Player race, comments

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This PC race is for "my project" and is designed to give my world more of a feel of European Folklore. The deities are centralized (no racial deities) giving a more centralized idea of beauty which we see in the portrayal of elves (that referring to dark elves as well) in folklore.

I figured this race is born predominately from the nature of late medieval economics, namely that is an attempt to escape impoverishment. Yes, I went out of my way to create a half-dwarf seeing as how common dwarf/human couplings seemed to be in folklore.

I really haven't thought extensively about their personalities, but the idea is they wouldn't be excepted in the highly traditional, clan/family based dwarven soceity and their dwarven traits are act to make them less sociable in human society (though they don't actually take a hit to charisma).

I was thinking of making them mercantile in orientation, combining dwarven greed and human ambition and giving them a +2 racial bonus to appraise checks, but I haven't decided if they should get that or not.

Here's the basics, I'd appreciate any comments as to if I should add something more to make them feel more like a blend of dwarf and human. I sort of went along the lines of the half-elf for reference, but I have not tagged anything unique to the half-dwarf let (like the half-elf's +2 racial bonus to diplomacy and gather information).

I also tried to remove anything I though was purely the byproduct of dwarven upbringing.

Half-Dwarf Racial Traits
• Medium: As Medium creatures, half-dwarves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size
• Half-Dwarf land speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision: Half-dwarves can see up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and half-dwarves can function just fine with no light at all.
• Stonecunning: This ability grants a half-dwarf a +1 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn’t stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A half-dwarf who merely comes within 5 feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a half-dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rouge can. Half-dwarves have a sixth sense about stonework.
• Stability: Half-dwarves are stable on their feet. A half-dwarf gains a +2 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped while standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison: Half-dwarves are hardy and resistant to toxins.
• +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects: Half-dwarves have an innate resistance to magic spells.
• +1 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal: Half-dwarves are capable with stonework and metalwork.
• Dwarven Blood: For all effects related to race, a half-dwarf is considered a dwarf. Half-dwarves, for example, are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect dwarves as their dwarf ancestors are, and can use magic items that are only usable by dwarves.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Any (other then secret languages, such as Druidic). Half-dwarves have all the versatility and broad (if shallow) experience that humans have.
• Favored Class: Any. When determining whether a multiclass half-dwarf takes an experience point penalty, her highest-level class does not count.

 

I'd take out the stonecunning imo. Unless all half-dwarves are raised around rock/underground areas, it's a something they grew up learning and not something they knew how to do from birth. The +1 for craft checks with stone and metal comes under the same category.

I'd also lower the poison and spell resistence to +1. The dwarven blood is diluted with human, so the natural resistences are cut down.

 

I think I'll do that, I wasn't sure whether these items represented some innate dwarven ability or not.

I was basing the +2 off templates and for whatever reason in D+D WotWC does not change saving throw bonuses from a pure blooded race to a half-blooded race. Just something I emulated for the sake of consistency.

 

I'd also lower the stability bonus. A half-dwarf may technically be taller than a dwarf, and therefore less stable due to a higher point of balance (or whatever this is called in ye olde English).

 

Dwarves have a +4 bonus to trip and bullrush check so I halved it for half-dwarves to represent them being shorter and squatter then humans, but taller and thinner then dwarves. I imagine half-dwarves to be about 5ish feet tall and somewhere in between humans in terms of weight per pounds though I haven't created any of those height/weight generators yet like th PHB has for other races.