About Derek Freddert
Background
Derek grew up in Torch, one of Councilor Freddert's three children, but in her opinion (as she always says) he's turned out very wild, very wild indeed. As a young dwarf he was always flitting from project to project, never dedicating himself to any one thing. He lives out by himself near the cemetery and in the last ten years or so has begun following Torag more or less devoutly, as if he were a priest. He crafts in the forge, teaches trivia that he's picked up over the years, and performs last rites for the occasional dwarven dead. Even his mother will admit that he has an inspiring speaking voice, but she despairs of him ever doing anything useful for the town.
Given the choice of being around his family and being on his own, Derek prefers to be on his own. He admits to himself that he is a bit of a dabbler, but he began to follow the teachings of Torag in order to learn to commit himself, and he has found that he enjoys reading scripture and crafting enough to keep at it. He feels more competent when he is ritually speaking the holy words, and has begun to draw magic from his skill with using them. In fact, he recently was able to forge himself a trinket in the blue flame on Black Hill, just before it went out. He worries that something he did somehow extinguished it, and because he feels responsible he has decided he must go investigate beneath the mountain to discover what happened.
Description
Derek is thin for a dwarf, spindly and short. He's middle-aged; he is only twenty years younger than Councilor Freddert. He has grown a fine beard, which covers most of his face, but his eyes are deep and his voice resonates with a powerful echo. He is generally gruff and sarcastic, and likes (perhaps too much) repeating particularly apt catchphrases from the Book of Torag. He also likes showing off his family's wealth. He's always been something of a tinkerer, and loves taking apart technological items to see how they work. In recent months he has been experimenting with firearms, trying to become proficient in their use and manufacture, and he believes he is on the verge of a breakthrough.
Build Notes
Derek is a ranged attacker, buffer, knowledge skill monkey, and crafter.
His favored weapon is currently a modified stonebow that he has made to shoot magical coins as well as bullets, and he has a light mace shaped like a hammer for when he must fight in a melee. Once he gains proficiency with firearms (planned for his level 3 feat), he will craft himself an actual pistol unless he finds something better that he can study and learn to make himself.
When he recites scripture, the vibrations of his voice ensure that he does not have to be heard to affect his allies. Furthermore, his performance causes a minor tremor that penalizes his enemies' AC by -1 within 30 feet. Otherwise, he can inspire courage, and the effects linger for 3 rounds after he ceases. It should be noted that as a Savage Skald, he will eventually gain some abilities that specifically benefit any barbarians in the group.
He has bardic knowledge and a goodly number of skill points, and many of the spells he will learn specifically give him bonuses to Knowledges and Perception (acute senses, heightened awareness, tears to wine). He will be able to inspire competence in himself or others to boost his skill rolls when necessary, and even boost a roll if it looks like it will fail with gallant inspiration.
I plan for Derek to take Craft Magic Arms and Armor at level 5, and then several of the technological crafting feats starting at level 7. If we don't have access to crafting laboratories yet, I'll put those off of course.
I hope this is more or less what you wanted to see in a dwarf bard. It's a tricky concept because bards are so dependent on Charisma and dwarves are so not charismatic, but I think I've designed Derek to compensate for his weaknesses fairly well while taking full advantage of his strengths.
Race: Dwarf
Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Bard (Faith Singer/Savage Skald/Stonesinger)
Ability scores: middle-aged, Str 7-1 (-2), Dex 15-1 (+2), Con 13+1 (+2), Int 13+1 (+2), Wis 11+3 (+2), Cha 16-1 (+2)
HP: 13 (1d8+2, +3 Toughness)
AC: 16 (+2 Dex, +4 armor)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20'
Saves: +3 Fort / +4 Reflex / +4 Will* (+2 vs emotion/fear)
BAB: +0
Weapons
light mace +2 (1d6-2)
masterwork stonebow +3 (1d6 bullets, or magic stone or coin shot damage)
Armor
masterwork chain shirt
Race Traits: Barrow Warden (+1 attack, +1 dodge vs undead), Craftsman (+2 Craft metal or stone), Darkvision (60'), Shadowhunter (deal half damage to incorporeal creatures, recover faster from undead attacks), Stability (+4 CMD vs bull rush/trip when on ground), Stonecunning (+2 Perception vs stone, auto-notice within 10'), Unstoppable (+1 Fort, Toughness)
Background Traits: Rich Parents, Skymetal Smith
Bard abilities: spells (CL 1), bardic knowledge (+1), bardic performance (start as standard, 6 rounds/day; distraction, inspire courage +1, inspiring blow), earth magic, faithful (Torag), stone song, tremor (-1); favored class bonus: -1% arcane spell failure in medium armor
Feats: Agile Maneuvers*, Combat Expertise*, Deadly Aim*, Lingering Performance, Power Attack*, Toughness*, Weapon Finesse*
Skills: Craft (all) 0+2* (+2 metal or stone), Craft Mechanical 1+5* (+2 metal or stone), Knowledge (all) 0+3, Knowledge Dungeoneering 1+6, Knowledge Engineering 1+6, Knowledge Local 1+6, Knowledge Religion 1+6, Linguistics 1+5, Perception 1+5, Sense Motive 1+5
Languages: Androffan, Common, Dwarven, Hallit, Undercommon
Bard spells
cantrips: grasp, mending, message, prestidigitation
1st (2): coin shot, saving finale
Equipment: bard's kit (41 gp), dagger (2 gp), explorer's outfit (free), light mace (5 gp), masterwork chain shirt (250 gp), masterwork stonebow (335 gp), scroll of magic stone x5 (125 gp), skymetal coin (free), waterproof bag (.5 gp), 12 pp, 20 gp, 150 cp
