[3.5] Starcraft races adapted to Fantasy

[graymachine]

Just played through some Starcraft and it seems to me that the three races in the game could be excellent for a fantasy setting. I realize this has probably been done to death, but I put forward the condition of NO PSIONICS. While I understand that it is a big part of the setting, and that 3.5 has rules for psionics, they've never really meshed well with me for a fantasy setting. I suspect there is a large percentage of folk out there that dislike psionics as well.

Case to point, I think that at the basis we are looking at three strong social paradigms that would make for an effective world; humans are stubborn and crafty, zerg are numerous and adaptive, and protoss are advanced and mystical. Obviously these three races writ large would make for a decent campaign world, with the obvious conflict between their goals.

Clearly, we could substitute existing races for them: humans are dwarves, protoss are elves, and zerg are orcs on a fantastic day. Again, this seems lazy, unless we can tie the mindsets closer together and throw in some culture and bonuses.

For me, I'm thinking that to humans should get heavy bonuses to several key skills, the protoss should get moderate increases to all casting classes, and the zerg should decent AC and BaB bonuses with some fast healing mixed in. Just some rough thoughts.

Anyone else have some ideas?

[Knight13]

I don't know how Zerg could work as a PC race. Not only are they extremely varied, they have no free will, not to mention no hands.

[NineThePuma]

Zerg wouldn't work as is, but you could steal a lot of the fluff and set them up as a number of races pulling from Giants and Goblinoids.

Protoss without Psionics aren't protoss. You could do a magical version, but they end up being telepathic anyway.

[TheMeMan]

Originally Posted by NineThePuma

Zerg wouldn't work as is, but you could steal a lot of the fluff and set them up as a number of races pulling from Giants and Goblinoids.

Protoss without Psionics aren't protoss. You could do a magical version, but they end up being telepathic anyway.

Alternatively, you could make the race modular.

What I mean by this is have a whole host of Templates, feats, and grafts that can be applied to a very basic base Race(That even more basic that the PHB races).

For instance, Zerg Base Race:

+2 Con, -2 Intelligence

(Ex): All zerg characters can communicate with one another telepathically. They do not requires the use of their mouths nor hand gestures in order to convey complex messages to one another.

And then you have to choose, say, a specific Zerg Template on top of that(Such as Zergling, Ultralisk, etc). This template would have it's own unique abilities and modifiers, with a level adjustment ranging from 0 (Zergling) to say +2 or so (Ultralisk, mutalisk, etc).

Add some Zerg specific feats and grafts and you have yourself a race.

[Grinner]

Hmm...Well, I think the Zerg overlords do have some measure of autonomy and, being giant space cows, are pretty much helpless on their own. So, you could set players up as overlords and permit them to command a limited number of underlings.

Edit: Ninja'd

Edit Edit: Also, what stage of the StarCraft lore are you going by? SC1 or SC2? It seems like they lost a few subraces during their hibernation.