis. They cannot eat human food, but can drink human water if it is sufficently purified. They have no problem existing in humans' preferred environmental conditions.

Culture, Psychology and Human Contact: Mantids evolved in an environment containing vast amounts of food and water, and no predators. Their homeworld is also extremely stable. These factors make mantids somewhat fearless, with barely restrained curiousity, as there is very little on their world that can harm them. Due to the lush resources, they have have little instinct for conflict, but also little tolerance for adversity. Their culture reflects their vast surplus of resources, having a great deal of art and scientific advancement, for which they have a great deal of time to dedicate to due to the ease of finding food.
Human/Mantid relations have seldom been less than cordial, despite the revulsion humans instinctively feel when first seeing to insectile aliens. Once the communication barrier had been breached, the mantids happy asked and answered questions. Fortunately, the original human contacts were not inclined to take advantage of them, and thus the first impression was a good one.
Mantids are considered allies of the Sol Republic, although their military arsenal is less than devastating. Their technological gifts and pleasant natures make humans who have become accustomed to their appearance think of them as rather sweet. The mantids, for their part, are awed and a little frightened by humans' military prowess, and a very much grateful for their protection from the less friendly species the galaxy holds.

Technology: Mantid technology is at a similar level to human technology in most respects. Before their technology was mostly integrated, mantids enjoyed superior computer and communications technology, whereas humans had faster and more powerful engines, including FTL capability, as well as shielding and armour technology. Weapons superiority is debateable; Mantids developed railguns first, but their approach to weaponry is purely academic, and the effectiveness of the mantid railgun compared to the human charge cannon is debateable.

Dhavaer
2006-10-28, 11:45 PM
*bumpity*

Anyone?

Sir_Dude
2006-10-29, 08:10 PM
Pretty cool overall. I like the tongue/hand thing, it's very unique. Is this race intended to be playable? It's set up like a monster, which I think is funny because by its stats and description, it would make one lousy encounter. In normal dnd I don't even think it qualifies for CR 1/2, but at least in future it might get a lucky shot with some overpower weapon.

Dhavaer
2006-10-29, 08:22 PM
They're intended as NPCs. They aren't strong enough to be playable, or to be decent enemies except in space combat.

Captain van der Decken
2006-10-30, 04:13 AM
Do they speak with the tongue?

Dhavaer
2006-10-30, 04:22 AM
Do they speak with the tongue?

No. They speak by clicking their mandibles together. They also have a Stephen Hawking-esque device that translates the clicking into English to facilitate communication with humans.

Captain van der Decken
2006-10-30, 04:25 AM
Don't know much about future, but seems good.

Dhavaer
2006-10-30, 04:29 AM
I don't really know much about Future either, I just wanted a friendly alien race that wasn't all cute and cuddly.

Hyrael
2006-10-30, 06:03 PM
Very nice, but the fluff seems a bit hard to beleive. an enviroment with no Predators? a massive surpluss of food? a massive surpluss of food is like a pile of hundred-dollar bills scattered around a parking lot; at first, everyone just rushes around grabbing as many bills as they can, but pretty soon, blood will begin to flow. You, my friend, need to read more books of a more serious nature, particularly those about nature. Even deep-water geothermal energy source enviroments have predators and dangers to the resident organisms as they fight for the best feeding locations.

Predators are a universal fact of life, nature does not use the "honor system."

Dhavaer
2006-10-30, 06:10 PM
Why is it so hard to believe that no predators would evolve? What reason could they have to fight over the food?

Hyrael
2006-10-30, 08:31 PM
because population is limited by food supply. If there is a food surplus, the population of organisms will increase until there is no longer a food surpluss, but rather a food shortage. Animals would be forced to seek out other sources of energy, such as all these other animals laying about. predator species develope, and begin to compete with eachother and control the prey population. Even when life is at the single-celled stage, there would be predatory and parasitic organisms. Your "lots of food, no predators" situation is an unstable ecology, and unstable ecologies will always revert to a stable one, which involves producers at the bottom, with grazers feeding on them, and predators in turn feeding on the grazers.

Foeofthelance
2006-10-31, 01:42 AM
Mantids are hive creatures. Or at leat they were in the one videogame I played that had them. Once the Hive is taken care of, there's no need to expand. Any expansion that does take place is coordinated in the Hive itself, so a lack of predators does make some sense for an insect species.

Dhavaer
2006-10-31, 01:53 AM
Mantids are hive creatures. Or at leat they were in the one videogame I played that had them. Once the Hive is taken care of, there's no need to expand. Any expansion that does take place is coordinated in the Hive itself, so a lack of predators does make some sense for an insect species.

I like you. You've saved my idea. Now, how to explain the disappearance of the hive mind...
Smallish asteroid hits planet, causes chaos, hive decides that working out how to get offworld would be a good idea, and starts trying to develop technology to that end. Hive mind discovers that creativity and individualism are useful qualities for inventors, and attempts to breed its drones to that end. This descreases the hive mind's influence as an entity in its own right, but mantids are still more co-operative than other species.