Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves

[Messageboard Golem]

Deep within their mountain fortresses, the dwarves toil away at their craft, turning precious ore into works of priceless beauty. Yet these are not mere artisans, for they are the masters of yet another skill: the art of warfare. For every gold coin that flows into the halls of the dwarven lords, there stands at the ready a grim-faced dwarven warrior prepared to defend it with his very life.

DWARVES features background information and role-playing tips for ten unique dwarven prestige classes, as well as new feats, fighting styles, and dwarven runes. Of course, you will also find an extensive section on dwarven craftsmanship, including weapon and armorsmithing rules. You can create entirely new kinds of masterwork weapons and armor, crafted from the finest dwarven steel, mithral, and adamantine.

HEROES OF HIGH FAVOR: DWARVES is the definitive sourcebook for dwarven player characters of every kind.

 

[Roland Delacroix]

This past ENworld Chicago Gameday I was lucky enough to win the new BADAXE games supplement, Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves. It was good enough to demand that I write a review on it.

Though only about 6x9x1/8 inches it is closer to handy than small. Very convenient for an overstuffed backpack. The cover design is a stone/tome look similar to the Core Rules. Compared to some of the bad artwork on other d20 supplement covers, the Dwarves cover is simple yet good looking. Opening the book up, the layout is nice looking with well-done drawings. The art has a definite dwarven feel. All the sections are easy to find for quick reference. I didn't find a single editing/spelling/punctuation error.

The 62-page book is broken into 4 chapters, with a 2-page introduction. This is a 2-page dwarf primer that describes all things Dwarfish without getting in depth. Good for new players, but only 2 pages so it does not take space from the veterans. There are a few short paragraphs about the prestige classes, and then the Open Game Content blurb. Then on to the crunchy bits!

Chapter 2 is all crunch. It starts with basic fighter feats, 16 in all. Most of these have the Fighter designation, and some a suggested Dwarf designation. The chapter also contains fighting styles, which work similarly to those introduced in Oriental Adventures. When the character meets the feats and skill prereqs, he has mastered the style and automatically gains the benefits. If a Fighter spends a feat on Style Specialization the bonuses increase. The bonuses, like the previous feats, are both useful and add flavor without having overpowering effects. The prereqs serve as both balance and flavor. The styles listed are Single Weapon, Weapon and Shield, Two Handed, and Two Weapon. Finally the chapter describes dwarven rune feats, something I'm sure a lot of players have been looking for. The feats allow a dwarf to inscribe a type of rune on an item, if they meet the rune prereq's. The runes grant a wide range of abilities, usable once per day, with duration based on the invokers Charisma. Finally Dwarven Rune weapons!

There are also expanded rules for a few skills; Appraise, Forgery and the new skill Knowledge: Dwarves. The Craft skill gets the most treatment though, with simple rules for Craft savvy PC's to tinker with armor and weapons to their hearts content. This section is just awesome. Now your dwarves can develop alloys and armors that rival Mithril and Adamantite, or even contain abilities of both. There is some potential for abuse, imagine armor with all the benefits of Mithril and Adamantite and more, but only if the DM lets the players run riot. Making such an armor with any degree of success would take a PC 2 years or more, so I don't see it as a problem in most campaigns. The example given is clear and helpful. Most of the enhancements can be given to mundane items as well, crafty DMs can have a field day with this. (excuse the pun)

Chapter 3 moves on to Prestige Classes, presenting one for every fighter multiclass option, including the popular Battle-Rager and Skald. The PrC's are well done with a little descriptive text that tells their role in dwarven and adventurer society. The PrCs in general have a few abilities of both classes with a smattering of new, useful abilities. The prereqs seemed about right, nothing too easy to get in but what could be expected of such a multi class. I particularly liked the Rune Priest, who gets a lot of bonus Rune feats, and the Slayer, who gets a TON of bonus feats that can only be applied to favored enemies.

The final chapter, chapter 4, is a 2-page summary of dwarven roleplaying and virtues. Again, this is a short summary that I see as very helpful to players who have never played but of limited use to others. Still, its just 2 pages and it was a quick fun read.

As an accomplished min/maxer and DM I was concerned about two things: single players getting too powerful and time wasting rules complications. My worry turned out to be groundless as there is nothing in this book terribly powerful, but nothing terribly weak as well. All the new feats, classes, and rules seem to have been weighed against the Core Rules. Everything made me say "Cool! That would be awesome for X type of character!!" but I also didn't see a single thing a character would regret taking later. The rules additions were simple, quick, and easy to remember. They add depth and character to dwarven PCs and a campaign.

One thing I noticed was how well this book would fit into any campaign. The feats and PrC's given are rather generic. Even the short discussion on worship talks only of an "All-Father", referring to the typical dwarf high-craft-war god in many campaigns.

I rate this book as a must buy for any DM or player who would like to expand their options. At only $10 Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves is a steal.

 

[Shadeus]

I was fortunate enough to win the first sourcebook produced by Bad Axe Games, Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves. It's physical appearance is:

- compact size
- 62 pages in length
- the cover image is well-done and has a stoney appearance

Chapter 1: Introduction

It's only two pages and it outlines what the book offers. It's a sourcebook for dwarven characters that explores multiclassing between the race's favorite class and all other classes. The concept sounds quite clever. Let's see how it stands up.

Chapter 2: New Rules

This chapter is broken down into 4 parts: Feats, Fighting Styles, Dwarven Runes and Skills.

The feats section introduces new Fighter feats (17 in total) as well as a new category suggested only for dwarves. Most of the feats appeared balanced. Some of the highlights include: weapon mastery feats (requiring weapon specializing and gives a +1 to hit with a certain type of weapon, like all types of axes), Cleave Sunder (offers a "cleave" attack if the previous sunder attack destroys the item), and Improved Charge (gives the character a bonus +2 to damage when charging). Some of the more suspect feats are Giant Killer (no movement AoO for reach for creatures 2 size categories larger than the char) and Refined Skill Focus (which can offer a 2 ranks in a skill).

The Fighting Styles are excellent. They each require feats or skills not normally in list of figher "must have" feats (such as Endurance or the Bluff skill). There are four styles: single weapon, weapon and shield, two-handed, and two weapon style. Each style can be specialized in if the a feat is spent increasing its bonuses.

The Dwarven Runes held the most promise, but were the biggest disappointment. These are runes that are etched on to masterwork weapons that act as a "divine power conduit" to releasing an effect. There are 9 different runes. Each rune requires a feat to be able to identify, enscribe, or use the rune. I felt it was overboard to require using a feat to activate a rune. Most of the rune effects are feats themselves, although with more rigid requirements.

The Skills section is really well done. The bulk of this section details new non-magical features to add on to masterwork items besides those offered in the Player's Handbook. Some of these features include: durability (more item hp), handened (higher hardness), and mobility (higher max dex). There are many more though and it is really well done with a good example of how to apply these new rules.

Chapter 3: Prestige Classes

This section is the focus of the book and gets the most pages. It offers not only tips on how to multiclass a dwarven fighter with every other class, but it also provides a prestige class to even further focus. The list of prestige classes include (in order of the class it is combined with): Battle rager, Dwarven Skald, Rune-Priest, rock-Warden, Stoneheart Ascetic, Paragon, Slayer, Tunnel-Fighter, Aceldamist, and Artificer.

All of them are quiet balance, although some more creative than others. Some of the highlights are:

- Aceldamist: who gets to pick from a list of abilities allowing variety with the PrC. It is VERY well done and should have
been some of the options available to the sorcerer as a core class.
- Rock Warden: a fighter/druid who gains additiona mastery over stonework. Again, very creative.
- Paragon: a fighter/paladin who is not only a smith, but also a defender of light. He quests to find his ancenstral weapon
(an intelligent weapon that grows in power)

Chapter 4: Dwarven Roleplay

An obligatory chapter on the daily lives of dwarves. Useful for those new to roleplaying dwarves.

Summary:

The book itself was well-editted. The artwork was all black and white, but very appropriate to this type of book. The new feats are good as a whole, but the reason to get this book is for its rules on crafting masterwork items. The prestige classes were well-done for the most part, with a few shining examples among them. I must admit, I would never have gotten a soucebook based on a race before reading this one. But it has completely changed my mind. As a player, this book is exactly what I was looking for.

I rated it a 4 only because there isn't a 4.5 rating. I only slightly downgraded it for its treatment of Dwarven Runes.

 

[Nail]

I have to admit, I don't go for "race books" when they come out. I'm pretty picky about what I include in my game, and I always figure I can do as well as, or better than, any splat book out there. After all, why should I pay any hard-earned gold for a fluffy description of why elves wear purple lace dresses every ten-day? Or why gnolls only pick their ears with their left paw, instead of their right? Especially since I'd have t' change th' stuff around to fit into my game anyway. Might as well not even spend th' cash.

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves doesn't try t' pass me any of that garbage. Just the crunchy bits that players can use directly, without extensive modification and interpretation. I know that the phrase "tool kit" is bandied about a lot with supplement books, but this little book (62 pg, 1/2 size, perfect-bound) is the real deal. Fer dwarves, obviously. Faeries 'n th' like can go back t' playing their harps an' signing songs about springtime an' what-not.

First Impressions
I read th' book thru in an evening...then went back for more. There's lots of useful and creative stuff here. Roleplaying advice is present, but in a useful way, answering questions like: "Why is the favored class fighter?", and "How does a dwarven Ftr/Wiz fit into dwarven society and an adventuring party?". All of it is concise and clear.

Some "grit": Feats
The book's got quite a few feats jammed into it (31!), and practically all of 'em are balanced and playable. Like another reviewer here at ENWorld, I thought the Rune feat idea was a clever one, if a bit too expensive -- though to be honest I'm not sure how to fix that. Runes are crafted into weapons and armor, and may be used to channel divine power as a supernatural ability. This is a great idea, very much in keeping with the archetypical dwarven mastery of smithing. But you need a specific feat to activate a specific rune, an' if you don't have the feat, yer outta luck. That's a bit harsh. (Perhaps one feat for 2 to 3 different runes? Dunno.) Still, at least it's on the "weaker", rather than the "overpowered", side of balance. YMMV.

For other feats, I really liked the Blood of Kings and the Giant Killer feats. I thought they were bang-on in terms of balance and playability.

This book also introduces the "Weapon Style" synergy feat groups and specialization feats. (Weapon styles are the usual suspects: single weapon, weap. & shield, 2 weap., 2-handed) The synergy idea is a great one: a bunch of feats related to a style, taken together, gain an aditional benefit. I might be tempted to tweak those a bit, but then again, that's the sort of stuff I love t' do. (OT: I've gotta "weapon average damage per round spreadsheet" an' everything!)

More crunchy bits: Skill uses
The Skills section has a great bit on Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing. The game mechanics are clear, and the "coolness factor" is high. I'd feel pretty confident giving these straight to th' players. Things like "Makers Mark" and "Custom Fit" are just what the doctor ordered. My only question here: Does "Enhanced Alloy" requite a supply of adamantine or mithral? If not, what if you included these metals into your creations? Is there any additional benefit?

PrCs: not more of "the usual"
The second "half" of the book is given over to Prestige Classes. Again, I've gotten more than a little sick of everybody and their grandmother (no offense, E.N.!) sticking a few PrCs into their books. But here, it fits, and it's done well. The PrCs are loosely linked to each multi-class combo a dwarf might take: Ftr/Bbn, Ftr/Brd, Ftr/Clr, etc. This is an excellent idea, and other d20 companies out there should start taking notes. So, your dwarf can start planning fer these combos the moment he's created, and the PrC concept fits smoothly to your character by the time you've got the prereqs. They're straight-forward, like dwarves, and inspired, like heroes should be. No weird 'n wacky PrCs (Oozemaster, anyone?). Since this is not a play-test review, I can't say how balanced these PrCs are, but upon first glance they look to have an even keel. Perhaps my only gripe is with the Artificer -- this seems a bit like the Paragon, in that they both craft magic weapons. But hey, it's nit-pick....

Conclusion and Rating:
Hey, it's a dwarf book. If you don't play dwarves, this book's not for you. But for the rest of us, this one's worth the coin you pay fer it. The text is well-formated, concise, and packed with goodies. A value-for-money score of 5 out of 5, IMO. Production (cover, art-work, "look") is a bit lower, but more than adequate at 4 out of 5. The "cool ideas" factor is also 5 out of 5. Heck, my only complaint here is that there isn't more to this book -- at only 61-odd pages, the author can only fit in so much material with out forcing us to resort to micro-fiche scanners to read it. Maybe a "web enhancement"? (Nah. I want th' author t' spend his free time on writin' that "Wulf Ratbane's Storyhour" o' his......)

-Nail

 

[Hammerhead]

At a first glance, Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves is a perfect-bound book of about 60 pages. The cover is rather plain, but helps emphasize the no-frills, solid-as-stone nature of dwarves. Black and white artwork of average quality is found throughout the book, but it doesn't take up too much space. Ultimately, this is a book of crunchy bits, and there are plenty.

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves begins with a few words of why dwarves are fighters, and then delves right into the feats. These feats are both creative and balanced, and possess a definite dwarven quality to them. My favorites include Axe Mastery, Improved Charge, and Giant Killer. There are also new weapon styles, that one can achieve by having certain skills and feats. The weapon styles are Single Weapon, Weapon and Shield, Two-Handed Weapon, and Two Weapons. All are quite balanced, and one can further specialize in them by spending a feat. These remind me of the 2nd Edition Complete Fighter's Handbook.

Rune feats, a new feature of Heroes, are interesting. Basically, they allow users to inscribe runes onto weapons or armor, conferring certain benefits. However, these runes require actions to activate. Many give abilities equivalent to feats or magical enhancements. Ultimately, these Rune feats, while interesting, are rather underpowered and perhaps the worst part of this book.

Perhaps the part of Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves that I looked forward to the most was the improved crafting skills. These options allow you to further upgrade armor and weapons using only your ranks in craft. Craft can now add many cool new abilities onto armor, and there is finally a reason to get more than a +10 modifier in Craft. Hooray! To balance the powerful abilities Craft can bestow is the sheer amount of time it takes for a dwarven smith to make such enhancements. This is one of the best parts of the book.

Like any good accessory, Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves has prestige classes. All of these prestige classes are essentially multiclass Fighter/X, with a the flavor of dwarves thrown in. There is a prestige class for every multiclass combination with fighters, from the Battlerager (Ftr/Brb) to the Artificer (Ftr/Wiz). All of these classes are very balanced, with many cool new abilities. My favorites include the Skald, who can inspire his fellows to battle while kicking butt himself, and the Tunnel Fighter, who gains bonuses in close quarters.

The book ends with an obligatory Dwarven Roleplaying section, detailing the dwarven virtues.

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves is an excellent book that I recomend to any fan of dwarves, or to anyone who hasn't played them before. (How sad.) Even if you're not a fan of dwarves, many feats and the Craft rules can be used. I, for one, eagerly await the newest Heroes of High Favor.

 

[The Sigil]

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves (hereafter simply DWARVES) is Bad Axe Games' first foray into the d20 marketplace.

Percent of OGC: Roughly 50% (see below)

First Impressions: DWARVES is another niche book - tightly focused; though I must admit it was not what I expected. 40 pages are given over to prestige classes - 4 pages per class. By my count, that means fully 2/3 of the book is prestige classes. I didn't expect the book to be so prestige-class heavy. But on going back and reading the "foreword" it is clear that this is in fact what DWARVES is meant to do - spend most of its time dealing with archetypical dwarven roles as reflected in the "favored class" of dwarves - fighter. Okay, fair enough... I need to change my expectations a bit - this book is meant to explore "dwarves through fighter since their favored class is fighter." A refreshing look at the almost forgotten concept of favored classes and what implications that will have on dwarven society (or is that the other way round?).

Initial Annoyances: The book wasn't what I expected. While that isn't necessarily bad, it WAS annoying. The rules for Runes were a bit hard to grasp on first read - it's easy to miss "how to activate runes" (though the second time around I got them). I also felt a little disappointed at the new Craft rules - mostly because I didn't feel there were enough options presented... I got to the end of the section and thought, "aw, is that it? I want more..."

Chapter Breakdown:

Chapter 1 deals with the "generic" aspects of dwarves. Gives a quick (really quick) overview of society, attitudes, and culture. Nothing new and exciting for RPG veterans here, but does help you get your "dwarf mindset" in gear before diving in to the meatier stuff. It's only two pages long and although much of it is fluff, it doesn't detract from the rest of the book in either tone or quantity. I was rather indifferent about this chapter, but hey, I've been playing dwarves for 20-odd years now, so I guess anything that gives me "basics of dwarven society" will be boring to me.
Chapter 1 is closed content.

Chapter 2 can be handled in four parts: Feats, Fighting Styles, Runes, and Old Uses for New Skills (read: "new stuff to do with the Craft skill"). Most of the Feats are are fighter-oriented and usable for combat. Nothing too new and exciting here, except for the Style Specialization options (nice segue into Fighting Styles, eh?).
Reminiscent of the old Complete Book of Fighters, this gives game mechanic backup to the player who wants to specialize in "weapon and shield" or "single weapon" or "two-handed weapon" or "two-weapon style." Nothing truly overpowering here - spend a Feat for a +1 bonus or mitigate a penalty by -2. This does a good job of giving "mechanical backup" to role-playing choices without creating uber-munchkins. Excellent job there.
Runic Feats, to the complaint of some, seem a bit underpowered - runes can't even be used without a Feat, and with dwarves' Charisma penalty, odds are that you won't get a ton of utility from, say, a rune that lets you use Cleave for a number of rounds per day equal to your Charisma bonus. Runes, however, have one saving grace - they don't have other prereqs. That means that a 10 Str dwarf can be Cleaving opponents. Also, you can channel turning uses into Runes - also makes sense, since one presumes that dwarves usually are busy fighting goblins and not zombies. A nice touch. I still think Runes are slightly underpowered, but that's fine with me... I don't need "escalation" where every new book gives PCs bigger and badder and better powers.
Finally, the Craft section details a few new mundane options for armor and shields. Loved everything about this but the length - I could have used another four pages or so of this kind of thing. This was, for me, the highlight of DWARVES.
Chapter 2 is all Open Game Content.

Chapter 3 is the "Chapter of the Prestige Classes." These are set up with 2 pages of "flavor text" and illustrations (not OGC) and 2 pages detailing the class and its abilities (OGC). A nice way to split the OGC and non-OGC bits 50/50. I felt that most of the PrCs are mechanically sound, if not always inspiring. The idea of a PrC for each multiclass archetype is refreshing, though - and they follow the idea that a PrC should not be categorically better than a standard class - just more specialized (better in some certain situations, worse in others). The PrCs are solid additions to a dwarven culture without too much ridiculousness. Highlights are the Tunnel Fighter (who gets flanking benefits when his opponent is near a wall) and the Battle Rager (whose "Against the Odds" ability worries me as possibly overpowered but I haven't playtested it yet).
Chapter 3 is 50% OGC, as noted above - the "flavor text" is not, but all the "crunchy bits" are.

Chapter 4 is a 2-page wrap-up of dwarven roleplaying. It presents seven (IIRC) dwarven "virtues" - which, when taken to extremes, provide the quintessential stereotype of stoic, greedy, grumpy dwarves. Nothing too exciting here for anyone but a first-time dwarf.
Chatper 4 is closed content.

PRESENTATION: The interior artwork didn't blow me away, but struck me as better than most of the artwork I've seen of late. Nice and clean, slightly Elmore-esque. Style points here for not trying too hard, but giving us quality material. The cover, by contrast, is BEAUTIFUL in its simplicity. Extra bonus points for the OGC delineation method - there is a "bar" at the bottom of each page that either does or does not contain the phrase "this page is Open Content" - all text (not pictures) on a page are OGC when this appears and they did a great job of layout so that things never felt "forced" and I didn't get "spillover" of fluff into the OGC crunchy bits. Definitely worthy of emulation for other publishers.

Conclusion: Not quite what I expected, but a pleasant surprise. Most of the book was "solid but not overwhelming." When I consider that the pages are half the size of the Quintessential X series, that tells me that this book is actually only 1/4 the size of the Quintessential X series. I felt that, on the whole, I got almost as much from DWARVES as I do from the Quintessential X series - because DWARVES seems more tightly focused (this is usually a GOOD thing when doing splatbooks). I can't justify calling it "great," since only the Craft rules struck me as really neat, though - very very solid, but little in the way of "WOW" factor. That I didn't get much of a "wow" keeps it from a "Superb" rating and instead earns it a "Good" rating (4/5); while its technical merits (layout, artwork, and rules adherence) are easily worthy of a 5/5, I felt the "idea" merits and "wow" factor were only in the 3/5 range - YMMV. The book certainly has no glaring weaknesses unless you hate Prestige Classes (and even if you do hate them, I urge you to look at the way they handled Prestige Classes - it's definitely a nice spin to see "archetypes" as PrC's instead of "neat bundles of powers"), and I am looking forward to Bad Axe Games' next release.

--The Sigil
July 10, 2002

 

[Rune]

I don't typically find any use for racially specific character-option books. Usually, they're crammed full of useless or uninspired flavor material and have maybe a few good, crunchy ideas, and many equally uninspired ones. This book is different. I don't mind telling you that my entire gaming-group, after seeing this book, said, practically in unison, "You have to run an all-dwarves campaign!" I couldn't agree with them more.

Allow me to explain:

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves is 6x9 inches, 64 pages (perfect bound). Don't let the small size of the book fool you, though; the layout (done by Brad Kelley, also the graphic designer for the book) is quite economical and very friendly to read. It is a comfortable and very portable book, but it is also packed with goodness. For instance, out of 62 pages, we have 1 title page (with credits), 1 page for the table of contents, a 2-page introduction, 1 page with legal text (the Open Game License Version 1.0a), and 36 pages of Open Content. I'll repeat that, in case you glossed over it. THIRTY-SIX pages of Open Content. That's over half the book, folk! It doesn't hurt that the book is well edited (which should be no surprise given that the author, Ben Durbin, writes technical instruction manuals for a living, if I remember correctly!).

But how does it look?

Tasteful. The cover (done by Andrew Hale) shows a stylized hammer and anvil made to look like a stonework design in the tradition of the core books.

The interior artwork is all black-and-white line-illustration (also Hale's work) is cartoon-ish, but quite flavorful; the drawings look a little over the top, but are action oriented, reminding me a great deal of Wayne Reynolds' work. The shading, also, is quite nice.

Okay, it looks good and it has a lot of open content (crunchy bits), but is it good?

If you like dwarves, it is. If you don't like dwarves, I have to wonder why you've read this far, but most of this stuff could be easily adapted for other, less bearded, campaigns.

Okay, let's start with the introduction. Here, Ben Durbin (known as Wulf Ratbane on the EN World Message Boards, where his excellent and very dwarven Wulf's Collected Story Hour can be read) explains, in two pages, what his purpose for writing the book is, what role a dwarf traditionally plays in a campaign, what, exactly, having fighter as a favored class means for a dwarf, how he approached the creation of the prestige classes included in the book, and what parts of the book are open source or product identity.

Then, it jumps right into feats and skills. The feats included do not appear to be over-balanced, if anything, they appear under-balanced, but I do not really believe that this is the case either. Two of the more powerful feats, Blood of Kings and Giant Killer are of such limited utility (in most campaigns), that they really are not necessarily a better choice than most other feats in the Core books. Some of the feats are especially inspired, such as the beautiful Cleave Asunder feat, which allows you to cleave through anything, not just creatures, if you can destroy it. Another great one is Sturdy Back, which allows a character to lower the encumbrance by weight (not by armor!) by one category.

Then, there are the fighting styles. Single-weapon, weapon and shield, two-handed, and two-weapon styles are not feats, but act as feats; that is to say, if you have met a bunch of prerequisites, you gain a minor bonus of some sort, free of charge (kind of like the martial arts schools of Oriental Adventures, except not all of the prerequisites are feats), which is enhanced if you spend another feat to specialize in it. Pretty nifty.

So wait a minute, didn't I say some of the feats appear to be under-balanced? These would be the incredibly inspired Dwarven Rune feats. I'll start by pointing out that dwaven runes are supernatural, but they aren't magical. Instead, they are masterwork additions, which is an interesting concept explored later in the book. The rune feats allow a character to identify, activate, and craft a rune onto an item (if they can craft, that is). The realization that an item with a rune can only be activated by someone with the matching feat can cause one to instinctively shrink away from the feats, but they're really not that bad. The feats are not for every character, that's for sure, but there are definitely concepts that could well benefit from these feats (one such concept is explored in a prestige class).

Okay, so what about the skills? There are some very interesting dwarven twists to some of the commonly taken skills, such as Appraise, Diplomacy, and Forgery (as well as an added category of Knowledge (Dwarves). What really stands out in this section is the detailed expansion of the Craft skill and masterwork components (different ways of manifesting masterwork qualities in a crafted item). This (along with other elements in this book) puts a great emphasis on the dwarf as a crafter, something that gets forgotten all too often when dwarves enter into fantasy games.

Ah, so now we get to the prestige classes, the bulk of the book (two thirds). There is one prestige class for each fighter multiclass combination (fighter is the dwarf's favored class, remember?) and each has two pages dedicated to an illustration and useful flavor information: a definition of the class, an bit about its role in dwarven society, its role within an adventuring party, and helpful advice on building up to the class. Each prestige class then has two pages of game-rules material detailed.

The prestige classes are beautiful. All of them. I look at each one and say, I have got to play that. Some of these classes are more inspired than others (my personal favorites are the Slayer and the Tunnel-Fighter. And the Rock-Warden. And the Rune Priest. And the Dwarven Skald. And...I could go on) and some overlap a little bit (the Paragon and the Artificer take different approaches to being crafters of armor and weapons--and items, in the case of the Artificer. The Artificer is, naturally, much better at it). All in all, the classes are all very well balanced (at first glance; I have yet to playtest them); they do not appear to outshine either of the two classes that they are spun off of at equivalent levels, nor to be undesirable. Mr. Durbin takes an unusual (but refreshing approach to the prestige classes; they are archetypes, rather than things created solely for their "coolness factor."

As great as they are, I do have a problem with them. I don't completely agree with the philosophy that Mr. Durbin approached the classes with in one respect; for almost all of the classes, he effectively creates a prerequisite class for the prestige class by including an ability that is exclusive to a single class. I know that Wizards of the Coast have set this precedent and that Wulf's isn't technically wrong to do it, but it doesn't feel right to me and believe it violates one of the fundamental principles behind the idea of prestige classes--that they should be available to any class (with some restriction in the case of spell-casting prestige classes, of course) at some point, if they choose to go for it. This is, however, a minor issue and one easily altered, if you are so inclined. Adding a few prerequisites based on class skill, choice should make things easier. I don't, for instance, see why it should be much easier for a barbarian/fighter to become a Battle-Rager than a rogue/fighter. When it comes down to it, the extra hit points from the barbarian classes will probably be a lot more appealing than the sneak attacks. But not necessarily.

The last two pages (before the page with the Open Game License) talk about how to role-play a dwarf and expound on the Seven Dwarven Virtues--how they work in dwarven society and how they can work against it. This material is tastefully generic, but well presented and useful.

Okay, so how do I score this thing?

Appearance: 5/5 The book is tastefully presented, has a nice cover, I like the illustrations, the layout is comfortable, and the editing is very good.

Content: 5/5 This book is practically all "crunchy bits" and all of it is good! That being said, even the flavor text is applicable and thought provoking.

Utility: 5/5 Did I mention that I've been inspired to run an all-dwarves campaign? The ideas presented in this book are ALL good!

Technical Aspects: 4/5 The mechanics presented in this book is excellent; very well thought out and innovative, but due to my concerns touched on above regarding the prestige classes' prerequisites, I cannot in good conscience give this part a perfect score. I will again emphasize the editing is very good. I doubt we'll need much errata on this book. There is, one instance where the last sneak attack (+5d6) was left out of the Tunnel Fighter chart, apparently because of a layout shift just before the book went to print, but the book is by no means riddled with such errors.

Value: 5/5 at $10, this 6x9 inch, 64-page perfect-bound book is a steal. If you can't find tons of useful ideas and "crunchy bits" in here to satisfy you, you shouldn't be buying a book on dwarves in the first place.

Overall: 5/5 I love this book. I don't generally buy race-handbooks, but I'll definitely pick up the next Heroes of High Favor book solely on the strength of this one. I just have to wonder, however, who will be writing the one on Pecks. I just can't see Wulf doing it!

 

[GameWyrd]

Heroes of High Favor is half a book; at least it is the size of half a book, being only 15cm wide. It’s 62 pages long and comes it at $9.95. That’s interesting; a cost per word evaluation would come down unfavourably on the book, it took me just a few seconds to shuffle around in a pile of RPG supplements behind me to find a "normal" sized 64-paged book and a 62-paged book and each cost $12.95. On the other hand, $9.95 for a paperback RPG supplement is fairly cheap and it must appeal strongly to youngsters making the first purchase, poverty ridden students or even people just wanting a cheap and easy way to inject some new prestige classes into their game.

I’ll tell you what’s not cheap and easy and that’s the Badaxe Games website. It’s a slick and professional production and well worth a look. The site, as does the jargon on the back of Heroes of High Favor, promises "games with grit". I haven’t found much grit in the book though.

I wouldn’t recommend buying Heroes of High Favor if it’s grit you’re looking for. The book is better described as a standard power-up for the dwarves. That might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I do think this offering from Badaxe is better than the awful power-up class books WotC finally finished vomiting all over the marketplace. True to form with this sort of book, Heroes of High Favor provides a list of feats, prestige classes and token note on dwarven roleplaying. The final chapter, dwarven roleplaying, is 2 pages long; that’s two of these small pages or one side of a "normal" book. Well, actually, perhaps I’ve been a little cruel describing the book as a "standard power-up" since there is a twist in focus which does help to inject some life into the book. Heroes of High Favor is designed to focus on the multi-class options available to the dwarf. Since favourite class of the dwarves is the fighter the book takes multi-class fighter possibilities and beefs them up into prestige classes.

The prestige classes are certainly more than just the token effort I’ve written off the roleplaying section as. In fact, the prestige classes include paragraphs on the class’ role in society and their role in any adventuring party. There’s generally as much text on the actual combination of the two core classes that go together to inspire the prestige class. The text presented in these sub-sections is really concerned with which attributes a player would be better of purchasing, which feats he would be wise to have in order to gather the biggest possible advantage and other power-play tricks. I suppose this is a cheaper alternative to buying a popular computer RPG that uses 3e rules and clicking on the "Recommend" button to see what the best number crunching option is. The phrase "iconic multi-class" seems to have been coined to describe these multi-class inspired prestige classes. I have mixed feelings on the actual prestige classes. One of the strengths of Heroes of High Favor is that all the prestige classes are detailed through 10 levels and this is something that other books dedicated to prestige classes and printed on twice the amount of paper often fail to do. On the other hand I simply recoil at the barefaced way in which these prestige classes, iconic multi-classes, are presented as ways to make your character bigger, better, stronger, faster and how this may sometimes involve careful diplomacy with the GM and how it -should- impact your choice of class and advancement right from the start. What ever happened playing a character that’s best suited to the campaign style or world setting? Mixed feelings continue, some of the special abilities these prestige classes get are just too powerful and too silly but yet they are explained clearly, succulently and sometimes with clarifying graphics.

For example, the Battle-Rager’s (Fighter-Barbarian) "Against the Odds" ability is shown alongside a figure of a Battle-Rager facing off against a hoard of goblinoids on a grid-map and why each of the goblinoids further invoke the abilities AC bonus. This is a level one ability that sees the Battle-Rager’s AC increase by +1 for every melee opponent who threatens his space. I think this is too powerful. Worse - I can’t get the image of a Battle-Rager surrounded by crippled dagger wielding goblins, gaining +8 AC and therefore somehow managing to avoid in the incoming fire from Drow archers. If these crippled goblins were trying to attack the Battle-Rager with sharpened branches that had a 10’ reach then the lucky dwarf would have +24 AC and I think the Drow archers would be left to try and see if their prototype cruise missiles could take him down.

Before the reader gets to make his own mind up on the prestige classes he’ll have access to the skills and feats section. The feats follow a fairly standard pattern; Axe Mastery has sensible prerequisites and gives the benefit of +1 attack bonus with all axes. You can guess what Spear or Crossbow Mastery might do.

There are some fighting styles too. Pick a fighting style and you’ll be better at it, there are prerequisites for each style and further involved rules to make sure the character is actually following the style in order to benefit from it but I think styles are best thought of as complex feats. If you’re in any doubt as which is the best option to boost your own character’s combat abilities then some of the iconic multi-classes have suggestions to help answer these concerns.

The dwarf rune system is on a similar style. It is simple and offers much in the way of boons and benefits to the otherwise humble dwarf. The runes cover more than just additions to the wielders attacking ability and there are runes for all sorts of things. Runes are treated as an additional level of masterwork for items and greatly increase the market value of the item.

The simple system is extended to dwarf craftsmanship. If you fancy plate armour but you’re rather fond of your Dex bonus then you simply need to buy yourself a highly mobile suit of plate armour made by dwarves. That’ll claw back some of your Dex bonus and then you’ll be free to try and get some more of that bonus back by inscribing runes or by some other magical enhancement.

I think the fighting styles, the runes and even the craftsmanship really are something of the "Dark side of the Force" in that they thrust all sorts of hitherto out of reach power and bonus scores at the players in a way which seems foolish to refuse and easy to achieve. I have to say that despite this grave concern I’m very much appreciative of the fact that this is all done in a very simple way, easy enough for my mere mind to get to grips with, and it’s all done without much in the way of new stats, numbers, charts and tables.

I don’t know. Perhaps I’ve lingered on all the failings I’ve found in the small book and given it too much of a negative spin but I just kept on hoping it would climb higher and live up to that potential I could feel bubbling just beneath the surface. I’m certainly not put off Badaxe Games, in fact, I’m rather taken by their fresh style and I’ll be keeping an eye out for future publications from them... especially if they’re not designed to "enhance" core races or classes. Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves is the first book from Badaxe Games so maybe even future offerings from the Heroes line will be slightly realigned. There are certainly only positive things to be said for the artwork; it’s all rather good and I imagine designing suitable illustrations may be made harder by the smaller page size.

My mixed feelings on this book translate into a 5/10 mark at GameWyrd and so when I have to translate that to a score out of 5 it’ll get the rather kinder on the eye 3/5. Only roleplayers ever decide .5 rounds down and I wish they wouldn’t.

This GameWyrd review can be found here and you'll be able to assign your own score to the book at the same place.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves (HOHF), is Badaxe Games' first in a series of books exploring the core races.

The book itself is actually a slightly-larger-than-A5 booklet (actually 9 inches by 6 inches). Because of its unusual size its hard to compare with other products of its type. Its 62 pages probably comes in at something like 35 A4 pages, and this would make it fairly expensive for its content volume. Though font size is good and there are no chunks of white space, the space between paragraphs and headings seems quite large on the page, as do the margins - perhaps a slight illusion due to the page size.

The external artwork is symbolic with a stone-effect hammer and anvil against a stone wall framed by a four-cornered runic pattern. The mono internal art ranges from poor to good, but uses a somewhat animated style which does not appeal to me personally. There are also a couple of useful drawings explaining combat issues by depicting counters on a combat grid. Writing style and editing are good.

HOHF begins with a brief introduction to the dwarven social situation, the benefits of the Fighter as favoured class, and the introduction of Bad Axe Games' prestige class concept. These prestige classes are based on PCs who have multiclassed fighter with another class and are designed to be suitable specifically for dwarves.

The next chapter, Feats and Skills, begins by offering 13 new feats including weapon mastery feats (extends weapon focus benefits to arange of similar weapons), feats focusing on fighting with shields, and physically-related feats such as Short Stature (become Small) and Blood of Kings (bonus to range of influencing skills). Several of these mimic rules from 2nd Edition AD&D (such as from the Fighters Handbook).

This 2nd Edition influence is confirmed with the introduction of four weapon styles (single weapon, weapon and shield, two-handed and two-weapon). Each of these has prerequisite feats and skills which require a character to be minimum 9th level, but any PC who achieves these prerequisites can automatically benefit from the combat bonuses without having to spend an extra feat. A character must spend an extra feat if he wants to gain the additional benefits from Weapon Style Specialization, which increase these combat bonuses.

Next up is a short section on Dwarven Runes, with rules for creation and activation, which gives the item the rune is carved upon a temporary enchantment. Various example runes are given, such as the Rune of Beauty which gives a +2 circumstance bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy checks, allowing a dwarven merchant to sell the item at a higher price. Runes can be visible or hidden (which sparked off some of my own adventure ideas involving hidden runes). It would have been nice to see some more of these.

The skills section discusses new uses for old skills - Appraise, Diplomacy, Forgery, Knowledge, and Craft. nearly all 8 pages of this section are take up with an expanded rules section for various dwarf-related Craft skills - Armorsmithing, Blacksmithing, Stonemasonry, and Weaponsmithing. This ruleset essentially involves increasing the effectiveness, durability, or ease of use of various items by adding masterwork components such as tempering, special metal alloys, unusual joins and the like, to give bonuses to the finished item or make unusual items. The section also discusses the benefits of using apprentices and has an example showing the creation of a masterwork breastplate using the expanded Craft rules.

Nearly the rest of the book (50 pages) is taken up with 'iconic multiclass combinations' (IMC's) (e.g. fighter-barbarian, fighter-bard, etc.) with additional related prestige classes. Similar to Archetypes presented in Star Wars Gamer, each IMC is introduced with advice on best procedures for multiclassing, but also contains discussion on the IMC's role in an adventuring party and in dwarven society.

Each IMC is followed by a 10-level prestige class. These are designed on the fighter-based multiclass combination idea and are suitable for dwarves. Despite these caveats, several of the prestige classes are accessible by classes not of either of the relevant multiclass combinations, and none of them are restricted by race to dwarves only (though they are most suitable for dwarves). Most require only a few minor text changes to make them suitable to other races. Each of the prestige classes makes good use of the multiclass concept - for instance, the battle rager (Fighter-Barbarian) continues to stack up his fighter bonus feats and the improving rages of the barbarian, whilst also gaining a Fearsome Visage (adding bonuses to Bluff, Diplomacy (?), and Intimidate) and a morale bonus to AC when fighting multiple opponents.

Other PrC's include the Dwarven Skald (who can curse and instill fear), the Rune-Priest (using the Rune rules from earlier in the book), Rock-Warden (an underground specialist), Stoneheart Ascetic (who communes with stone), Paragon (who can swap a paladin's special mount ability for the gaining of an ancestral weapon, and can repair weapons with the paladin-like lay on hands ability), Slayer (gains feats every level, but can only be applied to favored enemy), Tunnel-Fighter (sneaky fighting skills), Aceldamist (armored battle mage), and Artificer (master magical craftsman).

The last couple of pages take a brief look at dwarven roleplaying, using the concept of seven dwarven virtues (temperance, industry, tenacity, honour, loyalty, valour, and justice) to help players better roleplay their dwarven characters.

Conclusion:
As the book itself states, this is probably of more benefit to a player than a GM, though there are certainly plenty of ideas for GMs within its pages. Its nice to see a set of prestige classes designed specifically for players, rather than those that stand on a blurred edge between PC and NPC PrC's.

The PrC's seem to have fairly balanced class features and prerequisites, with only a few minor anomalies (such as giving the Stoneheart Ascetic the redundant Still Mind ability (gained by a monk at 3rd level), when 1d8 unarmed damage is a prerequisite (requiring the PC to be a minimum 4th level monk) - hope I'm not forgetting anything here!!). I was a little concerned at the dwarven skald's loss of spellcasting ability - I was not completely convinced that the class features gained balanced this loss.

Despite the scantness of the roleplaying section at the end, the rules within the book provide many more ideas and hooks for designing interesting personality characteristics for your dwarven PC. What this book does not contain (nor did it probably set out to) is detailed information on dwarven lands, communities, religion, and other socio-political themes. However, information can be extrapolated from the ideas presented within to flesh out a GM's campaign world in relation to dwarves.

Despite its high price per page in terms of content volume, HOHF delivers in actual quality of content - there's more crunch than french toast and little in the way of fluff. Perfect for french toast fans, nearly so for those who like a bit of fluff on their toast.

 

[Khan the Warlord]

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves

Author: Benjamin Durbin
Published by: ]Bad Axe Games
ISBN: 0-9720416-0-5
Stock Number: BA-02101
MSRP: $9.95 US
Page Count: 62 6x9 inch pages

Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves (HoHF: D) is the first product by Bad Axe Games (BAG) and also the first in a series of race-devoted books by BAG. The book focuses on dwarves obviously, but mainly the "crunchy" side of roll-playing -- feats, skills, prestige classes, etc. This product will be critiqued concerning an advertising statement on the back cover: "Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves is the definitive sourcebook for dwarven characters of any kind". Now, with a slogan like that, which uses the term "definitive", let's see how Benjamin Durbin and Bad Axe Games' content measures up to their words.

HoHF: D is an 62-page, perfect-bound softcover, but only comes in at 9 inches by 6 inches in size. Some people will argue that this decreased size of the work is a rip-off of sorts, when one considers other 62 or 64 page supplements that are regular in size and only "a few dollars more". However, what most people fail to realize is that with 60+ page products, there really isn't an industry norm for pricing... I've seen prices anywhere from $12.95 to $14.95, to slightly more, depending. In all actuality, 62 pages of solid d20 mechanics, good ideas, wonderful artwork, and priced at only $9.95 is a good deal -- despite the size of the pages. My only complaint about the small size book is that it takes me an added 15 or more seconds to find it on my bookshelf (yep, one can lose sight of it easily when crammed between big hardbacks, Dragon magazines, and other books).

The Cover and Interior Artwork:

The cover is spectacular -- a fine comparison to any of Henry Higganbotham's covers for WotC. The center of the cover depicts the classic dwarven tools: an anvil and hammer. Four dwarven runes (or Viking, rather) are placed at the four corners of the cover and overall, the entire image gives off a very earthen feel. Very appropriate, very striking. The cover artist is Andrew Hale and honestly, I can't wait to see more covers by this guy; whether they're for Bad Axe Games or freelancing elsewhere.

The interior artwork of Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves are rendered by Andrew Hale. Yes friends, you read that right -- the cover image and every interior illustration are done by the same person. Now, this does provide a consistent feel, but it can go either way, depending on the talent of the artist. If the artist has no talent, then you're groaning and sighing every time you turn the page and are forced to endure yet another horrible image. However, Mr. Hale has real talent for B&W images and for the first time in a long time, I've found a d20 product that every interior image is worthy of publication -- at not point did I ever see what I would judge to be a bad image. A note to Benjamin Durbin: If Andrew Hale can keep this level of quality up and submit art in a timely manner, don't go to anyone else for your art. This guy is good. I wouldn't rank him as the best by any means, but like I said, I didn't see a single piece of artwork that I didn't like. Wow!

Text density, header and body fonts, and layout:

The layout design was done by Brad Kelley and I'll be honest: he did a relatively good job, but I do have a couple of complaints. First off, the font chosen for this book was a little too "rugged"; with letters that were off-center with other letters and the general, "unclean" style, it sometimes made it difficult to read through. If one wants to provide a moody, rugged font for background information or role-playing tips for dwarves, that is fine, but please, keep the stat blocks and game mechanics as clean as possible -- I don't want to have to re-read something three times during a game just to make sure I didn't miss something because my eyes strained. On a positive note, the prestige class tables were all nicely done, without any text or images "bleeding" into the tables. Also, I really appreciated the PHB copy of battlefield positions when discussing a new mechanic; showing the layout the author intended for the benefitting mechanic really helps the reader to understand the new ability. The text density, though, could have been a bit tighter and use up a little more of the "white space", but all in all, it was acceptable.

The Meat of the Work

Chapter 1: Introduction

OK, introductions are typically small to begin with, but this puppy is only one page in length. Now, for those of us that prefer as much "crunchy bits" as possible, this is hardly a bad thing. The one page intro discusses the favored class of a dwarf, which is of course, a fighter. It sets the stage that this is primarily a fighter-themed book about dwarves, which isn't necessarily bad, but by the same token, doesn't reward those of us that were hoping for Bad Axe Games to break the dwarven stereo-types, or at least shed more light outside them than a page or two. The rest of the introduction discusses the heavy prestige class element of the book and the reasonings behind it, and also clearly defines what is designated as Open Gaming Content, which is pretty much everything but the company and product names, and the wonderful illustrations and graphic design. Very nice.

Chapter 2: Feats and Skills

The feats in this chapter are seperated into three distinct types: General (available to all classes), Dwarf (recommended for dwarves only), and Fighter (recommended to be placed on the list of bonus feats available only to fighters). Below are small descriptions of the 17 new feats offered in this chapter:

Axe Mastery: For those drooling axe lovers out there, you can get an additional bonus to hit if wielding an axe.
Blood of Kings: You gain bonuses to skills when dealing with other dwarves. My gripe with this feat: since it's only recommended that you be a dwarf to take it, you don't have to be. To me, one should be a dwarf.
Cleave Asunder: A clever combining of the feats Cleave and Sunder; if you sunder a weapon enough to destroy it, you can attempt another attack, like the Cleave feat.
Crossbow Mastery: Same as Axe Mastery, but with the crossbow.
Giant Killer: I think it has been done before by Andy Collins in another fashion, but it fits dwarves as well. Basically, you can negate the reach of huge creatures.
Hammer Mastery: Same as Axe and Crossbow Mastery, but with hammers.
Improved Charge: Some would state that "improved" anythings are a waste of printed space, but I say they need to be done somewhere anywhere. This feat allows you the same bonus to damage that you normally get to attack for charging.
Improved Darkvision: Again, another "improved" and I think this one has been done before already, but you can't blame some reprinting of ideas considering there are over 800+ d20 products out already -- no one can possibly know everything that has been done. Darkvision improves by 30 ft.
Improved Rear Rank Fighting: Another "improved", but this one is better than the previous ones offered, as creatures seemingly blocking you and another creature within your reach don't provide cover for said opponent. Nice.
Rear Rank Fighting: A lesser version of the above feat, but one that must be taken as a prerequisite for it.
Refined Skill Focus: This feat gives you three options, all of which equal bonuses of some sort to one or more skills you possess. I really like the options given.
Shield Bash: Hopefully self-explanatory.
Shield Parry: Again, kinda self-explanatory.
Shield Rush: A nice bonus to bull rush.
Short Stature: You're a runt -- even to other dwarves.
Spear Mastery: I hope you see the Mastery trend above -- same thing, different weapon.
Sturdy Back: Again, already been done, but useful nontheless if you don't have the source it originally came from.

The chapter then offers four different fighting styles that you can bless your dwarven character with. The fighting styles listed are kinda typical, but good for any new players of the game.

Now we head into the "Dwarven Runes", which are basically one-shot supernatural runes of many kinds that can be inscribed on items, weapons, and armor. These runes are limited to once per day uses, and last for only a short period. There are ten dwarven rune types listed, but the format is similar enough to feats that one can easily create their own, new dwarven runes. I love the idea behind the dwarven runes, and for the most part, they're balanced, but I do have a couple of comments. One, the cost for a permanent "magic item of sorts" is only an additional masterwork cost (300 gp), which I believe is kinda cheap. Also, I would have loved to see dwarven skin-scribing runes (runes that can be placed on one's person, instead of just their equipment and weapons). However, I can add that easily enough myself.

The skills portion of the chapter is quite nice, with enhancements and more options to existing skills. Not every dwarven player will center so much on blacksmithing or armorsmithing, but those that do (I have one in my campaign actually), will be drooling at the corners of their mouth when they read the 7 pages dedicated to dwarven skills. Quote from my player: "Now I finally can make these ranks and synergy bonuses MEAN something."

Chapter 3: Prestige Classes

This chapter presents 10 multiclass concepts, all of which incorporate the fighter class and one other, and "iconic prestige class combinations" for every combo. The concepts give sound multiclassing advice, while the prestige classes appear balanced and some of them break the tried and true dwarven ground, and have more than a hint of originality. Below is a small list of the iconic prestige classes:

Battler-Rager (Fighter-Barbarian)
Dwarven Skald (Fighter-Bard)
Rune-Priest (Fighter-Cleric)
Rock-Warden (Fighter-Druid)
Big Badass Dwarf (Fighter-Fighter) - OK, just kidding there, that one doesn't exist. ;-)
Stoneheart Ascetic (Fighter-Monk)
Paragon (Fighter-Paladin)
Slayer (Fighter-Ranger)
Tunnel-Fighter (Fighter-Rogue)
Aceldamist (Fighter-Sorcerer)
Artificer (Fighter-Wizard)

Now, when I first heard that all the core classes were going to see multiclass treatment, I was wondering how Bad Axe Games would handle the difficult-to-multiclass paladin and monk classes. Overall, I really like the avenues they took, which were obvious to a degree, but anything else would have created a very broken multiclass. In all, I really liked the dwarven prestige classes offered. Nice job.

Chapter 4: Dwarven Role-Playing

Of all the chapters offered in this book, this chapter was the one I was actually disappointed with -- badly. BAG only devoted TWO pages to actual dwarven role-playing advice... yep, TWO pages that about equal one regular page of any other work. Now don't get me wrong, as I really like the content they used for those two pages (seven chief virtues of dwarves), but I would have loved to see more -- much, much more. Dwarven arcane spellcasters aren't common, but they are a possibility now with third edition, but BAG didn't desire to flesh the reasonings for them out. Dwarves that aren't so fighter-oriented are rising up at playing tables everywhere, but with little-to-no support from this work. However, when I re-read some of the multiclass combos of the previous chapters, I found a little more "role-playing" info offered, and of course, Bad Axe Games certainly didn't hide the fact that HoHF: D was going to be personifying the dwarf of old.

Conclusion:

Well, I certainly love the crunchy bits offered in this book (hell, 98% of it is devoted to 'em, so they better be good), and I really enjoyed the artwork. The ideas and game mechanics were solid for the most part, and that is a major issue with me. However, as I quoted above from the back cover, BAG used the following to help sell the book: "... the definitive sourcebook for dwarven characters of every kind." -- and they fell a little short (no dwarven pun intended). Now, I could easily suggest that this is the definitive sourcebook for dwarven warrior-types, but I certainly don't believe it showcases every element that is or could be... DWARF. This is the main reason that I'm giving this product a 4, instead of 5 (Superb) rating -- one can't just focus on one aspect of a race, run with it, and then consider it "definitive for dwarves of all kinds". You can certainly go with a primary focus, but there should be more than 1-3 pages on the lesser aspects.

Don't get the misconception that I don't like this book, because I really do... its a wonderful fighter-themed book about dwarves. I'll even go further and state that anyone who has a penchant for role-playing dwarves with a warrior bent, MUST spare a $10 bill for Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves.

-Chester G. Douglas II