Dwarf

Epic Path \ Races \ Dwarf

Forge fires, the mountain's heart. Dwarf hammers, its thundering beat.

Origins

Many races claim to be from 'somewhere else' in the distant depths of their ancestral memory. Not Dwarves. Dwarves are just about as 'Prime Material' as it's possible to get. Dwarves love the Prime Material, in as materialistic a form as they can. Dwarves will happily live and work their entire lives deep under ground, burrowed snug and warm against the bosom of the Prime Material. Dwarves can look at stone and they don't just see a rock, they see the story of that stone, the stresses and strains, the tension of its existence, the gigantic strength of the Earth within it. Dwarves like stone, they find it warm and fascinating, endlessly full of stories and richness.

Dwarves arose from stone, long ago. Dwarves may be the oldest race of all, but if they are, they spent untold ages deep within their beloved stone before the first Dwarf swung a pick and found out that the stone...stopped.

Dwarven legends speak of a great turmoil in their deep cities to discover there was an End to the Stone, a Great Void where many other strange races lived (what those races call 'above ground'). The Void was a place of mysteries and terrors, vast and echoing emptiness, and above it all the great untouchable vault of the sky and all the myriad of things within it.

Whether Dwarves were made by a deity, arose from the Stone spontaneously, or were simply always there from the very beginning nobody knows for certain. There are many Dwarven Deities who claim conflicting versions of the tale, and who knows, since they are Gods, maybe ALL the stories are true or none of them.

Culture

There are a LOT of dwarves. The Earth is deep, and there are persistent rumors of deep enclaves of Dwarves who still have not reached the Void, and know nothing of it. Even the known Dwarven nations beneath the earth are large indeed. On top of that, the Dwarves have colonized the Void in great numbers, such that entire mountain ranges (how strange, stone ABOVE stone) are Dwarven nations. Dwarves have come to value Void goods such as timber (much better than mushrooms) and crops (MUCH better than mushrooms.)

Dwarves tend to have large families with the children widely spaced apart in years, and will generally keep having children for the entire time they remain together. Dwarven women remain fertile their entire lives, and have been recorded to bear children even at the age of two-hundred and fifty years. Large families are very common, and Dwarves feel no pressure about living space: When you can simply dig out a new tunnel a few miles and open up an entire new vista of living space, you can see why.

Dwarves are dour folk by nature, the sort of people who find staring at a rock to be hugely entertaining. Other races don't get the point. Dwarves are famously fond of beer and brandy, and honestly, when most of your food is various types of rock-loving fungi, you'd brew as much of it into beer as you could too.

Dwarves do not need a lot of living space either, and have little sense of personal space or a desire for privacy. Dwarves at home tend to pack in tight and enjoy it that way.

Dwarves really do love precious metals. To a Dwarf's sight, gold, silver, platinum, copper, gems, and all such things are far more enjoyable to look at than they are to other races, because a Dwarf is simply seeing more in the material than other races can. Dwarves want more of these beautiful and fascinating materials to look at, and they love displaying them, working with them, touching them, wearing them and everything else about them.

As a result of their strong attunement with the Earth, Dwarfs tend toward earth-tone in their coloration. Dwarven hair is usually some variant of rich, earthy brown, ranging from sturdy red-brown to near slate grey, although black is also sometimes seen. Some few dwarfs will have golden or silver hair, and such are considered either very attractive or overly gaudy, depending on how surly the beholder is feeling. Similarly, skintone is usually some shade of brown, ranging from the rich hue of well-tanned cream leather to the serviceable chocolate tone of fertile bottomland. Occasionally skin of stony grey will be seen, and oddly enough, freckles are common in Dwarfs. Eyes are often black or brown, with a notable percentage of eyes the color of precious stones, such as malachite green, amber, rich purple, brilliant red, and most striking of all, reflective eyes of refractive hue like diamonds. Dwarven men very often carry a mighty beard, and the beard is often a different color than the hair on their head, although it follows the same trends in color.

Growing Up Dwarf

Dwarves have children much like humans do, and Dwarven women need care before and after pregnancy much like humans as well. As a result, Dwarves like sturdy, comfortable, very permanent homes that they then fill to the brim with life and activity and children. Young dwarves are allowed to run and play until they reach the age of five, and then they begin to learn the rules.

When you live underground, there are a lot of rules, and they are all important. Breaking the rules can get you and other dwarves killed, so all dwarves have a real love of rules. That said, some dwarves love knowing all the rules simply so they can break them more efficiently, but the core love of rules is the same.

Dwarves go to school from the age of five until fifteen, where they learn reams of lore and history, the lore of stone, the joy of hard work and the beauty of treasure. From the age of fifteen to adulthood, they become apprentices in one of the millions of Dwarven Guilds. After 25 to 60 years as an apprentice they become Journeymen, which is when most adventurous Dwarves make the decision to strike out into the world.

Economy

Dwarves are rich in living space and in food. They do not count treasure as riches. To a Dwarf, precious metals and gems are the very best of the stuff of Stone, and they will rarely, if ever, part with any significant amount permanently. That said, Dwarves live a long time, and they will cheerfully spend treasure today, but they always plan, always, to make it all back in the next century or two. Dwarves will trade and sell foodstuffs, dimension stone, and less precious metals like iron and tin without hesitation and in great amounts, but they will never sell off gold or silver or gems.

Customs

Dwarves love guilds, and associations, and covens and circles and councils and every other form of structure. Structures in society neatly parallel the structure required to convert simple Stone into a teeming underground city, and Dwarves love that stuff. Again, some Dwarves love structure simply because it gives them something to overthrow and rebel against, but the underlying love is there.

Dwarves tend to have very stable and very large extended families, with many siblings, dozens of cousins and uncles and aunts and every other sort of relation. Dwarves do not marry early, but they marry for life, so they try to make sure their spouse is someone they can at least tolerate for a century or two.

Lifespan and Burial

Dwarves live between two hundred and three hundred years, and they have a definite childhood, adulthood, seniority, and dotage. Dwarves who have settled down REALLY settle down, and often will build themselves huge and elaborate crypts and cenotaphs inside their massively fortified holdfasts and citadels.

Dwarves are usually buried in family crypts that can reach huge sizes in a large and well-established family

Relations with Others

Dwarves are not terribly friendly sorts even with each other, at least on time scales many races can grasp. It often takes Dwarves a decade to learn each others names, never mind form a friendship. Dwarves, with their stone sight, are also fairly alien compared to many of the races in the Void, and enjoy things that other races just can't. For example, a favorite Dwarven pastime is polishing gold, so they can watch the endlessly fascinating way the stone currents move and reform under their touch. Other races cannot see these things, and interpret Dwarven behavior as simple greed, which is not the case at all.

Starting Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	3 ft. 9 in.	+2d4 in. (3 ft. 11 in. - 4 ft. 5 in.)	150 lbs.	+(2d8x7 lbs.) (164 - 262 lbs.)
Female	3 ft. 7 in.	+2d4 in. (3 ft. 9 in. - 4 ft. 3 in.)	120 lbs.	+(2d8x7 lbs.) (134 - 232 lbs.)

Starting Ages

Adulthood	Intuitive	Self-Taught	Trained
40 years	+3d6 years (43 - 58 years)	+5d6 years (45 - 70 years)	+7d6 years (47 - 82 years)

PC's

Dwarves have no class or alignment restrictions.

Standard Racial Traits

All Dwarves have the following Standard Racial Advantages:

• Attributes: Dwarves may choose to gain one of the following ability score bonus sets when creating their character. No ability score may ever be modified above a 20 or below a 7.
  • +2 to two different stats, -2 to one stat
  • +2 to one stat, +1 to three different stats, -2 to one stat
  • +4 to one stat, -2 to two different stats

• Size: Dwarves are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

• Type: Dwarves have the Humanoid type, with the Dwarf subtype.

• Base Speed: Dwarves have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.

• Languages: Dwarves begin play speaking Common and Dwarven. Dwarves with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Giant, Gnome, Halfling, Orc, Terran, and Undercommon. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.

• Darkvision (Ex): Dwarves can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.

• The Story of Gold (Ex): Dwarves gain a +2 Racial bonus to both Barter and Knowledge (Dungeoneering), and both skills become class skills if they aren't already.

Major Racial Traits

Choose one of the following Major Racial Traits:

• Stability (Ex): Dwarves with this racial trait gain a +1 racial bonus to their Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD). Dwarves may also reduce any forced movement they are subjected to by 1 square, including movement caused by combat maneuvers such as bull rush or reposition. At 10th level, the bonus to CMD improves to +2. At 20th level, this becomes a +3 bonus to CMD, and forced movement can be reduced by up to 2 squares. At 30th level, the bonus to CMD is +4. Forced movement reductions stack, so if the dwarf has a means of reducing forced movement from another source, such as a class ability or magic item, the dwarf uses the sum of the reductions offered.

• Defensive Training (Ex): Dwarves with this racial trait gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC. At level 25, this improves to a +2 dodge bonus to AC.

• Adroit (Ex): Dwarves with this racial trait are more comfortable wearing armor than most. They reduce the armor check penalty of any armor they own by 2 points. At 10th level, this reduction improves to 3 points. At 20th level, this improves to 4 points of reduction, and at 30th level it improves to 5 points of reduction. This trait's bonuses also applies to shields, and cannot cause an armor check penalty to go above a zero.

• Magic Resistant (Su): Some of the older dwarven clans are particularly resistant to magic. A dwarf with this racial trait gains Spell Resistance (SR) with a Strong value as though caused by a caster level equal to his character level. Each time he gains another level, the effective caster level of the SR improves as well (remaining at Strong). This resistance can be lowered for 1 round as a standard action. Dwarves with this racial trait take a -2 penalty on all concentration checks made in relation to arcane spells.

• Rock Stepper (Ex): Dwarves with this racial trait can skillfully negotiate rocky and sloped terrain. They can ignore the movement penalties caused by difficult terrain created by rubble, broken ground, when moving up a slope or climbing steep stairs. At 10th level, while standing in a square of rough terrain, the Dwarf gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC. At 20th level, the dwarf ignores the movement penalties caused by any difficult terrain. At 30th level, the dodge bonus to AC while standing in a square of rough terrain grows to a +2.

Minor Racial Traits

Choose one of the following Minor Racial Traits:

• Heart of the Forge (Ex): A Dwarf with this racial trait may add a +2 racial bonus to any Profession skill in which he has at least 1 rank. This bonus increases to +4 if he has 10 or more ranks in the skill, +6 if he has 20 or more ranks in the skill, and +8 if he has 30 or more ranks in the skill.

• Rolling Stone (Ex): Dwarves are skilled at pushing their way through a battlefield, striking down lesser foes with ease. Dwarves with this racial trait receive a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls made as a result of a charge. This racial bonus on attacks made during a charge improves to +2 at level 20.

• Lorekeeper (Ex): Dwarves keep extensive records about their history and the world around them. A Dwarf with this racial trait gains Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Deep History) as class skills. He gains a +2 racial bonus to Knowledge (History) if he has at least 1 rank in it. This racial bonus improves to +3 if he has 10 or more ranks in the skill, +4 if he has 20 or more ranks, and +5 if he has 30 or more ranks. At 10th level, he gains a +2 racial bonus to Knowledge (Deep History) if he has at least 1 rank in it. This racial bonus improves to +3 if he has 10 or more ranks in the skill, +4 if he has 20 or more ranks, and +5 if he has 30 or more ranks.

• Conservative (Ex): Dwarves with this racial trait gain a +1 racial bonus to Will saves against mind-affecting effects, except for fear affects. This bonus improves to +2 at level 10, +3 at level 20 and +4 at level 30.

• Voidborn (Ex): Dwarves with this racial trait gain Low-Light vision, allowing them to see twice as far in normal light. This is in addition to the Dwarf's Darkvision.