Insect-Men of the Lanthanide Wastes

And here's a first draft of my other new Labyrinth Lord class, the Insect-Men. Their big shtick is being immune to most undead effects. Their downsides are a ridiculously bad reaction modifier, guaranteeing most civilized people will attack them on sight, a lack of magic armor, and a somewhat slower rate of advancement than fighters. In an undead-heavy campaign this thing would be pretty unbalanced, but I'm not real big on the undead, so the advantages aren't really that much in the ASE.

Insect-Men of the Lanthanide Wastes

Requirements: DEX 13
Prime Requisite: DEX
Hit Dice: 1d8
Maximum Level: 10

The insect-men are a nomadic people who roam the Lanthanide Wastes, riding upon giant gila monsters and hunting the human and dwarven fortune-seekers who trespass upon the desert landscape.  Occasionally, an insect-man will become curious about the pale fleshy grub people and make its way to Denethix, where its inability to distinguish human children from tasty livestock inevitably leads to a brutal end for the adventurous bug.

Player character insect-men are of that rare breed that has managed to integrate themselves into the most despicable outcasts of human society: an adventuring party.

Physically, insect-men most resemble wingless praying mantises, and have six legs.  They normally walk on the bottom four, and wield weapons and/or shields with their topmost legs.  They can lift themselves upon just the bottom two legs, extending their height to 8’ tall, but the middle legs are not particularly dexterous and the creatures become prone to toppling over, so four-armed fighting is not practiced among the insect-men.

Insect-man mouthparts are quite capable of the extreme contortions necessary to reproduce human speech, and all insect man PC’s know the prevailing human language, in addition to their native language of clicks and chirps. Speaking the language does nothing for relations with the locals, however: insect-men suffer a reaction penalty of +3 when dealing with humans and demi-humans.

The insect-man does have certain advantages over more traditional classes.  Their chitin exoskeleton means that their AC is never worse than 5, regardless of armor worn (if any).  This is good, because human armor does not fit them, and finding an armorer willing to custom-manufacture a suit is difficult.

They are also immune to most undead effects other than physical damage – to the insect-man, a ghoul or wight is simply carrion on the move, and a ghost or wraith is entirely a human concern.  The one exception is the mummy – mummy-rot is especially virulent in insect-men, and they lose an additional 1d4 hit points per day when under the effects of that disease.

All insect-men are immune to the effects (both beneficial and harmful) of lanthanides and hafnium.  Other intoxicants behave normally upon the insect-man physiology.

Insect-men never exceed the tenth level of experience.

Insect-Man Level Progression
Experience	Level	Hit Dice (1d8)
0	1	1
2,500	2	2
5,000	3	3
10,000	4	4
20,000	5	5
40,000	6	6
80,000	7	7
160,000	8	8
320,000	9	9
480,000	10	+2 hp only *

* Hit point modifiers from constitution are ignored

Insect-Man Saving Throws
Level	Breath Attacks	Poison or Death	Petrify or Paralyze	Wands	Spells or Spell-like Devices
1-3	14	10	12	13	16
4-6	12	8	10	11	14
7-9	8	6	8	9	12
10	6	4	6	7	10

Insect-Man Attack Table
	Attack Value for Armor Class
Level	-6	-5	-4	-3	-2	-1	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1-2	20	20	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10
3	20	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9
4	20	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8
5	20	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7
6	20	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6
7-8	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5
9	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4
10	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3