Saturday, October 15, 2022

OSR: Race-as-Class: Dwarf

This post is a part 2 to this post.

artist unknown

You are a Dwarf, one of the metal-eaters from ancient halls.  When humans were banging rocks together to create fire, your kind were erecting lavish temples to your Gods and plundering the depths of the Earth for sustenance and food.  Your civilization is the grandest to ever grace the world and though some would describe you as in decline, that's just propaganda told by lesser races who simply fail to understand the glory of the Dwarven race.  And though your kind is currently engrossed in interal politicking and merchantilism, you're certain that those days of glory will come again, someday soon.   

Who are you?

1d6

1- An Aurean, one of the exalted Nobles of your kind, with hair and beard of braided gold.  You have left your home to seek your fortune and to prove yourself worthy of your ancient inheritance as one of the leaders of your Race. 
2- An Argent, a sensitive, silver-haired artist with big dreams and your heart on your sleeve.  You go out into the world seeking inspiration, truth and events worthy of immortalizing in stone, song or paint.   
3- A Ferric, a soldier of the Dwarven race, with hair of grey and eyes of stone.  Duty drives you out of your halls, to lands inhabited by primitives who care nothing for the ancient traditions of your kin.   
4- A Tinnet, a sharp-eyed observer of the world.  Though your birth is low, you have always dreamed of more than a slightly higher position within the Clan.  You seek adventure.  You will not be caged by the stone walls of custom and inertia. 
5- A Braszic, a stubborn seeker of perfection.  A skilled and talented worker, you have always imagined yourself as something more than what you are.  You are seeking wealth, to show everyone what you are inside.      
6- An Impure, a lowly laborer from the bottom of the great pyramid of the Dwarven Nations.  You come from nothing but you swore upon the bones of your ancestors that they will remember you forever.     

Where do you come from?

1d4

1- An ancient Clan, wealthy and powerful enough to have secured the crown of their Kingdom for several generations.
2- A fading Clan, it's grandeur failing before the ebbing flow of time.  The veins of ore are getting scarcer, the omens are bleak, the future uncertain. 
3- A ruin, a hall left desolate.  Your Clan was destroyed, laid waste by forces dark, sinister or natural.  Your Clan now seeks out a new home, far from all that they knew. 
4- A house on a hill, surrounded by nothing but the wooden waste of a frozen forest.  Your Father was an exile, cast out and left to die.  But he survived, and you were born, into the most serious destitution a Dwarf can know- a life on the surface, cut off from the Clan. 

Why are you here?

1d4

1- To aid your Clan in it's hour of need.  The leaders of your Clan have noticed an issue that could endanger the Clan and sent for someone to try and fix this issue.  The person they chose, unlikely though it might seem, is you. 
2- To answer the call of your God.  One of Muradin's Angels, blind and bearded, came to speak with you.  It entrusted you with a holy quest that you must accomplish, or the cost for Dwarves will be immense.   
3- To ascend to a higher caste.  No one ever accused you of heroism and this is a fact best shown by your principal motivation: coin, and buckets of it.   
4- To regain your honor.  You, or your father, or his father before him, committed some grave sin.  You fight not only to survive, but to wipe away that stain and pay that debt.

found here, artist unknown

Dwarf:
Starting HP: 1/3 Con
Fighting Spirit: +3 FS per Dwarf level, up to COG score
Atk Modifier: +1 per Dwarf level, max +5.
Starting Equipment: Clan Badge, Beard-care tools, Light Armor or Shield, Hammer or Axe, Matches, 50' of rope, Book of Debts

Prerequisites: To have no levels in any other class.  At character creation, choose this for your first class level.

How to become a Dwarf: You can only be born as a Dwarf. 

1: Metal Diet, Allomantic Sight, Clan Membership, Book of Debts
2: Stone Teeth, Dwarven Hardiness
3: Hatred, Obligation
4: Endurance of Stone, Man of the Mountains
5: Balance the Scales
6: Immutable Body, Unbreakable Will
7: The Debt is Paid
8: Strength of the Mountains
9: Uncleared Ledger

1: Metal Diet, Allomantic Sight, Clan Membership, Book of Debts

Metal Diet: Dwarves eat metal.  10 coins equals 1 full meal for you.  You must consume at least 10 coins worth of metal per day to not start to suffer the effects of starvation.  Depending on what metal you eat, that can grant you certain advantages or disadvantages.  You gain the abilities (found here) based on your diet of metal based on your starting caste.  

Allomantic Sight: Dwarves 'see' metal, which glows to them.  Living creatures have trace metals in them, so they appear as wispy ghosts full of glowing dots.  Metal ore glows like Christmas lights and metal items blaze.  You can easily see creatures wearing or carrying metal and your vision is not affected by clouds, fog, or darkness.  Creatures who are not wearing metal are much harder to see, especially if they are vegetarians or haven't eaten meat recently.  Alternatively, if they are near another source of metal, they can be able to hide in the "glare" of that metal.  So your vision would be very helpful in a dark forest, but much less helpful in a silver mine.

Clan Membership: If you are associated with a Dwarf Clan, when meeting another Dwarf, your Clan affiliation will affect how that Dwarf views you.  If you belong to a Clan he is affiliated with or a Clan that has helped him, he will be much friendlier toward you and non-hostile, unless threatened or angered to the point of incoherence.  However, if your Clan has harmed that Dwarf, then the Dwarf is much less likely to be friendly and might even be immediately hostile, though this latter state is less likely, only occurring in times of conflict or open war.  The chance of friendly or unfriendly reactions vary depending on where you are in the world and what Dwarf Clans, if any, live nearby.  Some non-Dwarves may also be able to recognize specific Clan iconography, but only if they regularly deal with Dwarves.  If you are not part of a Clan, whether because of exile, being an Orphan, or the destruction of your Clan, this ability does not apply to you.   

Book of Debts: You have a book which you can use to record any debts you owe someone, whether benevolent or malevolent.  A benevolent debt is earned after someone helped you, and is repaid by helping that person or someone that matches his description or circumstance.  A malevolent debt is created when someone harms you and is repaid by hurting him back in some way.  People will always take you at face-value when you present them with your Book of Debts, as for a Dwarf to lie about this is almost inconceivable, though they are much more likely to doubt you if you have a reputation for being dishonorable.

2: Stone Teeth, Dwarven Hardiness

Stone Teeth: Your teeth are sharp as flint and hard as granite.  You can chew through anything you could cut with a stone knife and a strong arm.  Dwarves don't typically chew metal, but swallow it whole, unless it is something soft like tin or gold.  This is one of the reasons why gold is valued, as it has pleasant mouth-feel and is easily digested.

Dwarven Hardiness: X times per day, when you take damage, you can force the creature that damaged you to reroll his damage roll and take the lower result.  X equals your CON modifier.

3: Hatred, Obligation

Hatred: If you have a malevolent Debt toward a creature and you make an attack against them, 1/Day, you may reroll the damage your attack deals on a success.  You may do this once per creature you have a malevolent Debt toward.

Obligation: 1/Day, if trying to pay a Debt of Benevolence, then you may grant yourself advantage on any relevant check or save.  Referee's discretion applies on whether or not the action you are applying advantage too would truly benefit your creditor.  However, if the Referee rules it does not, you may use this ability on another check.      

4: Endurance of Stone, Man of the Mountains

Endurance of Stone: When you use your Dwarven Hardiness ability, instead halve the damage dealt, rounding down.

Man of the Mountains: You are immune to non-magical poisons, as they cannot affect a body as powerful as yours.  You are still affected by Dwarf-specific poisons, specifically the metals lead, sodium and palladium.  

5: Balance the Scales

Balance the Scales: When taking an action to try and pay a Debt, you may invoke the power of the Gods and your ancestors.  Make a Charisma check.  Depending on the Debt you wish to repay and the opinions of the Gods and Spirits, these entities might choose to aid you.  Should they do so, then circumstances will suddenly alter themselves depending on the Karmic balance your actions might redress.  This change of circumstances will always be as small as possible and often might be attributable to coincidence, if you didn't know better. 

6: Immutable Body, Unbreakable Will

Immuntable Body, Unbreakable Will: X times per day, on your turn, you can grant yourself Magic Resistance equal to (CON modifier+Level)/20 for 1 round.  For example, if your CON modifier was +2 and your level was 6, then you would have Magic Resistance equal to 8/20.  

7: The Debt is Paid

The Debt is Paid: Every time you pay a Debt, you regain FS.  If repaying the Debt involves something small, such as giving someone some food, then you regain 1d4 HP.  If it requires serious effort or great sacrifice, on the other hand, then you regain 1d8 FS. 

8: Strength of the Mountains

The Mountain, Immovable: You can, X times per day, where X is your CHA modifier, ignore an attack and say it did no damage.  This is explained in the fiction as some miraculous stroke of luck, a one-in-a-million dodge or a genius maneuver on your part.   

9: Uncleared Ledger

Uncleared Ledger: Should you die with any Debts unpaid, you can return as a Ghost and possess your body, returning as a Revenant.  You have until your body is destroyed or is no longer capable of holding you to level the scales and pay any Debts.  While in Revenant form, you count as Undead, though if your flesh is all intact (full HP), you do not take damage from sunlight.  You do not need food or sleep, only mana to sustain yourself and can even leave your vessel to travel freely as a Spirit.  See here for rules of being a Ghost.  If you do not repay all your Debts in a reasonable time, as determined by the patience of the Gods, your soul will be carted off to the afterlife by armed Psychopomps and your failures, along with your unpaided Debts, will be counted against you.

Alternatively, you could choose to pass on your Debts to another.  If you have children, you may transfer your unpaid Debts to them.  They will automatically become the heirs of your Debts, and have no say in the matter.  Alternatively, you can pass your Debts onto another living creature.  Your soul will then be held in limbo until your Debts are paid.  However, in compensation for taking on your Debts, that creature will receive a boon which they may use to aid them in their quest to pay your Debts.  Should they fail to pay your Debts or misuse the boon given to them, it can be revoked and they, as well as you, will be punished.

artist unknown

No comments:

Post a Comment