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White Tornado
2013-07-07, 08:40 AM
Hello all,

I don't know how many people still play Second Edition, but I do! I'm currently running a campaign in the 2E Forgotten Realms, and for our new story arc we'll be heading to Westgate, a big harbor city. Some players chose to play new characters, including a dwarven pirate and a dwarven viking. One of them noted that the classic stonework abilities make little sense, and should be replaced by other abilities. We started working on the crunch, and I am happy to share it with you all! Please share your thoughts, since I'm a bit unsure about the abilities, especially the combat abilities.

Fluff:
For centuries or even millennia, dwarves have been leaving their ancestral mines and underground cities to live on the surface, mostly in dwarven communities or human cities. While some dwarves kept longing for life underground, others adapted to their new environment, and some even more so. While dwarves traditionally dislike the sea, some surface dwarves have grown to become fond of it. For one reason or another, these dwarves migrated further to live in coastal areas, harbor cities or even on ships!

Though technically not a dwarven subrace, their natural strengths have evolved to suit their new environments. The technical skills that come natural to dwarves have thoroughly changed through decades or centuries of exposure to ships, docks, and industries as diverse as rope making and woodcutting. They lost their infravision and all racial abilities related to stonework, but gained low-light vision, mistvision and special abilities related to woodwork. Their hatred of orcs and goblins has dwindled and been replaced by a hatred for evil denizens of the sea, such as kuo-toa and sahuagin.

Some sea dwarves live their lives as simple sailors or carpenters, while others become famous shipwrights, captains or adventurers. Some of them love the sea as a lover, while others just happen to live nearby. Although sea dwarves don’t necessarily hate life underground, they generally have no longing for it either. Perhaps it is because of the long process of adaptation that sea dwarves are a diverse bunch, equally able of breaking or upholding dwarven stereotypes and traditions.

Crunch:
Senses
Loses: infravision 60'.

Gains:
- Low-light vision: can see four times as far as humans in low-light conditions, i.e. anything between daylight and complete darkness, including dusk, dawn and moon-lit nights.
- Mistvision: can see twice as far as humans in natural fog, rain, and underwater.

Combat abilities
Loses: attack +1 versus (half-)orcs and (hob)goblins.

Gains: attack +1 versus aquatic creatures that harass ships and coastal towns, including sahuagin and kuo-toa.

Merfolk? Sharks?
Ixitxachitl? Locathah? Aboleth? Aquatic elves?

Stonework abilities
Loses: “Detect grade or slope in passage”, “detect new tunnel/passage construction”, “detect sliding/shifting walls or rooms”, “detect stonework traps, pits and deadfalls”, and “determine approximate depth underground”.

Gains:
- Estimate speed and direction of own ship (1-5 on 1d6)
- Estimate speed and direction of ship in sight (1-4 on 1d6)
- Detect sliding/shifting walls, floors, ceilings, rooms or compartments in wooden ships and buildings (1-4 on 1d6)
- Detect rotting wood/bad carpentry/weak spots in wooden ships and buildings (1-3 on 1d6)
- Detect new or repaired woodwork (1-4 on 1d6)

Language options
Remove kobold, orc and goblin. Add halfling and elf.

Unchanged abilities
AC -4 versus trolls, ogres, ogre magi, giants, and titans.
Con +1, Cha -1
Con-based bonus on saves versus poison and magic.
Magical items have 20% to malfunction, excluding weapons, armor, shields, gauntlets and girdles.