How about a new Neutral race?

I have often wondered why when we think of races for neutrals our minds immediately search the forests. It seems to me that neutral equals balance, and therefor, could just as easily be something that climbed out of a city sewer, a landfill, or even a desert. It was this avenue of thinking that caused me to consider the oft overlooked and in no way original idea of bugs. Keep in mind that insects have a far greater concept of community than most of what we would consider to be civilized races and need not be exclusively chaotic or lawful.

Dungeons and Dragons offered several varieties of bug-like humanoids, and we have nothing of the sort as an optional race in FL. Creatures like the Thri Kreen, or the Umber Hulk. Since the Umber Hulk found existence with the revamping of rangers a few years back I thought I would explore the Idea of Thri Kreens as a neutral race. Here are some of the Ideas I have considered;

The Thri Kreen resemble a praying mantis in many ways. Two powerfully built legs support a somewhat fragile torso which bares four arms. The two upper arms appear stronger than the two lower arms, however, the Thri Kreen have adapted to using all four in battle. The two primary functions of their "extra" arms are not accessible until late in their careers. The first(quickclaw) would be a single unarmed attack each round in addition to the weapon/weapons wielded in the primary arms. The second would be the ability to effectively powergrip a two-handed weapon by placing all four hands around its shaft. These two abilities can not be used together as one would have to release the shaft of the weapon in order to achieve an extra strike. I would also recommend that these creatures receive telepathy in place of vocal chords. I believe they should be vulnerable to both bludgeoning weapons and poison attacks.

Statistically as follows;

Str 21 (Insects are very strong, these are

Int 17

Wis 20 (Having existed for centuries without detection, they have proven to be wise)

Dex 22 (Fast and Agile the Thri Kreen epitomize balance)

Con 17 (Due to their bludgeoning/poison vulnerability the race appears less resilient)

Infravision Immunity(cold blooded like sliths)

Infravision

+50 movement at level one, +5 movement/level (bugs move very quickly on foot, and I think we should cause mounts to refuse to let them ride)

Level 40 : Power rip/Quickclaw

Classes: Warrior, Blademaster

Exp Cost: 200

Please, share your thoughts and suggestions.

the stats seem a bit off.

Humans get 101

Your guys have 97

If you take away their mount ability, give them a flight skill/spell

A melee with very low con(in relation to average melee races), average strength, and decent dex?

Just my initial thoughts

With those stats that would be a wicked blademaster

To many moves. Give them a grand total of +50 at Rank 50.

Or increased move regen.

More classes, I want neutral thief and Ranger. Something more akin to the wilderness insects, not to human warfare with warriors/blademasters.

To many moves. Give them a grand total of +50 at Rank 50.

Or increased move regen.

More classes, I want neutral thief and Ranger. Something more akin to the wilderness insects, not to human warfare with warriors/blademasters. Back to the woods again.... I was trying to stay away from the woods. Insects create very interesting and unique societies, Ant mounds can be twenty feet tall. They are cities, so to speak. Thief, maybe, but deny poison usage. Ranger, I considered with a automastery in insect swarm. Rangers would be like the drones of the wasp nest, looking for potential threats. Where the other melees are the army/guardians. Just my thoughts.

Why would they have a poison vuln? I get the bludgeoning vuln, though I think if the reasoning behind it is the exoskeleton it should be offset by a slashing/piercing resistance.

Proportionally speaking, ants are what, 50 times stronger than humans? I'd say a str of 21 doesn't do this justice. I would actually argue in favor of lower dex, given the lack of flexibility from the exoskeleton, higher str, higher con, and lower intelligence/wisdom (insects have no "concept of community" in reality, as they are far too mindless to have what we'd refer to as concepts of anything - a better comparison than hives to cities would actually be hives to bodies, where the individual ants act as cells - I've read numerous biologists making the argument that such hives could be considered organisms in their own right).

I see your point Pali, however he isn't suggesting we use Ant. Thri Kreen is more like a praying mantis type creature. I don't know much about them so maybe your idea is correct that they SHOULD indeed be stronger.

Eh... in general, proportionally speaking, most insects are stronger and faster than humans. Don't know anything in particular about the praying mantis.

Immortals will now have a "stomp" command for slaying insects.