Dwoflverine

[Jeffrey Swank]

In my current campaign, my players are fighting Drow. The dwarf fighter has been captured and taken to the drow city. I hate splitting the party, but it seemed fitting for the storyline and so I added more to it so the player of the dwarf isn’t just sitting there and actually has a bit of fun. The rest of the party has been fighting their way into the darklands to attempt a rescue mission.

So I came up with that the drow didn’t just take the dwarf by accident…they needed a dwarf for his high Con – to survive an experiment.
The drow houses are in a status competition with the other houses of the city in gladiator fights. Most houses use monsters as there warriors, but this particular house hates using mindless monsters – hence the dwarf.

Now as to not send the dwarf in without armament they have experimented with and modified fleshwarping – i.e. bloodwarping and bonewarping.

Basically infused him with Troll blood (to give fast healing) and laced his bones with adamantine and possibly the claws (hence the Dwolfverine heading)

And my question is – any ideas on what bonus that would give to a pc in game… a damage reduction or maybe since the metal covers vital areas it provides Fortification against critical hits? How much damage would three claws actually do (d4 x3? d6?)

[Critzible]

Light Fortifacation due to the bones near industructibility and the fact the bones cover most of your major organs. and yes he should be immune to nonlethal and DR5/bludegoning, DR2/every thing else

[Critzible]

Claws should be 1d4, do to size

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Thoughts:
1) Permanancy a magic fang, greater on the claws if they are bone or make the claws a magical weapon if adamantite.
2) Rend (Ex) for better damage.
3) Rage (Ex) like the wolverine.
4) He could Change Shape (Ex) into the Dwolfverine form for a set amount of time per day. Or 3/day for 3 + Constitution modifier rounds. And then be exhausted when he changes back.

All depends how gonzo you wanna be.

[Richard Leonhart]

damage reduction to blunt weapons, because they can't break his bones as easily.
charisma -2 perhaps (if you want to give him a malus too)
no fortification, arteries are outside the skeleton, and lungs can be punctured.
Claws, how about same as natural, but piercing and slashing, also he's considered armed, there are weapons a lot like it, just use them, adamantine, and can be redrawn as move action or something.

[Foghammer]

If you want the bones to have an impact but not be a huge buff, you might consider making it DR 10/adamantine, but it only kicks in at 0 HP (when the wounds start reaching deeper). Just a thought. Not sure what you're going for.

Also, fast healing 1 or 2 isn't a terrible thing, but it depends on the level of your party. All it's going to do is make him more durable and more likely to stand up after dropping to negative HP. If your encounters typically leave the PCs down when they drop and don't 'double-tap' so to speak, then he'll rarely be in danger of death.

Wolverine is a hard character to mimic without breaking the game. He's virtually indestructible. Even if he takes multiple 'critical hits' in succession, he regenerates.

[Critzible]

Originally Wolverine could talk to wolves, and do to that had there senses as well. They down play this ability now and just let him be the way he is, but i digress. I would give him regeneration of 2.

[Silent Saturn]

I'd say the claws shouldn't do any more than 1d6 or 1d8 at the very most, but only 1d4 feels like "what's the point?". Treat them as light weapons he's proficient with, but don't give him TWF with them for free if he doesn't already have it. Let him draw or sheathe them as a free action. I'd say he gets a +2 to Intimidate anyone who sees them but a -2 to any other social situations.

The adamantine bones would probably just give him a bonus to CON, and the troll blood might give him fast healing 1 or 2.

[Gnomezrule]

The claws need to be 1d8. More than that would be to much less than that would not make them worthwhile. The regen 2 is good. DR5 against bludgeoning DR2 everything else is good as Critzible said. The claws should be "quickdraw." Beyond that would be too much unless the game is already near 20th level.

[W. John Hare]

The claws should be a d4 or a d6 at the most.
Think of it this way, are the claws equivalent to a dagger or a short sword on the end of his hand?
If you go higher (ie a d8+) then you are saying that the claws are equivalent to a longsword or larger (which means you should really start looking at making the claws an exotic weapon... and imposing a penalty to hit until the PC gets proficient).

I would suggest looking at Monte Cook's book Chaositech to find equivalents. A benefit is that those modifications also have costs associated with them you have an idea on how much additional wealth the PC has 'inside' him.

[Jeffrey Swank]

Ive taken a lot of your guys suggestions! Thanks so much. I actually went with a d4 damage if one blade is out and d6 for two or three. With the third blade adding an additional multiplier for crit hit.

Bladed Fists d4 x2, 2 blades d6 x2, 3 blades d6 x3

I went with fast heal 2, with the option that he can sacrifice feats to get monster feats such as improved fast heal and such.

DR5 bludge

And settled with Light Fortification due to the fact that almost all major organs are covered by metal.

He also has to make a will save DC 20 to snap out the blades (since he is not used to having them yet) and after each major encounter he gets to subtract 2 off the DC until he can finally snap them out without thinking and will finally get quickdraw on them.

He also has taken his next level in Barbarian - playing into the rage (of having troll blood course through his veins)

I thought all the other players would get upset at his new "powers" but seeing as he hasn't leveled as they have (he was 2 behind) as they have been fighting their way into the darklands AND he lost all his gear/items when captured...they all love the story so far.

Again any suggestions are always wanted =)