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View Full Version : Russian Arctic Dwarves-The Valley Dwarves [3.5 Race]



Lix Lorn
2013-04-15, 11:10 PM
The Dwarves of Glacier Valley
‘You tink dwarves are funny little creatures, vith amusink Scottish accents and an obsession vith beer ant golt. There is nothink funny about the race that brreathes blizzards and tames the arctic volves.’

TYPICAL VALLEY DWARVES
The average valley dwarf is white skinned, with beard and hair of long, straight black. He wears little, besides the halberd at his side and the armor of black and blue – often made of the hide of the worms that infest the mountains. His steed is a wolf, standing six foot tall at the shoulder, and more than twelve long, with fur of white and teeth that glitter like icicles and cut like enchanted mithral. With one thickly accented word, the wind howls, in concert with his companion, the cloud darkens, and the snow drowns your vision. An hour later you collapse, blind, at someone’s feet, glad to finally have found some sign of life after fleeing the dwarf you dared insult – and hear his voice say ‘Perhaps you vill be apologisink now.’

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Naturally, little separates Valley Dwarves from their relatives. They remain short, accented creatures, with a fondness for alcohol and combat. They lack the gold-lust of common dwarves, and have little interest in the art of weaponcrafting, but are entirely at home in the cold, and are natural masters of wintery magic. They are often less stoutly build than their cousins, and females of their race can occasionally be mistaken for large halflings or even gnomes.

Relations With Other Races
Many races make the mistake of assuming Valley Dwarves have little to offer them, and, while they’re correct that they have little of import to trade, they possess intriguing secrets of knowledge. Their mastery of divine, cold based magic is second to none, and no known race can tame to great mountain wolves as well as they can.

Of course, since the foundation of the great city, many valley dwarves have considered themselves natives of that place, as its walls reach the edge of their mountain ranges. Nondis enjoys a slow influx of dwarven youths, as well as a promise from their settlements that they will guard the passes to their last breath.

Alignment
Most Valley Dwarves lean towards the good alignments. While they lack many of the traits of their cousins, they consider honour paramount, and will never allow an innocent to suffer. Both lawful and chaotic ideals exist in their society, and are far less emphasised than the tradition-heavy lawfulness of mountain dwarves. They have an extensive focus on family, and a long life, but do not border on the ancestor worship of their cousins.

Lands
All known settlements of Valley Dwarves live in the Fimbul mountains, the mountain range that blocks the northeast entrance to the city of Nondis. Dozens of settlements are littered amongst the crags and the valleys, ranging from roving barbarian bands, to cities that, if they did not invite comparisons to Nondis, would be considered vast metropolises. Valley Dwarves consider hospitality a vitally important concern, and only the rudest and most hated of foes are denied shelter, especially in the depths of winter, when temperatures will kill even the valley dwarves in hours. (As opposed to summer, when a human can probably stand outside in one layer of clothes without dying, as long as they don’t do it for too long, and check the sun is out first.)

Religion
Few valley dwarves have time for religion, although there are, obviously, exceptions. Most deities have small shrines in many of their settlements. The major form of worship is a form of nature worship, a druidic tradition that drowns the call of the deities in the overwhelming power of nature in such a dangerous environment.

Language
Most valley Dwarves speak common, but some speak in the languages used by creatures of frost – auran and aquan.

Common Names
Male: Alexandr, Boris, Grigori, Nikolai, Sasha, Vladimir
Female: Anastasia, Katerina, Lilia, Nikita, Sasha, Zhana

Adventurers
Many Valley dwarves become adventurers, as one of the most glorious and profitable of professions. The chance to spread the fame of their race is an added bonus to the chance to hone their skills.

Valley Dwarf Racial Traits
Abilities: +2 Constitution, -2 Strength or -2 Wisdom. While impressively tough, Valley Dwarves have a tendency to rely on their affiliation with cold over physical might. Those that don't often have a habit of ignoring logic in favour of glory and spectacle.
Size: Medium
Movement: Valley dwarf base land speed is 20ft. However, they are not slowed by (natural) cold terrain, whether a glacier or a snowdrift.
Winter Vision: Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60ft, although their vision is black and white. In addition, they can see twice as far in wintery weather that would inhibit vision as a normal creature would be able to.
Cold Affinity: A Valley Dwarf is not harmed by minor cold temperatures. Like the cold half of an Endure Elements spell, he is not harmed by the adverse effects of natural temperatures of 32 to -50 degrees Fahrenheit.
If Mantle of the Icy Soul is cast upon a Valley Dwarf, it supercedes this trait, but has no XP cost.
Finally, Valley Dwarves have a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and abilities with the Cold descriptor.
Modified Dwarven Racial Traits: Valley Dwarves have a +1 racial bonus to saving throws against arcane spells and spell like abilities, stacking with that from Cold Affinity.
They have a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls against creatures with the Cold or Fire subtype.
Finally, they gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC while in areas of freezing temperatures. (32 F or below)
Favoured Class: One of Druid, Crusader, and Bard

Racial Mounts and Equipment: A Valley Dwarf treats the Dire Wolf’s level adjustment as a druid’s animal companion as only -5. Trained Dire Wolves can be purchased, usually with costs of around 7000gp. A dire wolf is a suitable mount for any medium or smaller creature. Only Valley Dwarves sell non-exotic saddles tailored for dire wolves.
Dire Wolves from the Fimbul mountains possess the Cold Affinity racial trait.

Wurmhide armor is equivalent to Dragonhide armor.

Racial Substitution Level
Druid
A Valley Dwarf druid trades away some of their ability to function in the usual forested areas in exchange for expanded knowledge of frost magic
.
He removes the following spells from his spell list: Goodberry, Barkskin, Warp Wood, Tree Shape, Wood Shape, Diminish Plants, Command Plants, Blight, Plant Growth, Speak with Plants, Detect Plants, (She may still use Detect Animal), Tree Stride, Ironwood, Fire Seeds, Liveoak, Repel Wood, Animate Plants, Changestaff, Combine Plants, Shambler, Wall of Thorns, Anticold Sphere, Evergreen, and other spells used primarily to interact with plants.
He may not cast any spell with the (Fire) descriptor, except for Level 0 spells, which he treats as level 1. He may still use the Energy Substitution spell to use fire spells as cold spells, and he may still cast spells which have both the fire and cold descriptors. (Such as any spell derived from rimefire.) He may not use his Wild Shape (Elemental) ability to take fire elemental form, or plant forms.
He does not gain Woodland Stride at level 2, and at level 4, he does not gain Resist Nature’s Lure.

At level 4, he gains Cold Resistance equal to twice his level. At level 15, this upgrades to Cold Immunity.

Finally, the following spells are added to his class spell list. Spells not normally available to Druids are in bold, while the rest are Druid spells from Frostburn, which it is recommended are permitted even if other Druids are barred from them for flavour or spell list-swelling concerns:
Level 0-Ray of Frost
Level 1-Detect Fire, Glazelock, Ice Slick, Lesser Shivering Touch, Conjure Ice Beast I, Crunchy Snow, Ease of Breath, Ice Skate, Ivory Flesh, Snowdrift, Snowsight
Level 2-Bone Chill, Lesser Frostburn, Ice Darts, Icicle, Leomund's Tiny Igloo, Blood Snow, Brumal Stiffening, Conjure Ice Beast II, Conjure Ice Object, Flash-Freeze, Frost Weapon, Numbing Sphere, Obscuring Snow, Snow Walk, Thin Air, Zone of Glacial Cold
Level 3-Control Snow and Ice, Crack Ice, Defile Snow and Ice, Glacial Globe of Invulnerability, Shivering Touch, Arctic Haze, Lesser Aura of Cold, Blinding Snow, Column of Ice, Conjure Ice Beast III, Control Temperature, Ice Shape, Meld Into Ice, Winter's Embrace
Level 4-Wall of Ice, Frostburn, Glacial Ward, Ice Ship, Ice Web, Mindfrost, Boreal Wind, Conjure Ice Beast IV, Freeze Armor, Frostfell Slide, Hibernal Healing
Level 5-Cone of Cold, Dispel Fire, Flesh to Ice, Frostbite, Gelid Blood, Ice to Flesh, Blizzard, Call Avalanche, Conjure Ice Beast V, Hibernate, Ice Shield, Mantle of the Icy Soul, Pass Through Ice, Wall of Coldfire
Level 6-Freezing Glance, Mass Frostburn, Heartfreeze, Suppress Flame, Waves of Cold, Animate Snow, Conjure Ice Beast VI, Death Hail, Entomb, Ice Rift, Move Snow and Ice, Snow Wave
Level 7-Greater Glacial Ward, Ice Castle, Greater Aura of Cold, Conjure Ice Beast VII, Raise Ice Forest, Whiteout
Level 8-Polar Ray, Snowsong, Summon Giants (Frost only, but either Celestial or Fiendish), Conjure Ice Beast VIII, Fimbulwinter, Frostfell, Glacier
Level 9-Comet Swarm, Ice Assassin, Iceberg, Obedient Avalanche, Cometstrike, Conjure Ice Beast IX
As a final note, an Arctic Druid may not spontaneously cast Summon Nature's Ally spells, although they remain on her spell list. Instead, she may spontaneously cast Conjure Ice Beast spells.

The Frost Druids of the valley dwarves are their first and greatest line of defence, capable of obliterating invaders with tsunamis of rolling snow and showers of viciously sharp ice needles. Some, of course, corrupt their powers, using the power of negative energy and undeath to support their abilities.

Crusader
Valley Dwarf crusaders disdain the ground. While their cousins swear by it, the valley dwarves that choose to fight rather than cast are surprisingly agile fighters. And even the most martial of their kind wield frost as an ally.
Valley Dwarf Crusaders may replace Stone Dragon with Arctic Gale for free. (Arctic Gale is identical to Desert Wind, but replaces mentions of Fire with Cold.)

Fredaintdead
2013-04-17, 01:08 PM
I quite like it. They retain the Dwarven connection to the land around them, while being different from other Dwarves. I can definitely see some connection to the Wildhammer Dwarves in Warcraft. But yeah, cool Druidic Frostdwarves. :smallsmile: