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chief-orc β Mantis style
Published: 2010-08-18 23:36:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 9715; Favourites: 239; Downloads: 85
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Description
I've been playing the 4E Dark Sun release games at a local game shop, and I have some observations about the world:1) 90% of the inhabitants of the Dark Sun world are slaves
2) These slaves are constantly forced to fight to the death, I'm guessing for the entertainment of other slaves, because, as far as I can tell, there is no other social caste.
3) Most of the people are disgusting bug men.
4) These disgusting bug men are irrationally fast spinning whirlwinds of claws and hurt, and, there's really no reason to play any other race.
Either way, the group I was in had 2 thri-kreen monks leaving a swath of destruction in their paths. Here's my take on what one of them would look like, just a little warm up sketch.
I know my thri-kreen anatomy is a bit off (left out a joint on his arms and whatnot) but, if you've seen the egregious things I did to my dray's design [link] this bug is practically right on model
If you want to color this guy, let me know.
P.S. I think this is the first time I've been able to draw a remotely interesting looking monk (" Baaaaw! We don't use weapons or armor, we just wanna fight in our pajamas" ) though, it would be hard to draw a four-armed bug maniac, and not make it look a little interesting.
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Comments: 47
I like your interpretation of the Thri-kreen. The thicker bodies are nicer on the eyes.
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The technique, depends mainly
on arm and finger strength
Once you've that, then the next step
is to learn how to pierce stone
Well you might as well start practicing now
Do you know, mantis legends?
How it was it all started?
It was fighting off this blackbird
Although it was only a tenth of the bird's size
it was a very valiant insect
And that's why the technique, needs a brave man
And a strong one, who isn't afraid of odds
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So... Does that mean if a Thri-Kreen were to bleed...
They would bleed yellowish/greenish gunk?
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Well, they are disgusting bugs, and green gunk is what usually comes out of disgusting bugs, so, I guess it stands to reason.
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Pretty BA man, 2E Thri kreen are cooler looking btw, 3E and 4E ones look too human (squick man). How is 4E Dark Sun? In 2E everyone starts minimum 4th level (because every race, even humans, have a LA in Dark Sun) Trick for monks, look at kung fu movies for poses and make them original. Example, I drew a kobold monk that I played a while back, He wore heavy smithing gloves wrapped in cloth, at all times. The other players didn't get it until we got in a big fight, my monk used his torch to light the cloth wrapped gloves and started throwing flaming punches.
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1st level in 4E DS is doable, since everyone starts out pretty weaboo.
I don't have trouble with monk poses, anyone can draw a decent stance, its dressing the guys up. I have a long winded tirade about drawing monks on another deviation, but, in brief, I never play a monk, but when I draw a friend's monk, the only input they give me is "an athletic dude in simple clothes." Then I beat them to death against my kitchen counter for playing such a visually uninteresting character, and eat their portion of the pizza.
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HUGE beads! which you did. Failing that crazy tattoos, which you did, or big flowing clothes, or insane ANIME HAIR(not really), or set them on fire. But yeah hard to make monks look cool.
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PAJAMA ARMOR. And for weapons they use pillows, clearly!
Sorry, that made my day. As for the image, I've seen images of Thri-kreen and I wouldn't wanna draw that unless my life depended on it. Good job with the race!
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Hey thanks!
Haha, I want a +5 pillow of comfortableness.
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Make it a holy avenger pillow so you never have to worry about nightmares, yes? Just as long as its not sentient. I don't want my pillow being aware. That's just creepy. D:
And no problem! Man, your style continues to stun me.
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I might be interested in Dark Sun... Is it for PC or what?
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What! No! It's for D&D 4e, a pen and paper, tabletop rpg. Its an update of the same campaign setting from 2E in the 90's.
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Lol... sorry I got lost... Dungeons and Dragons? Making sure I'm on right track.
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C'mon buddy, its submitted to 2 dungeons and dragons groups.
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I couldn't see the group on my DeviantArt mobile until now
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Thri-kreen...fantastic in 3.5 I read the screwed them up in 4th. -shrugs- I just kinda wanna play dark sun. 
Halfling cannibals!!
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Don't take this drawing as an indicator of what WotC did to 4E thri-kreen, this is my own interpretation of a character. Sorry if I butchered them a bit.
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No, lol you did fine. My friends are talking about compared to 4e, and 3.5e thri-kreen.
I like your dude, he's awesome. xD Don't take this the wrong, way was strictly speaking mechanics.
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Huh, some of my friends play Dark Sun. I hear that it's nearly impossible to play as a magic-user.
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I didn't even bother with the magic stuff.
Who needs magic when you're a 4-armed, bloodthirsty claw-bug!
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True...very true
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Doing stuff in your pjs is awesome. I approve of monks now!
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From what I've heard this new season of Encounters is more brutal than last (which saw more TPKs than our local LFR groups that play almost entirely low level characters in high tier games). Between the difficulty (which puts off new players) and the (until just now) inability to make your own characters (which puts off experienced players), the Dark Sun Encounters have been a big flop where I live. We had 3-4 tables every week of FR Encounters the entire season and recently we have not had even four players.
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I gotta say, it is a bit annoying how goddamn spartan that world is. A bunch of books came in yesterday, so, we started a fun campaign with our new guys that we play after encounters. I finally get to use my tubby, acid vomiting dragonborn, or I guess they're called "dray" in DS (at leas thats what the DM kept yelling at me, but, it was more fun to call them dragonborn, made him angry.)
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There's nothing quite like irking the DM. A friend of mine used to PO the DM by calling his goblins: grotts, gobos, gobs, etc. I know they have some new rules but I'm not sure how well 4th Ed works with the gritty kind of play style that Dark Sun wants.
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Nah, its just as weaboo as regular 4e, except now your attack bonus increases faster, and you've got some powerful "themes" to work with, which actually ramps up the weaboo-ness of your PC to well over 9000. Really, the only difference is, your weapons break easily, anything metal is really valuable, and the DM letting you have any useful item you actually want is nearly impossible.
"Can I at least have a travel pack?"
"no, you're an escaped slave, all you have is your loincloth and chains."
"Wait, I have chains, sweet, metal is all kinds of rare out here, I sell the chains and get a travel pack and some bitchen' weapons."
"Um, no, you're chains are made out of, um, clay and chitin."
"How the? oh, fuck this."
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I know how to munchkin but since I only get to play LFR and my characters are perpetually 2-3 levels too low for the module, my power gaming leaves me only 1-2 levels behind functionally.
I love the law of unintended consequences. For me I'd have the chains be metal but when they try to sell them without the proper skills and materials to melt it down first, I'm going to put them in the hands of an unscrupulous man looking to sell them back to their master.
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Ah, Dark Sun almost made me play 4E, but I looked at the Core Rulebooks and kinda just went
Ah, Thri-Kreen, sad I never got to play one when 3rd and 3.5 were still going. Maybe the Pathfinder Bestiary 2 will have them (doubt it though).
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Ask any 4E player who read the rules first when the game initially came out, they read bad, but play well. Download a demo of the Character Builder and try a few sessions of Living Forgotten Realms if you really want to know what its like. 4E has about the most dynamic combats I've ever seen in an RPG and I've played every edition of D&D since AD&D and dozens of other games. Also, its the first system I've run since 7th Sea where half my players didn't end up incapable of fighting and the other half incapable of anything else.
In my extended gaming network (which has several dozen gamers), about a third of the players were not happy with 4th Ed after the rules first came out but now the only ones still playing 3.5 or now Pathfinder are those who refused to play 4E. It may not be your cup of tea but the writing of the core books really do a terrible job of representing the product.
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3E Thri-kreen as a playable race are detailed in the "expanded psionics handbook."
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I should hunt that down then...
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Worse comes to worse, I'm sure its easy enough to track down a pdf.
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Awesome! this guy isnt really that disgusting, he rather cool. his colors are great and his tribal-like tattoos are really cool. this guy really looks like he can do some series damage. awesome job
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Thanks! He's a fierce little bugger
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Oh i can tell he is! though i wonder if he uses martial arts. i mean preying mantises are a major martial arts symbols. oh and no problem
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oh yeah, this character is all about martial arts, and, when you can run faster and jump higher than anyone else, and have an extra set of arms, your kung-fu is twice as strong.
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Oh i think if you can do all that your martial art skills increase way more than that lol. hes a really cool character. you would think a human sized mantis would be very ugly and disturbing but not in this case. awesome job again
Also are you going to continue that Pokèmon series you had going on?
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Nah, I lost interest in the pokemon thing, became to much of a grind.
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Ah i see. well it was a very awesome series you had going there. Tyranitar or should i say Grimlock was really awesome. he was one really badass pokemon and that sword of his was epic. though i think melee weapons are excluded in tournaments lol.
I love Feraligatrs but Lockjaw was creepy and scary as hell. why would a trainer have a pokemon like that lol!?
Jormund was really cool. his design was really unique. the other were all awesome too. though im surprised you didnt have a Rhyperior on your team.
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Thanks, they were a fun crowd to write. I may have to return to it and finish the last chapter, I just ran out of steam on it.
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They were a really awesome crowd too. that and the fact that they were also all reptilian pokemon too is what made them really cool. i love reptilian Pokemon, theyre always the coolest and the strongest. i would love to see the final chapter done,
Also what do you think of the 5th generation of Pokemon?
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I've got my thoughts, but, I don't really feel like discussing them in the comments section of this drawing.
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