Thri-Kreen

THEY WERE UPON ALTHEA GALANODEL BEFORE SHE realized it. The sand dunes she had thought concealed her work revealed themselves to be the very prying eyes she had been so worried about. More of them came, jumping so high and so quickly that she first thought them to be flying. This was not the swarm Althea had been afraid of. This was a hunting pack.

She ran and they herded her along the path, straight into the waiting mandibles of yet more creatures. One of them took a bite out of her arm and Althea could feel the venom rush into her veins. Her vision blurred as they closed in, mandibles clicking and antennae waving.

She should not have tried to twist the desert to her own ends. She should have known the thri-kreen would come for her.

--Malark Greycastle, The Specter's Crystal

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The thri-kreen thrive in the hot deserts and savannas of the world, inhospitable places where most creatures only barely manage to survive. It is here that these deadly hunters make their home.

Desert Wanderers

The thri-kreen have adapted to wander the desert in search of nourishment. They look like giant mantises at first glance, though they lack the large abdomen common in many insects. Four of their limbs are used as arms while the other two are legs. When standing upright on these legs, thri-kreen males average a height of 6 feet while the larger females can be up to 8 feet tall. Due to their size and carapaces, most thri-kreen can weigh over 300 pounds.

Blending in with the desert can be vital to survival, so thri-kreen carapaces are usually colored a sandy orange or brown. Some dark green thri-kreen have been seen from time to time, but these mutants are usually the first to fall in a skirmish due to the ease at which they are spotted. The thri-kreen generally wear ragged loincloths and little else, though some have been known to adorn their carapaces with painted symbols or jewelry.

Packs and Clutches

A thri-kreen is loyal to three things: its clutch, its pack, and itself. It is through these cultural lenses that the thri-kreen interact with the world. Anything else is probably irrelevant or food.

A thri-kreen's clutch is the group of thri-kreen it was born in to, similar to a tribe. Some clutches are larger than others, some interbreed, and some skirmish with each other occasionally.

Packs are the social groups of the thri-kreen, but they also serve an important purpose in organizing the different thri-kreen in a clutch into different jobs. Most often, a thri-kreen is a member of either a hunting or raiding pack. A thri-kreen can belong to more than one pack and there are also packs of scholars, builders, and nature-loving priests. Thri-kreen adventurers tend to view their adventuring party as a pack.

Variant: Communication Difficulties

Traditionally, thri-kreen simply do not have the mouth parts necessary to speak most languages. To allow players to work together and not disadvantage socially focused thri-kreen players, it is normally assumed that thri-kreen characters are able to speak in the same way that most humanoids can. However, a player may choose to roleplay this communication barrier by using an alternate form of communication, such as having the thri-kreen character scratch pictures in the dirt, instead of speaking directly.

Brutal Efficiency

The desert is an unforgiving environment, so the thri-kreen must make the most of what they have. Any biological matter that is not useful for something else is considered food. Usually this applies to other races, especially those delicious, juicy elves, but thri-kreen have been known to eat each other.

If a thri-kreen eats another of its kind, it is generally because the one being eaten is either dead or defective in some way. A defect could be anything from a leg that will never heal correctly to hatching malformed. The calories and protein of the defective thri-kreen need to be reclaimed for the good of the clutch.

Thri-Kreen Names

The thri-kreen language is better at showing emotions and reactions than it is with proper nouns like names, so very few thri-kreen use a real name when talking about each other. When referring to a specific person, it is usually someone within the same pack that is associated with a particular emotion or other concept that can be easily communicated with the thri-kreen language. Other thri-kreen in the same pack understand this as well as humans do unique names. Because a thri-kreen's identifier is based on the context of a pack, the same thri-kreen may be identified in different ways depending on who is talking about it.

Within some clutches, high-ranking leaders are given unique identifiers. These are usually concepts like "awe", "loyalty", or "respect". While the same identifier may be used for thri-kreen in different packs, no other thri-kreen shares the same identifier as one of the high-ranking ones.

When interacting with races that use a more conventional language, thri-kreen initially have difficulty picking out a name. The concept of a stable identifier that they give instead of someone else referring to their personality in different contexts is a completely alien concept. Those that do manage to integrate with other races tend to pick names like "friend" or are simply referred to by their profession, like "fighter".

Thri-Kreen Weapons

The thri-kreen are able to craft unique martial weapons using their saliva and special plant extracts. All thri-kreen are trained in the use of these weapons and it is rare to see them in the hands of another race.

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Chatkcha: 1d6 slashing, 1 lb., Finesse, Light, Thrown (range 30/120)

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Gythka: 1d8 slashing, 4 lb., Versatile (1d10)

Thri-Kreen Traits

Your thri-kreen character shares much in common with other thri-kreen.

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 1.

Age: Thri-kreen do not waste a moment of their short lives. Thri-kreen reach maturity by the end of their first year and live into their 30s.

Alignment: Thri-kreen tend to ignore social mores and evaluate people based on usefulness, so most other races view them as chaotic. They do not have a strong tendency towards good or evil, but their utilitarian outlook is sometimes mistaken for an evil desire to eat sentient creatures

Size: Male thri-kreen are generally 6 feet tall while the females can be up to 8 feet tall. Your size is medium.

Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Additional Arms: You have 2 additional arms below your main ones. Each of these arms can hold no more than 10 pounds and cannot effectively wield a shield. If you use one of these arms to attack with a weapon that is not light, you have disadvantage on the attack roll. You may stow or retrieve one additional item each turn.

Darkvision: Often being up when the sun is not, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Sleepless: You do not require sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep. You can spend 4 hours doing nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, tending wounds, standing guard, or walking at a slow pace. At the end of this rest, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep.

Thri-Kreen Weapon Training: You have proficiency with the gythka and the chatkcha.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write common and thri-kreen. The thri-kreen language uses the clicking of mandibles and the waving of antennae to communicate emotions. Most creatures that are not thri-kreen are completely unable to speak this language, though they may understand it with some difficulty.

Subrace: Long ago some clutches mutated so that the offspring would not express all of the thri-kreen traits. These weaker thri-kreen required less nourishment to keep themselves in shape and more of these eggs could be laid at a time because they were less taxing to produce. Even though they do not fully express all of the traditional thri-kreen traits, their increased numbers allowed them to overcome this disadvantage. In a harsh environment like the desert, the adaptation to need less food to perform a task is a major advantage. As such, clutches that spawn thri-kreen-khe, thri-kreen-ret, or thri-kreen-tir are becoming more numerous. Choose one of these sub races.

Variant: Double Hand

If the DM allows it, a thri-kreen could wield a versatile weapon with both of the weaker arms from Additional Arms. By doing so, the weapon uses the damage from being wielded with only one hand and attack rolls with it do not have disadvantage due to the use of weaker arms.

Thri-Kreen-Khe

As a thri-kreen-khe, your carapace is not unlike armored plating swirling with different colors. You can control these colors with some focus, allowing you to hide very well or maintain a uniform color. In battle however, emotions run hot and crimson wisps tend to float across the surface of your natural armor.

Ability Score Increase: Your Constitution score increases by 1.

Chameleon Carapace: You can change the color of your carapace to match the color and texture of your surroundings. When you are not wearing armor, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide.

Natural Armor: When you are not wearing armor, your AC equals 12 + your Dexterity modifier.

Thri-Kreen-Ret

Your thri-kreen-ret character has highly developed mandibles able to inject venom into anything you bite. The venom stiffens the muscles of your target, making it much harder for them to attack or run away. Then, grasping the poor creature with vicious claws, thri-kreen-ret usually drag their prey back to their pack.

Ability Score Increase: Your Strength score increases by 1.

Mandibles: You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.

Venomous: When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, that creature must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. On failure, the creature is poisoned for 1 turn. On a successful saving throw or after 1 turn of being poisoned, the creature is immune to this trait for 24 hours.

Thri-Kreen-Tir

Unlike the other subraces, thri-kreen-tir usually have to rely on their cunning more than direct combat capabilities when fighting. Their speed and ability to leap over many creatures makes them incredibly mobile, but their true power comes from knowing when to use this mobility to strike.

Ability Score Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Powerful Legs: Your base walking speed increases to 40 feet.

Standing Leap: When you long jump, you can cover a number of feet equal to twice your Strength score with or without a running start. When you high jump, you can cover a number of feet equal to 10 + your Strength modifier with or without a running start.

Variant: True Thri-Kreen

The subraces presented here are intended to make the thri-kreen a balanced race while still maintaining as much of their original flavor as possible. However, doing so means that a single player will never be able to use all of the traits of the thri-kreen at once. For those people able to convince their DM to let them play something closer to the full thri-kreen race, simply combine all of the subrace features except for the Ability Score Increases. Then increase the thri-kreen's Constitution score by 1.

Art Credits

Marauders of the Dune Sea

Ralph Horsley

http://ralphhorsley.deviantart.com/art/Marauders-of-the-Dune-Sea-149408620

Thri-Kreen Predator

Jason Engle

http://jasonengle.deviantart.com/art/Thri-Kreen-Predator-295366241

Creator

Willy DeWulfe, Parker Martin