Spelljammer

[charlequin]

A repost of the basic setting information from the Spelljammer game from last time I tried to run it, back in 2004. Anyone who's potentially participating (which should feel free to include anyone from the Massachusetts corridor) feel free to ask questions or whatever. Map to follow once I PhotoShop it up a little.

Comments

[worthididnity]

I've pretty much settled on playing a Thri-Kreen (I could also see playing a Giff or Aarakocra, but I anticipate more competition in those areas).

Following the D&D model that I understand we are working (very broadly) within I'm debating between two "class" ideas: Engineer and Space Druid.

For Engineer, I'm thinking some sort of gun-wielding, potion-making tinker/herbalist type. For Space Druid, I mostly just mean a Druid, but with some qualities/abilities that seem optimized to space (that is, space is its natural habitat, as one might design an arboreal druid, a desert druid, or an arctic druid).

What I know about the Thri-Kreen in D&D, I know from the Dark Sun setting, where they're essentially optimized killing machine (if you get deep enough into the setting material, this becomes literal: someone built them to be a self-sufficient warrior class). Their innate ability from "birth" to make powerful polearms and throwing stars out of sand and their own saliva, is just one example of this weirdness (funny aside: this, combined with their super-human jumping abilities made them all into really good Dragoons by default). Presumably, you, Josh, are discarding some or most of this, but I'd like to know how much. Do these Thri-Kreen automatically have claws and poison bites, for instance? How much armor and post-human Strength/Constitution do I need to pay for up front? Basically, how much will I be playing against the natural strengths of my species if I choose a class that focuses on mental capacity over physical power (either the Engineer or a Druid who's more about spells than about hand-to-hand)?

Anyone else have any thoughts for me about these or other character ideas. Is it going to really bother anybody if I don't play a Monk?

[dr_smith]

The Thri-Kreen, by the book (Expanded Psionics Handbook), get:
+2Str, +4Dex, -2Int, +2Wis, -4Cha
Darkvision
+3 nat. armor
Multiple limbs
4 claws and a bite
Weapon familiarity with racial stuff
Naturally Psionic (1 power point at 1st level)
Poison
Psi-like abilities: mostly survival stuff
Immunity to sleep
Leapin'.
+2 level adjustment, and the hit dice, skills, etc that goes with.
No mention of sand-and-spit, although it's probably not too relevant outside Dark Sun...

Are you familiar with the Artificer class out of Eberron? They're a sort of magic engineer, specializing in item creation and using infisions rather than spells (mostly infusions are just spells that need to be cast into or onto items).

3rd Ed/3.5 is much better about playing against race, since most stats have some signifigance.