Dark Sun: Races of Athas

Everything on Athas exists on pure survival and any impurities or weakness have long since been bred out. The inhabitants of the cities are no exception. All of the races of Athas are tougher, stronger, smarter, and more vicious than their counterparts on other worlds. Below is a quick overview of each player race. Click on the links to see more game-specific stats. While you are not limited in your choice of races, I would recommend not making your lead character a Half-giant, Halfling, or Thri-kreen. These races are very difficult to roleplay for new players to Dark Sun. Feel free to take them as backup characters, however.

Race	Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha	Notes
Dwarf	0	0	+2	-	-	-2	Dwarven focus
Elf	-	+2	-2	0	0	-	Elf run.
Half-elf	-	+2	-	-	-	-2	Animal follower
Half-giant	+8	-2	+4	-4	-4	-4	Mutable alignment, size.
Halfling	-2	+2	-	-	-	-	Small size
Human	-	-	-	-	-	-	Plus two to any any one ability
Mul	+4	-	+2	-	-	-2	Hardy
Thri-kreen	-	+4	-	-2	+2	-4	Insect

   Dwarves:
are short and very powerful, often as wide as they are tall and muscled like a boulder. Also like a boulder, dwarves are very hard to change once they are on a path. Dwarves are exceedingly stubborn and will rarely change their mind. This is described as their focus, a desire so ingrained that a dwarf will rarely change their mind once they are set on a decision. The dwarves of Athas have no hair and are totally bald.

   Elves:
gather in huge family tribes and wander the wastes from city to city, staying just long enough to sell their goods and collect new ones (or steal them, if they can). The elves of Athas typically stand close to seven feet tall or taller, are willowy, and largely considered untrustworthy and dangerous. This reputation is not entirely unearned, as elves are rarely loyal or honest outside of their immediate family.

   Half-elves:
exist anywhere elves and humans mingle, but are rarely excepted by either. Due to this isolation, half-elves tend to be very distrustful of others and extremely self-reliant. They rarely make friends, choosing instead to turn to animals for companionship.

   Half-giants:
are a magical crossbreed of human and giant used as soldiers, but they have since escaped that fate to spread across the face of Athas. Half-giants inherit their strength from their giant blood and their brains from their human blood. Even so, their intellect is very child-like and it's not unusual for a half-giant to be very mercurial in their temper and thoughts. The biggest downfall to the half-giant is also their greatest strength: half-giants stand over ten feet tall and can weigh upwards of 1600 pounds. While this makes them amazing in combat, it also means they are limited in where they can go (unless they go through a wall or tear off a roof: not uncommon).

   Halflings
of Athas are a feral, savage race supposedly from the last forest left on Athas, beyond the Ringing Mountains. Even though they can be found in the cities (rarely, in Balic), they never truly adjust, preferring whatever setting they came from beyond the wastes. It is known that halflings engage in cannibalism, but are thankfully a curious race - more given to finding out how and why things work the way they do than to be combative.

     Human:
Far and away the most numerous race represented in the cities, humans have faired well beneath the unforgiving, giant sun. But even humans have changed and twisted on Athas, and can easily have mutations that set them apart from other humans. Unless especially horrendous, these mutations do little to single a human out, as they have become so common that most simply ignore them.

   Mul:
A halfbreed of human and dwarven stock, muls come out of the mix with the strength of their dwarven parent and the grace of their human parent. Rarely born outside of captivity, or if born free, rarely remaining so, muls are a common sight in the arenas of Athas. Even as slaves, muls are the envy of slaves everywhere being the most valuable and pampered of all slaves. Muls get a shade of their dwarven parent's stubborness and are known to keep going long after other races have given up under sheer exhaustion.
Pterrans:

   Pterrans:
are a reptilian humanoid species rarely seen in the Tablelands. They live their lives in the Hinterlands, rarely leaving the safety of their villages. However, the recent earthquake and subsequent storms have brought disruption into the pterran‘s lives. More pterrans now venture outside their homes, and come to the Tyr region to seek trade and information.

   Thri-kreen
are large insectoids —the least “human” of all the intelligent races of Athas. Standing 7 feet tall at the shoulder and growing about 11 feet long from end to end, they have six limbs, sandy-yellow exoskeletons, and large, multifaceted eyes. The two hindmost limbs are designed for walking and leaping, while the four forward limbs end in extremely dexterous hands. In the Tyr Region, thri-kreen aren’t common in the city-states. They gather in packs devoted to the hunt that roam the wastes and have little understanding of human society. If encountered in a city, a thri-kreen is either a slave or attached to a group of adventurers (whom the thri-kreen has adopted as his pack). As slaves, thrikreen are used on the farms or as laborers, though some make it to the gladiatorial pens to offer a different kind of entertainment to the crowds