Post
by Kullervo » Fri Mar 18, 2016 2:28 pm
As far as the 'dwarves are inferior' thing... Well, lets go through what happened to me. When we began our campaign, I knew I wanted to play a dwarf no matter what, so it mattered very little to me if they were inferior or not but that didnt stop me from thinking about it anyway. Found out after a while that if you added up all the attribute dots for their common skills, they had the lowest of the bunch - a 17 in total compared to every other culture's 20, and the Mirkwood Elves' 18. Much later, I realize this is because they are specialized, so in the end, if I were to go through the work of calculating the AP spent to get those dots, it will be the same.
With that out of the way, they have the same sum of stat spread as every other non-heroic culture (Well except Dunledings, who have less). I recall -really- not liking the Rewards for Dwarves and really liking the Virtues. So, in order: I disliked and still dislike the Hauberk. Even after about... 6 months? I think? of playing, havent had a time when I failed a protection test by something so specific that that extra 1/2/3 would save me. Axe of Az I have mixed thoughts about since I'm still unsure what happens first - if you make them Weary or if they test for Protection. It would be kind of sad if Weary was after Protection. Otherwise, I suppose its fairly decent - I wanted my dwarf to be a defender, so I cant imagine him without a shield, and sadly dwarves cannot use the long-hafted axe, so that's out. As for the Helm of Awe, it is really, really good, even if I usually end up losing half my endurance for moving out of Defensive Stance where I usually hang out.
Broken Spells are great flavor and are very useful depending on the situation. The Raven virtue is great for story purposes, again, and I really like it, planning to get it soon. As for the three mechanical Virtues... Stiff Neck is the greatest thing the Dwarves have, Virtue or Reward, I think. That thing saved me more times than I care to count. Old Hatred is amazing, as I only have a 1H Axe, at most what I can contribute to the orc-slaying is 15 damage on an extraordinary success, whereas our elf and woodsmen hit for about 9 on a regular attack due to the 2H weapons, and have comparable parry. Its not going to be perfect, this is not meant to be the same. Your players have to understand that. Anyway: As much as I want to like Durin's Way, I cant. There just isnt enough time you spend underground, at least so far. I think we went underground... twice? Over a large amount of modules. It does mention things like using corners and darkness, but I doubt it applies just 'when it is dark' since it specifically mentions 'underground'. Its a specialized thing, again, not meant to be compared to Woodsmen's own Parry+3 which applies... a lot of time.
All in all, I am very satisfied with my character. He isnt quite what I was going for, but I'll just take it as the character having more personality than what I gave him. I certainly wasnt intending to be the cook of the Fellowship when I started his writeup, or for his obsession with cooking every non-sentient critter in Wilderland.
