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  1. - Top - End - #151
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    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Finally i think that the ones who descended from miniature trolls (or gnolls, taking the gnome + troll meaning) are Might and Magic style gremlins, maybe letting only the gnomes from the Underdark to allow a third option.
    Last edited by Xania; 2019-01-03 at 10:42 PM.

  2. - Top - End - #152
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    I'm also planning on giving ogres a small but quickly growing well-organized conquering empire. We have enough wandering savage beast types already.

  3. - Top - End - #153
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    RedWizardGuy

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Hmmm, a savage tribe of miniature gnolls, The Cor-Gi.
    The Realms will never be the same.

  4. - Top - End - #154
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    Kobold

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cyclops08 View Post
    Hmmm, a savage tribe of miniature gnolls, The Cor-Gi.
    The Realms will never be the same.
    "Arf! Arf!"
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  5. - Top - End - #155
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    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cyclops08 View Post
    Hmmm, a savage tribe of miniature gnolls, The Cor-Gi.
    The Realms will never be the same.
    Haha... Aren't those eastern kobolds?
    They are murderously cute after all.

  6. - Top - End - #156
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    Kobold

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    Orcs aren't really bad, they just have zero planning skills. Orcs don't think about the consequences of their actions, they think about the actions themselves. That human's looking at ya funny? Slug 'em. This, combined with nasty tempers and the fact that orcs see all non-orc life as potential food when really hungry, leads to them being though of as evil savages by other races, and being slaughtered or enslaved. Of course, this makes the orcs violently retaliate...

  7. - Top - End - #157
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    Daemon

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Orcs aren't evil, they just have anger issues. Magical anger issues stemming from their genetic heritage as an artificial race bred for war (hint: it didn't work as well as the elves thought it would). In fact, they were the first barbarians, learning to harness this primal rage for things other than just mindless bloodlust. Female orcs are the backbone of their society (and most of their shamans) because they're (slightly) less affected by this rage. They can hold it in check rationally, but surprise, fear, intoxicants, or frustration make that a lot harder. Once an orc succumbs to the Rage and loses control, they won't stop until they've exhausted themselves physically.

    This makes orc society very clear, open, and structured. Civilized ones shun intoxicants except under controlled circumstances, have elaborate rituals for greeting strangers (to avoid surprise), and are open about disputes to avoid built-up frustrations. That orc's not being blunt and insensitive, he's trying to work things out before they become a big problem and someone loses it. Each camp or village has a fighting ring where those who are on the verge of losing it can go to wrestle, box, or otherwise non-lethally fight others. That is, they've built the first exercise gyms

    While they are stigmatized as stupid because they always have an accent and tend to slur their words (them tusks, you know), they're not actually particularly unintelligent. Yes, they tend more toward the shamanistic and naturalistic magics, but there are orcish wizards and engineers. Mostly women, since delicate research equipment and bouts of violent rage just don't go together well.
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  8. - Top - End - #158
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    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    I was thinking in make orcs like the norse dwarves, appearing as maggots to eventually become small, stunted, pale and cadaveric beings resembling dead persons who are good working metals and jewels.

  9. - Top - End - #159
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    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Finally those norse dwarven-orcs could be just a sub-type called Deep Orcs or something similar.

  10. - Top - End - #160
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    Kobold

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    Trolls, for whatever reason, naturally attract symbiotic plants and fungi. They also go through periods where they're afflicted with an extreme hunger, eating pretty much anything they can find. After that, they go into hibernation, potentially for years on end. This ravenous period in their lives is what earned them their bad reputation.
    The symbiotic fungi growing on a troll's body greatly increase its natural healing capabilities, potentially allowing it to regenerate limbs. Most trolls you'll meet will be covered in moss, lichen, and mushrooms.

  11. - Top - End - #161
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    Lizardfolk

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    You could go a step further and make the fungus what makes them go nuts. Like that ant-zombie-fungus, it makes it go on killing sprees to spread the spores around. None-infected trolls are fairly intelligent.
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  12. - Top - End - #162
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    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tvtyrant View Post
    You could go a step further and make the fungus what makes them go nuts. Like that ant-zombie-fungus, it makes it go on killing sprees to spread the spores around. None-infected trolls are fairly intelligent.
    Looks like something that could be transmited by the gibberlings.

  13. - Top - End - #163
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    Kobold

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    Quote Originally Posted by Xania View Post
    I was thinking in make orcs like the norse dwarves, appearing as maggots to eventually become small, stunted, pale and cadaveric beings resembling dead persons who are good working metals and jewels.
    I might do this with my goblins. After all, I already have them rising from the corpse of a gigantic primordial being.

  14. - Top - End - #164
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    Kobold

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tvtyrant View Post
    You could go a step further and make the fungus what makes them go nuts. Like that ant-zombie-fungus, it makes it go on killing sprees to spread the spores around. None-infected trolls are fairly intelligent.
    The fungus could be related to the fungoid underdark demon mentioned earlier in this thread.

  15. - Top - End - #165
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    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sizzlefoot View Post
    I might do this with my goblins. After all, I already have them rising from the corpse of a gigantic primordial being.
    True, that's a step further than me.

    Those were going to be my duergar for evident reasons, and because as noted before, they are somewhat redundant. Then something about "orc" meaning corpse (could be wrong, though) came to mind.

    Having hobgoblins, bugbears and goblins who look like less thin githyankis i thought i could change orcs, if i finally change my mind the name can be decieving and those deep orcs could be not actually related to the normal ones.

  16. - Top - End - #166
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    Kobold

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    I may also fluff orcs as ogres who were exiled from their tribe for being weak.

  17. - Top - End - #167
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    I always liked the idea of Complete Psionic's Puppeteers, especially if you take their obvious similarities to the Trill from Star Trek and the G'oauld from Stargate, both of which are symbiotic beings that require a host to really live at all. I also borrowed liberally from the character of Legion from Red Dwarf, an artificial being composed of collective intelligence, who all but ceases to exist when no sapient beings are nearby. My idea is that Puppeteers were a failed experiment in collective intelligence for mortals by the usually much wiser aboleths. On their own, Puppeteers are stuck in a kind of "I have no mouth and I must scream" state, just barely aware of who they are and of their environment. Only when bound in symbiosis with a sentient being are they able to be themselves in any meaningful sense, and even then, they are heavily impacted and limited by their host's mental ability scores, making the obvious cop-outs, Int 2 animals and Int 0 vermin, non-feasible. Thus while Puppeteers can be antagonistic, there's actually a real and sympathetic incentive for them to find a host. A puppeteer can negotiate with their host, outright dominate them, or even fuse with them irreversibly (nothing short of miracle or wish can reverse the latter, but the host must also be willing). While individual puppeteers are possible, most exist in collective swarms whose group consciousness on its own is just enough to start targeting hosts, or if in dire need, creating Harrowers (see below).

    There are several guiding philosophies practiced by the majority of swarms. The Cooperative swarms essentially do timeshare bargains with willing mortal communities, effectively adopting them into their swarm; typically the Cooperatives will adopt the ethics of their hosts, for good or for ill. The Transcendental swarms prefer one-to-one relationships, seeking to merge their being entirely with that of a (usually, but not always) willing host, even accepting said host's mortality if necessary. The Dynastic swarms are usually quite small, and focus on symbiosis with a specific family, transferring to the next heir; in spite of their name, this need not be a royal or noble family. Dynastic puppeteers tend to collect memories from their hosts, and may even come to see themselves as their hosts; their hosts are usually aware of the process and often see it as a way to keep their ancestors "alive," in a sense. The Hegemonic swarms rely on force and minions to extract sacrifices from various subjects, and tend to be quite aggressive; even those which use symbiosis as a form of "community service" come to become rather draconian in sentencing. The Infiltrator swarms are the most "stereotypical" Puppeteers, slowly taking control of populations and spreading like a plague; other Puppeteers tend to despise them for how much damage they do, and the hate they inspire. Overlap between schools is uncommon, but possible. The Elan, for example, are a Transcendental Cooperative who recruits willing human hosts and pairs them with puppeteers.

    The Flesh Harrowers are a well-kept secret, and one of which the majority of Puppeteers are not proud. A horrifying maw with enough muscle to strike out, a Harrower exists to assault anything that threatens the swarm and will not stop until it is dead by violence or exhaustion; if no threats are perceptible, Harrowers will turn on one another, and even the swarm if it is foolish enough to remain. This is the death of deaths, and it is a desperate act indeed for any Puppeteer to choose this fate. Any Puppeteer can become a Harrower, but the size increase and speed of the transformation requires a lot of matter and energy. A mindless swarm will, if attacked, spawn Puppeteers within a minute or so, multiple Puppeteers fusing irreversibly to form Harrowers. A solitary Puppeteer can become a Harrower, but only if attached to a host whose flesh and mind can sustain the transformation. This inevitably kills the Host in a bloody and somewhat explosive fashion. Of all the philosophies, only the Infiltrator swarms are regular users of Harrowers when their swarms are discovered, though in desperation, Hegemonics and Cooperatives (the latter only with permission of the host) will use it. Dynastics, whose numbers are small, and Transcendentalists, who seek a true merger of puppeteer and host, almost never become Harrowers.

    Another idea is for Doppelgangers, with which I came up for a defunct Lovecraftian campaign. The idea was Doppelgangers are the result of humanoid minds interfacing with the Astral Plane/Dreamlands through strong dreams or intense passions (nightmares, prophetic dreams, dying thoughts, intense trauma/sensation, etc.). This encounter places a seed in the mind of the mortal, and as the mortal experiences the same "trigger" experiences or passions, the seed gets stronger and more developed. Usually, the Doppelganger matures by essentially consuming its host's body in a particularly strong moment of emotion or passion. This horrific event is not under the Doppelganger's conscious control, since it truly becomes conscious only after the event, but the resulting beings are still amoral at best, and it is uncommon for them to care about their progenitor's fate. Rarely, the host survives the climactic event, but the Doppelganger is still brought forth, usually through a reflection or image of their host. These Doppelgangers are driven by the compulsion to locate and "replace" their former hosts, and will stop at nothing to do so. They are identical to normal Doppelgangers, but have perfect recall of their hosts memories. If their host is killed through other means, or otherwise made unavailable to them (undeath, ascension, etc.), then the questing Doppelganger becomes a terrible Dread Doppelganger, who consumes the brains of other mortals in a futile quest to become "whole."
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  18. - Top - End - #168
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    jqavins's Avatar

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Catching up after a period of absence from this thread.
    Quote Originally Posted by Xania View Post
    My eyes must be blind, because they can't see nothing good about kobolds.
    They are just as annoying as gnomes, if not more

    Is somebody around who uses them as something other than super cute things or things that automatically kills everything else?
    The combination of both doesn't count.
    In the old days they had only 1d4 hit points, which made them a suitable challenge for brand new first level characters. Goblins had 1d6. Once the party advanced to taking orcs, which have a whole hit die, kobolds could be forgotten. In 3.5, kobolds have a full hit die, so they're useless.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sizzlefoot View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by DuctTapeKatar View Post
    Also, does anyone else think that the duergar are redundant? "These are dwarves, known for their deep mines and being grumpy, except even deeper and meaner."
    Yeah, they are. Probably because they were inspired directly by Norse dwarves (sorta), while more "normal D&D" dwarves closely resemble those from Tolkein more. Since Tolkein basically just used Norse dwarves but with the positive aspects played up a bit, duergar end up pretty redundant.
    I've always thought of the duergar as the chasidim of dwarves.

    I'm still catching up, so more later.
    Last edited by jqavins; 2019-01-16 at 12:12 PM.
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  19. - Top - End - #169
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Quote Originally Posted by jqavins View Post
    Catching up after a period of absence from this thread.In the old days they had only 1d4 hit points, which made them a suitable challenge for brand new first level characters. Goblins had 1d6. Once the party advanced to taking orcs, which have a whole hit die, kobolds could be forgotten. In 3.5, kobolds have a full hit die, so they're useless.
    To be fair, goblins and orcs typically have a tribal structure while kobolds are stereotyped as the lizard-dog people version of mole rats with a dragon fetish and a particular obsessive nature about being subservient to said dragon. While they might not make sense from a mechanical point of view, they are best used as the endless mooks chopped through to get to the hot headed dragon that's been mucking up the surrounding towns in later level adventures.
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  20. - Top - End - #170
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    Kobold

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    Dragons can somehow create wyverns, dragonborn, and kobolds to serve them (maybe they're made from shed scales?). Only when the dragon dies can the dragon's spawn go free. There are very few dragons alive nowadays, but their spawn tend to either inherit the lawfulness that comes from serving them for millennia, or have a strong chaotic bent, determined not to be enslaved again.

  21. - Top - End - #171
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    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Quote Originally Posted by jqavins View Post
    Catching up after a period of absence from this thread.In the old days they had only 1d4 hit points, which made them a suitable challenge for brand new first level characters. Goblins had 1d6. Once the party advanced to taking orcs, which have a whole hit die, kobolds could be forgotten. In 3.5, kobolds have a full hit die, so they're useless.

    I've always thought of the duergar as the chasidim of dwarves.

    I'm still catching up, so more later.

    Yes, those posts were very exaggerated and i said a lot of dumb things in them, it's already admited later
    Despite how it sounds i don't hate kobolds.

    Mine are like termites and have several kinds with different stats, don't really know why but i don't like using "real" creature names for useless characters.
    Depending of where they are, MM kobolds and goblins are renamed with strange names found in several places, like the Dungeon Siege games.

  22. - Top - End - #172
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    Spoiler: Dragons
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    Dragons are born as the result of curses laid upon people in vengeance by those who have suffered and died as a result of their misdeeds, being manifested exaggerations of the failing of their parent. Magical people who have a failing such as greed, anger or pride to a great enough degree may permanently transform into a dragon in an outburst when provoked by their sin and are thereafter indistinguishable from a curseborn dragon. They tend to lair in the location of their genesis.

    For example a dying beggar may curse the miser who refused to offer them even the minimum of hospitality during a blizzard resulting in the miser's household giving rise to a loathsome wyrm that rapidly grows to become a being who eclipses it's father's greed, or a vain sorcerer-prince may twist into a draconic serpent in response to being rejected by the woman he wishes to marry.

    Dragons don't need to eat or drink, though most do when they wake from decades of slumber as a method of venting their endless spite against mortals. All of them are consumed by anger, pride and greed, though in unequal measures. Some are content to extract a tithe of groveling praise and treasure from nearby communities before returning to sleep, many burn the lands for a full days travel around their lair to vent their fury upon the very earth, others may demand human sacrifice to satiate their desire to dominate and humiliate.


    Dragons cannot mate to produce more of their kind, any offspring they have are twisted and bestial things, such as wyverns and drakes and other fouler things. Dragons will generally only mate if they desire to possess, defile or dominate other life, generally forcing themselves on or seducing mortals of noble birth, though rarely they will mate with one another, such events giving rise to the largest and most monstrous of lesser draconic creatures.




    Elves are the outcast companions of the fey royalty, banished from their courts for a crime no longer spoken of. Exiled away from the timeless realms of their kings and queens the elves have shrouded themselves in mist and illusions to try and escape the painful reality of their immortal bodies aging and withering like rotting wood. Elves partake in various bastardised forms of the customs of the fey courts, hunting mortals on horseback for sport and enslaving people to fill the lower ranks of their society in an attempt to maintain the illusion that they are not suffering in exile.

    Changelings are a caste of fey, created when mortals plead with the kings and queens of the under-realms for children or to replace children stolen by the fey. They closely resemble normal mortals, but often have black irises, pointed ears or other abnormal features, and often lack features of mortal life not explicitly requested in the bargain that was struck to create them. A baby given by the fey to an infertile couple may never age for example, being permanently the age it was created to be, or a child may have a cow's tail or a tendency to be unusually cruel to animals.

    Children taken by the fey are used to replace the elves in the courts of the kings and queens, becoming their companions and advisers, waited upon by the lower ranks of the fey and treated as lords and ladies. These children do not age while in service to their liege and usually become as distant and callous towards mortals as the true fey are, cheerfully indulging in all manner of cruel tricks and murderous hunts upon their former kinsmen. Eventually though most such children are cast out by their host, usually on a whim, and find themselves released into the mortal world decades or even centuries after they were taken and abandoned to find their own way or die, though they do maintain a vestige of the magic they possessed as princes and princess of the fey.
    Sanity is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

  23. - Top - End - #173
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    Kobold

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Drawing inspiration from Norse dwarves coming from maggots, I might give my dwarves a maggot-like larval form, multifaceted, jewel-like eyes, and beards which are really masses of antennae. The gnomes might (instead of being descended from xvarts) be beings made of living minerals, like tiny earth elementals with bits of jewels and ore sticking out of them. They use their natural illusion magic to disguise as more familiar forms when around other species. Maybe they were made by the dwarves as a slave race.

  24. - Top - End - #174
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sizzlefoot View Post
    Drawing inspiration from Norse dwarves coming from maggots, I might give my dwarves a maggot-like larval form, multifaceted, jewel-like eyes, and beards which are really masses of antennae.
    That sounds similar to what I did with them. I had them be descended from maggots that cleaned the wounds of a giant god (my nod to Ymir) who made them into bug people in gratitude. They spend years as non-sapient maggots in cool, damp dark caves, feeding on organic fodder dropped to them by their parents until they get big and fat enough to pupate and turn into a sapient young adult dwarf, which resemble the brown crickets* you can buy as pet food in some shops.

    They're good miners, stoneworkers, woodworkers, gemcutters and so on because they can feel the natural grains and veins and fractures in materials very well, but they don't like fire because it hurts their sensitive antennae unless they cut them off (they grow back slowly,) so they don't do much metalworking, and similarly need to cover or remove their antennae when travelling above ground during the day.

    Because of their history with the giant god they get along well with giants, though it's a distant relationship most of the time, neither really being suited to helping the other on a day to day basis.


    *When I first pondered the more maggoty dwarf idea I had a lizard and thought the crickets he ate's aversion to light and long antennae would be a neat thing for a subterranean race.
    Sanity is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

  25. - Top - End - #175
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    Kobold

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    Quote Originally Posted by Grim Portent View Post
    That sounds similar to what I did with them. I had them be descended from maggots that cleaned the wounds of a giant god (my nod to Ymir) who made them into bug people in gratitude. They spend years as non-sapient maggots in cool, damp dark caves, feeding on organic fodder dropped to them by their parents until they get big and fat enough to pupate and turn into a sapient young adult dwarf, which resemble the brown crickets* you can buy as pet food in some shops.

    They're good miners, stoneworkers, woodworkers, gemcutters and so on because they can feel the natural grains and veins and fractures in materials very well, but they don't like fire because it hurts their sensitive antennae unless they cut them off (they grow back slowly,) so they don't do much metalworking, and similarly need to cover or remove their antennae when travelling above ground during the day.

    Because of their history with the giant god they get along well with giants, though it's a distant relationship most of the time, neither really being suited to helping the other on a day to day basis.


    *When I first pondered the more maggoty dwarf idea I had a lizard and thought the crickets he ate's aversion to light and long antennae would be a neat thing for a subterranean race.
    That's pretty cool. I'm not sure whether to make mine look all insectoid and alien, or fairly human-like, since a race that looks just like short hairy humans but lays eggs that hatch maggots could potentially be even weirder.

  26. - Top - End - #176
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sizzlefoot View Post
    That's pretty cool. I'm not sure whether to make mine look all insectoid and alien, or fairly human-like, since a race that looks just like short hairy humans but lays eggs that hatch maggots could potentially be even weirder.
    Why not mix insect and humanoid traits? An extra pair of vestigial arms, chitinous patches around parts of their body, hooked bug claws at the tips of their fingers and toes and so on.

    Looks like a fairly normal dwarf at a casual glance in polite society other than the beard twitching about on it's own, but if you see under the clothing it becomes apparent it's not just a short hairy human.
    Sanity is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

  27. - Top - End - #177
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    Kobold

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    Quote Originally Posted by Grim Portent View Post
    Why not mix insect and humanoid traits? An extra pair of vestigial arms, chitinous patches around parts of their body, hooked bug claws at the tips of their fingers and toes and so on.

    Looks like a fairly normal dwarf at a casual glance in polite society other than the beard twitching about on it's own, but if you see under the clothing it becomes apparent it's not just a short hairy human.
    Funny, right after I wrote that post I was thinking about giving them a tiny pair of extra arms. Most of the time, they're hidden behind the "beard", but they can come in handy for holding small tools and such.

    Also, this means that dwarves can shoot hammers FROM THEIR BEARDS.

  28. - Top - End - #178
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Sep 2018
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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Tritons are giant saltwater koi fish with arms and legs who often war with the merfolk, who have tentacles for lower bodies, three hearts, and blue blood.

  29. - Top - End - #179
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    OrcBarbarianGirl

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Not the most original thing ever but half-orcs are actually domesticated orcs rather than hybrids, they are also much thinner than they are usually portrayed, because it came to my mind after seeing how people was trying to smooth the Skyrim orcs features. If they are not as smart as others is just because their owners find them more cute like that.

  30. - Top - End - #180
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Kobold

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    Default Re: Alternate Creature Interpretations (Feel free to add your own additions)

    Quote Originally Posted by Xania View Post
    Not the most original thing ever but half-orcs are actually domesticated orcs rather than hybrids, they are also much thinner than they are usually portrayed, because it came to my mind after seeing how people was trying to smooth the Skyrim orcs features. If they are not as smart as others is just because their owners find them more cute like that.
    Ohhh, I like this. Maybe halflings could be domesticated gnomes with the magic and weirdness bred out of them. Or gnomes could be elves made to look cuter? I dunno.

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