Our group has started a fantasy campaign, and the campaign world has the traditional races: dwarves, elves, humans, and halflings. We also have some of the green skins as playable races: orcs and ogres. I tried to include goblins as well, but couldn't come up with something to make them truly distinct. The campaign world also has drakin, a race of small dragon like creatures. The name comes from Sundered Skies, but the racial build is my own.
I will be posting my versions of the racial builds over the next week. I wanted the mechanics to justify the typical description of each race. Today, I will be talking about dwarves. Most fantasy settings depict dwarves as hardy folk who live under mountains and are known for delving deep into the earth seeking its treasures. So why would dwarves prefer caverns and underground kingdoms? Why are they so good at digging for gems and ore? It seemed that they had a way to thrive under the mountain and in caverns that other races lacked. Mechanically, they needed to be able to see in the pitch darkness of a cave and to have a way to shape their underground environment.
Granting them Darkvision was easy enough, but how to give them control over their underground environment? The Fantasy Companion has a 2 point racial ability that gives each member of a race 5 Power Points with which to cast a single spell with an Attribute (typically Spirit or Vigor) as the Arcane Die. The power Elemental Manipulation: Earth allows a caster to create a hole in soft earth or stone. This spell would explain their reputation as stellar miners. Even a small team of dwarves would be able to quickly dig tunnels. I also decided that "Manipulation" in the spell title would be taken literally: dwarves could not only drill a hole, they could also actually shape earth or stone. A kingdom of millions of dwarves could reshape the earth to fit their needs.
Another trait often associated with dwarves is their love of drink. I thought about giving them the Liquid Courage Edge, but I could not think of another hindrance to balance it. I was happy enough with my dwarf race and also did not want to give out too many racial abilities.
Here is my build:
DWARF
Tough (+2): Dwarves are resilient and hardy. They start with a d6 Vigor instead of a d4. This may be raised to d12+1 in the course of normal advancement. The Expert and Master Edges may raise it to d12+3.
Darkvision (+2): Dwarven eyes are accustomed to the dark of the underearth. They never suffer penalties for Dim, Dark, or Pitch Darkness lighting conditions.
Lord of the Earth (+2): Dwarves have an innate ability to manipulate stone and earth. They have 5 Powers Points with which to cast Elemental Manipulation: Earth. The Power Points recharge at rate of 1 per hour, are unaffected by the Rapid Recharge edge, and cannot be used on any other Arcane Background edge. Dwarves use their Vigor die as their Arcane Casting Die.
Dour (-1): Dwarves suffer a -2 Charisma, except when interacting with other dwarves.
Racial Enemy: Orcs (-1): Dwarves hate orcs. They suffer a -4 Charisma penalty when interacting with orcs. This stacks with Dour for a total penalty of -6 to Charisma.
Slow (-1): Dwarves have a Pace of 24 feet per round (4” or 4 squares). Their run die remains d6.
Sink Like a Stone (-1): Dwarves are heavier than water. They suffer a -2 to all Swimming Checks.
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