Desert-themed Campaign: World Building Help Needed Gear, Monsters, & More!

[ReNoid]

Hello all!

I've been working on a Desert-themed game where water is very scarce (and spells like, Create Water are only able to be cast by priests of Water deities and things like that) but taking a few pages from the Sandstorm supplement to assist in building the world as a whole. Namely, water is a very precious trade good.

I want to keep the world very Egypt/Babylonian as far as gods. The world a very water-light place aside from one region far from the other civilizations (where one Caliph or ruler has control over the largest body of water, sans oases.)

I've introduced a variant of Lizardfolk to allow "Crocodile-like" versions, as well as snake-skinned humans thought to be descended from Medusas themselves. I've omitted orcs in place of the crocodile people, kept the Painted Elves and Badlands Dwarves (who mine for water instead of treasures) and not using Bhuka or Asherati (again from Sandstorm)

My big question now, after a lot of the research I've done, is if there is a list of Egyptian/Babylonian/Arabic/Persian/etc weapons and armor so I can have a list available to my players for when they create characters. Does anyone have hany suggestions on what I could use? I would assume plate-wearing warriors are pretty much nonexistent while lightly armored ones probably fight more with spear and shield than with greatswords (though Falchions would quickly take the place of them!)

What other ideas would work for this type of game?

[Herobizkit]

I see you're using Sandstorm, a 3e supplement, so I'm assuming you're leaning to D&D as your base engine.

* Dark Sun is a setting based primarily in an apocalyptic desert where metal is scarce. It has (extensive) rules for equipment made from such things as bone, stone, and animal hides. It also favors psionics as the 'main' source of power, as well as featuring Elemental priests and wizards who drain natural 'energy' to power their magic. It's from 2e and also has a 4e version.

* Al-Qadim setting (also 2e) deals with Arabian Nights-style adventures.

* You might be pleased to know that the 3e Deities and Demigods has the Egyptian pantheon already "statted out".

* Yuan-Ti (WotC protected IP) make a great choice for snake-people (possibly of Set).

I don't know much about weapons and armor, but the khopesh sword usually features prominently in Egyptian-style settings.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

Egyptian Adventures - Hamunaptra (https://greenroninstore.com/products/egyptian-adventures-hamunaptra-pdf) has a section on equipment for a (guess what) Egyptian-themed setting. It also has lots of feats, spells and the like, and monsters and races... Very useful if you're wanting to run an Eyptian setting.
You might also want to take a look at Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era (https://greenroninstore.com/products/testament-roleplaying-in-the-biblical-era-pdf), which also has lots of detail on Egyptian and Babylonian gods, special equipment, spells based on their cultural myths, etc.

A trick I've used plenty of times it to re-name weapons and armour to fit the flavour, but just keep the stats the same, or to just tweak the stats of an existing weapon to make it work like a culturally appropriate one. Example (from Rome, so not for you necessarily) - a short sword is normally Piercing in D&D, but a Gladius (Roman short sword) is Piercing or Slashing. It otherwise uses the same stats.

So you could take the scimitar stats, add a "trip" function to them, make it exotic if you feel like it and call that the Kopesh.

[Lord Torath]

The D&D Creature Catalog (1986) has the Sis'Thik, fast, desert-dwelling lizardmen who ride fire-breathing, six-legged lizards called Xytar.

I think 2nd Edition actually has Crocodile men. I don't remember what they were called, though. How about some were-hippos? Hybrid form can us the stats for Giff from Spelljammer.

Edit: Gator men were also from the Creature Catalog. 7 HD, 3d6 bite + weapon, and hate lizardmen. Looks like they (and the Sis'Thik and Xytar) were included in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium (MC17) with 2E stats under Lizards and Lizard-kin

[Asmadar]

The Egyptians had similar plate armour to Romans if that helps. They just normally only would wear it into battle from what I understand.



* Yuan-Ti (WotC protected IP) make a great choice for snake-people (possibly of Set).

The Snake(can't remember his name) who battles Ra nightly trying to swallow the sun as it sails through the underworld/land of the dead would make a better god for the Yuan-Ti than Set.

[Vogie]

Wizards put out Plane Shift: Amonkhet (https://media.wizards.com/2017/downloads/magic/plane-shift_amonkhet.pdf)which stats out jackalfolk, minotaurs, nagas, ibis-headed and hawk-headed avens in an Egypt-inspired custom world. They used Long sword stats for the sickle-bladed khopesh.

When I think desert weapons, I think staffs, spears, hammers, and slings. A scarcity of water would mean a scarcity of wood would mean a scarcity of arrows... and likely, consumables in general.

You can steal some of the info from the sandbenders from Avatar: The Last Airbender. They had a earthbending-airbending hybrid variant, and would use their abilities to create miniature sandstorms to push along their Sand-Sailers, which are catamaran-style land craft. There was a 3.5 homebrew class made for them HERE (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Sandbender_(3.5e_Class)).

The Oasis Druids would probably be the bane of the Water-clerics, hiding, defending and reinforcing natural springs, and the few small desert ironwood trees that still exist.

If conservation of water is key, the adventuring day would look very different. Largely adventuring before early morning and after twilight, sleeping during the hottest part of the day.

Of course, such a setting should also include sandwurms, camels, Djinn, efreets, and of course, Sentient cactus-people, who are likely monks.