The Caliban Chronicles: Nonhuman-Friendly Ravenloft

[Manofevil]

Do you think you should do Draconians? If there's still kender running around Ravenloft after Sithicus, there's probably still Draconians.

[Hell_Born]

Do you think you should do Draconians? If there's still kender running around Ravenloft after Sithicus, there's probably still Draconians.

3e retconned the kender in Sithicus into a native population of halfling vampires, so I'm sticking with that. Plus, I've got kind of a lot on my plate already in terms of race.

Maybe next year, although frankly fitting draconians into Sithicus would probably require at least some degree of revamping Sithicus, even if they're supposed to be a caliban strain based on AD&D's half-dragon. Then again, I was thinking of doing a revamped Hazlan for next year that would drop the humanocentrism and bring back a semblance of Thay's large and active humanoid population...

[brothersale]

Then again, I was thinking of doing a revamped Hazlan for next year that would drop the humanocentrism and bring back a semblance of Thay's large and active humanoid population...

What humanoid population are you refering to? Thay is considerably prejudiced towards non-human races, with dwarves and gnomes being the least regarded, and elves not being well regarded either. The only humanoids that are tolerated are orcs and half-orcs in the badlands due to their service in Thay's armies. Gnolls also serve in the armies and Centaurs who work as guards on the slave workforces.

This is further supported by the poplation breakdown not being really overflowing with humanoids:

circa 1372 DR:
Humans 62%
Gnolls 10%
Orcs 10%
Dwarves 8%
Goblins 5%
Halflings 5%

As Hazlan is portrayed as not a military powerful nation and orcs are not present in the demiplane i think is reasonible for the human poplation to fill that gap, especially since Hazlan's false history is likely to lead them to being more against non-humans due to any humanoids likely being remants of the failed kingdoms that came before the Nameless King.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I read through the carrionette entry, which was good.

If the average carrionette does not have inherent powers of possession, how do monstrous carrionettes gain their silver needles and powers?

Warrior carrionettes are uncommon, due to their small size and difficulty in attaining proper armor, but the supernatural strength they bear due to being constructs makes them more likely than one would think. The majority of carrionette warriors are Barbarians, since that comes naturally to a race blessed with unnatural strength but cursed with childish fury. I have discovered stories of a lone carrionette "knight" whose dedication to hunting child predators of various stripes had given them the abilities of a Paladin sworn to the Oath of Vengeance, however.

The thought of warrior carrionettes makes me think of the movie Small Soldiers.

Spelling/Grammar Check:

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Carrionettes are well-known as monsters consumed by an envy of humanoids and their living bodies, driven by envy to wield strange magics to try and steal humanoid bodies so that they can enjoy life for themselves.

This feels redundant to me. The second "by envy" could just be eliminated.

The one defining trait that these carrionettes is a deep, sincere love for children.

Something like "possess" or "have" is missing between these two words.

Though I have personally encountered an all-carrionette adventuring band.

I feel like a comma could go after "Though." My initial impression was that this was the start of a much longer sentence.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I enjoyed the bakhna rakhna entry.

Adventuring bakhna rakhna . . . repaying a debt of kindness owed to either the party as a whole or a single individual.

This got me thinking about making a bakhna rakhna character. It would be interesting for an adventurer to suddenly get a bakhna rakhna "cousin" paying a debt to the adventurer's relatives.

Grammar Check:

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They prefer to respond in a "tit for tat" measure, amping up the severity of their retaliation to measure the hostility directed at them.

Neither of these seem quite like standard uses of the word "measure" that I am aware of. The first seems like "manner" would be more appropriate. "Match" could replace the second, or the words "up to" could be added after it to get the same effect.

Though rare, wizardry is a talent that typically runs down in very proud family lines,

I have heard of traits that "run in" families, but not traits that "run down in" families.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

I have surveyed the Broken One entry. I have a couple of clarifications about the subrace rules:

Hunterhearts:
Tooth and Claw: When you score a critical hit with an unarmed strike or melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon's damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

I am not completely clear on the technical definition of a weapon's "damage die." Does this mean that, if wielding a weapon that deals 2d6 damage, you roll 2d6 again, or just 1d6?

Venombites:
Poisonous Bite: Once per short rest, you can make a melee attack with a natural weapon. If this attack hits, it inflicts 2d6 Poison damage.

Just to be clear, this is an additional 2d6 Poison damage, yes? I presume it does not replace the base weapon damage.

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Each individually is functionally a species of one, and even two broken ones of the same animal root-stock may look very different.

This should probably be shortened to "individual."

(a broken one of rat stock could only be bred to a dire rat, for example)

I would say "bred with." This makes it sound (to me) like the dire rat is giving birth to the broken one.

Some broken ones strive to act more human; others still think like animals, but wit the greater wits granted to them by their transformation.

with

a rat broken one that is inquisitive, scheming and duplicitious;

You have an extra "i" in the word "duplicitous."

Broken ones are made, not born, and their society is thusly artificial.

"Thus" is an adverb all by itself; "thusly" is often not regarded as correct. Also, I would rearrange to this: "...and thus their society is artificial."

The largest known broken one society is that of the mysterious island of Markovia, which formally existed as a tract of haunted wilderness in the Core before the Great Upheaval displaced it into the Sea of Sorrows.

"Formerly," I presume?

From here, they may escape from a particularly cruel master, or be set free when their master is slain by a society they have angered with their

This sentence never ended.

As mentioned before, the lost land of G'henna is said to be home to a subcivilization of formerly human broken ones who scratch and claw and existence outside of the dubious safety of the Zhakatan theocracy.

an

Adventuring broken ones typically either fled their master (or the angry mob that killed their master) and now have to scratch a living on the fringes of society, or were shown kindness by an adventuring band and taken in by them.

Generally, the expression involves adding "out" after "scratch": "scratch out a living."

Their origins as creations of powerful magic means that broken ones actually do have a natural affinity for magic, which typically manifests as their becoming Wild Magic Sorcerers.

I think this should be "mean" to agree with "origins" being plural.

Coldscales:
Squamous Scales: When you aren't wearing armor, your armor class is 13 + your Dexterity modifier.

"Squamous Scales" sounds good, but since squamous means "covered with or characterized by scales," it seems redundant to me.

Truefriends:
Pack Tactics: You have Advantage on attack rolls agains a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5ft of the creature and not Incapacitated.

against

[Pizza]

Do you think you should do Draconians? If there's still kender running around Ravenloft after Sithicus, there's probably still Draconians.

There are kender in Ravenloft? It truly is a horror setting then.

[Pizza]

I am not really sure how these things work so I don’t want to be out of order. If someone had comments on an old entry is it too late to throw them out? Do you just want us to throw out questions for you to respond to or is throwing out ideas also acceptable?

I never really sat down and read this earlier because I didn’t know what a caliban was.

[Hell_Born]

I have surveyed the Broken One entry. I have a couple of clarifications about the subrace rules:

(a broken one of rat stock could only be bred to a dire rat, for example)

I would say "bred with." This makes it sound (to me) like the dire rat is giving birth to the broken one.

I actually talked over with my mechanics beta-checker, and I've actually decided to remove the subrace angle, instead going for more of a generic beastfolk statblock and optimally inventing some bestial-flavored racial feats... it kind of depends if I can get them to come back before September, so I can have them go over everything...

It can actually work that way. Broken Ones are abominations of nature, after all.

I am not really sure how these things work so I don’t want to be out of order. If someone had comments on an old entry is it too late to throw them out? Do you just want us to throw out questions for you to respond to or is throwing out ideas also acceptable?

I never really sat down and read this earlier because I didn’t know what a caliban was.

If you have comments on old entries, just go ahead and throw them out as you please. I have until September to get everything finalized before I can submit this project to the Fraternity for formatting and critiques.

[Pizza]

I just had a few thoughts about the Red Widow.

1. Reproduction: What if their reproduction and life cycles were more intertwined?

They have short lives because they die shortly after laying their eggs or while their offspring are very young. This makes reproduction a really big deal, and that strong drive to reproduce is more than most can overcome so they do live very short lives by and large. Those that can resist though either through some inborn difference from others of their kind, stronger self control, or both do begin to become more thoughtful and purposeful individuals whereas most never have any need to.

2. What if their reproduction is more complicated than most species?

Perhaps what for most species would be the key reproductive act is only the beginning for a red widow. Indeed the red widow obtains her mate’s genetic material in this way, but she has the ability to retain it perhaps for years without fertilizing her eggs and starting the end of her life cycle. However, her young also obtain genetic material from the host they feed on in their larval form after hatching. Thus it becomes possible that a red widow has ancestry through her mother, her father, and her larval host though the father and larval host can be the same and often are.

3. What are the implications of such a parentage system?

Well maybe the larval host is in some ways more important than the father. Perhaps the red widow appears to be the species of her larval host or some mixture of her father and host’s races. But some say what if the host is dead or cooked meat or some no intelligent species? Well I would say larva raised on dead or cooked meat might become more or less or perhaps entirely clones of their mother. I rather suspect most red widows would be like this and perhaps that lack of a living host is what strongly pushes most red widows to being little more than instinct driven monsters. Those whose larval host is some non intelligent species become some sort of being regarded as a monster and abomination by other red widows. This is perhaps a last resort of a dying red widow whose reproductive drive in the end overrides the knowledge of the monstrosities she is creating.

4. What are implications of reproducing this way for the more intelligent red widows?

Perhaps this is why some red widows do form relationships and try to assimilate into a humanoid society. True love for such a creature might mean granting her beloved the chance to father her children and serve as their larval host while also being allowed a long life shared with the red widow. Thus she marries and lives with her beloved only to implant him with her eggs at the end of his life or hers such that they two die at relatively the same time. The ultimate test of course being for the red widow to disclose her true nature and plans to her husband to see if he reacts positively.

At the same time our adventurous red widows who have not found such a man yet do become PCs or NPCs to pass the time while searching for him.

5. Red widow culture?

Perhaps an alternate for to the clans or some part within them are that some red widows prefer their spider form and seek to stay in this form indefinitely. They form communities in out of the way forests, caves, and whatnot and rely on their sisters in human form to help keep people away from the spider community. Maybe this is even a test for perspective husbands for red widows who value men who can handle themselves in combat to send low level adventures after a nest to see if he can prove himself worthy.

6. Red widow religion?

Well I sort of like your take, but I would imagine the intelligent red widows maybe get wrapped up in two ideas. A sort of non-divine ancestor worship of the father. There’s a good chance by the time they are intelligent enough to care that it is not easy to determine his identity. Maybe a red widow seeks to learn her father’s identity, his deeds, and erect a tomb or marker for him, but even if she cannot there is always a prayer said for his spirit wherever it is and request for his help with tough things in life. The mother is also unknown, but she is perhaps less important than a vague (or not so vague) worship of the Red Mother or Spider Mother who is the undying ancestral mother of all red widows that they can know fully in death provided they reproduce (or maybe reproduce red widows instead of the monstrosities). For those red widows who form a real relationship with a man perhaps they also abandon the Red Mother for his gods in hopes they will be together in the afterlife.

Those were the thoughts I had while reading your red widow entry. They really seem like a bit of unique race with a real role in the world.

[Hell_Born]

I just want to thank everyone who took an interest in this article. I've spent the last few weeks working non-stop with somebody I trust to refine and balance the racial mechanics, and hopefully the article will be enjoyable and make it into this year's issue. It's something like 71 pages long in its original Gdoc format, so hopefully readers will get some use out of it.

Also, not going to lie, I really hope Jason of the Fraternity gives serious thought to submitting a 5e update for their Dread Genasi in this year's QtR, because I really loved the original version of that article and I want to see it brought into the modern edition.