Making Better Thri-Kreen 

"Thanks quarantine for pushing us further from monkey and closer to crab." -Runesmith, trying to tell us CritCrab is holding him hostage.

For a more fleshed-out version of this race, read Thri-Kreen of Athas from the Dark Sun setting. It covers how their weapons are made, communication, trade, and much more that helps answer questions this video poses.

One should know that long ago, even before Dark Sun, Spelljammer has said that Kreen are descendants of an ancient star-faring civilisation, predating even the illithids' arrival. You are onto something there!

The Thri-Kreen was a race that I at first was exited to learn more about after first seeing them, and then was disappointed right after reading their rather dull description. I do wish that they did have some sort of extra zest to them, thinking that their design and insect inspirations were cool. Glad to see that you made a video on them! Will maybe change them up a bit for my own campaign.

“I don’t like that they can change the pigmentation of an exoskeleton.” The crawfish mocks you

I mean Thri-Kreen do have a culture and a reason for why they’re Psionic, they were created for the Dark Sun setting. But since the Monster Manual is generally Forgotten Realm centric or Setting Agnostic, a lot of the quirks are unexplained and kinda random, it’s like trying to explain a Kalashtar or Warforged outside of Eberron, you can do it, but it doesn’t come with the same degree of complexity when you look at their lore in their primary setting.

The lack of a decent bug race for a PC is criminal and these guys would be a good fit...if there was ANY push from wotc to do it, come on

In all seriousness if you wanted to make the Thri-kreen a bit more interesting you could get a lot of mileage by looking at what other games do. I made a oneshot-thrikreen and based their persona and culture off the Hissho from endless space 2. The conversion from space-chicken-samurai to fantasy-bug-samurai was seamless

Look into their lore in the darksun setting. They are much more interesting in older editions.

I've got a plan to put these guys in a setting, except I'm basically throwing away the 5e description and basing them off the Mantis tribe from Hollow Knight. I like the sound of a proud warrior race governed by 3 matriarchs, making them sort of similar to real-world ant and termite colonies. Also giving the Thri-kreen a subterranean home infinitely expands the potential for them, and it neatly fits them thematically due to their insectoid nature. Insect-humanoids have so much cool potential considering how cool real-world insects are, and having them just be mindless, wandering and killing things is so underwhelming.

In Spelljammer 2nd edition, the Thri-Kreen were one of the spacefaring races. There were some hints that they or their ancestors were one of the older spacefaring races.

Runesmith, a few points: - Where you see a fallen race, I see the budding potential of a new race. It's like the Thri-Kreen are on the cusps of sentience and becoming their own civilization. It's like they're ready to evolve into a sentient race, but for whatever reason, it's always just beyond them. Maybe the environment isn't quite right. Maybe the physical inability to communicate more complex ideas is holding them back. Maybe the niche they would have filled was already taken by another sentient race, so the pressure to evolve wasn't there. Whatever the reason, they're stuck in this "just-short" existence. After all, look at the great apes. They're our distant ancestors, and they have some of the same social and cultural traits as we do, and yet we evolved to take over the planet and they didn't. Looking at them from this context, you could see the production of a psychic Thri-Kreen as nature trying to push this stubborn bolder of a species over the edge hoping this time it'll stick. But it never does. - I agree that I don't like the color changing pigment of the carapace, but for a different reason. You said that changing colors in an environment devoid of things to hide from is useless, and I give you the cuttlefish. No, don't look at it! Runesmith, don't look at it! Don't loo- Oh, crap. Someone help me with Runesmith. He was looking at a cuttlefish, and now he's hypnotized Yes, where the octopus and squid uses their ability to camouflaged themselves to hide and ambush or not to be eaten, the cuttlefish use it TO HYPNOTIZE PREY! Yeah, there's video of these psychedelic little acid trip shows making fish stop moving. No, my beef is that the description implies their carapaces are covered in tiny dots with small muscles to stretch out or contract these little dots to provide the color changing abilities the way that coleoids do. NO! This is SOFT TISSUE abilities, and the whole point of having a shell means not having soft tissue on the outside. No, I'd like to argue a different mechanism to allow these lonely desert dwellers (Hey! That's ME!) to mess with light and fuck with people's minds. What if their carapace was coated in tiny little, microscopic crystals that bend and filter light in the same way that butterflies create the color blue on their wings. (Yeah, Butterflies uses physics instead of pigments to make blue. Check that shit out.) And maybe they change what kinds of light they're throwing back by flexing little muscles that slightly bend their shells in different ways. This could make for some basic communication that only Thri-Kreen are capable of understanding. And can you imagine these little insect bois flexing on you, causing their shells to shimmer in a way that might incapacitate our tiny primate brains or make it optically harder to hit them (unless you have something like true sight). And, sadly, you know what having psychedelic armor means in the D&D world... People are going to be hunting those bad boys just to skin them. A mage probably could make some armor that could be enchanted with spells like Blur, Calm Emotions (cuttlefish anyone?), any Charm spell, Invisibility, etc.

The Thri-Kreen (like everything else in Dark Sun) either has a chitin, psionics, or both.

You just made me want to play one now; just a psychic bug trying to figure out what he’s doing in this world, looking for other psychics

I've literally never heard of this race. Never clicked on a video faster lmao

Their psionics and the general trend of insect hive minds when combined with the list civilization troupe. Really reminded me of of 40k Orks and their super advanced and psionicly gifted Krork ancestors.

I was just about to start writing a desert campaign and was hitting some writer's block. Thanks for the ideas!

A personal favourite race of mine. I don’t think any race in 5E can use four true arms.

I always love playing thri-kreens as more ants than mantis, having a communal colony of hundreds of thri-kreens underground, taming ankegs, posing such a great threat over the desert and surrounding areas, all working together to raise young and expand and a thri-kreens queen sounds like a absolutely awesome encounter

Ah yes. The only monster I've TPK'd with in my 5 years of dm'ing. Its perfect

Time to take these guys into the Darksun campaign like setting I'm making.

Ah yes. locust-people from bug life

My DM and I Homebrewed the thri-kreen in his setting so that I was able to play a ranger thri-kreen named "tik-tik" because that's the noise he always made

Michael Snow covers the thri-kreen pretty well in his Dark Sun video. They even have a thri-queen empire on the otherside of the dark sun world

I’m running a mind flayer campaign and I am totally adding a Thi-keen helmet of psyonic protection.

I miss Dark Sun in DnD, I wish wizards try to adapt it to 5E some day, the storie of the scenario is quite rich and make good stories of rebels and liberty fighters in a world full of tirany and death

Thri-ken are an old player races from 2e there communicate telepathically with others and with pheromones .

Them talking by rubbing their arms together for some reason reminded me of Mr Crab saying "Oh let me play you a sad song on the world smallest violin". Now the these sneaky bug men talk by rubbing their fingers together in my HeadCannon. Thanks

When I first saw these, i thought it was finally gonna be our first playable insect race. I was sorely disappointed.

That race was literally the first contact i had with dnd. I remember playing a random ass story over then without any consistent rules as a kid with my friends.

In my game, I run it so Tlincalli (Scorpion men from Volo's) are able to command and overpower Thri-kreen, basically becoming dictators. And also Ankhegs are used as mounts for Thri-kreen warriors.

Read the Thri Kreen book and the Darksun setting from 2e. They were super super cool and a playable race. I like that lore better than tjis, personally, but some cool ideas here too!

"strength of your friendship to level up your companion" does this mean I get an umbreon if they befriend me at night?

Keeping this new and improved version to my Wild West area of my dnd world. Thanks Logan!

Banger of a vibeo Logan. I hope you had fun making it

It might also help to go back to their advent as part of the DarkSun setting. If they were somehow transplanted to Ferun, that would explain much of their alieness.

I really hope you make this a series, the the Thri-Karen are one of many things that could be improved upon and I’d love to hear your thoughts & takes.

It’s great that you’re talking Thri-Kreen today, I’m playing a Thri-Kreen Barbarian named Pak’cha in Lost Mines of Phandelver. When I started playing her, I resorted to using a soundboard with Predator clicks, Alien Screeches, and animal roars and then describing her facial expressions and physical gestures as best as I could. However, last session took a bit of a turn. We came into contact with a Jester-like warlock patron named Mousetrap at a circus in the forest around Conyberry. We had to play a game with him to save the benefactor of one of the PCs; we had to knock off his hat in order. Pak’cha was able to get close to him and knock his hat off, but a smaller hat was underneath it. This happened a total of three of four times. It got a point where Pak’cha was basically cursing at Mousetrap in Thri-Kreen. However, Mousetrap did not take kindly to her “foul language,” and also did not like the language barrier between them. So, Mousetrap flicks Pak’cha on the forehead and the next words out of her mandibles are said in Common!! When the last hat is finally on the ground, the Benefactor is released (in a deep sleep), one of the PCs makes a pact with Mousetrap, and Pak’cha can PERMANENTLY speak Common. Our next session is tomorrow...and it should be interesting...

Not a word about their telepathic powers? Perhaps that's just a Spelljammer thing?

I think you could also make a good go of a 40k-Ork-style-ee-thing. Lean into the whole Ant stuff and have them exist as shattered colonies that have a small background barely noticeable psionic ability, but - given a large enough population, that group psionic ability begins to manifest in more and more complicated ways, eventually appearing as a whole society with castes, manufacturing capabilities and complicated manners and ritual societal interactions.

To me it always felt the Thri-Keene were missing an overlord race, like they’re what happens when a species of intelligent bug people run out of royal jelly to make queens.

Omg I am so glad you made this video. I am making a campaign where the thri- kreen are the main antagonistic group in the setting and I appreciate this video so dang much.

Nice timing, I just introduced these to my campaign a couple of games ago. They were, seemingly, a random encounter. But I had plans to have more of them. This video has me thinking of what more I can do. Thanks

A Thri-Kreen Druid was actually my first real character in 3.5e when I was a lot younger, so I'm excited to hear what edits you've got for them!

Take a note from Palladium and do what they did for the Xiticix. That would make them much more interesting.

When I was starting out DM'ing I didnt know much about DND lore, most of my first campaign was absolute chaos and almost exclusively homebrewed to an excessive degree. Three years later and after having spent a number of hours listening to Lore, watching DND shows, etc. I've been able to return to the setting of that first campaign and realized how Unintentionally well I was able to slot it into official DND and make my own spin on things Nowhere is this more Evident in a Homebrewed empire I made of exclusively insectoids. In campaign one they were zealous Sun worshipping warmongers with a code of honor. With me returning to the setting, I've made it canon that these Insectoids originally descended from Thri-Kreen and a few other beings being mashed together in some Magical hoo-haa. It was an Interesting Interaction when one of my players who plays as one of these Insectoids met with a Thri-Kreen and was initially mistaken for one of them.

Thank you so much, this came out at the perfect time as I’m making my own campaign setting and I need some new races for my nations.

Thri-kreen had a little bit more depth in the Dark Sun setting. Book 2 of the Dark Sun pentad had a major thri-kreen support character. They had a lot of fun cultural misunderstanding moments. When the main characters were sleeping for the night, the thri-kreen asked "why are you all waiting?"

Turning on notifications is like having the Alert feat

I played an old DOS computer game series based on 2e rules set near Waterdeep that had thri-kreen in it. The buggers were OP and terrifying. They had double the attack speed of player characters, their attacks caused paralysis, and a poison effect that could kill a character in minutes. Probably the reason I like them so much.

I like your re-imagining of them, I'm going to apply them to my game. I like this version better. Thank you, Logan. 👍😀

I'd definitely use your version of Thri kreen. Never considered using them before but you changed my mind

Thank you for introducing me to a race, ive never heard of before. I think they look awesome, and if I ever plan to use them, there will be much homebrew reimagining to mske them much more interesting.

I’m so glad this video was made I love the thri kreen

These guys have been my favorite entry in the monster manual since I read the thing. Lot of interesting possibilities there

And closer to crab Me for no reason: CLOSER TO CRITCRAB #CRABARMY BABY

I made a thri-kreen hive in a campaign that worships and cultivates a fungus in the desert. They'd been entering my port city looking for the most exotic grubs of the tastiest bugs, to grow and then feed to their fungal overlord. Gave them some hive mind like abilities.

You have inspired me. I'm working on my own campaign setting after i'm done with the one i'm dming atm, and i couldn't figure out what the hell I was gonna put in the desert that I had. But now I do! I've got this idea in my brain of these guys living in a large network of tunnels deep into the sandstone. And those would open into the underdark with you basically needing to know the spell spider climb in order for you to navigate because, at least in my mind, they'd be like ants in the idea they'd have a climb speed. So instead of building on top of things, they just hollow structures out of massive pillars. Debating how advanced or un-advanced they could be

for camouflage I like the idea that not only what environment they're in determines what color they are but what they eat does if the prey they eat blend into the environment they slowly change to that color naturally over time. so if one moves from a desert to a jungle they would slowly turn green based on the animals they eat

I played a Thri-kreen once. I was a fighter with a few quivering Palm Monk levels and basically was the odd shaman of the group. One of my favorite aspects of Kreen is that they have no relgion to speak of and it makes interactions with other races hillarious.

They got so much more depth in darksun. They had this extra deep druidic theme along with them. I'd recommend looking at the 2e and 3.5 entries on them. It does them so much more justice.

I got my Stibble's codex a while back and it's really cool!

they were more fleshed out in previous additions as well as primarily living in the dark sun setting. they were apex predators, due to their constant need for hunting, especially with the amber like substance that they made by eating herbs and mixing that spit with sand. thri kreen were also a subset of kreen, with thri meaning wanderer in their tounge, where they also had settlements and various kinds as well. there were the mantis based manti with arm blades, the vespi meaning wasp that could fly, and scarab based scara that could tunnel and had tougher carapaces

I play a Thri_kreen kensei monk in one of my campaigns, we reimagined the PC statblock from an old Spelljammer setting, and I absolutely love him! One of my favorite characters and in-game races for sure, it should definitely be explored more.

I love your take in the Ant Boys. You should really make them into a player race with that lore.

Actually crab spiders can change exoskeleton colors to blend in with flowers but the process takes a few days.

One of my favorite setting species that you're VERY not wrong on; Shardminds are another one worth looking at, though they've got the benefit of some pretty interesting lore. Unless you already DID look at Shardminds? I forget, you've got so much content out there. We got re-introduced to the Giff/hippofolk too, but not a lot is done with them. Friendly warmongerers that don't see anything wrong with a jolly good spot of war is great for introducing planar travel.

thank you for tackling one of my favorite monsters in the entire game, despite how lame they are in the game lmao. Despite being insects they lack almost any of the cool features actual insects have Im just a big fan of bugs and bug people, the thri kreen were a great creative jumping off point for me to homebrew like 20 variants on their species and how they might interact. Maybe flying bee thri-kreen? ones with a really cool stinger attack that can kill them instantly like real bees naturally armored beetle thri-kreen that make impeccable tanks I think the idea of them living in hives is the best path for party interaction and world building, just imagine the tension and chaos of two separate hives nesting in what the other calls their territory, and the party needing to deal with the potential immediate war that could fall out if any of the two hives realize (like with real bugs) More Cool Bugs is what I need.

I was looking through lore on these guys recently (planning an adventure with bugfolks) and apparently in Dark Sun, the species is just called kreen. Thri-kreen are the nomadic ones ("thri" means "wandering" in their language) and the tohr-kreen ("tohr" = "settled") are the ones who live in actual cities. The difference is just cultural. Apparently thri-kreen just got stripped of all their interesting lore when they got transplanted to the Realms.

I first encountered the race in an old AD&D campaign setting called “DarkSun”. Their unique weapons are created by regurgitating a slurry of vegetable / mineral matter that they create internally by ingesting the materials, combining them in a gullet and then, … puking … them up (as the bone-like, chitinous product they are) and then shaping them. Similar to a bee creating the hive in which it dwells. It’s time-consuming, but requires no tools other than a ready supply of the raw materials to ingest / regurgitate. CMIIW (Correct Me If I’m Wrong).

4:20 the thing with the chameleon carapace is that it was originally a type of psionics they could perform in the 2e psionics system from dark sun

1:25 Waiting for "The Truth about the Preying Mantis" video now, you have peaked my curiosity.

"I don't speak Ice Cream." is a needlessly powerful sentence

And as I see this video, I ran a Thri-Kreen encounter with a homebrewed Thri-Kreen as a boss.

I remember just randomly skimming though the Monster Manual once and seeing these guys, their description was short and they didn't have much too them, but that didn't stop me from wanting to find a player race version of them and make a sort of bounty hunter Ranger Thri-Kreen character who's only with the party because they found doing jobs for money (in their mind money = food) was better for their overall survival than hunting alone (security in numbers and whatnot) Plus bug people are cool and I'm sad DnD doesn't have any official arthropod races.

I use a “mundane” version of Thri-Kreen that have evolved nuanced mouths for speaking, wear armor, and sprouted wings. I got rid of their psionics, and instead developed a deeper system of their acid (combining different bio sprays to make chemical reactions for flames, ice, regeneration, etc). I kept the nomadic vibe, but I make sure each tribe feels like a connected hive. They are stoic and task-oriented, but have an intricate dance tradition (like real life bees do). They believe in living efficient lives because their lives are so short - so they are very direct with their emotions.

Great video as always Logan

A few years ago, buddy at work was trying to get a dnd game together. It'd ben decades since I played. Flipping through his book I think I saw a pic of this race and was like "I wanna be that!"... got a quick "NO". I cried.

I would love a whole series on improving under developed entities in D&D

I had no clue these existed until now which really shows how little they're explored

This should be the start of a new miniseries!

Actually have a good reason to put these bad boys in my campaign now, thx

I weirdly like monsters with really basic non-descriptions. I just start filling in the blanks on my own and it turns into a unique spin on creatures in my campaign that is technically still faithful to the books which keeps my players from getting confused.

Awesome!! New Runesmith!

For my games to explain the Thri-kreen, i made it a forgotten dimension in history. Any thri kreen that are found in the normal world are ones that were kicked out of the hive, where a queen controls them all. Basically the danian area in the old tv show chaotic as its own dimension lol

glad I'm not the only person who has been slowly morphing into a crab during quarantine

After watching this video definitely making a side quest around these things in my campaign.

I didn't know this was in dnd, i only knew of their existence from a well written short story.

If you want to make some additions to the race, you can splice them with dromites as separate hive needs. A guideline you can find is the comic harbormaster by wayward martian graphics. The unique weapons as remnants of their past civilization is a cool lore piece.

Hi Runesmith, long time enjoyer of content both online and offline (love Stibbles Codex) first time commenter. In one of my home brew campaigns, my friend requested the ability to play as a Thri-Kreen and being the good person and benelovent dungeon master I am, I said yes. This meant we had a big bug creature incapable of speech who was our designated rogue of the group. It's made for some interesting dynamics to be sure and from this the Thri-Kreens player and I have created a whole society for these bug men that suit our world. While the books detail them as nomads who roam the desert wastes, in my wacky world they have an established Queen, her Kings, guards, drones, as well as false Kings who act as elite guards and false Queens who tend to the ever growing brood of the Queen Mother. They're essentially big ants who wage war with other Thri-Kreen groups, and any poor unfortunate soul who stumbles upon their hive and are either sliced to pieces or get out with one missing limb or two. I do like your idea of them having once been a more established society though as it would explain the sudden and sporadic blessings of psy-magics directly into their bug brains. It's always nice to see underappreciated creatures from Dungeons and Dragons getting a spotlight, especially from one of my favourite content creators. Keep up the wonderful work!

He broke his back because he was carrying thri-kreen lore

i use the thri-kreen from "thri-kreen of athas" from an older addition adapted to my setting, the twist is my setting is in the shadow world and all the kreen hate being there, but one group managed to find a safe place that was warm and dry enough for them to not be weakened by the cold and often humid climate of ware my setting takes place, in the cave system of an inactive volcano! also there is one type that is reclusive and does not suffer from humidity like the others do, and they tend to do just fine

Love your take on these guys! The idea that they used to be a major power and that's why they're 'lesser' now. Reminds me of the Nerubians from WoW.

Thri-kreen are the perfect enemies to use for colosseum fights, because they show up out of nowhere and attack in a combative group

If I'm not mistaken, they released a UA that just gives Thri-Kreen a form of telepathy in order to communicate with other creatures. They don't even need to have any particular language in common (just be willing and in range). They still have chameleon skin and can rest without sleep, they just can't do anything strenuous for 6 hours. The secondary arms also can only wield light weapons and nothing else (not even shields).

Their lore is all stuck in the Dark Sun setting where they had a dedicated splatbook in 2nd edition. The gythka and chatkcha make sense in a setting where metal is rare, weapons are usually made from bone and stone, and making weapons from a hard but brittle material formed by their spit and sand is a great benefit. There were also some lore bits saying they were offshoots of a more advanced and hidden empire of mantis people and whole lot of other details that fleshed them out

Here's an idea: a more antlike Thri-Kreen Warlock whose patron is its queen. The character backstory practically writes itself, and the DM has an easy way to give that character a job.

Oh! New toys! Thanks Mr.Runesmith!

stridulation is exactly where my mind went when you mentioned their antennae

Thri-Keen are awesome and I have used a Thri-Keen NPC on a very weird way,similar to this video. Although the psionics idea was awesome and I will borrow it. Thanks for making this video :)