Drakes
by David KnottFirst off, I will propose a theory about the origin of the tabi:
Just as the wood imps were degenerate descendants of leprechauns, tabi may be the degenerate descendants of helldrakes who lost the shapechanging ability of their ancestors and became stuck in an intermediate form.
Second, I will suggest, for the sake of the further extrapolation about two even weaker varieties of drake, that the thieving abilities of helldrakes should only be 4th level -- but as compensation they are able to inflict quadruple (!) damage on a successful backstab.
Finally, here are a some new varieties of drake. I figured that any new types of drake would have to be based on races of intelligent non-fairy humanoids that were prevalent at the time of the Great Rain of Fire. Of the available races, most were too obscure or too uncommon to be worth infiltrating. The only races that seemed to qualify were the beastmen (already covered by the "helldrakes"), lizard men, and rakasta.
The drakes based on lizard men were not very successful, as the reptilian nature of both of their forms soon overwhelmed their fay nature. They quickly evolved into pseudodragons.
Cat drakes were far more successful. They are able to assume the forms of small (5' tall) rakasta or of common house cats. Their natural forms are 4' long and of variable colour. They are of chaotic alignment and have hit dice of 1d8+1. In natural form they attack with claws and teeth for 1/1/d3 hit points of damage. They are immune to spells of level 3 or less. They have the abilities of 3d level thieves and 2d level mages and can cast cantrips at will.
All of them remember their fairy origin and can become invisible to mortals at will. They have a superior form of Second Sight that enables them to detect magic or invisibility at will, even if the phenomena in question are not of fairy origin. With these special abilities a group of cat drakes in Nithia succeeded in setting up a "cat cult" that persuaded credulous humans to worship cat drakes as messengers of their imaginary deity.
After the fall of Nithia, some cat drakes became aware of the race of lupins and adapted to infiltrate their societies. These dog drakes are able to assume the form of small (4' tall) or of domesticated dogs. Their natural forms are 5' long and of variable colour. They are of neutral alignment and have hit dice of 1d8. In natural form they attack with claws and teeth for 1/1/d2 hit points of damage. They are immune to spells of level 2 or less. They have the abilities of 2d level thieves and 1st level priests and can cast orisons at will -- but note that their low wisdom scores (average 7) discourage them from attempting first level priest spells.
Dog drakes share the superior Second Sight of the cat drakes and can detect cat drakes in any form or even when they are invisible. However, over the centuries the dog drakes have become estranged from cat drakes, and they must pass a wisdom check to avoid attacking them on sight (although they will attack to subdue unless they fumble the wisdom check with a natural roll of 20). Dog drakes have a similar ability to detect lycanthropes but generally flee in terror from them.
Dog drakes who live among humans and
demi-humans tend to be loyal to them to the point of subservience,
and for this reason they are generally despised by other drakes.