Our next Kin to take a look at is Dwarves. When we get to the Dwarves, we get a race that is decent at a combat role, but little else about them is defined at all. Lets remedy that just a bit.
Our Dwarves our going to conform the the fantasy standard. Grim and dour, loyal companions and dangerous enemies. Dwarves have taught them self a sense of sonar detection for traveling in the dark underworld. By clicking their tongues or tapping their hammers to stone, they can get a fairly accurate 3D image of their surroundings. Tongue clicks are good for about 20' in distance, hammer tapping is good for about 40 yards, but the noise can attract unwanted attention.
Dwarves have mortal enemies in most, if not all, of the Trollish races. They often share the same habitat and have little use for the other. Dwarves are no match for trolls one on one, so the dwarves have taken on the tactic of swarming their foe. For the stout folk, numbers make all the difference. When fighting trolls, for every dwarf that outnumbers the trollish enemy, add 1D6 to the dwarf side's combat adds.
For example - 10 dwarves are fighting 2 trolls - the dwarves get to add 8 dice to their combat adds for their side (not each). Dwarves are not above luring lone trolls to a quick death under the weight of their numbers.
Elves are the next to be tweaked...
Tenkar, this is an excellent example of what can be done with the T&T rules and one of reasons why I like the fact that there is no standard world in which T&T adventures are set. Ken has always kept the mindset that each GM should be free to create his/her own world to play in. I look forward to seeing more of this.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to kindred abilities, the 5th edition rules do list a number of special abilities for the different kin. I go over all of these in my Evolution of T&T: Kindred post at The Lone Delver. Dwarves, for example, are able to determine the values of gems and jewels on sight and can sniff out large concentrations of gold if they are close enough.
Interesting to see some take on how dwarves actually do things like that "sonar" ability.
ReplyDeleteDan is right that there are actually a few of those nuggets of information on the kindred abilities in the rules, like the ability to smell metals. In my campaign that was used to great effect. Dwarven magic items smelled good and a dwarf could tell at once if a hoard item had been pilfered from the dwaves, ages ago.
Ken had a game going on at Trollhalla, when we got to invent stuff about the kindreds. I have some of that stuff archived. Some was really cool.