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HALF-DWARF
Half-dwarves are the descendents of dwarves and humans.
+2 to One Ability Score. Half-dwarf characters get a +2 bonus to one ability score of their choice at creation to represent their varied nature. Half-dwarf characters that choose to place this bonus in Constitution get a +4 bonus.
Medium: Half-dwarves are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Half-dwarves have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Half-dwarves can see in the dark up to 30 feet.
Dwarf Blood: Half-dwarves count as both dwarves and humans for any effect related to race.
Stable and Steady: Half-dwarves add their Constitution bonus (if any) to their Combat Maneuver Defense when resisting a bull rush or trip attempt while standing on the ground, and their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.
Weapon Familiarity: Half-dwarves are proficient with battleaxes, heavy picks, and war hammers, and treat any weapon with the word “dwarven” in its name as a martial weapon.
Languages: Half-dwarves begin play speaking Common and Dwarven. Half-dwarves with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, and Undercommon.
Alchemist: Add a +½ bonus to their class level when determining the duration of mutagens.
Barbarian: Add 1 to the half-dwarf‘s total number of rage rounds per day.
Bard: Add 1 to the half-dwarf‘s total number of bardic performance rounds per day.
Cavalier: Add +¼ to the half-dwarf‘s number of daily challenges.
Cleric: Select one domain power granted at 1st level that is normally usable for a number of times per day equal to 3 + the cleric’s Wisdom modifier. The cleric adds ½ to the number of uses per day of that domain power.
Druid: Add +1 to the half-dwarf‘s animal companion’s hit point total. If the half-dwarf ever replaces his animal companion, the new companion gains these bonus hit points.
Fighter: Half-dwarf fighters add +1 to their Combat Maneuver Defense when resisting a bull rush or trip.
Inquisitor: Add + ¼ to the half-dwarf‘s number of daily judgments.
Monk: half-dwarf monks add +¼ of their level to their ki pool.
Oracle: Reduce the non-proficient penalty for one weapon by 1. When the non-proficient penalty for a weapon becomes 0 because of this ability, the oracle is treated as having the appropriate Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat with that weapon.
Paladin: Add a +1 bonus on concentration checks when casting paladin spells.
Ranger: Add a +½ bonus on wild empathy checks to influence animals and magical beasts that live underground.
Rogue: Add a +½ bonus on Disable Device checks regarding stone traps and a +½ bonus to trap sense regarding stone traps.
Sorcerer: Add +1 to concentration checks while the half-dwarf stands on the ground.
Summoner: Add +1 hit point to the half-dwarf‘s eidolon.
Witch: Add +¼ to the Save DC of Hexes of opponents standing on the same surface as the half-dwarf.
Wizard: Add +½ to Earth spell damage.
Boreal Resilience. You gain cold resistance equal to your Constitution bonus.
Brave Heart. You add your Constitution bonus in place of your Wisdom modifier when resisting Intimidate skill checks or saving against fear effects.
Dwarven Defenses. You gain a +1 bonus on Saving Throws versus spells and spell-like effects.
Earth Walker. You use your Constitution modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier on Acrobatics and Stealth skill checks.
Enduring Athlete. You use your Constitution modifier in place of your Strength modifier for Climb and Swim skill checks.
Forge Worker. You gain fire resistance equal to your Constitution bonus.
Guarded Defenses. You add +1 to the AC to confirm critical hits against you.
Hard Worker. You gain DR 1/- to non-lethal damage.
Iron Gullet. You add +2 on Saving Throws versus poison.
Myrmidon. You add your Constitution bonus to your Strength score for the purposes of determining how much you can lift or carry.
Relentless. You add +2 to on checks to avoid non-lethal damage.
Stone Hearted. You add your Constitution bonus in place of your Wisdom modifier when making Will Saves against charm effects.
Tough Minded. You add your Constitution modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier on Sense Motive and Survival skill checks.
Tough Patient. You add +1 to the amount of hit points you recover whenever you benefit from a successful Heal check or positive energy effect, such as cure spells or channel energy effects.
HALF-DWARVES
Physical Description: Half-dwarves typically stand between four and half and five feet tall, the men with thick muscles, the women with plentiful curves. Their hair is typically long and dark, as are their eyes. Unlike their dwarven kin, their bodies are mostly hairless and their skin a rich bronze color. They typically wear simple outfits of homespun wool.
Society: Half-dwarves are usually found in rugged frontier communities on the edges beyond civilization. hy They are valued for their strength and courage, and typically exhibit the best qualities of their parents’ races. Many act as ambassadors, whether officially or not, between the dwarven and human lands.
Relations: Half-dwarves are more likely to judge folk by the character of their actions, rather than the history of their people. They get along fairly well with half-orcs and half-elves, since they understand living with divided bloodlines. Their self-confidence allows them to tolerate the suspicions and practical jokes of gnome and halfling alike, and of course they get along well with humans and dwarves. Elves tend to distrust half-dwarves, since they tend to exhibit the qualities from both parent races that elves like least amongst humans and dwarves.
Alignment and Religion: Half-dwarves display the stubbornness and loyalty of their dwarven stock, but typically hold this loyalty to friends, family, or adventuring company as opposed to clan, church, or nation. Half-dwarves are typically neutral or chaotic, but rarely evil. Half-dwarves are typically not overly religious, but admire deities that can help them overcome trials and challenges.
Adventurers: Half-dwarves adventure to see the world and overcome challenges. They can typically outlast most opponents through sheer force of will or toughing out more physical punishment than anyone else. They see adventuring as a way to test themselves and prove themselves worthy to their friends and allies.
Male Names: Logan, Daken, Lukas, Duncan, Torag, Muhurrond, Puck, Ro.
Female Names: Karsha, Rory, Petra. Ali, Ember, Inaria, Teegan, Lasha.
VITAL STATISTICS
Half-Dwarf
Middle Age 62 years
Old 93 years
Venerable 125 years
Maximum Age 125 + 3d20 years
Adulthood 20 years
+1d6 Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer
+2d6 Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger
+3d6 Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard
Half-Dwarf male
Base Height 4 foot 4 inches
Base Weight 130
Modifier: + 2d4
Weight multiplier x5 pounds
Half-Dwarf female
Base Height 4 foot 2 inches
Base Weight 100
Modifier +2d4
Weight multiplier x5 pounds
HALF-DWARF
Half-dwarves are the descendents of dwarves and humans.
+2 to One Ability Score. Half-dwarf characters get a +2 bonus to one ability score of their choice at creation to represent their varied nature. Half-dwarf characters that choose to place this bonus in Constitution get a +4 bonus.
Medium: Half-dwarves are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal Speed: Half-dwarves have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Half-dwarves can see in the dark up to 30 feet.
Stable and Steady: Half-dwarves add their Constitution bonus (if any) to their Combat Maneuver Defense when resisting a bull rush or trip attempt while standing on the ground, and their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.
Weapon Familiarity: Half-dwarves are proficient with battleaxes, heavy picks, and war hammers, and treat any weapon with the word “dwarven” in its name as a martial weapon.
Languages: Half-dwarves begin play speaking Common and Dwarven. Half-dwarves with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, and Undercommon.
** spoiler omitted **...
I like the idea. Couple of things:
1. No core race gets a net +4. +4 to a specific stat might be okay if that stat were...useless. Con is really good for all classes. It should be a flat +2 to one stat, just like the other half-human races.
2. Stable and Steady is better than its parents, Slow and Steady and Stability. You've linked Stable and Steady to the Con bonus, and with a +4 to that your half-dwarves would be foolish not to take advantage and get a nice +5 or +6 (with a starting score of 16 or 18, unmodified, easy to do if you roll with some of the generous schemes). This makes it better than Stability in the long run. Also, 30 ft, no penalty for armor or encumbrance? That's better than Dwarves get, and subsumes some of the best fighter class features (the better speed in armor) into a race trait available from first level. Why be a dwarf fighter when I can be a half-Dwarf fighter and get all of the good stuff? Why be a human fighter when I can be a half-Dwarf and sacrifice one feat for 10 ft of movement never reduced by encumbrance or armor? Totally worth it. Also, now the half-Dwarf Paladins can wear full plate and move 30 instead of 20. Too good. Why not just leave Stability as is, and drop the Slow and Steady part. If you must have the Steady part, limit it to medium armor or something.
3. Favored Class option for every class: Humans are the only race that gets these in the APG, presumably for a reason (I'm guessing, to reflect our human verasatility, or something). Now your half-Dwarves have it too. Shouldn't these be limited to the classes you think fit best with the race, as opposed to all of them?
Not to pick on your work, and I like the idea. I just think these guys are better, basically, than most of the other races. It's slight, but it's there. Feel free to disregard my opinion, and enjoy your game.
Thanks for the feedback.
While Constitution is pretty powerful, pretty much all it does nowadays is give you an extra hit point and +1 to Fortitude Saves. Maybe not die for a round. It doesn't have any skills anymore, and it rarely comes up for other purposes unless you're running a survival-type campaign where you are swimming, too hot, or too cold. Maybe drowning.
There are no class abilities based on Constitution. You can replace +2 to Constitution with a feat and a trait. Every other ability score provides a lot more bang for its buck, even Charisma.
I thought about making their speed 25 feet, but that seemed a bit clunky.
I like the Awesome Beard feat idea. Maybe just a blanket +1 bonus on Charisma checks to affect dwarves?
Maybe an Improved Awesome Beard feat, that gives a +1 natural armor bonus or something?
Your Half Dwarves are great.
The awesome beard feat bonus could apply for dwarves, half dwarves, derro and duergar. If your game world has a particular long time enemy of the dwarves (typically) goblins then the feat bonus could apply to them too.
If there is alot of them I guess you'd have a history of human-dwarven interaction and cooperation in one region in your game world.
Could have some feat where they sing or chant their lineage during duels or battles. Boost to morale or Will saves.
In the past I made up Dwarflings, Halfling-Dwarf crossbreeds which I have included below in case you are interested.
- Dwarflings
Dwarflings have one Dwarven parent and one Halfling parent. These unions are typically result in an agile and perceptive child with their Dwarven parents determination and hatred of goblinoids. Dwarflings are presumed to be Dwarves or Halflings by Humans, and equally are accepted by Dwarven and Halflings.
Dwarflings are stockier than most humans, usually about a foot shorter. Their skin tends toward tanned or darker tones, and their hair all shades of brown. A Dwarfling's ears are pointed, and their arms and legs have abundant hair.
* +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, –2 Strength
* Medium
* Hatred: Dwarflings receive a +1 bonus on attack rolls against humanoid creatures of the orc and goblinoid subtypes due to special training against these hated foes.
* Hardy: Dwarflings receive a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, spells, and spell-like abilities.
* Keen Senses: Dwarflings receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception skill checks.
* Languages: Dwarflings begin play speaking Common, Dwarven and Halfling.
* Defensive Training: Dwarflings get a +2 dodge bonus to AC against monsters of the giant subtype.
* Darkvision: Dwarflings can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Height : 3ft 8 “ +2d4’. Weight : 140lb + (2d4*5lb).
Age : 30 + 2d6 Bb/Ro/So, +3d6 Bd/Fi/Pa/Ra, +4d6 Cl/Dr/Mk/Wi
Middle age : 70, Old : 110, Venerable : 180, Maximum : 180+3D20.
Maybe an Improved Awesome Beard feat, that gives a +1 natural armor bonus or something?That's an amazing idea! Have something like a Starched Beard feat that acts as impromptu armour. Or is that too silly?
Maybe a shield bonus?