Thri-Kreen (Dragonstar)
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Thri-kreen are insectoid humanoids similar in appearance to giant praying mantises. They are quite rare in the Dragon Empire, but not restricted to a single world of origin. Different breeds of Thri-kreen prosper in different environments, but they always prefer warm climes. Deserts, jungles, and warm grasslands are all highly suitable.
Thri-kreen have a hard time getting along with other races. On many worlds, genocidal wars either wiped out the insect people or their mammalian competitors. Only on worlds where geographical barriers kept the Thri-kreen separate from other races have they been able to coexist. One example of a planet where the mammalian humanoids won against the Thri-kreen is Nallar, mention in Imperial Supply, p 70.
Thri-kreen have much less trouble getting along with reptilian humanoids and nonhumanoids. Because the Dragon Empire is dominated by reptiles, and many Thri-kreen tribes were saved by imperial intervention on their worlds, the Thri-kreen are usually very loyal to the empire.
Personality: Direct and relentless, Thri-kreen make decisions quickly and follow through with abandon. They almost always prefer a direct approach to any problem. While this gets things done, it can result in a lack of planning and coordination, as Thri-kreen hate loitering and waiting upon others. In this way, Thri-kreen manage to do a lot in their comparatively short lives.
Physical Description: A thri-kreen looks like a bipedal praying mantis. Of the six limbs protruding from the midsection, two are used for walking, and each of the other four ends in a four-fingered hand. Two compound eyes, two antennae, and a complicated jaw structure that includes a pair of wicked mandibles give its head an insectoid appearance. The entire body is covered in an exoskeleton, the coloration of which varies upon diet and origin. In the wild, thri-kreen exoskeletons had camouflage pattern because of the diet and because those who lacked such patterns did not survive. Modern thri-kreen have a wider range of patterns, and often embellish them with inlays or paint.
Relations: Thri-kreen seem cold and emotionless to mammalian humanoids. Their eyes are expressionless and their actions very direct, which is often interpreted as hostility. Tree-kreen voices also seem shrill and harsh to such listeners. This makes most mammalian humanoids instinctively distrust thri-kreen. Lizard creatures, on the other hand, have no such problem and often regard thri-kreen with a sort of admiration for their raw power.
Alignment: Most thri-kreen are chaotic neutral. Good and evil have little meaning to them. Thri-kreen are lone hunters by nature, but as they grew to sentience they developed a pack culture. But packs are not very stable, and each thri-kreen still thinks of himself as a loner.
Thri-kreen Lands: Thri-kreen are predators, and require much open lands to live out their natural lifestyle. This makes thri-kreen populations low and their nations weak, so they usually only manage to hold on to arid territories that nobody else wants.
Religion: Thri-kreen honor a concept of honorable individual challenge, a trial of insect versus nature as a spiritual path. This translates roughly into the concept of The Stormlord.
Language: Thri-kreen speak their own language of clicks and snaps of their mandibles. Those in the empire generally speak draconic as well.
Names: Thri-kreen names are mostly incomprehensible and almost impossible to pronounce for outsiders, so they usually adopt draconic naming conventions when they deal with outsiders.
Adventurers: Thri-kreen consider life in the empire to be a kind of adventure in itself. Always eager for action, they might make a snap-second decision to join an adventuring party if the goals seem worthwhile and profitable, but might get bored when people start slouching about and waste time on things like sleep.
Thri-kreen Racial Traits
- +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -4 Charisma. Thri-kreen do everything quickly, which does not leave room for thought or argument.
- Medium-Size. No special rules apply to thri-kreen because of their size.
- Base speed 40 ft.
- Four arms: Thri-kreen have four arms and can use four light or one-handed weapons or two two-handed weapons simultaneously. They suffer all the usual penalties for using more than one weapon, and can learn feats to reduce these penalties.
- Natural attacks: Thri-kreen can attack with their four clawed limbs with 1d4 damage (plush full Strength damage bonus) each and with their bite for 1d4 points of damage plus half the normal damage bonus for Strength. The bite attack is a secondary attack and suffers a -5 attack penalty. Thri-kreen are considered armed when using these natural attacks.
- Poison Mandibles: A successful bite attack injects a paralytic venom; Fortitude save (DC 11)with primary and secondary damage 2d6 minutes of paralysis. The poison glands are only good for one injection each day.
- Unusual physiognomy: Thri-kreen are medium-sized humanoids, but their body shape is so unusual that armor must be specially fitted for them at double price.
- Natural Armor: Thri-kreen have a +3 natural armor bonus.
- Monstrous Humanoid Traits: Thri-kreen are not humanoids, and thus not subject to spells that specifically target humanoids, such as 'hold person'. They also have darkvision with a range of 60 ft.
- Never sleeps: Thri-kreen are not subject to sleep attacks and need not rest to avoid fatigue. They still need to remain still in order to heal or for eight hours before they prepare arcane spells, but are fully alert during this time.
- Mantis Legs: +30 bonus on Jump checks, and thri-kreen are not restricted by their height in how far they can jump.
- Automatic Languages: draconic and thri-kreen. Bonus languages: digital, grimlock, quasta/beholder, sylvan, and ulb. Because of their unusual physiognomy, thri-kreen can learn to speak digital and ulb, which are normally impossible to speak. On the other hand, they speak all languages in a very high-pitched drone that is quite disconcerting to strangers.
- Mammalian revulsion: Thri-kreen have a hard time getting along with mammals, including intelligent mammals, and suffer a -4 modifier on Animal Empathy, Diplomacy and Gather Information checks toward mammals.
- Favored Class: Ranger. A thri-kreen's ranger levels do not count when determining whether or not there is an XP penalty for multiclassing (see PH, chapter 3, experience penalty for multiclass characters).
- Level Equivalent: +1
Thri-kreen Feats
These special feats are available to Thri-kreen. These are all bonus feats for a thri-kreen Imperial Fighter.
FOUR-ARM WEAPON (General)
Benefit: The thri-kreen can wield a single Huge weapon in all four arms. If this is a melee weapon, apply two times the normal Strength damage bonus.
MULTIATTACK (General)
Benefit: The thri-kreen's bite attack suffer only a -2 penalty.
Normal: Without this feat, the thri-kreen's bite attack suffer a -5 penalty.
MULTIDEXTERITY (General)
Prerequisite: Dex 15+, Three or more arms
Benefit: The creature ignores all penalties for using an off hand.
Normal: Without this feat, a creature who uses an off hand suffers a -4 penalty to attack rolls, ability checks, and skill checks. A creature has one primary hand, and all the others are off hands; for example, a four-armed creature has one primary hand and three off hands. Special: This feat replaces the Ambidexterity feat for creatures with more than two arms.
MULTIGUN SHOOTING (General)
Benefit: Penalties for shooting with multiple ranged weapons are reduced by 2.
Normal: A creature without this feat suffers a -6 penalty to attacks made with its primary hand and a -10 penalty to attacks made with its off hands. (It has one primary hand, and all the others are off hands.) See Attacking with Two Weapons, page 124 in the Player's Handbook.
Special: This feat replaces the Two-Gun Shooting feat for creatures with more than two arms. The Multidexterity feat further reduces penalties for off-hand attacks.
MULTIWEAPON FIGHTING (General)
Benefit: Penalties for fighting with multiple weapons are reduced by 2.
Normal: A creature without this feat suffers a -6 penalty to attacks made with its primary hand and a -10 penalty to attacks made with its off hands. (It has one primary hand, and all the others are off hands.) See Attacking with Two Weapons, page 124 in the Player's Handbook.
Special: This feat replaces the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for creatures with more than two arms. The Multidexterity feat further reduces penalties for off-hand attacks.
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