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Minion #6
2010-12-30, 06:15 AM
Original Post

I've been thinking on dwarves for a bit. Thing is, I don't like my stuff too... Tolkien. Not that I'm disrespecting the man, but it's been done to death. So, I was thinking of adapting the Dwarf Fortress fortress dwarves - the cat-loving, manic-depressive alcohol fueled little guys.

So, in terms of mechanically, what'd I do? I'm thinking, of course, favoured class as barbarian, for the Rage. Anyone who's played the game will know what I'm talking about. But, as for other things, I'm stuck? Bonus to thrown weapons? Having drawbridges that double as atom smashers (no, really - look up "Dwarven Atom Smasher")? Help a guy out here.

---------------
So, the traits so far...

Fortress Dwarf Traits (Ex)
Only changes to the base dwarf traits are listed


Fortress dwarves possess the following racial traits.

* +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

* Alcohol Dependency: A dwarf must imbibe at least one unit of alcohol per day (1 cup of beer, half a glass of wine, a shallow tumbler of spirits) or begin suffering alcohol withdrawal. Each day spent without alcohol, the dwarf suffers 1 point of temporary Wisdom damage. This damage is erased the moment a dwarf is able to drink any alcohol at all, but if a full unit has not been drunk by the end of the day he will begin suffering withdrawal again.

* Alcohol Resistance: Dwarves have a natural +4 to saving throws against the effects of alcohol.

* Cave Adaptation: Dwarves who spend at least six months continuously out of natural sunlight or the daylight spell gain 100ft darkvision but suffer a -1 morale penalty to all attacks, checks and saves in full daylight thereafter.

* Iron Stomach: Fortress Dwarves are immune to nausea due to their usually poor personal hygiene

* No Common Sense: each day, a Fortress Dwarf, must make a Wisdom check against DC20. Failure means they missed a commonsense activity - such as bathing, sharpening their weapons, etc. - as determined by the DM.

* Thrown Power: A dwarf can throw any weapon or object weighing up to 40lbs with a range increment of 20ft. This does lethal damage, with the normal penalties for converting to non-lethal. Any object which should logically do no damage still does a minimum of 1d6+STR damage, and has a critical multiplier of x3.

* Evade Physics
+3 competence bonus to any Craft or engineering checks that require the dwarf to kick the laws of physics in the nuts and run away giggling to succeed. Make a seperate check with the same modifiers against DC35 for each physical law the dwarf intends to break.
When the dwarf reaches 5HD, the competence bonus to avoiding physical limitations from Evade Physics rises to +6.
When the dwarf reaches 10HD, the competence bonus to avoiding physical limitations from Evade Physics rises to +9.
When the dwarf reaches 15HD, the competence bonus to avoiding physical limitations from Evade Physics rises to +12.


Fortress Dwarf Feats

Cancels Task
Urist McDominated cancels Attack Allies: Could Not Find Path
Prerequisite: Fortress Dwarf, Base Will Save +2
Benefit: During any turn in which another character attempts to control your actions through a spell or effect, roll 1d4. On a 1, some detail of the command fails to take hold, and you may act freely as you normally would for the rest of the round. On a 2 or 3 you are distracted and take no action this round. On a 4, the controlling effect works as normal.

Strange Mood

Urist McArtist has been taken by a fey mood!
Prerequisite: Fortress Dwarf, Craft(any) 5 ranks
Everyday, dwarf must roll a d100, adding 1 for everyday since his last strange mood, up to 75 (standard system) or 50 (DF item qualities - see miscellany). On a roll of 100 or more, he is taken by a strange mood, rolled at random on a d6

1 Fey Mood
2 Secretive
3 Possessed
4 Fell
5 Macabre
6 DM's choice

During a strange mood, the dwarf crafts a non-magical masterwork item, using any materials they can get their hands on. Treat this as a Craft(*item*) check, with a +5 untyped bonus. Any day they have access to their materials, they must work on the item, otherwise they are confused. Only the base material cost need be paid for, not the masterwork component or up to two other item templates.

If the dwarf has no ranks in the requisite craft skill, treat it as a trained check with a number of ranks equal to ranks in his highest Craft skill, retaining the +5 bonus. The mood lasts until the item is completed.

If you are using the DF item qualities, as below, the process is somewhat different. You still pay only base material costs, but you automatically apply the Artifact template.

Martial Trance
Urist McFighter has entered a martial trance!
Prerequisites: Fortress Dwarf, Proficiency with all martial weapons, BAB+3
3 times per day, the dwarf can enter a martial trance. This grants a +1 dodge bonus to AC against all opponents, a +1 circumstance bonus to all attack and damage rolls, and a +1 morale bonus to will saves. At the end of the encounter, the dwarf is fatigued, or if they would otherwise be fatigued (such as from a barbarian rage) they are exhausted.


DF Monsters and Templates

Serial Killer Beast Template
This template can be applied to any animal or vermin.
+6 STR
+4 DEX
+6 CON

+5 to attack and damage rolls against sentient life.
+2 to will saves.

Serial Killer(Ex): Must make a will save against DC40 to not attack and attempt to kill any creature with an INT of 3 or more

Aura of Docility(Su): Creatures that fail a will save (DC=10+HD of the templated creature+WIS) feel no fear in approaching the creature, irrelevant as to whether or not the creature looks threatening.

The creatures alignment becomes chaotic evil.

SAMPLE

Serial Killer Elephant

STR 36
DEX 14
CON 27
INT 2
WIS 13
CHA 7

Slam +21 melee (2d6+15) and 2 stamps +16 melee (2d6+10); or gore +21 melee (2d8+20)

Trample (Ex): Reflex half DC 28. The save DC is Strength-based.

Serial Killer(Ex): Must make a will save against DC40 to not attack and attempt to kill any creature with an INT of 3 or more

Aura of Docility(Su): Creatures that fail a will save (DC=10+HD of the templated creature+WIS) feel no fear in approaching the creature, irrelevant as to whether or not the creature looks threatening.



Carp, Undead
Coming as soon as I can figure it out...

Miscellany

DF Item qualities
This is a WIP, feel free to suggest. The basic idea I have right now is to introduce more levels of item craft quality. This would be quite good for a low magic campaign, which if you are using DF dwarves, would be likely.

Well-crafted DC +3
Fine DC +6
Superior DC +9
Exceptional DC +12
Masterful DC +15
Artifact Can only be created in a strange mood

Artifacts can be divided up into a futher few categories

Fey +2 to Diplomacy checks?
Secretive +2 to Bluff checks?
Possessed +2 to saves against Enchantment?
Fell +2 to saves against Necromancy?
Macabre +2 to Intimidate checks?
DM's option +2 to something?


Anything else anyone can think of?

Iituem
2010-12-30, 06:37 AM
Fortress Dwarf Traits (Ex)

Fortress dwarves possess the following racial traits.

* +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
* Medium size
* A dwarf's base land speed is 20ft. However, dwarves can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armour or when carrying a medium or heavy load.
* Darkvision out to 60ft.
* Stonecunning.
* Weapon Familiarity: Dwarves treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons
* Stability: Dwarves are exceptionally stable on their feat. A dwarf enjoys a +2 on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
* Alcohol Dependency: A dwarf must imbibe at least one unit of alcohol per day (1 cup of beer, half a glass of wine, a shallow tumbler of spirits) or begin suffering alcohol withdrawal. Each day spent without alcohol, the dwarf suffers 1 point of temporary Wisdom damage. This damage is erased the moment a dwarf is able to drink any alcohol at all, but if a full unit has not been drunk by the end of the day he will begin suffering withdrawal again.
* Alcohol Resistance: Dwarves have a natural +4 to saving throws against the effects of alcohol.
* Cave Adaptation: Dwarves who spend at least six months continuously out of natural sunlight or the daylight spell gain 100ft darkvision but suffer a -1 morale penalty to all attacks, checks and saves in full daylight thereafter.
* +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison.
* +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.
* +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs (including half-orcs) and goblinoids (including goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears).
* +4 dodge bonus to Armour Class against creatures of the giant type (such as ogres, trolls and hill giants).
* +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to stone or metal items.
* +2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal.
* Automatic Languages: Common, Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, Undercommon.
* Favoured Class: Fighter



Evade Physics
Requirement: Fortress Dwarf
+3 racial bonus to any Craft or engineering checks that require the dwarf to kick the laws of physics in the nuts and run away giggling to succeed.


Ignore Physics
Requirement: Fortress Dwarf, Evade Physics, +3 B.A.B.
The racial bonus to avoiding physical limitations from Evade Physics rises to +6.


Abuse Physics
Requirement: Fortress Dwarf, Evade Physics, Ignore Physics, +6 B.A.B.
The racial bonus to avoiding physical limitations from Evade Physics rises to +9.

Violate Physics
Requirement: Fortress Dwarf, Evade Physics, Ignore Physics, Abuse Physics, +9 B.A.B.
The racial bonus to avoiding physical limitations from Evade Physics rises to +12.


(Or just make the feat scale by character level.)


DF dwarves are actually pretty Tolkienesque in terms of raw physical abilities.

Minion #6
2010-12-30, 06:43 AM
Huh, well there you go. Shoulda guessed that it's been done. Still, needs to add in the cats, and I'd think that "Evade Physics" should have a whatchacallit... can't think of the word, but it should stipulate that it allows those checks to, you know, succeed DESPITE being impossible. Other than that, I love the "Alcohol Dependancy" idea.

Iituem
2010-12-31, 09:48 AM
It hadn't really so much 'been done' as I just did it, and there's probably more that can be done with it - I'm just suffering a short on inspiration.

Angry Bob
2010-12-31, 11:50 AM
I feel like the racial emnities should be adjusted to goblins and elves instead of goblins and orcs.

Other possibilities for feats

Martial Trance
The Axedwarf has entered a martial trance!
Prerequisite: Fortress Dwarf, BaB +1
Benefit: 1/day, enter a martial trance as an immediate action. While in a martial trance, you get a +2 dodge bonus to AC and a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls. The trance lasts until the end of the current encounter.

Sock of Doom
The Wrestler bashes the goblin in the head with the +pig tail fiber sock+, shattering the skull, driving the skull into the brain, and tearing apart the brain!
Prerequisite: Fortress Dwarf, Proficiency with all martial weapons, Base Attack Bonus +3.
Benefit: Improvised weapons you wield deal damage as though they were one size category larger. In addition, all improvised weapons you wield deal lethal damage, even where the rules or common sense would dictate otherwise.

EDIT: In addition, I suggest adding a penalty to wisdom and intelligence as well as charisma. Not only do they care little enough for hygiene that unless the overseer does something about it, they walk around covered in mud, blood, and vomit, they also have a very simple needs system - they "balance out at happy because on one hand their wife just got eaten by elephants, and on the other, they just ate in a really nice dining room." They've also been known to wall themselves into a cavern filled with assorted gribblies. So, penalties to all mental stats are in order?

Dead_Jester
2010-12-31, 04:01 PM
People with noble ranks should instantly be afflicted by a need to become useless, bothersome and exploitative members of society.

Also, there definately needs to be something to model strange moods, something like

Strange Moods :
Everyday, dwarf must roll a d100, adding 1 for everyday since his last strange mood, up to 75. On a roll of 100 or more, he is taken by a strange mood, rolled at random on a d6

{table]1|Fey Mood
2|Secretive
3|Possessed
4|Fell
5|Macabre
6|Dm's choice Arnok's choice[/table]

Minion #6
2011-01-02, 06:23 AM
Haha, just pictured a revamp of the thrown weapon rules as they apply in DF.

That. Is. HILARIOUS!

Dwarven nobles have a charisma mod of -3 at least, and their demands are all either illogical, impossible, and frequently both. Dwarven engraving should have it's own checks too, I reckon - Craft(engraving), with a +3 racial bonus when carving anything considered disturbing (elephants stomping on dwarves, dwarves burning, an engraving of an engraving of cheese).

Aside from that, all Fortress Dwarven armor automatically has spikes. +1 Spikes of Menacing, anyone?

ScionoftheVoid
2011-01-02, 09:18 AM
Why not give them a total of +2 Con, -2 Int, -4 Wis and -2 Cha, and a +3 to Craft checks (+2 after their Int penalty), and the ability to Craft things which bend, break or violate horribly the laws of physics with a DC 40 check. Easily achievable with a reasonable focus and some helpers. Maybe a few other benefits to balance out the mental penalties.

dgnslyr
2011-01-02, 04:19 PM
I think there should be a wisdom penalty, in place of the charisma penalty, maybe. After all, Dorfs aren't known for common sense. :smallwink:

Benly
2011-01-02, 04:44 PM
Cancels Task
Urist McDominated cancels Attack Allies: Could Not Find Path
Prerequisite: Fortress Dwarf
Benefit: During any turn in which another character attempts to control your actions through a spell or effect, roll 1d4. On a 1 or 2, some detail of the command fails to take hold, and you may act freely as you normally would for the rest of the round. On a 3 you are distracted and take no action this round. On a 4, the controlling effect works as normal.


A bit of a weak feat, though.

Minion #6
2011-01-02, 10:41 PM
The list of traits has moved to the first post.

Thomar_of_Uointer
2011-01-03, 03:44 AM
Don't forget how they can hibernate for weeks and are unable to jump.

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/On_the_origins_of_dwarfs#Urist.27s_Anatomy

DracoDei
2011-01-03, 12:31 PM
You forgot the title of "Cancels Task" in the spoiler.

And incidently, I see that as being a very powerful feat. It is at least as good as Slippery Mind, and is a seperate step from the save, which is usually a more powerful option. Maybe if you reversed the chances of acting as you wish and acting as the controller wishes, or gave it some pre-requisites...

Benly
2011-01-03, 01:04 PM
You forgot the title of "Cancels Task" in the spoiler.

And incidently, I see that as being a very powerful feat. It is at least as good as Slippery Mind, and is a seperate step from the save, which is usually a more powerful option. Maybe if you reversed the chances of acting as you wish and acting as the controller wishes, or gave it some pre-requisites...

The main balancing factor of Cancels Task as I see it is that it simply doesn't end the effect. Also, it only works on effects that dictate your actions, whereas Slippery Mind works on any enchantment (including debuffs, fear effects, emotion effects, and so on).

That said, it probably wouldn't be out of line to tweak it to act freely on a 1 and do nothing on a 2-3.

Minion #6
2011-01-04, 05:49 AM
A few fixes and updates added. Cancels Task now has a prerequsite, added in a commonsense addendum and a craft prereq to Strange Mood, and added in Martial Trance.

Angry Bob
2011-01-04, 01:37 PM
Still needs:

An "Elephant of Boatmurdered" template or custom monster.
Come to think of it, a Carp.
The actual mechanics of a strange mood(Acts as insanity? Simply acts as directed by the DM?).
How about DF elves as well?

New Feat: Affinity for Magma
Magma: The source and solution to all of life's problems.
Prerequisites: Fortress Dwarf, Craft(Masonry or mechanical) 6 ranks, no ranks in Knowledge(Architecture and Engineering)
Benefit: When building a device that involves magma at all, you may roll any rolls you are required to make twice, taking the better result.
If you can cast spells, you may cast a spell with the [Fire] descriptor at CL +2 by voluntarily taking 1d4 wisdom damage.

Dead_Jester
2011-01-04, 07:29 PM
I'd say they act as Insanity, except the "acts normally" option is replaced by Dm controls the character.

As for the elves, they're just cannibal hippies that hate everything else and have a natural tendency to die in horrible ways.

And we need Carps, undead Carps :smallbiggrin:

DracoDei
2011-01-05, 02:32 PM
Strange mood makes having even 1 rank in any craft skill but your highest a disadvantage... is this intentional?

TabletopNuke
2011-01-05, 05:36 PM
As soon as I saw the title of this thread I knew I had to check it out.

Maybe replace the attack bonus against Orcs with an attack bonus against Elves?

Also you'll have to figure out the mechanics of miasma.

Minion #6
2011-01-05, 08:12 PM
Given the response to this thread, I felt that I should move the stuff up to the first post. Also made some minor changes on the mechanics of strange moods - now if they haven't got access to their materials, they act as if confused. Basically, Strange Mood translates as semi-free masterwork non-magical items every now and then by sacrificing a bit of control.

@DracoDei - that was entirely intentional, as the strange mood is more a form of insanity than anything else.

Coidzor
2011-01-05, 08:29 PM
Strange mood makes having even 1 rank in any craft skill but your highest a disadvantage... is this intentional?

Yes. As this is fairly faithful to the game.

The feat, however, is very, very weak, as it doesn't waive any cost of materials or the time it takes to create the item. That is, it doesn't confer any real advantage at the present time, as far as I can tell.

So it needs to be expanded and given some advantage (also, dwarvencraft, prossibly), possibly not requiring the dwarf to pay the cost of materials for masterwork, dwarvencraft, and other item templates or at least yielding a price reduction at some point, either in creating the item itself or in enchanting it later?

Actually, more item templates to go with each mood would be a good direction to go, despite not being entirely modeling the game. Some homebrew by which there are more levels of item quality than masterwork or dwarvencraft would be good, actually. As, IIRC, strange moods create artifacts, which are better than masterwork items in the game.



So, at the present time, it seems more like a racial feature that is slightly more disadvantage than advantage than a real feat.

Minion #6
2011-01-05, 08:55 PM
That's similar to my thoughts there Coidzor, but I couldn't think of what to do. In retrospect, that seems obvious though, so I've edited it to include your contribution, at least in terms of the masterwork/dwarvencraft idea. I'll ruminate on the idea of modelling the Artifact quality.

EDIT: Have put a basic system in terms of DCs, and copied the item qualities across from magmawiki.

Still stuck on the carp by the way, so any input there'd be appreciated. My current idea has to do with stat boosts every time they make a swim check - just like in game, really. Swimming = stat training. Carp = always swimming. Hence, carp = always stat training.

Dead_Jester
2011-01-05, 09:11 PM
For Strange Mood, how about keeping it as is, and making it a innate ability of the dwarves? After all, all of yours can will one day have a strange mood.

Also, I'd make it so the Carps gain HDs and stats based on their age (time swimming, or, for the undead ones, just running about).

Minion #6
2011-01-05, 09:16 PM
Only problem with making it a racial feature is that it would be inconsistent with the Cancels Task and Martial Trance, which are feats. I mean, all DF dwarves do those (particularly cancelling tasks when interrupted by Batman :smallbiggrin:) too, so would they be racial as well? I just think it'd be too unbalancing to really replicate DF dwarves.

Angry Bob
2011-01-05, 09:41 PM
On the other hand, some dwarves go their entire lives never having a martial trance or die horribly before going into a strange mood. Having those as racial feats work. Though I would agree with having strange mood as a racial feature rather than a feat, due to its inevitability if the dorf in question is left alone long enough.

Further ideas:

Serial Killer animal should have an aura of docility - recall that training an elephant that has tasted blood doesn't make it passive - it only makes your dwarves unafraid to approach it.

Carp are lethal against unarmored targets but aren't the engines of destruction some people make them sound like. Unless they're undead. Make them low hp high damage/crit type monsters, backed up by an unnaturally huge strength modifier.

Dead_Jester
2011-01-05, 09:50 PM
Carp are lethal against unarmored targets but aren't the engines of destruction some people make them sound like. Unless they're undead. Make them low hp high damage/crit type monsters, backed up by an unnaturally huge strength modifier.

Maybe now they aren't anymore, but in the olden days, carps were considered by some to be helpful because they had the tendency to be able to eat anything, even Megabeasts if given enough time to swim around (well, if you managed to build a moat around your fortress without all your dorfs getting eaten).

Minion #6
2011-01-05, 09:58 PM
Included Angry Bob's Aura of Docility to the Serial Killer Beast template.

As for the undead carp (normal carp are much easier, cos they can't leave the water), here's a brief idea, combining bits of Dead_Jester's and Angry Bob's comments (thanks guys).

Carp, Undead

As Medium Shark, with the following changes.

1)Undead traits.
2)Lose the Keen Scent
3)Include a scaling system for physical stats - say +4 for each year it's been around, maybe? Keep in mind that carp are incredibly long-lived.
4)Of course, being undead, they can move around on land.

This leads me to conclude there should be several categories to carp, such as, dunno:

Lesser Carp
Average Carp
Greater Carp
Elder Carp

These'd be based on the amount of time they'd existed for.

Angry Bob
2011-01-05, 10:08 PM
Re: Carp

I never played 40d, so I've never directly encountered them, but I've read of them being killed by engaging them with military champions. If you have extensive experience with 40d, I respectfully defer to it. Though if I recall properly, they did have to be modded to actually eat their kills.

In the most recent version, their biggest threat is making attacks on your dorfs that makes said dorfs dodge into the body of water and be unable to get out. Carp classic are obviously what are being referenced here.

Minion #6
2011-01-05, 10:10 PM
A military champion can kill them if you are lucky, yeah. Emphasis on lucky, in my experience.

Also, I've added in mood-specific qualities to artifacts, so check it out in the miscellany section. Feedback would be much appreciated.

Coidzor
2011-01-05, 10:12 PM
For Strange Mood, how about keeping it as is, and making it a innate ability of the dwarves? After all, all of yours can will one day have a strange mood.

Also, I'd make it so the Carps gain HDs and stats based on their age (time swimming, or, for the undead ones, just running about).

Carp have age categories similar to dragons and kythons and such. The older they get, the more fearsome. And they follow similar rules to dragons for becoming skeletons and zombies, such as the HD cap being waived.

Minion #6
2011-01-05, 11:19 PM
Hm? Carp age categories? Maybe I've missed something here. But yeah, these are the carp from the days where they were a huge threat. I'm actually somewhat considering developing the Strange Mood system into a more serious form, too, as I think it has a bit of potential as a feat.