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savingthrowvs · 4 years ago

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Forgotten Races: Sharakim

Sharakim Are What Happens When You Create Your Own Problem

I was looking at the old D&D 3.5 book Races of Destiny recently and came upon the sharakim. What are the sharakim? Cursed humans, meant to be as ugly as possible despite being an entire race of nice burly geniuses who have no tact. That sounds like it should describe someone that looks like X-Men’s Beast, but let’s look at the official art.

That is an orc with horns. Now, is there a place in your D&D world for the sharakim? Probably! A race of intelligent, burly humans with faces only a mother could love is a fun idea - they make for a good alternative for your wizard from the standard elf or human. But why do they exist? This part seems obvious. You can play elves, half-elves and half-orcs by default. Why not play orcs? People wanted to play orcs. But orcs have a role in D&D - the evil things you kill. If you make them have personalities, then people will feel bad about killing them. Now, if you’re like me, you wring that roleplaying thread for all its worth and twist until your players have almost no emotions left to give. But not all DMs are like me, tip-toeing the tightrope between sadistic torturer and excited labrador retriever. So what do you do?

You could do what I do and say that there is a good subrace of Orc called the Flamerunners, who lose the light blindness, and are compelled to do good so people don’t think they are like other orcs. Or you curse a bunch of humans to make New Orcs. The orc flavor for a new generation. Because that totally worked for Coke, right? What you end up with is a race that’s so eager to prove they aren’t orcs that it comes off as a little uncomfortable. Especially if you’ve ever taken a humanities class about race relations.

Can your campaign use these? Yes, but please get rid of the “I’m not an orc, I swear” thing. Instead go for imposter syndrome as a racial thing. If you’re seen in the same light as orcs, ogres, trolls and the like for being big, burly and green blue, maybe your main trait is trying to prove how smart you are? You have +2 Str and +2 Int and -2 Cha as a character, and in 5e, I’d make it just +1 Str, +2 Int. So now your driving force is to prove you aren’t a himbo or a mook, you’re a valuable big brain boy. And perhaps there is a magic tournament every year to show the fanciest new spell - and the winner becomes the “King of Knowledge” in sort of a “prom king” role. Everyone knows you’re the smartest smart boy with the biggest brain.

If I were to make them a 5e race, I’d probably go with -

+1 Strength, +2 Intelligence.

One wizard cantrip as a spell known. (Maybe not a damaging one. Talk to your DM.)

Proficiency in one extra set of artisan’s tools of your choice. (Prove how much of a smarty pants you are!)

Once per day, you can roll a Strength check with advantage. (This is so that strength is always a part of your identity, and one you may need to learn to embrace and not neglect).

These guys can be fun. Any D&D race can be fun.

#Sharakim #Dungeons and Dragons #RPGs #D&D #DnD

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