Dwarves in Kingdoms of Kalamar

[Darklone]

So you are one of the authors, adapters, and/or editors of the Kingdoms of Kalamar® Player’s Guide™ v.3.5 adaptation?
(Adapted by Tilmann Berger, Edited by Brian Jelke and Joe Selby)

If so, that would be sweet

I'm the first, Brian Jelke is the "Co" in Kenzer & Co and Joe was/is the LKoK director.

I'm neither freelancer nor a paid workslave for Kenzer though.

I had some hassles with the others while updating the KPG, the Stonebones feat was as mentioned added for flavor vs balance ... drop it first. The +1 with light weapons... It's nice for a rogue, sure. Still most PCs would do better with heavier weapons.

And I don't agree that TWF, no matter how much I like the feat, is worth the EWP dwarven waraxe/urgrosh, especially in combination with the dwarves typical fighter class.

The other "unbalanced" KoK races... I assume you're talking about the golden halfling and the forest gnome. Their racial attribute adjustment were courtesy from the DMG... we proposed other ones (like the gray elf in the update sheets).

Giving the Stone Dwarves charisma penalties for interaction with anyone else is fine by me... that's already somehow proposed by the Stonebones flavortext.

 

[Tyrol]

Thanks for all the insight Darklone. Its *very* cool to see published people traversing these boards.

 

[Endur]

I have not played Kalamar, but I have read the books. I think Stone Dwarves are ok for LA+0, although they are on the strong side (like Dwarves in general).

-2 int is a bigger penalty than -2 chr, as the favored class of stone dwarves is Rogue and Rogues depend on int as much as they depend on dex. The lack of the +4 AC vs. Giants is huge.

To counter-balance those weaknesses, they get bonuses with light weapons and rogue skills. This makes the stone dwarf a rogue nearly as effective as a halfling rogue. But still, only nearly. I think a halfling Rogue is better than a Stone Dwarf Rogue. 2WF is a weak ability, especially restricted to light weapons and light armor.