Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
First, obligatorily, if by chance you play in my campaign, scoot!
So I've not introduced dwarves into my campaign so far because I couldn't come up with a good aesthetic for them, and I didn't think that Nordic Gimliesque dwarves would work too well IMC. In order to deal with that, I've hinted that dwarves are pretty xenophobic.
But the PCs are getting to the point where they'll want to investigate Calfiz, the God of the Wall (thanks, Pyratecat!) and I'm pretty sure that I want dwarves to be His primary worshipper. And I recently thought of the beginnings of an aesthetic for them, and I wanted to come here to flesh them out.
Basic
Dwarves (I'll give them a cool name, probably involving lots of chirruping noises) are a race of gray-skinned, huge-eyed cavedwellers that carve out the middle of the world, creating paths to other worlds and building walls between the worlds. Their language is very difficult for non-dwarves to learn, consisting of chirps, tongue-clicks, and whines; rhythm of speech is vital to meaning.
Dwarves are almost a hive-mind: each colony of dwarves is led by a "Mother," and the vast majority of dwarves are unintelligent drones who do the colony's work. A small number of dwarves are semi-autonomous scouts and act as emissaries to other cultures. These semi-autonomous dwarves remain in telepathic contact with their colony, but can make independent decisions. When the center of a dwarven colony dies, the scout dwarves become fully autonomous. Normally, they will seek to recruit any surviving drones and start a new dwarven colony, but occasionally they will venture into other lands and "go native." The few dwarven PCs are those who have done so.
Dwarves worship Calfiz, who builds the walls between worlds and paths between worlds. In exchange for regular sacrifices of labor and stone to their God, dwarves receive powerful magics that enable their race to continue and to tunnel through the earth. Dwarves do build very sturdy underground dwellings, but do not regard them as permanent; once their tunnels and mines have extended too far, they will abandon an entire colony of dwellings and build a new one. These abandoned cluster of buildings often become homes to more sinister underground demons and spirits.
Dwarvish Reproduction and Caste Divisions
I want to divide the dwarves into castes:
*Drones -- the almost mindless members of a colony.
*Singers -- see below.
*Scouts -- the smarter ones, the semi-autonomous ones, the ones that become fully autonomous if a colony's Mother dies.
*Orphans -- scouts whose Mother has died. All dwarvish PCs are Orphans.
*Mothers -- one per colony, kinda like the Queen of the hive.
Okay, here's the reproduction thing: these dwarves are kinda slimy, right? When an orphan decides to start a new colony, she finds a gray ooze and merges with it. Doing so creates a sentient, barely-mobile, psychic ooze. It reproduces by budding off. The first few buds become drones, who help with future reproduction; from then on, the drones separate the slimy buds from the main ooze and place them in stone hollows, feeding them regurgitated small animals and fungi. Eventually, based on their diet, a drone, singer, or scout will "hatch" from the bud, looking kinda like the "hatching" of the Uruk-Hai in FOTR.
Singers, BTW, will be a special caste of dwarves: huge, misshapen, and barely mobile, singers can emit a low-pitch frequency that stimulates glands in drones' hands. These glands enable drones to shape stone with their hands as easily as others shape clay.
Orphan Stats
Overall, I want to make them up to a +1 ECL. I'd rather err on the high side of their ECL, since I'm hoping to entice a player to take one on as a PC, but I don't want to be totally overboard.
+2 Con, -2 Cha. Dwarves have an intimate kinship with the stone that they tunnel through, granting them extraordinary toughness; at the same time, their alien language, unsettling eyes, hive mind, and viscous skin make them difficult to relate to.
Medium Size.
Speed 20 feet. Underground, speed is not as important, and dwarves have a slow, stumping, deliberate gait.
Darkvision. Dwarves are accustomed to underground living.
Stonecunning: They gain all traditional dwarven advantages of stonecunning.
Poison Gas resistance: Aeons of mining have made dwarves exceptionally resistant to poison gases; as such, they receive a +2 racial bonus to all saves vs. poison gas.
+2 racial bonus to all appraisal, craft, and profession checks related to stone.
Tough Hide: Dwarves are partly of the rock which they mine, and as such, they gain +1 natural armor.
Stone camouflage: Dwarves appear almost made of stone. When hiding in gray stone surroundings, they gain a +4 racial bonus to their hide checks.
Viscous Ooze: Dwarves can emit a viscous, sour-smelling ooze from their pores, granting them limited resistance against fire. (I've not decided how to work this: 1/day as a standard action, granting fire resistance 15 for 10 minutes? Standard action whenever they want, granting fire resistance 15 for 1 minute? Standard action 1/day, granting protection from fire 30?)
Slippery Skin: The same viscous, sour-smelling ooze grants them a +4 racial bonus on any escape artist checks made while the ooze remains on their skin.
Favored Class: Psychic Warrior (if I go with having P.W. in my world) or Ranger (otherwise).
Any ideas? Feedback? Specific good ideas would be:
-What should their specific stats be -- especially, how should I handle the fire resistance, and is the natural armor too much, and should the escape artist check be greater? Keep in mind that, as written, they gain no bonus vs. magic, limited bonus against poison, and no bonus vs orcs, goblinoids, or giants.
Thanks!
Daniel
So I've not introduced dwarves into my campaign so far because I couldn't come up with a good aesthetic for them, and I didn't think that Nordic Gimliesque dwarves would work too well IMC. In order to deal with that, I've hinted that dwarves are pretty xenophobic.
But the PCs are getting to the point where they'll want to investigate Calfiz, the God of the Wall (thanks, Pyratecat!) and I'm pretty sure that I want dwarves to be His primary worshipper. And I recently thought of the beginnings of an aesthetic for them, and I wanted to come here to flesh them out.
Basic
Dwarves (I'll give them a cool name, probably involving lots of chirruping noises) are a race of gray-skinned, huge-eyed cavedwellers that carve out the middle of the world, creating paths to other worlds and building walls between the worlds. Their language is very difficult for non-dwarves to learn, consisting of chirps, tongue-clicks, and whines; rhythm of speech is vital to meaning.
Dwarves are almost a hive-mind: each colony of dwarves is led by a "Mother," and the vast majority of dwarves are unintelligent drones who do the colony's work. A small number of dwarves are semi-autonomous scouts and act as emissaries to other cultures. These semi-autonomous dwarves remain in telepathic contact with their colony, but can make independent decisions. When the center of a dwarven colony dies, the scout dwarves become fully autonomous. Normally, they will seek to recruit any surviving drones and start a new dwarven colony, but occasionally they will venture into other lands and "go native." The few dwarven PCs are those who have done so.
Dwarves worship Calfiz, who builds the walls between worlds and paths between worlds. In exchange for regular sacrifices of labor and stone to their God, dwarves receive powerful magics that enable their race to continue and to tunnel through the earth. Dwarves do build very sturdy underground dwellings, but do not regard them as permanent; once their tunnels and mines have extended too far, they will abandon an entire colony of dwellings and build a new one. These abandoned cluster of buildings often become homes to more sinister underground demons and spirits.
Dwarvish Reproduction and Caste Divisions
I want to divide the dwarves into castes:
*Drones -- the almost mindless members of a colony.
*Singers -- see below.
*Scouts -- the smarter ones, the semi-autonomous ones, the ones that become fully autonomous if a colony's Mother dies.
*Orphans -- scouts whose Mother has died. All dwarvish PCs are Orphans.
*Mothers -- one per colony, kinda like the Queen of the hive.
Okay, here's the reproduction thing: these dwarves are kinda slimy, right? When an orphan decides to start a new colony, she finds a gray ooze and merges with it. Doing so creates a sentient, barely-mobile, psychic ooze. It reproduces by budding off. The first few buds become drones, who help with future reproduction; from then on, the drones separate the slimy buds from the main ooze and place them in stone hollows, feeding them regurgitated small animals and fungi. Eventually, based on their diet, a drone, singer, or scout will "hatch" from the bud, looking kinda like the "hatching" of the Uruk-Hai in FOTR.
Singers, BTW, will be a special caste of dwarves: huge, misshapen, and barely mobile, singers can emit a low-pitch frequency that stimulates glands in drones' hands. These glands enable drones to shape stone with their hands as easily as others shape clay.
Orphan Stats
Overall, I want to make them up to a +1 ECL. I'd rather err on the high side of their ECL, since I'm hoping to entice a player to take one on as a PC, but I don't want to be totally overboard.
+2 Con, -2 Cha. Dwarves have an intimate kinship with the stone that they tunnel through, granting them extraordinary toughness; at the same time, their alien language, unsettling eyes, hive mind, and viscous skin make them difficult to relate to.
Medium Size.
Speed 20 feet. Underground, speed is not as important, and dwarves have a slow, stumping, deliberate gait.
Darkvision. Dwarves are accustomed to underground living.
Stonecunning: They gain all traditional dwarven advantages of stonecunning.
Poison Gas resistance: Aeons of mining have made dwarves exceptionally resistant to poison gases; as such, they receive a +2 racial bonus to all saves vs. poison gas.
+2 racial bonus to all appraisal, craft, and profession checks related to stone.
Tough Hide: Dwarves are partly of the rock which they mine, and as such, they gain +1 natural armor.
Stone camouflage: Dwarves appear almost made of stone. When hiding in gray stone surroundings, they gain a +4 racial bonus to their hide checks.
Viscous Ooze: Dwarves can emit a viscous, sour-smelling ooze from their pores, granting them limited resistance against fire. (I've not decided how to work this: 1/day as a standard action, granting fire resistance 15 for 10 minutes? Standard action whenever they want, granting fire resistance 15 for 1 minute? Standard action 1/day, granting protection from fire 30?)
Slippery Skin: The same viscous, sour-smelling ooze grants them a +4 racial bonus on any escape artist checks made while the ooze remains on their skin.
Favored Class: Psychic Warrior (if I go with having P.W. in my world) or Ranger (otherwise).
Any ideas? Feedback? Specific good ideas would be:
-What should their specific stats be -- especially, how should I handle the fire resistance, and is the natural armor too much, and should the escape artist check be greater? Keep in mind that, as written, they gain no bonus vs. magic, limited bonus against poison, and no bonus vs orcs, goblinoids, or giants.
Thanks!
Daniel
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