#Phraint

[oldschoolfrp]

A human wizard and an insectoid Phraint swordmaster rush to aid their fighter companion as a manticore lunges from the darkness  (Morno / Bradley W Schenck, back cover of The Arduin Grimoire Vol II: Welcome to Skull Tower by Dave Hargrave, Grimoire Games, 1978)

#Arduin #The Arduin Grimoire #Morno #Bradley W Schenck #manticore #Phraint #Arduin Grimoire #Welcome to Skull Tower #Dave Hargrave #Grimoire Games #The Arduin Grimoire Vol II #dnd #D&D #Dungeons & Dragons

[thecreaturecodex]

Phraint

“Grasshopper” © Fabio Di Castro. Accessed at his ArtStation here

[Commissioned by @crazytrain48. Like the deodanth, the phraints are an Arduin race that, if I took all of their listed abilities, would be ridiculously powerful. So this is a decidedly PC powered version. The emotionless trait is borrowed from the android, and in general these might make good android analogues for those GMs who want to keep science fiction out of their fantasy.]

Phraint CR ½ LN Humanoid This tall, lean humanoid resembles an insect, with two arms, two legs and long antennae.

Phraints are eusocial insects with similarities to grasshoppers and stick insects. According to their lore, they are the descendents of a space-faring civilization. Phraints pride themselves on their logic and reason, but have difficulties understanding the complexities of the emotional spectrum. Their society is rigidly caste-based, with low caste members being completely sterile and blue or green in color. High caste phraints, so called nobles, are purple to red in color, and are capable of reproduction. Typically, only a single female, the queen, lays eggs in a phraint community, and she takes multiple mates to ensure variety in her offspring. Other fertile females typically defer to the queen, but some may leave to form colonies of their own or even turn on and murder their queen in order to take over. The core of phraint society is the “stick”, which refers to a clutch of eggs incubated together—sticks may be comprised of only half-siblings, but the members of each stick work, train and live in close proximity.

Phraints are technologically minded, and their settlements often feature intricate engineering projects in order to increase crop yields, produce tools and goods more efficiently and otherwise make life better. Their diet is omnivorous but mostly liquid. Alcohol has little effect on them, but some poisonous plants have intoxicating qualities to a phraint, and are used by nobles for ritual purposes. Phraint soldiers are renowned for their acrobatic, graceful fighting style, combining mobility with heavy weaponry in order to make pinpoint assaults on key weaknesses in the enemy line.

Phraints as Characters A phraint does not have racial Hit Dice, and advances by character class. A phraint character has the following racial traits

+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Cha Phraints are quick in both mind and body, but have a diminished sense of self. Medium size A phraint gains no bonuses and suffers no penalties due to its size Normal speed A phraint has a land speed of 30 feet. Scent +1 natural armor bonus +4 racial bonus to Acrobatics Efficient (Ex) A phraint requires only 1/3 the food and water of an ordinary Medium sized creature. Emotionless (Ex) A phraint can never gain morale bonuses and is immune to fear effects and emotion effects. They have problems processing emotions properly, and thus take a -4 penalty on Sense Motive checks. Languages A phraint begins play speaking Common and Phraint. A phraint with an Intelligence bonus may select from the following bonus languages: Dwarven, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Undercommon

Phraint fighter 1              CR ½ XP 200 Init +3; Senses Perception +1, scent Defense AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +1 natural, +1 dodge, +3 armor) hp 11 (1d10+1) Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +0 Immune emotion effects, fear; Weakness emotionless Offense Speed 35 ft. Melee greatsword +3 (2d6+3/19-20) Ranged javelin +4 (1d6+2) Statistics Str 15, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 6 Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 17 Feats Dodge, Fleet Skills Acrobatics +7, Climb +5, Knowledge (engineering) +5, Perception +1, Sense Motive -4; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, -4 Sense Motive Languages Common, Dwarven, Phraint SQ efficient Ecology Environment warm plains or desert Organization solitary, pair, crew (3-12), patrol (4-24 plus 1 3rd level captain per 10 individuals), or retinue (10-100 plus 1 3rd level captain per 10 individuals and 1 5th level noble per 20 individuals) Treasure NPC gear (studded leather armor, greatsword, 3 javelins, other treasure) Special Abilities Efficient (Ex) A phraint requires only 1/3 the food and water of an ordinary Medium sized creature. Emotionless (Ex) A phraint can never gain morale bonuses and is immune to fear effects and emotion effects. They have problems processing emotions properly, and thus take a -4 penalty on Sense Motive checks.

#phraint #bug people #playable races #pathfinder 1e #arduin grimoire

[wingmind]

#phraint #dnd #pathfinder #monster #fantasy #Sci-Fi & Fantasy #Artists onTumblr #bug #warrior #thri-kreen #sketch #drawing #Illustration

[vintagerpg]

Runes of Doom (1978) finally ties up threads left dangling from the other two volumes. Thank goodness. It is probably my favorite of the Grimoire series. 

First off, we finally have rules for playing Phraints, humanoid insect warriors that are repeatedly mentioned as playable in the previous books, but without any indication as to how play them. I’d wouldn’t be surprised if you told me that they directly inspired D&D’s Thri-Kreen. 

Second, we finally get stats for the energy weapons used by the Techno class, which cements Arduin’s commitment to a strong flavoring of science fantasy, two years before Expedition to the Barrier Peaks saw print. 

Third, we can see a lot more of Hargrave himself coming through. An illustration towards the back of the book is entitled “Attack of the Kill Kittens,” which gives you a sense of his humor and to the overall uncompromising nature of his games (though, considering his claim in Skull Tower of having killed over 480 player characters in four years of running his campaign, I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise). You also get a sense of what Lawrence Schick meant when he said that Arduin is “unencumbered by good taste,” thanks to the illustration of a topless, axe-wielding woman warrior captioned “Shardra the Castrator.” As ever, your mileage will vary. 

Oh, Runes of Doom also reveals Hargrave’s preoccupation with demons, with 13 pages dedicated to new infernal entities of all stripes. I am sure he’d have been pissed had he lived long enough to see TSR remove devils and demons from D&D. 

#RPG #TTRPG #Tabletop RPG #Roleplaying Game #D&D #dungeons & dragons #Arduin #Arduin Grimoire #David Hargrave #Runes of Doom #Greg Espinoza #Erol Otus

[encounterthis]

Debauch of a Phraint, by Andrew Walter

[oldschoolfrp]

When everyone on the street sees the pickpocket attempt  (Roland Brown, The Arduin Grimoire IV: The Lost Grimoire by Dave Hargrave, Dragon Tree Press, 1984)

#Arduin #The Arduin Grimoire #Roland Brown #D&D #Dungeons & Dragons #The Arduin Grimoire IV #The Lost Grimoire #deodanth #phraint #thief #rogue #pickpocket #Arduin Grimoire #Dragon Tree Press

[oldschoolfrp]

An insectoid phraint from the world of Arduin (Morno / Bradley W Schenck, The Arduin Grimoire II: Welcome to Skull Tower, Grimoire Games, 1978)

#D&D #Dungeons & Dragons #Morno #Bradley W Schenck #phraint #Arduin #The Arduin Grimoire #Arduin Grimoire #The Arduin Grimoire II: Welcome to Skull Tower #insect man #Grimoire Games #dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #Brad Schenck #Bradley Schenck

[oldschoolfrp]

An insectoid phraint in the big city / an elf on the windy wharf.  I love the fusion of psychedelia and art nouveau in some early game lettering, art, and framing that isn’t recreated today as often as TSR’s fonts and cover designs.  (Michio Okamura, cover for Arduin Grimoire 5: Dark Dreams by Dave A Hargrave, Grimoire Games / Dragon Tree Press, 1985).  That same year Michio Okamura was contributing art to comics like Shuriken and Robotech before he went to Blizzard to design characters, creatures, and the title foe for Diablo and Diablo II.

#Arduin #Arduin Grimoire #Michio Okamura #D&D #Dungeons & Dragons #The Arduin Grimoire #Dark Dreams #phraint #halfling #hobbit #fantasy city #urban adventure #ship #elf #dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #Grimoire Games #Dragon Tree Press

[oldschoolfrp]

Phraints engraving chitin tattoos  (Roland Brown, The Arduin Grimoire IV: The Lost Grimoire by Dave Hargrave, Dragon Tree Press, 1984)

#Arduin #The Arduin Grimoire #Roland Brown #D&D #Phraint #Dungeons & Dragons #phraints #insect man #insect-man #tattoo #The Arduin Grimoire IV #The Lost Grimoire #Dragon Tree Press

[oldschoolfrp]

Ad for Archive Miniatures Arduin Series Phraint, Dragon No 38, via Phraint fan Greybeardgamer.

#Phraint #Archive Miniatures #Arduin #D&D #Dungeons & Dragons #Dragon magazine #game ad #The Arduin Grimoire

[oldschoolfrp]

Greybeardgamer’s collection of Arduin-inspired miniatures, L: Archive Miniatures Phraint and Vroat (by Nevile Stocken and Steven Lortz), C: Texas Miniatures insect warrior (Richard Kerr), R: Phraint and Vroat from Emperor’s Choice (William Watt) which still are in production.

#miniatures #fantasy miniatures #Arduin #The Arduin Grimoire #D&D #Dungeons & Dragons #Phraint #Vroat #insect-man #insect man #monster #dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #Arduin miniatures #Archive Miniatures #Texas Miniatures #Emperor's Choice miniatures #Nevile Stocken #Steven Lortz #Steve Lortz #Richard Kerr #William Watt

[oldschoolfrp]

I'm curious what anyone else has come up with running down what the inspiration for Arduin's Phraint might have been. ( The Deodanth is straight up the Deodand from Vance's ' Dying Earth ' for example )

The only direct statement of inspiration I know is in The Arduin Grimoire: Vol I:

They are cold, emotionless, logical, a veritable bug “Mr. Spock.”

The idea of insect men from space is now common enough to seem almost generic, but I think the timing, the similarity in names, and the description of blue colors points to the Thranx in Alan Dean Foster’s Commonwealth series as a possible inspiration for their appearance.  I believe the Thranx appeared in Foster’s first novel The Tar-Aiym Krang in 1972, five years before Arduin’s publication in 1977.

#Phraint #Thranx #The Arduin Grimoire #Arduin #bakudreamer