Scrab

This page is needs images. Help plz.

Scrabs, not to be confused with the creepy hand-faced spider monsters from Oddworld, are a race of highly intelligent and malevolent predatory bugs native to the Dungeons & Dragons world of Dark Sun. Unlike the thri-kreen and trin, who adopt a more humanoid body shape, scrabs resemble 4ft long centipedes with an alarmingly human-like face and two spindly arms with three-clawed hands emerging where a centipede's stinging "jaw-legs" would be. Whilst highly intelligent and with a knack for psionics, scrabs regard all other forms of life as nothing more than prey, and readily attack anything that wanders into their territory.

Scrabs live in the sandy wastes, or in the sandy areas of the rocky barrens, digging underground burrows with a combination of their little hands and their ability to spit a chemical that binds sand into a fairly solid substance. Physically adapted to be able to extract some level of oxygen when buried in the sand and able to hold their breath for up to an hour, scrabs make excellent burrowers and can easily cope with the hazards of living underground in a sandy environment. Scrabs only need about 1/20th of the water that a human would need, and seem to primarily get their liquid nourishment from the blood of creatures they eat. Despite their intelligence, scrabs are about on the level of any other medium-sized predator on Athas' food chain; whilst their intellect makes them surprisingly adept at bringing down even relatively large prey, they are readily eaten by the many, many big nasty critters that inhabit the Athasian wastes.

Socially, scrabs are closest to eusocial insects, but not quite. Each scrab community (nest) centers around a fertile female, or "nest mother", who has bloated up into a 10ft long sluggish parody of her smaller selves, who maintains a reverse harem of elite males - those who have had the talent, wits and drive to go beyond their innate psionics and develop powers as either a full-blown psionicist or even a defiler. These ruling females are even more formidable, combining the spellcasting abilities of an elemental priest with the "Cosmic" sphere and the psionic abilities of a high level psionicist.

A nest mother produces a clutch of up to 100 eggs every two years, allowing the most powerful "leader-class" male to mate with her in order to fertilize her clutch. These eggs hatch after three months and the ravenous young immediately turn on each other in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy; on average, only half the hatchlings survive this bloody birth and will then be reared for the two years it takes for them to achieve adulthood. Surviving hatchlings usually consist of 75% males and 25% females - but only 5% of all males will grow up to be leaders (and thus the fathers of future clutches) and only 1% of the females will become fertile nest mothers. When a nest mother reaches maturity, she takes her pick of young strong males and leaves her mother's nest with the goal of setting up her own nest... should she survive wandering the wastes.

Whilst scrabs largely eat anything they encounter in the wasteland, they do recognize the value of trade, and will sometimes negotiate for needed supplies, usually offering as their first resource any magical items they have recovered from past humanoid victims that they can't use for themselves. This makes plenty of merchants willing to deal with them, in spite of the risks... though the wise ones still make sure to show up with plenty of guards (and better yet, a few psionicists and/or spellcasters too).

Though scrabs eat anyone, they especially despise elves, with both races claiming that in the lost past of Athas, they fought brutal and bloody wars... of course, both sides claim that it was the other side who started the war, and they both blame each other for many unspeakable atrocities perpetrated on innocent victims of their race. As a result, when an elf (or a half-elf, or a mul, or anyone that a scrab could conceiveably mistake for an elf) is seen during a raid, the scrabs focus on that elf first and foremost, fighting to capture them alive as their top priority. Any elf dragged back to a scrab nest will be subjected to days, weeks, maybe even months of physical, psionic and magical torture before finally being eaten. As a result, elves will do just about anything to avoid being taken captive... and when they can, they'll kill scrabs to the last. Elves take a vitriolic delight in eating scrabs and recycling every part of their body for useful gear; scrab shells can be made into surprisingly effective breastplates, and even their pincers can be turned into workable polearms.

In fact, one of the best ways of proving oneself to an elf is to rescue a member of their tribe from captivity by scrabs. The fact that the elf is probably not going to survive makes no difference; it is the mere fact of risking one’s life against this hated enemy that counts.

Scrabs never appeared in any official material after Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, though fans did convert them to Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition in the netbook "Terrors of Athas". Weirdly, they also made them a playable race in this netbook, with the following stats:

Ability Score Modifiers: -4 Str, +4 Int, +6 Wis, +4 Cha

Small. Scrabs gain a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but they must use smaller weapons than humans use, and their lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.

Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.

A scrab‘s base land speed is 50 feet. Scrabs also have a burrow speed of 10 ft.

Darkvision out to 60 ft.

Racial Hit Dice: A scrab begins with 3 levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 3d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +3, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +1, Ref +3 and Will +3.

Racial Skills: A scrab‘s monstrous humanoid levels give it skill points equal to 6 x (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Concentration, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Psicraft, Spot and Survival.

A scrab‘s monstrous humanoid levels give it 2 feats.

Weapon Proficiency: A scrab is proficient with its natural weaponry and all simple weapons.

+2 natural armor bonus.

Natural Weapons: 2 claws (1d4).

Improved Grab: To use this ability, a scrab must hit with a claw attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it deals automatic claw damage each round it remains grappling.

Psi-Like Abilities: 3/day—animal affinity, biofeedback, chameleon, conceal thoughts (DC 13), empty mind (+3 bonus*), inflict pain (DC 14), mindlink (up to three targets*), thicken skin; 1/day—psychofeedback (ML 9th), sustenance. Manifester level 3rd. The save DCs are Charisma-based. *Includes augmentation for the scrab‘s manifester level.

Automatic Languages: Common, Scrab. Bonus Languages: Elven.

Favored Class: Psion.

Level Adjustment: +2.