Most half-dwarves could pass for either a short and stocky human, or an unusually tall or slender dwarf. Their appearance varies as to which society they are integrated into: those who live in human areas tend to trim their beards or shave them off entirely; those who live alongside dwarves usually let their beards grow.
Half-dwarf
Ability Score Requirements:
STR 6/18
DEX 3/18
CON 9/18
INT 3/18
WIS 3/18
CHR 3/18
Average Height and Weight:
Height: 49/46 +1d10
Weight: 135/100 +4d10
Special Abilities:
Half-dwarves should roll 3 times on the following table to determine their special abilities. By default, they have no special abilities except 30' infravision and magical resistance, and cannot use wizard magic.
1 - The character can use magic and adventure as a wizard, but does not have dwarven magical resistance.
2- The character has infravision to 60'.
3 - The character has the resistance to poison which dwarves enjoy.
4 - The character has a dwarf's mining abilities.
5 - The character has +1 to his attacks when fighting an orc, half-orc, goblin, hobgoblin or bugbear.
6 - The character has +1 to CON, but -1 to CHR.
Half-dwarves can be any class - including wizards if they roll a 1 on the special ability table. They have unlimited advancement as a fighter or cleric, and can advance to level 14 in any other class.
It's funny, half-elves have been in the game since the beginning, but I don't think I've ever seen half-dwarf rules until now, even as house rules.
ReplyDeleteWhich is weird, eh? I'm not saying it floats my boat in particular, or even at alll, but it must occasionally occur that a dwarf and human end up being more than just good friends.
ReplyDeleteSomething at the back of my mind is saying "Dark Sun", so there may have been half-dwarfs in that, but that setting was so gonzo in places that I don't think it counts. It is very strange that half-dwarfs don't come up more often; perhaps it's because dwarfs are generally portrayed as less alien than elves are, so there's less potential in exploring a hybrid.
ReplyDeleteDark Sun had a race called 'Muls' who were rather like half-dwarves.
ReplyDeleteOne of my pet projects is to create some sort of modular system for racial hybrids, so you could have elf/hobgoblin, goblin/halfling, human/bugbear, gnome/orc combinations or whatever else you wanted to come up with.
Hah - they're called "Racial Templates" and they're all over the place in 3.X. Go figure. You can now have a half-ooze, half-harpie paladin, or some such. I dunno. Not a bad idea, but as always, it gets ruined when people take it too far and just start spewing out garbage.
ReplyDeleteBadelaire: 3.X had a lot of good ideas like that, but they always went to such extremes. Another example was the classes - they went WAY overboard with the sheer number and variety.
ReplyDelete