Silt Runner

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Silt Runners are a race of small, incredibly speed reptilian humanoids native to the Dungeons & Dragons world of Dark Sun... funny how many of those turn up, given how the extinction of lizardfolk is supposed to be one of Athas' defining traits, eh? They were introduced in the first Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix; "Terrors of the Desert".

As their name suggests, silt runners largely tend to be found living on and around the Sea of Silt, which they can move freely across due to the fact that they can run so damn quickly they seem to glide over the fine dusty mass. They often infest the islands where giants dwell; they leave the giants alone and the giants reluctantly put up with them because, whilst they may be vermin, they're seen as too much bother to squash.

Physically, a silt runner resembles a small, spindly, humanoid lizard with broad, flat feet and sharp teeth, content to go about naked. Well, it's not like they have aything to worry about in terms of modesty, what with the scales and all. Fairly generic sapient-eating tribal raiders who tend to have crappy equipment even by Athasian standards - seriously, their leaders are usually lucky to be armed with a wooden sword - their most distinguishing feature is their absolute raging hateboner for elves. Nobody knows why, but silt runners hate elves. As in, they will always attack elves first in a fight, and have even been known to abandon planned raids on vulnerable caravans to chase after lone elves instead.

Their 4th edition lore expands the elf murder-boner to a general hatred of the fey, and also describes the silt runners as notoriously avaricious and xenophobic, except when dealing with other reptilian races such as ssurrans and dray.

Whilst silt runners predate the canonization of kobolds as a stunted breed of scalykind, they do seem very evocative of the kobold "archetype", and their 4e art in particular seems to take a lot of design cues from kobolds.

Playing Silt Runners

As a fairly underpowered and not-evil humanoid race, it should be no surprise that silt runners ended up getting converted into a playable race by Dark Sun fans in the Complete Book of Athasian Humanoids for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2e and in Terrors of Athas for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition.

The Complete Book of Athasian Humanoids presents them with this profile:

Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 5/20, Dexterity 12/20, Constitution 8/20, Intelligence 5/15, Wisdom 5/20, Charisma 5/17

Ability Score Adjustments: +4 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma (note: increase Cha by +2 when dealing with NPCs of the same race)

Racial Class/Level Limits: Fighter 14, Gladiator 12, CLeric 10, Thief 16, Psionicist Unlimited

Racial Thieving Skill Adjustments: Pick Pockets +10%, Open Locks -5%, Find/Remove Traps +5%, Move Silently +15%, Hide in Shadows +10%, Climb Walls -10%, Read Languages -5%, Detect Magic -10%, Detect Illusion -10%, Forge Documents -10%, Bribe Officials -10%, Dig Tunnels +10%, Escape Bonds +5%

Natural Armor Class: 7

Movement: 48 - this decreases by -1 per 2.5 pounds of equipment carried, down to a minimum of Movement 24. Standard encumberane rules also apply, with the worst movement rate being used.

Silt Sprint: If a silt runner sprints fast enough to rise its movement beyond 150, it can run over silt. However, each round spent running on silt requires a successful Save vs. Death; failure causes the silt runner to fatally slow down and immediately sink under the silt.

Natural Weapons: A silt runner can attack three times per round, twice with a 1d3 Claw and once with a 1d6 Bite.

Charging Ambush: If a silt runner ambushes victims by charging from concealment, its victims take a -3 penalty to their Surprise rolls.

Roleplaying Disadvantage: Nobody likes silt runners due to their notorious penchant for banditry and cannibalism. Elves consider them blood enemies. Thri-Kreen think of them as a delicacy.

Terrors of Athas, on the other hand, gives them this profile:

Ability Score Modifiers: -4 Strength, -4 Intelligence

Size: Small

Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft

Speed: 30ft

Darkvision 60 feet

Weapon Proficiency: All Simple Weapons, Silt Runner Natural Weapons.

+2 Natural Armor Bonus

+4 racial bonus on Balance checks.

Natural Weapons: 2 Claws (1d4), 1 Bite (1d4).

Silt Run (Ex): A silt runner moving at running speed can move across up to 60ft of silt without breaking the surface.

Automatic Languages: Silt Runner. Bonus Languages: None

Favored Class: Rogue

Level Adjustment: +0