Giant relatives of common lizardfolk, blackscales are proud fighters who seek glory in battle. These ogre-sized reptiles resemble their smaller kindred but are roughly nine feet tall and weigh 600 pounds, with glossy black scales and pronounced leathery crests on their heads. Their flat nostrils and sunken eyes give their faces a skull-like appearance.
Blackscales prefer drier ground than other lizardfolk and live in forests or jungles rather than swamps, often inhabiting ruins. Proud and arrogant, they drive off any non-reptiles that enter their territory and exact tribute from smaller lizardfolk who live nearby. Blackscales exult in battle and love showing off their prowess, fighting as disorganized individuals unless under the command of a stronger leader (often a blackscale with levels of fighter, ranger, or barbarian).
Like many reptilian humanoids, blackscales feel a kinship with dragons, especially black dragons, who share their coloration and cadaverous faces. A blackscale tribe under the leadership of a black dragon is unusually cruel, carrying out raids and taking prisoners to satisfy their master’s sadistic whims. Green or orichalcum dragons also commonly attract blackscale servants.
Left to their own devices, blackscales are aggressive but not needlessly violent, typically following the directives of a small enclave of druid or shaman leaders. Blackscales consider other subspecies of lizardfolk to be less worthy than themselves, with the exception of lizardfolk priests, whose power they revere. A tribe of common lizardfolk with a spellcasting leader often counts a small group of elite blackscale guards.
Blackscales were ancient rivals of the gwan, who wiped them out on the mainland of Gladia long ago. Reports from the Black Holds, however, indicate that they survive there, presumably serving the mighty black dragon overlords of those islands
Shores of Swords 