Help me pick out a monster race to parallel dwarves.


Advice


So, I'm creating a monster race campaign, in which the tribe destroying humans, elves, and dwarves are the monsters who raid and pillage your hard built villages and reap your bounties. I'm currently looking for a race to parallel dwarves as a monster race like I have with others below. Please note my group does NOT want anything to do with the races in the deep dark. No dark elves, duergar, deep gnome, or anything like that. It doesn't necessarily have to live beneath the earth to represent dwarven parallel qualities. If you have better arguments for another race to represent as one of the core race, I would be very glad to listen. =)

Some parallels me and my group have made:

Goblins

Spoiler:
(Halflings) A small and simple folk that prefer day to day living activities than a real desire to expand their influence beyond obtaining life’s simpler pleasures, like good food, a warm fire, and tools with which to practice their means of living.

Hobgoblins

Spoiler:
(Humans) Militarized and innovative, their existence among other longer lived races can be chalked up to their pure tenacity and problem solving skills, as well as their aptitude for war.

Orcs/Half-Orcs

Spoiler:
(Elves/Half-Elves) While famed for their skill with weaponry, their greatest asset valued in their people is their aptitude for magic, with their casters being held in the greatest respect and reverence in their culture. Their half-breeds are either considered bastards whom are unable to properly integrate with their ways, being too close to what they consider a lesser race, or they rise in the ranks with the best qualities of both of it's races.

Kobolds

Spoiler:
(Gnomes) A race greatly intertwined with the power of naturally magical creatures, they revere their magical origins with great eccentricity. Beyond their magical origins, they also excel in exotic devices and traps with which they improve their lives and protect their homes.

*edit* paizo playable races only if possible, please.


Maybe the Kobolds could be the anti-Dwarves, and Faeries the anti-Gnomes?


I would send Evil dwarfs after the halflings. And Goblins after elfs(in PF goblins run circles around elfs in the Woods) and let orcs go after the dwarfs.


It is a long standing trope of Fantasy that dwarves and orcs hate each other to the core of their beings. I am assuming you are trying to avoid that tired trope.

So, without rearranging what you already have, I see no reason why evil dwarves aren't a good enough foe for good dwarves.

Dwarves are pretty religious. All you need do is come up with an evil, preferably Chaotic dwarf god, and pretty soon you have hordes of chaotic dwarves waging bloody war on, and stealing everything from, the good and law-abiding citizens of Gooddwarftown.

It's good enough for Warhammer and Kings of War, and any other number of tabletop Fantasy settings. The potential for crazy giant angry battle is endless.


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How about Lizardfolk? They are technically stated out (..as official examples for the race builder)

They are a neutral race that works hard to survive in the harsh swamps they call home. At times coldly utilitarian ('meat is meat' is an unfortunate reality of the swamps- they do not kill people to eat them...but wasting hard to come by nutrients.....). Their stout bodies help to make them well suited for facing a dwarf in a fight (with a reliance on their natural natural hides in contrast to the heavily armored dwarves)

They can serve as a counterbalance to the dwarves because they strive to maintain the natural balance of their land. again- not really religious or superstitious, although people may attribute that to them. It is utilitarian practices learned through centuries of survival and trial and error, and facing the harsh consequences of mistakes. You can make the dwarves staunch industrialists that do not care for the ecological disaster they bring as they mine, pump oil, build factories with toxic run off, etc, etc.

And for a nice image for dwarf lands- mountains that have been stripped bare of trees. Land slides are a constant threat, and the mountain is slowly being worn down by its loss of life. Ill kept dams are also something you can use, and can serve as a cause for direct conflict with the lizardfolk (along with toxic run off running down stream from their mountain factories).


lemeres wrote:
How about Lizardfolk?...

Oooo, I like it. I might just do that.


Ratfolk could make a good counterpart to Dwarves if you don't mind them being a "villain race"

Both are solid underground races with heavy ties to community and tradition. They both have strong mercantile focuses and desire to accumulate wealth.

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