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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2009348" data-attributes="member: 172">Hammer & HelmGiven the number of d20 system publishers out there, some overlap in the subject matter of products is probably inevitable. The first major example of this was perhaps the trio of sailing-oriented sourcebooks. The latest topic to receive such lavishing of attention is dwarves. Hammer & Helm hits the market at about the same time as Mongoose Publishing's Quintessential Dwarf and Badaxe Games' Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves.A First LookHammer & Helm is a 112 page book priced at $19.95.The front cover of the book depicts several dwarves armed for battle against a mountain backdrop. A glance at the back shows that the cover is only one-half of a larger picture. As part of Green Ronin and Paradigm's OGL Interlink projects, Paradigm will be publishing a book on giants that will complement this book and bear a cover depicting the giants that the dwarves are facing.The interior of the book is black and white. David Griffith, whose artwork you may recognize from various Mongoose titles, does all of the interior artwork. The detail of the artwork is very nice, but Griffith overdoes the stocky aspect of dwarves, making some of the depicted dwarves look somewhat comical.The interior text is dense, though the paragraphs are single-spaced. The layout is attractive and uses space well. The fonts used are all easily readable.A Deeper LookThe first chapter of Hammer & Helm is light on mechanics. The chapter begins by introducing a few classical character archetypes like the battlerager and the forge priest that a player may wish to use as ideas for a dwarven character. Unlike Mongoose's character concepts, these archetypes are fairly sketchy but have no mechanical implications or modifications.The chapter also discusses the role that the different core PC classes may play in dwarven society. Though primarily a player tool, this section provides some thoughts for the GM on the implications of changing the favored class of dwarves in the game.The chapter also presents alternative dwarven racial concepts as ideas for the GM to shift the flavor of dwarves in the game. These are not new subraces per se, but ideas for shifting the central concept of dwarves (or particular dwarven clans) in a game, including ideas for tweaking the dwarven racial abilities to support the flavor of the concept. For example, if you want to have a dying ancient clan of dwarves, they may possess ancient knowledge, and thus possess a bonus to knowledge checks vice appraise checks. Other alternate racial concepts include isolationist artisans, desert warriors, light haters, lords of battle, skyfarers, and minions of evil. As you can see, some of these concepts stray quite a bit from the classical dwarf concept.Finally, the chapter includes a few sample dwarven deities and a sidebar on detailing dwarven clans.The second chapter covers feats for dwarves, and is possibly the most mechanically innovative part of the book. A number of standard feats that dwarves might have are included, and three new types of feats are presented: bloodgift feats, bonding feats, and spell channeling feats.Bloodgift feats represent ancestral ties that the dwarf has to elemental forces. A dwarf may take one (and only one) "prime bloodgift" feats at first level. This feat provides advantages related to the nature of the bloodgift and allows access to a small feat chain also related to the gift. For example, deepblood improves the dwarf's spot checks when using the blindsight ability, and the follow-on feats improve the range of the dwarf's darkvision and improves the dwarf's concealment category when in shadows.Bonding feats require a special ritual to take that consume gp and xp, but return some fairly powerful benefits. Bonding feats can do things like grant a new type (like fey) or subtype (like fire).Spell Channeling feats allow a spellcaster to use up a prepared spell in exchange for a specific benefit. For example, mystic endurance allows you to channel a transmutation spell that provides you with a +1 enhancement bonus for each level of the channeled spell.There are a variety of other interesting feats, many of them focused on the tandem fighting styles of dwarves. The back-to-back feat prevents the character from being flanked if next to another character with the same feat. The shield wall feat gives you an AC bonus when next to an ally when you both have shields. The stoic feat gives a bonus against sense motive feats to read your emotional state.The third chapter presents new prestige classes. The prestige classes thankfully do not fall into the trap of trying to assign a prestige class to a fairly generic concept. Each class has a few background assumptions that go with it. This could be a problem if dwarves are already well defined in your game, but generally, these concepts fit well with dwarves and provide you with a few possible adventure ideas that you can integrate with your game. Giving you ideas along with statistics seems to be Green Ronin's strong suit.The prestige classes have a mix of 10, 5, and 3 level classes. Some of the more interesting prestige classes described herein are:- Acolyte of the Crystal Shard: Members of a monastery whose close connection to the earth eventually give them a crystalline appearance, and abilities to go with it (such as a natural armor bonus and rock-hard fists. 10-level prestige class.- Caverngaarder: A short (3 level) prestige class representing dwarven warriors specialized in unit fighting.- Clanheart Disciple: An arcane spellcaster with one of the bloodgift feats may eventually qualify to become a Clanheart Disciple. The class abilities are determined by the nature of the bloodbond feat that the character possesses. For example, a character with the afore mentioned deepblood feat gains abilities relating to shadows and darkness. 10-level prestige class.- Ironbound: An exemplar for the dwarven love of heavy armor, the ironbound learns to use many forms of exotic armor (described later in the book) and gains other abilities to enhance the utility of armor. 10 level prestige class.- Magesmith: A conceptual must-have class for dwarves, the magesmith specializes in crafting magical arms and armor and possibly other magic items. The magesmith can learn to forego some requirements for magic items, and gain other benefits in creating magic items as they gain levels, as well as continuing to advance in spellcating at every even level. 10 level prestige class.- Spirit Stone Defiler: The spirits of dwarves oft times settle in certain sacred stones, called spirit stones. Spirit stone defilers do the unthinkable, and use these precious artifacts of the dwarven people to empower undead. This class would make for a great villain in a dwarvish campaign. 5 level class.Other prestige classes are Cavern Strider, Gemscribe, Immolated, Knight of the Black Forge, Mountain's Fury Devotee, Stonehound, Stonesinger, Stormhammer, Thunderthrower, and Tundrin. Some of the prestige classes are a bit esoteric for my taste, but many of them embody excellent ideas and seem mechanically balanced.The fourth chapter regards creatures, and like the third chapter wraps up a lot of great adventure and campaign ideas with the rules material. There are a few dwarf variants, such as the Eldorn (a ancient race of fey related to dwarves) and Isen (arctic dwarves). There are also templates and elemental creatures with a relationship to dwarves. Defender of Mar-Namor is a template applied to undead to make them into loyal defenders for dwarves who found themselves under attack by mind flayers. Those who undergo a test to the dwarven god of the forge and fail become Hammerstruck, a type of undead that can be ordered by dwarves. Those that succeed temporarily gain the Tempered template, a blessed of the forge god.The fifth chapter is new spells. This includes five new clerical domains: armor, construct, fortitude, stonehearth, and sword. In addition to these, there is a new category of spells: clanheart. Clanheart spells are available to divine and arcane spellcasters who have the proper feat, Clanheart Magic. Clanheart spells are useful in defense of the dwarven territories.The spells generally follow dwarven themes, such as spells that concern earth or forged objects such as armor or chains.The sixth chapter is equipment. This includes magical and nonmagical equipment, plus special rules on siege engines. In keeping with dwarven themes, a new type of armor is introduced, exotic armor. Exotic armor operates much like exotic weapons: they have superior characteristics to normal armor, but require a special proficiency to use without penalty.The appendix details some typical NPCs, in the same fashion as the stock NPCs detailed in the DMG. Experts and warriors (legionnaires) are provided for 10 levels, while PC class dwarves are provided for 20 levels. The legionnaire seems a bit off to me. The legionnaire gets feats dealing with fighting as part of a group at relatively high levels (6th and 9th), levels at which the dwarf is likely to be considered exceptional and not a rank-and-file warrior.ConclusionI am not a big fan of dwarves, but I found there to be many intriguing ideas in here. The book does take some risks and in some cases it goes a little far from the classical concept of the dwarf. However, the book is presented in a "toolkit" fashion, and has a lot of useful ideas for characters, campaigns, and adventures. Overall, nothing struck me as extremely overpowered, though some of the feats may raise some GM's warning flags.Edit: After considering this book for some time and comparing it to some of the current "4's", I think that the overall high content of the product earns it a "5".Overall grade: A--Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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