A variant Dwarf I am considering for use in 5E, Pathfinder and homebrew. One d20 Dwarf to rule them all
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Dwarf
Ability Scores: Dwarves gain a +2 bonus to constitution and -2 charisma
Size: Medium
Age. Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they’re considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.
Alignment. Most dwarves are lawful, believing firmly in the benefits of a well-ordered society. They tend toward good as well, with a strong sense of fair play and a belief that everyone deserves to share in the benefits of a just order.
Size. Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.
Darkvision: Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Dwarven Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, throwing hammer, and warhammer.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and
guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.
Defensive Training: Giants have disadvantage on attack rolls vs Dwarves.
Hatred: Dwarves receive a +1 bonus on attack rolls against humanoid creatures of the orc and
goblinoid subtypes due to special training against these hated foes.
Stability: Dwarves cannot be knocked prone or tripped
Stonecunning: Dwarves gain advantage on Perception checks to potentially notice unusual stonework, such as traps and hidden doors located in stone walls or floors. They receive a check to notice such features whenever they pass within 10 feet of them, whether or not they are actively looking.
Subraces
Hill Dwarf
Ability Score Increase. Your Wisdom score increases by 2.
Dwarven Toughness. Your hit point maximum increases by 1, and it increases by 1 every time you gain a level.
Mountain Dwarf
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.
Dwarven Armor Training. You have proficiency with light and medium armor.
Lots of situational bonuses that could either never come up, occasionally come up or regularly come up depending on the campaign (making it difficult to judge their value). That replaces poison resistance which I found curious as hasn't that been a dwarf staple in every edition?
I actually expected to see spell resistance rather than a 3.5-esque dwarf. It looks alright. I don't think I'd use it for the above reasons but don't see any problems with it.
JohnLynch wrote:
I'm with JohnLynch. Not my cup of tea.
Balance issues with the subraces, too. The reason that Hill Dwarves get +1 Wis while Mountain Dwarves get +2 Str in the RAW is because extra HP is so much better than light and medium armor proficiency, especially on a Str/Con race that's at its best playing a class that already has those proficiencies.
I'd change "Stability" to work with the dis/advantage mechanic, rather than making it flat out immunity. No bipedal creature is completely immune to being knocked prone.
Also, a Charisma penalty for dwarves is just trope enforcement, and I hate trope enforcement. I suppose that's a matter of taste, but one that I feel pretty strongly about.
Huh. Missed the dwarven resistance line. In that case this is nothing but a power up. -2 charisma isn't a penalty for someone that was going to dump it anyway. Unless your games are highly charisma based, they may not even notice. Even if charisma is important, I've played low charisma dwarves in Pathfinder and still invested in diplomacy based skills. I'd have to see it in play to say for sure, but I'd be wary of giving it to a player.
JohnLynch wrote:
The bonuses against Giants, orcs and goblins always seemed hugely bizzare.
I mean, seriously-- you are positing KKK-style hatred upon every single last breathing member of an entire race. That they are all consumed with hatred and every single last one specifically trains to slaughter other races? Sounds like something an evil-aligned race ought to have-- and even then the targets of their all consuming genocidal hatred should probably be different based on the campaign world, the land they live in and even the particular clan. I can certainly imagine there beign some worlds where orcs and goblins exist, but they are totally surface-dwelling peoples who rarely ever encounter dwarfs and instead the big threat against dwarfs are endless legions of undead from a past forgotten age.
I mean, MAYBE one could try to excuse the concept of giants having a hard time smashing them due to their small, compact bodies-- but even then the bonus should probably be against all creatures of comparible size, not just humanoid ones that fall into that one particular family of immense humanoids. By the strict rules, if one were to enlarge a halfling up to the same size as a hill giant, they still wouldn't count as a "giant" and thus the dwarf wouldn't get his bonus.
Hebitsuikaza wrote: