Mantis Noble III

These two breeds are big, intelligent insects much like mantis warriors, whose fixed towns lie well to the north of the region. They rarely found towns of their own and usually live among other mantis nobles. Both are carnivores, mild by mantis standards, with a natural AC 5 from their shells and immunity to charm person and hold person. Like their kin they gain abilities as they age; figures given are for mature adults.

A verdant mantis has dark green chitin shading paler along thorax and abdomen, a hint that its ancestors lived among plants. Its abdomen is small, its build like a crimson mantis, four-clawed hands and long feelers. It ages one category every two years.

It avoids fights but handles itself well, preferring melee and nearly always using claws and bite instead of weapons. Any group has a single warrior, usually a ranger, plus a single druid or priest. It leaps 30 feet up, 60 feet ahead or 10 feet back. Its bite forces a save vs. paralyzation, with paralysis lasting 2d10 rounds for creatures under man-size, 2d8 for man-sized, 1d8 for large and 1 round for huge or gargantuan. It hurls two crystal throwing wedges per round up to 270 feet for 1d6+2, and they return on a miss. Mature ones dodge physical missiles on 9 or better on 1d20, adjusted by a magic missile's bonus, but cannot dodge magical effects. About half have psionic wild talents. They seldom meet magic items but will use them unless made for humanoids, and sometimes use psionic ones.

Most work as laborers in the northern mantis nations, where small clutches live in each realm. They almost never roam, though a few clutches keep tiny independent villages by oases, and they favor scrubland and oases. Breeding follows the mantis warrior pattern, and they live to 75. They make sound crafts but little art, and carry tools, weapons and simple art as treasure.

The strangest of all mantis folk, a blossom mantis has mottled pink-purple chitin, and its abdomen sprouts ornate protrusions that make a motionless one look like a giant flower or a cluster of the rock crystal found in parts of the north. Otherwise it resembles its kin, with an abdomen as big as the largest mantis warrior breed, long feelers and three-clawed hands. It ages one category every three years.

Blossom mantises shun combat and mostly avoid anyone who is not mantis folk. Nearly all who take a profession become druids; a lone one has druid abilities, and any group includes a druid. Forced to fight, they try psionics and spells first, then missiles, then melee, where they rely on weapons and cunning. Their unusual venom paralyzes on a failed save vs. paralyzation for 3d8 rounds if the victim is man-sized or smaller and 2d8 for anything bigger. They throw two pale lavender wedges per round up to 270 feet for 1d6+2, returning on a miss. They leap only 10 feet up or 40 forward, never backward, and mature ones dodge physical missiles on 11 or better, with the same limits as their kin. Half have wild talents. They rarely handle magic but use it when they can, and sometimes psionic items too.

They are rare in the north and entirely unknown in the city-state heartlands, though rumor holds that the mantis druid said to guard a lost oasis, never seen in living memory but famed for loving nature and keeping apart from other thinking beings, is one of them. Generally neutral, most are nature lovers and skilled herbalists. They lay eggs near the great flowers of the northern scrub plains and live in gardens of them or in badlands studded with pinkish crystal. All are female and reproduce by parthenogenesis.

They protect plants and wildlife, apart from what they hunt, and care little for possessions, so they rarely have treasure beyond the odd magical or psionic item kept for defense.