Tari

Tari are a race of humanoid rats, introduced to Dark Sun in the Terrors Beyond Tyr Monstrous Compendium. Sadly, like most of the other "lesser Athasian humanoids" introduced in that book, such as the Nikaal and the Tul'k, the tari have largely been forgotten by Dungeons & Dragons, kept alive only in the hearts and minds of old-school Dark Sun fans.

History

One of Athas' many degenerate races, the tari are the lingering remains of a once-thriving and highly civilized culture who inhabited lands somewhere to the south of the Tyr region. In their time-lost past, the tari were as advanced as any human, building mighty constructions of stone and concrete. But some unknown calamity swept over their homeland and utterly destroyed it, sending the survivors fleeing northwards until they scattered across Tyr. So far have the tari fallen that only vague and distorted myths of their homeland as a lost "golden age" now survive, centered around precious nuggets of truth, such as the name of their capital city - Ythri.

Biology

Roughly 5ft tall on average, the tari are small, furry, bipedal rodents, resembling nothing less than humanoid rats. Hence the common Tyran moniker for them: "ratmen". Their arms are long enough that whilst they can stand bipedally, they of ten knuckle walk for comfort, and their 2.5ft long tails are semi-prehensile, allowing the tari to wrap them around protrusions for balance and security. A tari's fur is usually brown, but can be found in gray, golden, silver and combinations - they like to further adorn themselves with rings or spots of dye made from gyaya berries, as well as braiding the longer hair that sprouts from the backs of their necks and the base of their spines into tails adorned with beads or feathers. The quantity and quality of such ornamentation is typically used to signal social rank.

The rat-like faces of the tari include black sensory whiskers, and needlelike teeth... which are linked to a very unratlike set of ichor glands. These secrete a deadly toxic chemical, so the bite of an angry tari can cause a creature to slowly waste away and die, an effect that 2e likens to a disease rather than a poison. It even requires a Cure Disease spell to remove the affliction, so don't let a tari bite you!

Psionics are relatively rare in the tari, and only seen amongst their tribal chieftains, who wield a single Wild Talent.

The tari's sense of hearing includes some pitches too high-frequency for the human ear to detect, and their squeaky native language is thus quite difficult for non-tari to master. Their own alien mouth-shapes also affect their ability to pronounce some of the sounds found in Common and Elven, so whilst the tari are perfectly capable of understanding what the humanoids around them are saying, communication can be tricky without the aid of telepathy.

Unlike the rats they resemble, the tari are relatively slow-breeding. They reproduce only once a year, during a heat season for their females which coincides with the conjunction of Athas' two moons. A pregnant tari female gives birth to a litter of 2d4 baby tari after a six month pregnancy. It takes 15 months for the young tari to reach full maturity, spending the first three months as helpless infants dependent on their mother's care before they spend the next year growing into adulthood and mastering what their society has to teach them.

Society

Socially, tari can be divided into two subspecies; Urban and Wild. There are no biological differences, and both center themselves around a psionic chieftain, they just have different social lives.

Urban tari carve out a living for themselves in the unwanted places of the city-states and the larger communities of Tyr; they dig warrens underneath garbage dumps, crawl into sewers, and cluster in abandoned houses. They spend their days sleeping through the heat, and emerge at night to scavenge for food and water - as well as to steal whatever they think would be appropriate tribute for their chieftain. They're not good thieves, and a typical tari raid is almost comical with its would-be pilferers making a lot of noise, upsetting tables and toppling chairs in their clumsy approach, but they make off with enough genuine treasures along with the garbage that people were simply throwing away that an urban tari chieftain's throne-room often has a surprising amount of genuinely valuable stuff mixed in with obvious trash. For all the challenges, urban tari life can be surprisingly comfortable.

The same cannot be said for the wild tari, who wander the blasted wastes of Athas as nomadic hunter-scavengers. These tribes move their few belongings and families in triangular frames of leather and wooden poles, which are piled high with goods and then dragged along the ground. Usually by the tari themselves; the tari recognize the usefulness of herd-beasts, but their beast-taming and animal handling skills definitely are not the greatest. Still, a lucky tari tribe may have one or two inix or crodlu to carry their stuff around. Theirs is a harsh life, with a daily struggle of scouting miles in all directions to find the richest grounds, contending with the desert's other creatures for the little food to be had.

Making things harder for the poor tari is that even though they are largely a peaceful and unmalevolent race, they are still regarded as vermin across the Tyr region - it's implied that many have no idea that they are even sapient. Most city-states maintain a bounty of 8 ceramic pieces per tari head, and those who tread in shadier circles know the alchemists and bards will pay 12 ceramic pieces for an intact set of tari ichor glands... of course, getting them out of the jaws without injecting yourself with the noxious stuff.

Hunting packs of tari consist of 5-30 ordinary tari, 2d6 elite warriors, and their chieftain. They focus largely on scavenging carcasses and bringing down small game; creatures the size of a human or bigger are generally regarded as more trouble than they are worth to hunt, unless the pack outnumbers the potential prey at least three to one.

Playing Tari?

The two Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendixes featured a fair number of races that, realistically, would have made sense as additions to the roster of playable critters for the setting. After all, if aarakocra, pterrans, thri-kreen and half-giants are all valid options, then why not a Belgoi, Johzal, Brohg or Tarek? Unfortunately, coming out towards the tail end of AD&D's lifespan, Dark Sun never got any kind of expansion focused on new races, so this potential went unchecked.

Luckily, though, this was now the era of the internet, and AD&D fans of all settings were nothing if not resourceful! Enter "The Complete Book of Athasian Humanoids", a Dark Sun followup to the Complete Book of Humanoids that adapts the most intelligent and civilized (for a given value of both definitions) of Athas' humanoids to playable races - and the Tari was amongst them. Here, the Tari has the following profile:

Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 5/18, Dexterity 8/20, Constitution 10/20, Intelligence 5/20, Wisdom 5/20, Charisma 5/17

Ability Score Adjustments: -1 Strength, -2 Charisma (note: increase Charisma by +2 when dealing with other Tari)

Racial Class/Level Limits: Fighter 14, Gladiator 10, Ranger 8, Cleric 12, Thief 12, Psionicist Unlimited

Racial Thieving Skill Adjustments: -5% Pick Pockets, +5% Open Locks, +5% Find/Remove Traps, -10% Move Silently, +5% Hide in Shadows, -5% Forge Documents, -10% Bribe Officials, +5% Dig Tunnel, +10% Escape Bonds

Natural Armor Class: 8

Movement: 9

Special Advantages:

Tari can make a noxious bite as a natural attack. This does 1d3 damage, and has a 5% chance to infect the victim with "tari wasting". The victim must make a save vs. poison or become incapacitated by fever and delusions for 1d6 hours. If not cured before three days have passed, the victim permanently loses a1d3 hit points each day they remain sick.

Infravision 60'

Tari can eat and drink almost anything.

Tari gain a +1 bonus to saves vs. poison for every 3.5 points of Constitution they have.

Special Disadvantages:

Tari cannot wear any armor heavier than leather jerkins or chitin greaves, as it becomes painfully hot and smothering.

Roleplaying Disadvantages; most people in Tyr believe tari are non-sapient vermin, and tari are physically disadvantaged when trying to speak in any of the non-Tari languages.

When those same madlads updated Dark Sun to Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, their 3e Dark Sun Monster Manual, "Terrors of Athas", naturally featured a tari PC racial writeup:

Ability Score Modifiers: Strength -4, Dextrerity +4, Wisdom +2, Charisma -2

Size: Small

Base Speed: 20 feet, Burrow 10

Darkvision 60 feet

Natural Weapons: Bite (1d3 + pass a DC 10 Fortitude save or contract Tari Fever).

Light Sensitivity (Ex): Tari are Dazzled when in bright sunlight or the radius of a Dalight spell.

Immunity to all non-magical and non-psionic diseases, as well as immunity to Tari Fever.

+1 racial bonus to Reflex saves.

+4 racial bonus to all saves vs. Poison.

+2 racial bonus to Listen, Search and Spot checks. A tari who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as is she were actively looking for the door.

Favored Class: Rogue

Level Adjustment: +1

Tari Fever (Su): Supernatural disease—bite, Fortitude DC 8, incubation period 1d3 days; damage 1d3 Con. The save DC is Charisma-based. Unlike normal diseases, tari fever continues until the victim reaches Constitution 0 (and dies) or is cured with a remove disease spell.