Xixchil

Can you tell the difference from an old-school thri-kreen?.

Xixchil hail from the Spelljammer setting of Dungeons & Dragons and can be basically described as "what if Thri-kreen were green and had a racial penchant for mad science body-modding?" Hailing from some sort of Death World, they had to be smart and work together to survive, eventually taking over the world when they figured out how to use surgery and alchemy to reshape their bodies. They casually tinker with their own bodies all the time, from the aesthetic - surgically implanted gems and precious metal - to the functional, like implanted poison-needle-guns. In fact, their "religion" is basically that the body is the house of the soul, so you have to personalize your house. They sell all kinds of weird critters and plants to curious folks, like kittens with wings and birds that grow flowers, and they also offer unparalleled surgical skills. Want to replace a missing limb? Add a new arm? Change sex? Grow wings? They can do all that shit and more. Only problem is, they have a very "function equals form" mentality and little understanding of demihuman aesthetics, so unless you're very specific, well, you might end up getting screwed over appearance-wise in exchange for your uber-buff.

The other major thing bout these guys is that... well, frankly, they're assholes. Apparently, to make them stand out compared to the very pack-focused thri-kreen, xixchil have a racial outlook that boils down to "look out for number one", placing their own interests first, their family's interest second, and their race's interests third. The justification boils down to survival of the fittest, but it really is baffling that these guys were even able to form some semblance of civilization in the first place if every single one of them is supposed to be a super-selfish individualist, but chalk it up to just some of the general silliness of D&D at the time and Spelljammer in particular.

PC Stats

Stats for xixchil PCs have only appeared so far in the Complete Spacefarer's Handbook, which gave them the following profile:

+1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, -2 Charisma

Ability Score Minimums/Maximums: Strength 3/18, Dexterity 11/18, Constitution 8/18, Intelligence 8/18, Wisdom 3/16, Charisma 3/16

Class & Level Restrictions: Fighter (14th level), Thief (14th level), Mage (5th level), Fighter/Thief

Thief Ability Adjustments: PP +5%, OL +5%, F/RT +10%, MS -5%, HS -5%, DIM +5%, CW -10%, RL -5%

Base Armor Class: 5

Unusual Body: Xixchil cannot wear armor, due to their bizarre bodily construction. However, they can have armor plating surgically grafted to their exoskeletons; down to AC 1, this costs double the gold pieces of an equivalent suit of armor. For AC 0 and lower, this costs 8,000 gold pieces plus an additional 4,000 gold pieces per AC point below 1. A xichil cannot lower its AC any lower than AC -4.

Bladed Forelimbs: A xixchil can use its primary arms as natural weapons, inflicting 2d4 slashing damage (2d6 vs. Large or bigger foes). It can use both arms, as if it were dual-wielding, without penalty. A xixchil cannot use any normal weapon; its forelimbs prevent the wielding of conventional weapons.

Bite: A xixchil's mouthparts allow it to bite for 1d4 damage.

Weapon-Limb Implants: A xixchil fighter can have additional limbs featuring mounted weapons (maces, dart launchers (use blowgun stats) and mancatchers, most frequently) installed at a cost of 5 times the weapon's price in gold pieces for each limb. Attacks from these extra limbs do suffer penalties as per dual-wielding. Higher-level xixchil fighters get additional attacks from leveling up, as per normal, as well as one additional attack per installed weapon-limb.

Surgical Venom Glands: Three times per day, after tasting a victim (usually by licking their weapon after a successful attack), the xixchil can choose to generate personalised poison or anesthetic from glands in its mouth, which takes one round to develop. A xixchil can apply the toxin either by spitting it onto their fingerblades and slashing the victim, or by biting them. When using venom, the victim must make a save vs. poison with a -4 penalty; this either doubles the damage of the forelimb attack, or immediately inflicts damage equal to the xixchil's total hit points if delivered by bite, if the victim fails their save. If they succeed, they are immune to that xixchil's venom forever afterwards. When using anesthetic, which has no effect on Large or bigger creatures, the target must pass a saving throw vs. poison or be paralyzed for 1d6 turns. Xixchil venom applies to an external weapon remains viable for only 10 turns, and the venom is useless except against the creature it was created to be wielded against.

Gallery

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  Canonically, she can go from 90% to any of the lower levels if she wants.

Monstergirls?

Ironically, despite the memetic sex-appeal that their Thri-kreen cousins have picked up as well as their own canonical adeptness at fleshcrafting, xixchil have never managed to take it off in the monstergirls arena. Which is a shame, because they are one of several Dungeons & Dragons races that could actually work pretty well for it if you're okay with the risk of dabbling in Magical Realmism. But then, even amongst lovers of bug-girls, mantis-girls are usually considered to be a bit on the extreme side.