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In Dark Sun there are many phenomenas that may create a unique individual of a new race.

I've been away from D&D for a long while. How would one go about, in 4e, creating such a unique race? Have there been new rules developed by Wizards, or deduced by the community and compiled somewhere?

People have proposed to me the following:

Build my own race from scratch:
+2 to two stats.
An enounter power.
A few extra features, such as a weapon training feat.

Refluff a race that doesn't exist in Darksun to fit what I'm looking for, and gain access to prebalanced, pre-existing mechanics.

 

TBH, it depends on what the race is supposed to be and do. The latter is the easiest and least likely to result in issues down the line, while the former must be handled with care but may be a better option if there isn't anything remotely equivalent. You'll often end up somewhere in the middle (taking an existing one and swapping one or two features for something else equivalent).

  If you have a specific idea or set of ideas then your best bet is to post them here and get feedback.

Sep 17, 2012 -- 3:47PM, Neutronium_Dragon wrote:

If you have a specific idea or set of ideas then your best bet is to post them here and get feedback.

Ok! 

Anyone who's read Cinnabar Shadows by Lynn Abbey, or the Prism Pentad series by Troy Denning, will remember the cinnabar-eating young woman, or the thick-hide former elf, both modified by a mutating agent or another found on Dark Sun's Athas.

My "new race" would be inspired by Brom's image down below.

I want him to have skin that can change color with moods, and when entering combat. 
Once per encounter he could accelerate greatly. This could be a mix of an increase to speed, initiative, attack roll, or the ability to shift instead of moving and ignoring difficult terrain.
He could consume something inorganic (like the young woman consummed cinnabar) and gain some kind of power from it (in the novel she gained a pulse that rendered everyone prone and unconscious or stunned).
He could have some kind of basic melee attack (kreens have something like that).

Of course, anything you can imagine based on the art below is welcome.

Ideas?