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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Apr 10, 2018 16:44:06 GMT -5
I once came up with an orc/demon crossbreed that I called orcambion. I also was inspired by the Minifigs "Iuz Enthroned & Evil Halflings" and came up with halfling/demon crossbreeds called camblings. I did not do up stats or detailed monster descriptions, they were simply ideas to beef up enemy humanoid forces with an explanation for why certain individuals had extra powers or resistances. There may have been an idea for an ogre/demon as well, something like a cambiogre. That's interesting - I might consider a dwarf-cambion...?
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Post by davegibsongreyhawkdm on Apr 10, 2018 17:00:57 GMT -5
Back in 1983, I created azer variants for each element. I'll have to blog that but I think I've got a full enough plate as it is right now. Were your azer variants all lawful neutral like the MMII azer, or were the variants you created chaotic evil temple of elemental evil applicable types?
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Post by geneweigel on Apr 10, 2018 18:22:29 GMT -5
Specifically they were all neutral leaning
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 11, 2018 8:05:21 GMT -5
That's interesting - I might consider a dwarf-cambion...? Sure, you don't see many dwarf crossbreeds around, but it's fantasy so you can do what you want. I think Gene mentioned having a half-dwarf fighter/magic-user character. There was a half-dwarf scholar (possibly magic-user) named Doctor Cornelius in the book PRINCE CASPIAN by C. S. Lewis. In DAS RHEINGOLD, the dwarf Alberich lustily attempts to woo the Rhinemaidens, implying a crossbreed is at least possible (dwarf/nereid or nixie or nymph). In Norse mythology, dwarves were just one magical race among many, including Aesir, Vanir, Alfar, giants and trolls, and there were occasional cross-breeds between them as well as men. Demons can be great for any cross-breed idea, since they are magical beings like gods and you can explain anything by magic. Another idea is you could have "Abyssal dwarves" or "Abyssal orcs" or "Abyssal ogres" who dwelt in a layer of the Abyss long enough to be transformed (c. f. the bodak). If that happened on one of the Nine Hells, they might be "Infernal" versions. As far as elemental cross breeds go, Jadis the White Witch, in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA by C. S. Lewis, was from the royal family of world of Charn who were said to be part giant and part jinn. Although in that world, I'm not sure they would be described as elementals in the same way the djinn are in the MM. Still, I mention it for inspiration. Perhaps some giants in the MM already are cross breeds with elementals, for example the cloud giants may be giants cross bred with air elementals, frost giants with ice elementals, fire giants with fire elementals, and stone giants with earth elementals. Hill giants may simply be a degenerate form of the baseline giant. Storm giants may be closer to an original form of pure or noble giant, closer to being a titan or godlike.
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Post by geneweigel on Apr 11, 2018 8:17:17 GMT -5
I've had crossbreeds for so long its the norm. Some things the players interacted with between 1987 to 2000 or so were/are still unknown to them as to what they were. Outside my main city there are enclaves of beings that have uniform looks but the players became accustomed to being an elf or a dwarf sort of. A few years back I posted some images of half-kobolds from 1984 that were the rapidly adult offspring of my character a half-dwarf fighter/magic-user named Gimli...(((( HARUMPH!!! )))) I mean my half-dwarf fighter magic-user named Corlag. So they were quarter dwarf, quarter human and half kobold. Thats what set me off on the mixed race demi-humans being standard. There are a mixed race that have been in my campaign for a long time that are appearing in the module I'm working on which is turning out to be a large adventure/monster manual at this point.
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 11, 2018 8:34:46 GMT -5
I like the idea of non-standard versions because it gets away from "you see orcs" to you see things that look like this (short, vivid description)... or "you see what look like orcs" but they turn out to have unexpected abilities. I see all the humanoids as somewhat mongrel-like anyway, with no two tribes looking exactly the same, and that allows for all variations you can imagine (pig-faced orcs, dog-like snouts, short snouts, some with greenish skin, some with grayish-brown or black skin, goblins ranging from dull yellow to brick red skin colors, and the blue variation known as xvarts, etc.). Also, if you play with miniatures from different companies, they aren't all uniform, so wide scale cross-breeding is one way to explain that.
Recently, one of the DMs in my gaming group (we've been rotating) had us fight some humanoid variations called shadow goblins and dust goblins. Physically, they ranged from goblin to bugbear sized, and they had some special abilities, just enough to make us uncertain what we were dealing with. Instead of worgs, they had crag wolves. I love it when DMs freshen up or tweak old standards and make the players a bit uncertain by giving them something new.
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Post by geneweigel on Apr 11, 2018 8:42:08 GMT -5
I started making a formula for generating the demi-humans of my campaign but then it just seemed limiting somewhat like the demon generation in DRAGON #13(APR 1978) reprinted Best of #1(1980) by Jon Pickens and the official Gygax for AD&D redo of the Pickens' article in DRAGON #23 (MAR 1979) reprinted in DMG(1979). Which were very useful but after a while not creative. So I didn't want something that couldn't be imagined.
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Post by geneweigel on Apr 11, 2018 11:59:25 GMT -5
I think this line from the MONSTER MANUAL (1977) page 60 under LEPRECHAUN: ...was the major contributor to my bad habits.
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 11, 2018 12:13:28 GMT -5
"It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures."
-- from THE HOBBIT by J. R. R. Tolkien
Elsewhere in Tolkien, there are hints that some orc leaders were fallen Maiar:
"Boldog (…) is a name that occurs many times in the tales of the War. But it is possible that Boldog was not a personal name, and either a title, or else the name of a kind of creature: the Orc-formed Maiar, only less formidable than the Balrogs" and "Melkor had corrupted many spirits—some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs. The least could have been primitive (and much more powerful and perilous) Orcs; but by practising when embodied procreation they would (cf. Melian) [become] more and more earthbound, unable to return to spirit-state (even demon-form), until released by death (killing), and they would dwindle in force."
-- from "Myths Transformed" in MORGOTH'S RING
So, in AD&D, that's the equivalent of a demon-orc.
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