Rethinking Fantasy Races - Slaughtering Your Sacred Minotaurs
[[Yesterday's eclipse caused me to completely forget that it was Monday. Apologies for the late update.]]
I hadn't intended to dive into the darklands counterparts of the main races this early, but the elves started it and I see no reason to stop now. Maybe I'll just alternate between the surface and the darklands for as long as I can.
At any rate, Duergar are on the menu today.
Step 1: Concept
So, as angry deep dwarves, duergar share a lot in common with their cousins. There's the same kind of nature/arcane divide here as the elves have. We could play that up, but at this point it feels formulaic. I mean, why do all these underground races have spell-like abilities and an arcane magic focus?
Wait...
Oh my god...
The core of the earth is a sphere of crystallized magic surrounded by a layer of liquid magic swirling around it. The deeper you go, the closer you get to the source and the more it seeps into your being.
So...duergar are magic dwarves. Settled.
Step 2: Racial Qualities
TYPE - Humanoid (dwarf)
SIZE - Medium. Usually.
SPEED - Slow and Steady.
ABILITIES - So, core duergar have the same modifiers as dwarves, but an extra -2 Charisma because evil? Let's just drop the extra -2 to Charisma.
Now, as far as the +2 to Constitution, that's a core dwarf thing. Always has been. The point of this is to slaughter our sacred minotaurs, though. I kinda want to move their racial bonus to Strength. I mean, they're angry aggressive dwarves, right? A tradeoff has to be made between offense and defense. Of course, they already have enlarge person as a spell-like ability...maybe it's a better idea to keep the Constitution bonus. =/
So that puts us at the same modifiers as dwarves. +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma.
LANGUAGES - I feel like duergar are even more insular than dwarves are. The Xenophobic option actually feels good here. That gives them Dwarven as a starting language. We can pick up to four bonus languages with this option, one of which has to be Common. Since they're a subterranean race, we're switching that to Undercommon.
Allies? None.
Enemies? Ev...everyone? Probably the most common ones are dark elves, dark folk, and svirfneblin. That gives us Dark Folk, Elven, and Gnome.
And rules be damned, they need to have Terran.
Okay, that gives us Dwarven as a starting language with Dark Folk, Elven, Gnome, Terran, and Undercommon as bonus language options.
Step 3: Racial Traits
Okay, let's see what duergar normally get.
Duergar Immunities (4 RP) - Totally
Stability (1 RP) - Yup
Spell-like abilities (3 RP) - get bigger and get invisible. ^_^
Superior Darkvision (3 RP) - Agreed
Light Sensitivity (-1 RP) - I mean, yeah. But for a race that rarely leaves the darklands, I like Light Blindness better.
That's all for base, now let's look at alternates.
Deep Magic (3 RP) - This really reinforces our "darklands races are gifted with magic" theme.
Magical Taskmaster (1 RP) - Adding in charm person works really well for their penchant for slavery.
So duergar can also take any dwarf trait that replaces Stability or Hardy. Let's poke around those.
Magic Resistant (2 RP) - Spell resistance, yo.
Relentless (1 RP) - Cool for these guys, especially with enlarge person.
Shadowhunter (2 RP) - Not one of the ones that replaces hardy or stability, but this fucking rocks for what we're doing.
Unstoppable (2 RP) - Moar HP.
I think that's a nice selection. Let's see what it looks like.
DUERGAR
Type - Humanoid (dwarf) 0 RP
Size - Medium 0 RP
Base Speed - Slow and Steady -1 RP
Ability Score Modifiers - Standard (+2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma) 0 RP
Languages - Xenophobic 0 RP
Racial Traits
Defense Racial Traits
Duergar Immunities 4 RP
Stability 1 RP
Spell Resistance, Lesser 2 RP
Unstoppable 2 RP
Magic Racial Traits
Deep Magic 3 RP
Spell-Like abilities, lesser 4 RP
Offense Racial Traits
Relentless 1 RP
Shadowhunter 2 RP
Senses Racial Traits
Superior Darkvision 3 RP
Weakness Racial Traits
Light Blindness -2 RP
Okay, that totals to 19 points. So let's drop Relentless and Stability and make Shadowhunter an alternate.
Let's take a final look, then.
Duergar Standard Racial Traits
Ability Score Racial Traits: Duergar are hearty and observant, but also belligerent. They gain +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, and –2 Charisma.
Type: Duergar are humanoids with the dwarf subtype.
Size: Duergar are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Duergar have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.
Languages: Duergar begin play speaking Dwarven. Duergar with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Dark Folk, Elven, Gnome, Terran, and Undercommon. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Defense Racial Traits
Duergar Immunities: Duergar are immune to paralysis, phantasms, and poison. They gain a +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like abilities.
Spell Resistance: Duergar gain spell resistance equal to 6 + their character level.
Unstoppable: Duergar gain Toughness as a bonus feat and a +1 racial bonus on Fortitude saves.
Magic Racial Traits
Deep Magic: Duergar receive a +2 racial bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance and a +2 racial bonus on dispel checks.
Spell-Like Abilities: Duergar can cast charm person, enlarge person, and invisibility, once each per day, using their total character level as caster level. The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 duergar’s Hit Dice + duergar’s Wisdom modifier.
Senses Racial Traits
Superior Darkvision: Duergar have superior darkvision, allowing them to see perfectly in the dark up to 120 feet.
Weakness Racial Traits
Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds duergar for 1 round; on subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.
Alternate Racial Traits
Shadowhunter (2 RP): The deep caves of the world spawn undead and some very strange arcane creatures. Duergar with this trait deal 50% weapon damage to incorporeal creatures when using non-magical weapons (including natural and unarmed attacks), as if using magic weapons. They also gain a +2 bonus on saving throws to remove negative levels, and recover physical ability damage from attacks by undead creatures at a rate of 2 points per ability score per day (rather than the normal 1 point per ability score per day). This racial trait replaces Unstoppable.
Looks good to me. Let me know what you think.
Until next time.
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