Dwarf Race

Short and powerful, dwarves stand between 4'/2 and 5 feet tall. Their frames are nevertheless extremely massive, and an average dwarf weighs in the vicinity of 200 pounds. Life in the Athasian wastes make them ruled, tanned, and callused.

Dwarves seek out meaningful work to occupy their time. A dwarf is never happier than when he has a cause to work or fight for. A stoic race, dwarves love to approach tasks with a single-minded intensity. They devote their very beings to these tasks, laboring for weeks, years, even decades to the exclusion of other endeavors. Once a dwarf is committed to a particular task, it takes a great deal of coercion to make him set it aside for even a limited amount of time. A dwarf strives for the personal fulfillment he achieves upon completing a lengthy, difficult task.

A dwarf's present task is called his focus. No simple job can become a focus. A focus must be a feat that requires at least one week to complete. While performing actions that are directly related to his focus, a dwarf receives a +1 bonus to all saving throws and a +2 bonus to all proficiency checks (or +10 to any percentile rolls). The concept of the focus is integral to a dwarf's makeup and is even tied to his physiology—so much so that those dwarves who die before completing their foci become undead banshees who wander the wastes haunting their unfinished works.

A dwarf character reacts to other characters based upon his current focus. If another character is actively committed to the dwarf's focus, the dwarf considers that character to be a sensible and dependable companion. If, however, a character vehemently opposes a dwarf's focus, the two are irrevocably at odds until one or the other is dead. There's very little room for compromise in a dwarf's mind.

Dwarves are non magical by nature. They can't use wizard magic of any sort, though they can employ priestly magic. Their non magical nature gives them a resistance to wizard spells that translates into saving throw bonuses for attacks from magical wands, rods, staves, and spells of a wizardry nature, as shown below on TABLE IX. Likewise, dwarves also have exceptional resistance to toxic substances. They receive bonuses to saving throws versus poison using the same table.

TABLE lx: DWARF SAVING THROW BONUS

Constitution Saving Throw

Unlike in other AD&D campaigns, Athasian dwarves don't receive combat bonuses against larger opponents, and they don't have any natural abilities to detect sloping passages or other underground discrepancies. They do have infravision (the ability to see varying degrees of heat in darkness) to 60 feet, and on Athas their base movement rate is 6. The maximum age a dwarf can hope to live to is 260.

Unlike elves, dwarves see heat (though this "infravision" does not allow them to perceive color.)

Suggested Experience Points

Each game session, dwarven PCs add up to 3% of their next level jump xps depending on the intensity of their focus devotion. Breaking or ignoring a focus costs a stiff xp penalty, and possibly other repercussions. A dwarf who fulfils a difficult focus lasting over one year receives a one-time bonus of 5-50% of the next level jump. Dwarves receive no special bonuses for using racial abilities.

Custom Characteristics:

All dwarves have the focus characteristic. Dwarves have 25 points to spend on the following characteristics

Half-elves are produced through the union of elves and humans. These characters of mixed breeding combine features of both races to create something unique. Indeed, half-elves can even produce children, unlike muls. Half-elves grow taller than humans but don't reach the height of elves, averaging about 6lk feet. They are also bulkier than elves, making it easier to pass themselves off as full humans than as full elves. Even so, all half-elves have telltale features that hint at their Elven heritage. Despite their unique nature, half-elves don't form their own communities. They live in human societies, either in the city-states or among the tribes and villages that fill the wilderness. A half-elf's life is typically harder than either a human's or an elf's. Intolerance from others is the main cause for this difficult existence, which often shapes and defines a half-elf's nature. As such, a half-elf rarely finds acceptance in either parent's society.

Elves have no tolerance for children of mixed blood; their traditions demand that such children and even their mothers be cast out of the tribe. Humans aren't quite as harsh, and half-elves born into human society have a better chance of survival, but life isn't particularly enjoyable or easy. Humans will accept half-elves as allies or partners, but seldom will they accept them into their homes or families, and few will call a half-elf friend. Humans have no faith in a half-elf's Elven side, and elves distrust the human in these crossbreeds. Because of this, a half-elf goes through life as an outsider and loner. He wanders from situation to situation without a people or a land to call home. Thus, he is forced to develop high levels of self-reliance in order to survive. This self-reliance is a half-elf's greatest asset, and a half-elf prides himself on it. He learns not only the skills of survival but methods for dealing with loneliness as well. This may make a half-elf seem detached and aloof, but he will cooperate with companions when necessary.

This air of indifference often hides a desire to gain acceptance from one side of a half-elf's heritage or the other, a pursuit that's usually in vain. Fortunately, however, other races don't have a basic dislike of half-elves, so these characters typically find companionship among dwarves or thri-kreen. Some half-elves also turn to the animal world for company, training creatures to be servants and friends. Half-elves can select any character class; a number of multi class options are available to them as well. These characters receive the following bonuses:

Suggested Experience Points

Each game session, Half-Elven PCs add 1% of their next level jump xps if they role-played the half-elf well (independent and self-reliant), another 1% if they win the approval of a group of Humans or of Elves.

Racial Benefits

Half-elves have 30 points to spend. Up to 5 points can be saved for spending in the traits and disadvantages stage of character creation. The points may be spent of the following characteristics: