Dark Sun Art Thread

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Its 4e but I love 4e DS almost as much as the original DS, and sand sharks captures the occasional goofiness of DS almost as well as evil psionic cacti.

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Half giants are one of the best races around in many ways, both in terms of a setting element and mechanically.

I wonder if the reason they can't mix with humans or giants, and why giants can't mix with humans, is squick factor, or because they wanted the three hybrid races to each have their own thing?

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I'm not a fan of the laziness of goliaths-as-half giants or their low power level, but their weird exotic look seems fitting. Certainly I prefer it to how most non Brom artists depict half giants.

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I think the argument for any race fitting as any DS class could be made, and I can see why some people don't like class restrictions. I could see half giants being singularly loyal templar.

That being said, I prefer the default class restrictions, as the way that half giants are often servants, muscle, and entertainment (like gladiators) of the templar, as the greater power level of half giants justifies their much more limited class variety.

I could see this guy as either a fearsome and popular gladiator or a ranking templar's high level muscle. Look at that precious metal armor.

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Took me awhile to find this. iirc Dark Sun's prototype version was a project called War World, intended to interact deeply with Battlesystem, and you can see snippets of it here and there, such as on the cover of Battlesystem 1e. Though I don't think this art has anything to do with Dark Sun, it fits exactly perfectly as a half giant commander of unusual intelligence leading an army of his fellows. They aren't always lumbering ogryn types afterall.

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reminds me of dark sun a little

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I have no fucking clue what this thing is, but it could fit as a half giant using Carapace and/or touched by the Pristine Tower.

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>>52880172
Perfect, thanks.
I'll also point out that even pictures with visible tech elements will be useful to me since I'm trying to collect good stuff for tokens.

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Some humans. This is probably the most vague element. Weird hats or face paint always work well.

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Weird hat ahoy. I like to think she might have been one of those blindfighting gladiators.

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Of course most stuff by Luis Royo is relevant.

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>>52880894
It's a defiler hat! The official hat of people who are hated quite rightly and need to announce their presence anyway when they're going into people's homes and smashing their shit for fun.

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>>52882272

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Valley of Dust and Fire

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>>52882380

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Gladiator/Psionist who critted every psionic power roll he ever made

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>>52882563

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So, just curious, what resources are there to play Dark Sun with 5e?

Racewise, we've got Aarakocra, Genasi, and Goliaths in Elemental Evil (Goliaths are also in Volo's guide)

The Firbolg in Volo's, and the UA Minotaur could also be used as types of Half-Giant (With the latter being half beast-headed, naturally)

The Wood Elf subrace is probably the best standin for Athasian elves, what with the increased movement (better runners), and the mask of the wild's bonus to stealth (even light silt storms can camouflage an elf tribe's passing)

Neither of the Dwarf Subraces particularly match the Athasian's dwarves' focused nature.

Athasian Halflings are probably Stouts, with the resistance for poison making them all the more willing to use it.

Humans and Half-Elves are the same as always.

This leaves just the really Athasian specialities: Muls, and Thri-Kreen (also Pterrans, but they're probably just Lizardmen)

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>>52879545
Man sorting through your huge folder of art and finding something that fits the setting you're building is so satisfying.

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>>52883472

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>>52883496

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>>52883507

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>>52883539

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>>52883549

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>>52883562

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>>52883578

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>>52882832
I would say duergar seem appropriate even though they're not officially a part of it, Dark Sun seems really iffy about dungeons, caverns, etc. I can't really tell if its intentionally an anti dungeon world or what.

Thri kreen as a race are easy, their MM statblock looks clearly intended to be in line with a future PC incarnation.

Natural AC 13 (the standard for natural armor races),

Ability mods same as in 2e; they're clearly in the orc/kobold/etc. camp), and their stats look like they reflect +2 dex, +1 wis, -1 int, -2 cha.

Natural weapons are Claws and bite per MM entry. They don't get quadra-slash anymore unfortunately, 2d4+str claws, 1d6+str bite, con save that is 8+proficiency+con mod or be poisoned for 1 minute; failure by 5+ causes paralysis. You can give them the bite at level 5, or you may wish to analyze the power level. You may wish to give them a bonus action bite at the same time they get it in 2e, perhaps only when attacking with claws.

Standing Leap, Chameleon Carapace as MM entry.

(Optional) Subraces

Jeral: +1 con, martial weapon proficiency with chatkcha.
Tok'sa: +1 str, martial weapon proficiency with gythka.

You may wish to let them take a bonus action attack with a kreen weapon when wielding only kreen weapons and no shield, and perhaps as long as they are using two or more kreen weapons. This would be a high power level element, but its not gonna be stacked with shield bashing or polearm mastery, so it may be alright.

Finally, you may wish to give them psionics per the MM entry, parceled out across a few levels like yuan ti.

The result would probably be a high power race, but still probably weaker than vhuman, aasimar or pureblood.

Please note that this isn't my attempt to make a thri kreen race based off what I think it should be, but the most faithful conversion from the monster manual entry I can get that might approach balance.

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>>52883647
Let me give it a shot with Detect Balance (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vq1kz6PRAbw5LHy6amH-bNb4OuB8DBXL1RsZROt03Sc/edit#gid=0)

This is for the Jeral Thri-Kreen (The To'ksa are more likely to be NPCs)

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, also your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Age. Thri-Kreen live much faster than humans. A Thri-Kreen typically reaches adulthood at 6 years old, and will live to around 30 years.
Alignment. Thri-Kreen find civilization strange and stifling, and are only truly at home amongst the wastes. This makes them tend towards Chaotic alignments. The harsh and uncompromising nature of their lifestyle makes Thri-Kreen unconcerned with the struggle between good and evil, with most ending up as netural.
Size: Thri-Kreen are nearly 7 feet fall. Your size is medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 40 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.
Torpor. Thri-Kreen do not sleep unless seriously ill. Instead they spend four hours in a trance-like semi-concious state. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit a human does from eight hours of sleep.
Chameleon Carapace. You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide.
Thri-Kreen Psionics. You know the mage hand cantrip (the hand is invisible.) When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the jump spell once per day. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the blur spell once per day. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Language. You can speak, read, and write Common and Thri-Kreen.


As a race, sure it's missing out on a bunch of the melee attacks and such, but on the other hand all together you're more powerful than any core race other than v. humans

(A To'ska subrace would probably lose the psionics, in exchange for natural armor and weapons, and be as powerful as v.humans)

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>>52884515
Ah yes, I like your split of jeral vs to'ska.

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>>52885389

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>>52885409

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>>52885429

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And just for completeness sake, the Mul:

Ability Score Increases. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and two other ability scores of your choice increase by 1.
Age. Like humans, Muls reach adulthood in their late teens, and typically live no more than a century.
Alignment. Born to a life of slavery, Muls are instilled with a sense of discipline and order that leads most Muls to be of Lawful alignment. Muls have no tendency towards good or evil, with most caring only to survive the next fight, or day of backbreaking labor.
Size. Muls stand six to six and a half feet tall. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. Your speed is not reduced when wearing heavy armor.
Relentless Endurance. When you are dropped to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Tireless. You may count your exhaustion level as if it were two levels lower than it actually is (to a minimum of 0)
Language. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarven.

Compared to other races, it may be a little light, but it's mostly keeping to the theme of Muls never giving up, and enduring almost anything.

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>>52885442

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>>52885525

>>52879545
is there any dark sun vidya games?

>>52880112
my nigga Mageta

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My dream is to one day run a metal as fuck pun unintended Dark Sun campaign.

>>52885481

I'd probably make em more like vhumans instead. They're basically humans+.

god I hope this thread is here in the morning

>>52886051
A short bit of fitting background music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb847-0rsvs

>>52885996
https://www.gog.com/game/dungeons_dragons_dark_sun_series

>>52886213
any playable games?

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>>52886412
None that I know of.

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Any 4e battlemaps worth mentioning?

I'm aware you can just like... dump existing maps in yellow-tan paint.

>>52885996
Only one of the top 5 D&D vidya ever made...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmjwf75Mzdk

Don't waste your time with 2, though, it sucks.

In any event, Dark Sun is what got me into D&D, and its the best setting by far. It always had something of a meta-story problem though. Where is was hard to focus on what made the setting cool with all the awful high level DMPCs running around shitting on things.

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>>52884761
I've been wracking my brain on what part of Athas to use for a campaign, as I was thinking it may be exciting to have one that focuses more on the alien elements and hexcrawling, and one in the borders of Jeral country may be good.

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>>52886879
I find it interesting that the response to the Prism Pentad shit is almost always negative, even from those who liked the books themselves. Part of why I'm considering a campaign in a far away part of Athas, even though the Ivory Triangle is pretty cool and relatively unmongled. It even has a replacement for Boris.

>>52887034
They seemed to violate the essence of an RPG setting. The setting was so cool it hooked its players, then the creators go "but actually our guys are the heroes and they kill all the villains but I guess you can still play your characters here too". Just awful.

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>>52887112
Yeah really. I have heard that it was a product of the "writers rule, gamers drool" attitude that defined Lorraine-era TSR.

>>52886953
The hinterlands may be a good place to run some games. More barbarians, kreen, pterrans. Free from the sorcerer kings.

And then the Tohr-Kreen start invading.

>>52887150
>Lorraine-era TSR.
Eww, don't remind me.

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>>52887034
I'd say ignore everything that happens, at least past the first book.

Tyr's just lost Kalak, the city's now being run by a bunch of nobles, templars, and even former slaves in a strange alliance. No one's exactly sure how it happened, rumours abound. But Tyr is also one of the few remaining sources of iron, so everyone's interested.

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Hmm, domains for Elemental Clerics in 5e. How do these sound?

Earth - Life, Nature
Air - Tempest, Trickery
Fire - Forge, Light
Water - Life, Tempest

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>>52893646
Isn't there shadow magic in dark sun? Would Trickery qualify for that?
Correct me if I'm wrong, I read an old pdf about purifiers last night that made it sound like there was.

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>>52894171
Shadowmagic on Athas is arcane, drawing power from the dimension known as the Black (possibly a realm in the Shadowfell in 4/5e terms.)


On Athas, divine magic springs from the elemental planes. Granted either by the elemental lords (never described powerful beings who give magic to clerics and druids -- but aren't gods), or by the Sorcerer Kings (who learned how to basically siphon it off to give power to their templars)

The clerics are divided up by element (earth, air, fire, and water) or para-element (silt, sun, magma, or rain)

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Sorry, this is the closest thing I have to DS aesthetics on my PC.

Anyways, one thing I really like in this setting is how regal all the important guys look without needing tons of jewels or extravagant stuff (compared to the rest of the characters, anyways). Gives a really effective "clothes of power" vibe

>>52886412
>playable
What do you mean? They are perfettly playable.
Shattered lands is actually pretty good.

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>>52890463

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>>52897507

>>52897555
Is Ur Draxa a rotating irrigation oasis city?
that's cool

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>>52897733
Ur Draxa's a neat part of the setting to me.

The largest city (both in population and size) known on Athas, most of it's ruins, farmlands, or jungle. Each segment of the city is ruled by a clan of Draxans, and maintained by slaves. And at its centre lies the Dragon, served by the great Dead Lords, a group of around 20 liches and similar undead who serve him faithfully and eternally.

Of course, no one's ever likely to know about it, in setting. And those who do probably don't want to.

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I got tons of item inspo if you want it.

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>>52899822

Do you guys use all the fuck off weird weapons in your games? I generally stick to the bormal D&D weapons, but I throw in a few of Dark Sun's weirder ones in there for variety every now and then and allow players to collect them. Fuck having to describe the type of weapon for every enouncter though.

>>52897555
I don't remember this at all.
I only read two sets of books, I guess the first two sets. Prism Pentad? and the many-as-one trilogy.

>>52902755
I'm really hoping my dm will include them in an upcoming 5e game, even if they're just reskins of the core weapons. The weapons were one of my first exposures to the setting and definitely one of the reasons I got so into it.

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>>52902755
Many of them are too iconic not too. They did a good job making most of them mainstays of the art.