Thri-Kreen with Abberant Blood [Archive] - Wizards Community

Thri-Kreen with Abberant Blood [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Masakari4488
10-14-07, 06:37 PM First, I would like to say that I haven't been playing D&D that long, and due to the lack of groups where I live, have gone long stretches without playing. The games I did play were pretty optimized with little regard to role playing, so I am not too experienced at it. Well I am now going to try to remedy that situation. I am currently playing in a monstrous campaign and the story goes like this:

A powerful wizard has fashioned a small plane in a snow globe, into which he has been poofing all sorts of exotic species over many years. The party is currently traveling the plane searching for pieces of a key to escape the snow globe, free the monstrous denizens, and defeat the mage that imprisoned them.

My previous character was eaten, so my next concept is in the title, a Thri-Kreen with a few feats from the abberant blood tree. I will be taking the pre-requisite Abberant Blood, Deep-spawn, and Inhuman Reach. Deep-Spawn will give me two tentacle attacks, and Inhuman Reach will give me an extra five feet of reach in exchange for a -1 penalty to attack rolls. I'll probably go ranger, then to scorpion heritor because it seems fitting. I haven't decided if he is going to embrace or be repulsed by his abberant heritage, or even what his alignment is going to be. I'm not asking for a full background, but as far as background and personality traits go any and all ideas and suggestions would be welcome.

What I've thought of so far in the past 15 minutes was that my character, shunned by Thri-Kreen and other races alike for his disturbing heritage and appearance, lives his life as a recluse in his nature home with only the wilderness for company. He either preys upon (if evil) or assists lost travelers in his neck of the woods (if he is good). Either way, he gains a reputation with the locals, and this wizard hears about it and decides that he would make a nice addition to his collection. He poses as a lost traveler, and as soon as we first make contact *poof* into his demiplane I go. What do you guys think?
CrimsonDeath
10-15-07, 03:13 AM I like it. I'd like to make one suggestion, if you don't mind. If you decide he's good, he might help travellers and then eat anyone he protects them from. It would probably help the rumors about him spread. I mean, which story is going to get told faster? "A giant tentacle bug saved us from some bandits" or "A giant tentacle bug saved us from some bandits and then ate them"?
Dead_Weasel
10-15-07, 04:46 AM Thri-kreen on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thri-kreen). Dark Sun thri-kreen (http://darksunkings.com/thrikreen.html). Even more thri-kreen (http://www.angelfire.com/crazy2/gamelove/Darksun/DSracialoptions/DS%20Race%20Thrikreen.htm).

I really only have two points to emphasize when it comes to the thri-kreen: from their point of view, humanoids make very little sense, and every aspect of their life is centered around the pack.

Humanoids do weird things, like sleep, wear clothes and build things; thri-kreen can and occasionally do bond with or come to understanding with humanoids, but the differences outweigh the similarities most of the time. Elves are delicious.

The pack is the smallest unit a thri-kreen can think of - an lone thri-kreen is a thri-kreen looking for a pack. Thri-kreen adventurers usually think of their adventuring party as their pack, because otherwise why would it wander around hunting with a bunch of two-legged water sacks? Betrayal is anathema to thri-kreen, because of the amount of importance they place on their pack. A pack relies on its other members, because thri-kreen build almost nothing - their weapons are primitive and their preferred weapons are hardened saliva (mostly; it is a bit more complicated but that is the gist of it).

Your aberrant thri-kreen might have been exiled from his pack for his strangeness, or because of something it did. Its pack may have been exclusively aberrant thri-kreen, that were exterminated before, after, or even during its capture. It may never have had a pack, having been bred and immediately tossed into the terrarium, but it would still have an instinctive impulse to form a pack. If the latter is the case, how did it learn a language? What languages does it know? Are humanoids new to it, or has it never encountered anything that was not a humanoid?

When it comes to eating other sentient creatures, food is food - except for the pack. Unless, of course, that is the reason it was exiled: its unusual heritage gave it a taste for the taboo.

As much as I like your idea, you have some little details you will need your DM's approval on: thri-kreen are not humanoids; they are monstrous humanoids. This means that they cannot legally take Aberration Blood, or any of the feats that list it as a prerequisite. If you manage to swing this, I would recommend that you add either Starspawn or Waterspawn to your "feats-to-take" list, since cold resistance in a cold campaign is nothing to sneeze at. Scorpion Heritor would be most worthwhile for you if you can convince your DM to allow the Scorpion ___ feats to work on snow as well - ash, sand and dust are going to be hard for you to find.
Masakari4488
10-15-07, 04:06 PM Thanks for the replies guys. I think I am going to enjoy this character. Any more ideas and suggestions are also welcome. Also, I'm assuming that taking an adventuring party of humanoids as "clutch mates" as the XPH calls them is a big deal and not done lightly. That along with the fact that they consider most non-thri-kreen as outsiders and enemies is going to make getting into the party difficult I think. Any suggestions on how to go about that would be greatly appreciated.
Terjon of the Blue Rose
10-18-07, 12:29 AM If you want to get him into the party just attack them for food. Make sure you have a good means of escape and then keep hidden while you observe them. Wait until you have seen them interacting in a place where they don't seem to fight everything they see (read anything resembling a town). After a little while approach, timidly asking to join this powerful, if strange, new pack.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Masakari4488 10-14-07, 06:37 PM	First, I would like to say that I haven't been playing D&D that long, and due to the lack of groups where I live, have gone long stretches without playing. The games I did play were pretty optimized with little regard to role playing, so I am not too experienced at it. Well I am now going to try to remedy that situation. I am currently playing in a monstrous campaign and the story goes like this: A powerful wizard has fashioned a small plane in a snow globe, into which he has been poofing all sorts of exotic species over many years. The party is currently traveling the plane searching for pieces of a key to escape the snow globe, free the monstrous denizens, and defeat the mage that imprisoned them. My previous character was eaten, so my next concept is in the title, a Thri-Kreen with a few feats from the abberant blood tree. I will be taking the pre-requisite Abberant Blood, Deep-spawn, and Inhuman Reach. Deep-Spawn will give me two tentacle attacks, and Inhuman Reach will give me an extra five feet of reach in exchange for a -1 penalty to attack rolls. I'll probably go ranger, then to scorpion heritor because it seems fitting. I haven't decided if he is going to embrace or be repulsed by his abberant heritage, or even what his alignment is going to be. I'm not asking for a full background, but as far as background and personality traits go any and all ideas and suggestions would be welcome. What I've thought of so far in the past 15 minutes was that my character, shunned by Thri-Kreen and other races alike for his disturbing heritage and appearance, lives his life as a recluse in his nature home with only the wilderness for company. He either preys upon (if evil) or assists lost travelers in his neck of the woods (if he is good). Either way, he gains a reputation with the locals, and this wizard hears about it and decides that he would make a nice addition to his collection. He poses as a lost traveler, and as soon as we first make contact poof into his demiplane I go. What do you guys think?
CrimsonDeath 10-15-07, 03:13 AM	I like it. I'd like to make one suggestion, if you don't mind. If you decide he's good, he might help travellers and then eat anyone he protects them from. It would probably help the rumors about him spread. I mean, which story is going to get told faster? "A giant tentacle bug saved us from some bandits" or "A giant tentacle bug saved us from some bandits and then ate them"?
Dead_Weasel 10-15-07, 04:46 AM	Thri-kreen on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thri-kreen). Dark Sun thri-kreen (http://darksunkings.com/thrikreen.html). Even more thri-kreen (http://www.angelfire.com/crazy2/gamelove/Darksun/DSracialoptions/DS%20Race%20Thrikreen.htm). I really only have two points to emphasize when it comes to the thri-kreen: from their point of view, humanoids make very little sense, and every aspect of their life is centered around the pack. Humanoids do weird things, like sleep, wear clothes and build things; thri-kreen can and occasionally do bond with or come to understanding with humanoids, but the differences outweigh the similarities most of the time. Elves are delicious. The pack is the smallest unit a thri-kreen can think of - an lone thri-kreen is a thri-kreen looking for a pack. Thri-kreen adventurers usually think of their adventuring party as their pack, because otherwise why would it wander around hunting with a bunch of two-legged water sacks? Betrayal is anathema to thri-kreen, because of the amount of importance they place on their pack. A pack relies on its other members, because thri-kreen build almost nothing - their weapons are primitive and their preferred weapons are hardened saliva (mostly; it is a bit more complicated but that is the gist of it). Your aberrant thri-kreen might have been exiled from his pack for his strangeness, or because of something it did. Its pack may have been exclusively aberrant thri-kreen, that were exterminated before, after, or even during its capture. It may never have had a pack, having been bred and immediately tossed into the terrarium, but it would still have an instinctive impulse to form a pack. If the latter is the case, how did it learn a language? What languages does it know? Are humanoids new to it, or has it never encountered anything that was not a humanoid? When it comes to eating other sentient creatures, food is food - except for the pack. Unless, of course, that is the reason it was exiled: its unusual heritage gave it a taste for the taboo. As much as I like your idea, you have some little details you will need your DM's approval on: thri-kreen are not humanoids; they are monstrous humanoids. This means that they cannot legally take Aberration Blood, or any of the feats that list it as a prerequisite. If you manage to swing this, I would recommend that you add either Starspawn or Waterspawn to your "feats-to-take" list, since cold resistance in a cold campaign is nothing to sneeze at. Scorpion Heritor would be most worthwhile for you if you can convince your DM to allow the Scorpion ___ feats to work on snow as well - ash, sand and dust are going to be hard for you to find.
Masakari4488 10-15-07, 04:06 PM	Thanks for the replies guys. I think I am going to enjoy this character. Any more ideas and suggestions are also welcome. Also, I'm assuming that taking an adventuring party of humanoids as "clutch mates" as the XPH calls them is a big deal and not done lightly. That along with the fact that they consider most non-thri-kreen as outsiders and enemies is going to make getting into the party difficult I think. Any suggestions on how to go about that would be greatly appreciated.
Terjon of the Blue Rose 10-18-07, 12:29 AM	If you want to get him into the party just attack them for food. Make sure you have a good means of escape and then keep hidden while you observe them. Wait until you have seen them interacting in a place where they don't seem to fight everything they see (read anything resembling a town). After a little while approach, timidly asking to join this powerful, if strange, new pack.