Homebrew Races

These are some races I came up with as I was messing around with an Illustrator template I created.  They don't necessarily have anything to do with Scourge. Let me know what you think.

The idea behind the reaper is similar to the revenant--an sinister undead character. Matt and I were actually tossing this idea around a while ago because we both like skeletons so much. We thought about what a skeleton PC would be able to do. As with all monsterous races in 4e, the challenge is to make it mechanically feel like the actual monster, but at the same be a viably balanced.

The next challenge with home brew is to make it look and feel different than any other race. Otherwise, you're just making a variation of some similar creature that could have been easily flavored to whatever particularity. The problem of balance also arises. Does your new race completely overshadow the old one? With the kickback to oldschool Aasimar, I had the gleaming problem of the Deva--WotC's officially declared replacement of the past Aasimar. So how could I make the "half-angel" different than the scholarly Deva's? Why, make the Aasimar a soldier of course!

Deva = INT/WIS, astral, memories, blue

Aasimar = STR/WIS/CHA, gold, glory, whispy

I wasn't trying to blatantly rip off Hellboy with the Nereid. My thought process was, "What could be a new 'Merfolk' race that would not be stupid and actually be fun to play?" While brainstorming, a flood of blue magic cards raced through my mind. I decided that magic card designers got it right--an creature that spend his days lurking through sunken ruins would be bound to come across forbidden secrets of the mind, not to mention all the "6th-sensey" glands to which dolphins are already attributed. The goal became to make a psychically flavored fish-man. As I began to photoshop the artwork, I realized that the architecture for the quintessential blue fish-man had already been set out for me. The universe revealed itself to me and the race practically designed itself.

You may think its dumb to rip-off such a contemporary comic book movie like Hellboy. Let me remind you that everything in D&D is a rip-off. Plus I think Hellboy is cooler than most silly old mythology from which modern epic fantasy is derived.

I spent hours trying to differentiate this guy from the minotaur. The bariaur is, of course, a throwback to the 2e planescape goat/centaur. What encounter power would you expect a goat man to have? What encounter power does the minotaur have? Hence, my hours of toiling with how the hell I was to back of from Goring Charge territory. The only answer I could come up with was that bariaurs are more "fey"-ey, thus the would have more exotic, primal power built in. I'm open to suggestions on how to make this guy better.

Let me know what you think. Also, give me suggestions of other races would like to see in the 4e dynamic.

SCOURGE CAMPAIGN VIDEO PREVIEW

Dark Sun According to WotC

To get a better feel of the campaign, read Wizard's official statement about their Dark Sun campaign setting.  Scourge is virtually the same thing so much of what you read will already be familiar to you (but I swear I came up with my stuff long before they released the 4e setting!).


Athas in Seven Sentences (or Scourge)
The world of the Dark Sun setting is unique. This is not a world of shining knights and robed
wizards, of deep forests and holy shrines. Athas (Scourge) draws on different
traditions of fantasy storytelling; simple survival beneath the crimson
sun is often its own adventure. With that in mind, here are the seven
most important things you need to know about the Dark Sun setting:
The world is a desert. (Almost the whole world, that is). Athas
is a hot, arid world covered with vast stretches of desert—endless seas
of dunes, stony wastes, thorny scrublands, and worse. In this
forbidding world, cities and villages can only exist in a few oases or
verdant plains. Beyond these islands of civilization is a barren
wasteland roamed by nomads, raiders, and hungry monsters.
The world is savage. Life
is brutal and short in Athas. The vile institution of slavery is
widespread in Athas, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, are sent to their
deaths every year in bloody arena spectacles. Metal is quite scarce.
Arms and armor are often made of bone, stone, wood, and other such
materials, because steel is priceless.
Arcane magic defiles the world. Athas
was reduced to a wasteland by the reckless use of arcane magic in
ancient wars. To cast an arcane spell, one must gather power from the
living world around. Plants wither to black ash, crippling pain wracks
animals and people, and the soil itself is sterilized; nothing can grow
in that spot again.
Terrible sorcerer-kings rule the cities. The
city-states of Athas are ruled by defilers of immense power. These
mighty spellcasters have held their thrones for centuries. The
sorcerer-kings govern through templars, a class of officials and lesser
defilers who can call upon the kings’ powers.
The gods of Athas are silent. Athas
is a world without gods. There are no clerics, no paladins, no prophets
or religious orders. In the absence of divine influence, people have
turned to other sources of power. Psionic power is well known and
widely practiced in Athas, while shamans and druids call upon the
primal powers of the world—even though the primal spirits of Athas are
often wild and vengeful.
Fierce and deadly monsters populate the world. Athas
is home to its own deadly ecology. Cattle, horses, camels—none of these
animals can be found in Athas. Instead, people tend flocks of erdlus,
ride on kanks or crodlus, and draw wagons with inixes and mekillots.
Wild creatures such as lions, bears, or wolves are almost nonexistent.
In their place are terrors such as the id beast, the so-ut, or the
tembo.
Familiar races aren’t what you expect. Many of the fantasy stereotypes don’t apply to Athasian heroes. On
Athas, elves are a nomadic race of herders, raiders, peddlers, and
thieves. Halflings aren’t amiable river-folk; they’re xenophobic
headhunters and cannibals who hunt and kill anyone foolish enough to
venture into their montane forests. Each of the major races has adapted
to Athas in new and unexpected ways. (Actually elves and halflings are too gay to exist in such a badass, harsh world).