Mantis Noble I

Easily mistaken for a mantis warrior, this giant sand-yellow mantis has dark purple or black eyes and reaches 10 feet tall, 13 long and 300 to 400 pounds. A harness carries its gear, often with a pack of treasured books and art. It speaks its own tongue, the mantis warriors' language and 1-4 more.

Refinement vanishes in battle. Four forelimbs strike for 1d6 each, and its bite is far stronger than a mantis warrior's: save vs. paralyzation at -4 or be paralyzed 2d6 rounds, and anyone who fails then rolls a save vs. poison, taking 20 extra damage from nervous shock if that fails too.

It likes long polearms and two-handed swords, even one on each side, and a shield improves its AC by 1. The mantis glaive does 1d10 in melee or 1d6+2 thrown. Its own invention, the spined war-boomerang (an improved crystal throwing wedge), deals 1d8+2 and returns on a miss; half are metal (+1 damage), and a quarter have a blunt back curve for subduing at -1 to hit, with a 3% chance per point dealt to knock out and only 25% of that damage permanent. It carries 1d4+1.

Bulkier than a mantis warrior, it dodges missiles only on 11 or better. Its jumps reach 70 feet ahead or 30 feet straight up. Psionic nobles favor telepathy and psychometabolism. It has a 5% chance per level of a magic weapon, shield or other item, and 90% carry 1d8 magic potion fruits; it uses magic items freely but can never cast wizard spells.

Below freezing it takes -1 to initiative, attacks and saves against magical cold, so mountain travelers wear tailored cloaks or a ring of warmth.

No one has found their homeland, perhaps the steppes north of a nearby mountain range, and no noble will speak of it; perhaps a geas drives the wanderers out, perhaps mere stubbornness. Only 25% of encounters include more than one. They chat about anything but their past, seek out demihumans to learn, and buy small adornments and paintings, sometimes paying ten times value for an artist's rejects.

They never eat elves or other thinking beings, calling it cannibalism, though elves doubt this. Knowledge has replaced the hunt; a host may find one at dawn still reading. A rare true friend becomes a lifelong clutch-mate it will defend or avenge. They treat mantis warriors as uncouth cousins, who call them snobs, but the nobles' fighting edge keeps peace.

They loathe wizards, life-draining wizards most, and scorn those who tolerate them, yet avoid the sorcerer tyrants and their templars. If templars try to hold one, it bargains or bribes; failing that it is 75% likely to kill or subdue them and flee, and otherwise just waits for a better chance.

They never sleep, have more stamina than mantis warriors, need half their water (1/4 gallon daily) and have survival proficiency everywhere but a certain forested ridge. No eggs or mantis-warrior crossbreeds are recorded in these lands. Parents never eat their young, so nearly 50% survive; larvae have 2 HD, THAC0 19 and 1-point arm and bite attacks, add 1 HD per two years, mature at fourteen, show no age until 50 and live up to 75.

A sound glaive or harness is worth up to 25 sp. A boomerang fetches 2d6 sp from collectors, 1d6 sp from warriors and double from mantis warriors; a metal one 1d4 gp (double to collectors or mantis warriors), a blunt-backed metal one up to 5 gp from gladiators. Learning it takes two proficiency slots and a mantis teacher, or one slot for gladiators, who lack it by default; one sorcerer tyrant reportedly makes a captive noble train his stable. Skulls make great helms, and one tyrant guards his water with three animated exoskeletons. Each carries 1d6 gems for art or books, and all are secretly literate with photographic memories.