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Where are the half-dwarves? We have half everything else half-orcs, half-elves, half-ogres, half-demons, half-celestials, half-dragons, etc. I even have the book Bastards and Bloodlines and it has half-eagels half-elves, half-halflings half-blinkdogs, half-humans half-trolls, half-dwarves half-gargolyes. So where are all the half-dwarves? I made a write up based around the half-orc and half-elf races that a player in my group uses. It nothing fancy just human plus dwarf divided by two. What are the opinions about half-dwarves? Does anyone have a write up for a dwarfling? Has anyone tried this?
Fizz
In my homebrew I allow all playable races to interbreed with humans but not with each other. The result looks human but has roughly half the stat modifications of a demihuman. In the case of a half-dwarf, that would be +1 to Con and -1 to Cha. (Though, in my homebrew, dwarves take a hit to Dexterity rather than Charisma, since I've always figured them as forceful personalities but not particularly nimble.) The point is to add a little "realism" to the world while giving players the option of slightly tweaking their stats at creation if they so choose.
In Dark Sun, they're called "muls;" they're brawny and bald, and they are sterile like mules.
For some reason Sebastian's avatar has always reminded me of a mul.
You don't find any half-dwarves because no self respecting Dwarven male would ever mate with anything other than a Dwarf. And if you believe the rumors do you really want to breed with the "bearded woman"?
In all reasonable seriousness though. I've often wondered why there weren't half-dwarves. Some halflings (not to be confused with those otherwise known as hobbits) obiviosly would work socially speaking, better than others. Like an orc and dwarf wouldn't really get along.
You don't find any half-dwarves because no self respecting Dwarven male would ever mate with anything other than a Dwarf. And if you believe the rumors do you really want to breed with the "bearded woman"?
The dwarf in the first D&D movie said it all.
I motion that the half-halfling be renamed to Quarterling.
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I have never been very fond of "Half" Races.
For humans, and orcs and elves to mate that means they are the same species. Dogs and cats don't mate to give you a half-dog. Yeah it's fantasy, but it has to be rooted in some sembelance of real life to hold any meaning.
So you could say that all Humanoids are human species just different races of the species. Then they loose a lot of that special feel to them. Dwarves are just short stocky humans, elves are just hippie humans, halflings are short humans, etc. Yawn, let's just play a human then.
In my games there are no half races at all, unless magic was used or one of the parents was a special critter like an outsider.
Ever heard of the Liger?
The point being that two different species can, in fact, be interbred. Thus, half-whatevers are viable without breaking the rules of biology or anything. A fun thing to do is make them sterile, however. See how many players choose to run one then! >:)
Still doesn't account for the missing half-dwarves, however.
Half blink-dog?! I don't think that sort of thing is even legal in most states!!
Director of Game Development
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Not that the gaming industry is a democracy or anything, but I think, and vote for, the idea of limiting halves to the level where they are is not a bad thing. Half-dwarves, Quarterlings (great name, btw), Mid-gnomes and half-treants are pushing the line. I know this is fantasy, but biological diversification doesn't just *poof* happen.
I personally think there are too many sub-races, not to mention inter-breeding. If you want to play with adaptable biologies, just think human, as they, after all, have the stats to back it up.
There's some successful campaign world published for 3.0 (Arcanis maybe?) that claims its world's gnomes are actually half-dwarves. They've mutated the rules a bit (like gnomes aren't small), but it's an interesting concept.