D&D 4E Arctic Dwarves in 4E

[marelion]

Last night after I had assembled my future players for an introduction to my homebrew campaign one of them completely took me by surprise by asking for my okay to play an arctic dwarf.


I have no quarrel with exotic PC races, so I said yes and thought about a suitable mechanical expression. After a while I came up with the following and I`d like to hear your opinion about it:

Arctic Dwarf

Racial Traits

Average Height: 2`4" - 3`4"
Average Weight: 40ibs - 200ibs

Ability Scores: Strenght +2, Constitution +2
Size: Small
Speed: 5 squares (icewalk)
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Dwarven
Skill Bonuses: Nature +2, Endurance +2

Dwarfen Weapon Proficiency
Dwarfen Resilience
Encumbered Speed
Limited Ressources: You gain a +5 racial bonus to Endurance checks to avoid the effects of starvation => replaces Cast-Iron Stomach
Resist Cold: 5, increase to 10 at 11th level, increase to 15 at 21st level
Stand Your Ground

I`ve made as little changes to the `original`PHB-dwarf as possible while still trying to make it clear you`re not just playing any ordinary dwarf. Most noticably is probably the size reduction, but I could not figure a way around it seeing that they are only 3" on average. I gave them resist 5 cold and icewalk to compensate for it.

Dungeoneering didn`t make sense to me regarding the fact that the race spends most of the time on the surface to forage and hunt, which is why I changed the racial bonus to Nature, stressing their boundary to their environment.

The one thing I`m not so sure about is the DWP. What would you say? Should I keep it or change into something else?

I´m not planning on cutting out any of the excellent feat support for dwarfes, as this would clearly throw this sub-race off-balance, for what good would a race be that does not have any feat support?!

What do you think? Is this more or less balanced in your opinion? Any other comments/ideas? Anything important you would miss on `my`arctic dwarf?

Looking forward to your feedback

 

[S'mon]

I guess you'll be using the nice WotC Frost Dwarf mini? Or paint your own?

 

[Shadus]

Seems pretty balanced, but you might want to replace Cast-Iron Stomach, seeing how they gain cold resistance. Just doesn't seem right to have cold resistance and a bonus to poison saving-throws. But that might just be me.

 

[marelion]

Thanks for the feedback. I had not done any homebrew stuff before other than self-designed adventures, so I wasn´t sure if I got the feeling of the arctic dwarf right.

[MENTION=463]S'mon[/MENTION]: My gaiming group doesn`t use minis, but thanks for the recommandation anyway. To us, even 4E is still an RPG and not so much a skirmish game. But i don`t really want to bring this endless skirmish wargame vs RPG debate up again, I think 4E supports both approaches just fine.

@Shadus : I see your point, granting restance and improved saving throws might make my arctic dwarves too resilient. I`d like make this dwarfen feature available as an arctic dwarf racial feat, so here we go:

No Food TO Waste

Perequisite: Race Arctic Dwarf:

Benefit: Gain the Cast-Iron Stomach racial feature as described in the PHB.

As a replacement I`d suggest the following as an additional racial feature, replacing Cast-Iron Stomach:

Limited Ressources: Gain a racial +5 bonus to Endurance checks to avoid the effects of starvation.

I guess this would make sense, food ressources are pretty scarce in an arctic environment.

What do you think? Is this an improvement in your opinion?

 

[Shadus]

I can see that working. Besides making more systematically fair, it also adds role playing depth into the difference between Normal and Arctic Dwarves. Plus, at least in most campaigns, starvation rarely becomes an issue, thus is never touched.

To bad there isn't an Arctic in Dark Sun...

 

[rob12]

Great minds think alike ... You're terrific ...
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