Editing Wallara

[[File:Wallara.gif|right]]
'''Wallara''', also known as ''Chameleon-Men'', are a species of [[Lizardfolk]] native to the Orc's Head Penninsula of the Savage Coast in [[Mystara]], one of the oldest settings of [[Dungeons & Dragons]].  One of the oldest races in Mystara, if not the oldest, these seven-foot-tall reptilian humanoids descend from Mystaran dragons, and have become arguably the most obscure of the Mystaran PC races, as playable stats for them only ever appeared in an issue of [[Dragon Magazine]] and in a single obscure [[splatbook]].

They once possessed a mighty civilization, but fell afoul of the paranoia of the [[aranea]] of the Herath Empire; in those primeval days, the wallara prized the collection of knowledge for its own sake, and so had become aware of the fact that the lords of Herath were, in fact, sorcerous spiderweres. Terrified that the wallara would reveal this information, the aranea sought to cast a spell to wipe this information from their minds - unfortunately, the spell worked too well, reducing the wallara to Stone Age primitives - up until it was retconned in the first Orc's Head Sourcebook, they were unable to even think of advancing beyond that state, and even with the retcon, they spent many centuries incapable of rising above their lot. Now, they exist as nomadic hunter-gatherers or primitive agrarian villages in the northern grasslands of the Orc's Head Penninsula.

Unlike other [[lizardfolk]] of the time, who were called "lizardmen" despite having males and females, the name "Chameleon-Men" is well and truly justified for the the wallara: they're an all-male species who rely on magic to propagate. Once a year, when a wallara sheds his skin, he bundles it up and carefully places it within his clan's tookoo, a mystical shrine formed from a magical place in nature. There's a 5% chance that this shed skin will respond to the tookoo's power and transform into an egg, which hatches a new wallara within 8 weeks of being created. This magic-based propagation keeps the wallara's numbers quite low and encourages them to protect the delicate magical balances of nature.

Wallara PC stats first appeared in [[Dragon Magazine]] #186, under the Basic D&D system, which is when their territory and culture were first detailed as part of [[The Voyage of the Princess Ark]]. They were updated to [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 2nd edition in the Orc's Head Sourcebook.

Despite being explicitly a form of [[lizardfolk]], wallara traditionally look exactly like Australian Aborigines painted up in rainbow-colored ceremonial corroboree paint, complete with flowing hair and beards. Not helping was their cultural writeup in Orc's Head 1 essentially boiled down to a straight-up, stereotypical rip-off of Aborigine culture, complete with taboos against smiling when you approach the village and fear of the pointing bone/stick. Now, [[/tg/]] pretty much hates [[/pol/]], but even so, this was enough to make most neckbeards go "seriously? You're kidding, right?" Even if it's not quite as /pol/ in America as it is in Australia, the simple fact that you have lizardfolk, complete with shedding skin, who look like humans with huge bushy afros and long flowing beards, just makes people go "what the fuck, how are these guys lizardfolk?"

[[TSR]] finally caught on and retconned the wallaran appearance in the Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium Appendix, depicting them as colorfully skinned, tailless lizard-like humanoids, averaging 7 feet in height and with slender, almost gangly builds, sporting small three-clawed feet and dainty, human-like hands, a blunt, expressive reptilian snout for a face, and a short fin-crest running a vertical line down the back of its skull. But, it was too little, too late, and so the wallara seem doomed to languish in obscurity forever more.

This is a real shame, as even if the cultural aspects and original appearance were on the nose, they are still one of the more unique races from early D&D - [[lizardfolk]] tend to have an association with primitivism and [[druid]]ism anyway, yeah, but the wallaras actually had a rationale for it that wasn't "our god [[Semuanya]] is stupid and we're fanatics", and their magical method of propagation was quite unique. Add in their connection to dragons, and you could easily spin wallaras into something more like the traditional [[elf]]: a long-lived, mystical race that is intimately tied with nature and has a very good reason to dedicate itself to nature's protection.

==Basic D&D Stats==
[[File:Mystaran Lizard-kin, Sis'thik and Chameleon Man.gif|thumb|right|200px|The original Wallara is the one on the left.]]

Because of how Basic/Expert worked, with race and class being the same thing, Wallaras were presented with two writeups; one for your standard wallara, and one for the wallara medicine man, who was the spellcaster version.

===Wallara===
::Racial Ability Maximums: Strength 17, Intelligence 16, Wisdom 18, Dexterity 18, Constitution 18, Charisma 18 (-1 penalty with non-wallara humanoids, -2 penalty with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s)
::Racial Ability Modifiers: -1 Strength, +1 Dexterity

Table 1: Chameleon Man Levels
::Level - XP - HD - Special abilities
::-1 - -2000 - 1d8 
::0 - 0 - 2d8 - Vanish
::1 - 2,000 - 3d8 
::2 - 8,000 - 4d8 
::3 - 17,000 - — Mimic
::4 - 34,000 - 5d8 
::5 - 72,000 - 6d8 
::6 - 144,000 - 7d8 
::7 - 300,000 - — Dream
::8 - 600,000 - 8d8 
::9 - 900,000 - * +2 hp** 

::* +300,000 XP per extra level
::** + 2 hp per level, constitution bonus no longer applies
Note that constitution bonuses should be added only when the PC is created and every time it gains a new level, up to level 8.

Vanish: As a full action and by passing an Intelligence check, a wallara can teleport 120', as per a Dimension Door spell, but with no risk of materializing inside a solid object.

Mimic: At will, the wallara can become invisible - he must remain absolutely quiet and motionless when doing so (he cannot cast spells, talk, attack, dodge, move, vanish, etc). A wallara can mimic his surroundings for up to an hour per experience level. Mimicry only fools other races; wallaras can always see one another.

Dream: Once this ability has been used, it cannot be used again for seven days. The dream allows the wallara to tap into mystical knowledge of Wallara spirits. At the wallara's option, the dream can imitate the effects of one of the following clerical spells: '''speak with animal, speak with the dead, speak with plants, commune, or speak with monsters'''. Dreaming requires the wallara to meditate for 1d6 rounds, plus the time spent communicating. The meditation requires live embers (from a small campfire for example). Dreams cannot be used against hostile creatures unless such creatures are restrained in some manner.

===Wallara Medicine Man===
::Racial Ability Maximums: Strength 17, Intelligence 16, Wisdom 18, Dexterity 18, Constitution 18, Charisma 18 (-1 penalty with non-wallara humanoids, -2 penalty with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s)
::Racial Ability Modifiers: -1 Strength, +1 Wisdom

Table 2: Medicine Man Levels
::Spell levels
::Level XP HD 1 2 3 4 5
::1 -3,000 1d8     
::0 0 2d8 1    
::1 3,000 3d8 2 — —  —
::2 12,000 4d8 2 1   
::3 24,000  2 2   
::4 48,000 5d8 2 2 1  
::5 96,000 6d8 2 2 2  
::6 192,000 7d8 3 2 2 1 
::7 380,000  3 3 2 2 
::8 680,000 8d8 3 3 3 2 1
::9 980,000 * +2 hp** 3 3 3 3 2

::* +300,000 XP per extra level
::* * + 2 hp per level, constitution bonus no longer applies
Note that constitution bonuses should be added only when the PC is created and every time it gains a new level, up to level 8.

Vanish: As a full action and by passing an Intelligence check, a wallara can teleport 120', as per a Dimension Door spell, but with no risk of materializing inside a solid object.

Mimic: At will, the wallara can become invisible - he must remain absolutely quiet and motionless when doing so (he cannot cast spells, talk, attack, dodge, move, vanish, etc). A wallara can mimic his surroundings for up to an hour per experience level. Mimicry only fools other races; wallaras can always see one another.

Dream: Once this ability has been used, it cannot be used again for seven days. The dream allows the wallara to tap into mystical knowledge of Wallara spirits. At the wallara medicine man's option, the dream can imitate the effects of one of the following clerical spells: '''speak with animal, speak with the dead, speak with plants, commune, or speak with monsters,''', or one of the following druidic spells: '''control weather, or creeping doom'''. Dreaming requires the wallara to meditate for 1d6 rounds, plus the time spent communicating. The meditation requires live embers (from a small campfire for example). Dreams cannot be used against hostile creatures unless such creatures are restrained in some manner.

Spellcasting: Wallara medicine men cast Cleric and Druid spells, but cannot [[Turn Undead]]. In order to cast a spell, medicine men need a small piece of quartz or opal that is consumed when the spell is cast. Supplies of these minerals can usually be acquired in caverns, near great rocks, or in the Forbidden Highlands. They must perform a corroboree (fire ceremony) to recover their spells.

Servant of the Immortals: Medicine men can always sense if a place is often visited by spirit servitors of their chosen Immortal patron (60' radius). As an option, adult medicine men also acquire special clerical powers specific to their chosen Immortal patron, as described on page 13 of the "Codex of the Immortals" in the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set. If the Star Dragon is the chosen patron, give the medicine men a permanent protection from evil rather than a +2 bonus to turn undead

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==AD&D Stats==
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