| Angry Wizard |
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
Hobgoblins
Orcs/Half-Orcs
Kobolds
*edit* paizo playable races only if possible, please.
| Bruunwald |
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.
| lemeres |
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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).