Insect-Man of the Lanthanide Wastes

The following is a DCC RPG version of a racial class from Patrick Wetmore's excellent Anomalous Subsurface Environment, ASE 2-3. It is a bit different than the version in ASE 2-3, but I am happy with it. If you are playing a DCC game using Mr. Wetmore's cool setting, I present my unofficial adaptation for your consideration.

You are a member of a nomadic people who roam the Lanthanide Wastes, riding upon giant gila monsters and hunting the human and dwarven fortune-seekers who trespass upon the desert landscape. You have become curious about the pale fleshy grub people, although your inability to distinguish human children from tasty livestock may well lead to a brutal end.

Physically, insect-men most resemble wingless praying mantises, and have six legs. They normally walk on the bottom four, and wield weapons and/or shields with their topmost legs. They can lift themselves upon just the bottom two legs, extending their height to 8’ tall, but the middle legs are not particularly dextrous and the creatures become prone to toppling over, so four-armed fighting is not practiced among the bulk of the insect-men (but see below).

Hit Points: An insect-man gains 1d8 hit points at each level.

Weapon Training: An insect-man is trained in the use of these weapons:  club, dagger, javelin, short sword, polearm, and spear. Although there is no prohibition against wearing armour, human armour does not fit them, and finding an armorer willing to custom-manufacture a suit for a man-eating bug is difficult.

Alignment: Insect-men may be of any alignment, but have a strong tendency toward Neutrality.

Language: Insect-man mouthparts are quite capable of the extreme contortions necessary to reproduce human speech, and all insect man PCs know the common tongue, in addition to their native language of clicks and chirps. Insect-men may know additional languages based on their Intelligence modifier.

Monster: Insect-men are considered “monsters” by most humanoid species. A lone insect-man is almost always attacked on sight. Even in the presence of allied humanoids, an insect-man is treated as though his Personality were 6 points lower (minimum 3) for the purpose of determining humanoid reactions.

Six-Legged: Insect-men have a base movement of 40’ because of their extra legs. They can gain an extra Action Die (based on level; see the insect-man class table), which can be used for attacks or skills, but doing so increases their Fumble range by 1 (natural 1 or 2) and reduces their move to 20’ for that round.

Exoskeleton: The chitin exoskeleton of an insect-man grants a natural AC of 15.

Un-dead Immunities: Insect-men are immune to most un-dead effects other than physical damage – to the insect-man, a ghoul is simply carrion on the move, and a ghost is entirely a human concern. The one exception is un-dead caused diseases, which are especially virulent in insect-men (–4 penalty to saves, twice normal damage).

Other Immunities: All insect-men are immune to the effects (both beneficial and harmful) of lanthanides and hafnium. Other intoxicants behave normally upon the insect-man physiology.

Luck: An insect-man’s Luck modifies both Initiative rolls and weapon damage rolls.

Infravision: Insect-men have infravision to a range of 60’.

Action Dice: Insect-men may use their primary Action Die to attack or perform skill checks, but their secondary Action Die can only be used to make attacks.

Level	Attack	Crit Die/Table	Action Dice	Six-Legged Action Die	Ref	Fort	Will
1	+1	1d8/III	1d20	1d8	+0	+1	+1
2	+1	1d10/III	1d20	1d10	+0	+1	+1
3	+2	1d12/III	1d20	1d10	+1	+2	+1
4	+2	1d14/IV	1d20	1d12	+1	+2	+2
5	+3	1d16/IV	1d20	1d12	+1	+3	+2
6	+4	1d20/IV	1d20+1d14	1d14	+2	+4	+2
7	+5	1d24/V	1d20+1d16	1d14	+2	+4	+3
8	+5	1d24/V	1d20+1d20	1d16	+2	+5	+3
9	+6	1d30/V	1d20+1d20	1d16	+3	+5	+3
10	+7	1d30/V	1d20+1d20	1d20	+3	+6	+4