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View Full Version : Exile Dwarves (OGL) (Race) (PEACH)



Solaris
2011-02-27, 06:12 PM
The intent with the races in my setting is to put them at about the equivalent of LA +0 to LA +1, depending. This race is basically dwarves without their dodge or attack bonuses, but with a bonus feat. The other dwarven subraces have generally bad vision and possibly light sensitivity depending on the subrace.

Exile Dwarves
Though the Manitorns have few criminals in their society, every once in a while they see fit to throw one of their number out for a breach of honor or law. Some even leave willingly, having taken a liking to the surface world. Others are Barkanok or even Kanorati dwarves who left for similar reasons, and having found themselves in an alien realm determined that the differences between their fellow dwarves were less than the differences between dwarves and humans. Settling among the humans of the Knights' Mandate, entire generations of these dwarves have lived and died without ever setting foot in the halls of their ancestors. They've established a culture that is something of a hybrid between their old traditions and those of their neighbors, though in classical immigrant patterns they typically live in ghettoes of their own inside human cities.

Personality: Exiled dwarves are slow to trust others, but they are a generous and jovial people. They value loyalty to kith and kin, and they have a strong sense of honor and justice. They have a well-deserved reputation for honesty, which combined with their love of gold, gemstones, and the crafts has also earned them a reputation as good, reputable merchants. Though banished from their homelands, their dwarven practicality has kept the exiles from being bitter about it. The surface nations are their homelands, the humans their countrymen. Some of their neighbors' ambition, adaptability, curiosity, and creativity has rubbed off on them.

Physical Description: Though they appear little different from ordinary dwarves, exiled dwarves are different in the simple fact that they have lived their entire lives among humans rather than in one of the underground dwarven kingdoms. The men stand only four to four and a half feet tall, but they are so broad and compact that they average the same weight or greater than humans. Exile dwarf women stand the same height as their men, but have a build rather similar to a buxom human woman of the same height. They have tan skin, with the women having fairer skin and less body hair than the men. Exiled dwarves have dark hair and eyes, with men wearing neatly-trimmed and short beards while the women wear their hair long and braided. Their eyes are better-adapted to the surface light than their underground kin, but exile dwarves can't see in the dark quite as well as underground dwarves can. Exile dwarves are considered adults at about age twenty or so, and they can live roughly three hundred years - both maturing much swifter and dying much sooner than their underground kin.
Exile dwarves wear clothing fashioned after the Fierian norm, though their ancestral Manitorn sensibilities show in a preference for functional and utilitarian designs. Men wear sturdy hobnailed boots, pants, gloves, collared shirts with neckcloths, and jackets under longcoats. Women often wear a scarf or kerchief over their hair, though unlike their Fierian neighbors they just as often go out bareheaded. Their normal clothing consists of a gown over a chemise, skirt, stockings, and shoes. Exile dwarf women wear jewelry that their Manitorn kin find ostentatious, with worked gold and gemstones passed down from generation to generation. All classes have at least one piece that they wear day-to-day, reinforcing the dwarven reputation for great wealth. They prefer low necklines and both genders wear lighter clothing in general than their human neighbors due to a broader range of temperature tolerances and a lack of Fierian modesty.

Relations: Though they get along uncommonly well with humans of the Knights' Mandate, who they regard as neighbors and countrymen, there is a lot of bad blood between dwarves of the exiled clans and those of the dwarven kingdoms. Though this mostly takes the form of bitter resentment, it rarely results in bloodshed. Beyond that, exile dwarves are much like ordinary Manitorns in their relations with other races.

Alignment: Exiled dwarves range the moral axis, but tend towards lawfulness. They have a wider range of alignments than ordinary dwarves, but not quite as wide as the humans they live alongside.

Exiled Dwarven Lands: Most exiled dwarves live in Avalon and Dunador. They live in aboveground buildings like their human neighbors, though they much prefer stone structures to wooden ones.

Religion: Though they keep shrines to their ancestors in their homes, exile dwarves revere the Great Twelve and the Argent Flame. The exact tenet varies from family to family, but for the most part they are adherents of the Church of Artur.

Language: The exile dwarves speak both Gut-Tamaug (Dwarven) and Tradespeak (Common). Human listeners think they have a Manitorn accent, while dwarven listeners think they have an Avalonian or Dunadorian accent. They rarely know Karakhatan or other secret dwarven tongues, being raised outside their ancestral homes.

Names: Being banished, exile dwarves don't use their old Manitorn names. Instead, they have adopted the names of their human neighbors for their own. For family names they often use bastardized versions of their old surnames, modified to match a more human pronunciation. Exile dwarves have abandoned the use of clan names.
Male Names: Adalbert, Burkhard, Carsten, Detlef, Eberhard, Falk, Geert, Hagen, Isaak, Jan, Kaspar, Kuno, Lothar, Mose, Niklaus, Petrus, Reinhard, Severin, Thorsten, Ulrich, Volker, Wolfram.
Female Names: Anika, Beatrix, Cara, Dagmar, Ermentrud, Frauke, Gerhild, Heilwig, Irmingard, Jessika, Katinka, Lisolette, Meike, Olga, Phyllis, Regine, Sascha, Swanhild, Tanja, Ursula, Ziska.
Surnames: Baldric, Dietrich, Dunkall, Holderac, Lader, Lutgar, Rumhome, Strickland, Toran, Unger.

Adventurers: Exile dwarves take well to the adventuring lifestyle, as their stoic, uncomplaining nature takes the hardships well and their inquisitive, curious natures takes them over the next hilltop or down the next cave to see what it holds. Exile dwarves are often fighters or battle-priests, but sometimes rogues or gadgeteers.

Exile Dwarf Racial Traits
- Ability Modifiers: +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity. Exiled dwarves are hardy people, but less than graceful. Unlike most other dwarves, they do not suffer in social interactions.
- Medium-Sized: As Medium creatures, exiles have no special bonuses or penalties due to size.
- Speed: Exile base land speed is 20 feet. However, they can move this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures whose speed is reduced in such situations). Exiles are quite stable and sturdy, comparable to locomotives in the real world.
- Stonecunning (Ex): This ability grants an exile a +2 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 counts as unusual stonework. An exile who merely comes within ten feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a Barkanok can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A dwarf can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up. This tends to make them a little uncomfortable at extremely high elevations. Exiles have a sixth sense about stonework, an innate ability that they retain even living aboveground.
- +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison: Dwarves are hardy and resistant to toxins.
- +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects: Dwarves have an innate resistance to magic spells.
- +2 racial bonus on Craft and Repair checks that are related to stone or metal: Dwarves are especially capable with stonework and metalwork.
- Bonus Feat: Exile dwarves receive a bonus feat at 1st level.
- Stability (Ex): Exiles receive a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull-rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground). Their natural stability helps them pretty much always stand firm, and exile dwarves receive training as youths to capitalize on it.
- Automatic Languages: Tradespeak, Gut-Tamaug, fluff. Bonus Languages: Any (save secret languages like Druidic).
- Favored Class: None. Like the humans they live among, exile dwarves do not have a favored class.