We've got a Drow thread up and running, and there's a general consensus that the once-cool dark elves are now over-used and hackneyed.  Nothing kills edginess faster than a horde of self-proclaimed hipsters taking the image of a rebellious icon in a vain attempt to stick it to the establishment.

Sacrosanct brought up that other popular D&D icons should get more love and attention by the community.

I personally nominate the Sahuagin, for reasons which I think are obvious:



That's right, Sharks.  Sharks bred for war.  The Drow love and worship spiders, which are awesome because they look cool and can kill a full-grown man over 100 times their size.  But many species of spiders are harmless and can easily be squished.  That's lame.

Contrast this with the Sahuagin.  Their creator, Sekolah, is the God of Sharks, which wins the contest for "Coolest Title for a Deity" in the entire history of Dungeons & Dragons.  Each priest is accompanied by shark bodyguards bound to his service, which ups the awesome factor by a degree of 10 Jack Nicholsons.  Unlike spiders, there is no such thing as a harmless shark.  Not even a dead shark, because a dead shark can be turned into a zombie shark by said priest.

The Sahuagin mythological structure is divided into "He Who Eats" and  "It That Is Eaten," which forms the basis of their entire purpose of living.  Unlike the Drow, who make up complex games of politicking and jockey for scraps of power to see who Lolth loves the most, the Sahuagin frame their struggles in simple, concise terms that everyone can understand.  You never know what you're gonna get with the Drow's honeyed words, but the Sahuagin will cut through the bullshit and get up in your face to say "I eat motherfuckers like you for breakfast!"  And he means every word he says.

You may find the concept to be silly, but you're looking at things from a privileged middle-class land-dweller perspective.  The vast majority of Material Plane surfaces are covered in water.  The Sahuagin rule entire kingdoms below the waves.  They're highly militarized, their mutations are beneficial for many circumstances (look like an elf, or have four arms), and they're overall more intelligent than the other major aquatic civilizations.  The Sahuagin can wrest ocean territory surrounding your continent, and you won't even know until they're storming the beaches and laying siege to your cities.

You know what to do, RPG Site.  Make the Sahuagin a thing.

I got two words for people that wanna get down on all fours and worship those grubby little fly eating dust collectors: Carcharodon megalodon

now you couple that together with a race who can just summon 'em and suddenly Drow just kinda seem ridiculous.

Plus, these "devil men of the deep" are one of the first seriously fleshed out races in D&D history, ever, thanks to Steve Marsh who did a write up for them that was originally in Supplement II: Blackmoor and was later lifted in its entirety to the original Monster Manual.

Don't forget their locathah enemies. If a man is judged by his enemies, locathah are bad motherfuckers.

I'm a fan of Lovecraft, so Sahuagin fit right in.

Awesome thread! I'm rather fond of Sahaugin myself, and have used them as something akin to mythic demons in coastal cities--at least until they showed up and turned on the nasty.


In my current "D&D" setting, I've got a nasty freshwater goddess with the head of a barracuda (yes,a barracuda.) I think she needs some awesome minions, deep lake living, community raiding, fresh water Sahaugin...

Quote from: Sacrosanct;613282I'm a fan of Lovecraft, so Sahuagin fit right in.

Although there are Deep Ones already.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;613317Although there are Deep Ones already.

Yeah, I know, but I like how D&D expanded on the underwater creepies beyond what Lovecraft wrote.  For example, I'm currently working on an AD&D (oops, I mean OSRIC ) version of Shadow Over Innsmouth and it's nice to expand on the story to where the townspeople (from normal human to deep one transition) have allied with Sahaugin (and other deep sea creatures) for...well, that's a secret.

There's an Innsmouth + Cthulhu thing going on in Birthright.

The Krakennauricht (The Kraken's Reach) has the Kraken's tower, a honeycombed island in the middle of the bay shrouded in fog. And it is suggested that the Kraken is an awnsheghlien. And it has so beaten down the Sahuagin living nearby that they are essentially a lesser servitor race.

Further, the Black Ice Bay, right next to the Krakennauricht, is feared for it's almost preternatural (almost malicious) precision of its perpetual ice floes to ram into boats trying to sail directly across it. It is rumored that this part of the bay is depthless, it is at least so deep as to be immeasurable, leaving it so cold that it always has ice upon its water. The beaten down Sahuagin are rumored to be using that immense abyss as a major hatchery.

But Sahuagin are rarely seen and generally assumed to be just legendary. Only the much feared Kraken is roundly believed as an immediate threat. But overall it's only survivors, and disappeared ships, that report these horrors. Much of the truth is obscured in legend and fear.

Thus with such rumored 'canon', voilà I can justify sprinkling an Innsmouth and Cthulhu vibe along the coast. My CoC stuff can pull double duty in Birthright! Now I just need to add more sharks.

You heard me, my D&D game NEEDZ MOAR SHARK~!

My current crop of players are heading to the coast, sounds like a good time to have Sahuagin become the bad guys. Coming from a part of the world where sharks are constantly reminding everyone how awesome they are, the sharks should scare the crap out of the players.

I reckon I will throw in a Sahuagin priest on a flying shark or two just when everyone is expecting the attacks to come from the water just to up the scare factor. Nice!

awesome foes, yes.  but how do you pronounce "sahuagin?"

sa-HOO-AH-gin?
sa-HWA-gin?
sa-omething else?

always wondered about that.

Of course, much like Aquaman, that shark-summoning advantage goes away on dry land.  But still, it makes water adventuring scary.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;613411Of course, much like Aquaman, that shark-summoning advantage goes away on dry land.  But still, it makes water adventuring scary.

JG

Assuming some handy spells from a shark-dude, like the reverse of 'water breathing' and 'flight', sharks could still be a rather nasty surprise on dry land. Maybe a Bulette actually is attempts by Sahuagin to breed actual 'land sharks' to assist their onshore attacks.

Actually I like that enough that in my current campaign it will be precisely that, Sahuagin attacking port cities with Bulette's from land and sharks from the sea, with at least some high ranking shark dude on a Megalodon (maybe even an Anti-paladin styled dude with a gift\special intelligent mount Megalodon from Sekolah).

I like Sahauguan (correct spelling not possible)


Why?

They have shark pets.

Some have four arms.

Some are spell casters.

They are evil.

Underwater can be interesting.

They live under the vast inland sea in my homebrew dnd setting, in the heart of a large empire.

Four arms!

Quote from: beeber;613410awesome foes, yes.  but how do you pronounce "sahuagin?"

sa-HOO-AH-gin?
sa-HWA-gin?
sa-omething else?

always wondered about that.

Wikipedia page says "sah-HWAH-gin". For years, I pronounced it, "sah-how-gin".

Quote from: beeber;613410awesome foes, yes.  but how do you pronounce "sahuagin?"

sa-HOO-AH-gin?
sa-HWA-gin?
sa-omething else?

always wondered about that.

sah-HWAH-gin.  That's how DDO pronounces it anyway.  Speaking of which, DDO (and Neverwinter Nights) utilized them quite a bit as their main low level bad guys.

*Edit* Ninja'd by a few minutes