Modifying dwarves

[SA]

And what if some really nasty individual found a way to recycle their dwarfy rock-corpses?  I really like the idea that dwarves are immune to necromancy on account of their stony construction, but what if a crazy necro-geomancer came a long and did really nasty, profane things with their statues?

[Gilladian]

Ohh, ick!

I would imagine, first, that dwarves might try to fake people into believing that dwarf dead are simply statues. They'd possibly keep them on display, or bury them in huge masses, much like the chinese terra-cotta armies, or maybe grind them into mortar...

I do think that it would be an impossible secret to keep. Maybe rumors would get out that dwarves don't die at all - they simply "turn to stone" for a time, and are then "renewed". That might be a common misconception because dwarves all look much alike.

You know, it occurs to me that there would be "styles" of dwarf-carving. You could tell what region a dwarf came from, or even his clan, by his appearance. All dwarves with coarse features and stubby hands are from one clan, because that's the way they carve their offspring.

And I wonder if the type of stone you're carved from could affect your personality. Would a marble dwarf be cold, and a sandstone dwarf be unreliable, and a granite dwarf be very stable?

Could dwarves all interpret personality quirks through the medium of their stone? ie - "he's hot-tempered - there must be a bit of lava-rock in his makeup..."

I should think the veneration and protection of the statues of their ancestors would be a very important trait among dwarves. Unless, of course, they do grind and re-use the rock dust as mortar. Or can you see the walls of a dwarf-castle built with the "bones" of dead dwarves? All their faces peering out from the walls... eerie.

[Gilladian]

Here's what I've officially written up:
http://vishteercampaign.pbwiki.com/Dwarves

[Matt Larkin (author)]

That's a huge amount of detail. I read the stuff up through the creation of new dwarves (since that was the thread topic). You've got a lot of flavor, so kudos there. However, I'm always leery about XP penalties/costs (though it certainly discourages PCs making kids if that's your goal).

And developers have said that 4e will not have anything like this ("XP is not a commodity"), so if you plan to upgrade, you may want to rethink on that account, too.

I should point out, however, that a high-level PC could decide to build himself a small army if he so-chose in times of desperation. 5000 XP for 5 full-grown dwarves is not so bad for a 15th level PC. Especially if you know the problem is coming a few years ahead.

[beejazz]

I'm liking some of the ideas I'm seeing so far.

Especially the idea that they could mass produce "half-awake" entities in times of war (and that they would see this as a taboo because of "negative consequences"). Also the idea that dead dwarves don't become undead.

But consider the possibility of mixing these two ideas and making it so dwarves have unique undead left as the result of prior war. You could even say this is where things like Derro come from.

[Gilladian]

Phoenix - I don't intend to upgrade to 4E, so that's not an issue. Thanks for the compliment about the detail - I've been creating my campaign world over the past 20+ years, so there's a lot of detail there from past iterations of dwarves; I just modified it to suit the new idea.

I kinda like the idea of the dwarves being able to  build what they need ahead of time; they're long-range thinkers. But I also think the social mentality of the dwarves would help minimize the likelihood of abuse. Few dwarves would be amoral enough to create so many offspring that they could not properly raise and care for them. Then again, I do need reasons for adventures...

Beeblebrox - the idea of new undead that only dwarves can become is pretty interesting. More work ahead!

[Higgs Boson]

Maybe you should make the lifebreathing take away half of their life? So each dwarf could produce two offsprign or something, and some inherently more powerful ones, such as priests, could do more than that? Also, I like the genderless idea, I've never been a fan of female dwarves.

[psychoticbarber]

This is an extremely excellent idea, and something I might "borrow"...with permission, of course.

[Gilladian]

Permission granted - as if it was necessary! I'm glad people are enjoying the idea.

My reasons for doing this with dwarves were twofold- I've never gotten a clear visualization of what I thought female dwarves looked like; and I've already got several more or less matriarchal races in the setting - so making dwarves different seemed appropriate.

[psychoticbarber]

I liked it because, after deciding that my Elves were very Norse, I wasn't sure what to do with my Dwarves. Thanks for giving me something wonderful to work with!

[psychoticbarber]

Check out my blogpost and race profile on my new dwarves!