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Phosphate
2012-04-18, 01:28 PM
So, I thought about a way to make dwarves...less cliche than they are right now. In the end, I decided to go at the very roots of what a dwarf is in mythology, and make them even MORE cliche. So here:

The Dwarves
http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/images/c/c3/Irodwarfconc.jpg
"Don't wonder. There's no time for wondering. There's always something to do - there's always something for you to do. Don't even wonder whether you need respite." - Gruldum Steelaxe, Dwarf

Type: Medium Living Construct
Ages:

{table=head]Adulthood | Simple | Moderate | Complex
40 | +2d6 | +4d6 | +6d6[/table]
{table=head]Middle Age | Old | Venerable | Maximum Age
125 | 188 | 250 | +2d%
[/table]

Unlike normal biological beings, dwarves don't lose constitution with age. All their other stats, however, develop normally.

Height/Weight: Dwarves are generally just shy of 5 feet and weigh 50% more than a human of the same size.

Languages: Common, Dwarven
Bonus Languages: Gnome, Goblin, Giant, Orc, Elven, Draconic, Undercommon

Speed: 20 feet

Appearance: Dwarves look like short and bulky humanoids with rough and dark hair and eyes with the texture of glass. Most of them have gray skin that feels like sandpaper to touch.

Alignment: Dwarves can be of any alignment, but have major inclinations toward law due to the strict way their society is built and the fact that everyone is expected to work hard from young adulthood to death.

History: The dwarves were created within the bowels of the earth from minerals which magically acquired sentience after a powerful wizard planted beacons that constantly emitted energy from the Astral underground. After several generations, alone in the depths, they became self-sufficient and near-organic, drawing away from the arcane vents that first animated them. They started digging and expanding in all directions, until they met the denizens of the underdark - and much later, the surface races.

With their origin forgotten, dwarves thought they were the work of a deity, as most others. They erected temples using their innate understanding of stone and architecture, and prayed. But then, they tried to bring back their dead - to speak with the spirits of their long deceased ancestors - and it failed. It seems, they were soulless, they had no spiritual side, they were just that - material beings, animated and soulless dirt.

Having discovered this, the dwarves became fearful of death, and used their expertise in construction to create safe mines, impassable tunnels, great walls and masterful fortresses for their people to hide in. With such large places having large populations and attracting several members of the other races like fellow architects, engineers and artists, commerce and culture flourished, and once again the dwarves were open to the rest of the world.

Society: Dwarves appreciate hard work and ingenuity, and everyone is expected to pull their weight and participate in the daily responsibilities of the city. Since they don't need to sleep or eat, dwarves work without a pause, this great productivity being the reason why they recover so easily from waste and destruction, and construct the largest underground tunnels and galleries out of any race.

Rank is taken very seriously in dwarven society. Usually, dwarves receive a certain level of power and influence over others according to their abilities and level of skill, but most often than not it's the special dwarves who are assigned these positions, because they are objectively better at seeing them done.

Very few dwarves leave their underground cities, and almost all who do are either adventurers or convicted fellons driven into exile, none of which are too frequent among dwarves.

Some form of military training is mandatory for every dwarf, but due to a rather unintuitive reason: most dwarven fortresses don't have a standing army. Since no dwarf really desires to die for others knowing he'll get nothing in return and it is generally agreed on that those who are forced into drafting will be less efficient than the volunteers, it is important that every single adult dwarf knows how to defend himself in the event of an invasion, since it's unlikey somebody else will be there to do it for him.

Dwarves hate jewelery and more often than not trade it away, as it is often viewed as the root of conflict.

Relation with other races: Dwarves seem slow, detached, and generally alien in mindset to the other human and demihuman races. They are even more different than the other denizens of the underground, which consider them weak and cowardly for their lack of bloodlust and layers upon layers of protection. The only race dwarves do manage to get along with most of the time are the goblins, with which they share inventiveness and a passion for gadgetry.

Names: Dwarves have family names which represent something memorable about one of their ancestors or describe the family business. Their given names can be anything.

Racial Features

Ability scores:

+2 Con, -2 Dex

Dwarves are incredibly sturdy since they are literally made up entirely of minerals, but their joints are not ideally built.


Living Construct Traits: Dwarves have all the traits of a living construct, with the following exception:

Raising: When dwarves are raised from the dead, they become mindless beings. They gain +2 to Con and Str but no longer have an Int score and their Cha becomes 1. Those dwarves are called Stone Wanderers. Stone Wanderers are completely irrational and unpredictable beings. For the purpose of determining what they will do, treat them as if they're under Insanity (though they're not) and roll d% to determine their actions.

There is an actual way to restore a dwarf to full life, but it is very tedious: first, you must raise him as a Stone Wanderer. Then, you must use Wish or Reality Revision on him. Then, you must use True Resurrect.

Darkvision/Tremorsense: Unlike other living constructs, dwarves actually do have darkvision and tremorsense, both out to 60 feet.

Wide Shoulders (Ex): The movement speed of a dwarf doesn't change if he is under medium or heavy encumbrance.

Uncompressible (Ex): Dwarves are treated as having 10 more strength than they actually have for the purpose of determining their encumbrance.

Weak Affinity (Su): Stone Wanderers, despite their randomness, will never attack a dwarf. They will, however, defend themselves.

Stoneskin (Ex): Dwarves are immune to Flesh to Stone, and Stone to Flesh deals 5d6 untyped damage to them (Fort save to negate). Also, they receive 1 DR/-- per 2 character levels.

Formal Training (Ex): Dwarves treat all exotic weapons with Dwarven in their names as martial weapons. At character creation, select any one martial weapon. You are proficient with it.

Stability (Ex): Dwarves are exceptionally stable on their feet. A dwarf has a +4 bonus 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).

Soulless (Ex): Dwarves don't have a soul, and are immune to all effects that require one (like Trap the Soul, Soul Bind, Magic Jar, Soul Dominion, Clone, etc).

Also, they don't go into an afterlife, cannot be turned into undead, cannot become liches, and cannot become ghosts.

Also, they can't receive damage or drain to their mental ability scores, except through nonmagical poisons and nonmagical disease.

Expertise (Ex): Choose one Craft skill. You gain 1 rank per level to that skill every time you level up, without needing to expend skill points for it.


Religion: Most dwarves are irreligious, as the afterlives are not exactly an open domain for them, and they don't have much in common with the spiritual. That doesn't mean there are no dwarven priests for example, just that they are exceedingly rare.
Favored Class: Artificer/Fighter
Level Adjustment: +0

Special Dwarves

Also called the Precious, Special Dwarves are dwarves who happen to have been born with a different mineral makeup than their brethren. They generally have all the traits described above, with some additions.

Taskmaster Dwarves

These dwarves have lapiz lazuli in place of their eyes and a slightly greener tone to their skin. Their intelligence and craftiness makes them valuable leaders. Taskmasters lose Expertise, but keep the other traits, and gain these:


+2 Int
Master Tinker (Ex): Treat all Craft skills as a single skill. In effect, by adding 1 rank, you increase all of them by 1 rank.
Cooperation (Ex): You may use the Aid Another action as a swift action.


Level Adjustment: +1

Explorer Dwarves

These dwarves have diamonds in place of their eyes and smooth white-ish skin. Their enhanced perception makes them great scouts. They keep all dwarven traits, and gain these:


+2 Wis
Alertness feat for free.
Tremorsense increased from 60 to 180 feet.
Speed increased by 10 feet.


Level Adjustment: +1

Dweomer Dwarves

These dwarves have sapphire stones in place of their eyes and coal skin. They have a special immunity to magic and magical effects. Enchanting dwarves keep all dwarven traits, and gain these:


Mettle (Ex): As the hexblade class feature.
Diffusive SR: You gain a diffusion index equal to your character level+10. Whenever an opponent uses a spell on you that allows SR, he must roll d20. Them, he must subtract the result of the roll from your diffusion index. If your diffusion index is still positive afterward, reduce his caster level by it. If his caster level is reduced to 0 or below, the spell fails, EVEN IF it's a spell that is not dependent on caster level.



Level Adjustment: +1

Enchanting Dwarves

These dwarves have onyx stones in place of their eyes and really dusty skin. They have a natural knack for control, although nobody knows exactly why. Enchanting dwarves keep all dwarven traits, and gain these:


+2 Cha
Strong Affinity (Su): Enchanting dwarves can rebuke or command Stone Wanderers just like clerics command undead, 3+cha mod times per day. It works the exact same way.
Dominator (Su): Increase the DC of all your mind-affecting effects by 2. Also, you gain a +2 morale bonus to your Bluff and Intimidate checks.


Level Adjustment: +1


Protector Dwarves

These dwarves have rubies in place of their eyes and golden skin. They have enhanced strength and durability. Protector dwarves lose the Stoneskin trait, keep all other dwarven traits, and gain these:


+2 Str
Metalskin (Ex): Protectors gain 2 DR/-- per 3 character levels and Light Fortification.
Powerful Build (Ex): Whenever a protector is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), he is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him. A protector is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A protector can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s size category.


Level Adjustment: +1

Timeless Dwarves

These dwarves have granite eyes and skin. They keep all their traits except for the +2 to Con, which they lose, and gain these:


+2 Wis
Unchanging (Ex): A timeless dwarf doesn't age past venerable. Basically, treat his maximum age as infinite.


Level Adjustment: +0

Phosphate
2012-04-20, 01:45 AM
Any opinions on flavor or balance?

Mithril Leaf
2012-04-20, 02:25 AM
Well, from what I'm seeing now, the raising of dead dwarves seems incredibly painful. Hell, if you play as a Neraphim, which is widely regarded as one of the most painful to raise LA +0 races, its still easier than this. I do like most of the other stuff off the top of my head though. Plus the Dweomer Dwarves make me think of The Elder Scrolls.

Jodah
2012-04-21, 02:37 AM
I really like the flavor. Seems balanced enough, especially once I figured out how math worked again. I like them a lot more than the Tolkein-esque dwarves that populate most fantasy worlds. I may play them sometime, but not for awhile, as my current world doesn't have dwarves. Thank you for sharing these.

Eleven
2012-04-21, 04:01 AM
I'm impressed. These are cool, flavourful and surprising creatures. You've done a lot with the idea & it is pretty coherent. Good on you.

Souless-ness is interesting. I wonder if their religion would be centered around ancestral heroes? Dwarves that have won great battles & crafted wonders?

I wonder if feat options tying Dwarven magic to the Astral plane could be interesting. Especially so given that, in most cosmologies, the Astral is the transitive connection to the Outer planes. You could explore the consequences of that genitive force (in their history) with respect to the fact that they don't have a natural affiliation with the afterlife.

Are you sure about the LA?

Special dwarves was neat - I guess it wouldn't really fit into a campaign that didn't have special options for other races. Do you intend to subvert other stereotypes?

Also, I might consider giving taskmasters some ability to control Stone Wanderers. That could be cool - don't know how alien you're imagining the wanderers to be, though. Perhaps creating a special dwarf based around the exiles could be fun? The beardless dwarf?

Phosphate
2012-04-21, 04:56 PM
Thank you for sharing these.

Sure :).


Souless-ness is interesting. I wonder if their religion would be centered around ancestral heroes? Dwarves that have won great battles & crafted wonders?

Oh, like in Dragon Age? Sure, that would make sense. But I'm not sure I'd call it "religion". Just like secularism, humanism, and patriotism are not religions.


I wonder if feat options tying Dwarven magic to the Astral plane could be interesting. Especially so given that, in most cosmologies, the Astral is the transitive connection to the Outer planes. You could explore the consequences of that genitive force (in their history) with respect to the fact that they don't have a natural affiliation with the afterlife.

Hmm, good idea. I rarely (never) make racial feats, but that could be worked in nicely here.


Are you sure about the LA?

Yes. According to the Pathfinder point system, all my special dwarves exceed 11, and therefore cannot be LA 0. And they're visibly below 2.


Special dwarves was neat - I guess it wouldn't really fit into a campaign that didn't have special options for other races. Do you intend to subvert other stereotypes?

There are other options for other races - there are several types of giants, dozens of types of elves, many types of kobold I believe, and somewhere though I don't remember exactly where I saw human variants. But sure, all races should have variants, preferably with different LA.

Personally, I think I might take a stab at goblins, make them more Warcraft-like. Also flesh out elans a bit more. Also remake some of the halfling cause it's boring me to tears. I'd also make something out of the gnolls probably. Also, it would be fun to make a Tolkienesque orc (basically, an orc that's actually an elf). And last but not least, I always wanted to tackle a complex illithid society where - surprise surprise - there's no elder brain (or maybe there's like 5 of them, yikes). And, if there's still time afterward, the aasimar DO need more flavor, aye? ;).

As for a race I already made that takes a stereotype and lets it crash and burn, check the Trueblooded in my signature. It's like a Twilight vampire - except it's not.


Also, I might consider giving taskmasters some ability to control Stone Wanderers. That could be cool - don't know how alien you're imagining the wanderers to be, though.

Nominally I don't choose how alien the wanderers are - since their actions are, as described, identical to an Insane creature, it all depends on what you roll.

You couldn't get along with them well, though. As the SRD says, a creature with 3 or less Cha can't really do anything except "distinguish between itself and things that are not itself". Imagine an ooze that just happens to have a near-human shape. That's a Stone Wanderer.

Enchanters can already control Stone Wanderers, and the reason I wouldn't give it to more variants is that, well, Stone Wanderers are not a secret no pay workforce. They're a sad abomination that must be put down, and it would be immoral for a taskmaster to put them to work, really.


Perhaps creating a special dwarf based around the exiles could be fun? The beardless dwarf?

Sure, why not.