Pathfinder Companion: Dwarves of Golarion (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Companion: Dwarves of Golarion (PFRPG)
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Born ages ago in lightless caverns, the dwarves surged upward in pursuit of a divine prophecy, driving the feral orcs before them until they reached the surface world in the fabled Quest for Sky. Now established with their own lands and customs, the dwarves work their forges, sing songs of legendary heroes, brew signature beers, and wage war against evil humanoids and hideous monsters.

    Inside this Pathfinder Companion you’ll find:
  • Details on the dwarves of Golarion—where they live, what they eat, how they dress, and their ideas about work and war.
  • New combat feats for dwarven fighting styles.
  • History of the dwarven people.
  • Descriptions of the Five Kings Mountains, the oldest and most stable dwarven homeland.
  • Obscure magic of the dwarven gods.
  • Spells for ancestral communication, warding, and surviving the Darklands.
  • New character traits.
  • Game stats for three dwarf NPCs, suitable for hirelings or cohorts.

Written by David Eitelbach, Russ Taylor, JD Wiker, Keri Wiker, and Hank Woon

Each bimonthly 32-page Pathfinder Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for social, magic, religious, and combat-focused characters, as well as a persona section detailing helpful NPCs and traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-204-3

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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An Unessential Look at Typical Fantasy Dwarves

3/5

Dwarves of Golarion is one of the earlier entries in the Pathfinder Player's Companion line, and the first book dedicated to a specific race. The artwork, though serviceable, is clearly inferior to the current Paizo standard. The inside front cover of the book has a nice, full-page summary of Dwarf racial traits and a list of dwarven gods, while the inside back cover has a map of the Five Kings Mountain region that is rather-well detailed, containing over two-dozen settlements, fortresses, and mines. The 32 pages of the interior are divided into the following sections:

1. "Dwarves of Golarion" (10 pages): An introduction and overview to Dwarven physical, mental, and cultural norms. Everything from Dwarven diet to Dwarven fashion is covered here. Frankly, there's little that strays from the stereotypical fantasy notion of a dwarf, and players experienced with previous versions of D&D will find most of their preconceptions confirmed. There are a few pages on Golarion-specific history of the Dwarves which is reasonably interesting--events like the Quest for the Sky and places like the Sky Citadels offer some insight into Dwarven culture.

2. "Dwarven Character Traits" (1 1/2 pages): This section introduces eight race traits, six religion traits, six regional traits, and four magic traits. The traits are flavourful and tie in well to Golarion's conception of dwarves. Mechanically, they are certainly not game-breaking and for the most part rather bland in effect.

3. "The Five Kings Mountains" (8 pages): This is a gazetteer of the Five Kings Mountains, the center of Dwarven culture in known Golarion. Several major cities like Larrad, Highhelm, Kovlar, Rolgrimmdur, Taggoret, and Tar-Kazmukh receive at least a couple of paragraphs each. Other topics include natural hazards and foreign relations. Four pages of this section are actually about other Dwarven enclaves beyond the Five Kings Mountains, and cover the Darklands, Kalsgard, the Kodar Mountains, the Mindspin Mountains, the Shattered Range, and Osirion. This section would be extremely useful for GMs planning to run Dwarf-centered adventures in any of these locations. My guess is that most players probably don't need so much information and will just skim it.

4. "Combat" (2 pages): There's a brief, non-mechanical but flavourful description of legendary Dwarven combat tactics to start this section. Next, five Dwarven combat feats are covered and a new Dwarven weapon (the Dorn-Dergar) is introduced. The feats are really fun! If I had a Dwarf PC, I could definitely imagine taking some of them like Bounding Hammer or Sliding Axe Throw, as they have a nice Dwarf-specific flavour and would be effective in combat.

5. "Faith" (2 pages): This section is almost entirely new spells. Nine new spells are introduced, and all of them are divine spells for clerics, rangers, and paladins. An odd mechanic is set forth that limits these spells to worshippers of particular Dwarven deities unless a special ritual prayer is said.

6. "Magic" (2 pages): Three spells relating to veneration of one's ancestors are introduced for Dwarven clerics and bards only. There's one new spell for Dwarven rangers & druids and two new rune-focussed spells for sorcerors and wizards.

7. "Persona" (4 pages): Three NPCs are given full stat blocks and descriptions. I still don't really see the value of including NPCs like this in a Player's Companion, but it has potential value for GMs who buy the book and need to provide a contact, a cohort, etc. There's also a one-page overview of Dwarven deities, each of whom only has a paragraph or so. I'm not sure why this wasn't placed in the "Faith" section, and the description of each is quite cursory.

8. "Social" (2 pages): Three topics--Dwarven beards, ales, and craftsmanship--are discussed. Definitely not essential, but could be good for players wanting to add a little more flavour to their PCs. A couple of the ales even provide alchemical bonuses for an hour or so, an idea which I can safely say I've never seen before.

Overall, there's not a lot in this book that is especially memorable or innovative. A player with this book and a player without this book would probably portray Dwarves in Golarion equally well, especially now that the feats and spells would be available on various websites. If anything, I'd recommend this book more to GMs who need a relatively quick overview of Dwarven history in Golarion and the Five Kings Mountains for a campaign set in the area.


Adequate, but... I expected a bit more.

3/5

The only other races-of-Golarion book I have is the Gnomes of Golarion... which I really love, so it may have raised a rather high bar for me.

In both cases, I bought the splat books because I was picking up a character of that race, and I wanted to get a better feel for what it means to BE that race, especially in Golarion.

Gnomes of Golarion was a great book that gave me ideas on family structure, how long it takes to 'grow up', and, with the introduction of the Bleaching concept, really made the gnomes of Golarion feel like their own unique thing.

....and then there's Dwarves of Golarion.

I don't think it's an awful book on its own, but compared to Gnomes, I was disappointed. It felt much lighter on content. I don't really know at what age dwarves are considered mature, what the rate of childbirth is among the species, if a dwarf would have lots of siblings or very few, what gender roles are like other than a references to the wimmen staying home and the men goin' out to fight (which, if that's how dwarven culture is, fine, but... make it clearer to me than just off-hand references), what family structures are like, how the settlements are ruled and organized other than 'monarchy'...

Judging by the book, there are exactly three life paths you will take if you are a dwarf: you will Craft Things, you will Fight Things, or you will Heal Things. Presumably the dwarven culture has room for people who aren't actively being craftsmen (craftsdwarves?), fighters, or clerics, but it's not really outlined at all what those might be.

Many of the specific discussions of the dwarven culture seemed like they were there just to elaborate on mechanical things-- like the numerous references to dwarves not being slowed down by their gear.

Perhaps most damningly to me, there just didn't feel like there was anything new or original in here that goes beyond Tolkien's dwarves. There were a few mentions of the dwarf-tribes of Garund, sure, but beyond that this was nothing but the dwarf trope of fantasy for the last 50 years: forge, beer, beards. Golarion dwarves seem interchangeable with the dwarves of a half-dozen fantasy settings, and after the unique feel of the Golarion gnomes, I did find that a little disappointing.

Nothing in here was awful. But nothing was terribly surprising or interesting, either.


Solid Book but rather Bare Bones.

2/5

This book does have some of interesting background concerning dwarves in Golarion. It has a special focus on the region known as the Five Kings Mountains. The overarching history of the dwarf race is given along with some neat cultural tidbits. The new spells items and traits are fun as well.

For me though the book lacked a lot of the depth that I really love in source books. The addition of a dwarf name table a page of common dwarven words with some language structure would have been appreciated. This book just failed to touch on so many potentially interesting points. What type of calendar do dwarves use to track time? (A timeline would have been another good addition) How about listing some dwarven holidays? What types of animals do dwarves like to keep as pets? Are there any popular dwarf sports? It would be nice to see sketches of dwarven clothes and jewelry. In the end other than some general history specific to dwarves in Golarion you won't be learning anything new about the Stout Folk.


Dwarves to every mountain range!

5/5

This book managed two seemingly conflicting things - to keep the traditional feel of the Dwarven race (one of the most conservative races that even in Eberron stayed rather unchanged if compared to others) and at the same time to add some new features that spice up the solid dwarven gravy. It's nice to see that they are people like any other with brighter and darker aspects on them.


impressive from so many angles

5/5

After reading the book I have to say I am very impressed. It details the background of the dwarves and their collectivist culture. Describes their attitudes and how they were raised thus giving rise to their strengths but also glaring weaknesses.

The history section was filled with so much bloodshed and tragedy with one standing point; even the hardy dwarves have been routed and experienced low points in their racial history.

The new feats were balanced and the traits were unique, especially the regional ones. All in all a very realistic book almost reminiscent of historical texts on ancient civilisations. A very well thought-out product.


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My stratagy worked!!!


sweetness


Sharoth wrote:
My stratagy worked!!!

Yes, but what (or who) did you REALLY do?


Yes!

Kae'yoss, eat your heart out ... ;)

Dark Archive

YES!! *happy_dance*

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

ok, I admit it, I am "dwarf-curious"


That should be a short book.
With sturdy pages and cover, maybe, but a short book.

;)


Cheer

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Yes!


::raised eyebrow:

James,

You don't like dwarves. You've said so many times.

{things to make you go hmmmmmmmmmm)

Seriously folks, he has.

You gonna make the dwarves so that you like them, then?

And what will that be like?

Sovereign Court

Watcher wrote:

::raised eyebrow:

James,
You don't like dwarves. You've said so many times.
{things to make you go hmmmmmmmmmm)
Seriously folks, he has.

He doesn't? What's wrong with him?

;-)

Liberty's Edge

Watcher wrote:

::raised eyebrow:

James,

You don't like dwarves. You've said so many times.

{things to make you go hmmmmmmmmmm)

Seriously folks, he has.

You gonna make the dwarves so that you like them, then?

And what will that be like?

this makes it a lot more interesting :)

more strategies to kill dwarves...are always welcomed :D

either that orth is is a real challenge due to his dwarven guys are already busy


Hehe.. I'm going feel like a jerk if he arrives and posts, "Yes I do like dwarves, Watcher is a liar."

I mean I think it's fine that he writes the book. I wouldn't trust anyone more.

It just surprised me, that's all.

Liberty's Edge

Watcher wrote:

Hehe.. I'm going feel like a jerk if he arrives and posts, "Yes I do like dwarves, Watcher is a liar."

I mean I think it's fine that he writes the book. I wouldn't trust anyone more.

It just surprised me, that's all.

actually I am sure he said he disliked dwarves...

Paizo Employee Creative Director

I don't like dwarves. Doesn't mean that NO one likes dwarves. Not everything Paizo publishes needs to be something I like! :)

In any case, my name's up top as the author just as a placeholder. We don't have an author yet (we're assigning one this week, in fact). In fact... whenever you see my name listed as an author when we release a new product, it's pretty sure that, like the cover image, it's just a placeholder.

ANYway... the key is to assign an author who LOVES dwarves, so that way they get the quality writing they deserve!


James Jacobs wrote:


ANYway... the key is to assign an author who LOVES dwarves, so that way they get the quality writing they deserve!

And that lucky writer will become the definitive authority on all things dwarven.

The "Go To Guy" for the Shorties.


His name shall be Stumpy, and we shall call him friend.


Bah, caved under the pressure. Should be ashamed of yourself.

You all gnow what I must do gnow.

Dance of Ruin wrote:

Yes!

Kae'yoss, eat your heart out ... ;)

Elves were first. Gno way to deny that victory.

Gnomes will have their time.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Yes, but gnot gnow.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

*wonders who the writer is going to be, then*


Erik Mona wrote:

Yes, but gnot gnow.

Time is of no concern to a gnome, only experience - so I suggest that you guys make the meantime exciting.

Oh, and I see I have my first disciple. Soon our power will gnow gno bounds! .D

Verdant Wheel

Victory fanfarre !!

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:

I don't like dwarves. Doesn't mean that NO one likes dwarves. Not everything Paizo publishes needs to be something I like! :)

In any case, my name's up top as the author just as a placeholder. We don't have an author yet (we're assigning one this week, in fact). In fact... whenever you see my name listed as an author when we release a new product, it's pretty sure that, like the cover image, it's just a placeholder.

ANYway... the key is to assign an author who LOVES dwarves, so that way they get the quality writing they deserve!

Wow, I just received my copy of Elves of Golarion, and now Paizo surprises me (once again) with *another* must-buy...

James, may I bodly suggest asking Ed Greenwood or Steven Schend or Eric Boyd to write this accessory? All of them are excellent authors and truly experts on "all things Dwarven" in the Realms. =)

I may be wrong, but I recall that Steven (or was it Eric?) once mentioned having written a *lot* of unpublished material for the dwarven realm of Shanatar, and as we know, Ed wrote the 'Dwarven Deep' for FR, which was (in my opinion) a great accessory that still sees a lot of use in my campaigns.

Grand Lodge

James Jacobs wrote:


In fact... whenever you see my name listed as an author when we release a new product, it's pretty sure that, like the cover image, it's just a placeholder.

But.. but... some of want you to write stuff.


Erik Mona wrote:

Yes, but gnot gnow.

If gnot gnow, gnwen ?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Scribbling Rambler wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:


In fact... whenever you see my name listed as an author when we release a new product, it's pretty sure that, like the cover image, it's just a placeholder.
But.. but... some of want you to write stuff.

Aww!

I want to write stuff too! I just don't have the time to write as much as I want to, alas. Hopefully I'll find the time to do something between now and next Gen Con, though...


'Bout time!


Wonderful. It be about time.

Now, if ye remember to give some love to dwarven monks, the Stonefist clan would be thankin' ye kindly.

EDIT: Ninja'd by me cousin Amyrta!


"Stonefists... GAH!"

Sovereign Court Contributor

I like dwarves.

Just sayin'


"Stiggy ye finish oop th' cleanin' immediate ur Ah'll flin' ye in 'at Moradin cursed weel agin"

You still like dwarves Shackleton?


"Ah'll tak' ye it ay thes warld Stiggy, jist as Ah birthed ye in. Lest born, farst tae die. Ah aye kent ay ye."


<Runs for his life.>


Craig Shackleton wrote:

I like dwarves.

Just sayin'

"A wee cheil in th' arms an' legs ye ur but reit bonnie. Wa dae ye nae coom ower haur an' sit in Mammy's lap?"


Uch Shite, Staggeh...his in oouklah thin yuih war bairn ute. Gach! Hie fie yahinnae stlancher sulff hiyyer oon baird.

Sovereign Court Contributor

Hmph. I had to double check. My very first published adventure featured a battle site from the war between the Stonegate dwarves and the Rockfist duergar. I had a momentary thought that one of them was the Stonefist Clan, but not quite.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8

DitheringFool wrote:
ok, I admit it, I am "dwarf-curious"

Orlan (played Neil Spicer) and Klyndak (played by Wicht) turned me into a dwarf lover.


Craig Shackleton wrote:

I like dwarves.

Just sayin'

And we dwarves like Craig Shackleton.


Ochayyer Stoonfast ista clannae coal moonchiz!

Dark Archive

Kannonfodder wrote:
Craig Shackleton wrote:

I like dwarves.

Just sayin'

And we dwarves like Craig Shackleton.

Yeah, Craig and Sean could nail this one, too! :)


Jobbie Duke wrote:
Ochayyer Stoonfast ista clannae coal moonchiz!

"Awrite bonnie loon, greeetens te ye. Ye ken Mammy 'es hud some Dooke en 'er oan mony 'e moon. Hoo aboot a wee moonch ay Mammy's 'edden beard wee Jobbie."

Ewwwwww. I've made myself sick just writing that.


Craig Shackleton wrote:

I like dwarves.

Just sayin'

Mammy Mæch'Hæmmær wrote:
"A wee cheil in th' arms an' legs ye ur but reit bonnie. Wa dae ye nae coom ower haur an' sit in Mammy's lap?"
Craig Shackleton wrote:
Hmph. I had to double check. My very first published adventure featured a battle site from the war between the Stonegate dwarves and the Rockfist duergar. I had a momentary thought that one of them was the Stonefist Clan, but not quite.

"Ye ooght nae ignair Mammy wee bunsah. Ef ye wont tae rit abit dwarves ye need tae ken aw 'eir secrets."

<Mammy pulls up her skirt a little.>


Mammy Mæch'Hæmmær wrote:
<Mammy pulls up her skirt a little.>

Ennn. Barf on my keyboard. Still works.


"Hey Stiggy ... um ... I think your dad is flirting with that other dude..."


"'Et 'ere is mah Mammy steck cheil, frae 'er loins Ah cam, Moradin sae me."

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Ha ha ha ha! I knew this would happen.

You gnomes have a glong gway to go.

Dark Archive

Come on guys Gnome me.


Mammy Mæch'Hæmmær wrote:
"Ah'll tak' ye it ay thes warld Stiggy, jist as Ah birthed ye in. Lest born, farst tae die. Ah aye kent ay ye."

Can we please set down right now that Golarion dwarves don't talk like that? Make them order-lovers who abhor accents or slang!

That alone would make that book so worth buying.


Mammy Mæch'Hæmmær wrote:
"Ah'll tak' ye it ay thes warld Stiggy, jist as Ah birthed ye in. Lest born, farst tae die. Ah aye kent ay ye."
KaeYoss wrote:

Can we please set down right now that Golarion dwarves don't talk like that? Make them order-lovers who abhor accents or slang!

That alone would make that book so worth buying.

"By th' hairs ay mah undahbeart, whit kin' ay pish is 'at. Yu'r th' dolpid goblabairns 'a dinnae gab reit!"

*WHACK*


Erik Mona wrote:

Ha ha ha ha! I knew this would happen.

You gnomes have a glong gway to go.

"Noo thes striplin fellah gabs a bree wit. Aw ye feckin' gnomes hae ur a puckl'a lettahs 'e swap aroond. We Khazak hae coolchah."

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