Tarek

Tareks are one of the many obscure humanoid races native to the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Athas. Introduced in the second Monstrous Compendium Appendix, "Terrors Beyond Tyr", the tareks are a highly intelligent (average Int: 13-14) species who are described as basically resembling hairless apes; large, musclebound humanoids whose powerful arms are so long that their knuckles drag the ground, with square, big-boned heads that sport sloping foreheads, massive brow ridges, flat nostrils and domed muzzles full of sharp teeth. They are also stated to possess a strong musky odor in 2nd edition, although 4th edition drops this trait. Whilst they favor the use of the handfork and heartpick in battle, their massive fists are capable of pulverizing stone with a single blow, so they are more than capable of beating a man to death wit htheir bare hands.

They are legendary for their physical resilience, being able to fight on past the point of death. In 2nd edition, this let them fight on without penalty until reduced to -10 hit points; in 4th edition, it insted became the trait "Deathless Warrior", which lets them fight on unaffected until the end of their next turn if they pass a saving thrown when reduced to 0 hit points.

In 2nd edition, they are also characterized by their extreme grace and coordination when in combat (a sharp contrast to their normally jerky, awkward strides) as well as their ability to intuitively synch up when fighting, boosting THAC0 by 1 point per tarek that is concentrating on a singular foe or group of foes.

According to the Prism Pentad, female tareks sport four massive breasts.

Society

The tareks are a tribal people who live in small communities in the hills and mountains of Tyr. Whilst relatively advanced by the standards of Athas, they are notoriously xenophobic and quick to resort to raiding other races that are unfortunate enough to live or pass nearby. Whilst they will on rare occasions trade with other races, they have a well-earned reputation for using trade parlays as cover to set up ambushes for caravan raids, so, yeah, not a lot of people like them.

Obviously, tareks are very popular features in the gladiator arenas of Tyr; they're big, strong, and smart, which means they put on much better shows than dumb brutes like the brohgs. It certainly helps that physical prowess is a matter of great value and honor amongst this naturally aggressive race. In 2nd edition, their ability to coordinate to deadly effecicacy makes tarek vs. beast matches particularly exciting, and tarek teams can be quite popular - Nibenay makes sure to always feature them during the monthly festival of Ral. Mated pairs of tareks are the most popular form of tarek team in the pits.

Amongst themselves, tareks are ruled by the most powerful warriors of their kind, as well as by their shamans. Whilst tareks respect all elemental clerics, to the point of being willing to stay their hands and not attack groups who obviously travel with an elemental cleric, they themselves are monotheistic worshippers of the elemental power of earth. Their chosen habitat of the hills and mountains stems from their deep religious reverence of the earth; to tareks, these lands are holy. Solid is the tarek, strong like the earth, and numerous as the soil,” sing the shamans of the tarek tribes.

In 2nd edition, tarek shamans can reach up to 6th level as Earth Clerics; these 6th level shamans serve only the mightiest tarek tribes, and are regarded as holy figures, attracting less powerful shamans to study at their feet. Tarek shamans of 3rd or higher level have the unique ability to bless stone and obsidian weapons once per year, causing them to function as a (+1 per cleric level over 2nd, up to +4 for a 6th level shaman) weapon for the duration of a year. As part of the ritual, such weapons are attuned to a single champion who is intended to wield them; if stolen from this champion, the enchantment rapidly fades, causing the weapon to lose all power and revert to normal after 1d6 weeks. 4th edition simplifies this lore to simply tarek shamans having the ability to create enchanted weapons, which they give to individuals selected as the new leaders of tarek tribes.

In 4th edition, tarek history teaches that they were created and enslaved by "an entity of mad destruction", which used them as its tools of murder and carnage until the earth shamans arose and led their people to revolt against their creator.

Across both editions, despite their reverence for elemental and primal magic, tareks hate arcane magic. Okay, that's nothing new on Athas, but tareks really hate magic; they go out of their way to destroy Defilers and will chase away any other kind of mage who they discover near their territory. They also despise elves, for their associations with magic, and fight bitter wars against the gith of Athas, whose habit of living underground in hill country and mountain lairs has led the tarek to denounce them as defilers of the earth.

Realistically, they would also loath the few pro-magic races of Athas, such as reggelids and jozhal, but this isn't mentioned in their monster writeup.

The Orc Connection

During the era of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, fans of Dark Sun had to wonder; where the tareks some kind of mutant orc who had survived the Cleansing Wars and evolved into a new form over the degeneration of the world?

Yes, the connections weren't as obvious as, say, those between Ssurran and Lizardfolk, but the basic lore of tareks as arcane magic-hating, elf-phobic, mountain-dwelling muscle-bound raiders does match up a lot with the general depiction of orcs, and their art from the MCA is pretty orcy...

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition pretty much canonized the idea. Whilst it never explicit says that tareks are mutant orcs, it does say that to create new tarek statblocks, the easiest way is to take any orc statblock you like and swap out its Swift Charge and Warrior's Surge racial traits for the Deathless Warrior trait.

Playing Tareks?

The two Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendixes featured a fair number of races that, realistically, would have made sense as additions to the roster of playable critters for the setting. After all, if aarakocra, pterrans, thri-kreen and half-giants are all valid options, then why not a Villichi, Nikaal, Brohg or Tari? Unfortunately, coming out towards the tail end of AD&D's lifespan, Dark Sun never got any kind of expansion focused on new races, so this potential went unchecked.

Luckily, though, this was now the era of the internet, and AD&D fans of all settings were nothing if not resourceful! Enter "The Complete Book of Athasian Humanoids", a Dark Sun followup to the Complete Book of Humanoids that adapts the most intelligent and civilized (for a given value of both definitions) of Athas' humanoids to playable races - and the Tarek was amongst them. Here, the Tarek ha the following profile:

Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 10/20, Dexterity 5/20, Constitution 10/20, Intelligence 5/20, Wisdom 5/20, Charisma 5/19

Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -1 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

Note: A tarek treats their Charisma score as 2 points higher when interacting with other tareks.

Racial Class/Level Limits: Fighter Unlimited, Gladiator 14, Ranger 10, Cleric 12, Thief 12, Psionicist Unlimited

Racial Thieving Skill Adjustments: -5% Open Locks, +5% Climb Walls, -5% Bribe Officials

Natural Armor Class: 7

Movement: 12

Special Advantages:

Natural Weapons: A tarek can punch twice per round, doing 1d4 damage per punch.

Iron Willed: A tarek gains Iron Will as a bonus nonweapon proficiency and automatically succeeds on Iron Will checks.

Deathless Warrior: A tarek can continue to fight without penalty after reaching 0 hit points, dying only when it reaches -10 hit points.

Tarek Coordination: When multiple tareks fight the same foe, all tareks gain a -1 bonus to THAC0 for each tarek after the first.

Disadvantages:

Musk: The strong scent of a tarek can be detected from 15 feet away.

Racial Enmity: Tareks despise elves, gith and jozhals, and will not work with them. Realistically, this should also include wizards of all stripes.

Roleplaying Disadvantage: Tareks are a naturally aggressive race, and this aggression should be considered when playing in-character. Additionally, remember that tareks are well-known as raiders and bandits, so even on Athas, that might cause problems, even if everyone does it!

When those same madlads updated Dark Sun to Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, their 3e Dark Sun Monster Manual, "Terrors of Athas", naturally featured a tarek PC racial writeup:

Ability Score Modifiers: +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -4 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

Size: Medium

Base Speed: 30 feet

Darkvision: 30 feet

Racial Weapon Familiarity: The Handfork and Heartpick are Martial Weapons for a tarek.

Bonus Feat: Teamwork.

Ferocity: A tarkek suffers no combat penalties if fighting whilst disabled or dying.

+3 Natural Armor Bonus.

+4 racial bonus to Intimidate checks.

-2 racial penalty on Diploomacy, Disguise, Gather Information and Perform checks.

Musky: -4 racial penalty on Hide checks if searcher is within 30 feet.

Natural Weapons: Slam (1d4)

Favored Class: Fighter

Level Adjustment: +2