Wallara

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.

History

The Wallara 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 sorcerous spiderweres. Terrified that the wallara would reveal this information, the aranea sought to cast a spell to wipe this information from their minds. The spell's effects exceeded its intent, reducing the wallara to Stone Age primitives. Until it was retconned in the first Orc's Head sourcebook, they were intrinsically unable to advance beyond that state. Even with the retcon, they spent many centuries incapable of rising above their lot and now they exist as nomadic hunter-gatherers or primitive agrarian villages in the northern grasslands of the Orc's Head Penninsula.

Ecology

While other lizardfolk of the time were called "lizardmen" in accordance with a general linguistic norm to use the "men" suffix to denote a race of people, the wallara nickname "Chameleon-Men" is actually denotative of gender. 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.

Publication

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 have mammalian features and were originally visually inspired by Australian Aborigines painted up in rainbow-colored ceremonial corroboree paint, complete with hair and beards. The cultural writeup in Orc's Head 1 also 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.

Naturally, lizards with hair rustle a few grognards, and the confluence of culture and history could be interpreted as a statement that aboriginal people are inherently unable to advance, so TSR 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 this merely turned a race that was unimaginative in a weird way into one that was unimaginative in a boring way, 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 often tend to have an association with primitivism and druidism anyway, 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. Together with their connection to dragons, you could easily spin wallaras into something more grounded and well built than other noble savage archetypes.

Basic D&D Stats

The original Wallara is the one on the right.

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 humans and demihumans)

Racial Ability Modifiers: -1 Strength, +1 Dexterity

Table 1: Chameleon Man Levels

Level	XP	HD	Special abilities
-1	-2,000	1d8
0	0	2d8	Vanish /td>
1	2,000	3d8
2	8,000	4d8
3	17,000	—	Mimic/td>
4	34,000	5d8
5	72,000	6d8
6	144,000	7d8
7	300,000	—	Dream/td>
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 humans and demihumans)

Racial Ability Modifiers: -1 Strength, +1 Wisdom

Table 2: Medicine Man 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.

AD&D Stats

• Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 6/18, Dexterity 6/18, Constitution 6/18, Intelligence 6/18, Wisdom 8/18, Charisma 3/18
• Ability Score Adjustments: -1 Strength, +1 Dexterity or Wisdom (Wallara clerics get +1 Wis, all others get +1 Dex)
• Racial Class & Level Limits: Fighter 12, Ranger 15, Wizard (Abjurer, Diviner, or Necromancer only) 10, Cleric 10, Thief 11, Bard 10, Psionicist 9
  • Multiclass Options: None
  • Kits: Mendoo, Defender, Savage Warrior (Fighter, Ranger), Wilderness Warrior (Fighter), Mystic, Savage Wizard, Savage Psionicist, Filcher, Scout
  • Mandatory Kits: Clerics must take Mendoo, Wizards must take Mystic or Savage Wizard, Thieves must take Filcher or Scout
• Racial Thieving Skill Adjustments: -20% Open Locks, +5% Find/Remove Traps, +10 Move Silently, +5% Deect Noise, -5% Climb Walls
• Vanish: Can Dimension Door (120ft) as a full action by passing an Intelligence check.
• Mimic: Requires 3rd level to access. A wallara can functionally turn invisible at will, and maintain it for up to 1 hour per experience level. However, whilst using mimicry, a wallara must remain absolutely quiet and motionless - he cannot cast spells, attack, dodge, move or vanish. Additionally, mimicry doesn't affect other wallara.
• So long as a wallara is within 10 miles of their home or encampment, he can always find his way back.
• Bonus Proficiencies: Tracking, Ancient History, Local History
• Wallara only suffer a -3 penalty when tracking, not the usual -6 penalty.
• Natural Armor Class: 9
• Cannot Vanish or Mimic when in armor.
• -1 penalty to Charisma when dealing with non-wallara humanoids, -2 penalty with demihumans and humans.
• Must spend a skill slot to learn how to swim.