D&D 2E Help converting 2E dwarven subrace?

[Filby]

Hi there.

I've been trying to convert the sundered dwarf from the 2E accessory The Complete Book of Dwarves, and have come up with a little problem concerning one particular racial trait...

Here's my source...

Sundered Dwarves
Unlike most dwarves, sundered dwarves live on the surface. Once hill or mountain dwarves, they were cut off from their kin and traditional ways of life. Where deep dwarves went downward, sundered dwarves were forced onto the surface.

They may have been driven there by volcanoes or earthquakes that shattered their subterranean homes, or perhaps by orcs or dragons. Finding no safe haven underground, they were forced above. Some may even have chosen to abandon their homes and give up the subterranean life.

Over the centuries sundered dwarves adapted as best they could, but abandoning their natural habitat has taken its toll. They have lost much of their racial pride, and tend to be a miserable and dirty people. They have developed an irrational phobia of dark places, yet are uncomfortable under the open sky, in rain, and with most surface conditions.

Sundered dwarves may be found living among other races. They may make up the majority of the inhabitants in a ghetto, or small groups of them may be found living or adventuring with other races.

Although their traditional homes are gone, sundered dwarves continue to follow the crafts, especially mining and smithing. They will work for humans or elves.

With a height of 4 1/2 to 5 feet, a typical sundered dwarf is slightly taller than a mountain dwarf, but he is of slimmer build, weighing about 155 pounds. His skin is usually lighter than a hill dwarf's, more pink than brown. His hair is dark with tinges of blue. Stronger than other dwarves, they gain a +1 bonus to Strength in character generation.

Sundered dwarves are usually lawful neutral in alignment. Their society retains its traditional lawful organization, but is more concerned with maintaining its laws than ensuring that all citizens share in its benefits.

Sundered dwarves are unlike any other dwarves, tending to be dirty and unkempt, though not as filthy as gully dwarves. They live on the surface and suffer from claustrophobia.

Ability Score Adjustments: The initial ability scores are modified by a -1 penalty to Charisma, and +1 bonuses to Constitution and Strength. The minimum and maximum ability scores are as shown.

Sundered Dwarf Ability Scores
Ability..................Minimum................Maximum
Strength...............8.........................18
Dexterity...............3.........................17
Constitution...........11.......................18
Intelligence............3.........................16
Wisdom.................3.........................18
Charisma...............3.........................16

Languages: Common, any dwarf dialect, elf, goblin, orc, gnome, kobold, halfling, hobgoblin.

Infravision: 30 feet.

Special Advantages: None.

Special Disadvantages: Sundered dwarves are claustrophobic. A sundered dwarf must roll a successful saving throw vs. death in order to overcome his fear of the underground before he can enter dungeons, caves, and tombs. If the check fails, he may not enter. Once underground he must make a saving throw each day. If he fails, he will want to leave the underground by the most direct route.

Underground, a sundered dwarf attacks with a -2 penalty to his rolls. Should he fail his claustrophobic saving throw, the penalty increases by -1 for each additional day he stays underground. If he fails to reach open air, he may attempt further saving throws each day to overcome his claustrophobia. These saving throws are made at the same penalty as the dwarf's current attack roll penalty.

Racial Enmities: Sundered dwarves are harder for ogres, trolls, ogre magi, giants, and titans attack. These races subtract -4 from their attack rolls when fighting sundered dwarves.

Additional Experience Cost: None.

Life Expectancy: 250 years.

And here is what I've worked out for 3E:

-- +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma.
-- Medium size.
-- A sundered dwarf's base land speed is 20 feet. However, sundered dwarves can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load.
-- Darkvision out to 30 feet.
-- Stonecunning: This ability grants a sundered dwarf a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn't stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A sundered dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a search check as if he were actively searching, and a sundered dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A sundered dwarf cannot intuit approximate depth underground as a hill dwarf.
-- Weapon Familiarity: Sundered dwarves treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.
-- Stability: Sundered dwarves are exceptionally stable on their feet. A sundered 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).
-- Claustrophobia: Sundered dwarves are deathly and irrationally afraid of underground areas. A DC 15 Will check is required for a sundered dwarf to be able to force himself to go underground; if the throw fails, he may not enter. Even if the throw succeeds, he takes a -2 morale penalty as long as he remains underground; this penalty increases by -1 for each additional day he remains underground. Once underground, he must make another DC 15 Will check each day; if he fails, he panics and attempts to find a way out immediately, ignoring attacks on himself and his allies, need for food and drink, and everything else until he is once again in the open air. Once per hour while in this state, the sundered dwarf may attempt a DC 15 Will check to regain control of himself.
-- +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison.
-- +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities.
-- +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs, half-orcs, and goblinoids.
-- +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against creatures of the giant type.
-- +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: Draconic, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Orc.
-- Favored Class: Rogue.

For the most part I just used the hill dwarf from the PH and MM as a guide, and it's been a pretty straightforward conversion. I've kept stonecunning, but because they hate going underground I decided that they shouldn't be able to intuit their depth. Furthermore, because of their silly 2E racial level limits (14 for Fighter but 15 for Thief), I decided to make their favored class Rogue rather than Fighter. I gave them an additional +2 for Strength because of their 2E bonus of +1.

However, I'm really not confident in my take on Claustrophobia. I took part of it from Unearthed Arcana (3E), but most of it I just made up on my own. My skills with the d20 system could be described as "budding" at best and "terrible" at worst; I really wasn't sure what I was doing.

I don't suppose anyone could suggest something better for the "Claustrophobia" trait that stays true to their description in 2E but actually works in 3E?

 

[the Jester]

An easy way to handle it might be to say that they're automatically shaken when underground?

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

It looks pretty good to me, actually