Race Idea: Stonesong Dwarf

[AnimeTheCat]

I had a thought recently. Dwarves are commonly depicted as carousels, drinkers, and somewhat commonly associated with being nordic/norse in nature in many ways (OotS has the norse pantheon venerated by the dwarves of the north for instance).

Something common to the Norse cultures were Skalds or Warrior Poets. Now, I know there the warchanter prestige class and the savage bard alternate class, but this isnt about classes. This is about races. Are there any Dwarf races that are predisposed to being bards or variants of bards? My searches have turned up nothing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. What I'm proposing is a race concept that I've brought in to my most recent game, and that's the Stonesong Dwarf.

Stonesong Dwarves are commonly found integrated in and with common mountain dwarves. These dwarves are nearly indistinguishable from mountain dwarves and share many of the same customs, however their connection to stone is slightly different that the connection that mountain dwarves have, and their personalities are generally less gruff and thus they are easier and agreeable than mountain dwarves. Stonesong Dwarves share all of the same racial features as Mountain Dwarves except as noted below:
Ability Scores: -2 Dex, +2 Cha. Stonesong dwarves are naturally predisposed to more social encounters, but are known for being more clumsy than your average dwarf or human. These modifiers replace the standard Dwarf's racial ability score modifiers.
Stonesinging: through their unique connection to the stone, whenever a stonesong dwarf finds himself/herself underground or surrounded by primarily rocky terrain, they gain a +1 bonus to their bard level for determining the bonuses provided by bardic music. This replaces Stonecunning.
Starting Languages: common, dwarven, terran.
Favored Class: Bard. This replaces Fighter as the standard dwarf's favored class.

What do you think playground? Unfair? Unoriginal? Already exists? I'm interested to receive your input.

[DeTess]

I suggest posting this tot he homebrew forums, as you'll get more response there.

That having been said, stonesining is oddly specific. It only does something when you have levels in a specific class, which is not a good thing, I think. It means the race is only really of interest if you play that specific class, which does not occur with any 1st party race. Sure, there's races that are better for one thing than for another, but I wouldn't actively loose racial features if i decided to make a half-orc wizard, for example. If you want to do something dwarven-specific for bards, I'd make it a substitution level instead.

[AnimeTheCat]

I suggest posting this tot he homebrew forums, as you'll get more response there.
Normally, I would agree, however most things I post in the homebrew section get 200 views, 1 response, and then go to page 2 and are lost forever. Since this is 3.5 specific, and is kind of DM help (in a way... it's about implementing homebrew into the game plus a critique of the homebrew itself), I knew I would get better responses here rather than there.


That having been said, stonesining is oddly specific. It only does something when you have levels in a specific class, which is not a good thing, I think. It means the race is only really of interest if you play that specific class, which does not occur with any 1st party race. Sure, there's races that are better for one thing than for another, but I wouldn't actively loose racial features if i decided to make a half-orc wizard, for example. If you want to do something dwarven-specific for bards, I'd make it a substitution level instead.

I thought about a racial substitution level, but that has problems. Namely that dwarves are penalized in the most important attribute associated with bards which makes them very very poor choices for bards. As opposed to adjusting the class in a way to work around this, I thought it would be more simple to adjust the race. Because they differ so minutely from a standard dwarf, I didn't feel that an overly specific racial feature would be too farfetched, especially considering it's obvious by the name that they are predisposed to a bardic type of role.

You do have a valid point though, and maybe I should find a way to make it minority more generic.

[Goaty14]

Doesn't the Dream Dwarf exist? Is that not good enough?

[AnimeTheCat]

Doesn't the Dream Dwarf exist? Is that not good enough?

It didn't really grip me as the warrior poet type of racial variant. It would probably be fine, but nothing binds it to the idea of storytelling or performing. It's more aloof or something. Given the choice between it and nothing, I would choose it, but when given the option to create something to fit the bill, it doesn't quite fit.

[Blackhawk748]

Doesn't the Dream Dwarf exist? Is that not good enough?

Dream Dwarves have a bunch of rather specific fluff that has to go along with them. Also I see no reason why Dwarves can't have more subraces. Elves have almost a dozen after all.

[AnimeTheCat]

Dream Dwarves have a bunch of rather specific fluff that has to go along with them. Also I see no reason why Dwarves can't have more subraces. Elves have almost a dozen after all.

Dwarves have a lot already too. Just by way of the monster manual I think they have 3 sub races, races of stone brought another 2 I think, races of the dragon (or dragon magic) has at least one, unearthed arcana has at least 4, stormwrack/sandstorm/frost burn have at least one each. There are tons of subraces, and there should be tons. I try to incorporate as many as possible in my world building. I think it adds additional flavor and depth to my world. I have regional subraces of human that only add to the existing human, and I've added a LOT of orcish subraces because I feel that they are distinctly lacking in diversity within their race.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Like the flavor, I'd agree with the it's a little too specific comment, like maybe refluff it so it's bonuses to illusion and divination instead of bardic Music, so more classes can benefit, and keep the dwarven racial con bonus as they're probably still tougher than humans, the favored class doesn't matter much anyway, as most tables don't bother with xp penalties, or so I hear. The PHB does literally say there is no bardic tradition among dwarves, lol. But above all, it's rule 0 anyway, if it's what you want in your world go for it.

[Maat Mons]

The dwarven subraces I'm aware of are:

Lesser Duergar (Gray Dwarf), Aleithian Dwarf (3.0 Psionics), Athas Dwarf, Aquatic Dwarf, Arctic Dwarf, Badlands Dwarf, Dark Dwarf, Deep Dwarf, Desert Dwarf, Dream Dwarf, Earth Dwarf, Exiled Dwarf, Fireblood Dwarf, Glacier Dwarf, Gold Dwarf, Gully Dwarf, Hill Dwarf (Standard), Jungle Dwarf, Mountain Dwarf, Shield Dwarf, Seacliff Dwarf, Stonefire Dwarf, Wild Dwarf, Korobokuru

Of those, only Desert Dwarf, Dream Dwarf, and Gold Dwarf lack a Charisma penalty.



It seems weird for a dwarven subrace to lack a Constitution bonus. And while a few have no penalty to Charisma, it seems weird to go completely the other direction, and give them a bonus.

Dexterity penalties are the typical alternative to Charisma penalties for variant dwarves. Though you could take a cue Gully Dwarf, and go with an Intelligence penalty. It would be fitting for a dwarven culture more predisposed to churning out Barbarians. Alternately, a Wisdom penalty could portray these dwarves as tending towards whimsy.

The racial bonus to Bardic Music is far too specific. If you want dwarven Bards who gain bonuses to Bardic Music while underground, that's really more the purview of racial substitution levels. Or maybe a racial feat.

I'm surprised you don't give Perform as a class skill, or even give any sort of bonus to Perform checks.

[Maat Mons]

Imagine a cross between Glaciar Dwarves, Seacliff Dwarves, and vikings. They live in ice caves in floating cities carved from glaciers. They have a strong seafaring tradition, because their home is basically a small, mobile island. They are fierce raiders, often flying into a fury in battle. And they have a strong tradition of composing epic poems to commemorate great battles and mighty heroes.



+2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
Medium
Speed 20 feet. Speed not reduced by armor.
Darkvision 60 ft
Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with throwing axe, handaxe, battleaxe, and greataxe. Treat dwarven waraxe and harpoon as martial weapons.
Stability: +4 vs. bull rush or trip
+2 bonus vs. poison
Sea Legs: +4 to balance on ships. Ignore movement penalty for slippery deck.
Ignore armor check penalty for swim checks. Swim is always a class skill.
Winter Stride: Can move through loose snow at full speed. +4 to balance checks on ice.
Skaldic Tradition: +2 on perform checks. Perform is always a class skill.
Icecunning: As glacier dwarf.
Cold Tolerant: As glacier dwarf.
+2 appraise and craft with ice and snow
Favored Class: Barbarian

[ShurikVch]

To support the idea:

Dwarven Chanter (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061128a) PrC

Masterpiece Performance (Dragon #301): Dwarven Work Song


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0