Xorm

[JNAProductions]

Xorm (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bn0zkToja9UbC5-3NW3n-sQEput5ooK_bF9Vy36OenM/edit?usp=sharing) is my latest character for an IRL game.

Nothing too complicated, especially since we'll only be around levels 4 or 5 when he gets introduced, but I figure I should get some forum eyes on him. (The backstory, that is-I'm fine with mechanics, of a Life Theurgy Wizard.)

Edit: Also, do Githzerai lay eggs, or was that just something I made up?

[Aett_Thorn]

Xorm (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bn0zkToja9UbC5-3NW3n-sQEput5ooK_bF9Vy36OenM/edit?usp=sharing) is my latest character for an IRL game.

Nothing too complicated, especially since we'll only be around levels 4 or 5 when he gets introduced, but I figure I should get some forum eyes on him. (The backstory, that is-I'm fine with mechanics, of a Life Theurgy Wizard.)

Edit: Also, do Githzerai lay eggs, or was that just something I made up?

I don't think that they lay eggs. I always assumed that they were mammalian, and not like those fakers the duck-billed platypus.

[JNAProductions]

I don't think that they lay eggs. I always assumed that they were mammalian, and not like those fakers the duck-billed platypus.

I'll ask the DM what his thoughts are as well, since he's obviously the final authority. I do like the additional alien nature of it, though.

[lunaticfringe]

Githyanki hatch from eggs (MToF p.87). It doesn't state anywhere (that I noticed during my quick scan) that the Z's lay eggs but they are still Gith.

[Unoriginal]

Edit: Also, do Githzerai lay eggs, or was that just something I made up?

Githyanki do:


Githyanki hatch from eggs. Each newborn enters the world alongside other eggs deliberately laid so that all hatch at the same time.

Mordenkainen's p. 87.

Given the Githzerai aren't that different biologically, the split between the group happening after getting free from their body-modifying slavers, it's probable they also do.

What's crazy is that all the Gith come from humans. But then again so do the Kuo-Toa. Illithids really went deep with the modifications.

[JNAProductions]

Okay!

Can I get some feedback on Xorm as a character too, please? That's kinda the main point of the post. :P

But thank you all for confirming the egg bit.

[lunaticfringe]

Githyanki do:



Mordenkainen's p. 87.

Given the Githzerai aren't that different biologically, the split between the group happening after getting free from their body-modifying slavers, it's probable they also do.

What's crazy is that all the Gith come from humans. But then again so do the Kuo-Toa. Illithids really went deep with the modifications.

Makes a bit of sense if you are engineering a Slave Labor Force/Food Supply/Reproductive Medium. You can breed a female, she lays her eggs. You have a renewed supply developing and can utilize the female for food or reproduction if you have to with only a temporary loss to your 'crop'.

[Unoriginal]

Okay!

Can I get some feedback on Xorm as a character too, please? That's kinda the main point of the post. :P


I mean, don't get me wrong, what you have works, but it's really not a lot of character to discuss, if you get what I mean?

You're describing someone who is a polite, nice but not social guy, who tends to do what he's told, who had a few things happen to him, and who has a few goals. That's it. We don't know what are his motivations, why he'd choose those goals in particular, etc.

Why is he joining an adventuring group, who are complete strangers and far from his home? There would be other ways to grow in capacity than this one.

Why does he want to unite the Gith? The Githyanki mutilated him and killed all the other eggs of the group he was in.

Now, you don't have to explain everything in a backstory (as one would say: the blank spaces on the maps are just as important), but to me Xorm seems more like having a "follower" type of personality, doing what he's told because he lacks personal direction, most of the time... and then he has moments of high ambitions that seem a bit disconnected from the rest?

Note that the Githzerai have wizards, so "asking the elders to trade for magic" isn't really needed.

[Aett_Thorn]

Makes a bit of sense if you are engineering a Slave Labor Force/Food Supply/Reproductive Medium. You can breed a female, she lays her eggs. You have a renewed supply developing and can utilize the female for food or reproduction if you have to with only a temporary loss to your 'crop'.

It makes sense for the Githyanki, too, since they live in a timeless void, so even if you got pregnant, you'd never progress in your pregnancy unless you were on some other Plane of Existence. Laying an egg to develop somewhere on the Prime Material makes a lot more sense for them to do than to stay there for the full gestation period. Still, I must have missed that particular paragraph in my first read-through (having not been too keen on the mating habits of the various species in that book).

Githzerai might not have as much need to have evolved along those lines, though. It really depends on when that particular trait evolved in the race, and whether it was before or after the split.

[lunaticfringe]

I mean, don't get me wrong, what you have works, but it's really not a lot of character to discuss, if you get what I mean?

You're describing someone who is a polite, nice but not social guy, who tends to do what he's told, who had a few things happen to him, and who has a few goals. That's it. We don't know what are his motivations, why he'd choose those goals in particular, etc.

Why is he joining an adventuring group, who are complete strangers and far from his home? There would be other ways to grow in capacity than this one.

Why does he want to unite the Gith? The Githyanki mutilated him and killed all the other eggs of the group he was in.

Now, you don't have to explain everything in a backstory (as one would say: the blank spaces on the maps are just as important), but to me Xorm seems more like having a "follower" type of personality, doing what he's told because he lacks personal direction, most of the time... and then he has moments of high ambitions that seem a bit disconnected from the rest?

Note that the Githzerai have wizards, so "asking the elders to trade for magic" isn't really needed.

As a weirdo outcast he could have been exposed to or explored more unconventional schools of thought like Reunification of the Gith (there is an official faction of Gith trying to do that). Pepper in being exposed to his father's blind, self destructive hatred and add to that the age old 'I will never be like my parents' trope and presto! You have a somewhat naive kid who doesn't really understand why all gith just can't get along. He was a victim of yank violence before he was born so I don't think it's too weird if he seems largely unaffected by it.

Kill All Mindflayers just seems like bog standard Cultural Indoctrination to me. It's right and proper in his society to desire that goal. Even though he is an outcast I imagine there was some desire to fit in and drink the Kool Aid. the Squids are also monsters that feed off of the Gith so it's probably a lot easier to hate them and not feel guilty or question it. The yanks are Gith so it would be more natural for him to empathize with a people that look/sound like his own and share a history.

[Unoriginal]

As a weirdo outcast he could have been exposed to or explored more unconventional schools of thought like Reunification of the Gith (there is an official faction of Gith trying to do that). Pepper in being exposed to his father's blind, self destructive hatred and add to that the age old 'I will never be like my parents' trope and presto! You have a somewhat naive kid who doesn't really understand why all gith just can't get along. He was a victim of yank violence before he was born so I don't think it's too weird if he seems largely unaffected by it.

Kill All Mindflayers just seems like bog standard Cultural Indoctrination to me. It's right and proper in his society to desire that goal. Even though he is an outcast I imagine there was some desire to fit in and drink the Kool Aid. the Squids are also monsters that feed off of the Gith so it's probably a lot easier to hate them and not feel guilty or question it. The yanks are Gith so it would be more natural for him to empathize with a people that look/sound like his own and share a history.

Sure, those are some of the possible explanations, but what I'm saying isn't "this character is not believable", what I'm saying is "OP didn't give any explanation as to why he's like that".

[JNAProductions]

Which is fair-I did not give an explanation.

But I like the ones presented, so I’ll be stealing them. :)