I'm working on a D&D 5e campaign's setting that includes a lizardfolk village in a relatively central location, in or near a deep jungle city ruled by dragonborn. Based on previous D&D resources, what does a typical lizardfolk village look like?
[RPG] What do lizardfolk villages look like
dnd-5elizardfolkloremonstersworld-building
Related Solutions
I'd highly recommend that you purchase or borrow Out of the Abyss, since it is the only source of information about Menzoberranzan in 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. The information is pretty huge and is about 20 pages long. There are lots of physical descriptions. Furthermore there is tons of material about the Underdark. If your adventure is taking place there, it would help you a lot.
Not to make you aggrieved, here is some crucial info:
- Population: 20 000 drow plus thousands of slaves (of various races).
- The government is a Matriarchal theocracy worshiping Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders.
- The city has a large standing army of trained drow warriors and mages, bolstered by armed slaves and magical wards. The citizens themselves form a formidable militia.
- You can easily purchase well-trained slaves, fungi, molds and exotic creatures for food (even ones imported from the surface), poisons, potions, oils and elixirs, jewelry, perfumes and silk.
- The most important organizations are:
- The ruling Council (comprised of the matron mothers of the eight most powerful drow noble houses in the city)
- the Church of Lolth (based in Arach-Tinilith)
- Breagan D'aerthe (company of drow spies, mercenaries and assassins)
You are the DM, you can say No, although "No, but ..." also works
You are not required to change your world to accommodate a single player. What are the other players creating, as characters?
Saying yes to the android theme is workable
For the "android" theme, consider making the PC a construct; it is a creature type in D&D 5e. While it's a matter of homebrew, you can work on this together with your player using the Warforged1 from the Eberron UA as a starting point. This homebrew needs to be a collaborative effort; you get the final say since it needs to fit into your campaign world. (Perhaps a permanent curse/magical effect happened around the time of the character's birth?)
- Your player is an experienced DM; the work on this homebrew won't be a burden on you; that said, you need to do the final check on the homebrew to make it fit into your world so that it's not overpowered, nor unbalanced, compared to other PCs.
You two can have some fun creating this homebrew race. If you don't want to do the gunslinger class, then suggest to the player (perhaps) a hand-crossbow using character who takes the crossbow expert feat as your world's version of handguns.
CROSSBOW EXPERT
Thanks to extensive practice with the crossbow, you gain the following benefits:
- You ignore the loading quality of crossbows with which you are proficient.
- Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
- When you use the Attack action and attack with a one handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding. (PHB p. 165, w/errata correction).
The "mafia" connection can be a trade guild, merchants' syndicate, a thieves' guild, a druid conclave working to roll back the overbuilding in certain areas, or a cult run by a Trickery cleric (or a Warlock) who is trying to slowly wrest power from a wizard's conclave. They sky is the limit regarding secretive and criminal organizations.
If you say "No guns" stick to your (no) guns ... :)
Your player appears to want to play in a different campaign than you are running. That happens sometimes. Ask him to create a character that fits your campaign. Your player's character needs to fit in with all of the other characters in the campaign that are being played by the other players. Making this a joint homebrew project can be rewarding for you both, and fun, as long as the party fits together well enough.
D&D 5e's basic model is that of a team of adventurers. Does this player want to be part of the team or not? You both need to clear that up before the adventures start. Likewise, he needs to discuss that with the other players.
"No, but..." becomes "no to the guns but yes to the android theme"
1 From the UA Eberron
Warforged
Although they are constructs, they have much in common with living creatures, including emotions and social bonds, and perhaps even souls.Ability Score Increase. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 1.
Size. Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Composite Plating. Your construction incorporates wood and metal, granting you a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
Living Construct. Even though you were constructed, you are a living creature. You are immune to disease. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish. Instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day. You do not dream in this state.
It's a good place to start. Also, since this answer was written, the Warforged become an officially published class in the Eberron: Rising from the Last War setting book.
Best Answer
The Forgotten Realms wiki entry on lizardfolk states:
From general gameplay, I've known lizardfolk villages to be very coastal in nature, they live in longhouses decorated in sea creatures, shells, bone, and even dragons. But that's about as much as I know and I can't source this info. I just know I remember it from playing in an official module so it should be accurate I'd hope.