Mantis Warrior

Mantis warriors are big, intelligent, sleepless insects found across most of the desert world, favoring open plains where they hold hunting grounds. Their listed statistics are for mature adults; younger ones climb one age category each year until mature.

A mature adult stands 7 feet at the shoulder and stretches 11 feet long. Six limbs grow from its midsection: two legs and four arms ending in hands. Its hard exoskeleton is sandy yellow. Its two compound eyes are normally black with bright eyespots, and it has two antennae, and complex chewing jaws. The antennae help it find its way through brush and grass at night and cut any melee penalty for blindness or darkness by 1 (no help with missiles). Many wear harnesses or a little clothing, but never armor.

Two subspecies live in the region. The short-necked kind has short antennae, three-fingered hands and a segmented abdominal shell. The long-necked kind has long antennae, four-fingered hands and a single solid plate over the top of the abdomen, with thin skin over the rest of its chitin.

Their clicking, grinding language is as hard for others to speak as humanoid speech is for them; perhaps 30% understand common.

Most hunt game for the pack and fight thinking beings only in self-defense, but some packs have turned raider and are feared by all. Packs fight in close coordination, softening foes with psionics and missiles before closing in, and they track relentlessly. Because they never sleep, they excel at sieges, pressing an attack long after defenders have worn out.

Their chitin gives natural AC 5, and neither hold person nor charm person affects them. Unarmed, one makes four claw attacks and a bite each round; armed, it attacks with weapon and bite. Their twin-bladed polearm slashes for 1d6 against man-sized or smaller foes and 1d10 against larger ones, or can be thrown like a spear for 1d6+2. Mantis warriors learn special maneuvers as they age and know them all by maturity:

Leap: a bound of 50 feet ahead or 20 feet upward, but never backward. Crystal wedge: a crystalline throwing weapon; an adult can hurl two per round up to 270 feet, each dealing 1d6+2, and a wedge that misses flies back to the thrower. Generally only adults use them, and their coming-of-age ceremony centers on the wedge. Venom: an older mantis warrior's bite paralyzes unless the victim saves vs. paralyzation, for 2d10 rounds if smaller than man-sized, 2d8 if man-sized, 1d8 if large, and just 1 round if huge or gargantuan. Dodge missiles: a mature adult avoids a physical missile on 9 or better on 1d20, adjusted by any magical bonus the missile has; magical effects cannot be dodged.

Half of them have a psionic wild talent. Most magical items work for them, though items made to be worn by humanoids do not fit and therefore do not work.

Mantis warriors hatch from eggs, and those from the same batch form a clutch, a bond deeper than family or friendship. Among humanoids they often adopt clutchmates.

In the wild they form hunting packs of several clutches, ranging over a wide territory; they build no permanent settlements. Small packs are all mature adults, while in packs bigger than eight, roughly a third are younger members spread evenly across the age groups and the rest are mature adults. Clutches and packs follow a strict pecking order, toughest first. Any member may challenge a superior, and the two fight until one yields or dies. The result is final and leaves no grudges, since every mantis warrior holds that the pack is only as strong as its leader and the challenger acted for the pack's good.

Between hunts they mend weapons, teach the young, sculpt, and etch or paint their chitin. Carved crystal wedges become heirlooms, and recovering a lost one is a point of honor.

They mate for life and never betray a mate. They usually mate toward the year's end, in the season of the ascending sun; 10-30 eggs are laid about 30 days later, and those not eaten hatch about 60 days after that. Few live past 35 years.

Mantis warriors are carnivores that hunt intelligent prey only when food is scarce. Their well-known appetite for elves keeps relations between the two races uneasy at best. Raiders care little for coin, taking mainly what they can eat, so packs carry scant treasure, though some value their weapons and tools. Their chitin can be made into armor for humanoids with care.