Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Apr 26, 2004 19:52:41	I got the dragon issue long before I got the XPH. I pretty much agree with what they did with the races, hw they're all at least +1 level and the like. When I got the XPH I was loking through and noticed how the maenad and elan weren't the same statwise as in dragon. SO I looked, and they both had been given boosts to their stats. The Elan's -2 to cha had gone away for instance, and they had other bonuses. Then I looked at the half-giant and it was the same gimpy half-giant in the dragon as it was in the XPH. I think the kreen was the same in both too, but I'm focusing on the giant. Now, if all dark sun races are more powerful than elsewhere, adding another +1 to the half-giant inabilities (greater strength, the hit dice, lower mental stats, etc) could work, right? now I wonder why that wasn't the case in dragon. You could argue that half-gints and kreen originally hail from athas, so the XPH versions are the same as the dragon versions. Except Elans and Maenads are tweaked for athas. Like just about everyone agrees, I think the half-giant is gimpy. No reason a human or half-dwarf should be as strong as/stronger than a half-giant, none whatsoever. Gypsy big humans are just not half-giants, no matter how much they wanna say. Anyway, I guess my point is that a way to save the half-giant on Athas would be tweaking it up with another LA +1 and resultant boosts in power. An alternative to the athas.org half-giant. Not that I'm saying athas.org doesn't have a really good half-gant, but I think they should have done something to boost the half-giant and maybe kreen in the dragon article, just like they did to the maenad and elan. While I'm at it, since they say Atzetuk becomes a dragon . . . hmm. Another topic! nik
#2 Agonar Apr 27, 2004 2:31:34	Yeah, while the flavor text implies the desert background and SK creation of the HGs, the Half Giants in the XPH are a race meant to be played in a "typical" D&D game. Dark Sun is anything but typical. Most "typical" cities could not support a 12 foot tall, 1500 pound creature walking around, waiting for it's friends to come out of the local tavern. Heck, even in most Darksun Campaigns, there are few places in cities built big enough to accomidate HGs. In any case, when it comes to Dark Sun races, probably best to stick with athas.orgs view on the stuff, as their material is created specifically for Dark Sun, not as generic material suitable to be imported into any D&D game you may happen to be running (which in effect is what the stuff in the XPH is)