Any suggestions or ideas?
I believe a half/dwarf appears in Brothers in Arms. There is no reason to believe that humans cannot breed with any race and newer material seems to support that.
There is also the claim that some races on Krynn are half-breeds. Gully dwarfs have been called dwarf/gnomes or half/gnomes and goblins have been called elf/ogres. Hmm perhaps kender are half/goblins...........
You could of course simply use the stats for the Dark Sun Mul for your half-dwarves. Should work.
And next we should expect half kender/dwarves, half elf/kenders, half elf/dwarves, half ogre/elves, half ogre/dwarves and yes half ogre/kenders...
And celestial, fiendish and elemental half breeds with the above races.
But half-dwarves would be a good start :D
Originally posted by TranquilDarkness
...half ogre/kenders...
Oh good god, don't remind me. Had a player use one in a campaign once. An innocent kleptomaniac monster with a penchant for mood swings.
Originally posted by kendernbabe
So Half-Kender have finally become an offical PC race after lord knows how many players begged and begged. What about Half-Dwarves? I especially liked them in the Dark Sun setting and would love to offer it as a PC race in my Dragonlance campaign.
Any suggestions or ideas?
Here's a half-dwarf I wrote up a while back:
Half-Dwarf
The Dark Sun mul as presented in 2e wouldn't really be a good fit for DL, since it is higher powered for the Dark Sun setting. The 3e version on Athas.org appears to be Dark Sun-specific as well, and is in fact more powerful than a standard D&D dwarf.
I'd recommend just a watered down version of the D&D dwarf with favored class as "any".
Originally posted by jonesy
Oh good god, don't remind me. Had a player use one in a campaign once. An innocent kleptomaniac monster with a penchant for mood swings.
My favorite combo is what Kipper calls a Knome (kender-gnome). Picture this:
“Wasthisyours? Youmusthavedroppedit. Inoticedseveralflaws, soImadeimprovements."
"Youwillnoticethehyraulicwarhammertiedtoapulleyandstringmechanism…”
*Picture this: *
*aaaargh!*
Her name should have been in the races of krynn section of the half kender. The part that gave last and first names.
Originally posted by Nived
Gods the worst sound to ever be uttered in any world in the multiverse would be a half Gnome/Kender saying "Oops."
I believe that is "Ooops...OhWellI'lljustmakeafewadjustments..." That's a half Kender/half tinker, of course.
A half Kender/half thinker would be a sight to behold. Everywhere they go they leave behind a stream of improvements...not necessarily initially desired, not necessarily easily fixed (by the populace) if they go wrong....but improvements none-the-less. Truly, if ever a mad dictator ever wanted to quickly upgrade his realm he'd employ these. The initial inventors might well be regular thinkers though (or a mix).
-Drachasor
Originally posted by talinthas
i thought tarli half kender came out before the spelljammer novels?
Tarli Half-kender from Kender Stew (Reign of Istar) and No Gods, No Heroes (Cataclysm) is the first known half-kender, IIRC. The one from Spelljammer would be next, and the last known one was Scrounger from Brothers in Arms.
Then for graygem races, simply make them unable to breed outside of the parent tree. For example, all humans can breed with races descended from humans. So half-kender, but no half-kender/half-ogres. As well, have the graygem races unable to breed with eachother as well. So no half-kender/half-gnomes. Ogres are the fathers of the humanoid races, Humans are the fathers of the demihumans. I would say that the elves are the fathers of fey, but they appearantly aren't graygem races.
I think this would weed out the most ludicrous combinations, yet leave the pleasing mixes. There isn't a monstrous humanoid that can't benefit from more strength and hitpoints, and there is no demihuman that cannot benefit from a human's versatility. The only thing we'd really lose out on is the half-goblin... but unlike the half-orc you don't gain any strength. You're pretty much just a really ugly human.
I think that in the Heroes of Defiance (this is SAGA product detailing Northern Ergoth, Rogue Characters and also Gully Dwarves) there was story about Human-Dwarf alliance:
The offspring of this alliance was GULLY DWARVES. Not everything works
Originally posted by ferratus
It might be a good idea to establish some kind of flow chart to show genetic drift on Krynn. For example, have all three of the mortal races able to have children. Human-Ogre, Human-elf, half-ogre.
Then for graygem races, simply make them unable to breed outside of the parent tree. For example, all humans can breed with races descended from humans. So half-kender, but no half-kender/half-ogres. As well, have the graygem races unable to breed with eachother as well. So no half-kender/half-gnomes. Ogres are the fathers of the humanoid races, Humans are the fathers of the demihumans. I would say that the elves are the fathers of fey, but they appearantly aren't graygem races.
I think this would weed out the most ludicrous combinations, yet leave the pleasing mixes. There isn't a monstrous humanoid that can't benefit from more strength and hitpoints, and there is no demihuman that cannot benefit from a human's versatility. The only thing we'd really lose out on is the half-goblin... but unlike the half-orc you don't gain any strength. You're pretty much just a really ugly human.
You get a problem with half-elves there.
-Drachasor
Originally posted by Drachasor
You get a problem with half-elves there.
-Drachasor
Nope. Human-elves-ogres are able to have children. That's right in the beginning.
It is only when the graygem has mutated the strain that the genetic drift is enough to prevent a pairing. For example, Dwarves are mutated humans but close enough to breed with their human ancestor species. However the genetic drift, in this model, would be too vast to allow a dwarf to breed with an elf or an ogre.
Cheers,
Cam
Some sources say:
kobolds = bakali + greygem
hobgoblins, bugbears = goblins + greygem
Everyone tries to claim that the gully dwarves are not descended from their race. I believe sources say human/dwarf, dwarf/gnome and even dwarf/elf. I am not convinced they were not simply created by the greygem.
I think any system should preserve half-sea elves. People like to play those.
Originally posted by Cam Banks
The theory put forward in several sources that goblins are elf/ogre hybrids still works with the issues raised here. Goblins existed prior to the Greygem's mutation, which produced the various goblin strains that exist on Krynn.
I've never really liked that goblins are the result of ogre/elf pairings, simply because I would rather have a race with the power of an ogre with the grace of an elf. A sort of man-beast, a panther in human form. I wouldn't mind them being the proto-goblin, but it seems like such a waste to simply say "its a goblin" and leave it at that when half-ogres and half-elves are such viable PC races.
Then again, we do have Tarmaks don't we? I must say I hope the Tarmaks get used, because they've always been incredibly interesting to me. They are potentially the most beautiful mortals on Krynn right now. They are tall and powerful, graceful and solid, blending the best of humans, dwarves and elves and exceeding them. They are the embodiment of excellence in prowess, a race of hero-gods, whose growling voices hint at the raging storm within. Intelligent, graceful, powerful... yet so appropriately called "Brutes".
Now, I'm not anxious to give them an Empire. However, I would like to see them walking around Krynn acting as if the world under their feet is theirs already. Every nonhuman race seems to be in the process of either losing a homeland, founding a new one, or expanding their current one. I say let the Brutes have patience and a belief in their own superiority. I say let them walk among the races of Krynn, fighting in war for glory, wealth and to keep themselves strong. Let them come across on the boats from their home island and birth more children. Don't bother have them conquering anything, but let the possibility tantalize everyone.
One of my favorite theories is that the high ogres had a talent for genetic engineering (or at least its equivalent) in order to produce servants and improve their own racial stock, a talent which swiftly degenerated along with their descent into brutish intelligence.
I don't know Cam, we're already drifting away from the graygem as the source of Ansalon's many creatures. Yeah it seems lazy and tired if you used too much, but if used to little you miss out on the key reason why the graygem was used as the default reason to create creatures in the first place. See, the graygem brought magic and fantastical creatures into the world because the graygem is what made dragonlance a "High Fantasy" setting.
Before the Graygem Dragonlance is a "Low fantasy" setting where the fantastical is limited. A stone age world where magic is invisible and wonders are rare. So that's why I get a little anxious when I hear of races being created through magic before the appearance of the graygem.
Then again, goblins as slave soldiers does seem pretty cool. Maybe elven-ogre proto-goblins are the way to go, who fall along with the ogres themselves.
I recall the story "Master Tall, Master Small" in one of the anthologies, but I think that one was in one of the Dragons anthologies.